Lifestyle segmentation in the context of COVID-19

Abstract

Lifestyle is a set of characteristics consisting of daily routine, diet, fun activities, work and family of individuals. A review of previous research revealed that many studies were conducted to analyze the lifestyles of respondents using attitudes, opinions and interests with an objective to understand their buying behavior. A general clustering of respondents based on their lifestyles, in the context of COVID-19, would be useful for stakeholders like marketers, health care professionals and Government officials. Hence this paper attempts to group respondents based on their lifestyles. The study had a sample of 275 respondents from Tamilnadu, South India. A set of 32 questions based on the Activities, Interests and Opinions (AIO) model were used. Factor analysis, to arrive at meaningful aspects to group the respondents yielded 6 factors, based on which the respondents were grouped. Their demographic constitution was also examined. The study showed the existence of six distinct clusters in the context of COVID-19. This grouping has important implications for Government, Marketers and Healthcare officials to direct their communication, products and services, specific to those clusters. A review of literature showed a dearth of studies on lifestyle conducted during a pandemic in the Indian context. This study addresses the lacuna and would serve as a prototype that can be replicated on larger samples across countries to understand the impact of a pandemic on lifestyles of people. The study also threw light on the perspectives people have about them, their work and life.