Rethinking Segmentation to Discover Future White Spaces

Most segmentations – no matter the data, big or small, secondary/primary – end up being a description of the present reality at best and a rearview mirror at worst.

by Ranjana Gupta
Executive Vice President at Kantar

It is 8:30 in the morning. People, half-bleary, stumble into a virtual meeting to discuss what people want. Before the discussion progresses, someone raises a question about what people want is reflected in their current choices, is it not?

The answer is both yes and no. Current choices are a function of not just what I want today but what are the alternatives available to me at the moment of choice, within the parameters of my own constraint. Let’s take the example of mobile phones. Forty years ago, if people needed a phone, they would have chosen landline, home connections. They did not have an alternative! If marketers had asked them, are they happy with what they have, some may have grumbled about things like connectivity, fees etc. but most would not have been able to say that they needed mobile phone. If market researchers would have shown them a prototype of one and listed the benefits of mobility, I am reasonably sure majority would have been flummoxed by its utility but a small percentage would have been interested. And sometime around the turn of the century, marketers who understood this cashed in on mobile phones.

Current choice was definitely not equal to desire then.

And therein lies the explanation of yes and no that I mentioned at the beginning of this piece. Most of us are, in general, not very articulate when it comes to what is it that we actually need and want. We can answer within the bounds of what we have been taught and seen (including marketing comms) but very few have the ability to lucidly explain what they actually desire. Mistaking this inability to articulate as the absence of desire for what mobile phones could do has been the downfall of many companies – from telephone to camera.

Question, therefore, arises how do we as marketers get to what people desire.

It is through choices which people make but not in the context of the current market construct. Choices that they make when we present them with options for the future plus the current. An example:

I have to attend a meeting which is one hour away by road. It is important that I attend it in person. I have to choose from the following modes:

1. Take an Uber. They charge a premium and offer evidence of sanitization before I board.
2. Take the metro. It is fastest and I have a ready pass with free rides left.
3. Take my own car. I can drive in comfort and won’t need to rely on anyone else.

If I make the first choice, it tells you that for me sanitization and the protection it offers are more important than the price.

If I make the second choice, it tells you I prefer efficiency and savings.

If I make the last choice, it tells you that I prefer not depending on others for my comfort.

Perhaps the choices above are rather straightforward and unidimensional but they do allow you to understand my needs and desires.