This research group brings together researchers with shared interests in consumer lifestyles, values, attitudes, identities and behaviours.
At the heart of the research is the New Zealand Consumer Lifestyles Study, one of the longest-running programmes of consumer lifestyle research in New Zealand. Established in 1979, the study provides a unique longitudinal perspective on New Zealand consumers, with major surveys conducted across almost five decades.
The research examines how New Zealanders' values, attitudes, interests, activities and consumption behaviours are changing over time. It considers not only what people consume, but how consumption connects with identity, wellbeing, sustainability, social values, financial circumstances, technology and everyday life.
The latest study, New Zealand Consumer Lifestyles 2025/26: Who We Are, What We Value and How We Live, provides a contemporary portrait of consumers in Aotearoa New Zealand.
View the New Zealand Consumer Lifestyles Report 2025/26
Members
- Associate Professor Leah Watkins (lead)
- Professor Rob Aitken
- Professor Lisa McNeill
- Dr John Williams
- Dr Maddie Judge
- Dr Helen Owen
Current research
New Zealand Consumer Lifestyles Report 2025/26
The 2025 study captures a period of considerable social, economic and technological change. It examines how New Zealand consumers are responding to changing economic circumstances, environmental concerns, evolving technologies, media environments, and changing expectations about consumption and quality of life.
The research identifies six segments of contemporary New Zealand consumers, illustrating the diversity of values, aspirations, priorities and consumption behaviours within Aotearoa New Zealand.
Key areas of focus for the current report include:
Consumer values and identity
Our research examines the relationships between values, personality, identity and lifestyle and how these are expressed through everyday consumption. This includes research into materialism, ethical values, social values and the ways in which consumers use consumption to express who they are and the lives they aspire to lead.
Sustainable and ethical consumption
The research considers sustainable consumption, ethical consumption, voluntary simplicity and frugality, as well as the tensions consumers experience between their values, aspirations, financial circumstances and everyday consumption practices.
Wellbeing and consumption
Consumption is closely connected to perceptions of the good life. Our research examines relationships between lifestyles, consumption and wellbeing, including whether greater consumption necessarily translates into greater wellbeing and the potential for alternative consumption lifestyles to contribute to individual and societal flourishing.
Changing consumer behaviour
The longitudinal nature of the New Zealand Consumer Lifestyles Study allows us to examine how consumers and society change over time. Long-standing measures provide opportunities to identify shifts in attitudes, values and behaviours, while new questions capture emerging influences on contemporary consumer life, including digital and media consumption, changing economic pressures, sustainability concerns and new patterns of consumption.
New Zealand consumer segmentation
Using a broad range of psychographic, attitudinal and behavioural measures, the New Zealand Consumer Lifestyles Study identifies groups of consumers who share distinctive patterns of values, attitudes, interests and behaviours. These consumer portraits provide insights for researchers, businesses, policymakers and other organisations seeking to understand the diversity of contemporary New Zealand consumers.
Related publications 2015–2026
Watkins, L., Aitken, R., Williams, J., McNeill, L., Judge, M & Owen, H. (2026). New Zealand Consumer Lifestyles Report 2025/26: Who We Are, What We Value and How We Live. ISBN: 978-0-473-80796-2.
Watkins, L., Aitken, R., & Li, L. (2025). Consume less, live well: Examining the dimensions and moderators of the relationship between Voluntary Simplicity and Wellbeing. Journal of Macromarketing. Vol 45 (3) pp. 370-386.
Robertson, K., Thyne, M., Thomson, R & Watkins, L. (2024). The impact of social isolation and loneliness on well-being of carers of a person with dementia in Aotearoa New Zealand. Dementia: The International Journal of Social Research and Practice. Vol 24 (2) pp. 235-248.
Watkins, L., Aitken, R., Robertson, K., Williams, J., Thyne, M. (2021). New Zealand Consumer Lifestyles. Aotearoa New Zealand Journal of Social Issues. Vol 1(1) https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/anzjsi/article/view/50/29.
Watkins, L., Aitken, R., Robertson, K., Williams, J., Thyne, M & van Kerkhof R. (2021). Challenge, Constraint and Commitment to Change: A New Zealand Consumer Lifestyles Study.
Aitken, R., Watkins, L. & Williams, J. (2017) The Role of Information in Encouraging Sustainable Consumption. Proceedings of the Macro Marketing Conference, Queenstown, New Zealand.
Aitken, R., Watkins, L., Williams, J., and Kean, A. (2020) The Positive Role of Labelling on Consumers' Perceived Behavioural Control and Intention to Purchase Organic Food. Journal of Cleaner Production, 55, p. 120334.
Zadeh, N. K., Robertson, K., & Green, J. A. (2019). Lifestyle Determinants of Behavioural Outcomes Triggered by Direct‐to‐consumer Advertising of Prescription Medicines: A Cross‐sectional Study. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 43(2), p. 190-196.
Khalil Zadeh, N., Robertson, K., & Green, J. A. (2017). 'At-risk' Individuals' Responses to Direct to Consumer Advertising of Prescription Drugs: A Nationally Representative Crosssectional Study. BMJ Open, 7(12), e017865.
Robertson, K., Thyne, M., & Green, J. A. (2018). Supporting a Sugar Tax in New Zealand: Sugar Sweetened Beverage ('fizzy drink') Consumption as a Normal Behaviour Within the Obesogenic Environment. PeerJ, 6, e5821.
Robertson, K., Thyne, M., & Hibbert, S. (2017). Drinkers' Perceived Negative Alcohol-related Expectancies: Informing Alcohol Warning Messages. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, 24(2), p. 197-205.
Sen, R., Robertson, K & Watkins, L. (2016). Examining Gender-specific Differences in Demographic Characteristics, Psychographic Characteristics, and Drinking Behaviours Between Drinker Subgroups. Proceedings of the Australian New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Watkins, L., Aitken, R., and Mather, D. (2015) Conscientious Consumers: A Relationship between Moral Foundations, Political Orientation and Sustainable Consumption. Journal of Cleaner Production, 134, p. 137-146.
Watkins, L., Aitken, R., Lawson, R., Mather, D., Robertson, K., and Williams, J. (2015). Change, Challenge and Choice: A New Zealand Consumer Lifestyles Study. ISBN: 978-1-877156-44-1.
Watkins, L., Aitken, R., Hinder, C., Lawson, R., Mather, D., Paul, A., Robertson, K., and Williams, J. (2015) The New Zealand Consumer Lifestyle Segments. New Zealand Sociology, 30(1), p. 111.