Clustering Consumers on the Basis of Attitudinal Variables

Abstract

There are various factors that have brought a perceptible shift in consumer behaviour today. One of the important factors is heavy use of consumer promotions to sell the products. Sales promotion offers are therefore intricately linked to the dynamics of consumer behaviour. It is thus important to develop new classification of consumers in relation to their affinity towards the promotions, which will help in formulating more accurate and effective promotional strategies. This study has been conducted with a view to provide an insight into the different categories of consumers based on certain attitudinal variables like purchase behaviour (planned vs. unplanned), affinity towards promotional offers (promotion proneness) and attractiveness of various categories of promotion offer (attractiveness). A total of 29 attitudinal variables are used to study the consumer patterns. Cluster Analysis is the tool used to find out the number of consumer clusters using SPSS package. Finally, four types of customers have been identified which are ‘Disciplined Promotional Diehards’, ‘Promotional Freaks’, ‘Promotional Sophists’, and ‘Offer Savvy Systematic Shoppers.’ The effort is to define these categories of customers and bringing out distinguishing characteristics in each.