CLASSIFICATION OF THE SOCIETY , INFLUENCE OF

SOCIAL CLASS ON PURCHASING BEHAVIOUR

 SOCIAL CLASS
 Social class and its attendant components ( such as
income, occupation and education) have been useful for
decades in gauging the kind of information and meanings
that are relevant to people in different social Classes.
CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL CLASS
 The major social class characteristics are: they
 (1) are bounded.

 (2) are hierarchical,

 (3) are mutually exclusive,

 (4) are exhaustive,

 (5) are influential

 SOCIAL CLASS MEASUREMENT
 Subjective Measures: individuals are
asked to estimate their own social-class
positions
 Reputational Measures: informants make
judgments concerning the social-class
membership of others within the
community
 Objective Measures: individuals answer
specific socioeconomic questions and then
are categorized according to answers
TYPES OF SOCIAL CLASS
 (1) upper-upper
 (2) lower-upper

 (3) upper-middle

 (4) lower-middle

 (5) upper-lower

 (6) lower-lower
UPPER-UPPER CLASS

 Very responsible
 They patronize fancy, expensive, and status shops.

 Small number of well- established family

 Luxuries life style

People of this class are not conspicuous

buyers/consumers. They purchase or inherit large houses.
They buy conservative clothes. They patronize exclusive
shops. They avoid mass merchandisers. They travel
extensively. They purchase expensive and unique
products.
LOWER- UPPER CLASS-WEALTH

They pursue a gracious living. They spend their wealth

conspicuously in purchases. They purchase large houses
and luxury cars. They buy more expensive clothing,
food, and furniture. They spend substantially in foreign
travel.
UPPER -MIDDLE CLASS - ACHIEVING
PROFESSIONALS
LOWER- MIDDLE CLASS
UPPER -LOWER CLASS
LOWER- LOWER CLASS

Lower class people avoid status stores and prefer shops

where they get discount and other facilities such as credit
and friendly behavior.
MARKETING IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL CLASS AS A
DETERMINANT OF BUYING BEHAVIOR

 Social class and buying behavior

-the upper and middle class women go for shopping more
frequently then lower class.
o Social class and media usage
- Different studies found that higher class people spend more
of their leisure time in reading magazines and books,
listening to the radios, and going to movie
o Social Class and Decision Making Process
 - lower classes found to relay on relatives and close friends
for information about purchase decisions. On the contrary,
middle class people rely more on commercial environment
such as media information.