Life Style

The essence of marketing is to meet consumer needs, and to meet this requirement, must know them and what the needs. Given that consumer demand is not single it needs to be sorted based on certain criteria, so there are similarities within certain limits. Grouping based on similarity of factors and each group was treated as if they are identical group is known as segmentation.
Any talk about segmentation, never missing data on social class. Main base is social stratification, a social structure composed of layers: from top layer to bottom layer.
Each stratum within certain limits, consists of a number of individuals who have the attitude, action patterns, and lifestyles that are identical. City dwellers, for example, according to researchers from Sociology UI, to stratification in the five strata, namely elite layer, intermediate layer, transition layer, bottom layer, and the lowest layer. Elite layers City (New York) is the top layer having a high income, young people have a cosmopolitan lifestyle, have access to information and a lot of political, as well as cross-country mobility is high. Underneath there is the middle layer has a higher education financially although lower than the layer of the elite.
The concept of social startifikasi this fit with the reference in the segment: consumer digolong-classified, sorted out according to certain factors that may be considered to have similarities.
In the consumer behavior of people vaguely distinguish the understanding of social class with a sense of social status. Max Weber said social class refers to the income or purchasing power, while social status is more directed to the principles of consumption-related lifestyle.
In a pluralistic cosmopolitan society, social status can easily be manipulated. In the kind of society metropolis of Jakarta, is not easy to track whether social status according to social class or not. A person has a choice whether he wants to project itself in accordance with social class, higher or even adopt a low profile. The same social class does produce a certain lifestyle, but in a very wide range. So that gave birth to lifestyle variations in the same social class.
This is the reason why the demographic segmentation are often misleading, so it must be deepened with lifestyle segmentation. Many of the proffered definition of lifestyle. Lifestyle is a frame of reference that used a person in the act and its consequences will form a certain pattern of behavior. Especially how he wants to be perceived by others, so that lifestyle is closely linked to how he formed the image in the eyes of others, related to social status diproyeksikannya. To reflect this image, it takes a certain status symbols, which was instrumental in influencing their consumption behavior. In the approach VALS 2 (Values ​​and Life Style), vertical stratification is equipped with a horizontal differentiation of self orientation. Vertical stratification based resources. Resources here are not merely material, but in the broadest sense includes the means and the capacity of psychological, physical, and demographics. Consumption behavior is driven by self-orientation has three categories namely the principles, status and action.
For people who rely on the principle of orientation itself, in making a purchase decision based on his conviction. So the decision to buy not just because of me-too or just to chase prestige. You could say this type is more rational. While relying on the status, dominated by his decision to consume what they say. Branded products to be his choice. For the rest of his life style to the action, the decision to consume based on the desire for social and physical activity, get a distraction or risk. Many brands of cigarettes that leads to this life style: full of challenges. Look at the Marlboro, Djarum Filter, and Djie Sam Soe.
In addition there is a fairly popular approach and is ateoritik known as AIO (activity, interest, opinion). This approach measures the consumer lifestyle based on activities, interests, and opinions, as well as through a number of demographic characteristics.
Various products with premium prices almost certainly aims to meet the particular lifestyle. Nevertheless purchasing motives may differ. People buy a Jaguar is solely for self, but there is also because of rational considerations. For the latter, for instance the lawyers. Maybe some of them not just for prestige, but as a justification for applying an expensive tariff, so that clients feel deserve to pay dearly. Most of the time of purchase was also based on a combination of various motives.
It can be concluded that the lifestyle associated with how a person utilizing the resources it has to reflect itself on the basis of values, orientations, interests, opinions related to social status. <Majalah Trust>