Correspondence: Guillaume Bodet, Institute of Sport and Leisure Policy, School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, United Kingdom. E-mail: G.S.P.Bodet@lboro.ac.uk

¹is a lecturer in marketing at the Institute of Sport and Leisure Policy, School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, at the University of Loughborough (UK). His research primarily deals with consumer behaviour in relation to sport services and brands.

Received 9 January 2009; Revised 9 January 2009.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how service elements contribute to consumer satisfaction by examining customer psychological segmentation. The author conducted an empirical investigation using a sample of 184 customers in the health and fitness industry, and applied the tetra-class model developed by Llosa (1996) in order to identify the contribution service elements make to satisfaction and to confirm the relevance of the logic of the four contributions. It then compared the service elements' contributions by applying and extending the framework of Poubanne et al. A comparative analysis showed that the nature and intensity of consumption value strongly influence the role of service elements, which reinforces the necessity to consider consumers' satisfaction and consumption value simultaneously.