Consumer behaviour and segmentation of
Date
2011-06-08
Authors
Posthumus, Corna
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The South African government has embarked on a minerals beneficiation drive, as
evident from recent legislative changes, to address South Africa’s shortcomings in
adding value to mined raw materials (precious metals and gemstones). This
favourable business climate created for local jewellery manufacturers poses a
challenge to marketers to first understand local jewellery consumers’ buying
behaviours and attitudes before branding these jewellery items across different
market segments. The above provided an impetus for conducting a consumer
research into South Africa’s somewhat immature precious jewellery market.
A structured standard questionnaire was designed to determine consumer
demographics, behaviours and attitudes towards precious jewellery. The purpose
of the research study was twofold. First, typical jewellery consumers’ buying
behaviour, shopping preferences and attitudes were determined to segment the
South African precious jewellery market. These findings (which were analysed
using quantitative research methodologies) led to the second part of the study, i.e.
developing a brand strategy framework to reach the identified market segments.
The results showed that the typical precious jewellery consumer in South Africa is:
a primarily white, “twenty-something to thirty-something” high-income female. The
results also indicated that local buying behaviours and shopping preferences (i.e.
the where, what, how, when and how) of precious jewellery are very similar to
those cited for overseas jewellery consumers. However, the study revealed that
there are two meaningful market segments in South Africa’s precious jewellery
market, as opposed to four segments, cited in the literature. The characteristics of
the first segment are very similar to those documented for overseas market
segments. However, an unexpected second segment (which is not documented in
the literature) emerged from the study, reflecting the differentiating characteristics
of the typical South African jewellery consumer, i.e. impulsive buyers of massproduced,
low-priced, fashion precious jewellery items. Brand strategy frameworks
for both market segments were then developed based on the study’s attitudinal
segmentation results
Description
MBA - WBS
Keywords
Consumer behaviour, Consumer segmentation, Jewellery