We all know the 4 basic market segmentations, demographic, psychographic, behavioural and geographic. But what if I tell you there is more when it comes to digital marketing?
“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”
— Peter Drucker
Consumer types
From an article by Hodis and colleagues, there are 4 market segments on Facebook:
The first step to a successful marketing campaign is to create a customer persona followed by selecting the right target market segment. Being able to select and harness the potential of the right segment is crucial to an effective marketing campaign.
Attention Seekers
The first segment is “Attention seekers”, this segment consists of celebrities including social media influencers. These are people who generate a lot of content but do not consume much in return. They are all about posting and updating on their lives and events around them. They are usually engaged by bigger and global companies to create brand awareness and endorsements. Here’s an example of a brand endorsement by a celebrity (totally not biased :))
Devotees
The second segment is “Devotees”, these are your hardcore social media users. They are almost online 24/7, posting, sharing and just spending time on social media in general. They are the ones posting about everything that they do #lunchtime #sohungry #IWokeUpLikeThis. Smaller businesses usually engage this segment as it will give them the most exposure as the brand ambassadors will be constantly generating content.
Entertainment Chasers
The third segment is “Entertainment Chasers”. This group of people are best described as passersby. They scroll through their feeds to be entertained by cat videos or people arguing over toilet rolls during the panic buying phase #CoronaTime. The best way to market to them is through contests, quizzes and giveaways, here’s one from a local business in Singapore.
Connection Seekers
The fourth segment is “Connection Seekers”. These are people who don’t generate much content but consume the most. The typical connection seeker is one that wants to be kept updated on the social lives of their friends and idols. They are found in Facebook groups liking and commenting on community posts.
1 – 2 – HIT!
Is it possible to target multiple segments at once you say? Definitely! Here is an excellent example of a marketing campaign that targets multiple segments mentioned above.
Apple’s #ShotoniPhone campaign is still on going and one of the most prominent marketing campaigns out there. It encourages iPhone users to post photos taken using their iPhones and hashtag #ShotoniPhone to stand a chance to be featured on Apple’s official Instagram page. This increases exposure for Apple as well as engaging the community to submit user generated content.
Can you think of any other campaigns that are successful at capturing multiple segments?
Digital Marketing 
6 replies on “Market segmentation, dig deeper.”
Great post and insights! One campaign I could think of is the Campaign for Real Beauty by Dove! It is a campaign where they focused on beauty-equality among women. Unfortunately, there was some controversy on the campaign due to an advertisement transition (a black woman pulling up her shirt to transition into a white woman). Although the gist of the advertisement is to promote diversity, many shook their head as it could potentially be racist. I have learned that as a marketer, it is important to be highly sensitive so as not to offend anyone.
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Hi Dana! That’s a good campaign, unfortunately people misinterpreted the advertisement as racist and offensive. When coming up with marketing campaigns, we have to be more sensitive these days as people are easily offended by certain messages.
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Hey Jeremiah! Came across your blog and I really liked how straight to the point it was! It taught me that there are actually many kinds of segments, to the point of content creation or consumption. Personally, I think I’m a Connection Seeker and a lil’ bit of an Entertainment Chaser haha! What about you? Also do you think a consumer type segmentation would be suitable for most, if not, all kinds of businesses? or will it only work well for businesses that have a very strong online presence? Hope to hear your thoughts!
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Hi there!
This a very interesting and informative post, I enjoyed reading it !
I’ve also discussed this topic in my blog recently, maybe you would like to have a look at it https://oeconomia.finance.blog/2021/02/03/market-segmentation/
Good luck !
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Hey Jeremiah! Insightful post you have there! It gave me a good reflection point about the different types of consumers on the Internet. For me personally, I am a Connection Seeker and spend a lot of time catching up with my friends’ lives.
A question I have: What are some ways that businesses can ensure that they are targeting the correct consumer segments in their marketing campaigns?
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Hi Saywee! I feel that when it comes to segmentations, businesses have to be very clear about their branding and positioning as well. For example, if the target markets too broad, customers that are not interested in your products will be included in your target. To ensure this doesn’t happen, the business have to look into narrowing down their target segments more precisely. One way to find out if the business is targeting the right segments is to see if the conversion rate for the marketing campaigns are increasing.
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