Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

Perceptions and preferences
A second approach to the study of attitudes is through the study of perceptions and prefer-
ences. Much of the work in the multi-dimensional scaling area (Green et al., 1989) is primar-
ily concerned with identifying segments of respondents who view the products on offer in 
a similar way (perceptual space segmentation) and require from the market similar features 
or benefits (preference segmentation). (This approach to market segmentation is discussed 
further in Chapter 8, where we are concerned with segmentation research.)

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SEGMENTING CONSUMER MARKETS
Summary of attitudinal bases for segmentation
Segmentation on the basis of attitudes, both to the product class and the various brands 
on offer, can create a more useful basis for marketing strategy development than merely 
background characteristics. It gets closer to the underlying reasons for behaviour and uses 
them as the basis for segmenting the market. The major drawback of such techniques is 
that they require often costly primary research and sophisticated data analysis techniques.
7.5.3 Customer behavioural characteristics for segmenting 
markets
The most direct method of segmenting markets is on the basis of the behaviour of the con-
sumers in those markets. Behavioural segmentation covers purchases, consumption, com-
munication and response to elements of the marketing mix.
Purchase behaviour
Study of purchasing behaviour has centred on such issues as the time of purchase (early or 
late in the product’s overall life cycle) and patterns of purchase (the identification of brand-
loyal customers):
● 
Innovators: because of their importance when new products are launched, innovators 
(those who purchase a product when it is still new) have received much attention from 
marketers. Clearly, during the launch of new products the isolation of innovators as the 
initial target segment could significantly improve the product’s or service’s chances of 
acceptance on the market. Innovative behaviour, however, is not necessarily generalis-
able to many different product fields. Attempts to seek out generalised innovators have 
been less successful than looking separately for innovators in a specific field. Generalisa-
tions seem most relevant when the fields of study are of similar interest.
● 
Brand loyalty: variously defined, brand loyalty has also been used as a basis for seg-
mentation. While innovators are concerned with initial purchase, loyalty patterns are 
concerned with repeat purchase. As such, they are more applicable to repeat purchase 
goods than to consumer durables, though they have been used in durables markets (see 
the VW example that follows). As with innovative behaviour, research has been unable 
to identify consumers who exhibit loyal behaviour over a wide variety of products. 
Loyalty, as with innovativeness, is specific to a particular product field.
Volkswagen, the German automobile manufacturer, has used loyalty as a major 
method for segmenting its customer markets. It divided its customers into the following 
categories: first-time buyers; and replacement buyers – (a) model-loyal replacers, (b) 
company-loyal replacers and (c) switch replacers. These segments were used to analyse 
performance and market trends and for forecasting purposes.
In the context of e-marketing, companies such as Site Intelligence have devised methods 
of segmenting website visitors and purchasers using combinations of behavioural (visits) 
and demographic characteristics.