The influence of high level values on brand preferences of student youth in Russia

Abstract

Purpose

The share of student youth, as consumers, is quite significant in the world. Considering that retailers view young consumers (including student audience) an important segment of the market, a substantial question is to study the effect of values on motivation consumer behavior. The purpose of this paper is to fill the lack of studies on motivational influence of “high-level values” (HLV) on young consumers. This research paper examines the motivational influence of HLV on brands in certain product categories-markers, to develop a methodology for segmenting consumers based on their clustering by values and evaluating brand preferences in different segments.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample was formed by the “snowball” method from first-year undergraduate students. The sample size involves 239 respondents. The research was carried out by the online survey method on the basis of a structured questionnaire. To obtain segments, the authors used hierarchical cluster analysis by the Ward method and the Euclidean distance method. The statistical significance of the differences in brand preferences between segments was checked in the conjugacy tables using the χ² test at different significance levels.

Findings

Findings show clearly the possibility on the basis of HLV to identify segments of consumers, which allows obtaining the distribution of the perception of the brand. For a student audience received segments were: “Become a successful leader,” “become successful in a harmonious world,” “ascetic,” “the Hedonist,” Frequency analysis revealed an uneven distribution of preferences between the examined brands. At the same time, revealed the differences in the motivational significance HLV for brands in different product categories.

Practical implications

Retailers should use segmentation based on motivation influence of HLV for improving the effectiveness of communication of young consumers with brands. The solution of this problem will allow forming particular strategic behaviors of retailers occurring in the sphere of shaping relationships with young consumers.

Originality/value

It is one of the rare studies that investigate motivational influence of a complex of ten HLV on the young consumers. In this paper, the authors propose to use a methodology for young consumers segmentation based on clustering for HLV, and assessing brands preferences in different segments.

Citation

Sidorchuk, R., Mkhitaryan, S.V., Musatov, B.V., Meshkov, A.A. and Tultaev, T.A. (2018), "The influence of high level values on brand preferences of student youth in Russia", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 46 No. 7, pp. 638-656. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-01-2018-0006