A rich data asset for Consumer Market Research professionals’ product planning and go-to-market strategy assessments, the 11th annual Benchmark includes responses to more than 100 questions covering 1,500 elements and more than 450 brands. It is the largest ongoing survey in the world to explore consumer attitudes, ownership, and use of technology.

A generational analysis of the survey results is available in the new report, “The State Of Consumers And Technology: Benchmark 2008.” By examining the unique technology profile of each generation, Consumer Market Research professionals can gain critical insight into future buying and adoption trends for their target demographic and set their product strategies for the next five years.

“Gen Y is the audience that most companies are struggling to understand right now because it’s key to their future revenue growth,” said Charles Golvin, principal analyst at Forrester Research. “One of the questions we’re asked most frequently is the difference between Gen Y and Gen X, and this year’s data clearly shows the distinction. Gen Xers use technology when it supports a lifestyle need, while technology is so deeply embedded into everything Gen Yers do that they are truly the first native online population.”

According to the report, although Gen Y is a small generation of 18- to 28-year-olds, comprising only 38 million US adults, it sets the pace for technology adoption. Nine in 10 Gen Yers own a PC, and 82 percent own a mobile phone. But it’s technology use that sets this generation apart: Gen Y spends more time online — for leisure or work — than watching TV. Seventy-two percent of Gen Y mobile phone owners send or receive text messages, and 42 percent of online Gen Yers watch Internet video at least monthly.

In contrast, Gen X, which is comprised of 29- to 42-year-olds — 63 million US adults — uses technology when it intersects with a personal need or fulfills a desire. For example, 32 percent of Gen X households own an HDTV, and 29 percent have a DVR. In the past three months, 69 percent of online Gen Xers shopped online, and 65 percent banked online, higher percentages than any other generation. Gen X is also ramping up its Internet and mobile activities, including reading blogs (21 percent of online Gen Xers do it at least monthly, up from 15 percent in 2007) and texting (61 percent of Gen X mobile subscribers do it today, up from 49 percent in 2007).

Forrester Research, Inc. is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology.www.forrester.com.

Copyright 2007 by My Personal CMO .com. All Rights Reserved.

STEP 4: Identify the determining dimensions
Carefully review the list resulted form the previous step. You should have by now a list of need dimensions for each market segment: try to identify those that carry a determining power.

Reviewing the needs and attitudes of those you included within each market segment can help you figure out the determining dimensions.

STEP 5: Name possible segment markets
You have identified the determining dimensions of your market segments, now review them one by one and give them an appropriate name.

A good way of naming these markets is to rely on the most important determining dimension.

STEP 6: Evaluate the behavior of market segments
Once you are done naming each market segment, allow time to consider what other aspects you know about them. It is important for a marketer to understand market behavior and what triggers it. You might notice that, while most segments have similar needs, they’re still different needs: understanding the difference and acting upon it is the key to achieve success using competitive offerings.

STEP 7: Estimate the size of each market segment
Each segment identified, named and studied during the previous stages should finally be given an estimate size, even if, for lack of data, it is only a rough estimate.

Estimates of market segments will come in handy later, by offering a support for sales forecasts and help plan the Marketing mix: the more data we can gather at this moment, the easier further planning and strategy will be.

These were the steps to segment a market, briefly presented. If performed correctly and thoroughly, you should now be able to have a glimpse of how to build Marketing mixes for each market segment.

This 7 steps approach to market segmentation is very simple and practical and works for most marketers. However, if you are curious about other methods and want to experiment, you should take a look at computer-aided techniques, such as clustering and positioning.

Otilia Otlacan is a young certified professional with expertise in e-Marketing and e-Business, currently working as independent consultant and e-publisher. She developed and teach her own online course in Principles of e-Marketing and is also a volunteer Economics teacher.
Contact Otilia through TeaWithEdge.com, her e-Marketing articles and resources portal.

Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Otilia_Otlacan

Copyright 2007 by My Personal CMO .com. All Rights Reserved.

Market segmentation is widely defined as being a complex process consisting in two main phases:

- identification of broad, large markets
- segmentation of these markets in order to select the most appropriate target markets and develop Marketing mixes accordingly.

Everyone within the Marketing world knows and speaks of segmentation yet not many truly understand its underlying mechanics, thus failure is just around the corner. What causes this? It has been documented that most marketers fail the segmentation exam and start with a narrow mind and a bunch of misconceptions such as “all teenagers are rebels”, “all elderly women buy the same cosmetics brands” and so on. There are many dimensions to be considered, and uncovering them is certainly an exercise of creativity.

The most widely employed model of market segmentation comprises 7 steps, each of them designed to encourage the marketer to come with a creative approach.

STEP 1: Identify and name the broad market
You have to have figured out by this moment what broad market your business aims at. If your company is already on a market, this can be a starting point; more options are available for a new business but resources would normally be a little limited.

The biggest challenge is to find the right balance for your business: use your experience, knowledge and common sense to estimate if the market you have just identified earlier is not too narrow or too broad for you.

STEP 2: Identify and make an inventory of potential customers’ needs
This step pushes the creativity challenge even farther, since it can be compared to a brainstorming session.

What you have to figure out is what needs the consumers from the broad market identified earlier might have. The more possible needs you can come up with, the better.

Got yourself stuck in this stage of segmentation? Try to put yourself into the shoes of your potential customers: why would they buy your product, what could possibly trigger a buying decision? Answering these questions can help you list most needs of potential customers on a given product market.

STEP 3: Formulate narrower markets
McCarthy and Perreault suggest forming sub-markets around what you would call your “typical customer”, then aggregate similar people into this segment, on the condition to be able to satisfy their needs using the same Marketing mix.
Start building a column with dimensions of the major need you try to cover: this will make it easier for you to decide if a given person should be included in the first segment or you should form a new segment. Also create a list of people-related features, demographics included, for each narrow market you form – a further step will ask you to name them.

There is no exact formula on how to form narrow markets: use your best judgement and experience. Do not avoid asking opinions even from non-Marketing professionals, as different people can have different opinions and you can usually count on at least those items most people agree on.

…
to be continued – click back and read part 2 of this article tomorrow on this blog.

Copyright 2007 by My Personal CMO .com. All Rights Reserved.

The information provide is not exhaustive but in the opinion of the author these core elements when implemented will service to act as a sure and solid foundation for your business whether it is home based or whether you are running your own business unit within a larger corporation. Pay attention to the four areas below and work out a plan to constantly refine and update.

Category Marketing : You should know and should take time to sit down and plan out which category of the market your product or service fits into. What is meant by this ? consider the manufacturer’s of cars – when they are planning to produce a new car they determine the category of car which will be produced at the design stage. That is to say, the car could be a Mini Car, a Sports Utility Vehicle, a Multi Purpose Vehicle, a Sports Car, a Soft Top convertible and so the list can goes on.

A car is not just a car – the master category of car (your product or service) can and must be split up to provide a solid foundation from which to launch your business. To define the category for your business, take a blank piece of paper, consider the example of the cars and try to come up with at least five different categories in which your product or service can be placed.

Market Segmentation : This deals with the other side of the spectrum after considering Category Marketing, this looks at the end users or the market place whereas Category Marketing focusses on you, your product and your company’s services. Marketing Segmentation looks at splitting up the target market into group for which you can use to target your product and service to.

The market can be segmented by Race, Age, Earning Capacity, Living Area, Maritial Status, Disposable Income etc, etc which when devised correctly will give you a firm base for which Category of product you can sell to a particular Market Segment.

Channel Marketing : Every product or service must pass through a Marketing Channel in order to reach the end user. Most successful businesses today use multiple channels through which to reach their target market and your business should be the same. Examples of marketing channels are Retail Store, Networking Events, Distribution Warehouses, Shopping Malls, Telephone, Mail and the Internet. You should consider what you wish your primary channel to market to be and focus on this and then work on having a few secondary channels to market.

Develop most of your sales and communication tools for your primary market which will be in line with the Category of product and the particular Market Segment which you are looking to address. I consider the internet to be one of the most important Marketing Channels no matter what business you are in and I find the vast majority of my clients on a worldwide basis this way as I have developed significant expertise in this field.

Ideal Client Profile : Based on your definition of all of the above you should be able to develop and ideal client profile, this will tell you the type of person who is most likely to buy from you and with whom you are able to develop and long term relationship. The client profile will show which segment(s) of the market your client come along with the category of product that they prefer to purchase from you. Along with this you will understand through which marketing channel they prefer to purchase from you.

When working on your business focusing in on these key points will serve you will to take your business results to the next level.

About the Author

Article source: ContentLog.com.

Author Stephen C Campbell is an Internet Marketer & Business Consultant, he coaches clients on how to use the internet to drive their offline business. Learn more about his resources at http://www.EmailMarketingInformationCenter.Com/

Copyright 2007 by My Personal CMO .com. All Rights Reserved.

McKinsey interviewed 40+ CMOs worldwide covering multiple industries, and concluded that “their biggest concern is that an explosion of customer segments, products, media vehicles, and distribution channels has made marketing more complex, more costly, and less effective.”

The issue is the transformative complexity of all aspects of marketing at a time of pressure for with enhanced returns on marketing programs:
• The Markets – segmentation
• The Competition – aggressively targeting in profitable segments
• The Products – product line extensions, new products, new (sub) brands
• The Distribution Channels – fragmentation, many new (sub-) channels
• The Advertising Media – fragmentation & new media
• The Marketing Data – mountains of data, little answers.

As society is becoming both more multi-cultural due to immigration and more separated due to polarizing income groups, customer segmentation has become prolific leading to an overall diverse customer base. Meanwhile, competitive drive for growth coupled with supply chain transformation trigger companies into targeting micro-segments of demanding customers.

All this led to a doubling of consumer products, and a complexity of distribution channels as companies need to utilize more and new distribution channels such as the web and third party tele-sales providers. Advertising needs reflects these trends. “Twenty years ago, big companies used one advertising spot on three television networks to reach 80 percent of the US population; now they need up to 20 messaging and media programs to get the same reach.” states McKinsey.

The New Model of Marketing

To profitably respond to the fragmentation explosion, business must adapt its prior marketing plans and associated organization structure along new segmentation paradigms to control cost, to ensure quality of niche service and to realize ROI and growth.

How?
1. Tackling channel migration, steering customers into the right channels.
2. Rethink brand portfolios, e.g. offer fewer, distinctively positioned brands per segment and/or focus on fewer segments.
3. Address overall cost of service & customer interaction.

In sum, major restructuring of marketing models will be needed to solve marketing’s new Rubik’s Cube.