The performance of practice: an alternative approach to attitudinal and behavioural ‘customer segmentation’ for the UK water industry
The performance of practice: an alternative approach to attitudinal and behavioural ‘customer segmentation’ for the UK water industry
Developing a comprehensive picture of the nature of current water demand is vital to forecasts of future water demand, as well as to inform demand management interventions and water efficiency programs. One way that water companies in the UK are starting to develop this picture is through the use of proxy variables such as demographics that are then used to segment people to explain patterns in people’s water use based on values, attitudes, and behaviours. However, as is the case with many environmental management settings, this current approach to attitudinal or behavioural segmentation fails to take into account the constantly observed value/attitude behaviour gap in water use, and offers little to the idea of intervention beyond a simple provision of technology and information to similarly ‘averaged’ customers. This paper offers an alternative theoretical and methodological perspective to the idea of segmentation based on depth of understanding of everyday practice, and highlights how a change of the unit of analysis from ‘individuals’ to ‘practices’ opens up a wealth of possibility for understanding water demand, and conceptualising forecasting and intervention for the water industry.
Browne, A.
81f76a6f-6615-4d37-b47a-449c9b0caa08
Pullinger, M.
a24fedd0-8528-458b-9799-daea8521677c
Anderson, B.
01e98bbd-b402-48b0-b83e-142341a39b2d
Medd, W.
e17b4ed2-21b9-4f59-b7cc-c93858da6906
15 May 2013
Browne, A.
81f76a6f-6615-4d37-b47a-449c9b0caa08
Pullinger, M.
a24fedd0-8528-458b-9799-daea8521677c
Anderson, B.
01e98bbd-b402-48b0-b83e-142341a39b2d
Medd, W.
e17b4ed2-21b9-4f59-b7cc-c93858da6906
Browne, A., Pullinger, M., Anderson, B. and Medd, W.
(2013)
The performance of practice: an alternative approach to attitudinal and behavioural ‘customer segmentation’ for the UK water industry
(Discussion Paper, 5)
Manchester, GB.
University of Manchester
24pp.
Record type:
Monograph
(Working Paper)
Abstract
Developing a comprehensive picture of the nature of current water demand is vital to forecasts of future water demand, as well as to inform demand management interventions and water efficiency programs. One way that water companies in the UK are starting to develop this picture is through the use of proxy variables such as demographics that are then used to segment people to explain patterns in people’s water use based on values, attitudes, and behaviours. However, as is the case with many environmental management settings, this current approach to attitudinal or behavioural segmentation fails to take into account the constantly observed value/attitude behaviour gap in water use, and offers little to the idea of intervention beyond a simple provision of technology and information to similarly ‘averaged’ customers. This paper offers an alternative theoretical and methodological perspective to the idea of segmentation based on depth of understanding of everyday practice, and highlights how a change of the unit of analysis from ‘individuals’ to ‘practices’ opens up a wealth of possibility for understanding water demand, and conceptualising forecasting and intervention for the water industry.
Text
Browne-et-al-2013-cluster-segmentation-sprg-discussion-paper-5.pdf
- Other
Available under License Other.
More information
Published date: 15 May 2013
Organisations:
Energy & Climate Change Group
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 352517
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/352517
PURE UUID: e221251d-7fb0-439a-b400-e7f4b430fe0d
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 15 May 2013 13:46
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 13:53
Export record
Contributors
Author:
A. Browne
Author:
M. Pullinger
Author:
W. Medd
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics
