İşletmeden işletmeye pazarlamada bölümlendirme yaklaşımları: Konteyner taşımacılığı hizmetleri üzerine bir uygulama

Container shipping significantly contributes to the international trade and supply chain systems, and plays a key role in the competitive advantage of exporters and importers. However, container shipping market has been facing several challenges and structural changes. The competition is fiercer and the profitability levels of container lines have been very low. The marketing strategies have become more important compared to past in the market. Understanding the customer needs and wants, and manage their requirements effectively have become very critical. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate market segmentation in container shipping, explore the benefit segments, and discuss the benefit segments considering practical applications. The empirical part of this dissertation consists of two main researches. The first one is a qualitative study which conducts semi-structured interviews with container lines located in Izmir. The qualitative study has explored the practical segmentation application of container lines including the segmentation bases they use and the purposes they target. Based on the findings of the interviews, a theoretical a-priori segmentation model has been proposed. The quantitative research aims to find out the benefit segments in container shipping market adopting a post-hoc approach. A survey is conducted with exporters located in Aegean Region of Turkey and a total of 356 responses have been collected. In the research, first container line selection criteria measure is developed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. A total of five selection factors are ascertained. Then, cluster analysis is conducted by using factor scores as clustering variables. The cluster analysis has revealed a total of six benefit (post-hoc) segments in the market: Time-sensitive Cost Seekers, Pragmatic Service Buyers, Non-urgent Cost Seekers, Value-added Service Buyers, Relationship Seekers, and Time Seekers. The six segments are distinctive in terms of the selection criteria of shippers. The segments meet the criteria of effective market segmentation: Substantial, differentiable, actionable, measurable, and accessible. The segments also provide evidence for the criterion validity. Substantial number of statistically significant associations between the segments and descriptors are achieved. A detailed discussion of the results of this research is presented at the end of related section. Upon the qualitative and quantitative analysis, the segmentation bases of container lines explored in the qualitative research are tested to understand if selection criteria between the a-priori segments differ. In this way, we can see if the segmentation bases of container lines in practice in Izmir create segments that are differentiable. The results indicate that the a-priori segments are not as differentiable as the post-hoc segments in our quantitative research in terms of the selection criteria, or in other terms, benefits sought by container shippers. This dissertation claims that benefit segmentation using a post-hoc approach is more effective than a-priori approach used by companies in container shipping market.