Case study chapter 3
Using global segmentation to grow a business
An United Airlines case study
Today we live in a global community as global citizens where we have become
increasingly conscious about sharing the planet with people from other cultures and
backgrounds. In this global community where so many technologies are shared,
distances and time barriers have shrunk. Not only can we use information
technologies to e-mail, phone or fax friends, family and colleagues in other parts of
the world, we can also use reliable and regular travel links to visit them, covering
vast distances in a matter of hours.
Whereas in the past travelling by air was, for many people, an experience more often
than not associated with an annual family holiday, today air travel has become a
way of life both for business and leisure. One frequently quoted estimate is that
demand for air travel will double in the next 20 years. As a result more and more
people do not just need regular air travel, but also the type of travel that meets
their particular needs best. For example, unlike the manufacture of tangible goods
such as shampoo or bread that have clear uses, providing travel opportunities is
more sophisticated as it involves providing customer service to match the
expectations of travel users.
This case study focuses upon how United Airlines uses customers' motivations for
different types of services to segment the market and improve its competitiveness