Segmentation

Segment dimensions and their sources

Each persona’s profile is set when the population is created. Reports group the results by this profile automatically; you only choose which dimension to look at. To see a group you define yourself, add a custom feature to the population.

Below, “breakdown lists” means the lists where you choose the dimension in the Price Analysis (WTP), Feature Price Impact (Feature Value Analysis on the report screen), Competitive Analysis (Conjoint), Priority Ranking (MaxDiff) and Multiple-Choice Survey reports.

City, work status and lifestyle are not in the breakdown lists. City and work status are columns on the Population sheet of most reports’ Excel files. Lifestyle is in the Lifestyle column of the Excel file you download from the population library. In a study with questions, you can also ask Argus to break a question down by one of these dimensions.

Income group and SES are not the same thing

Income group looks only at income and has ten bands: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, D1, D2, E1, E2. SES, by contrast, has six classes, based on a score calculated from income group, education and work status. Two personas in the same income group can be in different SES classes if their education and work status differ. In the population form you can choose only SES; income group appears in reports and in Excel.

Adding market segments to a population

Market segments are assigned when a population is created. This step is part of all three population forms: General Research, Fashion and Ad Testing. The form is covered in detail on the Creating a population page.

1. In the population form, type the product or category in the Research topic field (e.g. “Premium coffee subscription”).
2. On the Segmentation Data card, click Find segmentation.
3. Accept the suggested segmentation with Use segmentation. If there are other candidates, click Show other suggestions to open the list; the best match is marked with ★. If the card reads Segment rules found (v2), ready-made rules exist and the selection is accepted automatically.
4. Fill in the rest of the form and click Create population. Personas are assigned the market segments in this segmentation; personas that don’t fit any segment have no market segment.

Once the population is created, open it on the Populations page. The Market Segment Distribution chart shows the six largest segments; in General Research populations, the percentages are calculated only over personas that have a market segment. The Segmentation File card shows the name of the segmentation used; this card doesn’t appear for Ad Testing populations. Ad Testing populations created before 14 September 2026 have no market segments at all.

Choosing a breakdown in reports

Open the report from the Reports page and switch to the section shown in the table. When you change the dimension, the personas aren’t asked again; the same responses are grouped by the new dimension.

• In Price Analysis, the Crosstab tab appears only when there are at least two dimensions.
• The Dynamic Conjoint report automatically picks the dimension with the largest difference between groups and shows the note “Automatically showing the strongest segment separation.”
• What the metrics mean is explained on the method pages (e.g. Price Analysis (WTP)).

Looking at a subgroup on its own

Reports have no filter that narrows the results to a single segment and reruns the analysis. To look at a subgroup on its own, use one of these routes:

• To see where two dimensions intersect, open the Crosstab tab.
• On the Population sheet of the Excel file, each persona is a row and the column headers have filter buttons. Filter the group you want there.
• If you only need the result for one subgroup, use the filters in the population form to create a new population made up of that group, and run the study with it. This is a new study and uses credits.

Segments in Excel and PDF

In reports with a breakdown list, the file you download with the Download Excel button holds segment information on two sheets. The sheet names are in English whatever your interface language:

• Segment Impact (the heading inside the sheet reads the same): Each row holds a dimension and one category of that dimension. The columns include Segment Dimension, Category, Persona N and Share; depending on the method, metrics such as Avg. WTP (average willingness to pay) and Optimal Price are added. In Multiple-Choice Survey, there are Asked N and Answered N columns instead of Persona N.
• Population: Each row is a persona, with columns such as Age, Gender, City, Education, Income Group, SES and Market Segment. A custom feature given to a persona is in the Custom Feature column.

In these reports, the Download PDF button first opens the PDF segment selection dialog. The dialog lists only dimensions that have 5 or more personas in at least one segment. In Price Analysis and Competitive Analysis, the first three dimensions come preselected; in the other reports, you choose the dimensions yourself. For details, see the Exporting and downloading page.

Reading segment results correctly

• Check segment size. The Price Analysis, Feature Price Impact and Competitive Analysis charts don’t show segments with fewer than 5 personas; in Feature Price Impact and Competitive Analysis, if no segment is left to show, the message “Insufficient segment data (at least 5 participants per segment required)” appears. The Multiple-Choice Survey Demographic Breakdown charts show small segments too. You can see the number of personas in the N column of the table on the Crosstab tab, next to each segment in the Analysis by … table in Priority Ranking, and in the Persona N column in Excel. For other thresholds, see the Reading a report page.
• Choose the dimension to suit the population size. In a population of 100 personas, each of the ten income groups gets 10 personas on average, and each of the six SES classes gets 16–17. In a crosstab, 6 SES classes × 2 genders = 12 cells, leaving an average of 8 personas per cell. If you plan to look at segments, keep the population large or choose a coarser dimension; for example, SES instead of income group.
• Compare price and rate, not revenue. The Optimal Revenue and Demand values in Price Analysis grow as the number of personas in the segment grows. Compare segments on Optimal Price and Purchase Rate.
• Know your custom feature groups. In Price Analysis, Feature Price Impact and Choice-Based Conjoint (CBC), if you gave a single feature to fewer than 90% of personas, the breakdown shows the Özel Özellikli (…) (With Custom Feature) and Özel Özelliksiz (Without Custom Feature) groups. If you added several features, each feature becomes a separate group, and personas without a feature are left out of this breakdown. For details, see the Custom features page.
• Treat a segment difference as a hypothesis. The results are language model output; they show the direction and size of a difference. Before making a pricing or messaging decision for a specific segment, validate the finding with real consumers (Accuracy and limitations).

Related pages

• Creating a population
• Custom features
• Reading a report
• Exporting and downloading
• Accuracy and limitations