Who is Your Satisfied Customer

What causes consumer satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a product? Two psychological theories are provided as an explanation of the amount of perceived satisfaction. By categorizing consumers on the basis of their “activation level,” the marketer can affect the amount of resulting satisfaction. Doing this may require adjusting pricing, promotional, and distribution policies to suit the categories of “high sensation seekers” and “low sensation seekers.” Marketers of services, among others, may find this consumer categorization process useful in developing made‐to‐measure offerings. Operators of shopping malls, hotels, travel agencies, car rental agencies, financial services, restaurants, and bars are naturals for the successful application of this concept.