Consumer Behavior
Chapter 11: Income and Social Class
What Is Social Class and How Does It Impact Consumer Behavior? What Is The Relationship Between Various Social Classes In Terms Of Consumer Behavior? Identify Differences between the Consumption Styles Of The Working And The Affluent Classes
Social Class entails dividing people in a society into a grading of various classes of status, so that people in the various grades have either lower or higher income status. Social class impacts consumer behavior in the aspect of people in the higher classes having more options and purchasing power, which allows them to buy more, while people in the lower classes having limitation in how they behave towards various brands, products and services (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, and Hogg, 2006, 442). A major difference between the consumption styles of the affluent and working styles is their ability to choose between many purchasing alternatives, with the working having lesser options and the affluent having more. Additionally, the working classes are more brand loyal while the affluent can comfortably switch between brands.
Defining Concepts: consumer confidence; discretionary income; social stratification; achieved versus ascribed status; mass class; social mobility; social capital; economic capital; cultural capital; nouveau riches.
Consumer confidence is a signal used in economics to measure the level of consumer optimism about the entire economy as well as their financial situation (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, and Hogg, 2006, 430). Discretionary income denotes the funds one is left with after catering to the compulsory expenses such as food, rent and other essential utilities (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, and Hogg, 2006, 430). Social stratification entails the hierarchical categorization of people according to their wealth, power and social status. An achieved status is an accomplishment earned by investing effort and working while an ascribed status in not intentional, such as ethnicity and race. Mass class denotes the contemporary trend of democratizing luxury, such that millions of consumers unify globally in their quest for good business deals offered universally. Social mobility entails the movement of groups of people such as families and individuals between or within varied social levels in a society, implying that it is a change in one’s socials status (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, and Hogg, 2013, 491). Social capital entails the networks of associations and relationships between people, working and living in a particular social setting, and which enable the effective functioning of such a society. Economic capital is the capital level needed by a company of a financial nature to remain stable, based on its liabilities and amount of assets. Cultural capital is the collection of knowledge and skillsets that show an individual’s perception of their culture. Nouveau riches denote the wealth that a person has gained within his or her generation and not inherited from their family.
Constitution of Class Structure and How This Hierarchy Differs Across Cultures
Class structure is the hierarchical arrangement that divides a society into classes, namely, the lower, middle and upper classes. The major difference in this class hierarchy is that the people in the upper classes show the psychological features that dominate their varied cultural contexts.
Cultural Capital, How One Accumulates Cultural Capital, Whether a Consumer Can Enhances Their Economic Capital To Reach Social Mobility, And What A Cultural Capital Perspective Would Conclude
Cultural capital entails the amassing of proficiencies, knowledge and tendencies that allow and individual to exploit and show their social status as well cultural understanding (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, and Hogg, 2013, 506). One can accumulate cultural capital by interacting with the varied aspects that teach them about their culture, such as by interacting with strangers, reading about one’s culture, listening to music and stories that teach about culture, experiencing cultural-based movies and theatre, and exploiting many other culture-based avenues. A consumer who enhances their economic capital can reach social mobility because they acquire the economic power that allows them to access the things accessed by individual in higher social classes. Ultimately, the person gains the knowledge and understanding to move and sustain them in the higher social class. In such an instance, cultural capital would conclude that the individual who attain social mobility has the requisite social assets such as dressing style and education to allow them move to other classes because of enhanced economic capital.
How Cultural Capital Structures Consumption in the US Society
The disparities in resources of cultural capital structure consumption significantly in the United States because different cultures use their resources to consume in the way that identifies with their culture. For example, a Muslim in the United States may not eat pig products even though they could afford it because it consuming pigs is not allowed in their religious culture.
The Relationship between Income and Social Class
Income and social class are related in that people are categorized in different social classes according to their income as implied by Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, and Hogg (2006, 420). These aspects are not equal but are used to determine an individual’s social placing in the society, so that the person with the higher income get categorized into a higher class.
Does social status and status related consumption operate the same in contemporary consumption, specifically in relation to social media and the sharing economy? How has the social media changed how we display and construct social status? What about the sharing economy? What challenges do these trends (social media + sharing) present for luxury brands?
Social status and status related consumption does not operate the same in contemporary consumption especially with the advent of social media and the sharing economy because people in lower classes can rent out what they cannot afford to buy. This implies that they have the same access as those in the upper classes, which means that social media and the sharing economy have bridged the gap in the classes. According to Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, and Hogg (2016, 59), the sharing economy is characterized by consumers sharing with and lending to or renting each other what they possess and hence monetizing what they have not initially monetized. Social media has changed how we display and construct social status because it is now possible for people to portray that they live a certain lifestyle while they do not. The sharing economy has a significant part in changing the construction of social status because people tend to display what they have rented but do not own. The sharing economy and social media presents a challenge for luxury brands because people do not need to buy pricey luxurious items as they can just rent them out through the access provided by social media that allows interaction between the parties giving their items and those renting them.
Chapter 7: Attitudes
Consumer Attitudes and Why They Are Important On Consumer Decision/Choices
In marketing, consumer attitudes refer to the mixture of customers’ beliefs and feelings about as well as behavioral tendencies towards a particular product or service. These aspects are highly interdependent and they collectively represent the influences that determine a customer’s reaction to the product or service. Consumer attitudes are the result of the customers’ past buying knowledge, experiences, and beliefs, and these determine whether the customer gains a negative or positive attitude about a particular service or product. For instance, a customer may have a good perception of a high-performance sports bike because it makes them feel good, which then motivates them to purchase it.
The Hierarchy of Effects
The hierarchy-of-effects model highlights the fixed progression of steps that happens when forming an attitude, and this sequence is dependent on a host of aspects, such as a consumer’s involvement level with a given attitude object (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, and Hogg, 2013, 295). The model shows how the processes of learning and making decisions in consumer experiences progress. The model begins with the awareness level, which represents the beginning point of a purchase, and where a brand ensures that the customer knows the market segment to access the product or service. For instance, a customer wanting to buy a Mercedes Benz car must first know that exists in the market. The second level is knowledge, where the consumer evaluates a product or service against those present in the market, for instance, by checking on the product in retail stores or on the internet. For instance, a customer may compare the Mercedes Benz vehicle with other brands to compare performance, durability, and other such factors. Liking is the next level in the model, and it entails the customer building a liking to a particular service or product, especially because of the product’s or service’s potential emotional benefit to the consumer. For example, if the Mercedes Benz has the features that instill attract the customer’s preferences, it is imperative that the dealer incorporates all these attributes in the marketing communication schedule.
The preference level follows after liking, and it is the level at which the customer may be persuaded to try the service or product, although they may still like the other alternatives. For example, to persuade the customer further, Mercedes Benz should highlight the unique selling points that differentiate the car from the rest of the car brands. After preference, the conviction level follows, which involves converting the customer’s doubts about purchasing the service or product into action. At this level, a marketer may decide to give the customer a test drive, which then convinces the customer on whether or not to purchase the vehicle. The last level is purchase, and it marks the most significant phase of the customer buying cycle. At this point, the marketer provides the customer with simple and varied options for paying and provides them with other suitable incentives. The customer then knows where to get another Mercedes Benz car model in future and how they can make payments.
How Consumers Form Attitudes and the Meaning of “Attitudes Are Not Created Equal”
Consumers form attitudes through learning provided by personal experiences, in addition to influences by the experiences of family members and colleagues, as well as from mass media exposure. Further, a person’s personality also plays a significant part in forming attitudes. Attitudes are not created equal because they are largely determined by personal experiences as well as by the information gained from numerous impersonal and personal sources. Moreover, since each customer has their own personality, there are differences in the speeds at which attitudes are formed and accepted.
How to Solve Discrepancies between Attitude and Behavior
Answering this question first requires defining these important theories. In light of this, the Self-perception theory (SPT) posits that where at attitude does not exist initially either due to lacking experience, individuals gain their attitudes by watching their behavior and determining the attitudes that caused it. The balance theory describes the preference people have for maintaining balance when they perceive an array of cognitive aspects as a system, implying that if they think they are out of balance, they are inspired to retain their initial position of balance. The imbalance causes their strength for resolve to increase and enhances their attitude. The cognitive dissonance theory describes peoples’ innate drive to ensure that all their behaviors and attitude are in harmony and avoid all reasons that may cause dissonance. As such resolving the discrepancies between behavior and attitude requires removing all doubts that a consumer may have on a product, especially considering that attitude is not always a reliable predictor of behavior as noted by Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, and Hogg (2013, 308)
Removing doubts is attained by convincing customers why their choice of a particular product is important to them and persuading them that if they walk away from the ac choice, they will be conflicting what they have believed in. This activates an inner voice that convinces the customer that they were right to choose a particular product and even though there may be other competitors, they feel uncomfortable breaking the initial attachment they have already initiated with the service or product. This discomfort dissuades them from shifting products, hence influencing their attitude towards the product by retaining their desire for the product and influencing their behavior by prompting them to buy it.
Understand the multi-attitude models with the focus on Fishbein Model/Extended Fishbein Model. Be able to apply and calculate it. (omit Trying Theory).
The Fishbein model measures the attitude a consumer has towards a service or a product (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, and Hogg, 2006, 155). The model evaluates prominent beliefs people have regarding a certain product or service, the attributes of the product or service that encourage connection and the assessment of each of the significant features (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, and Hogg, 2006, 153). The formula for this model is Aijk = ∑BijkIik. A is the overall score of attitude, i represents the attribute, is the brand, k is the consumer, while l is the significance weight conferred feature i by k, the consumer. B represents the belief the consumer has regarding the brand that possesses the feature. A, the collective score, is gained by multiplying the rating given by the consumer on each quality (i) for all the brand regarded significant as indicated in the rating of importance for that feature (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, and Hogg, 2006, 153).
References
Solomon, M., Bamossy, G., Askegaard, S and Hogg, M.K. 2006. Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective. Third edition. Pearson Education Limited.
Solomon, M.R., Bamossy, G.J., Askegaard, S.T and Hogg, M.K. 2013. Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective. Fifth edition. Pearson Education Limited.
Solomon, M.R., Bamossy, G.J., Askegaard, S. and Hogg, M.K. 2016. Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective. Sixth edition. Pearson Education Limited.