For more than a decade, the Values Index has regularly researched the cosmos of values of internet users and documented the change in values in society. How the Values Index by Trendbüro (Peter Wippermann), Bonsai Research (Jens Krüger) and Kantar became a mirror of our society. And why another cooperation on consumer classification - with Fritz Classen - is the logical consequence. A personal look back and into the future.

By Jens Krüger

Peter Wippermann and I had a job together for Nestlé in 2008 (that's what he always calls our collaboration). At lunch he asked if we didn't want to do a social media analysis together. A map of values in Germany. In flux. And on a regular basis. "Sure, why not," I said. Social media analysis - will do, whatever that is, I thought. As a reminder: back then, the iPhone was new on the market. The hottest shit was the Blackberry - two years later it was just shit. Anyway. 

We developed the Values Index. For me it was like coming back to my own roots. As a sociologist and social psychologist, I had always been interested in the processes of change in our society. Especially the role of the media. While my diploma thesis was still about the (print) media as a colporteur of lifestyle between preference and distinction, media socialisation today takes place somewhere between artificial intelligence and deep fake. Also exciting. 

For more than ten years, the Values Index has been documenting the significance
and change of values in the respective current context

When it was first published in 2009, there were critics who did not want to believe that social change takes place in such short cycles that it requires an update every two years. Not only the values change, but also the assessments of their topicality: at the beginning of February this year we presented the current edition in Hamburg. As early as March, there was speculation that the 2020 Values Index had overtaken Corona.

Neither in 2009 nor today should the critics be proven right. This is shown by the Values Index 2020 Corona update 19, in which above all trends of the pre-Corona era manifest themselves. This is shown by six editions of the Values Index, which have accompanied a decade of change in our society from an industrial economy to a network economy. A journey through a decade that was shaped above all by the digitalisation of our society. In 2020, for the first time, there will be more digital natives than digital immigrants living in Germany.

Consumption has also changed radically and will continue to do so. Today, the focus is no longer on products or services, but on relationships. Human is the next big thing. The human being is the centre of attention. Even if some companies do not yet want to admit it. Customers are taking over. That changes a lot. It changes everything. That is what characterises the network economy. This is exactly what is currently causing many companies to fail, especially in the retail sector. It is not Covid-19 per se that is putting some retailers out of business, but the technical and cultural change that has been radically accelerated once again.

Lifestyle becomes Conscious Life 

This change is accompanied by an increasing hyper-individualisation of our society. More autonomy and self-empowerment of the individual, more search for meaning. Lifestyle becomes Conscious Life. Future generations of consumers will judge companies and brands even more by their authenticity, their awareness, their attitude. Back in 2016, we deduced in the Nestlé Future Study that value orientation will also increase significantly in the food sector. 

For us and our clients, the Values Index is therefore an increasingly important tool. We want to help our clients understand people. In their needs and in their consumer behaviour. It's not enough to develop an algorithm or to determine who buys product x instead of product y. We have to find out exactly why. Rather, we have to explain exactly why this is the case. The social context plays an increasing role in the FMCG sector in general and in the food trade in particular.

Man is what he eats

It's not just about meeting people's needs, but above all their values. What we used to know only about durable goods, especially cars - tell me which car you drive and I'll tell you who you are - now also applies to everyday products. Consumption and nutrition have become a kind of substitute religion: Tell me what you buy and eat, and I'll tell you who you are. 

Where the Values Index gives us the indication for changes, we will in future take these even more into account in our other studies, our consumer surveys. The goal is to segment consumers in a new and more differentiated way - according to their values and value orientations. We have now found the right partner for this in Fritz Classen.

Segmentation 2020 - differentiated and value-based

Fritz Classen works in the field of value-based social research and investigates cultural change in society with a focus on sub-milieu and (sub-)culture research. As part of this research, the concept of milieu appeared to be outdated in the current era, which is strongly influenced by digitalisation in a society that is becoming increasingly fragmented as a result. 

In addition, the concept of social milieus is confronted with a resurgent concept of class. However, this is not an ordinary class society as we know it from the time of industrialisation or from Marx and Engels, but a multidimensional class system with ever more individual characteristics and ever more subtle, cultural codes that make access to this clientele difficult or impossible for a large part of society. The numerous newly created cultural (sub)classes are largely a product of the neighbourhood culture of modern metropolises. 

Especially within the city districts that can be seen as habitats of the creative class, we have been seeing an extreme differentiation of value principles and resulting lifestyles for years. The model of cultural classes is thus increasingly replacing the comparatively manageable model of social milieus - elevating it to a new, deeper level. 

Milieus become cultural classes

Back in 2016, we had the idea of transforming the Values Index into a segmentation model. Björn Welzel, managing director of Fritz Classen (milieu researcher and strategist in the automotive industry - Audi, Porsche, Skoda and Co., sociologist and software developer) has already implemented a large number of projects for the VW Group and other technology companies. Especially in the automotive industry, the sigma milieus are formative, but often do not allow for the necessary depth of differentiation.

The advancing individualisation requires working in a more differentiated and value-based way. While classical social science milieu studies are still limited to 10 to 15 segments, Fritz Classen has identified 28 cultural classes in Germany. In addition to social status, income and education, a variety of value orientations are measured, leading to a new, much finer segmentation.

Target group information + value orientation = added value for companies

We have now transferred this model to the consumer goods and retail sector and thus expanded target group information with value orientations. For us, this is the logical step: on the one hand, it helps our customers to improve the (advertising) approach to their target group. On the other hand, we support them in their innovation processes - from the idea to the trade.

If values are becoming increasingly important and are constantly changing, we must also give this topic the necessary framework in our research projects: In shopper studies, future studies and the many daily tests and experiments, we will use value-based segmentation in the future. 

In this respect, we at Bonsai are also changing. Reassuringly, one thing remains the same: These are real people, in real situations, in real businesses, whom we accompany for our clients. Because you can't simulate real life. 

And even if "value-based segmentation" sounds a bit unwieldy: clear imagery and concise definitions of consumer classes show: We stay in real life. And offer companies very pragmatic support. Read more in the short presentation Value-based customer segmentation 2020.