The criteria necessary for a market segment reveals what you need to know about your target market in order to develop a successful marketing campaign.

To be successful your marketing must target the people most likely to buy your products or services. These people are your target market.

You need to know who your best potential customers are and the market segments that they belong to. This knowledge enhances your ability to use marketing methods and messages that appeal to your potential customers.

Wikipedia lists five criteria necessary for a market segment:

First Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: Homogeneity Within The Market Segment

Second Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: Differences Between People In The Market Segment And Other People

Third Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: A Measurable And Identifiable Market Segment

Fourth Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: An Accessible And Actionable Market Segment

Fifth Criteria Necessary For A Market Segments: The Numbers of People In The Segment Are Enough To Render A Profit

You need to understand all the criteria necessary for a market segment in order to market effectively. This article explains the first two of these criteria. The remaining three are explained on my blog linked in the resource box.

First Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: Homogeneity Within The Market Segment

Homogeneity refers to a sameness or similarity of members within a market segment.

For example, generations comprise market segments. Baby Boomers have certain characteristics in common. Generation Xers have certain characteristics in common, but Xers characteristics differ from Boomers’. Marketing to a Boomer the same way that you market to a Generation Xer will fail.

The best market segments are the ones in which people share many of the same characteristics.

The more alike the people in a market segment are, the easier it is to target them with the same product or service. The more they have in common, the easier it is to select appeals and language to market across the segment.

Second Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: Differences Between People In The Market Segment And Other People

For a market segment to exist, the people in the segment have to be different from everybody else in some identifiable ways.

If the people in the market segment are not substantially different from everybody else, you have:

No differences in the target market and the overall market,

No reason to develop a marketing campaign for the target market, and

No rationale for creating a marketing program.

When people in a market segment differ substantially from people not in that segment, it’s easier to target those people. Thus, differences between segments is a major criteria necessary for a market segment.

Thus, each market segment requires different marketing strategies and tactics than others in the mass market.

Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: Summary With More Access

By identifying a market segment in which people share many characteristics that differ from the mass market, you will improve your marketing

Still you need to assure that you can determine how many people are in the segment and if there are enough of them for a good return on your marketing investment. You also should know that they will take actions like joining your list or buying your product.