B2B usage segmentation under competition

• Main Authors: Meng-Ting Chen, 陳夢婷
• Other Authors: Ming-Chih Tsai
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/91420111108357883686

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 行銷學系所 === 102 === Market segmentation is the key of the successful marketing of strategies and results in increased marketing effectiveness and efficiency. Even more, one benefit of market segmentation is a better understanding of customers’ needs and characteristics. However, customers’ needs are different when contacting with varied service providers in the market place. Therefore, market segmentation should be based on the effect of competitor. Yet, previous research on market segmentation considering competition is restricted. Most segmentation studies are descriptive in nature, as they have used respondents’ demographic variables as segmentation criteria. However, customer demographic characteristics alone are poor indicators of customer behavior and that market strategies should be more aligned to the behaviors and attitudes of targeted customers. Many marketers also believe that behavioral variable, namely customer usage, is the best criterion for constructing market segments. Though many researches have studied usage segmentation, there is few usage segmentation depending on competitive group and empirical study is scarce in previous. As a result, this study aims to develop model to segment market considering competition and customer usage, then identify customers. Samples of 109 valid Taiwanese high-tech customers consuming global air express service were collected for data analysis. Statistical clustering and ANOVA are used to group and identify the customers. With a designed segment approach, the manager can separate customers into specific market segments based on the varying needs of different strategies and the competition. The results highlight crucial aspects which help to avoid failure in market segmentation.