Income and Social Class

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Income andSocial Class
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Income Patterns

• The average Americans standard of living
  continues to improve and can be linked to
• Womens roles in the workplace
• Increases in the attainment of education
• Consumer demand for goods and services depends on
  ability and willingness to buy .
• Discretionary Income
• Consumers tend to equate money with security

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Consumer Spending and Economic Behavior

• Status Symbols
• Products that serve as markers of social class
• Income Patterns
• Womans Work
• More people participating in the labor force
• Mothers with children are the fastest growing
  segment of working people
• Yes, It Pays to Go to School!
• Education is expensive but pays off in the long
  run

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Luxury Items as Status Symbols
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Social Class

• A Universal Pecking Order
• Dominance-submission hierarchy Each individual
  in the hierarchy is submissive to those higher in
  the hierarchy and is dominant to those below them
  in the hierarchy
• Social Class Affects Access to Resources
• Marx believed that position in society was
  determined by ones relationship to the means of
  production.
• Weber believed that rankings of people depended
  on prestige (status groups), power (party) and
  wealth (class)
• Social Class Affects Taste and Lifestyles
• Social class The overall rank of people in a
  society
• Homogamy Tendency to marry into a similar social
  class

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Social Stratification

• Social Stratification
• Creation of artificial divisions in a society
• Achieved Versus Ascribed Status
• Achieved status Status earned through hard work
  or diligent study
• Ascribed status Status one is born with
• Status hierarchy Structure in a social group in
  which some members are better off than others

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Achieved versus Ascribed Status
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Social Mobility

• Social Mobility
• The passage of individuals from one social class
  to another
• Horizontal Mobility
• Movement from one position to another roughly
  equivalent in social status
• Downward Mobility
• Movement from one position to another position
  that is lower in social status
• Upward Mobility
• Movement from one position to another position
  that is higher in social status
• Differential fertility Middle class reproduce
  fewer children than lower class

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Relationship Between Incomeand Social Class

• The relationship between income and social class
• More income doesnt necessarily result in
  increased status or changed consumption patterns.
• Income predicts purchase of expensive products
  without status (i.e. major appliances).
• Social class can predict the purchase of low to
  moderate priced symbolic products (i.e.
  cosmetics).
• Both social class and income are needed to
  predict purchases of expensive, symbolic products
  (i.e. cars, homes).

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Social Class

• Occupational Prestige
• Income
• Education

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Measurement of Social Class

• Women and Social Class
• Changes in Family Structure
• Increasing Anonymity
• Status Inconsistency

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How Social Class Affects Purchase Decisions

• Appropriateness
• Worldview
• Codes
• Taste Cultures
• Considerations for Constructing Marketing Messages

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Taste Cultures
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Figure 13-1 A Contemporary View of the American
Class Structure
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Status Symbols

• Conspicuous Consumption
• Status Symbols
• The Leisure Class
• The Billboard Wife
• Modern Potlatch
• Parody Display

• Conspicuous Consumption
• Status Symbols
• The Leisure Class
• The Billboard Wife
• Modern Potlatch
• Parody Display

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Parody Display
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