VALS lifestyle profiles
After taking the survey, I found my primary lifestyle profile is an experiencer. An experience is an individual with high energy levels and takes on into a new challenge with vigor. Additionally, I am motivated by the need to express myself. As such and experiencer consuming patterns are impulsive with the need to possess a product appearing as soon as they identify it, and without prior consideration of its purchase. This habit is explained by their need to quench rapidly their curiosity of the product in question, and to satisfy their experimental nature. An experimenter/ experience is bored easily with a prospect that does not hold their imagination holding little room for patience on its future appeal. As an experience, emphasis is on enjoying life now, which often leads to the need to socialize and participate in sports in a bid to expend energy.
My secondary profile is one of an innovator expressed by the knack to create things and amusement from innovations that prove practical in their application. The innovator possesses some degree of each of the three motivations, which are thinking, achievement and self-expression. The innovation profile is a natural graduation for the experiencer with a graduation to this profile requiring a take-charge approach on things after the experimenting stage. The innovator has a cultivated sense of what they require in terms of consumption patterns, often going for the niche products, probably determined and settled upon after the experiencing phase. Innovators often consider image as their defining attributes, and will often choose differentiated products in a bid at carving out their niche, and as a method of expressing themselves. Personal challenge and striving to achieve more is a value held dear by innovators. They relish a challenging situation for the prospect of reaping a rewarding experience from it.
Product choice: Influence by VALS types
In choosing between products and general life choices, lifestyle plays a role in determining the choices individual makes. In consideration of the lifestyle profile exhibited by primarily an experimenter, and on a secondary basis an innovator, the choice of an automobile is sure to exhibit characteristics peculiar to this categorization. An experimenter would require a car suited for speed, maneuverability, style and prestige. In addition to those characteristics, an innovator would require a car that is practical for life’s purposes, classy, unique and that represents informed, choice. In this consideration, therefore, the car would have to encompass most of the attributes listed above to appeal to an experimenter/ innovator lifestyle individual. The innovation aspect in this respect seeks to modify some of the aspects the experimenter/ experiencer requires, without losing their basic functional essence. In this regard, this individual would require a sports utility vehicle, while the innovator aspect would require that the car be customized to suit his particular style. This blend thus creates a hybrid requirement of a car that is both exciting and functional. Such a car would for instance have a powerful sound system, but not necessarily play it loudly routinely. Further, the car would not be differentiated to the extent of shouting, mild alterations, perhaps a rare model as a statement of independence and personal image.
Targeting such a consumer like me would require a marketer who comes across as intelligent, witty and who thoroughly knows and appreciates the value of what they are selling. Additionally, they should indicate the prime reasons why they believe the car suits my purposes. In an advertising campaign, hypothetically targeting me, the marketer would include lines such as, ‘made different, because you are different’, and ‘the ultimate experience, for those with the nerve’. Lines such as these indicate a deviation from the ordinary consumer/ vehicle buyer, targeting for the experimental, daring and calculative prospective buyer.
VALS personal evaluation worksheet
Experiencers are motivated by self-expression. Young, enthusiastic, and impulsive consumers, Experiencers quickly become enthusiastic about new possibilities but are equally quick to cool. They seek variety and excitement, savoring the new, the offbeat, and the risky. Their energy finds an outlet in exercise, sports, outdoor recreation, and social activities.
Experiencers are avid consumers and spend a comparatively high proportion of their income on fashion, entertainment, and socializing. Their purchases reflect the emphasis that they place on looking good and having "cool" stuff.
Favorite Things:
- A social-media following
- Being entertained
- Being established
- The ability to purchase
Innovators are successful, sophisticated, take-charge people with high self-esteem. Because they have such abundant resources, they exhibit all three primary motivations in varying degrees. They are change leaders and are the most receptive to new ideas and technologies. Innovators are very active consumers, and their purchases reflect cultivated tastes for upscale, niche products and services.
Image is important to Innovators, not as evidence of status or power but as an expression of their taste, independence, and personality. Innovators are among the established and emerging leaders in business and government, yet they continue to seek challenges. Their lives are characterized by variety. Their possessions and recreation reflect a cultivated taste for the finer things in life.
Favorite Things:
- A rewarding experience
- Problem solving
- Personal challenges
- Authentic products
