The IABC Handbook of Organizational Communication: A Guide to Internal Communication, Public Relations, Marketing, and Leadership

Segmentation Is the Key to Thinking Like a Customer

Looking at the world through the eyes of the customer is not easy. Segmenting audiences into primary, secondary, and tertiary categories helps professional communicators stay organized. How clusters are organized and labeled will vary by organization. Some organizations cluster their audiences by demographics, psychographics, purchase price, revenue generated, or some other identifier that is important to the company. If an organization already has customer groups identified, then the following information can be used as an auditing tool. If an organization has never gathered customer information, then start with demographics of the people the organization wants to reach. Determine the ages, ...