Dangers of Market Segmentation

Insightful article in The Feature about market segmentation and the problems that arise when applying these tactics to a mobile population.

Segmented marketing is intended, after all, to exploit what a marketer knows about a consumer in order to make her more like that. A person who has clicked on a few banner ads about dieting, or purchased a book on carbohydrates, is an ideal target for an onslaught of diet product ads. The consumer experiences segmentation and targeted messaging as having been "found out" and is then pushed further towards a static identity. Worse, segmentation is potentially divisive and alienating, since it defines users by what they want, rather than what they can do or contribute. Under the market researcher's scalpel, society is sliced into evermore-precise consumer tribes. Mac users vs. Microsoft users. Ford drivers vs. Chevy drivers.

This works for traditional products, like sneakers or cars, because they serve as real, physical badges. Objects like these can serve as signifiers for a fixed or tribal identity. Wireless devices, however, are portals. Instead of promoting fixed identities, they are systems through which people can develop and manifest ever-changing selves. Wirelessness is about the expansion and plasticity of self-definition, and participating in culture on new levels. To turn mobile users into clearly delineated sets of target markets defeats the potential of this interactive, collective technology.