The Impact of Technology

Chapter 8

As discussed in the summary segmentation refers to finding relatively homogeneous groups of people. Some of the popular methods used for segmentation include demographics, geographic vicinity, psychographics, buyer thoughts and feelings and purchase behavior. The thrust of these variables is to deliver a target market that is homogeneous within, heterogeneous between while being operational and substantial. Traditionally, collection and upkeep of this data was cumbersome and time consuming. With the WWW this process has been expedited and it has given marketers the option of tracking its target audience far more closely while not being intrusive.

For tracking demographic data and examining population shifts the U.S. Census bureau has done a large part of the spadework and furnishes this information on their web site at http://www.census.gov/. The more subtle and non-intrusive attempt at following a target market has come from marketers who require audiences to fill out a registration form prior to providing access to the "prime" information. Some organizations following this approach include; The New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/, Discovery Interactive Technologies at http://www.unx.com/, and Starwave's ESPNet SportsZone at http://www.sportszone.com/.

From the marketers vantage point the WWW as a method of tracking psychographics, buyer thoughts/ feelings and purchase behavior possesses the unique advantage of being self reported , non intrusive, and facilitating a better marketing effort while being more cost efficient From the consumer's perspective it relates to products they deem relevant and hence their willingness to share the information.