Audience Research and Segmentation

DMC 661

Workload: (8-10 hours per week)

The course is project base, building a content marketing plan for a client, with a 4 out of 5 workload ranking, estimating 15-20 hours per course per week.

Audience Segmentation (DMC 661) is an analytical exploration of how data can be used to break down mass markets into specific, reachable target markets and how that can impact addressable advertising initiatives. Potential customers demand to be seen as more than simply a face in the crowd, but reaching specific target markets can be an increasingly difficult process. Whether an organization can achieve its’ goals can hinge on how effectively it can target receptive clients in an overcrowded market. Students will closely examine what demographic data and other key indicators are essential to developing successful campaigns. Students will focus on what data best serves as lines of demarcation in the development of unique market segments to support specific marketing communications goals.

Audience Research and Segmentation is a required course in both the Data Marketing Communications and Digital Marketing Communications master's degree programs.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of DMC 661, students will be able to:

• Explain the different types of data available to marketing communicators from response data, to compiled and crowd-sourced data.
• Identify which data is most effective for different target market uses.
• Compare B2B and B2C data usage, and available data modules for targeting, segmentation, data append and Account Based Marketing Communication.
• Investigate the importance of hierarchical data in B2B decision making.
• Compare customer analysis, profiling and modeling in the understanding of customer audiences.
• Develop target audience plans based on an understanding of customer analysis, profiling and modeling.

Course Topics

• Introduction to Segmentation, Customer-Centricity and Product-Centricity
• Segmentation Schemes and Strategies
• Primary vs. Secondary Data
• Customer Profitability and Lifetime Value
• Targeting and Positioning
• B2B vs. B2C Segmentations
• Segmentation Strategies and Planning

Top 3 Course Takeaways

1. What is audience segmentation and ways to segment.
2. How to create a persona of your target market.
3. How to target the right person, at the right time, in the right place.

Instructor Insights

Chapters

• 1:47 - Professor Teller's Passion for Audience Segmentation
• 10:49 - How to be successful in DMC 661 and what to expect
• 14:25 - Course intensity and workload