How to Write the Geographic Segmentation of a Marketing Plan

Geographic segmentation for marketing

Marketing your products to various geographic areas requires different approaches based on the consumer you hope to service. A 2007 textbook by Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller describes geographic segmentation as the dividing of the consumer market by region, focusing on how people's demographic characteristics, lifestyle and behavior are related to where they live.

Instructions

1. Divide the market that you are servicing into geographical units such as countries, regions, states, cities or neighborhoods. Determine the characteristics of your geographic segment. For instance, if you are working within a city, you will need to segment your marketing plan to suit the various communities within that city.

2. Combine geographic data with demographic data to yield a richer description of consumers in each neighborhood or community segment within the city. Take into consideration the characteristics of the target population, including education, income, family structure, urbanization, race and ethnicity, and mobility. Often people cross segmentation lines when shopping, so you should consider your neighboring segment as well.

3. Categorize your observations. You can even cluster community or neighboring groups by titles or some other descriptive notation. That way, when you prepare your marketing strategy, you will know about the income levels and interests of people within those clusters. For instance, if you are marketing to an affluent neighborhood, your marketing plan may not focus on the money-saving benefits of the product.

4. Write the marketing plan according to how many segments you create. If the city has four segments, you will want to address each one separately. When you approach distributors, businesses or markets with your product, make clear to them that you understand the characteristics of people comprising the various geographic segments that you have identified. For example, if one segment contains a lot of college students, you will want to keep the product price relatively low in that segment.

References

• "A Framework for Marketing Management"; Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller; 2007
• "The Icfai University Press"; Evolution of Market Segmentation; Disha Mahajan, Navneeta Agarwar, Anand Agarwal; 2008
• "Marketing Management"; The Challenge of Global Customer Management; Montgomery, David B.; George S. Yip; 2000