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Home→The Westburn Dictionary of Marketing→F→family life-cycle

family life-cycle

Definition:
A sociological CONCEPT first proposed in the early 1930s which posits that families change over time and that these changes are accompanied by significant changes in their consumption behaviour. Engel et al. (J.F. Engel, R.D. Blackwell, and P.W. Miniard, Consumer Behaviour, 5th edn, Illinois: Dryden Press, 1986), summarize the nine stages in the family life-cycle as: Single Stage, Newly Married Couples, Full Nest I, Full Nest II, Full Nest III, Empty Nest I, Empty Nest II, The Solitary Survivor, The Retired Solitary Survivor. This classification offers more divisions than the Full and Empty Nest stages that were traditionally recognized, and reflects the marketer's desire to define MARKET SEGMENTS with increased precision. Ibis trend has been further updated by Patrick E. Murphy and William A. Staples ('A Modernised Family Life Cycle', in Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 6, June 1979, pp. 12-22) to recognize the impact of divorce, single-parent families, later family formations etc.

Cross-References:
[concept] [market segment]

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© Westburn Publishers Ltd 2002, The Westburn Dictionary of Marketing edited by Michael J Baker, ISBN 978-0-946433-01-8. www.themarketingdictionary.com. Entry: [Graham K. Peaston and Michael J. Baker],.