Impact Of Changing Lifestyle On Consumer Behavior With Special Reference To Middle Class Of Allahabad Region

Abstract

Although various researchers have cited the usefulness of varied bases to classify a group of customers but it has been established that the utility of such approaches are limited and incident upon situational factors. Out of these, the demographic basis of classification of market is relatively easy and more pronounced in practice. It is natural to assume that people tend to minimize effort, expenses and maximize income by choosing the most cost-effective alternatives. It is by no means always true that people are rational decision-makers yet, on the contrary, they behave most of the time in violation of economic man models (Kahneman, 2000). Therefore there is a need to explore more aspects of human behaviour. The present study is an attempt to underscore the importance of relatively persistent physiological makeup of an individual, existing in a particular demographic setup, and guiding the activities interest and opinions of the person leading to purchase behaviour of interest to marketers. newline1.1 Defining a target audience newlineIn business it is a matter of being able to communicate your message in a persuasive way. Companies therefore need to be able to adapt to their target audiences needs, wants and values (Kotler and Keller, 2009: 253). In order for companies to do so, they may ask themselves questions like; how the customers are? What do they buy? And where can they be found? It is not possible for the companies to reach out to all customers in large, broad, or diverse markets and therefore by dividing the customers into groups or segment(s), the company can choose which group they wish to target (Kotler and Keller, 2009: 247). Kotler and Armstrong define market segmentation as and#8213;dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers who have distinct needs, characteristics, or behaviour and who might require separate products or marketing mixesand#8214; (Armstrong and Kotler, 2005: 54). The overall aim of this chapter is to study the concepts of the market segmentation followed by the market segmentation process. newline14 newline1.1.1 Ma