Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP Marketing)
Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2025 6:51 am
While it's nice to believe that everyone would be interested in purchasing a product or service, this definition (or lack thereof) creates a lot more work and does a disservice to the target market.
This is where segmentation, targeting and positioning come into play.
What is Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP Marketing)?
Segmentation, targeting, and positioning (often referred tozalo database as segmentation-targeting-positioning or STP marketing) is a consumer-centric approach to marketing communications. The STP model helps you deliver more relevant, personalized messages to your target audience. At its core, STP marketing helps you better target your marketing messages and better serve your customer base.
Conducting a marketing analysis of STP
STP allows you to reach a large, anonymous audience and determine how different products (or different components of the same product) relate to specific consumer segments within that larger audience—thus providing insight into how to position the product(s) and messaging to appeal to each segment.
Let's look at each part of the segmentation, targeting and positioning model.
1. Segmentation
Segmentation is the process of dividing an audience into smaller groups based on certain characteristics. This process allows you to group individual audience members into similar groups so that you can more easily reach them with information about the products, features, and benefits that may be most relevant to them.
You can segment your audience based on one or more of these criteria:
Demographic data, which typically answers the question of who the buyer is (e.g. age, gender, education, location, and occupation).
Psychographic data that answers the question of why a buyer makes a purchase (e.g. priorities, personality traits, beliefs and values)
Lifestyle characteristics such as hobbies, entertainment preferences and leisure activities
Behavior such as brand loyalty, channel preferences, and other purchasing habits
Segmentation may seem a little familiar to another process: buyer persona creation.
While the two processes are very similar, buyer personas help create multiple customer profiles that represent a broader audience. Segmentation allows you to divide your audience into countless groups, each of which can be targeted individually.
2. Orientation
Once you have defined your audience segments, you need to move on to the targeting stage. However, first you need to decide which segments you want to target with your marketing.
To understand this, you can ask the following questions about each segment:
Are there enough potential customers in this segment to justify targeting?
Will it generate enough profit if this segment is converted?
Is it noticeably different from other segments?
Is it accessible to all marketing and sales staff?
Is the company equipped and capable of serving this segment?
Are there any physical, legal, social or technological barriers that could prevent this?
It takes a lot of effort to successfully target a specific audience segment. You shouldn’t target more than one segment at a time. Targeting separately can help you better position your marketing for each specific segment.
3. Positioning
At this stage, you need to understand the demographics, psychographics, motivations, and pain points of your segments, and this is where you can start when it comes to positioning your product or service.
It is important to take a step back and analyze your product or service from the perspective of your chosen segment. This information is important for determining your brand positioning and understanding how it compares to your competitors.
Using Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning in Marketing
The STP model is an invaluable addition to any marketing strategy, regardless of industry, product or audience. It prioritizes effective marketing and ensures that only the most relevant and targeted messages are delivered across all channels.
It also plays an important role in developing other strategies such as buyer personas, customer life cycle stages and the brand's core proposition.
By taking a consumer-centric approach like STP, you can ensure that every inch of your marketing is relevant to your audience, increasing the likelihood that they will convert, purchase, and become repeat customers.
Taking into account the needs and desires of the audience, it is possible to create a reliable and popular service and stand out from the competition.
The Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning model is designed to help you better target your marketing messages and serve your customer base. It’s a win-win for your business and your customers!
This is where segmentation, targeting and positioning come into play.
What is Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP Marketing)?
Segmentation, targeting, and positioning (often referred tozalo database as segmentation-targeting-positioning or STP marketing) is a consumer-centric approach to marketing communications. The STP model helps you deliver more relevant, personalized messages to your target audience. At its core, STP marketing helps you better target your marketing messages and better serve your customer base.
Conducting a marketing analysis of STP
STP allows you to reach a large, anonymous audience and determine how different products (or different components of the same product) relate to specific consumer segments within that larger audience—thus providing insight into how to position the product(s) and messaging to appeal to each segment.
Let's look at each part of the segmentation, targeting and positioning model.
1. Segmentation
Segmentation is the process of dividing an audience into smaller groups based on certain characteristics. This process allows you to group individual audience members into similar groups so that you can more easily reach them with information about the products, features, and benefits that may be most relevant to them.
You can segment your audience based on one or more of these criteria:
Demographic data, which typically answers the question of who the buyer is (e.g. age, gender, education, location, and occupation).
Psychographic data that answers the question of why a buyer makes a purchase (e.g. priorities, personality traits, beliefs and values)
Lifestyle characteristics such as hobbies, entertainment preferences and leisure activities
Behavior such as brand loyalty, channel preferences, and other purchasing habits
Segmentation may seem a little familiar to another process: buyer persona creation.
While the two processes are very similar, buyer personas help create multiple customer profiles that represent a broader audience. Segmentation allows you to divide your audience into countless groups, each of which can be targeted individually.
2. Orientation
Once you have defined your audience segments, you need to move on to the targeting stage. However, first you need to decide which segments you want to target with your marketing.
To understand this, you can ask the following questions about each segment:
Are there enough potential customers in this segment to justify targeting?
Will it generate enough profit if this segment is converted?
Is it noticeably different from other segments?
Is it accessible to all marketing and sales staff?
Is the company equipped and capable of serving this segment?
Are there any physical, legal, social or technological barriers that could prevent this?
It takes a lot of effort to successfully target a specific audience segment. You shouldn’t target more than one segment at a time. Targeting separately can help you better position your marketing for each specific segment.
3. Positioning
At this stage, you need to understand the demographics, psychographics, motivations, and pain points of your segments, and this is where you can start when it comes to positioning your product or service.
It is important to take a step back and analyze your product or service from the perspective of your chosen segment. This information is important for determining your brand positioning and understanding how it compares to your competitors.
Using Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning in Marketing
The STP model is an invaluable addition to any marketing strategy, regardless of industry, product or audience. It prioritizes effective marketing and ensures that only the most relevant and targeted messages are delivered across all channels.
It also plays an important role in developing other strategies such as buyer personas, customer life cycle stages and the brand's core proposition.
By taking a consumer-centric approach like STP, you can ensure that every inch of your marketing is relevant to your audience, increasing the likelihood that they will convert, purchase, and become repeat customers.
Taking into account the needs and desires of the audience, it is possible to create a reliable and popular service and stand out from the competition.
The Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning model is designed to help you better target your marketing messages and serve your customer base. It’s a win-win for your business and your customers!