MASASI Model: Market Segmentation Strategy in West Africa

Context: Intentional Marketing

For over a decade, I have been involved directly and indirectly in driving penetration of impact products and services to different communities - rural, peri-urban and even urban. From detergents, sanitary pad, baby diapers, wipes, dry cell batteries, yogurts, biscuits, shaving sticks, solar lamp/home systems, digital financial services, bouillon cubes, tooth paste, car hailing services, armored vehicles, hospitality, tomato paste, eggs and meat; just to mention a few. I have marketed and distributed them all.

At some point, I have come to believe that, leveraging my experience and the challenges I have overcame there is hardly no product or services I cannot massively drive into the hands of consumers; especially in West Africa but I discovered that I was wrong.

I have come to learn that aside skills, some products or services are usually not built with the verse capacity to satisfy the felt needs of all customers, every time. In most cases, it may prove difficult to meet the exact requirement of each individual customer because people do not always have identical preferences, so rarely does one product completely satisfy everyone. Most struggling businesses or brands fall under this category of wrongful assumptions -The fact that it was accepted in Kenya is not always a validation that it will be accepted in Nigeria or Ghana.

What I have also observed that successful brands or businesses usually do; is to adopt a sensitive customer centric strategy I call “intentional marketing” -This strategy involves deliberately dividing the market into groups and developing products or services to fit these groups. An intentional marketing strategy is focused on the customers’ needs and wants. Needs, in the sense that it’s vital for their daily survival and want in the sense that it speaks to their immediate and realistic aspirations.

Based on my reflections, I would like to share some thoughts on 3 key components of ‘’intentional marketing’’ (1) Market segmentation strategy (2) Market targeting strategy (3) Market positioning. - I believe, it may come handy for you if you ever consider expanding or starting a venture in the West African market.

An intentional marketing strategy is focused on the customers’ needs and wants. Needs, in the sense that it’s vital for their daily survival and want in the sense that it speaks to their immediate and realistic aspirations.

Though in this publication my focus will be on market segmentation strategy

Understanding Market Segmentation Strategy

A market segment is a group of customers (this could be individuals or organizations) who share the same interests, traits or characteristics. These traits may include: similar needs, wants, expectations, similar lifestyles, demographics or even personas. The actual process of identifying these group/sub groups of customers is referred to Market segmentation. It doesn’t matter if these groups are existing or prospective customers. Usually, organizations who try to segment their customers will consider grouping them based on any of the following:

1. Demographic Segmentation: They look at variables like age, gender, income, occupation, marital status, family size, race and religion. This segmentation is a popular way of segmenting the customer markets, as demographic variables are relatively easy to measure.
2. Geographic Segmentation: It involves selecting potential markets according to where they are located. This segmentation approach may consider variables such as climate, terrain, natural resources and population density, nationality, among other geographic variables.
3. Psychographic Segmentation: This is done according to personality traits, values, motives, interests and lifestyles.
4. Behavioral Segmentation: This considers individual purchase behaviors and buying patterns like shopping frequency and volumes of purchase and so on.
5. Product-related Segmentation: Such variables include, purchase purpose, the sizes of the product, adaptability and functionality.

How to Effectively Segment customers in the West African Market

West Africa is a dynamic market with a very distinct peculiarity. One could say it has a volatile economy with unpredictable policies - this reality is not always accepted by new entrance, until a lot of resource has been sunk into the penetration strategy with little or no ROI. It is not enough to assume that with the huge population in West Africa and the high consumption rate on daily need products, plus the raising poverty; you have sufficient information to make a venture scale in the region.

There are interesting but yet honest questions I believe businesses need to ask themselves before making such a move. Questions like how is the West African market segmented? What are the personas of customers in these different segments? Which segments should they service and how/why did they make that choice? How can they adapt their product and service offerings to meet the felt needs of the customers in the market segment they have chosen? And what elements of differentiations do they need to stay relevant and competitive?

How to Select a Suitable Market Segment for Products or Services In West Africa Using The MASASI Model.

The MASASI model is a segmentation models I have developed to aid easy market segmentation decision in West Africa. When making a decision on the market segments to focus on, I suggest you ensure the segment possess the following characteristics:

• Measurability: A viable market segment must have clear element of measurability. It must be possible to measure variables like the market size, purchasing power, and average purchasing frequency of the segment. Overall, it must be possible to gather concrete insights on the various characteristics of the market segment of choice.
• Accessibility: It refers to how you can easily reach and serve your chosen market segments. What are distribution or functionality barriers? How adaptive and efficient is the RTM model?
• Substantiality: This is the degree to which a chosen market segment is profitable enough to be worth investing into with ‘tailored’ marketing programs.?You can only determine this substantiality via insights.
• “Action-ability”: This relates to the degree to which effective programs can be redesigned to attract and serve relevant segments.
• Sustainability: This has to do with how resilient and agile your venture will be in that market segment and How can you efficiently and profitably keep the operations flow going regardless of times. To what percentage can you positively impact the environment and humanity within that market segment?
• Inclusivity: This market segment allows you to provide or adapt your product or services to fit people with some levels of limitations like education, languages, and religion and tech suaveness. You may need to check how easy is it to use/ learn to use your product or services in the market segment you have chosen?

Conclusion:

Data are everywhere but not all data are genuine. Also, not every genuine data are real time (current) data. The first thing I believe every strategic business should do is to invest in genuine and real time data. This should not be done in abstract of the community or country you are targeting. Involve the support of experts like bopinc to assist you in collecting and analyzing real time insights before you make that go or no go decision.