Market segmentation in the cell phone market among adolescents and young adults

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the existence of inter-market market segments in the adolescents' and young adults' cell phone product-market in Finland, United Arab Emirates, Canada, China, and New Zealand. Drawing upon cell phone feature preferences criteria cited by Işıklar and Buyuközkan, the existence of inter-market market segments using these feature preferences as the cluster variate was examined. Design/methodology/approach – Using a survey questionnaire, data was gathered from 403 high school and 892 undergraduate students in Finland, UAE, China, Canada and New Zealand. Findings – The results of the study suggest the inter-market market segments do exist in the countries of this study, but their existence varies to some degree by country. Originality/value – An important implication of the research is the existence of the five inter-market segments among the adolescents and young adults in the five countries was established. Consequently, the inter-market segments extend over the borders. The five inter-market segments exist in all country markets except in New Zealand, which included only four segments. These five segments also appear to be unique and large enough in size, which are the key requirements in terms of successful segmentation, and thus warrant the development of unique products, services and marketing programs for the segments.

International Market Segmentation: Exploring Cell Phone Market of Young Adults

“…After the two step process starting with hierarchical cluster analysis, five solution appeared as possible these clusters were named the same way as done by [3] in similar type of study. Thus cluster 1 was named "all important".…”

“…Haverili (2013) [3] has recently study on Finland, United Arab Emirates, Canada, China, and New Zealand, suggest the existence of inter-market market segments but their existence varies to some degree by the country. However, the current study extends it further to include South Korea as well.…”

“…Haverila (2013) [3] has investigated the existence of inter-market segments in the adolescents" and young adults" cell phone product-market in Finland, United Arab Emirates, Canada, China, and New Zealand. The results of the study suggest the inter-segments do exist in the countries of this study, but their existence varies to some degree by country.…”

“…A 2-step cluster analysis was done as performed by [3] for similar type of studies. The 2-step approach was chosen since it enables the optimal combination of the advantages and disadvantages of the hierarchical and non-hierarchical methods.…”

“…Some research on inter-market segments relative to cell phone has been recently published [3]- [7]. However, a systematic overview on this subject is not available.…”