Vulnerable Consumers Market Segmentation Report

The market behavioural segmentation represents a key preparatory phase for the development of the national and local actions. It will lead to a complete understanding of the actual situation under different aspects: socio-demographic, economic and dwelling characteristics of consumers, but also consumers’ degree of knowledge, common needs and priorities regarding energy. The final objective is to assign vulnerable consumers into market groups who share common characteristics. It is strictly important to obtain a reference baseline of the national situation in order to better understand the effectiveness of the actions locally implemented, and also to have the possibility of comparisons, in time and space.

It is important to underline that the absence of a common and recognised definition of energy poverty makes it difficult to characterize different consumers, in particular those who are facing energy-related problems. The market segmentation intends to divide the population into homogeneous clusters, without having the necessity of a definition, but relying only on household characteristics. The importance of having an analysis that include the whole national population, is given by the fact that, by starting with a complete picture, it is then possible to identify different subcategories of vulnerable consumers, who could have different peculiarities and necessities, so different actions could be required in such a way that the actions bring to effective results. 

The document authored by the ASSIST Consortium is structured country-by-country, and then a final conclusion is drawn.