General Articles

Specific Market
Segments:

Mature Age Groups
Young Age Groups
Hispanics
Upscale Customers
Psychographic

Demographics
Data

Exercise:

What's Your
VALS Profile?

General Articles

How to Identify a Target Market and Prepare a Customer Profile by Susan MaGee, Entrepreneurial Edge. Very complete training module for identifying the best target markets for your product. Includes sections on defining why a customer would want to buy your product, segmenting your overall market and researching your market. Also includes a sample customer profile and analysis.

How to Segment Your Market by Business Owner's Toolkit. A brief primer on market segmentation that includes definitions of related terms, such as demographics and psychographics, how larger companies conduct segmentation research and practical cost-effective approaches smaller companies can use to segment their markets.

Niche Marketing by Business Owner's Toolkit. Strategies for identifying and marketing to your "heavy users"—who spend much more on your products than average customers, including the potential impact of competitors and what it takes to be profitable with this customer segment.

Specific Market Segments

Note: The groups profiled below were selected based on available online articles, not any priorities for covering one group over another!

Mature Age Groups

Targeting the Mature Market: Breaking Down Barriers by The Catalog Marketer, 1996. Five strategies for targeting 50+ customers are discussed, including further segmentation of the senior market based on activity level, discretionary time and other factors.

Young Age Groups

Kids in 2010 by American Demographics, September, 1999. A broad review of the major issues and attitudes of today's children, including their current patterns of behavior, forces affecting their development and how they differ from children in previous generations.

Marketing Golf to Generation X by Marcus Whelan,
Cyber-Journal of Sports Marketing. The first part of this article analyzes Generation X (born between 1961 and 1981), including their distinguishing characteristics, how they differ from baby boomers and how they process buying decisions. Additional insights about this generation are included in the balance of the article, which focuses on selling them golf equipment.

Hip Check by Jennifer Lach, American Demographics, March, 1999. This case study reviews how Lee Apparel increased sales of its jeans to 15-to-34-year-olds—a group that had negative perceptions about wearing Lee jeans.

Clothes Make the Teen by Wayne D'Orio, American Demographics, March, 1999. How consumer product companies are collaborating with film and TV production companies to reach teen audiences. Among the many examples covered: Tommy Hilfiger and the movie, "The Faculty," Ray-Ban sunglasses and "Men in Black," and J. Crew clothing and the WB network show, "Dawson Creek."

Hispanics

The Wonderful and Lucrative Enigma of the Hispanic Teens by Juan Faura, Cheskin Research, March, 1999. The article explores the challenges of understanding and reaching this market segment and Hispanic teens' growing role in setting fashion trends in their age group.

From Bland to Brand by Jennifer Lach, American Demographics, March, 1999. This case study explores how Frito-Lay increased sales to Hispanics, who were "less likely to eat 'salty snacks' than the general market." It covers how focus groups were used to uncover current perceptions, the tactics used to build interest and the results of Frito-Lay's efforts.

Upscale Customers

Albertson's Goes Clicks and Mortar by Martha Rogers, Inside 1 to 1. (Type "Albertson's" in the search box after online registration to use this site). A grocery chain creates an online store to cater to "busy, upscale, tech-savvy customers—the type of people who work at Microsoft's main corporate campus just a mile up the street."

Psychographic Segmentation

VALS by SRI Consulting. The company provides examples of how psychographic segmentation has been successful used in such areas as product introduction, product repositioning and targeted direct mail campaigns.

Demographics Data

Topline Demographics by USAData.com. Demographics for approximately 60 US metropolitan areas: population distribution and percentages by gender, age, household income, education, marital status, race, ethnicity, full-time employment and home ownership.