Marketing segmentation or "Customer segmentation" consists in dividing a market into homogeneous and coherent submarkets, called "segments".

It is part of a process of knowledge of the Customer by Data, but beware of the new rules of the RGPD!

The Grail of every marketer : "It is important to remember that the right message (or the right offer, product or service) should be sent to the right person, at the right time and via the right channel. 

Segment a customer base is to divide it according to criteria:

1. socio-demographic age, gender, life cycle, place of residence...
2. psycho graphics : activities, opinions, interests...
3. behavioral: relevance to a given market (beauty products), level of IT usage, buyer's perceptions, beliefs and values, buying behaviour (loyalty), focus on innovation.

Beyond the strict differences between the sexes and where each life cycle changes purchasing priorities. "The arrival of children upsets purchasing priorities. It leads to a redeployment of purchasing power towards spending on clothing, care, education and leisure for children. These purchases are most often made by mothers.

How to segment your customer base :

Algorithms (Google), cookies do it very well by themselves, the smart-data will allow it even more finely tomorrow, but we cannot always resort to it in a daily conversation, and then trade has always been, is still and will be for a long time to come a relationship between man and man, so to simplify: how to find the argument that will convince, that is acquired with time.

The classic approaches are the segmentations:

1. PMG which will classify individuals into 3 to 5 groups according to the turnover they generate over a period (PMG);
2. RFM : on recency (the time elapsed since a customer's last purchase and the frequency of these purchases (RFM).

Subjective dataThis data is sometimes difficult to obtain, whether it is behavioural or taste-related. The best way to collect this kind of data is to use customer surveys on the principle of the Smart Survey.

Business versus marketing

For the general public, marketing is often associated with manipulation, intrusive advertising, promotions or worse, with "lobbying".

The current digital transformation is changing organizations in depth and is creating the opportunity to finally establish closer collaboration between teams, a source of new efficiency for all, towards the same common goal: SELL!

After mass marketing, that of "30 glorious years" (1945 - 1975) came that of the "thirty heckles" (1975 - 2005), to arrive since 2005 at the individualized marketing the This is the "one to one", the "marketing of intimacy" with the Internet and social networks. Long live the marketing of the individual because we are all individuals with our egos!

Customers are tired of the so-called "marketing" speeches that are only promotional. With an accelerated deployment of information, it is in the message relevance that will make the marketing and sales teams more effective. This requires the development of high value-added content: that helps customers understand their difficulties, and inform their choices, and constitutes real sources of credibility and confidence in the sales pitch:

To establish effective collaboration between marketing and trade : 

1. stop judging marketing performance on the number of leads. Generating contacts that are not handled by sales people is a useless action, "underperforming", sources of demotivation for marketing teams.
2. set up a content approach focused on value creation. This means conceiving of content production as the project that enables market understanding and the creation of customer-specific solutions;
3. test the approach by combining marketing and sales.

A true collaboration between the two teams ensures the definition of processes that are truly relevant to both, it also guarantees the success projects, which become generators of increased performance in both marketing and sales.

Some new marketing trends:

Today, the "new" consumers no longer passively receive the advertising or promotional arguments of brands. Their expectations have become more assertive, they are often able to decipher the communication techniques used, they analyse, they reflect, they criticise, they become less predictable.

The objective is to attract consumers to its brand and create a buzz that eventually will promote sharing among users.

The economic crisis, ecological aspirations annihilate repeated messages based solely on product benefits.

Print media will lose more and more importance in advertising in favour of the Internet and mobile to produce more content, most of it produced in-house...

Cross-channel or omni-channel

"The connected retail experience"

Cross marketing channel uses several channels (physical and/or virtual) simultaneously or in parallel. A cross-channel strategy is the logical continuation of a multi-channel strategy. The objective of a cross-channel + multi-channel strategy is to achieve the most synergistic combination possible to promote an offer.

A cross-channel strategy uses webmarketing levers to develop sales on all distribution channels - particularly in stores.

Cross-channel improves perceived quality and the customer satisfactionif this "consumer" perceives a complementarity of the different channels, making it easier for them to search and buy.

Cross-channel marketing to make "web to store or the "click and collect in the example of the club Nespresso where the Customer benefits from a privileged Customer status, which allows for example:

1. to discover products on the web ;
2. to see the available stocks at local distributors;
3. to try or touch in the shop;
4. to buy finally via one or other of the complementary distribution channels. Or to be delivered to the nearest store;
5. to complete your purchase or get options, in-store, through a connected kiosk or tablets.

If the customer does not find in store the product or size, he is invited to order online to pick it up later or have it delivered. At LDLC computer equipment, if the number of products displayed in the store is limited compared to the 23,000 references on the site, the customer can pick up his or her order in the store and obtain advice or call on the after-sales service. The shop thus capitalizes on Internet sales.

Well-targeted e-mailsThis is why we have decided to develop a more individualized approach, which can stimulate the development of cross-channel.

1. 81 % of consumers prepare their purchases online ;
2. a customer generates between 2 and 3 times more turnover if he is cross-channel;
3. the shop turnover increases to 50 % ;
4. from 25 % to 50 % of web customers prefer to be delivered to a shop.

The consumer can start taking orders on a touch tablet, in the living room or in the kitchen, continue it on the bus on your Smartphone and finish it on your PC or at the office!

"Cross-channel is becoming the pivotal point for the continuity of the customer experience. If not, the consumer risks dropping out and going to the competition. We should unify communication channels with contact centers."

The term Cross channel requires the use of combined and simultaneous multiple channels for a single purchase I choose on the Internet and I go to the store

Omni-channel means the use of simultaneous from two different channels: the tablet in front of the TV or in a shop.

A strategy multi-channel consists in using several distribution channels - physical or virtual - in parallel, Internet, SMS, mailing, catalogue..., but also free referencing on Google, Google Adwords... in order to recruit new Customers, to sell and to develop their loyalty. All while mobilizing a close relationship with this Customer. - Cdiscount in 2011 -.

Since 2012is dedicated e-commerce to B to BThis is becoming one of the main levers of control for this new sales method.

The trade "cross-device concerns the behaviour of the consumer who alternately switches from one device ("device") to another: Smartphone, computer, tablet.

We also talk about :

1. cross-device shopping journey;
2. from conversion / cross-device transaction;
3. exhibition and  cross-device reconciliation;
4. d'cross-device attribution;
5. from cross-device retargeting;
6. from cross-device capping.

Four new applications complementary to cross-channel :

1. mobile self-scanning which speeds up the in-store experience - customers can start shopping through the aisles and scan each product with a QR Code directly, and proceed to a dedicated priority checkout;
2. social networks enter the store with RFID - the consumer connects to a terminal in the store, to his account and shares his selection of articles with his circle of friends using his loyalty card;
3. NFC technology on sales platforms - an NFC tag refers to an application to take advantage of the promotional offer or to read the access map of a shopping center;
4. the spot-in mallTo generate traffic and animate shopping centers, a solution for sending offers and notifications on mobile phones;

Benchmarking "The way to be the best of the best

In the early 1980s,  the company Xerox developed  Benchmarking when making a decision on a major investment to modernize the inventory management.

Benchmarking : "Staking out progress" is composed of 2 words: bench and marking

" Benchmark " refers to any comparative analysis. The term is also used as "Testbed".

Benchmarking or "competitive benchmarking"is to study and analyse the management techniques and organisational methods of other companies in order to to get the best out of it and to be inspired by them. (Price, deadlines, quality, productivity...).

This is a matter of compare themselves to "leaders", from draw inspiration from their ideas, practices, operations and experiences in order to practice them for oneself. The goal is to determine the criteria on which improvement work is necessary to reach the optimum (by identifying the (e.g., "best practices").

"It is not enough to copy on your neighbour, but to copy only on the best students"

In-houseon Benchmarking is to find the subsidiary or branch office worldwide that performs the most effective way of most efficientThe aim of the project is to develop a process or a task, to benchmark it and then to adapt these processes to all entities.

For the company, it is in fact a matter of setting progress objectives by identifying the "best practices" of the market.

Four types of Benchmarking : 

1. Internal Benchmarking Benchmarking: Comparing one's operations to other similar operations within the organization. This type of Benchmarking does not lead to very innovative practices. Internal Benchmarking will result in an improvement of about 10% in performance.
   2. Competitive Benchmarking The most difficult part is to get information. It will result in about 20% improvement in performance.
   3. Functional Benchmarking Compare similar actions, in non-competing companies, within the same industry. It will lead to a performance improvement of up to 35% or more.
   4. Generic or strategic benchmarking Compare its working methods and strategy with those of an organization in a different sector.

In practice, functional and generic approaches are the easiest to implement, as competition is not an issue. They are potentially richer to exploit. Performance improvements can also be as high as 35% or more.

Making contact with the "partner" or competitor company is most often done by one of the following methods:

1. Questionnaire by mail ;
2. Telephone interview with officials ;
3. Visit to the competitor's or partner's site

A well conducted Benchmarking should lead to a mutually beneficial information sharing.