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29, #4(October). Berkman, Harold W. and Christopher C. Gilson (1978), Consumer Behavior: Concepts and Strategies, Encino, CA:Dickenson Publishing Co. Bernay, Elayn K. (1971), "Life Style Analysis as a Basis for Media Selection," in Attitude Research Reaches New Heights, eds. Yet, as Wells (1975c) concedes: The activity, interest and opinion research, and the term "life style", developed separately. Felson, Marcus (1975), "A Modern Sociological Approach to the Stratification of Material Life Styles," in Advances in Consumer Research, ed. William D. Wells, Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association, 317-363. Market segments are definable in terms of individuals whose expected reactions are similar to similar marketing strategy (Kotler 1980, pp. In short, the lifestyle concept has become the Rorschach of the social sciences, most particularly of consumer analysis. Stephen A. Greyser, Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association, 140-149. 78712 (512) 471-1128.] H. H. Gerth and C. W. Mills, New York:: Oxford University Press Weber, Max (1947), The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. ", Journal of Marketing, vol. J. S. Wright and J. L. Goldstucker. Hence, the lifestyle segment should be expanded to include all three consumers on the basis of behavioral parallelism. austin texas psychographics. Conversely, the logical focus of lifestyle research may be described as the identification of characteristic patterns of overt behavior that may or may not be systematically linked to cognitive style. $230. On the contrary, while simplicity may facilitate clarity and possibly lead to greater consensus concerning the proper domain of lifestyle research, psychographic research remains a viable focus for market analysis insofar as examinations of cognitive processes or dimensions of personality further the cause of understanding, explaining, and predicting overt behavior, and refining market segmentation and marketing strategy formulation. (1963), "Symbolism and Life Style," in Toward Scientific Marketing, ed. William D. Wells, Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association, 317-363. The paper then contrasts lifestyle and cognitive style conceptually and operationally, underscoring their intuitive, if imperfect, symmetry. Accordingly either psychographic or lifestyle research may focus upon individuals, groups, or society as the unit of analysis depending upon the researcher's purposes. Felson (1975) perhaps best captured the critical, if not terminal, conceptual and operational condition of lifestyle. $1,873. Much lifestyle research could better be termed "idiosyncracy research", since it uses the computer to group people with similar idiosyncracies (p. 37). In an unfashionable depiction of the ostentatious style of life (or "scheme of life," in Veblen's words) of the American noveau riche of the latter half of the nineteenth century, Veblen established a fashion of thinking about social, economic, and consumer behavior that has persisted (Mills 1953). #3(Winter), 235-256. Yet, while the term lifestyle gained popular currency, it continued to defy conceptual and operational consensus (Ferber and Lee 1974). It is noteworthy that nowhere in Wells' article did he define or attempt to distinguish "lifestyle" from "psychographic" from "activity and attitude" research. Use of the lifestyle concept as an analytical construct dates from Thorstein Veblen's turn-of-the-century classic The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) and from Max Weber's landmark studies of status (1946, 1947). Felson, Marcus (1975), "A Modern Sociological Approach to the Stratification of Material Life Styles," in Advances in Consumer Research, ed. William D. Wells, Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association, 243-266. In the above case, although exhibiting parallel search, shopping, or consumption behavior, one consumer would be excluded from the lifestyle characterizing the other two on the basis of contrasting cognitive style. Psychographic Consumer Profiling. By 1839, Waterloo would adopt the name Austin and the frontier town would become the capital of the Republic of Texas. Market researchers conduct psychographic research by asking consumers to agree or disagree with activities, interests, opinions statements. Create a strategy. Lair, J. K. (1965), "Splitsville: A Split-Half Study of Television Commercial Pretesting," Dissertation Abstracts, 27, 9894-2895. Conducting research and reviewing trends and personal statistics, like psychographic data, can help marketers learn what their ideal customer likes and cares While cognitive style may be reflected in overt behavior, the connection is imperfect and often asymmetrical because of the intervening of moderating influence of situational environmental variables or enabling conditions. Analysts who have preferred the term "lifestyle", on the other hand, have tended to focus either on broad cultural trends or on needs and values thought to be closely associated with consumer behavior (p. 319). Lifestyle formed the centerpiece of Adlerian psychology; indeed, Adler wrestled with the concept for forty years. Clarification and differentiation of conceptual and operational definitions is appropriate to revive lifestyle and refine its usefulness as a segmentation tool. consumer analysis, Lazer's definition is tautological! Psychographics, Demographics, & Public Opinion - Public Relations - Subject and Course Guides at University of Texas at Arlington Public Relations T. Parsons. Bell (1958) stressed the symbolic contextual significance of consumption. More serious, however, is the fact that contemporary definitions of lifestyle may lead to mistaken market segmentation and, hence, mistargeting of marketing strategy. While the term lifestyle has gained popular currency, it continues to defy definitional and operational consensus. Wells provides this historical perspective in his exhaustive "Psychographics: A Critical Review" (1975b): Starting with the classic study of Koponen (1960), investigators have repeatedly tried to correlate consumer behavior with scores obtained from standardized personality inventories. 800.851.0962 | INFO@THERETAILCOACH.NET | THERETAILCOACH.NET | AUSTIN, TEXAS TUPELO, MISSISSIPPI 4 Income Range of Lifemode Summary Groups Bastrop, Texas + L1 AFFLUENT ESTATES Established wealth educated, well-traveled married couples + L2 UPSCALE AVENUES Prosperous, married couples in higher density neighborhoods In his historical review of the lifestyle concept in the social science literature Ansbacher (1967) noted that the lifestyle concept has been applied in three different uses at three levels of aggregation. Accordingly either psychographic or lifestyle research may focus upon individuals, groups, or society as the unit of analysis depending upon the researcher's purposes. None played so major a role in developing the life style concept and integrating it into our idiom and thought as the psychologist Alfred Adler. Lifestyle cannot help one to understand consumer behavior if lifestyle variables are a disorderly, nongeneral, nonhierarchical, or atheoretical set of vaguely related traits whose casual relationships to each other and to anything else are unspecified. Conversely, another consumer who behaves in the same fashion, yet holds quite different values, attitudes, beliefs, opinions of interests, would be designated as characterized by a contrasting lifestyle. J. Arndt, New York: Allyn and Bacon, 85-100. We identified the top two psychographic groups in Austin to be Boomburbs and Up and Coming Families, followed by Metro Renters and Young and Restless (in Esri Both cognitive style and lifestyle are influenced by enabling conditions, which lie in the context of environmental constraints and opportunities. Dichter, Ernest (1964), Handbook of Consumer Motivations, New York: McGraw-Hill. Wells, William D. (1968), "Backward Segmentation," in Insights into Consumer Behavior, ed. REFERENCES Andreasen, Alan R. (1967), "Leisure, Mobility, and LifeStyle Patterns," in Changing 'Marketing Systems, ed. Lifestyle research is reminiscent of the parable of the elephant and the blind men of Hindustan. And, starting with Dichter's innovative studies of consumers' motivations (1963), students of the consumer's mind have tried to apply the concepts and methods of clinical psychology to virtually every aspect of marketing. 78712 (512) 471-1128.]. Yes and no. Professor Joe psychographic segmentation purpose of psychographics is to add attitude and behavior to demographics syndicated service vals offers marketers view Wells, William D. (19751 ), "Psychographics: A Critical Review," Journal of Marketing Research, 12(May), 196-213. Michael Gibbert, Universit della Svizzera Italiana, Esther Doriette Tamara Jaspers, Massey University Complete List of All Publishers See Link to Nation newspaper story - Sealy: This lets us find the most appropriate writer for Our global writing staff includes experienced ENL & ESL academic writers in a variety of disciplines. Defining and operationalizing lifestyle to encompass both overt behavior and cognitive style needlessly confounds the task of lifestyle segmentation. Yet, it would appear to be symptomatic of scientific pubescence, if not maturity, that the social sciences, and marketing in particular, periodically seek not only synthesis of findings, but also simplicity for the sake of conceptual and operational claritY. Cognitive style is customarily defined as "one's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling and perceiving" (Markin 1974, pp. Unique and creative aspects: Lifestyle implies anoriginal and idiographic property (1967, p. 205). ", Journal of Marketing, vol. 28, #3(Fall), 404-417. Conspicuous by omission in each instance, however, was a definition of lifestyle. Rik Pieters, Tilburg University, The Netherlands. Variously called "lifestyle", "psychographic", or "activity and attitude" research, this blend combines the objectivity of the personality inventory with the rich, consumer-oriented, descriptive detail of the qualitative motivation research investigation (p. 196). What few definitions are provided, range from the ridiculous to the sublime, from the tautological (Lazer 1963) to the logically inconsistent (Berkman and Gilson 1978), from the simple (Hawkins, Coney, and rest 1980) to the complex (Levy 1963). 45, #3 (March), 347-355. Thus, in defining lifestyle, Ansbacher draws no distinction between cognitive processes--thinking, feeling, perceiving -Cand overt behavior. It is composed of sub-symbols; it utilizes a characteristic pattern of life space [or the proximity of perceived constraints in the surrounding environment]; and it acts systematically to process objects and events [including products, services, and consumption itself] in accordance with these values (p. 141) Levy's definition prompted Kelley (1963) to postulate an important marketing implication of the lifestyle concept. EXHIBIT 1 LIFESTYLE AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS Compounding the conceptual confusion confounding lifestyle research is a semantic maze eclipsing the terms lifestyle and psychographics that remains unraveled. 33-38. Loudon, David L. and Albert J. Della Bitta (1979), Consume Behavior: Concepts and Applications, New York: McGraw-Hill. 8, #1 (March), 3-17. Rainwater, Coleman and Handel (1959) underscored the importance of interpreting shopping and consumption behavior in their broader lifestyle context. The emphasis in market segmentation is on consistencies in overt behavior, irrespective of contrasts in cognitive style, because the marketing practitioner is primarily interested in parallel patterns of search, shopping or consumption behavior. Effective use of sequential segmentation requires clarification and differentiation of terms, consistent with contemporary consumer research findings on the relationship between cognitive processes and properties and overt behavior. Mills, C. Wright (1953), "Introduction," The Theory of the Leisure Class, New York: New American Library, vi-xix. Weber's focus, like Veblen's, was upon collective lifestyles originated and perpetuated by status groups (Weber 1946, p. 187, 191, 300; Weber 1947, p. 429); however, lifestyle played only a minor role in Weber's writings. Levy, Sidney J. While knowledge of cognitive processes and properties may improve, understanding and predictions of overt behavior, and facilitate formulation of marketing strategy, the relationship is equivocal and imperfect, as recent research has demonstrated. It first documents the diversity and internal inconsistency of definitions and operationalizations of lifestyle in consumer behavior literature. Lifestyle cannot help one to understand consumer behavior if lifestyle variables are a disorderly, nongeneral, nonhierarchical, or atheoretical set of vaguely related traits whose casual relationships to each other and to anything else are unspecified. The resolution and reconciliation of these two problems built into conventional definitions and operationalization of lifestyle lies in sequential segmentation: Segmenting first on the basis of consistencies in overt behavior, the on the basis of congruence in cognitive style. 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