At the heart of a successful marketing strategy lies a deep understanding of the market and how it splits into segments, so it is essential that you get this right. Despite its pivotal importance, however, many companies continue to shovel customers into meaningless segments and pour strategies onto them which have limited relevance. For these companies, winning market share depends on the competition being even more inept. Being first to break the mould and take a fresh look at market segmentation following a structured process which places actionable insights on customer decision-making at its core, can reward you with spectacular results.
Ian Dunbar is a segmentation practitioner with extensive experience in segmenting markets for a wide range of business sectors. Since establishing the centre for excellence in market segmentation with Malcolm McDonald in 1995, Ian has worked with numerous companies around the world in segmentation workshops and research projects taking the resulting segments through into strategic marketing plans. This practical exposure to the real world of developing successful segmentation is captured in ‘Market Segmentation; How to do it, how to profit from it’ which Ian co-authored with Malcolm McDonald, the most recent edition of which was published in 2010. Ian has held senior marketing positions in companies from both the service and manufacturing sectors and obtained his MBA from Cranfield University School of Management (UK). He is a Director of Malcolm McDonald Marketing Ltd.