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Classifying people

One of the important tools used by marketers for identifying potential market is market segmentation, in which subgroup of people or organizations sharing one or more characteristics are grouped together. Using similar concept, people can be segmented based upon their basic philosophy or their basic approach towards life. It might be extremely difficult, as not all may express their beliefs openly. Maybe few sort of weird approaches mentioned below might help.

One such method can be segmenting on basis of their movie or book preferences.

For example a person whose favorite book is The Fountainhead or 1984 is likely to be different from a person whose favorite books include Sidney Sheldon and likes. Or a person who likes reading The Catcher in the Rye over and over again might be different from the one who prefers Eric Segal instead!

Similarly a person whose favorite movies includes likes of Jaane bhi do Yaaron or Rang de Basanti would be different from a person relishing Suraj Barjatiya movies! Or the one who has Terminator and Rambo series among his favorites would be have a different idea from the one who likes Dead Poet's society or Forrest Gump!

Apart from movies or books, maybe a taste in things like music, art or leisure activities have potential to reveal a great deal about a person's approach towards life and his/ her beliefs. Think about it !

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  1. Arvind Iyer5:08 PM, March 29, 2008

    Can you identify your segment clearly?
    Is it sizeable?
    Is the segment actionable?

    (if not, then look for another metric).

    I guess that would be the logic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nikesh Rathi10:20 PM, March 30, 2008

    Well ... The motive of this segmentation is not targeting and/ or positioning. Rather it is just about observing people (read - bahut time hai apne paas) ... So the answers are immaterial!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Priyanka Khot10:14 PM, March 31, 2008

    In what category would you put people who like to read The Fountainhead and 1984 and relish watching Barjatiya movies...?
    hehehhe that is the question that interests me :-)

    Nice take on categorizing people.

    Would be back for more reading

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nikesh Rathi11:49 AM, April 01, 2008

    @ Priyanka - There would exist a segment for every possible permutation ... few might be important!

    In this case (liking 1984 + suraj barjatya) it must be based upon which is more dominant trait

    ... rest i leave it for further research :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous11:55 AM, April 01, 2008

    Hey I dont think its that easy. In which category would you place someone who likes Jaane bhi do yaaron and RDB as well as relishes Sooraj Barjatya movies?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nikesh Rathi12:22 PM, April 01, 2008

    @Nova - Yeah .. It may be difficult ... Still, it is worth a thought ... maybe some variant of the same can prove useful!

    For Jaane bhi do yaaron + Barjatya combo --> maybe it can be based upon which is a more dominant trait ... Probably some further research on this can help!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Priyanka Khot11:25 AM, April 02, 2008

    well, Nikesh, i was curious to know coz u must have guessed I was talking about myself,.... hehehe

    all the best with future research!!!

    Hahaha...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nikesh Rathi1:41 PM, April 02, 2008

    @ Priyanka - Thanks

    Yeah ... I guessed that! Maybe, such contradictions in tastes are visible everywhere ... probably then it would boil down to 'favorites' ... and not the good/ OK kind of books/ movies!

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnishJ10:47 AM, April 17, 2008

    My interview question for HT-market segmentation based on reading habits :)

    ReplyDelete

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