Role of Family in

Consumer Behavior

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 Lecture outline
• Family Life cycle
• Recent Trends in FLC
• Marketing Implications
• Extended Family Life Cycle

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 Households

Family Households:
Married couple,
Nuclear family,
Extended family
Households

Non-Family Households:
Unmarried couples,
Friends/ Roommates,
Boarders

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 The Family Life Cycle
• Traditional Family Life Cycle
– Stage I: Bachelorhood
– Stage II: Honeymooners
– Stage III: Parenthood
– Stage IV: Post-parenthood
– Stage V: Dissolution
• Modifications - the Nontraditional FLC

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 Family Life Cycle Stages

• The concept of household or family life cycle is

important for marketers in segmenting the market
• In 1966, William Wells and George
Gubar proposed eight stages to describe the
family lifecycle (³Life Cycle Concept in
Marketing Research, 'Journal of marketing
Research, November 1966)
• The following life cycle stages are typical
of families:
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1.The bachelor stage:

Young, single persons under the age of 35 years. Incomes are generally low
since they have started careers, but they may have few financial burdens
and sufficient discretionary income.

2.Newly married:
• Young couples, no children. If both spouses are employed, they will have
high levels of discretionary income.

3.Full nest I:
• Young married couples with youngest child under 6 years of age. There
would be greater squeeze on income because of increased expenses on
childcare. However, if they are members of a joint family, the level of
discretionary income is likely to be high

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 4.Full nest II:
• Young married couples with children from 6 years to 12 years of age.
Better financial position because income of both parents is rising.
Children spend more hours outside their parents influence.

5. Full nest III:

• Older married couples with dependent teenage children living at home.
Financial position of the family continues to improve. There are
increasing costs of college education for children.

6.Empty nest I:
• Older married couples with no children living with them, parents will
still employed. Reduced expenses result in greater savings and highest
discretionary income

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 7. Empty nest II:
• Older married couples with no children living
with them and parents retired. Drop in income
and couple relies on savings and fixed income
from retirement benefits.
Solitary survivor I:

• Older single persons with low income and

increasing medical needs (widow or widower)
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 Recent Trends in FLC
• Due to changes occurring in demography
after 1980, researchers have suggested more
modernized family life cycle categories
• In the Indian context, these changes are
visible among urban educated families
• Some types of households, such as unmarried
couples living together are generally regarded
with social disapproval, or married couples
who decided not having children are just a
negligible percentage.
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 Example of non-traditional household life cycle
categories:
Sequence I
• Young married couples with children
• Young divorced parent
• Single parent with older children
• Older, unmarried.
Sequence II
• Young divorced couple without children
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 Sequence III
• Young married couple with children
• Middle-aged divorced parent
• Middle-aged divorced parent with children and
stepchildren
Sequence IV
• Young unmarried couple without children
• Middle-aged married couple without children
• Older married couple without children
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 In sequence I, a young married couple with
children gets divorced and one of the spouse never
marries
• In sequence III, a couple gets divorced in middle
age and one of the spouses remarries and
establishes a family with children and step
children
• It is certain that there would be difference in
buying patterns if a divorced person is having
children or not having children
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 Marketing Implications

• Marketers are recognizing the importance

of nontraditional households and developing
offerings that cater to their unique needs
• Products and services that offer convenience
can be marketed specifically to dual-career and
divorced households
• Because more husbands from dual-career
families and single or divorced men shop for
groceries and other items, retailers are
increasingly targeting men
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• Non-traditional families are also being targeted
• Hallmark has developed greeting cards that deal with stepfamily
and cohabitation relationships
• Single men and women, in particular, are an attractive target for
many marketers
• In Germany, Wal-Mart has had great success with³Single
Shopping´ nights
• Unmarried men and women wheel their shopping carts down the
aisles (alone or with their children)to meet other singles while
passing displays of convenience products such as frozen dinners
and displays of items that foster romance, such as wine and candles
• Wal-Mart reports that sales are up by 25% on singles nights.
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• For example, if we consider the purchase of
a bicycle ?
• How a brand is selected?
• What role the concerned child plays?
• Some family purchases are inherently
emotional and affect the relationships between
family members?

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• The decision to buy a new dress, a toy, or a
bicycle for the child is more than simply a
routine purchase
• It often might be an expression of love and
commitment to the child
• The decision to buy a new stereo system
or television set has emotional meaning to others
in the family
• The root cause of many marital discords is often
related to spending the money
• Joint decisions are more likely to operate in the
• early stages of family life cycle when both
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spouses
• When children enter the family scene, both
husband and wife assume specific roles
• The husband tends to be more influential in
the early stages of the life cycle, however, the
wife is likely to become increasingly
influential after a period of time, more so if she
is employed and having some financial
leverage over family buying decisions
• The influence of children on family
decisions is more when they side with one of
the parents
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 Figure FLC Stages

Alternative FLC Stages Definition/Commentary

Family Households
Childless couples It is increasingly acceptable for married couples to elect
not to have children. Contributing forces are more
career-oriented married women and delayed marriages.

Couples who marry later in More career-oriented men and women and greater
life (in their late 30s or later) occurrence of couples living together. Likely to have
fewer or even no children.

Couples who have first child Likely to have fewer children. Stress quality lifestyle:
later in life (in their late 30s or “Only the best is good enough”
later)

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 Figure:
Alternative FLC Stages Definition/Commentary
Family Households
Single parents I High divorce rates (about 50%) contribute to a
portion of single-parent households

Single parents II Young man or woman who has one or more children
out of wedlock.
Single parents III A single person who adopts one or more children.
Extended family Young single-adult children who return home to
avoid the expenses of living alone while establishing
their careers. Divorced daughter or son and
grandchild(ren) return home to parents. Frail elderly
parents who move in with children. Newlyweds
living with in-laws.

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 Figure: Contd…
Alternative FLC Stages Definition/Commentary
Nonfamily Households
Unmarried couples Increased acceptance of heterosexual and homosexual
couples.

Divorced persons (no children) High divorce rate contributes to dissolution of

households before children are born.

Single persons (most are Primarily a result of delaying first marriage; also, men
young) and women who never marry.

Widowed persons (most are Longer life expectancy, especially for women; means
elderly) more over-75 single-person households.

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31 July 2019 CB (MS 211) 22
• For purchase decision of a regular family
consumption item (e.g. shampoo, juice), some of
these basic roles may not be required.
• For example, a housewife may be out for shopping
in a super market and picks up an orange juice from
the shelf. Her selection does not directly involve
any influence of other family members. She is the
decider, the buyer and the gatekeeper.
• Similarly, an adult member may be the buyer of
many products when such products may be
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• Suppose we want to purchase a DVD player, laptop,
music system or such durable products for our home.
Then what kind of roles (i.e. influencers, gatekeepers,
deciders, etc.) will we expect to prevail in a specific
buying? Let us take some examples to see how the
purchase decision for products is done in a family:
• Example: Durable, electronic goods: Electronic
products such as DVD players and laptops are mainly
used by the Generation X type members in a family.
So they often act as the gatekeepers and influencers
for such purchase decision.
• For instance, a family typically purchases a computer
for a teenager or a school going child and then
generally seeks peer group’s opinions on its desirable
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 Dynamics of Husband-Wife
Decision Making
• Husband-Dominated
• Wife-Dominated
• Joint
– Equal
– Different
• Autonomic
– Solitary
– Unilateral

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 Consumer Socialization

• The process by which children acquire the skills,

knowledge, and attitudes necessary to function as
consumers.

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 Other Functions of the Family

• Economic well-being
• Emotional support
• Suitable family lifestyles

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 Family and Marketing Strategy

• Use the FLC for segmentation and positioning

• Recognize the diverse consumption roles within the
family
• Understand and use the dynamics of husband-wife
decision making
• Understand and use the consumer socialization role
played by the family
• Recognize the changing nature of Canadian families.

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• In Japan and China, for example, the family is a focal point,
and most people feel a very strong sense of obligation to it
• Family in India is considered a social security blanket and the
traditional mindset still follows the age old adage, the family
which lives together, eats together
• Though conventional family structures are breaking down and
joint families are few in the urban towns, yet values, traditions
and norms laid down by the family are inherently visible in the
family members, even while staying in nuclear households
• The rural heartlands, however, present a contrasting picture of
the family, where the cohesiveness and the intention to stay
together is more visible

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