Values Based Promotion – And How To Profit By It
So specifically what are values?
Values are the distinctive and subjective judgements that convey our beliefs about what is right, wrong, good, bad, happy, sad or desirable or undesirable. Values can be defined as “trans-situational goals that serve as guiding principles in the life of a person or group” said Shalom Schwartz the Psychology PhD, who developed the basic human values theory. He created the ‘Schwartz Circumplex’ archetype of values that has become a widely accepted archetype of values which plans personal values into 10 broader domains of values organized around two bipolar dimensions.
Maslow, Professor of Psychology at Brandeis University, in an attempt to plan our innate curiosity developed his famous Hierarchy of Needs. Basically it is a structure and evolution of values from those associated with physical survival at the base level of human needs, through to those linked with self-actualization at the highest intellectual and moral levels of motivation.
Both these well respected theoretical archetypes have been adapted for use in marketing, unfortunately with very little effect. An alternate viewpoint is that they are simply too general to provide the precise, detailed data needed in marketing situations. It appears that for use in marketing, values based research needs to be contextual rather than generic.
Values Based Marketing
Values based research is a specialist methodology that classifies consumers and marketplaces by their values and attitudes, in preference to their demographics of age, income, and ZIP or post code etc. Over the last fifteen years this form of research has become more popular because an audience can have identical demographics in terms of age, income, and education, but completely different sets of values and beliefs that inform their purchase decisions.
Values based marketing is the technique of reflecting the values of your in a way that they are more engaged, persuaded and motivated by your brand, product or service. Although this may appear to be simple, the values research approach is unequaled in its ability to draw out and measure how beliefs, attitudes, emotion and reason synthesize together to guide consumer choices and preferences. Values research applies this theory through a specialized “laddering” interview approach, which when done properly, supplys the metrics needed to not only to guide communication content but to predict behaviour.
It is not uncommon to experience variable results by targeting demographically, which is why businesses are looking to values based research to produce more regular results. “When you just market to the demographic, you’re often missing or just touching your buyer,” says Tim Kane, vice president of sales and marketing for MBK Homes, California.
As it is the best single predictor of real behaviour, values based research may often answer why people chose to respond. Maybe this is why more marketing professionals are turning to psychographics or values-based research, to increase the response from their marketing campaigns.
More detail on values based marketing is featured in a free booklet on market research uk available to all marketing professionals who wish to improve their response rates. Courtesy of espconsultancy.com the market research uk specialists.
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