Republic of the Philippines

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY– LIPA

Marawoy, Lipa City

College of Accountancy, Business and Economics

MKT. 102- Consumer Behavior

Chapter 4. Demographics and Social Stratification

Lesson No. 1. Demographics Segmentation

Demographics describe a population in terms of its size, distribution, and structure. Size: Distribution: Structure:
What Is Demographics in Marketing?
Demographics are statistics that companies keep on business clients and consumers. These marketing statistics may include the
sizes of businesses so companies can better differentiate between small, mid-sized or large companies. But they are more
commonly used to identify differences in personal attributes among consumers. There are many different types of demographics
companies use for various purposes.

Identification
Common demographics include age, gender, race and ethnic origin. Companies also track demographics like education, household
size and occupation. Most demographics are defined or delineated by specific ranges. For example, the age demographic may
divided into ranges such as 18 to 24; 25 to 34; 35 to 54; and 55 years and over. People within these age groups have different values.
Their preferences for certain products or services may vary as well. Similarly, statisticians may divide income statistics into groups
to differentiate those in the lower middle, middle and upper class.

Obtaining the Data

Companies can obtain demographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau. They usually list various demographics by state and
city. Marketers can also obtain more localized demographic information from area or county Chambers of Commerce. These
entities typically break data down by various census tracts or smaller regions in metropolitan areas. Companies that want
demographic data related to their industry often purchase reports from marketing research companies like Nielsen, Forrester
Research or The NPD Group. These companies usually conduct regular surveys to garner this information. For example, a
consumer products company may want age breakdowns on the heaviest buyers or users of laundry detergents. Businesses can
obtain more company-specific data by conducting their own phone or Internet surveys. Warranty cards are another tool that can be
used for collecting demographic data.

Local Uses of Data

Companies use local demographic data to better define their key customers. Certain data are more relevant to various businesses.
For example, a high-end woman's specialty retailer, which offers premium or higher-priced clothing, may focus on women over 35
with incomes above $75,000 per year. A fast food restaurant offering children's meals may be interested in learning the percentage
of families in their area who have kids. Hence, it may start by studying household size data along with age breakouts of kids 12 and
under.

Market Segmentation
Companies also use demographic data to identify key buying groups on a regional or national basis. For example, a small financial
management firm may be interested in expanding to markets with large populations of people over 55. Hence, top management may
study available data in contiguous markets first to determine where to locate the new offices.

What is demographic segmentation?

Demographic segmentation divides the market into smaller categories based on demographic factors, such as age, gender, and
income. Instead of reaching an entire market, a brand uses this method to focus resources into a defined group within that
market.
Dividing the market into smaller segments, each with a common variable, allows companies to use their time and resources
more efficiently. They can better understand the prospective market, and use advertising personalization to ensure the needs of
the targeted group are fulfilled:

This customer segmentation method is one of the most commonly used because it’s easy to acquire through census data,
analytics software, consumer insights, and more. It’s also considered by many businesses to be the cheapest way to divide a
target market.

Why is demographic segmentation in marketing so important?

Companies reduce the risk of running campaigns to uninterested consumers, which quickly increases ROI. In fact, email
marketers have witnessed a 760% increase in revenue by segmenting their email campaigns. Conversely, 85% of new product
launches in the US fail to generate desired revenue due to poor segmentation.
In addition to better ROI, demographic segmentation allows you to:
Build long-lasting customer relationships
Reaching your customers on a more human level with demographic-based personalized marketing creates deeper customer
loyalty. It allows them to identify with your brand and feel like you are an advocate for their needs, which makes them more
likely to do business with you over longer periods.

Improve your products and services

Having loyal customer relationships encourages you to look at your products and services in a new way. When you have a
deeper understanding of your target audience, you can put yourself in their shoes to better serve them. If you develop fitness
programs and know that a majority of your clients prefer the same type of program to be released, you’re more likely to make
that happen.

Optimize your marketing strategies

Demographic segmentation allows you to get more specific with your marketing strategies. It helps clarify your vision, have
more direction with future advertising plans, and optimize your resources, time, and budget. If 85% of your clients range from
20-35 years old, this is the segment you’re going to target. Spending your time and money on seniors would be a waste.

Demographic segmentation variables

1. Age
Age is the most basic variable of them all, albeit the most important because consumer preferences continually change with age.
Almost all marketing campaigns target age-specific audiences.
This variable can be viewed regarding specific age ranges or life cycle stages: babies, children, adolescents, adults, middle-age,
and seniors. For example, many famous fashion designers have different collections to target other age groups. They aim certain
clothing lines at specific age ranges, such as a chic fashion line at younger prospects and a more formal and elegant line at older
individuals.
Age segmentation is also generation-based: baby boomers, gen X, millennials, etc. Since members within each of these
individual groups were born around the same time and grew up with similar experiences, they often share similar characteristics
and thought processes. Targeting baby boomers and gen X with the same offer and marketing strategy is likely to produce
undesirable results because they think and act differently.
Not only do age groups and generations differ in their buying habits, but also in how they respond to advertising. They tend to
have distinct ways of speaking and often spend their time on separate platforms. For example, millennials may spend most of
their time on Instagram and Facebook, while seniors prefer their email inboxes.
2. Gender
Men and women generally have different likes, dislikes, needs, and thought processes. For instance, few men apply makeup,
and most women don’t wear boxers. Also, women typically do most of the household grocery shopping and are more likely than
men to donate to charitable causes. These are all key factors to consider when creating a campaign.

They created this ad specifically for women (hence the women’s swimsuits and the “for women” in the description). They
purposely targeted them on Facebook for the most engagement and click-throughs.
Be careful not to assume gender stereotypes, such as considering pink a feminine color and blue a masculine color. Advertising
with gender stereotypes like this could easily make your brand look sexist and cause you to miss out on or anger your target
audience.

3. Income and occupation

If people can’t afford your product or service, there is no point in targeting them. After all, you wouldn’t promote a Mercedes
or Ferrari to someone who can’t afford a used vehicle with more than 100,000 miles.

Income targeting lets you measure the buying power of your audience. When you know the income range of consumers, you
can usually find data to support how people spend money on both the higher and lower end of the spectrum. Many companies
use this data to sell different tiers of the same product, based on income level. For instance, airlines have three classes:
economy, business class, and first-class.

Job titles are especially necessary with an account-based advertising campaign. In comparison to traditional demand
gen, account-based marketing is often described as a flipped funnel approach because it inverts the process. Rather than
targeting individual leads, it targets the account level. The intent is to reach highly-relevant accounts with the most revenue
potential, so knowing occupation is integral.

4. Ethnicity and religion

With the tremendous increase in international business and global advertising brings an increase in segmentation based on ethnicity,
race, nationality, and religion. These groups have many individual cultures that come with conflicting interests, preferences, attitudes,
and beliefs. This could impact both their response to marketing and their buying habits.
Consider Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Both companies advertise globally, but localize their campaigns for each country, too. The messages
are entirely different, based on local customs, religions, nationality, etc.

5. Family structure
Family makeup can be instrumental in segmentation because when a family’s dynamic changes, its needs and desires often do too.
This strongly affects their buying habits and your sales process.
Single individuals tend to prioritize themselves, while newly married couples are likely prioritizing each other and their homes.
Couples with several children have different needs than those who just had their first child. Large families might be more interested in
low-cost household products, as compared to a couple with the same income, but without any children.
Basic Examples of Demographic Factors
Breaking information up into measurable characteristics can make it easier to understand. This is especially true of demographics.
Find out what demographics are using simple terms and explore some examples of common demographics you might encounter in
your community or the world at large.

Demographics: Breaking Down a Population

When you look at demographics of a population, you’re looking at statistics. These statistics can help you to break down the common
characteristics of the population into digestible segments. This can include age, race, family size and much more. You might look at
demographics for your area, the world as a whole, or even just a random sampling.
For example, demographics can give you specifics like how many 20-year-olds live in Chicago or the number of married couples in
Manhattan. You might be able to find out the racial diversity of Louisiana by exploring racial demographics or learn how many
children are in your area through family size demographics.
What Are Demographics Used For?
Demographics have vast uses in society.

Politics and Government

Demographic factors and data are oftentimes used in the context of politics and government. For example, a Democratic politician
might look at the political affiliation of an area to assess if their campaign will be successful. Similarly, a local government might use
the income level of an area to justify building more low income housing.

Customer Segmentation
One of the largest uses of demographics is for customer segmentation in business. Understanding demographic data can make or break
a business. This is because businesses need to understand their customer base when creating new products or marketing, expanding
their stores, and even when starting a new business in the first place.
If a business fails to understand their customer base, this is a surefire recipe for disaster.
For example, an online education company might use sitedemographics and traffic of a famous blogger with a reader demographic of
80% women to justify paying her to promote an online campaign. A hot arcade might look at the student demographics of a particular
area when deciding to open a new store in an area or where to market their hottest game.

Common Demographic Examples

Just like people, demographics come in all shapes and sizes. Some corporations, governments or nonprofits might look for unique or
specific demographic data like income level, while others might explore several demographics at once.
Common demographics that you might encounter, including examples of each, include:
 Age: Under 12, 12 to 17, 18 to 24, 25 to 34... (these typically go on at 10-year increments)
 Sex (gender): Male, female, other nonbinary identities
 Income level: Under $15,000, $15,000 to $24,999, $25,000 to $34,999... (distribution brackets will vary based on who is being
sampled)
 Race: Caucasian, African American, American Indian, Latino, Asian, Pacific islander
 Ethnicity: Jewish, Arab, Irish, Dutch, Russian, Swedish
 Employment status: Employed, unemployed, self-employed, retired, disabled
 Education level: High school, some college, undergraduate degree, graduate degree
 Number of children: None, 1 to 2, 3 to 5, 5 or more...
 Living status: Own, rent, lease, other
 Location (geographical data): Zip code, city, county, state, country
 Political affiliation: Republican, Democrat, independent
 Marital status: Single, married, separated, widowed
 Religious affiliation: Muslim, Buddhist, Hindi, Catholic, Jewish
 Social class: Lower class, middle class, upper class
 Nationality: American, Mexican, German, Swiss, Finnish, French

While these are some of the most common, you will find other demographics that might cover birth and death rates, marriage rates and
more. If a population can be grouped, it likely will be.
Why Are Demographics Important?
The importance of demographics lies in the fact that these factors can turn a population into something that you can measure. You can
measure and compare the age of your customers. You can measure the proportion of families in need in your neighborhood. When a
population becomes measurable, you can make changes to improve your company, government or community.
 For a business, this means you know who your customers are. Therefore, you can better meet their needs. This will allow you
to spend your marketing budget more effectively or discover new markets.
 For a government, you know how to tailor your programs, budgets, and resources to best meet the needs of your town, city or
state. Demographics can help a government understand the need for a community center or to get a grant for a new park.
 Educational professionals can use demographics to better meet the needs of students in school.
 Scientists can look to demographic factors as a meaningful way to organize data and to better understand the dynamics of a
given population.
 Measuring a Population
Demographics allow a company, government and even scientific institute to group people based on specific characteristics like race,
gender and location. Since you’ve got demographics down to a science, give a look into stereotypes and the impact they have.

Lesson No. 2. Social stratification in consumer Behaviour

Broadly defined, social stratification is an important part of many areas of study in sociology, but it also constitutes a distinct field on
its own. Simply put, social stratification is the allocation of individuals and groups according to various social hierarchies of differing
power, status, or prestige. Although divisions are often based on gender, religion, or race and ethnicity, the present entry focuses
largely on socioeconomic inequalities, for the most part leaving other forms of social inequality to other entries. In this regard, social
stratification is found in every society, even if it takes on slightly different forms. Uncovering what accounts for differences in social
stratification—among societies and within particular societies over time—is a long-standing goal of the field. The classic works of
early stratification sociologists—spurred by the work of Marx, Weber, and Durkheim—tended to be concerned with the question of
“why” and “how” stratification arose in the first place. Although this debate continues to be an underlying motivation for much
research on stratification, empirical research typically tackles questions for which evidence is more tangible. By the 1950s,
stratification research was increasingly concerned with social mobility, though mostly within individual countries. By the 1980s,
explaining cross-national differences in stratification became an important goal of the field. By now, stratification research is
characterized by several debates. Although it has received somewhat less attention in the past decade or so, a classic debate centers on
how socioeconomic position should be measured. Emphasis here has been on the applicability of measures of social class, status, and
prestige. Although there are certainly important exceptions, differences in approach generally fall along territorial lines. European
sociologists have tended to focus on relevance of occupation-based measures of social class, while North American sociologists have
tended to rely on measures of socioeconomic status, which incorporate education as well as occupation. There have also been debates
regarding the most effective ways to measure class and socioeconomic status. Yet other debates center on the importance of
incorporating race and gender in studies of stratification. Finally, in recent decades emphasis has moved to the importance of
education, both as a source of stratification on its own, and how it affects economic inequalities.

What Is A Social Class - Consumer Behaviour

 The relative standing of members of a society.
This means:

 Higher positions imply higher status We can say that Social class is more of a continuum, i.e., a rangeof social positions, on which
each member of society can beplace. But, social researchers have divided this continuum into asmall number of specific classes.
Thus, we go by this frame-work, social class is used to assign individuals or families to asocial-class category.We can now define
social class as The division of members of a society into a hierarchy of distinct status classes, so that members of each class
haverelatively the same status and the members of all other classeshave either more or less status.
All countries and societies have variations in social standing many countries, includingChina, tried to have a classless society but not
with great success. Social stratification isthus a reality of life. As shown in Figure: Shared behaviour, the behaviour of all social
classes are unique within themselves.
By unique behaviour we mean that each social class has its own pattern of purchase, education, occupation, recreation, etc. This is
important to marketeers, in order to understand the needs of the consumer, and accordingly to frame a marketing strategy. There are
many behaviours, that are common between social classes, and all social classes behave in a similar manner without much difference.
This is shared behaviour. Excluded behaviour is one which the social classes do not indulge in. They try to avoid that behaviour, as it
is against their standards and norms. These could be eating behaviour, i.e., the choice of the eating place. Buying behaviour: The
places one avoids going to, like discount stores, etc. for the upper class. Social classes usually meet the following five criterion:
Bounded
The social classes are bound by certain tacit restrictions which include or exclude certain individuals, places or objects. These are tacit
rules they follow by themselves. They restrict behaviour as they share similar educational background, occupation lifestyle etc.
Ordered
All social classes have a hierarchy or stratification in terms of income, prestige and status that distinguishes them from the others.

Mutually Exclusive

The individual only belongs to one class and behaves and acts accordingly. However, the movement from one class to another is
possible and goes on with time. We have a new rich class which has moved upward with the time. They are upwardly mobile and
belong to the open system. Those in closed system have inherited and inscribed status. They cannot leave their social class.

Exhaustive
That every member of a social class must fit into some class and be identified with it.

Influential
There must be behavioural variations between classes or they may be expected to behave differently.
Based on the above criteria, it is clear that a strict and tightly-defined social class system does not exist. Social classes are basically
divided into three major categories upper, middle and lower. For the great spread, we have further classified them into four classes by
bringing the working class in between the middle and lower.

Warner’s index uses 4 variables as an index of social class. These are occupation, income, house and dwelling area. Warner has
categorised the social class into 6 categories. This helps the marketeers in deciding their target group and the marketing strategy for
each. For instance, the concept of mass marketing can be more successfully applied to middle or the lower classes, rather than the
upper class. The upper class is a target for speciality goods and rare commodities which depict their social status.

Social Classes and their Buying Patterns

The buying behaviour of individuals and groups are strongly influenced by the social class to which they belong, or aspire to belong.
Social class is also linked to demographic and geographic data. These classes are found living in clusters and have relatively
homogeneous geodemographicsegments in terms of housing, urbanisation and other, viz. class difference in status is symbolic for food,
housing, clothing, purchases, lifestyle.

Social Class in Consumer Behaviour

In a social class, people try to make the same kind of purchases as are expected by their peers. Marketeers try to target their products
on class-based market segments.

Upper Upper Class

Upper-Uppers are the social elite who live on inherited wealth and have well-known families. They maintain more than one home and
send their children tothe best schools. They are in the market for jewelry, antiques, homes, and foreignvacations. While small as group
they serve as a reference group to others tothe extent that other social classes imitate their consumption decisions.

Lower Upper Class

Lower Uppers are persons who have earned high income or wealth through exceptional ability in their profession or business. They
usually come from the middle-class. They tend to be active in social and civic affairs and seek to buy the symbols of social status for
themselves and their children, such as expensive cars, homes and schooling. Their ambition is to be accepted and the upper-upper
status, a status that is more likely to be achieved by their children than themselves.

Upper Middle Class

Upper Middles possess neither family status nor unusual wealth. The primarily concerned with “career”. They have attained positions
as professionals, independent businesspersons, and corporate managers. They believe in education and want their children to develop
professional or administrative skills so that they will not drop into the lower stratum. They are civic minded and are a quality market
for good clothes, homes, furniture and appliances.

Lower Middle Class

The common man represents this group. Some are highly paid workers and small business owners and may not have a very high
education.This class aspires for respectability. They wish to have well maintained houses in good neighbourhoods. Marketeers sell
products, to this group, which have respectability and social acceptance in the society.
Upper Lower Class
Upper Lowers are working, though their living standard is just above the poverty line. They perform unskilled work and are poorly
paid. Often they are educationally deficient. Although they fall near the poverty line, they manage to maintain some level of
cleanliness

Lower Lower Class

Lower Lowers are visibly poverty-stricken and usually out of work. Some are not interested in finding permanent jobs and most are
dependent in charity for income. Their homes and possessions are “dirty, ragged, and broken-down”.

Marketing Strategy and the Social Classes

Marketeers are interested in supplying the right products to the right customer (target segment)at the right price at the right time and
with the right promotion. For this, first the target segment is selected and this can be done on the basis of social class, which is a better
prediction of a consumer’s lifestyle than income. Reasons for shopping and purchases also differ among the social classes. The upper
classes shop for pleasure, and tend to visit stores which are exclusive and sophisticated. The situation of stores are also important.
They visit boutiques and are particular where they go shopping. The upper and middle classes indulge in greater information search
and get information through the TV, magazines, newspapers, and from groups and individuals of their social status.
The lower classes are involved in buying less costly products and have much less information. They are more concerned with social
relationship and respond to products and promotion of a different nature.

Marketeers thus find that a combination of social class and income are superior for product classes that are visible. These products
require moderate expenditure and are symbols of social status like TV sets, cars, clothing, etc.

In designing a market strategy using social stratification, a process is followed in which

(a) The marketeer relates the status of the group to the product.
(b) Data is collected as the targeted social strata.
(c) Positions the product according to social status.
(d) Develops a proper marketing mix.

While relating a product to the status of the group or individual, one has to understand that the product or brand consumed varies
according to income, which may restrict the purchase of expensive items like cars. Education influences the consumption of fine arts,
of imported goods and varies with social class. Credit cards, etc. are also used by different social classes for different purposes. This
provides a motivation for purchase. Some use it for convenienceand safety, orboth, others use it to pay the monthly bills. Some
products are used forsymbols of prosperity, and to project their social class. Products are offered for different use
situations, i.e., parties, marriages gifts, daily use, etc.
The next step is to gather data on the lifestyles of people and how they want to become upwardly mobile by aspiring to have a desired
lifestyle. To promote the product to their lifestyle, proper media must be chosen and used effectively. The shopping habits of buyers
and their patterns of buying are also to be studied carefully.

In the third step, the product is positioned. It is positioned according to different income groups and social classes, e.g., Maruti-800 is
an economy car; Zen is a world car; Esteem is more spacious and expensive.
Consumable products can also be positioned as a health drink Bournvita, economical drink (Rasna), fizz drinks, etc. The products can
be positioned according to the needs of the social classes.
The last step is to find out and offer, a proper marketing mix to the social class. This consists of product, price, promotion and
distribution, which have many alternatives and have to be juggled to suit the target market. The after sales service is also very
important and must be given due emphasis to satisfy the customer, and ensure repeat sales.
Lesson No. 3. Social Differentiation and Social Stratification

Structured Inequalities

Social divisions often result in structured inequalities between groups in society in terms of their access to material or symbolic
rewards.

Social divisions have several functions in a society. Division of labor is a principal driver of social division. Modern societies need
groups of people to attend to the different types of labor required to run the society. Types of labor include basic social requirements
such as procuring food, providing protection, and raising children, as well as more complex requirements such as contributing to the
growth of the economy and providing a legal and governmental structure for society. This division of labor is necessary for a society
to function. However, division of labor also contributes to different roles, expectations, and opportunities for members of different
social divisions. Thus, while social division contributes to a society being able to function effectively and efficiently, it also creates the
potential for structured inequalities—inequalities built into the larger social system giving unequal access and opportunities to
different groups. For instance, in the United States structured inequalities impact people who are not fluent in English. Many of these
individuals provide socially and economically valuable labor in fields such as agriculture, construction, food service, child care, and
household services. They provide this labor at a low cost, benefitting society. However, these individuals often do not have access to
education and employment opportunities that other groups have.

Members of different social divisions do not have the same access to material rewards, such as wealth and property, or symbolic
rewards, such as status and respect. One potential result is that social divisions are repeated over generations, with the children of
people who hold low status jobs having limited pathways to achieve higher status. Structured inequalities relating to racial divisions
result in some racial groups having greater access to good education, good jobs, health care, more social and cultural prestige, and
better treatment by the justice system. Other racial groups without this same access face barriers to achieving material and symbolic
rewards. This may serve a social function—providing society with groups of people who are available to perform low-status jobs. In
this way, structured inequality can be seen as an efficient way to organize a society. However, structured inequality also can lead to
conflict and social problems, including poverty.

Social Stratification

Stratification refers to the hierarchical organization of a society, with different social groups occupying different positions within
the broad structure of a society.

Social stratification is the hierarchical ranking of social groups based on unequal levels of wealth, power, and social status.
Stratification means there are layers, or strata, of people in society. Every society has some form of social stratification. There are four
major forms of stratification: estate systems, caste systems, class systems, and status hierarchy systems. Estate systems were found
throughout Europe and Asia from the Middle Ages through the Industrial Revolution. In an estate system, a wealthy class of
aristocrats owned large tracts of land and held power in these societies. Serfs, or workers, provided labor. They usually were tied to a
particular aristocrat or noble family by legal ties and by tradition and a sense of loyalty or duty. While estate systems were common in
the past, other systems of social stratification exist in the modern world. A caste system is a system of social division in which people
are born into a certain class that determines their life trajectory. The caste system in India is a well-known example of this form of
stratification. In a class system, individuals are born into a certain social position, but some people are able to move up or down in the
social structure over the course of their lives. Some class systems are more open, allowing for more social mobility, while others are
more closed. In the United States, the class system is considered open and includes the potential for upward or downward mobility.
A status hierarchy system is based on degrees of social prestige, tied to factors including wealth, occupation, lifestyle, and
membership in respected groups. This type of system also exists in the United States. For example, a working class individual with a
low income who becomes famous or a respected leader might hold a fairly high status position. César Chávez (1927–93) was a
farmworker who became a leader in the labor rights and civil rights movements of the mid-20th century. By the late-20th century, he
held a very high status because of the respect and recognition many people had for his work. In addition to these four types of
stratification, slavery is also considered a system of stratification. It is a completely closed system; those who are enslaved have no
social power and virtually no possibility of moving out of their social position.

Social stratification exists in many forms. The concept of social stratification provides a framework to understand the ways that people
are divided into social categories, primarily by levels of wealth, income, power, and other forms of social capital—resources that
allow individuals to acquire wealth, power, and other forms of social standing. All socially stratified systems have certain
characteristics:

 People belong to social categories, based on a shared characteristic such as race, ethnicity, or gender.
 These social categories are ranked.
 Stratification exists and is imposed by social institutions.
 The opportunities and experiences available to individuals are tied to their social category.
 The ranking of social categories is relatively stable; change only occurs very slowly.
 Effects of stratification carry over from generation to generation.

Stratification is not related to differences among individuals. It is tied to socially constructed understandings of the identities of
particular social groups. Justification for the particular stratification of a society is provided by the belief system of the society. In
other words, most members of the society essentially buy into the system of stratification.

Stratification results in power differences between different social groups. This means that inequalities are embedded in the structure
of society. Several theories of stratification inform how sociologists think about structured inequalities. Arguments developed by Karl
Marx and Max Weber, developed in the 19th and 20th centuries, continue to be influential. Other sociologists have since expanded
upon their work, proposing theoretical frameworks for understanding and analyzing social stratification.

Major Theories of Social Stratification

Karl Marx  Two primary classes: bourgeoisie and proletariat

 Stratification is a result of oppression

Max Weber  Wealth, power, and prestige are key factors in stratification.
 Prestige can lead to wealth and power

Davis and  Functionalist perspective, understanding society as a system of parts that

Moore work together
 Stratification helps society function as a whole

Karl Marx
German philosopher and economist Karl Marx (1818–83) criticized capitalism for its effect on society. Marx and collaborator
Friedrich Engels (1820–95) argued that every society is divided into two groups: the bourgeoisie, or capitalist ruling class, who owns
the means of production, and the proletariat, or the working class, whose labor is exploited by the bourgeoisie. The two groups are
marked by conflict and competition. The bourgeoisie is determined to keep its position in the 1 percent at the top of society, while the
proletariat is working for survival. Marx and Engels argued that capitalism, by its very nature, created inequality. The main goal of
capitalism is to create profit, and the bourgeoisie has an interest in increasing its profit. In order to do this, the bourgeoisie keeps
wages for its workers, the proletariat, as low as possible. Because wages are minimal and working conditions are strained, Marx
argued that members of the proletariat would band together in class consciousness, or awareness of their exploitation, and lead a
revolution in which they overthrow the bourgeoisie. In this future revolution, capitalism would be replaced with socialism.

Max Weber
Whereas Marx thought stratification was principally the result of one class owning property and the means of production, German
sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920) argued that other aspects were also critical. Weber agreed with Marx that class and property are
important, but he also stressed that the consequences of class are important in one's life chances and opportunities. For instance, access
to housing, food, education, and health care gives an individual more chances to climb the social and economic ladder. The type of
resources, as well as the abundance or scarcity of those resources, affects life chances and opportunities. Weber also argued that
wealth (economic assets, including income and property), power, and prestige played an important role in social
stratification. Power is the ability to make one's own concerns count, including the ability to impose one's will on others (to get
someone to do something they do not want to do). People in positions of power can use it to their own advantage. Political leaders can
use their power to advance their business interests. Supervisors with power can make employees work during certain hours, even
when the employees do not want to work. However, not all people in positions of power have wealth or prestige. Police officers have a
good deal of power in society, but often they are not wealthy. Being a police officer is not necessarily prestigious. Prestige indicates
respect and admiration for a social status. It is based on values and norms and is defined by society. Teachers have prestige in some
societies but lack prestige in other societies. In some societies, royalty or titles confer prestige. Often, fame or talent bestows prestige.
Higher rankings of prestige often go alongside positions with wealth and power. Weber noted that gaining prestige often leads to the
acquisition of wealth and power. For example, a sports figure who gains prestige through performance and accomplishment often
becomes wealthy as a result and may gain power within the world of sports and in other areas, such as business and culture.

Davis and Moore

The functionalist perspective of stratification was popularized by American theorists Kingsley Davis (1908–97) and Wilbert Moore
(1914–87). They developed a hypothesis, based on functionalism, that all societies are stratified because stratification is necessary for
a society to function. According to the Davis-Moore hypothesis, in every society certain jobs must be carried out for the society to run
smoothly. All jobs are important in some way. Parents, farmers, fast food workers, teachers, janitors, nurses, government employees,
and any other type of worker all have a role to play in society. To explain stratification, Davis and Moore asked how a society
distributes jobs and roles in ways that are beneficial to society. They argue that some jobs are more important than others, to society as
a whole. Just as some organs are more essential to the functioning of the human body, some jobs are more important to the functioning
of society. The more important jobs require more schooling and training, as well as more money and time. These jobs have a higher
status and more rewards, including wealth. This explains why surgeons, for example, have high status and earn high salaries. Not
every individual in a society has the talent, money, or time to devote to acquire the skills for high status positions. The ones who do
can earn more money, power, and prestige. These higher social rewards incentivize some members of society to work hard and take on
the most important positions: those that most benefit society.

ELVIS B. LUMANGLAS, MDM

Course Instructor

ACADEMIC INFRASTRUCTURE
Textbook
T1 : Phillips, Jean M., Organizational Behavior Tools for Success,
International Edition, 2014 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

References:
R1 : Newstrom, John W., 2007. Organizational Behavior; Human
Behavior at Work, McGraw Hill International Edition,
R2 : Medina, Roberto G. 2011. Human Behavior in Organization.
Quezon City: Rex Bookstore, Inc.

Online References:
https://www.coursehero.com/sg/introduction-to-sociology/social-differentiation-and-social-stratification/
https://www.wisdomjobs.com/e-university/consumer-behaviour-tutorial-94/what-is-a-social-class-10500.html