Consumer purchases are strongly influenced by cultural, social, psychological as well as personal factors. These factors are not controlled by marketers but an avid study of them can aid firms in the production of their goods and how their market will respond to it. We shall closely look at the social factors that affect consumer buying decisions. We will consider how an individual interacts with the family and how this affect their buyer decisions.
The family is the most important consumer buying organisation in society and marketers are interested in the roles and influences from parents, wife, husband as well as children in the purchase of products and services. The first of these in the family organisation are the parents. These offer consumer socialisation to children. This process is whereby parents acquire knowledge and skills from their parents on buying decisions. If a young adult spent many years in his formative stage observing his or her parent favour the purchase of a certain brand of toothpaste over others in the market, that is likely to influence his/her purchase decision later on in his life when he/she has a home of their own. Even where the buyer no longer has constant interaction with this family, his/her buying decision is unconsciously affected by theirs.
The family of procreation is a buyer’s spouse and children. The roles and influences of husbands, wives or children affect purchases of large varieties of goods or services for households. For instance, in countries where buying decisions are controlled by the husband, marketers would target the husband in their advertisements. In cases of expensive household products and services, spouses may engage in joint decision making and therefore