Segmenting and Targeting Markets
The most common way of identifying market segments within a country is through
demographic factors such as income, age, gender, ethnicity, and religion.
1. Approaches to Segmentation. When targeting and segmenting markets, firms have three
basic alternatives including segmenting by country, by global segment, or by multiple criteria.
– By Country. A firm may choose to segment its market by selecting a single country to enter.
There is little opportunity of gaining economies through standardization with this approach.
– By Global Segment. A company may identify some segments globally, such as segments
based primarily on income. Thus, each country may have some people within the same segment.
– By Multiple Criteria. A company can combine these approaches by looking first at countries
as segments, second by identifying segments within each country, and third by comparing these
within-country segments with those of other countries.
2. Mass Markets versus Niche Markets. Companies must decide when introducing their
products abroad to enter it with a mass market or niche market strategy. Because the percentage
of people that fall into any segment may vary substantially among countries, a niche market in
one country may be a mass market in another.
