Abstract:

This paper briefly reviews the standard practices of benefit measurement and benefit segmentation and, along the way, points out their deficiencies, and then introduces Maximum Difference Scaling, a method that the authors believe is a much more powerful method for measuring benefit importance - a method that is scale-free and thus very applicable to international segmentation research. The authors then describe how Maximum Difference Scaling can be combined with Latent Class Analysis to obtain international benefit segments. An example is provided of how both the traditional and the newer methods were used in a cross-national consumer study of coffee drinkers and we compare the results. The paper concludes with some final thoughts and suggestions for use.