Effective market segmentation isn’t just a marketing tool—it’s a game-changer. By understanding and addressing diverse consumer needs, companies can tailor products, services, and strategies to specific segments, driving significant growth. But true segmentation goes beyond number crunching and data analysis; it demands foresight, design thinking, and compelling storytelling—elements that infuse an artistic flair for more powerful strategic marketing.
Foresight: Staying Ahead of the Curve
Given the unprecedented pace at which markets and consumer preferences are evolving today, it is imperative for businesses to adapt to changing customer demands to remain relevant. Existing market segmentation profiles, product and service delivery need to be revised and sometimes completely to adapt to evolving market dynamics and consumer expectations.
Companies need to develop future-forward segmentations to anticipate trends, changes in consumer behavior and unmet and emerging needs. Spotting these emerging trends early requires proactive, keen observation and a creative mindset to stay ahead of the curve. This will create brand and service experiences that both meet and anticipate consumer expectations.
Design Thinking: Unearthing Hidden Needs
Design thinking is more than just a buzzword—it’s a transformative approach that Advanis uses to allow our clients to uncover the unspoken needs of their consumers. By focusing on empathy, design thinking enables our clients to step into their customers’ shoes, explore their experiences and understand their challenges and aspirations. This human-centered methodology not only solves problems; it uncovers opportunities for innovation that resonate on a deeper level.
For example, consider how design thinking has revolutionized industries by addressing needs consumers didn’t even know they had. From ride-sharing apps to personalized streaming services, these innovations didn’t just meet existing demands—they created entirely new markets by tapping into latent needs.
At the heart of this approach lies human-centric qualitative research. By leveraging methodologies, we gain an empathetic view of the consumer journey. These insights go beyond data points—they reveal the emotions, motivations and behaviors that drive decision-making. By translating these insights into actionable strategies, businesses can create solutions that truly align with user desires. Whether it’s refining a product, enhancing a service or crafting a compelling marketing message, these insights empower businesses to connect with their audience in meaningful ways.
In a world where consumer expectations are constantly evolving, staying ahead requires more than just data—it requires empathy, creativity and a commitment to understanding the human experience. By combining segmentation with design thinking and human-centric methodologies, businesses can unlock the art of uncovering unmet needs and deliver solutions that truly resonate. The next time you’re looking to innovate, ask yourself: are you listening to what your unique customer groups aren’t saying? Because sometimes, the most powerful insights and segments come from those with needs they don’t even know they have yet.
Advanced Analytics: The Rigor of Science
In the world of data-driven decision-making, segmentation research is only as powerful as the algorithms that fuel it. With a multitude of algorithms available, knowing which is the right one is both a science and an art. Each algorithm has its unique strengths and limitations, and understanding these nuances is critical to unlocking the full potential of your data. Scientific rigor is essential in evaluating which approach best aligns with the characteristics of your dataset, ensuring that the insights you uncover are both accurate and actionable.
But it doesn’t stop there. While advanced analytics provide the technical foundation, creative problem-solving brings the human touch needed to interpret and apply these insights effectively. It’s this combination of cutting-edge technology and innovative thinking that reveals the true power of market segmentation. By pairing the right algorithm with a deep understanding of your data and business objectives, Advanis has worked with clients to uncover hidden patterns, predict future trends and create strategies that resonate with their target audience. In a world overflowing with data, the right algorithm—and the right approach—can transform complexity into clarity.
Storytelling: Bringing Segmentation to Life
Choosing the right algorithm is a critical first step, but it’s only the foundation. The true magic lies in transforming raw data and weaving storytelling and visual aids that breathe life into the data, turning abstract insights into relatable and engaging personas to inspire and allow stakeholders to connect with the segments to support buy-in across your organization.
Once these personas are established, they become a powerful tool for driving action for product and service development to customer experience design and market strategy. Segmentation isn’t just about numbers; it’s about understanding consumers. Effective storytelling is the bridge that turns data into meaningful insights for companies to evolve.
Segmentation in Action
For over 30 years, we've combined cutting-edge analytical tools and experimentation with foresight and design thinking methodologies to create human-centric segmentations that have proven to drive better business results, helping our clients grow and evolve. Here are two examples.
Two examples where we drove positive business growth outcomes:
Case Study: Retail
The Goal: Our retail client aimed to solidify its position as the go-to resource for small businesses by expanding its product and service offerings. However, to achieve this, they needed a deeper, more nuanced perspective of the evolving small business market and the unique needs of their customers.
The Challenge: Our retail client's brand had inherent equity within the small business marketplace but rapidly changing small business needs were driven by major changes in market dynamics. Our client needed to adapt quickly and strategically.
Our Approach: We used a multi-phased approach, starting with secondary research and in-depth expert interviews to identify major trends in the small business environment to form the analysis framework. Then, we identified unmet and emerging small business needs through mobile ethnography and asynchronous discussion boards and developed prototypical personas. A subsequent quantitative survey validated the personas and quantified their needs, resulting in a forward-looking market segmentation with six key segments and innovative opportunities to serve each segment.
The Outcome: Our client was able to put the extensive research insights into action to revamp their brand personality and messaging, revitalize the product line-up and service offerings, and strengthen their marketing strategy. These innovative adjustments propelled our client to become a leader in addressing small business needs.
Case Study: Provincial Government
The Goal: In an effort to support local farmers, fishers, and food processors in capturing increased market share, our government client wanted to launch an initiative to build the local market for the province’s foods. To do this, they needed to better understand consumer eating habits as well as market drivers and food trends.
The Challenge: Our government client had limited information on consumer behaviors and motivations for food shopping (and local food choices), which made it difficult to develop an effective action plan.
Our Approach: Our extensive three-phase study began with secondary research to identify trends affecting consumers' eating habits and the future impact of these trends and drivers on the industry. We then conducted a quantitative survey and created a segmentation using advanced analytics to identify key consumer segments. Finally, qualitative research was used to create detailed personas. We identified the opportunity for local agrifood and seafood industries within each segment and profiled each to create personas of needs and expectations.
The Outcome: Our government client was able to gain invaluable insight, which led them to develop an educational program to support local producers and help them capitalize on the growing demand for local agrifood and seafood products.
By integrating the art and science of market segmentation, we can help you unlock new opportunities and achieve lasting success.
For additional information in the private sector, please contact Anu Bhalla, SVP, at abhalla@advanis.net.
For additional information in the public sector, please contact Matthijs Visser, VP, at mvisser@advanis.net