Consumer Behavior & Research

1. Consumer Behavior & Research Lecture 3 COMT 492/592

2. Overview • Researching your audience • Product - Perceived benefits • Price – Perceived costs • Promotion – Channels • Other concerns • Publics – Pertinent groups • Partnerships • Policy • Purse strings – Your budget

3. Product • If motivating people to change health & social behavior were as easy as convincing them to switch toothpaste brands, then there would be no difference between social & commercial marketing. • But social marketing requires affecting a complex set of emotional & psychological decisions.

4. Product • The “product” is the behavior you want to promote. • Perceived susceptibility & perceived severity • To be viable, people must feel they have a genuine problem. • Influenced by…? • Perceived benefits • The behavior must be seen as offering a good solution. • Response efficacy • Self-efficacy

5. Perceived susceptibility & severity • If audience does not see themselves at risk, then you may have to: • Build awareness of the problem or risk • Present facts (e.g. Tobacco-related deaths) • Portray the problem or health threat as personally relevant to target audience • Present identifiable role models who have suffered • Present facts relevant to target audience (e.g., Tobacco deaths among adults who started as teens) • Present perceived cons that are relevant to target audience (e.g., peer disapproval, bad breath, getting fat, etc.)

6. Perceived susceptibility & severity • Research questions • Are you aware of the problem? • (e.g. how serious smoking is, or how prevalent cancer deaths due to tobacco are) • Do you personally feel at risk? • If so, why? (e.g., find example argument) • If not, why not? (e.g., figure out where you need to debunk myths) • Do you care? • Friends, subculture may frown on changing behavior • More benefits of continuing risky behavior

7. Perceived benefits & barriers • Benefits of product must outweigh barriers: • Make sure product is available & accessible (e.g., Family planning clinic must be within walking distance, or open after work hours) • Product must be portrayed as appealing • “Positioning” - Show how product is better than alternatives (e.g. Healthy life vs. smoking) • “Create niche” - Show how product is good for specific types of people • Identify attributes that position product in minds of target audience

8. Perceived benefits • Research questions • Find out what audience values • “So what?” – Find out why they value what they do • “What’s in it for me?” • What’s the value they currently get from not practicing the behavior? • By determining what audience truly deems as important, you can find out more effective ways to appeal to them

9. Perceived benefits: Exercise

10. Price: Perceived barriers (costs) • The negatives of taking on the new behavior and of giving up an old practice are very real. • They may include: • Discomfort • Change • Loss of peer group support • Effort • Embarrassment • Financial cost

11. Price: Perceived costs • Research questions • What’s the worst thing that might happen if you stopped smoking? • What’s the hardest part about becoming a non-smoker? • What are your barriers to quitting? • Identify the specific perceived costs that the audience feels towards the specific behavior