9. Measuring Lifestyles VALS system Thinkers have a moderate respect for 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 that they buy. Motivated by the desire for achievement, Achievers have goal-oriented 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. With many wants and needs, Achievers are active in the consumer marketplace. 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. http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/presurvey.shtml#start
Welcome to Week 3 of MKT3050 Consumer Behavior. This week we’ll learn more about internal influences on behavior and explore attitudes – what they are, why they are important to marketers, and how we can measure them.
Here’s the Consumer Value Framework we’ve been using over the past 2 weeks. Last week we covered topics about how people learn and remember. This week, we’ll talk about the personality of consumers and attitudes. Remember, consumers engage in behaviors that will get their needs and wants met - and that will deliver value.
One of the reasons marketers study consumer behavior is to identify characteristics that are linked to a purchase. Marketers want to understand consumers so they can predict behavior. Marketers have studied personality, lifestyles and self-concept over time. We’ll review each idea. Personality in a nut shell is who you are – all the thoughts, emotions, intentions and behaviors you demonstrate over time. Your personality is a unique combination of traits, that unfortunately, doesn’t predict your behavior.
There are 2 theories we’ll discuss about personality. One of the more well known is the psychoanalytic approach developed by Sigmund Freud. He theorized that every action we undertake is driven by our need for pleasure – but that this drive is managed by our conscience – identifying right vs wrong and our ego – not wanting to look bad according to societal rules. His work led marketers to start researching motivations… and we still ask those questions today – how does this product make you feel? But unfortunately, marketers weren’t able to use Freud’s theory to develop any practical guidelines.
Another theory about personality is the trait approach. A trait is an identifiable characteristic of a consumer that can be linked with their behavior. Marketers can look at the combination of traits that make an individual unique – but this isn’t practical for delivering a marketing program. The trait approach looks at the characteristic or characteristics that a group of consumers shares – the marketer wants to link these traits to purchase behavior – for example, if a cell phone provider finds that people who buy the latest cell phone are also analytical, then they would try to find analytical people to target. Unfortunately, traits like being analytical may occur in a wide population – those that buy the latest cell phone and those that don’t, so traits aren’t as predictive as marketers had hoped. Nonetheless, trait theory does help marketers give a brand personality – and helps with messaging… the ad for the latest cell phone may contain details that appeal to analytical buyers. So… what kinds of traits have been studied?
Here are a few that have been measured – and are included in messaging / branding efforts. Value consciousness – how much you need to maximize what you receive. Materialism – are you motivated by ‘stuff’? Innovativeness – these are the early adopters – likely to be young, curious, educated. The analytical trait – defined here as the need to think – if it’s high, then details are important – if low, then imagery and humor are used more effectively. You’re probably aware of the idea of competitiveness that enters into messaging – take a look at this car ad that illustrates how the marketers play on consumers’ competitiveness!
One of the most popular multiple-trait approaches found in consumer research is the five factor model. This model proposes that five dominant traits are found in the human personality. Each consumer is a combination of these traits – with varying degrees of agreeableness, stability, etc. If marketers can measure these traits, then they can anticipate how likely consumers are to complain, to try new products, to buy ‘green’ products. But despite the ability to measure these traits, the approach isn’t widely used in marketing – Exhibit 6.3 in your text explains why – probably the most relevant criticism of the trait approach is that it doesn’t predict consumer behavior! Remember, marketers want to find aspects of the consumer that link to purchase behavior so they can positively affect it! So let’s turn to another internal influence that marketers watch – lifestyle.
Lifestyle is the way you live and spend money… the study of lifestyle builds on personality traits by putting behavior into a context – so instead of asking a consumer if they like new technology, the marketer may ask the consumer to name the last 3 electronic devices purchased. Lifestyles can be tied directly to product purchase and consumption – so become useful for identifying market segments. Look at the two ads for different brands of water – can you see how lifestyles of the target audience affected the message? Psychographics is the term used to describe lifestyle measurement – taking marketers beyond basic demographic characteristics to include activities, interests and opinions. In the first commercial, humor played a large role – with the target audience likely active, but really interested in having fun. In the second commercial, the target audience is also likely active, but seemingly more committed to staying fit for the ‘beauty’ of it….
Psychographic profiles enable marketers to create segments of consumers. The VALS system is one segmentation approach. VALS stands for Values and Lifestyles. The approach places consumers into 8 segments based on resources available to consumers (money, education, intellect) and their primary motivations – are they motivated by ideals, achievement, or by self-expression? Marketers can conduct research with buyers of their product to determine which segment they fall into – and then tailor advertising, products, promotions to fit the lifestyles of those buyers.
Another segmentation system used widely in consumer packaged goods is PRIZM. This is a software package sold by A.C. Nielsen – it creates lifestyle groups based on location – urban, suburban, town & country for example…..
Then links location with socioeconomic elements to create segments. The software assumes that people with similar lifestyles (background, income, education) will tend to live in the same area. 66 segments are available in the system – again, to help marketers identify the lifestyles of buyers and potential buyers – for use in targeting marketing plans.
Self-concept is another important element of consumer behavior. Self-concept is all the thoughts and feelings you have about yourself – it’s your identity. Self-concept is important to marketers because consumers will look at other users of a product or service or store and choose the product or service or store that matches our self-image. And consumer behavior is closely linked to self concept – so studying usage patterns can help marketers understand self-concept – and give them information to use in marketing plans. Can you name some products that seem to be linked to self-concept? Take a look at the three commercials attached – can you see how the marketers are relying on self-concept?
We have several self-concepts – the actual self refers to how a consumer currently perceives him or herself. The ideal self refers to who I would like to be in the future. The social self refers to how consumers think others see them – this is also called the ‘looking glass self’. The ideal social self is how I would like others to see me. The possible self is what we could become.. And the extended self is the various possessions a consumer owns that helps form self perceptions. Let’s look at a few images and see if they give us clues on self-concepts…
Take a look at these photos – each shows customers for a different retail outlet. Can you guess which retailers? The upper left is for Abercrombie… clockwise on the right is Walmart – lower right is Pacsun…. And lower left is Target. What self-concept(s) do these retailers seem to tie into? Are the retailers distinct? Abercrombie and Pacsun seem to have the most clarity – with Abercrombie focused on the ideal social self. Pacsun links to the ideal social self too – how consumers want to be seen by others – but it’s emphasis on skateboarding also suggests a link to the extended self – the self that uses possessions as a form of expression. The Target and Walmart consumers seem most reflective of the actual self – this is who I am currently – but there doesn’t seem to be much easily identifiable distinction between the concepts – at least by observing these shoppers. Since consumers tend to shop where they feel one of their self-concepts is represented… identifying a clear positioning may be more challenging here. One of your discussion boards this week asks you to upload photos or images of shoppers from one of your favorite stores - so we can discuss which self-concepts seem to draw shoppers in.
Marketers look at consumer personalities, lifestyles, and self-concepts for insights into behaviors… but consumer attitudes are one of the more important dimensions that marketers rely upon. Attitudes are important because positive attitudes lead to purchase, positive word-of-mouth, and perceptions of good value. An attitude is a fairly long lasting evaluation of products, services, people or issues – and these evaluations lead consumers to behave pretty consistently over time.
Attitudes don’t just help marketers – they also help consumers… knowing how attitudes help consumers can provide insight into more effective messaging – talking to consumers about a product in ways that fit with their attitudes. One function of an attitude is utilitarian – consumers use attitudes to maximize rewards and minimize punishment…. Buying and liking a product because it delivers a specific benefit – like a smart phone with free web access – is an example The knowledge function of attitudes helps consumers simplify how they make decisions. Remember we talked about memory – like a mental filing cabinet for information – well, if I have a pair of jeans I really like, this knowledge (which I access through memory) will help make the selection process for a new pair of jeans easier. Attitudes can also serve a value-expressive function – the gives the consumer the ability to express themselves – to make statements about what’s important to them. If I believe strongly in the value of education, then I may drive to Lansing with other parents to lobby for more financial support – this belief, this attitude about education is expressed through my participation. Finally, attitudes can play an ego-defensive role. This allows consumers to protect themselves from information they may find threatening OR to enhance their self image… the example in the grid above illustrates the idea of threatening information… and people who invest in plastic surgery for cosmetic purposes is an illustration of enhancing self-image…
Attitudes are made up of feelings -- how much do I like something – behavior – how I act in response to my feelings – and beliefs – ideas that support my behaviors and feelings.
These components build differently depending on the purchase.
One of the more common models for evaluating attitudes is the attitude-toward-object or ATO model. The formula is shown here and in a nutshell, it calculates an evaluation by using consumer ratings of beliefs – how likely is it that an HDTV will have specific features? Beliefs are combined with consumer evaluations of brands – how likely is it that a SONY HDTV has these features? And finally, we measure how important each of those HDTV features is to the consumer. The sum of importance with beliefs and evaluations is considered the consumers’ attitude. Let’s look at an example.
Here are evaluations of various womens’ fitness centers. The features associated with fitness centers are shown on the far left – womens’ fitness centers could offer circuit training, various classes, with various amenities . There are fees associated with fitness centers and multiple locations. The importance of those features is shown under the column labeled ‘e’ – consumers rated these features on a scale from +3 – very positive to -3 – very negative. So in this example, having many locations is viewed to be most positive, and not surprisingly, fees are considered very negative. The belief that a fitness center has these features is shown in the columns labeled ‘b’ with 10 meaning it’s highly likely the fitness center has this feature and 1 meaning it’s highly unlikely the fitness center has this feature. Look at the beliefs about Lifestyles – consumers believe Lifestyles has class variety (a 10), but not circuit training (a 1). The attitudes are calculated by multiplying the importance ‘e’ by the belief ‘b’. With lifestyles, the attitude score about class variety is high for Lifestyles – it’s an important feature and Lifestyles delivers – more than Curves, where attitude score was 4 and Shapes where attitude score was 6. Lifestyles scores fairly high on the most important attribute – Location – but not as high as Curves or Shapes fitness centers. Summing up the attitudes toward each feature gives us an overall evaluation of each fitness center. The higher the score, the more favorable the evaluation. One of the discussion boards this week and one of the assignments explores these ideas in more detail. It’s important to note, though, that while attitudes are generally indicative of behavior, they’re not always predictive…. Impulse purchases or some utilitarian purchases may be less affected by attitudes.
Another model for measuring attitudes that is viewed as an improvement over the ATO model is the Behavior Intention Model…this model focuses beyond attitudes to include our intentions to act. It also evaluates consumers’ perceptions of what other people think they should do - -and their attitudes toward buying, rather than attitudes about the product itself. For this model to be effective, researchers and marketers need to measure consumer perceptions of consequences of their purchase – if I purchase the Sony HDTV, what will happen? And we need to be aware of external influences also – what do consumers perceive others’ opinions are about Sony?
This example from Campbell’s website is working to change attitudes by changing beliefs…. Moving soup from something served in a bowl to a meal enhancement to pour over rice / mashed potatoes.
The Activia example on the prior slide illustrates Social Judgment Theory, which states attitudes can be changed as long as the new information is within the range of acceptability. If new information isn’t believable, it will be rejected and attitudes won’t changed. If Activia’s benefits promised to cure colon cancer, then Dannon would likely be sued for false advertising – and it’s such an overpromise that consumers wouldn’t change their attitude about yogurt.
The example on the prior page illustrates changing attitudes using the elaboration likelihood model. Westin adding scents to the room is a somewhat peripheral cue supporting Westin’s efforts to create attitudes that link their hotel chain with personal renewal. The Heavenly Bed idea is more direct…. These elements target both the central route and peripheral routes to changing attitudes… high involvement with the furniture in the Hotel Room and more subtle, low involvement with the scents in the hallways.
Bill Cosby’s association with Jello is an example of Balance Theory about changing attitudes. If you have positive associations with the endorser, those attitudes may extend to the product. That concludes the video lecture for Week 3. You’ll see the Class Folder includes discussion boards and assignments about the ideas we’ve covered here. Please let me know if you have questions about any of the content.