The Construct Lifestyle in Market Segmentation - the Behavior of Tourist Consumers - Essay Example

?The construct "lifestyle" in market segmentation: The behavior of tourist consumers Overview The task of the marketer to get goods and services traded to consumers is not something that is done only to the benefit of the marketer. As a matter of fact, marketing is done to benefit the consumer as much as the marketer (Appiah, 2003). This is because without the marketer, the consumer will not have access to the products and services he needs. It is for this all-inclusive benefit of marketing that the act of marketing should be supported by every means possible to succeed. To make marketing successful, there is the need for innovation, initiation and renovation. One outcome of the search for marketing innovations is market segmentation. Market segmentation basically deals with allocating the right consumer with the right product. The Investopedia (2011) explains market segmentation as “aggregating of prospective buyers into groups (segments) that have common needs and will respond similarly to a marketing action.” Closely related to this explanation, Tatum (2011) posits that market segmentation “is a strategy that involves dividing a larger market into subsets of consumers who have common needs and applications for the goods and services offered in the market.” Because market segmentation tries to limit the division of the market base, it allows for the fullest understanding of basic rudiments of a particular market segment. Out of this benefit, Gonzalez and Bello (2002) came up with a coiled concentration of market segmentation on the tourism market where he writes about “The construct "lifestyle" in market segmentation: The behavior of tourist consumers”. This paper seeks to assess the thesis of the author in regard to the construct lifestyle and examine other innovations presented in the article. Assessment of the thesis of the authors in regards to the construct lifestyle The authors make a number of theses as far as the construct lifestyle in market segmentation for tourist consumers are concerned. One of these theses has to do with the inclusion of lifestyle to help segment the tourism market more adequately. The writers are of the view that lifestyle of consumers is very imminent if the tourist market can properly be segmented. In view of this, they define “the construct lifestyle based on the activities, interest and opinion approach.” The authors therefore believe that for any effect market segmentation that will target specific tourist consumers, players in the industry must not loss sight of the very activities that tourist would want to engage in when they are out there on tourism. As far as tourism is concerned the World Tourism Organization recognizes three groups of consumers who are visitors, overnight tourists and excursionist (Gonzalez& Bello, 2002, pp. 53). Each of these three categories of consumers undertake the type of tourism they do for different purposes. In doing this, they participate in different pre-intended activities based on their interest and opinion of tourism. For example one group of people on tourism would opt for animal related destinations because they have a natural love for animals. Another would opt for plant related destinations because their work has to do with plants. In the view of the authors, when such interests and activities of consumers are well harnessed in the construct lifestyle, tourism operators will be in an excellent position to attract the right consumers at the right time because they will put in place the right segmentation to meet the needs of the consumers. Another thesis outlined by the authors is the need to base the construct lifestyle on the total needs of travelers. Simply out, people’s needs reflect their lifestyle. To this effect, they assert that “good theory of tourist motivation must consider the total needs of travelers and not limit its focus to one need” (Gonzalez& Bello, 2002, pp. 53). Continuing research in tourism show that there is a lot of relation between tourist motivation and market segmentation (Crompton, 1979; Dann, 1977; Pearce, 1993; Uysal and Hagan, 1993; Uysal and Jurowski, 1994). The authors are therefore right to single out tourist motivation as an important component of construct lifestyle. In a much related way that the authors advocate tourist motivation to considering the total needs of travelers and not limiting its focus to one need, Zhang and Marcussen (2007) also posit that “the purpose of analyzing tourist motivation and activities is to explore visitors’ desire, wants and needs.” This means that the construct lifestyle should result in an opportunity for tourism industry players to critically scrutinize all areas of need of consumers. As a matter of fact, this point ma sound contradictory to the notion of market segmentation since market segmentation focuses on specific needs of consumers. But it is also correct to say that segmentation cannot even take place when the core needs of consumers have not been carefully analyzed. Gonzalez& Bello (2002) would therefore want industry operators to base on the travel career ladder proposed by Pearce (1991) to identify all the needs of consumers as pertains to five major levels of human needs. In doing this, “the analysis results will assist destination developers to understand target markets and improve the products, services and activities arranged to the tourists” (Zhang and Marcussen, 2007). Other innovations that are presented in the article The authors put up a number of innovations and interventions that can be used and adopted for tourism market segmentation in relation to the construct lifestyle. Firstly, there is the dynamic change management innovation. In the view of Debra (2005), dynamic change management should involve tourism entrepreneurs having a double vision approach whereby they will see things from consumers' point of view. This is just in line with what Gonzalez& Bello (2002) advocate. The era of making tourism consumers come after tourism entrepreneurs and enjoying just what is put before them should come an end. There should be drastic change that focuses on the needs of tourists based on their lifestyle. As an innovation, technology can be employed by most tourist destinations to play this all important role. For instance there can be the use of internet to trade in e-business where tourists will have the opportunity to access the available packages of a particular tourist center, book visitation dates online and make reservations for holidays. The social media network can also be made to sample views and needs of consumers so that these needs and views can be factored in decision making. Finally, the authors advocate for innovation into the Construct AIO Model. This is builds on their thesis of factoring consumer activities, interest and opinion in construct lifestyle. They therefore went ahead to design a methodology called lifestyle methodology. The lifestyle methodology is backed by the innovation of “variables from rational, concrete, behavioural psychology and yields an overall view of the consumer” (Gonzalez& Bello, 2002, pp. 56) Conclusion Tourism needs to grow and to do this effectively, research such as the one conducted by Gonzalez& Bello should be encouraged and continued. A lot more research should be invited at national and global levels to identify how best tourism entrepreneurs can make the most out of tourism entrepreneurs should also be prepared to implement the very basic ideas and interventions brought out of such research works. REFERENCE LIST Gonzalez, A. M. & Bello, L. 2002, "The construct "lifestyle" in market segmentation: The behavior of tourist consumers", European Journal of Marketing, 36 (1/2), p.p. 51-85 Appiah F. G, 2003, ‘Marketing as a Social Service’, PrintMark Publication: Toronto Investopedia, 2011, ‘Market Segmentation’, accessed September 21, 2011 Tatum M, 2011, ‘What is Market Segmentation?’ accessed September 20, 2011 Uysal, M. and Hagan, L. 1993, Motivations of pleasure travel and tourism. In M. Khan, M. Olsen, & T. Var (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Hospitality and Tourism (pp. 798-810), New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Uysal, M. and Jurowski, C. 1994, Testing the push and pull factors. Annals of Tourism Research, 21 (4), 844-846. Crompton, J. L., Fakeye, P., and Lue, C. 1992, Positioning the example of the lower Rio Grande Valley in the winter long stay destination market. Journal of Travel Research, 31(2), 20-26. Pearce, P. L. 1993, Fundamentals of tourist motivation. In D. G. Pearce and R. W. Butler (Eds.) Tourism Research: Critique and Challenges (pp. 113-134). London: Routledge. Debra R. K, 2005, ‘Change Management for the Tourism Business’, accessed September 21, 2011 Zhang J. and Marcussen C., 2007, ‘Tourist motivation, market segmentation and marketing strategies’, accessed September 21, 2011 < http://www.crt.dk/media/tourism_motivation_and_marketing_strategies_denmark_jie_zhang_carl_henrik_marcussen_crt_2007.pdf> Read More