Abstract The research described in this paper is intended to provide a deeper understanding of
consumers ’ purchasing processes by describing a range of models that include the traditionally
analysed variables of price, reference price and losses and gains and also by proposing two
alternative ways to segment the market: by loyalty and by consumption levels. The key contributions
of this research can be summarised under two points. First, it employs two different household panels
to validate hypotheses and provide more reliable results, and secondly, it employs a market segment
variable that is infrequently applied in this kind of work: consumption levels. Our results not only
highlight the importance of the variables we propose but also point to the need to segment markets
in line with a range of different criteria, given that both customer loyalty and consumption levels serve
to show different purchasing patterns.