Pi-Consulting

Social segmentation as a basis for addressing different consumer groups first came to prominence in the 1970s, when SRI launched the original VALS (values and life-style) study. It is still with us thirty years later, and continues to have a large number of adherents. Indeed, new segmentations are produced today . Some advertisers have bought into proprietary segmentations from SRI, Yankelovich and the rest, others have opted to custom-build segmentations which reflect the peculiarities of their own market sector.
The principle behind any socio-cultural segmentation study is that it divides society into fixed clusters of like-minded people (i.e. those sharing the same attitudes or values). In most cases the resulting consumer clusters or segments are of roughly equal size, though this is not essential. The aim is to locate the prime selling opportunity for any product or service in a key customer group, identified as one of the segments. The technique allows tracking of change over time in the size or attitudes of a given group. It also allows international comparisons, provided the questionnaire and methodology are kept the same in all the countries studied. Segment names often catch the public imagination; this is, after all, the research technique which introduced the world to Yuppies (young upwardly-mobiles), Nimbys (Not In My Back Yard), Dinkys (Dual Income, No Kids),SSkins (Seniors Spending the Kids’ Inheritance) etc.

Segment names are still intoned like marketing mantras, though in many cases they do lose relevance as time goes on. (How may Yuppies do you encounter today?). Beyond the problem of obsolescence, advertisers are beginning to worry that the classic segmentations, by forcing each research respondent into one “box”, risk missing important subtleties of attitude and behavior. At worst, it transpires, segmentations succeed only in giving us dim and mysterious glimpses into the obvious. How useful is it to know, for instance, that people who buy fancy cellphones are in a “Mobile Networkers” segment? Advertisers will not go on forever paying for research which tells them what they already know.