The purpose of this research is to consider the Coca Cola Company's Coca Cola brand soft drink within the context of the SRI Values and Lifestyles Program (VALS). Both the VALS life style classifications, and the VALS psychologically descriptive categories are considered.
In the United States, the two industry leaders Coca Cola and Pepsico account for 70.5 percent of the domestic soft drink market 40.3 percent for Coca Cola, and 30.2 percent for Pepsico (Business Week, 1988).9 The Coca Cola Company's market share has increased more than 13 percent since the introduction of "new" Coke and the eventual re introduction of "old" Coke as "Classic" Coke. Thus, as much as Pepsico's president likes to say "the other guy blinked," the fact is that Coca Cola emerged from the fray in a stronger market position. The largest sell ing soft drink in the United States is Coca Cola Classic, or "old" Coke (Coca Cola Company, 1990). Diet Coke is considered to have a good chance of unseating Pepsi Cola for the second position in the market by the year 2000 (Winters, 1990). In this research, however, the Coca Cola Company's leading pro duct, Coca Cola Classic, is considered with respect to VALS.1 2
The SRI VALS program is psychographic in character. Psy chographic research, in the context of marketing, is a market segmentation procedure (Kotler, 1989). Market segmentation was first applied in the contexts of distinguishing geographic and demographic characteristics. These segmentation procedures were quickly followed by the introduction of behavioristic bases of segmentation, such as purchase occasion, benefits sought through purchase, user status, and several others.
The most recent market segmentation procedure is psycho graphics. In psychographic segmentation, buyers are divided into different groups on the basis of life style or personalitydifferences (Maher, 1983). In psychographic research, life style refers to the...