WEEK 18

THE FAMILY

It is said that purchase behaviour is influenced by the nature of an individuals family. People come from different families and that influences on the way they purchase a product.
Children have become a very important part of purchasing products as parents are influenced by their kids on what they purchase. A study showed that one third of parents have changed their shopping habits after listening to the comments by their children. Most companies are becoming aware of young peoples influence in everyday family buying decisions and most companies are trying to persuade them that their products are environmentally friendly. In most cases there is more that one individual involved in making a decision, for example if a family decides to buy a pet, children may be the ones to persuade their parents to buy a cat or dog, but the parents would be responsible for which breed to buy and then the whole family would choose which one. Soon that pet also becomes part of the family. This would also be part of a purchasing influence as when the family would go shopping their shopping habits may change as to buying pet food as well.

There are diffent types of families like:

1. Nuclear family- this is where the parents and children live together.

2. Extended family- This is where the nuclear family and other relatives for example aunty's or grand parents may live together.

3. Family of orientation- this is the family a person is born into.

4. Family of procreation- this is a family a person finds through marriage.

It is possible that there may be changes in the family structures these can be caused by many reasons. Increasing number of births out of marriage, step families, one parent families e.t.c.


Looking at one person families they have less problems with things like the central heating and bath/shower. These include pensioners and non- pensioners. Research shows that most of the one person households do not even have central heatings at all.




There is a very interesting video on the you tube website about how the family social class and structure is changing in the united states. The video link is:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0Oqeov0Gcw


Looking at demographic classes it is said that a womans life expectancy is 78 years of age while mens is 73. More that 50% of women over the age of 65 now live on their own and looking at the divorces 1 in 3 people are now having a divorce. The video below is the one we had a look at in class at the main reason that people are now having a divorce.


It is funny looking at one of the main reasons for people having a divorce but it is the reality that people now have divorces for silly reasons at times.
The average age that people get married has also increased alot. For men from 26 years of age to more that 30 years of age now. Looking at the women it has been an increase for 23 years to 28 years now. The proprotion of divorces is estimated to be 15 percent for the people that entered marriages in 1960, while people that entered a marriage recently in 1980 has doubled to 29 percent. There are other countries apart from the EU that have a high rate of divorce like there is a divorce rate of 40% in countries like Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom.
The employement rate in the EU had increased alot. Looking at the employement rate of 62.2% in 2000, which increased in 2005 to 63.4% and rose again to 64.4% in 2006. The employment rates for women have also increased. One quater of married women now work more that 30 hours a week. It increased from 56% in 2000 going up in 2005 to 53.7% and 57.2% in 2006.
Having a look at the following link, which we had a look at in lectures: ortal/docs/PAGE/PGP_PRD_CAT_PREREL/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2007/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2007_MONTH_07/3-20072007-EN-AP.PDF
It shows that the longest working hours were in Austria and the United Kingdom. Full time employees normally worked 40.5 hours a week in the EU ,where as the united kingdom and austri were 42.4 hours a week. Netherlands was 38.9, Belgium was 39.0, latvia 42.2, Solvenia was 41.4 and France was 39.1 together with Finland with 39.2 hours.

From both a sociological and statistical perspective family is hard to nail down. One thing is certain that the concept of family will continue to exost in the future and manifest itself in varying forms and accross many countries throughout Europe.
After some research done by experts it is shown that as the idea of traditional family has been declined people are now placing greater impact on the role of close friends, siblings and other relatives to to have companionship and support. In the US people are also joining family groups of strangers and meet regularly for holidays and meals.
At a time there was only one acceptable way of families to live, get married, have kids and that is it nothing beyond. Now in the 21st century people have now opened their eyes and cleaned the wax from their ears. In the 21st century people now have broader minds and there is much broader categories where you have, single parents, step families, teenage mothers e.t.c.
Look at the website below for more information:
http://www.channel4.com/health/microsites/F/family/21st/index.html
The family life cycle

This is a way of segmenting the family market at different stages of the life cycle. The family life cycle have different stages to it. Starting from the bachelor stage to the solitary survivor 2 stage.

-Bachelors are young single people living on their own. They have a low income but a high discreationary income. Have few financial burdens but are fashion and opinion leaders.

-Newly married couples are young with no children, better off financially now than they will be in the coming future and high income but will have high mortgage commitments as well.

-Full nest 1 are the youngest children under the age of 6. Child dominated household, spending is dominated by childrens needs and they have a low income but higher debts.

-Full nest 2 are the youngest children aged 6 or over. Thei income is improving, still child dominated household, childrens needs have a considerable influence on household shopping and improvement in financial position.

-Full nest 3 are older married couples with dependent children. Older children may be at work and others in full time or higher education. Their financial position is better and they have an school and exam dominated household.

-Empty nest 1 are the older married couple but with no children at home, but the head of family still at work. Their income is the highest with low expenses and they may be interested in travel and self education.

-Empty nest 2 are older married couple, with no children at home and the head of household is retired. They may have a sugnifant cut in income, have a concern with the pension levels and income levels. Spendings on hobbies and past times. Buy medicals.

-Solitary survivor 1 are widow/widower but still in labour force. Income is alright but tend to sell bigger house to a smaller house and their concern may be the level of savings and pensions.

-Solitary survivor 2 are widow/widower but retired. There may be a signifant cut in income, additional medical requirements and special needs for affection and attention and may seek sheltered accommodation.