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Social Class & Consumer Behaviour

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adeogharia
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205 views

Social Class & Consumer Behaviour

Uploaded by

adeogharia
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 32

SOCIAL CLASS &

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
What is social class?
• A range of social positions on which each
members can be placed.
• DEFINED- the division of members of a society
into a hierarchy of distinct status classes, so as
that members of each class have relatively the
same status and members of all other classes
have either more or less status.
Social class and social status
• Social class often measured in terms of social
status.
• In terms of social factors-wealth, power, and
prestige.
• Social Comparison Theory
The dynamics of status consumption

• Status consumption

• Convenient demographic variables are

adopted.
Social class is hierarchical and a form
of segmentation

• Low to high status

• Different categories

• Helps marketers in segmentation


MEASUREMENT OF
SOCIAL CLASS
There is no general agreement on
how to measure social class
Systematic Approaches

–Subjective Measures

–Reputational Measures

–Objective Measures
Subjective Measures

• In the subjective approach to measuring

social class, individuals are asked to

estimate their own social-class positions.


• Which one of the following four categories best
describes your social class??
–Lower class

–Lower-middle class

–Upper-middle class

–Upper class

–Refuse to answer/Don’t know


Reputational Measures

• The reputational approach requires selected

community informants to make initial

judgments concerning the social-class

membership of others within the community.


Objective Measures

• A method of measuring social class.

• Individuals are asked specific socioeconomic questions

concerning themselves or their families.

• On the basis of their answers, people are placed within

specific social-class groupings.


Objective Measures
• Single-variable indexes
–Occupation

–Education

–Income

–Other Variables

• Composite-variable indexes
–Index of Status Characteristics

–Socioeconomic Status Score


Single & Composite variable
indexes
• The use of a single socioeconomic variable (such as
income) to estimate an individual’s relative social
class.
• An index that combines a number of socioeconomic
variables (such as education, income, occupation) to
form one overall measure of social class standing.
LIFESTYLE PROFILES OF THE SOCIAL
CLASSES
Consumer research has found evidence that within each
of the social classes, there is a constellation of specific
lifestyle factors.
Six social classes:
 Upper-upper class
 Lower-upper class
 Upper- middle class
 Lower-middle class
 Upper-lower class
 Lower-lower class
SOCIAL CLASS MOBILITY
• Now individuals can move up or down the social
class ladder.

• With more education and opportunities for self


development & self advancement we find people
moving up from lower strata.

• Migration from Villages in India is on the basis of


such mobility aspirations.
• Higher social class often become reference group
for ambitious men and women of lower social
status.
• Management Trainee trying to dress up like the
Boss, Middle manager aspiring to join the country
club, small time Govt. officer wishing to make his
children to become civil servants.
• As individuals aspire to the life style of upper social
class, marketers frequently incorporate symbols of
higher-class as products or props in advertisements.
Geodemographic Clusters
• OBJECTIVE
• To understand the
relationship between
Social Class &
Geodemographic
clusters.
Birds of a feather flock together
• Families of similar
socioeconomic
backgrounds tend to
reside in the same
neighborhoods or
communities.
• They cluster together.
Look at your neighborhood
• Homes & cars are of
similar size & values.
• Each system divides
neighborhood into
groups based on
similarities in income,
education & household
types as well as attitude
and product
preferences.
Demographic cluster system
• Marketers use geodemographic cluster
system to reach new customers, choose new
business location.
• Helps company to identify & reach their best
prospect.
• Geodemographic segmentation system is one
of the most sophisticated tool for capturing
customers
The Affluent Consumer
The Affluent Consumer
• Attractive segment as they have incomes that
provide them disproportionately larger share of
disposable income.
• Purchase of Luxury cruises, sports cars, fine
jewelry, yachts, time share resort condos & art.
• Whirlpool, Sony – focus on this segment for
upscale products, sold only in small numbers.
WORKING CLASS
• Karl Marx defined the working
class as individuals who sell their
labour power for wages and who
do not own the means of
production.
Shopping behavior of working class
• Pattern of routine standardized purchasing
• Having infrequent impulsive
• More likely to use in-store information
resources
• Prime target of discount sales
Non-affluent consumers:
 Lower income or downscale consumers are
called as non-affluent consumers.

 These consumers reflect modest lifestyles

 They are more brand loyal because they are


not affordable to make mistake by switching
over to unfamiliar brands.
Arrival of techno-class
• Techno-class is a new type of social class
category.
• The degree of literacy, familiarity and
competency with technology is the base for
this class standing.
• Technological class structure centres the
amount of computer skills that one possesses.
• Lack of computer skill is referred as
technologically under classed.
CONSUMER
BEHAVIOUR
APPLICATIONS OF
SOCIAL CLASS
Clothing, Fashion & Shopping
• Fashion differs with social classes
• Determines where a consumer shops
• Retailers should pay attention to the social
class of the customers
Pursuit of Leisure
• Social class is closely related with recreational
activities
• Upper class - Theatre & Concerts, Bridge
• Middle class - Television & Fishing
• Lower class – Bowling, Billiards
Saving, Spending & Credit
• Upper class
 Future oriented and confident
 Invests in insurance, stocks and real estate

• Lower class
 Immediate gratification
 Buy now & pay later
Social Class & Communication
• Social class groups in their media and
communication habits

• Different Ads required for different social


classes

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