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CHAPTER 2

2. Target groups and segmentation

Earlier, we explained that when we do marketing, we are actually concerned with tuning in to
our market, i.e. our (potential) customers and the needs they have. Of course, we try to please
our customers as much as possible.

In general, customers can be very different in terms of behavior and needs. Therefore, it is good
to approach these different customers in a way that suits them. Now, even in an online world, it
is not the case that we can always give every customer a personalized approach. Although there
are many technical possibilities, we have to make choices. The possible choices also depend on
the available resources, money and privacy legislation.

In order to be able to approach customers in the best possible way, they are divided into custo-
mer groups, which are called target groups in marketing. A target group is a group of customers
with more or less the same characteristics.

Companies do well to think in target groups. If you make no difference in target groups, you
would have one approach for all your customers. This would be doing many customers a dis-
service or they would not feel addressed.

2.1 Segmentation

The division of the market into target groups is called (market) segmentation. In the following
paragraphs, we learn how to determine target groups and what strategies there are for approa-
ching target groups.

In one of the next chapters we will look at how to refine our target group on a website and also
take visitor behaviour into account.

2.1.1 Segmentation criteria
If you divide the market into target groups, called segments, you can do so on the basis of
various characteristics of those visitors or customers. The characteristics or criteria you use are
called 'segmentation criteria'. In traditional marketing, we distinguish the following segmen-
tation criteria:

Geographical criteria
This is an old form of segmentation, namely on the basis of place, region, country or pro-
vince, for example.

Demographic criteria
These criteria have also been used for a long time. They are segmented by characteristics
such as age, gender, marital status and family size.

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