Audience segmentation is a process of dividing people into homogeneous subgroups based upon defined criteria such as product usage, demographics, psychographics, communication behaviors and media use.
[7] More sophisticated segmentation strategies use psychosocial, behavioral and psychographics (personality, values, attitudes, interests, level of readiness for change and lifestyles) as variables to categorize audience subgroups.
Public health campaigns often target large segments of population who have low to moderate risk as small changes can create visible impact on morbidity and mortality.
[15] Health campaigns aim to decrease alcoholic beverage consumption focus on moderate users who are larger in number and have higher likelihood to respond positively to the interventions.
[16] On the other hand, targeting small segments of the high-risk population (e.g. heavy smokers) in quit smoking campaigns may be inefficient as they are less likely to stop the risky behavior.
The Nigeria STD/HIV Management Project, funded by the UK Department of International Development (DFID) in 1999, stirred intense conflicts after non-targeted community members felt resources had been unfairly allocated to the "unworthy" audience segment: people living with HIV/AIDS.
Rimal, Brown, Mkandawire, Folda, Bose and Creel identified risk perceptions and efficacy beliefs as the main audience segmentation criteria for the HIV-prevention project in Malawi.