Download Personality and Lifestyles

Personality and Lifestyles
Chapter 6
Personality
• The inner psychological
characteristics that both
determine and reflect how a
person responds to his or her
environment
• Marketing strategies often
include some aspect of
personality.
• These dimensions are usually
considered in conjunction with
a person’s choice of leisure
activities, political beliefs,
aesthetic tastes, and other
personal factors that help us
to understand consumer
The Nature of Personality
• Personality reflects individual differences
 Because no two people are exactly the same, marketers can look for certain similar
personality traits in different consumers. These consumers can then be grouped
together based on this identified personality train.
• Personality is consistent and enduring
 This helps marketers predict consumer behavior over time in terms of personality
 Even though an individual’s personality may be consistent, consumption behavior
often varies considerably because of psychological, socio-cultural, situational and
environmental factors that affect behavior.
 Personality is only one of a combination of factors that influence how a consumer
behaves.
•
Personality can change
 Personality stereotypes may also change over time

There is a prediction, for example, that a personality convergence is occurring between men and
women.
 The reason for this shift is that women have been moving into occupations that
have been dominated by men and have increasingly been associated with
masculine personality attributes
Theories of Personality
• Freudian theory
– Unconscious needs or drives are at the heart of
human motivation
• Neo-Freudian personality theory
– Social relationships are fundamental to the
formation and development of personality
• Trait theory
– Quantitative approach to personality as a set of
psychological traits
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
• Personality results from the clash of 3
forces - the id, the ego, and the superego
• Id
– Warehouse of primitive or instinctual
needs for which individual seeks
immediate satisfaction
• Superego
- Individual’s internal expression of society’s
moral and ethical codes of conduct
• Ego
– Individual’s conscious control that
balances the demands of the id and
superego
A Representation of the Interrelationships
among the Id, Ego, and Superego
Gratification
ID
System 1
EGO
System 3
SUPEREGO
System 2
Key Issues in Psychoanalytic Approach
– Basis for motivational researchers of 1950s.
– Places high emphasis on symbols
• phallic, ovarian, and death symbols
– Libido--sexual energy that can be released by phallic and
ovarian symbols.
– Pleasure principle: basis for functioning of id.
– Reality principle: basis for functioning of ego.
– Death wish--elicited by death symbols.
– Large impact on research methods
• depth interviews
• focus groups
• Ad
Portraying
the Forces
of the Id
• This ad
focuses on
the
conflict
between
the id and
the
superego
It Captures Some of the Mystery and The Excitement
Associated With the “Forces” of Primitive Drives.
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
10
Chapter Five Slide
Applications of Psychoanalytic Theory
1.
2.
3.
4.
Appeal to fantasy, which plays an important role in the
operation of pleasure principle of id.
Male oriented symbolism “ the Phallic symbol” that
appeals to female and “ovarian” symbols. Figures that are
round and receptive are ovarian symbols, figures that are
long and cylindrical are phallic symbols. The concave
shape of Jovan perfume, and convex shape of Jovan after
shave are sexual symbols.
Triple appeal principle:
various appeals that assist in resolving the conflict
between id, ego and superego in some purchase
situation. Appeals directed to id but disguised by a veiled
appeal to superego, are said to result in a situation that
can be satisfactorily resolved by the ego. ( Playtex Free
Sprit bra)
Aggression: previews of violent scenes for sport
coverage, aggression
This ad for Italian Cappuccino-coffee employs fantasy
images to create feelings and emotions in consumers
From a psychoanalytic perspective, the erect figure of the
skier is a phallic symbol
Discussion Opportunity
• What are some products that are usually sold by
telling you that the use of the product will make
you attractive to the opposite sex?
• What are some products that make their appeals
primarily to the id? What are some products that
make their appeals to the superego (bring in
examples if you can)? Do products make an
appeal to the ego? If so, how? Describe a
mediation experience where the ego functioned.
Psychoanalytic theory and Consumer
Research
• Psychoanalytic projective techniques developed to identify the
unconscious motives that spur people to action. Word association
tasks, sentence completion tasks, thematic appreciation tests (TAT)
• Depth interviews:
 This technique involves relatively few consumers but probe deeply
into each person’s purchase motivations. A depth interview may
take several hours and is based on the assumption that respondents
cannot immediately articulate his or her latent, or underlying
motives these can be derived only after meticulous questioning and
interpretation on the part of a carefully trained interviewer
 Motivation research is attacked for two quite opposite reasons
a. It does not work
b. It works too well
Psychoanalytic theory and Consumer
Research
• Criticism:
a. It does not work
 Researchers lacked sufficient vigor and validity since
interpretations are subjective and indirect
 Conclusions are derived from discussions with small
number of people some researchers are dubious to
the degree to which these results can be generalized
to a large market
b. It works too well
 Attacked this school of thought for giving advertisers
the power to manipulate consumers
Psychoanalytic theory and Consumer
Research
• Benefits:
 Cost efficiency:
 Less expensive than large scale quantitative surveys because interviewing
and data processing costs are relatively minimal
• Providing Insights:
 Help to develop marketing communication that appeal to deep seated
needs and thus provide more powerful hook to relate a product to
consumers
• Intuitive Sense
 Some of the findings seem initiatively plausible after the fact. Motivational
research concluded that:
 Coffee is associated companionship
 People avoid prunes because they remind them oldage
 The men fondly equate their first car they owned as an adolescent with
the onset of their sexual freedom
Motive
Associated Products
Power-masculinityvirility
Power: sugary products, bowling, electric trains,
Masculinity-virility: Coffee, red meat, heavy
shoes, shaving with razor
Eroticism
Sweet (to lick) a man lighting a women’s
cigarette ( to create a tension-filled moment
culminating in pressure, then relaxation)
Social acceptance
Companionship: Ice cream ( to share fun)
Love and affection: Toys, sugar and honey (
express terms of affection
Individuality
Gourmet foods, Foreign cars, Vodka, perfume
Status
Scotch, fur coats, luxury cars
Femininity
Dolls, silk, tea, cakes and cookies
Freudian Theory and
“Product Personality”
• Those stressing Freud’s theories see that
human drives are largely unconscious, and
that consumers are primarily unaware of their
true reasons for buying what they buy.
• These researchers focus on consumer
purchases and/or consumption situations,
treating them as an extension of the
consumer’s personality.
Snack Foods and Personality Traits
• Potato Chips:
• Ambitious, successful, high achiever, impatient
• Tortilla Chips:
• Perfectionist, high expectations, punctual, conservational
• Pretzels:
• Lively, easily bored, flirtatious, intuitive
• Snack Crackers:
• Rational, logical, contemplative, shy, prefers time alone
Neo-Freudian Theories
• Karen Horney
• Proposed that people could be described as
 Compliant ; Moving towards others
 Dethatched; Moving away from others
 Aggressive; moving against each other
• Alfred Adler
 Motivation to overcome inferiority
• Harry Stack Sullivan
 Personality evolves to reduce anxiety
Neo-Freudian Theories
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Carl Jung
Disciple of Freud
Did not accept Freud’s emphasis on sexual aspects of personality
Develop his own method of psychotherapy known as analytical psychology
The development of personality depends on:
The individual’s development as creative person (his or her future)
His or individual racial history (his or her past)
He believed that we all share a collective unconscious.
You can think of this collective unconscious as a storehouse of memories we
inherited from our ancestors.
From these shared memories, we recognize archetypes.
An archetype is a universally recognized idea or behavior pattern. They typically
involve themes like birth and death and appear in myths, stories, and dreams.
Young & Rubicam, a major advertising agency, uses the archetype approach in its
BrandAsset Archetypes model depicted on the next two slides.
Neo-Freudian Theories
• The model shows the relationships among the
Archetypes.
• For each healthy personality, there is a corresponding
Shadow.
• The Shadows are shown on the next slide. A healthy
personality is one in which the Archetypes overwhelm
their corresponding Shadows.
• A sick personality results when one or more Shadows
prevail.
• When a brand’s Shadows dominate, this cues the
agency to take action to guide the brand to a healthier
personality.
Figure 6.1 BrandAsset Valuator Archetypes
6-25
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publishing as Prentice Hall
Figure 6.1 BrandAsset Valuator Archetype (continued)
6-26
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publishing as Prentice Hall
Personality Traits
• Attention to social Comparison information
( ATSCI)
 The extent to which consumers conform to
social pressure to make purchase
Those who are high on this scale are very
aware of how others react to their behavior
and are prone to change their behavior and
attitudes to conform to group standards
Personality Traits
• Need for cognition.
People with low need for cognition are influenced
more by the characteristics of the source- especially
physical attractiveness and likeability – than by the
quality of the arguments
when targeting thinkers, marketers should consider
using print advertising and create messages that are
quite detailed and provide strong arguments for
purchasing the brand
Television is a better medium when targeting
consumers with a low need for cognition. Messages
should be simple and delivered by attractive and
likeable persons
Personality Traits
• Visualizers versus Verbalizers
• Visualizers are consumers who prefer visual
information and products that stress the visual.
• Verbalizers are consumers who prefer written or verbal
information and products that stress the verbal.
• This distinction helps marketers know whether to
stress visual or written elements in their ads.
• A recent research effort found that there are two
distinctly different types of visualizers.
– Object visualizers encode and process images as a single
perceptual unit.
• Spatial visualizers process images piece by piece
The Ad Stresses Strong
Visual Dimensions
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30
Chapter Five Slide
Why Is This Ad Particularly
Appealing to Verbalizers?
• It Features a Detailed
Description
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publishing as Prentice Hall
Chapter Five Slide
31
Personality Traits
• Separateness –connectedness
• Individual differences in this variable moderated
respondent’s attitude towards ads. Those who scored
high on separateness rated the individualistic ad highly
and communal ad lower. The result was opposite who
scored high on connectedness
• Managerial implication: advertisers should match the
theme of their message to the self concept of their
target market
• A brand could be positioned as made for individualistic
and targeted to men, or positioned as made for “those
who are connected” and targeted to women
This ad for Saab 9000 Aero is likely to appeal to consumers with a
seperated self concept who prize autonomy and independence
From Consumer Materialism to
Compulsive Consumption
Acquire and show
off possessions
Self centered and
selfish
Materialistic
People
Do not get greater
personal satisfaction
from possessions
Seek lifestyle full of
possessions
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
34
Chapter Five Slide
Consumer Materialism
• Materialism is a trait of people who feel their possessions are
essential to their identity.
• They value acquiring and showing off possessions, they are
self-centered and selfish, they seek lifestyles full of
possessions, and their possessions do not give them greater
happiness.
• A recent study found that the most important predictor of the
amount of time a consumer shopped and the amount he or
she spent was that individual’s total score on the materialism
scale.
• In terms of “willingness to spend” consumer often react
differently than they would like to.
Consumer Materialism
• Materialism has often been linked to advertising,
and researchers have suggested that in the
United States there has been an increasing
emphasis on materialism in the print media.
• The extent of consumer materialism can vary
from country to country, and marketers must be
careful when trying to export a successful U.S.
marketing mix to another country.
• During consumption dreaming, a consumer
dreams about material objects and experiences.
Fixated Consumption Behavior
• Somewhere between being materialistic and being compulsive is
being fixated with regard to consuming or possessing.
• Like materialism, fixated consumption behavior is in the realm of
normal and socially acceptable behavior.
• Fixated consumers display their purchases and their involvement is
shared with others.
• Fixated consumers’ characteristics:
– A deep (possibly “passionate”) interest in a particular object or
product category.
– A willingness to go to considerable lengths to secure additional
examples of the object or product category of interest.
– The dedication of a considerable amount of discretionary time and
money to searching out the object or product.
• This profile of the fixated consumer describes many collectors or
hobbyists (e.g., coin, stamp, antique collectors, vintage wristwatch,
or fountain pen collectors).
Compulsive Consumption Behavior
• Compulsive consumption is in the realm of abnormal
behavior.
• Consumers who are compulsive have an addiction; in some
respects, they are out of control, and their actions may
have damaging consequences to them and those around
them
• Compulsive buying has been described as, “chronic
repetitive purchasing that becomes a primary response to
cognitive events or feelings”
• Compulsive buyers have:
 low self-esteem,
 fantasize more frequently than "normal”
 Suffer higher than average levels of depression and anxiety
Consumer Ethnocentrism and
Cosmopolitanism
• Ethnocentric consumers feel it is wrong to
purchase foreign-made products because of
the impact on the economy
• They can be targeted by stressing nationalistic
themes
• A cosmopolitan orientation would consider
the world to be their marketplace and would
be attracted to products from other cultures
and countries
Brand Personality
• A brand personality is the set of traits people attribute to a product
as if it were a person
• A brand personality provides an emotional identity for a brand, and
encourages consumers to respond with feelings and emotions
toward the brand.
• Research studies have found that a strong, positive brand
personality leads to more favorable attitudes toward the brand,
brand preference, higher purchase intentions, and brand loyalty,
and is a way for consumers to differentiate among competing
brands
• Examples of personality dimensions include old fashioned,
wholesome, traditional, and lively, among others
• 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 to it
Brand Personality
 Packaging and other physical cues create a
personality for a product
 Marketing activities undertaken on behalf of the
product also can influence inferences about its
personality
 In one research, Whirlpool kitchen products were
seen more feminine and regarded as modern,
family oriented woman living in suburbs, where
as Kitchen Aid brand was seen as modern
professional woman who was glamorous and
wealthy and enjoyed classical music and theatre
Brand behaviors and possible Personality Traits Inferences
Brand Action
Trait Inference
Brand repositioned several times or change its slogan repeatedly
Flighty, Schizophrenic
Brand uses continuing character in its advertising
Familiar, comfortable
Brand charges high price and uses exclusive distribution
Snobbish, sophisticated
Brand frequently available on special deal
Cheap, uncultured
Brand offers many line extensions
Versatile, adaptable
Brand features easy to use packaging or speaks at consumer level
in advertising
Warm, approachable
Brand offers seasonal clearance sale
Planful, practical
Brand offer five year warranty or free customer hotline
Reliable, dependable
Product Anthropomorphism and
Brand Personification
• Product Anthropomorphism
 Anthropomorphism is loosely defines as
attributing human characteristics to something
that is not human
 A recent study found that the ease with which
consumers could anthropomorphize an offering
was a function of how the product was presented
to the public and the inclusion or absence of
human-like product features
 Tony the Tiger and Mr. Peanut
Product Anthropomorphism and
Brand Personification
• Brand Personification
• A brand personification recasts consumers’ perception of the
attributes of a product or service into the form of a “human-like
character
• It seems that consumers can express their inner feelings about
products or brands in terms of association with a known personality
• Identifying consumers’ current brand-personality links and creating
personality links for new products are important marketing tasks
• There are five defining dimensions of a brand’s personality
(“sincerity,” “excitement,” “competence,” “sophistication,” and
“ruggedness”), and fifteen facets of personality that flow out of the
five dimensions (e.g., “down-to-earth,” “daring,” “reliable,” “upper
class,” and “outdoors”).
Product Anthropomorphism and
Brand Personification
• Consumers sometimes develop a relationship
with a brand that is similar to the relationships
they have with other humans.
– In some instances they give their products names
and actually speak to their product.
– In an “exchange relationship” the consumer gets
something back in return.
– Brand zealots develop a “communal relationship”
with the product and demonstrate a passion that
is typically associated only with family and friends.
A Brand Personality Framework
Chapter Five Slide
46
Product Personality Issues
• Gender
 Some products perceived as masculine (coffee and toothpaste) while
others as feminine (bath soap and shampoo)
 Knowing the gender that consumers assign to your brand help form
advertising and marketing decisions. Who should be the spokesperson in
your ad? How should they interact with the brand?
• Geography
 Marketers learned a long time ago that certain products, in the minds of
consumers, possess a strong geographical association
 By employing geography in a product’s name, the product’s manufacturer
creates a geographic personality for the product
 Using the geographical association can create a geographic equity.
 This means that in a consumer’s memory, the knowledge of the
brand reflects a strong geographic association
 The real question is, “Does location (geography) add to the brand image
and to the product’s brand equity?”
Product Personality Issues
• Personality and Color
 Consumers also tend to associate personality factors with specific colors.
– In some cases, various products, even brands, associate a specific color with
personality-like connotations.
 It appears that blue appeals particularly to female consumers
 Yellow is associated with “novelty,” and black frequently connotes
“sophistication.”
 For this reason, brands wishing to create a sophisticated persona (e.g.,
Minute Maid juices or Pasta LaBella) or an upscale or premium image
(e.g., Miller Beers’ Miller Reserve) use labeling or packaging that is
primarily black.
 Many fast-food restaurants use combinations of bright colors, like red,
yellow, and blue, for their roadside signs and interior designs.
 These colors have come to be associated with fast service and food being
inexpensive.
 In contrast, fine dining restaurants tend to use sophisticated colors like
gray, white, shades of tan, or other soft, pale, or muted colors to reflect
fine leisurely service.
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
Colorado’s Lifestyle Marketing
Colorado
appeals to
tourists who
prefer to spend
their leisure
time doing
things
outdoors. This
ad clearly
targets using
lifestyle
variables.
Consumption Style
This diagram illustrates
how people, products,
and settings combine
to express a
consumption style.
For instance, a
person’s choice of
product in specific
situations reflects
lifestyle choices
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
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
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.
publishing as Prentice Hall
6-54
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: differentiates between users and
nonusers of a product
• Product-specific profile: identifies a target group
and profiles consumers based on product-related
dimensions
• General lifestyle study: segmentation places a
large sample of respondents into homogeneous
groups based on similarities of preferences
• Product-specific study: tailors questions to a
product category.
Psychographic Segmentation Uses
•
•
•
•
•
•
To define target market
To create new view of market
To position product
To better communicate product attributes
To develop product strategy
To market social/political issues
Life style segmentation of the snacks market
Nutritional
Snackers
Weight
watcher
Guilty
Snackers
Party
Snackers
Indiscriminate
Snackers
Economical
Snackers
Life-Style SelfCharacter assured
istics
controlled
Outdoor
types,
Influential,
High
anxiety
isolate
Sociable
Hedonistic
Self-assured
price oriented
Benefits
sought
Nutritious
no artificial
ingredients
Low
calorie
quick
energy
Low
calorie
good
tasting
Good to
serve
Guests,
Good tasting
Satisfies
hunger
Low price best
value
Consump
tion level
light
light
Heavy
Average
Heavy
Average
Types of
snacks
eaten
Fruit,
vegetable
Cheese
Yogurt
Vegetabl
es
Yogurt
Cookies
Crackers
Candies
Nuts, Potato
chips,
crackers,
Candy, ice
cream,
cookies, potato
chips, popcorn
No specific
products
Demogra
phics
Better
educated,
have
young
children
Younger,
single
Younger
or older,
lower
socioeco
nomic
group
Middle aged,
non urban
Teens
Larger families,
better educated
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.
The VALS Psychographic Inventories
•
•
•
1.
2.
3.
•
The goals of VALS 2 is to identify specific relationships between
consumer attitudes and purchase behavior
Divides American Population into eight segment based on their self
identity and their resources
Self Identity has three different consumer orientation:
Principle oriented : makes consumer choices based upon their beliefs
rather than upon feelings, events that happen to them, or desire for the
approval of others
status: make choices based on their perception of whether others will
approve their purchases
Action : make purchases based on their desires for activity, variety, and
risk taking
The second dimension of VALS classification is resources. People with
abundant resources at one end of spectrum, and those with minimal
resources occupying the other end
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.
The VALS Psychographic Inventories
•
•
•
1.
2.
3.
•
The goals of VALS 2 is to identify specific relationships between
consumer attitudes and purchase behavior
Divides American Population into eight segment based on their self
identity and their resources
Self Identity has three different consumer orientation:
Principle oriented : makes consumer choices based upon their beliefs
rather than upon feelings, events that happen to them, or desire for the
approval of others
status: make choices based on their perception of whether others will
approve their purchases
Action : make purchases based on their desires for activity, variety, and
risk taking
The second dimension of VALS classification is resources. People with
abundant resources at one end of spectrum, and those with minimal
resources occupying the other end
Innovators (formerly Actualizers)
• Innovators are successful, sophisticated, take-charge people with
high self-esteem.
• Because they have such abundant resources, they exhibit all
three primary motivations in varying degrees.
• They are change leaders and are the most receptive to new ideas
and technologies.
• Innovators are very active consumers, and their purchases reflect
cultivated tastes for upscale, niche products and services.
• Image is important to Innovators, as an expression of their taste,
independence, and personality.
• Innovators are among the established and emerging leaders in
business and government, yet they continue to seek challenges.
• Their lives are characterized by variety.
• Their possessions and recreation reflect a cultivated taste for the
finer things in life.
Thinkers (formerly Fulfilleds)
• Thinkers are motivated by ideals.
• They are mature, satisfied, comfortable , and reflective people who
value order, knowledge, and responsibility.
• They tend to be well educated and actively seek out information in the
decision-making process.
• They are well-informed about world and national events and are alert to
opportunities to broaden their knowledge.
• Thinkers have a moderate respect for the status quo institutions of
authority and social decorum, but are open to consider new ideas.
• Although their incomes allow them many choices, Thinkers are
conservative, practical consumers;
• they look for durability, functionality, and value in the products they buy.
Believers
• Believers are motivated by ideals.
• They are conservative, conventional people with
concrete beliefs based on traditional, established
codes: family, religion, community, and the nation.
• Many Believers express moral codes that are deeply
rooted and literally interpreted.
• They follow established routines, organized in large
part around home, family, community, and social or
religious organizations to which they belong.
• As consumers, Believers are predictable;
• they choose familiar products and established
brands.
• They are generally loyal customers.
Achievers
• Motivated by the desire for achievement, Achievers have goaloriented lifestyles and a deep commitment to career and family.
• Their social lives reflect this focus and are structured around family,
their place of worship, and work.
• Achievers live conventional lives, are politically conservative, and
respect authority and the status quo.
• They value consensus, predictability, and stability over risk, intimacy,
and self-discovery.
• Image is important to Achievers;
• they favor established, prestige products and services that
demonstrate success to their peers.
• Because of their busy lives, they are often interested in a variety of
time-saving devices.
Strivers
• Strivers are trendy and fun loving.
• Because they are motivated by achievement, Strivers are concerned
about the opinions and approval of others.
• Money defines success for Strivers, who don't have enough of it to
meet their desires.
• They favor stylish products that emulate the purchases of people with
greater material wealth.
• Many see themselves as having a job rather than a career, and a lack of
skills and focus often prevents them from moving ahead.
• Strivers are active consumers because shopping is both a social activity
and an opportunity to demonstrate to peers their ability to buy.
• As consumers, they are as impulsive as their financial circumstance
will allow.
Experiencers
• Experiencers are motivated by self-expression.
• As young, enthusiastic, and impulsive consumers,
Experiencers quickly become enthusiastic about new
possibilities but are equally quick to cool.
• They seek variety and excitement, savoring the new,
the offbeat, and the risky.
• Their energy finds an outlet in exercise, sports,
outdoor recreation, and social activities.
• Experiencers are avid consumers and spend a
comparatively high proportion of their income on
fashion, entertainment, and socializing.
• Their purchases reflect the emphasis they place on
looking good and having "cool" stuff.
Makers
• Like Experiencers, Makers are motivated by self-expression.
• They express themselves and experience the world by working on
it-building a house, raising children, fixing a car,
• Makers are practical people who have constructive skills and
value self-sufficiency.
• They live within a traditional context of family, practical work, and
physical recreation and have little interest in what lies outside
that context.
Makers are suspicious of new ideas and large institutions such as
big business.
• They are respectful of government authority, but resentful of
government intrusion on individual rights.
• They are unimpressed by material possessions other than those
with a practical or functional purpose.
• Because they prefer value to luxury, they buy basic products.
Survivors (formerly Strugglers)
• Survivors live narrowly focused lives.
• With few resources with which to cope, they often believe that the
world is changing too quickly.
• They are comfortable with the familiar and are primarily concerned
with safety and security.
• Because they must focus on meeting needs rather than fulfilling
desires, Survivors do not show a strong primary motivation.
• Survivors are cautious consumers.
• They represent a very modest market for most products and
services.
• They are loyal to favorite brands, especially if they can purchase
them at a discount.
This ad for the
Firebird is
targeted to
Experiencers in
the VALS 2
framework.
Experiencers are
young,
enthusiastic
individuals who
like sports and
risk taking