What is market segmentation?

Market segmentation is dividing a market into groups of buyers with shared characteristics — industry, company size, use case, behavior — so you can target, position, and price for each segment deliberately instead of averaging across everyone. A segment is useful when its members buy for similar reasons and can be reached in similar ways.

Segmentation is also a competitive lens: rivals rarely win everywhere, they win segments. Mapping which competitor dominates which segment shows where the fight is hardest and where nobody is serving buyers well — often the most valuable output of the whole exercise.