RESULT OBTAINED
Canonical method
Segmentation, targeting and positioning: building a traceable STP decision
What must be established
A useful analysis keeps its controls visible.
- 01
Build segments that are measurable, sufficiently distinct, accessible and stable for the decision.
- 02
Compare the targets on attractiveness, accessibility, ability to win, risk and cost of coverage.
- 03
Formulate the positioning with a target, an alternative, a difference, evidence and consistent activities.
Decision reference
Make the next choice more explicit.
DECISION SUPPORTED
How to link observable segments to a priority target and then to a genuinely differentiating position?
DELIVERABLE TO KEEP
An STP dossier linking segmentation criteria, target retained, segments discarded, value proposition, evidence and review conditions.
NEXT ELEMENT TO EXAMINE
Marketing segmentationExplore →Segment for a defined decision
The variables retained must explain a difference in use, value, response or access useful to the decision. Stability and coverage are tested before naming the groups.
- Unit analysed
- Admissible variables
- Stability
- Actionability
Target while making the exclusions visible
Priority does not depend on size alone. It compares potential value, accessibility, ability to win, cost to serve, risk and consistency with the available resources.
- Attractiveness
- Accessibility
- Ability to win
- Segments discarded
Position with evidence
The position retained specifies for whom the offer is designed, against which alternative, according to which choice criterion and with which evidence. The activities that make the promise credible are documented.
- Target
- Alternative
- Difference
- Evidence
- Smith, Product Differentiation and Market Segmentation, 1956 (opens in a new tab)Founding text linking segmentation and differentiation as strategic alternatives.
- Kamakura and Russell, A Probabilistic Choice Model for Market Segmentation, 1989 (opens in a new tab)Example of segmentation based on choice behaviour, with explicit assumptions.
MOVE FROM ANALYSIS TO YOUR DECISION
Build a segmentation that makes it possible to choose
MOVE FROM ANALYSIS TO YOUR DECISION
Build a segmentation that makes it possible to choose
RETURN TO THE DECISION SYSTEM
See the canonical definition of marketing strategy→