Construct Lifestyle in Market Segmentation: The Behaviour

¶ … construct lifestyle in market segmentation: The behaviour of tourist consumers" by Gonzalez and Bello (2002) argue that traditional segmentation techniques are inadequate to meet the needs of modern tourism consumers. They posit that lifestyle needs to be factored in, so that tourism operators can be better-equipped to meet the needs of tourists. The authors note in particular where there are similarities in purchasing patterns between people with very different socio-economic and demographic terms. The flip side to this is also noted -- that people can differ quite a bit in terms of lifestyle despite having demographic similarities. Thus, by factoring in lifestyle, marketers can improve their segmentation of the tourism market and this will give marketers a better chance to appeal to different lifestyle segments.

Olaghere (2010) gives a critique of this paper. He notes that using easily-observed lifestyle variables can deliver a 94% correct categorization of individuals, reinforcing the research of Gonzalez and Bello in that lifestyle is a major determinant of behavior in tourism. Since their paper, there have been many advances in how lifestyle is measured. Techniques ranging from Likert scales to SPSS statistical analysis have been utilized and in general the findings show that understanding lifestyle is a very good predictor of tourism behavior, arguably better than the analysis of traditional demographic variables, because consumers will tend to replicate their preferred lifestyle while on vacation. For example, people who are described as "foodies" are likely to be very discerning while on the road as well as at home, but such a descriptor does not fit any one specific demographic group.

The idea that lifestyle is a key variable that marketers can use to better understand consumers is not new, and has also been explored in other industries. It has been used, for example, to understand the consumers of backpacker hostels, in particular to examine what opportunities might arise to sell more to such consumers by giving them the things that they are looking for when they are travelling (Thyne, Davies and Nash, 2005). Lifestyle segmentation has also been explored to try to identify traits that define non-consumers. This work shows that lifestyle segmentation can also help to identify potential markets, something that was of interest in the museum industry, and could be related to other hospitality businesses as well (Todd & Lawson, 2001). Thus, from a theoretical perspective, the work that Gonzalez and Bello did has precedent and has been used in many different hospitality and tourism-related studies.

Their central thesis that "travel behaviour reflects a hierarchy of travel motives" (p.54). They describe these motives using Maslow's hierarchy, but any system will do. The central concept is that the lifestyle that consumers live at home will be a predictor of the lifestyle that they will seek when travelling aboard as tourists. They may be freer from constraints as tourists, but will tend to seek out many of the same experiences as they might do at home -- vacation might be a vacation away from their daily lives but it is not a vacation away from their interests.

In general, Gonzalez and Bello see their work as contributing to the segmentation based on the type of tourism. They identify several different types of tourism (domestic vs. international, sun-and-sea, cultural, sports, health) and determine that lifestyle preferences lead consumers to seek out these different types of experiences. A person with an active lifestyle at home is likely to seek out a sports or health-related experience on holiday. For marketers in a competitive global travel market, this is important. Consider for a minute the airport duty-free shop. These are, more or less, the same anywhere in the world. In some airports, there are endless corridors of these shops, selling the same things, to the exclusion of all other buying opportunities. Consider how economically wasteful that is, to expend the entire floor space of a large airport pursuing the same small market segment, when there are millions of people walking past who are not in that market, but might be in the market for other products or activities. Lifestyle-based segmentation would allow the operators of the airport to better understand the preferences of the people passing through and allow them to think more creatively about how to sell to their entire captive audience. What Gonzalez and Bello want marketers to think about is the full range of customers they can attract, and to find ways to think creatively about how to attract those customers by better understanding their needs.

The authors conduct a literature review of the concept of AIO (attitudes, interests and opinions) as a means of operationalizing the concept of lifestyle. They provide some insight to marketers about the pitfalls of trying to gather this information (especially gathering too much information, leading to respondent fatigue). Their work seeks to refine the process of AIO exploration in order to deliver better information more easily to marketers.

With multiple statistical analyses, the authors seek to identify five key lifestyles -- home-loving, idealistic, autonomous, hedonistic, and conservative. The authors apply these specifically to Spain, since the respondents are Spanish. The thinking behind the study could be replicated with any country, however. Or, a more destination-oriented approach would be more useful in a commercial sense (for example, finding out what types of tourists visit Rome, by lifestyle).

The authors' conclusions are based on the data, which is fine. The biggest issue with the conclusions are that they are merely another form of segmentation. They are therefore subject to the same limitations of segmentation, in particular the heavy reliance of generalizations and consequent lack of creativity and flexibility on the part of marketers. Five groups only is not much to work with, and will not encourage operators to seek out easy and clearly-defined niche markets. Those operators who do understand their consumers in far more detail will be the ones that can create the most compelling offerings, not ones who work with basic, indistinct sketches that come from either this form of segmentation or the more traditional demographic segmentation.

This technique that Gonzalez and Bello work with is good, but their application of the technique does not resolve the critical flaw in demographic segmentation, being too vague to be an applied by individual small businesses and localities in the tourism marketplace.