 Hi, welcome. My name is Dr. Marcy Stone and this is Unit 8, the Influences of Class, Ethnicity and Age of your Consumer Behavior Course. This course has 10 units and Unit 8 is on the Influence of Class, Ethnicity and Age. Here are the Unit 8 learning outcomes. So we have compare how both personal and social conditions influence how we spend our money, identify how a person's desire to make a statement about his social class or the class to which they hope to belong, influences the products they like and dislike, identify how social classes are measured, how social class membership is determined, and the measurement problems that marketing managers must deal with. Why are learning outcomes important? So every learning outcome ties back to your course materials and your content, and this includes your test preparation and also your assessments. Here are the Unit 8 overview topics. So we have personal and social influences, social class influences, and social class measurements. And these are the vocabulary terms that we're going to be discussing in this presentation. Alright, so many things influence what products a consumer may buy. These things include a strong economy, social conditions, social status, social class, and the amount of disposable income a consumer has. The higher the social class, the more money a consumer may spend. Other influences may include cultural, personal, or psychological. And it's important that a marketer understand how these influences affect the buying process. There are also instances that a consumer may buy a product they do not want or need. For example, you may buy wrapping paper from your niece because it's part of a school promotion. It's important from a marketing perspective to consider social conditions and social status as a part of a marketing plan. Okay, so we have we've talked about this a little bit in this course, but we have buying influences and they come from different directions. So they may be personal, they may have to do with your occupation or your job, may have to do with your age, your financial situation, your lifestyle. And then they also include psychological. So these may be perceived needs or your perception. It might be motivation, what motivates you to buy something. It could be learning about a new product or it might be your beliefs and attitudes. And then we have social influences. So these are your societal roles, maybe you're a parent, maybe you're a CEO of a company, you have different roles in different aspects of your life. You may also have social status that might influence it and any groups that you belong to. And these could be, they could be like parental groups, they could be religious groups, different groups in your life. And then you have cultural. So this might include culture, might be subcultures. I think one of the examples that I talked about earlier is the Mormon religion or the LDS religion. They also have a subculture of people that are Jewish, but that are also Mormons, so Jewish Mormons. And so their culture may be their religion, but their subculture is the fact that they're Jewish. So any of these things might influence a consumer's buying habits. And then from a marketing perspective, they're all important to think about and review. Okay, so when a consumer moves into a different income bracket, their economic decisions may suddenly change. They may be able to afford a car that they've always wanted. Maybe they can move to a different neighborhood, or maybe they buy a bigger house, or maybe they have more disposable income than they've ever had before. So this type of social class upgrade influences their economic decisions and the consumer buying process. So these influences are also psychological in nature, and they impact the consumer buying process. So when a consumer moves from one social class to another, they may gain, they may also gain a higher confidence level. So also something else to consider in marketing. In the United States, there are several social classes that typically are determined by income. So some consumers may believe that they're part of a middle class than when reviewing income levels for what a middle class family actually needs. So they typically, these consumers are related to that experience. So maybe it's something that their parents did decades ago that took them decades to get up to that higher income level. And they may still associate themselves, even though they haven't young children, they may say, I'm middle class. And so it's something to consider because there are quite a few people who believe that they are, but then when they see the breakdown and it changes every year, but when they see the breakdown of what their social class actually is, they may not be middle class, but in their mind they are because that's what their parents were. So it's an interesting thing. And so it can be confusing in marketing because you have to take into consideration, it is what they believe. Cultural diversity is another social factor that should be considered in any marketing plan. And when you're analyzing consumers from diverse backgrounds and cultures, it may also be important to consider social classes when you're focusing on a specific target market. Okay, so here's a little chart of how people kind of self identify themselves. But again, it's kind of reality when it sits in. I remember teaching a class once where we had a listing of what the social classes were. So for a family of four, it had your income needs to be between this level and this level. And when I asked the whole class, which there were about 40 students in the class, I said, what class do you guys think you belong? And they all, every one of them, I even said, raise your hand if you think that you're middle class. Everybody in the class raised their hand. And I'm like, well, I can't be possible. And so then we flipped to that page in the textbook where it literally broke down. Like if you're in the upper class, you're making this much for a family of four. If you are in the middle class, then this is what you're making. And it was really interesting to see their faces. Whoa. Yeah, we're not making that. And when we came to the realization that a lot of them said, even though I'm an adult and I'm in my thirties or forties, I still think that I'm part of my parents' social class. But now that I think about it, it took them decades for them to get to that level. And so it's interesting. But when we see, and this one is very clearly, this is self-identified. So 50% of the people that they surveyed in this believed that they are middle class. But there's also a lower middle class. There's an upper middle class. And then you have your upper class, your 1% people in there. But it is important in marketing to really consider the fact that what class people think that they're related to isn't, it may not be. They may be in a lower class. They may actually be lower middle class or even a lower class and are not sure. It is something to consider. It's extremely interesting, actually. Okay, so in conclusion, here are the unit eight learning income outcomes, after we're talking about income. So compare how both personal and social conditions influence how we spend our money. Identify how a person's desire to make a statement about his social class or the class to which they hope to belong influences the products that they might like or dislike. And then we looked at how social classes are measured, how social class membership is determined, and the measurement problems that marketing managers have to deal with. What's next? So unit nine is on cultural influences. So my name is Dr. Marcy Stone, and I just wanted to say thanks for listening.