home Sample documents Segmentation of markets for individual goods. Market segmentation in marketing! We increase advertising effectiveness

Segmentation of markets for individual goods. Market segmentation in marketing! We increase advertising effectiveness

Any company is aware that its products cannot appeal to all customers at once. There are too many of these buyers, they are widely scattered and differ from each other in their needs and habits. Some firms are best served by focusing their attention on serving certain parts, or segments, of the market. Each company must identify the most attractive market segments that it can effectively serve.

But this point of view was not always characteristic of Sellers. Their views went through three stages:

Mass Marketing:- characterized by the fact that the seller is engaged in mass production, mass distribution and mass promotion of the same product for all buyers at once. The main reason in favor of mass marketing is that with such an approach, production costs and prices should be reduced as much as possible and the largest possible potential market should be formed.

Product-differentiated Marketing: In this case, the seller produces two or more goods with different properties, different designs, different quality, different packaging, etc. . These products are designed not so much to appeal to different market segments, but to create variety for buyers.

Target Marketing: In this case, the seller studies the specifics and taste of each individual market segment, and develops products and Marketing complexes based on each of the selected segments.

Today, Companies are increasingly turning to Targeted Marketing. Since any company is interested in maximizing sales of its products, why scatter its marketing efforts if it is possible to specifically convey the product to the potential buyer most interested in purchasing this product, and this product will as close as possible to or

Target Marketing requires three main activities:

Market segmentation is the division of the market into distinct groups of buyers, each of which may require separate products and marketing mixes. The firm identifies different ways to segment the market, profiles the resulting segments, and evaluates the attractiveness of each.
Selecting target market segments - assessing and selecting one or more market segments to enter with your products.
Positioning a product on the market - ensuring the product has a competitive position in the market and developing a detailed marketing mix.

Market segmentation.

The market consists of buyers, and buyers differ from each other in a variety of ways. Everything can be different: needs, geographic location, resources, purchasing habits in the end. And any of these variables can be used as a basis for market segmentation.

General approach to market segmentation.

Since everyone's needs and requirements are unique, this means that each could potentially represent a different market segment. Ideally, the seller would develop a separate marketing program for each. For example, aircraft manufacturers such as these have very few customers, and the firms treat each of them as a separate market. - The maximum degree of market segmentation.

Many manufacturers do not see the point in tailoring their products to meet the needs of each specific customer. Instead, the seller identifies broad categories of buyers who differ from each other in their requirements for the product and in their marketing responses. For example, a seller may find that needs vary depending on the income level of buyers. On the other hand, the seller may perceive significant differences between younger buyers and older buyers. Finally, a buyer's attitude towards a product can be influenced by both income level and age at the same time. As the market is segmented based on more parameters, the swelling of each individual segment increases. At the same time, their number increases, and each one decreases.

There is no single method of market segmentation. The marketer needs to try segmentation options based on different variables, one or more at a time, in an attempt to find the most useful approach to viewing market structure. For such a situation, there is an excellent statistical method for studying the influence of factors on the result. This is about Factor analysis. Using this analysis, you can easily analyze the influence of a particular factor on the final result. Select exactly those factors that carry the maximum significance in influencing the final result.

Geographical, demographic, psychographic and behavioral are the main Factors - indicators used by marketers.

Geographic segmentation involves dividing the market into different geographical units: States, states, regions, counties, cities, communities. The company may decide to operate in one or several regions, or in all regions, but taking into account the needs and characteristics determined by geography.

Demographic segmentation involves dividing the market into groups based on demographic variables such as gender, age, family size, life cycle stage seven, income level, occupation, education, religious beliefs, race and nationality. Demographic variables are the most popular factors used to differentiate consumer groups. One of the reasons for this situation is that needs and preferences, as well as the intensity of product consumption, are often more closely related to demographic characteristics. And also demographic characteristics are the easiest to measure and study.

In psychographic segmentation, buyers are divided into groups based on social class, lifestyle, or personality characteristics. Members of the same demographic group can have completely different psychographic profiles.

In behavioral segmentation, buyers are divided into groups depending on their knowledge, attitudes, patterns of use of a product, and reactions to that product. Many marketers consider behavioral variables to be the most appropriate basis for forming market segments.

The next stage of Targeted Marketing is Selecting target market segments: Marketing segmentation reveals the possibilities of various market segments in which the seller will act. After this, the company needs to decide:

There are three options for market coverage:

Undifferentiated marketing is a situation when a company decides to ignore differences in segments and appeal to the entire market at once with the same offer. In this case, she concentrates her efforts not on how the needs of clients differ from each other, but on what these needs have in common. The company develops a product and marketing program that will be attractive to as many buyers as possible. The firm relies on mass distribution and mass advertising methods. It strives to project an image of superiority in people's minds. Moreover, undifferentiated marketing is economical. The costs of producing goods, maintaining their inventories and distributing them are low. Advertising costs for undifferentiated marketing are also kept low. The absence of marketing research into market segments and planning broken down by these segments helps reduce the costs of marketing research and product production management.

Differentiated Marketing - In this case, the company decides to act in several market segments and breaks down a separate offer for each of them. The company expects that by strengthening its position in several market segments, it will be able to identify a company with a given product category in the consumer’s mind. Moreover, she expects an increase in repeat purchases, since it is the company’s product that meets the desires of consumers, and not vice versa.

Concentrated Marketing - Many firms see a third marketing opportunity, particularly attractive to organizations with limited resources. Instead of concentrating its efforts on a small share of a large market, the firm concentrates its efforts on a large share of one or more submarkets. Through concentrated marketing, the firm ensures a strong market position in the segments it serves because it knows the needs of those segments better than others and enjoys a certain reputation. Moreover, as a result of specialization in production, distribution and sales promotion, the firm achieves savings in many areas of its activities.

Choosing a market coverage strategy.

When choosing a market coverage strategy, you need to consider the following factors:

Firm resources. When resources are limited, the concentrated marketing strategy turns out to be the most rational.
Degree of product homogeneity. The undifferentiated marketing strategy is suitable for uniform products. For products that may differ from each other in design, such as cameras, cars, differentiated or concentrated marketing strategies are more suitable.
Stages of the product life cycle. When a company enters the market with a new product, it is advisable to offer only one version of the new product. In this case, it is most reasonable to use undifferentiated or concentrated marketing strategies.
Degree of market homogeneity. If buyers have the same tastes, purchase the same quantities of goods at the same periods of time, and respond in the same way to the same marketing stimuli, it is appropriate to use an undifferentiated marketing strategy.
Marketing strategies of competitors. If competitors are engaged in market segmentation, an undifferentiated marketing strategy can be disastrous. Conversely, if competitors use undifferentiated marketing, the firm will benefit from using a differentiated or concentrated marketing strategy.

Marketing. Short course Popova Galina Valentinovna

6.1. The concept of market segmentation

A market segment consists of consumers who respond in the same way to the same set of marketing incentives. Markets are made up of buyers, and buyers differ from each other in a variety of ways. Needs, resources, geographic location, purchasing relationships and habits may vary. And any of these variables can be used as a basis for market segmentation.

Typically, segmentation means dividing the market into groups of homogeneous composition, from which those with whom the organization intends to work are selected. Actually Segmentation is the process of analyzing the market and selecting those groups that correspond to the marketing interests of the organization and correlate with its capabilities. Generally speaking, then Segmentation is an orderly, systematic attempt to identify the areas in which the organization will work and to whom this or that type of product will be supplied. In addition, segmentation allows you to create a certain social, psychological, economic portrait of a group of clients, and create certain ways of distributing products.

The entire segmentation process can be divided into six stages.

1. Determining the current position of the company. At this stage, the general direction of the organization’s activities is determined; the company is trying to fix how it will develop, what production capabilities, investment resources and human resources it has. In addition, it should be emphasized that of particular importance for the organization at this stage is how the current position of the company is determined, how managers determine the edges/limits to which the organization can move and develop. This requires completely special mechanisms for analyzing the organizational situation, ways of building joint activities of managers of various functional departments. There are a variety of ways to analyze the current situation of an organization.

2. Determining the needs and desires of consumers. This stage is probably one of the most important in the entire segmentation process, since it is here that those specific parameters are analyzed that in the future will become the basis for the created product samples. It is at this stage that organizations often make key mistakes regarding defining consumer preferences and desires. It is at this stage that a correct or incorrect perception of the market situation arises, which can lead to large profits or large financial failures.

3. Dividing the market in the right areas. It is this direction that is often associated with the entire segmentation process, although this approach, in our opinion, is not justified, since it does not take into account all the other stages of segmentation, which we have already discussed above. Segmentation is of two types − a priori And ad hoc. Within a priori segmentation The manager independently decides, before conducting any research, by what parameters the market should be divided. Within ad hoc segmentation First, research is carried out, after which the relevant market segments are identified. From a psychological point of view, in both cases, organizations in the process of dividing the market often fall under the influence of managers and their already formed position regarding the products with which the organization works. As a rule, managers in the segmentation process define segments based on their own experience and the experience of their colleagues, which is always fraught with certain errors. Therefore, in the chapter on new product development, we will pay special attention to mechanisms for identifying and defining all that is associated with customer needs and their inclusion in the range of organizational capabilities.

It should be noted that in the traditional scientific understanding of segmentation, its main parameter is the grouping of consumers according to a number of characteristics, namely:

Geographic segmentation (at the place of residence of potential clients);

demographic segmentation(by age, family size, gender, income, nationality, religious affiliation, etc.);

psychographic(social classes, lifestyles);

cognitive(for example, habits, behavior patterns, status, participation in product consumption).

However, it should be especially noted that in Russia, due to radical changes in the social structure of society in the 90s, due to the large difference in the amount of funds possessed by different groups of consumers, such segmentation does not always correspond to the real requirements of the market. Therefore, the basis for segmentation in Russia should be determined exclusively with the participation of customers and based on their requirements and wishes.

4. Determining product positioning. At this stage, it is determined how the product could be fixed in the minds of consumers and in their purchasing habits. At this stage, the way we want our product to be perceived by potential consumers is formed, how they would analyze and read its properties and characteristics.

5. Defining a segmentation strategy.

6. Defining strategy regarding the marketing mix. At this stage, specific actions are determined at the organizational level in terms of product characteristics, pricing, advertising campaigns and distribution systems. In fact, at this stage, the actions that the organization takes to implement the chosen strategy regarding a particular type of product are determined.

The segmentation stages are presented in Fig. 10.

Rice. 10. Stages of the market segmentation process (according to A. V. Rubtsov)

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Market segmentation in marketing is a set of actions aimed at dividing the consumer into different groups, also known as market segments. This policy is carried out by many analytical departments or marketing departments in large organizations. Segmentation allows you to more clearly understand which consumer advertising should be aimed at, and, accordingly, what types and methods of advertising should be used. And although segmentation is carried out mainly only by large companies, it is useful for absolutely all companies, regardless of size and focus of activity. You can read more about what marketing is in the article:

Thanks to market segmentation in marketing, the entire mass of potential consumers is divided into groups according to different criteria. For example, this could be age, gender, nationality, etc. Moreover, each of these groups receives a certain status. There are three such statuses in total:

1. Segments with priority consumers. As you might guess, all members of this group are the main clients of the company that conducts the segmentation. For example, for car manufacturers these are middle-aged people (30-40), and for manufacturers of women's cosmetics these are girls and women up to 40-50 years old. Of course, the data is usually inaccurate, but it is enough to determine the main direction of marketing.

2. Segments with impossible consumers. This group is the opposite of the first. Its representatives will under no circumstances use your services, or will, but in small quantities. An example would be black caviar for low-income people or cheap clothes for rich members of our society.

3. Alternative segments. Representatives of these groups, for the most part, do not use certain types of services, but can use them with proper marketing. Many marketers classify such people as the second type of segment, but in fact, they can bring significant profits. Just think that there is a mass that, under certain circumstances, can begin to buy goods from you, while ignoring your competitors, because it was you who attracted them. For example, why not run a jewelry marketing campaign among young people, or try to sell computer games to adults. To achieve a positive result, you need to conduct truly professional marketing, but if everything works out, your income will increase significantly.

Why is market segmentation necessary in marketing?

1. Targeted marketing is usually much more effective than general marketing. If you know who your main consumer is, you will only make advertising that has a greater impact on them. So, for example, it is better to attract young people through social networks, and older people through newspapers, magazines and television advertising.

2. In addition to efficiency, targeted marketing also has a more favorable price. You only pay for the ads that your potential consumers read, whereas with general advertising you waste a lot of money. If your main clientele is teenagers, then why pay for a commercial between the program “Wait for Me” and the soap opera “The Wedding Ring”?

3. Any company sooner or later conducts market analytics in order to improve operational efficiency. So it’s much more convenient if you know who is buying your product. Then all you have to do is analyze only the preferences of a certain group of people, and not try to please absolutely everyone.

4. By knowing who uses your services, you can determine why this is happening. And knowing the answer to this question, you will understand what needs to be done to improve your sales effectiveness.

Segmentation is a complex system!

As a rule, when segmenting a market in marketing, it is not enough to define a group of potential consumers according to one criterion. You need to take into account several characteristics at once and determine the segment you need more accurately. For example, these could be elderly men with low incomes or middle-aged women on a business trip. However, you don’t have to choose one group at all. Basically, large companies have dozens of such specialized segments with which marketers work. For example, the tenants of an inexpensive apartment can be young students, employees of companies with average incomes on business trips, young families with average incomes, etc.

Statistics are an important element of segmentation!

Without a large amount of statistical data, it is impossible to carry out normal segmentation. As a rule, there is a lot of information in the public domain about which product or service is popular among a particular group of the population. If the data you are interested in is not available, you will have to conduct research yourself. The best option for this is social surveys. They won't cost you a lot of money, and the results will be fresh and relatively accurate. Many organizations post opinion polls on their official website or ask clients who come to them to fill out a questionnaire. Having received the necessary statistical data, you can easily carry out segmentation and select groups of potential consumers.

What groups of segments are there?

In modern marketing, there are many groups among the population, and no one forbids entrepreneurs from creating new ones. Below are the main ones:

1. The most traditional classification of the population is by age. You can distinguish young people, middle-aged people and the elderly, or you can divide the entire society into a larger number of age groups. As a rule, over the years, people's preferences change, just like their incomes, so most companies primarily segment the consumer market based on age.

2. Dividing the population according to gender is also quite popular among marketers. Thus, men are unlikely to buy women's cosmetics or clothing, and women will not be regulars at hardware stores or bookmakers.

3. Revenue is an important component of any segmentation system. If a person earns little, then there is no point in trying to sell him an expensive car or a precious ring. And vice versa, if a person earns a lot, then there is no need to attract him with sales and five percent discounts on discounted goods. Selling Zhiguli cars or cheap jewelry to such people will also not work.

4. A person’s occupation often determines his tastes. Thus, businessmen prefer to dress in respectable business tuxedos, which cannot be said about factory workers. If these are education employees, then they will be regulars at stationery and bookstores.

5. A person’s physique is an important characteristic for manufacturers and distributors of clothing. Statistical data of this type can be found in the public domain, and they are constantly updated as a result of scientific research. Assessing which people are more numerous in a certain region, you should plan the volumes of each size of certain clothes.

6. Having statistics of human tastes and preferences, you can conduct truly competent and effective marketing. Unfortunately, obtaining such information is very difficult. We will have to conduct mass opinion polls, and it is not always possible to achieve an objective result, because sometimes people themselves do not understand what they want.

7. Another important indicator for segmentation is the person’s permanent place of residence. If he came from afar on vacation, then he is a potential consumer of apartment landlords and souvenir shops. But a person who permanently lives in a particular city is unlikely to buy refrigerator magnets depicting the sights of that very city.

Segmentation requires imagination!

The number of options for dividing into groups depends only on your imagination. The population can be classified according to completely different criteria, which have meaning exclusively in your field of activity. For example, you can divide people into those who wear watches and those who do not wear them. The bottom line is that when sewing shirts for the first time, you cannot make the button on the sleeve fasten too tightly, because in this case a person will not be able to check the time without unbuttoning it. And there are a great many such options, believe me.

Concept of market segmentation

Selecting target market segments

Product positioning.

Market niche.

1.The concept of market segmentation

In modern conditions of market development, it is almost impossible to satisfy all consumers with one product or service. Everyone has their own desires, interests and expectations from the product. Therefore, companies need to take into account differences in consumer requirements and expectations when developing a marketing strategy and marketing mix. This can be done by dividing the market into specific groups, each of which contains consumers with common characteristics and similar needs for certain goods and services. Identifying these groups is called market segmentation.

An enterprise in its activities can focus on the entire market or on individual market segments. The task of marketing is to help an enterprise find its place in the market.

Under segmentation understand the division of the market into separate segments that differ either in their parameters and or in their response to certain types of activities, or in some other way.

Market segment- this is a specially selected part of the market, a group of consumers, goods or enterprises that have some common characteristics.

Market segmentation is one of the functions in the system of marketing activities and is associated with the implementation of work to classify buyers or consumers of goods located on the market or introduced to it. Main goal of segmentation- “revive” by focusing on the consumer the designed, manufactured and sold flow of goods (services) in a specific market segment.

The division of the underlying market is carried out in two stages, which correspond to two levels of market division.

At the first stage, which is called macro-segmentation, the “product market” is identified.

In the second stage, called microsegmentation, consumer segments are identified within each previously identified market (i.e., selecting small areas of the base market to apply the company's marketing efforts to them).

The segmentation process consists of the following steps:

Analysis of the company's market and marketing capabilities

Study of segmentation criteria

Market segmentation

Market environment analysis and target market selection

Selection and planning of a company's behavior strategy in the market

Assessing attractiveness and selecting target market segments

Positioning of products on the market

Marketing mix planning

Development of a marketing mix

Organization of the company’s activities in a new market segment

Segmentation goals:

The best satisfaction of the needs and requirements of people, customization of goods according to the wishes of the buyer

Strengthening competitive advantages

Ensuring rationalization of costs for production and sales of products

Orientation of all marketing work towards a specific consumer

Linking a scientific and technical company with consumer needs

Avoiding competition by moving into an untapped segment.

Pre-segmentation– the initial stage of marketing research, focusing on studying the maximum possible number of market segments.

Final segmentation– the final stage of market analysis, the implementation of which is regulated by the capabilities of the company itself and the conditions of the market environment. It is associated with the search for optimal market segments in order to position products there that meet consumer demand and the capabilities of the company.

Depending on the type of consumer of goods or services, a distinction is made between consumers of consumer goods and consumers of goods for industrial and technical purposes.

Thus, the consumer segment in a firm's product market consists of consumers with similar needs and behavioral or motivational characteristics, which creates favorable marketing opportunities for the firm.

The main goal of segmentation is to ensure targeting of the product being developed, produced and sold. By means of it, the basic principle of marketing is implemented - consumer orientation.

One of the main areas of marketing activity is market segmentation, which allows an enterprise to accumulate funds in a certain area of its business. To date, the economic literature has quite clearly defined the concepts of target market and target segment, the identification of which is the main goal of market segmentation.

A target market is a firm's potential market, which is defined by a population of people with similar needs for a particular product or service, sufficient resources, and the willingness and ability to buy.

A target segment is a homogeneous group of consumers in a company's target market that has similar needs and purchasing habits in relation to the company's product.

Thus, market segmentation is the division of the market into distinct groups of buyers, each of which may require separate products and/or marketing mixes.

Segmentation goals.

Any activity of people pursues certain goals, including market segmentation. Three goals of segmentation can be formulated. The first arises from the fact that the company is not able to master the entire market, and is forced to be content with only part of it. By highlighting this part through segmentation, it is able to purposefully concentrate its efforts on those groups of buyers that will be more attractive to it.

The second goal is due to the fact that the identified group of buyers (target market) may be partially inaccessible to the company due to the actions of competitors. Analysis of the capabilities of competitors in the structure of selected segments allows us to identify those in which competitors are either less active or buyers are skeptical about their products. These segments, if the company does not want to fight with competitors, will be the most preferable for it.

The third goal of segmentation is reasonable in cases where the market does not have a complex multidimensional structure of segments. Its essence lies in the fact that if there are few segments, the company should strive to ensure its presence in each of them, i.e. To offer each segment a special product model that is most suitable for it.

In other words, the purpose of segmentation is to identify one or more target groups of consumers, for which the entire range of marketing activities is “tailored” - from product development and branding to the choice of tone and media for marketing communications. The purpose of segmentation is to increase the company's profit by increasing competitiveness in a specific segment.

From this we can draw several important conclusions:

1. To assess the feasibility of segmentation, it is necessary to be able to assess demand in the selected segments.
2. The segment must be large enough and have existed long enough for investments in increasing competitiveness in this segment to lead to a corresponding increase in sales.
3. The profitability of working with the segment should be sufficient. That is, the costs of logistics and communications with the segment should lead to the desired profit.

In fact, it is these conclusions that form the basis of the principles of effective segmentation formulated by the classics.

Market segmentation is the activity of identifying potential groups of consumers of a particular product of an enterprise.

Rice. 1.

This market segmentation scheme is of a general nature and can be applied when planning various areas of marketing activities.

Note that the above market segmentation scheme corresponds to the approach proposed by Lambin and takes into account macro-segmentation to identify the base (otherwise, target) market and micro-segmentation to determine the target segment of the enterprise. This scheme, in turn, is a development of segmentation schemes proposed in other studies.

Principles of segmentation.

The principle of differentiation between segments - the main goal of segmentation is to obtain groups of consumers that differ from each other. Accordingly, each resulting segment must have a set of unique characteristics.

The principle of similarity of consumers in a segment is the homogeneity of potential buyers within a segment from the point of view of the goals of segmentation tasks. The resulting segments should be fairly homogeneous - the differences between consumers within a segment should be less significant than the differences between segments.

The principle of large segment size - target segments must have sufficient potential capacity to be of commercial interest to the company. It is necessary to find a balance between taking into account all significant factors, on the one hand, and the size and number of segments obtained, on the other.

To conduct successful market segmentation, it is advisable to apply five principles tested in practice:

1. differences between segments
2. consumer similarities
3. large segment size
4. measurability of consumer characteristics
5. reachability of consumers.

The principle of distinction between segments means that as a result of segmentation, groups of consumers that differ from each other should be obtained. Otherwise, segmentation will be implicitly replaced by mass marketing.

The principle of similarity of consumers in a segment provides for the homogeneity of potential buyers in terms of purchasing attitudes towards a specific product. Consumer similarity is necessary so that an appropriate marketing plan can be developed for the entire target segment.

The large segment size requirement means that the target segments must be large enough to generate sales and cover the enterprise's costs. When assessing the size of a segment, one should take into account the nature of the product being sold and the capacity of the potential market. Thus, in the consumer market, the number of buyers in one segment can be measured in tens of thousands, while in the industrial market a large segment may include less than a hundred potential consumers (for example, for cellular or satellite communication systems, for consumers of power engineering products, etc.).

The measurability of consumer characteristics is necessary for targeted field marketing research, as a result of which it is possible to identify the needs of potential buyers, as well as study the reaction of the target market to the marketing actions of the enterprise. This principle is extremely important, since the distribution of goods “blindly”, without feedback from consumers, leads to the dispersal of funds, labor and intellectual resources of the selling company.

The principle of consumer reachability means the requirement for communication channels between the selling company and potential consumers. Such communication channels can be newspapers, magazines, radio, television, outdoor advertising, etc. Reachability of consumers is necessary for organizing promotional campaigns, or informing potential buyers about a specific product: its characteristics, cost, main advantages, possible sales, etc.

The basis of the market segmentation procedure, along with the application of segmentation principles, is the informed choice of the appropriate segmentation method.

Approaches to market segmentation.

There are two approaches to market segmentation. In the classical approach, the entire market is segmented. That is, the market is divided into segments in accordance with the maximum number of selected criteria. This method allows you to cover the entire market and cover all segments with one analysis. A consistent deepening of segmentation with analysis at each stage is necessary. Thus, the analysis is carried out to the required depth without losing the accuracy of the analysis.

The second approach is necessary if it is not possible to segment the entire market or it is impractical due to insufficient resources to process all possible segments. Take, for example, the ice cream market. No one bothers you to identify the differences in the behavior of representatives of any particular segment. If the volume of demand in it can be determined thanks to the available (or possible to obtain) data. Let it be at least 10-15 year old children who prefer to play pirates. If it is possible to determine the potential demand that they can provide, and estimate what part of them will prefer the new variety of ice cream “young pirate”. Why not put it on sale. This is a creative approach that can be used for some markets and complements the full segmentation method.

To implement segmentation, a company needs to test segmentation options based on different variables, one or more at a time, in an attempt to find the most useful approach to looking at market structure. For this purpose, factor analysis is used, which studies the influence of various factors on the result and allows you to select exactly those factors that have the maximum impact on the final result. All approaches to market segmentation can be divided into two types:

Unordered selection of segmentation criteria. The selection of segmentation criteria is carried out arbitrarily. It is used in situations where constructing a hierarchy of segmentation criteria is difficult or there is not enough data to construct it.

Multi-step approaches. Construction of a hierarchical system of criteria based on assessment of importance for segmentation. There are two or more levels of criteria through which segmentation is carried out. An example is the micro-macro model proposed by Wind and Cardoza (1974). At the first, macro stage, general factors are used - demographic characteristics of the population, geographic location, consumption activity, etc. The micro stage consists of defining segments within macro groups based on the characteristics of the decision makers. Another example is Bonhomme and Shapiro's (1983) nested model.

Market segmentation is necessary for market-oriented companies for the following main reasons: different groups of people have different needs and therefore the company needs to tailor the product for each group; the company must position its products in a specific way for each group; the company must select the appropriate price for each of the groups; Some groups may require dedicated sales channels.