Family...who has the last word?

Unlike this family who has not a worry in the world about who will go and do the weekly shop, or which brand to pick in order to keep up with the Jones and keep the rest of the family happy, millions of families, no matter how big or small influence each other when it comes to making purchase decisions. This is why it is so important for marketers to cater for all family members when trying to sell their product. The more members of the family they can appeal to, the more chance of purchases being made.

There are a number of different family types that marketers needs to be aware of:

• The Nuclear Family - the Mother, Father and Children all live together



• Extended Family - the nuclear family plus other family members such as grandparents



• Family of Orientation - the family you are born into



• Family of Procreation - the family founded through marriage

National statistics show that the number of single parent families has increased to a massive 1 in 7. For marketers, this may mean that depicting products as value for money may be more effective as these families tend not to have as mch disposable income. The use of promotion in supermarkets may be the best method of marketing to this family type.

There is also an increase in the number of step families, this could mean that the household grows in number of both adults and children. As a result, shopping budgets could be reduced as a result of caring for more people, alternatively, more money may be spent on the children to try and do what may be seen as 'buying their happiness' in order to help them adjust to the new family structure.

This may also result in the parents of the family giving their children more responsibility and say in purchases that are made, whether for the family as a whole, or for the children as individuals.

This table shows just how powerful children in the household are when it comes to making purchasing decisions. The type of purchases they have the highest say in as shown above is clothing, however, even when it comes to purchasing groceries, children seem to have an 82% influence about what is put in the trolley. For marketers, this shows how advertising thier products in a way that children can understand may be beneficial to them. If the children are impressed with the product, it is likely that parents may be subjected to heavy influence and make purchases based on their children's suggestions.

Some more issues affecting how families consume their products are; the number of children in the household, the children's ages, and how many adults are employed outside the home.

Field (1969) identified 3 diamensions to determine relative influences of husband, wife and child:

• Discernment - technical know how


• Price - Expensiveness, who is paying?


• Satisfaction - who is using the product in question?

Marketers need to understand who the deision maker is in the home, so that they can market their message in a suitable and effective way. They need to establish who keeps tracks of family outgoings and bills, who earns the money and who spends it, and who is the dominant and decision making figure in the family.

Research shows how children influence many family purchases for products other than toys. Children are also exposed to a high level of television viewing so are likely to see more advertisments than other groups. This therefore may suggest that marketers should make their adverts shown on TV child friendly and orientated.

This diagram shows who makes decisions for different categories of purchases. From looking at the data, it is clear that women in the home are the decision makers for the everyday purchases, whereas men take on the role of DIY expert and choose all the hardware and garden related purchases. This may be due to the fact that DIY products tend to be marketed in a very factual or technical way; gobeldygook language for most women, meaning that the decision making is done by the person who understands best about this kind of thing - males!

Research into advertising for the sexes has also shown how men prefer to be presented with facts and figures rather than detail. This can therefore help to explain why the hardware type products are purchased by the men in the family, and the products that are promoted by in depth explanation and description are purchased by women.