Segmentation comes from the customer behavior analysis. It consists in the distinction
of the market into different subsets of customers. Each of these subsets can be chosen as
target. Segmentation aims at satisfying unsatisfied needs.
From marketing’s point of view, a market regroups all potential consumers, which have
heterogeneous behaviors. The size, the resources, their geographic position, their
expectations and attitudes vary among subsets. Each of these variables can imply a
different response of the firm.
In theory, the maximal number of segments is the number of customers in the market,
which is unrealistic to put in practice. We are going to analyze some segmentation
criteria.