Consumption and preferences and behavioral tendencies are shaped by the family life cycle as preferences towards market products are age and family size related. Marketers also define their target groups based on the family life cycle. An understanding of life cycle helps them in strategic plans. Stages of life cycle include:
“Independence”
“Family before children”
“Family with child aged under 6 (whole nest-1)”
“Family with child aged after 6 (whole nest-2)”
“Adult children live separately (empty nest)”
“Life after spouse’s loss”.
Experience, income and others affect the buying behaviour of individuals. Marketers target a particular life cycle in launching their product as the required products vary at different stages of life cycle. For eg. Children oriented products are important in the ‘whole nest’ than in ‘empty nest’. Similarly wants and needs of ‘empty nest’ is different from ‘family before children’.
Occupation :
Marketers should identify the occupational groups that are more interested in their products and services so that they can specialize in products needed for an occupational group. Ex: Ergonomically designed chairs for software personnel.
The choice is also affected by a consumer’s economic circumstances –
income, savings and debts, borrowing power, and attitude toward spending
Marketers can look for links between their products and lifestyle groups as people from same culture and occupation can have different lifestyles.
person’s pattern of living in terms of activities, interests, and opinions
Life Style:
The psychographic analysis technique is used to measure consumers lifestyle .This includes people’s activities, interests and opinions. The consumers are classified based on the combinations of these dimensions. It is a profile of a person’s pattern of acting and interacting in the world. Studying the change in consumer value, their effect on buying behavior is well understood.
Participants