3 Ways Audience Segmentation Helps Your Product
Sometimes ago, I fell sick and lost my voice in the process. It was so bad that I struggled to communicate with the people around me. I resorted to sign language on a few occasions because it was difficult to voice out. This got me wondering how people who can’t talk, struggle with communication amongst other things.
Probably because I’m used to talking, I found it problematic that I couldn’t communicate the way I was used to. Every now and then I’d wish I could scream as everyone around did, but I couldn’t, aside from putting so much pressure on my vocals, I may break down in tears, because how do you explain that you’re experiencing difficulty in something you do easily?
I lost count of how many “are you sleeping” questions I had to respond to because my voice was suddenly thick and coarse and my words were coming out as whispers or as nothing at all. Meanwhile, in real life, except I wanted it to be obvious, you won’t be able to tell if I’m just waking up or if I’ve been active the entire day because my voice is on the pitched part.
Now imagine how people who have been stuck with this for their entire life or any other disability. They get reminders of their disabilities everywhere they go. Even when they’ve moved past it, they still get stares from people.
They want to use a product, then they realize that they were not included in the production or development process of the product. Now, I’m not asking that you should build for everybody which is even impossible, but you can build for the various variations of your target audience.
My case study will be Maryland cookies, the first time I took a bite, I was dissatisfied with the chocolate chips, I felt it was too much so I was not a fan.
Some months after, I stepped out to get this same Maryland cookie with the aim to eat a few pieces of the cookies and keep the remaining for later. Ladies and gentlemen, I finished the entire cookies within hours. What happened?
Apparently, Maryland cookies have different flavours that I wasn’t aware of. When I got to the store that day, the colour of the wrap attracted me, I checked the details on the wrap and it seem convincing. True to the label, it had lesser chocolate chunks, and coconut bits with a creamy taste. I enjoyed it and eventually became a Maryland Cookies Fan.
What the brand did was to create and design their cookies to meet the needs of the segment of their audience who loves chocolate chunks, and those who don’t love it. With this simple strategy, they were able to
- Meet the needs of their target audience
- Increase reach for the brand
- Make more profit
Just imagine if they decided to stick to the one variation with many chocolate chunks, they would have lost thousands of me, as well as many others who would have bought the cookies just from reading this anywhere.
If you want to successfully optimize your product, ensure you don’t restrict your target audience, build for different variations of your audience.
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