Nurturing Social Entrepreneurs

by Karen Coppock

Santa Clara University's Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) was highlighted in an article in Forbes.com today.

This innovative program has nurtured hundreds of social entreprises (for-profit businesses with a social slant or non-profit organizations run with business rigor) from around the world and has allowed many professionals in Silicon Valley the opportunity to devote their talents and expertise to helping solve the world's most critical challenges.

Vital Wave Consulting's CEO, Brooke Partridge, participated in this year's GSBI bootcamp and led an interactive workshop on market segmentation. Given that many social enterprises are exploring hybrid business models (for example, Planet Read's literacy work in India is partially subsidized by the profits received from its sister organization, for-profit BookBox) understanding and correctly applying market segmentation approaches is an increasingly important.

Social enterprises are not the only organizations that benefit from market segmentation. It is impossible for firms to rely on a single marketing strategy or message for all countries (especially for the extremely diverse and dynamic set of emerging markets). Conversely, no firm can afford to have a specific strategy for each of the world's countries. Market segmentation allows organizations to group countries, consumers, or other target markets based on dimensions that make sense for their product or service offering and to tailor marketing strategies to the needs and interests of these segmented groups.