Classroom Support

In response to inquiries from college and university professors, VALS™ provides the following materials for the nonprofit academic community in the United States and Canada only.

VALS Survey Online

Many professors in the United States and Canada encourage their students to take the VALS Survey to learn their VALS type and to learn about the other VALS types in the US Framework. By design, the questions are for use by people whose first language is American English. If students are not citizens of the United States or Canada, their in-country residence should have been long enough for them to know the culture and its idioms. Students who do not meet this condition will not receive an accurate VALS type.

VALS Fact Sheet

The VALS Fact Sheet provides a brief overview of the VALS segmentation, the questionnaire, and how the system integrates with data.

VALS Materials Available by Request

Professors at nonprofit institutions can request the following materials by sending an email to . Please note that email requests must originate from a US or Canadian .edu email address. Be sure to specify the title of the material(s) that you are requesting. Also include the name of your institution and the course(s) in which you plan to use the material.

Note: If you plan to use any VALS slides in an eLearning environment (such as Canvas), you will need SBI's express permission to do so. In your email, indicate if you intend to use or link to the VALS materials in an online platform.

• Introduction to US VALS

  This PowerPoint presentation provides an overview of VALS: how it differs from other segmentations, its value to marketers, and its most common use. (Updated August 2020)

• US VALS Consumer Groups

  This PowerPoint presentation provides an overview profile of each of the eight US VALS consumer groups. Group descriptions include representative characteristics, demographics, and behaviors. (Updated August 2020)

• US VALS Traditional Media Use

  This PowerPoint presentation features traditional-media-use quintiles for each of the eight US VALS consumer groups. Data are from the VALS™/MRI-Simmons Fall 2019 Survey of the American Consumer, and include newspaper, magazine, radio, television, and outdoor use. (Updated August 2020)

• US VALS Internet and Social Media Use

  A brief PowerPoint presentation features internet-use data for the six most frequently used social-media platforms, and social-media activities. Data are from the VALS™/MRI-Simmons Fall 2019 Survey of the American Consumer. (Published August 2020)

• 2020 VALS Trends

  A baker's dozen of 2020 VALS Trends slides are available upon request.

  The Fall 2019 VALS/MRI-Simmons Survey of the American Consumer is a very important benchmark study that reports consumer behaviors prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The 2020 VALS Trends PowerPoint deck consists of seven trends selected from potential behaviors most likely to see dramatic change as a result of the pandemic, and six trends of technology use of companies that are changing the marketplace and consumer expectations. Context is provided at the top of each trend slide.

  The objective of this year's deck is to provide materials that serve as a starting point for discussion about if—and if so, how—consumers' behaviors will change. Trends include: online grocery purchasing, restaurant dining, vacationing, unemployment, and economic sentiment. The technology section includes GAFA companies (Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple) plus Netflix and PayPal. (Published August 2020)

• 2019 VALS Trends

  Similar to previous years' VALS Trends, this PowerPoint deck features twelve multiyear trends by VALS. Ten of the 2019 trend topics—including banking on a mobile device, buying clothing online, voting, and visiting Twitter—were also featured in 2018 but are now updated with new data. The two new trends added in 2019 are use of a dating app and music downloads. A comment and a question about each trend are included for discussion purposes. Data are from the VALS™/GfK MRI fall studies. (Published August 2019)

Reprint Permission

Authors who wish to include information about VALS in an upcoming book or publication must request permission to do so.