Market Research and Segmentation Problem

As a marketing representative at a local hospital, I would be conducting research on the consumers in the area by using lifestyle analysis and marketing research techniques in order to create a lifestyle profile for potential patients in the facility. Moreover, the paper would highlight two ways in which the facility could be segmented, how people perceive the facility, assessment of lifestyle profiles, and the accuracy of demographic and psychographic information. Description of the facility

The facility where the hospital is situated does not come under an area that is well-developed or has proper infrastructure.

There are of course housing facilitates near the hospital but none of them would be too expensive to afford, since most of the area is covered by small apartments. The roads here are not properly built and are torn from several places; also, the hygienic condition is not sound since a pool of stagnant water is found nearby the hospital that actually stinks a lot. Lifestyle Analysis

Lifestyle is what we call how the people live, what are their interests, expenses, activities, and opinions; similarly lifestyle analysis is all about analyzing the consumers in terms of their behaviors related to their interests, expenses, and activities (Pinkovitz, 1997).

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Lifestyles of the consumers might vary from situation to situation, since they can be forced to live in a certain way due to demographic or geographic conditions, where their opinions or aims might contradict with the way they are living right now.

Methods used for Conducting Lifestyle Analysis The lifestyle analysis of the consumers or patients living in this facility was conducted by conducting market research techniques that are questionnaires, focus groups, and informal interviews (Heizer & Render, 2007).

Moreover, the consumers were asked about their lifestyles as in, what are their interests, daily activities, expenses, opinions, preferences, and leisure time activities.

Another strategy used to determine their lifestyles was the identification of their marital status, sources of income, their memberships in clubs, properties owned by them, savings, available cash, number of children, and usage of credit cards (Vuotto, Esq, & Gensib, 2010). Also, past records about the same information was collected in order to identify whether the findings are consistent or not (Bernstein, 2007). They were ensured that the information provided by them would be kept confidential and would not be passed to any third party. Lifestyle Profile

After collecting all the relevant information of the potential patients or the consumers in that area, their lifestyle profiles were developed that had the following information. There were some contradictions in the findings since the opinions, interests, and present way of living contradicted for many people. Therefore, category A of the facility thought that they are living a normal lifestyle because they are used to of it; those people had low income, low expenditure, more family members, no membership in any club, no recreation activities, and low inclination towards education.

Whereas, category B was not satisfied with the way they were living since they had lived somewhere other in a better way, or had interests and opinions to spend the life in a more comfortable and better way. Those people had low sources of income, potential of high expenditure, more inclination towards education and recreation activities, no membership in clubs but did have sufficient knowledge about that. Segmentation of Market Based on the research conducted within the facility of hospital, the market can be segmented into segments easily – low profile consumers and lower-middle profile consumers.

The profiles of these consumers give a fair idea about how they perceive their facility and what do they want to let the facility improve. Category A of the potential patients perceived the facility is ok, neither good nor bad, since they are used to of this lifestyle or never experienced a better lifestyle before. Whereas, category B of the consumers perceived the facility is unhygienic, low-profile, and that needs improvement in terms of infrastructure and facilities. Analysis of Lifestyle Developed

The information that was collected through the market research techniques did have a great deal of relation with the lifestyle profile and opinions of the consumers. The demographic and psychographic characteristics were found to influence the lifestyles, opinions, and perceptions of the people strongly. Therefore, the information about the demographic and psychographic characteristics was found to be reliable, consistent, and accurate for both the categories. As we noticed earlier, consumers of category A had the perception about the locality as low-profile and the one that needs improvement in terms of facilities and hygienic condition.

They had such opinion and perception because they had experienced a better lifestyle previously that they were not able to experience here due to lack of opportunities or resources. So, their previous information about their psychographic and demographic elements did shape their perceptions and were found to be reliable. Similarly, category B consumers who were living in such low-profile facilities had no difference in opinions since their previous psychographic and demographic characteristics were not the same as that of category A. References Bernstien. J. L. (2007).

What is a Lifestyle Analysis and how does it affect alimony? Retrieved on August 7, 2010. From http://www. riker. com/articles/index. php? id=11195 Heizer. J & Render. B. (2006). Operations Management. Eighth edition. Pearson Educaion, Inc. Prentice Hall. Dorling Kindersley India Pvt. Ltd. Pinkovitz. B. (1997). Using Lifestyle to analyze Market Potential. Retrieved on August 7, 2010. From http://www. uwex. edu/ces/cced/economies/amp. cfm Vuotto. C. F, Esq. Jr, & Gensib. C. D. (2010). The Lifestyle Analysis. Retrieved on August 7, 2010. From http://www. divorcemag. com/NJ/proforum/lifestyle. html