Lecture 8 - Values

The word 'values' can be defined in a number of different ways this is because different personality traits will perceive the term values to mean different things. Wilkie clearly defines this as "Values are our ideas about what is desirable". This definition is then furthered by Ries & Trout 1982 who believe that our overall values drive our behaviour, then we should be concentrating on the important, underlying motives that drive consumers to make product or service choices rather than simply product attributes.

Why are values important?

Values are important as we as humans act on our choices which are the values that we believe are important to us as individuals. This usually enables us to meet our wa nts or needs. Abraham Maslow (1954) states that people have physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization needs. These needs are reflected in such values as “survival,” “security,” “belonging,” “esteem,” and “personal growth.” This suggests that everyone's needs are different as each person will have different goals to achieve.

Within the lesson we were asked to prioritise what values drive our lifestyle (from Kahle’s List of Values (1983)).

1. Self Respect
2. Excitement
3. Being Well Respected
4. Self-fulfilment
5. Sense of accomplishment
6. Warm relationship with others
7. Security
8. Fun & enjoyment9. Sense of belonging

My first four consisted of: self accomplishment, self fulfilment, sense of belonging, and fun & enjoyment. This order may be due to the influences from my family as my aim in life is to do well as most of my family have not achieved the ir long term aims . Therefore I have the determination and ambition to do so. In order to understand why this has happened have asked my mum a series of questions to see if any events in her life has influenced the decisions she has made. I will then make a time line for her and then for myself and compare the differences.

As you can see from the time lines (above) my mum's values have been influenced by a significant amount of events in comparison to myself. My mum and dad splitting up has had a huge impact on how I live my life. It makes me not want to go down the same route as they did by getting married so early, and has completely changed my views on marriage. This experience has also taught me not to take things to grated, therefore I tend to buy products that are mid priced as I appreciate they are only the same as the higher priced products. My mum has also impacted on this, as I tend to buy the same items as she once did. When speaking to my mum she felt like her values of the royal family have changed since princess Diana death. As she was such an icon to my mum, she does not believe any part of the royal family could restore the amount of confidence she gave to the public and herself.

The next task involved the following animals:

We were asked to list the following animals, in order of preference (not knowing the descriptions of them). Mine was: lion, parrot, elephant and dog. We were then told that depending on what number we placed each animal, it shows our true perceptions of one another. For example as i choose a lion for number 1, then the description of the animal (see below) is how I want other to see me etc...

1 How you want others (significant people in your life) to perceive you today.
2 How you believe you are actually perceived today by others.
3 How you'd like to be perceived by others in the future.
4 How you actually truly want to be - without influence of what other significant people in your life feel and think about you.

This shows our behaviour will change depending on the significant the people are you are mixed with at that moment in time.

LION - dominant, fearsome, independent, decisive, proactive, isolated, aloof, leading, critical, objective, detached, focused, fearless

PARROT - lively, fun, free- spirited, sociable, amenable, popular, attractive, cheerful, passionate, spontaneous

DOG - friendly, faithful, loyal, supportive, protective, dependable, reliable, trustful, trusting, solid, keen, hard- working, loving

ELEPHANT - tolerant, passive, co-operative, respected, big, strong, controlled, calm, indomitable, revered, wise

We were then told that the true description of ourselves was the last animal we choose. Therefore; I am a dog.

Laddering Techniques

In terms of advertising laddering seeks to establish the links between the attributes of a product/ service and a consumer's values and aspirations.This approach will help identify the product attributes that will result in the consumer's desired outcomes, emotions and values (Nobles Research Inc. 2008). People have specific terminal values (e.g. self respect) and choose amongst alternative actions to achieve these end states. This lesson taught me that not all events that happen in our life have to influence our values in the future, and the way your perceive yourself may not be the way others perceive you.

Specifically, market researchers have adapted the laddering method for use in consumer and organizational research. In addition to this another theory investigated the links between customers’ values and their overall purchasing behaviour. This is named the Means End Theory.

Means End Theory

Hawley, M (2009) states that "This theory provides both a framework for capturing qualitative laddering research data in the consumer space and a model for assessing consumer values and behaviour".

According to the Means End Chain theory, there is a hierarchy of consumer perceptions and product knowledge that ranges from attributes to consumption consequences to personal values, as follows:

• attributes —At the top level of this hierarchy, attributes are most recognizable by individuals. Individuals recognize the attributes of a product or system easily. For example, “I like this car, because it is a convertible.”
• consequences —In turn, the attributes have consequences for the individual. For example, the convertible makes its driver feel young and free. Each attribute may have one or more consequences for any given individual.
• core values —Finally, each consequence is linked to a core value of the person’s life. For example, the sense of youth makes that driver feel attractive. (Hawley, M 2009)

Whereas the laddering technique can help marketers to ascertain their unique selling point (USP) and their positioning strategy. The means end theory shows in more detail the relationship between a product attribute and a core value. For more information on the means end theory LOOK HERE.

VALS 2

VALS-2 was developed by the US consulting firm Stanford Research Institute (SRI) as an improvement on its original VALS (introduced in 1978) - Marketing Essentials, 2008. It was designed to identify a persons: Values, Attitudes, and Lifestyles System. I have taken the VALS Survey and it showed that my primary VALS type is Experiencer, and your secondary type is Striver.

The primary VALS type represents your dominant approach to life. The secondary classification represents a particular emphasis you give to your dominant approach. Therefore; I understand things better when I experience things, and because I'm a striver I will do all I can to experience something.