Discuss the role and importance of psychographic segmentation in consumer markets - What are the problems associated with this segmentation base?

The first 200 words of this essay...

Sarah E. Montano Elizabeth Mount

DISCUSS THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF PSYCHOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION IN CONSUMER MARKETS. WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS SEGMENTATION BASE?

When Levitt said that a business executive should 'stop thinking of his customers as part of some massively homogenous market' but instead regard them as 'numerous small islands of distinctiveness, each of which requires its own unique strategies' (1974) he accepted the marketing principle that each individual customer should respond differently to a marketing mix. Engel et al., (1972), proposed that customers are different, that these differences are related to differences in market demand, and that consumer 'segments' can be isolated within the overall market. If this is true, 'a company can't be all things to all customers', and so must subdivide its market into smaller groups, treating each differently 'based on knowing what a customer wants' (Wyner, 2002).

The proposition is that customers who share certain characteristics will behave similarly, but the success of this theory will depend upon on the criteria chosen to segment the market. If one uses a geographical basis it is assumed people living in the same area are similar customers, but it is not accurate to