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Chapter

Personality and
Lifestyles
OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you
should understand why:
1. A consumer’s personality influences the way he
or she responds to marketing stimuli.
2. Consumers’ lifestyles are key to many
LEARNING

marketing strategies.
3. Psychographics go beyond simple
demographics to help marketers understand and
reach different segments.
OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you
should be able to:
4. Identifying patterns of consumption is superior
to knowledge of individual purchases when a
marketer crafts a lifestyle marketing strategy.
LEARNING

PERSONALITY
• Consumer Behavior on the Couch:
Freudian Theory
- Freudian Systems
- Sometimes a Cigar Is Just a Cigar
• Motivational Research
• Neo-Freudian Theories
- Karen Horney
- Carl Jung
• Trait Theory
- Are You an Innie or Outie?
- Problem with Trait Theory
in Consumer Research
• Brand Personality

LIFESTYLES AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
• Lifestyle: Who We Are, What We Do
- Lifestyles as Group Identities
- Products are the Building Blocks of Lifestyles
• Psychographics
- The Roots of Psychographics
- Doing a Psychographic Analysis
- AIOs
- Uses of Psychographic Segmentation
• Psychographic Segmentation Typologies
- Vals
- Roy Morgan Values Segments
- Global MOSAIC
- RISC

REGIONAL CONSUMPTION DIFFERENCES:
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!
• Food Cultures
• Geodemography
• Single Source Data
• PRIZM
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Kate and Liam are typical of many people who search for
new (and even risky) ways to spend their leisure time.
This desire has meant big business for the adventure travel
industry. Sports such as bungee jumping, white-water
rafting, sky diving, mountain biking, and other physical
stimulating activities now account for US$ 1-2 billion of
the global adventure travel market.
So what makes Kate and Liam so different from their more
calm friend Debbie? One answer is the concept of
personality, which refer to a person’s unique psychological
makeup and how it consistently influences the way a
person responds to his/her environment.
Many studies have found that people do not seem to exhibit
stable personalities, they don’t behave the same way in all
situations, and it is a convenient way to categorize people.
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Consumer Behavior on the Coach:
Freudian Theory
Sigmund Freud developed the idea that much
of one’s adult personality stems from a
fundamental conflict between a person’s
desire to satisfy his or her physical needs
and the necessity to function as a
responsible member of society.
Personality = conflict between
gratification and responsibility
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Freudian Systems
• Id: Oriented toward immediate gratification – it is
the ‘party animal’ of the mind. It operates
according to the pleasure principle: behavior is
guided by the primary desire to maximize pleasure
and avoid pain. The id is selfish, illogical, and
ignores consequences
• Superego: Counterweight to the id. This system is
essentially the person’s conscience. It internalizes
society rules (especially as communicated by
parents) and works to prevent the id from seeking
selfish gratification.
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
• Ego: The system that mediates between the id and the
superego. It is in a way a referee in the fight between
temptation and virtue. The ego tries to balance these
opposing forces according to the reality principle: The ego
finds ways to gratify the id that will be acceptable to the
outside world. These conflicts occur on an unconscious
level, so the person is not necessarily aware of the
underlying reasons for his behavior.
Consumer researchers have adapted some of Freud’s ideas.
In particular, his work highlights the potential importance
of unconscious motives underlying purchases. Consumers
cannot necessarily tell us their true motivation for choosing
a product.
 Conflict Between the Id and Superego
• This ad focuses on the
conflict between the
desire for hedonic
gratification
(represented by the id)
versus the need to
engage in rational, task-
oriented activities
(represented by the
superego).
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar
Most Freudian applications in marketing are related
to the sexuality of products. For example, a sports
car is a substitute for sexual gratification for many
men.
Some men do attached to their cars and may spend
many hours lovingly washing and polishing them.
Infiniti ad reinforces the belief that cars
symbolically satisfy consumers’ sexual needs in
addition to their functional ones.
• Phallic symbols: Male-oriented symbolism – that
appeals to women
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Motivational Research
In the 1950s, a perspective called Motivational
Research attempted to use Freudian ideas to
understand the deeper meanings of products and
advertisements. This research relies on depth
interviews with individual consumers.
Depth Interviews: Technique that probes deeply into
a few consumers’ purchase motivations. An in-
depth interview might take several hours, and it is
based on the assumption that the respondent
cannot immediately articulate his or her latent, or
underlying motives.
Motives for Consumption
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Two problems with Motivational Research:
1. Some feel it works well.
2. Some feel it does not work.
3. Too sexually based, because involved sexual themes

This is because this school of thought gives

advertisers the power to manipulate consumers.
On the other hand, many consumer researchers
felt the research lacked sufficient rigor and
validity, as the interpretations were subjective
and indirect.
rigor = strictness
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Appeal of Motivational Research
• Less expensive than large-scale, quantitative survey
research because interviewing and data-processing
costs are relatively minimal
• Uncovers deep seated needs which can be targeted with
advertising. For example, the rich imagery that may be
associated with a product can be used creatively when
developing advertising copy
• Findings seem intuitively plausible after the fact. For
example, coffee is associated with companionship, that
people avoid prunes because they remind them of old
age and that men fondly equate the first car they owned
as an adolescent
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Neo-Freudian Theories
Freud’s work had a huge influence on subsequent theories of
personality. These theories are often called neo-Freudian
(meaning following from or being influenced by Freud)
Karen Horney
 Described people as moving toward others (compliant),
away from others (detached), or against others
(aggressive).
 For example,
• Compliant people are more likely to fall toward name-brand
products.
• Detached types are more likely to be tea drinkers.
• Male classified as aggressive prefer brands with a strong
masculine orientation such as Old Spice deodorant.
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY

• Other well-known neo-Freudian include

Alfred Adler, who proposed that many
actions are motivated by people’s desire to
overcome feelings of inferiority relative to
others.
• Harry Stack Sullivan, who focused on how
personality evolves to reduce anxiety in
social relationships
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Carl Jung
• Disciple of Freud (and was being groomed by Freud to be his
successor) but did not accept Freud’s emphasis on sexual aspects of
personality
• Develop his own method of psychotherapy, which became known
as analytical psychology.
• Believed that people are shaped by the cumulative experiences of
past generations. A central part of his perspective was an emphasis
on collective unconscious: A storehouse of memories inherited
from our ancestral past. For example, many people are afraid of
the dark because their distant ancestors had good reasons to exhibit
this fear.
• The shared memories create archetypes: universally shared ideas
and behavior patterns created by shared memories. This involve
themes, such as birth, death, or the devil, that appear frequently in
myths, stories, and dreams. For example, Old wise man, earth
mother, wizards, revered teachers, mother nature.
BrandAsset Valuator Archetypes
BrandAsset Valuator Archetype
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Trait Theory
One approach to personality is to focus on the
quantitative measurement of personality trait,
identifiable characteristics that define a person.
For example, people can be distinguished by the
degree to which they are socially outgoing (the
trait of extroversion) – Debbie might be described
as an extrovert, whereas her co-worker Jackie is
an introvert (quiet and reserved).
• Extroversion: Trait of being socially outgoing
 Extrovert: A person that possesses the trait of extroversion
• Introversion: Trait of being quiet and reserved
 Introvert: A person that possesses the trait of introversion
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
There are many different personality tests available,
but most of these focus on creating types of
people. One of the more widely used in
management circles is the Myers-Briggs
personality typology in which people are classified
as on the 16 types. The drawback of this approach
is that there are no negative personality types.
The most widely approach now is the Big Five (Neo
Personality Inventory), developed by Costa and
McRae. The Big Five is a list of five dimensions
which form the basis of personality: Openess to
Experience, Conscientiousness, Extroversion,
Agreeableness, and Neuroticim (emotional
stability)
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Traits relevant to consumer behavior:
• Innovativeness – The degree to which a person likes to try
new things.
• Materialism – Amount of emphasis placed on acquiring and
owning products.
• Self-consciousness – The degree to which a person
deliberately monitors and controls the image of the self that is
projected to others.
• Need for cognition – The degree to which a person likes to
think about things and by extension expands the necessary effort
to process brand information.
• Frugality – Frugality people deny short-term purchasing
whims, choosing instead to resourcefully use what they already
own. For example, people who have been classified as frugal
tend to do things like bringing leftovers from home to have for
lunch at work.

whims = notion, urge, impulse

 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Are you an Innie or an Outie?
The dimension most relevant to consumer behavior is the
extent to which a person is motivated to consume in order
to please others or to fit in, in contrast to consuming to
express a unique sense of self without much concern about
being accepted by a group.
A sociologist named David Reisman first introduced the term
inner-directed and outer directed to American culture.
Some cultures tend to stress individualism while others
reward those who try to fit in.
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Power of Conformity: The impact of shaping one’s behavior
to meet the expectations of a group. By definition, each of
us is a conformist to some extent because as members of
society we follow certain rules. For example, each of us
generally agrees to stop at an intersection when the light
turns red.
One personality trait we can measure is the need for
uniqueness (the degree to which a person is motivated to
conform to the preferences of others versus standing apart
form the crowd).
Classification of consumption between individuals:
• Idiocentrics – Having an individualist orientation
• Allocentrics – Having a group orientation
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Some differences between Idiocentrics and Allocentrics:
 Contentment: Idiocentrics scored higher than allocentrics
on the statements “I am very satisfied with the way things
are going in my life these days.” They are also satisfied
with their financial situations.
 Health Consciousness: Allocentrics are more likely to
avoid foods that are high in cholesterol, have a high salt
content, have additives in them, or have a high amount of
fat.
 Food Preparation: The kitchen is the favorite room
of allocentrics, who spent more time preparing
meals than do idiocentrics.
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
 Workaholics: Idiocentrics are more likely to say they
work very hard most of the time, and they stay late at work
more than do allocentrics.
 Travel and Entertainment: Idiocentrics are more
interested in other cultures and traveling than are
allocentrics.
Idiocentric are more likely to go to movies, art galleries,
and museums. They are more likely to collect stamps,
rocks, work on do-it yourself projects, take photos,
and more likely to play the lottery.
Allocentrics visited the public library and finished
reading books with a greater frequency, reported
working on crafts projects such as needlework and
model building.
 Are You an Innie or an Outie?

Idiocentrics Allocentrics
(individualist orientation) (group orientation)
Contentment More satisfied with current Less satisfied with current
life life
Health Less likely to avoid More likely to avoid
Consciousness unhealthy foods unhealthy foods
Food Preparation Spend less time preparing Love kitchen; spend more
food time preparing food
Workaholics More likely to work hard Less likely to work hard
and stay late at work
Travel and More interested in traveling Visit library and read more
Entertainment to other cultures
Discussion Question
• This classic ad starts
off with the line:
“The Datsun 240-Z
is not exactly what
you would call a
common site.”
• What consumer
personality trait is
this ad appealing
to?
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Problems with Trait Theory in Consumer
Behavior
Because large numbers of consumers can be
categorized according to whether they exhibit
various traits, these approached can be used to
segment markets.
If a car manufacturer, for example, could determine
that drivers who fitted a given trait profile are
more likely to prefer a car with certain features,
this match could be used to great advantage.
Unfortunately, the use of standard personality trait
measurements to predict product choices has met
with mixed success at best.
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Marketing researchers simply have been not been able to
predict consumer’s behaviors on the basis of measured
personality traits due to:
 Many of the scales are not sufficiently valid or reliable;
they do not adequate measure what they are supposed to
measure, and their results may not be stable over time.
 Personality tests are often developed for specific
populations (such as mentally ill people); these tests are
then “borrowed” and applied to the general population
where their relevance is questionable. (Scales misapplied
to the general population)
 Often the tests are not administered under the appropriate
conditions; people who are not properly trained may give
them in a classroom or at a kitchen table.
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
 The researchers often make changes in the instruments to
adapt them to their own situations, in the process deleting
or adding items and renaming variables. These ad hoc
changes dilute the validity of the measures and also reduce
researchers’ ability to compare results across consumer
samples.
 Many traits scales are intended to measure gross, overall
tendencies (such as emotional stability or introversion);
these results are then used to make predictions about
purchases of specific brands. (Generalized trait measures
used to make predictions about specific behaviors)
 In many cases, a number of scales are given with no
advance thought about how these measures should be
related to consumer behavior. The researchers then use a
shotgun approach, following up on anything that happens
to look interesting. (no thought of scale application)
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Brand Personality
In 1886, a momentous event occurred in marketing history –
the Quaker Oats man first appeared on boxes of hot cereal.
Quakers (family of religious movements) had a reputation in 19th-
century America for being shrewd (clever or smart) but fair, and
peddlers (a travelling vendor of goods) sometimes dressed as
members of this religious group.
When the cereal company decided to ‘borrow’ this imagery
for its packaging, this signalled recognition that purchasers
might make the same associations with its product.
Thus a brand personality is the set of traits people attribute to
a product as if it were a person.
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Brand equity
• Refers to the extent to which a consumer holds strong, favorable, and
unique associations with a brand in memory—and the extent to which
s/he is willing to pay more for the branded version of a product than
for a nonbranded (generic) version
• Building strong brands is good business – after the stock market took a
nosedive in October 1997, the 20 strongest corporate brands (e.g.
Microsoft, GE) actually gained in market value whereas the 20
weakest lost an average of US$1 billion each.
• Name recognition has become so valuable that some companies are
completely outsourcing production to focus on nurturing the brand.
Nike doesn’t own any shoe factories, and Sara Lee sold off many of its
bakeries, meat-processing plants and textile mills to become a ‘virtual’
corporation.
• Advertisers are keenly interested in how people think about brands and
several of them conduct extensive consumer research to help them
understand how consumers connect to a brand before they roll out
campaigns.
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY

Some personality dimensions that can be used

to compare and contrast the perceived
characteristics of brands in various product
categories include:
• Old fashioned, wholesome, traditional.
• Surprising, lively, with it.
• Serious, intelligent, efficient.
• Glamorous, romantic, sexy.
• Rugged, outdoorsy, tough, athletics.
Brands and Trait Inferences
 Brand Behaviors and Possible
Personality Trait Inferences

Brand Action Trait Inference

Brand is repositioned several times or changes Flighty, schizophrenic
slogan repeatedly
Brand uses continuing character in advertising Familiar, comfortable

Brand charges high prices and uses exclusive Snobbish, sophisticated

distribution
Brand frequently available on deal Cheap, uncultured

Brand offers many line extensions Versatile, adaptable

 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
The creation and communication of a distinctive
brand personality is one of the primary ways
marketers can make a product stand out from the
competition and inspire years of loyalty.
• This process can be understood in terms of
animism, the practice found in many cultures
whereby inanimate objects are given qualities that
make them somehow alive. Animism sometimes
is an aspect of a religion: sacred objects, animals,
or places are believed to have magical qualities or
to contain the spirits of ancestors.
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
Two types of animism can be identified to describe the extent
to which human qualities are attributed to the product:
 Level 1: People believe the object is possessed by the soul
of a being – as is sometimes the case for spokespersons in
advertising. This strategy allows the consumer to feel that
the spirit of the celebrity is available through the brand. A
brand may be strongly associated with a loved one, alive,
or deceased. For example, my grandmother always served
Knott’s Berry Farm jam.
 Level 2: Object are anthropomorphized, or given human
characteristics. A cartoon character or mythical creation
may be treated as if it were a person, and even assumed to
have human feelings. For example, Charlie the Tuna,
Keebler Elves, or the Michelin Man for Michelin tyre
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
A brand’s positioning strategy is a statement about
what that brand wants to be in the eyes of its
customers – especially relative to the competition.
For example, here’s how the marketing director for
Philips Electronics in Asia sums up the problem
he faces in updating his brand so that it’s seen as
hip and young by Chinese consumers: “To put it
bluntly, we are received well by middle-aged
gentlemen … But a brand like Sony is seen as
younger, more arrogant, with a space-age
personality.”
 PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
A brand personality is a statement about how the brand is
positioned. If consumers don’t see the brand the way its makers
intend them to and an attempt must be made to reposition the
product. (i.e. give it a personality makeover).
That’s the problem now being faced by Volvo, whose cars are
renowned for safety but are not exactly seen as exciting or sexy.
A safe and solid brand personality makes it hard to sell a racy
convertible like the C70 model, so a British ad tried to change
that perception with the tag line, “Lust, Envy, jealousy. The
danger of a Volvo.”
You can only go so far in convincing others that your personality
has changed. Volvo has been trying to jazz up its image for
years, but for the most part consumers aren’t buying it. For
example, the company paired action images like a Volvo pulling
a helicopter off a cliff – but market research showed that people
didn’t believe the new image. “You get the sort of feeling you
get when you see your grandparents trying to dance the latest
dance. Slightly amused and embarrassed.”
 LIFESTYLES
LIFESTYLES AND
AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
PSYCHOGRAPHICS
Kate, Liam, and Debbie strongly resemble one another demographically.
They all were raised in middle-class households, have similar
educational backgrounds, are about the same age, and work for the
same company. However, as their leisure choices show, it would be a
big mistakes to assume that their consumption choices are similar as
well. Each person chooses products, services, and activities that help
define a unique lifestyle.

Lifestyle: Who We are, What We do

In traditional societies, class, caste, village, or family largely dictate a
person’s consumption options. In a modern consumer society,
however, people are freer to select the set of products, services and
activities that define themselves and, in turn, create a social identity
that is communicated to others. A person’s choice of goods and
services indeed makes a statement about who she (or he) is and the
types of people she wishes to identity with – and even those she wishes
to avoid.
LIFESTYLES
LIFESTYLES AND
AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
PSYCHOGRAPHICS
Lifestyle: refers to a pattern of consumption reflecting a
person’s choice of how he or she spends time and money.
In an economic sense, her lifestyle represents the way she
has elected to allocate income.

A lifestyle marketing perspective recognize that people sort

themselves into groups on the basis of the things they like
to do, how they like to spend their leisure time, and how
they choose to spend their disposable income.
For example, the growing number of niche magazines that
cater to specialized interest such as WWE Magazine
(World Wrestling Entainment) gained 913k readers, 4
Wheel & Off Road gained 749k while mainstream
Reader’s Digest lost 3m readers and People lost 2m.
Colorado’s Lifestyle Marketing
LIFESTYLES
LIFESTYLES AND
AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
PSYCHOGRAPHICS
Lifestyles as Group Identities
Economic approaches are useful for tracking changes in
broad societal priorities, but they do not begin to embrace
the symbolic nuances that separate lifestyle groups.
Lifestyle is more than the allocation of discretionary
income. It is a statement about who one is in society and
who one is not.
Many people in similar social and economic circumstances
may follow the same general consumption pattern. Still,
each person also provides a unique twist to the pattern that
allow them to inject some individuality into their lifestyle.
For example, a typical high school student may dress much
like his friends, hang out in the same places, and like the
same foods, yet still indulge a passion for marathon
running, video games, stamp collecting, or community
activism that makes him unique.
LIFESTYLES
LIFESTYLES AND
AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
PSYCHOGRAPHICS

Lifestyles are not set in stone, people’s tastes and

preferences evolve over time.
Consumption patterns that were viewed favorably
during one life phase may be laughed at a few
years later. For example, think back to what you
and your friends were wearing five or ten years
ago.
Because people’s attitudes regarding physical
fitness, social activism, the importance of home
life and family do change, it is vital for marketers
to continually monitor the social landscape to try
to anticipate where these changes will lead.
Integrating Products into
Consumer Lifestyles

• This ad illustrates the

way that products like
cars are tightly
integrated into
consumers’ lifestyles,
along with leisure
activities, travel, music,
and so on.
The Tangled Web
DDB Needham Lifestyle Study

Figure 6.1
LIFESTYLES
LIFESTYLES AND
AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
PSYCHOGRAPHICS
Products are the Building Blocks of Lifestyles
We often choose a product precisely because it’s associated
with a certain lifestyle. Thus, lifestyle-marketing strategies
attempt to position a product by fitting it into an existing
pattern of consumption.
The goal of lifestyle marketing is to allow consumers to
pursue their chosen ways to enjoy their lives and express
their social identities, a key aspect of this strategy is to
focus on product usage in desirable social settings. The
goal of associating a product with a social situation has
been a long-standing one for advertisers, whether the
product was a family barbecue or a night at a glamorous
club.
Consumption Style
LIFESTYLES
LIFESTYLES AND
AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
PSYCHOGRAPHICS

The adoption of a lifestyle marketing perspective

implies that we must look at patterns of behavior
to understand consumers.
Many products and services do seem to go together,
usually because they tend to be selected by the
same types of people. In many cases, products do
not seem to make sense if they are uncompanied
by companion products (e.g., fast food and paper
plates, a suit and tie) or are inappropriate in the
presence of others (e.g. an antique chair in a high-
tech office ot a caravan towed by a Ferrari)
LIFESTYLES
LIFESTYLES AND
AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
PSYCHOGRAPHICS
Therefore, an important part of lifestyle marketing is to
identify the set of products and services that seems to be
linked in consumers’ minds to a specific lifestyle, which is
marketers called co-branding strategies.
For example,
• The German car maker Porsche is teaming up with Canada’s
Fairmont Hotels & Resort chain to appeal to one another’s
customers. Fairmont’s best known properties are its regal hotel on
San Francisco’s Nob Hill and New York’s Plaza Hotel. In turn ,
Porsche figures that Fairmont’s upmarket clientele is the perfect
market for its vehicle.
• Unilever handed out samples of its new Dove Body Refreshers
body care product to women as they entered Bally Total Fitness
gyms.
LIFESTYLES
LIFESTYLES AND
AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
PSYCHOGRAPHICS

• Roxy surf wear has teamed up with Toyota to

create a surf-friendly version of the Echo sedan
for the young female market. It features water-
resistant, neoprene-covered seats, a Yakima
roof rack and wet-gear storage bins. If this
surfmobile succeeds, Toyota hopes to develop a
similar male-oriented vehicle linked to the
Quicksilver name.
• Hewlett-Packard teams with Intel and
Microsoft for its notebook lines.
LIFESTYLES
LIFESTYLES AND
AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
PSYCHOGRAPHICS

Product Complimentary occurs when the

symbolic meanings of different products are
related to each other. Consumers use these
sets of products, termed Consumption
constellations, to define, communicate, and
perform social roles
For example, the American “yuppie” of the
80s and early 90s was defined by such
products as a Rolex watch, a BMW
automobile, a Gucci briefcase, a squash
racquet, and white wine.
Discussion

• What consumption
constellation might
characterize you
and your friends
today?
The Sims
 LIFESTYLES
LIFESTYLES AND
AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
PSYCHOGRAPHICS
Psychographics
In 1998, Cadillac introduced its sport utility vehicle called the Escalade.
Critics mocked at the bizarre pairing of this old-line luxury brand with
a truck, but the vehicle quickly became associated with the hip-hop
lifestyle. Artists like Jennifer Lopez, Outkast and Jay-Z referred to it
in songs.
The brand manager describes the target customer for luxury pick-ups as a
slightly earthier version of the SUV buyer. She says that while the two
drivers may own US$2 million homes next door to each other, the
typical luxury SUV driver is about 50, has an MBA from Harvard,
belongs to a golf club, maintains connections with his college friends
and works hard at keeping up with the Joneses (the comparison to one's neighbor as
a benchmark for social caste or the accumulation of material goods).

In contrast, the luxury pick-up driver is roughly five years younger. He

might have inherited his father’s construction business and he’s been
working since he was 18 years old. He may or may not have attended
college, and still connected to his high school friends.
LIFESTYLES
LIFESTYLES AND
AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
PSYCHOGRAPHICS
As the example shows, marketers often find it useful
to develop products that appeal to different
lifestyle groups – just knowing a person’s income
doesn’t predict whether he will drive a Cadillac
Escalade SUV, a pick-up or a Cadillac El Dorado
sedan.
As Kate’s, Liam’s, and Debbie’s choices
demonstrated, consumers can share the same
demographic characteristics and still be very
different people. For this reason, marketers need a
way to get into demographic data to really
identify, understand, and target consumer
segments that will share a set of preferences for
their products and services.
LIFESTYLES
LIFESTYLES AND
AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
PSYCHOGRAPHICS
Therefore, marketers use tool known as psychographics,
involves the use of psychological, sociological, and
anthropological factors … to determine how the market is
segmented by the propensity of groups within the market –
and their reasons – to make a particular decision about a
product, person, ideology, or otherwise hold an attitude or
use a medium.
For example, the Discovery Channel surveyed those who
watch at least one-half-hour of its programming a week. It
found that, in fact, there were eight distinct groups of
watchers with different motivations and preferences –
psychographic segments that were given descriptive name
such as Entertain-Mes, Practicals, Scholars, and Escapists.
Based on these results, Discovery was able to tailor its
programming to different segments and increase its market
share in the competitive cable television industry.
LIFESTYLES
LIFESTYLES AND
AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
PSYCHOGRAPHICS

Psychographics: use of psychological,

sociological, and anthropological factors to:
• Determine market segments
• Determine reasons for choosing products
• Fine-tune offerings
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The Roots of Psychographics
Developed in the 1960’s and ’70’s to address the
shortcomings of motivational research and quantitative
survey research (two types of consumer research)
Motivational Research: Involves intensive, one-to-one
interviews and projective tests, yields a lot of information
about a few people. This information is often idiosyncratic
and may not be very reliable.
Quantitative Survey Research (Large Scale Demographic
Surveys): Yields only a little information about a lot of
people. For example, the marketing manager who wanted
to know why people ate the competitor’s cornflakes was
told 32% of the respondents said taste, 21% said flavor,
15% said texture, 10% said price and 22% said don’t know
or no answer. There’s not a lot you can do with that kind
of feedback.
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Doing a Psychographic Analysis
Psychographic studies can take several different forms:
• A lifestyle profile looks for items that differentiate between
users and nonusers of a product.
• A product-specific profile identifies a target group and then
profiles these consumers on product-relevant dimensions.
• A general lifestyle segmentation places a large sample of
respondents into homogenous groups based on similarities
of their overall preferences.
• A product specific segmentation tailors questions to a
product category. For example, I get stomach problems if
I worry to much.
 Best Buy Psychographic Segments

• “Jill”: busy suburban mom who buys electronics

for family
• “Buzz”: focused, active younger male interested in
buying latest gadgets
• “Ray”: family man who likes his technology
practical
• “BB4B (Best Buy for Business)”: small employer
• “Barry”: affluent professional male who’ll drop
tens of thousands of dollars on a home theater
system
Forms of Psychographic Analysis

Lifestyle profile

Product-specific profile

General lifestyle study

Product-specific study
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AIOs
Most contemporary psychographic research attempt
to group consumers according to some
combination of three categories of variables –
Activities, Interest, and Opinion – known as
AIOs. Using data from large samples, marketers
create profiles of customers who resemble each
other in terms of their activities and patterns of
product usage.
The first step in conducting a psychographic analysis
is to determine which lifestyle segments are
producing the bulk of customers for a particular
product.
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General rule of thumb frequently used in marketing
research, called the 80/20 rule (lifestyle segments
that produce the bulk of customers).
80/20 Rule:
• Only 20 percent of a product’s users account for 80
percent of the volume of product sold
• Researchers attempt to identify the heavy users of a
product
• Heavy users can then be subdivided in terms of the
benefits they derive from the product or service.
Marketers primarily target these heavy users, even
though they may constitute a relatively small
number of total users.
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Heavy users may have quite different reasons for

using the product, so they can be further
subdivided in terms of the benefits they derive
from using the product or service.
For instance, marketers at the beginning of the
walking shoe craze assumed that purchasers were
basically burned-out joggers. Subsequent
psychographic research showed that there were
actually several different groups of walkers,
ranging from those who walk to get to work to
those who walk for fun.
AIOs and Lifestyle Dimensions
 Lifestyle Dimensions

Activities Interests Opinions Demographics

Work Family Themselves Age

Hobbies Home Social issues Education

Social events Job Politics Income

Vacation Community Business Occupation

Entertainment Recreation Economics Family size

Club membership Fashion Education Dwelling

Community Food Products Geography

Shopping Media Future City size

Sports Achievements Culture Stage in life cycle

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Uses of Psychographic Segmentation
Psychographic Segmentation can be used in a variety of
ways:
 To define the target market: This information allows the
marketer to go beyond simple demographic or product
usage descriptions (e.g., Middle-aged men or frequent
users).
 To create a new view of the market: The actual customer
may not match the assumptions. For example, marketers
of a face cream for women were surprised to find their key
market was composed of older, widowed women rather
than the younger, sociable women to whom they were
pitching their appeals.
 To position the product: Allow the marketer to emphasize
features of the product that fit in with a person’s lifestyle.
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 To better communicate product attributes: Psychographic
information can offer very useful input to advertising
creative teams who must communicate something about
the product.
 To develop overall strategy: Understanding how a product
fits, or does not fit into consumers’ lifestyle allows the
marketer to identify new product opportunities, chart
media strategies, and create environments most
consistent and harmonious with these consumption
patterns.
 To market social and political issues: Can be an important
tool in political campaigns and can also be employed to
find commonalities among types of consumers who engage
in destructive behaviors, such as drug use or excessive
gambling. Thus, the message or ads can be placed where
the consumers most likely to see or hear them.
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Psychographic Segmentation Typologies
Marketers are constantly on the prowl for new insights that
will allow them to identify and reach groups of consumers
that are united by a common lifestyle. Allow the
researchers to cluster into a set of distinct lifestyle groups.
Developed by companies and advertising agencies to identify
groups of consumers with common lifestyles. And usually
sold to companies that want to learn more about their
customers and potential customers.
Similarities in segmentation typologies:
• Respondents answer a battery of questions
• Researchers classify them into “clusters” of lifestyles
• Each cluster is given a descriptive name
• A profile of the “typical” member is provided to the client
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Unfortunately, it is often difficult to compare

or evaluate different typologies as the
methods and data used to devise these
systems are frequently proprietary.
Proprietary Systems:
• Information is developed and owned by the
company and the company will not release the
info to outsiders
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VALS
• The Values and Lifestyles (VALS) System
• Well known segmentation system in the
United States.
• Developed at SRI International in
California.
• Uses a battery of 39 items (35 psychological
and 4 demographic) to divide U.S. adults
into groups, each with distinctive
characteristics.
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The key to the VALS system are three self-orientations
(primary motivations) that comprise the horizontal
dimension:
• Principle orientation: Guided by a belief system
• Status orientation: Guided by opinions of peers
• Action orientation: Desire to impact the world around them
Consumers motivated by ideals make purchase decisions
guided by a belief system, and they are not concerned with
the views of others.
People motivated by achievement make decisions based on
the perceived opinions of their peers.
Self-expression-motivated individuals buy products to have
an impact on the world around them.
VALS2TM
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The top VALS group, made up of Innovators, are
successful consumers with many resources. This
group is concerned with social issues and is open
to change. They are often the first to buy cutting-
edge technology.
The next three groups also have sufficient resources
but differ in their outlooks on life:
 Thinkers are satisfied, reflective and comfortable.
They tend to be practical and value functionality
 Achievers are career-oriented and prefer predictability
to risk or self-discovery
 Experiencers are impulsive, young, and enjoy offbeat
or risky experiences
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The next four groups have fewer resources:
 Believers have strong principles and favor proven brands
 Strivers are similar to Achievers, but have fewer resources.
They are very converned about the approval of others
 Makers are action-oriented and tend to focus their energies
on self-sufficiency. They will often be found working on
their cars, canning their own vegetables or buidling their
own houses
 Survivors are at the bottom of the economic ladder. They
have limited ability to acquire anything beyond the basic
goods needed for survival, but seem fairly content. Most
are older and think the best part of their life is behind them.
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The VALS system has been a useful way to understand
people like Kate and Liam. It estimates that 12% of
American adults are thrill seekers, who tend to fall into the
system’s Experiencer category. Experiencers like to take
risks and many of the people who are strongly attracted to
extreme sports such as sky surfing and bungee jumping are
Experiencers.
For example, VALS helped Isuzu market its Rodeo sport
utility vehicle by focusing on Experiencers, many of whom
believe it is fun to break rules (in ways that do not
endanger others). The car was positioned as a vehicle that
lets a driver break the rules. Advertising was created to
support this idea by showing kids jumping in mud puddles.
Isuzu sales increased significantly after this campaign.
 Discussion Question
• The pictures at the
right depict two
very different
“ideal” vacations.
• How can
psychographic
segmentation help
identify target
markets for each
type of vacation?
 Discussion

• Construct separate advertising

executions for a cosmetics product
targeted to the Belonger, Achiever,
Experiencer, and Maker VALS types.
• How would the basic appeal differ for
each group?
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Ray Morgan Values Segments
In Australia, the Ray Morgan research company has developed (in
conjunction with Colin Benjamin of the Horizon Network) a
segmentation tool called Roy Morgan Values Segments, which has 10
segments.
1. A fairer deal: Feel they get a raw deal out of life; generally
pessimistic, cynical and often struggling financially, they think
everyone gets all the fun and they miss out
2. Basic needs: This segment is generally happy and contented with
what they have. They are not looking for more and enjoy watching
the world go by. Usually retirees
3. Conventional family life: Represents middle Autralia, with values
centered around the significant events in their personal and family
lives. It tends to relate to people seeking greater financial security
and struggling to improve their basic living standards and to give their
families better opportunities than they had in their own childhood
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4. Look at me: They are looking for fun and freedom away
from the family and being a part of their generation. They
are fashion and trend conscious, wishing to stand out from
their parent’s generation but very conscious of
conforming to their peer group
5. Real conservatism: Generally part of the establishment, a
central concern in this segment is maintaining a
disciplined, predictable and safe society. They hold very
conservative social, moral and ethical values and
generally feel that things are not as good as they used to
be
6. Socially aware: This segment is always searching for
something new and different and new things to learn
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7. Something better: They tend to be competitive, individualistic and
ambitious people who are seeking more out of their life. They want
more that they’ve got, more than their parents had and more than
others have – and they want it all now!
8. Traditional family life: Motivated by similar values in terms of
security, reliability and providing better opportunities for their family
as the conventional family life segment
9. Visible achievement: Despite being successful, they retain traditional
values about home, work, and society. The family is very important
to this segment and they provide their family with a high-quality
environment and they work for financial reward
10. Young optimism: Into image and style. They are conscious of the
image they project and want to make the right one. They are thinking
about the future
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Global MOSAIC
• Developed by a British Firm called Experian
• Analyzes consumers in 19 countries including
Australia, South Africa, and Peru
• Identified 14 common lifestyles, classifying 800 million
people who produce roughly 80% of the world’s GDP.
This allows marketers to identify consumers who share
similar tastes around the world. Although they are found
in every country, they are not present in equal proportions.
The next page show how an Irish band used this
information to identify Americans most likely to
want to hear their music.
Global Fans of an Irish Rock Band
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RISC (Research Institute on Social Change)

Since 1978, a Paris-based organization called the
Research Institute on Social Change (RISC) had
conducted International measurements of lifestyles
and sociocultural change in more than 40
countries.
Its long-term measurement of the social climate
around the world makes it possible to anticipate
future change and identify signs of change in one
country before it eventually spread to other
countries.
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Identifies 10 segments based on three axes:
• Expansion/Stability: The vertical axis separates people motivated
by search for new ideas, new ways of life, personal development,
experimentation and the need to get the most out of life from
people motivated by need for security and assurance, familiarity
and stability
• Responsibility/Enjoyment: The horizontal axis distinguishes people
oriented towards a collective approach, moral judgement and long-
term views of the world from people oriented more towards
individual empowerment, short-term views and a pleasure-driven
approach to life
• Flexibility/Structure: The third axis indicates a distance between
people who are opportunistic or who constantly readjust their life
to be able to be more ‘fluid’ in responses to the environment, and
those who appreciate order, social norms and the signification of
personal identity through symbols and signs
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RISC then divides the population into 10 segments referring
to their position in this virtual space.
RISC data can be used to hone in on potential target groups
and to tell marketers the types of product benefits and
communications that would be likely to attract these
groups.
The next page shown how the system was used in Germany
to differentiate between likely buyers of two car brands.
Consumers were asked if each of the two brands would be
their first, second or third choice if they were going to buy
a new car. While overall popularity of the two cars is
about the same in the German population, the key is to
identify segments within the country that are much more
receptive to the brand.
The Ten RISC Segments
Choice of Brand for the Next New Car
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Germans who like Brand B skew heavily towards

those who value appearance and status (with an
index value of 131) and those who value pleasure
and exploring other cultures (an index value of
151).
This difference implies, for example, that marketers
of Brand B might appeal to this segment in their
advertising by linking the car with images of rich,
worldly bon vivants (a person having cultivated, refined, and
sociable tastes especially with respect to food and drink).

James Bond might be a prime endorser candidate!.

 REGIONAL
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If you have travelled to or lived in other parts of the

country, you may have experienced the weird
feeling of being slightly out of sync with your
environment. The people may speak the same
language, yet you may have difficulty
understanding some things they say.
These regional differences often exert a big impact
on consumers’ lifestyle because many of our
preferences in food, entertainment, and so on are
dictated by local customs and the availability of
some diversions rather than others.
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These regional differences are important for many product

categories, from entertainment to favourite cars, decorating
styles to leisure activities (for example, BMW found that
drivers in France prized a car for its road-handling abilities
and the self-confidence it gave them, while those in
Austria were more interested in its value as a status
symbol).
One of the most telling domains in which lifestyle is
influenced by where a person lives is in the area of food
products.
Differing preferences for dairy products illustrate how
something as simple as eating is largely defined by where
you live. Asian countries traditionally consume far fewer
dairy products than Australia and the United States.
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Food Cultures
• Sheep eyeballs are considered a delicacy in Saudi
Arabia.
• Snake is prized in China.
• Irish eat a lot of potatoes.
• In China, milk chocolate has less milk
• In United States, Campbell’s soup is saltier than in
Mexico
• In Germany, food must be healthier
Food Culture:
• A pattern of food and beverage consumption
that reflects the values of a social group
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Australian share the same national identity, yet the

country’s different climates, cultural influences,
and resources shape different food cultures. Such
differences allow us to legitimately talk about
‘regional personalities’ as well as a ‘national
personality’.
For instance, it is traditional in Adelaide after a night
out to go and have a pie floater at the Great South
Australian Pie Cart. It sounds revolting to any
other Australian, but the South Australian love it.
European Food Cultures
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Geodemography
Analytical techniques that combine data on consumer expenditures
and other socioeconomic factors with geographic info about areas in
which people live to identify consumers with common consumption
patterns
This approach is based on the assumption that people who
have similar needs and tastes also tend to live near one
another, so it should be possible to locate ‘pockets’ of like-
minded people who can then be reached more
economically by direct mail and other methods.
For instance, the people who live on the Gold Coast and at
Redcliffe travel to work in a car. This might seem like a
marketing opportunity for car dealerships or petrol
stations. However, the income difference between the two
is stunning. Gold Coast has a median weekly income of
$400 while Redcliffe is $200.
 Discussion

• Geodemographic techniques assume

that people who live in the same
neighborhood have other things in
common as well.
• Why do they make this assumption, and
how accurate is it?
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Single Source Data

• Cluster Analysis:
• A statistical technique for market segmentation, allows
marketers to identify groups of people who share
important characteristics even though they may live in
different parts of the country. Geographic information
is increasingly being combined with other data to paint
an even more complete picture of the American
consumer
• Single-Source Data:
• Information about a person’s actual purchasing history
is combined with geodemographic data, thus allowing
marketers to learn even more about the types of
marketing strategies that motivate some people – but
not others – to respond.
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PRIZM (Potential Rating Index by Zip Market)

• Developed by Claritas, Inc.
• Classifies every U.S. Zip Code into one of 62 categories
• Rankings in terms of income, home value, and occupation
on a ZQ (Zip Quality) Scale
• Categories range from most affluent “Blue-Blood Estates”
to the least well-off “Public Assistance”. Example:
“Young Influential,” “Money and Brains,” “Kids and Cul-
de-Sacs”
• Different clusters exhibit different consumption patterns
Systems like PRIZM often are useful to maximize the
effectiveness of marketing communications, especially
direct-mail pieces where fine-tuning which household
receive the messages make them more cost-efficient and
impactful.
 Comparison of PRIZM Clusters

Furs and Station Wagons Tobacco Roads

New money, parents in 40s and 50s Racially mixed farm town in South
Newly built subdivisions with tennis Small downtowns with thrift shops,
courts, swimming pools, gardens diners, and laundromats; shanty-type
homes without indoor plumbing

High Usage Low Usage High Usage Low Usage

Country clubs Motorcycles Travel by bus Knitting
Wine by the case Laxatives Asthma medicine Live theater
Lawn furniture Nonfilter cigarettes Malt liquors Smoke detectors
Gourmet magazine Chewing tobacco Grit magazine Ms. Magazine
BMW 5 Series Hunting magazine Pregnancy tests Ferraris
Rye bread Chevrolet Chevette Pontiac Bonneville Whole-wheat bread
Natural cold cereal Canned stews Shortening Mexican foods

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

6-110
A Comparison of Two PRIZM Clusters
PRIZM Online
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When Cox Communications wanted to boost the number of its cable

subscribers who bought the pay-per-view (PPV) service, the company
launched a direct-mail campaign in 12 of its markets. The campaign
targeted ‘nevers’, those customers who had never purchased a pay-per-
view movie, with enticements to try the service.
They decided to use PRIZM clustering to sharpen its targeting efforts.
The analysis found that a few clusters had a higher than average
likelihood of buying the PPV service. Cox mailed a promotion to
41,000 customers in these clusters that included a list of the pay-per-
view movies available during the month of the campaign and two
coupons that could only be redeemed for movies purchased during the
month of the campaign.
The coupons were coded so that responses to the mailing could be tracked.
The response rate was considerably higher and 20% of the responders
to the promotion were repeat buyers in the following months.
 Chapter Summary

• Consumer personality influences the way one

responds to marketing stimuli
• Lifestyles are an important aid to many marketing
strategies
• Psychographics go beyond simple demographics
to help marketers understand different consumer
segments
• Identifying patterns of consumption are valuable
components of a lifestyle marketing strategy
Introduction
Introduction