The family is an important element in anybody's life, this is were you learn and gain all your core values which you take with you throughout your life, it is your first step in forming your social foundation.
Within society there is a certain perception of what families should be like, this stems from ideologies, popular mythology and conventions that are deeply rooted within society's history and culture. However the turn of the century has seen these ideals slowly disintegrate. In terms of the family life cycle stages their seems to be a certain expectation within society as to what you should be doing at each stage.
There are a few different types of families that exist within the world, these are listed below;
Nuclear Family
A mother, father and children that all live together
Extended Family
Nuclear family plus other relatives such as grandparents, aunts etc
Family of Orientation
The family you were born into
Family of Procreation
Family founded through marriage
These sets of families don't always relate to everyone within society as there is such a diverse range in the family structure, this is also visible with the figures of the amount of families that live with their parents or a single parent.
In the 1970s there were 92% of children living in cohabited houses, and only 7% that were living with single parents, whereas the figures from 2008 show that there is now only 77% cohabiting families living together whilst the amount of single parents has rose up to 23%. There are several possible reasons for this but the main one I think being the increase in divorce rates, within today's society 1 in 5 children come from divorced families and this could also be one of the reasons behind the changes in family structures.
Marketers often target families as these are very significant buyers within all markets, as they have many different needs as a family as a whole, as parents and as children. Family needs will be affected by the number of children that are in each household as although they may only have one or two children they may find that they are likely to be spending a lot more, this usually happens as parents tend to spoil their children always wanting the best for them. This also comes back to the strength of pester power with children as they know at some point their parents will give in.
Wells and Gruber developed the family life cycle in order to determine what products and services a family are most likely to be buying. This was put together using different factors such as age, marital status and income. This model consists of nine different stages which identifies the various stages that individuals are more than likely to go through at some point in their lives. These stages are;
- Bachelor
- Newly Married
- Full Nest I
- Full Nest II
- Full Nest III
- Empty Nest I
- Empty Nest II
- Solitary Survivor I
- Solitary Survivor II
Bachelorhood refers to someone that is young, single and not living at home. Usually this type of person hasn't got many financial obligations and is looked up to by their peers. More conventionally a 'bachelor' is associated with young males who live by themselves living the young free and single lifestyle.
Newly married refers to young married couples, who have no children and more than likely have purchased their first home. This group of individuals will be most financially well off than they will ever be as they have no children and will both probably be in full time jobs.
Full nest 1 are families who have children that are under the age of six, they have low income and high debts as there is more than likely to only be one of the parents working, whilst the other is at home looking after the children. The purchases that are made by individuals at this stage are mainly for the children as well as the necessities needed for the family home.Full nest 2 consists of families that have children aged six and over in which their household income is likely to be larger than of that before, as the children will be at school at both the parents will be able to go back to work. The majority of the expenditure will still be on the children, especially since they are at school with their peers, this is predominately when children start using PESTER power on their parents.
Full nest 3, are older married couples that have children that are dependant on them. The older children of these families are likely to be at work, whilst others are in further or higher education. Therefore most of the family expenditure will be used to support the children in their education.
Empty nest 1 are older married couples with no children living at home and at least one person in the household is still at work therefore there is still a steady financial income. Empty nest 2 are older married couples who are retired with no children living at home, these groups of individuals experience a significant cut in their income and start to have concerns about their savings and pensions.
Solitary survivor 1 refers to those that are widowed but are still in work, thus still having a significant income but are more than likely to sell the family home and find some where smaller. Their biggest concerns are to do with their pensions and savings as they are on their own. Solitary survivor 2 still refers to an widowed individual but that is now retired, meaning that they don't have a big income. Their needs now include attention, affection and security thus making them more than likely to look into sheltered homes where they can feel safe and secure and are constantly being looked after.
This model was created in the 1960s, by which the family cycle is shown to be very traditional with two parents per family however this model doesn't necessarily reflect everybody in the modern day family as there is no mention of single parents, or people who never wed or even divorced couples. This could be due to the fact that in that era divorce rates were extremely low in comparison with today's society and it is much more common today to have a single parent family.
I have found an advert which shows the family life cycle stages in one of the more traditional forms.
Within a traditional family, the man is the head of the household, he goes out to earn the money whilst the woman spends it. However within a modern family it is most likely to be a shared participation as more women have their own careers than in previous years. Therefore being able spend their own money on what ever they want and not having to rely on their husband or partner.
With modern they families the dominance of the man or woman in the relationship can sometimes strongly reflect their family background for example if they were brought up in a single parent home where the mother is the lone parent, they would be more than likely to take on that role of the strong, independent lady as that is all that they have known.
When it comes to making purchases it is commonly perceived that women do most of the spending, however recent figures have shown that men nowadays are more likely to be the decision makers and purchasers in the household. It was shown that 49% of men and 40% of women are more likely to use the internet, along with 58% of men and 48% of women having shopped online. Whilst 27% of women and only 17% of men are do their food shopping online.
When marketers are trying to advertise their products they take into consideration who they are marketing them to. Children are best at getting their parents to buy them what they want thus making them targeted more however it also depends on what the product is that they are advertising. For example if they product is electronic, alcohol, or DIY related then marketers would most likely aim the advertising at men and products such as clothes, cosmetics or groceries are most likely to be aimed at women.
I have found some examples of adverts that relate mostly to men and females and both.
This advert I think relates to men
This advert I think relates to women
This advert I think relates to both
It is visible to see the change within the family structures of the 21st century, however marketers have to be able to identify with the changes to ensure that they are not missing out on any possible target audiences, as from the family life cycle model you can see that even though some of those stages still exists there are limited in there profiles. And if marketers are using this as a template they need to update the model to go with the times.
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