VALUES AND LIFESTYLES

VALUES
Belief and value refer to accumulated feelings and priorities that individual have about things and possessions.

While beliefs consist of very large number of mental and verbal statements that reflect a persons particular knowledge and assessment of something. Values are : i- Relatively few in number. ii-Serve as a guide for culturally appropriate behavior. iii-Induring i.e. difficult to change. iv- tied to specific objects or situation. v-widely accepted by the members of the society.

LIFESTYLE

Life-Style and Psychographic Analysis

Life-style refers to how people live, how they spend their money, and how they allocate their time

Life-style and personality are different, yet are closely related

The distinction between personality and life-style:

Personality refers to the internally based dispositions of the person. In contrast, lifestyle refers to the external manifestations of how a person lives.

Psychographics is the quantitative investigation of consumers life-styles, personality, and demographic characteristics.

LIFESTYLE MEASUREMENT THROUGH AIO

Lifestyle Identification Lifestyle Identification

Activities Activities

Interests Interests

Opinions Opinions

AIO statements identify consumer activities, interests, and opinions

Activity questions ask consumers to indicate what they do, what they buy, and how they spend their time. Interest questions focus on what the consumers preferences and priorities are. Opinion questions ask for consumers views and feelings on such things as world, local, moral, economic, and social affairs.

STANFORD RESEARCH INSTITIUTE

Stanford Research Institute(SRI) developed a popular approach to psychographics segmentation called VALS(Values and Lifestyles). This approach segmented consumers according to their values and lifestyles in USA.

VALS
Consumers are inspired by one of three primary motivations: ideals, achievement, and self-expression. Consumers who are primarily motivated by ideals are guided by knowledge and principles. Consumers who are primarily motivated by achievement look for products and services that demonstrate success to their peers. Consumers who are primarily motivated by selfexpression desire social or physical activity, variety, and risk.

VALS2
Researchers face some problems with this methods and SRI developed the VALS2 programme in 1978 and revised it in 1989. VALS2 put less emphasis on activities and interests. It put more emphasis on psychological drivers to consumer behaviour.

The VALS 2 Inventory

Goal of VALS 2 is to identify specific relationships between consumer attitudes and purchase behavior. Three self-identify orientations: principle oriented people, status oriented people, and action oriented people.

Three resource orientations: financial, psychological, and material. Based upon total number of resources, people could be categorized based upon their level of resources.
VALS 2 used by corporations to understand the basis for consumer lifestyles, which is useful for developing promotional strategy and even where to place retail stores such as The Sharper Image.

VALS 2
Principle Oriented

Actualizers Abundant Resources

Status Oriented Action Oriented

Fulfillers

Achievers

Experiencers

Believers

Strivers

Makers

Minimal Resources

Strugglers

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 Actualisers Highest income, self image is important, buy the finest things in life. Fulfiller- mature, responsible, well educated, well inform and open to change. practical in buying. Believers- Modest income, Conservative , predictable, lives around- family, church, community, nation. Achievers- Successful , work oriented, politically conservative, respect authority, show their success through possessions. Strivers- Similar to achievers but with less resources, style is important to them. Experiences- Avid customer, spend heavily on- clothes, fast food , music and other youthful favorites, youngest of all, energetic and like new things. Makers- values self sufficiency and focus on familiar, unimpressed by material possessions. Strugglers- lowest income, brand loyal people.

The List of Values (LOV) Scale

The list of values (LOV) scale was developed to correct some of the problems of VALS. Goal is to assess the dominant values of a person (i.e., it does not use AIO statements).

Nine values are assessed by the LOV scale:

Sense of belonging Being well-respected Security Fun and enjoyment Warm relationships with others Self-fulfillment Excitement Sense of accomplishment Self-respect