Abstract:

In Latin America, many traditional firms still envision and reach consumers from emergent populations as if they were newcomers to the traditional middle class. Nonetheless, our research on lifestyle segmentation, in Peru and later in Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica, reveals that these 'new' members of the middle class are everything except 'typical'. In fact, emergent populations show traits that go beyond one particular socioeconomic stratum. We present as evidence the case of the very successful and now iconic 'Mega Plaza' the first mall in the slums of Northern Lima, where research findings were fundamental for designing a mall that took into account the actual characteristics of the consumers from emergent classes.