A major challenge for any business is the effective implementation of data across their different functions. Brands recognise that joined-up solutions can help different departments work more closely together, better understand and serve their customers and provide them a competitive advantage.
Insight projects are expanding to involve more departments, quite often with vastly different needs, wants, and understanding around customers and their data. What’s important to sales may be vastly different than someone in accounting. Yet, now these teams are expected not only to understand which data they already own, but also how primary research solutions can deliver against it.
Segmentation should act as a unifying programme, creating a shared language that everyone can easily understand. It should give your different teams the relevant data they need to take business decisions. Yet today there is something of a paradigm where two competing segmentation approaches counteract each other:
Survey-based segmentations
Survey based segmentation which explores the inner world of all people in the potential market
- Higher level values, attitudes and motivations: directs brand “positioning” and messaging
- Category specific attitudes and motivations that capture what current and potential consumers are looking for: drives innovation
Database segmentations
Database segmentation explores the behavioural profile of current customers
- Transactional behaviour and engagement: Delivers measurable ROI through tactical eCRM targeting
The problem
Having separate Database AND Survey Segmentations can be a big block on growth. Individually they both have shortcomings:
- Survey based may drive brand messaging and innovation, and the tailored communication around that, but is not as operational for targeting existing customers with personalised CRM.
- Database segmentations are based upon past customer behaviours, do not consider wider market opportunities, and are not grounded in understanding the different motivations behind the behaviours (missing the WHY), meaning they do not provide as much impact.
To truly understand a person’s behaviour and therefore to influence it, we must understand their relevant motivations, attitudes and beliefs. Enter Hybrid segmentation, a unifying framework which fuses customer and market samples, and driven by factors from both to provide a 360 view – hence Hybrid. Hybrid provides the Who, What, Where and WHY. The attitudes, motivations and beliefs will help to influence behaviour, whilst communication can be tailored – your database can be tagged with segments using machine learning algorithms built from just your customer data.
Enter hybrid segmentation
Hybrid segmentation becomes operational across multiple business functions, and creates maximum business impact to help across the entire marketing mix to Get, Grow and Keep customers. Bonamy Finch are experts in segmentation and have many examples of using multiple data sources to provide analytical solutions that deliver greater impact. Please join our Lunch & Learn to find out more about Hybrid Segmentation, and the many additional activities that Hybrid segmentation enable.