Have you ever heard of Icebreaker? Not the ships that pound throught the Artic blazing the way for lesser sailing vessels, but the outdoor clothing company from New Zealand. No? Well, me either until I read a recent case study on MarketingProfs.com .  This company has relatively low brand awareness in the United States, somewhere around 25,000 subscribers to their catalogs, but still pulled off a wildly successful campaign last holiday season.

Seems the smart folks in their marketing department set out to segment those 25,000 U.S. prospects. Now, I know the marketers in the crowd are already forming groups in their heads – Males 18-35, females 41 and up, blah blah blah! But Icebreaker decided to segment not by demographic, but by gift-giving habits…f-ing brilliant!!

They had segments like “it’s hot” for those who give cutting edge gifts, “Black Friday” for the deal finders, “Gift Guide” for the person who has trouble figuring out what to get everyone (this would be me). All in all Icebreaker had 11 separate gift-giving segments! So, each subscriber was “touched” many times, sales soared and the one’s who received the gifts were now aware of Icebreaker. Ho, ho, ho –  it’s off to the bank we go!