Market segmentation: New market growth is targeted

History shows that a boom tends to follow a recession. While the uptick may be slow to tick over, when it picks up momentum, it unfurls like the Protea seed after the wildfire. How then do we prepare for a full new bloom?

To be effective and efficient marketers in SA, we need to harness the power of market segmentation or socioeconomic measure (SEM) segmentation, which replaced living standards measures. 

SEMs are a powerful tool to help us understand living realities, and the most critical in market intelligence and insights teams to fuse data and pull through the golden thread from multiple data sources. 

Marketers must maintain a grasp on the realities of shifting markets during tough times. Brand custodians need to understand peoples’ moves and mindsets through market lows and, in response, power up their brands to shape solutions. 

The imperative to see ahead can at times feel like a heavy burden but market segmentation provides robust consumer intelligence to better carry the load. This is important for media strategists as they are looked to for tighter targeting. 

Valuable answers are in SA market and audience data which is available in the SEM market segmentation model. This intelligence source provides strategists with reliable media audience measurement and reporting.

There are six strategic dimensions of SEMs which unlock solid return on investment for media campaigns: 

Agility strength: Using SEMs to navigate through open-source industry databases means we a have tool that offers a reliable and agile interpretation of the SA marketplace and media landscape. 

Segmentation value: The Protection of Personal Information Act (Popi) Act and the constraints it implies for personalised data-driven marketing in a post-cookie environment has been the catalyst for a renewed interest in traditional market segmentation methods.

Purchasing power: The model retains a strong predictive capability as SEMs provide broad product and service landscape perspectives and deep vertical insights at a branded level.

Cluster clout: As with their predecessor LSMs, SEMs offer a 10-segment lens for segmenting the market, but add functional application through the inclusion of clusters/supergroups. The Muller Segmentation model comprises five clusters/supergroups.  

UX usability: SEMs are versatile and allow media planners to adjust the lens to create brand specific segments and maximise marketing and media effectiveness.

Multiplatform application: SEM audience insights are available across all media platforms including digital and social media. 

To cultivate new seeds of value in SEMs, Ebony+Ivory partnered with media consultant Gordon Muller. The result was the integrated media+creative agency’s Market Segmentation: SA series in which SEMs are analysed across four pillars, namely people and places, purchasing power, products, and platforms. 

Download the revealing Intelligence + Insights series e-book at www.ebonyivory.co.za. 

Talk to the right people for your brand. Book a free Ebony+Ivory Markets for marketers analysis, call Paul on
+27 (0) 11-327-6871 or email Paul at info@ebonyivory.co.za. 

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This article was paid for by Ebony+Ivory.