Consumer Markets and Consumer Buyer Behavior

Vocabulary flashcards about consumer behavior

Consumer behavior

The study of how individuals, groups, and organizations make decisions about acquiring, using, and disposing of goods and services.

Consumer buyer behavior

The buying behavior of final consumers—individuals and households who buy goods and services for personal consumption

Consumer market

All of the personal consumption of final consumers

Culture

The learned values, perceptions, wants, and behavior from family and other important institutions

Subculture

Groups of people within a culture with shared value systems based on common life experiences and situations

Social classes

Society’s relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members share similar values, interests, and behaviors

Opinion leaders

People within a reference group who exert social influence on others

Online social networks

Online communities where people socialize or exchange information and opinions

Lifestyle

A person’s pattern of living as expressed in his or her psychographics

Personality

The unique psychological characteristics that lead to consistent and lasting responses to the consumer’s environment

Dominance

Reflects a consumer's desire to control or influence their environment and purchasing decisions.

Autonomy

Indicates a consumer's preference for independence and self- reliance in making choices.

Defensiveness

Arises when consumers feel manipulated or threatened (e.g., by ads, pricing, or peer pressure).

Adaptability

How flexibly consumers respond to changes (e.g., new products, pricing, or marketing tactics).

Aggressiveness

Assertive behaviors to protect interests, such as bargaining or rejecting pushy sales tactics.

Motive

A need that is sufficiently pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction

Motivation research

Qualitative research designed to probe consumers’ hidden, subconscious motivations

Perception

The process by which people select, organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world

Selective attention

The tendency for people to screen out most of the information to which they are exposed

Selective distortion

The tendency for people to interpret information in a way that will support what they already believe

Selective retention

The tendency to remember good points made about a brand they favor and forget good points about competing brands

Learning

A change in an individual’s behavior arising from experience

Drives

Internal needs that motivate action

Stimuli

External triggers that respond to drives

Cues

Minor stimuli that influence where, when, or how a response occurs

Responses

Consumer actions

Reinforcement

Positive outcomes that strengthen future responses

Motive

A need that is sufficiently pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction of the need

Freudian motivation theory

Posits that unconscious psychological forces, such as hidden desires and motives, shape an individual's behavior, like their purchasing patterns.

EGO

The conscious part of the mind, the part that we are aware of, the part where decisions are made

ID

The unconscious part of the mind that seeks to bring pleasure to us

SUPEREGO

This is the moral aspect of the mind- our conscience- it tells us what we should and should not do

Stimuli

Any materials used in a market research study with the aim of inducing a reaction from respondents

Response

The reactions or feedback received from a target audience in response to a specific marketing campaign, advertisement, or promotional effort.

Belief

A descriptive thought that a person has about something based on knowledge, opinion, and faith

Attitudes

Describe a person’s relatively consistent evaluations, feelings, and tendencies toward an object or idea

Need Recognition

Occurs when the buyer recognizes a problem or need triggered by internal or external stimuli

Postpurchase Decision

The satisfaction or dissatisfaction that the consumer feels about the purchase

Cognitive dissonance

The discomfort caused by a postpurchase conflict

Adoption process

The mental process an individual goes through from first learning about an innovation to final regular use.

Communicability

Can results be easily observed or described to others?

Relative Advantage

Is the innovation superior to existing products?

Divisibility

Can the innovation be used on a trial basis?

Complexity

Is the innovation difficult to understand or use?

Compatibility

Does the innovation fit the values and experience of the target market?