For many firms a market segmentation strategy is essential for effective and efficient marketing management. Well-segmented markets allow the firm to craft specific product and value propositions to individual customers and prospects. However, for many firms, market segmentation has failed. Not so much because there was a failure to find appropriate segments, but more often because there was an inability to translate the segment definitions to customer and prospect databases, thus making it difficult to efficiently reach those segments and address their specific needs.

This white paper will demonstrate a method of leveraging widely used segmentation systems, like PRIZM, Personicx and P$YCLE to develop customized segmentations. These customized segmentations make a direct linkage to customer and prospect databases extremely easy. In addition, having the custom segmentation based on widely used segmentation systems allows companies to link diverse data sources to build very powerful marketing databases. This white paper will show how this technique was successfully employed in the context of a case history in the telecommunications industry. This approach works effectively for any B2C company using databases of customers and prospects to drive their marketing program. Other closely related industries that could easily apply these techniques include, telecommunication, cable, media, energy, real estate/housing, financial, hospitality/travel/leisure/recreational, computer, and healthcare insurance industries.

Keywords: Market segmentation, needs based segmentation, multidimensional segmentation, occasion based segmentation, market structure, research design