Life cycle

In addition to the factors we have already examined, consumer behaviour may depend on the 'life stage' people have reached. A person's life cycle stage is of particular relevance since disposable income and purchase requirements may vary according to life cycle stage. For example, young couples with no children may have high disposable income if both work and maybe heavy purchasers of home furnishings and appliances since they may be setting up home. When they have children, their disposable income may fall, particularly if they become a single-income family and the purchase of baby and child-related products increases. At the empty-nester stage, disposable income may rise due to the absence of dependent children, low mortgage repayments and high personal income. This type of person may make an excellent potential target for financial services and holiday companies. In recent years, buoyant stock markets, the growth of new economy businesses and an increase in remuneration through stock options has created a new segment of well-off people, known in the financial services sector as the 'mass affluent' (see Marketing in Action 3.2).

Social influences

The three social influences on consumer behaviour are: culture, social class and reference groups.

Culture

As we noted in Chapter 2, culture refers to the traditions, taboos, values and basic attitudes of the whole society within which an individual lives. It provides the framework within which individuals and their lifestyles develop, and consequently affects consumption. The most notable trend in the past three decades has been the increased internationalization of cultures. Products and services that, previously, may only have been available in certain countries are now commonplace. For example, specialty cuisines like Japanese sushi, Korean barbeque and Cajun food can now be found in major cities throughout the world. Allied to this, though, is the growing domination of some cultures. For example, the successes of American fast-food chains and movie production companies represent a major challenge to smaller, local enterprises in many parts of the world.

Social class

Long regarded as an important determinant of consumer behaviour, in the UK the idea of social class is based largely on occupation (often that of the chief income earner). This is one way in which respondents in marketing research surveys are categorized, and it is usual for advertising media (e.g. newspapers) to give readership figures broken down by social class groupings. However, the use of traditional social class frameworks to explain differences in consumer behaviour has been criticized because certain social class categories may not relate to differences in disposable income (for example, many self-employed manual workers can have very high incomes). The new National Statistics Socio-economic Classification system (NS-SEC) in the UK aims to take account of this situation by identifying eight categories of occupation, as shown in Table 3.2. Consumption patterns are likely to vary significantly across these categories.