Consumer Profiles in Latin America
Much of media and consumer research appear to be centered around the relationship between media and consumer behavior on one hand and a standard set of demographics (age, sex and socio-economic level) on the other hand. Clearly, the short list of demographic variables cannot encapsulate the complexity and possibilities of the social and individual person.
A variety of additional research variables have been introduced. Reflecting the complexity and diversity of the underlying behavior, there are many approaches and nomenclatures, including psychographcs, lifestyle, personality traits, values, attitudes, needs, wishes, fears, benefits, perceptions, interests, opinions, and so on.
In the Los Medios y Mercados de Latinamerica 1996 study, we included a battery of 25 questions which cover a broad range, including
By the method of factor analysis, we eventually classified the respondents into five mutually exclusive and exhaustive groups. Here is how these groups can be characterized:
| SEGMENT NAME | TYPICAL PROFILE |
| Image Seekers | - Teenager living at home - Prefer to spend time with friends - Buy things that friends approve of - Current on styles and fashions - Willing to try something new |
| Curious Cosmopolitans | - Single 18-24 - Possibly college student - Lots of interests and hobbies - Desire to visit new places and meet new people - Wish to learn about other cultures - Up-to-date on styles and fashions |
| Global Professionals | - Males 18-34 - Professional/manager in occupation - College educated - Affluent (A/B socioeconomic class) - Have lots of interests and hobbies - Interested in events in other countries - Believes American products are better than national ones - Willing to pay for quality brand name |
| Concerned Traditionalists | - Age 35-54 - Married with family - Concerned about the costs of things - Worried about job loss - Concerned about health and environmental pollution - Enjoy spending time with family - Believe people should respect traditional values - Prefer products from own country - Not up-to-date on modern technology |
| Comfortable Conservatives | - Age 50 or over - Married with family - Lower socio-economic class - Prefer to watch TV or read than go out - Not up-to-date on styles and fashions - Not interested in new things |
These five groups turn out to be look like generational cohorts, even though age was not used in the factor analysis.
In terms of media behavior,
| Class | Image Seekers |
Curious Cosmopolitans |
Global Professionals |
Concerned Traditionalists |
Comfortable Conservatives |
| Read any weekday newspaper |
32% | 30% | 39% | 21% | 24% |
| Read any regional newsweekly magazine |
4% | 7% | 8% | 2% | 1% |
| Read any regional fashion/beauty magazine |
7% | 7% | 9% | 5% | 3% |
| Read any regional general interest magazine |
16% | 22% | 22% | 11% | 12% |
| Latin feed multichannel television |
20% | 19% | 24% | 11% | 15% |
| Frequently watch English-language television |
15% | 14% | 16% | 7% | 8% |
| Listen to radio more than 4 hours/day |
29% | 27% | 27% | 29% | 27% |
(Source: Audits & Surveys Worldwide, Los Medios y Mercados de Latinoamérica 1996)
For this short list of media variables, we can see that multichannel television, print media and english-language media currently has better appeal among the Curious Cosmopolitans and the Global Professionals.
(posted by Roland Soong on 3/21/97)
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