CENTRAL EUROPEAN BUSINESS REVIEW RESEARCH PAPERS VOLUME 2, NUMBER 2 , JUNE 2013 19 SEGMENTATION OF CZECH CONSUMERS BASED ON THEIR ATTITUDES TOWARDS MONEY Tomek, I., Stříteský, V., Tahal, R. Understanding current and potential customers´ behavior is one of the key factors of marketing efficiency and it brings competitive advantage. Companies usually classify their customers and create client groups with similar characteristic features. Such grouping activity is called segmentation or typology. There are many possible methods to obtain data for the segmentation process (e.g. data mining, demographic segmentation, analyzing shopping behavior, media behavior or their combination). This paper concentrates on the financial behavior of the Czech population and brings a survey based on primary data. It takes into consideration aspects like attitude towards risk and savings and even aspects like money ethics and the role of money in society. Seven consumer segments that differ in attitudes towards money were identified and described. JEL classification: M31 Keywords: consumer segmentation; consumer behavior; money attitudes; consumer typology Introduction Understanding current and potential customers’ behavior is one of the key presumptions of successful business. Nowadays trends show that it may be very beneficial not only to analyze data in existing company databases but also to concentrate on consumers´ individual behavior and attitudes. This paper focuses on understanding the Czech population’s behavior in terms of money and their financial lives. Creating a typology of the Czech Republic’s population is the key issue of this paper. Money is viewed not only as a medium of exchange but considerable attention is also put on the ethical aspects and role of money as one of the possible ways of expres- sing social status. Importance of the Targeting Being able to classify the population, getting insight into people’s motivation and relationships with other people helps a lot in targeting products precisely and making marketing communication effective and not annoying. The effectiveness of the marketing commu- nication is undoubtedly one of the most important issues that marketers and company managers deal with. The importance of marketing communication is stressed for example by Karlíček (2011, p. 20). He says that marketing communication must be primarily viewed as an investment. Financial measurement of the commu- nication and campaign effectiveness is therefore one of the key issues. In order to use the proper communication channel and deliver an effective marketing message, it is highly important to understand consumers´ preferences and classify them according to their individual nature. Marketers across all business sectors deal with topics like brand awareness, brand recognition, customer loyalty, competitive advantage and many others. In view of these aspects, it is useful for the company to take into consideration not only the general characteristics of the population but to concentrate research activities on the specificity of the core business. It should help significantly in achieving long-term (strategic) goals. A company’s customers can be classified and approa- ched in many ways. The choice depends on the business sector that a company operates in and on the product or service features. One of the leading business sectors where the tools of targeting and segmentation are widely used is undoub- tedly the financial sector. Academic research into the possibilities of market segmentation for banks has been carried out since the early 1970s. As competition in financial services has increased, companies have