RFM Segmentation Alone Must Die

Recency, frequency and monetary value (RFM) are the ruling troika of segmentation-land. And like one of the old Soviet troikas, they brook no challenge to their rule (e.g., Leon Trotsky was murdered on Joseph Stalin’s orders with an ice ax).

But they are simply not good enough alone anymore. I tried to be civil about this in my post "Beyond RFM—Doing Intermediate-Level Segmentation," but beyond is not good enough. We need to let a million flowers bloom in the world of segmentation.

This means taking the "7-12 $15-$19.99 multi-donor" view of segment out for a date with your ice ax.