Life Styles and Consumption Patterns

Author(s): Stephen C. Cosmas

Source: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Mar., 1982), pp. 453-455
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2489033
Accessed: 02-10-2015 03:07 UTC
REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2489033?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Oxford University Press and University of Chicago Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Journal of Consumer Research.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 175.111.89.8 on Fri, 02 Oct 2015 03:07:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

LIFESTYLESANDCONSUMPTION
PATTERNS

453

Inhelder,Barbel, and Piaget, Jean (1958), The Growthof Logical

Thinkingfrom Childhoodto Adolescence, New York: Basic
Books.
Karplus, Robert, Karplus, Elizabeth, and Wollman, Warren
(1974), "Intellectual Development Beyond Elementary
School IV: Ratio, The Influenceof Cognitive Style," School
Science and Mathematics, 74, 476-82.
, and Peterson, Rita (1970), "Intellectual Development
Beyond Elementary School II: Ratio, A Survey," School
Science and Mathematics, 70, 813-20.
Keating, Daniel (1980), "Adolescent Thinking," in Handbookof
Adolescence, ed. Joseph Adelson, New York: Wiley-Interscience.

Kuhn, Deanna (1979a), "The Relevance of Piaget's Stage of Formal Operationsin the Study of AdulthoodCognition," Genetic Epistemologist, 8, 1-3.
(1979b), "The Significanceof Piaget's FormalOperations
Stage in Education," Journal of Education, 161, 34-50.
Lunzer, E. A. (1965), "Problems of Formal Reasoning in Test
Situations," in European Research in Cognitive Develop-

Life

Styles

and

ment, ed. Paul H. Mussen, Monograph of the Society for

Research in Cognitive Development, 30, 19-41.
, and Pumfrey, P. D. (1966), "UnderstandingProportionality," MathematicsTeaching, 34, 7-12.
Neimark, Edith (1975), "Intellectual Development During Adolescence," in Review of Child DevelopmentResearch, Vol.
4, ed. Frances Horowitz, Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Papalia, Diane, and DelVento Bielby, Denise (1974), "Cognitive
Functioning in Middle and Old Age Adults: A Review of
Research Based on Piaget's Theory," HumanDevelopment,
17, 424-43.
Russo, J. Edward(1977), "The Value of Unit Price Information,"
Journal of MarketingResearch, 16, 193-201.
,Krieser, Gene, and Miyashita, Sally (1975), "An Effective Display of Unit Price Information,"Journal of Marketing, 39, 11-19.
Wohlwill, J. (1973), The Study of Behavioral Development,New
York: Academic Press.

Consumption

Patterns

STEPHEN C. COSMAS*

he total assortmentof goods and services used by a

consumer is hypothesizedto be a mirrorimage of his/
her life style (Levy 1963). This papertests this relationship
by means of activity, interest, and opinion (AIO) and product-use datacollected from 1,797 female respondentsdrawn
from a nationwide mail panel.'
Many commercial and some published studies have developed relationshipsbetween particularbrandsor products
and life style (see Wells 1975; Wells and Cosmas 1977;
Ziff 1971 for a review of these studies), but this study
differs in relating the consumer's total productand service
assortmentto life style.
The specific hypotheses examined are:
Hi: There is a relationshipbetween consumers' life
styles and theirtotal product-assortment
decision.

*Stephen C. Cosmas is Associate Professor of Marketing, College of

Commerce, Departmentof Marketing, DePaul University, Chicago, IL
60604. The authorwould like to thank Needham, Harperand Steers Advertising, Inc., Chicago, IL, especially theirDirectorof Research,William
D. Wells, for their supportof this research.

H2: Each consumerlife style has its own uniqueproduct assortment.

METHOD
Respondentscompleted a mail questionnairecontaining
250 six-point, agree-disagree AIO items and 179 sevenpoint frequency-of-use product items.2 Q-factor analysis
was used to form life style and product typologies. This
involved drawing two random subsamples of 450 respondents, the computer's limit for clustering. Each of these

'The 1,797 respondents represented approximately a 90 percent response rate from a sample of 2,000. However, this was not the true
response rate. According to Ferber (1980), the true response rate of a
consumer mail panel is a function of the response rate of those who are
mailed a questionnaireand the percentagethat the selected sample is of
the total panel. In the case of this study, the sample representedabout 20
percentof the total panel, which, when combinedwith the sampleresponse
rate (90 percent) would give a true response of approximately18 percent.
2To minimize any measurementeffects from contiguity of the life-style
and frequency-of-useproduct items in one questionnaire,the two sets of
items were separatedby an entirely different set of items which required
respondentsto alter their mental task.
C JOURNAL OF CONSUMERRESEARCH0 Vol. 8 0 March 1982

This content downloaded from 175.111.89.8 on Fri, 02 Oct 2015 03:07:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

454
TABLE

GROUPSa
OF PRODUCTASSORTMENT
GROUPSWITHLIFE-STYLE
CROSS-CLASSIFICATION
Lifestyle groups
Product
assortment
groups
Personalcare
Shelf-stocker
Cooking&
baking
Self-indulgent
Social
Children's
Personal
appearance
n=

Immediate
gratifiers

Frustrated

Life
expansionists

Mobiles

Sophisticates

Actives

14.8b (16.2)c
36.6 (21.1)
19.7 (18.3)

15.2 (24.2)
12.1 (15.2)
13.6 (18.2)

15.4 (18.5)
3.1 (23.1)
27.7 (15.4)

8.9 (21.4)
3.6 (16.1)
8.9 (17.9)

25.9 (9.3)
9.3 (18.5)
5.6 (25.9)

19.5 (9.8)
7.3 (24.4)
9.8 (22.0)

11.5 (19.2)
3.8 (19.2)
23.1 (15.4)

7.0 (9.2)
7.0 (9.9)
11.3 (14.8)
3.5 (10.5)

13.6 (15.2)
6.1 (7.6)
24.2 (9.1)
15.2 (10.6)

9.2 (12.3)
18.5 (10.8)
18.5 (10.8)
7.7 (9.2)

30.4 (16.1)
1.8 (5.4)
25.0 (8.9)
21.4 (14.3)

5.6 (18.5)
42.6 (7.4)
3.7 (11.1)
7.4 (9.3)

31.7-(12.2)
2e4 (9.8)
7.3 (7.3)
22.0 (14.6)

30.6 (15.4)
19.2 (7.7)
7.7 (11.5)
3.8 (11.5)

142

66

65

56

54

41

26

Traditionalists

aWeights represent the percentage of individuals from each life-style group associated with each product-assortment group.
bWeights from study sample.
cWeights from confirmatory sample.

subsampleswas then independentlyQ-factoredfor a range

of factor solutions that were comparedthrougha split-half
analysis to determine a cut-off for the number of factors.
Once the number of factors was determined, the respondents from the subsamples were recombined with the remaining respondentsand a new subsampleof 450 respondents was drawn. These respondentswere then assigned to
groups according to their factor loadings in the final Qfactor solution.
The life-style clustering yielded seven groups with a
split-half reliability of 0.85. These groups were labeled:
(1) Traditionalists, (2) Frustrated,(3) Life-Expansionists,
(4) Mobiles, (5) Sophisticates, (6) Actives, and (7) Immediate Gratifiers.
The product clustering also yielded seven product-assortment groups with a split-half reliability of 0.85. The
groups were labeled: (1) Personal Care, (2) Shelf-Stocker,
(3) Cooking and Baking, (4) Self-Indulgent,(5) Social, (6)
Children's, and (7) Personal Appearance.3

RESULTS
The Table shows the test of relationshipbetween lifestyle and product-assortmentgroups. Here, the two sets of
groups were cross-classified and their associations tested
through a chi-square analysis. This resulted in a x2
203.05 at the p < 0.0001 level of significance.
The Table also shows the results of the tests to determine
if each life-style group had its own unique total-productassortmentdecision. Here the percentages associated with
the product groups for each life-style group in the Table
(Column 1) were tested against a confirmatorysample of
450 differentrespondents(Column 2) to determineif those
3Forthe sake of brevity, complete descriptionsof each of the life-style
and product groups have not been included in this article. However, for
those interestedin the descriptions, please write to the author.

percentagesrepresenteda unique ordering.Fromthe results

of a Mann-Whitneyand Wilcoxen test, no differenceswere
found to exist between the two samples at the p < 0.05
level in a two-tailed test.
In addition, to the above tests, an "eyeballing" of the
data suggests the following relationships.The Traditionalists' product-assortmentdecision is described by the high
weights given to the Shelf-Stockerand Cooking and Baking
product-assortmentdimensions. This, in turn, reflects the
Traditionalists'way of life, which places emphasis on the
role of women as homemakers.
decision is described
The Frustrateds'product-assortment
by the low weight given to the Social product-assortment
dimension and the seemingly indistinguishable weights
given to the other dimensions. This product-assortmentdecision reflects the Frustrateds'way of life, which places
emphasison an inwardorientationand inabilityto find contentmentand project satisfactionin their outwardworld.
The Life Expansionists' product-assortmentdecision is
described by the low weights given to the Shelf-Stocker,
Self-Indulgent, and Personal Appearance product-assortment dimensions. This reflects the Life Expansionists'way
of life, which places emphasis on involvement with their
environmentand rejects self-centeredness.
The Mobiles' product-assortmentdecision is described
by the high weights given to the Self-Indulgent,Children's,
and Personal Appearanceproduct-assortmentdimensions.
This reflects the Mobiles' way of life, which places little
emphasis on careful eating habits and more emphasis on
themselves and other membersof the family, due to a lack
of social ties.
The Actives' product-assortment
decision is describedby
the high weights given to the PersonalCare, Self-Indulgent,
and Personal Appearanceproduct-assortmentdimensions.
This reflects the Actives' way of life, which places emphasis on meeting people, going places, andjust "being on the
go. "

This content downloaded from 175.111.89.8 on Fri, 02 Oct 2015 03:07:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

LIFESTYLESAND CONSUMPTION
PATTERNS
The Sophisticates' product-assortmentdecision is describedby the high weights given to the PersonalCare and
Social product-assortmentdimensions. This reflectsthe Sophisticates'way of life, which places emphasison the social
and external events in their environment.
Finally, the Immediate Gratifiers' product-assortment
decision is describedby the high weights given to the Personal Care, Cooking and Baking, Self-Indulgent, and Social product-assortmentdimensions. This reflects the Immediate Gratifiers'way of life, which places emphasis on
instant satisfaction and hedonistic activities.

DISCUSSION
The purpose of this study was to test the relationship
between consumers' life styles and their overall productassortmentdecisions. To this end, it appearsa relationship
exists, and it is somewhat unique to each life style. However, this unique relationshipwas not as strong or as positive as one would expect given the assertion by Levy
(1963) that the products people buy and use are also a
definitionof their life style. This lack of a strong, positive
relationshipwas furtherhighlightedin the results of Goodman-Kruskallambdatests of predictiveassociationfor both
the original and confirmatorysamples (Goodmanand Kruskal 1954). These tests resultedin X = 0.20 for the original
s,ample,and X = 0.04 for the confirmatorysample. In one
case, knowing something about productuse helped in predicting life styles, whereas in the other case, the improvement in predictive associations was negligible.
One explanation for this lack of a strong positive relationship may be that life styles are as adequatelyexplained
by the lack of consumption as by the presence of it. For
example, this appearedto be the case with the Frustrated
life-style group, which had few strong associations with
any of the product groups.
Anotherexplanationcould be that factors such as tastes,
preferences, and different individual information-processing abilities within each life-style group produced more
within-group variance than across-groupvariance. In addition, other factors, such as socioeconomic-demographic
ones, could provide as much, if not more, explanatory
power as life styles and, hence, life style merelyrepresented
a less powerful surrogatepredictor.4
4An analysis was conductedto determineif the total product-assortment
decisions were really reflections of life styles or merely certain socioeconomic-demographicvariables. The analysis showed that life styles were
significantly better in explaining the total product-assortmentdecisions
than demographics.

455
Given these explanations, it appearsthat more research
is needed before a definite conclusion can be reached as to
the exact natureof the relationshipbetween life style and
product-assortment decisions. This research, however,
should not be limited to only those questions addressedin
this study. Some future questions to be investigated could
include:
* Does the availabilityof productassortmentsdeterminelife
styles, or do life styles determineassortments?
* Is the absence of consumptionmore a factorin determining
a life style than the presence of consumption?
* Is it the physical object that relates to life style or is it the
benefits?
* How stable are the life-style and product-assortment
groups over time?
* Are there life-style neutralassortments,as has been suggested in industrystudies of individualproducts?
* Are differencesamong individualswithin a life-style group
as great as differences across groups when such factors as
tastes, preferences, and information-processingabilities
are taken into account?

In conclusion, it should be pointed out that this study

was conducted at one point in time, with one population,
and a limited set of products.For the resultsto possess high
external validity, different populationsacross time need to
be studied along with the questions put forth above.
[ReceivedMay 1980. Revised August 1981.]

REFERENCES
Ferber, Robert (1980), "The Role of Response Rates in Evaluating Manuscriptsfor Publications," in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 8, ed. Kent B. Monroe, Washington,
DC: Association for ConsumerResearch, pp. 274-75.
Goodman, Leo A., and Kruskal, William H. (1954), "Measures
of Association for Cross-Classification," Journal of the
American Statistical Association, 49, 732-64.
Levy, Sidney J. (1963), "Symbolism and Life Style," in Toward
Scientific Marketing, ed. Stephen A. Greyser, Chicago:
AmericanMarketingAssociation, pp. 140-50.
Wells, William D. (1975), "Psychographics:A CriticalReview,"
Journal of MarketingResearch, 12, 196-213.
Wells, William D., and Cosmas, Stephen C. (1977), "Life
Styles," in Synthesis of ConsumerKnowledge, ed. Robert
Ferber,Washington,D.C.: NationalScience Foundation,pp.
299-316.
Ziff, Ruth (1971), "Psychographics for Market Segmentation,"
Journal of AdvertisingResearch, 11, 3-10.

This content downloaded from 175.111.89.8 on Fri, 02 Oct 2015 03:07:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions