Editor’s note: Ryan Kocher is vice president, analytics, at CMI Research, Atlanta. He can be reached at rkocher@cmiresearch.com. Alisa Hamilton is director, project management, at CMI Research. She can be reached at ahamilton@cmiresearch.com. This article appeared in the September 24, 2012, edition of Quirk’s e-newsletter.

 

How many times have we observed that consumers say one thing but do another? This apparent disconnect is based on the fact that, when asked, we frequently cite logical or functional reasons for our purchases and never reveal (or even realize) what really motivates us. Take the recent launch of the iPhone 5. Ask people why they purchased the phone and you will likely receive responses such as, “It’s high quality” or, “It just works.” But would we ever admit that we bought it because it’s shiny and made by Apple? Would we admit (or acknowledge to ourselves) that we feel good when we have something that others do not?

 

For years, we have based the creation of segments on attitudes, behaviors and needs. For just as long, those segmentations have been interesting and even entertaining, with their clever segment names. But they're often very hard to implement across organizations. We need to take a cue from technology: Just as the iPhone evolves, so too should our analytic approaches. We no longer live in a simplistic world where one size fits all. By going beyond direct motivators to incorporate indirect motivators in our analytical approach, we can build more actionable segment profiles. Building segments based on the actual decision process brings us a step closer to creating one-to-one marketing messages.

 

These profiles include key events within the decision-making process that brand teams can influence to affect the final outcome, ultimately generating more revenue.

 

 

Using structural equation modeling (SEM), we can identify the various d...