CH 3 - Consumer Behaviour and Target Audience Decisions

Consumer behaviour

The activities that people experience when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services so as to satisfy their needs and desires.

Consumer decision making steps

1. need recognition

2. information search

3. alternative evaluation

4. purchase decision

5. post-purchase decision

Need recognition

Need recognition is the first stage in the consumer decision-making process; occurs when the consumer perceives a need and becomes motivated to enter a decision-making process to resolve the felt need.

Want

A felt need shaped by a person’s knowledge, culture, and personality.

Motives

Factors that compel or drive a consumer to take a particular action.

Hierarchy of needs

Abraham Maslow’s theory that human needs are arranged in an order or hierarchy based on their importance; includes physiological, safety, social/love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization needs.

Information search

Information search is the second stage of the consumer decision-making process where consumers rely on internal and external search to review or gain product knowledge.

Internal search

The process by which a consumer acquires information by accessing past experiences or knowledge stored in memory.

External search

The search process whereby consumers seek and acquire information from external sources such as advertising, other people, or public sources.

Alternative evaluation

Alternative evaluation is the third stage of the consumer decision-making process where a consumer compares brands identified as being capable of satisfying the needs or motives that initiated the decision process.

Evoked set

A group of brands that a consumer compares within the alternative evaluation stage of their decision-making process.

Functional benefits

Concrete outcomes of product usage that are tangible and directly related to product performance.

Performance benefits

Less tangible and more subjective product usage outcomes based on how the product attributes abstractly affect a consumer.

Experiential benefits

How a product makes the consumer feel while consuming the product.

Purchase decision

Purchase decision is the fourth stage of the consumer decision-making process, occurring when a consumer does not require additional information to buy a product to fulfill their need.

Brand loyalty

A preference for a particular brand that results in its repeated purchase.

Post-purchase evaluation

Post-purchase evaluation is the fifth stage of the consumer decision-making process where a consumers assess the product performance with an number of activities to determine their satisfaction.

Satisfaction

A judgment that consumers make with respect to the pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfillment.

Cognitive dissonance

A state of psychological tension of postpurchase doubt that a consumer experiences after making a difficult purchase choice.

Routine problem solving

Occurs when the decision-making process consists of little more than recognizing the need, performing a quick internal search, and making the purchase; the consumer spends little or no effort with external search or alternative evaluation.

Limited/extended problem solving

Occurs when consumers have limited experience in purchasing a particular product or service and little or no knowledge of the brands available and/or the criteria to use in making a purchase decision; consumers learn what attributes or criteria should be used in making a purchase decision and how the alternatives perform on these dimensions.

Roles in the family decision-making process

1. initiator

2. information provider

3. influencer

4. decider

5. purchaser

6. consumer

Target market

The group of consumers toward which an overall marketing program is directed.

Segmentation variables

1. geographic

2. demographic

3. socioeconomic

4. psychographic

5. behaviour

Geographic segmentation

An approach where markets are divided into different geographic units, which may include nations, provinces, states, counties, or even neighbourhoods.

Demographic segmentation

An approach where markets are divided on the basis of demographic variables such as gender, age, and household size.

Socioeconomic segmentation

An approach where markets are divided on the basis of a sociological (e.g., education, occupation) and economic variable (e.g., income).

Psychographic segmentation

An approach where markets are divided on the basis of values and lifestyle, personality, culture, and social class.

Culture

The complexity of learned meanings, values, norms, and customs shared by members of a society.

Subcultures

Smaller groups within a culture that possess similar beliefs, values, norms, and patterns of behaviour that differentiate them from the larger cultural mainstream.

Social class

Relatively homogeneous divisions of society into which people are grouped based on similar lifestyles, values, norms, interests, and behaviours.

Behaviour segmentation

An approach where consumers are divided into groups according to different measurable and generally observable actions, including brand loyalty, user status, usage rate, situation, and benefits sought.

Situations

The ways in which consumers plan to use the product or brand, which directly affect their perceptions, preferences, and purchasing behaviours.

Target audience

The group of consumers toward which an advertising campaign is directed.

Brand-loyal customers

Those consumers who regularly buy the promotional planner’s brand.

Favourable brand switchers

Those consumers who buy the promotional planner’s brand but also buy other brands within a given relevant time period for the product category.

New category users

Those consumers who are not purchasing within the promotional planner’s product category.

Other brand switchers

Those consumers who purchase a few different brands within a category, but not the promotional planner’s brand.

Other brand loyals

Those consumers who purchase only one brand, which is not the promotional planner’s brand.