Buying Decisions of the Parents, the Family as a Consumer Base Unit - Essay Example

Older children exerted greater influence on their parents; a child’s gender was not a significant factor that influenced their parents’ buying decisions. Researchers have suggested that the “family as a consuming and decision-making unit is a central phenomenon in marketing and consumer behavior” (Commuri& Gentry, 2000, p. 1). Since the late 1960s, marketing managers have identified the central role of the family in decision making and consumption of products (Assael, 1998); family units have been at the center of interest of marketers and academics in the line of marketing (Moore, Wilkie, & Lutz, 2002; Shoham&Dalakas, 2005).

Joint decisions by the consumer and family members work toward influencing or modifying the desire and disposition of the other family member toward a certain consumer good (Foxall, 1977). A family unit had an intermediating function, and also was the point of integration of an individual within the precincts of a larger society. Being the primary consumption unit, the family was also the primary target for all the available products and their categories (Schiffman&Kanuk, 1983). The family unit might be defined as a group of people residing together who might be related by marriage, blood, or adoption (Loudon & Della Bitta, 1993).

A nuclear type of family would consist of a husband, a wife, and their children. An extended family included the nuclear family members and other relatives. During the course of a single day, there will be multiple decisions made by family members (nuclear or extended), and in a majority of the cases, the wife or the husband will be the prevailing decision maker within the family. Commuri&Gentry Many researchers had focused their studies “on family consumer behavior and a majority of the literature has been on decision role — who makes what decisions” (Commuri&Gentry, 2000, pp. 8). Other research suggests that the influence of the wife and the husband would most likely change according to the (a) product types being considered for consumption, (b) the step reached in the process of decision making,(c) purchase influence type, and (d) the basic characteristics of the particular family that was making the decision (Assael21998).

According to other research, the type of product under consideration was divided into four main categories (see Figure 1). These were: Product types for which the husband had the major influence (Mowen, 1995). Product types for which the wife had the dominant influencing factor (Mowen, 1995). Product types for which the decisions can be taken by either the wife or the husband and for which either spouse can be the dominant factor called the automatic decision type (Assael,21998). Product types where the husband and wife go in for a joint decision are called the syncretic decision type (Assael,21998).