Why Values-Based Segmentation Works. And How Valuegraphics Improves It.
Let’s start with the good news.
There’s now a wealth of real-world evidence showing that segmenting people by their values, instead of demographics, is not only possible, but powerful. Study after study, across industries and continents, confirms a simple, human truth: what we value determines what we do.
Whether it’s fashion, tourism, wine, or small cafés in Indonesia, when researchers segment audiences by their values, they consistently uncover:
Statistically distinct groups
Predictable, behaviorally relevant differences
Actionable insights for messaging, product design, and experience delivery
But here’s the problem: these approaches, until now, were slow, expensive, narrow in scope, and difficult to scale. That’s why the most powerful idea in human segmentation has remained an underused, academic curiosity.
Valuegraphics changes that. Let’s walk through the proof—and the transformation.
Values Work. It’s Been Proven. Again and Again.
Over the past few decades, many researchers have turned to values as a segmentation base, often using the Schwartz Theory of Basic Human Values. What they found has been consistent and compelling:
1. Fashion Retail: Spain
A study of Spanish fashion shoppers identified six distinct consumer segments based on Schwartz’s values. These segments differed in brand preference, sustainability attitudes, and willingness to pay.
Values predicted fashion behavior.
But the study was narrow, expensive, and only snapshot-based.
2. Wine Consumption: United States
Researchers segmented U.S. wine consumers using values. The resulting clusters explained preferences for wine types, price tiers, and purchase habits.
Values-based segments are mapped directly to real commercial behavior.
Single category. No long-term predictive data.
3. Tourism: Global
A cluster of tourism studies revealed that values can predict everything from travel preferences to responsible behavior and activity choice (hedonism vs. relaxation, adventure vs. ethical impact).
Values explain tourist behavior better than demographics.
Each study was one-off, limited by geography or subjectivity.
4. Small Business: Café in Indonesia
A local café used values to drive competitive advantage—from menu design to atmosphere and brand voice.
Practical, on-the-ground proof.
Single-location anecdote, not scalable.
5. Commercial Applications: Roy Morgan, Glocalities, Vividata
Major research firms have launched values-based tools to help brands understand and target segments beyond demographics.
The world’s biggest companies are using values-based segmentation.
Data is locked in expensive proprietary platforms and often limited to a few regions.
In other words, values work. But until recently, they were impractical to use.
The Big Problems: Why Schwartz and Others Have Hit a Wall
Let’s call out the three elephants in the values-based segmentation room.
1. Labor-Intensive
Schwartz-based studies require extensive custom survey design, data collection, and analysis. They’re slow, expensive, and complex.
2. Limited Scope
Most value-segmentation studies are single-country, single-category, and not scalable. They’re often cross-sectional too, great at showing what values correlate with behavior today, but not what people will do tomorrow.
3. No Real-Time Applications
Even where values data exists (like Roy Morgan or Glocalities), it’s locked behind gated systems, lacking flexibility, or updated too slowly to inform fast-changing business needs. This is where Valuegraphics steps in and rewrites the playbook.
Valuegraphics Solves These Problems. At Scale.
The Valuegraphics Project is the world’s largest database of shared human values, with a million surveys conducted across 180 countries in 152 languages, and a billion data points. It fixes everything that’s been holding values back. Here’s how:
Scale & Scope
Valuegraphics identifies 56 core human values, proven across every demographic segment in every region of the world. It’s global, repeatable, and statistically rigorous.
Predictive Accuracy
Traditional demographic cohorts give you ~10.5% alignment.
Valuegraphics cohorts? Up to 89%. That’s 8x more cohesion in each segment, which makes them 8X more targetable
Speed & Access
The "Unlocking Survey" method allows rapid segmentation of any group, from B2B customers to unionized nurses to Gen Z wine drinkers. You don’t need to build a new survey instrument from scratch. Just define your audience, get a statistically valid sample, and extrapolate insights from the existing global dataset. It takes 5 weeks, at most. And we are working on automations that will make it almost instantaneous.
Real Business Outcomes
Organizations using Valuegraphics report:
40% higher engagement
20% higher trust
12% greater price elasticity (people will pay more when their values are aligned)
Companies like Google, PayPal, Lululemon, and the UN Foundation are already using this to rewire strategy and culture.
Bottom Line: Values Are the Best Predictor of Behavior. Full Stop.
If you’re still segmenting by age, gender, income, or education, great. You’re working with something that’s better than random guessing. but honestly, not by much. Our data makes that point crystal clear.
But now, there’s another way. One that’s:
Proven
Scalable
Predictive
Immediately useful
That way is Valuegraphics.
So yes, Schwartz and others showed the world that values are the secret. But it was like finding out gold exists, and not knowing how to mine it. Valuegraphics brings the excavators, the maps, and the global supply chain.
It’s time to stop guessing. And start knowing what matters most to people.
Values are the answer. Let’s put them to work.