Before market segmentation can take place, the relevant market has to be defined, meaning the product related, geographical and temporal boundaries of that market have to be fixed. 21 Any such definition has to look at the market through the consum- ers’ eyes, because the consumer makes decisions based on the evaluation of alterna- tives and substitutes. It answers the following three questions: “What bus iness are we in?”, “Which are the relevant competitors, offering alternatives or substitutes to our product(s)?”, “Which geographic region(s) are we covering?”, and “Which period of the market is to be taken in the focus of the analysis?”.
