What are lower-middle-middle class people like?

Will Barratt, Ph.D.

Work: Service, white collar, retired

Education:  some high school, high school graduate, some college, college degree

Home: Rent, own

Money and money management: low, lower-mid, moderate, above average

Shop: Banana Republic , Victoria’s Secret, True Value, Macy’s, QVC, Lowe’s, Kmart, Wal-Mart, Columbia House, oldnavy.com, Sears, CVS, Walgreens, The Gap

Read: Latina, Elle, fraternal magazines, New Yorker, Ladies Home Journal, Four Wheeler, Family Handyman, Guns and Ammo, science fiction, Car Craft, Fit Pregnancy, North American Hunter, Seventeen, Life & Style, Ser Padres, Ebony

Watch:  Tyra, VH1, Wheel of Fortune, The View, One Life to Live, Speed Channel, CBS Early Show, satellite dish, auto racing, WWE Wrestling, Nick at Night, Outdoor Channel, Premio Juventud, Noticiero Univision, El Gordo Y La Flaca, BET

Drive: VW GTI, Suzuki SX4, Ford Taurus, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Kia Borrego, Dodge Ram, GMC Sierra, Chevrolet Colorado, Nissan Titan, Ford F-Series, VW GLI, Suzuki, Toyota Yaris, Nissan Pathfinder

Vacation, play, and travel: play soccer, karate, domestic travel by rail, domestic travel by bus, collect coins, fishing, sewing, camping, movies

Memberships: fraternal order

Method

I have aggregated information from the 15 PRIZM market segments classified as Lower-Mid, by Nielsen to describe the upper-middle social class.  PRIZM classifies this group as Lower-Mid, but from a researcher perspective, it is the lowest of three groups in the middle.

Market segmenting makes assumptions about consumption and creates clusters of people based on their consumer characteristics, age, and on where they live.  The Nielsen Company has identified 66 PRIZM market segments, 58 P$YCLE segments, and 53 ConneXions segments, and described them by demographics and lifestyle and media traits.

Commentary

These are not stereotypes, these are consumer behaviors based on research on what people report about themselves.  These data are widely used by marketers in the US.  The underlying assumption here is that social class is reflected in consumer behaviors.  This consumer assumption about social class does not reflect social class as culture or social class as identity.


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