STP

STP stands for segmentation, targeting and positioning: divide the market into groups with similar needs, choose which groups to serve, and decide what place to occupy in their minds. For decades it has been the organising heart of marketing strategy and it remains the common language of marketing plans. The empirical school has added a fundamental correction: brands that grow almost always serve the broad category buyer, and competitors' customer bases look much alike. The mature reading is therefore situational: STP as a thinking discipline remains valuable, but narrow targeting is a brake for most brands, while challengers sometimes find their opening precisely there.

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