A301 Unit 3.0 Behavior Influences and Processes

Definition: Consumer behavior involves all activities associated with the purchase, use, and disposal of goods or services. It encompasses a consumer’s emotional, mental, and behavioral responses before, during, and after these activities.

5-Step Consumer Decision Process:
1. Need Recognition: Identifying a need or want that creates a drive.
2. Information Search: Seeking information to address the recognized need.
3. Evaluation of Alternatives: Weighing different options available to satisfy the need.
4. Purchase Decision: Choosing a product or service based on evaluation.
5. Postpurchase Evaluation: Assessing the satisfaction level post-purchase, which could be positive or negative.
Influences on Decision Process:
- Interpersonal Influences: Affecting consumer behavior through family, friends, and societal factors.
- Nonpersonal Influences: External factors such as time, place, and the shopping environment.
- Cultural Influences: The culture and subcultures that shape consumer preferences and behaviors.

Definition of Perception: The personalized way of sensing and comprehending stimuli, including advertising messages.
Selective Perception: Process of subconsciously filtering stimuli, determining whether to ignore it or elevate it to conscious attention.
- Facilitating Perception: Elements include simplicity, relevance, significance, timeliness, and repetition.
Percentage of Messages That Make It Through: Only about 1-5% of messages can effectively break through selective perception filters.

Self-Concept: The totality of feelings and thoughts regarding oneself, foundational to self-esteem. Includes existential factors (age, gender, skills, etc.) and social roles (career, social identities).
The Extended Self: Concept that possessions and personal space represent an extension of oneself; includes goods, home, and even relationships with others like friends and family.

Beliefs: Non-evaluative judgments about various attributes of products, including search attributes (e.g., appearance), experience attributes (e.g., taste), and credence attributes (e.g., reliability).
- Belief Formation:
- Descriptive: Based on direct experience.
- Informational: Based on indirect experiences through external sources (friends, advertisements).
- Inferential: Drawn conclusions that exceed given information.
Attitudes: Evaluative judgments with an orientation (good/bad) and magnitude (weak/intense). These heavily influence behavioral responses.

Behavioral Connection: The relationship between beliefs, attitudes, and resulting behaviors is foundational.
- Example: If one believes hot dogs are unhealthy (belief), has a very negative attitude towards them, one might eat hot dogs infrequently (behavior).
The Role of Influence: There can be additional behaviors influencing attitudes; for example, positive behavior upon achieving a reward may positively influence future dietary choices.