Segmenting business‐to‐business markets: a micro‐macro linking methodology

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to report a research methodology that is used to identify business buyer segments by relating demographic indicators to the needs of various market segments.Design/methodology/approachThe research was based on a survey in the office systems industry. The respondents were asked to evaluate the importance of marketing services that are used by dealers to select, evaluate, and retain vendors.FindingsMarket segments were identified and categorized using demographic and need‐based data. Discriminant analysis was able to distinguish between demographic market segments and to identify these segments based on their market needs.Practical implicationsThis paper demonstrates a methodology to identify customer needs based on demographic data, lowering the cost of identifying the product and service needs of different market segments.Originality/valueDemographic and need‐based business segmentation methods are widely used, However, empirically based research that bridges the gap between these two segmentation processes has not been previously reported.