SEGMENTATION — CHOICE & TOO MUCH CHOICE.
Choice by definition is an opportunity to select or make decisions in the face of many attainable possibilities. Can segmentation and creation of choices hurt a brand? Yes, it can -when the choices are too much. There is such thing as choice overload or over choice -In the marketing parlance, this can be described as the flooding of the market with too many products, the process of making a decision and choosing could be exhausting and tiring.
As Barry Schwartz said, Autonomy and Freedom of choice are critical to our well being, and choice is critical to freedom and autonomy. Nonetheless, though modern Americans have more choice than any group of people ever has before, and thus, presumably, more freedom and autonomy, we don’t seem to be benefiting from it psychologically.”
Brand’s main reason for creating segments in their business should be to enable them to focus on a select group and be able to deliver products and services that cater to their needs. As Godin said in one of his blog posts, brands that matter are voices that choose to matter, voices that make assertions on behalf of their users, who market with people, and for them, not to them or at them.
A perfect example of a brand that ruined itself by overloading customers with choice is the blackberry. Blackberry might have segmented its brand, but it still failed to create products that satisfy its customers because they failed to identify who their target market is. Brands like google and apple use data- mining and an effective mobile ecosystem to propel their brand which allows them to identify their target market and also create targeted ads for them. Blackberry failed to do this hence it lost key consumers and failed to attract potential ones.
Blackberry had the corporate world on lockdown and still managed to lose them without strong competition -because all they did was overload them with so many products that were not creating an exciting experience of a worthwhile brand to the customer journey to look forward to.
The blackberry playbook for instance came out without email accessibility. This product probably made blackberry lose so many business execs to apple as it passes a subtle message that blackberry does not put their needs in perspective when new models of devices are being designed.
So creating an opportunity for customers to choose should not lead to an overchoice as this might make a brand lose relevance as it was in the case of blackberry.
