Values, Attitudes, and Lifestyles System (VALS-2)

Definition

Proprietary psychographic consumer segmentation system that classifies people into eight basic lifestyle groups on the basis of two dimensions: resources and self-orientation. Resource dimension includes education, income, intelligence, health, energy level, and eagerness to purchase—resources that, in general, increase from youth to middle age decline afterwards. Self-orientation is divided into three parts (1) Principle oriented: having set views. (2) Status oriented: influenced by other's thinking. (3) Action oriented: seeks activity, adventure, and variety. The eight basic lifestyle groups are (1) Actualizers, (2) Fulfillers, (3) Believers, (4) Achievers, (5) Strivers, (6) Experiencers, (7) Makers, and (8) Strugglers. VALS-2 was developed by the US consulting firm Stanford Research Institute (SRI) as an improvement on its original VALS (introduced in 1978), a system that divided people into three basic lifestyle groups (Need driven, Outer directed, and Inner directed).