thought starters for thought leaders

Segmentation is a powerful tool for growth… but only if your organization puts it to work. That’s where illumination comes in.

A smartly designed illumination plan can ensure your organization “meets” your new segments in a meaningful way, and in turn, feels empowered and inspired to apply the data to plan for, and achieve, growth.

However, creating empathy and inspiring action will require more than just catchy segment names and flashy one-pagers. Here are 7 key ways to ensure your segmentation illumination is primed to elevate your brand to new heights.

1. Know the Obstacles
Before the illumination begins, partner with stakeholders to understand key barriers to overcome in order to achieve adoption. Whether it’s anticipating resistance to rolling out a new segmentation, or an organizational preference for videos over PowerPoints, getting a feel for potential challenges can help ensure illumination tactics are tailored to thrive in your organization’s unique environment.

2. Eyes on the Prize
Aligning to business objectives and desired outcomes it also a key part of the upfront planning phase. Understanding how and where your organization hopes to grow—for instance, establishing category leadership, or broadening to a more emotional frame of reference—can inspire segmentation illumination tactics specifically aimed at realizing those goals.

3. Appeal to Your Audience

Think of your segmentation illumination as an advertising campaign and create a plan that gets your message in front of the right eyes, in all the right contexts. It’s not enough to simply inundate the organization with a flurry of segmentation data and flair—target your message, medium and cadence to maximize impact. Think: shareable quizzes or memes on Teams or Slack, segment-specific podcasts, interactive events and more.

4. Get Ahead of the Learning Curve
You’re probably aware that people are hardwired to prefer different learning styles, but did you know there are actually seven distinct camps? (Visual, Kinesthetic, Aural, Social, Solitary, Verbal and Logical.) A great illumination seeks to educate and entertain in a variety of ways to ensure everyone in your organization feels compelled to engage—no matter how they best receive new information.

5. Real-Life Inspiration
How do you get to know people in your own life? Here’s a hint: it’s probably not through pie charts. Start by thinking of your segments as real people, and then explore interesting tactics that illuminate their lives in truly personal ways. Get to know them beyond your category’s reach (sure, you know their favorite snack brand—but what’s their favorite Netflix show?) and introduce them to your organization in the contexts in which your segments live (whether that’s via social media profiles, playlists, talk shows or beyond).

6. Embrace the Drama
A new segmentation is a big deal, so the illumination should be one, too! Don’t settle for what’s easy, or what’s been done in the past—make a splash that your organization won’t soon forget. That way, your new segments will become, and stay, top of mind as teams plan for future growth. Consider immersive experiences like physical art installations or even an on-stage game show.

7. Keep It Going
Of course, a memorable launch event is great, but a successful segmentation illumination continues to live on as a relevant and inspiring tool for growth long after the initial rollout. This starts by helping teams put plans in place to use their new segments immediately, as well as crafting long-term objectives with their segment at the center. Additionally, ongoing engagements and periodically refreshed data can help maintain interest and continue pushing your brand forward.

A great segmentation illumination has the power to educate, engage and entertain your organization with creative solutions that inspire transformative growth. But it starts with building a solid strategic plan with dynamic tactics, all tailored to your organization’s unique needs.

Want to learn more? I’d love to bounce around some ideas for creating a compelling segmentation illumination for your organization. Feel free to send me an email or connect with me on LinkedIn.

You can also check out this helpful article, written with a colleague from Burke, about the role of gold-standard qualitative for inspiring empathy in a segmentation illumination: From Segmentation to SegmentACTION.

Angela Jones is a VP, Creative at Seed Strategy where she specializes in strategically crystallizing winning ideas and helping lead teams towards a fully realized creative vision.

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