Relationship Segmentation

Research International routinely segments consumers by brand relationship. In a first-phase research effort, fifty to a hundred subjects are interviewed, usually by phone. A series of open- ended questions are asked, including word associations, brand personalization, characteristics of liked and disliked brands, and a dialogue section (based on what the brand would say if it were a person).

The first analysis stage involves scanning the data and forming hypotheses about the types of relationships that exist. In the second stage, respondents are allocated to relationship categories on the basis of the hypothesized relationship groupings. In the process, the relationship typology is refined. The relationships are then formalized into specifications, and coders classify the respondents into those relationships. The groups are then profiled. Often the relationship groupings correspond to like, dislike, and neutral segments. The “dislike” group for credit cards, for example, perceived the brand as being snobbish; the “like” group, in contrast, felt that they were accepted by the brand.