When entrepreneur Naledi Mokoena first imagined HarvestBox, a subscription service delivering ingredients from local farmers, she believed she already knew her customer: anyone who wanted fresher, healthier food.

It sounded like a large and promising market. Busy professionals might want it. Families could use it. Students needed affordable meals. Fitness enthusiasts cared about nutrition. Environmentally conscious shoppers wanted to support local farmers.

But when Naledi tried to create her first marketing campaign, she became stuck. Should she advertise convenience, affordability, nutrition, or sustainability? Should HarvestBox offer family-sized boxes, quick weekday meals or carefully measured fitness plans?

By trying to speak to everyone, she was not connecting strongly with anyone.

That was when Naledi began exploring market segmentation.

One Market, Different Customers

Market segmentation is the process of dividing a broad market into smaller groups of customers who share similar needs, characteristics, or behaviours.

Naledi started by speaking to potential customers. Instead of immediately asking whether they liked HarvestBox, she asked about their everyday routines:

• How did they decide what to eat?
• Where do they usually shop?
• What made cooking difficult?
• What did they value most when buying food?
• What would persuade them to try a new service?

The answers revealed several possible customer segments.

Young professionals wanted convenient meals that could be prepared quickly after work. Parents wanted reliable family meals and fewer trips to the supermarket. Fitness-focused customers cared about nutritional information and portion sizes. Students were interested in convenience too, but price was their biggest concern.

All these customers might buy fresh ingredients, but they did not buy them for the same reason.

Naledi realized that a customer segment is more than a category such as “people aged 25 to 40.” A useful segment brings together people with meaningful similarities—especially similarities that influence how, why, and when they purchase.

Understanding the Customer Behind the Segment

Naledi decided to investigate the young-professional segment more closely.

She pictured a typical customer named Kabelo. He was 29, worked long hours at a growing technology company and often arrived home too tired to plan a meal. He wanted to eat well but regularly ordered expensive takeaway food because it was quick and required no preparation.

Kabelo’s basic need was not simply “fresh vegetables.” He needed an easy way to prepare a healthy dinner without planning recipes, buying multiple ingredients, or spending an hour in the kitchen.

His behavior also mattered. He planned very few meals in advance, made purchasing decisions from his phone, and was willing to pay slightly more if a service saved him time. He usually tried new services after seeing recommendations from friends or colleagues.

Most importantly, Kabelo’s perception of value was different from Naledi’s original assumption. She believed HarvestBox’s greatest value was supporting local farmers. Kabelo liked that benefit, but it was not the main reason he would subscribe. For him, the greatest value was opening one box and having everything needed to prepare dinner in 20 minutes.

That insight changed the way Naledi thought about both the product and its message.

Is the Segment Worth Pursuing?

A segment must be clearly defined, but it must also be large and reachable enough to support the business.

Naledi estimated how many young professionals lived within HarvestBox’s initial delivery area. She then considered how many regularly bought takeaway meals, showed an interest in healthier eating, and had enough disposable income for a weekly subscription.

She did not need a perfect number at this stage. She needed enough evidence to decide whether the segment offered a realistic starting opportunity.

Naledi also examined the competition. Supermarkets offered convenience, but customers still had to select ingredients and plan meals. Takeaway apps saved time, but frequent orders were expensive and did not always support healthy eating. Other meal-kit companies offered similar solutions, although many focused on premium recipes and longer preparation times.

HarvestBox could therefore compete by offering affordable, locally sourced meals designed specifically for busy people who wanted dinner ready quickly.

This was its competitive fit: the point where the needs of the chosen segment aligned with something HarvestBox could deliver particularly well.

From Segment to Go-to-Market Strategy

Once Naledi had chosen an initial segment, her go-to-market strategy became much clearer.

Instead of promoting HarvestBox as a general fresh-food service, she positioned it as “the 20-minute local dinner box for busy professionals.” She introduced flexible weekly subscriptions because her customers’ schedules often changed. Recipes were simplified, nutritional information was made easy to scan, and ordering was designed for mobile phones.

Naledi also reconsidered where she would reach these customers. Rather than spending her limited budget on broad advertising, she planned tastings at office parks and coworking spaces. She partnered with local gyms and wellness programmes, encouraged customers to refer colleagues and shared short recipe demonstrations on the social platforms her segment already used.

Her market segment influenced not only her promotional message, but also her product features, price, sales channels, and partnerships.

Naledi had not rejected families, students, or fitness enthusiasts forever. She had simply chosen the group with the clearest immediate need and the strongest fit with HarvestBox’s early capabilities. Once the business had learned how to serve this segment successfully, it could evaluate opportunities to expand.

Your Market Is Made Up of People

As you complete your Market Segmentation Canvas, avoid trying to describe everyone who could possibly use your product. Look for the group that has a clear need, behaves in recognizable ways, and sees meaningful value in your solution.

Consider:

• Who is the customer?
• What basic needs are they trying to meet?
• How do they currently behave or solve the problem?
• What does value mean from their perspective?
• Is the segment sufficiently large and reachable?
• How well does your solution fit compared with the alternatives?

Like Naledi, you may discover that your first description of the market is too broad. Narrowing your focus does not necessarily reduce your opportunity. It helps you create a product, message and go-to-market strategy that genuinely connect with the people most likely to become your first customers.

In the next lesson, we will build on this chosen segment by examining TAM, SAM and SOM—three useful ways to understand the full market opportunity, the portion your business can serve, and the share it can realistically capture.

Until next time, Instant Startup community!