You Can't Sell to Everyone: How to Do STP Market Positioning, and Three Ways Owners Get Their Customers Wrong

01Introduction: why STP comes after SWOT

In the last article we looked at SWOT. Once you see clearly what you have and what you don't, the next step is STP.

I see market positioning as laying the foundation of a house. If you're clear from the start about where you're heading, who you're looking for and whose side you'll stand on, you won't feel like you're working with your hands tied later.

Here I'll briefly explain what STP is, then share the positioning problems I see most often when I diagnose a business.

02What is STP? Segmentation, targeting and positioning

STP is short for Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning: three steps for deciding who you serve and what you want to be in their minds.

S｜Segmentation: group the market first

Segmentation usually uses variables such as geography, demographics, psychology, behavior or lifestyle to understand a market. Indonesia, Japan and Taiwan each differ in culture, acceptance, buying power and customer base. A brand with an American style may need to adapt if a market prefers a Japanese style.

T｜Targeting: decide which market is worth it

Targeting means weighing the size of each market. I think of it as market volume: the same time and effort, spent in different markets, gives very different results. Taiwan has around 23 million people; Indonesia has around 280 million.

Population isn't everything. You also look at the buying power of the middle class, whether your product fits the country, the birth rate, the population structure and where the government is heading. With the same amount of time, which place, which business and which product can bring you more revenue? That's the question targeting answers.

P｜Positioning: settle on who you are

Positioning means shaping a settled identity, not becoming whatever customer A likes because you met customer A today. As you grow you will meet customers B, C and D too, so your brand needs a clear identity of its own.

People often ask me how to choose a position. Personally, I think starting from who the founder is works best, because founders have convictions, preferences and ideas about their brand. If it's an investor-led business, analyze what image the target group prefers.

For example, in Japan white can symbolize celebration, but in Taiwan and China celebrations are red. You can't simply carry Japan's white over. Your position, the people you serve and your brand image need to fit together.

Where does STP come from?

Market segmentation is usually traced to Wendell R. Smith's 1956 article; positioning was popularized by Al Ries and Jack Trout in the 1970s; Philip Kotler later organized them into the STP process, now one of the most common frameworks in marketing planning.

03Nicole's Q&A: choose the right customers and stop fighting on price

QWhere does "you can't sell to everyone" come from?

I believe society develops by serving people. Whether you sell products, services or your time, it's because someone has a need. So in marketing we habitually think from the customer's side: who needs what I offer?

Restaurants are the classic case. Ask the owner, "Who are your most common customers?" and they'll proudly say, "Everyone! From kids to grandparents, they all love us."

That's hard to work with. When we position a business to serve a specific group and dig into their needs, if you tell me everyone from 3 to 100 comes, I won't know what marketing should do or say. What your grandmother wants to hear and what your child wants to hear are different things.

So I ask next: "Who are the people who pay?" That gets us closer. I usually ask a few more questions:

Why don't owners notice this themselves? Because they spend most of their time on their product or service, hoping to serve as many people and earn as much as possible. What they miss is that growth, one to two, two to four, four to eight, starts from the positioning you choose at the beginning.

Positioning isn't only deciding whose money you want. It's also deciding whose money you won't chase.

QHow do owners most often get their target customers wrong?

I see three common patterns.

First, treating everyone as a customer, with no clear target. If you sell children's products, are you trying to please the child or the mother? Same logic.

Second, mistaking people who need something for people who will pay. Need doesn't mean buying power. The child wants it, but the mother pays.

Third, getting anxious about what competitors sell, do and who they serve. "Do I lack their strengths? Their resources? Should I copy them?" Then they add the same products and services. The owner ends up selling A one day and B the next, pulled in every direction, never finding the one thing they do best.

Their website or store becomes a warehouse: everything is there and it all looks impressive, but once I'm inside I can't find a reason I have to buy.

Traffic works the same way. A common e-commerce story: an influencer or celebrity is popular, so the brand books a sponsored post, without asking whether that person fits the brand or can sell the product. A young product with an older spokesperson may not sell; agarwood and sandalwood promoted by a very young influencer may not sell either. Spending NT$100,000 or 200,000 on one campaign and getting three orders, or one, is more common than you'd think.

Only when you know who your customers are will you know what to do, what to say and whom to partner with.

QAny examples of repositioning that raised prices and ended price wars?

Almost none of my clients compete on price. Honestly, no one enjoys a price war.

Take one brand I worked with. After repositioning, knowing where their customers are and what they need, we reshaped the brand image and added related services, while raising the price only slightly or keeping it the same. Many clients are like this.

But we don't raise all prices at once. We test step by step. Say a product line has a steady average order of NT$1,500 to 2,000 and revenue grows around 15% to 20% a year. That suggests room to stretch the price. Yet raising it could also drive customers away, so we assume that risk upfront.

So I create a new line, product or service that keeps what existing customers love, then adds value, upgrades, more service or longer sessions, and test it in the market. The core stays stable, so the risk is lower; if the new line sells, we gradually shift the mix, because we can clearly see margins can rise.

Why I don't recommend price wars now

In the past year or two, everyone says e-commerce and retail are slow. I think one reason is that consumer habits have changed. About two or three years ago, marketers around me started noticing that some platforms are manufacturers themselves. They control pricing and can sell at break-even, because what they want is market share, not profit. Shopee did the same when it entered Taiwan, because it had the capital.

People found they could buy something under NT$100 with free shipping and acceptable quality, and word spread. However you fight, you can't beat these platforms on price.

That's why being distinctive and differentiated matters, and it comes from STP: who do you serve? Then strengthen product differentiation, brand trust and price acceptance to raise your brand's value over time, while adjusting your product mix, pricing, channels, service and brand messaging. Repositioning doesn't mean you can raise your price immediately.

QHow is positioning an aesthetic clinic different from a regular product?

Very different. With regular products you can adjust the product mix, pricing, convenience, logistics, design and style, or sell similar products under different brands across channels. Products are relatively easy to work with.

Aesthetic clinics are different. I can't change a doctor's expertise or safety standards, or tell a doctor, "You could save some cost on this procedure." That would be wrong. From the customer's side, buying a product and having a treatment are two different things.

People getting a treatment may not care about price; they care about results. If friends all went to a well-known doctor, they want that doctor too. When I was pregnant, I was willing to book prenatal checkups as late as 11 p.m. just to see a particular doctor. People want the best for themselves and their children.

So clinic positioning includes the doctor's expertise and reputation, the clinic's medical risk and safety, the details of the whole process and aftercare, plus online, offline and local reputation. You also can't just tell people "these are our treatments"; you have to consider regulations, platform rules and the long-term value you bring to patients.

For aesthetic clinics, I recommend building a long-term position around trust, and a complete medical assessment and care process. Rather than constantly chasing patients, let patients find the care they want. That builds steadier, longer trust. Customers you chase and customers who come to you are completely different.

QWhy do you choose owners with NT$1–3 million in monthly revenue?

This is my own STP. To be direct, a brand-new company may hope I can give them a shortcut. But in the first year many founders haven't thought things through; they want to fulfil a dream or start a company to sell their service. Whether they can survive in the market or fully commit is still unknown.

Early on you often don't need an accountant or systems; one person can be the whole department. With a few partners, monthly revenue might pass NT$1 million within a year. That's when the team's division of labor, accountability, rules, channels, customer relationship management, social media, website, products, pricing, skills and strengths become clear, and you can see whether the team works together.

We've tried helping start-ups too, but many hadn't been through trial and error yet and gave up quickly: "Why is there so much to do? Why does e-commerce involve so much?" E-commerce has never been easy. It's not like a shop where you open the door and people walk in. You have to build systems, a website, products, images, content, data connections and ads, and also work with sales channels. These are all skills.

A business at NT$1–3 million a month already has a base of products, market and revenue. Next comes a second change: new kinds of customers, rising acquisition costs, and new needs for ads, people and systems. At this stage it needs more than ads or short videos; it needs to revisit its positioning, business model and sales process to find more room in the market.

Also, if someone has always worked alone, there's too little data to analyze, and too little data means it isn't reliable. That's why I often say, "When you do well, I do well." Your time is valuable and so is ours; if we spend it, I want to take real responsibility for growing your brand.

Choosing whom to serve is my own positioning. I recommend it to clients, and I do it myself.

04How to apply it: check your positioning in four steps

To re-check your positioning, follow this order:

1. Pull your sales list from the last 6–12 months: who paid, and who came back. Don't rely on gut feeling.
2. Filter with the four questions: who pays, who needs it most, who will spend, who comes back. The group where the answers overlap most is your core customer.
3. Write down whom you won't serve, for example people who only compare prices, or who want heavy customization without paying for it.
4. Check your image is consistent: do your website, social media, store, influencer choices and pricing all speak to the same people?

Then look at it alongside your SWOT from the last article: do your strengths solve this group's needs?

05FAQ

06Closing thoughts

Further reading