To market your product or service effectively, it’s important to identify the people who would find it most meaningful and, therefore, are most likely to buy. Segmentation research is a key step for any targeted strategy because it identifies clusters of people by similar attitudes, needs, motivations, etc. who are dissimilar to others. Armed with this information, your company can prioritize higher value segments, then create efficient marketing strategies and tactics that are appealing to different segments, targeting them at the “places” you are most likely to find them.

Your prospects and customers are not all the same—learn how segmentation research can help guide your targeting and messaging strategies.

A segmentation study is a major undertaking for any brand – but the payoff is great as it provides a wealth of information and insight. Who would not want to understand the differences among their consumers and what drives different groups of them? In this sense, segmentation research is almost always "good." Although the segmentation may be “good,” it needs to be more than a highly detailed snapshot. It needs to ground your stakeholders in insights that can drive innovation, communications, and other decisions. That is what a great segmentation does.

It's important to do all research right, but this is especially true for segmentation studies. Does your company put the right amount of priority, attention and resources behind your segmentation research?

What we found when we explored singles' attitudes and behaviors to brands, shopping, and lifestyles confirmed our suspicion: the face of single adults in 2015 was very different than the one that marketers and even market researchers may have set in their

Maybe you saw the media splash that month that occurred after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that for the first time in our national history, the number of adults who were single outnumbered those who were married.

One of the more infuriating experiences a moderator can encounter in a focus group is the respondent who seems to be critical of everything. Show him advertising, and he will quibble about an adjective. Show him a new product, and he will question its quality. Show him a completely different product, and he will have another reservation--Or, exactly the same one. Behind the mirror, the observers are losing their patience.

By Bob Relihan, Senior Vice President