Innovating energy markets: A hybrid persona/segment approach
Rebekah Russell‐Bennett, Rory Francis Mulcahy, Kate Letheren, Ryan McAndrew, Tim Swinton, Neil Horrocks, Reid Ossington · QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology) · 2017
Electricity is a basic and essential service for the Australian way of life, but for everyday Australians rising prices impact this way of life. For Australian households, the electricity industry appears to be at a crossroad. Access to instant information that ranges from skewed to exaggerated media has eroded trust. The purpose of this research was to understand how residential electricity consumers make decisions about electricity pricing and develop a new segmentation model for consumers who could be engaged digitally with tariff reform. This research used a mixed-method approach involving 45 household interviews with 118 participants and a national online survey of 1345 key informants from 4000 households. Using a service design technique of personas combined with quantitative analysis, this hybrid approach discovered six unique segments that represent different household decision-making styles to tariff reform and the use of technology solutions to manage electricity.