IMPLEMENTATION PROBLEMS IN INDUSTRIAL MARKET-SEGMENTATION

Marketing theory suggests that market segmentation offers a range of b enefits to industrial and consumer marketers alike. Experience in indu strial markets, however, while supporting these suppositions, highligh ts the considerable practical problems that can be faced by companies attempting to put market segmentation into practice. This paper review s the industrial segmentation literature and considers a mix of qualit ative and quantitative evidence from the European construction and agr icultural markets and the UK aftermarket for car parts, making recomme ndations about the application of theoretical segmentation principles in practice.