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Cognitive segmentation: Modeling the structure and content of customers' thoughts
Author(s) -
Carrillat François A.,
Riggle Robert J.,
Locander William B.,
Gebhardt Gary F.,
Lee James M.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
psychology and marketing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.035
H-Index - 116
eISSN - 1520-6793
pISSN - 0742-6046
DOI - 10.1002/mar.20284
Subject(s) - nomothetic and idiographic , operationalization , cognition , segmentation , psychology , repertory grid , trait , function (biology) , construct (python library) , process (computing) , cognitive psychology , computer science , social psychology , artificial intelligence , epistemology , philosophy , neuroscience , evolutionary biology , biology , programming language , operating system
This paper proposes a cognitive segmentation technique that models both customers' cognitive content and structure. Cognitive segmentation provides a quantitative operationalization of idiographic cognitions that can be compared and integrated across customers to move beyond the in‐depth understanding and wide generalizing trade‐off. In addition, cognitive segmentation utilizes participants' own semantics for eliciting and aggregating cognitions. This method allows researchers to understand content in light of structure, as participants' elicited cognitive contents are further interpreted as a function of the complexity of their cognitive structures. The conceptual foundations from personal construct theory as well as a description of the nine‐step implementation process whereby participants fill out a modified version of Kelly's Repertory Grid and complete Borman's trait implication procedure are provided. An application illustrates how cognitive segmentation can identify and assess the size potential of each customer target as a function of their cognitive content and structure. A discussion of the results and directions for further research are also provided. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.