Familiarity, expertise and involvement: key consumer segmentation factors

Abstract

Purpose -It is generally accepted that the launch of a new product is critical to its success. Key to this is that manufacturers understand the market segment which is targeted for the launch. However, recent research and criticism suggest that modern segmentation strategies, aligning products with lifecycle typologies do not work. It is no longer possible to align consumers and products into neat and stable lifecycle segments. It is suggested that more importance should be attached to products having a familiarity fit with consumers -what they know and expect from a particular product. These views are moderated by a consumer's enthusiasm or involvement with the product as well as their level of expertise in understanding complex products. This paper aims to look at these issues. Design/methodology/approach -This research looks at consumer perceptions to the changes to two automotive models launched by one of the major manufacturers at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Germany, held in September 2005, to discover which changes had the most appeal and to identify correlations with consumer lifecycles. Findings -Results revealed that consumer lifecycles had no correlation with any of the data, whereas familiarity, expertise and product involvement will provide manufacturers with more accurate segmentation tools in the launch and marketing of new automotive products. Practical implications -These findings suggest that a customer's expertise, product involvement and familiarity with the product are likely to provide more appropriate market segmentation tools. Originality/value -This paper reveals useful information on consumer lifestyles and market segmentation tools.

The benefits of using reduced item variable scales in marketing segmentation

“…The objective of this study was to establish the current reliability and validity of using the reduced item scales of AIS and Expertise suggested by Taylor-West et al (2008).…”

“…More recent research by Taylor-West et al (2008) suggested that this could be reduced even further to two items -exploratory factor analysis indicating that a two item scale explained 77.89% of the variance. This may appear to be a quest for reduced item scales, but they do have significant benefits.…”

“…Alba and Hutchinson (1987), Gregan-Paxton and Roedder (1997) and Kleiser and Mantel (1999) found expertise to be an important moderator in the way consumers assess new products and more recent research suggests expertise increases pro-rata to the keen interest and involvement that one has with an automobile (Taylor-West et al 2008), that is, the higher the interest and involvement, the higher the expertise. Kleiser and Mantel (1999) developed a 55 item instrument to measure consumer expertise; which they was reduced to a 15-item scale using exploratory factor analysis.…”

“…Subsequent research by Taylor-West et al (2008) used 10 items from the Kleiser and Mantel (1999) study and suggested that this could be reduced further to 3 items; exploratory factor analysis showed a 3 item scale explained 87.4% of the variance.…”

“…It is suggested that consumer perceptions of new automotive products are moderated by how involved they are with cars (Taylor-West et al 2008;Lennox and MacClarren 2003;Shimp and Sharma 1983;Bloch, 1981) and also their degree of expertise in understanding new innovations (Taylor-West et al 2008;Kleiser and mantel 1999). This suggests that due to these differences marketing communications need to deliver differing messages to address these differences, for example novices will need greater detail to understand the benefit of 'torque vectoring control' (a system that improves handling stability when cornering), (Wood 2012), compared to an expert.…”