The construct lifestyle in market segmentation Essay

The construct lifestyle in market segmentation - Essay Example 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 â€Å"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 â€Å"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 â€Å"The construct "lifestyle" in market seg mentation: 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 â€Å"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 â€Å"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