You are here

Audio Clip

15 January, 2016 - 09:17

Interview with Joy Mead

http://app.wistia.com/embed/medias/45f9c7fa67

Joy Mead is an associate director of marketing for Procter & Gamble. Listen to this audio clip to learn about the approach Procter & Gamble takes to understand customers.

A number of research organizations examine lifestyle and psychographic characteristics of consumers. Psychographics combines the lifestyle traits of consumers (for example, whether they are single or married, wealthy or poor, well-educated or high school dropouts) and their personality styles with an analysis of their attitudes, activities, and values to determine groups of consumers with similar characteristics. We will talk more about psychographics and what companies do to develop further insight into what consumers want in Chapter 5 "Market Segmenting, Targeting, and Positioning".

KEY TAKEAWAY

Your personality describes your disposition as other people see it. Market researchers believe people buy products to enhance how they feel about themselves. Your gender also affects what you buy and how you shop. Women shop differently than men. However, there’s some evidence that this is changing. Younger men and women are beginning to shop more alike. People buy different things based on their ages and life stages. A person’s cognitive age is how old he “feels” himself to be. To further understand consumers and connect with them, companies have begun looking more closely at their lifestyles (what they do, how they spend their time, what their priorities and values are, and how they see the world).

REVIEW QUESTIONS

  1. Explain how someone’s personality differs from his or her self-concept. How does the person’s ideal self come into play in a consumer-behavior context?
  2. Describe the buying patterns women exhibit versus men.
  3. Why are companies interested in consumers’ cognitive ages?
  4. What are some of the consumer lifestyle factors firms examine?