By Claudia Perez | March 2025
Hello my dear readers, owners of small and medium-sized businesses, welcome to another weekly meeting of learning and exchange. Today, I propose as a topic to analyze how the decision-making process for purchases, both collective and individual, develops within traditional family structures and new household structures. We will also learn a little about role dynamics in purchasing decisions and the relevance of their study for marketers.
To conduct this analysis, we will use the process of purchasing a new car as an example.
The role dynamics in the Traditional Nuclear Family.
Traditional families (considered as parents and children living together) constitute the core of society and also a fundamental target of the market. When one of these families identifies the need to buy a new vehicle, for example, several elements come into consideration, and its different members play distinct roles in this process.
Household Decision Roles:
Let’s imagine a household composed of four members—mother, father, young daughter, and teenage son—that identifies the need to purchase a new vehicle. In this hypothetical scenario, the roles could be distributed as follows: the father may be the initiator of the process, being the person who searches for information and suggests buying a safer, larger car with space for everyone. The teenage son acts as the influencer, giving opinions and making suggestions for an SUV model with more features and a higher level of integrated technology. The mother could take on the role of the decision-maker, evaluating the budget and other aspects such as the comfort of the vehicle and ride comfort. The father plays the role of the buyer after going to the dealership and making the purchase, while the users would be the entire family.
What is the practical application of this system of concepts and role dynamics for marketers?
These concepts and this family purchasing behavior, by their nature, seem very simple and even intuitive, but for marketers, their study is highly relevant.
In this role dynamics, the considerations, expectations, and aspirations of each family member are intrinsically present. Knowing and understanding this information allows marketers to design more effective advertising campaigns and establish deeper connections with their audience through personalized messages. It also facilitates the creation of communicative content that highlights the product characteristics that best satisfy the diverse needs of each family member. In the case of our example: safety and space for the father, comfort for the mother, and technology for the teenager.
New household structures and the importance of their study for marketers.
In contemporary society, forms of social organization are becoming increasingly heterogeneous, and beyond traditional families, single-parent households are gaining more presence. How do they behave, and what importance do these trends have for marketers? We will explore this below, using our same cross-sectional example of purchasing a vehicle.
Delayed Marriages.
As a trend, it is observed that people tend to postpone marriage in modern societies. This results in new types of clients or buyer personas. In the case of singles or delayed married individuals, their interests revolve around their image and status, possibly with a certain inclination toward electric, sports, or luxury cars, with high integrated technology and customization.
Unlike traditional families, this type of customer is prone to choosing more compact, urban, economical, and at the same time more eye-catching cars.
How does this type of structure and customer behavior impact marketers?
Understanding trends, purchasing patterns, and the psychographic and behavioral characteristics of this type of client is essential for marketers. If we consider today’s last example and take into account our previous research, companies like Volkswagen or Tesla, could apply luxury marketing strategies, collaborations with influencers and brand ambassadors to seek a deeper emotional connection with this type of audience. If they wanted to go deeper, these companies could approach these strategies through a strong focus on digital marketing that integrates interactive and personalized experiences, highly valued by this segment.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, my dear readers, the different forms of social organization or the structures in which households are formed have a direct impact on purchasing decisions, role dynamics, individual aspirations, and emotional factors that drive purchasing processes.
Knowing and studying these different structures, which are constantly changing and heterogeneous in contemporary society, is of vital importance for marketers. This information allows for segmenting strategies with a higher level of precision, better adapting them to each buyer profile, anticipating trends, and implementing optimized communication strategies.
As a result, our marketing actions will have a greater impact, we will achieve a greater differentiation from the competition, and most importantly, we will connect more deeply with our customer base.
That’s all for today, dear friends. I hope you found this post interesting. As I always say, I won’t say goodbye but rather see you next week. And don’t forget, if you are interested in the world of marketing and customer psychology, don’t miss my latest post:👉Do they choose you by chance or because of your strategy? The importance of understanding the Buying Decision Process”Links to an external site.