The document describes VALS (Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles) segments - Believers, Strivers, and Innovators - and their characteristics. Believers have modest resources and are traditional. Strivers seek approval and status. Innovators are wealthy, sophisticated leaders open to new ideas. The document provides examples of how each group's characteristics influence their consumer behavior.

1. BelieversStriversInnovatorsLow resourcesLow resourcesHigh resourcesLow innovationLow innovationHigh innovationRespect rules and trust authority figures Socialize within family and established groupspredictable existenceLook to peer group for motivation and approvalNarrow interestsSomewhat isolatedSuccessful, sophisticatedValue personal growthWide intellectual interestsHighly socialReasonably well informedUnconcerned about health and nutritionWell informed, concerned with social issues Enjoy settled, comfortable,Easily boredVaried leisure activities Politically conservativePolitically apatheticPolitically very activeTraditionalConformingCautiousMoralisticSettledDissatisfiedUnsureAlienatedImpulsiveApproval seekingOptimistic Self-confident Involved Outgoing Growth orientedOpen to change established & emerging leaders in business & governmentSlow to change habitsLook for bargainsImage consciousLimited discretionary income, but carry credit balancesSpend on clothing and personal care productsEnjoy the "finer things"Receptive to new products, technologies, distribution. Sceptical of advertising Watch TV more than averageRead retirement, home and garden, and general interest magazinesPrefer TV to readingFrequent readers of a wide variety of publications Light TV viewers (a)Differentiate between ‘believers’, ‘strivers’ and ‘innovators’ of VALS segments in determining consumer purchasing behavior. <br />Believers are the low-resource group of those who are motivated by ideals. Their income, education, and energy are modest but sufficient to meet their needs. They are conservative, conventional people with commitment and concrete beliefs based on traditional and established codes with family, religion, community and the nation. Living by a moral code is very important to them and are deeply rooted and literally interpreted. As consumers, Believers are predictable. They will choose familiar products and established brands. They favour American products and are generally loyal customers.<br />Strivers are trendy, fun loving; seek innovation and self-definition. As they are motivated by achievement, Strivers are concerned about the opinions and approval from the world around them. They strive to find a secure place in life, unsure of themselves and low on economic, social, and psychological resource. Money defines success for Strivers, who don’t have enough of it and often feel that life has given a raw deal. Strivers are impressed by processions, but what they wish to obtain is often beyond their reach. They favour stylish products that emulate the purchases of people with greater material wealth. Most of them see themselves as having a job rather than a career. Then normally a lack of skills and focus often prevents them from moving ahead. However, Strivers are active consumers because they treat shopping as both a social activity and an opportunity to demonstrate to peers of their ability to purchase things and thus admired by others. As consumers, they are as impulsive as their financial circumstance will allow.<br />Innovators are successful, sophisticated, highest income, take charge people with high self-esteem. As they have abundant resources, they exhibit all three primary motivations in varying degrees. They are open to change and are the most receptive to new ideas and technologies. They are leaders in business and are interested in growth, change, innovation and challenges. They seek to develop, explore and express themselves in a variety of ways, sometimes guided by principle and sometimes guided by desire to have an affect or to make a change. Image is important to them, not as evidence of status or power but as an expression of their taste, independence, personality and characters. They possess a wide range of interest and are concerned with social issues, and show a cultivated taste for the finer things in life. As consumers, they are very active consumers. Their purchases reflect cultivated tastes for upscale, niche products and services.<br />Describe the use of VALS to identify target consumers for a mobile phone company, planning to offer a latest high-tech mobile phone, as its new line of product.<br /> (10 marks)<br />The acronym VALS, for \"
Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles\"
is a psychographic segmentation. VALS is a way of viewing people on the basis of their attitudes, needs, wants, beliefs and demographics. The system identifies current and future opportunities by segmenting the consumer marketplace on the basis of the personality traits that drive consumer behaviour. VALS applies in all phases of the marketing process, from new product development and entry-stage targeting to communications strategy and advertising. <br />Mobile phones, is a technology that evolved incredibly quickly change and innovation in the new era now. Mobile phone technology today covered all the aspects; from small, light-weight batteries to dazzling displays. These aspects and various phones’ functions are use to target different kinds of mobile phone’s consumers.<br />As a mobile phone company, which are planning to offer a latest high-tech mobile phone as its new line of product, we are looking for the most probably customers that will purchase the products. According to the VALS segmentation, we found that the most suitable targeting group is innovators.<br />Innovators are successful, sophisticated, take charge people with high self-esteem and abundant resources. With the highest income among other segment, it enables them to purchase the new product which required a higher value of money. They are also drawn to top-of-the-line and new products, especially innovative technologies. Thus, they may always notice and concern with the launching of the latest products. These consumers are on the leading edge of change. They are always being the advance who contact the change and adapt the change by adjusting their lifestyle. Image is important to them as an expression of taste, independence, and character. If innovators see a product that they connect with or feel reflects or even exemplifies their personality, they will buy it. By the way, they are drawn to the expensive. These consumer choices are directed toward the \"
finer things in life\"
. When they purchase the new products, it enables others to have a feeling of envious and affirmation of their abilities. At the same point, highlight them as the vanguard of technologies and the high social class among others.<br />The always up-to-date Innovators should always attract by the latest high-tech mobile phone. Furthermore, they seek to develop, explore and express themselves in a variety of ways. Sometimes guided by principle and sometimes guided by desire to have an affect or to make a change. As the Innovators are skeptical of advertising, hence, an effective promotion must be developed to enhance the desire of purchases of the new launching product. They are frequent readers of a wide variety of publications and light TV viewer. Thus, promoting the new products through magazines is more effective than the TV commercial.<br />For the purpose of succeed the new line of product; targeting the customers to Innovators is the most efficient way.<br />(c) A new supermarket offering household merchandise is established in Skudai, Johor. As the marketing consultant for the supermarket, you have identified that the primary target market is consumers who are classified as ‘survivors’. Based on VALS system, propose a corporate name, a slogan, pricing and positioning strategies that are able to stimulate the target market to shop at the supermarket. <br />As the marketing consultant for the supermarket, we have identified that the primary target market is consumers who are classified as ‘survivors’. These consumers have the lowest incomes. They have too few resources to be included in any consumer self-orientation and are thus located below the rectangle. With fewer resources with which to cope, they often believe that the world is changing too quickly. As the survivors are conservative and traditional, they are more comfortable with the familiar and are primarily concerned with safety and security. Survivors are cautious consumers. They represent a very modest market for most products and services. Due to the reason of risk averse, they are they will purchase the products that they are familiar and used to. Hence, they are more loyal to their favorite brands, especially if they can purchase them at a discount. As they have limited interests and activities, they watch TV often and trust the advertising. Besides, they read tabloids and women’s magazines often and also use coupons and watch for sales. Survivor must focus on meeting needs rather than fulfilling desires, thus they do not show a strong primary motivation.<br />As a result, we have created the market name with “CENTsation”. The reason that we will use the name of “CENTsation” is because its pronunciation is same as the word- sensation. The meaning of sensation is the feeling in one’s body resulting from something that happens or is done to it. Besides that, sensation also means by the state of great surprise, excitement, and interest among many people. As we all know, cent is the smallest value of the money. Through the name of “CENTsation”, we intend to bring out the sensation of “cents” when people saw our company names and inspired them that our supermarket’s products are cheaper than other supermarkets. Then, encourage them to purchase at our supermarket. With the same product, they may not able to purchase at the lower price at other places. Besides that, we also hope that the customers will have a great sensation and excitement when they purchase the products with the cheaper price. <br />For the purpose to let people have a more vivid impression of our supermarket, we have created a slogan for our supermarket. The slogan is “Let CENTsation sensate you”. We hope that we can sensate our customers with satisfaction and enjoyment. With lower price, they can enjoy more preferential treatment in our supermarket. With the money that they spent in our supermarket, they won’t be able to get as much products as in our supermarket than at other places. We are sure that people won’t be regretting to purchase in our supermarket. We promise that we will give the best to our customers.<br />The supermarket will locate nearby the older neighborhoods. Where most of the residents are live a long period at there and normally are older people or having older people in the family. Older people are normally retired or have low income. Thus, we can attract them with our cheaper price products. Furthermore, the neighborhood is near the low-cost housing area. For everyone understanding, low cost housing area are most proper the low income family. These families are suit to our target consumer, which is survivor. They will easily get attracted by the cheaper products of our supermarket then save more money. <br />For the purpose to meet to our target market requirement, we have adjusted our products price that is using the Price Adjustment Strategies. The first pricing strategy that our supermarket proposed is “special pricing for fresh food after 6pm”. As we all know, fresh food will easily spoilage. The fresh food just can be dump if we cannot sell out them on the day. It is wasteful and will make loss for our supermarket. By selling the fresh food after 6pm with cheaper price, we can attract more people come to shop at our supermarket at that period. This can be a win-win situation. It’s not only can increase our sales and profits, it also can help our market to clear the stock. At the same time, the customers can buy the fresh food at the lower prices. <br />To co-ordinate our supermarket name, CENTsation, we have the second pricing strategy which is selling the specific products with cents. If customers purchase our products over RM50.00, we will offer them some special products such as Maggie Mee, soft drinks, stationary or others for 99 cents. Through this strategy, we can bring out our supermarket name where consumers can use cents to buy product in the CENTsation. They will not found another market to buy product by the cents where this is a special sales that our supermarket offer.<br />Several positioning strategies are being designed to succeed our supermarket. The first positioning strategy that we use for the supermarket is positioning based on a specific benefit through the members card. By having our supermarket’s member card, our member can enjoy a lot of benefits. These benefits included our member can enjoy 5% off discount with each purchases. This strategy is planned according to the survivors buying behavior which are they prefer discounts and sales. <br />As the member of our supermarket, they not only can enjoy the discount through the whole year, but can enjoy a special offer on their birthday. We will offer the birthday’s person for a value of RM20.00 voucher. In other words, they can save more and gained more than those who are non-member of our supermarket. These all are base on the positioning based on a specific benefit. As the survivors like to use voucher and coupons, this strategy must be able to attract them to shop in our supermarket.<br />Besides of the positioning based on a specific benefit, we also have a strategy on our goods’ pricing which is references prices. A reference prices is any price that a consumer uses as a basis of comparison in judging another price. The price of goods of our supermarket averagely will be the same as other supermarkets. However, we will offer some products that will have lower price than other supermarkets. For example, X market sells the Maggie Mee for RM3.99, but in CENTsation, it only needs RM3.79. Those special products will cheaper than other markets by about 5%. Through the strategy, consumer can get our product prices as a basis to compare with other supermarket’s products. We intend to create a small profit but high turnover through this strategy also.<br />Another positioning strategy that we use is perceptual mapping. The technique helps marketers to determine how their products or services appear to consumers in relation to competitive brands on one or more relevant characteristics. Other supermarket may target their customers to other segments which will provide them with the larger profit or faster in turnover. To compete with other supermarkets, our target consumers are survivors. Survivors are the consumers that with low income and low resources. These consumers allow us to position our product pricing as specifically focused on these consumer behavior. We use this strategy through our low prices product to bring out the differentiation between our supermarket and other supermarkets. <br />The survivors are used to purchase with familiar and they are brand loyal. We hope that all the strategies we designed can attract them to shop at our supermarket and then be the long-term customers of our supermarket.<br />