Market segmentation - Diagnosing and treating the barriers

Although the benefits that segmentation offers are well documented, busines ses continue to encounter barriers to implementation. This raises an import ant dilemma. If corporations are to unlock the benefits of segmentation, th ere are important questions to answer about the nature of these barriers an d how they can be overcome. These questions are addressed in this article b y reviewing a combination of published evidence and case study material The literature review indicates key areas for businesses to consider when impl ementing a segmentation approach. These areas relate to the "infrastructure " in place at the start of the segmentation process, the "segmentation proc ess" itself, and a series of "implementation " questions. Case studies of c orporations that hai e attempted to develop a new or revised segmentation s trategy are used to illustrate each of these areas. The themes from these c ases then are used as the basis for a simple toot designed to diagnose and then treat the infrastructure, segmentation process, and implementation bar riers. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.