Chapter 4 - Perspectives on Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior

defined as the process and activities people engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services to satisfy their needs and desires.

Problem recognition

occurs when the consumer perceives a need and becomes motivated to solve the problem. It is caused by a difference between the consumer's ideal state and actual state.

Out of stock

Problem recognition occurs when consumers use their existing supply of a product and must replenish their stock.

Dissatisfaction

Problem recognition is created by the consumer’s dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs and/or the product or service being used.

New needs/wants

Changes in consumers’ lives often result in new needs and wants.

Related products/purchases

Problem recognition can also be stimulated by the purchase of a product.

Marketer-induced problem recognition

Marketers’ actions that encourage consumers not to be content with their current state or situation.

New products

Problem recognition also occur when innovative products are introduced and brought to the attention of consumer.

Motives

those factors that drive a consumer to do a specific action.

Hierarchy of Needs

One of the most common approaches to assessing consumer motivations is based on the classic theory of human motivation introduced many years ago by psychologist Abraham Maslow.

Physiological

the basic level of primary needs for things required to sustain life, such as food, shelter, clothing, and sex.

Safety

the need for security and safety from physical harm.

Social/love and belonging

the desire to have satisfying relationships with others and feel a sense of love, affection, belonging, and acceptance.

Esteem

the need to feel a sense of accomplishment and gain recognition, status, and respect from others.

Self-actualization

the need for self-fulfillment and a desire to realize one's own potential.

Maslow's theory

According to ____, the lower level needs to be satisfied before the higher-order needs becomes meaningful.

• This theory offers a framework for marketers to use in determining what needs they wants their products and service to be shown satisfying.

Psychoanalytic Theory

• Approach to the study of consumer motives created by Sigmund Freud.

• This theory has strong influence on the development of modern psychology and on explanations of motivation and personality.

• It’s been apply by marketers interest in probing deeply rooted motives that may underlie purchase decisions.

• Those who attempt to relate psychoanalytic theory to consumer behavior believe consumers’ motivations for purchasing are often very complex and unclear to the casual observer and to the consumers themselves.

Motivation Research in Marketing

• use a variety of methodologies to gain into the underlying cause.

• As one might expect, such associations often lead to insights as to why people purchase:

1. • Consumers prefer large cars because they believe bigger cars provide safety in the unpredictable world of driving.

2. • Women wear perfume not just for fragrance but to attract attention and boost their confidence.

In-depth interviews

face-to-face situations in which an interviewer asks a consumer to talk freely in an unstructed interview using specific questions designed to obtain insights into his or her motives, ideas or opinions

Projective techniques

efforts designed to gain insights into consumers’ value, motives, attitudes, or needs that are difficult to express or identify by having them project these internal states upon some external object

Association tests

technique in which an individual is asked to respond with the first thing that comes to mind when he or she is presented with a stimulus; the stimulus may be a word, picture, ad and so on

Focus group

a small number of people with similar backgrounds and interest who are brought together discuss a particular product, idea or issue

Information Search

The second stage in the consumer decision-making process.

➢ After realizing a problem or need that can be solved by buying something, consumers look for information to help them decide what to buy.

Internal Search

the initial search effort often consists of an attempt to scan information stored in memory to recall past experiences and/or knowledge regarding various purchase alternatives

• For many routine, repetitive purchases, previously acquired information that is stored in memory is sufficient for comparing alternatives and making a choices

External Search

If internal search does not yield enough information the consumer will seek additional information by engaging ____

Internet sources

such as organic and sponsored information available through companies’ websites, consumers postings, and organizations.

Personal sources

such as friends, relative and so on.

Marketer-controlled(commercial) sources

such as information from advertising, salespeople, point-of-purchase displays and the internet.

Public sources

including articles in magazines or newspaper and reports on tv and so on.

Personal experience

such as actually handling, examining, or testing the product.

Perception

• the process which an individual receives, selects, organizes, and interprets information to create meaningful picture of the world.

• _____ is an individual process which depend on internal factor such as a person’s beliefs, experiences, needs, moods and expectations.

• This process also influenced by characteristics of a stimulus and the context in which it is seen or heard.

1. How consumer sense external information

2. How they select and attend to various sources of information

3. How this information is interpreted and given meaning

Marketers need to understand how consumers gather and use external information to develop effective communication strategies. The process of all part of perception include:

Sensation

is the immediate, direct response of the sense to a stimulus such as an ad, package, brand name, or point-of-purchase display.

Selecting Information

determinant of marketing stimuli will be attended to and how they will be interpreted include internal psychological factors such as the consumer’s personality, needs, motives, expectations, and experiences.

Interpreting the Information

this stage is very individualized and is influenced by internal factors.

Selective perception

occurs when consumers choose whether to make themselves available to information.

Subliminal perception

refers to ability to perceive a stimulus that is below the level of conscious awareness.

Selective exposure

occurs as consumers choose whether or not to make themselves available to information

Selective attention

occurs when consumer choose to focus attention on certain stimuli while excluding others

Selective comprehension

interpreting information on the basis of their own attitudes, beliefs, motives, and expriences

Selective retention

consumer do not remember all the information they see, hear, or read even after attending to and comprehending it

Alternative Evaluation

In this stages, the consumer compares the various brands or products and services he or she has identified as being capable of solving the consumption problem and satisfying the needs or motives that initiated the decision process.

The Evoked Set

The various brands identified as purchase options to be considered during the alternative evaluation process are referred to ___

evoked set

It is only subset of all the brands of which the consumer is aware. ➢ The exact size of the evoked set varies from one consumer to another and depends on such factors as the importance of the purchase and the amount of time and energy the consumer wants to spend comparing alternatives.

Evaluative criteria

• can be objective or subjective.

• are usually viewed as product or service attributes.

• Many marketers view their products or services as bundles of attributes but some of it think in term of consequences or outcomes.

Functional consequences

concrete outcomes of product and service usage that are tangible and directly experienced by consumers.

Psychosocial consequences

abstract outcomes that are more intangible, subjective, and personal such as how the product makes you feel or how you think others will view you for purchasing or using.

Product and services

• features influence consumer attitudes, buying intentions, and decision making. Consumers evaluate expected results or benefits from a brand before purchasing.

• Two subprocesses are very important during the alternative evaluation stage:

  (1) the process by which consumer attitudes are created, reinforced, and changed; and

  (2) the decision rules or integration strategies consumers use to compare brands and make purchase decisions.

Attitudes

• Learned predispositions to respond to an object and are some of the most heavily studied concepts in consumer behavior.

• important to marketers because they theoretically summarize a consumer’s evaluation of an object and represent positive or negative feelings and behavior tendencies.

Multiattribute Attitude Models

Consumer researchers and marketing practitioners have been using ____ to study consumer attitudes for two decades.

➢ Its view an attitude object such as product or brand, as processing a number of attributes that provide the basis on which consumers from their attitudes.

➢ According to this model, consumers have beliefs about specific brand attributes and attach different level of importance to these attributes.

salient beliefs

Consumers may hold a number of different beliefs about brands in any product or service category. However, not all of these beliefs are activated in forming an attitude. Beliefs concerning specific attributes or consequences that are activated and form the basis of an attitude are referred to as ____

Attitude Change Strategies

Several ways marketers can influence consumer attitudes:

• Increasing or changing the strength or belief rating of a brand on an important attribute.

• Changing consumers’ perceptions of the importance or value of an attribute.

• Adding a new attribute to the attitude formation process.

• Changing perceptions of belief ratings for competing brand.

Strategy that commonly used for advertiser:

1. They identify an attribute or consequence that is important and remind consumers how well their brand performs on this attribute.

2. Consumers to attach more importance to the attribute in forming their attitude toward the brand.

3. Add or emphasize a new attribute that consumers can use in evaluating a brand.

4. To change consumer beliefs about the attributes of competing brands or products categories.

Integration processes

• are the way product knowledge, meanings and beliefs are combined to evaluate two or more alternatives.

• focusses on the different types of decision rules or strategies consumers use to decide among purchase alternatives.

heuristics

Sometimes consumer make their purchase decisions using more simplified decision rules known as___

affect referral decision rule

One type of heuristic is the ____ in which consumer make a selection on the basis of the overall impression or summary evaluation of the various alternatives under consideration.

Purchase Decision

At some point in the buying process, the consumer must stop searching for and evaluating information about alternative brands in the evoked set and make _____.

• As an outcome consumer may develop purchase intention/predisposition to buy a certain brand.

• ____ basically is not the same as an actual purchase.

• Once customer choose what to buy, he/she must implement the decision and make actual purchase.

• ____ for nondurable, convenience items sometimes take place in the store, almost simultaneous with the purchase.

Postpurchase Evaluation

• Satisfaction occurs when the consumer’s expectations are either met or exceeded;

• Dissatisfaction results when performance is below expectations.

• important because the feedback acquire from actual use of a product will influence the likelihood of future purchase.

Cognitive dissonance

a feeling of psychological tension or postpurchase doubt that a consumer experiences after making a difficult purchase choice.

Consumer learning process

the process by which individuals acquire the purchase and consumption knowledge and experience they apply to future related behavior

Behavioral Learning Theory

theory emphasizes the role pf external, environmental stimuli in causing behavior; they minimize the significance of the internal psychological processes.

Classical conditioning

assumes that learning in an associative process with an already existing relationship between a stimulus and a response.

• There are two types of stimulus, the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus.

• The two types of the responses on the other hand are conditioned response and unconditioned response.

Operant Conditioning

in this conditioning, the individual must actively operate or act on some aspect of the environment of learning to occur.

• known as instrumental conditioning, underscores this principle as the individual's response plays a crucial role in receiving either a positive reinforcement (reward) or a negative reinforcement (the removal of a negative outcome upon desired behavior).

Reinforcement

required or favorable consequence associated with a particular response.

Shaping

reinforcement of successive acts that lead to a desired behavior pattern or response.

Cognitive Learning Theory

approach to studying learning and decision making has dominated the field of consumer behavior in recent year.

1. goal

2. purposive behavior

3. insight

4. goal achievement

Environmental Influences on Consumer Behavior

The consumer does not make purchase decisions in isolation. A number of external factors have been identified that may influence consumer decision making.

Culture

• The broadest and most abstract external factor.

• Consists of learned meanings, values, norms, and customs shared by a society.

• Provides direction and guidance for consumer behavior.

Subcultures

• Smaller groups within a culture with distinct beliefs, values, and behaviors.

• Differ from the larger cultural mainstream.

Social Class

Virtually all societies exhibit some form of stratification whereby individuals can be assigned to a specific social category based on criteria important to members of that society.

• refers to relatively homogeneous divisions in a society into which people sharing similar lifestyles, values, norms, interests, and behaviors can be grouped.

ex: low class. middle class. high class

Reference groups

a group whose presumed perspectives or values are being used by an individual as the basis for his or her judgment, opinions and actions.

• Consumers use three types of reference groups (associative, aspirational, and dissociative) as a guide to specific behaviors, even when the groups are not present.

the initiator

person responsible for initiating the purchase decision process

the information provider

individual responsible for gathering information to be used in the making the decision

the influencer

person who exerts influence as to what criteria will be used in the selection process

the decision maker

that person who actually makes the decision

the purchasing agent

the individual who performs the physical act making the purchase

the consumer

the actual user of the product

Situational Determinants

• final external factor is the purchase and usage situation

• The specific situation in which consumers plan to use the product or brand directly affects their perceptions, preferences, and purchasing behaviors.

Specific usage situation

A student buys formal attire only for a thesis defense or graduation but prefers casual clothes for everyday use.

The purchase situation

During back-to-school sales, students rush to buy discounted notebooks, pens, and bags.

Communications situation

A student sees a TikTok ad for an affordable online course and decides to enroll because of the limited-time promo.

New methodologies

• Psychologists study consumer responses in controlled settings, while sociologists and anthropologists observe behavior in real-life contexts.

• Qualitative methods such as interviews, participant observation, and ethnographies help capture social, cultural, and environmental influences.

• Humanities also contribute new methodologies that provide deeper insights into consumer behavior.

New Insights

• Alternative methodologies offer broader and deeper consumer insights beyond traditional survey methods.

• Cross-disciplinary research is preferred by some experts as it considers the complex and multidimensional nature of consumers.