When you launched your last brand or variant, how did you decide which segment to go after? I bet you chose to target the biggest group of customers, didn’t you! Well maybe you were right; but more likely you were not! Here’s why.
There are a number of things you need to consider when choosing the group of customers, that you want to attract.
The Boston Consulting Group developed a simple two-axes matrix to help their clients to decide which group of category users to target. The axes are defined as attractiveness and ability to win. In other words, how attractive is the customer group to your business and how easy is it to attract them with your current offer.
Attractiveness is not just about size, it can also include profitability, current societal trends and likely future development or decline. That’s why I mentioned earlier that just going with the largest group is usually not the best choice.
Another thing to consider when identifying the best group for your brand, is how your customers are changing. Are they becoming more or less sensitive to the arguments of your offer? For example, if you base your brand on sustainability, tradition or locality, or values such as freedom and independence, are customers becoming more or less interested in the topic?
Many people have questioned why they should go after a smaller segment rather than the total category and the answer is always the same. “If you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no-one.” So, it is much better to please 20% of category users completely (100%) than it is to please 50% of users only 10%. Seems obvious now, doesn’t it. So get comfortable targeting less category users.
