Family and Household Influences

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Chapter 12

• Family and Household Influences

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Families and Consumer Behavior

• Many products are purchased by a family unit
• Individuals buying decisions may be heavily
  influenced by other family members

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Families and Consumer Behavior

• How families make purchase decisions depends on
  the roles of the various members in the
  influence, purchase, and consumption of products

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Families and Households

• Family a group of two or more persons related by
  blood, marriage, or adoption who reside together
• Nuclear family immediate group of father,
  mother, and children living together
• Extended family nuclear family, plus other
  relatives such as grandparents, aunts, and uncles

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Families and Households

• Household all persons, both related and
  unrelated, who occupy a housing unit
• Families constitute the largest single category
  of households
• Nonfamily households include
• People living alone
• POSSLQs
• Friends living together
• Same sex couples

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Families and Households

• Structural variables affecting household or
  family purchasing
• Age of head of household
• Marital status
• Presence of children
• Employment status
• Marketers monitor these variables to predict
  changes in demand for specific products and
  categories

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Family Life Cycle

• Family life cycle (FLC) the process of families
  passing through a series of stages over time
• Eleven primary stages have been identified, but
  households do not necessarily go through all
  stages
• Which stages families go through is based in part
  on lifestyle choices

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Family Life Cycle
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Family Life Cycle

• FLC affects demand for many products
• FLC is an important predictor of family or
  household spending
• Life event mailing lists aid with targeting
• Marriage credit cards, furniture and
  appliances, career clothing
• Births toys, vehicles with high safety ratings,
  insurance
• Graduations remodeling services, travel
  services, retirement planning, health care
  planning

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Family Life Cycle

• Demographic trends affect how much money is spent
  and what it is spent on

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Family Life Cycle

• Descriptions of life stages can be combined with
  socio-economic data to identify market segments
  and sizes

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Family Decision Making

• Sociological variables affecting household
  purchasing decisions
• Cohesion emotional bonding between family
  members
• Adaptability ability of a family to change its
  power structure, role relationships, and
  relationship rules in response to situational and
  developmental stress
• Communication facilitating dimension, critical
  to movement on the other two dimensions

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Family Role Behavior

• Initiator/gatekeeper/information gatherer
  initiator of family thinking about buying
  products and gathering information to aid
  decisions
• Influencer individual whose opinions are sought
  about purchase criteria and which brands fit
  those criteria
• Decider person with financial authority to
  choose how family money is spent
• Buyer person who actually buys goods
• User person(s) who uses the product

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Family Role Behavior

• Spousal roles in family purchases
• Husband dominant the husband or male
  household-head makes a majority of the decisions
• Wife dominant the wife or female household-head
  makes most decisions
• Joint/Syncratic most decisions made by both
• Autonomic an equal number of decisions is made
  by each spouse, but each decision is individually
  made by one spouse or the other

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Family Role Behavior

• Marketers evaluate which types of products are
  typically purchased by wives, husbands, or
  jointly
• Marketers can determine which aspects of specific
  products to advertise to different household
  members
• Which media will best reach the most influential
  family member?
• Which ad appeals are most effective?

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Typical decision maker
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Problem recognition ? information search
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Information search ? final decision
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Family Role Behavior

• Influence of Employment
• The partner that makes more of the money that is
  being spent has more bargaining power
• More women working outside the home
• Different division of household purchases
• Influence of Gender
• As the gender gap narrows, more decisions are
  made jointly

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Changing Household Structure

• Marriage Trends
• Delaying age of marriage
• Increased incidence of cohabitation before
  marriage
• Over half of marriages end in divorce
• What are the affects on markets for household
  products, homes, counseling, travel, etc.?

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Changing Household Structure

• The Singles Boom
• Rise in number of single households in
  industrialized countries
• Cohabitating singles are the fastest growing
  segment of singles market (opposite or same-sex
  couples)
• As individuals form households before marrying,
  they bring with them to a marriage established
  purchasing and consumption behaviors, as well as
  a variety of household goods

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Changing Household Structure

• Gay and Lesbian Markets
• This market is gaining attention because of its
  recent growth (often because people are now
  classifying themselves as gay when they may not
  have in the past)
• This market tends to be urban, has above average
  income, travels more than average consumers, and
  expresses more interest in the arts
• Yet, this segment is heterogeneous

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VW and Gay Vague

• Some marketers attempt to simultaneously reach
  hetero- and homosexuals

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• Placement is everything
• In Vanity Fair this is horseplay
• In OUT it is homoerotic

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Changing Roles of Women

• Female employment
• Female employment is increasing
• 59 today vs. 25 in 1950
• Employment outside the home increases income and
  family buying power, but it may also increase
  expenditures for specific items
• Career Orientation
• Career or just-a-job orientation
• Reach segments in different media

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Changing Roles of Women

• Time Pressures
• As roles outside the home increase, women have
  more time constraints
• Marketers have developed time-saving products to
  appeal to women that still feel the need to play
  the traditional female role of homemaker, such as
  frozen meals
• Marketers have also developed products to help
  women enjoy the time they do have (bubble bath
  and home spa products)

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Changing Roles of Men

• Men today are more involved in family and
  household activities
• Men may buy items traditionally purchased by
  women (groceries)
• Men can be portrayed differently in ads - not
  just as macho but as sensitive and caring

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Children and Family Purchases

• Children exert direct influence over parental
  spending when they request products and brands
• They exert indirect influence when parents buy
  products and brands that they know children
  prefer
• Children influence about 190 billion of
  purchases in the U.S. each year

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Consumer Socialization of Children

• Children learn their consumer behaviors through
  socialization
• Children learn shopping behaviors from shopping
  with parents
• Co-shoppers explain to their children why they
  buy certain products over others, thereby
  teaching their children how to shop

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How Children Learn to Shop

• Stage 1 Observing
• Median age 1 to 33 months
• Stage 2 Making Requests
• Median age 2-3 years
• Stage 3 Making Selections
• Median age 3.5 years
• Stage 4 Making Assisted Purchases
• Median age 5.5 years
• Stage 5 Making Independent Purchases
• Median age 8 years