Page 208 - Electronic Commerce

Marketing on the Web

BEYOND MARKET SEGMENTATION:
CUSTOMER B EHAVIOR AND
RELATI ONSHIP I NTENSITY

In the previous sections, you learned how companies can target as market segments
groups of customers that share common characteristics. You also learned how one-to-one 183
marketing gives companies a chance to create Web experiences that are unique to each
individual customer. The next step—beyond market segmentation, even beyond one-
to-one marketing—is when companies use the Web to target specific customers in
different ways at different times.

Segmentation Using Customer Behavior
In the physical world, businesses can sometimes create different experiences for
customers in response to their needs. For example, a company might decide that its
mission is to sell prepared meals to hungry customers. A given potential customer
responds to hunger in different ways at different times. If a person is hungry in the
morning, but late for work, that person might drive through a fast-food restaurant or
grab a quick cup of coffee at the train station.
The point is that the same person requires different combinations of products and
services depending on the occasion. In general, the creation of separate experiences for
customers based on their behavior is called behavioral segmentation. When based on
things that happen at a specific time or occasion, behavioral segmentation is sometimes
called occasion segmentation.
Usually, businesses that operate in the physical world can meet only one or a few of a
customer’s differing behavioral needs. For example, the Chinese restaurant mentioned
earlier might offer dining room service and take-out service, but it probably would not
offer a drive-through window or a morning coffee kiosk. Very few, if any, restaurants offer
everything from fast food through a five-course dinner. In the online world, it is much
easier to design a single Web site that meets the needs of visitors who arrive in different
behavioral modes. Thus, a Web site design can include elements that appeal to different
behavioral segments.
Marketing researchers study how and why people prefer different combinations of
products, services, and Web site features and how these preferences are affected by their
modes of interaction with the site. Market researchers know that people want Web sites
that offer a range of interaction possibilities. Remember that a particular person might
visit a particular Web site at different times with different needs and will want an
interaction that meets those needs on each visit. Customizing visitor experiences to
match the site usage behavior patterns of each visitor or type of visitor is called usage-
based market segmentation. Researchers have identified common patterns of online
behavior and grouped patterns into categories. One set of categories that marketers use
today includes browsers, buyers, and shoppers.
Browsers
Some visitors to a company’s Web site are just surfing or browsing. Web sites intended to
appeal to potential customers in this mode must offer them something that piques their

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