Market segmentation is a way of solving problems of mass marketing. All kind of segmentations and typologies have become more and more popular. If these are to be useful, they must assist to understanding of consuming habits of target groups. At the same time they have to move with the changing world around us. Too rigid segments are not compatible with the target market and if they are too flexible they are useless. My presentation is based on the information gathered by Marketing Radar Ltd in Finland. Marketing Radar has analysed social change since 1975 by carrying out attitude and value surveys. The Monitor-typology was invented as some kind of by-product as we wrote the 1987 Report on Social Change. The big idea came when we started to look at social change in three dimensions: -a shift towards inner-directed thinking -oscillation between individualism and collectivism -the human factor. We used these to build a five class typology from our data. The typology appeared to be a nice tool when analysing different consumer groups. The increasing demand for individualisation was evident but we did not worry about that, because based the typology on values. In this presentation I analyse the problem from the view point of value based segmentation. Is it possible to use segmentation when you are marketing to a very individualistic target group. Are four or five segments enough to cover all the individual nuances? How the typology is able to "live" with the time. How this kind of segmentation could help in understanding the markets, when it is evident that individualisation is increasing all the time. I will concentrate first on talking about some problems and difficulties I have faced in building and using typologies. Then I will illustrate briefly one example of a value-based segmentation and give some examples of changing consuming orientations. My basic argument is that when we are dealing with individualistic target groups segmentations must be based to something deeper than just habits. Habits can change very easily and even in a stochastic way because of market dynamics, values are more stable,.
Individualism in Western countries has come about through psychological and socio-cultural factors: human needs for a separate, distinctive identity in comparison with others. This requires secure attachments and core group affiliations, on top of which individuality can be superimposed; cultural values for self reliance and individual responsibility (e.g. Thatcherism). Distinctive identities are derived from social categories, group memberships, and roles. Individualism has thrived in response to consumer choice and brand segmentation which has permitted diversified identities. Pan European marketing and advertising strategies are largely irrelevant to consumer identity, providing there is choice within markets. Foreign brands contribute to the diversity within a market and foster individual identities based on national stereotypes. Cultural (and national) identities may however become a salient issue through perceived imposition of 'foreign' brands (replacing local products), or consumer awareness of homogeneity across markets as a marketing strategy. Cultural differentiation could become a key dimension for social comparisons in the search for a distinctive identity. Individualism may not be a permanent feature of Western society, in so far as it is a cultural phenomenon based on contemporary social values, and it relies on individual feelings of security and optimism to give it motive power. Loss of confidence would result in a return to group solidarity and identities derived from conformity to fashion.
With the growing internationalisation of markets it is not surprising that both researchers and marketers are more often intrigued by European communalities than differences. But generalisations across markets and countries, although quite plausible conceptually and intellectually, prove sometimes much less useful at an operational level. In fact, the growing fragmentation of individual demand calls for a profound understanding of consumer cultures and the dynamics of change. Markets are moving from mass products to products designed to meet highly differentiated consumer needs in various cultural settings. This calls for an equally sensitive and flexible approach to cross-cultural research.
The following paper focuses on Italy's present relationship between food consumption patterns - and possible future developments - and shapes and objects used for laying the table. The paper is based on reflections resulting from several researches carried out by Delfo in the area of food evolutions and dynamics that are currently emerging, as well as in the area of changes that are underway and their possible effects on the overall lifestyle and on situations part of everyday life, such as laying the table. One of the initial reflections who gave us the idea of taking part to this meeting is that in today's Italy you can find different food styles - "domestic"/traditional, side by side with those derived from different cultures - reference patterns are evolving and become increasingly flexible, according to new lifestyles and values. This fact is not evidently proven by the way the table is laid, in the objects and shapes that appear on it, which rather are tied to styles and cliches that time did not change. We intended to know whether if it was possible to translate these new patterns into easy, "elastic" shapes that would change according to new food requirements, thereby shifting the change from food to table objects. The paper is divided in two parts: the first part studies the present Italian situation with regards to offer and demand in the area of table objects. The second part highlights evolutions processes currently emerging from food habits and attitudes and how these can be translated into table objects. The conclusions show that it is possible to change shapes/objects modifying "scripts" that haven't changed, by means of reestablishing a connection with a deep- rooted food culture and its primary structure: a new reading of symbolic meanings on the base of new values, still considering increasing pushes toward what is new and beyond local boundaries, preserves its basic philosophy and asserts new individualistic trends that depart from the collective structure and reaffirm the role of food as a familiar and cultural aggregation point
This presentation deals with the growing importance of package design as a tool for strategic marketing decisions.This is the reason for which it is important to realize how designers involved in this area have transformed their traditional craftsmen activity in a new consultancy role to the companies top-management. A profile of today's Package Design strategic power is outlined in theory and through examples. The paper is concluded with the presentation of some case-histories illustrating the results of the application of our work method.
In this paper it is argued that growing individualisation of consumer lifestyle and demand necessarily leads to a major change in commercial communication. Already a shift from advertising to direct marketing is noticeable. But also direct marketing has to move further into a direction of individualisation of communication with consumers. Market research base to (re)define its role within this changing environment. Market research has traditionally strong links with advertising. It is argued that market research should get closer to the direct marketing world in view of growing individulisation of consumers. Because of their skills in data collection and data-analysis market researchers are well equipped for executing Marketing Information Management, which is the basis of Marketing & Sales Productivity Systems (MSP Systems). MSP Systems are built upon a central database that holds all relevant information of clients and prospects of marketing and sales activities. Such a system help companies to cope with the communication problems related to the growing individualisation of consumer lifestyle and demand.
The environmentalism movement has the potential to significantly change marketing in the 90's, not only in Europe, but throughout the developed world. Although the issue has been widely publicised, most recently in reference to the Gulf war, measuring changes in environmental awareness has been fraught with difficulties. Above all, it has been difficult to establish a link between attitudes expressed in surveys and behaviour. GfK, through its subsidiary G&I, has recently reworked its existing environmentalism segmentation. A scale of environmental awareness has been developed and linked to the Euro-Styles life-style typology. The relationship between environmental awareness and age, education and life-style was tested separately, whereby life-style was found to be the most discriminating variable. The typology, introduced into consumer panels across Western Europe, allows the validation of altitudinal research with concrete purchasing behaviour for the first time, and gives interesting insights into environmental awareness itself.
This research programme was carried out with a marketing, not a technical, objective. In a situation where multinational throngs of travellers mill around together in the duty-free environment, it was imperative to find ways of directing products at a small number of segments rather than to each of a large number of national groups. Identical studies were therefore carried out among travellers from each of the major markets, to establish how their behaviour and attitudes to duty-free compared. We were surprised to find how far business travellers from Eastern and Western countries had come together in their attitudes and we felt that our experience might be of use to others directing their efforts towards business people across countries and continents. It is likely that some of the similarities of attitude we found would apply also in areas such as, for instance, hotel accommodation and car hire. The paper is divided into two sections: the marketing needs and the solutions found; and the technical considerations and conclusions. From a marketing point of view, useful insights were obtained into how to approach different types of business traveller, be they Japanese or French, and the research led to the development of specific products and promotions for the segments which emerged.
There seems to be a somewhat contradictory tendency both towards a homogenization of life styles and towards fragmentation accompanied with a growing emphasis on individuality. The contradictory trends actualize a need for a deeper analysis of the role consumption occupies in the self-strategies of modem man, that is, the ways individual and social self is constructed with means of the world of goods. The paper outlines an approach relating consumer behaviour to the different aspects of "self-building". These different aspects are characterized with means of the metaphors for passive and active consumption (eating - reading - speaking) and tentatively developed into a model which makes explicit their interconnections as manifestations of the complementary "logics of consumption" (introjective vs. distinctive). The different aspects of self-building corresponding to the complementary logics of consumption are manifested in actual consumer behaviour as specific combinations here called "constitutive consumption types". It is argued that the concept of constitutive consumption types gains importance as the mediating link between the category of way of life (habitus) and actual consumption styles due to the growing fragmentation and individualisation eroding the basis for conventional views on hierarchically/structurally differentiated life styles.
The number of women with a paid job in the Netherlands is growing rapidly. Of course, having a job has implications on the amount of money, time and contacts one has. But the list of topics that are affected is much larger.To study what implications these changes in the lives of women may have for both marketeers, government and market researchers NIPO has done a number of studies starting in 1988. The findings of these studies are reported here. The first study concerns the survey of Women '88 conducted by NIPO in 1988. This is a study on the process of individualisation of women in the Netherlands. Five categories of women were distinguished segmented to the attitude towards individualisation and with respect to the individualised behaviour. The five types of women described in the study are: the pioneer, the supporter, the in between, the counterpart and the traditionalist. These five segments differ to a number of characteristics: education, marital status, employment, activities in the household, opinions about role patterns, independence and opportunities for women in society, leisure activities and consumer behaviour. It can be expected that women will combine jobs with family life and household tasks to a larger extent than is the case at present. The second part of the paper describes a qualitative study which NIPO conducted m 1990 on women in the Netherlands who combine their professional jobs with a family life. Points of interest in this study were: attitude towards individualisation, the psychological aspects of work, the consequences regarding consumer behaviour and the needs of women with regard to products and services.The women all worked full- or part-time and were aged between 18 and 65. The results of the study show that these women have special needs with regard to shopping facilities and that marketeers should pay more attention to women as being equally serious prospects as male clients.
Direct marketing is increasing in popularity as a means of selling to the consumer and business customer, it is nevertheless one of the most wasteful and ineffective forms of marketing. Direct marketers talk glibly of 2% effective rates from a mailing being a success, when perhaps they should consider the reality of 98% failure. In the age of the greening of the western world the implication is that there is a vast amount of waste as a result of ineffective mailings to consumers. Spending on market research by direct marketers is pitifully small and yet the use of lifestyle and segmentation research could make a significant contribution to refining the direct marketing process, maximising opportunity and reducing costs and waste. This paper examines the current state of research in direct marketing - principally in the U.S. (where the experience is markedly greater) but also with observations from Europe - and how the direct marketing community can refine existing approaches and utilize new research techniques to advantage. Discussion extends from macro approaches including simple socio-demographic analysis of databases through to the more sophisticated applications of geodemographic clustering and lifestyle segmentation and the potential for the application of risk analysis and neural network driven expert systems. The paper concludes that the industry could make greater utilisation of the advanced research technology at its disposal to decrease waste and increase effectiveness.