Though it annually conducts a massive survey of its passengers, Greyhound Lines Inc. decided to learn more about the people who ride its buses. The company's yearly on-board survey, which is distributed for a week in 50 of its biggest markets twice a year, last year netted Greyhound 30,000 responses—providing a clear demographic picture of the Greyhound customer. But, says Gary Graley, the company's director of market research, they wanted more insight into the psychology of the people behind the demographics.

"We wanted to get a dimension of our passenger that went beyond demographics," he says. "We were interested in a psychological profile of our customers. What are their lifestyles? What are their values?"

This is the kind of information that the VALS psychographic segmentation program typically provides, but because prior research had shown that 70 percent of Greyhound passengers had household incomes below $25,000, Graley says Greyhound felt its passengers wouldn't be accurately described with the VALS system.

"We felt that the VALS types did not fit what a Greyhound passenger was, based on their income and socioeconomic class. We felt that VALS was skewed toward income levels that were probably higher than the normal Greyhound passenger, so we decided to pursue our own psychographic profile specifically for the Greyhound passenger," Graley says.

With the help of Decisions Center, Inc., New York , Greyhound conducted 500 in-terminal personal interviews in 10 major markets (including New York , Los Angeles , Chicago , and Atlanta ) averaging roughly 50 interviews per market. In addition, some 400 other interviews were conducted in seven smaller markets (such as San Antonio, Des Moines, Baltimore, and San Diego) to ensure a reliable sample among Greyhound's key passenger segments: blacks, Hispanics, college students, senior citizens, military, small town/rural customers and casino visitors.

Interviewers were stationed next to ticket areas and approached ticket buyers to participate in the approximately 45-minute interview. The survey asked Greyhound passengers to provide standard demographic information and to respond to a series of travel- and lifestyle-related statements in an attitudinal section, using a scale of importance of one to five, one indicating the statement "does not describe me or my feelings at all," and five indicating that it "describes me or my feelings completely." The statements dealt with:

  • attitudes toward travel
  • attitudes toward public transportation
  • attitudes toward Greyhound
  • travel behavior
  • personality characteristics
  • self-image
  • values/beliefs
  • lifestyle
  • social behavior
  • media habits

Sample statements in the travel section included "I like to flip through National Geographic and read about other places," "I hate to travel alone." Sample statements from the lifestyle section included "I am bored with my life," "Chess is one of my favorite games," and "I often charge my purchases."

"The travel statements are the statements that were used to produce the actual segments," Graley says. "It was sort of an extension of what VALS would do, which would only look at lifestyle related items. We went beyond that since we were interested in segmenting travelers. We segmented based on the travel items and then described their lifestyle based on the lifestyle section as well as the demographics and the travel habits."

The research segmented Greyhound ridership into five groups.

Roost-to-Roost Travelers

This is the largest segment, accounting for 27 percent of Greyhound ridership. Its members are very home- and family-oriented. They enjoy traveling with family members to visit relatives. They consult travel magazines and brochures when planning their trips. The Roost-to-Roost segment contains the highest concentration of senior citizens. It also has more women, fewer young people (under age 25), many retirees, and more married people. The segment has average income and education levels. They have a positive outlook and are more likely than other passengers to be involved with church and civic matters.

Spontaneous/Impetuous Mixers

Twenty-one percent of Greyhound riders fall into this group, which, as the name suggests, travel primarily for the social experience. They enjoy traveling alone and look forward to meeting and talking to new people. This segment has a high percentage of single young white men. They are less likely to have a job, and their income level is low to average. They are more likely on vacation, not traveling to see friends or relatives, and their plans for the trip were made probably less than two weeks in advance. Their impetuous, "live for the moment" lifestyle is based on a belief that the future will be dull.

Independent Explorers

Independent explorers account for 19 percent of the ridership. They are very travel-oriented people who travel more to see new and unusual places than to visit friends and relatives. Like the Spontaneous Mixers, they enjoy meeting new people and don't mind traveling alone. They read travel brochures and frequently bring a camera along to capture their trip on film. Members of this segment tend to be white, better educated than those in the other segments (a high percentage of Independent Explorers are college students), and as a whole they have the highest family income. They are nontraditional people who are happy with their lives and optimistic about the future. They are careful with their money but still enjoy spending it.

Apprehensive Passengers

This segment makes up 17 percent of Greyhound ridership. The very idea of travel makes them uneasy—they feel like nothing will go right; their bus will be late or their luggage will be lost. Once on the road, they don't enjoy sightseeing or talking to new people. This segment contains an equal percentage of blacks and whites and a slightly higher number of singles. Apprehensive Passengers are generally less educated and their incomes are slightly lower. They don't plan in advance. Their negative outlook on travel extends to their view of the world at large. They are pessimistic about the future and unhappy with their current lot.

Nervous Travelers

Like the Apprehensive Passengers, Nervous Travelers (who form 16 percent of total ridership) are anxious about travel. They don't enjoy it for any purpose. They are obsessive about keeping to a schedule, and plan their trip well in advance. Nervous Travelers avoid talking to strangers and feel most comfortable traveling with someone they know. They travel primarily to visit friends and relatives. This segment contains the highest proportion of women, fewer singles and an equal number of married and divorced people. As a whole, the segment is of average age, occupation, education and household income level. They are stable people who view life seriously and prefer staying at home to traveling.

Many uses

So far, the research findings have been put to many uses. A TV spot portraying some of the segments was shown last year on a limited basis, but such direct use of the segments for ad content is the exception rather than the rule. Instead, Graley says, the research will be used to inform Greyhound advertising, much of which is produced for network radio.

"We're not going to directly design something around it, but at the same time, the information that was generated in that research project—as well as all of our other research—certainly is being utilized both in designing the spot and where we air it," he says.

Training program

The segments will be also be used as part of a training program for employees who have or will have a great deal of contact with the customers.

For example, the psychographic profiles will give the approximately 800 employees of Greyhound's two regional Telephone Information Centers (which disperse fare and schedule information for all of Greyhound's major U.S. markets) a better idea of the personalities and lifestyles of the people on the other end of the telephone line. A similar concept will be also be used in new driver training programs.

Economically viable

Last year Graley delivered a paper based on the segmentation study before the U.S. Travel Data Center's Travel Outlook Forum, in an effort to inform the conference about a less affluent, but economically viable group of traveling consumers.

The paper communicated to the forum attendees that there is a large group of travelers in the United States that are in many ways different from travelers using other modes of transportation. They are less likely to be on vacation and far less likely to be traveling on business. They are more likely visiting friends or relatives and view their trip as a necessity. For many of them, other modes of travel may not be affordable. Fifty percent of all Greyhound passengers report that they do not have access to a reliable car, so even automobile travel may not be a viable transportation alternative.

Target market

Graley also sees the segmentation study being used in tandem with Greyhound's geodemographic research. "In approximately 50 markets we have developed geodemographic profiles of our customers by capturing their home ZIP codes. Utilizing National Decision System's Infomark package, detailed demographic information is developed for our customers on a ZIP code level. We have used this information primarily for terminal relocation and site selection, however it also has applications in target marketing.

"Since a demographic profile of each of the five psychographic segments is available, it is also possible to determine the psychographic profile of a specific geographic area utilizing results from geodemographic analysis."

DecisionsCenter lnc. is a New York-based division of Research International, providing custom research.

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