Chapter 12

Household Decision Making

By Michael R. Solomon

Consumer Behavior
Buying, Having, and Being
Sixth Edition
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 The Family
• Defining the Modern Family
– Extended Family: Consists of three generations living
together and often includes grandparents, aunts,
uncles, and cousins.
– Nuclear Family: A mother and a father and one or
more children
• Just What Is A Household?
– Family Household:

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 The Family Life Cycle
• Family Life Cycle (FLC)
– Concept that combines trends in income and family
composition with the changes in demands placed
upon this income to segment households.
• FLC Models
– Focuses on longitudinal changes in priorities which is
valuable in predicting demand for specific product
categories over time.
– Four variables are necessary:
• (1)
• (2)
• (3)
• (4)
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Family Life Cycle

Figure 12.1 12 - 4
VIDEO: DDB Worldwide
• DDB Worldwide, as
the advertising
agency in charge of
revamping J.C.
Penney’s image, had
Click image to play video.
to address the special
challenge of reaching
working moms.

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 The Intimate Corporation:
Family Decision Making
• Collective Decision Making
– A process in which more than one person is
involved in the purchasing process for
products or services to be used by multiple
consumers
• Household Decisions
– Consensual Purchase Decision:

– Accommodative Purchase Decision:

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 Household Conflict

• Conflict: occurs when there is not

complete agreement in family members’
needs and preferences.
• Factors determining the degree of
family decision conflict:
– Interpersonal need:
– Product involvement and utility:
– Responsibility:
– Power:
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 Discussion Question
• This Kudos
advertisement tries to
explain that the
product will satisfy two
members of the
household for different
reasons.
• What type of family
decision have the
mother and son
made?

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 Group/Family Decision Making
• Decision Roles:
– Influencer: influences the purchase decision.
– Gatekeeper:
– Decider: makes the final decision regarding a
purchase.
– Buyer: engages in the actual transaction/ purchase.
– Preparer: prepares the purchased goods for use.
– User: uses the purchased good(s).
– Maintainer: maintains or takes care of the good(s).
– Disposer: chooses when and how to dispose of the
good(s).

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 Sex Roles and Decision-Making
Responsibilities
• Autonomic Decision

• Syncratic Decision

• There is a shift in decision making

toward more compromise and turn-
taking.

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 Identifying the Decision Maker

• Family Financial Officer (FFO):

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 Who Buys the Pants?

• Although many men still wear the pants in the family,

it’s women who buy them.
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 Identifying the Decision Maker
• Four Factors Determine the Degree to
Which Decisions will be Made Jointly
by One or the Other Spouse
– Sex-role stereotypes:
– Spousal resources:
– Experience:
– Socioeconomic Status:

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 Children As Decision Makers:
Consumers-In-Training

• Primary Market:

• Influence Market:
– Parental Yielding: Occurs when a parental
decision maker is influenced by a child’s
request and “surrenders.”
• Future Market:
– Kids eventually grow up to be adults.

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Kids’ Influence on Household
Purchases

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Family Decision Making
• Children often
determine the
products and
brands they use.

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 Consumer Socialization
• Consumer Socialization

• Influence of Parents:
– Parents’ influences in consumer socialization
are both direct and indirect.
• Television: “The Electric Babysitter”:
– The more children are exposed to television, the
more they will accept images depicted as real.

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 Consumer Socialization (cont.)
• Sex Role Socialization:
– Children pick up on the concept of gender
identity as early as age one or two.
• Stage of Cognitive Development
– The ability to comprehend concepts of
increasing complexity

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Marketing Research and Children
• Product Testing:
– A particularly helpful type of research with
children.
– Involves watching kids play with toys or
involving them in focus groups
• Message Comprehension:
– Children differ in their ability to process product-
related information
– Ethical issues must be considered when
directing advertising appeals at children

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 Product Testing

• Lego did research to learn how boys and girls play with
their building toys.
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