Differences between Market Segmentation and Market Target in STP

Have you understood the difference between market segmentation and target market when doing market research? At first glance, these two things have the same meaning, but they are actually different in their implementation. The differences between segmentation and target market are also important for businesses to know so that they can use the right target.

Marketing is also a vital part of running a business. Every business must have a goal so that its products or services are known by many people. Marketing aims to fulfill these ideals with all the strategies it has.

Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP) Process

The marketing process that a business goes through does not immediately start with its execution, but they have to do market research first. The research is necessary so that they can target the appropriate target or market segmentation. Although marketing has become a common thing to do, there are still many who do not understand the differences between targeting and segmentation.

Market segmentation and target market are two different things, but they complement each other in order to achieve marketing goals in business. Both are successive steps in market research, where market segmentation is carried out before the target market. In addition to these two things, there is one more step that must be done, namely positioning. This is known as the process of segmenting, targeting, and positioning (STP) in business.

Market segmentation is the first process in STP. The goal is to group consumers with similar needs. These consumers are further divided into several characteristics, such as demographic, geographic, behavioral, and psychological (psychographic).

Read Also: 5 Ways to Do Market Segmentation to Not Miss the Opportunities

The target market is the next process of segmentation. Here, the business chooses a segment of consumers to offer a particular product. Of course, they also use a different marketing approach to market their products.

There is also positioning whose goal is to create value in a product or business so that consumers or markets. The goal is that businesses can offer product advantages or think of the right marketing strategy to promote their products.

Differences between Market Segmentation and Market Target

The above definition briefly describes the two initial steps in the STP process, namely market segmentation and target market. Not only from their respective meanings, segmentation and target markets also had various differences in terms of functions and processes. Both aim to target consumers, but they have differences that must be understood.

Based on the process, segmenting and targeting consumers are very different. Market segmentation aims to create several market segments or groups that you want to target. From this process, businesses can group consumers according to their criteria, and even build customer personas from segmenting.

Segmenting is done on several variables or market characteristics in general. Generally, they use differentiators such as demographic, geographic or behavioral factors.

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Targeting is done after segmenting, which means the company has made several consumer segments. Here, the business will target a market segmentation to be targeted in promoting its goods or services.

This is the identification process, where the business has started to select and know the right target market for its products. After these two steps, then we enter into the positioning process, where finally the product is advertised according to its target market.

Judging from its function, segmentation and target market also have differences. The function of segmentation is to examine the target market as a whole, then group it based on these variables. Meanwhile, the target market has a function to target market groups that have been created to promote their products.

The above differences between market segmentation and market target can be a guide for you in deciding a product’s demography. This STP process is not easy, because you have to read and discern the market entirely to be able to fully understand their interests. That is why AdIns is present with Profind service that can help you in determining market segmentation and target. Our software will help you in this STP process until you can find the exact market target. Contact our team right now to get the demo of this software!