Branding, Marketing The celebrity endorsement, the spurious feature, the fancy packaging, and the proliferating product line offering empty choice are all symptoms of segmentation gone slothful. "Done well, market segmentation can do so much. It can uncover entirely new markets (see Blue Ocean Strategy), provide new ways of serving existing markets and rejuvenate entire categories and industries (remember Swatch watches?), out-maneuver competitors (Nike segments the market into very small niches so competitors are contained), and offer segment developers first-rights to the new market (The Walkman had a 50% market share at a 20% price premium for a couple of decades). "Sure, competitors catch up more quickly today than ever before – no brand has a free run forever, or even for very long. But since new product and idea adoption rates are quicker than ever, first-movers make a splash early, and move on with bulging pockets. Segmentation is still a winning game. The incentive to score is still huge. Segmentation spurs innovation. "But segmentation also offers marketers a cop out: it allows firms to find easy prey. And the easy prey consist of the rich, the lazy, the busy, the ignorant, and the vain." Article: Segmentation Reveals Marketing’s Easiest Targets