Star Builder

Background

Professional marketers understand that a key stage in the marketing process is market segmentation and identification.

This article discusses why market segmentation is just as applicable to an MLM for identifying both distributors to sponsor and retail customers to sell to.

Market Segmentation

You can segment a market in many ways, for simplicity we choose just two variables so it can visualise it and work with it. Though you can probably appreciate that large organisations work in multiple dimensions to work out the appropriate segments.

Having established that we are working in just two dimensions we can do this on a piece of paper, which is great as origami is not something that we are proficient in.

For example lets say you were marketing vaccum cleaners, you may decide to label the x-axis as age of customer and the y-axis as price they are willing to pay. Plot out your competitors products on this chart, you will know where your vaccuum cleaner sits in respect of the competition which should help you decide where it sits on the chart.

You then repeat this with another of variables, it helps you to decide where you sit in the marketplace and your likely target market. You can identify a John or Jane Doe and give them the traits of your typical target customer, which will help you in everything that you do thereafter.

You may have a number of different possible target markets for your product. You would then need to decide which one to go for first and how best to target it.

Many products are marketed differently to different segments, for instance Stella Artois is marketed as reassuringly expensive in the UK, however it is regarded as a cheap beer over in Belgium. Jagermeister is marketed as an aperitif in Austria where it comes from, but over in the US it sponsors exterme sports, rock festivals and snow boarding competitions.

Marketing a product in two contradictory segments can cause you and the brand to come unstuck. For example a health drink that is associated with vitality could have its brand damaged as a result of marketing showing it mixed with a leading brand of vodka. You get the picture, consider the brand and its identity in everything you do, if you damage it you may damage your livelihood and others in your MLM.

Having identified market segments, which one do you go work with first? Well there are many theories on this, some suggest you should go for one that is rapidly growing, others suggest you choose a stable large segment. We cannot answer that dilema for you.

So Why Is This Important To Me?

Having identified a target market is your 30-50 year old male in a professional career that earns more than £35k per year. You now know where to look, what type of language to use and what is likely to be important to them.

Conversely if your market is 45-65 year old housewife who would like to retain or regain their youthful appearance, you will likely choose a different path to approaching them, and choose different points about the product to emphasise.

In short if you do not understand your target market, you will be wasting time prospecting the wrong people which will hold back the development of your business. The Star Builder team has worked hard to identify possible market segments for our MLM and the appropriate approach to targeting each of these.