Exploring Concepts...for the Fourth Time!

Chapters 10 and 11: VALS and Persuasive Advertising Techniques 

                Chapters 10 and 11 hold a lot of valuable information, and the entirety was a lot to take in. What caught my attention the most, though, were the eight consumer types listed in the Values and Lifestyles strategy (VALS) and the list persuasive advertising techniques. Singularly, these concepts are deep and interesting. The VALS strategy psychoanalyzes people into specific categories while various persuasive techniques apply advertising approaches to the common populace. What the book insinuates at but does not highlight are the relations between the two. This concept of merging techniques is quite interesting. In order for a company to sell its products, the company must first know its audience. Once the demo and psychographics are taken, the related consumers are divvied up into eight different types based on personality traits.

I found these categories to be fascinating, and pondered for a while over which type I (and those close to me) would be filed under. Once I thought this threw, I wondered what kind of advertising would most efficiently affect which personality group. I applied the different persuasive techniques to the matching VALS categories. For example, strivers would take well to the famous-person testimonial or snob appeal, seeing celebrities or fancy products and longing to be equivalent to such. The plain-folks pitch would favor better with survivors and experiencers while believers would pay more attention to the hidden-fear appeal. Intrigued, I will definitely pay more attention when viewing ads, careful to spot the VALS target audience and the persuasive technique used to try to real the audience in.