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Marketing Management/Essentials of Marketing

Notes In general, the social class can represent lower, middle and upper class depending on education,
income and status etc.

Example: An engineer and a clerk are considered as members of different social classes.

5.2.3 Psychographic Segmentation

When the segmentation is based on personality or lifestyle characteristics, it is called
psychographic segmentation. Consumers have a certain self-image and this describes their
personality. There are people who are ambitious, confident, aggressive, impulsive, modern,
conservative, gregarious, loners, extrovert, or introvert etc.
Lifestyle

It is an indicator of how people live and spend their time and money. What people do in their
spare time is often a good indicator of their lifestyle.
Consumers in different countries and cultures may have characteristic lifestyles (Table 5.1). For
example, Indian women are more home-focused, less likely to visit restaurants, more price-
sensitive, spend time preparing meals at home and are fond of movies.

Table 5.1: Lifestyle Dimensions

Activities Interests Opinions Demographics
Work Family Themselves Age
Hobbies Home Social issues Education
Social events Job Politics Income
Vacation Community Business Occupation
Entertainment Recreation Economics Family size
Club membership Fashion Education Dwelling
Community Food Products Geography
Shopping Media Future City size
Sports Achievements Culture Stage in life cycle

Source: Joseph T. Plummer, “The Concept and Application of Lifestyle Segmentation”, Journal of Marketing
38, January 1974.
Lifestyle segmentation is particularly useful in case of product categories where the users’
self-image is considered as an important factor, such as perfumes, beer, jewelry and other
ego-intensive products.

!
Caution AIO inventories are a useful addition to demographic data but marketers have
found the original AIO inventories as being too narrow. Now, psychographics or lifestyle
studies generally include the following:
1. Attitudes, which include evaluative statements about, people, products, ideas and
places etc.
2. Values, which refer to widely, held beliefs about what is right/acceptable/desirable
etc.

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