The Intimidation of Segmentation

First of all, as we enter the discussion about population segmentation, I have to share that it reminds me of the famous blunder made by Chevrolet in the 70's when attempting to market the "Nova" in Mexico. Who wants a car whose name means "it doesn't go" in Spanish? It seems that simple formative research and segmentation could have prevented such an oversight.

Given the readings and our class lecture, the fact is clear that it is truly important to consider segmentation when identifying the target audience for campaign messages. However, I have to be perfectly honest that the idea of conducting segmentation is an intimidating venture to attempt - especially in regards to our group's particular class project regarding HIV/STI prevention.

Initially, we thought to focus our attention on the priori group of African-American women specifically because the research notes that this group makes up one of the fastest growing segments of the population of new cases of HIV/STIs. Developing campaign materials to target African-American women specifically seemed like the most effective place to start in order to put an end to this growing trend.

While we continued to mull over the details unique to this segment of the target population and speculated how to effectively communicate the proposed health message, we quickly realized that this was a daunting task. After all, none of us on the team personally belongs to this priori group. Furthermore, none of us has direct access to a representative sample of members from this group for information. I cannot speak for the other members of our team, but I recognize within myself an overwhelming sense of incompetence and inadequacy when it comes to this challenge of segmentation. Without personal access to the population for formative research and accurate research, how can I possibly learn about the specific needs, values, and interests of this segmented population in order to develop effective and far-reaching health campaign messages? Where do we begin to identify a source for a representative sample? How do we develop culturally-appropriate campaigns that engage the specific members respond to the message with action.

As a result, our project group decided to go with a practical option and identify a more generalized age group to target instead - much like other researchers have done in the past (I'm sure). I am interested to learn more about how to begin the process of segmentation when the starting point for a particular segment is not obvious.