Understanding the Customer, Segments' Identification and Validation

Entre Mães

Entre Mães is an NGO that offers advice, guidance and help to prospective parents, single
parents and families with young children and those in a vulnerable situation. As it is an
NGO that provides social support services in Portugal, segmentation, in this case, is
predefined with the creation of the business, obeying the following segmentation criteria:

- Families and single parents with young children

Demographic - Up to 55 years
- Low and Medium-Low Social Class
- Families and mothers with economic and social needs
Behavioral - Families in need of emotional and psychological support
- Vulnerable families
- Families that do not feel part of society
Psychographic - Families most in need
- Families excluded from society
Geographical - In Land Portugal

However, a validation process was carried out through interviews and surveys in order to
confirm the segmentation described above.

Understand who our customers are

Due to the work of Philip Kotler, evolution to marketing 2.0, the business perception that
customers are not all the same became widespread.

According to Kotler (2012), it was with this evolution that companies began to worry
about the needs of customers and to stop producing products in mass. By beginning to
segment customers/consumers through common characteristics and consequently
respond to the needs of each identified segment.

So, segmentation is a process of dividing markets into groups of customers with similar
needs and characteristics and that are likely to behave similarly (Weinstein, 1995).

In segmentation, Kotler (2012) identifies the 4 segmentation criteria: geographic,

demographic, psychographic and behavioral.

However, these types of segmentation are no longer sufficient, thus creating a new
development in segmentation - The Personas. In this sense, Gobé (2009) highlights the
importance of understanding the emotions and motivations that we intend to reach from
consumers. This means that we must know our customers deeply so that we can “build”

Bruno Miguel Campos Fernandes (357919125) | Entre Mães 1

 Understanding the Customer, Segments' Identification and Validation

a hypothetical character of them, endowed with unique characteristics and personal

emotions, in order to create a closer relationship with our customers.

It can be said that, in all businesses, in addition to segmenting our target audiences, we
must create their personas, with the aim of communicating and reaching our consumers
more effectively and with more value for them.

How to identify and validate consumers?

In a first phase, a market analysis should be carried out with a focuses on identifying
problems and solutions through observation, interviews and surveys. Being that, there
must be two types of interviews, the interview about the Problem and later about the
Solution. After the interviews, one must move on to observation and surveys in order to
obtain significant data for analysis.

Value Proposition Canvas (VPC)

After collecting the data, the information must be

synthesized in the VPC (Osterwalder et al., 2015).
The VPC is a visual derivation of the Business Model
Canvas, developed by Osterwalder which contains
several planning attributes, such as costs, partners,
suppliers, etc. VPC is focused on only two aspects:
the customer segment and the value proposition.
These two dimensions, according to Osterwalder (2015), are confronted so that the
planning is able to gather correspondences between both dimensions. On the right side,
the dimension of the Client gathers the tasks or needs that the client intends to accomplish,
addressing gains, benefits, difficulties and frustrations included in the process. In this
sense, the Proposal (left side) meets the customer's needs, offering product / service
features, benefits and characteristics that mitigate or eliminate customers' “pains”.

Bruno Miguel Campos Fernandes (357919125) | Entre Mães 2

 Understanding the Customer, Segments' Identification and Validation

This tool allows to validate and identify customers and generate more satisfaction for the
target audience, given that the proposed solutions are based on the data obtained.

Steps for building the Value Proposition Canvas

Steps How was it done for Entre Mães

The client
We selected the target segments through analysis and market studies,
1- Select customer
however, due to the obstacles in which we live, we had to conduct
segment
interviews with “approximate” segments of the desired audience.
We perceive, through interviews and surveys, the tasks that the client has to
2- Identify customer
solve the problem and what needs he seeks to satisfy. A good example of
jobs
this is the need to feel safe and to be part of society.
We understand, through interviews and research, the pain that the client
3- Identify customer
feels during and after solving the problem. This focuses on the need for
pains
support and someone to "vent" with.
We understand, through interviews and surveys, what benefits the client
4- Identify customer
wants or would like to satisfy. In which we highlight the need for an
gains
integrated solution and easy access to services.
5- Prioritize jobs, pains We select and prioritize the tasks, pains and gains of customers, with the
and gains aim of aligning our service to the needs of customers.
The value proposition
We list the products / services that will be made available to customers and
1- List products and
what tasks will help them. At this point, we realized the need for
services
personalized offers and the need to make our service available also online.
We explain to the customer what pains we are minimizing or eliminating,
2- Outline pain relievers through our services. It was a delicate point where we chose to bet on a safe
space for our customers and, of course, personalized service.
We describe the benefits and gains that the customer will have with our
3- Outline gain creators
services. Highlighting the offer of several solutions within a single service.
4- Rank by order of We prioritize and select pain relief and the most important and essential
importance benefits to add value to our services.

It is noteworthy that the biggest difficulties in this process were the interviews with a
target audience “approximate” to the intended one, due to the security rules against
Covid-19, and of course, the cross between the needs and desires of the customers with
the offer we had outlined. Forcing us to rethink the initial offer and redo services and
solutions to satisfy and deliver value to customers.

Bruno Miguel Campos Fernandes (357919125) | Entre Mães 3

 Understanding the Customer, Segments' Identification and Validation

Bibliografia

Gobé, Marc. Emotional Branding: the new paradigm for connecting brands to people.
New York: Allworth Press, 2009.

Grilo, A., Neto, G., Dias Fernandes, L. Value Proposition Canvas Aplicado Ao Processo
De Design:Desenvolvimento De Nome E Identidade Visual Para Aplicativo De
Mobilidade Em Campus Universitário. (2016)

Kotler, Philip. Administração de marketing. 5° edição. São Paulo: Atlas (2000).

Kotler, Philip. Administração de marketing: a edição do novo milênio. São Paulo:

Prentice Hall, 2001.

Kotler, Philip. Marketing 3.0: As forças que estão definindo o novo marketing centrado
no ser humado. Rio de Janeiro: Elsevier, 2010 – 4ª impressão.

Kotler, P, Kartajaya . H, Setiawan.I, 2012. Marketing 3.0: products, clients, facteurs

humains, Edition De Boeck

Osterwalder et al. (2014). Value proposition design, Chapter 1

Osterwalder, A.; Pigneur, Y.; Bernarda, G.; Smith, A. Value Proposition Design: How to
Create Products and Services Customers Want. John Wiley & Sons, 2015.

Weinstein, A. (1995). Segmentação de mercado. ed. Atlas: São Paulo.

Full Name Bruno Miguel Campos Fernandes

Student ID 357919125
Team Name Entre Mães
Title of the Essay Understanding the Customer, Segments' Identification and Validation

Bruno Miguel Campos Fernandes (357919125) | Entre Mães 4