Consumer Socialization and Role of Family in Decission Making

Many attitudes and behaviors have their origins in the family. The majority of products and product categories target families as their primary consumer base. A family is the smallest unit of social organization and is made up of two or more people who live together and are related by blood, marriage, or adoption. Making people behave in a way that is acceptable to their culture is known as socialization. In the marketing context, the socialization function of family members, from young children to adults, is the key role to be considered. This process includes teaching young children fundamental moral principles, social skills, appropriate standards of dress and grooming, proper manners and speech, and the choice of appropriate academic and occupational or career goals. It also includes imparting to them the basic values and modes of behavior consistent with their culture.

Purchase decisions of families:

Families operate as units that have a distinct decision-making process from the individual decision-making process. Each family member has a direct or indirect role in decision-making and consumption. The children's position in the family influence the decision-making, and each family members have different roles in the acquisition, use, and maintenance of the belongings. The majority of consumer research categorises family consumption choices as being made by the husband, the wife, jointly, or autonomously.

The importance of a husband and wife in consumer decision-making depends upon the type of goods or services. Children also participate more actively in the family's purchasing decisions and decision-making process than they did before. Understanding the trends in the family’s consumer behavior is challenges as marketing research questionnaires are made to be given to only one respondent at a time, additionally, it may not be possible to interview everyone in the family at once as different family members may have different decision-making patterns.

Family life cycle

The stages of a family's life are called a family life cycle. The family life cycle takes into account the factors such as marital status, family size, member ages (with an emphasis on the oldest or youngest child), and the head of the household's employment status. The family's stage in the cycle is used to determine the parents' ages and the proportion of disposable income. The beginning of the family life cycle is singleness or bachelorhood, followed by marriage (and the creation of the family unit). Marriage typically results in a family expanding (with the birth of children) and subsequently contracting (as grown children leave the household). The breakdown of the family unit marks the end of the cycle (due to the death of one spouse). Marketers consider the stages of the family life cycle for effective marketing communications.

Demographics, lifestyles, and consumption patterns of social classes.

Lifestyles, consumption patterns, leisure activities, hobbies, media exposure, and scores of other factors are homogeneous within and heterogeneous among social classes. Seven types of social classes are:

Upper-Upper class—inherited wealth and privilege;

Nouveau Riche—new money;

Upper-Middle class—high educational attainment and prestige;

Lower-Middle class—semi-professional, non-managerial employees and skilled craftspeople, whose lifestyle is considered average;

Upper-Lower class—solidly blue collar, with highly routinized jobs and steady incomes;

Working Poor—low on the social ladder and economically insecure); and

Underclass—mostly unemployed and dependent on the government).