---
type: "synthesis"
sources: ["commercial"]
tags: ["segmentation", "customer-tiers", "synthesis"]
id: "xd-segmenting-the-demand-curve"
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-commercial"
originDay: 5
articleStem: "hbr-seg-commercial"
sourceUrl: "(unified vault: 9 sources)"
sourceTitle: "HBR — Demand Ⅰ-C · Commercial mechanics — pricing, fit, sales"
---
Four articles all build the same underlying move — cut the customer base into typed segments and treat each differently — but each names its taxonomy differently. Reading them together yields a segmentation meta-framework.

- **A003:** [[framework-grow|GROW]] sorts customers into Thriving / Striving / Transform / Terminate by fit and value.
- **A008:** [[framework-consumer-inertia-typology]] sorts by inertia × self-awareness (non-inert / [[concept-inert-naive-consumer|naïve]] / [[concept-inert-sophisticated-consumer|sophisticated]]) and pairs it with the [[framework-renewal-strategy-matrix|market × position matrix]].
- **A022:** [[concept-subjective-value|subjective value]] scatters buyers along the [[prereq-downward-sloping-demand|demand curve]]; [[concept-discounting-hurdles|hurdles]] let each segment self-select its price.
- **A009:** [[action-map-workaround-signals|map each workaround to a distinct user]] and their WTP, then build a [[concept-business-model-portfolio|portfolio]] serving each.

The unifying insight: a single undifferentiated treatment (one price, one default, one model, one ICP-blind quota) systematically leaves value on the table at both ends of the curve. The corollary — served in [[xd-serving-previously-uneconomical-segments]] — is that better segmentation *expands* reachable demand. See also [[xd-friction-as-a-filter]].