Karsten Sausen

Development of a taxonomy of strategic market segmentation: a framework for bridging the implementation gap between normative segmentation and business practice

Even though market segmentation is one of the most established concepts in marketing, there are still some shortfalls in the body of research, which create a gap between theory and practice and lead to failure in the implementation of segmentation. The concept of strategic segmentation is specified as key in resolving these issues. It is shown that in any form of strategic segmentation, the following two questions need to be answered consistently: What is the objective of performing market segmentation? Which unit of analysis will be selected for the segmentation? Based on empirical findings, a taxonomy of four market segmentation strategies is developed that addresses these shortfalls. The findings show that segmentation can be induced from the customer as well as from the market; but most importantly, there has to be consistency between the objective and the unit of analysis of a market segmentation. These findings provide both useful managerial implications as well as a framework for further research.

The Resource-Based View as a Foundation for a Market Segmentation Theory: Development of Theoretical Constructs and a Conceptual Framework

This paper shows the importance of resources and capabilities for market segmentation. Therefore, a theoretical foundation for the resource-based view of market segmentation is provided. The main purpose of this paper is to identify the relevant constructs and to develop a conceptual framework that enables an evaluation of resources and capabilities for market segmentation regarding their indirect effect on the organizational performance. This framework provides a basis for further research and validation of the resource-based view of market segmentation.

Innovationen aus technologischen Entwicklungen

Der Aspekt des Community Marketings hat in den letzten Jahren in Theorie und Praxis laufend an Bedeutung gewonnen. Einer der Grunde hierfur ist u.a. das fehlende Kundenvertrauen und die damit einhergehende geringe Kundenbindung, insbesondere im Business-to-Consumer-Bereich. Dies hat den Druck auf Unternehmen erhoht, sich starker an den Kunden zu orientieren. Das Marketing ist deshalb gezwungen, seinen traditionellen, dyadisch gepragten Ansatz einer Anbieter-Nachfrage-Beziehung im Rahmen des Konsumentenverhaltens um interagierende Nachfragenetzwerke zu erweitern. Dabei sind Unternehmen nicht mehr Teil eines Business-to-Consumer- (BtC-)Markts, sondern eines Business-to-(Consumer-to-Consumer-)Netzwerks (Algesheimer 2004). Solche CtC-Netzwerke oder Communities bieten sich heute als innovative Zugangsmoglichkeit zu Kunden an. Fur die Schaffung resp. die Gestaltung der daraus resultierenden kommunikationsbasierten Netzwerkeffekte eignen sich insbesondere virtuelle Communities (Hagel/Armstrong 1997).