Bain & Company once found that 81% of executives said segmentation was very or extremely important to growth — while only 14% said it was actually delivering value. That gap is the whole problem. Segmentation and targeting are used interchangeably, done as creative writing rather than numeric discipline, and confused for one another. Getting them straight is where strategy stops being a deck and starts growing a brand.
So let's be precise, the way Module 4 of the programme is. Segmentation is dividing a market into measurable, addressable, profitable groups — the idea Wendell Smith formalised back in 1956. It is a quantified, evidence-led exercise, not a workshop that produces names like "Wellness Warriors of the New Suburb." Targeting is the decision that comes next: which of those groups you will serve — and, by definition, which you will not. Segmentation maps. Targeting chooses.
This is the belief-shift the module is built around, and two brands prove it better than any framework.
Snickers was flat in a saturated category, perceived as a kid-friendly candy despite being a dense, high-calorie bar better suited to hungry adults. In 2010, BBDO redefined the target away from "all chocolate-bar buyers" to the hungry adult — explicitly excluding the kids-occasion and general-indulgence segments — and launched "You're Not You When You're Hungry," fronted by Betty White, aimed at football, gaming and late-night occasions. Mars reported global Snickers sales grew double digits within 18 months; the campaign took a Grand Effie in 2013 and ran in 80+ markets. Choosing not to compete for kids freed Snickers to own the largest underserved segment in chocolate: adult hunger.
Cadbury Dairy Milk in India made the same move a decade earlier. Seen as a children's chocolate, with the far larger adult and post-meal occasion owned by traditional mithai, Cadbury chose to exit the kids-treat target and go after the whole household at the "something sweet after the meal" moment. Ogilvy's 1998 "Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye" campaign wrote the brand into the cultural script for celebration. Cadbury's share of the Indian chocolate market rose from roughly 50% in 1995 to around 70% by 2010 — and the category itself grew about five times in volume over the period. A single targeting decision opened a market five times larger than the one being fought over.
Targeting is not about who you can reach. It is about who you are willing to give up. A target of everyone is a target of no one.
This is Module 4 of the programme
Segmentation & Targeting opens the "How to Win" bucket. Start with Module 1, free, and see how the course turns strategy into decisions.
Once you accept that targeting is choice, the question becomes which targeting strategy fits your situation. The module works through four, each with a real brand:
- Undifferentiated (mass) — Tata Salt targets the entire Indian household, "Desh ka Namak," holding 28%+ share, around ten times its nearest branded rival.
- Differentiated — Nike treats running, basketball, women's training, kids' sport and Jordan as separate sub-brands, with separate products, athletes and communication.
- Concentrated (niche) — Pocari Sweat owns the "ion supply / dehydrated body" need-state and refuses to broaden into general soft drinks — around US$1.5bn in Indonesia revenue alone by 2022.
- Micro-marketing — Coca-Cola's "Share a Coke" personalised bottles with the most common names per market, lifting Australian volume 7% in its launch year, the first volume growth in over a decade.
Two failures in the module make the guardrails concrete. Colgate Kitchen Entrees (1982) — frozen meals under a toothpaste brand — failed because consumers couldn't separate the brand cue from the food: a brand-fit failure. Iridium (1998) — US$5bn of satellite phones for globally mobile professionals — failed because the phones were brick-sized, didn't work indoors and cost US$3,000 with US$7-a-minute calls: the targeted segment couldn't actually use the product where they worked. An accessibility failure. A segment you can name but cannot serve is not a target.
The module's practical test is blunt: can you state the size of your brand's target audience in numbers right now — population, addressable size, current penetration, average annual purchase — with no adjectives? Most marketers can produce labels but not a number. And remember what Ehrenberg-Bass repertoire research shows: your buyers are not exclusive to you; they buy two to four brands in most categories. Your buyer is also your competitor's buyer. That reality should discipline how narrowly you target and how broadly you stay available.
Then, and only then, you write the person down — not a pseudo-scientific persona or a generation label, but a defensible buyer using the 7Ws + How format. Segment with numbers. Target by choosing. Describe with evidence. That sequence is the difference between segmentation that sits in a deck and segmentation that grows the brand.
Learn to choose who not to serve
Module 4, Segmentation & Targeting, is part of the full CPD UK Accredited certification. Start with Module 1 free.
Sources drawn from Module 4 of the Certified Strategic Marketer®: Bain & Company, Segmentation Done Right; Smith (1956), Journal of Marketing; Snickers case (Effie Worldwide; Mars); Cadbury Dairy Milk India (Mondelez / Nielsen India); Tata, Nike, Pocari Sweat and Coca-Cola targeting cases; Colgate and Iridium via Haig, Brand Failures and Finkelstein, Why Smart Executives Fail; Sharp & Romaniuk, Ehrenberg-Bass, on buyer repertoires.
