ABSTRACT
This chapter examines customers in terms of their purchasing behaviour and how people can most effectively divide them into distinct purchasing groups. The marketing concept puts customer needs at the centre of the organisation's decision making. To improve opportunities for success in a competitive marketplace, marketers must focus their efforts on clearly defined market targets. The intention is to select those groups of customers that the company is best able to serve so that competitive pressure is minimised. Increased competition, better informed and educated consumers and changing patterns of demand have given rise to the need for effective segmentation. Varied patterns of demand require that marketers develop specific marketing mixes aimed or targeted at specific market segments. Often both parents are working and children are relatively independent and perhaps working. Within the family unit the marketer needs to identify the principal decision-maker and to ascertain the level of influence exerted on him or her by family members.
