Detailed description of VALS model with description and illustrative examples for each segment. VALS,Innovators,Thinkers,Believers,Achievers,Strivers,Experiencers,Makers,Survivors

1. By: Vikram Dahiya & Renju Jose

2. Model of Buyer Behavior
Marketing and Buyer’s Black Box Buyer Responses
Other Stimuli
Marketing Buyer Characteristics Product Choice
Product Buyer Decision Process Brand Choice
Price Dealer Choice
Place
Promotion
Other Purchase Timing
Economic Purchase Amount
Technological
Political
Cultural

3. Values, Attitudes and
Life-Styles (VALS)
Innovators
Innovators High Innovation
High Resources
Thinkers
Thinkers Achievers
Achievers Experiencers
Experiencers
Believers
Believers Strivers
Strivers Makers
Makers
Survivors
Survivors
Low Resources Low Innovation

4. The main dimensions of the VALS
framework are:
Primary motivation (the horizontal dimension)
Resources (the vertical dimension).
The vertical dimension segments people based on the
degree to which they are innovative and have resources
such as income, education, self-confidence, intelligence,
leadership skills, and energy.

5. VALS Framework and Segments
Innovators
Thinkers
Believers
Achievers
Strivers
Experiencers
Makers
Survivors

7. Innovators
 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.
 Their lives are characterized by variety. Their possessions
and recreation reflect a cultivated taste for the finer things in
life.

8. Innovator Buys
BMW
Luxury Watches
Alien ware

9. Thinkers
• These consumers are the high-resource group of
those who are motivated by ideals. They are mature,
responsible, well-educated professionals.
• Their leisure activities center on their homes, but they
are well informed about what goes on in the world and
are open to new ideas and social change.
• They have high incomes but are practical consumers
and rational decision makers.

10. • Thinkers are motivated by ideals. They are mature,
satisfied, comfortable, and reflective people who
value order, knowledge, and responsibility.
• They tend to be well educated and actively seek out
information in the decision-making process. They
are well informed about world and national events
and are alert to opportunities to broaden their
knowledge.
• They have a moderate respect for the status-quo
institutions of authority and social decorum, but are
open to consider new ideas. Although their incomes
allow them many choices, Thinkers are
conservative, practical consumers; they look for
durability and functionality.

11. Thinker Buys
Branded Shoes
Renowned Books

12. Believers
Like Thinkers, Believers are motivated by ideals.
•They are conservative, conventional people with
concrete beliefs based on traditional, established codes:
family, religion, community and the nation.
•They follow established routines, organized in large part
around home, family, community and social or religious
organizations to which they belong.
•As consumers, Believers are predictable; they choose
familiar products and established brands. They favor
American products and are generally loyal customers.

13. Believer Buys
Mercury
Local TV News
Old and trusted Brands like Bata, Rin etc.

14. Achievers
• Motivated by the desire for achievement,
Achievers have goal-oriented lifestyles and a deep
commitment to career and family.
• Their social lives reflect this focus and are
structured around family, their place of worship
and work.
• Achievers live conventional lives, are politically
conservative and respect authority and the status
quo.
• They value consensus, predictability and stability
over risk, intimacy and self-discovery.

15. Achiever Buys
Honda
Low-Calorie Domestic Beer
i–pad etc.

16. Strivers
Strivers are trendy and fun loving. Because they are motivated
by achievement, Strivers are concerned about the opinions
and approval of others. Money defines success for Strivers,
who don't have enough of it to meet their desires.
Narrow interests
Easily bored
Somewhat isolated
Look to peer group for motivation and approval
Unconcerned about health and nutrition
Politically apathetic
Image conscious
Spend on clothing and personal care products
Prefer TV to Reading

17. Striver Buys
Chevrolet
Playboy
Coke Classic
Lottery Ticket

18. Experiencers
Experiencers are motivated by self-expression. Young,
enthusiastic and impulsive consumers. Experiencers
quickly become enthusiastic about new possibilities but
are equally quick to cool down.
Like the new, offbeat and risky
Like exercise, socializing, sports and outdoors
Concerned about image
Un-conforming, but admire wealth, power and fame
Politically apathetic
Follow fashion and fads
Spend much of disposable income on socializing
Buys on impulse
Attend to advertising
Listens to Rock Music

19. Experiencer Buys
Designer Jeans
Electric Guitar
Branded and Stylish Sportswear

20. Makers
 Like Experiencers, Makers are motivated by self-
expression.
 They express themselves and experience the world
by working on it—building a house, raising children,
fixing a car, or canning vegetables—and have
enough skill and energy to carry out their projects
successfully.
 Makers are practical people who have constructive
skills and value self-sufficiency. They live within a
traditional context of family, practical work and
physical recreation and have little interest in what
lies outside that context.
 Makers are suspicious of new ideas and large
institutions such as big businesses.

21. Makers (contd.)
They are respectful of government authority and organized
labor but resentful of government intrusion on individual
rights. They are unimpressed by material possessions other
than those with a practical or functional purpose. Because
they prefer value to luxury, they buy basic products.

22. Maker Buys
Comfortable Chair , Cushion
Air Coolers
Basic Shirts ( Non luxury)
Filmfare Magazine
Budweiser Beer
NASCAR

23. Survivors
Limited interests and activities
Prime concerns are safety and security
Burdened with health problems
Conservative and traditional
Rely on organized religion
Brand loyal
Use coupons and look out for sales
Trust advertising
Watch TV often
Read tabloids and women's magazines

24. Survivors (Contd)
VERY LOW ON Ideals/Achievement/Self-Expression
VERY LOW on resources and innovation
Survivors live narrowly focused lives. With few resources
with which to cope, they often believe that the world is
changing too quickly. They are comfortable with the
familiar and are primarily concerned with safety and
security.

25. Survivor Buys
Medicines
Milk and Bread
Sodex Ho Coupons
Femina

26. Remember  VALS
People buy products, services and seek experiences that
fulfill their characteristic preferences and give shape,
substance and satisfaction to their lives.
•VALS Evolved to explain the relationship between
psychology and consumer behavior
•VALS measures the person's ability to express
himself/herself in the market place
•VALS uses proprietary psychometric techniques to
measure concepts that researchers have proved empirically
to correlate with consumer behavior.

27. References
1. www.strategicbusinessinsight.com
2. Wikipedia
3. http://www.scribd.com/doc/22753864/VALS-Value-
Attitude-Lifestyle-Survey
4. http://www.d.umn.edu/~rvaidyan/mktg4731/vals2tbl
.htm
5. http://www.slideshare.net/clsmith652/buyer-
behaviour-market-research-portfolio
6. http://cla.calpoly.edu/legacies/rsimon/rsimonsite/Hu
m410/VALS%20Advertising%20Theory.htm