STP Marketing: The Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning Model (Everything You Need To Know)

There are so many different and unique approaches to marketing, so many that it can be very easy to find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer number of options.

One of the many popular marketing models that is used widely across the world is that of STP marketing. But what exactly is STP marketing?

STP Marketing: The Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning Model (Everything You Need To Know)

How does it work? Is it difficult? How do you get started with it?

Are you finding yourself interested by the prospect of getting involved with STP marketing, but finding yourself also hesitant to get started with it?

Well, prepare to learn all you need to know in order to get started by reading down below!

We’ve done the difficult part of all of the research, so you can easily find out what you need!

What Is STP Marketing?

STP marketing is an abbreviation used to refer to a marketing model that involves “Segmentation”, “Targeting”, and “Positioning”.

The model is focused on identifying the most valuable markets for a specific business, and then developing marketing strategies specifically catered toward them.

Step 1 – Segmentation

The first step of the STP model is ‘Segmentation’. This involves taking a look at the market and identifying specific segments that you should target.

Groups are often segmented based on geography, demographics like age, gender, and occupation, behavior, and psychology.

The psychology segment is based around the unique characteristics and opinions of the target demographic.

Identifying the segments of the market helps to make marketing much easier, as businesses can then cater their marketing efforts to specific groups of people.

Targeting specific groups when marketing helps to greater ensure success, as you can be sure that your marketing campaigns will reach the right people.

Step 2 – Targeting

Before you can get to work on marketing to your market segments, you will need to ensure that the segments are actually worth targeting, and which ones are most likely to lead to solid conversions.

If you’re having trouble deciding which segment is most worth targeting with your marketing campaign, then some of the things you should be looking out for include: size, profitability, and reachability.

Let’s take a look at these factors.

Size refers to how big the marketing segment you are targeting actually is, and whether it has the capacity for growth moving into the future.

You will want to ensure that the segment you are targeting is sizable, as it increases the odds of reaching potential customers that will convert to paying customers.

Profitability refers to how likely specific segments of the market are to spend money on your products or services.

This will often depend on the average level of disposable income of the segment, as well as the average level of income within that segment.

You will want to take a look at how valuable each segment is monetarily, and compare from there.

Reachability is the final factor that you may choose to look at when deciding which segment to target with your marketing efforts.

This refers to how easy it is to get into contact with those in your chosen segment in order to market to them.

Preferably, you will want a segment that makes use of social media, as you can more easily advertise via such an avenue.

When it comes to reachability it is important to consider the potential costs of getting into contact with your chosen target segment.

If it costs a lot of money to get into direct contact with your chosen segment, then the odds of the marketing efforts proving profitable are likely to be much lower, as you will be spending more in contacting your target segment than you earn from them.

These are definitely not all of the criteria you can depend on to help you to choose your target segment, but they are definitely the most potent and dependable!

Step 3 – Positioning

Step 3 - Positioning

This is a very important step in the STP marketing model, as it involves ensuring that customers favor your products or services over any others.

This involves finding out what specifically makes your product or service unique from the competition and making that clear to your target segment.

This is an important step because it is likely that there are numerous other businesses with products similar to yours that are also focused on the same target segments.

You need to ensure that you and your products stand out!

In order to utilize positioning to your advantage, there are numerous unique forms of positioning that you can focus on. Let’s take a look at them!

Symbolic positioning refers to focusing on the self-image, and the ego of the individual customer and appealing to it.

Think about the kinds of products you have considered purchasing in the past.

It is likely that a number of those products have appealed to you because they will make you look better for having them. This is what symbolic positioning is.

It involves making the potential customer feel as though their quality of life would be significantly improved by purchasing your product.

Functional positioning is another form of positioning that can prove very effective.

If your product or service works as a direct solution to a larger problem that a customer may have, then you can position your product as such.

Make it clear to potential customers that your product will easily solve a specific problem that they are facing, as well as any other useful benefits.

This will help to significantly reduce hesitation, which in turn improves the efficiency of your customer pipeline, leading to more sales in the long run!

Finally, another effective form of positioning that you may want to try out is experiential positioning.

This is a little more difficult to pull off, as it is focused on exaggerating the emotional connection that your target segment will have with your product or service.

This, of course, means that you need to have a solid grasp on the emotions and personalities of your target segment which will require more research, and thus more time and money.

However, appealing to the emotions of your target segment can prove to be incredibly useful, as it can help to significantly reduce hesitation that may otherwise cause visitors to hesitate before making a purchase.

Is STP Marketing Difficult?

While it would be difficult to claim that STP marketing is “Easy”, we can say with certainty that with the right amount of research, time, and money invested into an STP marketing strategy, a company can expect to turn a very sizable and healthy profit.

In order for an STP marketing strategy to be effective, though, a company would need to invest plenty of time into research of their chosen segment, so that they can ensure success from the start.

Jackoneil
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