Market segmentation for product family positioning based on fuzzy clustering

To compete in the marketplace, manufacturers have been seeking for expansion of their product lines by providing product families. One difficulty for product family positioning is that diverse customer needs can no longer be satisfied by a mass marketing approach. Realizing the importance of customer purchase behaviours for product family positioning, this paper proposes a fuzzy clustering-based market segmentation approach. With a focus on engineering characteristics, the fuzzy clustering-based market segmentation helps plan the right products to target segments effectively and efficiently. An application of the proposed methodology in a consumer electronics company producing vibration motors is reported. The evaluation of the proposed methodology is also discussed.