SOCIAL CLASS AND

LIFESTYLE

Submitted to,

Dr. Swaroop Simha

CONTENTS
✶ Introduction ✶ Social mobility

✶ To spend or not to spend is the ✶ Components of Social Class

question
✶ Predicting Consumer Behavior
✶ Consumer confidence
✶ Status symbols
✶ Social class structure
✶ Problems with Social Class
✶ Picking a Pecking Order Segmentation

✶ Taste culture ✶ Lifestyle: who we are and what we

do
Introduction
✶ Social Class is a broad group in society having common
economic, cultural, or political status.
✶ Lifestyle is a particular way of living.
✶ Both Lifestyle and social class status will influence how we
spend our money.
To spend or not to spend is the question
✶ Discretionary Income: The money available to a household
over and above what it requires to have a comfortable
standard of living.
✶ How we spend varies based in part on our attitudes towards
money.
✶ It can be explained as:
(1) Tightwads: Who hate to part with even a penny.

(2) Spendthrifts: Who enjoy nothing more than buying everything in

sight
Consumer confidence
✶ Consumer's beliefs about what the future holds to them is
refered to as consumer confidence.
✶ This measure reflects how optimistic or pessimistic people
are about the future economy.
Social class structure

✶ “Haves” versus “have-nots”

✶ Social class is determined by income, family background,
and occupation
✶ Universal pecking order: relative standing in society
Social class affects access to resources
Picking a Pecking Order
✶ Social stratification
✶ Artificial divisions in a society -Scarce/valuable resources are
distributed unequally to status positions
✶ Achieved versus ascribed status
✶ Status hierarchy
Social mobility
Social mobility refers to passage of individuals from one social
class to another.
✶ Horizontal mobility
✶ Social mobility
✶ Upward mobility
Components of Social Class
✶ Occupational prestige :
- stable over time and similar across countries
- single best indicator of the social class
✶ Income
- wealth not distributed evenly across all classes
- how money is spent is more influentual on class rather than income
Predicting Consumer Behavior
✶ Social class is better predictor of lower to moderately priced
symbolic purchases
✶ Income is better predictor of major nonstatus/nonsymbolic
expenditures
✶ Need both social class and income to predict expensive,
symbolic products
Luxury
Luxury is a state of great comfort, elegance and prestige,
especially when involving great expense.
Consumer View of Luxury Goods
✶ Luxury is functional :
- these customers buys things that will last and have enduring value.
- they conduct extensive prepurchase research and make logical
decisions rather than emotional or impulsive choices.
✶ Luxury is a reward :
- they use luxury goods to say " I've made it". They desire to showcase
their success to others.
✶ Luxury is indulgence:
- it indulges younger costumers and slightly more males. This group is
willing to pay a premium for goods that expresses their individulity and
make others notice.
Taste culture

✶ Taste culture differentiates people in terms of their aesthetic

and intellectual preferences
✶ Upper- and upper-middle-class are more likely to visit
museums and attend live theater
✶ Middle-class is more likely to go camping and fishing
Status symbols
✶ "KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES"
✶ A major motivation to buy is not to enjoy the items but
rather to let others know we can afford them.
✶ Two types of status:
(1) Achieved status (2) Ascribed status
Status symbols
✶ Flight: they stop using the brand because they wont to be
mislabeled as a lesser status person who buys fake brands.
✶ Reclaimation: they go out of their way to emphasize their
long relationship with the brand, but express concern that
its image will be tarnished.
✶ Abranding: they disguise their luxury items in the belief that
truely high-status people do not need to display expensive
logos, whereas those who do betray their low status.
Problems with Social Class Segmentation
✶ Ignores status inconsistencies
✶ Ignores intergenerational mobility
✶ Ignores subjective social class
✶ Ignores consumers’ aspirations to change class standing
✶ Ignores the social status of working wives
Lifestyle: who we are, what we do
✶ Lifestyle defines a pattern of consumption that reflects a person's
choice of how to spend his/her time and money.
✶ One's choice of goods and services indeed makes a statement about
who one is and group of people with whom one desires to identify or
wish to avoid.
✶ A lifestyle marketing perspective recognizes that people sort themselves
into groups on the basis of the things they like to do,how they like to
spend their leisure time and how they chose to spend their disposable
income.
Consumption style
Summary
✶ Both personal and social conditions influence how we
spend our money
✶ We group consumers into social classes that say a lot about
where they stand in society.
✶ Individuals’ desire to make a statement about their social
class, or the class to which they hope to belong, influences
the products they like and dislike.
✶ Consumer's lifestyles are key to many marketing strategies
Reference
✶ CONSUMER BEHAVIOR- 10th edition
Michael R. Solomon
By,
Arpitha M Gowda
Ashwin Sri Damodaran
Kavya R
Nabeela M Hassan
Pallavi G
Sushmitha N