Food-Related Lifestyle: A Segmentation Approach to European Food Consumers

Abstract

Ever since Levitt’s (1983) controversial article on the globalization of markets, there has been a standing discussion on which degree of standardisation versus adaptation of marketing parameters is appropriate under which circumstances (e.g., Jain 1989; Samiee and Roth 1992; Wind 1986). Levitt’s forceful argument was that, driven by developments in technology and mass communication, consumers tend to develop homogeneous preferences around the world, and that marketers’ attempts to adapt locally is a waste of resources which were better spent bringing down costs and make products obtainable to more people. The more refined argument is that certain marketing parameters may be standardised to varying degrees, depending on characteristics of the market, the product, the company and the environment as such.