ABSTRACT
In the social structures of less developed countries, it is not difficult to recognize different consumption styles. They usually correspond to very different levels of income, and to a very obvious stratification of society; the big landlords and government classes, then the peasants, and lastly the landless laborers, each circle or layer using its appropriate set of goods. Market researchers get around the difficulty, which is a basic one for their advertiser clients, by defining social classes in terms of spending habits and then anchoring this consumption-based definition to occupation and income groupings in a rule-of-thumb way. Since the smallest scale of consumption is obviously income constrained and the expenditure pattern well known, interest turns to the other two consumption patterns. Ownership of a bank account is taken to indicate a minimum payment for professional information and services.
