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Customer Comes First: Why Your Business Needs a Customer Segmentation

Customer Comes First: Why Your Business Needs a Customer Segmentation

What are their needs? What will get them over the line to make their purchase? These are the questions you need to be asking to create your customer segmentation that will influence your product and marketing strategies.

Any brand hoping to find long-lasting success needs to get into the mind of its target consumer. A business needs to employ some psychology skills and think like their customer: what are their needs? What are their desires? What will get them over the line to make their purchase? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you to tailor both your brand and product to the customer’s requirements and secure those all-important sales. 

 

But, of course, no two customers are exactly the same. What is one man’s trash is another man’s gold after all, and aspects of your business that appeal to one customer type might not attract another. Creating a customer segmentation before any branding or product design will help you immensely to visualise and strategize your business model for a better chance of success and reduce production costs. 

WHAT IS A CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION?

Customer segmentation is the process of dividing a broad customer base into distinct subgroups of consumers who share similar characteristics. They are often split into specific demographics such as age, gender, income, marital status, location or behaviours. Sub-categorising your target demographic allows you to fine-tune your marketing strategy and product design to meet specific customer requirements as well as determine your brand’s positioning, messaging and values.

For example, your initial business idea may be a lingerie brand that focuses on sustainability aimed at women. Targeting just women as a demographic as a whole, in general, will not yield as many sales as possible because your marketing strategy will come across as too vague, generalising and disingenuous. Data indicates that younger generations are more likely to purchase from sustainable brands but they may not have the income to buy high-value products that require cutting-edge sustainable technologies to produce. Using this information, you can adjust your price point, product design and marketing strategy to specifically target those key customers that are more likely to buy from your brand without marginalising other potential customer types.

WHY DO I NEED CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION?

Having a customer segmentation before production begins is beneficial to ensure you make enough sales to get your brand off the ground, but it is also a valuable document to refer back to as your business evolves and expands. When launching a new category or collection, it is important to think about your target customers and adjust your segmentation according to what you’re selling as well as ever-changing trends and socio-economic conditions. 

 

Your business will also benefit more when you consider your target market as human beings who also grow and evolve themselves. If your business began in the 1990s and focused on youth culture, in 2023 these consumers will most likely now be in their 30s and 40s, perhaps settling down and starting their own families. Their priorities and spending habits will have drastically changed as well as their product needs. When considering your business model you need to think about if you want your brand to evolve with its consumer base, adapting its messaging and positioning to match the milestones in their own lives, or if you want to continue focusing on targeting youth culture, then you need to ensure you are keeping up to date with current trends as each new generation arises. 

 

Want to keep up to date on all the latest trends? Check out our new Trends Blog section, where we highlight key trends within the world of lingerie, swimwear and activewear every month.

HOW DO I SEGMENT MY CUSTOMERS?

To begin your customer segmentation analysis, you should first look at market data in your wider industry, for example, swimwear. Who is buying swimwear, when are they buying and what are they buying it for? Next, you need to think about what you want to sell, its USP (Unique Selling Point) and what type of customer you want to attract. If your business wants to sell multifunctional luxury swimwear that can be worn at the beach, a pool party or brunch on a yacht you should consider what types of customers would be at those events and locations. Of course, there will be multiple different types of people in these situations which is when you begin to segment and look at what similarities or differences tie these certain customers together. Who are they? What do they do for work? What do they look for when buying swimwear? The answers to these questions will vary from each customer type, for example, young travel influencers will have different desires and budgets to wealthy and glamorous mothers, but finding common ground, like a desire for quality garment construction with unique design elements, will help you create brand messaging and product design that specifically seeks to answer all your customer type’s needs, thus resulting in higher sales and stronger customer loyalty. 

Still not sure where to begin with your customer segmentation? Get in touch with our team to discuss how we can with business consultation or entrepreneurial mentorship

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Our family has expanded to include a two new companies. Head to HYSCULPT for all your marketing needs and get to know Bodywear Lab for design and production support!