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How Social Class Can Influence the Buying Behavioural Pattern of Consumers

Decent Essays
Social class is the position or ranking of people in society based on social stratification variables like income, occupation, type of residence, education and qualification that affect purchase pattern and buying behaviour. Social classes show distinct product and brand preferences, especially for goods considered as luxuries such as cars, furnishings and leisure activities like golf. For instance, wealth, power and prestige are popular factors frequently used in the estimation of social class. Social class influence can be used as a basis for segmenting markets, and may reflect the aspirations of consumers. (Schiffman, L., Bednall, D, O’Cass, A., Paladino, A., Ward, S. & Kanuk, L., 2008) Members within a social class share similar…show more content…
Upper Middle Class and Lower Middle Class
The upper middle class and lower middle class consist of white collar workers and small business owners who look at the upper class for guidance on certain behaviours, for example, proper etiquette, fashion selections and leisure activities. The upper middle class consumers are often found living in condominium, executive condominium, and apartments relatively more expensive than normal HDB flats. Driving mid-range cars or taking taxis to transport them to destinations. Whereas, the lower middle class are commonly seen living in four to five room HDB flats, taking public transport as means of transportation. However, these groups of consumers are trying to replicate the upper class’s lifestyle, though may not be able to afford luxurious lifestyle, they compensate by going to neighbourhood wet markets to shop groceries and buy clothes from neighbourhood shopping malls, working harder with extra job and get into small investments, so that they can afford occasional of indulgence of designer labels and holiday at luxurious resort hotels.

The Lower Class
The lower class includes the blue collar or unskilled workers with low income who are poorly educated, tends to be live a day-to-day existence. We can see that lower class usually live in government built housing which are one, two or three-room flats.
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