American society is described in part by its demographics,
which include a population's size, distribution, and
structure. The structure of a population refers to its age,
income, education, and occupation makeup. Demographics
are not static. At present, the rate of population
growth is moderate, average age is increasing, southern
and western regions are growing, and the workforce
contains more women and white-collar workers than
ever before. Marketers frequently segment markets
based on a combination of two or more demographic
descriptors.
In addition to actual measures of age and income,
subjective measures can provide additional understanding
of consumption. Cognitive age is how old a person
feels. Many older consumers feel 10 to 15 years
younger than their chronological age. Subjective discretionary
income, which measures how much money consumers
feel they have available for nonessentials, has
been found to be a better predictor of some purchases
than actual income.
An age cohort or generation is a group of persons
who have experienced a common social, political, historical,
and economic environment. Cohort analysis is
the process of describing and explaining the attitudes,
values, and behaviors of an age group as well as predicting
its future attitudes, values, and behaviors. There
are six major generations functioning in America
today -- pre-Depression, Depression, baby boom, Generation
X, Generation Y, and Millennials.
A social class system is defined as the hierarchical
division of a society into relatively permanent and homogeneous
groups with respect to attitudes, values, and
lifestyles. A tightly defined social class system does not
exist in the United States. What does seem to exist is a
series of status continua that reflect various dimensions
or factors that the overall society values. Education,
occupation, income, and, to a lesser extent, type of residence
are important status dimensions in this country.
Status crystallization refers to the consistency of individuals
and families on all relevant status dimensions
(e.g., high income and high educational level).
While pure social classes do not exist in the United
States, it is useful for marketing managers to know and
understand the general characteristics of major social
classes. Using Coleman and Rainwater's system, we
described American society in terms of seven major
categories -- upper-upper, lower-upper, upper-middle,
middle, working class, upper-lower, and lower-lower.
There are two basic approaches to the measurement
of social classes: (1) use a combination of several dimensions,
a multi-item index; or (2) use a single dimension,
a single-item index. Multi-item indexes are designed
to measure an individual's overall rank or social
position within the community.
