Segmentation: The Key to Grow Community | Mary Abbazia | TEDxFergusonLibrary

Summary

The speaker discusses the concept of community, emphasizing how businesses can grow by segmenting their audience based on attitudes and behaviors. Using examples from various industries, the video highlights how successful companies tailor their offerings to different customer groups, like pet owners or people seeking pregnancy tests. The speaker explains how segmentation helps businesses meet specific needs and avoid a 'one-size-fits-all' approach, using detailed real-world examples. Ultimately, the video encourages organizations, including nonprofits, to focus on key customer segments to foster growth and deeper engagement.

Takeaways

• 🌍 Community is not just geographic; it can also be defined by shared needs, attitudes, and behaviors.
• 🏢 Successful businesses grow by treating different customers differently, using segmentation.
• 👥 Segmentation involves identifying groups of people with shared behaviors or attitudes, which helps tailor products or services to meet their specific needs.
• 🐶 The relationship people have with their pets can be segmented into 'dog as child' versus 'dog as dog,' illustrating different attitudes and behaviors.
• ☕ Offering a single product to multiple groups with different preferences can lead to irrelevance, like serving 'lukewarm tea' to both hot and cold tea drinkers.
• 💡 A business example showed that by segmenting customers who want to be pregnant versus those who don't, a company successfully marketed the same pregnancy test with different branding and price points.
• 💊 Segmentation helped a pharmaceutical company in Japan reframe depression as a 'soul cold,' allowing them to market antidepressants in a culture where discussing depression was taboo.
• 📚 Nonprofits, like libraries, can also benefit from segmentation by focusing on groups that are already highly engaged, rather than spreading resources too thin across disinterested groups.
• 📈 Segmentation allows organizations to allocate resources more effectively by prioritizing certain customer groups over others, leading to growth.
• 🔍 The key to successful segmentation is observing customer behavior, identifying patterns, and tailoring efforts to foster specific segments that align with your goals.

Q & A

What is the broader definition of a community as discussed in the script?

The broader definition of a community is a group of people with common needs, attitudes, and behaviors. This transcends geographical boundaries and can exist globally.

Why do successful companies treat different customers differently?

Successful companies treat different customers differently through segmentation, which involves understanding the unique needs and behaviors of each customer group. This approach helps companies better serve and satisfy their customers.

How does segmentation help businesses avoid the 'one size fits all' trap?

Segmentation helps businesses avoid the 'one size fits all' trap by tailoring their products and services to meet the specific needs of different customer groups. Without segmentation, businesses risk offering generic products that appeal to no one, like the example of lukewarm tea.

What are the two segments used to illustrate customer attitudes towards pets?

The two segments are: 1) Customers who view their dogs as children or grandchildren, treating them with great care, buying them gifts, and taking them to the vet frequently. 2) Customers who view dogs as just dogs, providing basic care such as food and shelter but not treating them as family members.

How did segmentation help the medical device company grow their home pregnancy test kit business?

The company identified two segments: women who wanted to be pregnant and women who did not want to be pregnant. They tailored their marketing and product packaging to each group, leading to significant business growth, even though the core product remained the same.

How did segmentation help address depression in Japan in the 1990s?

Segmentation helped by reframing depression as 'soul cold' (core no Kazi), making it more acceptable to discuss and treat. By focusing on one specific segment of patients who were actively seeking help, the company was able to grow the market and make a positive impact on mental health.

What was the outcome of focusing on a single segment in the Japanese antidepressant market?

By focusing on a single segment—patients who were seeking help but not receiving proper treatment—the company was able to grow their market significantly, generating over $400 million and saving lives.

How can segmentation be applied in non-profit organizations like libraries?

In a library setting, segmentation can help allocate resources more effectively by focusing on different groups of patrons. For example, a library might focus 70% of its efforts on highly involved patrons and 30% on those who support the library financially, while not spending resources on those with no interest.

What is the danger of serving 'lukewarm tea' in business?

The danger of serving 'lukewarm tea' is that by trying to appeal to everyone with a single offering, businesses end up appealing to no one. It's better to segment and create targeted products for different groups to remain relevant and competitive.

How does segmentation lead to community growth according to the speaker?

Segmentation leads to community growth by allowing organizations to focus on the needs and behaviors of specific groups, fostering stronger relationships with those groups and, ultimately, helping the community or customer base expand in a meaningful way.