Segmentation – the good, the bad and the ugly

Segmentations are the ‘marmite’ of the analytics toolkit; they can be incredibly insightful, strategic pieces, but they have been known to bring even the best of us out in a cold sweat. We’ve developed hundreds of segmentations in the past 30 years and in that time we’ve seen it all, the good, the bad and the ugly.  Here are our top 10 tips to help you get the most out of your next segmentation…

1) DON’T EXPECT A SEGMENTATION TO DO EVERYTHING

They can undoubtedly do a great deal and are an incredibly useful tool for insight and marketing teams alike, but they are not the silver bullet for all your future business challenges. When planning your segmentation, be clear and realistic about what it can achieve. Segmentations will give you a solid foundation to build from, deep audience understanding and mechanisms to prioritise and focus your business moving forward. But it won’t be the holy grail to answer every question you have over the next couple of years.

2) DO MAKE THE EFFORT TO BRING STAKEHOLDERS ON THE SEGMENTATION JOURNEY WITH YOU

For a segmentation to land effectively, stakeholders need to buy into it – many a good segmentation has failed to have an impact and reach its potential because it wasn’t sold into the wider business. It’s important to allow key people to input into the segmentation to ensure internal alignment, as well as highlighting the business needs for the segmentation to deliver on. It might make the process slightly longer timewise, but the end payoff is well worth it.

3) DON’T TAKE THE DATA AT FACE VALUE

This might sound counterintuitive, but when it comes to segmentation it’s just as much an art as science. The data process must be robust and therefore scientific, but the analysis and insight needed to understand the sometimes vast dataset truly is an art form. Always be ready to look deeper and use every data stream available to draw together segmentation insights.

4) DO SHOW THE CLIENT YOUR WORKINGS

For the segmentation to succeed, a collaborative process works best, with the client and agency working closely throughout. Don’t be afraid to share early thinking – we always recommend an early review of the different segmentation solutions, ensuring the client sees all the potential options available. This gives you the opportunity to stress test and understand which solution will bring the most value to the business and not close down any potential options before they’ve been fully explored.

5) DON’T OVERWHELM WITH DETAIL (OR GO TOO SIMPLE!)

If the segmentation seems so complex that the end-users don’t intuitively understand who each segment is, then we have a problem! On the flip side, there is also the danger that segments can be too obvious or generic, not shedding new light on the issue or challenge they were created to address. Your goal is to make your segments engaging and intuitive for everyone to understand. You know a segmentation is right when you can say – I am segment A, and my dad is segment B, it’s that great ‘aha moment’ when we know we’ve all cracked it.

6) DO SPEND TIME NAMING YOUR SEGMENTS

Segment names themselves have a powerful role to play – they can be left to the end of the process, but they are so key to get right, as they need to convey the essence of the segment simply in just a couple of words. A good way to tackle this is by creating ‘working names’ early on and then finesse these later.

7) DO USE QUALITATIVE RESEARCH TO BRING YOUR SEGMENTATION TO LIFE

We recommend qual once the quant segmentation is created. Yes, it’s an added investment to justify, but if you’ve worked hard to create a new segmentation that can change the game for your business, it would be a shame to not have it work as hard as possible for you. This stage need not cost the earth, you can pick your key target segments and work strategically to bring them to life one by one, over time to the business. This can have the effect of super-charging the quant findings – putting a real human face to your segments can really help cement them in your stakeholder’s memories.

8) DON’T SACRIFICE PRACTICALITY FOR ACCURACY

When providing the final segmentation outputs, the golden questions algorithm should really be ‘golden’ questions. They should be a short number of questions which can be used to identify segments in other research or data sources. If they are a large set of questions and statements, they will eat up precious time in surveys and risk not being used at all.

9) DO THINK CREATIVELY WHEN IT COMES TO EMBEDDING THE SEGMENTATION

The best way to embed and socialise a segmentation will differ for every organisation and needs to be tailored according to client needs and constraints. For some businesses using physical outputs – posters, wall stickers and booklets, strategically placed around your office can work wonders to make your stakeholders truly customer-centric in their roles. For other businesses, a more visually engaging and immersive experience might be better suited – think about using segment champion films, immersive room experiences, documentaries or podcasts, or even a segment AI tool can also work brilliantly for the organisation to ask any question of any segment.

10) DO ASK IF YOU ARE UNSURE ABOUT WHETHER A SEGMENTATION IS RIGHT FOR YOU

If you are unsure whether this is the right solution (or whether something else will better meet your needs), don’t hesitate to get in contact with us to discuss further. We are always happy to discuss a client problem, provide advice and will never push a solution forwards – all of our research is bespoke, tailored to individual needs. Get in touch at hello@2cv.com

FINAL THOUGHTS

With so many elements to consider and pitfalls to avoid, it’s easy to see how a segmentation can sometimes miss the mark and not deliver. It’s a big undertaking and as we’ve highlighted here, it can be a scary process, with multiple pitfalls to navigate. But, with the right inputs, collaboration and hard work from both client and agency, it might just be the thing you need right now to take your business forward and deliver growth.