How did the VALS Survey questionnaire develop?
The VALS Survey questionnaire (35 attitude and four demographic questions) is based on a $1.5 million development effort and several large national surveys of consumer opinion that SRI International, a nonprofit research organization in Menlo Park, California, conducted between 1987 and 1992. These surveys allowed SRI to identify the psychological traits and key demographics that have a strong correlation with a large range of consumer preferences about products, activities, and media. The current VALS Survey questionnaire is the third version based on this kind of extensive empirical research. VALS is now wholly owned and operated by Strategic Business Insights (SBI), whose headquarters is on SRI International’s Menlo Park campus.
