Social Class

‘All societies can be roughly divided into haves and have-nots. While social equality is widely held value throughout Europe, the fact remains that some people seem to be more equal than others’ (Solomon 2006)

"Social class is a division of society made up of persons possessing certain common social characteristics which are taken to qualify them for intimate, equal status relations with one another, and which restrict their interaction with members of other social classes"

Centuries ago social class was a lot more important. People were restricted in who they could mix with, it was considered inappropriate to marry out of your own social class. Nowadays such restrictions do not exist, and there is currently many more classes than before. Please relate to the diagrams. . .

In Britain we have a classing system which ranks from A - E, it goes a little something like this:

A - is the upper middle class, the elite within society - highest managerial positions, CEOs, or professionals

B - is the middle class, which is a large majority of the population - intermediate managerial, administrative or professional

C1 - is the lower middle class - supervisory or clerical and junior managerial

C2 - is the skilled working class - Blue Collars

D - is the working class - semi and unskilled manual workers, factory workers

E - is the lower class - casual or lowest grade workers and pensioners - non contributors

Below I have listed some relations we make between the two main classes.

Lower . . .

Ford Escort

Burberry

Bingo

Beans on Toast

Primark

Council flats

Spain Holidays

Higher . . . .

Mercades Benz

Diamond Rings

Mansions

Champagne

Waitrose

Maldives

Ascott

Louis Vuitton

Sushi

Marketers must understand class, as just like groups, values, perception, gender etc class will also highly influence consumer’s purchases. And each class will have different way to appeal to them most!