Lifestyle Market Segmentation

(Hardback)

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As businesses have grown to realize that the success of operations is more and more dependent upon an adequate knowledge of consumer behaviour, the importance of lifestyle market segmentation has increased steadily. In this volume, Ronald Michman shows how social and cultural changes in group dynamics and purchasing influences can be used in making lifestyle marketing decisions. Working from a management-oriented perspective, Michman describes the key steps in market planning - interpreting signals of change, assessing the implications of change, and developing strategies to take advantage of the change - and challenges the viewpoint that strategies from lifestyle market segmentation studies can be developed in the short term. Viewing lifestyle market segmentation as just one aspect of an overall marketing plan, Michman links the specific strategies of this approach to the larger issues of strategic planning. The first three chapters of the book place the topics of market segmentation and lifestyle segmentation into a historical perspective, and trace the development of these marketing approaches. The next three chapters focus on group dynamics and purchasing influences, covering specific target markets such as singles, teens, the elderly, and ethnic groups. Methods for cultivating these markets through lifestyle segmentation strategies are fully discussed. In the final three chapters, lifestyle segmentation is examined in relation to the impact on consumer behaviour of decision making, purchasing habits, and changing values. With its emphasis on practical application, this work should be a valuable resource for managers and other professionals in the marketing field, as well as for students in business and marketing courses.

Reviews

At first glance this very readable book may appear overly scholarly and technical, but it is easy to understand and covers the increasingly important technique of life-style market segmentation. The author effectively deals with the concepts of marketing segmentation; the range of marketing differences; topics related to strategies, group dynamics, purchasing characteristics, and targeting markets; and purchasing behavior and changing values as they pertain to life-styles. The work is divided into three sections. The first provides a historical perspective and an overview of the development of life-style segmentation. The next three chapters deal with group dynamics and purchasing influences, and the final three chapters address specific issues of life-style market segmentation. Appropriate for undergraduate students, graduate students, and marketing and nonmarketing managers who wish to examine this important strategy in marketing.-Choice
"At first glance this very readable book may appear overly scholarly and technical, but it is easy to understand and covers the increasingly important technique of life-style market segmentation. The author effectively deals with the concepts of marketing segmentation; the range of marketing differences; topics related to strategies, group dynamics, purchasing characteristics, and targeting markets; and purchasing behavior and changing values as they pertain to life-styles. The work is divided into three sections. The first provides a historical perspective and an overview of the development of life-style segmentation. The next three chapters deal with group dynamics and purchasing influences, and the final three chapters address specific issues of life-style market segmentation. Appropriate for undergraduate students, graduate students, and marketing and nonmarketing managers who wish to examine this important strategy in marketing."-Choice

Author Bio

RONALD D. MICHMAN is Professor of Marketing at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. He is the author of Marketing to Changing Consumer Markets: Environmental Scanning and coauthor of Marketing Channels and Strategies, Second Edition, and Strategic Advertising Decisions, as well as numerous articles that have appeared in Business, Business Horizons, Industrial Marketing Management, and the Journal of Business Strategy.