Social Class
Social classes and class structure are the most decisive forces that affect us in most everything we do in our lives. Human behavior varies in accordance with which class one belongs to and how one's class position and class consciousness translates into political action. The analysis of class structure and social transformation is the foundation of the macro sociological study of society in comparative historical perspective. An examination of the origins, development, and contradictions of social classes and class struggles over historical time and across national boundaries has been a preoccupation of social scientists concerned with social inequality and the impact of class on the structure and dynamics of societies around the world. Social class influences many aspects of our lives. Social class determines to some extent, the types, quality, and quantity of products that a person buys or uses. Lower class people tend to stay close to home when shopping; do not engage in much repurchase information gathering. Family, reference groups and social classes are all social influences on consumer behavior. All operate within a larger culture.
In earlier times, marketers could understand consumers well through the daily experience of selling to them. Consumer purchases are strongly influenced by cultural, social, personal and etc. Culture is the most basic cause of a person's wants and behavior. Growing up in a society, a child learns basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors from the family and other important institutions. Almost every society has some form of social class structure. Social classes are relatively permanent and ordered divisions in a society whose members share similar values, interests, and behaviors. Social class is not determined by a single factor ...
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In earlier times, marketers could understand consumers well through the daily experience of selling to them. Consumer purchases are strongly influenced by cultural, social, personal and etc. Culture is the most basic cause of a person's wants and behavior. Growing up in a society, a child learns basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors from the family and other important institutions. Almost every society has some form of social class structure. Social classes are relatively permanent and ordered divisions in a society whose members share similar values, interests, and behaviors. Social class is not determined by a single factor such as income but is measured as a combination of occupation, income, education, wealth, and other variables. Social classes show distinct product and brand preferences in such areas as clothing, home furnishings, leisure activity, and automobiles. Family members can strongly influence buyer behavior. We can distinguish between two families in the buyer's life. The buyer's parents make up the family of orientation. From parents a person acquires an orientation toward religion, politics, and economics and a sense of personal ambition, self-worth, and love. The family is the most important consumer buying organization in society, and it has been researched extensively. Marketers are interested in the roles and relative influence of the husband, wife, and children on the purchase of a large variety of products and services. A buyer's decisions are also influenced by personal characteristics such as the buyer's A person's occupation affects the goods and services bought. Marketers try to identify the occupational groups that have an above-average interest in their products and services. A company can even specialize in making products needed by a given occupational group. People coming from the same subculture, social class, and even occupation may have quite different life styles. Life style is a person's pattern of living as expressed in his or her activities, interests, and opinions. Life style captures something more than the person's social class or personality. The life-style concept, when used carefully, can help the marketer gain an understanding of changing consumer values and how they affect buying behavior.
The consumer market buys goods and services for personal consumption. Consumers vary tremendously in age, income, education, tastes and other factors. Marketers must understand how consumers transform marketing and other inputs into buying responses. Consumer behavior is influenced by the buyer's characteristics and by the buyer's decision process. Buyer characteristics include four major factors: cultural, social, personal, and psychological. A person's buying behavior is the result of the complex interplay of all these cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors. Many of these factors cannot be controlled by marketers, but they are useful in identifying and understanding the consumers that marketers are trying to influence.
Name: Denise Hua
Course: Marketing Management 130
