SELF-CONCEPT &

LIFESTYLES
 4 Fashion Lifestyle Segments

(1) Conspicuous Consumer: Love prestige brands, they value status that luxury brands give them. They are

concerned with others opinions. They are less price conscious, willing to sacrifice to have lux brands, and

believe lux brands offer higher quality. Marketing emphasis should be prestige and status.

(2) Utilitarian Consumers: want comfort and functionality in their clothing. They feel that clothes shopping

is a chore; this is different from the other segments, which enjoy shopping and searching for fashion and

luxury in different ways. They are price conscious. Marketing emphasis should be function and value.
 4 Fashion Lifestyle Segments

(3) Information Seekers: want luxury brands as well, but spend considerable time searching out information

about lux brands, including brands they don't know very well. They do so to keep up with fashion trends,

which are things they are very interested in. Marketing emphasis should be quality and trends.

(4) Sensation Seeker: Value the aesthetic in fashion. Color is particularly important, as their belief that they

"have an eye for fashion". They are less influenced by fashion information than are information seekers since

they believe they know fashion. Marketing emphasis should be eye-catching, coordinated fashion.
What is Self - Concept?
Self-Concept is the totality of individuals thoughts and
feelings having reference to him or herself as an object.
 Dimension of Self-Concept

(1) Actual Self-Concept - "Who I am now?"

(2) Ideal Self-Concept - Who I would like to be?

(3) Private Self-Concept - "How I am" or "would like to see myself?"

(4) Social Self-Concept - "How I am seen by others?" or "how would I like to be

seen by others?"
 2 Types of Self-Concept:
(1) Individuals with an Independent self-concept to be:
• Emphasizes personal goals, characteristics, achievement and
desires.
• They are tend to be individualistic, egocentric, autonomous, self-
reliant and self-contained.
• They define the themselves in terms of what they have done, what
they have, and their personal characteristics.)
Interdependent/Independent Self-
Concepts
Individuals with an Interdependent self-concept to be:
• Emphasize family, cultural, professional, and social relationships.
• They are tend to be obedient, sociocentric, holistic, connected, and
relation oriented.
• They define themselves in terms of social roles, family relationships,
and commonalities with other members of their groups.
 Possessions and the Extended Self

• The extended self consists of the self plus possessions; that is, people tend to define
themselves in part by their possessions. Some Possession are not just some manifestation of
a person self-concept; they are an integral part of that person self-identity. People are to some
extent, of what they possess.

• A peak experience is an experience that surpasses the usual level of intensity,

meaningfulness, and richness and produces feelings of joy and self-fulfillment.
 Self-Concept (Cont.)

• The mere ownership effect, or the endowment effect, is the tendency of an owner to evaluate an object

more favorably than a nonowner. This occurs almost immediately upon acquiring an object and increases

with time of ownership .

• Brand Engagement - refers to the extent to which an individual icludes important part of his or her self-

concept.
 Fans, Consumer Devotion and the Extended Self
The categories are as follows:

• Temporary Fans – are fans for a specific time-bound event and then go back to normal. Behaviors.

Ex. -It might be attention paid to baseball even by those who never follow baseball, when the Boston Red Sox

were playing for a world series, which they had not won in over 80 years. Self concept is not tied up at all with the

team or identification with the team.

• Local Fans – are fans for geographic reasons such as the team is close by.

Ex. -You might be a fan of the Lansing Lugnuts (minor league baseball teams) if you are live or near the Lansing,

Michigan, you would be cease being a fan.

 Fans, Consumer Devotion and the Extended Self
• Devoted and fanatical fans – are fans whose self-concepts are highly defined by identification and association with the team.

They are active participants whose loyalty is not bound by time or geography.

• Dysfunctional fans – are fans whose primary self-identification involves being a fan of a particular team.

-Obviously, such extreme identification can lead to antisocial behavior and other dysfunctional outcomes.

-Unruly fans who can’t control their emotions and need to be managed fall into category, although more extreme consequences

such as loss of job and family have been observed.

Measuring self-concept:
 Using Self-Concept to Position Products:
• People’s attempts to obtain their ideal self-concept, or maintain their actual self-concept,
often involve the purchase and consumption of products, services, and media.

• Consumers maintain and enhance their self-concepts not only by what they consume, but by
what they avoid.

• Self-image congruity is likely to matter more for products such as perfume where value-
expressive symbolism is critical than for more utilitarian products such as a garage door
opener.
 Using Self-Concept to Position Products:
• Self-image congruity (especially ideal social self) is likely to matter more when the
situation involves public or conspicuous consumption (e.g., having a beer with friends at
a bar) than when consumption is private (e.g., having a beer at home)

• ·Self-image congruity is likely to matter more for consumers who place heavy weight on
the opinions and feelings of others (called high self-monitors) than for consumers who
do not (called low self-monitors), particularly in public situations where consumption
behaviors can be observed by others.
Using Self-Concept to Position Products:
Marketing E thics and the Self-C oncept:

• Marketers have been criticized for focusing too much attention

on the importance of being beautiful, with beautiful being defined
as young and slim with a fairly narrow range of facial features.
Virtually all societies appear to define and desire beauty, but the
intense exposure to products and advertisements focused on beauty
in America today is unique. Critics argue that this concern leads
individuals to develop self-concepts that are heavily dependent on
their physical appearance rather than other equally or more
important attributes.
THE NATURE OF LIFESTYLE
• Lifestyle is basically how a person lives

• It is how a person enacts her or his self-concept and is determined by past

experiences, innate characteristics, and current situation.

• One’s lifestyle influences all aspects of consumption behavior and is a

function of inherent individual characteristics that have been shaped and
formed through social interaction as the person has evolved through the life
cycle.
• The relationship between lifestyle and self-concept was demonstrated in a recent study

comparing various lifestyle-related activities, interests, and behaviors across those with

independent versus interdependent self-concepts

• Individuals’ desired lifestyles influence their needs and desires and thus their purchase and use

behavior

• Marketers can use lifestyle to segment and target specific markets

Lifestyle and the Consumer Process
Measurement of Lifestyle:
• Attempts to develop quantitative measures of lifestyle were initially referred to as psychographics:
1. Attitudes - evaluative statements about other people, places, ideas, products, and so forth.

2. Values - widely held beliefs about what is acceptable or desirable.

3. Activities and interests - nonoccupational behaviors to which consumers devote time and effort,
such as hobbies, sports, public service, and church.
 Measurement of Lifestyle:

4. Demographics - age, education, income, occupation, family structure, ethnic background, gender, and
geographic location.

5. Media patterns - the specific media the consumers utilize. 6. Usage rates4measurements of
consumption within a specified product category; often consumers are categorized as heavy, medium, or
light users or as nonusers.

6. Usage rates -measurements of consumption within a specified product category; often consumers are
categorized as heavy, medium, or light users or as nonusers.
 General versus Specific Lifestyle Schemes:

• Two specific lifestyle schemes:

1. Luxury Sports Cars

2. Technology

• Three general lifestyle schemes:

1. The VALSTM System
2. The PRIZM® System
3. Roper Starch Global Lifestyles
 THE VALS SYSTEM

✓VALS provides a systematic classification of American adults into eight distinct consumer segments

✓VALS is based on enduring psychological characteristics that correlate with purchase patterns.

Respondents are classified according to their primary motivation- VALS’s first dimension

• Ideals motivation. These consumers are guided in their choices by their beliefs and principles

rather than by feelings or desire for social approval. They purchase functionality and reliability.
 The VALS segments:
✓Innovators Thinkers Believers.
✓Achievers
✓Strivers
✓Experiencers
✓Makers
✓Survivors
 GEO-LIFESTYLE ANALYSIS (NIELSEN PRIZM®)

• PRIZM® is a state-of-the-art geo-demographic classification system that merges U.S. Census data
with extensive data on product consumption and media usage patterns.

• PRIZM organizes its 66 individual segments into broader social and life stage groups

• The broadest social groupings are based on “urbanicity” – determined by population density, relates to where

people live and is strongly related to the lifestyle people leads. The four major social groups are:

 1. Urban - major cities with high population density.

2. Suburban - moderately dense “suburban” areas surrounding metropolitan areas.


3. Second City - smaller, less densely populated cities or satellites to major cities.

4. Town & Rural - low-density towns and rural communities.

• The broadest life stage groups are based on age and the presence of children → influence
consumption patterns and lifestyle.
3 major life stage groups:

• Younger years - singles and couples; under 35 years of age without kids, or middle aged without

kids at home.

• Family life - households with children living at home.

• Mature years - singles and couples; age 55 and over, or age 45364 without children at home.
Sample PRIZM Segments:
• Young Digerati
• Blue Blood Estates
• Big Fish, Small Pond
• Pools and Patios
• Young & Rustic
• Golden Ponds
INTERNATIONAL LIFESTYLE
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