Judy Bayer, Director of Strategic Analytics for Teradata International, and Marie Taillard, a professor of marketing and Director of the Creativity Marketing Centre at the ESCP Europe Business School in London, wrote a very interesting article in which they stated that they no longer believe in segmentation. ["A New Framework for Customer Segmentation," HBR Blog Network, 12 June 2013] Obviously, the headline for their article (which they may not have personally selected) undercuts that statement; nevertheless, their arguments are both interesting and persuasive. They believe that segmentation (like dividing consumers by gender, ethnicity, geography, religion, etc.) promotes a "rigid methodology that carves out the market" in unnatural ways. They accept the notion that you "can't be all things to all people," and they believe that rigid segmentation defies that concept. They continue:
"To resolve these contradictions, we had begun pleading with students and clients to look for 'jobs to be done.' The approach echoes Ted Levitt’s famous comment about selling ¼ inch holes rather than ¼ inch electric drills, and advocates a mindset shift away from selling products to 'doing jobs' that solve customers’ problems. In Clay Christensen’s words, customers 'hire' products or other solutions because they have a specific job to fulfil, not because they belong to a certain segment."
"To resolve these contradictions, we had begun pleading with students and clients to look for 'jobs to be done.' The approach echoes Ted Levitt’s famous comment about selling ¼ inch holes rather than ¼ inch electric drills, and advocates a mindset shift away from selling products to 'doing jobs' that solve customers’ problems. In Clay Christensen’s words, customers 'hire' products or other solutions because they have a specific job to fulfil, not because they belong to a certain segment."To continue reading, click on the link to the new Enterra Insights site.
