what is markiting segmentation?

Answer 1

No one person is exactly like each other. They have different purchasing preferences based upon how old they are, how much money they make, geographic location, activity preferences and other factors.

"Market segmentation" accounts for these different preferences by coming up with a marketing plan that addresses specific groups. Buyers are more likely to purchase goods and services if they think it addresses their needs/wants/preferences.

Let's use the example that the first poster pointed out in a non-politically correct way - soft drinks. Soft drinks are consumed across a market - let's say the United States. Consumption is primarily driven by two main consumers - children and binge adult drinkers. Children have very low purchasing power (they don't earn much money), but they do have a huge amount of purchasing influence (they help decide what soda to buy). Market segmentation is then focused on trying to change the purchase influence decision. In the case of children, the largest influence is its perception of being "cool", rather than price, health reasons or availability. "Coolness" changes from year to year, sometimes driven by different ethnographs. For example, African-American hip-hop artist influence a large amount of youths - of all ethnicities - but skewed toward urbanites. Skateboarding is a predominantly "cool" activity that is more predominant in affluent target markets.

Adult binge drinkers - those adults who drink large amounts of it at one time or all day long - are marketed usually on a point-of-sale or direct marketing approach. That is, adult binge drinkers have usually already chosen their brand(s) and will always buy large amounts of soda, so the marketing happens right where they buy the soda - at the grocery store (i.e. 2-liter bottle pricing is cheaper per ounce), at the convenient store (i.e. marketing for the big sizes) and direct mail (i.e. mailers that advertise where the cheapest case are available).

Answer 2

It's where you sell different ways to different audiences. For instance, selling soft drinks to blacks using rappers while selling the same drink to whites with pro skateboarders.