1. The Family and Its Social Class Standing
CHAPTER
TEN
The Family and Its Social Class Standing

2. Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
Learning Objectives
To Understand the Changing Nature of U.S. Families, Including Their Composition and Spending Patterns.
To Understand the Socialization Process and Other Roles of the Family.
To Understand the Dynamics of Husband-Wife Decision Making, as Well as the Influence of Children in Family Consumption Decision Making.
Here is an outline of the topics for Chapter Ten.
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Chapter Ten Slide

3. Learning Objectives (continued)
To Understand How Traditional and Nontraditional Family Life Cycles Impact Consumer Behavior.
To Understand What Social Class Is and How It Relates to Consumer Behavior.
To Understand the Various Measures of Social Class and Their Role in Consumer Behavior.
Here is an outline of the topics for Chapter Ten.
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Chapter Ten Slide

4. Learning Objectives (continued)
To Appreciate the Distinctive Profiles of Specific Social Class Groupings.
To Understand the “Ups and Downs” of Social Class Mobility.
To Understand the Relationship Between Social Class and Geodemographic Clusters.
To Understand the Affluent Consumer.
Here is an outline of the topics for Chapter Ten.
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Chapter Ten Slide

5. Learning Objectives (continued)
To Understand the Middle-Class Consumer.
To Understand the Working Class and Other Nonaffulent Consumers.
To Understand the Nature and Influence of the “Techno-Class.”
To Understand How Social Class Is Used in Consumer Research Studies.
Here is an outline of the topics for Chapter Ten.
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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. Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
The Changing U.S. Family
Types of families
Nuclear
Extended
Single-parent
Changes in household spending patterns
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.
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9. Evidence of the Dynamic Nature of U.S. Households - Figure 10-2
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.
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10. Consumer Socialization
The process by which children acquire the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to function as consumers.
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.
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11. Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
Discussion Questions
How do marketers influence consumer socialization?
Does this seem unethical? At what point would it be unethical?
Think about your own experiences as a child. How were you influenced by marketing messages?
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12. What Is the Name and Definition of the Process Depicted in This Ad?
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13. Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
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
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?
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15. Other Functions of the Family
Economic well-being
Emotional support
Suitable family lifestyles
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.
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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
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.
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17. Framework of 10-year-old Influencer Figure 10.5
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.
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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
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.
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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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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.
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.
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24. Dual Spouse Work Involvement (DSWI)
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.
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Social Class
The division of members of a society into a hierarchy of distinct status classes, so that members of each class have either higher or lower status than members of other classes.
Here is a definition of social class. A description of the classes and their names will be provided in the following slide.
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26. Social Class Measure and Distribution Table 10.8
SOCIAL CLASSES and PERCENTAGE
Upper %
Upper-middle %
Middle %
Working %
Lower %
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.
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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
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.
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28. Single-variable indexes Composite-variable indexes
Objective Measures
Single-variable indexes
Occupation
Education
Income
Composite-variable indexes
Index of Status Characteristics
Socioeconomic Status Score
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.
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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?
Think about how people you know might report their social class – would it work to have them categorize themselves?
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Social Class Mobility
Upward mobility
Downward mobility
Rags to riches?
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.
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31. Geodemographic Clusters
A composite segmentation strategy that uses both geographic variables (zip codes, neighborhoods) and demographic variables (e.g., income, occupation) to identify target markets.
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.
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32. Prizm Clusters Figure 10.10a, b
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.
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33. Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
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
Affluent households are an especially attractive target to marketers because they have a large share of discretional income.
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34. Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
The Affluent Consumer
Three Segments of Affluent Customers’ Average Household Expenditures - Figure 10.12
This figure gives an approximation of how affluent households spend their money.
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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”
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.
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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.
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.
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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?
Think about products that might appeal to working class customers. What do the ads and messages tend to present?
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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
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.
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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.
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43. Consumer Behavior and Social Class
Clothing, Fashion, and Shopping
The Pursuit of Leisure
Saving, Spending, and Credit
Social Class and Communication
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.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.
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