The issue addressed by this research was the question as to what constitutes the most appropriate level of consumer motivation at which to target marketing activities, such as marketing mix strategies. Most recently, benefit segmentation has been recommended as the best approach for marketing. Underlying the fact that benefit segmentation "works", i.e., that it seems to provide marketers with access to consumers' motivational systems, however, is the recognition that benefit-seeking represents a "superficial level" of consumer motivation. The question arises whether there is a more basic level of motivation underlying the benefits sought by consumers and, if so, how important it might be to understanding, predicting, and possibly influencing consumer behavior. / Both qualitative and quantitative research techniques were used to explore the travel motivations and behaviors of three separate samples of leisure travelers. The research objectives of this study were: (1) to determine whether a more fundamental level of consumer motivation underlies the benefits sought by leisure travelers, and (2) to determine if an understanding and operationalization of this deeper level of consumer motivation might be meaningful from a marketing perspective, specifically in terms of market segmentation. / Results suggested that benefit-seeking in a leisure travel context does indeed seem to represent a more superficial level of consumer motivation and that a functional approach (i.e., Katz (1960)) appears to tap a limited set of more basic needs related to leisure travel motivation. Both the benefit-seeking and the functional approach were operationalized and evaluated against other traditional forms of tourism market segmentation. Under certain circumstances and for certain marketing objectives, it appears that a functional segmentation mode may be superior to benefit segmentation. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-03, Section: A, page: 1002. / Major Professor: J. Dennis White. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76349 |
| Contributors | Fodness, Dale Douglas., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 274 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
Page generated in 0.01 seconds