1. Family – A family is a group of two or more persons
related by blood, marriage, or adoption who reside
together.
It has one of the strongest, most immediate & pervasive
effects on a consumer’s personality, motivation &
attitude.
This is primary & strongest reference group.
From marketing point of view, investigating the family
becomes important since attitude towards savings &
spending, brands and products are often moulded by
the family.

2. The Evolving Indian Family
1 From joint family to nuclear family –
a due to urbanization & industrialization which has
caused occupational changes.
b accommodation of cities being expensive compelling
families to stay small.
2 Working women –
a women are more & more exploring their potential in
the work force
b distribution of power & responsibilities has also
changed.

3. The latest Nuclear Urban Family
1 The members are highly individualistic.
2 The members have divergent tastes.
3 They have adequate spending power.
4 They have unique needs.

4. Socialization of family members – It refers to a process
by which a family member learns the system of
values, norms, & expected behavior patterns from
each other.
1 Consumer socialization of children – the process by
which children acquires the skills, attitudes,
knowledge & experience necessary to function as
consumers.
Children watch & imitate parent’s behavior which serve
them as role model.
2 Adult socialization – Adults get socialized by both
family & friends. Family guides them on broader
values whereas friends make them learn specific
behavior.

5. Intergenerational socialization – Some product loyalties
or brand preferences are transferred from one
generation to another.
Other functions of the family
1 Economic well being – to provide economic support to
its members. Though the responsibility to provide
economic well being has changed over the last
decade.
2 Emotional support – emotional nourishment including
love, affection & intimacy.
3 Sustainable family lifestyle – based on culture &
economic conditions family decides the importance of
various things in their kids life education career etc.

6. Family decision making & consumption related roles –
Key consumption roles –
1 Initiator – who thinks about buying products &
gathering of information to aid decision .
2 Influencers – whose opinions are sought concerning
the criteria the family should use in purchases &
which product of brands most likely fit those
evaluative criteria.
3 Deciders – The person with the financial
authority/power to choose how the family money will
be spent & the products or brands that will be
chosen.
4 Buyer – The person who purchases the product.

7. 5 Preparers – Who transforms the product into a form
suitable for consumption by other family members.
6 Users – who use or consume a particular product or
service.
7 Maintainers – who service or repair the product so that
it will provide continued satisfaction.
8 Disposers – who initiate or carry out the disposal or
discontinuation of a particular product or service.

8. Role structure & relative influence across product
categories – Traditionally men have been associated
with instrumental (functional roles), female usually
play (expressive role).
Role structure & relative influence by stage of decision
making process – As initiators of ideas all family
members prove to be important; but as deciders the
head of the family played the more important roles.

9. How family make purchase decisions
Major characteristics of Indian family are as follows
1 family makes & spends money continuously for many
years.
2 Family decisions are made with private, intimate, &
social group.
3 Family consumption decisions are often not
independent from one another.
4 Family has multiple decision makers.
5 family decision making differs by the type of product
being studied.
6 Family differ significantly among themselves.

10. Dynamic husband – wife decision making – Marketers
are particularly interested in understanding spousal
influence patterns & decision making processes in
order to communicate messages, shape brand
choice & guide personal selling activities.
These decisions could be husband-dominated, wife-
dominated or autonomic.

11. Family Life cycle - The FLC is a composite variable
created by systematically combining such commonly
used demographic variables as marital status, size of
family, age of family members, presence or absence
of children at home.
Stage 1 – Bachelorhood (Youth)
Stage 2 – Honeymooners
Stage 3 – Parenthood
Stage 4 – Post-parenthood
Stage 5 - Dissolution

12. Kids Pester Power
Role of children in family decision making
Core category
Peripheral category
Adult category