Segmentation of herbaceous medicine customers and identification of each segment characteristics in Iran: an application of clustering model

To consider the herbaceous medicine's industry is an available pillar for achieving human, social and economic development goals. Increases in such indicators as employment, consumer's welfare, per capita income and exports as national development indicators may be realized through regarding potentials in market of herbaceous medicines. Identifying the market demand as an economic indicator requires a targeted marketing. The market segmentation is the starting point in targeted marketing. The goals of this study are to determine proper indicators for segmenting market, to identify customer's profile and to find their differences based on model parameters. This is an applied research in terms of goals, and it is cross-sectional one based on survey and analysis method. Data is collected by questionnaires. The statistical population includes the final consumers of different kinds of herbaceous medicines in Iran. The statistical sample consists of 460 final consumers of herbaceous medicines, which is selected by categorical sampling method. K-mean clustering algorithm is used to analyze data and to determine the segments. The findings indicate a market with 4 clusters. All clusters are different in terms of designed indicators. Therefore, appropriate strategies should be run in order to both value for customers and value for market.