How The Household or Family

Influences Consumer Behaviour

• As discussed earlier, social class is an important
influence on the behaviour of consumers within a
household
• However, some researchers argue that the household
itself is the most important unit of analysis for consumer
behaviour because households make many more
acquisition, consumption, and disposition decisions
than individuals do.
 Types of Households

• A family is usually defined as a group of individuals

living together who are related by marriage, blood, or
adoption
• The most typical unit is the nuclear family,
consisting of a father, mother, and children
• The extended family consists of cousins
• Although the family is important almost everywhere
in the world, some countries and cultures exhibit a
stronger family orientation than others
• In Japan and China, for example, the family is a
focal point, and most people feel a very strong sense
of obligation to it
• Family in India is considered a social security blanket
and the traditional mindset still follows the age old
adage, ‘ the family which lives together, eats together’
• Though conventional family structures are breaking
down and joint families are few in the urban towns, yet
values, traditions and norms laid down by the family
are inherently visible in the family members, even
while staying in nuclear households
• The rural heartlands, however, present a
contrasting picture of the family, where the
cohesiveness and the intention to stay together is
more visible
• Contrastingly, in the urban households the family is
increasingly under pressure to disintegrate
• Increasing opportunities in urban metropolis and the
lure of the amenities in the bigger towns are
irrepressible for most households
• A study conducted in 2003, by JWT shortlisted 24
families from all over India- DINKs (Double Income No
Kids) in Bangalore, affluent Punjabs in Lajpat Nagar,
New Delhi, a middle class family from small town India
(Bareilly), middle class family in Mumbai, an MNC
executive family, an extended family in Warangal, and
so on
• The JWT focused on anthropology issues and
spent seven-days with the family to watch their
interplay
• The key issues that came out of the surveyed families
were;
(i) The world in your home: The effects of
consumerism and western lifestyle is beginning to take its
toll on households
(ii) The head of the family: Earlier the father was the
unquestioned head of the family, a role which is now
diluting and today the authoritarian approach is being
replaced with managing of inter-personal relationships
(iii) The importance of self: The aspect of “We” to
“Me” is gradually becoming the norm today in most
households
(iv) Uncertainty: Retrenchment, lay-offs or a
passing boom can affect confidence of consumers
• However, joint families are still prevalent and well-
suited to modern Indian, life, especially for the 67% of
Indians who are farmers or agricultural workers or worn
in related activities
• As in most primarily agricultural societies, few
individuals can hope to achieve economic security
without being a part of a cooperating group of kinsmen
• The joint family is also common in cities, where
kinship ties can be crucial to obtaining scarce jobs or
financial assistance
• Numerous prominent Indian families, such as the
Tatas, Birlas, and Sarabhais, retain joint family
arrangements even as they work together to control
some of the country’s largest financial empires
• However, the joint family structures in the urban and
the rural areas are very different
• Most urban metropolis may have joint families,
under a single roof, but they stay as separate
households, contrast to rural and suburban joint
families, where the cohesiveness and a concept of
single household still exists
• Household is a broader term that includes a single
person living alone or a group of individuals who live
together in a common dwelling, regardless of whether
they are related
• This term includes cohabiting couples (an unmarried
male and female living together), gay couples, and
singles who are roommates
• Marketers and researchers are increasingly
thinking in terms of households rather than families
• Trends such as, later marriages, cohabitation,
divorce, dual careers, boomerang children, longer life,
and a lower birth rate have greatly increased the
proportion of nontraditional families
• In India, contrastingly, the concept of households is
on the rise as joint families are crumbling and more so
in bigger cities, where a large population migrates for
job opportunities, higher studies, specialized coaching
or for preparation of competitive examinations
• Today, there are localities earmarked as a hub
where such kind of households exists
• For instance, Ber Sarai or Katwaria Sarai in South
Delhi are small localities nestled behind India’s finest
engineering college, Indian Institute of Technology-
Delhi, and young boys from the remotest areas of
India prepare for their Civil Services exams
• Today as more and more girls are pursuing
careers, they need to step out of their homes and at
times even move to different cities
• Paying Guest accommodations, especially, suited
to the requirements of the working girls or women are
being created.
 Family Life Cycle Stages

• The concept of household or family life cycle is

important for marketers in segmenting the market
• In 1966, William Wells and George Gubar proposed
eight stages to describe the family life cycle (“Life
Cycle Concept in Marketing Research,” Journal of
marketing Research, November 1966)
• The following life cycle stages are typical of
families:
1. The bachelor stage: Young, single persons
under the age of 35 years. Incomes are generally low
since they have started careers, but they may have few
financial burdens and sufficient discretionary income
 2. Newly married: Young couples, no children. If
both spouses are employed, they will have high
levels of discretionary income.
3. Full nest I: Young married couples with
youngest child under 6 years of age. There would
be greater squeeze on income because of
increased expenses on childcare. However, if they
are members of a joint family, the level of
discretionary income is likely to be high
4. Full nest II: Young married couples with
children from 6 years to 12 years of age. Better
financial position because income of both parents is
rising. Children spend more hours outside their
parents’ influence
 5. Full nest III: Older married couples with
dependent teenage children living at home.
Financial position of the family continues to
improve. There are increasing costs of college
education for children
6. Empty nest I: Older married couples with no
children living with them, parents will still employed.
Reduced expenses result in greater savings and
highest discretionary income
7. Empty nest II: Older married couples with no
children living with them and parents retired. Drop
in income and couple relies on savings and fixed
income from retirement benefits
 8. Solitary survivor I: Older single persons with
low income and increasing medical needs
(widow or widower)
• Due to changes occurring in demography after
1980, researchers have suggested more modernized
family life cycle categories
• In the Indian context, these changes are visible
among urban educated families
• Some types of households, such as unmarried
couples living together are generally regarded with
social disapproval, or married couples who decided not
having children are just a negligible percentage.
Example of non-traditional household life cycle
categories:
Sequence I
• Young married couples with children
• Young divorced parent
• Single parent with older children
• Older, unmarried.
Sequence II
• Young divorced couple without children
• Middle-aged married couple without children
• Older married couple without children
 Sequence III
• Young married couple with children
• Middle-aged divorced parent
• Middle-aged divorced parent with children and
stepchildren
Sequence IV
• Young unmarried couple without children
• Middle-aged married couple without children
• Older married couple without children
• Widow
• In sequence I, a young married couple with
children gets divorced and one of the spouse never
marries
• In sequence III, a couple gets divorced in middle age
and one of the spouses remarries and establishes a
family with children and stepchildren
• It is certain that there would be difference in buying
patterns if a divorced person is having children or not
having children
• Similarly, there would be differences in buying
patterns in case a person remarries or decides to stay
single
• Since the cases of divorce are on the increase, the
life cycle sequences proposed by Wells and Gubar are
probably more important than the modernized family life
cycle categories
• Research has revealed many differences in
consumption patterns across family life cycle stages
• The concept of family life cycle can be usefully
used to segment the market
• It is significantly related to food and beverage
consumption, purchase of major and minor appliances
and monetary value of family purchases of furniture,
autos and entertainment electronics
• Research indicates that household expenditures are
systematically related to the stage of life cycle
• It is believed that family influence significantly affects
the children’s consumer behaviour later as adults and
children also have the opportunity to influence their
parents’ consumption decisions, particularly the
ageing parents
• The family is the primary socialization agent for
each new generation and passes on attitudes, values
and behaviour to children
• This is often referred to as ‘intergenerational
transfer’
• In the process of socialization, the new generation
acquires not only general social values and norms but
also skills and knowledge that help them in becoming
successful consumers in an increasingly complex
market place
• Family influence helps us learn attitudes and
preferences towards products and brands, choice of
stores, meaning of marketing communications and
price-quality-value judgments
• What is relevant to marketers is the extent to which
this family influence passes over into consumers’
behaviour as adults
• Such influences are likely to continue being
exerted between parents and children as each
generation ages, particularly among joint families.
Nature of Household or Family Purchases

• Much depends on income limitations coupled with

family responsibilities
• These two factors influence many of the buying
decisions of families
• A already pointed out, young bachelors as well as
newly married young couples (assuming that both are
employed) are quite likely to have significant
discretionary income
• Young bachelors are more likely to spend money on
clothes and entertainment etc., while newly married
couples will spend more on furnishings, time-saving home
appliances, TV and music systems etc. as they are
establishing their new household
• The pattern of purchases will change when they are
blessed with children, wife may leave her job and their
level of discretionary income will fall
• During the next two stages (Full Nest II and Full
Nest III), the household financial position improves
because husband draws a higher salary and wife
returns to work, the children and teens are in school
and consumption patterns are heavily influenced by
the requirements of children
• The family replace many household items and also
buys new appliances
• During the stage of Empty Nest, the discretionary
income of parents increases and they can afford to
spend money on themselves such as luxury items and
travel etc.
• In the later stages of Empty Nest and Solitary
Survivor, parents are retired resulting in decreased
income and increasing expenditures on medical bills
• In case of non-traditional family lifecycle sequences,
single parents are more likely to be females
• In general, divorced women face significant
decrease in their financial resources and this influences
their buying patterns
• Single parents are compelled to spend much less
time with children and sure likely to spend more money
on day-care services for children and toys.
 Marketing Implications

• Marketers are recognizing the importance of

nontraditional households and developing offerings that
cater to their unique needs
• Products and services that offer convenience can
be marketed specifically to dual-career and divorced
households
• Because more husbands from dual-career families
and single or divorced men shop for groceries and other
items, retailers are increasingly targeting men
• Wives in dual-career households have more clout in
expensive decisions, so marketers of costly products
and services must appeal to both husband and wife
• Non-traditional families are also being targeted:
Hallmark has developed greeting cards that deal with
stepfamily and cohabitation relationships
• Single men and women, in particular, are an
attractive target for many marketers
• In Germany, Wal-Mart has had great success with
“Single Shopping” nights
• Unmarried men and women wheel their shopping
carts down the aisles (alone or with their children) to
meet other singles while passing displays of
convenience products such as frozen dinners and
displays of items that foster romance, such as wine
and candles
• Wal-Mart reports that sales are up by 25% on singles
nights.
 Nature of Family Decision Making

• When two or more family members are directly of

indirectly involved in the decision making process, it is
called family decision making
• Such family decisions differ from individual decisions
in many ways
• For example, if we consider the purchase of a bicycle
?
• How a brand is selected?
• What role the concerned child plays?
• Some family purchases are inherently emotional and
affect the relationships between family members
• The decision to buy a new dress, a toy, or a bicycle
for the child is more than simply a routine purchase
• It often might be an expression of love and
commitment to the child
• The decision to buy a new stereo system or
television set has emotional meaning to others in the
family
• The root cause of many marital discords is often
related to spending the money
• Joint decisions are more likely to operate in the
early stages of family life cycle when both spouses are
relatively less experienced
• After gaining experience, they usually delegate
responsibilities concerning buying decisions to each
other
• When children enter the family scene, both husband
and wife assume specific roles
• The husband tends to be more influential in the
early stages of the life cycle, however, the wife is
likely to become increasingly influential after a period
of time, more so if she is employed and having some
financial leverage over family buying decisions
• The influence of children on family decisions is
more when they side with one of the parents
• We have already seen the different purchase roles:
the initiator, the gatekeeper or information gatherer, the
influencer, the decider, the buyer and the user (s)
• In many situations of family buying decisions, the
primary product user is neither the decision maker nor
the buyer
• For instance, in many families wives purchase
most of the fragrances for their husbands
• Thus, marketers must be aware of different roles
played by family members that influence the family
buying decision process
• Fisher-Price puts its ads in Reader’s Digest to
influence parents for toys that they buy for their
children
• The first ad shows different sets of toys meant for
children up to 1 Year plus age
• Parents make the buying decision and the actual
users are very young children
• The second ad of Fisher-Price shows an older
child who can influence the parents’ decision and may
actually be present when the actual purchase is made
• As mentioned earlier, some family purchases, such
as the toys for children are something more than the
normal routine purchases and will most likely be laden
with emotional overtones
• Families are quite likely to vary in their buying
decision making depending on their stage in the life
cycle
• Consider this example of family decision making
• Ramesh is a university teacher in a North Indian
state capital
• His wife expired two-years ago
• The son Kunal is 16 and the daughter Sonam is 14
• Ramesh is planning a fifteen-day holiday during
summer vacations
• He could make the decision on his own, but wants
to involve his children in the decision making for three
reasons
1. The decision is important to all of them
2. They have to consider the expenses and the
importance of being together and having good time
and finally
3. There is ample time because it is March and
they would go in the month of May
• Ramesh informed the kids about the holiday
• Both Kunal and Sonam were excited and started
collecting information
• In the process they became aware about various
options such as Shimla, Mussorie, Goa, or Ooty
• The real influences are children who specified the
alternatives
• The decision maker will be the father because he is
head of the family and will make travel and hotel
arrangements and controls the finances
• Ramesh contacts a friend who is a travel agent and
easily makes the travel arrangements and hotel
bookings
• There was a conflict between Kunal and Sonam
• Kunal wanted to go to Goa and Sonam was keen
on Ooty
• Ramesh settled the conflict that they would go to Goa
this year and Ooty the next year.
Family Decision Making for Children’s Products

Gatekeepers
(Parents)

Communications

Initiators Decision
(Parents, Buyers Users
Makers
Children) (Parents) (Children)
(Parents)
Communications
targeting children

Influencer
(Children)
Joint Decision Roles

Initiator Gatekeeper Influencer Decision Buyer User

Maker
(Need (Information (Evaluation (Decision (Purchase) (Consump-
recognition) Search) of to tion
alternatives Buy) &
Evaluation
 Roles That Household Members Play

• In a multi-person household, members may

perform a variety of tasks or roles in acquiring and
consuming a product or service:
• Gatekeeper: Household members who
collect and control information important to the
decision
• Influencer: Household members who try to
express their opinions and influence the decision
• Decider: The person or persons who
actually determine which product or service will be
chosen
 • Buyer: The household member who physically
acquires the product or service
• User: The household members who consume
the product.
According to Jagdish N Seth, joint decision making is
more likely under four conditions:
1. • When the level of perceived risk in buying is high
• This is likely when a wrong decision will affect the
whole family
• A joint decision is likely to be taken under such
circumstances to reduce the uncertainty and the risk
• For example, the purchase of a house for the
family will most likely be a joint decision, as it would
involve financial, social and psychological risk
 • It is believed that joint decision making
encourages the group to handle riskier decisions
as every member of the group can share the blame
if the decision made happens to be wrong
• This suggests that when husband and wife
discuss the purchase issue of a house, they
probably would buy a more expensive house than if
either of them were to make the decision alone
• Arch G Woodside has reported that wives
were more inclined to make riskier decisions for
various products after joint discussion.
2. • When the buying decision is important to the
household
• Purchase decision for low-involvement products
are mostly made individually
• High-involvement items such as expensive
appliances etc. are generally purchased in
consultation with other family members
• Importance of most high-involvement decisions is
generally related to some kind of perceived risk
• However, some decisions may be important
without there being a risk worth consideration,
such as whether to go on a 15-day vacation to Goa
and enjoy the beaches for the third time in a row
 • There is a possibility that children would like
to go somewhere else for a change and may
have ideas for some other vacation resort
• Consideration of this aspect is important for
the parents but there is hardly any risk involved
3. • When there are few or no time pressures
• If there are time constraints, as is often the case in
dual-income families, individual family members
are inclined to make purchase decisions alone
• For example, since both spouses are employed
they often experience time pressures and frequently
purchase products that otherwise might be
purchased on a joint decision basis.
4. • Certain demographic factors encourage
decision making
• Joint decisions are less likely among upper
and lower socio-economic groups
• However, joint decision making is quite likely
among middle income families
• Joint decisions are fairly common among
younger families, particularly during the first few
years of marriage
• As long as the family does not have any
children, joint decision making is more likely
• Once children arrive, roles of spouses
become more divided and the need for joint
decisions decreases
 • If only one parent is employed, there are few
time pressures and joint decision-making is more
likely.
 The Roles of Spouses

• Husbands and wives play different roles in making

decisions, and the nature of their influence depends on
the offering and the couple’s relationship
• In examining husband-wife influence, a landmark
study conducted in Belgium (and replicated in the
United States) identified four major decision
categories:
1. A Husband-dominant decision: is made
primarily by the male head-of-household (e.g., the
purchase of lawn mowers and hardware)
 2. A wife-dominant decision: is made
primarily by the female head-of-household (e.g.,
children’s clothing, women’s clothing, groceries,
and toiletries)
3. An autonomic decision: is equally likely to
be made by the husband or the wife but not by both
(e.g., men’s clothing, luggage, toys and games,
sporting equipment, and cameras)
4. A syncretic decision: is made jointly by the
husband and wife (e.g., vacations, refrigerators,
TVs, living room furniture, financial planning
services, and the family car.
• As spouses come closer to a final decision, the
process tends to move toward syncratic decision making
and away from the other three types, particularly for
more important decisions
• These role structures are only generalities, however;
the actual influence exerted depends on many factors
• First, a spouse will have greater influence when he
or she brings higher financial resources to the family and
he or she has a high level of involvement in the decision
• Second, demographic factors, such as total family
income, occupation, and education, are also related to
the degree of husband-wife influence
• Combined, these factors provide a spouse with a
perception of power in the decision-making situation
• The higher the degree of perceived power, the
more likely the spouse will exert influence
• When the family has strong traditional sex-role
orientation, certain tasks are stereotypically
considered either masculine or feminine, and more
decisions tend to be husband dominated then in less
traditional families
• For example, Mexican American families tend to
have a strong traditional orientation and are
characterized by more husband-wife decisions
• Yet, sex-role changes, as noted earlier, are
influencing husband-wife decisions
• In Thailand, for instance, nearly half of the husbands
surveyed said they decided what foods their
households would eat and that they did the family
food shopping, traditionally considered the wife’s role
• In the United States, joint decision making is most
common Anglo families; husband dominance is more
likely in Japanese American families; and wife
dominance is more prevalent in African American
families
• Researchers have found support for the four major
patterns of spousal decision roles in a number of
countries, although the United States, France, and the
Netherlands exhibited a higher level of joint decision
making than Venezuela and Gabon, where
autonomous decisions were more prevalent
• Other aspects of spousal decision making have also
been studied
• For example, Through the processes of bargaining
(which involves a fair exchange) or concession (in
which a spouse gives in on some points to get what he
or she wants in other areas), couples tend to make
equitable decisions that result from compromises
• Couples do not typically follow a formal, systematic
process for making decisions; instead, they use an
informal process in which they have limited
awareness of each other’s knowledge and decision
strategy
• Husbands and wives are generally not good at
estimating their spouse’s influence and preferences,
although each learns from the
 outcome of previous decisions over time and tends
to adjust decision behaviours accordingly
• Alternatively, the man’s role of being a patriarch in
the family who was considered the supreme guardian
is now increasingly under pressure
• As the woman of the house steps out to work, he is
stepping in to help in household chores
• Looking after the children, cooking, household
shopping are some of the chores that the man in mats,
the man’s status was god like and he was therefore,
referred to as “Pati Parmeshwar”
• Today, his role is more defined as a pati and not
parmeshwar, which means he is a more humane
character that the family can relate to.
 Husband-wife Influences

• Gender role preferences reflect culturally

determined attitudes toward the role of husband/wife
and father/mother in the household
• The relative influence of husband/wife or
father/mother is likely to vary according to
1. The Nature Of Product
2. Nature Of Purchase Influence And
3. Family Characteristics
1. Nature of Product

• Traditionally, among different societies throughout the

world, husbands are regarded as providers of
material support and leadership authority within the
family and wife is more likely to provide affection and
moral support
• Husbands are viewed as dominant decision-makers
for products such as financial services and
automobiles etc.
• However, these roles have merged as an increasing
number of wives have started going into employment
and changes in family norms, particularly in urban
areas
• Harry L Davis and Benny P Rigaux undertook a
detailed study of husband/wife influences by product
category and classified products into four categories:
1. Products for which the influence of husband
tends to dominate the decision making.
Such products include hardware, sports
equipment, financial services and men’s shaving
products etc.
2. Products for which the influence of wife
tends to dominate the decision making.
Examples of such products are women’s
clothing, toiletries, groceries, kitchenware and child
clothing etc.
 3. Products for which decisions are made by
either the husband or the wife (autonomous
decisions). These products may include women’s
jewellery, toys and games, cameras and men’s
casual clothing etc.
4. Products for which husband and wife make
joint decisions. Examples of such products are
refrigerators, furniture, TV sets, carpets, financial
planning and family car etc. Earlier, the decisions
about these products were viewed as relatively
more husband dominated; however, joint
decision making now reflects a greater influence of
working wives
• These findings have several important implications
for marketers
• If a product is husband or wife-dominant, or falls in a
category where joint decision making is more likely, or
the product is in autonomous category, then the ad
messages and media selection have to be tailored
accordingly
• The differences may require separate ad
campaigns to appeals to both spouses may not prove
to be as effective.
2. Nature of Purchase Influence

• The differentiation of roles is believed to result from

small group interaction
• Leaders that emerge take up either instrumental
roles or expressive roles
• Leaders taking up instrumental roles are concerned
with tasks that help the group take decisions about its
basic purpose or goal (also called functional or task
leaders)
• For example, decisions on budgets, timing and
product specifications would be task-oriented
• Leaders with expressive roles facilitate expression of
group norms and provide the group with social and
 emotional support in order to maintain intra-group
cohesion such as design, colour and style, reflect
group norms
• Historically, the instrumental role within family has
typically been associated with husband and
expressive role with wife
• Thus, men tend to be task-oriented leaders while
women lead in social-emotional behaviour
• Husbands tend to be more concerned with functional
product attributes and are inclined to exert more
influence on the purchase decision
• The wife is more concerned with the aesthetic
aspects of products and suggesting the purchase
• These historical roles are undergoing some degree
 of change and instrumental as well as expressive
roles are becoming increasingly intermingled between
husband and wife as more wives are taking up
employment
• Working wives tend to be less inclined to accept
traditional homemaking tasks associated with
expressive roles
• Robert Ferber and Lucy Chao Lee (“Husband-Wife
Influence in family Purchasing behavour,” Journal of
Consumer Research 1, June 1974) have suggested
that wife may be just as likely as the husband to fulfill
certain instrumental roles such as payment of bills and
keeping track of other family expenditures
• This is an instrumental rather than expressive role
as it concerns budgetary aspects
 Family Characteristics

• The third reason for variation in relative influence

of husband/wife relates to family characteristics
• Though husband and wife tend to dominate
decisions for certain product categories, the degree of
their dominance may vary within different families
• In case of patriarchal families (father is considered
the dominant member), husband dominates decisions
irrespective of the product category under purchase
consideration
• In matriarchal families (mother is the dominant
member), wife plays the dominant role and tends to
make most of the decisions
• Research shows that the influence of husband will
generally be more in making purchase decisions than
wife when:
1. Husband’s level of education is higher than his wife
2. Husband’s income and occupation status are
higher than wife’s
3. His wife is not employed
4. The couple is young and at an earlier stage of
family life cycle
5. If the couple has a greater than average number of
children
• In case of these conditions favour the wife, that is,
she is more educated, is employed with higher income
and status etc., then the opposite would be true
• The husband-dominant family profile indicates a
typical conservative family with traditional values and
attitudes toward the roles of father and mother
• In families where women are less educated and
unemployed and husband has higher income giving him
financial power, generally the family would be
conservative and more traditional values prevail
• Increasing levels of education among women,
emphasis on equal opportunities and entry of more and
more women in jobs is having an impact on shifts in
husband/wife roles
• Products and services, which were mostly
considered the exclusive domain of male family heads
are now being advertised for house ladies
• Marketers are increasingly targeting wives for their
instrumental roles in family decision making
• The current trends strongly indicate that shift in
husband/wife roles in family decision making will
become widespread in times to come.
Parent-child Influences

• Children are playing an increasingly important part in

family decision making
• No sooner do they posses the basic communication
skills needed to interact with parents and other family
members, they start their “I want this campaign”
• In the context of consumer behaviour, parent-child
relationship is viewed as a situation of influence and yield
• Children strive to influence parents to buy something
and parents yield to their demand
• Older children with greater media exposure are more
likely to directly influence decisions concerning purchase
of food items, personal care and beauty products, TV,
stereo and computer etc.
• Dual-income households foster greater self-
reliance among children
• As a result of this, they are likely to influence
decisions for products that the whole family consumes
• It is generally believed that children rely more on
parents for norms and values as long as they are
younger and, subsequently, on their peer group as they
grow older.