Non traditional family life cycle

Consumer researchers have proposed increasing the number of family

life cycle stages in order to accommodate non traditional forms, such as
single parent families and married couples who choose not to bear
children. Such revisions presuppose that increasing the number of family
life cycle stages would be useful in predicting the family expenditure on
goods and services.
Our consumption behavior is a function of who we are as individuals.
Our thoughts, feelings, behavior, attitude, patterns of behavior determine
what we buy, how we buy, when we buy it. A marketers job is to figure
out what needs and wants the consumer has and what motivates the
consumer to purchase. Consumer motives and goals can be represented
by the values they hold. Consumer buy products that represent values,
they see product attributes as a means to an end.
In case of non traditional families which mainly comprises of single
parents or people who are divorced or people who have chosen not to
have any children, or cases where the grandparents are raising up their
grandchildren the circumstances and therefore the consumption patterns
are opposite.
When households undergo status changes (divorce, temporary
retirement, a new person moving into the household), they often
undergo spontaneous changes in consumption related preferences. In
another sphere , the substantial increase in dual income households in
which both husband and wife work has also tended to influence the
lifestyle assumptions.

In this context the term household is used to describe all person, both
related and unrelated, who occupy a housing unit.
The term household is becoming a more important unit of analysis for
marketers because of the rapid growth in nontraditional families and
non-family households.
Among non-family households, the great majority consist of people
living alone. The remaining non-family households include those
consisting of elderly people living with non-family members.
Dynamic socio demographic changes in society have resulted in many
non traditional stages which tend to heavily influence the manner in
which the marketers decide to present before the customers the details of
their products.
Families opting not to have any children are bound to have more
discretionary income at their disposal, whereas grandparents raising up
their grandchildren have a whole lot of things to look after, other than
just raising up their grand children. So in this manner the consumption
behavior of non traditional family differs from that of the traditional
types.