Consumer Psychographic Research Examines the Why Behind the Buy

By JESUS SANCHEZ

June 5, 1990 12 AM PT

Leon Rosen knew his customers well enough to tell you their average age, income, marital status and plenty of other details. But Rosen wanted to know even more.

So three years ago, Rosen, the national marketing manager at American Isuzu Motors, began to gather information on the psyche of the Japanese auto maker’s customers. Now, for example, Rosen knows that the buyers of Isuzu’s line of Trooper sport utility vehicles tend to be more environmentally conscious and outdoor-minded than other consumers.

“It’s a better way of defining the marketplace,” said Rosen of the information on customer values and attitudes. “It gives us a better handle of who the customers are and what their hot buttons are.”

The quest to learn what motivates consumers finds a growing number of companies turning to a form of market research called psychographics, which looks at how attitudes, lifestyles and values influence buying habits. While still not universally accepted and sometimes misused, psychographics have been employed by organizations ranging from Christian church groups to Citibank.

Psychographics has been around in one form or another for at least 20 years. But “only recently has it become fashionable to discuss it,” said Peter Stranger, president of the Los Angeles office of ad agency Della Femina, McNamee WCRS, which creates Isuzu ads. Many agencies, he says, now boast about their “psychographic capabilities.”

The growing use of psychographics coincides with the rise of specialty retailers and products targeted at specific groups of consumers. Targeting professional women with children or suburban teen-age boys requires more detailed information than is usually gained from demographic information, which is generally confined to vital statistics such as age, income and occupation.

“Twenty years ago, demographics was the only way we explained behavior,” said Stephen Schleifer, senior vice president and director of research at Los Angeles-based Team One Advertising. “As marketing became more targeted, demographics just did not explain enough.”

“Demographics tell you what he (the customer) looks like and what he does,” said Peter Stisser, a vice president at the research firm Yankelovich Clancy Shulman. “But it doesn’t tell you why he does things.”

Ad agencies and companies with a large stake in their products’ image have become the biggest market for psychographics. Cosmetic firms, for example, use psychographics to make sure that the image of their products and ads are in sync with their customers’ self-image, says Suzanne Grayson, a cosmetics industry consultant.

“The stronger that bond,” said Grayson, “the stronger the franchise.”

Some firms use only a few elements of psychographics. Carnation Co., for example, looks at lifestyles to develop new products and marketing campaigns. Lifestyle research resulted in the creation of the Contadina line of fresh pastas targeted at two-income couples who like freshly prepared foods but have little time to cook.

There are numerous advertising agencies and research firms that sell psychographic information. Palo Alto-based SRI International, a pioneer in psychographics, has grouped consumers into eight categories as part of the newest version of its Values and Life Styles (VALS) program.

Two of these groups, “achievers” and “experiencers,” rank near the top in education and income, but that’s where the similarities end. Achievers focus their lives on family and career and don’t care for excess change, while experiencers like the offbeat and risky and are politically apathetic.

How can a company use this information? Deborah Moroney, marketing director for VALS, said travel advertisers might want to focus on adventure when talking to the experiencer. “To the achiever, you might emphasize the luxury and the service.”

At Yankelovich Clancy Shulman, the focus is on studying the changes in values and what those changes mean for companies and their products. In 1985, Yankelovich noticed that consumers were melding liberal values and attitudes of the 1960s with more traditional values in a trend it dubbed “neo-traditionalism.”

Neo-traditionalism found young consumers buying sport utility vehicles such as the Jeep Cherokee and Isuzu Trooper and using them like the station wagons their parents owned, says Stisser.

Most marketing executives do not see psychographics replacing demographics or becoming the only method for studying consumer behavior. “We don’t think it is,” said Stranger at Della Femina. “It is another tool in the arsenal.”

Psychographic products such as VALS can’t be a shortcut for thoughtful research, says Stranger, who adds that some marketers might try to shoehorn consumers into certain VALS groups even if they don’t really fit.

John McMennamin, vice president of marketing services at Carnation, says companies sometimes forget the purpose of lifestyle research.

“People tend to reflect their own lifestyle in the (marketing and advertising) communications without considering their own target groups,” said McMennamin. “You have to make sure it’s your consumers and not yourself you are talking to.”

State’s Drought Creates Advertising Watershed

The California drought has resulted in a bumper crop of sorts for some of the state’s ad agencies. Campaigns aimed at getting people to conserve water have forced several of the state’s water districts to boost their advertising budgets.

Last week, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power unveiled a three-month, $2.2-million ad campaign created by the Gumpertz/Bentley/Fried agency. The campaign’s goal is to cut customers’ water consumption by 10%.

“We really didn’t do any advertising last year to speak of,” said DWP spokesman Barry Tuller. “This is the most we have ever spent. We feel the situation is bad enough to warrant the expenditure.”

At the Metropolitan Water District, which serves various Southern California communities, ad spending has been boosted by from $600,000 to $2.6 million, said spokesman Bob Gomperz.

In Northern California, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, which serves San Jose, boosted spending by $100,000 and launched a campaign featuring the Smothers Brothers. In one commercial, Dick Smothers has a difficult time singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” because he refuses to say the word “stream” as part of his effort to save water.

The campaign, developed by the PR agency of San Jose, took a humorous approach to attract attention, said spokeswoman Teddy Morse. “After four years of drought, people are pretty sick about this.”

Sound-Mixing Away in Margaritaville

One of the newest recording studios in Los Angeles features the latest in digital sound-mixing technology and fresh limes to mix margaritas.

The Margarita Mix studio, designed to resemble a hacienda, was built with the needs of advertisers in mind, says co-owner Sunny BlueSkyes, who, with partner Jim (Bunz) Bredouw, also owns the L.A. Studio, which also caters to commercial makers.

Big-name musical groups often book studios for weeks or even months at a time, while a maker of a commercial needs a studio for only a few hours, says BlueSkyes.

Besides digital technology, Margarita Mix features pre-Columbian artifacts, Latin American murals and textiles from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. “If you feel inspired, you make inspired decisions,” said BlueSkyes, explaining the elaborate surroundings. “If you are bored, you make bored decisions.”

So far, the $10-million investment in the studio is beginning to pay off. Companies such as Reebok, Nike and Bugle Boy have shelled out $425 an hour to use any one of Margarita Mix’s five studios.

And after a long and intense day of recording, employees can sip at margaritas made with limes picked from the studio’s own trees. “We stopped at nothing,” said BlueSkyes.

Inside the Outdoor Billboard Awards

The Institute of Outdoor Advertising, a trade group representing the billboard industry, honored several Southern California ad agencies last week for their creative work.

Chiat/Day/Mojo picked up the institute’s Obie award in the automotive category for its “Nissan Z” billboards. Another Los Angeles agency, Mendelsohn/Zien Advertising, took first place in another automotive category with its “Genuine Mercedes Replacement Part” campaign for Southern California Acura Dealers.

Bob Kwait, creative director of San Diego-based Phillips-Ramsey Advertising, received his fourth consecutive Obie award for a three-part billboard created for the Louisiana Downs race track. Kwait also picked up a special achievement award for the public service billboards created for Barbara Bush’s literacy campaign. The billboards will read: “Book some time with your kids.”

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO VALS 2

Psychographic methods, like the VALS 2 system, go beyond vital statistics and use lifestyles and values to analyze consumers.

ACTUALIZERS:

Value personal growth.

Wide intellectual interests.

Varied leisure activities.

Well informed; concerned with social issues.

Highly social.

Politically active.

FULFILLEDS:

Moderately active in community and politics.

Leisure centers on home.