Values

It's a simple enough thing to understand whats values are, however explaining it i think is difficult. Its the morals, the right and wrong of a person, what they hold close to them and what they judge the importance of things; but this is quite a long way of saying it. The simplest way of describing it would be the measure that an individual puts on a tangible or intangible "thing" whether its a monetary measure, a measure of time or effort, a measure of love and friendship or a measure of how it makes themselves feel. individuals will approach life in different ways depending on what it is they value.




Wilkie [n.d] says "Values are our ideas about what is desirable" which is true. Someone who values family will desire a baby a lot more that an individual who desires a career. This comparison can be seen in everyday life where women are having children later in life than they would of done 20 or 30 years ago because they are focusing on a career. Solomon (2010) backs this up by saying that a value can be defined as a belief about some desirable end-state that specific situations can lead to. 



Kahles list of Values (1983)

1. Self Respect

2. Excitement

3. Being Well Respected

4. Self-fulfilment

5. Sense of accomplishment

6. Warm relationship with others

7. Security

8. Fun & enjoyment

9. Sense of belonging

The list above is of the values that Kahles chose as the most important in an individuals lives. in class we had to list the 3 most important values to ourselves. Mine were 6, 9 and 8. however it was interesting to see how many others had different values to mine.

To understand how a person may get to an end state or their terminal value a laddering technique.

By applying this to a product or service you can find out the reason behind a purchase of it, maybe its to lose weight to gain self esteem. By understanding the values of consumers and how they use products to meet them means marketers can advertise products in such away that provoke it to values. Such as Special K know that women want to lose weight to gain self esteem and confidence they show this in their adverts.

The VALS test (Value and Lifestyles System) is a survey that can be taken which tells how you approach life. The primary VALS type represents your dominant approach to life. The secondary classification represents a particular emphasis you give to your dominant approach. (Strategic Business Insights, 2011).

When i took the test the results were that my primary type was a "Striver" and secondary was "Achiever".

http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/ustypes/strivers.shtml

The link above gives a description of the striver attribute and can be used to find the "Achievers" description as well.

The only element of being a "striver" I agree with is that I am motivated by achievement. However I'm not at all concerned by the opinion of others and nor do I like shopping so I was quite shocked that this was my primary VALS type. On the other hand my secondary VALS type is almost spot on, i do like a certain structure in my life and I do prefer to have a certainty about what will happen but I would not say I cared about an image of myself, I will buy value stuff if I like it.