One segmentation for a personal care company’s four markets

The question

A personal care company had little recent research on its category to build on, and wanted one segmentation to serve its central team and every local market.

The central insight team wanted markets it could compare like for like. Each local team wanted something more practical: target buyers it could find and reach with its own budget and channels, in time to shape the next year’s plans. A segmentation that suited one and not the other would go unused.

Our approach

Before any segments existed, we agreed with the central team what success would look like: a workable number of segments, holding in every market, simple enough to target.

We built one shared solution for the UK, Spain, Germany and Austria, then checked each market for segments that behaved differently or were missing, sampling every market deeply enough to read its smaller groups. The central team shaped the solution with us in working sprints as it was built, so the markets received something already tested against what they needed.

What the team came away with

Each market received its own sizing, a country report beside the combined report, and designed pen portraits of every segment.

Working sessions with the market teams took each one through confirming its targets and starting an activation plan: the categories to sell, the messaging territories to use, the cautions to keep in mind and the channels to reach people through.

The central team now had markets it could compare on the same terms, and every local team had a starting point it could act on with its own budget.