Chapter 4 Motivation and Values

1. Chapter 4Motivation and Values

2. Motivation • Motivation: processes that lead us to behave as we do • Also, the forces that drive us to buy/use products • Goal: consumer’s desired end state • Drive: degree of consumer arousal for end state • The ad shows desired end state and suggests solution (purchase of equipment)

3. Motivational Strength Motivational strength: degree of willingness to expend resources to reach a goal • Drive theory: biological needs produce unpleasant states of arousal (e.g., hunger) • Expectancy theory: behavior is motivated by expectations of achieving desirable outcomes. • Expectancy-Value theory: behavior is motivated by both expectations of achieving desirable outcomes and the value of those outcomes.

4. Three Types of Motivational Conflicts • Two desirable alternatives • Cognitive dissonance • Positive & negative aspects • of desired product • “Guilt of desire” occurs • Facing a choice with two • undesirable alternatives

5. Types of Needs Types of needs: • Biogenic: biological needs, such as for air, water, food • Psychogenic: need for status, power, affiliation • Utilitarian: need for tangible attributes of a product, such as miles per gallon in a car or limited # of calories in bean sprouts • Hedonic: needs for excitement, self-confidence, fantasy, “feeling good”

6. Specific Needs and Buying Behavior NEED FOR ACHIEVEMENT Value personal accomplishment Place a premium on products that signify success (luxury brands, technology products) NEED FOR AFFILIATION Want to be with other people Focus on products that are used in groups (alcoholic beverages, sports bars) NEED FOR POWER Control one’s environment Focus on products that allow them to have mastery over surroundings (muscle cars, smartphone, spas) NEED FOR UNIQUENESS Assert one’s individual identity Enjoy products that focus on their unique character (perfumes, clothing, PC “wallpaper”)

7. Maslow’s Hierarchy

8. Consumer Involvement • Involvement: perceived relevance and importance of an object based on one’s needs, values, and interests • We get attached to products: (too much involvement?) • A man tried to marry his car when fiancée dumped him • Camping outside White Castle ten days before grand opening to be the first customer • Trampling Wal-Mart worker to death on Black Friday

9. Conceptualizing Involvement

10. Levels of Involvement: Inertia to Passion • Inertia: consumption at the low end of involvement • Decisions made out of habit (lack of motivation) • Often motivated by “Cognitive Economy”, Time Pressure or Inconsequentiality • Cult product: command fierce consumer loyalty, devotion, and even worship by consumers who are highly involved • Cabbage Patch Kids • Barack Obama (?) • IPhones

11. Product Involvement • Consumer’s level of interest in a product • Advertising and sales promotions attempt to increase product involvement (does it work and when?) • Mass customization enhances product involvement • Dell Computers • Build-a-Bear

12. Message-Response Involvement • Consumer’s interest in processing marketing communications • usually very low, unless situational relevance is high • Vigilante Marketing: freelancers and fans film their own commercials for favorite products and post online (YouTube) • Marketers experiment with novel ways to increase consumers’ involvement • Games/contests on the web • Marketing stunts • Social & community involvement

13. Purchase Situation Involvement • Purchase situation involvement: differences that occur when buying the same object for different contexts. • Example: wedding gift • For boss: purchase expensive vase to show that you want to impress boss • For cousin you don’t like: purchase inexpensive vase to show you’re indifferent

14. Measuring Involvement: Involvement Scale

15. Dimensions of Involvement The amount of consumer involvement depends on: • Personal interest in product category • Risk consequences of bad decision • Probability of bad purchase / decision • Pleasure value of product category • Self-concept relevance (“Sign-value”) • Accountability • Social Consequences

16. Consumer-Generated Content • Consumers voice their opinions about products, brands, experiences and companies on blogs and social networking sites • Involvement has never been higher and continues to grow, all fueled by the web/mobile • Examples: • Yelp • Facebook • Twitter • Youtube

17. Strategies for Increasing Involvement • Appeal to hedonistic needs • Use novel, prominent stimuli in commercials • Give consumers tools to increase their involvement (i.e. yelp.com, etc.) • Build consumer bonds via ongoing consumer relationships • Amplify perceptions of consequences of bad decisions • Relate product/brand/company/idea to self-concept

18. Consumer Values • Value: a belief that some condition is preferable to its opposite • Example: looking younger is preferable to looking older (value “youth”) • Products/services = help in attaining value-related goals • We seek others that share our values/beliefs • Thus, we tend to be “over-exposed” to information that supports our beliefs and perpetuates our values

19. Core Values • Core values: values shared within a culture • Example: individualism versus collectivism • Enculturation: learning the beliefs and values of one’s own culture • Acculturation: learning the value system and behaviors of another culture

20. Values Explain Consumer Behavior • Cultures have Terminal Values, or desired end states • Instrumental Values allow one to achieve terminal values Examples:

21. Values Explain Consumer Behavior (cont.) List of Values (LOV) scale: • Identifies nine consumer segments based on values they endorse; and • Relates each value to differences in consumption behaviors. • Example: those who endorse sense of belonging read Reader’s Digest and TV Guide, drink and entertain more, and prefer group activities

22. Values Explain Consumer Behavior (cont.) Means-End Chain Model • Very specific product attributes are linked at levels of increasing abstraction to terminal values • Example: Eating “organic” is really about health or sense of belonging. • Laddering technique: uncovers consumers’ associations between specific attributes and general consequences (i.e. “terminal values”)

23. Hierarchical Values Maps for Vegetable Oil in Three Countries

24. Values Explain Consumer Behavior (cont.) Syndicated surveys: track changes in market values via large-scale surveys • Example: YankelovichMonitorTM

25. Sustainability: New Core Value? • Focus on personal health merging with a growing interest in environmental health • LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability): Consumers who: • Worry about the environment • Want products to be produced in a “sustainable” way • Spend on “personal development” and more experiental products as opposed to more materialistic items

26. Sustainability: New Core Value? (cont.) • Carbon footprint: measures, in units of CO2, the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases they produce • Primary footprint is emissions of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels (i.e. gasoline) • Secondary footprint is indirect CO2emitted from the life-cycle of products we use (i.e. “local” vs. “long-distance” produce)

27. Materialism • Materialism: the importance people attach to worldly possessions • “The good life”...“He who dies with the most toys, wins” • Materialists: value possessions for their own sake and for the status and appearances they convey • Non-materialists: value possessions for the connections to others they provide or for the simple pleasures of consuming them • Are US citizens materialistic?