SERVICES
Background
American LIVES specializes in primary data collection and analyses in proprietary studies for clients. We do both qualitative research, such as focus groups and in-home interviews, and quantitative research, such as surveys.
Our approach is to develop market strategies with clients and tailor the research to the precise needs of our clients. We work with clients on every aspect of the process of customer contact and specialize in solving the hard strategy problems about relations to existing or new markets, and in coming up with new market research tools to meet client needs. We don't do "off the shelf".
Since the establishment of American LIVES in 1987, we have conducted over 500 focus groups and have surveyed more than 300,000 Americans on their Lifestyles, Interests, Values, Expectations and Symbols. We do research on the complex products and services that other market research companies do not know how to handle, such as houses, communities, cars, consumer electronics, and other consumer durables. Plus, we do research on symbolically laden products such as wines and magazines as well as on products, services, and events that are lifestyle markers for consumers, such as vacations.
Our approach lets the advertiser, marketer, and sales person understand what the product or service means in the life of the consumer, and speak directly to that. That is often what is most important to successful development and marketing. We also rely on a strong network of domestic and international partners, including our European affiliates, SAI (Strategy Analysis International.
We frequently work with the real estate industry to identify what kinds of communities, homes, and resorts consumers are looking for. While the large majority of our research projects are proprietary and custom-tailored to specific clients, every year we conduct research on a new development in building communities. We sell these reports to fund the next year's study. In the past, we have done extensive surveys on what community features buyers are looking for, what they think of design issues of New Urbanism, and what they are looking for in a vacation-oriented resort. We also have a new study on the role of Technology in the Home..
Obviously, we can't tell you everything we do through this web page, so if you have any questions, or want more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.
LIVES Analysis
American LIVES specializes in understanding how values and lifestyles relate to the more complex consumer decisions, such as where and why to buy a house, what kind of house to buy, or what kind of community to buy in. We also study how people choose what kinds of experiences to participate in, such as what kinds of vacations to take, where to go, and why to go. LIVES Analysis, or Lifestyles, Interests, Values, Expectations, and Symbols, is a very powerful, but complex, tool we have developed that helps us understand the market far beyond demographics or simple segmentations based on attitudes and opinions.
This is more information than some people want to deal with and it's exactly the information that others are looking for.
Why Study Values in Market Research?: Values-based market research is a very powerful tool because values are not so transitory as the opinions reported in most surveys: they are part of the deep structure, or unstated premises, of peoples' actions, and are slow to change. Values are combined with lifestyles and demographics, to define subcultures: distinct ways of life that bear on product attitudes and use. Values are not individualistic and held independently of other people, quite the contrary. Values are socially reinforced in families, friendship networks, at work, at church and at play. Furthermore, people are very uncomfortable when their values are inconsistent with their lives.
In other words, there are a number of distinct values-driven subcultures in America. Their lines of cleavage often define how people get and spend money, as well as where they stand on social issues. Just look at political campaigns to see typical lines of cleavage. So this gives an excellent basis for consumer typologies. It also aids studies of the larger themes of change in American culture, which often lead to new media approaches and to new themes in advertising, or even to new kinds of advertising.
The concept of leverage is not usually found in this area, for leverage means getting out much more effect than the effort you have put in. But real leverage is what LIVES offers. Leverage means using real social groupings as part of the market segmentation, not artificial market segments based on categories that will change from survey to survey. People often use the products and services they buy, and the lifestyle that supports, to create status markers. Hence subcultures tend to be status groups as well as lifestyle and values groups. Therefore, analysis based on values gives interpretative leverage that makes richer and much more meaningful stories than the usual shallow numbers of most market research.
Knowing values gives a set of handles for finding what is important in the lives of consumers, and how those interests relate to particular products, for developing programs and strategies to speak to those interests, and for developing guidelines to coordinate the work of those who must do market positioning and campaigns: marketing, sales, media, public relations and advertising people.
Major benefits are:
We have a very pragmatic reason for doing values analysis in market research: it works.
Values Subcultures in America: Based on our research and that of Paul H. Ray, Ph.D., our Executive Vice-President, American LIVES has identified three major values subcultures in the United States today. Descriptions of these three follow:
Heartlanders are 29% of the United States and are declining in numbers. They represent the current cultural rearguard and differ among themselves by social class and ideology. They are traditional, for a more authoritarian family structure, concerned for relationships, relatively altruistic, for private enterprise, concerned about jobs and finances, xenophobic, and toward the religious right and social conservatism. The Heartland Double Conservatives define the ideological right: more middle class and both cultural and business conservatives. The rest are lower socio-economic status with many retirees and blue-collar, and are less ideological than provincial. This subculture's values and world-view are centered around a nostalgic image of the past, substituting for an Image of the Future. Politically, they range from the center to the extreme right. They have a high percentage of older Americans, with a median age of 53 years and median income of $23,750.
Moderns are 47% of the United States and are static in numbers. They represent the dominant and official culture of today, and differ among themselves by social class. They are materialistic, either secular or conventionally religious, concerned with success and status display, are cynical, and tend to worry about financial problems (even when their incomes are higher). Family concerns are more secondary. This subculture's values and world-view are validated only by day-to-day concerns. They have a wider range of social classes than the other two subcultures: at the high end are business conservatives and at the low end are more alienated moderns. There are fewer of the lowest income groups. Politically, they cover the spectrum from extreme conservatism to extreme liberalism. The median age is 39 years and income is $42,500.
Cultural Creatives are 24% of the United States and growing in numbers. They have two parts. The Core CCs have strong psychological and spiritual; interests as well as altruism, idealism, concern for relationships, strong environmentalism, and xenophilism. Their world view is validated by ideals and new views of humanity, a potential new Image of the Future. They are interested in developing artistic and cultural innovations. The Green CCs are more peripheral, with fewer spiritual or psychological concerns but relatively more political concerns that include ecology and idealism. Politically, left vs. right does not fit Cultural Creatives. Their median age is 42 years, median income is $47,500. There are noticeably more females than males, a 60:40 ratio.
Background
American LIVES specializes in primary data collection and analyses in proprietary studies for clients. We do both qualitative research, such as focus groups and in-home interviews, and quantitative research, such as surveys.
Our approach is to develop market strategies with clients and tailor the research to the precise needs of our clients. We work with clients on every aspect of the process of customer contact and specialize in solving the hard strategy problems about relations to existing or new markets, and in coming up with new market research tools to meet client needs. We don't do "off the shelf".
Since the establishment of American LIVES in 1987, we have conducted over 500 focus groups and have surveyed more than 300,000 Americans on their Lifestyles, Interests, Values, Expectations and Symbols. We do research on the complex products and services that other market research companies do not know how to handle, such as houses, communities, cars, consumer electronics, and other consumer durables. Plus, we do research on symbolically laden products such as wines and magazines as well as on products, services, and events that are lifestyle markers for consumers, such as vacations.
Our approach lets the advertiser, marketer, and sales person understand what the product or service means in the life of the consumer, and speak directly to that. That is often what is most important to successful development and marketing. We also rely on a strong network of domestic and international partners, including our European affiliates, SAI (Strategy Analysis International.
We frequently work with the real estate industry to identify what kinds of communities, homes, and resorts consumers are looking for. While the large majority of our research projects are proprietary and custom-tailored to specific clients, every year we conduct research on a new development in building communities. We sell these reports to fund the next year's study. In the past, we have done extensive surveys on what community features buyers are looking for, what they think of design issues of New Urbanism, and what they are looking for in a vacation-oriented resort. We also have a new study on the role of Technology in the Home..
Obviously, we can't tell you everything we do through this web page, so if you have any questions, or want more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.
LIVES Analysis
American LIVES specializes in understanding how values and lifestyles relate to the more complex consumer decisions, such as where and why to buy a house, what kind of house to buy, or what kind of community to buy in. We also study how people choose what kinds of experiences to participate in, such as what kinds of vacations to take, where to go, and why to go. LIVES Analysis, or Lifestyles, Interests, Values, Expectations, and Symbols, is a very powerful, but complex, tool we have developed that helps us understand the market far beyond demographics or simple segmentations based on attitudes and opinions.
This is more information than some people want to deal with and it's exactly the information that others are looking for.
Why Study Values in Market Research?: Values-based market research is a very powerful tool because values are not so transitory as the opinions reported in most surveys: they are part of the deep structure, or unstated premises, of peoples' actions, and are slow to change. Values are combined with lifestyles and demographics, to define subcultures: distinct ways of life that bear on product attitudes and use. Values are not individualistic and held independently of other people, quite the contrary. Values are socially reinforced in families, friendship networks, at work, at church and at play. Furthermore, people are very uncomfortable when their values are inconsistent with their lives.
In other words, there are a number of distinct values-driven subcultures in America. Their lines of cleavage often define how people get and spend money, as well as where they stand on social issues. Just look at political campaigns to see typical lines of cleavage. So this gives an excellent basis for consumer typologies. It also aids studies of the larger themes of change in American culture, which often lead to new media approaches and to new themes in advertising, or even to new kinds of advertising.
The concept of leverage is not usually found in this area, for leverage means getting out much more effect than the effort you have put in. But real leverage is what LIVES offers. Leverage means using real social groupings as part of the market segmentation, not artificial market segments based on categories that will change from survey to survey. People often use the products and services they buy, and the lifestyle that supports, to create status markers. Hence subcultures tend to be status groups as well as lifestyle and values groups. Therefore, analysis based on values gives interpretative leverage that makes richer and much more meaningful stories than the usual shallow numbers of most market research.
Knowing values gives a set of handles for finding what is important in the lives of consumers, and how those interests relate to particular products, for developing programs and strategies to speak to those interests, and for developing guidelines to coordinate the work of those who must do market positioning and campaigns: marketing, sales, media, public relations and advertising people.
Major benefits are:
- Values, lifestyles and subcultures are stable and slow to change when they reflect real social groups, not some fictional category based on shifting desires in the marketplace.
- Values help us see what a product or service means to consumers, and that meaning very quickly translates to vested interests of consumers and to their expectations about the future, and it also translates to symbols that speak to those interests and expectations. (That's why we call it a LIVES approach: an acronym for Lifestyles, Interests, Values, Expectations and Symbols.)
- To improve products in ways that speak to customers' values
- To position products much more accurately in the marketplace
- To find niche markets much more easily, and get customer loyalty
- To target marketing and advertising campaigns much more accurately
- To generate much better advertising copy because it goes deeper, and is better targeted
- To instruct sales and marketing people on what really works, and on how to behave.
We have a very pragmatic reason for doing values analysis in market research: it works.
Values Subcultures in America: Based on our research and that of Paul H. Ray, Ph.D., our Executive Vice-President, American LIVES has identified three major values subcultures in the United States today. Descriptions of these three follow:
Heartlanders are 29% of the United States and are declining in numbers. They represent the current cultural rearguard and differ among themselves by social class and ideology. They are traditional, for a more authoritarian family structure, concerned for relationships, relatively altruistic, for private enterprise, concerned about jobs and finances, xenophobic, and toward the religious right and social conservatism. The Heartland Double Conservatives define the ideological right: more middle class and both cultural and business conservatives. The rest are lower socio-economic status with many retirees and blue-collar, and are less ideological than provincial. This subculture's values and world-view are centered around a nostalgic image of the past, substituting for an Image of the Future. Politically, they range from the center to the extreme right. They have a high percentage of older Americans, with a median age of 53 years and median income of $23,750.
Moderns are 47% of the United States and are static in numbers. They represent the dominant and official culture of today, and differ among themselves by social class. They are materialistic, either secular or conventionally religious, concerned with success and status display, are cynical, and tend to worry about financial problems (even when their incomes are higher). Family concerns are more secondary. This subculture's values and world-view are validated only by day-to-day concerns. They have a wider range of social classes than the other two subcultures: at the high end are business conservatives and at the low end are more alienated moderns. There are fewer of the lowest income groups. Politically, they cover the spectrum from extreme conservatism to extreme liberalism. The median age is 39 years and income is $42,500.
Cultural Creatives are 24% of the United States and growing in numbers. They have two parts. The Core CCs have strong psychological and spiritual; interests as well as altruism, idealism, concern for relationships, strong environmentalism, and xenophilism. Their world view is validated by ideals and new views of humanity, a potential new Image of the Future. They are interested in developing artistic and cultural innovations. The Green CCs are more peripheral, with fewer spiritual or psychological concerns but relatively more political concerns that include ecology and idealism. Politically, left vs. right does not fit Cultural Creatives. Their median age is 42 years, median income is $47,500. There are noticeably more females than males, a 60:40 ratio.