Segmentation of the market
Segmentation of the market consists in dividing it into smaller parts called segments, which differ between one other in customers' expectations of the product, the way of the purchase, or other criteria. The main aim of segmentation is the analysis of the market structure, which is the needs of the customers. P. Kotler specifies 4 kinds of segmentation:
geographical segmentation
demographic segmentation
psychographic segmentation
behavioral segmentation
The idea of geographical segmentation is to divide market into following units: nationalities, countries, provinces, and cities. Demographic segmentation divides purchasers according to age, gender, the size of family, family's cycle of life, income, occupation, education, faith, race, and nationality. Psychographic segmentation however divides purchasers into groups according to their social status, life style, and personality traits. Behavioral segmentation separates purchasers into groups according to knowledge, manner, the way of using the product, and the attitude towards it.
I would like to describe the market segmentation based on a particular product, which is a cellular phone SAGEM MyX5m. Geographical segmentation doesn't have any significant meaning, because of the fact that cell phones are globally used all over the world. We can point up that the demand for this product is greater in cities than it is in the country. Demographic segmentation is more significant. Speaking about age, most often adults and teenagers purchase cell phones, and now even children do. Rarely it's elderly people using cell phones. The purpose of purchase can vary. The product may be obtained for business and private aims. Gender segmentation is also very significant. It turned out though, that this phone is mainly intended for women. It is tiny, light, and has delicate shape. Also backgrounds that are to choose from in this phone mostly have feminine motifs. This phone is mainly purchased by bigger as well as smaller families, single persons, and newly married couples. The income becomes very significant when choosing this particular product. The phone has a multi-color display and a lot of interesting functions, which decide about classifying it to the group of non-cheap phones. You can communicate with a computer through this phone, and therefore it is intended for educated consumers that can operate computers. The life style is also very significant. The phone is most often used by business-active people, who need to get in touch with other people at any time. This product helps a lot at work. Thanks to it, we're always available to be easily contacted. Also personality is very important. More often it is social people that always want to be in touch with their friends. In behavioral segmentation the search of benefits is very significant. This cell phone is easily operated, rarely breaks down, and has good batteries. There are a lot of interesting functions like for example sending MMS's, communication with a PC computer and with other phones through the infrared port, polyphonic sounds. The occasion for the purchase can be casual or special. We can obtain the phone when we have this need or we can make somebody a present. Other criteria of this segmentation like intensity of using or loyalty rate are little significant, because we make the purchase of a phone of a particular brand most often only once. Speaking about readiness to purchase, there are various consumers. Some of them are not aware of the existence of this product, some of them are, some people don't put their interest in that product at all, while others desire to have it, and there are people who are going to purchase it. Therefore any advertisement of this product is very important.
On the basis of the above example we can state that there is not only one way of segmenting the market. It's very important to involve many different criteria to find the best way of recognizing the market. Depending on the type of a product, different elements have influence on making the purchase.