Audience segmentation divides large groups based on shared properties for analysis. It informs marketing, product, and media decisions, and can be done on criteria such as age, gender, education, income, location, and political affiliation. It is used in consumer products, policy, and health initiatives, but is controversial as it can limit creativity and encourage marketers to view people as homogeneous groups.
Audience segmentation is a process of dividing a large group into segments based on shared properties to further analyze response data. This process is often done to determine public reaction to consumer products, but it can also be done to analyze public data about social concepts and ideas or political candidates. Using audience segmentation, research analysts are able to break large, often complicated responses into targeted sections that can inform marketing, product or media decisions.
Segmentation can be done on a wide variety of criteria. Common categories for audience targeting include age, gender, education level, income level, geographic location, and political affiliation. Typically, targeting is defined using multiple criteria, such as a segment of women between the ages of 18 and 49. Because a segment like this can include millions of women with widely different backgrounds and viewpoints, psychological and behavioral characteristics are often employed to create more specific groups. For example, a manageable subcategory might be women between the ages of 18 and 49 who identify as Democrats.
Audience segmentation is often done to create targeted marketing and advertising. If a political candidate appears to be testing poorly with women, survey-based targeting may show that the real weakness lies with low-income single mothers. To improve performance in this segment, the candidate may need to focus on issues that may be considered important by low-income single mothers, such as health care, maternity leave, and school assistance programs. These may all be subjects the politician feels very strongly about to start with, but by highlighting their importance, the campaign may get a better response from that particular segment.
While primarily thought of as a consumer product and policy device, audience segmentation is also frequently used in health initiatives. If a health care initiative is focused on encouraging testing for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), it would make no sense to advertise the campaign on children’s television channels or in areas largely populated by older adults. As the groups most vulnerable to STDs are young, sexually active adults, audience targeting can help create advertising and services that target this group. Likewise, an epidemic that disproportionately affects children and the elderly may cause health authorities to use audience segmentation to determine priority access to a vaccine.
While segmentation can be a useful tool, it is not without controversy. Some argue that this encourages marketers to think of people as homogeneous groups rather than individuals. It can also limit creativity in any given market, as funders are more likely to invest in ideas and concepts that have tested well with certain segments in the past, rather than taking the risk of creating an innovative concept.
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