Research purpose. The study of marketing a lifestyle offering involves allowing brands from different categories to collaborate in giving, essentially, a new offering as a bundle to consumers. This is particularly important for brands operating in segments that have a significant loyalty or in segments that have become or are becoming commodities. A lifestyle offering can span categories and address latent consumer attitudes such as aspiration and convenience. Lifestyle bundles were introduced as a “way of life that individuals express by choosing to allocate their time and personal resources to a single package of two or more goods or services that they believe represent their current or desired way of life” (Levens, 2010). The initial research on lifestyle bundles was contextualized through a bundled multi-category luxury offering, targeting affluent consumers, which was built on the concepts of luxury marketing, bundling and the needs, attitudes and behaviours of affluent consumers. The bundle items include a home, a vehicle and a vacation club. This paper revisits the original work on this topic and explores ways to enhance interest in the underlying bundle proposition.
Design / Methodology / Approach. The methodology to explore enhancements to the lifestyle bundles involved re-analyzing the data cube used to develop the inaugural lifestyle bundle research (Levens, 2010). The data cube was mined to identify individual preferences to increase consumer interest in the original concept. The underlying argument is that adjusting the lifestyle bundle items may increase consumer interest in the overall concept. The analysis presented in this paper was completed through statistical description using SPSS software.
Findings. The initial concept evaluation identified a non-trivial level of interest in the lifestyle bundle consisting of a home, a vehicle and a vacation club. This paper identifies modifications to the bundles that would increase consumer interest among rejecters and supporters of the lifestyle bundle concept. While novelty was acknowledged as a reason for consumer interest, it was clear that utility derived from convenience and lifestyle expression was the basis for many consumers supporting the concept. Concept rejecters also noted these attributes as influencing their opinions. Elimination of the vacation club offer from the lifestyle bundle would have the greatest impact on increasing rejection. Adding home and vehicle insurance to the lifestyle bundle would have the greatest impact on enhancing the value proposition for concept supporters.
Originality / Value / Practical implications. Lifestyle bundles are a novel approach for marketers to differentiate their products and create new opportunities among consumers who might have not previously considered their products or services. Enhancing the lifestyle bundle offer can only increase those opportunities.
