1. CHAPTER
TEN
The Family and Its
Social Class Standing
2. Learning Objectives
1. To Understand the Changing Nature of U.S.
Families, Including Their Composition and
Spending Patterns.
2. To Understand the Socialization Process and
Other Roles of the Family.
3. To Understand the Dynamics of Husband-
Wife Decision Making, as Well as the
Influence of Children in Family Consumption
Decision Making.
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3. Learning Objectives (continued)
4. To Understand How Traditional and
Nontraditional Family Life Cycles Impact
Consumer Behavior.
5. To Understand What Social Class Is and How
It Relates to Consumer Behavior.
6. To Understand the Various Measures of
Social Class and Their Role in Consumer
Behavior.
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Chapter Ten Slide 3
4. Learning Objectives (continued)
7. To Appreciate the Distinctive Profiles of
Specific Social Class Groupings.
8. To Understand the “Ups and Downs” of
Social Class Mobility.
9. To Understand the Relationship Between
Social Class and Geodemographic Clusters.
10. To Understand the Affluent Consumer.
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5. Learning Objectives (continued)
11. To Understand the Middle-Class Consumer.
12. To Understand the Working Class and Other
Nonaffulent Consumers.
13. To Understand the Nature and Influence of
the “Techno-Class.”
14. To Understand How Social Class Is Used in
Consumer Research Studies.
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6. As You See It, What Is the Main
“Family Message” of This Ad?
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7. It Reminds Parents of the Importance
of Creating “Quality Time.”
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8. The Changing U.S. Family
• Types of families
– Nuclear
– Extended
– Single-parent
• Changes in household spending patterns
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9. Evidence of
the Dynamic
Nature of U.S.
Households -
Figure 10-2
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10. The process by which
children acquire the
Consumer
skills, knowledge, and
Socialization
attitudes necessary to
function as consumers.
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11. Discussion Questions
• How do marketers influence consumer
socialization?
• Does this seem unethical? At what point
would it be unethical?
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12. What Is the Name and Definition of
the Process Depicted in This Ad?
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13. Consumer Socialization - the Process by Which
Children Acquire the Skills, Knowledge, Attitudes, and
Experiences Necessary to Function as Consumers
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14. A Simple Model of the
Socialization Process - Figure 10.4
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Chapter Ten Slide 14
15. Other Functions of the Family
• Economic well-being
• Emotional support
• Suitable family lifestyles
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16. Family Decision Making
• Dynamics of Husband-Wife
Decision Making
– Husband-Dominated
– Wife-Dominated
• Expanding Role of Children In Family Decision
Making
– Choosing restaurants and items in supermarkets
– Teen Internet mavens
– Pester power
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17. Framework of 10-year-old Influencer
Figure 10.5
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Chapter Ten Slide 17
18. The Family Life Cycle
• Traditional Family Life Cycle
– Stage I: Bachelorhood
– Stage II: Honeymooners
– Stage III: Parenthood
– Stage IV: Postparenthood
– Stage V: Dissolution
• Modifications - the Nontraditional FLC
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19. To Which Stage of the Family Life
Cycle Does This Ad Apply, and Why?
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20. Bachelorhood – The Target Consumer
Is Not Yet Married
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21. Which Subgroup of “Empty Nesters”
Does This Ad Most Likely Target?
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22. The ones who are would like to pursue
new interests and fulfill unsatisfied needs
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23. Nontraditional FLC Family Stages
Alternative FLC Stage Definition/Commentary
Childless couples Increasingly acceptable with more career-
oriented married women and delayed
marriages
Couples who marry later in life Likely to have fewer or no children
Couples with first child in late 30’s or later Likely to have fewer children. Want the
best and live quality lifestyle
Single parents I High divorce rate - about 50% lead to this
Single parents II Child out of wedlock
Single parents III Single person who adopts
Extended family Adult children return home. Divorced
adult returns home. Elderly move in with
children. Newlyweds live with in-laws.
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24. Dual Spouse Work Involvement (DSWI)
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25. The division of
members of a society
into a hierarchy of
distinct status classes,
Social Class so that members of
each class have either
higher or lower status
than members of other
classes.
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26. Social Class Measure and Distribution
Table 10.8
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27. Social Class Measurement
• Subjective Measures
– individuals are asked to estimate their own social-
class positions
• Objective Measures
– individuals answer specific socioeconomic
questions and then are categorized according to
answers
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29. Discussion Questions
• What are the advantages to a marketer using
the objective method to measure social class?
• When would the subjective or reputational
method be preferred?
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30. Social Class Mobility
• Upward mobility
• Downward mobility
• Rags to riches?
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Chapter Ten Slide 30
31. A composite
segmentation
strategy that uses
both geographic
variables (zip codes,
Geodemographic
Clusters
neighborhoods) and
demographic
variables (e.g.,
income, occupation)
to identify target
markets.
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32. Prizm Clusters
Figure 10.10a, b
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33. The Affluent Consumer
• Growing number
of households can
be classified 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
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Chapter Ten Slide 33
34. The Affluent Consumer
Three Segments
of Affluent
Customers’
Average
Household
Expenditures -
Figure 10.12
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35. What Is the Name of the Segment Targeted by This
Ad, and Why Is the Appeal Shown Here Used?
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36. This Ad was Used Because it is
Effective for the Affluent Consumer.
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37. What Is the Middle Class?
• The “middle” 50 percent of household
incomes - households earning between
$25,000 and $85,000
• The emerging Chinese middle class
• Moving up to more “near luxuries”
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38. The Working Class?
• Households earning $40,000 or less control
more than 30 percent of the total income in
the U.S.
• These consumers tend to be more brand loyal
than wealthier consumers.
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39. Discussion Questions
• What types of products are targeted to the
working class?
• What issues must marketers consider when
targeting their ads to the working class?
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40. The Techno Class
• Having competency with technology
• Those without are referred to as
“technologically underclassed”
• Parents are seeking computer exposure for
their children
• Geeks now viewed as friendly and fun
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41. In What Ways Have the Prestige and
Status of Geeks Been Changing?
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42. The Change is Due to the
Importance of Computers.
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Chapter Ten Slide 42
43. Consumer Behavior and
Social Class
• Clothing, Fashion, and Shopping
• The Pursuit of Leisure
• Saving, Spending, and Credit
• Social Class and Communication
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Chapter Ten Slide 43
There are many different types of families. The nuclear family is two parents and at least one child. If the household has at least one grandparent, it is called an extended family. In addition, there is an increasing number of single-parent households. There are changes that have an effect on spending patterns. With more women working, many households have double income. In addition, families are shopping for time-saving products and services since they have less time at home.
This figure shows how U.S. households are changing over time. In this chart, we clearly see the decrease in married couples with children and an increase in women and men living alone.
Parents teach their children basic values and modes of behavior. These include moral and religious principles, as well as everyday skills such as manners and speech, grooming, and interpersonal skills. Do parents teach children consumption skills? Absolutely, they learn about spending versus savings, how to shop, and how to make purchase decisions. Children today are exposed to marketing messages at a very young age, especially through television advertising and the Internet.
Think about your own experiences as a child. How were you influenced by marketing messages?
Here we see a simple model of the socialization process that focuses on young children. It is interesting to note that the arrows run both ways from the child to their families and their friends. When you were a child, didn’t you help out a family member with working a television remote or told someone the right thing to say or do in a given situation?
In addition to socialization , the family provides other functions. The family provides economic security to its members, emotional support, and a way to share common goals and experiences.
Husbands and wives often need to make decisions together. The way they balance their influence will differ as to whether it is joint, single, or dominated by one member. The balance between the husband and wife will differ from culture to culture. Furthermore, kids are very involved in family decision making. We are seeing an increase in this as kids are given more responsibility and are exposed to more media. Because kids are online so much, they are constantly finding information on products that they will share with the family. And kids don’t give up easily; when they want something they will ask many times. We say kids have pester power because they don’t give up and ask so many times.
Here is a framework that was built from a study of how children use strategies to influence their parents to purchase food. As you can see, these kids want to eat food that other kids eat, they want to eat in front of the TV, and they want to eat food that they see advertised on television.
Marketers have long used the family life cycle , also known as FLC. It gives us an idea of the stages that many families pass throughout their life. The fact is that this traditional life cycle is only passed through by a certain percent of families, so many modifications have been made and a nontraditional family life cycle has been created. In terms of the traditional FLC, we see the 5 stages. Stage I, Bachelorhood, includes single men and women who have moved out of their parents’ home and are living on their own. The next stage, the Honeymooners, occurs immediately after marriage before the arrival of the first child. They often have start-up expenses as they establish a new home. Stage III, parenthood, occurs with the arrival of the first child. In this stage, people’s financial status often changes. Stage IV, postparenthood occurs when the children have left home. This is also called the empty-nest stage and is a time when couples have more time to themselves. The final stage, dissolution, occurs with the death of one spouse. Many in this stage will remarry or begin to live a more economical lifestyle. This web link takes you to Fidelity, a very well know financial services company. You can see that they have products that are targeted to all stages of the family life cycle.
As you can see from this table, there are many more types of family households than described in the traditional life cycle. In addition to the ones here, there are many nonfamily households not described in the traditional family life cycle.
This model of dual spouse work involvement takes into account occupation status and career commitment of both spouses for segmentation. It puts together an 8-segment schema that explains attitudes, motivations, and consumer spending.
Here is a definition of social class. A description of the classes and their names will be provided in the following slide.
These are the major social class categories and the percent of U.S. households they represent. As you can see, the upper is a relatively small percent of the overall population. In this chart, we see the hierarchal nature of social classes where they range from low to high.
Researchers measure social class either by subjective or objective measures. In the subjective, people estimate their own class whereas in the objective measures, researchers use common objective measures, which are seen on the following slide.
For the single-variable indexes , occupation is commonly used. Education is often used in combination with occupation or alone. A college degree is often a deciding factor in evaluating one’s social class. Income is frequently used, although not all researchers agree on it. Because two individuals will spend that income in different ways, they have different values that reflect lifestyles of different social classes. Because single variables are often too narrow for indexing social class, many researchers will use composite variables . The Index of Status Characteristics takes occupation, source of income, house type and quality of neighborhood into account. The Socioeconomic Status Score, which is from the U.S. Bureau of the Census, combines occupation, family income, and education level.
Think about how people you know might report their social class – would it work to have them categorize themselves?
Social class in the United States is not totally fixed. Although America is known as the land of opportunity, there are currently some signs of downward mobility where a family is not tending to do better then the last generation. The rags to riches stories that once occurred are fewer and further between.
Social class can be measured by linking data on where consumers live and their demographic information. This gives marketers a look at what consumers might purchase with their income.
Prizm from Claritas, (see Web link) is a service that clusters people to give data on their purchase and media habits. This slide presents an example of some of the Prizm clusters.
Affluent households are an especially attractive target to marketers because they have a large share of discretional income.
This figure gives an approximation of how affluent households spend their money.
It is not easy to define the middle class , but we can categorize them most easily by their incomes. We see that in certain countries, especially China, there is a growing middle class who are driven by a desire for social status and will purchase status symbols. As luxury products become more affordable, middle-class consumers will be drawn to purchasing them.
The working class is a sizable part of the U.S. population. Many companies target this group with affordable options in food, clothing, and entertainment. To get an estimate of the size of different social groups based on income, this web link will bring you to U.S. Census data.
Think about products that might appeal to working class customers. What do the ads and messages tend to present?
Technology is becoming increasingly important to adults and children. Those very involved in technology, commonly referred to as geeks, are seeing that they are gaining popularity, both as adults and teens.
Social class is important to keep in mind for marketers. Consumers of different social classes purchase clothes and spend their leisure time with different activities. In addition, different social classes tend to view savings vs. spending differently and will view different television shows and visit different websites.