Like all of our software, SegmentSolve™ "encapsulates complexity" - it allows the strategist to answer a simple set of questions (implemented via a software "wizard").   How can answering simple questions produce industry-leading segmentation outcomes? Simply stated, Industry-leading outcomes happen when 1) the data is the right data 2) the questions asked are the RIGHT questions and 3) the underlying technology itself is industry-leading.

Discovering optimum market segments...isn't easy.  That's why the segmentation wizard within SegmentSolve™ meets six critical segmentation criteria: 1) it makes hard things easy (see the above) 2) it is deeply customizable (it has both simple and advanced modes) 3) it allows you to vary the internal logic of the Expert System 4) it lets you trade-off speed vs. depth 5) it converges upon best solutions intelligently and 6) it allows you to save successful runs to a knowledge repository.

At the core of SegmentSolve™ lies 13 advanced clustering algorithms which, in turn, are combined with different distance measures, starting solutions, data normalizations and variable combinations to yield thousands of discrete approaches to segmentation.  The result? Advanced measurement combined with advanced algorithmics. That's SegmentSolve™.

Developing 1) value-based segments and 2) importing them into ProductSolve™ allows us to identify which specific existing or planned products will be most attractive to each segment. Whether it is likelihood of purchase (LOP), switching, blunting, sales, profit or marginal benefit, the ProductSolve™ simulation platform coupled with SegmentSolveTM's imported segments,  delivers the most powerful current insight delivery  platform for strategic segmentation.

SegmentSolve™ allows the strategist to monitor segmentation development in real time. This ability to monitor progress allows the strategist to actively prune algorithms or eliminate data handling methods that do not contribute to improved segments.  Alternatively, the strategist can simply allow  SegmentSolve™ to operate in its automated mode.  In this case, SegmentSolve™ itself will identify which mix of algorithms and data management will yield the best operational segmentation.

One of the most powerful benefits of  using SegmentSolve™ is its embedded Expert System (ES).  The ES uses a predefined (but customizable) set of criteria to determine which clusters are "best."  Strategists can operate the ES in three modes that range from a "strong" ES to a passive ES.  Regardless of mode, SegmentSolve™ takes the work out of finding truly optimal segments.

In the final analysis the "gold standard" for any high performance segmentation is the presence of intuitive patterns of key-drivers that covary together (co-deviate significantly either positively or negatively) from the mean.  SegmentSolve™ reports this, of course, but it doesn't stop there. SegmentSolve™ includes an advanced report generator with a wide variety of ways to format and report the data, display  the individual segments and present the various parameters of the run as a whole.

SegmentSolve™ goes beyond standard segmentation  visualization.  This is critical because far too often segments are reported only parametrically - via statistics.  While statistics are indeed, important - it also helps to actually see the separation and spread between and within segments.  To achieve this, SegmentSolve™ allows the strategist to visualize any and all clusters of any solution in terms of any key drivers.  (See the image above.) SegmentSolve™'s visualization tools allow the strategist to not merely develop a high performance segmentation...but to understand it.

Segmentation of course, is not the end of marketing strategy...it is the beginning.  Once the strategist has developed clean, crisp segments,  three action steps are indicated.  First, those segments should be used to design more profitable products.  Second, those segments should be visualized to understand  their proximity to existing products and existing demand.  (See the image above.) Third those segments should be striped (imputed) onto the retail datamart.  These three activities are described more fully in our Segmentation practice .