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.

Generational Marketing

"The method of marketing to a specific generation is affecting the way that we promote and sell products and services. We are all a product of our generation. Each generation have their own characterestics, because of this as a marketing target we can usually categorize by generations by the way that we act and speak as well as our belief systems."

There are four popular generational categories that most marketers tend to focus on.
They include:
1.Millenials or Generation 2001ers, born after 1980
2.Baby Busters or Generation Xers born between 1965 and 1980
3.Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964
4.Mature Citizens born between 1909 and 1945

In order to market effectively to a generation we must find a way to grab their attention, by using a message that resonates with them. Generational determined lifestyles and social values exercise as much influence on buying and purchasing as more commonly understood demographic factors like income, education, and gender do - perhaps even more.

To succeed in generation marketing we must understand how the motivation of our consumers correlate with the underlying values of their generation. When we know this we are able to customize our message to cater to the generation when it comes to our products and services. We can then present the message with your products, services, and communication to their needs and desires.

Of course, every generation ultimately will pass through the same life stages, from youth to old age. As the younger generations find their place in society as consumers, employees and parents, it becomes more and more important for businesses to acknowledge this soon-to-be-powerful demographic. We have to build brand loyalty with them now, and we may reap the results for the rest of their lives.



Marketer’s Age Generation includes much more groups:
1.Pre-school
2.Children
3.Tweens
4.Teens
5.Generation Y
6.Generation X
7.Baby Boomers (young)
8.Baby Boomers (old)
9.Grey
–Over 55s
–Young Olds
–Old Olds
–Silver Surfers
–Skiers

UK resident population trends

I am going to write more about Generation X
Those people in their late twenties to early thirties belong to Generation X or those born between 1965 and 1977 (40 million people).

Generation X is a term used to identify people born after the post-World War II increase in birth rates (the baby boom) The term has been used in demography, the social sciences, and marketing, though it is most often used in popular culture.

In the UK the term was first used in a 1964 study of British youth by Jane Deverson.
Deverson was asked by Woman's Own magazine to interview teenagers of the time. The study revealed a generation of teenagers who "sleep together before they are married, don't believe in God, dislike the Queen, and don't respect parents," which was deemed unsuitable for the magazine because it was a new phenomenon.


Deverson, in an attempt to save her research, worked with Hollywood correspondent Charles Hamblett to create a book about the study. Hamblett decided to name it Generation X. Douglas Coupland's 1991 novel, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, about young adults (who were then in their late twenties) in the late 1980s, helped to popularize the term.

Generation X values espouse community, relationships, altruism and entrepreneurship.

Coming age after Vietnam, they witnessed the end of the cold war and saw the fall of the Berlin wall. This generation saw the inception of the home computer and later the Internet, as a tool for economic purposes: Dot.coms, MTV, Grunge music, Hip hop culture and Security-Moms attributed to this generation.

Unfortunately, they experience also some social problems: homelessness, AIDS and fractured families.

However, the US Census Bureau cites this group (Generation X) statistically as holding the highest education levels when looking at age group.

The generation X tend to has its own favourite brands, e.g. Apple, Levis, Lee, Nike etc.

"Gen X'ers were the first generation raised where consumption is a way of life,
X'ers buy because they want it."



"My name is Bill. I’m looking for a new computer and I’ve heard about Apple."



What is more, , generation X likes dark, sombre, intuitive and moody music. Their favourite artist is Michael Jackson.

Generation X distinguished a few sub-cultures, for example: Yuppies, New romantic, Gothz, Metal headz.



Furthermore, they are not so trusting on marketing. At this point in time, they look for a balance between work and leisure. Gen X-ers are close to their parents and they tend to live at home. They are not drawn to traditional forms of advertising such as hyping up products.
Gen X-ers express their need to stay in control by purchasing communications equipment such as:
·Beepers
·Fax machines
·Mobile phones

They prefer to buy products based on their practicality including personal care products. They are not so into latest trends or fads in clothing. They prefer foods that are healthy at the same time quick to prepare.

More reading about marketing generations: http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?pf_id=136

Group Behaviour

A group can be defined as "two or more humans that interact with one another, accept expectations and obligations as members of the group, and share a common identity." By this definition, society can be viewed as a large group, though most social groups are considerably smaller.
"A true group exhibits some degree of social cohesion and is more than a simple collection or aggregate of individuals, such as people waiting at a bus stop. Characteristics shared by members of a group may include interests, values, ethnic or social background, and kinship ties. According to Paul Hare, the defining characteristic of a group is social interaction."

When people act as a group they are stronger!

Groups can offer support and protection

It is easy to rip a single sheet of paper, but harder to tear a pack!



Types of groups:
-Primary groups are small groups with intimate, kin-based relationships, for example: families.
-Secondary groups, in contrast to primary groups, are large groups whose relationships are formal and institutional. They may last for years or may disband after a short time. The formation of primary groups happens within secondary groups.
-Reference groups are groups to which the individual conceptually relates him/herself, and from which he/she adopts goals and values as a part of his/her self identity.

There is also another classification of groups:




An example of DISASSOCIATIVE group:



And an example of chavs ;)



Aspirational adverts are very important in marketing. They definately influence customer's purchase. For me this is advert is absolutely fabulous:



We were talking about Maslow's hierarchy of needs as well. This diagram shows Maslow's hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom.



Maslow's hierarchy of needs is predetermined in order of importance.

The need for belonging can often overcome the physiological and security needs, depending on the strength of the peer pressure; an anorexic, for example, ignores the need to eat and the security of health for a feeling of control and belonging.
All humans have also a need to be respected, to have self-esteem, self-respect, and to respect others. People need to engage themselves to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution, to feel accepted and self-valued, be it in a profession or hobby. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem.

Social comparison theory is also very important. It is a theory initially proposed by social psychologist Leon Festinger in 1954. This theory explains how individuals evaluate their own opinions and desires by comparing themselves to others.

"In his initial theory, Festinger hypothesized several things. First, he stated that
humans have a drive to evaluate themselves by examining their opinions and abilities in comparison to others. To this, he added that the tendency to compare oneself with
some other specific person decreases as the difference between his opinion or ability and one’s own become more divergent. He also hypothesized that there is an upward drive towards achieving greater abilities, but that there are non-social restraints which make it nearly impossible to change them, and that this is largely absent in opinions" (Festinger, 1954).

Group behaviour is based on norms and values. All human groups have a culture consisting of shared values and norms. In social work groups, norms are standards of behavior that all members are expected to follow.
Norms reflect group values; for example, the norm of making group decisions by
consensus reflects somewhat different values than the norm of “majority rules.”
Norms determine the way in which groups solve problems, make decisions, and do their
work. They influence interactions between members and between the group and the facilitator.

Group norms tend to cluster around the following types of activity:
-Participation
-Decision-making
-Mutual aid
-Affective expression

More about this topic you will find in this article:
http://www.usd.edu/med/socialwork/dnorris/groupnorms.pdf

Group behaviour depends on your perceptions
In order to understand this statement we were watching some interesting videos showing how important is group pressure and how it influences our behaviour.




This is my favourite:


As Ruth said, the power to make an individual conform to group pressure and influence depends upon:
-importance of membership
-fear of negative sanctions
-degree of support from others

An interesting article explaining how group influence on product and brand purchase decision: http://www2.bc.edu/~woodsiar/nov%202%20reference%20grp.pdf