Segmenting, Targeting & Positioning – the backbone of your marketing strategy

When forming your marketing strategy, employing the method of segmenting, targeting and positioning (STP) is one of the most important things you can do to ensure the effectiveness of your strategy.

STP is a framework in which a company identifies potential consumers, and creates marketing content which directly appeals to their interests, whereabouts, lifestyle or other key characteristic(s). The full process is known as STP (segmenting, targeting, and positioning). 

What is Segmentation?

Segmentation involves dividing your target market into groups based on shared characteristics, interests or needs. Doing this breaks down your broader market, allowing you to easily direct marketing solutions tailored to the shared characteristics of the group. 

Segmentation typically falls into four distinct categories which encompass the various characteristics, needs and interests of any given consumer group. These are:

Behavioural: activities such as purchase habits and brand interaction

Demographic: attributes such as age, gender, occupation and religion 

Geographic: based on physical setting such as country, county, or wether they reside in a rural/urban/suburban setting

Psychographic: personality aspects such as interests, lifestyle choices, political leaning, beliefs and values

What is Targeting?

Targeting is the act of delivering tailored marketing communications to a segment based on their shared characteristic(s). 

Directing specific content to a segment allows them to see the value in your brand and what you can offer them, increasing the rate of conversion. Typically, brands will choose to target multiple segments simultaneously using different content and messages for each. This marketing can be delivered over a variety of platforms, however social channels currently dominate the promotion field, with content being rolled out over platforms including Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. 

What is Positioning?

Positioning is the final step, in which you determine exactly how you want to be perceived by consumers. 

There are a few tactics that can be used when choosing how to position yourself, such as;

• Solving a pain point (functional positioning)
• Offering a desirable feeling or experience (experiential positioning)
• Offering exclusivity or status (symbolic positioning)

In making yourself the clear choice over competitors, by highlighting the reasons that they should pick you, you appeal to prospective customers as the correct choice. 

Why use STP?

Benefits include:

• Higher levels of retention & brand loyalty

Customers feel personally identified and valued, increasing their loyalty and likelihood to stick with the brand

• Stand out amongst competition 

Appealing to specific niches is very effective in allowing a brand to stand out within overly-saturated markets

• Increased conversion rates

When marketing is targeted, consumers are more likely to resonate with the brand, increasing the chance of purchase

• Increased ROI 

Specifically channelling marketing efforts into segments capitalises on resources and typically generates higher success rates that run-of-the-mill campaigns.

Key Takeaways 

• Without segmenting and targeting, marketers are effectively pumping out generic messaging, which may appeal to some potential customers, but is generally ineffective and offers a low ROI.          
• Benefits including increase in ROI and conversion rates make it a worthwhile endeavour
• Offering tailored marketing messages appeals more to consumers as individuals, which strengthens their loyalty to your brand 
• STP allows you to position your brand for very specific markets 

At Made in Scotland, we pride ourselves in being industry experts when it comes to all things marketing. Get in touch with us today to find out how we can help market your business!