Lifestylerefers to a pattern of consumption reflecting a person’s choices of how he or
she spends time and money, but in many cases it also refers to the attitudes and values
attached to these behavioural patterns. Many of the factors discussed in this book, such
as a person’s self-concept, reference group and social class, are used as ‘raw ingredients’
to fashion a unique lifestyle. In an economic sense, one’s lifestyle represents the way one
has elected to allocate income, both in terms of relative allocations to different products
and services and to specific alternatives within these categories.
1
Other distinctions
describe consumers in terms of their broad patterns of consumption, such as those
that differentiate between consumers in terms of how proportions of their income are
allocated to various sectors of consumption. Often, these allocations create a new kind of
status system based less on income than on accessibility to information about goods and
how these goods function as social markers