Chapter 5

Marketing: Consumer Behavior
 

AFTER READING THIS CHAPTER
YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:
  • •Outline the stages in the consumer decision process.
•
  • •Distinguish among three variations of the consumer decision process:  routine, limited, and extended problem solving.
 
  • •Explain how psychological influences affect consumer behavior, particularly purchase decision processes.
•
  • •Identify major sociocultural influences on consumer behavior and their effects on purchase decisions. 
 
  • •Recognize how marketers can use knowledge of consumer behavior to better understand and influence individual and family purchases.
 

 

 

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
  • •SAVVY AUTOMAKERS KNOW
    THEIR CUSTOM(HER)

 

 

Consumer Behavior
Consumer behavior(s) are the actions a person takes in purchasing and using products and services, including the mental and social processes that precede and follow these actions.

 

 

FIGURE 5-1  Purchase decision process

Purchase Decision Process
The stages a buyer passes through in making choices about which products and services to buy is the purchase decision process.
 

 

CONSUMER PURCHASE
DECISION PROCESS
  • •Problem Recognition: 
    Perceiving a Need
  • •Information Search: 
    Seeking Value
 

 

 

FIGURE 5-2  Consumer Reports’ evaluation of portable compact disc players (abridged)

CONSUMER PURCHASE
DECISION PROCESS
 
 

 

Purchase Decision Process
The stages a buyer passes through in making choices about which products and services to buy is the purchase decision process.
 
 

 

Evaluative Criteria
A customer’s evaluative criteria represent both the objective and subjective attributes of a brand used to compare different products and brands.
 

 

Evoked Set
An evoked set is the group of brands that a consumer would consider acceptable from among all the brands of the product class of which he or she is aware.
 
 

 

Cognitive Dissonance
A feeling of postpurchase psychological tension or anxiety is called cognitive dissonance.
 
 

 

CONSUMER PURCHASE
DECISION PROCESS
 
 

 

Involvement
Involvement is the personal, social, and economic significance of a purchase to a consumer.
 
 

 

FIGURE 5-3  Comparison of problem-solving variations

CONSUMER PURCHASE
DECISION PROCESS
•Involvement and Problem-Solving Variations (cont)
  • •Routine Problem Solving
  • •Limited Problem Solving
  • •Extended problem Solving
  • •Involvement and Marketing Strategy
•Situational Influences
 
 

 

Situational Influences
Situational influences that have an impact on the purchase decision process are: (1) the purchase task, (2) social surroundings, (3) physical surroundings, 4) temporal effects, and (5) antecedent states.
 
 

 

FIGURE 5-4  Influences on the consumer purchase decision process

Concept Check
1. What is the first step in the consumer purchase decision process?
A:  Problem recognition.
 

2.  The brands a consumer considers buying out of the set of brands in a product class of which the consumer is aware is called the _________.

A:  Evoked set.

3.  What is the term for postpurchase anxiety?
 
A:  Cognitive dissonance.

 

 

 

PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
 
•
 
 

 

Motivation
Motivation is the energizing force that causes behavior that satisfies a need.
 
 

 

FIGURE 5-5  Hierarchy of needs

PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
•Motivation and Personality (cont)
•Selective Perception
 

 

 

Personality
Personality refers to a person’s consistent behaviors or responses to recurring situations. 

 

 

National Character
A national character is a distinct set of personality characteristics common among people of a country or society.

 

 

Self-Concept
A person’s self-concept is the way people see themselves and the way they believe other people see them.
 

 

 

Perception
Perception is the process by which an individual selects, organizes, and interprets information to create a meaningful picture of the world.

 

 

Subliminal Perception
Subliminal perception means that you see or hear messages without being aware of them. 
 

 

 

PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
•Perception (cont)
•Learning
 

 

 

Perceived Risk
Perceived risk represents the anxieties felt because the consumer cannot anticipate the outcomes of a purchase but believes that there may be negative consequences.

 

 

Learning
Learning refers to those behaviors that result from (1) repeated experience and (2) thinking.
 

 

 

Brand Loyalty
Brand loyalty is a favorable attitude toward and consistent purchase of a single brand over time.

 

 

PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
•Values, Beliefs, and Attitudes
  • •Attitude Formation
  • •Attitude Change
•Lifestyle
 

 

 

FIGURE 5-6  VALSTM segments

Attitude
An attitude is “a learned predisposition to respond to an object or class of objects in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way.” 
 

 

 

Beliefs
Beliefs are a consumers subjective perception of how well a product or brand performs on different attributes.

 

 

Lifestyle
Lifestyle is a mode of living that is identified by how people spend their time and resources, what they consider important in their environment, and what they think of themselves and the world around them.
 

 

 

Concept Check
1.  The problem with the Toro Snow Pup was an example of selective
_____________.
 

A:  comprehension.

2.  What three attitude-change approaches are most common?
 
A:  Change beliefs about the extent to which a brand has certain attributes, change the perceived importance of the attributes, and add new attributes
 

3.  What does lifestyle mean?

A:  Lifestyle is a mode of living that is identified by how people spend their time and resources (activities), what they consider important in their environment (interests), and what they think of themselves and the world around them (self-concept).
 

 

 

SOCIOCULTURAL INFLUENCES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
•Personal Influence
•Reference Groups
•Family Influence
 

 

 

Opinion Leaders
Individuals who exert direct or indirect social influence over others are called opinion leaders.

 

 

Word of Mouth
People influencing each other during their face-to-face conversations is called word of mouth.
 

 

 

Reference Groups
Reference groups are people to whom an individual looks as a basis for self-appraisal or as a source of personal standards.
 

 

 

Consumer Socialization
The process by which people acquire the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to function as consumers is consumer socialization.
 

 

 

Family Life Cycle
The family life cycle concept describes the distinct phases that a family progresses through from formation to retirement. 

 

 

FIGURE 5-7  Modern family life cycle

SOCIOCULTURAL INFLUENCES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
•Family Influence (cont)
  • •Family Decision Making
•Social Class
•Culture and Subculture
  • •African-American Buying Patterns
  • •Hispanic Buying Patterns
  • •Asian Buying Patterns
 

 

Social Class
Social class is defined as the relatively permanent, homogeneous divisions in a society into which people sharing similar values, interests, and behavior can be grouped.
 

 

 

Subcultures
Subgroups within the larger, or national, culture with unique values, ideas and attitudes are referred to as subcultures.
 

 

 

Concept Check
1.  What are the two primary forms of personal influence?
 
A:  Opinion leadership and word of mouth.
 
2.  Marketers are concerned with which types of reference groups?
 
A:  Membership groups, aspiration groups, dissociative groups.
 

3.  What two challenges must marketers overcome when marketing to Hispanics?

A:  Diversity of this subculture and the language barrier.

 

 

Chapter 5 - Summary

 

  1. When a consumer buys a product, it is not an act but a process. There are five steps in the purchase decision process: problem recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase decision, and postpurchase behavior.
  2. Consumers evaluate alternatives on the basis of attributes. Identifying which attributes are most important to consumers, along with understanding consumer beliefs about how a brand performs on those attributes, can make the difference between successful and unsuccessful products.
  3. Consumer involvement with what is bought affects whether the purchase decision process involves routine, limited, or extended problem solving. Situational influences also affect the process.
  4. Perception is important to marketers because of the selectivity of what a consumer sees or hears, comprehends, and retains.
  5. Much of the behavior that consumers exhibit is learned. Consumers learn from repeated experience and reasoning. Brand loyalty is a result of learning.
  6. Attitudes are learned predispositions to respond to an object or class of objects in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way. Attitudes are based on a person's values and beliefs concerning the attributes of objects.
  7. Lifestyle is a mode of living reflected in a person's activities, interests, and opinions of himself or herself and the world.
  8. Personal influence takes two forms: opinion leadership and word-of-mouth activity. A specific type of personal influence exists in the form of reference groups.
  9. Family influences on consumer behavior result from three sources: consumer socialization, family life cycle, and decision making within the household.
  10. Within the United States there are social classes and subcultures that affect a consumer's values and behavior. Marketers must be sensitive to these sociocultural influences when developing a marketing mix.

 

 

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Web Links
www.womanmotorist.com

www.consumerreports.org

www.freshstep.org

www.mkvelocity.com

www.colgate.com

www.bayerus.com

www.future.sri.com

www.omega.com

www.haggar.com

www.bonnebell.com

www.pepsi.com

www.census.gov

www.selig.uga.edu

 


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