Tool

Size-Relevance-Access: Targeting Matrix

The targeting matrix helps innovation, marketing, and sales teams choose the right target customers for their products. It is typically completed within the STP (segmentation-targeting-positioning) process. The tool allows teams to compare and score different potential customer segments to help them prioritize and sequence customer segments.

The tool requires teams to score segments on 3 criteria, namely:

  • Size: How large is the segment?
  • Relevance: How valuable is our offering to the segment?
  • Access: How costly or effortful is it for us to reach the segment?

Michelin Tweel

Let’s look at an application of the tool. When introducing their revolutionary Tweel (airless radial tire) Michelin considered several customer segments (read more about the Tweel, now called the UPTIS – Unique Puncture-Proof Tire System here). These included:

I. Cars,

II. Off-road vehicles (e.g., excavators, bulldozers, etc.), and

III. Ride-on lawn mowers.

To the right we can see how the Size-Relevance-Access tool helped sequence customer segments for the Tweel, leading to several conclusions:

I. Cars is a huge market (both in number of customers and value), but hard to access due to regulations (it would take a large investment and a long time to enter). 

II. Off-road vehicles are a relatively big market (more limited in number of customers, but very high value) where the Tweel would solve a very relevant need (punctures are very costly), but is also expensive to access (different size wheels meant costly production).

III. Ride-on lawn mowers are a small market. Yet, the Tweel would be very relevant (no puncture and better suspension) and it is also easy to access (little regulation and access through a partnership with John Deere). 

The Tweel example clearly shows how the tool helped Michelin analyze the options, understand the pros and cons of each option, and make a strategic decision on which customer segment to target first. They ultimately decided to first enter the lawn-mower market, then excavators, followed by two new segments, namely golf carts and utility vehicles. Through their partnership with GM and DHL they are introducing their UPTIS to road vehicles. We see here a clear strategy to enter more niche markets which are easier to access, to then enter the larger mass market. As a fun fact, Michelin has also been supplying NASA (e.g., for the Lunar Rover).

How to fill it out?

Step 1: Size

Write down the expected market size of each customer segment considered. Especially in early stages of an innovation we use qualitative rather than quantitative metrics. Specifically, we often score a customer’s market size on a scale that ranges from very small (€ or $) to very large (€ € € or $$$). Note that here, it is important to consider not only the volume (i.e., number of customers) but especially the value generated by the segment. Hence, if you have many customers that each pay little or a few customers that each pay a lot, in both cases we talk about a large segment.

Step 2: Relevance

Relevance is the extent to which the solution fits with more or less critical needs of each potential customer segment. Think about questions such as: “How badly would this customer group want your proposed solution?”, and “How important is the pain point you address for them [i.e., the customer group under analysis]?”. We score this on a qualitative scale ranging from very low relevance (♡) to very high relevance (♡ ♡ ♡). 

Step 3: Access

The critical questions here is if we already have a relationship with the customer segment and how costly it will be to enter this market. For example, do we have sales channels, customer knowledge and brand equity, or is there regulatory concerns. Here, we score access from very easy or inexpensive (€ or $) to very difficult or expensive (€ € € or $$$).

Download the Size-Relevance-Access tool