Target Audience Analysis and Marketing of Assembly: A Consumer Segmentation Perspective

Abstract

This thesis examined consumer behavior, audience segmentation, and data-driven marketing applica-tions in the context of the Finnish gaming and digital culture event Assembly. The thesis focuses on how buyer behavior theories and analytical segmentation tools can be applied to better understand attendee motivations, improve event management, and enhance marketing effectiveness. Attendee opinions and answers to questions from the winter 2026 Assembly event were used to better under-stand the mindset of an attendee of Assembly. The research combines theoretical consumer behavior frameworks with practical event management applications in order to evaluate how Assembly can uti-lize consumer data and behavioral analysis in their event.

The theoretical section applies the Howard & Sheth model of buyer behavior and the Theory of Rea-soned Action (TRA) to the case of Assembly. The findings indicate that attendee purchasing decisions are influenced not only by functional event characteristics, such as ticket pricing and tournament of-ferings, but also by social identity, gaming culture, community belonging, nostalgia, and social influ-ence originating from gaming communities, influencers, and peer groups. The research suggests that Assembly attendees undergo a complex and high-involvement decision-making process, making buyer behavior theories highly applicable in explaining participation decisions.

In addition, the thesis examines the use of cluster analysis, RFM-analysis (Recency, Frequency, Mone-tary), and k-means clustering as tools for audience segmentation and personalized marketing. The re-search segmented the attendants into four segments. These being hardcore LAN-participant, tourna-ment participant, casual participant and gaming adjacent participant. The study identifies how at-tendee data, including ticket purchases, tournament participation, activity attendance, and online engagement, can be utilized to create meaningful customer segments. These methods may improve targeted marketing, sponsor visibility, event scheduling, venue layout optimization, and customer rela-tionship management strategies. Furthermore, the thesis discusses scalability and the practical suita-bility of clustering methods for events like Assembly.

The results indicate that buyer theory, TRA and clustering tools can be effectively applied to Assembly. The research also indicates that Assembly’s main target audience is a 24-year-old man interested in gaming and more specifically, social LAN-gaming. Despite differences between the identified four seg-ments, all groups share an appreciation for the inclusive community environment and the authenticity of the event culture.