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During the more than twenty years since its inception the technique of Benefit Segmentation has become a familiar method of analyzing markets to discover segmentation opportunities. Almost every major marketer of consumer goods and services has attempted to use this method one or more times. However, the degree of success which has attended its use has varied. In this article its originator, Dr. Russell I. Haley, examines the reasons for this variation, offers guidelines for proper use, and suggests directions for further improvements in the method.

Uses benefit needs to segment the online marketing market. Employs focus groups and a random sampling survey to search for consumer benefit needs and then segments the market by these benefits sought by customers. Shows that the various segments display significant differences in the benefits sought, lifestyles and demographics etc. Suggests that this work can assist marketing managers to focus on one or more segments that show salient consumer preferences for the benefits provided by their products or services.

There are few if any marketing concepts that have generated effort as voluminous and sustained as marketing segmentation. From the middle 1950's to the present, the topic has attracted both academicians and practitioners because of its inherent intellectual challenge and relevance to real world marketing decision making.

Promotional expenditures for manufacturer coupon distributions have increased rapidly during the last decade. Marketing professionals have criticized this trend. We discuss how coupon distributions allow manufacturers to price discriminate between market segments. Such discrimination should allow a firm to increase the shelf price of the brand. We find that instant coffee prices reflect this idea, and show that coupon distributions can be profitable for mature brands.

This paper investigates the influence of ethnologically based cultural factors on the motives and occasions for wine consumption both in Australia and overseas. As the international market for wine expands, global marketers have begun searching for new ways to define trans‐national segments. In particular, the success of Australian wines in the UK has provided a strong base for expansion into the competitive European market One key decision must involve what degree of differentiation the marketing program for each country will contain. Because many marketing theorists see ethnic or cultural background as one of the major underlying determinants of consumer behaviour this decision becomes quite critical. Others argue that consumption of wine is not culturally dependent but based on either a common set of motivations or is determined solely by the occasion in which wine will be consumed. To study this hypothesis a questionnaire was administered to approximately 500 respondents from a variety of Australian and European backgrounds. A single cross‐sectional design was employed. Respondents were primarily selected using a random sampling procedure with quotas boosted for some cultural groups by a convenience sampling process. The four chosen for analysis were Italian, Greek, German and Australian. It was found using an occasion‐based segmentation approach that there were significant differences between wine consumers of different cultural backgrounds. It is concluded that cultural factors do impact on the consumption process of wine and should be considered in any proposals for trans‐national segmentation strategies. However it is also shown that there are some motivational factors that are not culturally dependent. These factors are prime reasons for general wine consumption behaviour and could be used if an undifferentiated global! approach to wine segmentation is the most efficient for the marketer.

The purpose of this article is to propose a new framework for examining the relationship between the consumer and the product, focusing not on the benefits the consumer seeks to maximize, but on the other side of the ledger—the costs the consumer seeks to minimize. These costs tend to fall into the same categories of costs faced by other participants in the distribution channel. By conceptualizing the consumer as an active channel member, rather than as a passive recipient of products and services, we are able to present a systematic matrix of the total costs that consumers may weigh against benefits in their shopping, purchasing, and use decisions. On the basis of this framework, we suggest ways in which product and / or channel designers can improve their performance through deeper insights into consumers' cost tradeoffs.

Data collected from 202 large and 92 small consumer goods manufacturing firms were analysed to examine the perceptions and experiences of these companies with test marketing as part of their new product development strategy. Seventy six per cent of the large companies and twenty four per cent of the small firms in the study test marketed their new products before full‐scale introduction. Chi‐square analysis indicated a relationship between firm size, type of business/industry, the scope of marketing operations, and whether the firm conducted test marketing or not. Cost, time constraints, and the generic nature of the product were the most prominent reasons cited by all firms for not conducting test marketing. In addition, small firms cited their size as amajor reason they did not engage in test marketing.

Although cannibalism is seldom desirable, it can be tolerated under certain conditions. This paper illustrates those conditions and shows that cannibalism may not be so bad after all.

Principles cannot improve a creative product. Only increased creativity can improve a creative product. Adherence to certain principles can, however, help increase creativity and insure that the creative people get the information they need in a form they can use. Principles can provide afunctional set of parameters within which the creative process can most productively occur. And by identifying generally agreed upon evaluative criteria, the ability to recognize good creativity is increased and protection is provided against good creativity being dismissed arbitrarily.

Since nearly all types of consumer products end up in retail stores, the retail scene affects a wide range of businesses. However, retailers are competing in a marketplace characterized by maturity, overcapacity, intense price competition, and an essential “sameness” among stores. Retailers will need new strategies to be successful.