Segment

What most people mean

Demographics. Firmographics. Industry + role + company size. The standard “niching down” advice: pick a smaller and smaller slice of the market until you can dominate it.

“Riches are in the niches.” “Serve a niche within a niche.” “Niche, niche, niche.” They paint this picture of laser-focusing on a teeny-weeny slice of the market, usually defined by industry or demographics. It’s enough to make you believe you need to squeeze yourself into a box labelled “Marketing Consultant for Left-Handed Chiropractors Who Treat Only Dachshunds.”

Where the definition breaks

Here’s the thing: they’re wrong. You’re told to squeeze yourself into a box so small you can barely breathe while your creativity, and joy, dry up and die. You’re not building a brand that stands the fck out; you’re building a fcking cage.

So what if folks are not in the same industry? So what if they’re not all Gen Z? So what if the decision-makers don’t have the same job title? All those attributes are arbitrary.

LatinUs Beauty’s customers ranged from 17 to 57, spanning four generations. But age doesn’t affect their desire for frizz control. Focusing on the shared struggle (frizzy hair) is what matters, even with diverse demographics.

When I ran Everyone Hates Marketers, emails poured in from a diverse group: marketing creators, retail CMOs, Broadway producers, photographers, lawyers, even real estate agents. At first, this variety made me nervous. Wasn’t I supposed to stick to a specific industry or job title? Then it hit me. While these listeners came from different backgrounds, they had something in common: they all wanted to promote themselves or their businesses but were uncomfortable with pushy marketing tactics.

Personas make it worse. “Meet Sofia ‘Sunshine’ Rodriguez, the vivacious 28-year-old Latina…” Too much detail. We’re not writing a novel. Or: “I’m writing this book for Marketer Mary. She is 41. She is Scorpio ascendant with a fierce personality. She has two kids, aged 7 and 5.” Too much like a dating site. None of this information will help you motivate customers to buy.

How we define it at STFO

A segment is a group of people you can serve in a way that gives you a distinct advantage against alternatives. The people in the segment have struggles in common that only you can solve in a specific way, which pulls them toward you, even if big brands are in the mix.

Two rules for describing your segment:

First, keep it concise. The more complex the segment description, the less the people in charge understand their customers.

Second, don’t obsess over finding superficial differences. A well-defined segment is built on shared struggles, not superficial differences. Instead of fixating on the differences between your customers (industries, roles, demographics), focus on the common ground.

Your segment description should be a short sentence that contains the attributes linked to the struggles and the context in which these struggles occur. For example, Orelsan’s segment: “Young French people living in boring, quiet suburbs who feel misunderstood and forgotten by other rappers.” Every single word serves a purpose.

To evaluate potential segments, use the RAGE framework: Revenue (do they spend in your category?), Access (can you actually reach them?), Growth (is this segment expanding?), and Enjoyment (do you actually like these people?). Forget “target audience.” We’re talking about humans. Humans you actually like.

I don’t think I’ve ever worked with a business that went too narrow. Ever. It’s almost always the opposite.

What it is NOT

• Not a demographic profile (age, job title, industry are arbitrary)
• Not a buyer persona (Sofia Sunshine Rodriguez is fiction, not strategy)
• Not “niching down” by industry (that’s a cage, not a segment)
• Not permanent (segments evolve as markets shift)
• Not something you need to fear going too narrow on (too narrow is almost never the problem)