Page 160 - Foundations of Marketing

Target Markets: Segmentation and Evaluation | Chapter 5 127

Psychographic Variables
Marketers sometimes use psychographic variables, such as
personality characteristics, motives, and lifestyles, to segment
markets. A psychographic variable can be used by itself or in
combination with other types of segmentation variables.
Personality characteristics can be a useful means of segmen-
tation when a product resembles many competing products and
consumers’ needs are not significantly related to other segmen-
tation variables. However, segmenting a market according to
personality traits can be risky. Although marketing practitioners
have long believed consumer choice and product use vary with
personality, marketing research has generally indicated only a
weak relationship. It is difficult to measure personality traits
accurately, especially because most personality tests were devel-
oped for clinical use, not for market segmentation purposes.
When appealing to a personality characteristic, a marketer
almost always selects one that many people view positively.
Individuals with this characteristic, as well as those who
aspire to have it, may be influenced to buy the marketer’s
brand. Marketers taking this approach do not worry about
measuring how many people have the positively valued char-
acteristic. They assume a sizable proportion of people in the
target market either have it or aspire to have it.
When motives are used to segment a market, the market is
divided according to consumers’ reasons for making a purchase. Courtesy of Ermenegildo Zegna
Personal appearance, affi liation, status, safety, and health are ex-
amples of motives affecting the types of products purchased and
the choice of stores in which they are bought. Marketing efforts
based on particular motives can be a point of competitive advan-
Segmentation Based on Motives
tage for a fi rm. Take, for example, the advertisement for luxury
This Ermenegildo Zegna advertisement for men’s luxury clothing
Italian menswear brand Ermenegildo Zegna. This is a brand and accessories is clearly appealing to customers who are motivated
known for its classic styling and high quality, underscored in the by personal appearance and status and who care about fashion.
slogan “passion for details.” The luxurious quality of this brand
is emphasized in the close-up of a man wearing a classically tailored suit and loafers, holding
plaid and leather briefcases. This advertisement is clearly appealing to customers who are mo-
tivated by personal appearance and status and who care about fashion. These customers wish to
associate with a luxury lifestyle and want others to notice that they dress in Italian couture brands.
Lifestyle segmentation groups individuals according to how they spend their time, the impor-
tance of things in their surroundings (homes or jobs, for example), beliefs about themselves and
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broad issues, and some demographic characteristics, such as income and education. Lifestyle
analysis provides a broad view of buyers because it encompasses numerous characteristics related
to people’s activities (e.g., work, hobbies, entertainment, sports), interests (e.g., family, home,
fashion, food, technology), and opinions (e.g., politics, social issues, education, the future).
One of the most popular psychographic systems is VALS™ from Strategic Business
Insights (SBI), a spin-off of SRI International. VALS classifies consumers based on psycho-
logical motivations validated to correlate with purchase behavior and four key demograph-
ics. The VALS classification questionnaire, which is used to determine consumers’ VALS
types, can be integrated into larger research projects to discover more about the underlying
drivers of consumer choice. Figure 5.6 is an example of VALS data that shows the propor-
tion of each VALS group that own a tablet/e-reader, a dog, or buy food labeled natural or
organic. VALS research can be used to create new products as well as to segment existing
markets. Additional VALS frameworks have been developed for different geographic markets,
including the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic,
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Nigeria, and China.

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