An STP analysis is three linked decisions made in order. First you split a market into segments (segmentation). Then you choose which segments to serve (targeting). Finally you decide what place your offering should hold in those customers’ minds relative to competitors (positioning). Wondershare EdrawMind doesn’t do the analysis for you. It is a good place to lay out the branches, compare segments side by side and check that the final argument holds together. This guide covers the method first, then the map structure, then the free and paid limits.
What STP means, and what each stage produces
EdrawMind’s community page on STP mind maps describes segmentation as grouping and profiling customers by their attributes. It describes targeting as selecting the segments that look appealing, with profitability among the considerations. It describes positioning as assessing competitive advantage and seeking an appealing place in consumers’ minds. That page is hosted by the software publisher. It is an explanatory template page, not a statement from a named scholar or standards body, and it is a sound starting definition rather than a complete theory.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
| Stage | Question it answers | Output you should end up with |
|---|---|---|
| Segmentation | In what meaningful ways do customers differ? | A few named segment profiles, each backed by evidence |
| Targeting | Which of those groups should we serve, and can we? | One or more chosen segments, with written reasons |
| Positioning | Why should this audience prefer us? | A position: audience, need, difference, and proof of the difference |
Before you open EdrawMind: set the scope
Write down three things first, because every later branch depends on them:
- The offering. A specific product, service or line, not the whole company.
- The market boundary. For example, a region, a channel, or a use case. A boundary that is too wide gives you segments that are too vague to act on.
- The decision the analysis supports. Launching, repositioning, choosing ad channels and prioritising a roadmap all need different depth.
Step 1: Segment the market
Start by listing the ways customers plausibly differ, then group them into profiles. The aim is groups that are internally similar, clearly different from each other, and describable well enough to reach.
#1 Best Overall
- 🎓 Educational & Fun for All Ages: Dive into financial freedom with "Paycheck to Billionaire," a strategic board game that imparts skills in cost management and smart investing from startup to empire. Ideal for family game nights and educational play, this game is engaging for adults and kids ages 8 and up. 🌟
- 🎲 Interactive Family Game Time: Bring excitement to your family gatherings and game nights with this engaging board game that offers a fun way to learn about economics without the complexity of bankruptcy or monopoly rules. Ideal for kids, teens, and adults. 🎉
- 🎉 Perfect Party Game: Light up the party with "Paycheck to Billionaire," where young entrepreneurs aged 8-12 and older can strategize and compete to build their business empire. It's a hit at parties, fostering lively interaction and competitive spirit. 🏆
- 🍎 Teacher’s Educational Pick: A must-have for educational environments, this game allows teachers to introduce financial concepts and critical thinking skills in a fun, interactive manner. It's an excellent tool for classrooms and homeschool settings, encouraging students to engage with real-world economic strategies. 📚
- 🎁 Perfect for Building Business Mind: "Paycheck to Billionaire" is the ideal gift for minds keen on entrepreneurship. This engaging board game offers a fun and educational pathway to understanding business and finance, making it a superb choice for nurturing future business leaders during family game nights or as a thoughtful present. 🌐
Choose the variables
Common starting points are geography, demographics, behaviour (how often, how much, through which channel) and needs or benefits sought. These are widely used examples, not an exhaustive or official list. Pick the variables that actually change what customers buy or how you would sell to them. A demographic split that changes nothing in your offer is noise.
Write each profile from evidence
Give each segment a short name and a few facts: who they are, what they are trying to get done, how they buy today, and what frustrates them. Base these on interviews, survey results, sales or support data and usage analytics where you have them. Mark anything that is a guess as an assumption, so it can be tested later. A label such as “young professionals” is not a profile until it carries evidence.
Step 2: Choose the target segment
Compare the candidates against criteria you state openly. The EdrawMind page supports the ideas of segment appeal and profitability. It gives no scoring formula, minimum size or growth benchmark, and none should be assumed. The axes below are a practical checklist, not a sourced standard.
Recommended Free Tools
| Axis | Question to ask | Evidence versus assumption |
|---|---|---|
| Customer need | Is the problem real and pressing for this group? | Interviews, support tickets, search or usage data |
| Commercial appeal | Can serving them be profitable at a size that matters to us? | Pricing tests, revenue estimates, willingness to pay |
| Competitive conditions | Are they already well served, or is there room for a distinct offer? | Competitor review, switching behaviour |
| Ability to reach and serve | Do we have the channels, capacity and skills to serve them well? | Internal capability review, cost to acquire |
Rate each segment on each axis in plain words (strong, mixed, weak), or with a simple numeric scale if your team prefers one, and note why. Then choose. A segment that is attractive in theory but outside your ability to serve is a poor target. Record the reason for each segment you choose and for each one you reject, so the decision can be revisited later.
Step 3: Define the positioning
Positioning is a claim about what matters to the chosen audience and why you are different on it. A workable statement has four parts:
Rank #2
- THIS IS AN EXPANSION TO STAR WARS OUTER RIM: This is not a standalone experience. You will need a copy of the Star Wars Outer Rim base game in order to play with this expansion.
- TAKE TO THE STARS AND BECOME A LIVING LEGEND: You’ve made a name for yourself in the Outer Rim, but there is still Unfinished Business. Hyperlanes through the Core Worlds hold the promise of untapped opportunities. The market is flush with new merchandise, from valuable cargo to tools of the trade. Just watch your step; the latest crop of bounties is even deadlier, and your rivals are looking to take you down!
- STRATEGY GAME: The goal of Outer Rim is to be the first player to reach ten fame, but the path to notoriety can be different for every scoundrel. Cross paths with the various factions patrolling the Outer Rim, bring in iconic Star Wars characters dead or alive for bounties, or make a fortune delivering illegal cargo, dodging patrols and encounters across the galaxy.
- UNFINISHED BUSINESS: This long-awaited expansion is packed with more of everything the game has to offer - characters, ships, gear, bounties, jobs, encounters, dice and more! Two new tiles allow players to cross the galaxy by passing through the Core Worlds, and the new “favors” and “ambitions” change up how the game is played. Fire up your engines—it’s time to get down to business.
- NUMBER OF PLAYERS AND AVERAGE PLAYTIME: Star Wars Outer Rim is a strategy board game for 1 to 4 players and is suitable for ages 14 and older. Average playtime is approximately 3 to 4 hours.
- Audience: the target segment you chose.
- Need: the job or problem that matters most to them.
- Difference: how you meet the need in a way alternatives do not.
- Support: the evidence, feature or capability that makes the difference believable.
This four-part structure is practical guidance built from the idea of competitive advantage and consumer perception. It is not a canonical formula. Name the alternatives customers actually compare you with, which may include doing nothing or using a spreadsheet, not only direct rivals.
Step 4: Check that target and position agree
Read the finished analysis from top to bottom and test it:
- Does the difference you claim matter to the segment you chose?
- Can you support it with something real today?
- Would a different segment in your list make the position stronger?
If any answer is no, go back to the evidence and revise the segment or the position. STP is a loop, not a one-way pipeline.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Build the STP map in EdrawMind
Recommended map structure
The vendor does not prescribe an STP-specific method, so this layout is a suggested way to apply the tool to the framework.
| Branch | Sub-branches to add |
|---|---|
| Central topic | The offering and market boundary |
| Segmentation | Variables used; one sub-branch per segment profile (who, need, buying behaviour, evidence) |
| Targeting | Comparison criteria; a rating per segment; the decision and the rejected options with reasons |
| Positioning | Competitor alternatives; audience; need; difference; supporting proof |
Steps
- Create a new map and type the offering and market boundary into the central topic.
- Add three main topics: Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning.
- Under Segmentation, add the variables you chose, then one subtopic per segment profile. Keep labels short and put detail in child topics.
- Under Targeting, add the criteria as subtopics and place each segment’s rating beneath them. Add a final subtopic for the selected target and the reason.
- Under Positioning, add competitor alternatives and the four-part position statement.
- Use relationship lines to connect the chosen segment to the positioning branch. That visual link shows the alignment you tested in step 4.
- Switch to outline mode to read the argument as a linear list, which makes gaps easier to spot. Use a theme to make the three stages visually distinct.
- Present or export once the logic holds.
EdrawMind’s official user guide documents creating and editing topics and subtopics, outline mode, themes, relationship lines, brainstorming, slideshows, sharing and import/export. It lists exports to image formats and to PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML, SVG and MindManager. The feature section of that guide is labelled EdrawMind 10.0, so menu names and availability may differ in your release and operating system. Check them in your installed version.
Rank #3
- Financial Literacy Game: Rich Dad CASHFLOW by Robert Kiyosaki turns investing, budgeting, and cash flow lessons into interactive strategy gameplay for teens and adults ages 14 and up.
- Practice Money Decisions: Players evaluate opportunities, manage expenses, and explore real estate, business ownership, and passive income while building critical thinking skills.
- Easy to Learn: Only basic math skills are needed to start playing, and the strategic depth encourages conversation, problem-solving, and a different experience each session.
- Updated Since 2020: Refreshed to reflect modern financial concepts, with hands-on game components that support engaging learning for teens and adults across every session of play.
- Flexible Game Night: For 2 to 6 players, it suits family game nights, classrooms, homeschool, youth groups, and workshops, with full games in one sitting or shorter sessions.
A short illustrative example
The following is a made-up scenario to show the shape of a finished map, not real data. Suppose a small company sells a meal-planning app. Its segments might be “busy parents,” “fitness-focused singles” and “students on a budget,” each with evidence notes from user interviews. In the Targeting branch, parents rate strong on need and willingness to pay but mixed on competition. Students rate weak on commercial appeal. The company selects parents. The Positioning branch then reads: for busy parents, who need dinner decided in minutes, the app plans a week of meals around what is already in the kitchen, supported by a feature that builds the shopping list from the pantry. A relationship line from the parents segment to that statement makes the logic visible at a glance.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Free and paid EdrawMind: what to check
The official user guide says EdrawMind has free-trial and professional versions. Edraw’s individual plan page showed a free option plus semi-annual, annual and perpetual plans, listed at US$39, US$59 and US$118 respectively when the page was last reviewed. Treat those as a dated snapshot. Prices can be promotional or vary by region, and the vendor can change them at any time. The page also lists plan-dependent limits, including topic counts, watermarks, export choices, cloud storage and presentation limits.
This does not mean a paid plan is needed for a basic STP map. Start with the free functionality. Upgrade only if a specific limit blocks you, and before paying confirm these points on the current page for your region:
- The topic limit versus the size of your map.
- Whether exports carry a watermark.
- Whether the format you need (for example PowerPoint or PDF) is available on your plan.
- Cloud storage, sharing and collaboration needs.
- Whether a subscription or a perpetual licence suits how long you will use it.
What a mind map cannot do
A map makes the structure of your reasoning visible, but it cannot supply customer evidence or make the strategic choice. The sources behind this guide are product documentation, a pricing page and a publisher-hosted template, and none provides independent market statistics on how well STP performs, so none are quoted here. If your segments rest on assumptions, label them and test them with real customer research before committing budget. For deeper theory on segmentation variables and case studies, a general marketing strategy textbook is the natural next step.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
