If you've studied marketing or spent any time hanging out with marketing geeks, then you probably know a lot about "consumer segmentation." It is one of the fundamental tools of modern marketing. Segmentation is simply the process of dividing your potential customers into different groups, the idea being that it is easier and more effective to tailor an offer to a relatively small group of people with similar wants and expectations. needs than trying to mass market something to the world. (It's surprisingly difficult to sell worms to people who aren't fishermen, gardeners, or pranksters.) Segmenting our potential markets is something we all do intuitively. We know that most products, or even homes, won't appeal to everyone. So we try to define “the perfect buyer” in our minds. Segmentation models are generally built around demographic data (age, income, gender, etc.), psychographic data (lifestyle, personality, values, etc.), geographic data (city, neighborhood, postal code, etc.) and other personal attributes. It's common to see people segment their potential customers based on things like gender and zip code, in part because it's easy to obtain this information and get it in a form that can be immediately used . There are many list brokers who will sell or rent you a list of women 55 and older living in the 90210 zip code. The big question when looking at segmentation is: what segments and what attributes do they have? define are they really distinct and useful? IN THE CONTEXT OF YOUR OFFER? A good segmentation model should be based on solid data, giving you an idea of ​​what the main buying criteria for each segment are likely to be and, by extension, how best to communicate with them. Income and net worth are common attributes in segmentation models. Everyone wants a piece of the people with big wallets, and that's understandable. Robert Frank, the author of Richistan, the popular book about the rich, divides the rich into three main groups (based on net worth): Richistan* Lower Richistan: $1 million to $10 million* Middle Richistan: 10 to $100 million* Upper Richistan: $100 million to $1 billion Segmenting by net worth or income is an obvious approach. It is particularly useful for qualifying potential buyers and studying potential market size, but it is not always as useful as one might think in a functional segmentation model...