GEOGRAPHIC VARIABLES

Geographic variables include territories such as nations, provinces, states, regions, countries, cities, or neighborhoods of your customers.

Where do your customers live? To answer this question you need to determine what nations, provinces, states, regions, countries, cities or neighborhood will your product be available? In other words, where will you sell your product or service.

You may plan to open a retail clothing store in a mall and only sell your products to specific customers who shop at the mall. Alternatively, you may sell your products to specific customers who shop at the mall and design a direct mail campaign to reach customers outside of the mall (in another state, for example). The above situations are certainly dissimilar and involve different customers and geographical selling areas.

Where will you sell your product or service and/or where will your customers live? The answers to these questions will assist you later on when determining the total number of people within your market area. Before you can forecast your sales or determine if your idea can provide an opportunity, you're required to know the total number of people who potentially will buy your product or service.

In summary, Geographic Segmentation is used to identify specific regions, city size, and densities.

What region(s) will your customer reside? What is the City Size of these regions and how many people are in your target market? Will you focus on your marketing efforts only in urban areas, suburban areas or rural areas? Below depicts examples of Geographic Segmentation Variables? Which Variables apply to your particular product/business/customer?

• Region - Eastern US, Central US, Western Us, Canadian Prairies, Ohio, Utah, Ontario
• City  - Under 1000, 1000-2999, 3000-4999, 5000-9999, 10000-14999, 15000-24999, 25000-49999, 50,000-99 999, 100,000-199,999, 200,000-299,999, 300,000-399,999, 400,000-499,999, over
• Density - Urban, suburban, rural