Death of Consumer Segmentation

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Market segmentation: Article review

According to the advertising and marketing trade publication Ad Age, despite the commonly-embraced concept of consumer segmentation, the 21st century may oversee the death of this method of market analysis. First and foremost, "the rather static definition of consumer segments is becoming less reliable in our extremely volatile society, especially in today's economic climate" (Fassnacht 1). In other words, identity segments are changing faster than marketers can build coherent new market segment definitions. As soon as a campaign is generated, it becomes irrelevant. Additionally, the volatility of modern society means that consumer's self-definitions have become far more complex. Consumers today are very resistant to being pigeonholed. The "feel, rightfully, that they belong to a multitude of segments. They can be the professional executive in the morning, the boyish sports fan in the evening, the churchgoing father figure on Sunday" (Fassnacht 1). Some advertisements have attempted to embrace this complexity (by showing 'cool moms,' for example, or executives that enjoy going off-road in rugged SUVs). But it can be challenging to determine what multiple identities a likely target consumer fully embraces when creating a holistic advertising campaign based upon the concept of segmentation.

Finally, consumers now, in the age of the Internet, have much greater power to self-select advertisements. They can easily click away from advertisements that do not interest them and can also choose to experience content very quickly that might not be associated with their general demographic. This increases the breadth of potential consumer experiences on one hand but also means that consumers can choose to narrow their range of marketing exposure and limit their perspective much more than ever before. "Consumers are gaining more control of any marketing activity. And they like it" (Fassnacht 1). The age of the easily categorized 'soccer mom' is no more.

Instead of segmentation, the most successful retailers are offering consumers product suggestions based upon their specific, unique past buying histories. Amazon is perhaps the master of this and any Amazon consumer is familiar with being greeted with the message that they are being 'recommended' particular items based upon their search history or previous orders. Amazon does not segment -- rather it creates a unique marketing pitch for every shopper. Consumers are now in the driver's seats in terms of how they segment themselves. "Facebook, MySpace and even Google are behaving similarly. They are enablers of self-segmentation and self-identification through group and interest identities" (Fassnacht 1). A consumer may choose to like Kellogg's page on Facebook -- and Harley Davidson. The existence of these pages does not demand that the consumer watch a particular program or read a particular magazine. Rather, the consumer self-selects and creates his or her own special niche.