In the application of marketing, the limitations of the AI0 scale gradually emerged, and in the process of market operation, new changes have also occurred in the academic field.
In the 1970s, SRI Consulting Business Inte].ligence (SRIC-BI) in California, USA, developed VALS (Values and Lifestyle Survey), which was soon applied in many companies and consulting agencies, such as Siemens, Roland Berger, AC Nielsen, etc. Japan’s NT Data Company cooperated with SRI to establish the VALS model for Japan. Relevant domestic institutions in my country also conducted an analysis of Chinese consumers based on this model and established China-VALS.
The main achievement of VALS is to provide companies with important decision-making basis for product design, R&D and sales from the perspective of market segmentation. Compared with AIO, VALS is more applicable, more purposeful and targeted, but with the continuous development of society, it has also shown some shortcomings. In subsequent applications, experts and scholars have proposed new models such as VALS2. VALS2 is closer to consumers than VALS. The model mainly includes 4 demographic variables and 42 items with tendencies. With the help of this model, surveys on consumers’ values and lifestyles can provide relevant basis and reference for the company’s forecasting decisions. Although VAIS and VALS2 are both developed based on American consumers, the technology has also been applied to European consumers.
In the process of segmenting the American consumer market, experts and scholars used VALS2 to investigate the consumption status of products in 170 product diaries. The market segmentation is mainly based on two factors: consumer resources and self-orientation, as shown in Table 4-2.
Among them, principle-oriented consumers are mainly influenced by knowledge rather than feelings or other people’s opinions; status-oriented consumers strive to win the recognition of others, and their opinions are based on the behavior and opinions of others; behavior-oriented consumers like material stimulation, activities and adventures.
The VALS2 model is also used in Japanese market research. In the Japanese VALS model, three orientations, namely: self-expressionists, achievers and traditionalists, replace the two orientations in the American VALS. Using these orientations, the Japanese VALS model has produced 10 market segments.