TOPIC

Social Class, Status & Consumer Behavior Reference Group and Influences on Consumer

Behavior

Presented By:Gyan Prakash GuptaAjendra ThakurPGDM-IV TERM.

Social class and Consumer behavior

“Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society.”

It is defined as division of members of a society into a hierarchy of distinct status classes, so that members of each class have relatively the same status and members of all other classes either have more or less classes.

Individuals are classifieds in terms of wealth, power and prestige.

Members of the same class tend to share common values, belief and behavior.

Social class categories are in a Hierarchy ranking from low to high status.

Measurement of social class

1.Subjective measuresindividuals are asked to estimate their own social-class positions.

2.Reputational measuresinformants make judgments concerning the social-class membership of others within the community.

3.Objective measuresindividuals answer specific socioeconomic questions and then are categorized according to answers

often measured in terms of social status

To estimate social class, status factor i.e.

Relative wealth

Power

Prestige

are frequently used.

The dynamics of status consumption

It is a related concept based on consumption A Five question status consumption scale…

I would buy a product just because it has a status.

I am interested in new product with status.

I would pay more for a new product if it has status.

The status of a product is irrelevant to me.

A Product it more valuable to me if it has some snob appeal

Social-class categories

Two category social-class• Blue collar, white collar•Lower, upper•Lower, middle

Three category•Blue collar, gray collar, white collar•Lower, middle, upper

Four category• Lower, lower-middle, upper –middle, upper

Five category • Lower, lower-middle, middle, upper –middle, upper

Cont…

Six category•Lower-lower, upper-lower, Lower-Middle, Upper-Middle, Lower-Upper, Upper-Upper

Seven Category•Real lower-lower, A lower group of people but not the lowest, working class, middle class, upper-middle, lower-upper, upper-upper

Nine category social class •(L-L,M-L,U-L,L-M,M-M,U-M,L-U,M-U,U-U)

Percent Distribution of Five Category Social- Class Measure

Social- Class %

Upper 4.3 Upper-middle 13.8 Middle 32.8 Working 32.3 Lower 16.8

Selected consumer-related reference groups

Friendship group (informal groups, unstructured)

Shopping groups (two or more people who shop together) Work groups (the sheer amount of time that people spend at their jobs)

Virtual groups or communities (ex. internet)

Brand communities

Consumer action groups

Celebrities

Influences on Consumer Behavior

Internal influences

Consumer behavior is influenced by: •demographics, •lifestyle, •personality, •motivation, •knowledge, •attitudes, •beliefs, and •feelings. Consumer behavior concern with consumer need consumer actions in the direction of satisfying needs leads to his behavior of every individuals depend on thinking.

External influences

Consumer behavior is influenced by: •culture, •sub-culture, •Personal factors, •social factors,• Psychological Factor,•past experience reference groups, etc.

Culture: Culture is consider as a set of rules, values, beliefs behavior and concepts that is common to and binds together the member of a society.

Sub-culture: Subculture has its own set of subcultures. A subculture is a culture followed by a group of people within a culture that is distinctly identified within a larger society.

DIVERSITY BY INDIAN RAILWAYS INDIAN VILLAGE BY AMUL

Emerging Culture Rituals & Tradition