By admin • Apr 19th, 2008 • Category: Marketing
If you’re lucky enough to be a product or
marketing manager in a large company then its doubtful that you’ll be
familiar with the scenario we’re looking at here. It’s more for the army
of marketing professionals across the country, who work in
non-marketing led environments such as in the smaller end of the SME
community.
I’m not saying that small SME’s or even sole
traders don’t embrace market segmentation, it’s just that more often
than not, qualified marketers with their degrees and diploma
certificates from the Chartered Institute of Marketing sit behind desks
every day, happy to have a job with the word ‘marketing’ in the title,
their first rung on the ladder, whilst their soon-to-be erstwhile
bosses, choose to ignore the expertise that they possess.
I worked for a company in my early marketing days
when I demanded that we segment the market and re-position our main
brand. All was well until the MD called me in and told me that I had the
equivalent of £50k in today’s money and 6-weeks to turn the fortunes
around. I smiled and didn’t even ask what the ‘or else’ was. But that’s
just the way I played things in my client side days. Great fun.
Why the boss may not agree with market segmentation
- Why some companies ignore market segmentation
- They have a mass market product which appeals to everyone
- They have never heard of segmentation
- They don’t understand marketing
- They believe that segmentation makes them too ‘niche’
- They believe they can defy the laws of marketing… and gravity
Whilst we’re not going to attempt to discuss the
well publicised theories behind market segmentation, we’ll simply take
this as read, our attempts now should be to tackle the issue of going
about discussing this with the boss, if or when they’ll listen.
Now before any of you enthusiasts go barging into
the directors’ offices and waving this article in front of them, think
again, because marketing life is generally about weighing up company
politicking and working out what things are worth fighting for.
My advice to you is to use your own judgement,
because it’s your call after all and though getting your point across
may work in the movies, it can be career-threatening if not done in the
right way, or if you have an egocentric boss who thinks humour is
something that comes at other people’s expense.
How to tackle the boss
- Don’t use this article to do it for you – or you deserved to be put in the village stocks.
- Start by thinking of the major segments and don’t ever begin a discussion by telling the boss that the town’s main employer has 2,455 segments. You need to start by defining the major ones first.
- Give the boss examples of how some small niche companies profited by using segmentation – don’t get out the textbooks and talk about brands with a multi-million pound marketing budget, because that’s the easiest way for the boss to dismiss your valid points.
- If you can find the budget for market research or some external marketing consultancy then that’s good and it may well back up your claims, however if you can’t then speak to some of your customers, or distributors, but ensure that you don’t annoy the management, so keep them informed at all times.
- Don’t do what I did when on client side and be a maverick, taking things into my own hands, whilst it feels good being John Rambo, the directors get cheesed off very quickly – as I know too well. If you ignore this advice then just remember that you’ll have to deliver good results very quickly, or it’s your neck on the line.
So I guess that it’s over to you now. You can’t
make an omelette without cracking some eggs, but then again like many of
my colleagues over the past 15-years, you may not want to take the
chance. Who can blame you if you don’t, but if you do remember that it’s
your job, your career, your responsibility and your call.
To the b or plain foolish, please let me know how you get on.
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