INSTITUTO POLITÉCNICO

NACIONAL
ESCUELA SUPERIOR DE COMERCIO Y
ADMINISTRACIÓN

Unidad Tepepan

Licenciatura en Negocios Internacionales

Mercadotecnia y Promoción
Internacional
“Eligiendo un mercado”
 Choosing a Market
Market segmentation is the process of dividing a target market into smaller and more
defined categories. It segments customers and audiences into groups that share similar
characteristics such as demographics, interests, needs, or location, this allows
companies to send personalized messages to the right audiences.
Market segmentation can help you to target just the people most likely to become
satisfied customers of your company or enthusiastic consumers of your content.
Although the benefits of carrying out a market segmentation strategy far outweigh its
disadvantages, we cannot forget that any technique that ends up reducing the bulk of
the consumer market to figures or segments will have an impact on the final results.
Advantages
Foremost, its important to have the most accurate and relevant information about the
customers. Once you have the data ready, you can use this information to put the
customers, who shares similar attributes, together in a group. The primary objective of
segmentation is to remove the unimportant information and keep what is useful.
The main advantage market segmentation has is to direct your marketing objectives
and actions more specifically in order to more efficiently reach the group of your
interest. With this, without a doubt, you will obtain better sales results.
Another of its advantages is the increase in commercial performance, the improvement
is achieved thanks to the fact that the company has divided the market into smaller
segments, and therefore it is more likely that it has a strategy aimed directly at covering
its sales to that portion of the market.
Other advantages are improvements in business expansion, as a consequence of the
business focus, there is an improvement in the expansion process by allowing the
business to direct its radius of action, towards segments that otherwise would not be
possible.
It favors a better use of resources and lower costs. By designing specific strategies for
each segment, you make better use of resources and save costs in marketing,
advertising and production.
You can discover new market niches. By analyzing the traits, needs and interests of
your customers, you can discover new market niches that are not yet covered.
A very important advantage is that it improves the image of your business and promotes
a greater competitive advantage. Offering a personalized service, tailored to your
customers, that meets their needs and exceeds their expectations, in addition to
improving your image and achieving greater customer loyalty.
Disadvantages
Market segmentation is important for any business but it could also be detrimental for it
is if it is not used in a proper way. Sometimes, market segmentation becomes an
expensive proposition. A marketer experiences considerable difficulty, as he has to
develop different marketing mixes for different segments. Moreover, mass production is
much cheaper than making a variety of products.
Other disadvantages may be seen in promotional expenses, costs of keeping adequate
inventory of each variety of goods, etc. And of course, since the marketer has to
implement varying marketing programmes suiting to the different segments,
administrative expenses increase.
There could be limitations if consumers are misinterpreted, by this I mean the right
product to the wrong customers. What if your market research says that your customers
want a new soap and you come out with a new facial cream. The concept is the same,
cleanliness, but the concept is completely different.
Costing is not taken into consideration, targeting a segment is ok but you also need to
know how much you will have to spend to target a particular segment. If it is a Sec A
segment and you do not have the budget to be present in the places the Sec A
customer visits, then your segmentation strategy is a failure.
With what we now know we can determine that segmentation can be difficult, and there
are potential downfalls. Market research is a complex discipline, and even the experts
can get it wrong. If you target an unprofitable segment, your business won’t achieve
financial success. Similarly, if you target a segment that doesn’t find your product
appealing, your campaign will fall flat.
It is thorough research and analysis that we can decrease the chances of failure, but
some degree of risk is always present.
Conclusion
Segmentation is an important part of marketing, with the use of this technique
businesses and organizations are able to expand and penetrate markets. This can be
achieved by separating a market into different groups of costumers who share the
common interests and who are attracted to a particular product or service. In short, this
helps businesses to learn about their customers so they can gain a better
understanding of customers need. Its important to know the advantages and
disadvantages of market segmentation, especially the disadvantages, because with this
knowledge you would know what pitfalls lie ahead if you go wrong with your target
market segment. After all, market segmentation is one of the most important processes
in marketing.
References
accountlearning. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://accountlearning.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-
market-segmentation/

Bhasin, H. (2018, May 22). marketing91. Retrieved from https://www.marketing91.com/limitations-

segmentation/

Mack, S. (n.d.). smallbusiness. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/negatives-segmentation-

67581.html