Understanding B2B Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

The basic notion behind the B2B segmentation, targeting, and positioning is that a single product offered by a firm cannot satisfy all clients’ needs. Thus, at some point when you are expanding your business, B2B consultants recommend the STP model to target your market effectively. The STP model includes segmentation, targeting, and positioning. The first step is segmentation, followed by targeting, and positioning. It is important to understand how B2B segmentation, targeting, and positioning work to reach your clients effectively.?

What is B2B segmentation?

B2B segmentation categorizes or segments your market based on different variables. Segmentation aims to get an idea of your target market and find market groups with common needs. Companies often use these three criteria to identify the segments of the market:????

Homogeneity: common needs within a segment

Distinction: being unique from other groups

Reaction: a similar response to the market

The more widely recognized variables of the market segmentation, proposed by Philip Kotler, are geography, psychographic, demographic, and behavioral.? There are two approaches marketers use for market segmentation: a discovery approach or an analytic approach.

Discovery Approach?

This approach is ideal for a market with a limited customer base. In this approach, a business tries to segment the market based on the clients’ interest in their company offerings. However, this is a time-consuming approach.

Analytic Approach?

The analytic approach focuses on research and data to segment the market. The market in this approach can be segmented based on the clients’ response to marketing actions or other available information.

You can contact an expert B2B marketing consulting firm to segment your market. The right segmentation leads to more efficient marketing efforts and better investment returns.?

What is Targeting??

Targeting is the process of evaluating each segment’s potential and commercial attractiveness. For example, marketing segmentation divides the target market into groups with common needs or shared characteristics, but targeting decides each segment’s attractiveness. Based on that, the ideal target market segment is determined.?

Targeting can be done in three ways: undifferentiated, differentiated, and niche marketing. Undifferentiated targeting tries to focus on the market and promote products with a wide target segment. Differentiated and niche marketing are more specialized and focus on smaller, more selective segments.?

What is Positioning??

Positioning is the last step of the STP model. The purpose of positioning is to place your brand before the targeted segment in order to gain a competitive advantage. It focuses on how your clients ultimately view your products or services compared to your competitors, and finds a way for your firm to gain a competitive advantage in the market.?

Positioning can be done in three ways: functional, symbolic, and experiential. Functional positioning focuses on the characteristics of the product or services to stand out, symbolic positioning looks at the characteristics of the brand, and experiential positioning focuses on using the characteristics of the brands to stimulate the sensory or emotional connection with the clients.

How Do You Create an STP Model for Your B2B Business????

You can create an STP model for your B2B business using Company Expert’s B2B playbook. This playbook provides the framework for carrying out market segmentation, targeting, and positioning for your professional services firm. Market segmentation helps your B2B professional services firm? scale your business, as you are not trying to be all things to all people. Instead, it makes you focus on the essential aspects of your business.

Knowing and focusing on your target market is critical to growing your B2B services firm because it aligns closely with your clients’ needs and challenges.?

The targeted business playbook framework includes a 3-step approach. First, it will walk you through carrying out market segmentation, market targeting, and market positioning. This process will improve your retention rate because your clients align with your value proposition, and keep your promotional efforts, marketing, and sales staff focused on the prospects most receptive to your offerings.