The role of Family in marketing

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one." Jane However

The basic structure of the family has changed drastically throughout the years. Some examples of the families that now exist are: traditional families, single parent families, cultural families, multi-generational families, mixed families, and same-sex parent families. Diversity is present in every individual and in every family.


There are four different kinds of families:
1. Nuclear family- a family group consisting of most commonly, a father and mother and their children

2. Extended family(or joint family)
Extended families can include, aside from parents and their children:
•spouses of children, inlaws
•cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews,
•foster children/adopted children etc.

3. Family of orientation- the family one is born into.

4. Family of procreation- the family founded through marriage

“One can also distinguish one’s natal family or family of orientation, the family into which one is born, from one’s family of procreation, the family one creates through, and following, one’s marriage” (Parkin, 1997, p. 30).

It is obvious that family pattern is different now than 20 or 30 years ago. The main changes are:

•Increasing number of births out of marriage
•Increase in one parent families (1/7)
•Increase in step families
•Nuclear family is being challenged by the “horizontal” family of step children and step parents
•Increasing no. of widowed living on own

What is more:

•Average household size is 2.4 people in 2001
•Dramatic increase in one person households 12% in 1961, 26% in 1990, 6.8 million in 2001 – 28%
•More than 50% of women over the age of 65 years live on their own
•Life expectancy for women is 78.8 years for men is 73.2 years
•Divorces have increased to 1 in 3
•7% of households in 2001 – single parents
•Employment rate of women is one of the highest in Europe
•One quarter of married women work 30 hours plus

A family’s needs are affected by the number of children, their ages and whether one, two or more adults are employed outside the home.



"The emotional and intellectual stages you pass through from childhood to your retirement years as a member of a family are called the family life cycle. In each stage, you face challenges in your family life that cause you to develop or gain new skills. Developing these skills helps you work through the changes that nearly every family goes through."

"Not everyone passes through these stages smoothly. Situations such as severe illness, financial problems, or the death of a loved one can have an effect on how well you pass through the stages. Fortunately, if you miss skills in one stage, you can learn them in later stages."
The stages of the family life cycle are:
•Independence.
•Coupling or marriage.
•Parenting: Babies through adolescents.
•Launching adult children.
•Retirement or senior years.

"Whether you are a parent or child, brother or sister, bonded by blood or love, your experiences through the family life cycle will affect who you are and who you become. The more you understand about the challenges of each stage of the cycle, the more likely you are to successfully move on."

More about this topic:
http://www.childhoodaffirmations.com/general/family/stages.html


Field (1969) identified three dimensions to determine relative influences of husband, wife, child:
•discernment or technical know how
•price - expensiveness - who pays
•satisfaction - who uses

Family Buying Organisation:
•Gatekeeper
•User
•Influencer
•Buyer
•Decider

"Some studies investigate the effect of one component of spousal influence - family power - on the innovative consumer decisions perceived to be made independently by one's mate. A wife, by virtue of her greater relative exercise of family power, exerts a high degree of influence over the innovative consumer decisions made by her husband. Specifically, it was hypothesized that a wife will have more influence over the choices perceived to be made by her husband than will he."

Family member influence in Household decision making:
http://www.jstor.org/pss/2488992

Children’s influence on household purchases:
•Research shows that many family purchases other than toys are influenced by children
•Children tend to be heavy TV viewers so likely to be exposed to more ads than other groups

Parents of young children have an important role to play in protecting their kids from invasive marketing, and in educating them about advertising from an early age.

According to Consumer Reports magazine, "young children have difficulty distinguishing between advertising and reality in ads, and ads can distort their view of the world."

Research has shown that children between the ages of two and five cannot differentiate between regular TV programming and commercials. Young children are especially vulnerable to misleading advertising and don't begin to understand that advertisements are not always true until they're eight.

According to the Canadian Toy Testing Council the biggest area of concern with toy ads in Canada is exaggeration. Young children often think a toy actually can do a lot more than it can because of the way toys are portrayed in advertisements.