There is a widespread assumption among business owners that success means selling to the top tier. Higher prices, a more luxurious image, "respectable" customers.
The reality is that this segment is the hardest market in Egypt and the most expensive to serve, and that a great many companies make excellent profits serving middle and mass-market segments — nobody talks about them because they are not glamorous.
Why is the top segment hard?
- It is small. The market is limited and competition for it is fierce from names that have been there for years.
- Expectations are high. They pay more and demand more: speed, customisation, service, appearance.
- Serving them costs more. The premises, the packaging, the team, every detail has to be at a level.
- Trust builds slowly. They buy on referral and reputation, and those take years.
So you are entering a smaller market, at a higher cost, against stronger competition, with a longer trust cycle. It can work, but you have to enter by decision rather than by dazzle.
Margin does not always follow price
People assume a higher price means higher profit. But profit is the gap between price and cost, and cost in the top segment is much higher.
A product you sell for a hundred with a cost of forty is better than one you sell for a thousand with a cost of eight hundred and fifty — if you can move volume. And middle segments give you that volume.
A large market forgives
When you sell to a broad segment, mistakes get diluted. You lose a customer, you find ten others. That gives you room to test and learn.
In the small top-tier market, any mistake is discussed by the whole circle, because people know each other. A mistake there is far more expensive.
How do you choose your segment?
Do not choose by aspiration or by dazzle. Choose on three criteria:
- Where are they and what does reaching them cost? A hard-to-reach segment means high marketing cost whatever its price point.
- Can I serve them excellently with what I have now? If not, you will deliver an average service to people expecting excellence — the worst position of all.
- Does the arithmetic close? Price minus cost minus acquisition cost — what is left?
The middle segment is the largest market in Egypt
The segment looking for reasonable value at a reasonable price is by far the largest in number. It is also the least well served, because companies either chase the luxury end or the cheapest end.
That space holds a real opportunity: a decent product, a clear price, reasonable service, and a promise that gets kept. It needs no luxury, it needs consistency.
And the mass market?
That is the biggest market of all, and it works completely differently. It runs on volume, price, distribution and simplicity, and the margin per unit is very small but the quantities compensate.
If you enter it, your operations have to be built on efficiency: low cost, simple processes, wide distribution. The people who fail there are the ones trying to deliver top-tier service at mass-market prices.
Can you serve more than one segment?
You can, on condition of separation. Different products, different prices, and sometimes different names.
The danger is trying to serve everyone with the same product and the same message. Then the top segment feels you are beneath them and the lower segment finds you expensive — and you stay in the middle without winning anyone.
A segment is not only money
When we say segment, people think only of purchasing power. There are other criteria that matter more: the nature of the need, purchase frequency, ease of reach, and how much they already understand the product.
A customer who buys a small amount every month may matter more than one who buys a large amount once a year — because they give you steady income and reduce your dependence on intermittent large deals.
And a customer who knows what they want saves you explaining and persuading, which lowers your cost of selling even if their price is lower.
The most expensive customer is not always the best
In my experience, the most profitable customers are not the biggest spenders. They are the ones who know what they want, pay on time, ask for reasonable revisions, come back, and refer you.
Review your customers by that measure and you will find surprises. Sometimes the small, quiet customer contributes more than the large one who takes half your team's time and pays three months late.
Test before you commit
If you are unsure about the right segment, do not restructure the company to find out. Build a small offer aimed at that segment, promote it for two months, and watch the response.
That test saves you big decisions built on assumption. And sometimes you discover the segment you rated lower is the one that responds fastest and pays without long negotiation.
Numbers matter more than impressions here, because impressions about segments in the Egyptian market are full of outdated assumptions.
Move up gradually
If your ambition is to serve a higher segment, that is a respectable goal — but make it a transition rather than a leap. Start with a segment you can serve excellently, build a reputation and documented cases, improve your operations, and then move up a level.
Companies that leap find themselves making promises they cannot keep, and lose the reputation that would have carried them there anyway.
In short
You do not have to sell to the top segment. Choose the segment you can reach at reasonable cost, serve excellently, and close a profitable calculation with.
The middle and mass markets contain huge, profitable spaces, and many companies have built fortunes there with no glamour at all. What matters is that your decision rests on numbers rather than on the image you would like to project.
This is part of a series on marketing, sales and customers — which also covers what to do when people stop buying, and what actually brings customers.