Consumer Behaviour

Introduction
Anyone who purchases something from a company may be a customer. Consumers are individuals
who buy products and services for personal consumption (Jobber, 2010, p.109). As such,
understanding consumer behaviour is very important as the socio-economic groups and Europe and
more importantly Britain are evolving constantly. It is important to understand what factors motivate
consumers and what factors are influential in affecting consumer behaviour. From the marketing
perspective, there are factors such as social, psychological, personal, and also cultural factors that
influence buying behaviour (Wilson & Gilligan, 2003). Due to their influence on consumer buying
behaviour, each of these factors has to be understood by the marketers in order to cater to the needs of
the customers efficiently. Muscles factors emphasise the differences between consumers based on
their ethnicity, economic situation and status in the society (Jobber, 2010).
It is seen that factors such as social class can determine the lifestyle and the behavioural patterns of
individuals. However, seeing that the economic situation of most of the people in Britain as well as in
Europe is improving, it is difficult to ascertain the impact that social class has on consumer buying
behaviour. Although the impact of social class and consumer behaviour is difficult to ascertain, it was
certainly established that there are several observable effects that social class contributes towards
consumers behaviour (Wilson & Gilligan, 2003).
With respect to marketing, social class serves as a differentiating factor for the consumer base. In
other words, the social class can be used to differentiate various groups and sectors within the society
which can help companies understand buying behaviour of consumers better. It has also been noted
that many of the surveys and marketing research that has been conducted give importance to social
class and provide statistical figures which are broken down according to the social class of the
consumers (Jobber, 2010). Understanding consumer behaviour is the key to understanding social class
and its impact on consumer behaviour.
The problem with social class is that owing to the post modernisation of Britain; it is becoming
increasingly difficult to different between different classes of people and distinctly identified them
with a particular social class based on the consumer buying behaviour (Parsons & MacLaran, 2009).
People are looking towards famous personalities such as celebrities to define their behavioural
patterns. What this means is that consumers are looking towards celebrities and are following what
celebrities are doing. As such, it has become easy for marketers to target consumers by making use of
opinion leaders to promote various products and services to the general public (Jobber, 2010). What is
happening is that consumers are moving towards a celebrity culture kind of society where the style
icons and the opinion leaders are celebrities. As a result, most of the consumers are willing to follow
in the footsteps of these celebrities (Parsons & MacLaran, 2009).
Social class provides marketers with various market segments that can be used to promote different
goods and services to each class in the society. However, without a proper understanding of social
class, is very difficult for marketers to be able to differentiate the segments and to ascertain the needs
and wants of the customers. It is important for marketers to especially analyse the normative selfimage of consumers in order to establish its impact on social class and consumer behaviour. If
marketers are able to differentiate and identify the needs of each of the social class, then according to
the Pareto principle, the firm in question is likely to earn that 80% of the profit through 20% of the
entire market (Jobber, 2010).

In this assignment, the concept of social class is examined by analysing the normative/ ideal selfimage, and lifestyle of people, reference groups, and the motivational factors that affect consumer
buying behaviour. In order to analyse these factors, several socio-economic aspects regarding these
factors have been analysed to determine the relevance of class in UK, with respect to Britain.

The Normative Self Image

The normative self-image of the ideal self-image is primarily concerned with one's perception of the
self. There are several consumers who feel that the self-image and the possessions of a person affect
the value of a person in society. Owing to this general perception of consumers, many of them
succumb to the normative self-image which is imaginative and aspirational (Lamb et al., 2011). There
are many factors that affect a person's concept of the self. These factors could range from culture,
family, upbringing, beliefs, opinions, and various other factors that the consumer may have learned
right from a very young age (Solomon et al., 2006). To be more specific, the self-concept is concerned
about attitudes, beliefs, self-evaluation and perceptions about one's self (Lamb et al., 2011).
There are two primary aspects that are concerned with self-concept which are the ideal self-image and
the real self image. The real self-image refers to the actual situation or the actual perception of the
consumer of himself or herself whereas the ideal self-image refers to the aspirational perception of
where the consumer wants to be or what the consumer wants to be like (Lamb et al., 2011).
Additionally it has been said that there are two more aspects to the self-concept which are the looking
glass self and the real self. The looking glass self is the way individuals perceive that others would
think about them whereas the real self is the actual objective view of the individual or the consumer
(Kurtz, 2008). Of these four images, the one that most active is the normative self-image of the ideal
self-image of the individual. This is where the major part of the consumer behaviour is formed as the
normative self takes precedence over all the decisions that a consumer makes (Kurtz, 2008). The
reason as to why the normative self or the ideal self is so powerful is because this image is
aspirational, and as every individual would like to be something better than they already are, the
normative self gives them an opportunity to express themselves as they would want to see themselves
(Kurtz, 2008).
It has also been said that most the consumer decisions regarding purchases are made based on the
normative self-image. This is because consumers feel that they move towards their ideal self-image
with every purchase that they make (Kurtz, 2008; Lamb et al., 2011). As a result social class has very
little impact on the consumers buying behaviour with respect to the normative self-image. One of the
underlying factors that assist the normative self-image is self-esteem. Self-esteem is based on the
positive image or positive concept of one's self. The normative self-image helps consumers who are in
pursuit of a better self esteem (Solomon et al., 2006). The general idea of the normative self-image is
that people always want to look, feel, or be better than they actually are. It has also been stated that
consumer behaviour has revealed consumers never reflect their own social classes in their buying
behaviour, rather they reflect social classes of higher status (Solomon et al., 2006; Jobber, 2010).
For example, if a middle-class person has a normative self-image of becoming James Bond or
something like James Bond, he would certainly start purchasing products that he thinks James Bond
would purchase. If he has the spending power to purchase whatever he wants to purchase, then
chances are that he would purchase fine suits, fancy cars, Rolex watches, and other symbolic items
that can be identified with James Bond. As such he would be portraying to others that he is something
like James Bond or he is James Bond. Although this may not be possible for most of the consumers,
the aspirational factor in the normative self-image makes them want to indulge in this behaviour.

Within the economic means, the consumer would do everything possible to reflect this aspirational
image of James Bond in him.

Lifestyle of Consumers
The lifestyle of the person says a lot about the person. Just like the expression the picture can say
1000 words, the lifestyle of a person can actually be used to understand consumer behaviour.
Additionally, the lifestyle of a person also depicts the social class of the person. The traditional view
is that people who have a lot of money and spend money lavishly are upper-class and people that have
to worry about spending money or do not have luxurious spending power are middle-class or lower
class (Solomon et al., 2006). Social class is not just about how much money a person has or how they
spend money. Social class is also concerned with the family of orientation and family of procreation
just as it is concerned with the occupation of the consumers as well as the position in society.
According to a recent classification of social classes in the UK, it is seen that managerial and
professional occupations amount to higher social classes than other roles or occupations.
According to Jobber (2010) the classification of social class in Britain as of 2010 is as follows:
Classification

Descriptors

Higher managerial and professional

occupations

Lower managerial and professional

occupations

Intermediate occupations

Small traders and sole traders

Laws supervisory and technical

occupations

Semi-routine occupations

Routine occupations

Never worked and long-term

unemployment
Social class categories, adapted from Jobber (2010, p.133)
As is evident from the categories of social class, social classes based on the profession and the wily
that the profession holds in the society along with the earning potentials of each of these professions.
As such it can be called as a socio-economic class indicator rather than a social class indicator
(Solomon et al., 2006). The social class structure in Britain takes the shape of a diamond with very
few upper-class people and few lower class people with the majority of the people falling in the
category of middle-class (Kotler et al., 1999). It has been noticed that people in the middle-class
category of the social class sector often find themselves behaving like upper-class people in order to
satisfy the self-esteem and their normative self image (Solomon et al., 2006).
From a marketing perspective, it is important to understand how people in various socio economic
classes respond to products and services from companies. The reason is to ascertain the influence of
social class on the buying behaviour of consumers. For instance if Lisa is a bank manager, she may
also be a mother and a sister to someone. As such, each of these roles will affect her purchasing
behaviour. As a bank manager her position supersedes the roles of a mother and sister and as such
most of her purchasing behaviour will reflect that of a bank manager. For example she may purchase

formal dress wear, expensive looking furniture, and she may also own an expensive car. As such, her
lifestyle and reveals the social class that of the upper-class. However, even other middle-class
consumers may also reflect the same lifestyle that Lisa reflects owing to the fact that the normative
self-image plays an important part in consumer buying behaviour. It is also evident from Lisas
lifestyle that the lifestyle evolves over time and as a result, the consumer behaviour is reflected in this.

Reference Groups
Reference groups are groups where the consumer may or may not have direct membership. It has been
stated that all the formal and informal groups that influenced the buying behaviour of an individual
are that persons reference groups (Lamb et al., 2011, p.209). The reason as to why these groups are
called reference groups is because consumers identify themselves with these groups and do what they
think people who belong to these groups would do. The reference group that has the most influence
on consumer buying behaviour is the aspirational reference group which consumers would like to join
but may not have the access or the means to join the group. Reference groups such as aspirational
groups can influence consumer buying behaviour just as the normative self-image can influence
buying behaviour. This is because consumers would like to belong to the reference group to either
improve their self-esteem or to feel belonged to a valued group in the society (Kurtz, 2008). For
example if a person wishes to become a rock star, he or she might start to dress like a rock star and
also start to behave and act like one. Additionally, the person may also listen to all the music with
regard to rock music and hang out with the crowd that likes rock music.
Aspirational reference groups are always more influential when opinion leaders endorsed a brand or
product. Opinion leaders can be considered as those people who can influence others to do something.
From a marketing perspective, it is important to select the right opinion leaders to be able to influence
the target consumer group to purchase their products or services (Lamb et al., 2011). In most cases
celebrities are used as opinion leaders to endorse brands or products.
For instance, if Lisa the bank manager is influenced by someone like Angelina Jolie, she would
perhaps be more willing to purchase products that I endorsed by Angelina Jolie since she would like
to be associated with Angelina Jolie and belong to that reference group. Similarly the same principle
works with all consumers in that when the opinion leader of their liking says something they would be
willing to do that.

Motivation of the Consumers

Motivation is what drives a person to do something. It is also one of the basic aspects of consumer
behaviour. Consumers behave the way they do due to the underlying motivational factors. If
marketers can understand consumer behaviour and understand how to motivate consumers, they can
certainly equip the firm with a competitive advantage over their competitors. It has also been seen that
social class determines the factors that motivate people and awareness circumstances. The most
common driver of motivation is the need that a person has for a given product or service. There are
also needs differentiated on the basis of biological needs and psychological needs. Biological needs
refer to aspects such as thirst or hunger and the psychological needs refer to self-esteem and
belongingness. This can be discussed by using the Abraham Maslow's theory of need hierarchy.
According to Maslow's theory of motivation, it is seen that physiological or biological needs, safety
needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualisation needs are the primary motivators for an
individual. It can be said that each of these needs reflects the social class of the individual. For
example with respect to the physiological needs, a person of the high-class may prefer to eat at an
expensive restaurant three or four times a week whereas a person in the middle-class may not be

inclined to eat at an expensive restaurant three or four times a week. However, due to the normative
self-image of the consumer, even the middle-class person may change his or her attitude to match that
of the high-class person by eating at an expensive restaurant three or four times a week is that is what
he or she thinks high-class people will do. As such the actual implication of social class is not relevant
in the situation. The same can be said about all the other motivational factors which deal with selfactualisation, self-esteem, belongingness, and other needs as well. No matter which social class a
person may belong to, his or her actions may not reveal what they actually are. In fact consumers
generally act beyond their social class to portray to the general public that they are better off or upperclass.

Conclusion
With the discussion of the four important factors that affect consumer behaviour such as normative
self-image, lifestyle of consumers, reference groups, and motivational factors which have a bearing on
the social class aspect of consumer behaviour, it can be said that although there are certainly distinct
categories of people in the society based on various social classes, consumer behaviour cannot be
determined accurately by these categorisations. This is because consumers generally perceived
themselves to be better than what they actually are and as a result their purchasing behaviour reveals
or reflects this normative self-image that they have of themselves. Although there are various social
classes in the society in Britain, it is important to note that people of different classes do not do what
people of that class are expected to do. Instead, consumers act on their normative self-image and their
self-esteem needs to exaggerate their self-image to its aspirational value. Consumers do this so that
others perceive that they are offered by the class than they actually are. Additionally, this also boosts
their self image and their self esteem. It cannot be denied that there are different classes of people in
Britain. However, these social classes do not directly have an impact on the consumer buying
behaviour rather it is seen that reference groups and the normative self-image have a greater impact
on consumer buying behaviour. As such, it can be said that social class in Britain is not very relevant
in trying to understand consumer buying behaviour.

References
Jobber, D., 2010. Principles and Practice of Marketing. 6th ed. Berkshire: McGraw-Hill Education.
Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Saunders, J. & Wong, V., 1999. Principles of Marketing: Second European
Edition. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Europe.
Kurtz, D.L., 2008. Contemporary Marketing. Mason: Cengage Learning.
Lamb, C.W., Hair, J.F. & McDaniel, C., 2011. Marketing. Mason: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Parsons, E. & MacLaran, P., 2009. Contemporaty Issues in Marketing and Consumer Behaviour.
Burlington: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Solomon, M., Bamossy, G., Askegaard, S. & Hogg, M.K., 2006. Consumer Behaviour: A European
Perspective. 3rd ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
Wilson, R.M.S. & Gilligan, C., 2003. Strategic Marketing Management: Planning, implementation &
control. 3rd ed. London: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.