CONSUMER

BEHAVIOUR

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Akash Bose
Under the guidance of Payal
Agarawal Maam

FAMILY LIFE CYCLE

WHAT IS FAMILY
DEFINITION:
Family is a more or less durable
association of husband and wife with
or without children or a man and a
woman with children.
Is defined as a group of two or more
people (one of whom is a
householder) related by birth,
marriage or adoption and residing
together

TYPES OF FAMILY

FUNCTIONS OF FAMILY
Provides Economic Well Being
Provides Emotional Support
Provides Suitable Life Style
Provides Social Relationships
Provides Morals and Ethical Values
Provides Religious Values
Provides Interpersonal Skills

SOCIALIZATION
Socialization is the process by which
young people acquire skills,
knowledge and attitudes relevant to
their functioning in marketing place.
Socialization takes place at two
stages, one during childhood, as
family of orientation, and two after
marriage as family of procreation.

SOCIALIZATION MODEL
Young
Young Person
Person
Other
Other Family
Family
Members
Members
Influence
Influence More
More Basic
Basic
Values/Behavior
Values/Behavior
Moral/religious
Moral/religious principles
principles
Interpersonal
Interpersonal skills
skills
Dress/grooming
Dress/grooming
standards
standards
Manners
Manners and
and speech
speech
Educational
Educational motivation
motivation
Occupational
Occupational career
career
goals
goals
Consumer
Consumer behavior
behavior
norms
norms

Friends
Friends
Influence
Influence More
More
Expressive
Expressive
Attitudes/Behavior
Attitudes/Behavior
Style
Style
Fashion
Fashion
Fads
Fads
In/Out
In/Out
Acceptable
Acceptable consumer
consumer
behavior
behavior

FAMILY LIFE CYCLE

TRADITIONAL
MODERN

TRADITIONAL FAMILY LIFE

CYCLE
The traditional family life cycle is a
progression of stages through which many
families pass, starting with the
bachelorhood, moving on to marriage, then
to family growth, to family contraction, and
ending with the dissolution of the basic unit.
The following slides explains in detail the 5
stages and shows how they lend
themselves to market segmentation
strategies

Stage 1 :Bachelorhood
Young single adult (male/female) living apart from parents and into a
livelihood.
Incomes are low as they have just started a career, financial burdens
and responsibilities are also low.

Have a high level of disposable income.

Priorities and Preferences of Purchase:
Tend to spend their money on house rent, basic furniture and kitchen
equipment.
Recreation oriented and like to spend on purchase of automobiles,
travel, adventure sports, health clubs, clothes and fashion
accessories.
Implications for Marketers:
Marketers realize that bachelors possess large disposable income.
Are an attractive segment for sports, travel, entertainment and fun.

Stage 2 :
HONEYMOONERS

Comprises of a newly married couple and

continues till the first child is born.
One of the spouses or both may be working.
They are financially better off .
If both are working, income is higher.
Priorities and Preferences of Purchase:
Tend to spend on creating a home for
themselves, cars, household appliances,
vacations.
Implications for Marketers:
Form an attractive segment for the marketer

Stage 3 : Parenthood
The stage comprises married couple with children
and extends for about 20-25year period
Could be further broken up into three stages, viz.,
Full Nest I, Full Nest II and Full Nest III.
Throughout these stages, the size and structure of
the family gradually changes, so does income and
expenses with varying priorities.
Priorities and Preferences of Purchase:
Family continues to spend on food, clothes for
teenagers, higher education.
New furniture, electronic goods and appliances
and cars.
Real estate, medical expenses.
Implications for Marketers:

Stage 4: Postparenthood

Occurs once children have left home.

They leave home first for education, and then for
employment.
This stage has also been broken into two stages, viz., Empty
Nest I and Empty Nest II.
As one moves across Empty Nest I and II, the size and
structure of the family changes.

Priorities and Preferences of Purchase:

Higher disposable incomes because of savings and
investments, and they have fewer expenses.
Decide to spend on all that they had been thinking to spend
on.
Spend money on food, travel and holidays.
Medical expenses rise.

Implications for Marketers:

Many industries provide special discounts in travel and stay
as Senior Citizen benefits, for example, hotels, airlines and

Stage 5: Dissolution

Occurs when one of the couple dies, and

leaves behind the other surviving spouse.

Priorities and Preferences of Purchase:

The primary expenditure is on medicines,
checkups with doctors and restrictive diet.
Implications for Marketers:

The stage is characteristic of a

widow/widower with lower income and least
shopping and expenses.

MODIFICATIONS IN THE
TRADITIONAL FLC

Middle-aged,
divorced,
without
children

Young,
divorced,
without
children

Young
,
single

Young,
married,
without
children

Usual
flow
Recycled
flow

Middle-aged,
married,
without
children

Young,
married,
with
children

Young,
divorced,
with
children

Middle
aged,
married,
with
children

Middleaged,
divorced,
with
children

Middleaged,
married,
without
dependen
t children

Older,
marrie
d

Middle-aged,
divorced,
without
dependent
children

Older,
unmarri
ed

Tradition
al Family
Flow

NON-TRADITIONAL FLC STAGES

The non-traditional stages
include not only family
households but also non-family
households.
The following slides explains in
detail the non-traditional Family
Life Cycle stages.

FAMILY HOUSEHOLDS
1. CHILDLESS COUPLE:
Married couples in the modern society possibly elect not
to have children.

Priorities and Preferences of Purchase:

Mostly spend on creating a home for themselves, cars,
household appliances, vacations.

Interested in Donation and social issues.

Implications for Marketers:

Marketers can focus on them largely with packages/offers
featuring both of them equally and making them feel
important as a member of society they live in.

2. COUPLES WHO MARRY LATER:

More career-oriented men and women and

greater occurrence of couples living together.

Likely to have no children.

Priorities and Preferences of Purchase:

Tend to fall for even more education , thus going
abroad for their PhD. Or masters.
As they were career-oriented all their life, they
may tend to spend on vacations and outings.
Implications for Marketers:
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3. COUPLES WHO HAVE FIRST CHILD LATER:

Likely to have fewer children.

Lead a stress quality lifestyle.

Priorities and Preferences of Purchase:

Spend most of their income on children, medical
expenses, on food, saves money for childs
future.
Implications for Marketers:

Marketers may put forth ideas involving

children as their prime target or motive and
focusing on their well being.

Medical insurances, safety for family.

4. SINGLE PARENT :
(a)High divorce rates contribute to a portion of
singleparent households.
(b) Young man or woman who has one or more
children out of wedlock.
(c) A single person who adopts one or more children.

Priorities and Preferences of Purchase:

Spends most of their income on the child.

Medical expenses, education etc.

Implications for Marketers:

Marketers may put forth ideas involving children as
their prime target or motive and focusing on their
well being.

5. EXTENDED FAMILY:
Young single-adult children who return home to avoid the expenses of
living alone.
Divorced daughter or son return back to their parents/grand parents.

Elderly parents who move in with their children.

Newlyweds living with their in-laws.

Priorities and Preferences of Purchase:
The family mostly tend to spend on food, medical expenses rise.
Family continues to spend on clothes for teenagers, higher education.

New furniture, electronic goods and appliances and cars.

Implications for Marketers:
At this stage, income begins to increase as the children begin to earn.
As expenses see a rise, the stage offers a potential for marketers.

NONFAMILY HOUSEHOLDS

1. UNMARRIED COUPLES:
Homosexual or heterosexual relationships.

Priorities and Preferences of Purchase:

Tend to spend on creating a home for themselves,
cars, household appliances, vacations.
Implications for Marketers:
Marketers have a good chance of doing a business
when working with these.

2. DIVORCED PERSONS(no children):

Divorce contributes to dissolution of

households before children are born.

Priorities and Preferences of Purchase:

Engaging in recreation activities as a result of
their sad life.

Spends their income on themselves.

Implications for Marketers:
Marketers do not look forward to working with
these as their purchase is low and fluctuating.

3. SINGLE PERSONS:
Primarily a result of delaying first
marriage.
Men and woman who never marry.

Mostly young.
Priorities and Preferences of Purchase:

Implications for Marketers:

4. WIDOWED PERSONS:

Longer life expectancy, especially for women,

means more over 75 single person households.

Mostly elderly.

Priorities and Preferences of Purchase:

Higher disposable incomes because of savings and
investments, and they have fewer expenses.
The primary expenditure is on medicines, checkups
with doctors and restrictive diet.
Implications for Marketers:
The stage is characteristic of a widow/widower with
lower income and least shopping and expenses.