Consumer Behavior

Social Categories

aggregates of persons in a society with a common characteristics demographically, plus socioeconomically, psychologically, and/or behaviorally

Post-parenthood Stage

all kids have flown the coop

Social Category

an aggregate grouping within society whose members have a commonality demographically plus psychographically and/or behaviorally.

Anticipatory Aspiration Group

an aspiration group that a person hopes and expects to join

Informal Legitimate Power

appeal to or create social standards

Influencers

individuals whose opinions are sought concerning criteria and which products or brands most likely to fit those criteria

Social Agents

individuals, groups, or organizations that can affect an individual's or social group members' thinking, attitudes, and/or behaviors

Referent Power

induce adoption or imitation of the referent's attitudes and/or behaviors by getting people to either identify with or emulate the social agent

Sociocultural Forces

influences on the consumer from the cultural and social environment.

Social Norms

informal rules or standards for appropriate or inappropriate behavior within a social group.

Initiators

initiator for the family to consider buying a product

Virtual Groups

interactive online communities in which consumers can comment on or contribute to the medium's content

Sociologists

investigate the formation and functioning of social groups, organizations, and institutions within the context of society

Informal Groups

loosely organized groups where structure, goals,positions, and procedures are implicit, not explicit

Society

people within a nation or group of nations sharing a common language, heritage, and other common cultural characteristics

Social Psychology

the scientific inquiry into social behavior within social groups and among interacting individuals, including the influence of group members on each other and the impact of the group on individual decisions

Cultural Anthropology

the scientific study of the development of human cultures/societies and how they influence in individuals and social groups, as well as of comparisons of current and past cultures.

Sociology

the scientific study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society, social institutions, and social relationships

Ethnocentrism

the tendency to make cross-cultural evaluations (good/bad) based on one's own beliefs and values

Hollingshead's Index of Social Position (ISP)

= (occupation score x 7) + (education score x 4)

Social Class System

A hierarchical division of an industrial or post-industrial society into relatively distinct and homogeneous groups based on social prestige and respect.

Legitimate Power

Agent gains either compliance or acceptance by establishing or appealing to social standards

Religious Subcultures

Based on the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially personal God or gods. Members share a worldview.

Expressive Roles

Concerns hedonic decisions expressing the family's aesthetic social, emotional, or normative needs

Generational Subcultures (Generation)

a group of people born in the same era and who therefore experienced a common macroenvironment as well as similar significant, formative life events

Social Referent

a reference group or a reference person

Worldview (religious subcultures)

a set of fundamental beliefs about the nature of the world and what is important.

Social Class (SC)

a social stratification system based largely on achievement. One's position relative to others on one or more social stratification variables-dimensions valued by society

Product-specific values

a subset of domain specific values: evaluative criteria that hold across products.

Etiquette (decorum)

acting politely

Internalization (Acceptance)

adopt the group's values and norms as one's own. accepting group norms and values as one's own.

Sandwich Generation

adults who care for their elderly parents as well as their own children. Often due to revival of Extended Families/multigenerational HHs

Autonomous

an equal number of decisions is made by each spouse, but each decision is individually made by one spouse or the other

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

an individual's or family's economic and social position in relation to others in society

Reference Person

an influential individual used as a reference point or frame of reference for shaping someone's thinking and behavior.

Emergent Groups

groups that come into existence spontaneously: (1) find selves in same time & place and decide to continue meeting or (2) get to know each other in social media

Moral Norms

grow out of a culture's "sense of sacred order" or religion

Formal Groups

highly organized hierarchical groups with explicit structure, goals, membership requirements, and procedures

Domain-specific Values

hold only for a particular set of activities, such as family, religion, in the workplace, or on vacation

Class Average

households have typical income levels for their class and so can afford to purchase products their SC peers typically buy. Buy products for the X SC

Mainstreaming (Crossover sales)

ideas and practices once associated with subcultures and small minorities, with the support of elite opinion makers and the media, become mainstream at astonishing speed.

Value-expressive influence

identify with or aspire to (emulate) the group

Cultural Imperialism

imposing western culture on non-Westerns via the marketing program.

Joint (syncratic)

most decisions made with equal involvement and influence by both spouses

Disclaimant Groups

negative former membership groups whose ideology the individual rejects and therefore leaves

Dissociative Groups

negative nonmembership groups (never belonged) whose values the individual rejects and with which the person wishes to avoid association.

Symbols

objects, characters, and other concrete, tangible representations of abstract, intangible ideas

Marketing Perspective

people in society sharing approximately the same lifestyles, values, and attitudes who are stratified hierarchically on one or more dimensions valued by society.

Users

person who uses the product

Deciders

person(s) with the financial authority or power to choose how the family's money will be spent

Contactual Groups

positive membership groups with which a person has regular face-to-face contact and whose values, attitudes, norms, etc he tends to feel good about

Aspiration(al) Group

possesses a positive attraction that causes people to want to join

Social Stratification

rank ordering either groups or individuals hierarchically in a society with respect to socioeconomic status (SES)

Monitors

regulates or controls consumption by others

Identification

relate to the group- the they "like me" and I "like them" principle. A somewhat closer and more dependent and satisfying relationship with a group that true of compliance.

Maintainers

services or repairs the product

Ethnic Subcultures

share a common: (1) race, (2) nationality, (3) language

Social Group Values

shared ideals within a social group

Primary groups

small intimate groups that meet regularly and communicate face-to-face

Expert Power

social agent has skill in or authoritative knowledge of a subject through formal training, education, occupation, or experience.

Nonmembership Groups

social groups to which a person doesn't belong (but might qualify to join and might wish to join)

Membership Groups

social groups to which an individual belongs, having achieved formal or informal group acceptance.

Reference Groups

social groups used as a reference point or frame of reference for shaping an individual's thinking and behavior.

Trade Up

splurge selectively on luxury brands found emotionally satisfying or conspicuous premiumization prices by marketers

Cohort Effects

stemming from one's birth era and the macroenvironment in which one grew up, determining memories of common life events, core values, behavioral norms, etc.

Social Psychologists

study the influence of social factors on individual and group thinking, attitudes, and behavior

Consumption Subcultures

subcultures whose members share an avocational interest(hobby) and hence a commitment to and ritualistic consumption of a particular product category, brand, or consumption activity.

Culture

the values, symbols, beliefs, and other cultural components shared by a society

Wife-Dominant (matriarchal)

the wife or female head-of-household makes a majority of the decisions

Positioning

upscale, midscale, or downscale especially by user and usage situation, as well as by SC values

Formal Legitimate Power

use formal authority-power to set and enforce social standards, due to position or role in the social group.

Emulation

wannabe

Weighted factor score method

yields a weighted average of several variables to calculate an overall index of a person's SC

Dissolution Stage

"til death do us part."

Rokeach Value Scale

"beliefs about desirable end states or modes of conduct that transcend specific situations, guide selection or evaluation of behavior, and are ordered by importance in relation to one another to form a system of values.

Demarketing

"unselling" products or behaviors associated with a social group whom the marketer wishes to turn into either a disclaimant group or maintain as a dissociative group

Cognitive components

(1) cultural knowledge, and (2) cultural attitudes

Certification Marks

a firm certifies the origin, grade, or quality of goods made by another firm

Honeymooner Stage

Married pre-children

Consumers as Role Players

Much CB resembles actors in a play, with products as props, clothing & accessories as costumes. Service worker interactions are a performance.

Symbolic reference groups

Nonmembership groups that an individual admires but does not expect to qualify to join

Parenthood Stage

One + kids still in the nest

Indirect Reference Groups

Reference groups or reference persons with whom a person lacks face-to-face contact. Nonetheless, the individual can observe and thus be influenced by them

Trade Down

Save $$ on less important goods sold at discount prices to be able to splurge on more important goods

Bachelorhood Stage

Single pre-marriage

Upward-pull Strategy

Target the aspiring X Class but position as X + 1 Class via that class's values, lifestyles, behaviors, users & usage situations, etc.

Warner's Index of Status Characteristics (ISC)

Warner ISC score = (occupation rating score x 4) + (source of income score x 3) + (house type score x 3) + (dwelling area score x 2)

Subculture (microculture)

a cultural subgroup within the macroculture (core culture)-the mainstream culture at large (society). A segment of a larger culture whose members share distinguishing subcultural characteristics. Defined/identified based on demographic, psychographic, and behavioral variables

Social Mobility

appeal to where consumers are headed, plan to head, or wish they were headed

Social Group Roles

appropriate behavior for a particular person or position within a social group.

Life-Stage Effects

arising from moving through important milestone personal life events

Conventions

behaving in everyday life/routine occurrences

Superstitions

beliefs that result from ignorance, fear of the unknown, or trust in magic or chance.

Crossover Sales

broadening the appeal of a product originally marketed exclusively to a particular subculture to the macroculture.

Legal Codes/Public Policy

cofidy morality. the law both reflects our values and teaches values

Instrumental Roles

concerns practical, utilitarian decisions. Relates to functional needs

Utilitarian influence

conform to group expectations and standards in order to gain rewards or to avoid punishment.

The Gilly and Enis Modernized FLC

considers many of the above demographic and lifestyle trends. Ages of parents also considered.

Social aggregates

crowds: members have nothing in common except temporarily occupying the same time and place.

Buying Centers

decision-making units within organizations. the consist of individuals from various functional areas

Status Crystallization

degree of consistency in how one rates on the various SES factors-social status indicators don't correlate with one another

Geographic Subcultures

differences you've noted in your USA travels?

Disposers

disposes of the consumed product

Product Icons

distinctive, enduring brand symbols that hold significant nostalgic value or deep meaning for consumers.

Single-Variable (item) SC indexes

estimate SC and predict resulting CB using a single socioeconomic variable with (1) intuition, (2) index numbers

Composite-variable (item) SC indexes

estimate SC using several socioeconomic variables

Evaluators

evaluates product performance, either for self or others

Underprivileged

families are significantly below their SC's median income and so can't afford some products considered appropriate for their class. Must buy some products for the X-1 SC

Overprivilege

families have an income level significantly higher than the median in their class and so can buy relatively high-priced products, such as those consumed by the X+1 SC

Gatekeepers

gathers and controls information to aid decisions

Cultural Knowledge

general shared awareness.info

Preparers

get the product ready for consumption

Compliance

go along to get along. A relatively weak degree of group influence adopted instrumentally (useful) by an individual to obtain the group's approval or gain extrinsic rewards/avoid punishments

Public Goods

goods free markets cannot (or will not) provide b/c unprofitable. Have to be provided by the government, because no one without taxing power can efficiently provide them

Planned Groups

groups formed by individuals or organizations for some specific purpose. Members usually share close relationships and camaraderie.

Secondary groups

groups lacking regularity of contact and face-to-face communication. Of secondary importance!

Two-tier marketing

targeting marketing efforts upscale and/or downscale due to bifurcation of incomes & wealth into high & low strata and shrinking MC

Reward Power

the agent's ability to gain compliance via administering rewards for desired actions.

Coercive (punitive) Power

the agent's ability to gain compliance via dispensing sanctions for undesirable behavior

Cultural Environment

the complex of meaningful symbols, artifacts, and socially learned knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors acquired and transmitted by members of society from generation to generation with alterations

Informational influence

the consumer uses the attitudes and behaviors of reference group member to gain information and advice.

Social Power

the degree to which a social agent can influence others' thinking, attitudes, and/or behaviors

Role Dominance

the extent to which husbands and wives influence the final decision relative to each other and additional family members

Husband-Dominant (patriarchal)

the husband or male head-pf-household makes a majority of the decisions

Semiotics

the investigation of symbolic meaning

Family Role Structure

the part that each family member plays at each stage of the decision-making process

Family Life Cycle (FLC)

the phases either a family of procreation or a family of orientation typically goes through in forming, developing, and ultimately dissolving

Childhood Socialization

the process by which children acquire the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to function as consumers

Family Decision Making

the process by which decisions that directly or indirectly affect 2+ family members are made by 1+ family members

Cohort Analysis

the process of describing and explaining the current values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of a generation, as well as predicting its future values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors

Consumer Socialization

the process whereby children, teenagers, and young adults learn skills, knowledge, and attitudes to effectively function in the marketplace.

Socialization

the process whereby people learn the social roles, knowledge, and behaviors they need in order to effectively participate in society or social groups.

Relative Occupational Class Income

the relationship of a family's total income to the median income of other families in the same SC.

Status Positions

the relative rankings of members of the social group regarding prestige, respect, power, and influence within the group

Demography

the science of describing a society's broad vital observable population characteristics