Explore STP Marketing with Top Benefits and Popular Examples

Are you still wasting time and resources on the wrong marketing efforts? Apply the STP (segmentation, targeting and positioning) model. It involves grouping your audience into segments, selecting your targets, and tailoring your messaging per target. This allows for more relevant communication and makes your efforts fruitful. 

STP stands for Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning. STP marketing is a framework that emphasises personalised communication to the right customer segment. 

Let’s find out how to apply the STP marketing model to your marketing strategy and its benefits. 

What is STP Marketing?

STP or Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning marketing is a useful, modern-day framework that lets you segment the audience, identity who belongs to your target audience group for your product or service, and tailor the preferable marketing communication by positioning it perfectly. Ultimately, you will have a loyal customer base and improve sales.

How You Should Use STP Marketing 

You can say that positioning is a result of segmentation and targeting in the STP marketing framework.   

It is more convenient to understand the model using the STEP formula, where Segmentation + Targeting Equals Positioning, i.e., 

Segmentation + Targeting = Positioning

You can also remember STP marketing as a step-by-step process starting with segmentation, moving on to targeting and then positioning. 

Segmentation in STP Marketing

Segmentation is the first process in STP for determining the broad group of audience based on your offerings and their preferences. 

The concept of customer segmentation covers what type of audience your product or service will cater to. You have

• Demographic Segmentation, where age, gender, income, etc are looked at
• Geographic Segmentation, which looks into where the audience belongs so that you know their local culture, language, etc
• Behavioural Segmentation, which includes their attitudes, beliefs, social media engagement and response
• Technographic Segmentation, which covers what technologies are the audience using currently
• Psychographic Segmentation, which includes their attitudes, beliefs, etc.

Take interviews, use customer data from their past purchases from your brand, send surveys, to get started with segmenting the audience. 

Targeting in STP Marketing 

Targeting is the next step in the STP marketing framework. Once you determine the broader group of audience based on demographic, geographic, etc., segmentations, follow with targeting the ideal group. 

Consider factors such as the size of the target audience, profitability, comparisons, etc. Answer questions such as 

• Is the target audience too small in number?
• Will the audience pay the defined amount you set for the product or service?
• Is one target audience group better than the other?
• Will the target audience be interested to stay loyal customers in the future?

Additionally look into target marketing strategies of famous brands. 

Positioning in STP Marketing

Positioning is the decision-making part, where you decide how you will market the product to the right audience that you chose in the above steps. 

It is at this stage of STP marketing that you will be involved in crafting the right communication for your product or service. You will also have to analyse your competitors and create the USP (unique selling proposition). 

The purpose of positioning is to show your customers that your product or service is better than your competitors. 

Also read about marketing mix. 

Top 3 Benefits of STP Marketing

Here are the best benefits of utilising STP marketing model in your plan. 

Optimising Costs and Marketing Efforts

Once you target the right message to the right audience, you won’t have to end up wasting expenses on more marketing communication channels than required. 

If your audience is Gen-Z, they are going to use Instagram more than any other platforms. They will also prefer a specific communication style that borders on sustainability practices and social issues. You can instantly utilise the marketing efforts this age group prefers. 

Personalising Communication

Do you remember the time when communication from a brand seemed to have no personal connection?

If you do it today, your emails are going to end up in the spam folder. Much worse are them unsubscribing your email newsletter list, your social media handles, etc.  

Read on What is Email Marketing?

Consumers today prefer only personalised communication. Only about 10-20% of the populace are probably the ones who do not care about such. But the rest does. 

The STP marketing framework can be a great boost in terms of brand marketing where the audience retention rates, order size, conversion rates, etc., actually matter. 

Creating A Better Product or Service 

If you truly know what the audience wants and demands, they will be willing to pay more. Period. 

STP marketing framework can be used for acquiring feedback from your potential customers as well. As you already defined your target audience who will likely purchase your product or service, you have the upper hand in asking what their pain points are. 

Take their feedback through surveys or emails by allowing them to test the product in the beta stage, for instance. Once they provide the feedback, you can incorporate them and ensure it is the next best thing in the market. 

Popular Brand Examples that Deploy STP Marketing Model

See below how we explain STP with examples.  

Coca-Cola 

This beverage brand out beats competitors every time. It has several products including Diet Coke and others for the health-conscious target audience. Their target audience is much broader, ranging from kids to 40-year-olds with average to high income. 

And they incorporate a wealth of sustainability initiatives that ultimately reaches out to both the millennial and Gen-Z demographic. In terms of positioning, they are able to deploy unique campaigns that tend to go viral all around the world. 

Apple

Everyone knows this tech brand stands out globally, and its customers are loyal. Its target audience are middle- to high-income individuals who have preferences for ease-of-use, social standing, advanced technology, etc. It also has low-end models for the lower income individuals so that they cater to everyone and turn them into loyal customers who will eventually pay more for its higher-priced models, for years to come.  

Check out more about pricing strategies too!

Parting Thoughts

STP marketing is one of the core fundamentals of digital marketing today. Hope you can use it now to your advantage and increase your brand presence in no time!

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