Psychographic Profiles Research Articles

Understanding the path to smart home adoption: Segmenting and describing consumers across the innovation-decision process

The burgeoning smart home market brings opportunities for home energy management systems (HEMS). Despite hundreds of smart HEM products on the market and many invested stakeholders, consumer adoption is lagging behind expectations. Past research in this space has focused on smart home technology (SHT) in general, rather than particular products with HEM potential. Conflating smart HEMS with all SHT is problematic because there is a wide range of smart home products and functions, toward which consumers may have varying attitudes. Past work has also rarely distinguished between various stages of the adoption process that lead up to smart HEMS purchase (Knowledge, Persuasion, and Decision Stages). This research used a Diffusion of Innovations framework and survey data from 709 California utility customers to assess the current market and barriers to HEM smart hardware adoption. Cluster analysis based on consumer awareness, interest, and ownership of HEMS revealed four consumer segments at different positions along the path to adoption: Unfamiliar, Unpersuaded, Persuaded, and Owners. Each group had a unique demographic and psychographic profile with implications for different sets of relevant barriers to adoption.

Tourist motivation: an integral approach to destination choices

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to discuss prevalent socio-psychological models which examine how tourists’ needs and motivations affect their destination choices by collectively considering Plog’s (1974) psychographic profiles, Cohen’s (1979) tourist typology and Peace’s (1988) travel career ladder. The current study argues that no single model can adequately explain tourists’ destination selection process as well as travel behaviors and introduces a new integrated perspective of existing psychological models.Design/methodology/approachExamining responses from 202 Hong Kong residents who have travel experience, this study divides the respondents’ psychographics into three types.FindingsUsing multinomial logit model (MNL) analysis, the study finds that tourists’ travel motivations and destination settings can be varied by their psychographics types. The findings also reveal that tourist’s psychographic types can be varied by demographics, travel type, frequencies, duration, purpose and destination setting.Originality/valueThe study provides implications for tourism marketers as well as the tourism literature by suggesting an integrative approach for a better understanding of tourist motivations.

Vacation Activity Preferences: An Examination of Generational Differences across Psychographic Categories Employing Plog’s Model

This study investigated potential differences of preferred vacation activities among three generational cohorts using psychographic profile characteristics based on Plog’s Model of Tourist behavior. The generational cohort psychographic analysis illustrates how the different generations distribute across Plog’s continuum and their vacation activity preferences. Data suggest a fairly uniform psychographic distribution across the generational cohorts, however, specific activity preference differences were found across generations, with Generation Y preferring slightly more active pursuits, such as beach activities, walking, kayaking, and biking. DMOs should consider activity preferences and psychographic needs when creating marketing materials for all generational cohorts. Connecting the needs of the psychographic categories with preferred activities is a streamlined approach to destination marketing.Subscribe to JPRA

Electric vehicles adoption: Environmental enthusiast bias in discrete choice models

A Stated Choice (SC) survey, employing a Best-Worst choice design, was administered to 440 households in Perth, Australia as part of a major investigation into consumer preferences and attitudes towards electric vehicles. It was noted that 48 (10.9%) respondents chose EV as their best/most preferred option across all six choice replications. We hypothesise that for most of these respondents their choices reflected their desire to present themselves in a favourable light, with social desirability biasness manifested in non-trading behaviour. There were also 24 (5.5%) respondents who chose EV as their worst/least preferred option. We hypothesise that for these respondents lack of interest or confidence in the new technology and inertia may have driven their decisions. The paper offers demographic and psychographic profiles of non-traders facilitated by additional items being included in the experiment. While there was little difference between the demographic profiles, the attitudinal scores of the non-traders were significantly higher than for traders, which may indicate social desirability. Non-traders (Best) scored significantly higher on environmental concerns and subjective norms and were more likely to rate their intention to purchase and use an EV higher. Conversely, non-traders (Worst) had the lowest environmental concerns and subjective norms. From a choice modelling perspective, keeping non-traders in the estimation biases the taste parameters and therefore the willingness-to-pay (WTP) measures. However, when incorporating the worst alternatives into the choice models, the ‘social desirability’ non-traders do appear to be making decisions based on the attributes, which is consistent with the rest of the sample.

Consumer structure in the emerging market for electric vehicles: Identifying market segments using cluster analysis

ABSTRACTThis paper presents results from a segmentation analysis of the emerging market for Electric Vehicles (EVs). Data has been sourced through the application of a self-completion household questionnaire distributed over two cities in the United Kingdom (UK). A two stage cluster analysis methodology has been followed to identify market segments in a dataset of UK drivers. Five unique segments have been identified in the analysis and are characterised by their preferences for EVs, socio-economic characteristics, current car details, and psychographic profiles. These segments hold a range of different EV preference levels, from those who appear unwilling to adopt an EV to those which are clearly attracted to EVs. Moreover, the features of these segments suggest that segments might be attracted to or repelled from EVs for different reasons. These results demonstrate that a significant degree of consumer stratification is present in the emerging market for EVs, with the possible implication being that policy interventions at the segment as opposed to market, level may prove more effective due to their ability to cater for the nuances of important segments.

Klasyfikacja typologiczna kredytobiorców hipotecznych z wykorzystaniem modeli klas ukrytych

Posiadacze kredytów mieszkaniowych stanowią ponad 6 proc. indywidualnych klientów banków. W potocznej opinii grupa ta uznawana jest za homogeniczną. Jednak cechy so­cjodemograficzne nie tylko nie wyjaśniają, ale wręcz maskują różnicowane uwarunkowania decyzji podejmowanych przez kredytobiorców mieszkaniowych na rynku finansowym. Czynniki różnicu­jące to profil psychograficzny, postawa wobec ryzyka, wiedza o finansach, przezorność, skłonność do zadłużania się i oszczędzania. Celem badań było wyodrębnienie jednorodnych segmentów po­siadaczy kredytów mieszkaniowych pod względem uwarunkowań decyzji konsumenckich na ryn­ku finansowym. Wyodrębniono pięć homogenicznych grup kredytobiorców mieszkaniowych pod względem uwarunkowań i motywów decyzji na rynku finansowym. Segmentację przeprowadzono z wykorzystaniem modeli klas ukrytych (LCA). Modele klas ukrytych umożliwiły identyfikację podtypów cech powiązanych ze sobą, które w tradycyjnym ujęcie nie są obserwowalne. Badania wykonano metodą CAPI na ogólnopolskiej reprezentatywnej próbie posiadaczy kredytów miesz­kaniowych N=900, z czego N=800 stanowili kredytobiorcy CHF, natomiast N=100 kredytobiorcy PLN. Badania zrealizował TNS Polska w marcu 2014 r. oraz w marcu 2015 r. (druga fala).

Cognitive relationships between automobile attributes and personal values

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of the cognitive relationship between personal values of buyers and attributes of automobiles. Design/methodology/approach In total, 60 interviews were performed with buyers of sporty and compact cars. The qualitative laddering technique guided data collection and analysis, resulting in two cognitive value maps (HVM). The results were interpreted based on three theoretical approaches: Schwartz (1994), Allen (2000) and Gutman (1982). Findings The dominant chains from the two models indicate connection between “design and hedonism,” “internal finishing and hedonism” and “security items and safety as a value.” Therefore, these customers are predominantly characterized by individualistic values: by the pursuit of personal pleasure and concern for personal safety. Research limitations/implications Due to qualitative techniques having been used, future research could validate some presented results through surveys based on the connections between the set of attributes and values presented in this research. Practical implications Results from this study can help to develop segmentation and advertising strategies, as well as marketing aftermarket actions based on the psychographic profile provided by the HVMs. They may also assist integration between the initial and final phases of new vehicles’ development which have concepts similar to those studied here. Originality/value The extant literature provides few studies with the specific objective of identifying connections between vehicle attributes and the personal values of the consumers. This paper presents an interpretation of the cognitive relationships between vehicle attributes and personal values through three theoretical perspectives, providing multidimensional profiles to explain consumers’ values.

Consumer perceptions of farmed fish

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate possible cross-cultural consumer segments in the EU aquaculture market and provide direction and focus for marketing strategies for farmed fish products. Design/methodology/approach Selected psychographic constructs (i.e. category involvement, domain-specific innovativeness, subjective knowledge, suspicion of novelties and optimistic bias) are tested as segmentation basis with the objective of defining a number of cross-border consumer segments with distinctive and clear-cut profiles in terms of consumer perceptions towards farmed fish. Findings Based on the consumer psychographic profiles, three distinct segments are found: involved traditional, involved innovators and ambiguous indifferent, of which the first two constitute especially interesting targets for market positioning strategies for aquaculture products. Practical implications The results of the segmentation analysis opens new horizons in terms of positioning and differentiation of fish products from the aquaculture industry according to the most important potential market segments. Originality/value The current research brings insights into different pan-European consumer segments and their characteristics that allow for a corresponding differentiation strategy within the aquaculture industry. The fact that the segments tend to be uniform across all countries suggests a relatively homogeneous or converging European fish-related culture.

Investigation of Variation between Risk Attitude and Investment Biases

There is a palpable link between financial investment decision making and investors’ behaviour. Research into investors’ behaviour may prove useful in increasing our understanding of the extremely complex financial marketplace. In many cases, investors are unaware of their predisposition for error. And more often, an irrational investor is a dissatisfied investor, because biases usually undermine financial goals. By adopting an experimental approach, the researchers try to correlate established investor biases with the psychographic profiles of investors, to see whether specific risk personality profiles correlate with susceptibility to four biases: herding, endowment, loss aversion and framing. Many studies have focused on exploring the demographics of investment behavioural flaws, but very little attention has been paid to the risk attitude of investors and their actual investment behaviour. The findings of this study bridge two aspects of literature, being attitude to financial risk and behavioural investment biases.

Psychographic Market segmentation of Junior College Students in Silchar, Assam

<div><p><em>This paper discusses about characteristics of most enthusiastic buyers of a non-metro city. The paper adopts the analytical and exploratory research style based on primary data. It uses questionnaire based survey methods with a sample size of 250 junior college students (JCS) of Silchar, Assam, India. The paper tries to identify the segments depending upon the choices and purchasing decision made by these students on the basis of their psychographic profile. </em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em>The research is unique for academic and professional relevance. As the research on psychographic market segmentation in small city especially the city from North-Eastern Region called Silchar, Assam is very rare. Hence, this study may be regarded as masterpiece as it provides in-depth analysis on psychographic market segmentation, which is found to differ in several important aspects.</em></p></div>

Perfil psicográfico teniendo en cuenta la cultura como factor estructural del comportamiento del consumidor de la región caribe colombiana

La pictografía implica el uso de factores psicológicos y antropológicos para determinar cómo se segmenta el mercado considerando las tendencias dentro de los grupos de dicho mercado para tomar una decisión acerca de un producto, una persona, una ideología o cualquier otra cosa que marque una actitud o utilice un medio. Los perfiles psicográficos describen las características y las respuestas de un individuo ante un medio ambiente.
 Desde la segmentación de mercados la psicografia permite definir mercado meta, crear una nueva perspectiva del mercado, posicionar el producto, comunicar mejor los atributos del producto, desarrollar estrategias generales, comercializar temas políticos y sociales. Al segmentar psicograficamente los consumidores se dividen de acuerdo a: estilo de vida, personalidad y valores.
 El Caribe colombiano está compuesto por ocho departamentos (La Guajira, Atlántico, Bolívar, Cesar, Córdoba, Magdalena, Sucre y San Andrés y Providencia, Santa Catalina), además de sus diferencias climáticas y geográficas, existe un factor relevante en las características de consumo y rasgos culturales de sus habitantes. Este está determinado por sus antepasados precolombinos; como lo fueron la conquista española y la presencia de esclavos africanos, así se fusionan los rasgos culturales, regionales y por ende las características de consumo de dichos habitantes.

An exploration of recreational activities while travelling relative to psychographic tendencies

ABSTRACTThrough focusing on active and adventure tourism, a niche of travel becoming increasingly relevant today, this study investigated the association between the preferred recreation activities of individuals while travelling and their psychographic profile characteristics based on Plog’s [(1972). Why destination areas rise and fall in popularity. Paper presented to the Travel Research Association, Southern California Chapter, Los Angeles] model of allocentricity and psychocentricity. Additionally, we investigated the relevancy of this model using individual’s preferred vacation destinations. The activities most likely for respondents to participate in while on vacation were walking, beach activities (sunbathing, walking, and collecting shells), nature walking, swimming, wildlife/nature viewing, and hiking. Results indicated an association between respondent psychographic scores and their projected activity preferences while on vacation.

Psychographic profile affects willingness to pay for ecosystem services provided by Mediterranean high nature value farmland

Our aim was to examine how psychographic profiles affect willingness to pay for ecosystem services in Mediterranean high nature value farmland. We combined psychographic analysis and economic valuation to: i) identify different psychographic profiles based on attitudes towards the economy and environment, rural development and agricultural intensification, food quality and consumption, and agri-environmental policy; and ii) measure the economic value that the psychographic profiles assign to key ecosystem services in different agricultural policy scenarios. We analysed two populations in Spain (the general population and the local residents of the study area). We identified two psychographic profiles in each population focusing on productivist and conservationist attitudes. Respondents in all profiles were highly concerned about forest wildfires, followed by the availability of quality products for those with productivist profiles, the biodiversity maintenance for the general conservationists and a more human-intervened landscape for the local conservationists. The willingness to pay for ecosystem services altogether differed between the psychographic profiles, from 88€ of general productivists to 334€ of local conservationists. We demonstrated that attitudes concerning ecosystem services have a strong influence on their willingness to pay. We argued that psychographic differences should be considered when designing and legitimising EU agri-environmental and conservation policies.

Youth shoppers - study of psychographics, motives and shopping behaviour

Development of shopping malls has gained momentum in India and the youth is the major beneficiary of this metamorphosis. The present study empirically examines the shopping behaviour of the Indian youth in shopping malls, encompassing different aspects of their shopping behaviour in terms of the time and frequency of their shopping visit, their motives, product choice, etc. Additionally, clusters of the youth shoppers have been generated on the basis of their psychographic characteristics and shopping motives. Further, the shopping behaviour of the different segment youth shoppers has been described in terms of their visit frequency, amount spent and time spent at the mall. Findings reveal that on the basis of shopping motives youth shoppers could be segregated into four segments viz. entertainment seekers, value seekers, escapist and adventure seekers and on the basis of psychographic profile three segments emerged namely - influential, survivor and experiences.

Hotel flash sales consumers: Who are they?

Although flash sales are currently a ubiquitous phenomenon in consumption of many products, including tourism and hospitality products and services, there is a lack of empirical evidence that identifies the types of consumer profiles purchasing flash sales deals. In an effort to fill this void, a total of 358 participants were surveyed to define those personality traits that contribute to the use of hotel flash sales. The study presents a first attempt to empirically assess the psychographic profile of hotel flash sales consumers, and provides important managerial implications based on those profiles. Results reveal that hotel flash sales consumers were more likely to be quality conscious, variety-seekers, and market mavens when compared to other consumers. In addition, and contrary to hotel managers' assumptions that flash sales consumers are price conscious, no profile difference was observed between these and other consumers.

Indian Consumers of Handicrafts Shaped by Globalization: A Profiling based on Materialism, Consumer Ethnocentrism, and World-Mindedness

Background/Objectives : This study attempts to segment Indian handicraft consumers on the basis of three cultural dispositions stimulated by globalization, viz. consumer ethnocentrism, materialism, and world-mindedness. Methods/Statistical analysis : An exploratory factor analysis was run for a dataset of 202 responses collected from a sample prepared by judgmental sampling technique and using a self-administered 33 item questionnaire. A combination of hierarchical and non-hierarchical cluster analysis was performed based on the regression factor scores. A two-step cluster analysis was finally performed to explore the demographic as well as psychographic profiles of respondents. Findings : Five clusters were obtained namely culturally oriented, non-materialistic, non-generous, materialistic and envious. Descriptive profiles of those clusters were developed along with their market targeting implications. Comparing the clusters, two very distinguished clusters emerged namely “materialistic” and “non-materialistic” which have diametrically opposite properties. One of the findings is in consensus with the existing finding i.e. ethnocentrism and materialism do not contradict each other. The findings were developed from a combined study of three cultural dispositions which points to the complex consequences of globalization and shows that consumer preferences in contemporary society are not based on compartmentalized values and hence calls for richer exploration. The results add value to the existing reports by delving into the complex interplay of homogeneity and heterogeneity in consumer preferences which have been developing due to contemporary social change in India. Improvements : Handicraft marketers can get further insights for segmenting Indian consumers on the studied dimensions. The artisan communities can become more competitive by such segmentation.

Los valores y estilos de vida de los jóvenes como factores de influencia en el consumo de alimentos internacionales

El objetivo de este artículo es identificar si los factores psicográficos, como los valores y estilos de vida, influyen en las actitudes de los consumidores jóvenes de alimentos internacionales. Para ello, se realizan análisis univariantes y multivariantes, a partir de los cuales se determina el perfil psicográfico del consumidor joven. Los principales hallazgos muestran una segmentación basada en dos grupos, los denominados autoorientación, que está compuesto de dos valores y estilos de vida denominados los experimentadores y hacedores, y los luchadores e innovadores. Asimismo, tomando como referencia la escala de VALS, se encontró que la influencia de diferencias culturales es alta.

Examining Demographic and Psychographic Profiles of Potential First-Class Undergraduates

Even though the discipline of psychology and education had gained its reputation all along, few studies have been conducted to determine the characteristics of the potential first-class undergraduate students. Thus, this study was designed to examine the demographic and psychographic profiles of the potential first-class undergraduates in a Malaysian public university. The selected respondents comprised of 424 undergraduates who obtained at least 3.67 cumulative grade point average (CGPA) in their academic achievement in the period of their study. This study used a self-administered questionnaire that had adapted from the standardized measures. Validity and reliability of the instruments were found to be satisfactory. The results of the study indicate that the potential first-class undergraduates have the highest level on task orientation whereas time management scores the lowest. Also, the results reveal that more than 99% of the students have either moderate or high levels of psychographic attributes. In addition, the MANOVA results indicate that there are significant differences between male and female undergraduate students in their task orientation and leisure attitude. Likewise, significant differences between ethnic groups are found in task orientation, competitiveness, and general self-efficacy. Thus, the findings of this study are able to assist the higher education providers in providing coaching and mentoring to ensure more effective strategies could be developed to improve students’ needs and desires in pursuing their further education.

Local civil-mindedness on the Internet as the basis for fundraising segmentation: sociological, marketing determinants and the empirical analysis

The purpose of this article is to introduce a new practice, i.e. tools for online fundraising in nonprofit organisations, based on the assessment of Internet-induced local civic mindedness (INLCM) as a segmentation approach. We suggest that this novel approach to fundraising segmentation can be performed as the extension to the already existing analyses, utilising the demographic and psychographic profiles. Based on nationally representative survey results of Croatian households, we develop an analytical procedure. It might help managers of community nonprofit organisations to target the relevant individuals by applying Internet marketing tools (such as Google Analytics) and approaches. Our analysis allows prediction of how likely it is that an individual (based on his or her demographic/psychographic profile) could be identified as INLCM (i.e. successfully targeted for fundraising efforts). Empirical results from Croatia demonstrate that such individuals do not have a lengthy Internet experience and do not use it frequently. The reported level of community belonging for these prospects is rather high, while their relevant Internet activities are related to maintaining the existing social ties and obtaining information about local organisations. It is interesting that they might be living in multi-generational households, either without their own underage children, or with a single child.

Role of children in family purchase across Indian parental clusters

Purpose– The study aims to explore the evolving status of children as active consumers in the emerging Indian market by assessing their impact on family buying practices across distinct parental clusters.Design/methodology/approach– The study uses a structured questionnaire to draw a quota sample of 136 urban Indian parents across four child segments from two Indian metropolitan cities to understand their attitudes towards parenting and the consequent empowerment of their children for actively participating in family purchase decisions around varied children’s product categories.Findings– Exploratory factor analysis reveals five well-defined parental attitudes towards child rearing. The attitudinal factors are used to define three discrete parental clusters, namely, time-pressed parents, child-centric parents and socially influenced parents. The demographic and psychographic profiles of the clusters expose the significant influence of the educated and affluent parents in empowering their children as more active influencers/consumers. The role of children as independent buyers of eatables and toys over other categories is also re-established.Research limitations/implications– The diversity of Indian parents both in terms of their family structure and attitude towards parenting significantly deliver decisive signals for market-specific segmentation strategies. The uniformity in their shopping frequency and increasing child involvement in family purchases also highlight the opportunities ahead.Originality/value– Empirical evidences on the growing role of children in family purchases and their transformation into active consumer in an evolving market adds to the existing under-represented family consumption literature with more market-specific insights.