Target Audience – Using VALs to pull in my audience

WHAT ARE VALS?

VALs is a marketing strategy thats allows for designer and creators to gain a detailed view on what their audience values allowing for creators to adjust their creations accordingly. VALs stands for ‘Values and Lifestyle’ which in sectioned into six primary motivations of consumerism.

• Experiencers– These people value moods and the expression of the product. They are the youngest and most active members of the VALs. They fall for new items and spend a lot on clothing and other apparel.
• Thinkers – These people value knowledge and creativity. These are the high educated professionals that center their activities around their own homes while also being well informed of the world.
• Believers –  These people value the social sharing and community in media. These people are the average Joes with modest incomes, however they are very predictable in that they stick with nation brands not allowing the interference of foreign products.
• Achievers – These people value achievement and the functionality. These people enjoy established products and thrive off the success of the actual product and their own jobs.
• Strivers – These people are much like achievers with more importance to style as these people intend to emulate those they look up to.
• Makers – These people are family grounded who enjoy practical products. They have little interest in the big world but can still appreciate a good product regardless.

For my audience, I find that the closest style for my viewers would be a mixture. From Thinkers but of lower income and social standing. With this in mind I can use my creations to show off my skills to those who value such an aspect. Having this information will allow me to look into the demographics of my audience and further define them even after the initial questionnaire. To find such information, I will use secondary research to look into official statistics.

To ensure that my belief is correct, I have gone back to my target audience with these choices to see which of these they identify to in terms of viewing art work.

With this question I made sure to find original audience members and explained the three choices to them and let them choose. Having only a small group allowed me to find a clear cut answer to work from. The winner of this one question questionnaire was Thinker, but not in the traditional sense, that being that they were of high class and wealthy professionals. But instead having a low income background who watches to consume more understanding and to delve into deeper and vast worlds.

Having this confirmed will allow me to move on with what I have planned, which is to go into secondary research to find deeper demographics of my genre game art.

References 

Ezzeldian, I. (2014). V.A.L.S. Model (Values and Lifestyles) The Most Intelligent Tool For Understanding Of CustomersValues And Lifestyles. [online] Linkedin.com. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141011232233-99993053-v-a-l-s-model-values-and-lifestyles-the-most-intelligent-tool-for-understanding-of-customersvalues-and-lifestyles [Accessed 25 Feb. 2020].

Ridenour, E. (2017). Zilker Marketing | Using VALS To Find Your Audience. [online] Zilkermarketing.com. Available at: https://zilkermarketing.com/using-vals-to-find-your-audience/ [Accessed 25 Feb. 2020].