REVIEW QUESTIONS
5-4. In what ways does the culture in which you grew up affect your consumer
behavior? Describe and explain one purchase you have made recently that
reflects your cultural background.
The culture and the society in which you were raised affect your values and opinions.
The boundaries each culture establishes for “proper” behavior are norms, which are
simply rules that we learn through social interaction that specify or prohibit certain
For the second part of this question, encourage students to consider all possible
5-5. What are reference groups? List the reference groups to which you belong or
with which you associate yourself.
Reference groups are groups of people you use as a model for behavior in specific
situations. Examples are teachers and religious leaders, as well as members of political
parties, religious groups, racial or ethnic organizations, clubs based on hobbies, and
For the second part of this question, encourage students to consider all possible
5-6. What is the difference between needs and wants? Give an example of
something you have purchased in the past week that represents a need and
another that represents a want.
Needs are underlying driving forces that motivate us to take action because it is
necessary for basic survival. Examples include choosing a motel (shelter) or a
restaurant (food) when traveling. Primary needs(biological) include the need for
water, food, air, and shelter. Acquired needs are those needs we learn in response to
our culture and environment. These may include needs for esteem, prestige, affection,
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Items recently purchased by students to satisfy primary needs might include fast food
meals or bottled water.Anything purchased by students to satisfy belonging, esteem or
5-7. What are your key demographic and psychographic characteristics? Build
a profile of yourself and give an example of how each one might be used in
planning an advertising campaign targeted to someone like you.
For this question, first make sure that students understand the key
differences between demographics and psychographics.
5-8. What are the key steps in the adoption process, and how do they relate to
product purchases? Who do you know who might qualify as an early adopter?
As a laggard? Profile those two people and discuss the key characteristics that
make them different in their orientation to new ideas or products.
Researcher Everett Rogers developed the Diffusion of Innovation Curve,which allows
marketers to classify consumers in terms of the speed with which they are willing to
try something new. Categories into which consumers can be placed, based upon their
purchase behavior,areinnovators, early adopters, early majority, late
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
5-9. Analyze the corporate culture at various agencies and clients. Start with the
statement on www.ogilvy.com/about/our-history/corporate-culture.aspx for an inside
view of how this agency articulates its view of its own corporate culture. Then find at
least one other agency or client website that refers to its corporate culture, and
compare that statement with Ogilvy’s. (Look first at companies whose websites have
been mentioned in this chapter or previous chapters.) Discuss where you prefer to
work and why.
Another agency that describes its corporate culture on its website is the Russo Group
(therussogroup.com). In addition, an article written by agency partner Jaci Russo
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that focuses on this agency’s culture can be read on Advertising Age’s website. The
article is entitled“Why We Focus So Much on Corporate Culture.” In it, Ms. Russo
5-10. We discuss inner and outer-directed personalities in this chapter. Check out the
following articles about Reisman’s theory on these or other websites and then andwrite
a profile for yourself and your best friend. Compare and contrast your orientation
toward your peers. See
(www.helium.com/items/232453-are-you-inner-or-outer-directed and
fredasadventures.com/everyday-life/are-you-an-inner-or-outer-directed-person).
Sociologist David Reisman describes individuals in terms of their relationships
with other people as inner-directed (individualistic) or outer-directed (peer group
5-11. Consider the social factors that influence consumer decisions. Identify two
demographic or psychographic factors that would be most important to these
product-marketing situations:
a. Dairy product company (milk, cheese, or ice cream) offering an exclusive
Students will offer a variety of answers. Demographic factors related to age, family
status, education, income, and occupation will be important to discuss. However,
5-12. What age group category do you and your friends fall into? Gen Y? Millennial?
There is always a debate about characteristics of those population groups, yet there are
usually some general characteristics that help identify interest, attitudes, and
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behaviors. So develop a profile that fits yourself and your friends who are in the same
age group. Try to identify characteristics that represent this group.
This question will probably generate vigorous discussion, since there are always persons
who feel that the general description assigned to their age cohort does not fit them as an
5-13. Discuss the decisionmaking involved in choosing your college.
a. Interview two of your classmates and determine the influences upon them that led
to their decision to attend this school.
b. How did you and the people you interviewed go about making this decision? Is
there a general decision making outline that you can outline? Where are the
points of agreement, and where did you and your classmates differ in approaching
this decision?
c. Draw up a target audience profile for students attending your college. How does
this profile differ from another school in your same market area?
To answer these questions, students should probe their interviewees for information on
social influences such as social class, reference groups, family, and demographics. They
5-14. You are working on a new account, a bottled tea named “Leafs Alive,” that uses a
healthy antioxidant formulation. The sale of bottled tea, as well as healthy products, is
surging. Analyze your market using the following questions:
a. What consumer trends seem to be driving this product development?
b. What cultural, social, psychological, and behavioral factors influence this market?
c. Plot the consumer decision process that you think would best describe how people
choose a product in this category.
d. Choose one of the VALS or Yankelovich Monitor’s MindBase groups that you
think best describes the target market for this product. Explain your rationale.
Increased health consciousness and demand for healthy food products, such as
organics, are the primary consumer trends driving demand for this product. Students
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can draw from a range of cultural, social, psychological, and behavioral factors
outlined in the textbook to identify additional influencers. Regarding the consumer
decision process, students mayselect the traditional, linear based model or one of the
TAKE-HOME PROJECTS
5-15. Portfolio Project: Choose two VALS and two MindBase categories. Find one print
advertisement that appears to be targeted to people in each category. Explain why you
think the ad addresses that audience. Do you believe that the categories are mutually
exclusive? Can consumers (and ads directed to them) be classified in multiple categories?
Why or why not?
Student responses will vary.
5-16.Mini-Case Analysis: Review the chapter opening and closing story about Dove’s
‘Real Beauty’ campaign. How does this campaign reflect a cultural or social insight?
What psychological insight helps explain the thinking behind this campaign? From what
is presented in this mini-case, develop a profile of an individual member of this target
audience.
The provocative copy in the Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” campaign challenged
cultural norms and values regarding the definition of beauty. Its culturally relevant
message sought to redefine beauty by eliminating the obsession with stick-thin bodies and
TRACE North America Case
Multicultural Innovation
5-17. From the case study and your own personal experiences in college, what factors
do you believe most strongly influence Multicultural Millennialsin their decision
making?
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5-18. What campaigns targeted to African Americans, Chinese, and Hispanics are you
aware of, and do you believe they are successful? Why or why not?
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
WEB REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What are norms and values and how are they connected to culture? What
are some of core values held by consumers?
The boundaries each culture establishes for “proper” behavior are norms, which are
simply rules that we learn through social interaction that specify or prohibit certain
behaviors. The source of norms is our cultural values,which represent our underlying
A sense of belonging
Excitement
Fun and enjoyment
Thrift was recently the hallmark of the recession of the late 2000s when polls found
2. Distinguish between needs and wants, and provide a few examples of
each.
The basic driving forces that motivate us to do something that reflects basic survival,
such as choosing a motel (shelter) or restaurant (food) when traveling, are called
needs. They are what we feel for more essential items, such as food and shelter. A
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3. Explain how influences on B2B decision making can differ from B2C
decision making.
In B2B marketing, businesses buy goods and services for two reasons: (1) they need
ingredients for the products they manufacture, and (2) they need goods for their
business operations. While many of the influences that affect consumer buying also
are reflected in business-to-business marketing, we also know that B2B
decisionmaking tends to follow the information path. Emotion may be important in
certain situations, but ultimately these decisions are more rational than emotional for
the following reasons: 1) In organizational buying, many individuals are involved in
4. What are some of the various ways to segment consumers and target a
market?
There are various ways to segment consumers and target a market. One way is to
divide them by the type of market, either business-to-business (B2B) or
business-to-consumer (B2C). Another way to categorize consumers is as either 1)
5. What are the six key consumer characteristics marketers use to segment
their markets?
The six key characteristics are:
• Demographic segmentation, which divides the market using such characteristics
• Life-stage segmentation, which is based on the particular stage in a consumers’
life cycle, which includes such categories as children, young people living at
• Geographic segmentation, which uses location as a defining variable because
consumers’ needs sometimes vary depending upon where they live—urban, rural,
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• Psychographic segmentation, which is primarily based on studies of how people
spend their money, their patterns of work and leisure, their interest and opinions,
• Values and benefits-based segmentation, which groups people based on tangible
and intangible factors that reflect their underlying value system.Values
6. What questions do international marketers need to answer when
attempting to segment a market?
When segmenting a market, international markets need to answer these three
questions: 1) what countries are my target market?This is generally the easiest to
answer because it is driven by where the brand is distributed, 2) what is the level of
7. What is microtargeting and what makes it controversial?
Microtargeting refers to using vast computer databanks of personal information to
direct highly targeted messages to narrow slices of a segment. This datamining
This practice of using data banks that contain collections of personal information is
controversial. Another example of microtargeting based on location comes from
ASSIGNMENTS
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Individual Assignments
1. Locate an advertisement for a recent product or service that you purchased. Then
review the Chapter 5 list of core values that govern people’s attitudes. Which ones
does this advertisement bring out in you? Share your answers with the class.
2. Write a demographic profile of a family member. Base your report on some
combination of the following factors: age, population category, gender, family status,
race and ethnicity, education, occupation. What sort of consumer does this profile
reveal?
Think-Pair-Share
1. With classmates, discuss any online, Internet-based reference groups to which you
belong. How did your involvement start with them? How are they more powerful than
conventional, face-to-face reference groups? Share your websites with the entire class
and discuss.
2. On a poster board, draw a diagram of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. To the left side,
brainstorm and list relevant products at each need level. To the right side, list familiar
advertising slogans that match each need level. Discuss as a group.
OUTSIDE EXAMPLES
1. Go to effie.org to view Allstate Insurance Company’s two award-winning ad
campaigns targeting Hispanic consumers. For both the 2010 and 2012 campaign,
2. Review the “Psychological Influences” section of Chapter 5. Then, interview a
psychology professor on your campus to gather their thoughts on the role and power
Perception and state of mind
Needs and wants
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