1. EMAC 2012, May 23-25, Lisbon, Portugal
Segmenting Facebook using rural
tourists: geo-demographics, travel
motivations and activities
Juho Pesonen
juho.pesonen@uef.fi
University of Eastern Finland

2. Presentation structure
1. Introduction to the topic
2. Background of the study
3. Data and methods
4. The results
5. Discussion and conclusions
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3. 900 million!
Juho Pesonen 6.6.2012 3

4. Juho Pesonen 6.6.2012 4

6. Theoretical
background
•Segmentation and targeting theory as
background
– Consumer behavior is increasingly less well
explained by socio-economic and demographic
criteria (González & Bello, 2002).
– In market segmentation data-driven methods based
on motivations, benefits and activities have been
popular ways to generate competitive advantage.
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7. - However, advertising and targeting in
Facebook is mainly based on
sociodemographics!
- Age, gender, geographical location and education as
means to target promotions.
- Also likes and interests, work, languages, and
friends of connections.
- Important factors to describe segments!
- Efficient segmentation can lead to fewer direct
confrontations with competitors and the design
of more suitable marketing programmes (Dibb et al.,
2002).
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8. - Two ways to do segmentation: a priori and
post hoc segmentation (Dolnicar, 2002).
- Market segmentation studies in social media
are not common.
- Correa, Hinsley and de Zúñiga (2010)
studied the relationship between users’
personality and use of social media.
Juho Pesonen 6.6.2012 8

9. - Market segmentation in the field of electronic
commerce has been called for (Brengman et al., 2005).
- More and more important topic.
- Empirical investigation on gender and age
differences in travel motivations and activity
participation has been called for (Jönsson & Devonish, 2008).
- What motivates people to travel and what they
want to do while travelling?
- Rural tourism as study context
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10. 1. The goals of the
study
•To compare effects of age, gender and place of
residence to travel motivations and
•to compare effects of age, gender and place of
residence to preferred travel activities.
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11. Data and methods
• Data collected using banner advertisement on three rural tourism
websites in Finland.
• 4.3.-31.8.2011
• Banner advertisements were clicked altogether 3684 times,
resulting in 2131 responses.
– 1967 usable filled questionnaires.
– 1186 had used Facebook during one week period prior to answering
the questionnaire.
• Respondents were asked to choose up to three most important
travel motivations based on an earlier study (Bieger and Laesser 2002).
• Users were also asked to choose the travel activities they are
interested in doing during their rural holiday.
• Chi-square test to examine differences.
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12. Participating in Enjoying Taking and Taking and Enjoying Enjoying the
nightlife comfort, having time for having time for landscape and sun and water
spoiling myself my partner my family nature
Gender
Male 42 (15.4%) 80 (29.4%) 109 (40.1%) 88 (32.4%) 143 (52.6%) 71 (26.1%)
Female 66 (7.3%) 331 (36.7%) 337 (37.4%) 341 (37.8%) 513 (56.9%) 271 (30.1%)
Age
Below 20 25 (33.8%) 33 (44.6%) 32 (43.2%) 10 (13.5%) 28 (37.8%) 39 (52.7%)
20s 44 (12.2%) 143 (39.5%) 161 (44.5%) 91 (25.1%) 186 (51.4%) 104 (28.7%)
30s 21 (7.6%) 89 (32.4%) 92 (33.5%) 133 (48.4%) 157 (57.1%) 71 (25.8%)
40s 8 (3.5%) 81 (35.5%) 71 (31.1%) 114 (50.0%) 141 (61.8%) 55 (24.1%)
50s 2 (1.7%) 34 (28.8%) 50 (42.4%) 40 (33.9%) 80 (67.8%) 35 (29.7%)
Atleast 60 2 (3.6%) 13 (23.2%) 25 (44.6%) 14 (25.0%) 33 (58.9%) 14 (25.0%)
Region
Southern 50 (9.8%) 174 (34,1%) 183 (35.9%) 189 (37.1%) 293 (57.5%) 167 (32.7%)
Finland
Eastern Finland 32 (8.8%) 125 (34.3%) 145 (39.8%) 134 (36.8%) 192 (52.7%) 99 (27.2%)
Western Finland 12 (10.2%) 41 (34.7%) 41 (34.7%) 31 (26.3%) 73 (61.9%) 31 (26.3%)
Province of 7 (5.5%) 55 (43.3%) 60 (47.2%) 48 (37.8%) 70 (55.1%) 27 (21.3%)
Oulu
Lapland 3 (9,4%) 8 (25.0%) 11 (34.4%) 19 (59.4%) 21 (65.6%) 7 (21.9%)
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13. Downhill Cross-country Snowmobiling Canoeing Rowing Fishing Berry or Walking / Watching
skiing skiing mushroom hiking animals (eg.
picking bears)
Gender
Male 46 (16.9%) 51 (18.8%) 53 (19.5%) 72 (26.5%) 132 (48.5%) 160 (58.8%) 67 (24.6%) 169 (62.1%) 81 (29.8%)
Female 169 (18.8%) 208 (23.1%) 145 (16.1%) 276 (30.6%) 504 (55.9%) 409 (45.4%) 334 (37.1%) 875 (74.9%) 397 (44.1%)
Age
Below 20 29 (39.2%) 12 (16.2%) 20 (27.0%) 29 (39.2%) 35 (47.3%) 35 (47.3%) 24 (32.4%) 36 (48.6%) 24 (32.4%)
20s 81 (22.4%) 64 (17.7%) 85 (23.5%) 136 (37.6%) 193 (53.3%) 169 (46.7%) 114 (31.5%) 266 (73.5%) 173 (47.8%)
30s 48 (17.5%) 57 (20.7%) 39 (14.2%) 84 (30.5%) 156 (56.7%) 138 (50.2%) 79 (28.7%) 198 (72.0%) 112 (40.7%)
40s 34 (14.9%) 60 (26.3%) 33 (14.5%) 61 (26.8%) 128 (56.1%) 115 (50.4%) 85 (37.3%) 177 (77.6%) 103 (45.2%)
50s 12 (10.2%) 38 (32.2%) 13 (11.0%) 20 (16.9%) 67 (56.8%) 59 (50.0%) 44 (37.3%) 89 (75.4%) 40 (33.9%)
Atleast 60 2 (3.6%) 13 (23.2%) 0 (0%) 3 (5.4%) 28 (50.0%) 26 (46.4%) 33 (58.9%) 42 (75.0%) 16 (28.6%)
Region
Southern 91 (17.8%) 120 (23.5%) 77 (15.1%) 161 (31.6%) 300 (58.8%) 246 (48.2%) 184 (36.1%) 352 (69.0%) 205 (40.2%)
Finland
Western 63 (17.3%) 78 (21.4%) 59 (16.2%) 109 (29.9%) 195 (53.6%) 173 (47.5%) 108 (29.7%) 279 (76.6%) 145 (39.8%)
Finland
Eastern 24 (20.3%) 27 (22.9%) 26 (22.0%) 41 (34.7%) 58 (49.2%) 57 (48.3%) 44 (37.3%) 83 (70.3%) 51 (43.2%)
Finland
Province 30 (23.6%) 20 (15.7%) 26 (20.5%) 29 (22.8%) 58 (45.7%) 66 (52.0%) 42 (33.1%) 88 (69.3%) 55 (43.3%)
of Oulu
Lapland 7 (21.9%) 9 (28.1%) 7 (21.9%) 9 (28.1%) 19 (59.4%) 20 (62.5%) 13 (40.6%) 24 (75.0%) 17 (53.1%)
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14. So what?
• Socio-demographic and economic variables more
important than ever for segmentation when considering
targeting messages in Facebook.
– Especially age and gender.
• Starting point for further testing
– Reducing efforts, increasing efficiency.
• We have to think new ways of targeting when doing
market segmentation.
– Embracing market segmentation in online context.
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15. Questions, comments?
Thank you!
www.uef.fi