Criteria for market segmentation of online marketing
Source: Shangpin China |
Type: website encyclopedia |
Time: 2015-06-13
The basis of market segmentation is the difference of customer demand, so all factors that can make customer demand difference can be used as the criteria of market segmentation. The basis and conditions of traditional market segmentation are relatively broad, which is quite different from online marketing. Under the condition of e-commerce, market segmentation has the characteristics of "deep". The criteria for segmentation should focus on customer expectations, that is, the psychological factors of users. The standard of online marketing market segmentation is to take online customers as the object of analysis. Because there are many factors that cause the difference of consumer demand, in practice, enterprises generally use relevant standards to segment the market, rather than a single standard. Each enterprise adopts the Website Design Standards are different, and enterprises should be subdivided according to their own factors. To sum up, there are mainly four types of criteria for online marketing market segmentation, namely, geographical factors, demographic factors, psychological factors and behavioral factors. 1. Subdivision according to geographical factors Geographic segmentation refers to the segmentation of the market according to the geographical location and natural environment of consumers. For example, the overall market is divided into different segments according to the differences in countries, regions, city size, climate, population density, topography, etc. The reason why geographical factors can be used as the criteria for market segmentation is that consumers in different geographical environments often have different needs and preferences for the same type of products, and they will have different responses to the marketing strategies and measures taken by enterprises. Geographical variables are easy to identify, which is an important factor that should be taken into account in the market segment. However, the demand of consumers in the same geographical location will still be very different. For example, in some big cities in China, such as Beijing and Shanghai, there are more than one million floating population, and these floating population themselves constitute a large market. Obviously, this market has many demand characteristics different from those of the permanent population market. Therefore, simply distinguishing markets based on a certain geographical feature may not truly reflect the commonness and difference of consumers' needs. When selecting target markets, enterprises should also consider other segmentation variables comprehensively, Although the geographical location of computers in the virtual space is not important for network users, it is important for organizations to carry out online marketing. The reason is that most companies aim at the specific cities, regions and countries where they provide products and services. The demographic, cultural, economic and other differences between different geographical regions will exist for a long time. When an organization decides to provide services for online communities, it must investigate the proportion of network users in the selected geographic target market. In online marketing, if the products or services being marketed are regional products or services, or products or services with cultural differences, it is still appropriate to use geographical variables to segment the market. As far as the imbalance of China's regional economy is concerned at present, the distribution of online population clearly shows the imbalance between the eastern coastal areas and the central and western regions, which also constitutes an important factor that enterprises need to consider in the process of network market segmentation. The important geographical market segments in online marketing include the United States, Europe, Japan, China, South Korea, and the more developed countries in Southeast Asia. Among them, the Internet usage rate of the United States ranks first in the world, while that of South Korea accounts for the largest proportion of the national population. This is particularly important for multinational companies. Multiple market segmentation strategies can be formulated according to this feature. In addition to using geographical location variables for market segmentation, marketers must also evaluate the online market in terms of regions, cities and urban areas. For example, large cities in most countries tend to have more access to the Internet than suburbs and rural areas; Across China, large and medium-sized cities in developed coastal areas are the mature part of the network market. According to geographical factors, market segmentation should also pay attention to other factors. For example, a study found that the most widely used languages on the Internet are English (36%), Japanese (14%), Chinese (10%), Spanish (9%) and German (7%). English is no longer the language used by most web pages and BBS, and its usage continues to decline. These data are undoubtedly of great significance to network operators, especially Chinese Internet enterprises, who are eager to expand the global market through the Internet. On the one hand, with the rapid growth and maturity of Chinese Internet users, Chinese content will grow significantly. Under this trend, China is undoubtedly the most potential and fastest growing market for e-commerce. On the other hand, China's Internet market also has strong Chinese characteristics, which makes it impossible for many foreign Internet companies to completely copy the previous experience and win in this market. In this environment, Chinese Internet enterprises can gain competitive advantages by virtue of their understanding of the Chinese Internet market. 2. Breakdown according to demographic factors Demographic factors include age, race, gender, family population, family life cycle, income, education, religion and nationality. Consumer demand and preference are closely related to demographic factors. For example, at present, students account for a large proportion of the online population in China, while few have online consumption records, which is largely due to the constraints of economic conditions. Because income is a direct and important factor that causes the difference in demand, enterprises should use goods of different grades and prices to meet consumers with different payment capabilities. Demographic variables are easy to measure and relevant data are relatively easy to obtain, so they are often used as criteria for market segmentation. This factor is commonly used in online marketing market segmentation, and it can also be used to express some non demographic variables. Sometimes the research on population segmentation in the online market will also enter a very detailed niche group. At this time, accurate description of future marketing activities can produce twice the result with half the effort. Generally, in the early stage of the Internet market development, typical potential consumers have such characteristics: young, highly educated, and highly paid people. Since China's Internet development started late, this phenomenon is very obvious. Enterprises whose target market is located in China need to pay attention to the middle class after the reform and opening up, the young people of the post-80s generation, and the people who pursue independence and fashion. At present, these market segments have attracted extensive attention of network operators. In countries with developed Internet markets, Internet users look more like mainstream people. However, from the perspective of demographic characteristics, the largest user group of the Internet is a typical highly educated and highly paid consumer group. For example, Internet users in the United States are actually similar to the characteristics of the entire American population, so marketers need to identify attractive demographic segments. Enterprises whose target market is located in the United States need to pay attention to three market segments, namely, the "millennial generation" market, the minority market and the network concept leader market. Different from the traditional market, on the Internet, enterprises cannot ignore the popularity and development of personal influencers, especially blogs and forums. The Washington Post once investigated such groups and called them personal influencers, which means they can influence others and drive changes in the United States. This kind of group has formed the network concept leader market and is a very important target group for network operators. Such influencers are usually active members of forums and blogs. They are very good at using the Internet to spread information and provide advice and opinions on products, work, computers, networks, restaurants or politics to others. Since this market segment will affect other consumers, marketers should carefully decide on their contact methods. Network enterprises need to pay attention to them and explore attractive target markets through them. 3. Subdivision according to psychological factors The segmentation of the market according to the psychological factors such as the social class, lifestyle, personality, values and interest characteristics of the buyer is called psychological segmentation. The psychological state of consumers directly affects their buying trends and choices. Especially now, customers' purchase of goods is not limited to meeting basic life needs, and the power of psychological factors to influence purchase behavior is more prominent. When other factors are difficult to separate the market, psychological factors can be used to segment the market. When using psychological factors to segment the online market, it is not necessary or impossible to measure how many people have certain characteristics in the small market, as long as it is determined that there are quite a number of people with certain characteristics. However, because it is difficult to measure and the relationship with needs is often not obvious or ambiguous, the use of psychological factor standards will be limited. In market analysis, it is also very important to analyze people's attitude towards things, because it directly leads to people's purchase behavior orientation. Attitude refers to the psychological evaluation of people, products and other things. Psychological evaluation can be positive or negative, but the evaluation process occurs in one's mind. And behavior refers to the physical actions of people, such as speaking, eating, watching TV, asking for free videos or visiting websites to buy products. However, the marketers did not include the behavior related to the product in the psychological segmentation elements. Product behavior is a very important factor in describing market segments, and it can form a large category by itself. Therefore, when marketers discuss psychological characteristics, they refer to the general way consumers spend time. By subdividing the online market, we can get that consumers in different market segments have different psychological levels. The Internet is an ideal place for people with the same interests and purposes to gather in the same community. One important form of community is social network. Social network on the Internet refers to expanding the scope of contact in work or life through interpersonal communication. For example, Facebook and MySpace are well-known social networks abroad, and 51 Www.renren.com, etc. In addition, community forums, blogs and instant messaging software also play a crucial role. Communities attract online users and allow them to make their own comments to others. Enterprises can analyze potential consumers through various interest communities, and analyze the characteristics of online markets and users through targeted communities; Enterprises can also set up their own communities, which can improve customer loyalty and obtain customer feedback. In addition, many small and medium-sized companies' internal office collaboration is achieved through instant messaging software. At the same time, in order to better meet the needs of consumers, psychological statistics can help network operators to judge and describe the market segments. This is particularly important for web design. For example, Japanese websites are relatively serious, and there is no political satire and other content. Such information expressing the attitude of online users is also increasingly common on the Internet. Therefore, Japanese users dislike some American websites with frivolous and mocking tone; European and American business websites are generally very simple and concise; On the contrary, business websites in China usually use a large number of pictures, colors and lines to decorate websites. This is mainly related to the differences in the characteristics of Internet users: consumers in Europe and the United States generally have high consumption levels, clear purchase goals and direct purchase; However, most of the netizens in China have insufficient purchasing power, so they need to increase their attractiveness to increase the number of visitors and thus increase the sales volume. 4. Subdivision according to behavioral factors Behavioral variables are mainly used to subdivide the market according to consumers' purchase and the interests they pursue when using, users' conditions, frequency of use, loyalty, stage of preparation for purchase, attitude towards products and purchase time. Many marketers believe that behavioral variables can more directly reflect the demand differences of online consumers, thus becoming the best starting point for online marketing market segmentation. For example, Amazon. com subdivides customers into loyal customers, general customers and marginal customers (customers who use price as the only standard for selecting goods) according to their behavioral characteristics. For the first two types of customers, Amazon provides personalized customer services and products, while for the third type of customers, the company is gradually giving up, because they are difficult to bring profits to the company, even negative profits. Another example is a report by Harris, which shows that 70% of online shoppers can be divided into two segments: Taobao shoppers and convenience seeking shoppers. Taobao users can be further divided into single people and collectors according to the characteristics of online shopping. Convenient buyers can also be divided into pragmatists, brand loyalists, online novices and online offline amphibious shoppers according to time sensitive characteristics. Compared with simply forming a demographic segment and trying to determine consumer needs, the method of interest segmentation is usually more practical. If marketers can form a market segment according to the interests of users, they can design products according to users' needs. In fact, marketers will use various segmentation elements to define, evaluate and determine the target market, such as Internet user market segmentation according to how users use network media. In this case, online marketers first need to identify the market segments, such as the online place, pickup speed, receiving equipment, online time, and the industry they focus on, and then further segment the market according to user characteristics, geographical location and other variables. The usage habits of Internet users also often determine the business scope of Internet enterprises. For example, broadband users and non broadband users determine that the user scope of IPTV providers only applies to the former, because only the former can watch programs smoothly from the network. Further analysis shows that broadband users who surf the Internet in the office are also different from broadband users who surf the Internet at home. The target consumers of IPTV providers are the latter, because it is not allowed by the company to watch IPTV online in the office. In the face of most consumers driven by interests, the key to formulating marketing mix strategy is to study consumers. But just seeing what people do online, it is difficult for marketers to study it. A better way to determine the interests of consumers is to evaluate online activities. Marketers can also judge which websites are most popular, which products are most popular, and which discount forms are most popular. At the same time, enterprise websites can set up BBS, online forums or provide online dialogue functions, so that netizens can have two-way communication opportunities. From the information left by their interactions, enterprises can know many ideas, interests and preferences of consumers.
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