Consumer Behavior

1. Consumer Behavior

2. Consumer Behavior • Buyer Behavior • process by which consumers and organizational buyers make purchase decisions • broad term that applies to both: • ultimate consumer • organizational buyers • Consumer Behavior • buyer behavior of ultimate consumers

3. Consumer Behavior • Understanding human behavior in purchase/nonpurchase situations • “Borrows” from psychology and sociology Lewin’s General Model of Behavior • predicts that understanding consumer behavior requires understanding of: • individual’s psychological makeup • influences of others on the individual

4. Consumer Behavior • Lewin’s General Model of Behavior (cont) • model offers a convenient classification of buying behavior influences • B = f (P,E), where: • behavior (B) is a • function (f) of interactions of • personal influences (P), and the pressures exerted by • environmental forces (E)

5. Consumer Behavior • Lewin’s Model Applied to Consumer Behavior • B = f (I,P) • B is a function of: • interpersonal determinants (I), and • reference groups • culture • personal determinants (P) • attitudes • learning • perception

6. Interpersonal Determinants of Consumer Behavior • Cultural Influences • Culture • values • beliefs • preferences • tastes • handed down from one generation to the next • Basic core values slow to change; but do change over time

7. Interpersonal Determinants of Consumer Behavior • Cultural Influences (cont) • Subcultures - numerous subgroupings with their own distinguishing modes of behavior • based on factors such as: • race • nationality • age • rural vs. urban • sex • religion • geographical distribution

8. Interpersonal Determinants of Consumer Behavior • Cultural Influences (cont) • African American consumers • growing market • group’s most distinguishing feature is self-description as bargain hunters • group shops more frequently than other groups • Hispanic consumers • heterogeneous in their national heritage cultural norms • consistent tendency to be brand loyal, conservative buyers, family-oriented

9. Interpersonal Determinants of Consumer Behavior • Cultural Influences (cont) • Asian American consumers • very culturally diverse • almost two dozen different Asian language groups represented in U.S. (+ several dialects) • subgroups differ depending on their level of acculturation

10. Interpersonal Determinants of Consumer Behavior • Social Influences • Includes all influences resulting from both formal and informal group memberships, other than the family • From group memberships, individuals receive: • norms • status • roles

11. Interpersonal Determinants of Consumer Behavior • Norms • values • attitudes • behaviors • that the group deems appropriate for its members • Status • each person’s relative position in a group • Roles • what members of the group expect from the individual

12. Interpersonal Determinants of Consumer Behavior • Asch Phenomenon • research project that demonstrated the impact groups and group norms have on an individual’s behavior • Reference Groups • those groups whose value structures and standards influence a person’s behavior • a person need not be an actual member of a reference group to be influenced by it

13. Interpersonal Determinants of Consumer Behavior • Reference Groups • Two conditions necessary for strong influence by a group on a member’s purchase: • purchased product must be one that others can see and identify • purchased product must be conspicuous, a brand or product not everybody owns

14. Interpersonal Determinants of Consumer Behavior • Social Class Membership • can affect both lifestyle and purchasing behavior • extent has not been fully determined • Lloyd Warner developed six-class system • social structures of small and large cities • Upper-upper Lower-upper • Upper-middle Lower-middle • Working class Lower class

15. Interpersonal Determinants of Consumer Behavior • Social Class • Opinion leaders (influencials, trendsetters) serve as information sources about acceptance of new products and services • present in almost any group • “gatekeepers”

16. Interpersonal Determinants of Consumer Behavior • Family Influences • characterized by close, continuing interactions among family members • family often represents strongest source of group influence • family has set of norms, roles, status • four role categories in family decision-making • autonomic husband-dominant • wife-dominant syncratic

17. Interpersonal Determinants of Consumer Behavior • Family Influences (cont) • role of young children in purchasing decisions is changing • children influence parents to buy: • toys clothing • cereals homes (?) vacations (?) • teenagers, in many cases, have become household purchasing agents in their families

18. Personal Determinants of Consumer Behavior • Needs and Motives • Perceptions • Attitudes • Self-Concept

19. Needs and Motives • Need • a lack of something useful • imbalance between actual and desired state • a need must be sufficiently aroused before it can serve as a motive to buy something • Motive • inner state that directs a person toward the goal of satisfying a felt need • person takes action to reduce tension and regain equilibrium

20. Needs and Motives • Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs • Physiological • food, shelter, clothing • Safety/belonging • protection from physical harm, need for security, avoidance of the unexpected • Social • being accepted by family and other group

21. Needs and Motives • Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (cont) • Esteem • desire to feel a sense of accomplishment, achievement, and respect from others • Self-actualization • desire to feel fulfilled, to realize one’s own potential, to fully use one’s talents and capabilities

22. Perceptions • The meaning each person attributes to incoming stimuli through the five senses • Occurrence of perception determined by interaction of two types of factors: • stimulus factors • characteristics of the physical object • individual factors • characteristics of the person receiving the incoming stimuli

23. Perceptions • Selective Perception • too many incoming stimuli for individual to react to all • most are filtered by individual’s perceptual screens • only interesting, unusual, and/or problem-solving stimuli will be consciously perceived

24. Perceptions • Closure • person’s tendency to produce a complete picture • many successful advertisements utilize this characteristic • Subliminal Perceptions • research shows that subliminal messages cannot force receivers to buy goods they would not consciously want

25. Attitudes • A person’s enduring favorable or unfavorable • evaluations • emotional feelings • actions • toward some object or idea

26. Attitudes • Three components of attitude: • cognitive • individual’s information or knowledge about an object or concept • affective • feelings or emotional reactions • behavioral • tendencies to act or to behave in a certain manner

27. Attitudes • Attitude changes come from: • cognitive • introduction of new information • affective • relating the use of the new good or service to desirable consequences for the user • behavioral • inducing the person to engage in attitude-discrepant behavior by giving free samples

28. Learning Theory and Self-Concept • Learning • changes in behavior, immediate or expected, as a result of experience • Components of the learning process: • drives • strong stimuli that impel action • cues • objects that determine nature of response to drive • reinforcement (reward) • Reduction in drive that results from proper response

29. Learning Theory and Self-Concept • Learning theory is applied to marketing through the shaping process • shaping process • process of applying a series of rewards and reinforcements to permit more complex behaviors to evolve over time • example: use of discount coupons

30. Self-Concept • Components • real self • you as you really are; objective view • self-image • the way you see yourself • ideal self • the way you would like to look • looking-glass self • the way you think others see you

31. Self-Concept • Individuals make decisions and buy products they feel will move them towards their ideal self-image

32. The Consumer Decision Process • Problem recognition • result of consumer awareness of a discrepancy between existing state of affairs and desired state • may result from: • routine depletion of individual’s stock of products • consumer’s possession of inadequate assortment of products; changed financial status • dissatisfaction with present brand or product type • boredom with current products; desire for novelty

33. The Consumer Decision Process • Search • gathering of information related to the attainment of a desired state • Internal Search • mental review of stored information relevant to the problem situation • External Search • gathering of information from outside sources by consumer engaged in the research process

34. The Consumer Decision Process • Evoked Set • number of brands a consumer actually considers in making a purchase decision • Evaluation of Alternatives/Purchase Act • involves evaluative criteria • purchase decision and purchase act are end results of the search and alternative evaluation stages of decision process

35. The Consumer Decision Process • Postpurchase Evaluation • deals with consumer satisfaction with purchase • common for consumer to experience postpurchase anxieties in certain instances • Festinger - postpurchase doubt = cognitive dissonance • psychologically unpleasant state that occurs when an imbalance exists among a person’s cognitions (knowledge, beliefs, attitudes)

36. The Consumer Decision Process • Cognitive Dissonance • more likely to occur where: • dollar value of purchase is high • rejected alternatives have desirable features not present in chosen alternative • decision is major one

37. The Consumer Decision Process • Reduction of Cognitive Dissonance • seek out advertisements and other information supporting the chosen alternative • seek reassurance from other satisfied customers • avoid information favorable to the unchosen alternatives • consumer can change opinions • marketeers can provide informational support to reduce dissonance

38. Consumer Problem-Solving Processes • Routinized response behavior • speed buy • made based on brand preference; selection from limited group of brands • Limited problem-solving • situation where evaluative criteria are set, but a new brand is encountered • Extended problem-solving • brand is difficult to categorize or evaluate; requires considerable external search