Market Segmentation: Diagnosing and Treating the Barriers

Although the benefits that segmentation offers are well documented, businesses continue to encounter barriers to implementation. This raises an important dilemma. If corporations are to unlock the benefits of segmentation, there are important questions to answer about the nature of these barriers and how they can be overcome. These questions are addressed in this article by reviewing a combination of published evidence and case study material. The literature review indicates key areas for businesses to consider when implementing a segmentation approach. These areas relate to the "infrastructure" in place at the start of the segmentation process, the "segmentation process" itself, and a series of "implementation" questions. Case studies of corporations that have attempted to develop a new or revised segmentation strategy are used to illustrate each of these areas. The themes from these cases then are used as the basis for a simple tool designed to diagnose and then treat the infrastructure, segmentation process, and implementation barriers.