So, if there is no one right way, well what are the many ways?
Here are a few of them.
I can segment a market based on organizational demographics,
small companies, medium companies, large companies.
Why?
Because their needs for cloud based information and
communication services are likely to be very different.
The usage is likely to be very different.
Their behaviors are likely to be very different.
I can further complicate this and call it, I can also include home based businesses.
Okay, and so organizational demographics is one way.
Lifestyle or entertainment habits.
If I am a gaming company like Blizzard, or like Sony, Xbox, that I
might like to segment the market based on lifestyles, or on entertainment habits.
How frequently do you play a game, how long do you play a game for, etc.
Building type.
I am in marketing programmable thermostats.
My ability to appeal to customers is going to be very different
when I am talking to a residential buyers
than when I'm talking to commercial buyers in a commercial building.
The benefits sought, okay.
Whether am I going for CAD/CAM capabilities?
Am I going for big data analytics?
Am I going for mobile solutions?
Am I looking for a desktop application?
All these kinds of issues determine the appropriateness of
benefits as a segmentation criteria.
And finally, what are the outcomes that I desire?
Am I looking for gains in productivity?
Am I looking for better scheduling?
Am I looking for a swifter response to a crisis like a natural disaster,
or an explosion in a plant, or a line breaking down, or stopping,
are the manufacturing processes getting impeded by a shortage of raw materials?
Things like that.
And there are lots of others.
But I've only given you a sampling.
Okay, now here is an example of segmentation from Cisco, taken from their
website, where we just looked at their enterprise and service provider solutions.
What they are providing to the enterprise and service provider market.
They are providing cloud solutions, data center solutions,
Internet of Things solutions, mobility, security, and service solutions.
So that's how they segment their market, by enterprise and
service provider and then different sizes of business.
And within that, they have all these services,
but all services may not be offered to all segments.