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Marketing in the Internet age is all aboutnurturing the individual. The marketplace ischaracterized by higher levels of diversity byincome, age, ethnicity, and lifestyle (Sheth et al., 1999). The fundamental change in contexthere is that greater market diversity is leading to more market fragmentation. As themarketplace fragments into much smaller groupings, the concept of a mass-consumptionsociety is becoming increasingly obsolete. Apopular concept corresponding to this wave is``mass customization'', the generally acceptedkey idea behind this slogan is one-to-one segmenting. There are two major reasons forthis shift from mass marketing to targeting theindividual, the fact that technologicalinnovation and creativity have caught up withthe sophistication of databases ± andconsumers are becoming ever moredemanding.Since high-quality products and services havebecome a minimum standard rather than a
point of differentiation in many industries, aworld-class quality process is not the last stepan organization needs to stay competitive.When properly conceived and executed, masscustomization has profound long-termimplications for many businesses in a variety ofindustries. In an environment presented bytoday's destabilized and unpredictable markets, we have reason to believe that viewing acompany through the mass-customization lens will provide a framework to guide theorganization successfully through thecompetitive minefield.
But conceptually, how correct is the aboveconventional wisdom of mass customization?
How valid is this strategy from a managerialperspective? A visionary definition and apractical definition for mass customization aregiven by Christopher Hart (1995). Hartdefines mass customization as ``the ability to
provide your customers with anything theywant profitably, any time they want it,
anywhere they want it, any way they want it''.He gives a second practical definition ofmass customization as ``the use of flexibleprocesses and organizational structures toproduce varied and often individuallycustomized products and services at the lowThe authorPingjun Jiang is a Doctoral Student at the Department of
Marketing, College of Business Administration, Southern
Illinois University at Carbondale, Carbondale, IL, USA.

Keywords Market segmentation, Mass customization, Internet research

Abstract
In this paper, it is argued that the concept of masscustomization should not be treated as an alternative strategy to
market segmentation. It should be seen as an integral part ofmarket segmentation theory which offers the best way to satisfyindividual consumer's unique needs and wants while yielding
profits to companies. Though the overall objective of theconcept of mass customization is to recognize individual
differences among customers and modify the offeringsaccordingly, by using the logic of the segmentation theory, this
paper argues that mass customization is also not simply equal
to segmenting-to-one. If all the relevant variables that affectbuyer behavior are taken into account, the result is an untenablylarge number of market segments (finally segment of one).
However, practically, creating separate marketing programs foreach individual in most circumstances will become extremely
difficult, even not feasible, and less profitable. In response tothis dilemma, this paper proposes a new concept of ``Segmentbasedmass customization''本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。