Services
Segments can be used to inform a variety of B2B sales and marketing activity, including (but not limited to):
Adience is an expert in developing business-to-business (B2B) customer segmentations and personas. Through a program of research we will:
Identify the different segments in your market (whether behavioural, attitudinal or needs-based)
Size each segment
Value each segment
Reveal the ideal proposition and positioning for each segment
Communicate the segmentation model in an engaging way
Embed the model into your systems and processes, so that it is actually used
Over the last decade, the team behind Adience has developed segmentation and persona models for dozens of B2B brands from start-ups to SMBs to enterprises. Based on this experience, we’ve developed an approach to B2B market segmentation which has three guiding principles.
Flexibility is key.
There are a lot of unknowns going into any buyer segmentation/persona project, and the best outcomes come when the research approach is flexible enough to adapt if our understanding of the market changes. This means we don’t have a standardized product – the questions we ask, and the approach we adopt, are specifically tailored to our clients’ needs.
Throughout the project we need to get the right balance of ‘art’ and ‘science’.
Most customer persona/segmentation models are based on some mix of:
Too much ‘art’ can mean that the segmentation isn’t based on tangible evidence, and falls apart under scrutiny. Too much ‘science’ can often lead to us developing a segmentation that is statistically optimal but not very pragmatic because internal stakeholders can’t recognize the segments among their customers.
The key is finding the right balance between the two for each project. Our approach is designed to be flexible enough so that we can pick the right mix of ‘art’ and ‘science’ as we progress.
We recognize that segmentation is as much about change management as about research.
Market segmentation isn’t an academic exercise – once developed, buyer segments or personas need to be used. The biggest challenge is changing how colleagues view the customer. As such, great care needs to be taken to get their buy-in to a new approach. There are two critical steps in doing so: