Motivation and Values in Consumer Behavior

1. Chapter 4Motivation and Values By Michael R. Solomon Consumer Behavior Buying, Having, and Being Sixth Edition

2. Opening Vignette: Paula • What are Paula’s motivations for being a vegetarian? • How is vegetarianism being promoted and who is promoting it? • How is the beef industry responding to this movement toward a meatless diet? • How are values influencing individuals’ choices in consumption?

3. The Motivation Process • Motivation: • The processes that lead people to behave as they do. It occurs when a need arises that a consumer wishes to satisfy. • Utilitarian need: Provides a functional or practical benefit • Hedonic need: An experiential need involving emotional responses or fantasies • Goal: • The end state that is desired by the consumer.

4. The Motivation Process • Drive: • The degree of arousal present due to a discrepancy between the consumer’s present state and some ideal state • Want: • A manifestation of a need created by personal and cultural factors. • Motivation can be described in terms of: • Strength: The pull it exerts on the consumer • Direction: The particular way the consumer attempts to reduce motivational tension

5. Ads Reinforce Desired States • This ad for exercise shows men a desired state (as dictated by contemporary Western culture), and suggests a solution (purchase of equipment) to attain it.

6. Motivational Strength • Biological vs. Learned Needs: • Instinct: Innate patterns of behavior universal in a species • Tautology: Circular explanation (e.g. instinct is inferred from the behavior it is supposed to explain) • Drive Theory: • Biological needs produce unpleasant states of arousal. We are motivated to reduce tension caused by this arousal. • Homeostasis: A balanced state of arousal • Expectancy Theory: • Behavior is pulled by expectations of achieving desirable outcomes – positive incentives – rather than pushed from within

7. Motivational Direction • Needs Versus Wants: • Want: The particular form of consumption used to satisfy a need. • Types of Needs • Biogenic needs: Needs necessary to maintain life • Psychogenic needs: Culture-related needs (e.g. need for status, power, affiliation, etc.) • Utilitarian needs: Implies that consumers will emphasize the objective, tangible aspects of products • Hedonic needs: Subjective and experiential needs (e.g. excitement, self-confidence, fantasy, etc.)

8. Instant Gratification of Needs • We expect today’s technical products to satisfy our needs – instantly.

9. Motivational Conflicts • Approach-Approach Conflict: • A person must choose between two desirable alternatives. • Theory of Cognitive Dissonance: A state of tension occurs when beliefs or behaviors conflict with one another. • Cognitive Dissonance Reduction: Process by which people are motivated to reduce tension between beliefs or behaviors. • Approach-Avoidance Conflict: • Exists when consumers desire a goal but wish to avoid it at the same time. • Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict: • Consumers face a choice between two undesirable alternatives.

10. Three Types of Motivational Conflicts Figure 4.1

11. Solutions to Approach-Avoidance Conflict

12. Discussion Question • Do sporting events, such as a college football game, satisfy utilitarian or hedonic needs? Which specific needs do they address? • Give some other examples of utilitarian and hedonic needs.

13. Negative Consequences • The Partnership for a Drug-Free America points out the negative consequences of drug addiction for those who are tempted to start.

14. Classifying Consumer Needs • Henry Murray need dimensions: • Autonomy: Being independent • Defendance: Defending the self against criticism • Play: Engaging in pleasurable activities • Thematic Apperception Technique (TAT): • (1) What is happening? • (2) What led up to this situation? • (3) What is being thought? • (4) What will happen? • People freely project their subconscious needs onto the stimulus

15. Classifying Consumer Needs (cont.) • Specific Needs and Buying Behavior: • Need for achievement: To attain personal accomplishment • Need for affiliation: To be in the company of others • Need for power: To control one’s environment • Need for uniqueness: To assert one’s individual identity • Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: • A hierarchy of biogenic and psychogenic needs that specifies certain levels of motives. • Paradise: Satisfying Needs? • Distinct differences regarding the conceptualization of paradise between American and Dutch college students

16. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Figure 4.2

17. Dutch Conception of Paradise • A Dutch respondent’s collage emphasizes this person’s conception of paradise as a place where there is interpersonal harmony and concern for the environment.

18. Criticisms of Maslow’s Hierarchy • The application is too simplistic: • It is possible for the same product or activity to satisfy every need. • It is too culture-bound: • The assumptions of the hierarchy may be restricted to Western culture • It emphasizes individual needs over group needs • Individuals in some cultures place more value on the welfare of the group (belongingness needs) than the needs of the individual (esteem needs)

19. Consumer Involvement • Involvement: • A person’s perceived relevance of the object based on his/her inherent needs, values, and interests. • Object: A product or brand • Levels of Involvement: Inertia to Passion • Type of information processing depends on the consumer’s level of involvement • Simple processing: Only the basic features of the message are considered • Elaboration: Incoming information is linked to preexisting knowledge

20. Conceptualizing Involvement Figure 4.3

21. Increasing Involvement through Ads • The Swiss Potato Board is trying to increase involvement with its product. The ad reads, “Recipes against boredom.”

22. Consumer Involvement (cont.) • Involvement as a Continuum: • Ranges from disinterest to obsession • Inertia (Low involvement consumption): • Consumer lacks the motivation to consider alternatives • Flow State(High involvement consumption): • Consumer is truly involved with the product, ad or web site • Cult Products: • Command fierce consumer loyalty and perhaps worship by consumers who are highly involved in the product

23. Example of a Cult Product

24. The Many Faces of Involvement • Product Involvement: • Related to a consumer’s level of interest in a particular product • Message-Response Involvement: • (a.k.a. advertising involvement) Refers to a consumer’s interest in processing marketing communications • Purchase Situation Involvement: • Refers to the differences that may occur when buying the same product for different contexts

25. Emotions versus Cognitions • Many marketing messages, such as this ad for a cosmetic company in Taiwan, focus on emotions rather than cognitions.

26. Customizing for Product Involvement

27. Measuring Involvement • Teasing out the Dimensions of Involvement: • Involvement Profile: • Personal interest in a product category • Risk importance • Probability of making a bad purchase • Pleasure value of the product category • How closely the product is related to the self • Zaichkowsky’s Personal Involvement Inventory Scale • Segmenting by Involvement Levels: • Involvement is a useful basis for market segmentation

28. High Involvement

29. Strategies to Increase Involvement • Appeal to hedonic needs • e.g. using sensory appeals to generate attention • Use novel stimuli • e.g. unusual cinematography, sudden silences, etc. • Use prominent stimuli • e.g. larger ads, more color • Include celebrity endorsers • Build a bond with consumers • Maintain an ongoing relationship with consumers

30. Values • Value: • A belief that some condition is preferable to its opposite (e.g. freedom is better than slavery) • Core Values: • General set of values that uniquely define a culture • Value system: A culture’s unique set of rankings of the relative importance of universal values. • Enculturation: • Process of learning the value systems of one’s own culture • Acculturation: • Process of learning the value system of another culture • Cultural beliefs are taught by socializationagents (i.e., parents, friends, and teachers)

31. Core Values • Cleanliness is a core value in many cultures.

32. Application of Values to Consumer Behavior • Useful distinctions in values for consumer behavior research • Cultural Values (e.g. security or happiness) • Consumption-Specific Values (e.g. convenient shopping or prompt service) • Product-Specific Values (e.g. ease-of-use or durability) • Virtually all consumer research is ultimately related to identification and measurement of values.

33. Emotions versus Cognitions • The positive value we place on the activities of large corporations is changing among some consumers who prefer to go “anticorporate.” This ad for a coffee shop in Boulder, Colorado reflects that sentiment.

34. Measuring Cultural Values • The Rokeach Value Survey • Terminal Values: Desired end states • Instrumental Values: Actions needed to achieve terminal values • The List of Values (LOV) Scale • Developed to isolate values with more direct marketing applications • Identifies nine (9) consumer segments based on the values they endorse • Relates each value to differences in consumption

35. The Means-End Chain Model • Laddering: • A technique that uncovers consumers’ associations between attributes and consequences • Hierarchical value maps: • Show how product attributes are linked to desired end states • Means-End Conceptualization of the Components of Advertising Strategy (MECCAS): • Message Elements • Consumer Benefits • Executional Framework • Leverage Point • Driving Force

36. Syndicated Surveys • Large-scale commercial surveys • Voluntary simplifiers: • Believe that once basic needs are sated, additional income does not add to happiness. • Examples: • VALS 2 • GlobalScan • New Wave • Lifestyles Study

37. Materialism • Materialism: • The importance people attach to worldly possessions • Tends to emphasize the well-being of the individual versus the group • People with highly material values tend to be less happy • America is a highly materialistic society • There are a number of anti-materialism movements

38. Values of Materialists • Materialists value visible symbols of success such as expensive watches.

39. Discussion Question • Materialists are more likely to consume for status. Can you think of products and brands that convey status? • There is a movement away from materialism in our culture. Can you think of products, ads, or brands that are anti-materialistic?

40. Consumer Behavior in the Aftermath of 9/11 • Following 9/11, ads addressed people’s fears in various ways. This ad was created as part of the Advertising Community Together initiative.