LEARNING OBJECTIVES
In this chapter, we will address the following questions:
1. How do consumer characteristics influence buying behavior?
2. What major psychological processes influence consumer responses to the
marketing program?
3. How do consumers make purchasing decisions?
4. In what ways do consumers stray from a deliberative, rational decision process?
CHAPTER SUMMARY
1. Consumer behavior is influenced by three factors: cultural (culture, subculture,
and social class), social (reference groups, family, and social roles and statuses), and
personal (age, stage in the life cycle, occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle,
personality, and self-concept). Research into these factors can provide clues to reach and
serve consumers more effectively.
2. Four main psychological processes that affect consumer behavior are motivation,
perception, learning, and memory.
3. To understand how consumers actually make buying decisions, marketers must
identify who makes and has input into the buying decision; people can be initiators,
influencers, deciders, buyers, or users. Different marketing campaigns might be targeted
to each type of person.
4. The typical buying process consists of the following sequence of events: problem
recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and
postpurchase behavior. The marketers’ job is to understand the behavior at each stage.
5. Consumers will not necessarily go through the buying process in an orderly
fashion and make skip and reverse stages and alternative between going online and
offline.
6. The attitudes of others, unanticipated situational factors, and perceived risk may
all affect the decision to buy, as will consumers’ levels of postpurchase product
satisfaction, use and disposal, and the company’s actions.
7.Consumers are constructive decision makers and subject to many contextual
influences. They often exhibit low involvement in their decisions, using many heuristics as a
result.
OPENING THOUGHT
This chapter perhaps might be the most difficult of all for some to grasp as it delves into
psychological theories surrounding our understanding of our own minds. It can be, however,
an interesting one for class discussions as it opens up and fosters student participation (as
C H A P T E R
6ANALYZING CONSUMER
MARKETS
consumers). This is a good chapter for such discussions on how students buy, what they buy,
how they buy, and so forth.
Students new to marketing or new to psychology as a science need a full and comprehensive
review of the theories and ideas expressed in this chapter. The instructor is encouraged to
spend a great deal of class time with the four main psychological processes outlined in this
chapter: motivation, perception, learning, and memory. Repeated review of the key terms and
definitions presented in this chapter is necessary for complete student understanding and
knowledge of these concepts.
The second challenge found in this chapter is that of the consumer buying process. It has been
shown to be helpful to have the students talk about their buying processes for goods or
services that are of interest to them and to then outline these processes on the blackboard.
Having the students “talk through” how they buy and then relating these actions to the steps in
the consumer buying process seems to make these concepts easier for them to understand and
accept. The instructor is encouraged to spend a great deal of class time on the concepts of the
consumer buying process and the necessity of marketers to fully understand their consumers’
preferences and motivations as it forms the basis of all marketing strategies and concepts.
TEACHING STRATEGY AND CLASS ORGANIZATION
PROJECTS
1. At this point in the semester-long marketing project, students should present their
definitive data on the consumer for the product/service including all demographic and
other pertinent information obtained and ready for instructor’s approval.
2. A consumer products company “knows” its consumers—it has to in order to be
competitive and to market successfully. During the course of the semester, students should
choose a consumer product (one sold in supermarkets, mass-merchants, or in drugstores)
and contact the manufacturer regarding their definitions, characteristics, demographics,
etc. of their consumer. Students should identify themselves as students working on a
marketing research project and for this assignment, it may be necessary for the instructor
to write an introduction letter on official school letterhead. Students should be ready to
present their findings during the latter part of the semester.
3. Sonic PDA Marketing Plan: Every company has to study customer markets and behavior
prior to developing a marketing plan. Marketers need to understand who constitutes the
market, what and why they buy, who participates in and influences the buying process,
and how, when, and where they buy.
You are responsible for researching and analyzing the consumer market for Sonic’s PDA.
These are the questions Sonic needs to answer:
What cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors have the most influence on
consumers buying PDAs?
What research tools will help you better understand the effect of these factors on
buyer attitudes and behavior?
What consumer buying roles and buying behaviors are particularly relevant for PDA
products?
What kind of marketing activities should Sonic plan to coincide with each stage of the
consumer buying process?
Document your findings and conclusions in a written marketing plan or type them into the
Market Demographics and Target Markets sections of Marketing Plan Pro.
ASSIGNMENTS
tudents should be assigned to survey their local business environment (city, town, campus
area) and collect examples of how local area businesses are trying to capture cultural market
segments. For example, the students should collect information regarding the number of
cultural restaurants in the area and then compare these numbers to the total amount of eating
establishments and the percentage of the population that is of that ethnicity. How do the
numbers compare, contrast, and what marketing strategies do they hint at?
Consumers often choose and use brands that have a brand personality consistent with their
own actual self-concept, ideal self-concept, or others self-concept. Have the students review
their recent purchases of a car, computer, furniture, or clothing and ask them to comment on,
why they purchased this product, who influenced their purchase, and what does this purchase
say about their own self-concept ideas. What is their definition of the “brand personality” of
this recent purchase—as compared to the definitions stated in the chapter by Stanford’s
Jennifer Aaker?
Figure 6.1 defines the model of consumer behavior. In an examination of each of these
segments, ask the students to rank the importance of each of these characteristics in their
purchase behavior. For example, under the box entitled, Marketing Stimuli, some students will
rank price ahead of products and services as their primary stimulus.
Individually, ask each student to select a print advertisement and identify its behavioral,
cognitive, and affective parts and have them discuss how they feel reading the advertisement.
We all belong to some sort of reference group. Students that are members of fraternities,
sororities, and clubs are influenced by their members and through their participation. Students
should investigate (within their own reference group) who the opinion leaders are, how these
opinion leaders affect the overall dynamics of the group, and most importantly, how these
opinion leaders affect consumption decisions. Answers should be specific in their definitions
of how these opinion leaders influence specific consumption/purchase decisions and students
should share their observations with the class.
END-OF-CHAPTER SUPPORT
MARKETING DEBATE—Is Target Marketing Ever Bad?
As marketers increasingly develop marketing programs tailored to certain target market
segments, some critics have denounced these efforts as exploitative. For example, the
preponderance of billboards advertising cigarettes, alcohol, and other voices in low-income
urban areas is seen as taking advantage of a vulnerable market segment. Critics can be
especially harsh in evaluation of marketing programs that target African Americans and other
minority groups, claiming that they often employ clichéd stereotypes and inappropriate
depictions. Others counter with the point of view that targeting and positioning is critical to
marketing and that these marketing programs are an attempt to be relevant to a certain
consumer group.
Take a position: Targeting minorities is exploitative versus targeting minorities is a sound
business practice.
Suggested Responses:
Pro: When marketers use their advance knowledge of specific target markets, such as
minorities that preys upon the target market’s weaknesses and lack of information, then
marketing can be said to be exploiting the said target market for gains. Marketers should
always be aware that information is a powerful tool that has to be used responsibly and
prudently. Products and services that cater to minorities that cause adverse health effects or
pejorative social action(s) because of their usage need to be marketed in a socially responsible
way. Just because a marketer has information on the buying habits, social styles, motivation,
perception, and purchase criteria specific to a target market does not automatically permit the
marketer to use this information freely.
Con: Marketers do not create social systems nor does marketing create social ills. Marketers
cannot assume the responsibility for lack of personal choice, lack of information or know-
ledge, and lack of personal responsibility. It is the role of marketing to deliver to the target
market the goods and services they want and need. Marketing is “amoral” in its delivery of
information to target markets and the target markets must decide for themselves the use or
non-use of the products marketed. Using advanced research methods to uncover motivation,
purchase intent, post-purchase usage, and the like is sound business practice and the marketer
owes its stakeholders the responsibility to use this information that increases sales.
MARKETING DISCUSSION—What Are Your Mental Accounts?
What mental accounts do you have in your mind about purchasing products and services? Do
you have any rules you employ in spending money? Are they different from what other people
do? Do you follow Thaler’s four principles in reacting to gains and losses?
Suggested Response:
Each student’s answer will differ in these areas. It is important however, to get the students to
realize that each buyer goes through the buying process whether or not they are actually
cognizant of it.
Thaler’s four principles are to: segregate gains, integrate losses, integrate smaller losses with
larger gains, and segregate small gains from large losses.
DETAILED CHAPTER OUTLINE
Opening vignette: Marketers must have a thorough understanding of how consumers think,
feel, and act and offer clear value to each and every target consumer. Domino’s dealt with
negative consumer attitudes about its pizza by adding an award-winning ads and social media
campaign that informed consumers about its reformulated pizza and by incorporating
innovative ways to interact with/order from the restaurants. This chapter explores individual
consumers’ buying dynamics.
I. What Influences Consumer Behavior?
A. Consumer behavior is the study of how individuals, groups, and organizations
select, buy, use, and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy
their needs and wants
B. A consumer’s buying behavior is influenced by cultural, social, and personal
factors.
i. Of these, cultural factors exert the broadest and deepest influence
ii. Culture is the fundamental determinant of a person’s wants and behavior.
iii. Through family and other key institutions, a child growing up in the
United States is exposed to values such as achievement and success,
activity, efficiency and practicality, progress, material comfort,
individualism, freedom, external comfort, humanitarianism, and
youthfulness.
iv. Marketers must closely attend to cultural values in every country to
understand how to best market their existing products and find
opportunities for new products.
v. Each culture consists of smaller subcultures that provide more specific
identification and socialization for their members.
1. Subcultures include nationalities, religions, racial groups, and
geographic regions.
2. When subcultures grow large and affluent enough, companies
often design specialized marketing programs to serve them.
C. Virtually all human societies exhibit social stratification, most often in the form of
social classes, relatively homogeneous and enduring divisions in a society,
hierarchically ordered and with members who share similar values, interests, and
behavior.
i. One classic depiction of social classes in the United States defined seven
ascending levels: (1) lower lowers, (2) upper lowers, (3) working class, (4)
middle class, (5) upper middles, (6) lower uppers, and (7) upper uppers
ii. Social class members show distinct product and brand preferences in
many areas.
D. In addition to cultural factors, social factors such as reference groups, family, and
social roles and statuses affect our buying behavior.
i. A person’s reference groups are all the groups that have a direct
(face-to-face) or indirect influence on their attitudes or behavior.
1. Groups having a direct influence are called membership groups
2. Some of these are primary groups with whom the person interacts
fairly continuously and informally, such as family, friends,
neighbors, and coworkers.
3. People also belong to secondary groups, such as religious,
professional, and trade-union groups, which tend to be more
formal and require less continuous interaction.
4. Reference groups influence members in at least three ways.
a. They expose an individual to new behaviors and lifestyles
b. They influence attitudes and self-concept
c. They create pressures for conformity that may affect
product and brand choices.
5. People are also influenced by groups to which they do not belong
a. Aspirational groups are those a person hopes to join
b. Dissociative groups are those whose values or behavior an
individual rejects
6. Where reference group influence is strong, marketers must
determine how to reach and influence the group’s opinion leaders.
a. An opinion leader is the person who offers informal advice
or information about a specific product or product
category, such as which of several brands is best or how a
particular product may be used
b. Opinion leaders are often highly confident, socially active,
and frequent users of the category.
c. Marketers try to reach them by identifying their
demographic and psychographic characteristics,
identifying the media they read, and directing messages to
them.
ii. Communication researchers propose a social-structure view of
interpersonal communication
1. Society consists of cliques or small groups whose members
interact frequently
2. Clique members are similar, and their closeness facilitates
effective communication but also insulates the clique from new
ideas.
3. The challenge is to create more openness so cliques exchange
information with others in society.
4. This openness is helped along by people who connect two or more
cliques without belonging to either and by bridges, people who
belong to one clique and are linked to a person in another.
iii. Three factors that help ignite public interest in an idea
1. Three types of people work to ignite public interest in an idea
a. Mavens: people knowledgeable about big and small
things.
b. Connectors: people who know and communicate with a
great number of other people
c. Salesmen: possess natural persuasive power.
2. The second factor is “Stickiness.” An idea must be expressed so
that it motivates people to act.
3. The third factor, “The Power of Context,” controls whether those
spreading an idea are able to organize groups and communities
around it.
iv. Another perspective suggests marketers should cultivate “bees,”
hyperdevoted customers who are not satisfied just knowing about the next
trend but live to spread the word, not alphas, who may be socially isolated
v. Firms score customers online to estimate their buying power
1. EBureau amasses personal information and scores customers
based on likely return on investment
2. Influence measures include Klout Scores
vi. Shill marketing or stealth marketing entails anonymous promotion of a
product or service in public places without disclosing their financial
relationships to the sponsoring firm
E. Family is the most important consumer buying organization in society; family
members constitute the most influential primary reference group
i. Family of orientation consists of parents and sibling; affects consumption
choices
ii. Family of procreation is the person’s spouse and children
iii. Majority of husbands and wives engage in joint decision making for
expensive products and services
1. Women value connections and relationships with family and
friends and place a higher priority on people than on companies.
2. Men elate more to competition and place a high priority on action
iv. Amount of dollars spent by and the direct and indirect influence wielded
by children and teens has increased.
1. Direct influence describes children’s hints, requests, and demands
2. Indirect influence means parents know the brands, product
choices, and preferences of their children without hints or outright
requests
3. By the time children are about 2 years old, they can often
recognize characters, logos, and specific brands.
4. They can distinguish between advertising and programming by
about ages 6 or 7.
5. A year or so later, they can understand the concept of persuasive
intent on the part of advertisers.
6. By 9 or 10, they can perceive the discrepancies between message
and product.
F. Roles and status in groups are an important source of information and help to
define norms for behavior.
i. A role consists of the activities a person is expected to perform.
ii. People choose products that reflect and communicate their role and their
actual or desired status in society.
iii. Marketers must be aware of the status-symbol potential of products and
brands.
G. Personal characteristics that influence a buyer’s decision include age and stage in
the life cycle, occupation and economic circumstances, personality and
self-concept, and lifestyle and values.
i. Brand personalities attract users that are high in the same traits
ii. Dominant personality traits vary by geographic region
iii. Consumers choose and use brand personalities consistent with their
1. Actual self-concept
2. Ideal self-concept
3. Others’ self concept
iv. Effects may be more pronounced for publicly consumed products than for
privately consumed goods and for high self-monitors
v. Multiple aspects of self (serious professional, caring family member,
active fun-lover) may often be evoked differently in different situations or
around different types of people.
H. Lifestyle and Values: people from the same subculture, social class, and
occupation may adopt quite different lifestyles
i. A lifestyle is a person’s pattern of living in the world as expressed in
activities, interests, and opinions.
ii. Marketers search for relationships between their products and lifestyle
groups.
iii. Lifestyles are shaped partly by whether consumers are money constrained
or time constrained.
iv. Consumers who experience time famine are prone to multitasking, doing
two or more things at the same time, and pay others to perform tasks
because time is more important to them than money.
I. Consumer decisions are also influenced by core values, the belief systems that
underlie attitudes and behaviors.
i. Core values go much deeper than behavior or attitude and at a basic level
guide people’s choices and desires over the long term.
ii. Marketers who target consumers on the basis of their values believe that
with appeals to people’s inner selves, it is possible to influence their outer
selves—their purchase behavior
II. Key Psychological Processes
A. The starting point for understanding consumer behavior is the stimulus-response
model
i. Marketing and environmental stimuli enter the consumer’s consciousness,
and a set of psychological processes combine with certain consumer
characteristics to result in decision processes and purchase decisions.
ii. The marketer’s task is to understand what happens in the consumer’s
consciousness between the arrival of the outside marketing stimuli and the
ultimate purchase decisions.
iii. Four key psychological processes—motivation, perception, learning, and
memory—fundamentally influence consumer responses.
B. Motivation
i. Biogenic needs arise from physiological states of tension such as hunger,
thirst, or discomfort.
ii. Psychogenic needs arise from psychological states of tension such as the
need for recognition, esteem, or belonging.
iii. A need becomes a motive when it is aroused to a sufficient level of
intensity to drive us to act.
iv. Motivation has both direction—we select one goal over another—and
intensity—we pursue the goal with more or less vigor.
v. Freud’s Theory: psychological forces shaping people’s behavior are
largely unconscious and that a person cannot fully understand his or her
own motivations.
1. Laddering lets us trace a person’s motivations from the stated
instrumental ones to the more terminal ones.
2. Motivation researchers often collect in-depth interviews with a few
dozen consumers to uncover deeper motives triggered by a
product.
vi. Ernest Dichter pioneered various projective techniques such as word
association, sentence completion, picture interpretation, and role playing
vii. Cultural anthropologist Clotaire Rapaille, works on breaking the “code”
behind product behavior—the unconscious meaning people give to a
particular market offering.
viii. Abraham Maslow sought to explain why people are driven by particular
needs at particular times.
1. Human needs are arranged in a hierarchy from most to least
pressing—from physiological needs to safety needs, social needs,
esteem needs, and self-actualization needs
2. People will try to satisfy their most important need first and then
move to the next.
ix. Frederick Herzberg developed a two-factor theory that distinguishes
dissatisfiers (factors that cause dissatisfaction) from satisfiers (factors that
cause satisfaction)
1. The absence of dissatisfiers is not enough to motivate a purchase;
satisfiers must be present.
2. The presence of a product warranty does not act as a satisfier or
motivator of a purchase because it is not a source of intrinsic
satisfaction.
3. Sellers should do their best to avoid dissatisfiers because they
might unsell a product.
4. Sellers should identify the major satisfiers or motivators of
purchase in the market and then supply them.