Using Analytics to Segment American, French, and French-Canadian Consumers’ Choice: An Abstract

Abstract

This study entails a state-of-the-art quantitative modeling approach to latent class analysis (i.e., marketing segmentation and targeting analysis) of American, French, and French-Canadian consumers’ perception of American and French products based on their demographics and individual level cultural values. It identifies ‘hidden’ segments of consumers in the American/French/French-Canadian cultures and subcultures using their perception on US and France’s level of competitiveness, similarities between the French, American, and French-Canadian cultures, and understanding of these consumers towards France and US. We unveil these segments for three major French and American product categories. For the former, we study car, wine, and perfume, where car represents durable, wine represents shopping, and perfume covers luxury products; and for the latter we include large electronics (durables), apparel (shopping), and designer sunglasses (luxury).To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study investigating such a segmentation research question for French and American products by marrying analytics/modeling with individual level cultural values and the international business field. Results of this analysis have implications for marketing French and American products in the US, France, and French-Canadian markets and have applications for managers in improving the effectiveness of their segmentation/targeting processes, helping them get better responses as they target different segments, hence, reaching higher sales levels.This analysis contributes to academics and practitioners in at least three major levels: (1) it extends the marketing and international business literature by empirically unveiling hidden segments of American/French/French-Canadian consumers based on their demographics towards American and French products, (2) it offers managerial implications to those managers selling American and French products in the US/French/French-Canadian markets helping them better choose their target markets, and (3) by lowering targeting/advertising costs, it sets the ground for higher profits. The paper also further develops and updates the globalization and cultural change theory in additional markets and provides insights into the evolution of globalization and cosmopolitanism in consumer behavior.KeywordsAnalyticsCultural differencesSegmentationLatent class analysis