family and social class

8/10/2019 Family and Social Class

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Consumer Behavior

Family and social class
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The changing family

Nuclear family

Extended family

Increase in the large number of workingwomen in India.

Fewer children or no child in a family

Husbands of working wives made fewerdecisions or a joint decisions


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THE CHANGING FAMILY

Married couple, the nuclear family and theextended family.

There are many factors associated with howfamily lifestyles are changing that impact on

family consumer behavior. E.g about 55 % of career women who are 35 yrs

old are childless.

The Indian family or household has beenchanging in size and composition especially inurban areas, where the family is growing smallerin size, with fewer children per family.


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Households

Households

Family Households:

Married couple,

Nuclear family,

Extended family

Nonfamily Households:

Unmarried couples,Friends/ Roommates,

Boarders


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Socialization & related roles

of family members Socialization of family members, ranging from

young children to adults is central familyfunction. In case of young children, this process

includes imparting to children the basic valuesand modes of behavior consistent with culture.

This generally includes moral and religiousprinciples, interpersonal skills, dress, grooming

standards, appropriate manners and speech,and the selection of suitable educational andoccupational career goals.


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Parental socialization responsibility seems to beconstantly expanding, parents are anxious to

see their young children possess all qualities,constant pressure to help their children securean advantage or keep ahead are demandingdaily schedules that rule the lives of many

children, Such hectic schedules foster a concentration on

competition.

With the structured activities of today and withthe child constantly surrounded by media, thereis little opportunity for the child to explore hisworld


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Contd..

Marketers are sensitive to the fact that thesocialization of young children providesopportunity to establish a foundation on

which later experiences continue to buildthroughout life.

These experiences are reinforced and

modified as the child grows intoadolescence, the teenage years andeventually into childhood.


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Consumer

Socialization

of Children

The process by which

children acquire the

skills, knowledge, and

attitudes and

experience necessary

to function as

consumers.


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Consumer Socialization of

Children

Many children acquire their consumer behaviornorms through observationof their parents. Co-shopping is when mother and child shop

together Preadolescent children rely on their parents,

adolescents and teenagers are likely to look attheir friends for models of accepted behavior

Children perceive their families as a close andreliable sources of information.


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Consumer Socialization of

Children

Shared shopping experiences also givechildren the opportunity to acquire in-storeshopping skills. Co-shopping is when

mother and child shop together. Consumer socialization of children has

other aspects when parents use promiseor reward as a device to modify or controla childs behavior (Promise to buysomething or rewarding with chocolate /gift)


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A socialization agent is a person involved in thesocialization process. Mothers are considered tobe stronger consumer socialization agents than

their husbands, because they tend to be moreinvolved with their children and are more likely tomediate their children's exposure to commercialmessages.

Mothers play important role.

Married daughters tend to follow the rituals andbuy the brands that their mothers used to do


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Mother-daughter association in the

advertisement or mother-son associationimpacts the buying behavior.

Brands that have used these linkages in theIndian context are vicks, bournvita, complan,dettol, knorr soups, pears soap, kent waterfilter, clinic plus, Horlicks, Johnson & johnson,pepsodent toothpaste.

The lady of the house is also seen to providecare and comfort to her family e.g. suffola oil,wheel detergent, Quaker Oats, Kellogs

Cornflakes


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Children growing up in the materialistic world

Children learn to attach importance to worldlypossession at an early age.

School age is when they become aware about

fashion and brand conscious and they inclinetowards shopping.

Ridicule is a mechanism used by adolescents toexchange information about what should and should

not be consumed. Ridicule is used to criticize thepeers who violate consumption norm.


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INTERGENERATIONAL SOCIALIZATION

Brand preferences are transferred fromone generation to another. It is aintergenerational brand transfer.

Grandparents are influencers sometimesfor the choices

The preferences of a married daughter arefrom her mother.


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A Simple Model of the Socialization Process


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Dynamics of Husband-Wife

Decision Making Marketers are interested in the relative amount

of influence that a husband and a wife havewhen it comes to family consumption choices.

The relative influence of husbands and wivescan be classified as

Husband dominated

wife dominated

Joint

autonomic


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Dynamics of Husband-Wife

Decision Making The relative influence of a husband and

wife on a particular consumer decisiondepends in part on the product category.

E.g automobile : HD

Financial decision making : WD or Joint

Household purchases : WD


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Eight Roles in the Family Decision-Making

ProcessROLE DESCRIPTION

Influencers Family member(s) who provide information to other members about a

product or service

Gatekeepers Family member(s) who control the flow of information about a

product or service into the family

Deciders Family member(s) with the power to determine unilaterally or jointly

whether to shop for, purchase, use, consume, or dispose of a specificproduct or service

Buyers Family member(s) who make the actual purchase of a particular

product or service

Preparers Family member(s) who transform the product into a form suitable for

consumption by other family members

Users Family member(s) who use or consume a particular product or service

Maintainers Family member(s) who service or repair the product so that it will

provide continued satisfaction.

Disposers Family member(s) who initiate or carry out the disposal or

discontinuation of a particular product or service


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The expanding role of children in family

decision making

Over the past several decades, there has been a trendtoward children playing a more active role in what thefamily buys as well as in the family decision-makingprocess.

This shift in influence has occurred as a result of familieshaving fewer children, more dual-income couples whopermit their children to make a greater number ofchoices, and encouragement of media to allow children

to express themselves. Children are participating the buying for the products

generally which are a low involvement products

Single-parent child is pushed by parent to be self-reliant.


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Research indicate that kids insupermarkets with a parent make anaverage of 15 requests, of which about

half are granted. They take decisions for their clothes,

shoes, cinemas, CDs, soft drinks, holidaytrip, family car etc.


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Tactics used by children to Influence

their ParentsPressure Tactics The child makes demands, uses threats to persuade

you to comply with his/her request

Upward appeal The child seeks to persuade, saying that the request wasapproved or supported by an older member of the family

Exchange Tactics The child makes an explicit or implicit promise to give you

some sort of service in turn of favorCoalition Tactics The child seeks the aid of other to persuade to comply with

his request or uses the support of others

Ingratiating Tactics The child seeks to get you in a good mood

RationalPersuasion

The child uses logical arguments and factual evidence topersuade to agree with his request

InspirationalAppeals

The child makes an emotional appeal

Consultation

Tactics

The child seeks your involvement in making decision


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PESTER POWER

Advertisers have recognized theimportance of childrens pester power

and therefore encourage children to

pester their parents to purchase whatthey see in ads.


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Family communications

impact Research supported that the extent to which children

influence a familys purchase is related to the family

communication patterns.

Pluralistic parents (parents who encourage children tospeak up and express their preferences on purchase)

Consensual parents (parents who encourage to seekharmony but not open their childrens viewpoint on

purchases.

Protective parents (parents who stress that childrenshould not stress their own preferences, but rather goalong parents judgment.


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The Family Life Cycle ( FLC)

FLC analysis enables marketers tosegment families in terms of a series ofstages spanning the life course of a family

unit. FLC is composite variable created by

systematically combining such commonlyused demographic variables such asmarital status, size of family, age of familymembers, and employment status of thehead of household.


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Traditional FLC

Stage I: Bachelorhood

Stage II: Honeymooners

Stage III: Parenthood / full-nest stage

Stage IV: Post parenthood or empty-nest

stage

Stage V: Dissolution


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Modification to FLC

Non- Traditional Family Life Cycle Stages Family Households

Childless couples ( DINK)

Couples who married late

Couples who have first child at later stages

Single Parent

Extended Family

Non-Family Households Unmarried couples

Divorced Persons

Single Persons

Widowed Persons


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Social Class

The division of

members of a society

into a hierarchy of

distinct status classes,

so that members ofeach class have either

higher or lower status

than members of otherclasses.


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Social class and social status The social class is measured in terms of social

status.

Social status is the amount of status the members ofthat class have in comparison with members of

other social classes. In social-class research (also called social

stratification) status is frequently thought of as therelative rankings of members of each social class in

terms of specific status factors. While estimating the social class mainly relative

wealth, power and prestige factors are used forwhile estimating social class.


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Social comparison theory

To secure an understanding of how statusoperates within minds of consumers,researchers have explored the idea of socialcomparison theory.

According to this social psychological concept,individuals quite normally compare their ownmaterial possessions with those owned byothers in order to determine their relative socialstanding.

Status is often associated with consumerspurchasing power


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Researchers most often approach the actual

study of status in terms of one or more of thefollowing convenient demographic ( socio-economic) variables

family income

Occupational status

Educational attainment

The socioeconomic variables, as expressions ofstatus are used by marketing practioners tomeasure social class.


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Status Consumption

Consumers endeavor to increase their social standingthrough consumption

Very important for luxury goods

Five question status consumption scale1) I would buy a product just because it has status

2) I am interested in new products with status

3) I would pay more for a product of it had status

4) The status of a product is irrelevant to me

5) A product is more valuable to me if its giving value formoney.


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Social class is hierarchical and a form of

segmentation

Social-class categories are usually ranked in ahierarchy, ranging from high to low status.

Thus members of specific social class perceive

members of other social classes as having eithermore or less status than they do

Therefore social-class categories suggest thatothers are either equal to them, superior tothem, or inferior to them.


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Contd..

The hierarchical aspect of social class isimportant to marketers.

Consumers may purchase certain productsbecause these products are favored by

members of either their own or a higher socialclass, & consumers may avoid other productsbecause they perceive the products to belower-class

Thus the various social-class strata provide anatural basis for market segmentation for manyproducts and services.


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Social Class MeasurementSubjective and objective measures

1.Subjective measure In individuals are asked to estimate their own

social-class positions

Which one of the following four categories best

describes your social status.1)Lower class

2)Lower-middle class

3)Upper-middle class

4)Upper class

5)Do not know

It is based on the participants self-perceptions or

self-images.


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Objective measures

In contrast to the subjective methods, whichrequire people to envision their own standing orthat of other community members, objective

measure consist of selected demographic orsocioeconomic variables.

These variables are measured throughquestionnaires that ask respondents several

factual questions about themselves, theirfamilies, or their place of residence, occupation,income education.


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Objective Measures

Single-variableindexes Occupation

Education

Income

Other Variables

Composite-variableindexes Index of Status

Characteristics

SocioeconomicStatus Score


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Index of Status

Characteristics(ISC)

A composite

measure of social

class that combines

occupation, source

of income (not

amount), housetype/dwelling area

into a single

weighted index ofsocial class

standing.


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Socioeconomic

Status Score(SES)

A multivariable social

class measure used by

the United States

Bureau of the Census

that combinesoccupational status,

family income, and

educational attainment

into a single measure ofsocial class standing.


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GeodemographicClusters

A composite

segmentation

strategy that uses

both geographic

variables (zip codes,

neighborhoods) anddemographic

variables (e.g.,

income, occupation)to identify target

markets.


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The Affluent Consumer

Especially attractive target to marketers

Growing number of households can beclassified as mass affluent with incomes

of at least $75,000 Some researchers are defining affluent to

include lifestyle and psychographic factors

in addition to income Have different media habits than thegeneral population


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Most largebanks offer

private

banking

services to

their most

affluent

customers.

weblink
http://www.jpmorgan.com/cm/cs?pagename=Chase/Href&urlname=jpmorgan/privatebankhttp://www.jpmorgan.com/cm/cs?pagename=Chase/Href&urlname=jpmorgan/privatebank


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Consumer behavior applications of

social class

Clothing, fashion and shopping

Saving, spending and credit

Social class and communication

family and social class

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