Abstract
This paper reviews the concept of the family life cycle in light of demographic patterns and social trends in the United Kingdom and assesses the usefulness and limitations of three different structures from US literature for marketing management on this side of the Atlantic. It is the first attempt to relate some of the classifications used in the business literature to British demographic statistics. Trends in marriage, birth, divorce, death and female employment are examined to show how the structure of the family life cycle is altering. The implications of these changes for using the family life cycle in consumer research and market segementation analysis are considered and a revised family life cycle structure is proposed which increases coverage of the UK population to over 80% of households compared to the average 70% coverage offered by the other schemes.

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