Is The Current Customer
Segmentation Model Outdated?

New Study Suggests Customer Segmentation May Be Outdated.

A new report has claimed that 61% of marketers in the UK think customer segmentation, the characterisation of customers based on shared traits, is outdated.

That’s according to new research from enterprise customer data platform, Treasure Data. This is 

despite almost all (96%) marketers in the UK still using segmentation within their organizations.

The findings, which surveyed 500 UK marketers, found that whilst 86% of respondents update their customer segmentations at least every two years, well over half (56%) still struggle to target their audiences effectively.

73% of the marketers surveyed say they now find it difficult to put customers into one group due to the fast pace of change in customer habits.

Affiliate Flash’s Take:

The narrative in the affiliate industry over the last few years has been geared towards personalization. The presumption has been that as we gain more data and insight into customers behaviors and habits, it will be easier to label and group them.

This is still true of course, the more detailed knowledge you have about your demographic, the easier it is to market to them, and although the pandemic brought a boom in Ecommerce, these figures suggest that more traditional segmentation being used by marketers may not be able to keep up with customers fast changing habits and behaviors.

The study suggests that ‘situationships’ are a more accurate way of classifying customers as opposed to segmentation through age, gender, etc.

Two examples of these situationships are ‘Shape Shopper’, someone who values online reviews on trustworthy products, and 'Family First’, someone who values family related products.

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