As a seller of private label supplements, one of the most important things to consider is creating a strong marketing strategy. What will guarantee your success in the long run is drafting a precise marketing plan now. You must understand your market, your target audience and the current industry climate.
The nutraceutical market is quite dynamic. Blame it on technology, new ingredients and products, clinical studies that announce conflicting discoveries, or ever-changing regulations. All the more reason why your strategy has to be focused, if it’s to help you find your place within the supplement industry.
Targeting and positioning are the two most important aspects of your marketing plan. Targeting has to do with being clear about what segment of society you want to engage the most and with which products. Positioning is the part of the game where you have to be clever and think of ways to stand out amid your competitors and other products.
Portioning the market into various homogeneous groups of consumers who have similar needs and preferences, or share the specifics of the same locale, is called market segmentation. This technique is beneficial for larger markets, because it helps you manage them more efficiently.
There are four basic types of market segmentation:
- Geographic: consider the climate, the specifics of the state or even the neighborhood; think about whether you are targeting urban, rural or suburban populations. The size of the area and its economic development also matter.
- Demographic: understand your consumers’ needs. Usage rate of private label supplements is often defined by age, gender, income, education, ethnicity or nationality, even religion.
- Psychographic: familiarize yourself with your targeted groups’ lifestyles, interests, activities and values.
- Behavioral: through this method you can closely examine your potential buyers’ attitude toward a particular product, their response to the product description and its benefits; plus, find their usage rate, and see if they tend to develop brand loyalty or are more likely to experiment with different products and brands.
The purpose of this article is to give you the basics of geographic market segmentation. Knowing how your consumers are defined by the place where they live will help you move your seasonal, gender-specific, weight management and skincare products for the best sales results.
But why is geographic segmentation so important for the growth and prosperity of your private label supplements business? Let’s dig deeper to find out.
What is Geographic Market Segmentation?
Judging by the name, geography plays a big role here. As mentioned earlier, you can divide your market based on a particular state; by region such as West Coast, East Coast, county and city. The total population in each area is as important as the climate. Your target group in South Florida living in a humid tropical climate will differ quite a bit from consumers living in the cool Maine climate, for instance.
The good news is, selling various vitamins for strengthening the body will be needed in both segments. However, you wouldn’t want to focus on skincare products such as cellulite creams, breast augmentation creams or even weight management products in Maine, where the summers are cool and body image is not as important as on a crowded Miami beach. Just the same, your skin moisturizing products may not be that sought after in humid Florida as in the dry climate of Maine.
Make sure to think over ahead of time how geography might help or prevent you from establishing a particular product in your market.
Advantages of Geographic Market Segmentation
#1. It helps you break down the national market into smaller portions where consumers have different wants and needs, as well as different cultural characteristics.
Let’s look at Southern California and Mississippi, as an example. In California, being a bit under the influence of Hollywood body image pressure, people engage in sports, many jog daily or work out in the gym five days a week. So your full cycle sports supplements such as Pre-Workout Drink and Post Workout Formula can surely find a great deal of loyal customers.
Fat burners such as the wonder fruit Garcinia Cambogia can be also a sales hit, for many Californians strive for perfection and losing weight is a common major priority. A lot of your potential consumers in California may be vegetarians, or even vegans, so Meal Replacement Protein Powder is a good product to be promoted to consumers whose diets do not include meat. Here the Omega-3 Fats are also a winner, along with Vitamin D, Iodine, Calcium, Iron and Vitamin B12.
Skincare products also have the potential to be best-sellers in California, especially Hyaluronic Acid Serum that makes the skin firm and healthy looking.
Mississippi on the other hand, was recently ranked as the most obese state in the country for 2013, with 35% of its residents suffering from obesity. Such market segmentation is perfect for all of your weight management products. But ultimately, you’d have to also consider the demographics of the region as well as the cultural specifics. You must ask: are most people able to afford dietary supplements? Can most of them receive the necessary guidance about what supplements are good for their health?
Along with that, keep in mind that obesity is also the number one cause for heart disease and diabetes, so Diabetic Support supplements and Heart Health products can easily find a market niche there.
#2. Geographic segmentation can be beneficial for small businesses, as an alternative to investing money and time trying to expand in an untimely or ineffective fashion. Moreover, geographic targeting will help you save money. How? By directing your advertising dollar toward a specific target group you’ve selected and researched in advance.
Once you know how your potential customers’ locale defines them, you’ll be able to assess their needs, and subsequently, find your marketing method to serve those needs.
Let’s take a look at Boulder, Colorado, for instance. It’s a small college town snuggled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Your possible target groups here are college students, baby boomers, and upper middle class people who’ve moved from California to enjoy a still lavish, but quieter lifestyle. Based on the location, it’s safe to assume that many people (from all these groups) engage in sports activities – cycling, rock climbing, hiking and more. A healthy and green lifestyle comes standard in Boulder.
So your job will be tough here, because you need to come up with a message that has to appeal to and motivate some rich and highly educated potential customers.
Devote time to studying their shopping habits and other area-related behavioral traits. Focus and spend your advertising money judiciously. Ultimately, good targeting will bring in the same profits of expanding your business, but without the risk.
#3. Geographic segmentation also helps you better understand population density, which can be urban, suburban, rural or semi-rural. In that respect, your marketing strategy has to be carefully crafted in order to be relevant to your potential consumers, all of them living in different parts of the country.
In a city such as San Francisco where 18,000 people live in one square mile, and where you can find large immigrant communities from all over the world, you need to be clear which of your products will be relevant.
On the other hand, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the density is only 2,000 people per square mile. Half of the population there is Hispanic, so you’ll have to consider their lifestyle, shopping habits and cultural characteristics in order to achieve your goals.
Finally, small-town or rural America has very different needs. If you want to sell your private label supplements there, perhaps you’d have to start with a bit of introduction of your products and what kind of health benefits people can enjoy through them. After that, you can begin to select your target groups based on their lifestyles and area-related behavioral traits.
Conclusion
Using the method of geographic market segmentation will save you time and money, all the while launching your stellar marketing campaign. Take the time to investigate, observe and research your targeted group of consumers for the best possible sales results.
Whichever approach you choose to reach your target consumers, rest assured that Private Label Supplement is here to help you achieve your goals. If you have already done your research and know exactly which products are bound to become best-sellers, call us now! Be sure you are prepared and stock up on everything you need. Let us assist you in your efforts to make your business one-of-a-kind and create a loyal customer base for years to come.
Call our sales team at 855-209-0225 ext. 2 or email us at sales@privatelabelsupplement.com with any questions you may have. We are always here to help!
All my best,
Stefani Thionnet
Stay focused and never give up!
