Chapter Five

Consumer Markets &

Consumer Buyer Behavior
 Consumer Behavior
- The buying behavior of final consumers – individuals and
households who buy goods and services for personal
consumption
- Most buying decisions are made at an unconscious level –
Black box
- Central Question: How do consumers respond to marketing
efforts the company might use?
- What / Where / How / How much / When / Why Consumers Buy
Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
 Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
Cultural Factors
Culture
- the learned values, perceptions, wants, and behavior from family
and other important institutions
- the most basic cause of a person’s wants and behavior
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
- measured by a combination of occupation, income, education,
wealth, and other variables
 Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
Social Factors
Family - roles played by members in the purchase process:
initiator / influencer / decider / buyer / user
Groups Membership Groups Aspirational Groups Reference Groups

• Groups with direct • Groups an individual • Groups that form a

influence and to which a wishes to belong to comparison or reference in
person belongs forming attitudes or
behavior

Social roles and status

Word-of-Mouth Influence - impact of opinion leaders
Online Social Networks - blogs, social networking sites (e.g.,
Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram)
 Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
Personal Factors

Age and Family Lifecycle Stage

Occupation
Economic Situation (income, wealth)
 Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
Personal Factors

Lifestyle (Activities / Interests / Opinions)

VALSTM places U.S. adult consumers into one of

eight segments based on their responses to
the VALS questionnaire.

Primary motivation (horizontal dimension)

Consumers are primarily motivated by:
◦ Ideals: guided by knowledge and principles.
◦ Achievement: look for products/services that
demonstrate success to their peers.
◦ Self-expression: desire social or physical activity,
variety, risk.
Resources (vertical dimension)
◦ Different levels of resources enhance or constrain a
person’s expression of his or her primary motivation.
◦ Personality traits + key demographics.
 Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
Personal Factors

Personality: The unique psychological

characteristics that lead to consistent and
lasting responses to one’s own environment
Brand Personality: Specific mix of human traits
that may be attributed to a particular brand
• sincerity (down-to-earth, honest, cheerful)
• excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative)
• competence (reliable, intelligent, and successful)
• sophistication (upper class and charming)
• ruggedness (outdoorsy and tough)

Self-concept: Collection of beliefs about

oneself
• People’s possessions contribute to and reflect their
identities
 Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
Psychological Factors

Motivation

Perception

Learning

Beliefs and attitudes

 Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
Psychological Factors:
Motivation
Motive - A need that is sufficiently
pressing to direct the person to
seek satisfaction
Theory of Human Motivation:
•Human needs are arranged in a
hierarchy, from the most to the
least pressing (Maslow)
•People often don’t know / can’t
describe why they act as they do
(Freud)
 Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
Psychological Factors:
Perception

Perception: the process by which people select, organize, and interpret

information to form a meaningful picture of the world.
People can form different perceptions of the same stimulus because
they:
• Screen out most of the information to which they are exposed
(Selective attention)
• Interpret information in a way that will support what they already
believe (Selective distortion) – the iphone 5 example
• Are more likely to retain the information that supports their existing
attitudes and beliefs (Selective retention)

Subliminal Perception: Marketing messages that are unconsiously

perceived by the recepient (the Derren Brown example)
 Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
Psychological Factors
Learning
• A change in an individual’s behavior arising from experience
• Occurs through the interplay of drives, stimuli, cues, responses, and
reinforcement.
Beliefs
• Descriptive thoughts (about brands or services)
• May be based on real knowledge, opinion, or faith
• Make up product and brand images that affect buyer behavior
Attitudes
• A person’s relatively consistent evaluations, feelings and tendencies
toward an object or idea
• Are difficult to change
• e.g. «Germans make the best cars» «Tea is bad for sleep»
 Types of Buying Decision Behavior
Involvement
effort and deliberation given to the purchase decision

High Involvement Low Involvement

 Purchase is infrequent and/or risky  Purchase is familiar, past experience

 Expensive or self-expressive items  Inexpensive, frequently purchased items

 Longer, customized decision process  Routinized buying, quick decision

 Actively search for information  Selective attention to information

Types of Buying Decision Behavior

Four Types of Buying Behavior

The Buyer Decision Process
Buyer Decision Making Process

1. Need Recognition

2. Information Search

3. Evaluation of Alternatives

4. Purchase Decision

5. Post-Purchase Behavior
 The Buyer Decision Process
Need Recognition

- Result of an imbalance between the actual and the desired

states.

- Usually an internal or external stimulus will lead to need

recognition.
◦ Internal stimuli (hunger, thirst, self-esteem…)
◦ External stimuli (TV, advertising, sales promotions…)
 The Buyer Decision Process
Information Search /
Sources of Information
- Personal Sources (family, friends…)
◦ Most influential source of information
- Commercial Sources (advertising, sales people…)
◦ Most information is received from these sources
- Public Sources (news, consumer reports)
- Experiential Sources (handling, examining, using the product)
 The Buyer Decision Process
Evaluation of Alternatives

- What are the relevant product attributes that go into evaluation?

(Evaluation criteria)
◦ Depends on the product category (e.g. for furniture: style, price,
material quality , etc.)
- How important are these attributes to the consumer?
◦ May vary between customers (e.g. For some customers, style and
price more ımportant than quality, or vice versa)
- Which products/brands are under consideration? (Consideration
Set)
◦ e.g., {IKEA, Mudo, Koleksiyon}
- How does each product/brand rate on these attributes?
 The Buyer Decision Process
Purchase Decision

Purchase Intention

unexpected
attitudes
situational
of others
factors

Purchase
 The Buyer Decision Process
Post-Purchase Decision

Satisfaction with the purchase depends on whether consumers’

expectations were met with the products perceived performance.

Perceived Performance < Expected Performance  Dissatisfied

Perceived Performance >= Expected Performance  Satisfied

Cognitive Dissonance: Discomfort caused by post-purchase conflict

(Did I make the right choice?)
 The Buyer Decision Process for New Products

Adoption process is the mental process an individual goes through

from first learning about an innovation to final regular use.
Stages in the process include:
The Buyer Decision Process for New Products
Differences in Innovativeness
 The Buyer Decision Process for New Products
Differences in Innovativeness:
Adopter Categories

Innovators
Venturesome – they try new ideas at some risk.
Early Adopters
Opinion leaders – adopt new ideas early but carefully
Early Majority
Deliberate – careful, but accepting change more quickly than the average
Late Majority
Skeptics – will adopt new ideas or products after the majority
Laggards
Tradition-bounds – critical towards new ideas / will only accept it if the new
idea has become mainstream
 The Buyer Decision Process for New Products
Influence of Product Characteristics
on Rate of Adoption

Relative Advantage: Is the innovation superior to existing products?

Compatibility: Does the innovation fit the values and experience

of the target market?
Complexity: Is the innovation difficult to understand or use?

Divisibility: Can the innovation be used on a trial basis?

Communicability: Can results be easily observed or described to

others?