21 Examples of a Firmographic

John Spacey, April 14, 2020

A firmographic is a criteria that is used to identify a target market or target audience for business-to-business marketing. The following are illustrative examples.

Location

The location of a firm's headquarters, operations, retail locations or customers.

Industry

Targeting firms in a particular industry or sector of the economy.

Organization Type

Targeting government, non-profits, public companies or private companies.

Revenue

The size of a firm's revenue. Typically used to create categories such as large, medium, small and micro business. For example, a promotional price for businesses with less than $1 million in revenue for a cloud-based office productivity platform.

Budget

Estimated budget for a particular type of spend. For example, organizations that budget more than $1 billion a year for information technology capex.

Employees

Another common way to rank the size of firms is by how many people they employ.

Market Share

Market share in a particular product category. For example, a telecom equipment vendor that targets the top three telecom companies in 90 countries.

Business Volume

Volume of a particular business activity. For example, a courier that targets ecommerce sellers that ship more than 1000 packages a month.

Credit Worthiness

Indicators of the credit worthiness of firms such as a corporate credit rating.

Years in Business

Targeting old firms or new firms.

Organizational Structure

Organizational structure such as targeting the subsidiaries of a current customer.

Customers of a Competitor

The customers of one of your competitors. For example, a new telecom company that targets the customers of a firm with a poor reputation for network stability, performance and customer service.

Customer Satisfaction

Targeting your current customers with customer satisfaction scores. For example, an airline that offers upgrades to corporate employees who often fly business but were dissatisfied with a recent flight.

Share of Wallet

Share of wallet is the percentage of a current customer's spend in a product category that goes to you. This is a very common way to target upselling efforts.

Product Use

Product use such as heavy users of an IT platform.

Internal Environment

Factors inside the firm such as its technology platforms or corporate culture. For example, targeting firms that often allow employees to work from home.

Business Needs

Business needs such as firms that are planning to build a data center within 18 months.

Buying Situation

Buying situation such as a firm that often purchases business class flights last minute.

Purchase Frequency

Targeting firms that make frequent purchases in a product category such as offices that reorder basic supplies weekly.

Purchasing Process

Excluding or including a particular type of purchasing process such as excluding firms that require a cumbersome RFP from your target market.

Purchasing Cycle

Targeting firms that are likely to purchase in a particular time frame. For example, construction projects that are within 6 months of purchasing materials and components.

Notes

A firmographic is analogous to geographic, demographic, behavioral and psychographic segmentation of consumers.

Firmographics can be used by any area of marketing including product development, promotion, pricing, sales and distribution.

Overview: Firmographic
Type	Market Segmentation
Definition	A criteria that is used to identify a target market or target audience for business-to-business marketing.
Related Concepts	Market Segmentation » Target Market » Target Audience » Industry » Sector » Market Share »