Lifestyles and European cultures

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Lecture 11
Lifestyles and European cultures
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• Lifestyle is about
• Who we are
• What we do

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Defining a lifestyle
A lifestyle refers to the way people choose to
spend time and money how their values, attitudes
and tastes are reflected by consumption
choices. i.e. economically is about how we
allocate income but psychologically and socially
who we think we are and how we see ourself
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Lifestyles can be considered as group
identities. A statement of who one is and who
one is not Lifestyles do not last forever as
peoples tastes and preferences evolve over time.
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Lifestyle Is a critical aspect of consumer
behaviour Provides marketing opportunities Produ
cts a basic building block of lifestyle
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Linking products to lifestyle
Figure 16.1 
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Lifestyle marketing
Marketers use lifestyle to understand consumers
everyday needs and wants and position products
in terms of how they can help consumers follow
their desired lifestyles Necessary to place
product usage in a desirable social
setting Necessary to review patterns of behaviour
to understand how consumers use of products
communicate and perform social roles and help to
define their lifestyles.
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Relevant Marketing Concepts

• Product complementarity when symbolic meanings of
  products are related to each other
• Product constellations are those products grouped
  and used by consumers to define, communicate and
  perform social roles

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Classifying consumers
Consumers segmented by lifestyle differences
Grouping consumers only in terms of
demographics too broad for many products Doesnt
allow for brand differentiation Consumers can
also be classified according to their
psychological characteristics (activities,
interests, and opinions, AIO ).
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Lifestyle dimensions
Table 16.1  Source William D. Wells and Douglas
J. Tigert, Activities, Interests and Opinions,
Journal of Advertising Research 11 (August 1971)
2735.
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Psychographics

• Combine psychological, sociological and
  anthropological factors
• How do consumers segment themselves and why
• Combines motivational research and quantitative
  research
• Not just who buys but why

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Pychographic Grouping

• Use a combination of AIO variables
• Respondents given list of statements and indicate
  how the statements agree with each other
• Identify the 'heavy users' and consider the
  brands relationship to them

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Different Psychographic studies

• A lifestyle profile looks for items that
  differentiate between users and non-users of a
  product
• A product-specific profile identifies a target
  group and profiles on product relevant dimensions
• A general lifestyle segmentation groups based
  on preference similarities
• A product-specific segmentation tailors
  questions to a product category

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Uses of psychographic segmentation

• To define the target market.
• To create a new view of the market.
• To position the product.
• To communicate product attributes better.
• To develop an overall strategy.
• To market social and political issues.

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Segmentation Typologies

• Developed by rearch companies and advertising
  agencies
• Are normally proprietary and expensive

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RICS

• French based
• The brand power matrix
• The economic power pyramid
• The company uses a methodology based on three
  dimensions which enables 10 groups to be
  identified
• Exploration-Stability
• Social-Individual
• Global-Local

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RISC methodology
Figure 16.2  Source RISC Methodology (Paris
RISC International, 1997) 14.
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European Lifestyles

• Centre de Communication Avancé (CCA) of the
  Havas-Eurocom group
• 16 lifestyle groups regrouped into 6 mentalies

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Linking lifestyle to social class (Pierre
Bourdieu)?
Peoples tastes and lifestyles dependent on the
habitus (systems and classifications of phenomena
adopted from our socialisation processes) and our
economic and cultural capital? Capital refers to
actually usable resources and powers and it
consists of economic. social, cultural and
symbolic social differences are expressed
through systems of power and competition, which
happen in areas of cultural practice and symbolic
exchange (Bourdieu, 1993)
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The idea of economic and cultural capital
combined with grid theory provides 4 fundamental
consumer types Concept of grid and group refers
to level of identification with ones own social
group so one has high or low group identification
and the grid refers to the organisation of
society with whom one has a high or low relation
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The four segments

• Q1 Professional career oriented people
• Q2 Well educated intellectuals
• Q3 Relatively weathy people with low education
  and little cultural interest not interested in
  group or social
• Q4 Low on all types of capital but strong group
  identification, meaning is in their daily
  activities and daily life

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A theoretically based lifestyle model
Figure 16.6 Source Adapted from Henrik Dahl,
Hvis din nabo var en bil (Copenhagen Akademisk
forlag, 1997).
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The American Consumer
Most popular segmentation system in US is VALS
2 Eight Groups divided by i) psychological
characteristics ii)resources such as income,
education, energy levels, eagerness to buy Based
on Maslow's hierarchy of needs Riesman's concept
of inner and outer directed personalities
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Actualisers Fulfilled Achievers Experiencers Belie
vers Strivers Makers Strugglers
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Weakness of Lifestyle

• Doesn't apply to non western cultures
• Not proven that lifestyle segmentation linked to
  homogeneous patterns of consumption
• Weak statistical and theoretical foundations

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Geographic influences on lifestyles
Where one comes from is often a significant
determinant of lifestyle. Geodemography analyses
consumption patterns using geographical and
demographic data Marketers recognise national
and regional differences on product preferences
and develop different versions of their products
for different markets.
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Cultural differences across borders
Marketers need to be aware of cultural
differences when trading across national
borders. Marketers must learn as much as they
can about the differences in cultural norms and
preferences when marketing in more than one
country. Marketing strategies can then be
developed that take account of the different
cultures.
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Trends in western European markets

• A tendency to more unevenly distributed income.
• An increasing number of older people.
• A decrease in household size.
• A growing proportion of immigrants.
• An increase in environmental concern and
  consumption of green products.
• Relatively increasing consumption of services
  compared to durable goods.

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Acculturation
Acculturation is the process of movement and
adaptation to one countrys cultural environment
by a person from another country. The
adaptation process will depend on whether
the person speaks the host language. the
persons contact with acculturation agents.
the persons motivation to adapt to the new
cultural environment.
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Regional differences

• Group some European regions
• Can identify some generic consumer behaviour
• For example the way particular occasions affect
  food consumption
• Express train
• Party
• Candlelight

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Four Market sectors

• National differences particularly significant
• Food related preferences
• Alcohol consumption and preference
• Cars
• Advertising preferences (high /low context)

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Evidence of Euro consumers

• Euro consumers as an overall segment do not
  exist.
• The existence of Euro consumers is limited to
• certain segments of the population, e.g. the
  young and the international managerial classes.
• certain situations only.

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Consumer Megatrends

• Age complexity
• Gender complexity
• Lifestage complexity
• Income complexity
• Individualism
• Homing
• Connectivity
• Sensory
• Convenience
• Health

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Reading

• Ch 16 Solomon on Lifestyle and European Cultures
• Ch 16 Antonides and van Raaij