Behavioral segmentation: what it is, characteristics, types and functions

A summary of what is behavioral segmentation, a set of strategies used in marketing.

Companies do not simply offer their products and services. First of all, they carry out an important market research, finding out what their customers want, what their needs are, what they want, what they want?

But not all customers are the same. What one is interested in may not necessarily interest another at all. People have different personalities, and this also manifests itself in our behavior as consumers.

But despite being different, there is always some trait that helps us to group ourselves according to our interests with respect to a group or service, and companies take this very much into account by applying the strategy of behavioral segmentation. Let's see what it is and what parameters can be taken into account when applying it.

What is behavioral segmentation?

Behavioral segmentation is a marketing technique that aims at to group the consumers based on some of its characteristics that it serves to the companies to be able to offer its services and to be able to offer their services and products in a more personal way. When this is achieved, the chances of capturing the attention of customers increase, so that they purchase the product/service offered and, in addition, they will do it again in the future, becoming a regular customer.

This technique is usually carried out by market researchers, who are responsible for observing aspects such as readiness to buy, the customer's knowledge of the product or service, the level of loyalty, interactions with the brand, the use given to the product once acquired...

This process This process may involve several phases in which the behavior of both regular and sporadic customers is observed, studied and analyzed, in an attempt to predict the future behavior of the product or service.This process may involve several phases in which the behavior of both regular and sporadic customers is observed, studied and analyzed in an attempt to predict the behavior of future consumers. In this way, the company is better prepared and can know a little better what to expect by knowing what customers' wants and needs are. As consumer behavior can change for any reason, behavioral segmentation is a process that is constantly applied.

Any company that knows the purchasing, consumption and usage habits of its regular customers can extract very useful information to achieve customer loyalty, that is, to make them have such a positive experience with that brand that they choose to continue using it. For this reason, in a world as competitive as that of large companies, it is necessary to know what characteristics the target audience has and what to do to capture their attention.

What does it imply in Psychology?

There are several aspects that characterize behavioral segmentation. One of them is that companies use this method in order to focus their efforts on the right audience. focus their efforts on the right audience, i.e., those potential real consumers. based on the buying behavior of customers who have already used your services and products, as well as taking into consideration their interests.

Behavioral segmentation allows you to identify similar behaviors among different consumers, making it easier to group them together and offer them more personalized products and services.This makes it easier to group them together and offer them more personalized products and services, but not in such a personalized way that it involves investing too much time and money in coming up with new options to offer. The idea is to offer products that are interesting for a Wide range of people and, if other people like another one, to present them with an offer that is suitable for them.

As people are grouped according to different parameters, this makes it possible to group people with similar interests and behavioral patterns into the same group, so that advertisements and product offers reach them. By knowing what the largest group or groups of people interested in a given product or service are like and what they are, makes it much easier to make business decisions, designing products and advertising services more in line with what consumers really want..

In order to predict the behavior of future customers, behavioral segmentation is based on the attitudinal history of your customers, both regular and sporadic. Based on the information they obtain from them, they can identify and influence future purchasing decisions.

Types of behavioral segmentation

As we have already mentioned, the main objective of behavioral segmentation is to group consumers based on their characteristics in order to offer a service or product in a more personal way, making it more likely to capture their attention, to get them to buy the product/service offered and, moreover, to do it again in the future, becoming a regular customer.

Behavioral segmentation varies depending on what is being observed at the time the market research is being conducted. Below we will look at a few types of segmentation based on different parameters taken into consideration:

1. Value-seeking

This type of segmentation focuses on how the customer researches the productThis type of segmentation focuses on how the customer researches the product, identifying aspects such as price, features and durability and what motivates him to buy it.

2. Use of products

The use of products or services is another form of behavioral segmentation, in which the frequency with which a customer buys or consumes a product or service is taken into account. frequency with which a customer buys or consumes that which the company is interested in that which the company is interested in offering.

Seasons and events

Consumption is not the same or stable throughout the 365 days of the year.. Key dates and seasons such as Christmas, summer vacations, the start of school and others are times when consumer behavior spikes in the consumption of all kinds of items.

There are other dates that are special for certain groups, such as LGTBI+, evidenced in the month of pride and how brands take advantage of their symbols. Also included are those of a personal nature, such as birthdays or anniversaries.

4. Loyalty level

Based on the data that can be extracted from customer behavior, customers can be segmented according to their level of loyalty. This allows the organization to identify its most loyal customers, understand what has kept them using your brand, understand what their needs are, and plan strategies to ensure that they continue to use your brand. and plan strategies to ensure that they remain interested in your products and services in the future.

5. Personal Interests

It is essential to take into account the personal interests of customers in order to provide individualized options. This type of behavioral segmentation also takes into account the professional interests of each customer.

Advantages and disadvantages of behavioral targeting

This technique has several benefits for all companies, although it also has certain disadvantages.

Advantages

The main and most important advantage of behavioral segmentation is that it allows organizations to find customers with similar buying habits and behaviors. it allows organizations to find customers with similar buying habits and behaviors, which makes it easier to reach them and offer them products and services.. It also allows companies to know what consumers' needs are, which will be used as a criterion to modify and update the products and services offered.

By knowing what customers want, you can offer them more personalized products and, therefore, increase the interest of your customers, both old and new. This makes it easier to build brand loyalty among your most affinity customers.

Disadvantages

But although it has several disadvantages, it is worth mentioning that behavioral segmentation has several drawbacks.

The most notable is that consumers are still people and, as such, are free to change their behavior, making it very difficult to predict with any certainty what their desires and interests will be in the future.It is therefore very difficult to predict with any certainty what their desires and interests will be in the medium and long term. This can lead to the problem of a whole marketing strategy being ruined by the simple fact that potential target customers change their tastes and interests.

Thus, this technique can only provide a frame of reference based on the personality and behavior of a particular set of people, but it is no guarantee that it will fully predict the personality of other seemingly similar groups.