Pi-Consulting

As a typical part of the market research industry, consumer insight research tends to have a jargon all its own. Words are bandied about, often applied in varying and different ways, sometimes sloppily or capriciously interchanged, and certainly not always applied with clarity and consistency.

Pi Consulting therefore offers this “Dictionary of Terms” as we ourselves apply them, in an effort to clear up potential misunderstandings.

The list of ‘jargon words’ includes:

* Culture
* Values
* Attitudes
* Psychographics
* Demographics
* Mindset
* Motivation
* Aversion
* Inhibition
* Mood state
* Mood of the nation
* Behavior
* Lifestage
* Lifestyle

Keeping clear distinctions between these concepts can be of enormous importance in ensuring clear consumer insights. Mixing concepts within the definition of any given audience, (for instance combining attitudes, behavior and demographics in such a definition) can impede or destroy the analyst’s ability to separate the disparate elements and track causation. Here are Pi Consulting’s definitions of these “key words”:

CULTURE

A broad definition would be “The intellectual side of civilization”, but a definition relating to consumer insight matters needs to go deeper than that. To Pi Consulting, Culture is the accretion of all the knowledge, beliefs, values and societal instincts shared by the members of a society, or section of a society. Elements of culture can include collective values, traditions, social structures, societal norms and conventions, customs, aesthetics, history, folklore and institutions. Cultures usually seek to encode and communicate these elements to succeeding generations of its members, and sometimes to propagate them to other cultures. A culture can be defined by race, ethnicity, nation, language or religion, and usually combines more than one of these.

VALUES

The fundamental tenets and convictions by which any given group of people live their lives. These would in different cases include moral and spiritual convictions, work ethic, commitment to life goals, and attitudes to opportunity and change. “Values” are typically what people consciously seek to pass on to their children. They are by definition slow to change, and tend to do so only in step with gradual shifts in society and culture.

ATTITUDES

More transient than values (though often prompted by them), attitudes are the conscious mental reactions produced in people in response to events, ideas or any aspect of change. These would include curiosity about or disinterest in the unknown, the impulse to better oneself or one’s situation, concern with what others think of you, instinctive response to those around you, and moral or ethical responses to events and information. Attitudes should NOT be confused with feelings, emotions or appetites, (such as love, desire, hate, fear etc.), which Pi would argue are not attitudes in themselves, though they may in turn give rise to attitudes. Attitudes may change with circumstances, lifestage or an individual’s socio-economic situation, but they are much less volatile and changeable than emotions.

PSYCHOGRAPHICS

A term first widely applied about 35 years ago to indicate the psychology of character. A way of thinking about and classifying people in ways that go beyond their demographics, circumstances, appetites and conscious motivations. Psychographics profiles or analyzes potential consumers in a market in order to identify personality characteristics that affect a person’s attitudes, lifestyle and purchasing behavior.

DEMOGRAPHICS

The statistics of a given population such as age, sex, income, education, and any other information concerning their definable and verifiable socioeconomic characteristics. Demographics also focuses on elements in the consumer’s environment, such as geographical location, housing arrangements, marital and family circumstances, and employment status.

MINDSET

A systematic or random amalgamation of values, attitudes, motivations and/or aversions which collectively govern a specific field of behavior in any group. Examples: concern among “greens” for the environment, success-orientation, conspicuous consumption, fashion-consciousness, antipathy towards particular ethnic or social groups, instinctive brand-loyalty etc.

MOTIVATION

An impulse or causation that will lead someone towards a given action, whether based on self-interest, logic, appetite, aversion, or whatever. Motivations can be conscious or sub-conscious.

AVERSION

The negative equivalent of motivation (above).

INHIBITION

A factor tending to curb a person’s desire or intention to take a given action, usually — but not always — consciously acknowledged by the person concerned.

MOOD

A momentary, transient state of mind, often caused by day-to-day events, tasks to be undertaken, degrees of physical well-being, or momentary changes in company or location. Example: “After returning from work I drink a whisky and it puts me in a relaxed mood”.

MOOD OF THE NATION

What people think at any given moment about their government, economy, society, life, work and prospects in general. Examples: “We are living comfortably within our present income”, “Immigration is putting society under new pressures”, etc.

BEHAVIOR

What people actually do in any situation, whether habitually, randomly, or in response to a given stimulus, problem or opportunity. Example: “I pay cash every I go to the grocery store”. Important note: holding an attitude will not necessarily give rise to the adoption of the logically corresponding type of behavior, since it is perfectly possible to hold an opinion but not act on it. Example: someone who professes to be against the principle of genetically modified foods, but in reality eats them frequently.

LIFESTAGE

A simultaneous agglomeration of demographic realities which can lead to particular mindsets and behavior patterns. Examples: changed marital status, first parenthood, onset of teenage children, ‘empty-nesters’, retirement.

LIFESTYLE

How people choose to live their lives and interact with those around them. By common convention, a man drinking beer and looking at football matches is exhibiting behavior, whereas a man drinking champagne and sailing at weekends has a lifestyle. Lifestyle is often — quite wrongly — used as a term interchangeable with ‘values’ or ‘attitudes’.

So now you know.