ABSTRACT
Segmentation is an individual fact. However, many products are bought by couples and/or families, and families then should be the unit of segmentation. Nevertheless, there has been little research into family purchase decision making or even husband-wife (or other dyadic) behavior. Industrial marketing has dealt with buying committees for years, but in consumer research the heavy preponderance of research has been on individuals. For most segmentation schemes, this is not an issue, but PRIZM works on the basis of Zip Codes, and there is usually more than one person in a residence—are they all the same PRIZM type? What about VALS?
