move from being young and single to young married without chil-
dren, to young married with children, to middle aged married with
children, to middle aged married without dependent children, to older
married, ending up finally as older unmarried.At each stage a consumer’s needs and disposable income will change.
Someone who is young and single has very few commitments so although
their income in real terms may be low, they have high disposable income.
Once an individual is married with children, commitments have increased.
They are likely to have to move into the housing market, plus they are
now buying products for young babies and children. The couple may well
start to take out savings and insurance policies to protect their children’s
future. In middle age they will begin to be more interested in pension
arrangements. Quite obviously, as an individual moves through these
stages, their propensity to buy certain types of products will change. This
approach is therefore useful in identifying these consumer groupings. In
western cultures there has been speculation that the family as a unit is of
decreasing importance, however there is contradictory evidence on this
issue. In 1985 a Family Policy Studies Centrereport (cited in Rice, 1993)
looking at the UK claimed that:● Nine out of ten people will marry at some time in their lives.
● Nine out of ten married couples will have children.
● Two in every three marriages are likely to be ended by death rather
than divorce.
● Eight out of ten people live in households headed by a married couple.However, there was one key change from earlier studies. This was a grow-
ing trend for individuals to go through the cycle belonging to more than
one family group, individuals were divorcing and remarrying. Therefore
both parental figures in a family grouping may not be blood relatives of the
children. Also the siblings may not be blood relatives. From a marketers
point of view however it is the fact that family groupings are still a key fea-
ture in society that is important. These family life cycle stages are therefore
still relevant for segmentation purposes.
Another trend that Lawson (1988) identified after analysing demo-
graphic trends in the UK was that the stages have altered in both length
and importance.
Full nest stages, when children live with their parents, are shorter due to
the fact that couples are having fewer children and that these children are
being born closer together. This means that individuals spend more time in
the bachelor and empty nest stages and there are more people in these
groups.
As a result of this study, Lawson updated the family life cycle using the
1981 census, claiming this modernised version covers over 80% of the
population (see Figure 4.6).
The 18.69 per cent of households excluded from this table are made up
of young people living in joint households, households with residents
other than family and households with more than one family.60 Strategic Marketing: Planning and Control