European
Journal of
Marketing
33,5/6
470
Market segmentation by using
consumer lifestyle dimensions
and ethnocentrism
An empirical study
I^et-eived N4arch 1997
Revised December 1997
Orsay Kucukemiroglu
College of Business Administration, Pennsylvania State University,
York, Pennsylvania, USA
Keywords Consumer behaviour, Consumer marketing. Country of origin. Lifestyles,
Market segmentation, Turkey
Abstract Identifies consumer market segments existing among Turkish consumers by using
lifestyle patterns and ethnocenUism. Data for the study were collected through personal intervieivs
in ktanbuL Survey findings indicate tliat there are several lifestyle dimensions apparent among
the Turkish cottsumers which liad an influence on their ethnocentric tendencies. Nonethnocentric
Turkish consumers tend to have significantly more favorable beliefs, attitudes, and intentions
regarding imported products than do ethnocentric Turkish consumers. Using the lifestyle
dimensions extracted, three distinct market segments were found Consumers in ttie Liberals/
trend setters customer market segment showed similar behavioral tendencies and purchasing
pattents to consumers in western countries. Thejindings provide some implications to marketers
who currently operate in or are planning to enter into Turkish markets in the near future.
Introduction
_
Vol. 33 No. S/6, 1993, pp. 4704«7
Over the last two decades, global trade has changed substantially both in
magnitude and orientation. This rapid transformation has, in most cases,
created enormous mai'ket opportunities for countries and industries around the
globe. It is expected that this trend will continue and expose consumers to a
wider range of foreign products than ever before. Consequently, increased
globalization of today's business environment has also led to a renewed interest
in the effect of a product's country of origin on consumer decision making
{Papadopoulos and Heslop, 1993).
Country-of-origin is a concept which states that people attach a stereotypical
"made in" perception to products from specific countries and this influences
purchase and consumption behaviors in multi-national markets. In addition,
the concept encompasses perceptions of a sourcing country's economic,
political, and cultural characteristics, as well as specific product image
perceptions {Parameswaran and Pisharodi, 1994). Consumer behavior and
international marketing literature have extensively documented the impact
that a consumer's knowledge about a product's country of origin has on
subsequent product evaluations (Bilkey and Nes, 1982; Han, 1990; johanson et
al, 1985; Cordell, 1992; Hong and Wyer, 1989; Thorelli et al., 1988; Wang and
Lamb, 1983; Tse and Gom, 1993; Papadopoulos et ai, 1990). Bilkey and Ness
/moov
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peoples of other countries, and also that these stereotyping evaluations carry
over into the product evaluations. They found that overall evaluations of the
product are almost always influenced by country stereotyping. It is also
evident that customers' attitudes toward imports can vary significantly from
one country to another (Morello, 1984; Cattin et al, 1982). Stereotypes are
perceived differently by consumers across national boundaries as well, because
consumers share similar values and belief structure in their evaluations of
"made in" labels (Yavas and Alpay, 1986; Tongberg. 1972).
Research has also shown that nationalistic, patriotic and ethnocentric
sentiments can affect the evaluation and selection of imported products.
Consumer nationalism or patriotism, a construct that emerged from the country
of origin literature in the 1980s, asserts that patriotic emotions affect attitudes
about products and purchase intentions. Consumers from a wide range of
countries have been found to evaluate their own domestic products more
favorably than they do foreign ones (Han, 1988; Baumgartner and Jolibert,
1977; Bannister and Saunders, 1978; Darling and Kraft, 1977; Papadopoulos et
aL, 1990; Dickerson. 1982; Nagashima, 1970; Reierson, 1966; Narayana, 1981;
Johansson et al,, 1985).
Along with increased nationalism and heavy emphasis on cultural and
ethnic identity, consumer ethnocentrism will be a potent force in the global
business environment in the years to come. Hence, understanding whether the
level of ethnocentrism is differentiating customer characteristics for products
originating from overseas is useful for the development of marketing strategies
for imported products. Keeping this in mind, the objective of this paper is to
examine the process underlying consumers' attitudes toward products being
imported into their domestic markets. With consumer ethnocentrism as the
focal construct, this study uses lifestyle analysis as a proxy for ethnocentric
tendencies, along with other research techniques, to identify homogeneous
consumer market segments sharing similar patterns of social norms, beliefs,
and behaviors among Turkish consumers. Once these market segments are
identified, appropriate marketing strategies and policies can be developed to
reach them. The findings of the study offer managerial and public policy
implications which may facilitate the development of better consumer markets
in developing economies such as Turkey.
Consumer ethnocentrism and lifestyle
A general definition of consumer ethnocentrism refers to the phenomenon of
consumer preference for domestic products, or prejudice against imports
(LeVine and Campbell, 1972). Consumer ethnocentrism represents the beliefs
held by consumers about the appropriateness, indeed morality, of purchasing
foreign-made products (Shimp and Sharma, 1987). Ethnocentrism may be
interpreted as that purchasing imports is wrong, not only because it is
unpatriotic, but also because it is detrimental to the economy and results in loss
of jobs in industries threatened by imports. A series of nomological validity
tests conducted in the USA by Shimp and Sharma (1987) indicated that
Lifestyle
dimensions and
ethnocentrism
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consumer ethnocentrism is moderately predictive of consumers' beliefs,
attitudes, purchase intentions, and purchases. They also show that
ethnocentric tendencies are significantly negatively correlated with attitudes
towards foreign products and purchase intentions. Consumer patriotism or
ethnocentrism proposes that nationalistic emotions affect attitudes about
products and purchase intentions. In particular, consumer nationalism
influences cognitive evaluations of the products and consequently affects
purchase intent. This implies that nationalistic individuals will tend to perceive
the quality of domestic products as higher than that of foreign products (Han,
1989). According to Sharma et al, {1992), ethnocentric tendencies among
Korean consumers play a more important role in decision making when the
product of interest is an important source of jobs and income for the domestic
economy. When the imported product is perceived as less necessary,
ethnocentric tendencies may play a more important role in decision making.
The sti'ength, intensity and magnitude of consumer-ethnocentrism do vary
from culture/country to culture/country. Some authors argue that
ethnocentrism is a part of human nature (Mihalyi, 1984; Rushton. 1989; Herche,
1992).
Over the years, a number of studies have been carried out to understand the
behavior of the ethnocentric consumer better (tXirvasula and Netemeyer, 1992;
McLain and Stemquist, 1991; Shimp and Sharma, 1987; Sharma et al, 1992;
Netemeyer et al, 1991; Han, 1988; Chasin et al, 1988; Kaynak and Kara, 1996a).
Among these, an important contribution to consumer research has been the
development and limited international application of the CETSCALE, which is
designed to measure consumers' ethnocentric tendencies related to purchasing
foreign versus American products. It consists of 17 items scored on seven-point
Likert-type formats and represents an accepted means of measuring consumer
ethnocentrism aaoss cultures/nations. In their study, Shimp and Sharma
(1987) suggested several potential applications of the scale to population
groups in countries dissimilar to the USA. However, researchers were first
cautioned to provide an accurate translation and assessment of the scale's
psychometric properties. Further study conducted by Netemeyer et al (1991)
showed strong support for the psychometric properties and nomological
validity of the scale aaoss four different countries, France, Germany, Japan
and the USA. They reported alpha levels ranging from 0.91 to 0.95 across the
four countries studied. A strong support for the CETSCALE's
unidimensionality and internal consistency was established. However, little
research exists which empirically addresses biases encountered in conducting
consumer ethnocentrism research (Albaum and Peterson, 1984). Netemeyer et
al (1991) and Kaynak and Kara (1996a) strongly recommended that researchers
translate the CETSCALE into other languages and use it in other countries and
regions.
The success of a marketing model inherently lies in researchers' ability to
come up with variables that really distinguish people's performance in the
marketplace. This becomes even more important in a foreign market
environment. It is known that these variables are far more than just
demographic and socioeconomic characteristics (Westfall, 1962). Demographic
dimensions have received broader acceptance and lend themselves easily to
quantification and easy consumer classification. However, the usage of
demographics, for instance, has been questioned and argued that demographic
profiles have not been deemed sufficient because demographics lack richness
and often need to be supplemented with additional data (Wells, 1975). Social
class adds more depth to demographics, but it, too, often needs to be
supplemented in order to obtain meaningful insights into audience
characteristics. "Lifestyle segmentation" has been a useful concept for
marketing and advertising planning purposes (Wells and Tigert, 1977; Kaynak
and Kara, 1996b). Lifestyle, of course, has been defined simply as "how one
lives". In marketing, "lifestyle", however, describes the behavior of individuals,
a small group of interacting people, and large groups of people (e.g. market
segments) acting as potential consumers. Thus, the concept of the lifestyle
represents a set of ideas quite distinct from that of personality. The lifestyle
relates to the economic level at which people live, how they spend their money,
and how they allocate their time (Anderson and Golden, 1984). Lifestyle
segmentation research measures people's activities in terms of:
• how they spend their time;
• what interests they have and what importance they place on their
immediate surroundings;
• their views of themselves and the world around them; and
• some basic demographic characteristics.
The most widely used approach to lifestyle measurements has been activities,
interests, and opinions (AlO) rating statements (Wells and Tigert, 1977). The
focus of marketers and consumer researchers has generally been on identifying
the broad trends that influence how consumers live, work, and play. It allows a
population to be viewed as distinct individuals with feeling and tendencies,
addressed in compatible groups (segments) to make more efficient use of mass
media. In general, researchers tend to equate psychographic with the study of
lifestyles. Psychographic research is used by market researchers to describe a
consumer segment so as to help an organization better reach and understand
its customers. Hence, lifestyle patterns provide broader, more threedimensional views of consumers so that marketers can think about them more
intelligently. The basic premise of lifestyle research is that the more marketers
know and understand about their customers, the more effectively they can
communicate with and serve them (Kaynak and Kara, 1996b). However, a
majority of lifestyle studies have been carried out in the westem countries. Life
style information in Turkey is surely lacking. This study uses lifestyle
analysis, along with other research techniques, to identify consumer market
segments sharing similar patterns of social beliefs and behaviors, using
Lifestyle
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ethnocentrism
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Turkish consumers. Once these market segments are identified, appropriate
marketing strategies and policies can be developed to reach them.
Methodology
The data for this study were collected through self-administered questionnaires
from Istanbul, Turkey during the winter of 1995. In Istanbul, the largest and
the most cosmopolitan city in Turkey, a sizable percentage of the population
make their living from service, light manufacturing, and resource-based
industries. Choice of this particular city was made for the belief that the people
who lived in the big city are more habituated to questionnaires, and would
respond, which had an impact on selection decision. Furthermore, every effort
was made to get a cross-section of the population by selecting nine different
parts of Istanbul for the administration of this survey - Aksaray, Bakirkoy,
Besiktas, Beyazit, Fatih, Kadikoy, Karakoy, and Taksim, where shopping
centers are located and population density is high, were studied. Respondents
were randomly intercepted in the streets and contacted personally with the help
of senior students from local higher education institutions. A total of 532 usable
questionnaires were completed
A questionnaire for the study was developed in English first then translated
into Turkish by a bilingual associate. Back translation was also done to check
any inconsistency as well as possible translation errors. Before the survey
administration, pre-test of the questionnaire with a small group of respondents
was conducted, and the results were satisfactory. The questionnaire consisted
of five sections. In the first section, 56 activities, interest and opinions (AIO)
statements obtained from marketing literature were used to identify lifestyles
of Turkish consumers (Wells, 1975; Wells and Tigert, 1977; Mitchell, 1983;
Anderson and Golden, 1984). A five-point Likert scale was used, "1" being
"strongly disagreeing" and "5" being "strongly agree". The second section of
the questionnaire contained questions regarding the household decisionmaking process. The types of questions used in the instrument were very
similar to those incorporated by Davis and Rigaux (1974). Each respondent was
instructed to indicate the primary decision maker in the family (husband, wife
or the husband and wife jointly):
•
•
•
'
when they bought;
where they bought;
what they bought; and
how much they paid for the purchases of seven products and services:
grocery, major appliances, furniture, automobiles, savings, vacations,
and life insurance.
The third section of the questionnaire included questions about ethnocentrism.
C/)nsumer ethnocentrism was measured by the popular CETSCALE developed
by Slump and Sharma (1987). In the fourth section of the questionnaire, using a
five-point Likert scale, perceptions of foreign countries' products were
measured. The last section of the questionnaire included demographic and
socioeconomic questions, which are used to interpret the responses on other
questions.
Lifestyle
dimensions and
ethnocentrism
Analysis and discussions
Table I shows the demogi-aphic and socioeconomic questions which were used
to interpret the responses on other questions. Past literature indicated that
ethnocentric consumers had different lifestyle patterns than non-ethnocentric
consumers (LaTour and Henthome, 1990). The reliability analysis of the 56
activities, AIO statements produced a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.923,
which can be considered satisfactory. In order to understand the existing
lifestyle dimensions of the Turkish consumers and discern what kind of
lifestyle characteristics these consumers possessed, AIO statements were
factor analyzed. The resultant factor matrix was rotated using Varimax
rotations. The results of the factor analysis ai"e given in Table II.
The analysis produced eight factors, which explained 68.55 percent of the
total variance. Only those factors with an eigenvalue greater than 1.00 were
retained. The first factor consists of "I usually have one or more outfits that are
of the very latest style (0.713)", "When I must choose between the two, I usually
Chai-acteristics
Age
Below 20
20-30
31-40
41-50
Over 50
Income^
< 10,000.000
11-20.000.000
21-30,000.000
31-40,000.000
> 40,000,000
Marital, status
Single
Married
Gender
Male
Female
Education
Less than high school
High school
Some college
College
Note: ^ Monthly income in Turkish currency (US$1 = 60,000 Turkish Lira)
475
Frequencies
37
188
126
93
78
64
153
189
81
43
109
423
215
317
%
212
117
138
Table L
Demographic and
socio-economic
characteristics of
respondents
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Lifestyle
dimensions and
ethnocentrism
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ethnocentrism
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dress for fashion, not for comfort (0.676)", "An important part of my life and
activities is dressing smartly (0.660)", "I often try the latest hairdo styles when
they change (0.564)", "I like parties where there is lots of music and talk
(0.578)", "I would rather spend a quiet evening at home than go out to a party
(-0.502)", "I am a housebody (-0.574)". "I often try new stores before my friends
and neighbors do (.4902)", "I spend a lot of time talking with my friends about
products and brands (0.3363)", "I like to watch or listen to football or basketball
games (0.2283)". This factor accounts for 13.21 percent of the total variance and
may be labeled as Fashion consciousness factor. The second factor explains
11.72 per cent of the variance and consists of "I think I have more selfconfidence than most people (0.764)", "I am more independent than most people
(0.703)", "I think I have a lot of personal ability (0.694)", "I like to be considered
as a leader (0.601)", "My friends or neighbors often come to me for advice
(0.564)", "I sometimes influence what my friends buy (0.532)", "I would like to
take a trip around the world (0.502)", "I'd like to spend a year in a foreign
country (0.4377)", "People come to me more often than I go them for
information about brands (0.3415)", "I often seek out the advice of my friends
regarding which brand to buy (-0.2712)". This factor may be labeled as
Leadership factor. The third factor delineates a cluster of relationships among
"When my children are ill in bed, I drop most everything else in order to see to
their comfort (0.767)", "My children are the most important things in my life
(0.736)", "I try to arrange my home for my children's convenience (0.680)", "I
take a lot of time and effort to teach my children good habits (0.621)", "I usually
watch the advertisements for announcements of sales (0.4145)", "I will
probably have more money to spend next year than I have now (0.3872", "Five
years from now the family income will probably be a lot higher than it is now
(0.2993)", "I like to sew and frequently do (0.2415)", "I often make my own or
my children's clothes (0.2213)". This factor explains 10.47 percent of the
variance and may be labeled as Family concern factor. The fourth factor loaded
on "During the warm weather I drink low calorie soft drinks several times a
week (0.654)", "I buy more low calorie foods than the average housewife
(0.605)", "I use diet foods at least one meal a day (0.524)", and "I participate in
sport activities regularly (0.585)". This factor explains 9.18 percent of the
variance and may be labeled as Health consciousness factor. The fifth factor
accounts for 7.42 percent of the variance. It consists of "I must admit I really do
not like household chores (0.765)", "I find cleaning my house an unpleasant
task (0.727)", "My idea of housekeeping is once over lightly (0.603)", "I usually
keep my house very neat and clean (-0.578)", "I am uncomfortable when my
house is not completely clean (-0.541)", and "I enjoy most forms of homework
(-0.501)", "I don't like to see children's toys lying around (-^.4827)", "I like to
pay cash for everything I buy (0.2914)". This factor may be labeled as Carefree
factor. The sixth factor consists of "I am an active member of more than one
service organization (0.671)", "I do volunteer work for a hospital or service
organization on a fairly regular basis (0.645)", "I like to work on community
projects (0.541)", and "I have personally worked in a political campaign or for a
candidate or an issue (0.512)". This factor accounts for 6.88 percent of the total
variance and may be labeled as Community consciousness factor. The seventh
factor consists of "I shop for specials (0.749)", "I find myself checking the prices
in the grocery store even for small items (0.655)," "I usually watch the
advertisements for announcements of sales (0.618)", "A person can save a lot of
money by shopping around for bargains (0.531)", "You can save a lot of money
by making your own clothes (0.3432)". This factor may be labeled as Cost
consciousness factor and explains 5.71 percent of the variance. The eighth
factor includes "I depend on canned food for at least one meal a day (0.645)", "I
couldn't get along without canned foods (0.630)", "Things just do not taste right
if they come out of a can (-0.512)", "It is good to have credit cards (0.4349)", "I
would like to know how to sew like an expert (-0.3714)", "I would rather go to a
sporting event than a dance (0.2832)". This factor accounts for 3.96 percent of
the variance and may be labeled as Practicality Factor.
To measure convsumer ethnocentrism the 17-item CETSCALE developed by
Shimp and Sharma (1987) was used. Table III shows the result of the reliability
analysis of these 17 items.
Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.886 can be considered a reasonably high
reliability coefficient. Based on this, it can be assumed that all 17 items used are
Item
Turkish people should always by Turkish-made products instead of imports
Only those products that are unavailable in Turkey should be imported
Buy Turkish made products. Keep Turkey working
"
Turkish products, first, last, and foremost
Purchasing foreign made products is un-Turkish
It is not right to purchase foreign products, becau^ it puts Turks out of jobs
A real Turk should always buy Turkish-made products
We should purchase products manufectured in Turkey instead of letting other
countries get rich off us
It is always best to purchase Turkish products
There should be very little trading or purchasing of goods from other countries
unless out of necessity
Turks should not buy foreign products, because this hurts Turkish business
and causes unemployment
Curbs should be put on all imports
It may cost me in the long-run but I prefer to support Turkish products
Foreigners should not be allowed to put their products on our markets
Foreign products should be taxed heavily to reduce their entry into Turkey
We should buy from foreign countries only those products that we cannot
obtain within our own country
Turkish consumers who purchase products made in other countries are
responsible for putting their fellow Turks out of work
Lifestyle
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481
Reliability*^
0.879
0.879
0.878
0.876
0.877
0.870
0.874
0.878
0.884
0.880
0.884
0.874
0.880
0.885
0.881
0.884
0.883
Notes:
'^ Response format is a seven-point Likert-type scale (strongly agree = 7, strongly disagree =
'' Calculated using Cronbach alpha (alpha if item deleted). Overall alpha = 0.886
Table III.
17-item CETSCALK^
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measuring the same construct (ethnocentrism) and, therefore, a summative
measure can be used to represent the ethnocentrism score of the respondents.
To understand the underlying relationship between the factors (life style
dimensions) extracted by the factor analysis and the ethnocentrism score,
Pearson product moment correlation coefficients were computed. The results
are shown in Table FV.
The analysis of the results reveals that fashion consciousness and leadership
factors have statistically significant inverse relationships with the
ethnocentrism score. In other words, less ethnocenti-ic Turkish consumers are
more fashion conscious and leadership oriented or vice versa. On the other
hand, family concern factor and community consciousness factor liave
statistically significant positive correlation, with the ethnocentrism score. This
means those Turkish consumers more family concerned and the community
conscious are more ethnocentric. The correlations between the rest of the
factors and the ethnocentrism score were statistically insignificant.
Further analysis included cluster analysis on the 56 AIO statements. The
objective was to identify consumer market segments existing in Turkey by
using lifestyle analysis. It would be rather useful to identify the lifestyle
variables that make some Turkish consumers ethnocentric and the variables
that influence the others to change. The number of clusters were identified by
using pseudo F-ratio, cubic clustering criteria and standard deviation within
clusters criteria (Milligan and Cooper, 1985). As a result, three distinct clusters
were identified (see Table V).
Ethnocentrism
score
Lifestyle dimensions
Table IV.
Peai"son correlation
coefficient-s between
lifestyle dimensions
and ethnocentrism
score
Note: ' Significant at a < 0.01
Number of clusters
Table V.
Comparison of clusters
by different criteria
-0.327'
-0.251'
0.383'
0.081
-0.073
0.311'
0.033'
-0.029
Fashion conscious factor
Leadership factor
Family concern factor
Health consciousness factor
Care-free factor
Community consciousness factor
Cost consciousness factor
Practicality factor
2
3
4
Pseudo F-ratio
Cubic clustering
CTiteria
Standard deviation
within clusters
17.62
16.02
11.58
30.917
28.025
23.833
1.201
0.937
0.878
Then, clusters were defined using ethnocentrism, household decision making,
product attribute importance, demographic and socio-economic characteristics
and original lifestyle variables. To test the statistical significance among three
clusters on demographic and socio-economic variables, a Chi-square analysis
was used. To test the statistical significance among three clusters on
ethnocentrism and product attribute importance, a one-way ANOVA was
performed. Table VI shows the characteristics of the clusters. After analyzing
the characteristics, the first cluster of consumers showed the least degree of
ethnocenti-ic tendencies, indicating these consumers would most likely evaluate
a foreign-made product on its own merit and on the basis of the utility it offers
to them, rather than on where the product is manufactured or assembled.
Respondents in this cluster are mostly college educated and high income
earners. Quality, workmanship, prestigious brand name and style are very
important for these consumers, but price is not important to this group. These
consumer product demands and requirements are similar to those of consumers
in western nations. Cluster I is labeled as Liberals/trend setters. On the other
hand, clusters II and III are labeled as Moderates/survivors and Traditionalist/
conservatives respectively. Consumers in these segments are highly
ethnocentric and their demands and needs are not as sophisticated as the
consumers' demands in cluster I. A distinguishing characteristic of cluster III
consumers is that this group is mostly female. In their families, car purchases
are made by males. Prestigious brands and style are not important. Family
finances are managed mostly by males and price is very important. Study
results further indicated that non-ethnocentric Turkish consumers tended to
have significantly more favorable beliefs, attitudes, and intentions regarding
imported products than ethnocentric Turkish consumers.
Conclusions
While the present study should be considered exploratory, findings of the
study showed that several lifestyle dimensions exist among Turkish
consumers which have an influence on their ethn(x;entric buying tendencies.
These dimensions were fashion consciousness, leadership, family concern,
health consciousness, carefreen^s, community consciousness, cost
consciousness and practicality. Four major dimensions found among
consumers of the western nations such as fashion, leadership, community
concern and health consciousness do also exist as major lifestyle dimensions in
Turkish consumers. Significant con-elations were found between the lifestyle
dimensions of Turkish consumers and their ethnocentricism levels. Fashion
consciousness and leadership were statistically negatively correlated with the
ethnocentrism score. In other words, less ethnocentric Turkish consumers are
more fashion conscious and leadership oriented or vice versa. On the other
hand, family concern and community consciousness factors were significantly
positively correlated with the ethnocentrism score. That is, Turkish consumers
who are very family concerned and community oriented are more ethnocentric,
indicating that these consumers would be most likely to prefer purchasing
Lifestyle
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domestic products. This information has significant implications for the
marketers who currently operate in Turkish markets, or are planning to enter
into the development of promotion in the near future, regarding packaging and
pricing strategies for their products.
After analyzing the result of cluster analysis, it is found that consumers who
are classified as non-ethnocentric (cluster I) have very similar demand and
requirements as of their counterparts in the western nations. This finding
shows that the middle and high income consumers, irrespective of nationality
and country of residence, demonstrate similar, if not identical, behavioral
tendencies. This is consistent with the findings of Lynch (1994) and Svennevig
et al (1992) that with the emergence of market economies in newly
industrialized countries, distinct market segments are emerging in response to
increased business opportunities. In many of these countries, an extremely
affluent market exists along with low-income market segments. The affluent
segment's consumption can be characterized as conspicuous with strong
preferences for shopping for western goods (Lynch, 1994; Svennevig et al,
1992). Therefore, it appears that companies can standardize their marketing
strategies across nations while targeting these market segments. Syncrotic
decision making, brand name, and choice of products were considered very
important by cluster I (Liberals/trend setters) consumers, and they paid more
attention to fashion and design. Cluster I consumers may be considered very
important for marketers of major consumer products such as cosmetics,
sporting goods, household appliances and electronics and may require very
little or no modifications in the marketing strategy and approach.
On the other hand, the other two market segments cluster II (moderates/
survivors) and cluster III (traditionals/conservatives) are similar to each other.
Consumers in these segments are highly ethnocentric and their demands are
not as sophisticated as the consumers' demand in cluster I. The main
differentiating factor is the primary gender groups found in each segment. The
consumers in these segments are mainly traditional consumers with low
consumer sophistication and high ethnocentrism. The relationship between
ethnocentric tendencies attitudes and imports may be moderated by product
necessity (Sharma et aL, 1995). Hence, successful marketing strategies in these
segments require significant product and message modifications. One way to
overcome this unfavorable impact of consumer ethnocentricity on attitudes
toward imported products may be to stress product attributes, benefits, and
superior aspects of the product by underplaying the product's country of
origin. Companies in their efforts to expand their share of this segment of the
market will have to be need oriented. That is to say that international firms
need to undertake more marketing research for the assessment of the
ethnocentric consumer needs and filter this information and data through their
research and development departments. Through this kind of effort,
international firms will be able to develop appropriate products for the needs of
ethnocentric consumers.
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