Three major approaches can be used in an effort to segment a market. 22 They include the a-priori, a-posteriori and hybrid approach. The selection of an approach depends on the objectives of the researcher in undertaking a segmentation study. In a-priori (predetermined) market segmentation, the type (segmentation variables) and number of market segments are determined before data collection. With this ap- proach, there are two main questions, namely the estimated sizes of these segments in the market place, and some relevant segment characteristics ( descriptor variables). The use of this segmentation approach implies the existence of a “hunch”, a highly developed.
