Segmentation, Concentrating on, & Positioning (STP Advertising and marketing): The Marketer’s Information

As a content material strategist, I wish to ask my shoppers a number of questions, beginning with, “Who’s your audience?”

However have you learnt what reply I at all times dread listening to? “Everybody”

Whereas it’s good to imagine that everybody can be all for buying your services or products, this definition (or lack thereof) creates far more give you the results you want and in addition does a disservice to your precise goal market. That is the place segmentation, focusing on, and positioning come into play.

We developed this information that can assist you perceive how and why it’s best to make investments time into STP for higher, simpler advertising. Let’s dive in.

At its core, STP advertising lets you higher goal your advertising messages and higher serve your buyer base.

This is an instance: I as soon as created a advertising technique for a health attire model. Slightly than attraction to all health lovers throughout the board, the model needed to focus on a particular phase inside their goal market: feminine yoga followers of their 30s and 40s. 

In the end, our advertising marketing campaign was rather more environment friendly and cost-effective since we knew our viewers, the place to achieve them, and what messages would resonate.

Conducting an STP Advertising and marketing Evaluation

STP lets you take a big, nameless viewers and outline how your completely different merchandise (or completely different parts of the identical product) relate to particular shopper segments inside that bigger viewers — thus understanding the way to place your product(s) and messaging to seize the eye of every phase.

Let’s unpack every a part of the segmentation-targeting-positioning mannequin.

1. Segmentation

Segmentation refers back to the means of dividing your viewers into smaller teams primarily based on sure traits. This course of lets you group your particular person viewers members into related teams so you may higher talk your merchandise, options, and advantages which may be most related to them.

You possibly can phase your viewers primarily based on a number of of those standards:

• Demographics, which generally reply the query of who your purchaser is (e.g. age, gender, schooling, location, and career)
• Psychographics, which reply the query of why your purchaser buys (e.g. priorities, character traits, and beliefs and values)
• Life-style traits, equivalent to hobbies, leisure preferences, and non-work actions
• Habits, equivalent to model loyalty, channel preferences, and different procuring habits

Segmentation could sound a little acquainted to a different course of we frequently talk about right here on the HubSpot weblog — creating purchaser personas.

Whereas the 2 are very related,  purchaser personas make it easier to create a handful of buyer profiles that signify your broader viewers. Segmentation lets you cut up your viewers into numerous teams, every of which you’ll uniquely goal.

For instance, let’s say Paws & Tails is a Chicago pet-sitting firm that provides pet-sitting, canine strolling, and boarding companies. Given the huge variety of pet house owners within the metropolis, they should phase their viewers into smaller teams to raised perceive the way to place their companies.

Based mostly on their analysis and present buyer base, they cut up their viewers into three fundamental segments:

• Phase A is made up of high-income pet house owners who work typically and wish daytime canine strolling and pet pop-in visits.
• Phase B is made up of middle-class people and households who journey and wish in a single day boarding or pet-sitting companies.
• Phase C is made up of older pet house owners and retirees who need assistance caring for his or her pets.

2. Concentrating on

Together with your viewers segments in hand, it’s time to maneuver on to the focusing on section. First, nonetheless, you could determine which segments are value focusing on along with your advertising. To decipher this, I wish to ask myself the next questions on every phase:

• Is that this phase composed of sufficient potential prospects to justify focusing on? Would it not yield sufficient earnings if the phase had been to transform?
• Is it measurably completely different from the opposite segments?
• Is it accessible by all members of Advertising and marketing and Gross sales?
• Is your organization outfitted and in a position to serve the phase? Are there any bodily, authorized, social, or technological limitations that would stop that?

Selecting what segments to focus on is a strategic resolution. Fortunately, sure strategic planning fashions — the PESTLE evaluation is a private favourite — may also help you higher perceive the viability of every phase.

It takes a number of work to efficiently goal a phase of your viewers. However from my expertise, whether or not you’ve recognized two segments or ten, don’t really feel the necessity to goal multiple phase directly. The truth is, I’ve discovered that focusing on separately may also help you higher place your advertising for every particular phase.

Following our instance from earlier than, Paws & Tails conducts analysis to raised perceive its Chicago viewers. Paws & Tails finds that Phase A makes up 60% of its market dimension, Phase B makes up 30%, and Phase C makes up 10%. Furthermore, Phase A has the next common earnings and is prepared to pay extra for pet-sitting and strolling companies. Due to this, they select to give attention to Phase A.

3. Positioning

At this level, it’s best to perceive the demographics, psychographics, motivations, and ache factors of the segments you’ve chosen to focus on, which may present a spot to begin on the subject of positioning your services or products.

First, take a step again and look at your services or products by way of the attitude of your chosen phase. When you had been of their sneakers, why would you select your product over a competitor’s? What options or advantages are most related to you, primarily based on the motivations and ache factors you’ve recognized?

This info is necessary to defining your model positioning and understanding the way it stacks up subsequent to your opponents. One solution to perceive the place you, effectively, stand is by constructing a positioning map, which is “the visible plotting of particular manufacturers in opposition to axes, the place every axis represents an attribute that’s identified to drive model choice.”

The phase you select to focus on ought to dictate what two attributes you plot in your positioning map. For instance, let’s say Paws & Tails decides Phase A selects pet-sitting manufacturers primarily based on two attributes: service space and reliability.

By understanding 1) what the goal phase deems most necessary for model choice and a pair of) the place its opponents succeed (and fall brief), Paws & Tails is ready to establish an open market alternative and place its advertising to finest match the wants and objectives of its viewers.

Utilizing Segmentation, Concentrating on, and Positioning in Advertising and marketing

The STP mannequin is a priceless addition to any advertising technique, no matter your business, product, or viewers. It prioritizes environment friendly and efficient advertising and ensures you’re delivering solely essentially the most related, focused messaging throughout the board.

It additionally performs an necessary position in growing different methods, equivalent to your purchaser personas, buyer lifecycle levels, and core model proposition.

By main with a consumer-centric method like STP, you may ensure that each inch of your advertising is related to your viewers — thus, growing the probability that they convert, buy, and grow to be lifelong prospects.

Examples of Nice Market Segmentation and Positioning

Manufacturers are segmenting, focusing on, and positioning their audiences and advertising consistently, oftentimes with out us (customers) even noticing. Ever seen a model or product and thought “Huh, that’s excellent for me” or “Wow, proper place on the proper time”? Yeah … you’ve been topic to the STP mannequin.

Let’s evaluate a number of examples of nice advertising segmentation and positioning.

1. Panera Bread

With numerous quick informal eating places on the map, it’s laborious to determine the place to eat once you’re within the temper for a fast meal. For some cause, Panera Bread at all times involves thoughts (no less than for me).

Panera has efficiently cornered the “health-conscious” and “climate-conscious” phase of the quick informal eating business. Is Panera’s meals so completely different from different quick informal choices? Not totally.

However by branding themselves with the attitude that “we imagine that good meals, meals you may be ok with, can carry out the perfect in all of us”, Panera stays top-of-mind as a spot to get high-quality meals, quick.

2. AllBirds

Like eating opinions, there are so many shoe manufacturers in the marketplace. However AllBirds didn’t let that cease it from carving out a brand new area of interest in a busy house stuffed with comfy, lively shoe choices.

How did AllBirds place itself to set itself aside from the competitors? By elevating its eco-consciousness and inserting that entrance and middle in its advertising. Based on the AllBirds web site, the model “crafts with planet-friendly pure supplies, like merino wool and eucalyptus timber, as a result of they’re our greatest probability for a sustainable future.”

At first look, AllBirds sneakers don’t look too terribly completely different from different working or strolling sneakers. Nevertheless, its viewers phase that cares about sustainability and earth-conscious merchandise is aware of the distinction.

3. Billie

Not can companies merely phase their audiences by “males” and “girls” — the people inside every broad gender group differ an excessive amount of, and razor model Billie took observe of this.

In an effort to extinguish the “pink tax,” Billie markets cost-friendly razors and related merchandise. Furthermore, they work to normalize physique hair and different forgotten or shamed components of ladies’s our bodies.

By means of this positioning, Billie is ready to set their merchandise aside from opponents and create a powerful, optimistic group round their model.

4. Hinge

The world of on-line courting is a busy, unusual place. From Tinder to FarmersOnly.com, there appears to be a spot for everybody to satisfy, effectively, anybody. Hinge got here on the scene solely a handful of years in the past, but it has skyrocketed to the highest of the record of the most well-liked and dependable courting app.

Time and time once more, I’ve heard that Hinge is a favourite as a result of it works — that means it helps individuals meet individuals and make actual relationships. You wouldn’t suppose a courting app would place themselves to finally be pointless, however that’s precisely what Hinge has executed. The truth is, its mission assertion is to “[build] an app that’s designed to be deleted.”

By placing the wants and wishes of its viewers entrance and middle, Hinge has created a extra reliable, in-demand on-line courting expertise and set itself aside from its opponents.

The Case for Utilizing STP Advertising and marketing

The segmentation-targeting-positioning mannequin is designed that can assist you higher goal your advertising messages and higher serve your buyer base. It’s a win-win for you and your prospects!

This text was initially revealed October 29, 2020 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.