Chapter 13

• Household and social class influences consumer behavior, which is a consideration when marketers plan strategy and tactics.
• There are various types of households and families, and the family life cycle and other forces affect household structure.
• Household members play different roles in acquisition and consumption decisions, and companies can build on these roles to market more effectively.
• The social class hierarchy and the major determinants of social class standing, and how social class changes over time, are explained.
• Social class and consumption are closely related.
• Compensatory consumption is an attempt to offset deficiencies by devoting attention to consumption.
• Parody display and fraudulent symbol are types of status symbols.
• A status symbol is a product or service that tells others about someone's social class standing.
• Money can be seen as a reward for hard work.
• Money can lead to obsession and dishonesty.
• Social class influences consumer behavior, and these influences are considerations when marketers plan strategy and tactics.
• Consumption patterns of specific social classes and the implications for marketers are described.
• A family can be nuclear, which includes father, mother, and children, or extended, which includes nuclear family plus relatives.
• Households can include single person living alone or a group of individuals living together.
• The family life cycle consists of stages of family life, depending on the age of the parents and the number of children living at home.
• Factors changing household structure and characteristics include delayed marriage and cohabitation, dual-career families, divorce, smaller families, and same-sex couples.
• Household decision roles include gatekeeper, influencer, decider, buyer, and user, and expressive role involves an indication of family norms, while instrumental role affects the buying decision.
• Conspicuous waste is the act of visibly buying products and services that one never uses.
• Upward mobility is when one raises their status level, while downward mobility is when one loses their status standing.
• Social class systems consist of economic substrata, with overprivileged, class average, and underprivileged income levels.
• Social class grouping is done according to status, with high, middle, and lower social classes.
• Voluntary simplicity is the practice of limiting acquisition and consumption to live a less material life.
• Conspicuous consumption is the acquisition and display of goods and services to show off one's status.
• Income is not strongly related to social class, with social class being a better predictor of consumption when it reflects lifestyles and values.
• Status panic is when one experiences downward mobility.
• The trickle-down effect is when lower classes copy trends of upper classes.
• Social class fragmentation is when class divisions become blurred due to increased availability of mass media and advances in communication technology.
• Spouses make decisions in different ways, with the husband typically making dominant decisions, the wife making autonomic decisions, and decisions made jointly by both.
• Occupation and education are other indicators of social class, along with area of residence, possessions, family background, and social interactions.
• Status float is when trends that start in the lower and middle classes and move upward.