Chapter Fifteen

Psychographics:
Values, Personality,
and Lifestyles
 Learning Objectives

• Define personality, discuss theories and their

application to consumer behavior.
• Define values and value systems.
• Briefly discuss values that characterize Western
cultures.
• Explain how lifestyles are represented by activities,
interests, and opinions.
• Describe psychographics and how marketers use it.
• Become familiar with VALS and PRIZM segmentation
tools.

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 Personality
Personality is the distinctive, consistent, and
enduring patterns of behavior that characterize an
individual’s responses to situations in his or her life

•May be inborn or learned

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 Personality Theories

• Freudian Theory

• Trait Theories

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 Freudian Theory

• Much of one’s personality stems from a

conflict between a person’s desire to gratify
physical needs and the necessity to function
as a responsible member of society.
• Id
• Superego
• Ego
• Conflicts occur on an unconscious level
• Usefulness to marketers

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 Trait Theory
• Trait theory attempts to identify a set of
personality characteristics that describe and
differentiate individuals.

• Example – Keirsey Temperament Sorter.

• Do personality characteristics affect consumer

behavior?

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 Trait Conception of Personality Types
(Exhibit 15.10)

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 Values
• Values are enduring beliefs about what is good,
desirable, or important.
• Values guide our behavior and are enduring.
• A value system is a person’s total set of values and
their relative importance.
• How do we learn values?

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 Some Values of Western Culture

• Materialism
• Home
• Youth
• Family and Children

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 Lifestyles
. .is a mode of living that is identified by how
people spend their time and resources, what they
consider important and what they think of
themselves and the world around them.

• Use lifestyles as a means of segmenting a market

• Use surveys to measure lifestyles and identify
segments
• Surveys measure activities, interests, and opinions
• How is segmenting on the basis of lifestyle useful to
marketers?

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 Activities, Interests, and Opinions
(Exhibit 15.13)

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 Psychographics

Psychographics attempt to classify consumers

in terms of psychological variables such as
personality, values and lifestyle.

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 Values and Lifestyle Survey (VALS)

• One of the most widely known psychographic

tools.
• Segments on two factors
resources
primary motivation
• Identifies 8 consumer groups

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 VALS American Segments
(Exhibit 15.15)

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 VALS Applications:
Useful for Segmentation

• Pain relievers
– Nuprin: Used more by achievers
(poor with actualizers)
– Advil: Favored by experiencers
• Iron City Beer: Two markets
– Makers and Believers: Traditional
buyers
– Strivers and Experiencers: Rejecting
the brand

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 Geodemographics

• Combines data on consumer expenditures

and other socioeconomic factors with
geographic information about the areas in
which people live.
• “birds of a feather flock together”
• PRIZM – classifies every U.S. zip code into
one of 66 categories

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