Marketing 371: Chapter 11
The average American's standard of living continues to improve. These income shifts are linked to two key factors: ________.
a shift in women's roles and increases in educational attainment
We tend to marry people in a similar social class to our own. Sociologists call this ________, or assortative mating.
homogamy
Which of the following questions would be LEAST likely to appear on a questionnaire designed to determine consumer confidence?
"Are you happy with your employer and job?"
Rachel doesn't work, has a rich and successful husband, and loves to wear high-heeled shoes, tight clothes, and flamboyant hairstyles. According to Veblen's ideas, Rachel's role is decorative.
T
The flamboyant consumption of the nouveau riche is an example of symbolic self-completion.
T
________ defines a pattern of consumption reflecting a person's choices on how he or she spends their time and money.
Lifestyle
According to a classic view of the American class structure, the newer social elites, drawn from current professionals, belong to which of the following social class categories?
Lower-Upper
In school, it always seemed as if Kenneth got all the breaks. He had access to all the right resources, such as special privileges, fancy cars, a large allowance, and dates with all the beautiful girls. Even at work, he was put on the fast track and got promoted early to a high-prestige job. It seemed as if Kenneth was artificially ranked higher than others. The process that best describes what happened to Kenneth is called ________.
ascribed status
A person who is born into a rich, powerful family is said to have ________ status.
ascribed
If the super rich bought "shredded Levi's jeans" to wear to formal parties, they would be exhibiting a sophisticated form of conspicuous consumption known as ________.
parody display
With respect to social organization, some barnyard animals exhibit signs of a dominance-submission hierarchy. Which of the following terms best communicates such a hierarchy?
pecking order
Sharon noticed that many of her high-end, outdoor spa customers drive Volvos, a luxury car known for its safety record and high performance. Which of the following terms best illustrates what Sharon has observed in her customers?
product complementarity
Education is one determining factor in who gets a bigger piece of the economic pie.
T
The term affluenza refers to ________.
well-off consumers who are stressed or unhappy despite or even because of their wealth
Lifestyle is a statement about who one is in society and who one is not.
T
________ refers to the passage of individuals from one social class to another.
Social mobility
A biography of a famous American woman indicated that she never married the man she loved the most because his family status and income didn't meet her goals. This is evidence of the strength of hierogamy in some people's lives
T
A co-branding strategy was being utilized when the Taco Bell Chihuahua showed up in a commercial for Geico insurance.
T
Discretionary income is the money available to a household over and above that required for a comfortable standard of living.
T
Eddie just bought a vintage Prowler. He can hardly wait to have the guys at the office drool when they see him drive up in this extremely expensive purple "hot rod." Eddie's reason for the purchase falls into the category described by Thorstein Veblen as invidious distinction.
T
________ are wealthy individuals who are likely to suffer from status anxiety, trying to display symbols of their success to make up for an internal lack of assurance about the "correct" way to behave.
The nouveau riche
The lower classes use more restrictive codes than do the upper classes. How does this knowledge change the way insurance might be sold to a working-class man compared to an upper-class man?
The promotion to the working-class man should emphasize his immediate satisfaction in knowing that his family will be cared for, while the upper-class promotion should emphasize the long-term consequences of the choice.
Amos always felt that it was unfair that society created artificial divisions that discouraged him from having friends from different social structures. Which of the following terms describes the process that Amos is having difficulty with?
social stratification
A person in the middle class, but with an income at least 15 percent lower than the median for the middle class, would be known as a(n) ________ consumer.
underprivileged
According to the class structure outlined in the text, most business managers and university professors would be in the ________ class
upper-middle
Mr. Patterson is 57 years old. His annual household income is $500,000. He has been married to the same woman most of his adult life. He doesn't spend much on clothing. According to research, how is Mr. Patterson different from the typical American millionaire?
His household income is greater
Which of the following theorists is best known for arguing that an individual's relationship to the means of production determines his position in society
Karl Marx
If a social researcher wanted to investigate social status in a small city, her best choice for a questionnaire would be one that included questions or observations on education, area of residence, total family income per year, and ________.
occupation prestige level of the household head
Jason is a marketing researcher working for a client who believes that social class will be an important segmenting device. Jason decides to find social class categories by simply asking respondents to pick their own category. Which of the following best supports Jason's approach?
American consumers generally have little difficulty accurately placing themselves in the lower-middle class or middle class.
Psychologists use the term homogamy to describe "assortative mating." Which of the following phrases is the best illustration of homogamy
Birds of a feather flock together
________ income is the money available to a household over and above that required for a comfortable standard of living.
Discretionary
Lee-Ann Wang is young and enjoys risky experiences such as skydiving, bungee jumping, and snowboarding. To which of the following VALS2 groups would Lee-Ann most likely belong?
Experiencers
American spendthrifts outnumber American tightwads.
F
Conspicuous waste is the opposite of conspicuous consumption because one is aimed at showing how important a person's wealth is, and the other is aimed at showing how unimportant his or her wealth is.
F
Lower-class men are more likely than middle-class men to have a general sense of empowerment.
F
Many 20-somethings have rebelled against their more affluent parents by mocking wealth, wearing shredded jeans, and driving boxy cars. These are examples of what is called a modern potlatch.
F
Of the three groups of attitudes toward luxury, the largest group is "luxury is indulgence"; this view is held mainly by seniors with wealth.
F
Social capital refers to an individual's knowledge of the "right" behavior used in the realm of the upper class.
F
Social class appears to be a poor predictor of purchases that have symbolic aspects and low to moderate prices (such as liquor and cosmetics).
F
The general method for elevating one's social status is to increase the use of ascribed status tools.
F
The prestige of occupations varies dramatically from one culture to the next.
F
The term plutonomy was coined to describe an economy that relies on a large and healthy middle class.
F
Using the product-specific profile form of psychographic studies, a researcher would look for items that differentiate between users and nonusers of a product.
F
With respect to codes that are used by separate social classes, middle and upper classes tend to use restricted codes.
F
Measures of consumer confidence can help marketers predict how much money consumers will pump into the economy through discretionary purchases.
T
Mothers with preschool children are the fastest-growing segment of working people
T
The American rich often indulge in luxury goods while pinching pennies on everyday items.
T
The entire upper class (upper-upper and lower-upper combined) comprises less than 2 percent of all Americans.
T
Tian Zhao's parents were peasants from central China. Tian got a degree in electronics from a university and now works for a medium-sized technology firm. Tian recently purchased a Canon camera and a Dell computer, and he wears Nike running shoes. He shares an apartment with a co-worker and hopes to buy a house in five years. Tian is a member of the mass class
T
A person who receives rewards and status because of hard work is said to have ________ status.
achieved
Richard worked very hard on his grades and worked after school part time to be able to afford tutors to help him advance his education. When he was named valedictorian of his class, he earned a certain status. The best term to describe the form of status that Richard earned is ________.
achieved status
Fred Johnson has worked hard all of his life to make a decent living for himself and his family. However, in recent years he has become obsessed with a fear of being ruined, either because of losing his job or losing all of his savings. According to clinical psychologists, Fred Johnson's fear of being ruined is equated to which of the following phobias?
atephobia
Product ________ occurs when the symbolic meanings of different products are related to one another.
complementarity
Harry was the lead singer in a band that hit it big. For his birthday, Harry had two hundred friends flown by chartered jets to a private island in the South Pacific. They ate the most expensive food, and every morning the bungalows were burned to the ground and rebuilt for the next night. Harry's party is a good example of ________.
conspicuous consumption
Consumers' beliefs about what the future holds are an indicator of ________.
consumer confidence
Consumers use a set of products called a(n) ________ to define, communicate, and perform social roles.
consumption constellation
Evan was an aggressive, rich, and determined businessman originally from a working class family. He become wealthier than he had ever imagined by buying and selling other businesses. Evan seemingly could do anything until he tried a hostile takeover of an established bank owned by several prestigious families. When his bid failed, Evan said, "I always knew there was an elite, but up to now I thought I was a part of it." What type of capital was Evan lacking?
cultural
The hundreds of millions of consumers around the world who can now afford higher quality products belong to the ________.
mass class
Sixteen-year-old Michael wanted a car. One evening while his father was paying bills, Michael looked over his father's shoulder and saw how much money had been placed in the checking account. He whistled and said, "I thought you said that you didn't have enough money to buy me a used car. In just one month, you could buy me the car I want." Michael's father then gave him a lecture on the differences between income and what is left after money is spent on utilities, mortgages, insurance premiums, and food. "Total income," his father said, "is not the same as ________ income, the source from which your unnecessary car would have to come."
discretionary
Fred has been a farmer all his life. He inherited the family farm when he was 35, but that was twenty years ago. It looks like he is going to lose the farm and have to take a manual labor job in the city to support his family. What form of mobility best describes Fred's position?
downward mobility`
Which of the following refers to consumers who refuse to sacrifice style but who achieve that style on a budget?
frugalistas
Pierre Bourdieu concluded that "taste" is a ________ that causes consumption preferences to cluster together.
habitus
Vance comes from the lower-upper class, while Jeff comes from the lower-middle class. They are both madly in love with Julia, who is beautiful enough to do part-time modeling. According to the principle of ________, Julia is most likely to be attracted to Vance.
hierogamy
Sandra Jackson decided to become a nurse after several years as an elementary teacher. She still wanted to help people; she just wanted to do it differently. Sandra's case is an example of which of the following?
horizontal mobility
Social analyst Thorstein Veblen believed that we buy things to create ________. This means we use our purchases to inspire envy in others through our display of wealth or power.
invidious distinction
The ________ marketing perspective recognizes that people sort themselves into groups on the basis of the things they like to do, how they like to spend their leisure time, and how they choose to spend their disposable income.
lifestyle
Social class is a strong predictor of purchases that have symbolic aspects, but low to moderate prices. Which of the following is the best example of a product with those characteristics?
liquor
The phenomenon called ________ refers to the creation of artificial divisions in a society.
social stratification
Consumers who are ________ love buying everything in sight
spendthrifts
Trisha grew up in a drug-ridden inner-city neighborhood. Through sheer determination and intelligence, Trisha is now a medical doctor teaching on the staff of a large university hospital. Trisha is proud of what she has accomplished, but sometimes she feels like she isn't quite sure who she really is. The concept of ________ assesses the impact of such inconsistencies.
status crystallization
Most groups exhibit a structure called a ________ in which some members are somehow better off than others.
status hierarchy
A Rolls-Royce, a Cartier diamond, and an Andy Warhol painting are all items bought and displayed as markers of social class. These products are ________.
status symbols
When people are differentiated in terms of their aesthetic and intellectual preferences, a ________ concept is being applied.
taste culture