Segmenting the Consumer Market.

The consumer market may be divided into further segments using the following characteristics:

• Geographic
  
• Demographic
  
• Psychographic
  
• Buying Behavior
  

Geographic Segmentation.

Subdividing markets into segment based on geographic distribution (region, countries, cities, etc) is widely used. The regional distribution of population is important to marketers because people of within a given region generally tend to share the same values, attitudes and style preferences. However, significant differences do exist among regions because of differences in climate, social customs, and other factors.

Many organizations segment their markets on the basis of city size or population concentration. They utilize an urban-suburban-rural distribution.

Demographic Segmentation.

The most common basis for segmenting consumer markets is by demographic, the vital statistics that describe a population, include age, gender, family life-cycle stage, income distribution, education, occupation, and ethnic origin.

Age segment.

Many people wants change as they grow through life. Therefore marketers should be aware of how the population is changing with respect to ages.

• Youth Market (Age 12 and Under)
  
• Teenagers
  
• Middle Age
  
• Fifties
  
• Early Sixties
  

Gender.

For many years, market segmentation by gender has been an obvious choice for product such as clothing, shoes, and personal care items.

Globally, the number of women working outside the home has increased dramatically. The life-styles and buying behavior or women in the outside labor force are quite different from those of home workers.

Family Life-Cycle Stage.

Is a major determinant of buyer behavior, and thus can be useful basis for segmenting consumer markets. A young couple with two children has different needs from a couple in their mid-fifties whose children no longer live at home.

Income Distribution.

People alone do not make a market; they must have money to spend. Income distribution is one of the most commonly used bases for segmenting consumer markets. Marketers should analyze the spending patterns of people at difference income level.

Social Class.

Is measure up of a combination of demographic characteristics like education, type of occupation, and the type of neighborhood a person live in.

A person social class-whether it is upper class, white-collar middle class-has a considerable influence on that person’s choices in many product categories.

Psychological Segmentation.

In psychological segmentation, involves examining attributes such as personality and life- styles. When demographic and psychological attributes are combined then we will have a richer description of segments.

Personality Characteristic.

An individual’s personality characteristics are usually described in terms of traits that influence behavior. Like aggressive, cautious, compulsive, etc.

Many companies tailor their advertising to appeal to certain personality traits.

Life-Styles.

Life styles relates to activities, interest, and opinions. Life-styles reflects how we spend our time and what we beliefs on various social, economic and political issues.

People life-styles affect what product they buy and what brands they prefer.

Psychographic.

Psychographic describes a wide variety of psychological and behavioral description of a market.

Behavioral Segmentation.

In behavior segmentation, potential buyers of a product are divided into groups based on their knowledge, attitude, uses, or responses to a product.

Some marketers commonly attempts segmenting their market on the basis of product-related behavior, i.e. The benefit desired from a product and the rate at which the consumer use the product.

Benefits Desired from a product.

In this segment, consumers are divided into categories based on benefit they sought from a product. For instance; If you sell a tooth-paste, you may consider the following segments:
Whom like Flavour and appearance of your tooth paste.
Whom want Brightness of teeth benefit.
Whom looking for Decay prevention benefit
Whom looking for Low Price of tooth paste products.

Usage rate.

A frequently used categorization of usage rate is nonusers, light users, medium users, and heavy users. Therefore, normally a company is most interested in the heavy users segment of it products.