No Reference, No Market — Regardless of Revenue

"If two people buy the same product for the same reason but have no way they could reference each other, they are not part of the same market."

"a set of actual or potential customers •    for a given set of products or services •    who have a common set of needs or wants, and •    who reference each other when making a buying decision."

"Marketing professionals insist on market segmentation because they know that no meaningful marketing program can be implemented across a set of customers who do not reference each other."

"Numerous studies have shown that in the high-tech buying process, word of mouth is the number-one source of information that buyers reference, both at the beginning of the sales cycle, to establish their “long lists,” and at the end, when they are paring down their short ones. Now, for word of mouth to develop in any particular marketplace, there must be a critical mass of informed individuals who meet from time to time and, in exchanging views, reinforce the product’s or the company’s positioning. That’s how word of mouth spreads. Seeding this communications process is expensive, particularly once you leave the early market, which in general can be reached through the technical press and related media. By contrast, pragmatist buyers, as we have already noted, communicate along industry lines or through professional associations."