Chapter Overview

In this chapter, we talked about two important categories of groups: organizational consumers and households. Almost all consumer behavior involves groups at one or more of the stages in the circle of consumer behavior. Groups vary in terms of their membership and structure and their decision-making style and organization. They mobilize resources in order to realize consumption choices. Their consumption choices involve a mix of motives or reasons. Group members play different roles in the purchase process. Each group had a cultural history that influences purchase decisions.

Organizational consumers constitute an enormous market. Successfully marketing to organizations involves identification of, and communication with participants in buying centers. Because of changing environmental demands, an area of increasing importance to marketers is an understanding of on-going buyer-seller relationships. Three basic buy classes can distinguish organizational purchases: new task buys, modified rebuys, and straight rebuys.

Because so many decisions are made in domestic groups, their structure and shifts in their structure have significant implications for marketing. We discuss four trends in household structure that have emerged in the Triad nations: smaller households, in creating numbers of single parent households, aging of households, and diversification of household forms. Co-residence or cohabitation is one common way of defining households. Co-residence is important to marketers because it requires acquisition and maintenance of a dwelling. An important tool for marketers and social policy activists is the family life cycle (FLC). Domestic groups at each stage of this cycle can be grouped into market segments with distinct needs, attitudes, and desires.

Domestic groups carry our a range of activities including: socialization, production, resource pooling, and acquisition. Much, but not all, consumer socialization occurs within domestic groups. Consumer socialization takes two forms, direct and indirect socialization. Direct production of goods is most often associated with less developed economies. Greater indirect production activities characterize many first world and new industrialized countries? households. There are big differences between and within cultures in how households allocate resources.

We also discuss how households acquire goods and services. However, research on household acquisition strategies is fragmentary. Households generally act as cooperative groups. Family decision making studies emphasize that conflict resolution is dominated by couples? cooperative concern for each other?s preferences and for fairness. Changes in household structure and organization may lead to role conflicts, especially conflicts between work, family, and individual interests.