WEEK 22

SOCIAL CLASS AND PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR

There are factors that influence peoples behaviour that have been founded by Kotler et al. It may start from cultural to social, social to personal, personal to psychological and from psychological to the buyer.
All societies can roughly be divided into different categories. Looking at socio equality it has been shown that some people seem to be more equal than others. David encounters with the Caldwells suggestion that a consumers standing in society or social class, is managed by a complex set of variables including income, family background and occupation.

Until the 1980's the concept of social class was almost seen as central to sociological study, especially in the UK. This is a two way structure working on both the social structure and the individual. On a structural level the organisation may lead to it being experienced by other organisations whilst on an individual basis it leads the individual to understand themselves and to ally themselves with the people that share their position and interest.
If you look at the following website there is a lot more information about social class by Kath Mcguire.
http://www.ucel.ac.uk/shield/docs/notes_class.pdf

Social class is an 'umbrella' category. By being in a different class there may be many differences in culture, economic circumstances, educational status, dietary preferences, housing conditions, property ownerships and power. It may always be very confusing for people who do not belong to one class or either keep moving from one class to another.
Looking at this diagram, it is not very clear but it shows the rates of peoples social class in the United states. In 1979 a research carried out showed that a persons future is not dependant on brains but social status. Looking at two boys jimmy and bobby. Bobby is the son of a experienced lawyer he may have more chances of ending up with a job that will pay him a good income, one in the highest ten numbers whilst jimmy will have that chance one in eight times. The centre of American progress stated that between 1979 to 2007 the average income of the bottom 50 percent of american households grew by 6%, the top 1% of people saw their income increase by 229%.

Social class is measured using grades:

A - upper middle class

B - middle class

C1 - lower middle class

C2 - skilled working class

D - working class

E - lower class

Income is rising now a days due to the increase in women working and graduates.
Social class is not based on any dual incomes it is based on the head of the households income.
Income is a better indicator of purchase behaviour of non symbolic items for example freezers. Social class and income are both needed to predict the consumers behaviour when it comes to expensive items like cars or homes.

Marketers put societies into groups for segmentation purposes. Some of these divisions involve political power, while others revolve around purely economic distinctions.
The term 'social class' is now used more generally to describe the overall rank of people in a society. People that are put into the same groups have the same social standing in the community. They may roughly work in similar industries or may have similar occupations. They may also have similar lifestyles and tastes. These people mainly socialize together and may have the same values and ideas.