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Consumer Behaviour And Marketing Communication
W. Lloyd Warner’s system of social stratification is very popular and it is described as follows:
- UPPER-UPPER CLASS: Consisting of locally prominent families with at least second or
third generation wealth. Basics values are – living graciously, upholding family reputation,
reflecting the excellence of one’s breeding and displaying a sense of community responsibility. - LOwER-UPPER CLASS: This class consists of recently arrived and never quite accepted
wealthy families such as city executive elite, proprietor of large business and newly well-to-
do doctors, lawyers, architects and others. Their basic values are partly that of upper-upper
pursuit of gracious living and the upper-middle class drives for success. - UPPER-MIDDLE CLASS: This class is made up of moderately successful professional men
and women, owners of medium-sized businesses, corporate men at the management level
and young people in their 20s–30s who are expected to arrive at this occupational status
level by their middle or late 30s. Basic goals are career success, reflecting this success in
home décor and social participation, cultivating charm and polish, and a broad range of
interest – either civic or cultural. - LOwER-MIDDLE CLASS: Small business owners non- managerial office workers and
highly paid blue-collar workers who are concerned with being accepted and respected in
white-collar churches, clubs, neighbourhoods – these are the type of people in this class.
Their major goal is respectability, and they live in neatly furnished, well- maintained homes
in the town. - UPPER-LOwER CLASS: This class consists of semi-skilled production-line workers with
the goals of enjoying life and living well from day-to-day. They try to be modern, keep step
with the times and take advantage of progress to live more comfortably. - LOwER-LOwER CLASS: This class consists of unskilled workers, unassimilated ethnics,
and the sporadically employed. Their purchasing power is very low. The group is characterized
by apathy, fatalism and other various anti-social activities.
In various promotional efforts, advertisers should beware of the influence of social class membership
on buying behaviour. The consumption patterns of a class operate as prestige symbols to identify class
membership. Advertisements, appeals, copy, art and media may differ in selling the same product to
different social classes. (Engel, Blackwell and Kollat, 1973)
HEREDITARY FAMILY STATUS
When an individual is born, he immediately inherits that family social status which he grows up with
until he becomes an adult. He can improve the inherited family status through his own efforts. An
individual’s family plays a great role in the formation of his basic value and attitude. Family training
at the childhood stage remains to affect the individual’s tastes in relation to many purchases he makes.
A change in social strata does not immediately change the individual purchase behaviour because of
effects from his inherited family status.