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Chapter 13
Income and Social Class
By Michael R. Solomon
Consumer Behavior
Buying, Having, and Being
Sixth Edition
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How would you describe Phils social
class?
Upon learning that the Caldwells have
money, what stereotypes did Phil have
about families with high income?
How did his experience with the Caldwell
estate differ from his preconceptions?
What lesson can we learn from Phils
experience?

Opening Vignette: Phil
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Consumer Spending
and Economic Behavior
Status Symbols:
Products that serve as markers of social class
Income Patterns
Womans Work
More people participating in the labor force
Mothers with children are the fastest growing
segment of working people
Yes, It Pays to Go to School!
Education is expensive but pays off in the long run
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Luxury Items as Status Symbols
Luxury items like
diamond engagement
rings are valued as
status symbols the
world over, as this
Brazilian ad for a
jeweler reminds us.
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Education = A Higher Living Standard
Education is strongly linked to a higher standard of living.
People who earn a college degree are likely to earn
much more during their lives than those who do not.
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To Spend or Not to Spend,
That is the Question
Discretionary Spending
Discretionary income: The money available to a
household over and above that required for a
comfortable standard of living
Individual Attitudes Toward Money:
Atephobia: Fear of being ruined
Harpaxophobia: Fear of being robbed
Peniaphobia: Fear of poverty
Aurophobia: Fear of gold
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Attitudes Toward Money
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Consumer Confidence
Behavioral Economics (a.k.a. economic
psychology):
Concerned with the human side of economic decisions
Consumer Confidence:
Consumers beliefs about what the future holds
Overall savings rate influenced by:
(1) Individual consumers pessimism or optimism about
their personal circumstances
(2) World events
(3) Cultural differences in attitudes toward saving
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Social Class
A Universal Pecking Order
Dominance-submission hierarchy: Each individual in the
hierarchy is submissive to those higher in the hierarchy and
is dominant to those below them in the hierarchy
Social Class Affects Access to Resources:
Marx believed that position in society was determined by
ones relationship to the means of production.
Weber believed that rankings of people depended on
prestige (status groups), power (party) and wealth (class)
Social Class Affects Taste and Lifestyles:
Social class: The overall rank of people in a society
Homogamy: Tendency to marry into a similar social class
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Social Class Affects Leisure
This ad implies that there are social class differences in
leisure activities and preferred beverages.
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Social Class Affects Lifestyle
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Social Stratification
Social Stratification:
Creation of artificial divisions in a society
Achieved Versus Ascribed Status:
Achieved status: Status earned through hard work
or diligent study
Ascribed status: Status one is born with
Status hierarchy: Structure in a social group in
which some members are better off than others
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Achieved versus Ascribed Wealth
In our society, wealth is more likely to be earned than
inherited.
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Class Structure
Class Structure in the United States:
Warners six social classes:
(1) Upper Upper
(2) Lower Upper
(3) Upper Middle
(4) Lower Middle
(5) Upper Lower
(6) Lower Lower
Class Structure Around the World:
Every society has some type of hierarchical class
structure
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American Class Structure
Figure 13.1
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High Status of Golf in Japan
Golf is a high status game in Japan, where land is
scarce and greens fees are extremely high.
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Targeting Social Class
This ad for US
Magazine uses a
strategy that relies on
cultural tastes of
consumers in different
social classes.
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Social Mobility
Social Mobility:
The passage of individuals from one social class to another
Horizontal Mobility:
Movement from one position to another roughly equivalent
in social status
Downward Mobility:
Movement from one position to another position that is
lower in social status
Upward Mobility:
Movement from one position to another position that is
higher in social status
Differential fertility: Middle class reproduce fewer children
than lower class
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Components of Social Class
Occupational Prestige:
The worth of people based on what they do for a living
Income:
Distribution of wealth is important to marketers because it
determines buying power and market potential
The Relationship Between Income and Social
Class:
Social class is a better predictor of purchases that have
symbolic aspects but low to moderate price
Income is a better predictor of major expenditures that do
not have status or symbolic aspects
Social class and income are both needed to predict
purchases of expensive, symbolic products
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Certain occupations
hold prestige because
of their worth to
society. Others are
prestigious because
of power or income.
Can you think of
professions that are
prestigious but not
necessarily high in
income?
Discussion Question
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Measuring Social Class
Problems with Measures of Social Class:
Dated measures which are no longer valid
Increasing anonymity of society
Reputational method: Extensive interviews within a community to
determine reputations of individuals
Status crystallization: Assesses the impact of inconsistency
on the self and social behavior
Overprivileged: Income is 25 to 30 percent greater than ones
social class median
Underprivileged: Income is 15 percent less than ones social class
median
Hierogamy: Physically attractive women tend to marry up
in social class
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Adapting to Social Status
Lottery winners who
experience sudden
wealth may have
trouble adapting to
their new social status.
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Measuring Social Class (cont.)
Problems with Social Class
Segmentation: A Summary:
They have ignored status inconsistency.
They have ignored intergenerational mobility.
They have ignored subjective social class.
They have ignored consumers aspirations to change
their class standing.
The have ignored the social status of working wives.
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How Social Class
Affects Purchase Decisions
Class Differences in Worldview
A major social class difference involves the worldview
of consumers
Working class:
More focused on immediate needs than long-term goals
Depend more heavily on relatives for emotional support
Orient themselves toward community rather than the world
More likely to be conservative and family oriented
Affluenza: Many well-off consumers seem to be
stressed or unhappy despite their wealth
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Taste Cultures and Codes
Taste Culture:
Differentiates people in terms of aesthetic and intellectual
preferences
Codes:
The ways meanings are expressed and interpreted by
consumers
Restricted codes: Focus on the content of objects, not the
relationship between objects (dominant among working class)
Elaborated codes: More complex and depend on a
sophisticated world view (used by middle and upper class)
Economic Capital: Financial Resources
Social Capital: Organizational affiliations and
networks

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Taste Cultures
People in the upper classes are more likely to share tastes in the
arts as well. They spend relatively more of their leisure time
attending the symphony, museums, the theatre, and so on.
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Cultural Capital
Cultural Capital:
A set of distinctive and socially rare tastes and
practices
Habitus:
The way we classify experiences as a result of our
socialization processes
Grid-group Theory:
Model developed by anthropologist, Mary Douglas,
that distinguishes between a persons relationship to
his or her own social group and to the general social
system
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Theoretically Based Lifestyle Model
Figure 13.4
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Targeting the Poor and Rich
Targeting the Poor:
Most marketers ignore this segment
Targeting the Rich:
Segmenting consumers based on their attitudes
toward luxury:
(1) Luxury is functional
(2) Luxury is a reward
(3) Luxury is indulgence
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Old and New Money
Old Money:
Families which live primarily on inherited funds
The Nouveau Riches:
Consumers who have achieved extreme wealth and
are relatively recent members of upper class
Status anxiety: Concern that one is being consistent
with the cultural environment of being wealthy
Symbolic self-completion: Excessive flamboyant
consumption to make up for insecurity
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Status Symbols
Invidious distinction:
Use of products to inspire envy in others through a display of
wealth or power
Conspicuous consumption:
Peoples desire to provide prominent visible evidence of their
ability to afford luxury goods
The Billboard Wife:
The decorative role women play when showered with
expensive clothes
Leisure class: People for whom productive work is taboo
Conspicuous waste: Using up resources in nonconstructive
pursuits
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Status Symbols are Always in Flux
At one time, having very
pale skin was the mark of
an upper social class
because it indicated that
the person did not have to
work in the fields. Today,
a suntan is equated with
leisure time and
consumers go to great
lengths to get one naturally
or with help.
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Status Symbols in Brazil
Armored cars are a status symbol in Brazil. This ad for
an armored-car maker uses an egg carton metaphor to
illustrate the security it offers.
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The ad to the left
insinuates that because of
the status of a gift from
Tiffany and Co., it really
doesnt matter what is in
the box.
What other brands can
you think of that have
such status, that the name
carries as much prestige
as the product?
Discussion Question
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Products as Status Symbols
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Status Symbols (cont.)
Parody Display:
Sophisticated form of conspicuous consumption to
seek status by deliberately avoiding status symbols
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Parody Display
Ripped jeans (especially the pricey kind that come that
way when you buy them) are an example of a parody
display.