Now that we have our segments, let’s use a real world example to examine how we can use them to develop a Target Company List. Since I live in the NYC Metro area I’ll choose a local company: PepsiCo.

1. Competitors: A quick search of the Beverage – Soft Drinks industry on any Finance and Investing website gives us our list for this segment: The Coca-Cola Company, Dr. Pepper Snapple, Monster Beverage Corporation, Jones Soda Co., etc.
2. Industry: Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG). Again, Investing websites are useful for this info: Procter and Gamble, Daymon Worldwide, Kraft Foods, Nestle, General Mills, InBev, etc.
3. Function: For this one, we’re looking at target companies that focus on a specific business competency, such as KPMG, Deloitte, Accenture or PwC for Finance and Accounting professionals, or Saatchi and Saatchi, DDB, Razorfish, Interpublic or Leo Burnett for Advertising/Creative/Digital Marketing talent. (We can search nationwide, or add geographic parameters to build a two-category segmentation model.)
4. Geographic: As noted above, this segment must be combined with Function (at least) to provide useful results. PepsiCo is headquartered in Purchase, NY, so our geographic zone is the NY Metro area. Search Westchester County, Northern NJ and Western CT business organizations to find these companies. Yield: IT and Finance talent from Oracle, Xerox, Diageo or Boehringer Ingleheim. Now let’s add Industry Segmentation to get even more targeted: Any corporate staff from Procter and Gamble, Schick or Nestle Waters.
5. Psychographic: Use glassdoor.com and internet research, along with interviewing current employees to find companies with similar cultures. You can also glean information by comparing mission and values listed on company websites. For best results, combine with Geographic and Functional Segmentation. Yield: IT, HR and Finance talent from GE, United Technologies, Oracle, or Covidien.

The names listed above are a small sample of talent acquisition targets. For an organization the size of PepsiCo, our target list could easily top 100 companies. Our Target Company List gives focus to our recruitment efforts, putting an end to the ‘Post and Pray’ tactic. It can guide the development of our Recruiting Messaging, emphasizing our corporate culture when targeting employees at certain companies, or touting the benefits of our geographic location and local quality of life when targeting others.

Talent Market Segmentation and the resulting Target Company List helps us decide on the Recruitment Marketing mix, allows us to track the effectiveness of our promotion and outreach efforts, and provides informed guidance for our name generation activities. With a high quality Target Company List, you can build a database of prospects, and eventually a talent community. Do it right and the next time you have an open position, you’ll be able to quickly search your database, contact prospects with whom you already have a relationship, and provide better candidates to your hiring managers, faster and at lower cost than ever before.

What do you think? Are there other segmentation methods that you find useful? Comment below or email me at stevemyers75@gmail.com

www.linkedin.com/in/stevemyerstalentacquisition/