I am sure anyone whos been in a management school has heard of the SEC classification (Socio economic classification).
In India its a standard classification for demographic indication.
Unilever is the only one that uses another standard called the LSM.

SEC is used in each and every market research study to group respondents based on their education and occupation into a social class.

I work for one of the world's biggest market research agencies and during the course of my work i come across new ideas, new ways to conduct research. The consumer is changing at a rapid pace and if marketers need to keep a tab on the pulse of the market, research assumes great importance.

For certain categories like fashionwear, sport footwear etc a classification like SEC doesnt make too much sense.

Therefore would it make sense to have another classification for certain categories which are more youth oriented?

I have toying with this idea and an idea struck me which is purely a result of ideation, blue sky thinking if you may. Its not tested or calibrated and might evensound absurd. But i feel some categories can definitely use this criteria for segmentation. This could serve as a lifestyle indicator.

Lets call this MMB classification (Movies, Music, Books). I feel, based on three parameters it could be possible to create a segmentation which can be used to certain youth sensitive categories. These are:

1) Movies people watch (directors they idolize, movies they collect, they recommend, they feel are a part of who they are).

2) Music they listen to (the bands, the genre, the history)

3) Books they read ( genre, writers)

I somehow feel people who tend to like the same books, movies, music can be termed homogeneous in their outlook towards certain brands.

Maybe cus these three are in many ways linked to ongoing fads and hence they could be used to determine a person's preference in a category that itself is linked to fads.

what do you think?