This weeks lecture was all about how 'Social Class' influences the consumer's purchase behaviour. What exactly is social class ? For me, I see social class by the wealth of someone. The ways in which people life changes are related to their location in the societys hierarchical class system and the influence those circumstances have on their future prospects.
Social class refers to a group of people with similar levels of wealth, influence, and status.
Krech, Crutchfield & Ballachey ( 2000) define social class as:
"a division of society made up of persons possessing certain common social characteristics which are taken to qualify them for intimate, equal status relations with one another, and which restrict their interaction with members of other social classes."
The concept of social status from German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) is used by a number of contemporary sociologiststo explain what social class menas.
Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification, with social, status and party classes (or politics) as conceptually distinct elements. All three dimensions have consequences for what Weber called "life chances".
- Class is based on economic relationship to the market (owner, rentier, employee etc.)
- Status has to do with non-economic qualities like honour and prestige (see status class)
- Party refers to factors having to do with affiliations in the political domain (see party class)
Differences in social class can create customer groups. Social class can be divided into six social group. In fact, the official six social classes in the UK are widely used to profile and predict different customer behaviour.
| Class name | Social Status | Occupational Head of Household | % of UK Population |
| A | Upper middle | Higher managerial, administrative or professional | 3 |
| B | Middle | Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional | 14 |
| C1 | Lower middle | Superiors or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional | 27 |
| C2 | Skilled working | Skilled manual workers | 25 |
| D | Working | Semi-skilled and un-skilled manual workers | 19 |
| E | Those at lowest level of subsistence | State pensioners or widows, casual or lower-grade workers | 12 |
The information below is helpful to advertisers as it allows them to place their advert at a time and place (channel/publication,) which is most suitable for the product and it's target market.
In order to better understand marketing-strategy decisions it is good to exmine more deeply the nature of social-class variations in shopping patterns. According to Study Marketing most women enjoy shopping regardless of their social class. However, reasons for enjoyment differ.
• Middle and upper-class women do shopping more frequently than those in the lower class.• The higher a woman's social class the more she considered it important to shop quickly.
• Middle and working classes had a greater tendency to browse without buying anything.
• The lower the social status, the greater the proportion of downtown shopping.
• A greater percentage of lower-class women favored discount stores than did women in the middle or upper classes. The attraction to high-fashion stores was directly related to social class. Broad-appeal stores were more attractive to the middle class.
People of a high social status will want to be associated with objects and people that reflect the same level of status as themselves. This is where marketers tailor make and style adverts to suit the right target group.An important function of retail advertising is to allow the shopper to make a social-class identification of stores. This is done from the tone and physical character of the advertising.Advertisement addressed to lower classes :
Advertisement addressed to upper class :
