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The trend toward 'communitization'
Consumers have become increasingly social and less individual.
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Visitors are seen visiting a shopping mall in Central Jakarta. (JP/dra)
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f marketing were a building, its structure would consist of three main pillars: strategy, tactics and value. In the legacy era, marketing strategy consisted of three main elements: segmentation, targeting and positioning (Philip Kotler, et al., 2003).
Segmentation can be defined as the ways companies look to market their products and services creatively. We call segmentation a “mapping strategy”, as it primarily deals with mapping the market in order to determine consumer groups. Having mapped the market and segmented it into groups of potential consumers with similar characteristics and behaviors, companies can then choose which segment(s) to target more effectively.
That’s how a company typically developed its segmentation strategy in an era that had not yet been hit by the waves of disruption caused by advancements in information technology. Technological advancements have dramatically changed consumer behavior, thus demanding a new approach in business.
In traditional marketing concepts that were marked by a vertical approach — the company positioning itself higher than its customers — segmentation was the process by which it would explore business opportunities by dividing the market into segments or clusters.
Market mapping would be based on certain pre-determined characteristics/variables, so as to help companies to identify more clearly which segments to enter.
Segmentation is a vertical marketing practice because it is a top-down initiative from companies to differentiate its customers. The criteria/attributes that are used are determined by the company and not based on customer initiatives.
In today’s marketing, digital technologies have led us to a new era when the consumer wants to be considered as a person, not just as a hotbed of growth for the company.
