Segmentation Models Are Outdated: How to Update Your Marketing Segmentation Practices

The 2016 US presidential election is perhaps the biggest and most public failure of segmentation models in recent memory. Most models not only predicted Hillary Clinton's victory by a comfortable margin but also ignored the demographic, racial, and geographic segments that predicted a different outcome—and propelled Donald Trump's victory.Taking that failure as an example, and considering the overall outdated mode of assessment that segmentation models seem to be stuck in, we should admit that segmentation models must evolve.Especially for businesses, an evolution can result in more effective marketing strategies and more successful marketing performance in our increasingly dynamic marketplace.Since the 1980s, companies have spent a lot of time and effort meticulously segmenting audiences on the basis of demographics and creating personas for marketing teams. However, those methods are increasingly irrelevant, for a few reasons.