Chapter 4 Monitoring Segmented Markets: Relational and Transactional Perspectives

Segmentation is an important marketing concept that identifies and analyzes different needs and wants of buyers as well as their buying behavior. Two different perspectives on how buyers and potential customers should be approached have emerged over the last two decades: the transactional perspective and the relational perspective. The two approaches differ in their overall understanding of the customer and how to address the customer. The two approaches therefore hold different implications for how segmentation should take place and how markets should be monitored.