What Is a Market Segment? Okay, a market segment, just like that CT scan slice is a part of the whole.

But the part has some similarities or shared features that allow it to be a part of the whole a segment that you can direct specific actions toward. And the particular segment is usually unique from other segments in the market. Whats the Value of a Segment? Segmenting your market into more manageable groupings allows you to reach out to them in a fashion they are more likely to respond. By limiting who you are approaching and focusing on some core commonalities, you can get closer to satisfying your customers needs. You have tailored your approach to their specific concerns. You have zeroed in on the target and dont have to speak in gross general terms: Do you need a urologist? vs. Are you getting up several times a time to urinate without much success? Depending on the segment, it will respond to various channels differently. For example, one of your market segments might be female baby boomers. What might be the best way to reach them? You can try print ads in your local paper somewhat expensive or, if you have been collecting emails for your existing patients, you might reach them via email marketing. If you segment is Gen Y females, you know they spend less time on email and respond more favorably to social media outlets so you might rely more on FaceBook or even text messaging. In either case, a market segment is measurable. You want to make sure you know the result of your action upon this segment so that you can correct or augment your approach. How Do You Segment? Okay, so you understand that dividing your segment into common features will allow you to focus specifically. But how do you make the cut? Some traditional ways to segment a market include:

Geographically Demographically (i.e. age, income, gender) Psycho-graphically (i.e. values, lifestyle) Or through behavior (i.e. utilization rates)

SEGMENTATION & TARGETING

The ability to create and sustain a meaningful competitive advantage requires a deep knowledge of customer needs and a disciplined sales and marketing process to ensure that needs are effectively addressed. Market segmentation is a strategic process for achieving alignment between product offerings and customer need. Marketers rely on segmentation to Optimize allocation of sales and marketing resources by targeting high-value customers Guide product development and customize service offerings to accommodate needs of target segments Increase promotional impact by positioning products and customizing messages to align with segmentspecific orientations

MARKET SEGMENTATION APPROACHES

Choosing the right segmentation approach requires both a clear understanding of business objectives and intimate familiarity with the methodological options. A firm grasp of the segmentation mechanics, extensive implementation experience, and specialized industry focus are requirements for anticipating and addressing the specific challenges of each market when designing segmentation approaches. Over a period of four decades, NA Worldwide has developed hundreds of market-sensitive segmentation frameworks, including blended, tiered (or hierarchical), and multi-faceted segmentations, by adapting and enhancing a wide range of statistical techniques. These segmentation frameworks have been designed to segment consumers or businesses, individuals or households, products within a portfolio, or usage/purchase occasions using the following types of building blocks, often in combination. Demographic and "firmographic" or institutional characteristics, Behaviors Needs and motivations Attitudes and ethos Usage or purchase occasion characteristics Market complexity or client objectives frequently argue for multi-dimensional segmentation schemes that draw on some combination of basis variables to properly reflect or illuminate market structure. Examples of approaches used regularly at NA Worldwide include: 1. Blended or Hybrid Segmentations 2. Tiered Segmentations 3. Multi-Faceted and Dynamic Segmentations

Additional segmentation topics: Market applications Segmentation techniques Implementation support Healthcare Market Segmentation The process of applying market segmentation strategies to the Pharmaceutical industry creates meaningful opportunities as well as special challenges. The opportunities come from extraordinarily rich and reliable customer-level databases (i.e., Rx audits) that can increase the predictive power and marketing utility of a segmentation framework. The challenges owe to the industry's high standards for "actionability" and field-level implementation. Even with the trend toward sales force contraction, no industry rivals Pharmaceuticals for its level of individual customer attention. Additional challenges can arise when we attempt to overlay various attitudinal segmentations on the framework of physician specialty. Physician specialty is a dimension that has proven consistently more relevant than almost any other as a basis for shaping dialogue between pharmaceutical marketers and their customers. In fact, physician specialty and medical education per se is a homogenizing process that can limit the practicality of certain types of segmentations. Physicians are trained to think and behave more uniformly than many other types of customers.

It is all the more important, then, that practitioners of market segmentation in the healthcare arena set clear, concrete and realistic objectives for segmentation so that they can select appropriate tools and set reasonable standards for success. An attitudinal or needs-based segmentation may be inspirational but may not meet an organization's standards for marketing actionability and return on research investment if it cannot be applied at the sales detail level. Patient segmentations play by more traditional CPG rules but there, too, it is crucially important to set realistic expectations that take account of available promotional resources and the ability to cost-effectively reach relevant segments with appropriate messages that will activate them effectively. NA Worldwide brings together a unique set of tools and perspectives that maximize the likelihood clients will extract full value from their segmentation initiatives whether directed at patients, healthcare professionals, healthcare institutions, or any other type of healthcare decision-maker. Depth of segmentation experience drawn from multiple industries to produce a truly rich inventory of "best practices" Specialized healthcare experience unmatched for its historical perspective, clinical sophistication, and breadth A staff of senior consultants who combine both skill sets so that methodological and marketing perspectives are fully integrated Leading edge techniques (like our Hypredictive service) that optimize the contribution of attitudes and behaviors in order to balance marketing insight and targeting success A commitment to helping clients set research agendas that take full account of what they need to accomplish, and an unshrinking candor in helping them to decide when and how segmentation will help them reach their goals

Potential Healthcare Market Segments:

By healthcare constituency
By business size (e.g. members, beds, total facilities) By business need By value drivers

By geographic area (e.g. country, state, region) By organization functional group By role group (e.g. C-Suite, CIOs, CFOs) By % population served (e.g. Medicare, ABD, TANF) By product or service needs By sensitivity to price By make vs. buy preferences By propensity to outsource By budget allocation priorities

By demographic segment (e.g. age, gender)