Learn in the textbookBasic Frameworks of Marketing Strategy
DefinitionSegment marketing (セグメントマーケティング) divides a market into groups of customers who share common traits, called segments (セグメント), and directs its efforts only at the segments it targets.
ExplanationDividing the market is called segmentation (セグメンテーション) and choosing which segments to aim at is called targeting (ターゲティング); together these two steps settle the target customer group. Besides attributes such as region of residence or income, buying attitudes such as how early someone buys a new product can also serve as a dividing axis. Compared with mass marketing (マスマーケティング), which applies the same plan to the whole market, segment marketing makes it easier to put a limited budget into the groups most likely to respond.
AnalogyIt is like a bookstore sorting its shoppers into groups such as exam candidates, parents raising young children and fishing hobbyists, then picking the books for the front tables to suit the groups that visit most.
Memory hookA segment is a piece cut from a whole: picture pulling a mandarin orange apart section by section, the way a market is split up.