According to Journal of Consumer Affairs, (1999), consumer participation can be divided into a six level hierarchy. Each level provides insight concerning demographics of a given set of consumers and how involved they are in consumer activities. This information can be used when an entrepreneur is developing a profile of their ideal customer, which in turn is important in development of a marketing strategy.

Tier six of hierarchy is comprised of “cosmopolitans”. This group of consumers tends to be very diverse socially. They tend to be mature adults in between ages of 30-44 and are very proactive in making consumption decisions. They are highly aware of deficiencies and problems and tend to be very influential to those around them. They are viewed as leaders in their communities and actively seek out multiple forms of information and synthesize this information into useful units. Cosmopolitans tend to have higher levels of education but not necessarily higher levels of income.

Tier five of hierarchy is made up of “opinion leaders”. These consumers tend to have college education and are employed. This group also tends to have, on average, highest levels of income. Most of this group is comprised of professionals and managers.

Tier four of hierarchy is made up of “active consumer”. This group tends to be predominately between ages of 30 and 44 and has a large amount of homemakers. The vast majority of people in group would be considered craftspeople or skilled laborers. Finally, this group tends to be erratic in it’s information gathering and comparative shopping.

Tier three of hierarchy is made up of “dependent consumer”. This is stereotypical and average consumer. They tend to have lower levels of education and income and are generally poorly informed about consumer choices. They also tend to have “recognition-level” consumption knowledge. This group generally has a much lower desire for increased consumer knowledge and also contains a significant number of people 60 years of age and older. Tier two of hierarchy is “hi-dependent” consumers. This group makes very poor consumer decisions, and have a very low desire for consumer information. They rely on others to make their consumer decisions for them. This group is lower in education and lower in income.