Ziff Davis Media Co. has uncovered a new segmentation model that will help its B2B advertisers to target Ziff Davis’ “business influencers”—the people who really are responsible for their companies’ purchasing decisions.
The Business Influencer Segmentation Model (BISM) provides a consistent framework from which advertisers of IT products and services can identify key technology buyers among the Ziff Davis audience. Ziff Davis’ print and online properties include PC Magazine, eWEEK, ExtremeTech.com and 1UP.com.
BISM is based on data from Millward Brown IntelliQuest CIMS Business studies, which provides information on IT purchasing decisions and its relation to media usage in the United States. According to IntelliQuest, there are 50 million people who qualify as business influencers in the United States. That number is about one-third of the workforce as a whole.
"Many people claim to have some influence on IT-related business purchases, but there is tremendous variation in the scope and power of their influence," says Elda Vale, vice president, Research and Market Intelligence, Ziff Davis Media. "Our goal was to create a research segmentation model that identifies business technology influencers by using variables that encompass breadth of influence and depth of influence."
Zeroing in on the Big Guy
Based on the CIMS studies, Ziff Davis and IntelliQuest collaborated with an independent statistician to highlight characteristics that are unique to business influencers. “We developed a segmentation that encompassed all the important targeting variables—both scope of influence (number of people influenced, dollars influenced, product categories influenced) and breadth of influence (job title, influence as a primary responsibility, IS/IT related role),” Vale says.
After taking these characteristics into account, several categories emerged as the team worked to determine who the ultimate decision makers are.
"Targeting technology business influencers can be complex and confusing," Vale says. "As you can imagine, they are a diverse group. Some influence many purchases and have big budgets, and others only influence purchasing for themselves. There are many variables to consider such as the number of people influenced or the amount of dollars spent or product categories influenced etc. It's difficult to decide which one or two variables to use… Marketers target different segments based on the product category. Some products are for organizations with complex enterprise solution needs and others are for small companies."
The resulting BISM uses six key variables to measure the depth and breadth of business influencers in the tech field, a Total Universe of 50 million. Ziff Davis chose to illustrate the six groups metaphorically, in order of greatest spending power:
- Whales in Ocean (6 percent)
- Big Fish in Lake (14 percent)
- Big Fish in Small Pond -- (17 percent)
- Small Fish in Small Pond (23 percent)
- Aquarium Fish -- (21 percent)
- Fish Out of Water (19 percent)
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
Rather than creating any categories that are more desirable than the others, the BISM segments reflect differences in the kinds of IT decision makers that are out there. Therefore, rather than assuming that the IT business influencer fits into one profile, advertisers can target specific profiles with less waste.
For instance, the top dogs—or salty dogs—are the Whales in Ocean, who are composed of many different job titles in enterprise-level companies. Their status involves them in large, high-end and multi-user products. Meanwhile, the second segment, Big Fish in Lake, is composed of mostly management and the remaining MIS influencers in small- to medium-sized businesses who are charged with multi-product purchases, but at a smaller scale than the Whales.
Segment three, Big Fish in Small Pond, is composed of smaller businesses with self-employed influencers—and though they have significantly lower planned purchase expenses than the first two segments, “this group consists mostly of owners or partners in very small companies who influence smaller budgets. These are people who have bottom-line responsibilities and aren't accountable to others,” Vale says.
Segments four through six continue in this fashion—they have little influence on capital IT expenses and are limited to end-user products such as desktops, application software and printers.
While BISM is focused on B2B use, there is the possibility that Ziff Davis may take this program into the consumer arena.
“BISM provides clarity about media consumption habits and can help marketers make better media choices,” Vale says. “Depending on client interest, we'd like to take this into the consumer space."
