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CONSUMER SOCIAL CLASSES CHAPTER 4: ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES:Affluent Consumer

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Consumer Psychology (PSY - 514)
VU
LESSON25
CONSUMER SOCIAL CLASSES
CHAPTER 4: ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES
Understanding:
·  Affluent Consumer
·  Middle Class Consumer
·  Working Class
·  Non Affluent Consumers
Consumer Social Classes
Consumer research has found evidence that within the social classes there is a constellation of specific lifestyle
factors (shared beliefs, attitudes, activities and behavior) that tends to distinguish members of one social class from
members of other social classes. In this section we will study the following classes:
1. Affluent Class
2. Middle Class
3. Downscale Consumers
4. Other types of social classes
Affluent Consumers are likely to focus on savings, reducing time and effort and seem to be willing pay more for
many things that provide the above mentioned conveniences
1. Affluent Consumer
Affluent Households place more importance on friendship, leisure times, and hobbies. They seem to place less
importance on money which is why they consume more domestic airline tickets, own more vehicles, hold more
securities and spend more money on desktop, laptop and hand held computers as well as other electronic
gadgetries.
Members of the affluent class have incomes that provide them with disproportionately larger share of all
discretionary income. The extras allow the purchase of:
Luxury cruises
Foreign sports cars
Tourism resorts
Fine jewelry
Ready access to
There seems to be a relationship between health and economic status. Healthiest people are those who are
economically advantaged. Higher income and more highly educated people are less likely to die of heart disease,
strokes, hepatitis, TB, cancers and other diseases of the sort. Affluent class seems to live longer and in better
health than middle class. Middle class live longer and in better health than individuals at the bottom
Children of the Affluent Class
Evidence suggests that children of the affluent may have problems with:
Substance abuse
Anxiety
Depression
The above may be caused by excessive pressures to achieve as well as due to physical and psychological isolation
from parents.
Millionaire VS Non Millionaire
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Consumer Psychology (PSY - 514)
VU
Millionaires ­ the first generation wealthy may be taken as a subcategory of affluent consumers. Millionaires are
quite similar to non millionaires. Millionaires working for themselves in non glamorous businesses work hard and
live in nonpretentious homes next door to non-millionaires
Media Exposure of the Affluent
Media habits of the affluent differ from the general population. They seem to view less TV per day and read more
of different publications
Segmenting the Affluent Market
Not all affluent consumers share the same lifestyle (lifestyle is activities, interests and opinions). Affluent may be
isolated into meaningful segments.
One scheme has divided the affluent into following categories:
The upbeat enjoyers who live for today
The financial Positives who are conservative and look for value
One hypothesis in this regard is that most people who have money are fairly conservative and have accumulated
wealth because they are good savers
Upper Deck Consumers
An affluent market segmentation schema developed by MRI (Mediamark Research Inc, 2004)
They call Top ten percent households in terms of income, Upper Deck Consumers. The divided them into
following categories:
A. Well feathered Nests
Household those have at least one high income earner and children present
B. No Strings Attached
Household those have one high income earner and no children
C. Nanny's In charge
Households that have two or more earners, none earning high incomes, and children present
D. Two Careers
Households that have two or more earners, neither earning high incomes no children present
E. The Good Life
Households that have a high degree of affluence with no person employed or head of the family not
employed
2. Middle Class Consumer
Middle Market is the middle 50% household income. Households composed of college educated adults, who are
involved in children's education and are confident that they can maintain the quality of their life.
Middle class can be thought of as including households that range from lower middle to middle class in terms of
some acceptable variable or combination of variables (income, education, age or income).
This view does not include the upper middle class which over the years has been exceedingly treated as affluent
consumers.
Children Education Differences
Working class families often teach their children, at an early age, to do what they are told to do and manage their
own free time. Middle class parents actively play a role in shaping their kids activities, want their children to
participate in extracurricular activities that will add to their talents, and encourage them to speak to figures of
authority
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Consumer Psychology (PSY - 514)
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Middle Class Disappearing?
Middleclass consumers increasingly move upstream to the ranks of affluent consumers. The other segment is
losing ground and slipping backwards to the ranks of working class, creating a distribution that looks like hour
glass
Middle Class Increasing
Over the last decade rapid increase is seen in the middle class consumers in select Asian and Eastern European
countries. In USA middle class is fast dissolving into upper middle class (affluent). American, Japanese and Korean
automobile manufacturers are now manufacturing their cars in China, hoping that the growing middle class in
China will be interested in purchasing their vehicles
3. The Working Class and other Non Affluent Consumers
Although advertisers would prefer to show their products as part of an affluent lifestyle, blue collar or working
class represents a vast group of consumers. Downscale consumers may actually be more brand loyal than wealthier
customers because they can not afford to make mistakes by switching into unfamiliar brands. A sensitive fact for
marketers should be that non affluent consumers often spend higher percentage of their available income on food
than their middleclass consumers
4. Techno Class
Degree of literacy, familiarity and competency with computers and the internet appears to be a new basis for a
class standing. Inability to adequately use technology is negatively impacting lifestyles. Parents in all social class
groupings are seeking an early exposure to computers for their kids. They don't want to see them left out the
"sweep of computer technology". Understanding computers is a necessary tool for development. Older people
business men don't want to be left out so they are seeking computer training, functional understanding of
computers so that they will not be considered geeks. In this sense there is sense of technological class structure
that centers on the computer skills. It appears that people without necessary computer skills will increasingly find
themselves to be under classed and disadvantaged.
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Table of Contents:
  1. INTRODUCTION TO CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY:Consumer Behavior
  2. INTRODUCTION TO CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY:Consumer research
  3. INTRODUCTION TO CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY:Marketing Mix, Product, Price
  4. INTRODUCTION TO CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY:Customer Value, Perceived Value
  5. VALUE AND RETENTION FOCUSED MARKETING AND CONSUMER DECISION MAKING PROCESS
  6. CONSUMER RESEARCH:Quantitative Research, Qualitative Research
  7. MAJOR STEPS IN CONSUMER RESEARCH PROCESS:Design of Primary research
  8. QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGNS & DATA COLLECTION METHODS
  9. QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES:ATTITUDE SCALES
  10. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGNS & DATA COLLECTION METHODS
  11. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION MEASUREMENT, SAMPLING, AND DATA ANALYSIS AND REPORTING
  12. MARKET SEGMENTATION AND ITS BASES:Geographical Segmentation
  13. BASES FOR SEGMENTATION: DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION PSYCHOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION
  14. BASES FOR SEGMENTATION: SOCIOCULTURAL SEGMENTATION USE RELATED SEGMENTATION USAGE SITUATION SEGMENTATION
  15. BASES FOR SEGMENTATION: BENEFIT SEGMENTATION:Intrinsic Cues
  16. BASES FOR SEGMENTATION: HYBRID SEGMENTATION STRATEGIES
  17. MARKET SEGMENTATION IMPLEMENTING SEGMENTATION STRATEGIES ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES CULTURE
  18. HOW CULTURE IS LEARNT ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES:Formal Learning
  19. CULTURE AND ITS MEASUREMENT ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES
  20. MEASUREMENT OF CULTURE ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES:Consumer Fieldwork
  21. SUBCULTURE CHAPTER 4: ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES
  22. AGE AND GENDER SUBCULTURE CHAPTER 4: ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES
  23. BASES FOR SEGMENTATION: BENEFIT SEGMENTATION:Market Segmentation
  24. SOCIAL CLASS CHAPTER 4: ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES:Occupation
  25. CONSUMER SOCIAL CLASSES CHAPTER 4: ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES:Affluent Consumer
  26. CONSUMER SOCIAL CLASSES CHAPTER 4: ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES:Membership Group
  27. CONSUMER SOCIAL CLASSES CHAPTER 4: ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES:Shopping Groups
  28. UNDERSTANDING PERSONALITY CHAPTER 5: INDIVIDUAL DETERMINANTS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
  29. CONSUMER PERSONALITY, TRAIT THEORY AND SELF IMAGES
  30. CONSUMER MOTIVATION:Needs, Goals, Generic Goals
  31. UNDERSTANDING LEARNING:Intentional and Incidental Learning, Implications for Marketers
  32. INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING, INFORMATION PROCESSING AND MEMORY
  33. ATTITUDES:Characteristics of Attitudes, Attitudes have consistency
  34. ATTITUDE FORMATION AND CHANGE:How attitudes are learned?
  35. ATTITUDE CHANGE STRATEGIES:Resolving two conflicting attitudes
  36. INTRODUCTION TO CONSUMER DECISION MAKING:Decision Complexity
  37. Problem Recognition, Search and Evaluation and Decision and Purchase
  38. Decision and Purchase:Consumer Decision Rules, Output, Relationship Marketing
  39. Decisions Related to Post Purchase:Product Set up and Use
  40. Marketing Implications of Decisions Related to Post Purchase:Understanding
  41. Post Purchase Evaluation:Determinants of Satisfaction, Consumer Complaint Behavior
  42. Post Purchase Dissonance:Dissonance Reduction, Marketing Implications
  43. Consumerism:Roots of Consumerism, The Nature of Consumerism
  44. Consumerism – Issues and Responses:Environmental Concerns, Consumer Privacy
  45. Review – Consumer Psychology Course:Consumer Research, Consumerism