Psychographic types of consumers. Abstract: Marketing research on the psychographic profile of consumers

Developed industrial production presupposes market segmentation, that is, the allocation of consumer groups to whom the advertised product is intended. Segmentation can be carried out on different grounds: geographic, demographic, psychographic, etc.

In psychographic segmentation, buyers are divided into groups based on their belonging to a social class with its inherent psychology, lifestyle and psychological properties. With each of the types of buyers, the manufacturer tries to establish a separate communication, producing a specialized (for this category of consumers) product. The latter is important because each age group can have completely different psychographic profiles. In this case, numerous interests, hobbies, attitudes towards innovations, ideas about values, etc. are explored. As a result, consumers who even have similar socio-economic and demographic characteristics can be presented as "mods", "pragmatists", "aesthetes" , "maximalists", "techies" ...

In some cases, psychographic typologies are based on a certain psychological type of personality and people's idea of ​​themselves. A person's personality type is a unique set of psychological characteristics that determine persistent and repeated reactions of a person to factors environment... Personality type is usually described in terms such as self-confidence, dominance, sociability, independence, security, adaptability, aggressiveness, etc. In this regard, vivid examples of production and positioning of products taking into account psychometric factors can be cited. Example. Jeans makers often create designs for "active earners", pleasure lovers, successful "traditionalists". For each of these groups you need jeans of the appropriate cut, at different prices. Therefore, advertising should be based in this case on various advertising ideas (plots) in order to be most convincing for persons with appropriate psychology and corresponding expectations. Example. In some cases, manufacturers give their products characteristics that correspond to the typological characteristics of consumers. In the late 50s. Ford and Chevrolet cars were advertised as cars for people of different psychological types. It was generally accepted that the buyers of Fords were independent, impulsive, courageous, responsive to changes and self-confident, while the owners of Chevrolet were conservative, thrifty people, more concerned about social prestige, less courageous and aspiring avoid extremes. Convertible car owners are psychologically different from hardtop car owners. The first, according to the researcher, people are more active, impulsive and sociable.

As a result of research from one of the leading advertising agencies The United States announced the creation of a methodology for successfully segmenting the market based on audience traits for such categories of goods and services as women's cosmetics, cigarettes, insurance and spirits. It was possible to identify four personality types among beer consumers and to help Anheuser-Busch develop a specific advertising campaign to reach each of these groups.

In turn, Professor OA Feofanov writes about this: “In the American literature on advertising, there are quite often attempts to determine the character of the buyer depending on the brand of the purchased car, taking into account the“ image ”of this car. Thus, a car characterizes its owner as follows: people who consider themselves conservative, serious and responsible tend to buy cars "Plymouth", "Dodge", four-door "sedans" in dark colors. People who want to seem sociable and modern usually buy "Chevrolet", "Pontiac", Buick, Chrysler, two-door coupes of light colors. Those who want to emphasize their individuality and adherence to modernity buy Ford, Mercury, Oldsmobil, Lincoln (mainly the so-called hardtops) bright colors. And finally, the rich, who need to show the uniqueness of their social status or to emphasize their special needs, they buy a Cadillac, prefer cars with open top and very bright colors - red, yellow, white. The same study showed that older people prefer the Dodge car. The Chrysler Corporation had to urgently revise the "images" of its cars, modify them. appearance to attract younger buyers. "

Psychographic segmentation of the market is considered by many specialists to be an extremely promising direction due to the fact that it allows you to target advertising to consumers with certain psychological characteristics and thereby organize a system of advertising communications in a more targeted and cost-effective manner.

As a result of a study carried out in 12 European countries, as well as in the USA, Canada and Japan, the types of consumers that react differently to advertising were identified (Table 7). The classification was based on sociodemographic characteristics, sociocultural profile, activities (sports, recreation, culture), reactions to media reports, political inclinations and moods.

These studies have shown that among the diversity of lifestyles in Europe, the haves are more similar than the have-nots. For this reason, advertising for luxury goods defines a broader international scope than advertising for other products.

In the process of research, it was found that classifications of people's lifestyles can be considered as types of consumer behavior, but these types can in no way be considered universal - they will be different for each country.

Table 1 Psychological types of consumers who react differently to advertising (according to the RISC agency)

Consumer type
Traditionalists		Are under the direct influence of the cultural, social, historical traditions of their country. This group of people is the least homogeneous in all European countries.
Home pupils		Have strong family ties and attachments, are less concerned with economic security than traditionalists, seek social welfare, and cannot tolerate violence
Rationalists		They have special abilities to successfully act in unpredictable and difficult situations, they are ready to take risks, starting a new business, they believe that science and new technologies will help humanity to survive
Sybarites		Are based on sensory experience and emotional experiences, belong to groups that are built on the basis of self-control
		Choosing values ​​that match dynamics social change, believe in independence, want to independently realize their mental and physical potential
		They enjoy an unpredictable life, miss formal relationships, have no need to improve their abilities, individualists, calmly react to rapidly changing circumstances in society

For example, in Russia there are five categories of Russian consumers: "merchants", "Cossacks", "students", "executive directors", "Russian souls". Thus, a typical "Cossack" can drive a BMW, smoke Dunhill cigarettes and drink Remy Martin cognac, while Russian souls will drive a Lada, smoke Marlboro cigarettes and drink Smirnoff vodka.

Consumers of advertising, as well as consumers of goods, are divided into several types. Thus, a well-known typology consists of five types: super-innovators, innovators, moderate innovators, moderate conservatives and super-conservatives (Table 8). The former tend to acquire goods and services without waiting for their general acceptance. These are either leaders or people who hide their complexes by demonstrating independence. The second type includes people who quickly perceive new things. They often take risks, but make purchases deliberately. The third type is people who easily perceive new items, but do not specifically look for them. This is a favorable, but rather passive group for advertising. They do not like to change their habits and are independent in their judgment. The fifth type includes consumers who are not inclined to perceive new things. Such people usually have poorly developed imagination and a sharply reduced social orientation towards the assessments of others.

Table 2 Psychological types of advertising consumers

Consumer type	Behavior	Psychological characteristics
Supernovators	Are inclined to purchase goods and services without waiting for their general acceptance	Leaders or people who hide their complexes by showing independence
Innovators	Often they take risks, but they make purchases deliberately.	People who quickly perceive new things
Moderate innovators	They easily perceive new items, but do not search for them on purpose	They do not like to change their habits and are independent in judgment
Moderate conservatives	Difficult to perceive new items	They do not like to change their habits, but are guided by social assessment
Superconservatives	Not inclined to perceive new things	Imagination is poorly developed and social orientation towards the assessments of others is sharply reduced

In accordance with E. Rogers' theory of diffusion, 5% of the population becomes the critical point for the spread of ideas, but for their conviction it is necessary that the ratio reaches 50% of the population. When you pass 20% of the barrier, the idea starts to live own life and no longer requires intensive communication support.

Socio-psychological ranking of personality types in relation to the recognition of a new idea or product (according to E. Rogers) made it possible to identify the following types of consumers:

a) innovators, whose number is 2.5%; characterized by mobility, openness to intercultural communication, recognition of abstract ideas;

b) early adapters, accounting for 13.5%; stand out for their respectability, greater openness to intracultural communication;

c) an early minority representing 34%; typologized at the level of the hesitant;

d) later the majority, constituting 34%; unites skeptics who make decisions after the average communicant does it;

e) late adapters, forming 16%; classified at the level of traditionalists, who are the last to make decisions and are suspicious of the essence of the "new".

Increasing the effectiveness of advertising communications requires an in-depth psychological analysis of the types of consumers, a detailed analysis of personal characteristics. After all, moving along this path, you can create psychologically accurate and highly effective advertising, as well as develop products and services that people most need.

According to statistics, 65% of decisions a person makes under the influence of reasons that are rather indirectly related to logic. Making an impulsive purchase is a process of a clear dominance of desire over reason, an instant decision to buy without understanding the strong and weaknesses goods. Most impulse purchases are made:

Under the influence of an instant desire to use (I felt the smell of fresh bread - I really wanted to try it);

Under the influence of associations caused by the product itself (I saw beer - I remembered a feeling of slight relaxation - I bought it to taste it);

The main zone of impulse purchases is supermarkets and stores of personal daily consumption products (for example, household goods). In order to be included in the range of impulsive goods, the product must have one or more of the following qualities:

1. Have an attitude towards pleasure.

2. Be attractive in appearance.

3. Have a small size or imply "divisibility" (the possibility of small packaging or small packaging "for sample").

4. Have maximum demonstration capabilities.

In marketing, the purchase is considered the central link of consumption; the forces of marketers, economists, managers are thrown into increasing the number of purchases different ways... Traditionally, marketers believe that organizing a purchase is the business of the company, and post-purchase processes are a private business of the consumer, closed to prying minds. In the mainstream of consumer psychology, this is a controversial thesis. Psychologists also study in detail the use as behavior, which is an external expression of personal qualities.

Types of consumers

By the scale of consumption there are two types of consumers: consumer-individual and consumer-organization. Individual consumers are people who buy or use a product for their own benefit. Consumer organizations are firms that use the product to carry out their activities (for example, the Faculty of Psychology is a corporate consumer of textbooks, paper and office supplies). It is clear that the models of their behavior will be completely different.

By place in the distribution channel distinguish between consumers-intermediaries (they are organizations that resell the goods) and end consumers (they are individuals or organizations that directly use the product).

By type of consumption consumers can be divided into the following types:

Buyers- individuals or organizations who choose a product and pay for it (type of consumption - purchase).

Users- individuals or organizations actively using the product (type of consumption - use).

Owners- individuals or organizations that have a product, but do not use it physically (type of consumption - possession). This type of consumer can be subdivided into subtypes. Landlords- persons or organizations that rent out their property. The keepers- persons or organizations that store goods and do not actively use them. For example, the owners of paintings, luxury goods, as well as grandmothers who keep the inheritance "in a stocking" (type of consumption - storage).

Recyclers- individuals or organizations that recycle the results of their use of the goods: garbage, obsolete, out-of-order goods (type of consumption - utilization).

Buyers are traditionally divided into 2 types. Customer - a person who is directly in contact with a specific product / service. Customer (in relation to the company) - a person ordering and / or paying for a product / service.

There are many typologies of consumers, which are based on various typological features. Most often, social and demographic characteristics are used as typographical features.

Consider universal consumer typologies.

Typology has become a classic in American science by the intensity of consumption. Depending on the frequency and / or volume of consumption, consumers are divided into three types: heavy (active), medium (moderate), light (inactive).

Everett Rogers' Typology of Consumers ( E. Rogers, 1962) has become famous among both economists and marketers. It is based on the concept of "diffusion of innovations" - the process of acceptance (adaptation) of an innovation by consumers and its distribution in the market. He proposed six stages through which the innovation diffusion process goes:

1. Attention.

2. Interest.

3. Evaluation.

4. Verification.

5. Adaptation.

6. Recognition.

It is believed that spread in a group or society new information or a new product goes through several stages: knowledge of innovation, interest in innovation, evaluation, testing, decision to recognize the innovation.

According to the time of adaptation of the innovation, E. Rogers divided all consumers into 5 groups:

Innovators (2.5%) are risk-averse, highly educated, use a variety of information sources. They are mobile, have communications outside the local culture, and are able to recognize abstract ideas.

Early adopters (early adapters) (13.5%). This is a respectable group, integrated into the local culture and representing leaders in opinion, social structure (norms, orders, tastes) in it, with a higher than average status.

The early majority (34%) are hesitant. They embrace new ideas just before the average resident does; have a lot of informational contacts.

Later, the majority (34%). They are skeptics making decisions after the average citizen does. For him, the pressure of others is important.

Lagging (late adapters) (16%) are traditionalists: they are the last to make a decision and are very suspicious of anything new. This distribution is important for the promotion of new goods and services, since their introduction is possible only with the help of certain segments of the population who are more disposed to everything new. Neighbors and friends are the main sources of information.

The percentage of types was identified conditionally mathematically and was not tested experimentally. But, nevertheless, this typology is actively used in marketing. The distribution of consumers is described by a bell curve. Moreover, it reflects the shape of the curve of the classical life cycle goods!

The popular typology of Total Research Corporation unites consumers with about product attributes (significant properties):

Table 4

Consumer typology based on preferred product attributes

	Types of consumers	Preferred product properties
	intellectuals	Very high quality products, exclusive products
	conformists	Dominant product on the market
	Popularity seekers	Fashionable, modern goods
	pragmatists	Functional goods
	active	Good service, "Healthy" products
	Vacation seekers	Goods that make life easier
	sentimental	Simple, out of fashion products

Macdonald D. psychometric methods identified 6 types of buyers:

Evaluators are interested in finding the best price-quality ratio;

Fashionistas - interested in the latest models, focused on their own image;

Loyal - they constantly buy the products of the same respectable firms, pay attention to both quality and image;

Lovers of variety are fickle, capricious and inconsistent;

Vacation shoppers - value the pleasure of shopping;

Emotional - often confused, impulsive and unsystematic in their addictions.

Segmentation as a type of consumer typology

A special case of typologies (classifications) of consumers is segmentation. Segmentation is the division of consumers into types (segments) that have uniform consumption characteristics according to the parameters being studied. There are three levels of segmentation:

Universal (macro-) segmentation- consumers are divided into groups that are common for the consumption of all goods;

Commodity (mega-segmentation)- consumers are segmented in relation to the consumption of this product (for example, bread);

Branded (micro-segmentation)- consumers are segmented in relation to the consumption of a given product, bought in a certain store, or produced by a certain firm (for example, bread from a Kaluga bakery). Thus, universal segmentation is in its pure form a more modern and popular synonym for "typology". Product and corporate segmentation are special cases of typology. For example, both the type of consumers and the segment are a group of consumers with the same consumption patterns.

The following types of segmentation are most commonly used:

Socio-demographic, or descriptive (by gender, age, social status);

Complex - by social class (upper, middle, worker, lower);

By benefits (by levels of benefits from the acquisition of a particular product, reasons for the purchase);

Behavioral - division into segments based on buying behavior (criteria: user status, level of product use, level of loyalty, sensitivity to marketing factors).

Of course, segmentation is good for tracking (monitoring) changing consumption, but completely unsuitable for predicting unrealized demand and future demand for innovation.

Each method gives its own results and is used to solve a certain range of problems, while each author has his own methodological preferences. With regard to Russia, an opinion is even expressed [ Krylov] on the self-sufficiency of the income criterion for segmenting the consumer market. However, there are also features that unite all of the above approaches. They view the consumer as part of a market segment subject to an externally set set of consumption laws. At the same time, individual characteristics are considered as secondary and personal characteristics, which are fundamentally not reducible to socio-demographic norms, are not taken into account at all.

Psychography as a method of studying consumer groups

Method "psychography" (analogue of "photography") - quantitative, or with the addition of qualitative, research that allows you to identify groups of consumers of any product or group of products based on psychological characteristics (i.e. values, attitudes, relationships, motives, needs) ... This method is also called "psychographics". In other words, psychography is the identification of consumer groups based on psychological characteristics and the compilation of psychological portraits of these groups. Segmentation VALS, AIO, PRIZM, etc. - a kind of psychographic typologies.

In consumer psychography, we describe each type based on three groups of characteristics:

a) psychological characteristics of consumer behavior or consumer relations (value, motivational, etc.);

b) social characteristics of the type - age, gender, financial, family characteristics common to representatives of the type;

c) psychological portrait of the type - general psychological characteristics of the type that are not related to consumption (often based on the Cattell test and other personality tests).

Note that the sociological typologies of consumers in marketing were relevant in the 50-60s, when marketing was in its infancy, but now individual and personal consumer characteristics play a decisive role. Awareness of these features leads many researchers to attempts to psychologize marketing concepts. The psychological determinants of consumption include attention, perception, memory, knowledge, values ​​and other phenomena. This is how "psychographic models" arose. The most common methods of consumer typology include psychographic models AIO, VALS and VALS-2, LOV, PRIZM, Global Scan.

The AIO model divides consumers into segments according to the following groups of parameters: activities - occupations, interests - interests, opinions - opinions. (Here it is necessary to clarify: very often the English-language term activity is translated by the concept of “activity.” However, in our opinion, this is fundamentally incorrect. There is no analogue of the concept of “activity” in English and, accordingly, in English-speaking psychology. Activity, depending on the context , can mean "activity", "occupation", "behavior", etc., but not "activity").

Model VALS(values ​​& lifestyles - values ​​and lifestyles) is based largely on the theory Maslow's needs... The model divides American consumers into 9 segments, grouped into 3 main groups: need-driven (11%), externally directed (67%), and internally directed (22%).

In 1989 SRI introduced a new model - VALS-2. She is more psychological and focused on the activities and interests of people. The assignment of consumers to a specific type is based on their agreement or disagreement with 42 statements. The model divides American society into 8 segments for two reasons. First - behavior orientation(on the principle, on the status, on the action) Second - consumer resources: financial, material, informational, physical and psychological. 8 segments are allocated : actualizer, self-realized, believing, reaching, striving, surviving, experimenter, maker.

Model LOV ( list of values) contain 9 values, which respondents rank according to their importance: self-realization, excitement, a sense of achievement, self-respect, a sense of belonging, being respected, safety, fun and pleasure, warm relationships with others.

Marketers use the highest value to rank consumers in their respective segments. The technique is very effective when combined with demographic data. The method is used to differentiate consumers in three areas: internal focus, (values ​​1, 2, 3, 4, correlation with internality) interpersonal focus (values ​​8 and 9), external focus (values ​​5, 6, 7, correlation with externality).

Analysis model geostyle US residents - PRIZM... Geostile is a geodemographic model of life style, based on the combination of geographic and demographic criteria. The model includes 40 types of lifestyles, divided into 12 clusters according to the criteria of the type of area of ​​residence, combined with the demographic parameters of consumers. The names of the types reflect the nature of their segment: "blue blood estates", "brains and money", "agribusiness" and others.

Global Lifestyles Model - GlobalSсan.(Developed by the British company BSBW on the basis of 250 values ​​and a component of relations of 15 thousand consumers in 14 countries.) There are 5 segments of the global lifestyle: from striving, reaching, suppressed, adapters, traditionalists.

These typology methods are much more informative, useful, their use helps to increase sales, but they do not completely solve the problems facing marketing. Questionnaires of 9, 42, 53 items are convenient for interviewing a large number of respondents, but they do not give a complete picture of the values, interests, life styles, which are aimed at studying. Their main feature is that they do not segment consumers, a population, that is, they are indirect. It is implicitly assumed that a certain psychosocial type is characterized by strictly defined consumer behavior. The unambiguity of this relationship raises reasonable doubts. Our research shows that any person is potentially capable of performing any behavioral act, including a consumer act.

The logical conclusion of the chain of reasoning in such a situation is usually the thesis about the irrationality of a person's economic behavior, which states that real behavior, unlike the model that is included in the analytical constructions of economics and marketing, is irrational and does not obey laws, even empirically identified.

In this regard, the most acute need of the psychology of consumption today is to find and classify the deep psychological reasons for consumer behavior in order to create effective methods of marketing segmentation that complement the economic and sociological ones. But often marketers perform this procedure exactly the opposite. Thus, one of the leading researchers, J.-J. Lamben, offers “needs analysis through market segmentation”.

Among the Russian typologies of consumers, it is worth noting the typology of I. Merenkova, one of the first to defend her thesis on the psychology of consumption in Russia. Merenkova developed a typology of consumers, where 40 sociocultural tendencies (trends) were identified as the basis. Each trend has its own criteria. The trends are highlighted: human potential, personality elasticity, blurring the line between the sexes, self-expression, appearance, status, economic security, well-being, development of vitality, taste for risk, need for achievement, strategic opportunism, uncertainty and complexity, cultural mobility, interaction, need in law and leaders, flexibility, polysensitivity, self-conditioning, epicureanism, emotional experience, pleasure, enjoyment of consumption, joining different groups, intraception, collective goals, small group membership preferences, new roots, limitation, community participation, need for public recognition, social justice, fear of violence, integrity, spirituality, life of the layman, lack of goals, ecosystem, care for the environment, supernaturalness.

All marketing, in fact, is to understand your customers and communicate with them in the best way. This is why marketers are so fond of all sorts of data - they reveal features. target audience and how best to contact her.

However, in addition to data, there is another equally important aspect that is easy to overlook, namely psychographics. In spite of strange name, this term plays a large role in marketing work, but unfortunately, it is also - and often the missing link in the chain. And what is left without attention, alas, can ruin all efforts in the bud. Therefore, in this article, we will share 3 invaluable psychographic characteristics that will help you better understand your customers and qualitatively change your marketing.

What is psychographics?

First of all, psychographics is the study and classification of people according to their views, aspirations and others. psychological characteristics, which is especially important in marketing research.

While the word “psychographics” itself can be somewhat confusing, and as Jeremy Smith pointed out: “Yes, the term sounds like it’s Voodoo,” at the same time, Smith argues in his article that: “Psychographics are wonderful what happened in marketing in general and in particular. "

So, let's define the scope of psychographics from the marketing standpoint. Smart marketers go to great lengths to arrive at a complete understanding of their customer, and in that regard, demographic segmentation gives them some of the key audience characteristics. Also general scheme includes segmentation according to behavioral preferences, geographic characteristics and - psychographic characteristics.

demographics - demographic characteristics (age, gender, income, marital status, nationality),
geographics - geographic characteristics (local, national, regional, international),
behavioral - behavioral preferences (based on benefits, based on the nature of consumption and attitude to the product),
psychgraphics - psychographic characteristics (activities and hobbies, values ​​and personal characteristics, views)

One of convenient ways to understand psychographic characteristics is to compare them with demographic ones, which are statistical data related to the entire society and its individual groups.

Demographic data are fairly easy to collect. Simply because they represent hard numbers that can be obtained from Google Analitics or.

While demographic data are material, often even physical characteristics, psychographic features, on the contrary, are more complex, abstract information. By analogy, we can say that demographics are hard, and psychographics are soft:

Demographic characteristics - age / gender, origin, location, employment;
Psychographic features- personal characteristics, values, attitudes, interests, lifestyles

Here's an example of demographic data:

Gender: woman
Age: 34

Location: New York, USA
Education: Bachelor of Arts
Annual income: $ 65,000

Is this information useful for a marketer? Undoubtedly!
However, this is not enough. This is only dry data that does not convey the deep motives, interests, views and, in fact, the individuality of the client.

Psychographic data, on the other hand, gives us an idea of ​​what a person likes, what he does, and what advantages of your offer can push him to buy.

Two portraits of the same user

1. Demographic
Gender: woman
Age: 34
Relationship status: Single
Location: New York, USA

2. Psychographic
Interests and preferences: music, reading, TV shows, cinema, shopping

Demographic data can only tell you who your customer is, but it cannot tell you why they are buying. Psychographics looks deeply and reveals the client's internal motivations, focusing on his lifestyle:

Psychographic research is a quantitative method for assessing subjective data, for example: views, religious beliefs, musical preferences, personality traits, and behavioral patterns.
Demographic research is a quantitative method for evaluating factual information, for example: age, gender, sexual orientation, number of family members, income

In other words, demography operates with objective data, psychographics - with information of a subjective nature.

At the same time, psychographics are very effective. Why? With its help, you get information about the client's possible desires and his motivations for action. Let's try to figure out which information about the target audience is of the greatest interest.

What are the interests of the target audience?

Another psychographic term is IAO or AIO, from the English interests, activities & opinions, which can be translated as "interests, activities and beliefs." It is these three components that are the basis for research in psychographics.

Interests or hobbies are the key point here. After all, this is the very thing that predominantly occupies thinking and includes both the information received and life experience, in a word, everything that fills the mind of a particular person.

Interests are formed by the cultural environment, social status, the current economic situation, they are significantly influenced by the upbringing and self-identification of the individual.

The importance of researching interests is based on the idea that a person interacts with the outside world. The best way to visualize this is with the following examples:

1. Those who have children are probably interested in how to raise them, how to take care of them, how to give them a good upbringing. Surely, such people are seriously interested in how to become good parents, take the time to understand what it means to be parents, reflect on it, and communicate more with their children.
2. Others are wondering how to get rich. They take an active interest in the success stories and views of those who have already succeeded, and are actively seeking information that will help them build a financially prosperous life.
3. Someone is interested in advances in a healthy lifestyle, perhaps wanting to be of normal weight, normal physical shape, and generally look normal. This interest suggests that it is important for such a person what to eat, how and where to spend time with health benefits.
4. And someone is interested in walking and having fun. All this category needs is to hang out with friends, feast and just have fun.

Activities are quite a bit different from interests. Activities are what a person fills his free time with, and of course, interests in this are also significantly manifested. Very often, activities can be attributed to a hobby, but this will be discussed further below.

It is also important to note that there cannot be any single interest that could fully characterize the target audience. On the contrary, there is a whole range of interests, depending on which customers you are targeting and which product you are promoting. When conducting psychographic research, it is important to follow trends: at different times, some interests of the target audience will prevail over others.

What activities are CA representatives involved in?

Each person has a favorite pastime for which he enjoys spending time. From the standpoint of psychographics, the second key question is what activity does your target audience devote their time to?

The easiest way to find out the preferences of the target audience in the course of psychographic research is to ask about a hobby. You will probably get many different answers:

1. fishing
2. surfing
3. reading
4. yes i don't have any hobbies
5. minecraft
6. stamp collecting
7. pinterest
8. Online Games
9. brewing
10. travels
11. floriculture
12. cycling
13. hiking trips
14. painting

Basically, the list is endless. However, some people, for example, do not have a hobby. Or they may feel that they are not wasting time on hobbies. With all this, they are still involved in a certain activity, and this is very important point in understanding their psychographic features.

Therefore, in psychographic research of your audience, do not limit yourself to questions about hobbies, on the contrary, try to understand how people in general spend their time.

A possible question would be, for example, "How do you spend most of your time, excluding sleep and work?" Of course, this is a very general and open-ended question, but it will allow you to get a more detailed idea of ​​the audience:

1. “My free time is time from and to work!“Such a person spends a lot of time either in his car or in public transport. Can this information help in identifying points of contact between the product and the audience? Certainly!
2. "I spend all the time with my family." This is a family man. Yes, he may not have a special hobby, but he often plays with children, spends a lot of time at home, and communicates with his family every day.
3. " I attend the parent committee, the homeowner community, the church, and community organizers. " A person who is strongly involved in communities of interest. This can be a leader, an active citizen, a truly communicative person, or a person who simply does not know how to say “no” when asked for something.

What are the views of your target audience?

The views of the target audience are how its representatives reflect on a given topic.
It's just that you are unlikely to recognize anyone's views, this is possible only by researching opinions on a particular issue. Views and opinions are thought responses to a particular concept, theory, belief, or subject matter.

When it comes to clarifying the views of your target audience, you need to narrow your focus to a certain extent: point of view on what issue would you like to know?

If you're in the business of selling wellness products, you might be interested in your audience's views on the role of government in healthcare.

Here are some case studies to help unleash the views of your audience:

• What is your opinion on the role of personal beliefs in the work team?
• What is your point of view on the current leadership of the country?
• What do you think of the first social needs?
• What is your opinion on early childhood education?
• In what way do you think everyone can be involved in protecting the environment?

Each of these questions are quite extensive. However, the better you know your audience, the narrower your questions can be:

• How do you rate Windows 10 versus Windows 8?
• How do you feel about same-sex marriage?
• What is your take on the Tesla Model S P85D?

Revealing the views of the target audience is one of the most important tasks of psychographic research. Views reveal values. Values, in turn, are a solid foundation of motivation.

Conclusion

One of the reasons marketers aren't good at psychographics is because it's actually not easy to figure out. It takes time, effort, honest research, and the results cannot be presented in charts and graphs due to the subjectivity of the data. In addition, the motivations and incentives of the target audience are also not always specific.

Psychographics refers to new, progressive forms of research into consumer groups. The task of the marketing researcher is to find ways of describing the target segment - his "niche" in the market, which would be based on studying the needs and predicting the behavior of consumers who make up a selected group and distinguish them from other groups. Psychographics is widely used in marketing.

Psychographic research are closely related to market segmentation. Recall: segmentation is the process of dividing the market into several homogeneous groups of consumers interested in the same goods and services, based on such factors as demographic, psychological, geographic, economic and other characteristics.

The segmentation of markets on a psychological basis is based on two types of classification: classification according to the personality profile of consumers and classification according to the profile of their life styles (psychographics). They usually complement geographic and demographic segmentation. The first psychographic studies were carried out in the 1930s, but psychographics found widespread use in the late 1960s.

Psychographics - a technique for the operational description and assessment of the psychological characteristics and lifestyle of a group of people that make up the target market segment.

Aims of psychographic research:

identification of target markets

getting better explanations of consumer behavior

improving the strategic marketing of the company

minimization of risks when introducing new products.

The task of psychographics: find clear quantitative indicators that characterize the lifestyle of consumers.

Psychographic research methods: focus group polls, interviews, etc.

For segmentation based on psychographic research, one of the most common methods is VALS1 - the program "Values ​​and Lifestyle", developed by A. Mitchell (USA) in 1979, as well as its modification VALS2 (1989). The VALS1 method is based on a typology called the Nine American Lifestyles. Each person is assigned a place in 1 of 9 segments. These segments are defined based on the values ​​and lifestyles of the people. When using the method VALS1 consumer groups are preliminarily divided into three segments. Within each segment, there are groups of consumers, of which there are 9 in total.

1) Oriented to the outside world:

Achieved Success (20%)

Imitators (10%)

Belonging to a certain class (followers) (38%)

These groups constitute the bulk of consumers. When buying goods for them, the opinion and assessment of other people are decisive.

2) Orienting towards the inner world:

Holistic (2%) - sometimes stand out in a separate segment.

Socially minded (11%)

Empiricists (5%)

Self-oriented (3%)

There are much fewer such consumers. When making a decision, they are guided primarily by their assessments, motives and values.

INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………… ..2

1. Theoretical foundations of marketing research of the psychographic profile of consumers ……………. ……………………………………. ……… ..4

1.1 Psychography as a method of consumer research in

marketing ……………………………………………………………….… .4

1.2 Techniques for studying consumer lifestyles and

market segmentation based on psychographic types ………… ...… .6

1.3 Peculiarities of determining the psychographic types of Russian consumers …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ..... 24

2. Marketing research psychographic portrait of buyers of Vester Group's products ……………. ………………………………………… ... 37

2.1 General characteristics of the Vester Group of Companies …………. ………………………………………………… ... …… 37

2.2 Description of the problem of marketing research and the search for ways to solve it. Drawing up a marketing research plan ... ... ... ... ...... 41

2.3 Carrying out a marketing study of the psychographic profile of the consumers of soft drinks of the Vester Group of Companies ..................................... .................................................. ..................... 43

CONCLUSION ……………………………………………… ... ……………… ..55

List of used literature ………………………………… ... ……… 57

APPENDIX 1 …………………………………………………………… .58

INTRODUCTION

All the company's activities are aimed at interacting with consumers. The consumer, the client is the key figure around which the company's activities are built. Without them, any efforts of the company are meaningless - there is no point in developing a development strategy, inventing new products, improving the sales system if all these efforts are directed "nowhere."

The relationship with the consumer is becoming more complex. He is no longer just a buyer ready to buy something new or, on the contrary, useful, but an expert on the consumption market. With increasing competition in most consumer markets, marketing, advertising and sales are increasingly challenged to retain and attract new customers.

Most of the companies operating in the Russian market, promoting their products, brands, services, rely on the results of market and consumer segmentation. There are several main ways to clearly and reasonably define target groups (segments). As a rule, demographic segmentation is most often used. However, the marketing practice of recent years and, above all, the experience of our foreign colleagues indicate that a simple segmentation of consumers of a product or service by demographic and regional characteristics, by income level, is usually not enough. A product or service is used not just by people of a certain age and place of residence, but specifically by consumers of a certain brand, who choose it in accordance with their taste and lifestyle.

V modern conditions In connection with the emergence of the market and the ever-increasing competition, studies of the psychographic portrait are becoming more and more relevant, since they provide a broad picture of buyers, a real picture of what is hidden behind faceless socio-demographic data, and help to understand the real behavior of consumers. Companies need to know their consumers "by sight", to feel their behavior, to anticipate their actions. The psychographic dimensions are much broader than the demographic, behavioral, and socioeconomic dimensions. Psychography is the most effective and most important feature of consumer segmentation because it takes into account relatively subtle phenomena - motivation, perception, interests, personality, learning, learning, beliefs and attitudes.

The purpose of the course work is to study the psychographic characteristics of consumers of soft drinks and the methods of segmentation of consumers by psychographic profiles.

In accordance with the set goal, the following tasks are solved in the work:

To study the theoretical foundations of marketing research of the psychographic profile of consumers;

Explore methods of market segmentation based on psychographic types;

Conduct a cluster analysis of soft drink consumers based on psychographic data.

The object of the research is the consumers of soft drinks of the Vester Group of Companies (Vester supermarket).

1. Theoretical foundations of marketing research of the psychographic profile of consumers.

1.1 Psychography as a method of researching consumers in marketing.

Psychographic marketing research is based on a science called psychography.

Psychography is psychological research groups or individuals in relation characteristic features, values, perceptions, preferences and behaviors.

Life style – one of the basic concepts used in the study of consumer behavior.

The concept of lifestyle is more modern than the concept of personality and more comprehensive than the theory of values. Using the concept of lifestyle, marketers try, through advertising, to connect the product with the daily, everyday life of the target market.

Lifestyle is a generalized concept that defines both the lifestyle of a person in general and how he spends time and money. With the help of this concept, people interpret the events around them, comprehend and predict them, coordinate their values ​​with the events.

Psychography is one of the most common methods for measuring lifestyle. With its help, you can obtain quantitative data, it can be applied to large samples that need to be broken down into market segments. "Soft", qualitative methods (focus groups and "in-depth" interviews), although they do not give quantitative results, still allow a deeper look at the construction of a strategy, give interesting ideas... The general psychographic approach is based on taking into account the personal characteristics of each consumer in the studied group, the motives of his behavior as a consumer, his life values, behaviors and even beliefs.

Demographic and psychographic dimensions are complementary and should be used simultaneously. Demographics represent objective quantitative indicators such as age, gender, education, marital status. Psychography, on the other hand, takes into account relatively imperceptible phenomena - motives, interests, social status and life values ​​of people. This information complements the demographic data and characterizes the consumer even more broadly.

The psychographic dimensions are much broader than the demographic, behavioral, and socioeconomic dimensions.

Psychographic analysis allows sellers to understand the lifestyles of buyers of their products, and this in turn makes it possible to communicate more effectively with representatives of different segments. At the same time, you can figure out how to position a new or existing product, how best to "convey" it to consumers who adhere to a certain lifestyle. The main idea of ​​the method is to look beyond the standard variables, present the product in accordance with the actions, hopes, fears and dreams of the target audience.

The goal of psychographic market segmentation is to develop a marketing program, all elements of which correspond to a large portion of the target market. Advertising here relies primarily on lifestyle elements rather than product characteristics. It can use models and celebrities associated with specific lifestyles.

Psychographic research is most often carried out with four main purposes: 1) to identify target markets; 2) to get better explanations of consumer behavior; 3) to improve the strategic marketing of the company; 4) to minimize risks when introducing new products and new businesses.

1.2 Methods for studying consumer lifestyles and market segmentation based on psychographic types.

This topic is poorly studied by Russian specialists, therefore, the basic concepts and methods described are based on foreign studies, mainly by American authors. Along with the recognized research methods VALS1 and VALS2, we will consider the system of psychographic types of Internet users (iVALS), which is still little known in Russia, as well as some of the alternative models.

One of the most common approaches to lifestyle marketing is the VALS (Values ​​and Lifestyle) method, developed in 1978 by the California Stanford Research Institute. It is based largely on Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. At the base of the pyramid of human needs are physiological needs, without the satisfaction of which physical existence itself is impossible, followed by security, love, respect. The highest level in the hierarchy is self-realization, in which the set of needs of the individual is determined by him.

The VALS system divided American consumers into 4 main groups: need-driven (11%), externally directed (67%) and internally directed (22%), as well as “integrated”, the number of which is small (table 1.1).

Table 1.1

Main consumer groups according to the VALS system

Consumer group	Characteristic
Needs-driven consumers	They spend money based on their needs, not preferences. These are the poorest strata of the population, without education.
Consumers Driven by External Factors	When shopping, these people care about what others think of it.
Consumers driven by internal factors	For them, first of all, their own needs and desires are important.
"Integrated"	These consumers are the smallest group. They represent individuals who combine the qualities of the two previous groups. Although few in number, this group can play an important role as trendsetters.

Each group is characterized by its own values ​​and lifestyle, demographic characteristics and patterns of purchasing behavior. The listed groups are subdivided into 4 segments, shown in Figure 1.

In 1989, changes were made to the VALS system to highlight consumer behavior in more detail, which created a new method for determining the American lifestyle - VALS 2. Its essence lies in the fact that according to the answers to the survey questions about the opinions of respondents, the US population is divided into 3 general consumer groups, and then into 8 types. Consumer groups are formed depending on a person's orientation towards a principle, status or action. Customer segmentation based on the VALS 2 method is shown in Figure 2.

High level of resources

Focused on:

Principles Status Action

Rice. 2. Segmenting consumers by lifestyle based on the VALS 2 method

Consumer groups are formed depending on a person's orientation towards a principle, status or action:

Principle-oriented consumers base their choice of certain products on personal convictions rather than on the opinions of others.

Status-oriented consumers care about other people's approval.

Action-oriented consumers are driven by a desire for social and physical activity, diversity and a sense of risk.

In addition to orientation, consumers also differ in the availability (level) of resources. Resources are psychological, physical, socio-economic factors that influence the choice and decision to purchase each consumer.

Each of the types of consumers in the VALS-2 model has its own characteristics.

1st type. "Actualizers" are successful, modern, active, with high self-esteem and abundant resources. Are interested in growth and strive to develop, fulfill and express themselves in different ways - sometimes driven by principles, desires for positive emotions or change. The image is meaningful to them not as evidence of status or power, but as an expression of their taste, regardless of character. These people are among the established and emerging business leaders and public administration, nevertheless, they continue to look for difficult tasks for themselves. They have a wide range of interests, are partial to social issues and are open to change. Their possessions and amusements reflect a cultivated taste for the best and beauty in life.

Principle-oriented consumers - “self-fulfilling” (2) and “believing” (3) - seek to align their behavior with their views of what the world should be like.

2nd type. "Fulfilled" (fulfilleds) - mature, satisfied with life, comfortable, thoughtful people who value order, knowledge and responsibility. A high level of resources is combined with a principled orientation. Most are well educated and professional. Well informed about world and national events and do not miss the opportunity to expand their knowledge. Leisure is built around the house. Moderately respectful of social self-portraits and institutions, but open to new ideas and social change. Calm, self-confident, conservative, practical - they are looking for functionality, value, durability in purchases.

3rd type. “Believers” are conservative, ordinary people with specific beliefs based on traditional values ​​- family, church, local community, nation. Low level of resources and orientation towards principles. Carriers of morals deeply rooted and interpreted literally. These consumers follow the well-established rules of everyday life that apply primarily to home, family, and their social and religious organizations. These are conservative and predictable consumers who prefer domestic products and established brands.

Status-oriented consumers - “reaching” (4) and “aspiring” (5) - have or are looking for a safe and other place in the social structure they value. The consumer choice of these groups is aimed at improving their position or ensuring their movement to another, more desirable group.

4th type. "Achievers" are successful people, career-oriented or work-oriented, in charge of their own lives. A high level of resources is combined with a focus on taste. They value agreement, predictability, and stability more than risk, intimacy, and self-disclosure. Deeply committed to work and family. Work provides them with a sense of duty, material reward or prestige. Social life is built around family, church, career. “Achievers” are politically conservative and respect authority. Image is important to them - which is why they prefer well-established and well-known, prestigious products or services that demonstrate success to others.

5th type. Strivers seek motivation, self-determination and approval from the world around them. Strive to find a safe place in life. They are insecure about themselves and have a low level of economic, social and psychological resources. Concerned about the opinions and approval of others. Money determines success for aspirants, but it is lacking and life seems impoverished to them. Aspirants easily get bored and impulsive. Many strive to be stylish, to imitate those who have more impressive things. However, what they want is usually not available to them.

Action-oriented consumers - Experimenters (6) and Makers (7) - want to explicitly influence their environment. Makers do this primarily at home and in a constructive manner. Experimenters strive for adventure and living experience in the wider world.

6th type. Experimenters, or experiencers, are young, energetic, enthusiastic, impulsive and rebellious. They are looking for variety and vivid impressions, strive for new, unusual, risky. They are still in the process of formulating life values ​​and ways of behavior, they are enthusiastic about new opportunities, but they quickly cool down. Politically neutral, uninformed and ambivalent in their beliefs. An abstract disdain for comfort is combined with an outsider's awe of wealth and power. Energy finds its way out in sports, out-of-home entertainment and social activities. Greedy consumers spend the vast majority of their income on clothing, fast food, music, movies, videos.

7th type. "Makers" are practical people with constructive skills who value independence. They live in the traditional context of family, practical work, physical entertainment; they have little interest in what lies outside this context. They express themselves and experience the world - building a home, raising children, fixing a car, or preserving - and have the skill and energy to carry out these projects successfully.

New ideas and great opportunities such as big business are viewed with suspicion. They are respectful in government, but opposed to government invasion of privacy. They are not passionate about tangible possessions other than buying for a practical or functional purpose. Because they prefer the value of luxury, they buy basic products.

8th type. “Survivors, strugglers” - chronically poor, poorly educated, with little skill, no strong social bonds, elderly and health-conscious, resigned and passive. They are limited in their need to satisfy basic current needs, do not strive for self-realization. The main concern is safety and security, they are careful consumers. A modest market for most products and services, but loyal to your favorite brands. twenty].

The researchers note that this model has disadvantages and limitations of use. The limitations of VALS-2 include the closed nature of the toolkit for public use, which was imposed by the Stanford Institute as a developer; the individual character of the meter (most consumer decisions are made by the household, not the individual), non-absolute relevance to products and situations of use - consumers often refer to more than one lifestyle.

An alternative to VALS is the LOV (List of Values) model developed in 1983 at the University of Michigan. Contains 9 values, which are ranked by respondents according to their importance:

1.Self-realization

2.excitement

3.sense of movement

4. self-respect

5. a sense of belonging

6.be respected

7.Safety

8.fun and fun

9.warm relationships with others

Marketers use meaningful value to categorize consumers. As noted by experts, supplemented with demographic information, the LOV method is quite effective and allows you to identify market segments instead of using a priori specified segments.

The method is used to differentiate consumers in three dimensions:

Internal focus (values ​​1, 2, 3, 4);

Interpersonal focus (values ​​8 and 9);

External focus (values ​​5, 6, 7).

Consumers with an emphasis on intrinsic values ​​seek to control their lives by making independent decisions. People with an outward orientation are more likely to coordinate their buying behavior with the majority in society.

Considering the essence of life style, it is also necessary to present methods and models of its description.

Quantifying, analyzing and modeling consumer lifestyles for marketing purposes is often associated with psychographics. Psychographics is a quantitative study of the lifestyle and personal characteristics of consumers. The initial psychographic tool was the AIO model (activities - activities, interests - interests, opinions - opinions).

The AIO model describes the consumer's life style in terms of parameters grouped into three groups: activities, interests and opinions (Table 1.2).

Table 1.2 shows a fragment of the model that can be used to describe the lifestyle of the consumer. To identify the values ​​of the parameters, a set of questions and statements is used, in respect of which the respondent must agree / disagree. For example, the following questions can be used to assess performance: “How many books did you read in a year?”, “How often do you visit large shopping centers?”. An example of assessing interests is the following questions: "Which of the following are you more interested in - sports, church or work?", "How important is it for you to get ahead in life?" Opinions can be expressed by expressing agreement / disagreement with statements, for example: "We must be prepared for nuclear war."

The objectives of the consumer lifestyle analysis determine the content of the AIO questions. To define the profile, or general lifestyle, of a consumer segment, the questions are more general. Based on the identified profile of the consumer segment, advertisers develop ideas for topics for advertising and options for the form, place and time of its placement.

To gather information about a product and about the relevance of the product to the consumer, AIO's questions or approvals may be more specific. Such information is used to develop or modify a product, to formulate a unique selling proposition. This sentence is a short but impressive phrase that captures the main characteristic of the product. For example: "Breakfast of the Champion", "The President's Choice". This proposal is based on customer descriptions of a specific product using AIO forms.

Psychographic analysis allows sellers to understand the lifestyles of buyers of their products, and this in turn makes it possible to communicate more effectively with representatives of different segments. At the same time, you can figure out how to position a new or existing product, how best to “convey” it to consumers who adhere to a certain lifestyle. The main idea of ​​the method is to look beyond the standard variables by presenting the product according to the actions, hopes, fears and dreams of the target customers.

Relatively recently (in 1997), another direction of studying the lifestyles of consumers, this time of Internet users, appeared - iVALS (Internet VALS). This technique was also developed by SRI International. SRI has developed iVALS in order to improve the efficiency and quality of the on-line environment for users and to help providers.

Let us briefly characterize the psychographic types of Internet users identified using this technique (Figure 3).

Rice. 3. Segmentation of psychographic types using the iVALS method

· Gurus (Wizard) are the most active and professional Internet users. Computers are a key element of their lifestyle and their knowledge of technology makes them outstanding personalities. More than 80% of Gurus use the Internet more than three years... Although the Gurus met many on the Internet over the years, it is likely that these acquaintances remain only virtual. Gurus do not look for friends (people) on purpose, in the traditional sense.

About half of them take part in MUD (Multi-Users Dungeon / Dimension - multiplayer role-playing games) or MOO (Multiple User Dungeon - Object Oriented) is a kind of MUD with great opportunities). Many have their own web pages and all have many games or multimedia programs, especially for adults. Almost all Gurus are men, and relatively young, they are less than 30 years old. Despite their age, many work as middle managers, consultants, analysts, and therefore their income is not very high. Wizard is a target group for specialized technical information, beta testing software products, conferences on computers and software and other professional topics. They like programs with a lot of possibilities.

· Pioneers - users of this type make up approximately 10% of the respondents. Pioneers are generally a positive and active segment of users. They spend a lot of time on the Internet, often attending conferences such as Usenet. So far, most of the "pioneers" feel confident in the technical aspect of the Internet. In general, they feel superior to the rest of the Internet users. Like Surfers, they are moderately addicted to the Internet. Considering this group, it can be noted that most of them are men of different ages and with low income. Pioneers include technical staff, students.

· Surfers are a fast learning but not very technically educated segment, they feel confident on the Internet. Moreover, the Internet for them is entertainment and a place of leisure. Although they have a positive attitude towards the Global Network, they are ready to spend more money for Internet services than any other type of user ("Wanderers" have more than two e-mail boxes), they have a somewhat negative attitude towards chats and conferences. This type is the oldest age group, with a household income above the average. "Wanderers" are mainly middle managers, scientists, specialists, consultants. They are active users of mail catalogs and online stores. They watch less TV since they started using the Internet. Internet users of this type spend a lot of time traveling, surfing the Internet. They strive to learn as much as possible about the Network. They are passionate not only about information, but also about communication with people, or work.

· The bulk (Mainstreamers). Such users turn to the Internet for work or personal matters, but no more. Most often, they use the Internet from the place of work and are focused only on obtaining useful information for themselves. For a significant part of their time, they simply roam the Global Network. At the same time, they feel quite confident on the Internet, so they do not have the desire to make great efforts to master certain professional skills in this area. Users of this type have above average income, higher education They are computer specialists, scientists, senior managers, students. This is one of the most intelligent segments in iVALS. It should be noted that their professional interests do not include computer software and therefore their activity on the Internet is conditioned by more personal interests than official ones. Therefore, they are the target group for the "consumer" Internet.

· Power users (Upstreamers). They make up about 14% of those surveyed in the study. The closest psychographic type to them is Mainstreamers. For them, as for most Internet users, it is an opportunity to satisfy both personal needs and to resolve issues related to work or professional activities... Although Upstreamers differ from Mainstreamers in that they are more creative about the Internet (they experiment more, try). They also spend more time on the web than the “mainstream”, they have more email addresses and they subscribe to more news. They are comfortable with computers, although they have no technical background. Users of this type are male. scientists, consultants, marketers and sales managers. For Upstreamers, the Internet is a kind of bridge to get the knowledge they lack in any area.

· Workers are people who use the Internet for purely utilitarian purposes. Most of them have more than two email addresses and attend and attend conferences such as Usenet several times a week. Workers carefully plan their visits to the Internet, they clearly limit the time they spend on the Internet to resolve work issues, search for information. They may not feel comfortable on the Internet, but they are intolerant of frivolity there. Workhorses' interests are centered around special, specific information and the search for solutions to specific issues. They can, however, take part in some conferences, communicate with people, if this will bring them some benefit or solve their problems. Workers are overwhelmingly middle and upper middle income men. Consultants, students, technical staff, teachers. This target segment is for information (for example, delivered by e-mail).

· Sociable (Sociables) - for this type of Internet users the most important social aspects of the Internet. Compared to the closest type in their characteristics - Socialites, Sociables gravitate towards less structured meetings in cyberspace, such as chats, conferences. On-line, this type meets and meets a large number of people, and they communicate with men and women in different ways. One of the most pleasant sounds in the morning for them is the e-mail signal that they have received letters from friends. Sociables rate the Internet more favorably than other types, especially in terms of entertainment and value for children. Entertainment is a key aspect of personal interest on the Internet. The gregarious people love movies and cable TV and have a lot of games and multimedia programs. When technical problems arise, they rely primarily on friends or on the Internet bulletin board. The socio-demographic characteristics of this type of users generally reflect the overall picture of the "Network". 70% of them are men, mostly young with various incomes. These are teachers, lawyers, managers, students and employees. Sociables is primarily a target group for personal sales, entertainment or gossip news, homepages, and specific news that connects people with similar interests and similar lifestyles.

· Socially active, "socialites" (Socialites) are users who are strictly focused on the social aspects of the Internet, they can often be found at conferences where they discuss social issues, actual problems, for example, the possibility of introducing a time-based payment for telephone calls, wiretapping, reading of all messages on the Internet by intelligence services, etc. They have many mailing addresses and often receive and send mail at conferences. They are happy to participate in various discussions. For them, the Internet is primarily a game, entertainment, so they have a lot of games and multimedia programs. This type of user is the youngest - less than 30 years old with low to medium income. These are mainly students and technical (computer personnel). Since they have a low income, this is not a promising segment for traditional Internet sales. However, they are great candidates for entertainment like MUD and MOO, as they combine many aspects - creative and social.

· Seekers is a group focused on obtaining information of a working nature. They use computers mainly in order to work more efficiently and quickly, to solve problems. Therefore, for them, the Internet is also primarily a tool for obtaining highly specialized and professional information. However, after they finish their work, they can "crawl" on the Internet in search of entertainment and recreation. Since they are primarily interested in business topics, business information, they are promising consumers of this kind of information, they are ready to pay for it. This is the oldest segment. Their level of education is higher than the average on the Internet and their income is above average. These are teachers, top and middle managers, sales managers, marketers.

· Strangers (Immigrants) - they are relatively new to use the Internet, so they are familiar with only a limited number of areas of the Web. These users will not pay their money for the Internet unless they have free access at work or school. They usually have one email address. They believe that they have more important things to do than learning cyberspace by trial and error, they do not want to become experts in this field. They devote little time to entertainment on the Internet, communicate little in chats, conferences or correspond with people by e-mail. They are skeptical about the Internet, but at the same time they understand all the usefulness of this tool for their work and problem solving, they clearly understand the progressive advantages of using it. "Immigrants" are men and women of different ages: from 12-year-olds to students.

There are also such alternative methods as "Scan" and PRIZM, presented in table 1.3.

Table 1.3

Alternative methods of researching lifestyle

Methodology	Description
	Developed by the French university RISC (International Research Institute of Social Change). This is a kind of typology of lifestyle, in order to get a "scan", a "cloud of dots" corresponding to the respondents' answers, is divided into 10 parts, 10% each: based on survival, guardians, careerists, etc.
PRIZM (Potential Rating Index by Zip Markets - potential rating index of markets by postal zone)	The model divides the inhabitants of more than 500 thousand areas of the United States into sixty-two groups, called the PRIZM cluster. Clusters take into account 39 factors, grouped according to five main criteria: education and wealth, family life cycle, urbanization, race and ethics, mobility. The model includes 40 types of life style, divided into 12 clusters according to the criteria of the type of area of ​​residence. the name of the clusters reflects the nature of the segment: "The Blue Blood Estate", "The American Dream", "Cashmere and a Country Club for the Elite", etc.

Thus, to date, several general psychographic systems have been developed abroad. They differ in their theoretical basis, sociocultural characteristics of the country in which they were developed, and in the number of categories included in them. However, none of them is based on Russian empirical material.

It should also be noted that psychographic techniques widespread abroad have not been tested in Russia, therefore they contain a set of statements and descriptive characteristics exclusively for the population of those countries where they were developed. Therefore, psychographic systems such as VALS can be used in our country only as a model that requires serious improvements.

1.3 Features of the definition of psychographic types of Russian consumers.

R-TGI - (Russian Target Group Index) - certified research of target groups of consumers of goods, services and facilities mass media, fully complying with the international requirements of the TGI technology.

R-TGI is an analogue of the British TGI study - Target Group Index, adapted to Russian conditions, which has more than 30 years of history of monitoring lifestyle and consumption. Currently, TGI is one of the main sources of information in the marketing practice of the world's largest companies. By 2002, TGI is the quality standard for advertisers and advertising agencies in 41 countries around the world.

Scope of R-TGI research:

R-TGI is focused on information requests of manufacturers of goods and services, as well as wholesale and retail on the different stages making their marketing decisions. Manufacturers receive information about the state of the market, knowledge, loyalty and consumption levels of the brand, regional and socio-demographic differences in consumption.

R-TGI is focused on information requests of advertising agencies, media planning services and advertising in the media at the stages of development, planning and placement of advertising. Advertising agencies get the opportunity to effectively plan advertising campaigns, at the same time, costs are significantly reduced and the maximum coverage of the target group is achieved.

R-TGI is focused on the information requests of the media editors at different stages of their decision-making based on the analysis of the characteristics and interests of its audience and the audience of competing media. R-TGI users get the opportunity to prove their effectiveness as an advertising medium to the advertiser.

The annual sample size of the R-TGI is over 16,000 households (36,000 respondents), evenly distributed over 4 waves of research in each year.

The R-TGI study is being conducted in 60 cities of the Russian Federation with a population of over 100 thousand people

The general population is 60 million people.

The sample is stratified by 12 economic regions and 3 levels of urban population (> 1 million, 0.5-1 million, 0.5 million - 0.1 million).

Stage 1: Taking into account the geographical location, 8 economic and geographical regions of the European part of Russia and 4 regions of the Asian part were identified. City stratification based on population size (> 1 million, 1 million - 0.5 million, 0.5 million - 0.1 million).

Stage 2: In each city, the distribution of the sample is proportional to the size of the population in the administrative districts.

Stage 3: Random selection of households from the address database. Full list addresses - 1/6 of households in the general population.

A significant sample size, its representativeness, quarterly measurement, wide geography and constant composition of cities participating in each measurement wave are indisputable advantages of R-TGI, ensuring high data reliability.

The following technology is used to collect data:

1. A face-to-face interview on family consumption, composition and other parameters of the family with a housewife / householder (a family member who most often makes decisions regarding purchases of goods for the whole family).

2. Self-completion by all family members aged 10 and over of questionnaires about individual consumption, attitudes towards the media and lifestyle.

The R-TGI database combines data on the consumption of goods and services, use of the media, conditions and lifestyle, socio-demographic characteristics of the family as a whole and its members (aged 10 and over):

Consumption data

Market segmentation according to the following criteria:

Share of consumers of the product / service, frequency of consumption;

Socio-demographic characteristics of consumers (buyers) of a product / service;

Knowledge, preferences in the consumption of brands;

Brand loyalty and repertoire of brand consumption;

Socio-demographic characteristics and lifestyle of consumers of various brands;

Regional characteristics of consumption.

Press:

Average Issue Readership

Reading frequency over 30 daily, 110 weekly, 170 monthly, over 2000 local publications;

Attitude to topics of publications in newspapers and magazines;

Method of obtaining periodicals.

· The television:

The ability to receive and dynamics of television viewing on 16 central and more than 200 main local TV channels;

Daily dynamics of TV viewing on weekdays and weekends;

The activity of watching more than 400 regular broadcasts of the central and more than 2000 regular broadcasts of local channels;

Listening frequency of all-Russian, interregional and main local radio stations;

Dynamics and duration of radio listening on weekdays and weekends;

Listening range;

Listening place;

Attitude towards genres of radio programs and musical genres.

· Socio-demographic information:

Gender, age, education, field of activity and form of ownership of the enterprise or type educational institution, the social status of the main occupation, the composition of the family, the size and structure of family income, housing conditions, settled life, and more.

· Life style:

More than 200 situational statements characterizing the habits, interests and opinions of the respondents, first of all, as consumers of goods, services and mass media;

Sports hobbies;

Visiting cinemas, theaters, concerts, video libraries, discos, art exhibitions, libraries, interest clubs;

Information about trips across Russia and the CIS, trips abroad.

R-TGI allows you to:

1. Conduct an analysis of the segmentation of the market for goods (services);

2. Identify and describe the target groups of consumers of various goods (products), services and media: the number, proportions of groups among the population, gender, age, education, income level, field of activity, official status, etc.

3. Determine a marketing strategy for promoting a product (service);

4. Optimize the complex of marketing communications;

5. Positioning the trade mark (brand);

In 1998, the international advertising agency Leo Burnet conducted a study of changing life values, psychological and behavioral stereotypes in Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Germany. In Russia, 2 thousand people were interviewed between the ages of 16 and 70 in the 12 largest cities with a millionaire population.

In accordance with the results obtained, Russia, like other countries of the socialist camp that survived the transition from a socialist model to a market economy, was characterized by the presence of three groups of consumers: mobilizers, optimists and disenchanted. To be sure, this research has provided very valuable empirical material for advertising agencies. However, the geography of the sample and the scale, naturally, did not allow for a detailed analysis to identify the typology of consumers. The data obtained are very general.

However, research in Russia continued on the basis of an analysis of the data set of the Russian Target Group Index for 1999-2001. (more than 100 thousand respondents) a typology was created called RULS (Russian Life Style - an analogue of the American model VALS-2).

The procedure for constructing a typology of consumers and their preferences was carried out in stages. First, the factor analysis 230 situational statements and identified the factors influencing the buying behavior. These factors are:

Price orientation (expensive-cheap);

Quality orientation (buy less, but better quality, or buy in reserve, more);

Brand orientation (buying a product as a category or choosing a competitive brand);

Spontaneity / prudence (buying, including food, is carefully planned or done on impulse);

Innovation / tradition (willingness to try, experiment, buy for the sake of curiosity or conservatism, attachment to proven products);

Focus on imported or domestic products.

A more in-depth analysis of the factors identified three main ones: focus on price, quality, fame. When projected onto each of the three axes, each respondent receives the corresponding coordinates in the three-dimensional space of the factors influencing the buying behavior.

The end result of the study was the formation of psychographic types, which consisted in the creation of 9 possible combinations from the obtained groups of variables (similar to VALS-2). On the basis of a sample survey (33,942 people aged 10 to 70), eight non-overlapping psychographic groups were identified, which significantly differ among themselves in the main categories. The names of these types were chosen based on their consistency with international psychographic typologies:

1st type. Survivors - 17%. The main thing for this group when choosing products is the price. Chronically poor, resigned and passive. They can hardly make ends meet, hardly meet their daily needs. The cost of purchasing food, clothing, footwear and durable goods (consumer activity) is below average. The main thing for them when choosing goods is the price. They are looking for goods that are cheaper, they spend almost all their money on food. There are practically no sophisticated household appliances on the farm. The range of furniture and other durables is limited to older models. Active TV viewers and radio listeners (more than 3 hours a day). They are annoyed with advertising, prefer traditional products, do a lot of housework. For women, sewing, knitting, and courting indoor flowers are typical. The main consumers of cheap products, groceries, second-hand goods. They often buy food in reserve. Usually they go to shops located near the house. Leisure is limited to reading newspapers and television series. In the press, they prefer to read, along with local news, publications on the topic of medicine, truck farming, and correspondence with readers. Books are rarely bought, mostly by detectives and textbooks. Worried about rising prices and jobs utilities... They are often sad and worried. Are prone to moralizing. Religious, trying to comply with norms and rituals. Religious holidays are celebrated regularly. Education is mainly secondary and incomplete secondary.

2nd type. Traditionalists - 9%. When choosing goods, they are mainly guided by the price, but tend to buy familiar goods, the quality of which they have seen from their own experience. They prefer domestic products and goods, consumers of local non-branded products. They buy cheaper products, they like sales. They are preoccupied with material and family problems, on the solution of which they spend most of their time. Mostly couch potatoes. Take care of their garden plot, which substantially meets the needs for food. The most active summer residents. Adherents of conservative moral values ​​are prone to moralizing. They strive to express their opinion, despite the objections of others. Advertising is treated with annoyance. They strive to buy goods, the quality of which they have seen from their own experience. They plan purchases in advance, calculate every ruble. Set aside money for big purchases. They give their preference to drama and opera performances. However, leisure activities are not organized, they rarely even go to the cinema. Along with detectives, they prefer books on housekeeping, recipes. From publications in the press, local city and regional news, topics about health, medicine, cooking, TV program announcements are specially selected for reading. The focus is on the consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the situation of Russian speakers in the near abroad, interethnic and religious conflicts. We would like everything to be accurate and predictable.

3rd type. Strivers - 13%. When choosing goods, they are mainly guided by the price and popularity of the brand. They are trying to adapt to market relations. The material level allows you to meet the current needs for food and clothing, but you have to save money to buy quality goods. Household appliances, clothing and footwear are being gradually updated. They are well versed in brands of products and goods. Strive to find best ratio prices and quality. Make decisions in the family about buying food and household goods, medicines, confectionery, adornments and bustle. They try not to buy unfamiliar brands of goods and products. They treat advertising with understanding. Impressive and influenced by the outside. Before serious purchases, they try to get the opinion of others. Spontaneous and fickle in actions and assessments. They are a reserve of innovators. They declare their love for classical music, jazz, however, they often confine themselves to reading literature rather than going to a concert. Medicine, health, childcare are their main topics in the press, apart from the traditional city chronicles, crosswords and horoscopes. They are especially interested in publications about new goods and services. It is distinguished by the purchase of children's literature, poetry, detective stories and romance novels. Concerned about health problems, gender relations, interethnic conflicts. A garden plot or a summer cottage is the main vacation spot.

4th type. Mainstreamers - 18%. Passive shopping behavior without pronounced attitudes. Declare aloofness from solving everyday problems. Individual purchases are made ad-hoc, more often - on a list drawn up by a housewife. Usually they go to shops located near the house. They are practical and self-sufficient, oriented rather towards the functional purpose of goods. They live mainly for today, not always caring about tomorrow. They try not to borrow money, spend it carefully. They buy only the essentials. They trust those brands of which they are convinced themselves. Planning important purchases in advance. Leisure is poorly organized. In the summer they spend time at the dacha, garden plot, which not only significantly help to meet the need for vegetables and fruits, but also provide additional income from the sale of the grown. They rarely read, mainly, professional literature, science fiction, detective stories. The press pays attention to local news, criminal chronicles, TV program announcements. Among the pressing socio-political problems, military conflicts and the situation in the army are singled out.

5th type. Careless - 6%. Passive shopping behavior without pronounced attitudes. They do not take part in housework, they are reluctant to go shopping. They are fond of modern music, fashionable sports. The circle of interests is computers, computer games, the Internet. They are well oriented in the brands of goods, although they treat advertising with some distrust. Somewhat self-confident. Consider themselves experts in audio and video technology, computers and cars. They read the periodicals a little. Active TV viewers and radio listeners (more than 3 hours a day). They do not like to stand out, they live in "their own world." More often they visit the library than at a concert, but they do not deprive themselves of the pleasure of "hanging out" in a disco or in a club of interest. They prefer fantastic literature, buy dictionaries and reference books. They are engaged in collecting, playing musical instruments. They love anecdotes, "jokes", crosswords, horoscopes. The focus is on studies, environmental problems, family relationships.

6th type. Innovators - 14%. When choosing products, they are mainly guided by brand awareness. Energetic and enthusiastic. Active imitators, fashionistas. They are looking for variety, are inclined to take risks and take the unusual. They can declare contempt for comfort, but strive for prestige and success in life. They buy foreign literature, textbooks, reference books and science fiction. They actively use computers and the Internet. In the press, first of all, they pay attention to publications related to leisure activities, computer technologies, and travel. They love jokes and crosswords, secular news, horoscopes. Active consumers of imported brands. They are independent in choosing non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages, household appliances, cosmetics and toilet items. A significant part of the expenses are shopping for fashionable clothes, visiting fast foods, and entertainment. We are focused on the purchase of well-known brands, mainly imported. They can overpay, but buy goods famous company... They love movies, concerts of rock and pop music, performances of satirists. They are happy to spend money, make spontaneous purchases. They are gambling, actively participate in lotteries and sweepstakes. Strive to keep fit. "Eaters" of advertising. Earnings and exchange rates, sex, studies are the most pressing problems for them.

7th type. Successful - 10%. When choosing goods, they are mainly guided by the quality of the goods. Mature, satisfied with their material level. They love comfort, value order and responsibility. Take care of the family. They are well versed in the assortment. They try to find things that are convenient and comfortable. "Hunters for quality" tend to show, "Veblen" style of consumption. If they choose a brand, they try to buy it. Active buyers of fiction of various genres, professional literature. They have versatile hobbies, from playing music and training pets to painting and woodcarving. We are ready to pay for the high quality as they understand it. Moderately conservative, loyal buyers of branded products, including domestic ones. To a lesser extent, they influence decision-making on purchases of food in the family, are independent in choosing brands of cosmetics, men's and women's perfumes, car accessories, computer equipment, building and finishing materials. They tend to give others old, but solid things. Active TV viewers and radio listeners (more than 3 hours a day). Dacha is a good place to relax from city life, but they tend to spend their holidays in new places, incl. Abroad. Advertising is tolerated. They prefer museums, exhibitions, classical art. Demonstrate concern about general social problems: the state of science, culture and education, are concerned about the situation regarding the independence of the media, environmental problems, and the fight against AIDS. Active readers of the periodical press, "eaters" of information. They are energetic and purposeful.

8th type. Achievers - 13%. When choosing products, they mainly focus on the quality and popularity of the brand. Most of them are well-off and prosperous. "Hunters" for prestige. We are ready to pay any money to match the image successful person... Visitors to expensive shops, antique shops, boutiques. Lead an active lifestyle. Responsive and purposeful. Demonstrate high loyalty to selected brands. They prefer to overpay, but buy goods from a well-known company. If you like something, we are ready to make a purchase right away. Old things tend to be thrown away or given to those in need. They make their own decisions about the purchase of sophisticated household appliances, audio and video equipment, cars and accessories. They actively use computers and the Internet. The influence on purchases of household goods, medicines, kitchen utensils is insignificant. They love concerts of pop music, often go to the cinema and theaters. They prefer encyclopedias, dictionaries, professional and classical literature of various genres. Concentrated at work. The focus is on general economic problems, exchange rates, relationships at work and in the family, and personal safety. The press is interested in analytical materials on an economic topic, modern technologies, cars, tourism. They love videos, prefer comedies, action films and light erotica. Dacha is a good place to relax from city life, but they tend to spend their holidays in new places, incl. Abroad. They value their freedom, are sociable. They are focused on success in life, career. Money is believed to be the best indicator of success. Admired by those who earn a lot, and want to look the same in the eyes of others.

This typology of lifestyle is the first of its kind. The results obtained were confirmed by the relevant statistical indicators, in particular, the presence and nature of the relationship of the identified psychographic types with the consumption of a wide range of goods and services were confirmed. They can provide sociologists and marketers with a universal tool that allows them to meaningfully complement the traditional types of socio-demographic analysis of consumers and social groups. It is obvious that research in this direction should be continued and deepened.

It is important to introduce modern marketing technologies into Russian business, primarily in order to increase the competitiveness and efficiency of the company. And, one of the most important goals here is to study your consumers, because when you know who your client is and what he wants, it will be much easier to create what he wants to buy. Life style is a very important psychographic criterion, which to a greater extent allows to reveal the motivation of consumer behavior, which means that it is he who helps to understand what is guided by potential consumer when choosing a product. Based on this data, you can easily improve the product and create an effective advertising campaign.

Based on the experience of foreign companies, we can confidently say that studying the lifestyle of their consumers is not only relevant, but also quite profitable. Knowledge of its consumers from this side in itself helps to understand their psychology and to build an advertising campaign or improve a product with greater efficiency.

2. Marketing research of the psychographic portrait of buyers of the products of the Vester Group of Companies.

2.1 General characteristics of the Vester Group of Companies.

The Vester Group has been successfully working in the retail sector for almost 20 years. Today Vester Group is one of the leading Russian retail operators, whose priority is the development of the hypermarket format.

The Vester Group unites several main lines of business, which make it possible to implement the strategy of regional expansion as efficiently as possible and contribute to the achievement of the main strategic goal of becoming one of the five leaders of Russian retail.
In 2007, the Group's turnover amounted to about $ 750 million. Investments in the development of the company in 2007 amounted to $ 150 million. The number of employees reached 10 thousand people.
The main areas of activity of the Vester Group are:
1. Development of the Federal network "Vester".
2. Development of development projects by forces of the WestRusDevelopment company.
1990 - The Vester company was founded. The company began its activity with the supply of office equipment to the Kaliningrad region. The goal of the company is to achieve in 1995 a leading position in the retail market of the Kaliningrad region in the field of trade in electronics, household appliances, computers.
1993 - A network of household appliances and electronics stores was created. The Vester group of companies has begun to develop new directions, including trade in food and industrial goods. The goal of the company for the period 1993-1998 is the development of 17 successful business areas (creation of a multi-format network retail stores).
2005 - Vester is the leader in the Kaliningrad region in terms of the number of shopping centers and self-service stores. The company is forming a new strategic goal: creating a federal network and entering the Russian retail market with hypermarket and supermarket formats.
2006 - The Vester federal chain was created, the first hypermarkets and supermarkets successfully operate in five regions of Russia. The new strategic goal is to enter the top five Russian retail leaders by 2010.
2007 - The federal network "Vester" unites more than 50 objects. Thousand. sq. m The company has the right to engage in the following activities aimed at achieving its main goal:

Wholesale and retail trade in goods, raw materials, including own stores;

· Implementation of foreign economic, commodity-purchasing activities, authorized export-import, commodity exchange and leasing operations;

· Creation of warehouses, responsible storage of goods, warehouse services;

· Creation of own production, including food production and their sale;

· Organization of a network of cafes, bars, restaurants;

· transport services for freight and passenger transportation, including by air, rail, sea, road and horse-drawn transport, both in Russia and abroad;

· Construction, landscaping, repair and construction and restoration work, industrial and civil construction;

Operations with securities;

· Execution of transactions related to real estate;

· Organization of exhibitions, fairs and auctions;

· Activities in the field of marketing, intermediary operations in commodity, stock and financial markets;

· Expert information and reference and information activities;

· Organization of production of an intellectual product, on the principles of a full cycle of its creation (development - implementation - production - implementation) or participation in any stage of this cycle;

· Provision of consumer services.

The suppliers of the Vester Group of Companies are the following companies:

Enterprises in Kaliningrad and the region - Milk LLC, Gusev-Moloko LLC, Pervy Khlebozavod LLC, Myasnaya Lavka LLC, Vichunay Rus LLC, etc.

Foreign enterprises- "Atlanta", "Inter", etc.

The main competitors of the enterprise on the market of the Kaliningrad region are retail chains X5, Victoria Baltiya LLC, Seventh Continent, Kopeyka.

The main factors of competitiveness of Vester Group are:

Ability to work with a perishable assortment of products, which forms 40-45% of the Group's turnover;

Various store formats aimed at meeting the needs of different categories of consumers;

Successful operation in various regional markets;

An effective marketing strategy focused on a consumer group specific to each format;

Emphasis on the development of the Bomba convenience store and Vester supermarkets formats.

The marketing strategy of Vester Trading House varies depending on the store format:

· For supermarkets "Vester" - this is differentiation, a unique complex of goods and services; as well as a balanced range of goods and services at affordable prices;

· For the Bomba hypermarket, it is focused differentiation.

And also for the entire Vester network the following are the same:

· Regular monitoring of customer preferences;

· Active use of marketing activities;

· Targeting consumers with different models of consumer behavior.

2.2 Description of the problem of marketing research and the search for ways to solve it. Marketing research plan.

With the approaching summer season, the management of Vester Group of Companies considers it expedient to expand the range of soft drinks. To launch new assortment lines of soft drinks, it is necessary to conduct a marketing study of the psychographic profile of consumers of the existing assortment of drinks (Pepsi cola, Lipton Ice tea, Cido, Mirinda, 7up).

The object of the research is the visitors of the Vester supermarket.

The subject of the research is the Vester supermarket customer profile, which contains psychographic and demographic variables.

The purpose of the study is to compile a complex profile of buyers of soft drinks in the Vester supermarket to address the issue of introducing a new assortment of soft drinks.

Research objectives:

1. Conduct a survey of consumers of the Victoria supermarket.

2. Measure the psychographic profile variables of energy drink consumers.

4. Conduct cluster analysis.

Research methodology - the R-TGI was chosen as the method used for the research, since it most accurately reflects the features Russian market consumers.

The method of collecting data is a personal survey, by asking questions to respondents, the answers to which are recorded by the interviewer himself. This is the most appropriate data collection method for this study, as it allows a large number of people to be interviewed at relatively low cost with sufficient high quality information received.

The place of the study is Sovetsk, st. Iskra, 1, Vester supermarket. This supermarket is a place with an even concentration of respondents from different market segments according to the sample profile.

Time of study: May, 2010

Time division: the survey is carried out in the morning (9.00 - 12.00), daytime (13.00 - 16.00) and evening (16.30 - 21.00), as often at different times of the day consumers have different preferences.

Sample size - this study will use a sample size of 500 people.

2.3 Conducting a marketing study of the psychographic profile of consumers of energy drinks in the Victoria supermarket.

To conduct the research through personal interview, a data collection form (questionnaire) was developed. A sample questionnaire is presented in Figure 4.

This questionnaire contains a block of psychographic questions to determine the behavioral types of buyers: innovators, early adopters, late adopters and conservatives. The questions used in the questionnaire are a set of affirmative statements. The respondent should note the degree of his agreement with this statement on the Likert scale (“strongly agree”, “rather agree”, “rather disagree”, “completely disagree”).

For each of the 4 answer options, the respondent can receive 3, 2, 1 or 0 points (the highest score was assigned to a bright manifestation of innovation). The assessment of respondents' answers to psychographic questions is presented in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1

Assessment of different answers of respondents

Question number	Formulation of the question	Answer option score (ki)
		I completely agree	rather agree	rather disagree	totally disagree
	I do not like to take risks and try other brands of drinks, because I am afraid to be disappointed in them

Further, all statements were ranked according to the degree of significance for determining the respondent's purchasing behavior (rank 1 was assigned to the statement that most clearly characterizes the type of purchasing behavior, rank 10 - the least clearly). In accordance with these ranks, each statement is assigned an additional coefficient of significance. (Ranking and assessment of questions according to the degree of importance are presented in table 2.2).

Table 2.2

Ranking and scoring questions by degree of importance

	Formulation of the question	Question rank	Question significance coefficient (wi)
	I drink the same taste all the time.
	I would taste the drink new brand if one of my friends recommended it to me
	I would try a brand new drink if the shop assistant recommended it
	I would try a brand new drink if I saw an advertisement for this drink in the media.
	I am able to buy a new, unknown brand of drink just by seeing it on sale
	I will continue to drink my favorite brand, even if others have a negative attitude towards it
	If the brand I need is not available for sale, I will buy a drink of another brand.
	I do not like to take risks trying other brands of drinks, because I am afraid to be disappointed in them.
	I strive to try drinks of different brands and tastes in order to find the best one for myself
	In a restaurant / cafe I constantly order the same dish, because I know for sure that I like it

The final score of the respondent's answers to all 10 psychographic questions was calculated using the formula:

I = ∑ ki * wi,

where i is the number of the question, ki is the assessment of the respondent's answer in i-th question, and wi is the coefficient of significance of the i-th question.

According to the final assessment of answers I, the respondent fell into one of four intervals: from 3 to 2.5 points (innovator), from 2.4 to 1.4 (early majority), from 1.4 to 0.4 (later majority), or from 0.3 to 0 (conservatives). The intervals for determining the purchasing behavior of the respondents are discussed in Table 2.3.

Table 2.3

Intervals for assessing the purchasing behavior of the respondents

As a result of the R-TGI study, the types of consumer behavior were determined for each of the brands of soft drinks selected for the analysis (Pepsi Cola, Lipton Ice tea, Cido, Mirinda, 7up). The data are summarized in table 2.4.

Table 2.4

Distribution of types of purchasing behavior among consumers of energy drinks of various brands

1. Let's bring table 2.4 to a form convenient for calculations, replacing the brands of drinks with the letters X1, X2, etc., and the types of consumer behavior with numbers from 1 to 4 are similar.

Let's calculate:

Average value for each brand (Xi) according to the formula:

where n is the number of types of shopping behavior.

Standard deviation (σi) according to the formula:

σi = ∑ (Xi - X) / n

Consider the resulting table with calculations in Figure 2.5.

Table 2.5

Initial data for analysis

The data in the resulting table are normalized, that is, they are measured on the same scale, so there is no need to normalize the data.

2. Let's carry out segmentation using hierarchical conglomerative cluster analysis. Let's summarize the results obtained earlier in the matrix of initial data (Table 2.5).

Table 2.5

Matrix with raw data

5. From the transposed matrix, calculate the matrix of Euclidean distances (matrix of similarity measures) between objects (D) by the formula:

Dij = ∑ (Zij - Zik) ²

Let's enter the obtained results into the matrix of Euclidean distances (table 2.7).

Table 2.7

Euclidean distance matrix

Using the resulting matrix, we find a pair of objects closest to each other: the closest objects are N4 and N2. Let's combine them into a cluster S4 (N4; N2).

Let's recalculate the distances between objects and cluster S4 using the “far neighbor” method and form a new matrix of Euclidean distances (Table 2.8).

Table 2.8

Euclidean distance matrix

According to Table 2.9, the closest objects are N5 and cluster S4, since the distance between them is minimal and equal to 107.2. Let's attach the object N5 to the cluster S4 and recalculate the Euclidean distances between the objects and the cluster S4 (table 2.10).

Table 2.10

Euclidean distance matrix

According to table 2.10, the closest objects are N3 and cluster S4, since the distance between them is minimal and equal to 108.1.

The table shows that as a result of clustering, we have one cluster

S4 (n1, n2, n3, n5).

The clustering results are presented graphically in the form of a dendrogram in Figure 5.

Rice. 5. Dendrogram for clustering objects

The dendrogram clearly illustrates the step-by-step process of clustering, displaying objects on the horizontal axis, and on the horizontal axis the distances at which the objects were combined into clusters.

The clustering results show that the S4 cluster is completely homogeneous and consists of consumers belonging to the type of consumer behavior - the early majority. The early majority are those consumers who thoroughly consider the decision to buy a new product, but accept the new product earlier than the bulk of the target population. Status - medium and above average; waiting for the reaction of the quick-adopters before making a decision for themselves; a large gap between the trial purchase phase and product acceptance. Most are also media-oriented, but they look at both sellers and their group and are heavily influenced by opinion leaders.

Based on the information obtained during the analysis, we conclude that it is advisable for the management of Vester Group of Companies to make a decision to expand the range of soft drinks by the summer season, since the consumers of this product belong to the type of consumer behavior - the early majority, which says that these people have a positive attitude towards innovation. In other words, the demand for the new range of drinks will be positive.

CONCLUSION

Having considered the theoretical foundations of marketing research of the psychographic profile of consumers and having studied the methods of market segmentation based on psychographic types, we can conclude that psychographic analysis is the most relevant today, since it gives the most complete characteristics of consumers who, when choosing a product (services ) are guided precisely by psychographic criteria (lifestyle, motives, emotions).

As consumer lifestyles change, researchers have to continually update and improve scientific methods and marketing strategies. Some of the most successful advertisers owe their success to the fact that their marketers tracked lifestyle trends of their target consumers and reflected them in their messages.

Psychographics are one of the most common methods for measuring lifestyle. With its help, it is possible to obtain quantitative observations, moreover, in the space of an entire segment by applying the AIO model.

Life style is a constituent criterion of psychographic analysis, which, in turn, is the main and most effective sign of market segmentation.

There are many methods of classifying life style, and they are developed mainly on a regional basis, since the lifestyle of regions such as the United States, Europe, Russia is generally different and has many individual characteristics.

The ancestor of the methods was the VALS model, which served as a platform for the creation of advanced models, such as VALS-2, including special models for the Russian market - RULS, R-TGI.

Regarding Russian companies, the method of learning styles is not a priority for them. For work, only demographic statistics are used, which are often collected by non-professionals and are not effective. Marketing as a whole is a new direction for Russia, therefore, the development trend certainly exists. Lifestyle classifications have been in active use for a little over a decade. Their modification, distribution and reduction to simplicity will allow the development of a promising direction in the study of styles of shopping behavior.

Western companies have long been using the study of the psychographic characteristics of their consumers, which helps them not only to understand what kind of consumer really is, what he needs at this stage of his life from the manufacturer, but also to consider behavior trends, which helps in the future to successfully and timely change the product.

Of course, the methodology and typology requires further development, both in general and in each country.

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