The kind of marketing that works for such customers will not work for customers who seldom interact with your business. To be able to segment customers by brand interactions, you have to track how they interact with your brand, both online and offline. These interactions show the level of interest customers have in your business or your products. Actually, 91% of marketers report that behavioral segmentation is the most effective compared to all other segmentation methods.
This strategy is supported by Nike’s strong brand image, built on years of innovation and association with top athletes (Mahdi et al., 2015). Intent segmentation is one of the most effective ways to create a target market because it allows you to examine target accounts’ behavior. Using first- and third-party data, intent segmentation helps you see what prospects are researching your brand, topics relevant to your business, or competitors’ offerings. With market segmentation, you can spend money on promoting products to segments that are more likely to buy from you.
- Traditional rivals strengthen core franchises, rebuild innovation pipelines, and refine direct-to-consumer models.
- Market segmentation refers to defining prospective customers into groups based on key attributes in order to market products and services to them.
- For this example, we entered nike.com into the Demographics dashboard found in Semrush’s Traffic & Market Toolkit, and chose adidas.com and puma.com to define our market.
Segments let you target customer groups in campaigns, trigger automations, and exclude contacts from irrelevant messages. Omnisend automatically updates your segments based on customer and store activity, but you still need to set them up first. Look at how Coca-Cola methodically expands globally while carefully adapting to local markets. Their patient shift toward healthier product options wasn’t reactive but strategic. Their sustainability initiatives aren’t about quick wins but building lasting consumer trust.
Nike’s commitment to a direct-to-consumer (DTC) approach has been instrumental in its global expansion. The company operates over 1,000 retail stores in over 190 countries, as per Statista, providing a direct connection with consumers and allowing for personalized customer experiences. These stores serve as experiential hubs, showcasing Nike’s latest products and engaging with customers through various interactive features.
Value-added services such as customization options and personalized shopping experiences further enhance the customer experience and justify the premium pricing (Wang et al., 2016). The foundation of successful niche targeting begins with thorough research across two critical dimensions. Competition exists even in niche segments, but the competitive dynamics differ fundamentally from mass markets. Your competitive analysis must address differentiation requirements by identifying your unique competitive advantages. You also need to assess competition levels by evaluating whether all players can coexist profitably. They can also learn how does Pepsi compete with Coca-Cola, how the Pepsi global marketing strategy helps drive sales and revenue, and much more.
B2b Customer Segmentation Methods
A precise target market is a specific subset of a larger market you can target with your marketing efforts. The precise targeting strategy involves narrowing down the larger market to a small, specific group of people who are likely to buy for similar reasons. Read on to learn more about the steps involved in the market segmentation process and how different marketing roles utilize these strategies. Afterward, build your digital marketing skills with the Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate.
Leading critics to question the value of all the segmentation that has now been cast off. While most marketers view segmentation as the foundation of effective marketing, a growing number believe it needs to be reined in. It is also worth noting that niche milk types — soy, rice, goat, and lactose-free — tend to be available only in the most common container size, typically the one-liter or quart format.
The STP model is useful for creating marketing communications strategies because it helps marketers prioritize propositions and develop and deliver personalized, relevant messages to different audiences. Instead of vague, generic messaging, you can develop stronger, direct messaging that speaks to the unique needs and characteristics of your target audience. By getting to know your customers better, you can create and execute better marketing strategies from the ground up. Market segmentation can help you identify gaps in the market and determine how you fill them. Skylory Corp The market segment needs to provide supporting data for a marketing position or sales approach so that your intended marketing targets actually purchase a product. As Patricia notes, from a product marketer’s perspective, “you have a gazillion different or endless options of target segments target markets you could go to market to.” That’s exactly why this two-step process matters.
For instance, prospects who visited a landing page for an upcoming event might benefit from receiving a personalized invitation. If your market is like most, your target audience includes a large variety of potential customers. Because of this, a strategy that doesn’t take into consideration the diversity of characteristics within the target market runs the risk of missing the mark more often than not.
For example, if your product is expensive and designed for business users, you may not want to invest your budget in social media channels that appeal to teenagers. The precise targeting approach aims to improve conversion rates by carefully targeting prospects with similar characteristics and needs. Instead of casting a wide net, identifying and targeting specific segments helps you reach customers who are more likely to make a purchase.
This competitive breathing room combines with operational advantages that make the business more efficient across the board. While your competitors burn through budgets battling for market share, there’s a corner of the marketplace where you can charge double and customers will thank you for it. It’s called a niche market, and it might be the most underutilized strategy in business today. The nitro technology has been in development at PepsiCo since 2019, and the company’s investment in product and marketing is paying off so far.
So, companies shrunk varieties, even brands, of foods, beverages, toys, furniture, HBAs, household goods, and more. (Alas, my favorite soft drink, Tab, disappeared during this downsizing.) As a share of general merchandise, new products now account for less than half of what they did before the pandemic. The different fat levels in regular milk — whole, low-fat, and skim — indicate that consumers wish to manage their fat intake, pointing to dietary concerns as the key benefit sought.
Of course, those items aren’t strictly for the kids, but those items sure are tempting when you have a little one. For instance, Lululemon sells athletic clothing to adult men and women of all ages, but they also cater to girls between the ages of 6 and 15. In short, relevance reduces waste, and segmentation is what makes relevance possible. We can also further define some of these sub-markets (if they are still too broad) as is shown for specialty stores below. As shown in the following diagram, we need to split out the overall broad market (retailing) into its various sub-markets (such as, supermarkets, specialty stores and so on).
Promotion Ideas To Drive More Sales In 2026 (infographic)
How did the company succeed in turning the word “apple’ into something else entirely? The business objective is the bottom line, so the best target is the most profitable. The business objective is the most profit, and that might mean—indeed, usually means—merely a good enough fit.
This balanced approach lifts penetration in performance categories while expanding lifestyle share. While Nike’s DTC strategy plays a crucial role, the company also collaborates with wholesalers and distributors to reach a broader market. This partnership enables Nike to expand its reach into smaller towns and cities, particularly in emerging markets. Wholesalers and distributors play a vital role in stocking Nike products in various retail outlets, providing consumers with convenient access to the brand’s offerings. With brand and product ready, you execute your market entry by launching campaigns in channels where your audience congregates.
With a population of over 1.4 billion people and a rapidly growing middle class, China represents a significant market opportunity for global brands like Nike. However, entering this complex and diverse market also presents unique challenges and requires a deep understanding of local consumer behavior. By concentrating on a specific market segment, businesses gain granular insights into customer preferences, behaviors, and pain points that would be impossible to achieve with a broad-market approach. Marketing to the right people, at the right time, and in the right way can elevate the campaigns of any company. Market segmentation—which allows businesses to tailor sales campaigns and marketing plans to target, engage, and appeal to niche groups—can help you reach that marketing utopia. Market segmentation is the dividing of a firm’s target market into groups and subgroups.
In the first stage, a broad demographic split has been used (to create children, young adults and older adults segment). The two adult segments then have a behavior variable applied to them (whether they enjoy shopping or just like to get in and out quickly). Now we have chosen the segmentation variables, we can use a segmentation tree structure to help map out the segments, as shown below. Other examples for segmentation trees can be found in how is market segmentation actually undertaken. Demographic segmentation does not capture differences in behavior or preferences within these groups.
Allows Better Matching Of Customer Needs
Beyond global commitments, Coca-Cola tailors its sustainability efforts to local communities, reinforcing trust and engagement. Through strategic sponsorships, cultural events, and grassroots community engagement, Coca-Cola has positioned itself as a brand of belonging. Whether it’s at a major sporting event or a small family gathering, Coca-Cola is marketed as the drink that brings people together.
Creative consistency sustains memory structures that improve long-term effectiveness. Nike builds athlete-led narratives that celebrate progress, personal bests, and team identity under the enduring Just Do It platform. Stories ladder from elite athletes to everyday movement, supported by community films, behind-the-scenes content, and coaching tips. The following creative architecture demonstrates how message pillars translate across channels and moments. Nike aligns access, content, and service into a coherent membership flywheel that rewards activity and builds emotional connection.
Part of the Apple marketing strategy involves expanding the target market with new product innovations. With the success of the Apple Watch, the company is now moving into the wearable health tech segment with the release of an ECG monitor that is FDA approved and built into the watch. This new product is clearly targeting an Apple market segmentation that is older than the average Apple customer profile of younger millennials. Nike’s success in these diverse markets is attributed to its strategic approach to localization. The company recognizes that simply translating marketing materials and products into different languages is not enough.