The term "unified patterns of behavior" refers to behavior in its broadest sense. Rainwater, Coleman and Handel (1959) underscored the importance of interpreting shopping and consumption behavior in their broader lifestyle context. 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. Operational, functional and constancy aspects: Lifestyle connotes consistent operations and actions or behavior over time (1967, pp. Contemporary interpretations in the marketing literature generally define lifestyle to encompass both characteristic patterns of overt behavior and cognitive processes and properties (cognitive style), including such dimensions of personality as values, attitudes, opinions. Life-style is a systems concept. The persistent conceptual and operational imprecision of the lifestyle construct has not only handicapped lifestyle research, but has undermined its usefulness as a segmentation variable. Hence, today, although ill-defined in the minds of most market analysts, lifestyle has come to be operationalized almost exclusively in terms of AIO by default. While Dorny's conceptual distinction, too, has apparently fallen on deaf ears, it at least recognizes a potential, if imperfect, symmetry between what he refers to as "mental" processes or properties (the province of psychographic research) and overt activities or behavior (the domain of lifestyle research). WebLIFESTYLE AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS: A CRITICAL REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATION. Quite the contrary, behavioral and marketing analysis seem characterized by ever-increasing conceptual, operational, and methodological complexity, much of which seems needless. 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. J. Arndt, New York: Allyn and Bacon, 85-100. Wells, William D. (19751 ), "Psychographics: A Critical Review," Journal of Marketing Research, 12(May), 196-213. Segmenting first on the basis of parallel patterns of search, shopping and consumption behavior would result in lifestyle segments encompassing all potential prospects for the firm's products. Contemporary interpretations in the marketing literature generally define lifestyle to encompass both characteristic patterns of overt behavior and cognitive processes and properties (cognitive style), including such dimensions of personality as values, attitudes, opinions. The aggregate of consumer purchases, and the manner in which they are consumed, reflect a society's [or consumer's lifestyle (1963. Reed Moyer, Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association, 55-62. Yet, as Wells (1975c) concedes: The activity, interest and opinion research, and the term "life style", developed separately. It popped up in the 1970s, and its power to help marketers has been apparent from the get-go. 13. Charles W. King and Douglas i. Tigert, Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association, 200-201. 33-38. FIGURE 1 Clearly, this is but another perspective on the potential definition and operationalization of the lifestyle concept. The term psychographic (psycho = mental; graphic = profile) connotes the profiling of psychological processes or properties. Psychographics allow you to uncover the content topics that are likely to resonate with your customers. Highlight the brand's values. Psychographics also give brands the opportunity to highlight their values and align them with the customer's. This can help companies accomplish their branding goals. Bell (1958) stressed the symbolic contextual significance of consumption. 63-94). Beverlee B. Anderson, Ann Arbor, MI: Association for Consumer Research. New York: Oxford University Press. By narrowing the definition of lifestyle to consistencies in overt behavior, marketing management will avoid the trap of too narrowly defining market segments and underestimating market potentials implicit in the conventional definition of lifestyle. While the term lifestyle has gained popular currency, it continues to defy definitional and operational consensus. By defining lifestyle as overt behavior, lifestyle emerges as the characteristic behavioral consequence of the ongoing reconciliation of individual motivations and cognitive style with environmental constraints and opportunities, within the limits of enabling condition operating over time. 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. Both cognitive style and lifestyle are influenced by enabling conditions, which lie in the context of environmental constraints and opportunities. Lifestyle has been used in reference to: "an individual," "a group, where the members bear a psychological relationship to each other, and which has stability over time," and "a [generic] class or category, where the members have only the property in common on the basis of which they are classified" (Ansbacher 1976, p. 200). The emphasis Ansbacher ascribes to the unifying property mirrors his conviction that lifestyle bridges cognitive style and response style. A logical and consistent implication of the above definition of lifestyle is that the domain of psychographic research by delimited in terms of cognitive style (cognitive processes or properties, including values, attitudes, beliefs, opinions, interests), that may be systematically linked to characteristic patterns of overt behavior. William M. Dobriner, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 225-242. A logical and consistent implication of the above definition of lifestyle is that the domain of psychographic research by delimited in terms of cognitive style (cognitive processes or properties, including values, attitudes, beliefs, opinions, interests), that may be systematically linked to characteristic patterns of overt behavior. The primary purpose of this paper is to revive and refine lifestyle as a theoretical and research tool and segmentation variable. Defining Lifestyle in terms of characteristic patterns of overt behavior also suggests an intuitive symmetry between the domains of lifestyle and of psychographic research paralleling Dorny's dichotomy (Dorny 1971, pp. H. H. Gerth and C. W. Mills, New York:: Oxford University Press. Equally importantly, the proposed distinctions should lead to greater definitional consensus, operational clarity, and more defensible linkages to existing research and theory in the social sciences. Writing at the same time, Levy (1963) proposed a contrasting concept of lifestyle, one reminiscent of Adler's conviction that a fictionalized goal or theme pervades one's life providing structure to both self-concept and behavior. Engel, James F., Martin R. Warshaw, and Thomas C. Kinnear (1979), Promotional Strategy, Homewood, IL: Irwin. Yet there is mounting evidence to the contrary; indeed, evidence that changes in behavior may trigger changes in cognitive processes and properties, rather than the reverse (Zimbardo and Effesen 1970, Ch. Pessemier, Edgar A. and Douglas J. Tigert (1966), "Personality, Activity, and Attitude Predictors of Consumer Behavior," in New Ideas for Successful Marketing, eds. Consequently, in interpreting lifestyle to include both characteristic patterns of overt behavior and cognitive processes and properties, contemporary definitions of lifestyle frequently lead to operationalizations that are internally inconsistent. Ferber, Robert and L. C. Lee (1974), "The Role of Life Style in Studying Family Behavior," Faculty Working Paper no. Lifestyle may or may not mirror cognitive style, contingent upon the effect of situational environmental influences operating. 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. 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. Katona, George (1960), The Powerful Consumer, New York: McGraw-Hill. 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. WebPsychographics: Jason$is$into$ athle2c,$outdoor$ac2vi2es,$the$ latesttechnology$and$nightlife$DD$ especially$live$entertainment.$ 2023 Association for Consumer Research, The Journal of the Association for Consumer Research (JACR). 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. Veblen, Thorstein (1899), The Theory of the Leisure Class, New York: MacMillan. Best (1980), Consumer Behavior-Implications for Marketing Strategy, Dallas, TX: Business Publications. ", Journal of Marketing, vol. Because lifestyle continues to defy definitional consensus, it can be conveniently customized to any analyst's purpose. THE LIFESTYLE CONCEPT IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES The origins of the lifestyle concept are obscure, but its roots are traceable to the works of poets, naturalists, and philosophers writing as early as the sixteenth century (Ansbacher 1976, p. 196). Ultimately Adler came to see stole of life as: the organismic ideas of the individual as an actor rather than a re-actor; the purposiveness, goal-directedness, unity, self-consistency and uniqueness of the individual; andthe ultimately subjective determination of his actions (Ansbacher 1976, p. 191). 13. 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. consumer analysis, Lazer's definition is tautological! 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). Lifestyle may or may not mirror cognitive style, contingent upon the effect of situational environmental influences operating. 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. U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Austin city, Texas QuickFacts Austin city, Texas QuickFacts provides statistics for all states and counties, and for cities and towns Defy definitional and operational consensus Arndt, New York: MacMillan York:., contingent upon the effect of situational environmental influences operating, Dallas TX... 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