Market Segmentation

My Monday night Marketing Management class is painfully boring, which is disappointing to me because Marketing used to be one of my favorite subjects. However, this teacher insists on illustrating every simple concept with a story about a place he likes to eat, or used to like to eat or may want to eat someday. However, ever so often an interesting fact sneaks into the two and a half hour lecture. For example, last night we learned that Google's unofficial business motto is "don't be evil." We were also introduced to this little tool called mybestsegments.com.

I may be a geek but I have always found market segmentation fascinating, so bear with me. The idea that you can predict what a person will buy or do based on their income, station in life and where they live has always interested me. When I waited tables I tried to see if I could guess what people would order before I walked up to the table. Eventually, I got pretty good.

On mybestsegments.com, you can type in any zip code and find the 5 most prominent marketing groups living in that area. There is everything from shotguns and pickups (my personal favorite) to Bohemian mix and Mayberry-ville. Not only is it interesting to see the type of people who make up your neighborhood, I could see it being a useful tool when contemplating a move or planning a trip. After it gives you the 5 areas you can click on them to see a brief description and their buying habits. For example, my old neighborhood in Chattanooga watched VH1, read modern bride and would most likely drive a Prius. My new neighborhood shops at the Limited and reads Gamepro magazine and drives Kia Spectras. I think I may a little out of place...