Oh Behave!

When looking for material to blog about, I have a list of sites and magazines that I check out from week to week. Happily, I have yet to be let down by these “usual suspects” and this week was no exception. In the most recent issue of Event Design magazine, they feature an except from What is Exhibition Design?, a sort-of guidebook to the exhibition design industry written by Jan Lorenc, Lee Skolnick, and Craig Berger, and it presents an interesting thought – designing for behaviors. Everyone does the demographic research, but is there something more effective? Maybe.

As Lorenc, Skolnick, and Berger write, “life states are not in line with age states…” An older person might find more in common with someone 20 years younger and vice versa. Redirecting our focus to behavior helps “cut through demographic barriers” – place less emphasis on the quantitative and start getting to the qualitative.

But demographic research is so neat and tidy. That’s probably why it’s so popular. Behavioral research, on the other hand, can get a bit messy. SRI Consulting Business Intelligence helped cleaned it up a little with it’s creation of VALS, a marketing tool that “explains the relationship between personality traits and consumer behavior.” VALS gives us a way to categorize consumers based on their values, attitudes, and preferences in lifestyle.

On one end of the VALS spectrum you have the “innovators” who are not afraid of change and are very image-conscious. At the other end are the “survivors” who tend to be lower-income and very brand loyal. In between we find thinkers, achievers, experiencers, believers, strivers, and makers. Finding where most of your target market falls can help you create an environment that speaks to all your customers and not just one demographic.

If you’re curious like me, you might be wondering where you are on the VALS spectrum. Take this survey to find out. I am an Experiencer/Achiever. What are you?