Shooting In The Dark

Lots of talk about "market segmentation", "micro segmentation" and "geo-segmentation" that will assist you to grow your business.

Not to fear. If these words don't make allot of sense, that's OK because the world has a dearth of website gurus who will teach you how to segment your market; determine which variables are more important; variables like: basic demographics; dollar amounts of your purchase; frequency of your purchases; and the last time you made a purchase...and then what will good marketers do with that?

The good marketers then come up with quality plans to get you, the customer to buy again or to spend more money on your next purchase or give you a reason to come back or any combination thereof. So far so good. Good marketers should do this and then add a little creativity to the mix to come up with compelling offers to get you off the dime and make that purchase.

But what frequently happens is the good marketers try to be creative in selling the same old products to the same old people and expect them to get excited and beat a path to our doors...just because we assumed we knew what the customer wanted, spent a few promotional dollars and paid some computer dudes to "work their SEO magic."

Yippee, but it seems like something is missing in this equation.

What's missing is the strategic examination of FINDING OUT WHAT PEOPLE (segments) ARE LOOKING FOR and then give it to them. Forget about all those people who aren't looking.

They'll just give you a headache.

So what ARE your "high growth potential segments" looking for? How do they define their leisure? What do these types of words mean to "them"? Escapism, fun, entertainment, recreation, sports activity, value,family activities, challenges and competition? And so on.

Until you know how the various market segments you cater to define these words, (in your market), you will never completely understand what they want (and WHO THEY are), in their terms and therefore be much less successful and efficient in your marketing efforts.

All you'll be doing is shooting in the dark. And that's no fun.

So if you need a seeing eye dog...