Analysis of Indian Consumers’ Behaviour using Lifestyle Segmentation

Demographic profiling has been an important basis of segmenting consumers. But the demographic variables provide a compartmentalised view of consumer behaviour. Purchase and consumption behaviour are in fact the result of influence of many variables operating simultaneously in the background. In order, to provide a holistic view of the ‘why and how’ of consumers purchase decision, lifestyle analysis has been considered a superior basis of customer profiling in recent research. Lifestyle study focuses on activities, interests and opinions of consumers and their role in formulating consumers’ purchase decision. Past researches in India do provide an insight into the segmentation of Indian consumers on demographic and geographic basis. However, not much has been emphasised on the use of lifestyle for segmenting Indian consumers. The present research, therefore, tries to fill this void by providing the lifestyle profiling of the Indian consumers using factor analysis and cluster analysis. This study can help the marketers in segmenting their prospective and present customers using the suggested lifestyle dimensions.