Description

1. Identify a potential segment for your event. Most likely this is a customer segment, but it could also be another stakeholder, such as potential vendors, sponsors or partners, as we will need to market to them as well. Probably best to focus on customers if you are not advanced in your event planning stage. 

2. Create a general demographic profile, as appropriate. You may have more than one, but we will focus on your BEST customer. 

3. Support your demographic information with research. Be sure to cite all of your sources, and use reliable information. You can find data such as average income on: Statistics Canada stats can 2016 and other demographic info from specific community sites. These will be good places to start at a minimum, but you should include other sources as well. http://www.investnanaimo.com/ for example. Not only can you determine average income and education levels, but here you will also see population numbers within many categories. These will help you later with your MASA test (see #6) 

4. Next consider the psychographic segmentation: social class lifestyle, or personality that can further define your segment. Not all 50 year olds are exactly the same, just as not all 25 year olds have the same interests. Define your consumers by their common interests. For some, food and wine is part of their lifestyle, others it is sports or the arts. 

5. We also consider types of Behavioural Segmentation such as benefits sought, occasion or usage rate. For example, someone who purchases an all access pass (no matter how old they are or what job they have) will seek different benefits than someone who wants to attend just one piece of your event (a single performance or a networking event). We use all of these to create a profile that describes our consumers using multiple segmentation bases. Find sources (studies, business articles) that support your segment with data that connect with their behaviour. 

6. Finally, we use the information gathered above to test to see if our segment is viable, meaning is this segment worth investing time and money to market to them. We use a test called MASA: Measurable, Accessible, Substantial & Actionable. We use our research to confirm this. The statistics from Stats-Can will give you the size of certain populations and their average earnings (demographics). Looking up sites for clubs or relevant social groups can allow you to see the size and activity of a particular psychographic group. This will help determine if they are measurable and substantial. Accessible means, can we reach just that target or are they mixed in with others so that our marketing won’t be targeted? If there is a Facebook group, we can reach them there. If all we have is an article that says interest in the arts is growing we will have to find a place to reach that audience. Actionable determines whether we have the resources and a suitable mix of benefits to entice them. Explain how each of the 4 determinants are evidenced to support your pursuit of the segment.