Lifestyle Segmentation of the Chinese Consumer
Forest Ma
Sinomonitor International, China
INTRODUCTION
Since Smith's (1956) introduction of market segmentation, it has become one of the most important concepts in marketing. It reveals that customers may be too numerous, too widely scattered and too heterogeneous in their needs and wants, which cannot be satisfied by one organization. Therefore, an organization must divide the total market into several relatively homogeneous groups with similar needs and desires. That is market segmentation.
Market segmentation has been divided into four distinct types according to the different criteria used in segmenting the market: socioeconomic, geographic, product-related...