House Buyers' Lifestyle Segmentation Of The Housing Market In Malaysia
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Date
2012-02
Authors
Foo, Fanny Suan Suan
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Abstract
The dynamically changing environment has created a drastic change in the lifestyle and purchase habits of the consumers. The housing development industry in Malaysia is not immune to these changes. In order to keep abreast with the shift of house buyers‘ attitude and behaviour, it is apparent that housing development companies need to do more in understanding how the house buyers think, and then satisfying their needs of the house buyers.
Although the assessment lifestyle choice and preferences is a popular tool used widely in other consumer-based industries, this concept had rarely been applied in the housing development industry. To date no research had examined the lifestyle of potential house buyers for newly developed housing projects. This study aims to fill this perceived gap by identifying the segment that exists in Malaysian house buyers within the housing market as determined by their lifestyles. The model of influences on housing choice was used as the underlying theoretical framework for the study.
The data were collected by way of intercept self-administered questionnaire surveys. The gathered data was then analysed by statistical tool via the SPSS version 17 Software. The respondents were grouped into five lifestyle factors namely, Appearance Oriented, Relaxed Segment, Extroverted Lifestyle, Economiser Segment and Practical Oriented house buyers.The findings in this study can be applied to the design and management of general housing communities as well as to marketing strategies that are sensitive to lifestyle concepts. Several implications and recommendations were highlighted by this study. It is recommended that further research studies test be conducted to the housing AIO statements with different groups in diverse markets. In addition, it is also suggested that lifestyle variable be given consideration in future house buyers‘ behaviour model building and research efforts.
From a practical standpoint, this study sheds some light into the house buyers‘ lifestyles segments that affect their housing choices and preferences. Thus, housing developers may use this information to better segment their target market, formulate their marketing strategies more effectively, and tailor their products to meet the house buyers‘ lifestyles. This study also enlightens housing developers to understanding the reasons behind house buyers‘ purchase decisions that can help them to develop better marketing strategies to satisfy and fulfil the house buyers needs.
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Housing