Families

and Households

Sanjeev Varshney

Household Influences
on Consumption Decisions

HLC/Occupational Category Matrix

HLC/Occupational Category Matrix

Executive/
elite
professional

Single
Young
married
Full nest I
Full nest II
Empty Nest
I
Empty Nest
II
Single Old

Administra
tive/profes
sional

Technical/S
ales/Clerical

Crafts

Unskilled/m
anual

Types of Roles Found in Families

Everyone has a role:
Users:

Persons who use/consume the

product
Gatekeepers: Information Controllers
Influencers:
Evaluation Assistants
Deciders:
Actual Decision Makers
Buyers:
Purchase Makers
Maintainers: Maintenance Personnel

Household Decision-Making Process

for Childrens Products

Exercise
Decision making process for deodorant for man
(middle income group- a traditional Indian
family)
Decision making process for buying cosmetics
for the lady of the house
Decision making process for buying a digital
sphygnometer for the old parents in the family.
Decision making process for buying a LCD TV
for the family.

Relative Influence of Decision

Makers
Who in the family has the most influence?
Wife-dominated decisions
Husband-dominated decisions
Autonomic decisions
Child-Dominated decision
Think of Products in each of these Categories

Factors influencing roles of different

people in a family
Sex-role stereotypes
Spousal resources: spouse contributing
more resources has the greater influence
Experience
Socio-economic status: middle class make
more joint decisions than do upper and
lower class

Conflict Resolution
Bargaining
Impression management
Use of Authority
Reasoning
Playing on emotion
Additional information

Conclusions on Decision Making

Involvement differs at different stages
Family member involvement
Making decisions for others
Situational impacts: Product Category
Conflicts are more common than
agreement
Exercise:
How does this influence marketing strategy?
Can you develop a framework to use this
information

Impact on Marketing Strategy

Consumer Socialization
The Process by which young people
acquire skills, knowledge, and
attitudes relevant to their functioning
as consumers in the marketplace

The Ability of Children to Learn

Piagets stages of cognitive development

Stage 1: Sensorimotor intelligence (0-2 yrs.)- Motor

Behaviour
Stage 2: Preoperational thoughts (3-7 yrs.)
Development of Language and some concept
Stage 3: Concrete operations (8-11 yrs.) Logical
ability
Stage 4: Formal operations (12-15 yrs.)

The Content of Consumer Socialization

Consumer skills those capabilities necessary
for purchases to occur such as understanding
money, budgeting, product evaluation, and so
forth.
Consumption-related preferences the
knowledge, attitudes, and values that cause
people to attach differential evaluations to
products, brands, and retail outlets.
Consumption-related attitudes cognitive and
affective orientations toward marketplace stimuli
such as advertisements, salespeople, warranties,
and so forth. (price quality relationships)

The Process of Consumer

Socialization
Instrumental training occurs when a
parent or sibling specifically and directly
attempts to bring about certain responses
through reasoning or reinforcement.
Modeling occurs when a child learns
appropriate, or inappropriate, consumption
behaviors by observing others.
Mediation occurs when a parent alters a
childs initial interpretation of, or response to,
a marketing or other stimulus.

The Supermarket as a Classroom

McNeal 5 stage model of how children
learn to shop:
Stage 1: Observing
Stage 2: Making Requests
Stage 3: Making Selections
Stage 4: Making Assisted Purchases
Stage 5: Making Independent Purchases