Extant research on consumer purchases of biomass home heating equipment suggests that the percept, biomass heating, is represented in the mind of the consumer substantively as the object shown in Figure 1. In addition, its properties are conceptualized as “green” and “efficient” (Athiyaman, 2015d). In terms of Aristotle’s form and matter classification the form of biomass heating is the wood stove (Figure 1) and its matter is its adjectival properties.
Biomass heating: Percepts and concepts
Our aim is to analyze customer segments for biomass home heating products. Since analysis without “construction” is trivial, we build this research using extant research on consumer purchase behavior of green energy products. We break this knowledge down into empirical truths (for example, green consumers are college educated (Gershoff & Irwin, 2011)) and systematic truth (for example, to assert the ‘need’ for market segmentation we contend that a firm’s differential advantage is contingent on the firm varying its marketing mix to suit different customer needs (Hunt, 2010)).