Behavioral Segmentation: What It Is, Characteristics, Types And Functions
Companies do not simply offer their products and services. First of all, they carry out an important market study, finding out what their clients want, what their needs are, what they want…
But not all clients are the same. What interests one person does not have to interest another person at all. People have personality differences, and this also manifests itself in our behavior as consumers.
But despite being different, there is always some feature that helps us group ourselves according to our interests with respect to a group or service, and companies take this into account by applying the behavioral segmentation strategy Let’s see what it is and what parameters can be taken into account when applying it.
Behavioral segmentation is a marketing technique that aims to group consumers based on some of their characteristics that serve companies to be able to offer your services and products in a more personal way. By achieving this, the chances of capturing the attention of customers, purchasing the product/service offered and, furthermore, doing so again in the future, becoming a regular customer, increase.
This technique is usually carried out by market researchers, who are in charge of observing aspects such as preparation when purchasing, the knowledge that the customer has about the product or service, the level of loyalty, interactions with your brand, the use that is given to the product once purchased…
This process can involve several phases in which the behavior of both regular and sporadic customers is observed, studied and analyzed , attempted with this data to predict the behavior of future consumers. Thus, the company is better prepared and can know a little better what to expect by knowing what the customers’ wants and needs are. Since consumer behavior can change for any reason, behavioral segmentation is a process that is constantly applied.
Any company that knows what the purchasing, consumption and use habits of its regular customers are can extract very useful information to gain their loyalty, that is, make them have such a positive experience with that brand that they choose to continue using it. For this reason, in a world as competitive as that of large companies, it is necessary to know what characteristics the target audience has and what to do to capture their attention.
What does it imply in Psychology?
There are several aspects that characterize behavioral segmentation. One of them is that companies use this method in order to focus your efforts on the right audience, that is, on those potential real consumers based on the purchasing behavior of customers who have already used its services and products, in addition to taking into consideration their interests.
Behavioral segmentation allows identify similar behaviors between different consumers , which makes it easier to group them and offer them more personalized products and services, but not in such a personalized way that it involves investing too much time and money in proposing new options to offer. The idea is to offer products that are interesting to a wide range of people and, if other people like something else, present them with an offer suitable for them.
As people are grouped according to different parameters, this allows people who have similar interests and behavioral patterns to be grouped into the same group, allowing them to receive advertisements and product offers. By knowing what they are like and what is the largest group or groups of people interested in a certain product or service, Commercial decision making is much easier, designing products and advertising services that are more in line with what consumers really want
In order to predict the behavior of future customers, behavioral segmentation is based on the attitude history of your customers, both regular and more sporadic. Based on the information they obtain from them, they can identify and influence purchasing decisions that occur in the future.
Types of behavioral segmentation
As we have mentioned, the main objective of behavioral segmentation is to group consumers based on their characteristics in order to be able to offer a service or product in a more personal way, making there more possibilities of capturing their attention and purchasing that product. service offered and, furthermore, to do so again in the future, becoming a regular customer.
Behavioral segmentation varies depending on what is being observed at the time of carrying out the market research Below we will see a few types of segmentation based on different parameters taken into consideration:
1. Search for value
This type of segmentation focuses on how the customer researches the product identifying aspects such as its price, features and durability and which are those that motivate you to buy it.
2. Use of the products
The use of products or services is another form of behavioral segmentation, in which takes into account the frequency with which a customer purchases or consumes what the company is interested in offering.
3. Seasons and events
Consumption is not equal or stable throughout the 365 days of the year Key dates and seasons such as Christmas, summer holidays, the start of school and others are moments in which consumer behavior skyrockets in the consumption of all types of items.
There are other dates that are special for certain groups, such as LGTBI+, evident in pride month and how brands take advantage of their symbols. Also included are those of a personal nature, such as birthdays or anniversaries.
4. Loyalty level
Based on the data that can be extracted from customer behavior, they can be segmented based on their level of loyalty. This allows the organization to identify its most loyal customers, understand what has made them continue using your brand, understand what their needs are and plan strategies to ensure they continue to be interested in your products and services in the future.
5. Personal interests
It is essential to take into account the personal interests of clients in order to provide individualized options. In this type of behavioral segmentation, the professional interests of each client are also taken into account.
You may be interested: “The 10 types of values: principles that govern our lives”
Advantages and disadvantages of behavioral segmentation
This technique has several benefits for all companies, although it also has certain drawbacks.
Advantages
The main and most important advantage of behavioral segmentation is that allows organizations to find customers with similar purchasing habits and behaviors, making it easier to reach them and offer them products and services It also allows companies to know what the needs of consumers are, which will be used as a criterion to modify and update the products and services offered.
By knowing what your customers want, you can offer them more personalized products and therefore increase the interest of your customers, both old and new. This makes it easier to build brand loyalty in the most like-minded customers.
Disadvantages
But although it has several disadvantages, it is worth mentioning that behavioral segmentation has several drawbacks.
The most notable is that Consumers are still people and, as such, they are free to change their behavior , so it is really very difficult to predict with complete certainty what your desires and interests will be in the medium and long-term future. This can pose the problem that an entire marketing strategy is ruined by the simple fact that the potential clients to whom it was directed change their tastes and interests.
Thus, this technique can only provide a framework based on the personality and behavior of a specific group of people, but it is not a guarantee that it will completely predict the personality of other apparently similar groups.
