Variety seeking and market segmentation: Irish and American perspectives

Variety seeking studies the kind and level of stimulation a consumer seeks in a particular purchase decision-making environment. A cross-cultural study was conducted of American and Irish female consumers to assess the usefulness of the variety-seeking concept from a market segmentation perspective - specifically, whether variety seekers can be identified as having a particular demographic and media profile. For the concept of variety seeking to be useful to marketers, variety seekers must be identifiable by a characteristic demographic profile and reachable via particular advertising media. Although strong evidence was found to indicate that variety seeking is negatively related to age, the relationship between variety seeking and employment status, education level, household income, and media exposure patterns appear equivocal. Although many studies have found variety seeking to be an important concept in explaining exploratory and entertainment consumption behavior, the usefulness of the concept is lessened if the targeted segment is difficult to reach.