Abstract
The primary aim of this study was to find out whether demographic segmentation bases can act as reasonable surrogates for benefit segments in consumer market for dental care services. It is relevant to establish this because identifying benefit segments can be extremely expensive and time-consuming. Hence, finding demographic and socio-economic bases that can act as surrogates for benefit segmentation can considerably ease the marketer's segmentation task. In order to answer the above research question, data were collected from a nationwide sample of 460 consumers. Cluster analysis was used to establish three benefit segments based upon eighteen dental service attributes derived from the past literature. The relationships between the benefit segments and some demographic segmentation bases were then tested using a series of chi-square tests. The results seem to indicate that certain traditional bases may indeed be considered as surrogate measures for benefit segments.
