KLASIFIKACIJA KORISNIKA MOBILNIH TELEFONA PRIMJENOM ANALIZE LATENTNIH KLASA (LCA)

The purpose of the paper is to classify mobile phone users based on their sensitivity to reference groups’ influence, degree to which they attach importance to acquisition of material goods, and perception of mobile phone as a status symbol, using the latent class analysis. The theoretical part of the paper explains three types of reference groups’ influence (informative, utilitarian and value-expressive), materialism and status consumption. The second section of the paper presents research methodology and findings. In order to collect empirical data, electronic survey was conducted on a convenience sample of students at School of Economics and Business in Sarajevo. The research instrument – questionnaire consisted of a set of items that were taken from literature in their original form. Based on the latent class analysis, four mobile phone user groups (classes) were identified and named as follows: 1) susceptible to informative and utilitarian influence; 2) identification and status oriented; 3) neutral; and 4) self-confident materialists. The findings of the research presented in the paper lead to the conclusion that different groups of mobile phone users require different strategies of advertising and marketing communication, based on which, each group was supported by corresponding recommendations.