whose children have moved out. In a similar way, the types of products purchased by anewly married couple will differ from those of a couple with older children.7
Income is perhaps the most common demographic oasis for segmenting a market. This
may be partly because income often dictates who can or cannot afford a particular prod-
uct. It is quite reasonable, for example, to assume that individuals earning minimum wage
could not easily purchase a $25,000 sports car. Income tends to be a better basi s for seg-
menting markets as the price tag for a product increases. Income may not be quite as valu-
able for products such as bread, cigarettes , and motor oil. Income may also be helpful in
examining certain types of buying behavior. For example, individuals in the lower-middle
income group are prone to use coupons. Playboy recently announced the introduction of a special edition aimed at the subscribers with annual incomes over $45,000.
Several other demographic characteristics can influence various
of consumer
activi ties. Education, for example, affects product preferences as well as characteristics demanded for certain products. Occupation can also be important. Individuals who work
in hard physical labor occupations (e.g., coal mining) may demand an entirely different set
of products than a person employed as a teacher or bank teller, even though their incomes
are the same. Geographic mobility is somewhat related to occupation, in that certain occupations (e.g., military, corporate executives) require a high level of mobility. High geographic mobility necessitates that a person (or family) acquire new shopping habits, seek new sources
of products and services, and possibly develop new brand preferences . Finally, race and
national origin have been associated with product preferences and media preferences. Black Americans have exhibited preferences in respect to foo d, transportation, and entenainment,
to name a few. Hispan ics tend to prefer radio and television over newspapers and maga-
zines as a means for learning about products . The following Integrated Marketing box dis-
cusses how race may be an overlooked segment.8 9
.
Even religion is used as a basis for segmentation. Several interesting findings have
arisen from the limited research in this area. Aside from the obvious higher demands for
Christian-oriented magazines, books, music, entertainment, jewelry, educational institutions,
and counseling services, differences in demand for secular products and services have been
identified as well. For example, the Christian consumer attends movies less frequently than
consumers in general and spends more time in volunteer, even non-chu:ch-related, activities.
Notwithstandi ng its apparent
(i.e., low cost and ease of implementation),
considerable uncertainty
about demographic segmentation. The method is often mis-
used. A typical misuse of the approach has been to construct "profiles" of product users.
For example, it might be said that the typical consumer of Mexican food is under 35 years
of age, has a college education, earns more than $10,000 a year, lives in a SUburban fringe
of a moderate-size urban community, and resides in the West. True, these characteristics
do describe a typical consumer of Mexican food, but they also describe a lot of other con-
sumers as well, and may paint an inaccurate portrait of many other consumers.
Usage Segments
In 1964, Twedt made one of the earliest departures from demo-
graphic segmentation when he suggested that the heavy user, or frequent consumer, was
an important basis for segmentation. He proposed that consumption should be measured
directly, and that promotion should be aimed directly at the heavy user. This approach has
become very popular, particularly in the beverage industry (e.g beer, soft drinks, and spir-
its). Considerable research has been conducted with this particular group and the results
suggest that finding other characteristics that correlate with usage rate often greatly enhances marketing efforts. lo
Four other bases for market segmentation have evolved from the usage-level criteria.
The first is purchase occasion. Determining the reason for an airline passenger's trip, for
APPROACHING THE MARKET
39
INTEGRATED MARKETING
•
SEEKING THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN WEB COMMUNITY
Silas Myers is a new millenniumAfrican-American. He's 31,
With good reason, African-Americans have become smit-
holds an MBA from Harvard University, works as an invest-
ten with the ability to compare prices and find bargains online.
ment analyst for money manager Hotchkeo & Wiley, and pulls
Melvin Crenshaw, manager of Kidpreneurs magazine,
in a salary close to six figures. And he spends about lO hours
recently used the Travelocity Web site to save $300 on a ski
a week online, buying everything from a JVC portable radio
trip to Denver. "I really liked the value," he says.
to Arm & Hammer deodorant. "Maybe I'm nuts," he says, "but
It's a shame, then, that so few sites market to such an attrac-
shopping online is so much easier to me."
tive group. Almost every bookstore on the street has a sec-
Millions of African-Americans are online. They're
tion in African-American or ethnic literature. So it's shocking
younger, more affluent, and better educated than their offline
that e-commerce giants like Amazon.com don't have ethnic
kin. And they're not tiptoeing onto the Net. They're right at
book sections. The solution is easy. Web merchants can cre-
home. Five million blacks now cruise through cyberspace,
ate what the National Urban League's B. Keith Fulton calls
nearly equaling the combined number of Hispanic, Asian, and
"micro bundles"-Web categories within a site's merchan-
Native American surfers, according to researcher Cyber
dise that resemble the inner-city black bookstore or clothier.
Dialogue.
"You want blacks to click on a button and feel like they're in
True, Net use among African-Americans continues to lag
virtual Africa or virtual Harlem," says Fulton, the Urban
behind the online white population: 28% of blacks as opposed
League's director of Technology programs and policy. To
to 37% for whites. But it's time to take a closer look at the
attract blacks, he recommends decorating that comer of the
digital divide. While those who don't have Net access tend
site in kinte cloth patterns.
to be poor and undereducated, there's a large group of African-
Americans who are spending aggressively on the Web. "We're
Sources: Roger O. Crockett, "Attention Must Be Paid," Business
looking at a tidal wave coming of African-American-focused
Week e-biz, February 7, 2000, p. 16; Kate Fitzgerald, "Connection
content and online consumers," says Omar J. Wasow, exec-
Confirmation," Advertising Age, November 29, 1999, p. S-3;
utive director of BlackPlanet.com, a black-oriented online
"African-Americans Online," Advertising Age, November 29,
community. "You ignore it at your peril."
1999, p. $ -1 4.
instance, may be the most relevant cliteria for segmenting airline consumers. The same may
be true for products such as long-distance calling or the purchase of snack foods. The sec-
ond basis is user status. It seems apparent that communication strategies must differ if they are directed at different use patterns, such as nonusers versus ex-users, or one-time users
versus regular users. New car producers have become very sensitive to the need to provide
new car buyers with a great deal of supportive information after the sale in order to mini-
mize
after the purchase. However, determining how long this information is
necessary or effective is still anybody's guess. The third basis is loyalty. This approach places consumers into loyalty categories based on their purchase patterns of particular brands. A
key category is the brand-loyal consumer. Companies have assumed that if they can iden-
tIfy individuals who are brand loyal to their brand, and then delineate other characteristics
these people have in common, they will locate the ideal target market. There is still a great
deal of uncertainty as to how to correctly measure brand loyalty. The final characteristic is
stage of readiness. It is proposed that potential customers can be segmented as follows: unaware, aware, informed, interested, desirous, and intend to buy. Thus if a marketing manager is aware of where the specific segment of potential customers is, he/she can design
the appropriate market strategy to move them tnrough the various stages of readiness. Again,
these stages of readiness are rather vague and difficult to accurately measure.
Psychological Segments
Research results show that the concept of segmentation
should recognize psychological as well as demographic influences. For example, Phillip
40