Lifestyles of university students

This study attempts to explore the lifestyles of the youth market in Ankara. The age structure indicates that Turkey is becoming younger each year. Since there are many marketing opportunities and problems associated with the shifting age structure, studying the "yt^ung” is important for the marketers to anticipate the shifts and to alter their strategies to position themselves well for the future. Altough lifestyle studies and their applications gr€?w steadily in foreign countries, no such study was conducted in Turkey until 1989 when Doğrudan Pazarlama A.S. (D.A.P.) conducted the first gualitative research.This study aims to develop a lifestyle survey similar to VALS, to assess segments of a sample of young Turks. Though it excludes specific product usage choices and does not provide detailed human portraits of the types, it attempts to classify the "yo^ng adults” on a similar basis. The present guestionnaire is based on both the VALS Survey and the D.A.P.'s survey. The objectives of this study are twofold. The first one is to assess the lifestyles of students in three different universities based on their activities, interests, opinions, values and demographics. The second one is to show the main differences among these three universities (Middle East Technical University, Bilkent University, Ankara Conservatory by driving profiles for the students in eachSince the categorization of large number of data points into a more manageable c 1assification theme was a practical necessity, the first step-in the analysis of the data for 283 students was the reduction of the variables using factor analysis- Then different clusters were formed (using cluster analysis), and differences across the universities and the clusters were analysed (using X^‘ and t-tests)- The analysis showed that the students from M.E.T-U-, A-C-, and B.U. differ in their lifestyles especially in their attitudes towards social facts/inner self, towards family and towards progressivism in family life, on financially based questions and on activities/sports done (The profile of each was given in the exhibits)- Besides, "young" market has five different lifestyles: individualistics, transitons from individual ism to sociability, floaters, ostentations, and exceptiona1 ists (The profile of each was given in the exhibits)