Summary – Consumer Buyer Behaviour
Chapter 12
Social Class and Consumer Behaviour
12.1 INTRODUCTION
Social classes are the strata in the society. Social
classes group people status-wise. Each class has people
having more or less the same status. However, In
marketing, status is considered with respect to
household income, occupational choice and academic
achievements.
Social Class and Social Status: Status has evolved
considering three factors like wealth, power, and
prestige.
Some of the salient aspects of social class are as
given:
Social class is hierarchical - The hierarchical aspect
of social class is important to marketers.
Social class and market segmentation – The various
social-class strata provide a natural basis for
marketsegmentation for many products and services.
Social class and Behavioural Factors –Classification of
social classes has enabled researchers to note the
existence of shared values, attitudes, and behavioural
patterns among members within each social class.
Social class as a frame of reference – Socialclass
membership serves consumers as a frame of reference
([Link] group) for the development of their
attitudes and [Link] have often exploited
Summary – Consumer Buyer Behaviour
this behavioural need of a specific class to align with
its reference group, byseeking clues to their
advantage.
12.2 SOCIAL CLASS CATEGORIES
Warner has classified the society into six classes. The
classifications are as follows:
Upper-Upper –They are Microscopic, Elite, Wealth
inherited and value family reputation. This section
also believes in pedigree and is socially responsible.
Lower-Upper–This section has Wealth of first
generation, Neo-rich. It is a shade lesser than upper-
upper section. Choose good schools for children like
Doon School and Mayo College. Future generations
havechances to move to [Link] etiquettes of
the top-class.
Upper-Middle–Here the section is larger than the above
two classes. Financially stable and secured that
isincome is above average. They are
moderatelysuccessful professionals and businessmen.
Emulate the upper classes. Degree of success puts
adividing line between them and the two upper classes.
Lower-Middle - A large class. Supervisors, non-
managerial staff, traders, clerical staff, salespeople
and they alsovalue education.
Upper-Lower - Largest class who are Wage-earners or
more preciselyworking class. Strive for respectability.
Lower-Lower - Lowest income, unemployed. This class is
basicallyunderdeveloped anduneducated. They are daily
wage earners andlowoccupations.
12.3 THE MEASUREMENT OF SOCIAL CLASS
Summary – Consumer Buyer Behaviour
Social class based classification is well accepted as
an essential way to divide the [Link]
approaches for measuring social classes fall into the
following broad categories – subjectivemeasures,
reputational measures and objective measures.
Subjective measures:individuals are asked to estimate
their own social-class position from the given
alternatives such as the lower class, the lower middle
class, the upper middle class,and the upper class.
Reputational measures:The reputational approach for
measuring a social class takes the help of informants
to make judgementsconcerning the social class
membership of others within the community, rather than
themselves.
Objective measures:In this approach, selected
demographic or socio-economic variables concerning the
individuals under study arechosen for evaluation of
their social class.
Objective measures of social classes get further
divided into two basic categories – 1) single variable
indexesand 2) composite variable indexes.
Single Variable Indexes – A single variable index uses
just one socio-economic variable to evaluate social-
classmembership. Some of the most popular variables are
Education, Income, Employment, Ownership, and Networth.
Interestingly, when two individual variables are
matched and plotted differently, one composite
matrixcan emerge such as Occupation and Income.
Composite Variable Indexes – Composite indexes
systematically combine a number of socio-economic
factors to form one overall measure of social class
Summary – Consumer Buyer Behaviour
standing. Such indexes are of interest to marketers
because they may better reflect the complexity of
social classes than single variable indexes. Post
capturing the required single variables, a composite
variable index can be developed as needed for the
classification of your consumers.
Indian Context – It was found necessary to have socio-
economic categorisation for India. As mentioned in
marketing, demand is created only when a person with
wants, who has money and shows an intention to acquire
the goods that he desires.
Thus for Indian marketers, one composite index was
developed, known as SOCIO-ECONOMIC CATEGORISATION
(SEC), in which occupation of the individual and income
are considered. This is considered as traditional
classification and in the recent past, new SEC
classification has also been evolved in which their
education is considered along with their ownership of
durables. There is also a classification available for
rural India based on the nature of house owned by them,
and education.
Classes and its influence on purchasing – Marketers are
finally keen to know whether persons with a desire have
the ability to purchase or not. A person’s ability to
spend depends on his income. Thus based on income of
the family, social classes, namely higher class, middle
class and lower class have been evolved. You may
further expand this by re-classifying it as higher
class, higher middle, middle-middle, lower middle,
lower class and likewise.
Summary – Consumer Buyer Behaviour
12.4 CONSUMER SURVEY: INDIA’S RICH
As per the published NCAER’s study of Super-Affluent
Indian Consumer - 2001, around 1.058 million
householdsin India have an income in excess of Rs. 5
lakh a year, which is just 0.61 per cent of the 171.9
million householdsin the [Link] first category is
that of The Rich having income greater than Rs. 5 lakh
per [Link], these people are upwardly mobile.
Some of these are DINK or ‘doubleincome no kids’
households.
The super-rich have an income greater than Rs. 10 lakh
per annum. There are less DINK families here than in
the rich category. Mostly, they are professionals. They
are devoted toconsumerism.
The Ultra-rich category has an income greater than Rs.
20 lakh per annum.
The Sheer-rich category is made up by households having
an income exceeding Rs. 50 lakh per annum.
The Obscenely-rich earns more than Rs. 1 crore per
annum.
Marketing to the Rich
They are a profitable niche, which is expanding fast.
These segments are quicker to adopt consumer
habitsconsidered premium. Stereotypes are no guide to
[Link] income means less expenditure on
household products, and more spending on out-of- home
activities. Social acceptance and status are powerful
drivers. Many offerings lose their impact of being
Summary – Consumer Buyer Behaviour
premium over a period of time. Some categories are
premium for different income groups.
Middle-Class
Though middle class is difficult to define, it has
three components – cultural, consumption pattern
andpsychographics. A middle class is a matter of
attitude or a state of mind. Income is an easier
criterion to definemiddle class.
The middle income categories constitute 60.5 million
households. If we take an average of five individuals
per household, there are 302.5 million individuals in
this middle income category. It is a useful surrogate
for middle class.
Next, Chapter Thirteen ‘The
Influence of Culture on
Consumer Behaviour’