Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Segmentation for Business and Stock Investing


All marketing curricula include training in segmentation.

It is a skill that requires practice. Business school alumni who branch in to finance and other functions, quickly lose their abilities to segment optimally.

Segmentation also has creative dimensions. You can keep improving at doing it, or gain by using a third-party consultant.

Segmentation is a starting point for the craft of a differentiation strategy. You can use it for business or for stock investing.

Most text-book segmentation methods have become generic. Demographics and economics are typical examples. You cannot arrive at differentiation through a generic route. That is an oxymoron.

Differentiated business and stock investment strategies need creative segmentation. Just as various artists using the same media can produce novel works, so a professional marketer can use data and hypotheses to conjure new and profitable growth segments. Investors should check the segmentation values of stocks they pick. Here is an example of great segmentation:

http://www.senorx.com/


Everyone fears cancer. Women have additional vulnerabilities in this respect. Early detection is a key to successful management. Doctors, engineers, and scientists, have come together for a unique segment.

Do you know of other examples of creative segmentation? Do you use this parameter in your stock picks? Post your opinions and ideas below or email

StockWay.MyView@gmail.com

We will consider tomorrow if business process can be used for top-quality segmentation. That will reduce the chances of an entirely creative method remaining incomplete.




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The various stock exchanges segment the market into various sectors/ Industries. They segment companies based on the activity/net profit/ dividend record/ EPS etc and many more factors and finally upload into the various sectors/ Industries. The companies within the sector are also classified from Rating A to Z. The viewer has the choice of choosing his parameters to short list his pick of companies considering the business environment that exists, both short term as well as long term. I do not know about others but I try adopting this strategy for my stock picks.

Dr. S. Banerji said...

It is possible to segment the stocks listed on a stock exchange in new ways. This is what top private equity
players do. However, the other aspect is to assess the segmentation strength of a stock before investing. This relates to the business and not to the listing. Both types of segmentation help in business and stock investing.
Does this help?

 
google33471c52c3ce216c.html