CHAPTER SIX The American Society: Families and Households McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2004 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER SIX

The American Society: Families and Households

The American Society: Families and Households

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2004 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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CHAPTER 6

Household Influences on Consumption Decisions

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CHAPTER 6

Family and Nonfamily Households

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CHAPTER 6

Consumer Insight 6-1

• Do you agree that unmarried couples will become increasingly more common?

• What needs do unmarried couples have that demographically similar married couples do not have?

• Should firms such as banks develop and advertise products to meet the unique needs of this group?

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CHAPTER 6

Stages of the Household Life Cycle

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CHAPTER 6

HLC/Occupational Category Matrix

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CHAPTER 6

Types of Roles Found in Families

Everyone has a role:

• Users: Persons who use/consume the product

• Gatekeepers: Information Controllers• Influencers: Evaluation Assistants• Deciders: Actual Decision Makers• Buyers: Purchase Makers• Maintainers: Maintenance Personnel

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CHAPTER 6

Household Decision-Making Process for Children’s Products

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CHAPTER 6

Relative Influence of Decision Makers

Who in the family has the most influence?

• Wife-dominated decisions

• Husband-dominated decisions

• Autonomic decisions

• Syncratic decisions

• Child-Dominated decision

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CHAPTER 6

Husband/Wife Decision Roles

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CHAPTER 6

Conflict Resolution

• Bargaining

• Impression management

• Use of Authority

• Reasoning

• Playing on emotion

• Additional information

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CHAPTER 6

Conclusions on Decision Making

• Involvement differs at different stages• Family member involvement• Making decisions for others• Situational impacts: Product Category• Conflicts are more common than

agreement How does this influence

marketing strategy?

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CHAPTER 6

Impact on Marketing Strategy

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CHAPTER 6

Targeting Fathers emphasizing fun with children

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CHAPTER 6

Consumer Insight 6-2

• Parents need to teach their children appropriate consumption skills. However, parents are not taught how to do this. How should parents learn what and how to teach their children about consumption?

• Should consumption skills be taught in school? If so what should be taught and in which grades?

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CHAPTER 6

Consumer Socialization

The Process by which young people acquire skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to their functioning as consumers in the marketplace

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CHAPTER 6

The Ability of Children to Learn

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development• Stage 1: Sensorimotor intelligence (0-2 yrs.)

• Stage 2: Preoperational thoughts (3-7 yrs.)

• Stage 3: Concrete operations (8-11 yrs.)

• Stage 4: Formal operations (12-15 yrs.)

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CHAPTER 6

The Content of Consumer Socialization

• Consumer skills – those capabilities necessary for purchases to occur such as understanding money, budgeting, product evaluation, and so forth.

• Consumption-related preferences – the knowledge, attitudes, and values that cause people to attach differential evaluations to products, brands, and retail outlets.

• Consumption-related attitudes – cognitive and affective orientations toward marketplace stimuli such as advertisements, salespeople, warranties, and so forth.

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CHAPTER 6

The Process of Consumer Socialization

• Instrumental training – occurs when a parent or sibling specifically and directly attempts to bring about certain responses through reasoning or reinforcement.

• Modeling – occurs when a child learns appropriate, or inappropriate, consumption behaviors by observing others.

• Mediation – occurs when a parent alters a child’s initial interpretation of, or response to, a marketing or other stimulus.

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CHAPTER 6

The Dangers of food as a reward…

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CHAPTER 6

The Supermarket as a Classroom

McNeal 5 stage model of how children learn to shop:

• Stage 1: Observing

• Stage 2: Making Requests

• Stage 3: Making Selections

• Stage 4: Making Assisted Purchases

• Stage 5: Making Independent Purchases

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CHAPTER 6

Marketing to Children

Now that we know why on a

conceptual/functional level…

…is it ethical?