International Market Segmentation

Abstract

The purpose of any segmentation exercise is to identify groups of purchasers who are sufficiently large, different and reachable to make them worthwhile for the investment of marketing effort. The isolation of a new segment whose needs are poorly served by existing supplies can provide an opportunity to gain significant competitive advantage. Unfortunately, segmentation models in international marketing tend to consist of geographical groups, such as Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, ASEAN, Australasia and so on. Such groupings, however, are of very limited value as actionable marketing propositions, since they bear little relationship to actual consumption or usage patterns.