MARKETING RESEARCH TOPIC:

The importance for market researchers to study statistically significant differences among groups of consumers as a way to structure market segmentation. Once the segments are identified, marketing research requires that data be gathered about the consumption patterns of the market segments, and then, these patterns are assessed statistically for significant differences. The statistical concepts used to compare segments are percentages and means.

It is important to emphasize that marketing segmentation is a conceptual notion, for whereas segments can be identified in a great many ways, they are not managerially relevant until statistically significant differences between them are shown that are useful from a marketing strategy standpoint. The starting point for examining differences is to compare percentages – and this is done in part because these calculations are less complicated.

Offer your own thoughts on the why we would want to understand such differences before defining market segments. We could, for example, compare sales of our product in North, South, East, and West San Antonio and find that sales vary. What does the concept of “statistically significant” really mean?