Consumer Behavior: Building Marketing Strategy 13th Edition by Delbert Hawkins, David Mothersbaugh

Exercise 4

Consumer Life Cycles and Homeowner Remodeling Decisions
Consumers and households move through somewhat predictable phases. 8 As they do so, changes occur In consumption based on these shifts in household characteristics and needs and wants. Housing, of course, is needed at all the household life stages, and a relationship between the type of housing and the consumers' household life stage exists. Consumers who are single and entering the workforce are more likely to rent than own. And while home ownership Is an aspiration and reality for many Americans, the challenges associated with changes in the household life cycle can generate the need to either move or remodel. Renovations are costly and can lead to unexpected and hidden costs. Two factors play into renovation decisions:
•Family (and friends) are the single most influential factors in renovation decisions.
•Household life-cycle stage changes can trigger the need for home renovations.
A recent article shows that movements across stages (e.g., from no children to children, from children to no children) can generate the need to renovate and remodel. Some of the mechanisms are as follows:
Prioritizing -Do households balance competing and at times conflicting commitments in how they manage and use space at home
Embodying -Do household members have particular physical needs, either currently or in the anticipated future, that might affect how the home is arranged
Adapting -Are households aware of a need to adapt the physical arrangement or material surrounding: of their homes
Clearly these mechanisms can be triggered by a number of factors, but household life-cycle stage and stage changes will have a major (if not the major) influence.
An interesting corollary effect involved in remodeling is called the Diderot effect which, in effect, means that one change leads to a cascade of other needed or desired changes. The following quote illustrates this effect:
I think of my parents, who a year ago remodeled a powder room and redecorated the living room. That work served to highlight the age. of the rest of the home, and they have since replaced the garage door and redecorated the guest room, and are now in the process of planning to remodel the kitchen and master bath, finish the basement and redecorate another bedroom. They are neither materialistic nor extravagant, but they want the house to look nice-to be updated and well maintained.
The Diderot effect is a warning to consumers of the hidden costs subsequent to the remodeling, upgrading, and replacement of goods. To the remodeler, the Diderot effect is a promise of possible repeat business from current customers who find, to their surprise, the need for additional remodeling and serves as a reminder to provide quality work.
Choose two phases of the household life cycle and describe how one of the mechanisms might be involved in triggering a need for home remodeling.