ABSTRACT
In the 1970s some leading market researchers moved beyond “demographics” to “psychographics.” In classifying consumers, they no longer confined themselves to the old categories of region, income, education, age, family size, and so on; they also grouped consumers according to their “values and life-styles.” In a way, these market analysts turned the tables on academic theorists of social character. As we have seen again and again in this volume, consumption and marketing have featured prominently in theories of modern American character. Now the marketers used ideas about American character to promote consumption.
