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Keywords Market segmentation, Arab countries, Standardization, Premium products
Abstract Despite the differences among Arab markets (e.g market size, per capita income, etc.), the existence of numerous important commonalities among the region's consumers may encourage marketers to adopt across the region's countries a more integrated marketing strategy based on the principle of market segmentation. For that purpose, the present article proposes a conceptual framework of international market segmentation. The conceptual framework is then tested and supported by empirical research. The results show the existence of a number of thriving consumer segments that transcend national boundaries and which share similar needs and preferences. The findings indicate that in order to approach Arab markets with more efficient marketing strategies, multinationals are requested to standardize their marketing plans to each segment while differentiating their strategies among the different segments. By applying such an approach, the decision maker will be able to identify the relevant marketing variables that may affect consumer decisions and hence know what he must do in order to cater to selected market segments.
Introduction
Firms operating in or dealing with a variety of countries usually face the dilemma of whether to standardize or adapt their marketing strategies and how to approach different markets by more efficient marketing plans. To overcome these problems, several scholars suggested the global-local, hybrid, contingency or compromising principle (Cavusgil et al., 1993; Cavusgil and Zou, 1994; Douglas and Wind, 1987; Jain, 1989; Kreutzer, 1988; Onkvisit and Shaw, 1994; Rau and Preble, 1987; Walters, 1986; Zou et al, 1997) as the best marketing approach that can enable firms to take advantages from both standardization and adaptation. Although different alternatives were proposed for implementing a hybrid marketing strategy (e.g. standardizing some marketing elements and adapting others), market segmentation seems to be the most efficient, realistic and feasible way that permits multinationals to apply the hybrid approach by standardizing their marketing programs to each homogeneous segment of countries or consumers while differentiating their strategies among different segments. Yet, once a firm adopts the principle of a hybrid approach based on segmentation, it will face a second wave of tasks which can be summarized as follows: how to segment international markets (e.g. on country/consumer basis, regional/worldwide basis, intra/intermarket basis, etc.)? Is the traditional segmentation...