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Chapter 10: BUYING, USING AND DISPOSING
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
When students have finished reading this chapter, they should understand why:
1. Many factors at the time of purchase dramatically influence the consumer’s
decision-making process.
2. The information a store’s layout, Web site, or salespeople provides strongly influences a
purchase decision
3. The growth of a “sharing economy” changes how many consumers think about buying
rather than renting products.
4. Our decisions about how to dispose of a product are as important as how we decide to
obtain it in the first place.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Many factors at the time of purchase dramatically influence the consumer’s decision-making
process.
Many factors affect a purchase. These include the consumer’s antecedent state (e.g., his or her
mood, time pressure, or disposition toward shopping). Time is an important resource that often
determines how much effort and search will go into a decision. Our moods are influenced by the
degree of pleasure and arousal a store environment creates.
The shopping experience is a pivotal part of the purchase decision. In many cases, retailing is
like theatre—the consumer’s evaluation of stores and products may depend on the type of
“performance” he witnesses. The actors (e.g., salespeople), the setting (the store environment),
and props (e.g., store displays) influence this evaluation. Like a brand personality, a number of
factors, such as perceived convenience, sophistication, and expertise of salespeople, determine
store image. With increasing competition from non-store alternatives, creating a positive
shopping experience has never been more important. Online shopping is growing in importance,
and this new way to acquire products has both good (e.g., convenience) and bad (e.g., security)
aspects.
The information a store’s layout, web site, or sales people provides strongly influences a
purchase decision.
Because we don’t make many purchase decisions until we’re actually in the store,
Point-of-purchase (POP) stimuli are important sales tools. These include product
samples, elaborate package displays, place-based media, and in-store promotional
materials such as “shelf talkers.” POP stimuli are particularly useful in promoting
impulse buying, which happens when a consumer yields to a sudden urge for a product.
Increasingly, mobile shopping apps are also playing a key role.
The growth of a “sharing economy” changes how many consumers think about buying rather
than renting products.
In a sharing economy people rent what they need rather buying it. Websites allow individuals to
list services and rating systems that allow buyers and sellers to rate their experiences,
Our decisions about how we dispose of a product are as important as how we decide to obtain it
in the first place.
Product disposal is an increasingly important problem. Recycling is one option that will become
more crucial as consumers’ environmental awareness grows. Lateral cycling occurs when we
buy, sell, or barter secondhand objects.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Situational Effects on Consumer Behavior
A. A consumer’s choices are affected by many personal factors, such as his or her mood,
whether there is time pressure to make the purchase, and the particular situation or context
for which the product is needed. Figure 10.1 illustrates these relationships.
*****Use Figure 10.1 Here *****
B. A consumption situation is defined by factors over and above the characteristics of the
person and of the product that influence the buying and/or using of products and services.
1. The day reconstruction method can be used to understand mood changes and
consumption situations throughout the day.
2. Situational effects can be behavioral (e.g., entertaining friends) and perceptual (e.g.,
being depressed or feeling pressed for time).
3. A person’s situational self-image, the role she plays at any one time, can also affect
the purchase process.
4. Table 10.1 gives one example of how a marketer fine-tunes its segmentation strategy
to the usage situation.
*****Use Table 10.1 Here *****
Discussion Opportunity—Ask the class to think of situations where situational self-image would
be very important to consider in formulating strategy.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: What are some products that are tied to your self-image? Explain.
C. A consumer’s physical and social environment can make a big difference in motives for
product usage and affect how the product is evaluated.
1. Examples of the physical environment would include the decor, smells, and even
temperature within the selling environment (such as a store).
2. If other consumers are present when sales are made, they are called co-consumers.
The presence or absence of other customers can be positive or negative.
3. The presence of a large number of people in a consumer environment increases
physiological arousal levels, which are subject to the consumer’s interpretation.
4. Store density refers to the actual number of people who occupy a space while the
psychological state of crowding exists only if a negative affective state occurs
because of this density. Crowds can make the experience more intense.
5. The type of consumers who patronize a store can affect our evaluations (e.g., people
tend to shop where other shoppers are like them).
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to think of a local “hot spot.” Describe its
characteristics. If you were going to design a similar “hot spot,” what additional features would
you add? Why?
D. Temporal Factors: Time is one of the consumers’ most precious resources. The time
available before a decision must be made affects the choices we make.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: What is your view toward time when shopping? How could time
affect your shopping behavior?
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to compare “time” when considering shopping on the
Internet versus traditional shopping in a store. Consider the advantages and disadvantages.
1. Open rates (the percentage of people who open an email message from a marketer)
vary throughout the day, with the peak at mid-day on weekdays.
2. Time is an economic variable. It is a resource divided among activities.
3. An individual’s priorities determine his or her time style, which is the rate at which
we choose to spend the time resource.
4. Many consumers are affected by what they would call time poverty, or the
perception that they are pressed for time.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to think of ways marketers attempt to appeal to
consumers that have a sense of time poverty. Give a product illustration.
Discussion Opportunity—Give an illustration of a polychronic activity that you perform. What
can a marketer learn from this activity to better present products or services to you?
5. Psychological time refers to the subjectiveness of time perceptions.
6. Researchers have identified four dimensions of time: 1) social dimension, 2)
temporal situation, 3) planning orientation, and 4) polychronic orientation
dimension that have resulted in the identification of five metaphors that capture
consumers’ perspectives on time:
a. Time is a Pressure Cooker—Analytic in planning, other oriented, monochronic.
b. Time is a Map—Analytic planners, temporal orientation, polychromic.
c. Time is a Mirror—Analytic planners, polychromic orientation, past temporal
orientation.
d. Time is a River—Spontaneous with a present focus.
e. Time is a Feast—Analytic planners with a present temporal orientation.
7. Different societies have different perspectives on time. These include:
a. Linear separable time—Events proceed in an orderly sequence and different
times are well defined.
b. Procedural time—People simply decide to do something when they want to.
Clocks may be ignored.
c. Circular or cyclic time—People are governed by natural cycles.
8. There is a psychological dimension of time or how it is experienced. This is
important in queuing theory (a mathematical study of waiting lines). It has been
found that a consumer’s experience of waiting can radically influence his or her
perceptions of service quality.
*****Use Figure 10.2 Here *****
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to think of a positive and negative experience that they
have had with a waiting line. Relate how the marketers handled these situations.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Do “waiting lines” exist on the Internet? When do you have to
wait? Is it irritating? How can it be overcome?
II. The Shopping Experience
A. Emotional States and the Shopping Environment
1. Your mood or physiological condition can affect purchases and how products are
evaluated.
2. Two dimensions (shown in Figure 10.3), pleasure (enjoyment) and arousal
(stimulation), determine if a shopper will react positively or negatively to a
consumption environment.
3. A specific mood is some combination of pleasure and arousal.
4. In general, a mood state (either positive or negative) biases judgments of products and
services in that direction.
5. Moods can be affected by store design, the weather, or other factors specific to the
consumer (such as music or even television programming).
6. When a consumer is in a good mood, s/he processes ads with less elaboration/pays
less attention to the specifics of the message and relies more on heuristics.
7. Research companies study facial reactions to understand emotional reactions to new
products, looking for a true smile (which includes a relaxation of the upper eyelid)
and not a social smile (which occurs around the mouth).
*****Use Figure 10.3 Here *****
B. When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Go Shopping
1. Shopping is an activity that can be performed for either utilitarian (functional or
tangible) or hedonic (pleasurable or intangible) reasons.
2. Consumers can be segmented based on their shopping orientations, or general
attitudes about shopping.
3. Hedonic shopping motives include:
a. Social experiences
b. Sharing of common interests
c. Interpersonal attraction
d. Instant status
e. The thrill of the hunt
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Can you think of other reasons for shopping? How could the
marketer use these (and the ones listed in the chapter) to design strategies to attract you into the
store?
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Are the reasons for shopping on the Internet the same as those for
shopping in a store or mall? Compare and contrast the differences. How do Internet marketers
appeal to your shopping motives on the Internet? Do they consciously try to lure you away from
the traditional shopping format? If so, how?
C. E-Commerce: Clicks versus Bricks
1. The experience of acquiring goods online may be different from offline.
2. E-commerce sites take advantage of technology to provide extra value.
a. Sites allow customers to try on and customize offerings.
b. Sites allow customer to crowdsource offerings.
c. Pretailers provide exclusive styles that would not be produced without public
interest.
3. Online shoppers tend to value these aspects of a website:
a. The ability to click on an item to create a pop-up window with more details about
the product including price, size, colors, and inventory availability.
b. The ability to click on an item and add it to your cart without leaving the page you
on.
c. The ability to feel merchandise through better imagery, more product descriptions,
and details.
d. The ability to enter all data related to your purchase on one page rather than going
through several checkout pages.
e. The ability to mix and match product images on one page to determine whether
they will look good together.
Discussion Opportunity—Compare the pros and cons mentioned in Table 9.2. Ask: Which do you
think are the most important? Which of the cons are the easiest to overcome? What could you
add to the list? If you have not shopped online, why not? How could a marketer get you to shop
online? If you have shopped, what do you like the best? What could be improved in your
shopping experience?
D. Retailing as Theater
1. Malls are becoming giant entertainment centers to lure customers back to malls as
non-store alternatives multiply.
2. Many stores are designed around an image environment. This is a strategy known as
retail theming and can be described based upon four basic kinds of themes:
a. Landscape themes—rely on associations with images of nature.
b. Marketscape themes—built on associations with man-made places.
c. Cyberspace themes—incorporate images of information and communications
technology.
d. Mindscape themes—draw on abstract ideas and concepts, introspection, and
fantasy.
3. Cutting-edge retailers are figuring out that they need to convert a store into a being
space that resembles a commercial living room where consumers can relax, be
entertained, hang out with friends, etc.
4. Some being spaces cater to minipreneurs (one-person businesses).
5. Another type of retail environment is the pop-up store that open to do business for a
few days or weeks and then are dismantled.
*****Use Consumer Behavior Challenges Here *****
Discuss #11 and #13
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Is there a mall or store that you like to go to even if you do not
want to buy something? What is the attraction?
E. Store image includes location; merchandise suitability, and knowledge and congeniality
of the sales staff.
*****Use Consumer Behavior Challenge Here *****
Discuss #4
Discussion Opportunity—Describe a store that you think has a unique personality or image.
How do you think the store maintains that image? Do you think this image was part of their
original strategy?
1. Atmospherics are the “conscious designing of space and its various dimensions to
evoke certain effects in buyers.”
a. This could include colors, scents, and sounds and important to the store’s image.
b. Consumers who enjoy their experiences spend more time and money in a store.
2. Activity stores are a new trend. They allow the consumer to participate in the
production of a good or service.
3. Light and music also affect consumer behavior.
***** Use Figure 10.4 Here; Use Consumer Behavior Challenges Here *****
Discuss #10
Apply #2
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to describe the atmospherics of (a) McDonald’s, (b)
Wal-Mart, (c) a prestigious department store in your area, and (d) a bar or nightclub in your
area. Do you think the atmosphere in these places accomplishes what the management intended?
F. In-Store Decision Making
1. Marketers increasingly recognize the significant degree to which many purchases are
influenced by the store environment.
a. Consumers have mental budgets for grocery trips that have an itemized portion
and in-store slack that is reserved for unplanned purchases.
b. Stores should use samples and reminders at the point of sale to encourage
consumers to spend all of their mental budgets.
2. Mobile shopping apps can help consumers locate merchandise and can help
employees provide product information.
3. Spontaneous shopping occurs when a shopper suddenly decides to buy something and
it can occur under one of two different processes:
a. Unplanned buying may occur when a person is unfamiliar with a store’s layout
or perhaps when under some time pressure.
b. Impulse buying, in contrast, occurs when the person experiences a sudden urge
that he or she cannot resist.
i. Impulse items include candy and gum.
ii. Retailers use wide aisles to encourage browsing of high margin items.
iii. Credit card usage is associated with unhealthy and impulsive food products.
*****Use Figure 10.4 Here *****
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: When it comes to shopping, would you describe yourself as a
planner, partial planner, or an impulse purchaser? Give an illustration.
4. Point-of-purchase (POP) stimuli are being increasingly used to instigate impulse
shopping. This can range from displays to free samples.
Discussion Opportunity—Have students list some interesting or unique POP materials that you
have seen. Do you think that it is ethical to put marketing materials in public places such as
restrooms or waiting rooms?
G. The Salesperson: A Lead Role in the Play
1. The effect of a competent salesperson, which adds value via expert advice that makes
the shopper’s choice easier, can be understood in terms of exchange theory that
stresses that every interaction involves an exchange of value.
2. A buyer/seller situation is as in many other dyadic encounters (two-person groups); it
is a relationship where some agreement must be reached about the roles of each
participant during the process of identity negotiation.
a. A salesperson’s role and effectiveness is affected by age, appearance, education
level, motivation to sell, ability to adapt, and similarity to the customer, including
incidental similarity such as a shared birthday or common birthplace.
b. People differ in their interaction styles from assertive (and aggressive) to
nonassertive.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: What stores do you like to go to because you like the salespeople?
What do you like about them? What are some of the stores you hate to shop at because of the
salespeople? How do they make you feel? What specifically do you not like about them? What
would you do to correct the situation if you were the management of the store?
III. Ownership and the Sharing Economy
A. Sharing economy or what is sometimes called collaborative consumption. In this
business model people rent what the need is rather than buy it. Collaborative
consumption communities typically offer a web site that allow individuals to list their
services and rating system that allow both buyers and sellers to rate their experiences.
Technology has dramatically lowered transaction costs, so that it’s much easier to share
assets and track them across large numbers of people.
IV.. Post-purchase Satisfaction and Disposal
A. Consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction (CS/D) describes the overall feelings a person
has about a product after it has been purchased.
B. Postpurchase Satisfaction?
1. Consumers want quality and value. We infer quality when we rely on cues such as
brand name, price, product warranties, and so on.
2. According to the expectancy disconfirmation model, consumers form beliefs about
a product’s performance based on prior experience with the product or
communications about the product that imply a certain level of quality.
3. Managing expectations—To avoid customer dissatisfaction, marketers should avoid
promising something they cannot deliver. The power of quality claims is most evident
when a company’s product fails.
4. Consumers that expect too much may be fired if it is not feasible to meet his/her
needs or underpromising or setting expectations low so they may be exceeded can
alter expectations.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: What do you usually do when you are dissatisfied with a product
or service? Have you ever made a legal or public complaint? If so, describe the event and the
outcome.
IV. Product Disposal
A. Because people often do form strong attachments to products, the decision to dispose of
something may be a painful one.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to describe a painful disposal situation that you have
encountered. What was the result? Would you do it differently if you had it to do over again? (An
example might be the selling of an old car that was a favorite or throwing away something that
would now be valuable, such as old baseball cards.)
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: How can marketers use the consumer’s reluctance to part with
favorite products in their marketing strategy? Apply this to a situation where you would like the
consumer to part with an old product and buy a new one.
B. Disposal Options
1. Abandoned products include as much as 12% of grocery products we buy which do
not get used.
2. Some adults are pack rats.
3. The perceived effort associated with recycling is the best predictor of whether people
will recycle (not attitudes).
4. Lateral cycling is a disposal option in which one consumer exchanges something she
owns with someone else.
a. This is part of an underground economy.
b. Sharing sites allow people to share rent and exchange goods locally.
c. The process of lateral cycling is literally a lifestyle for anti-consumerists who call
themselves freegans.
d. Free meets are flea markets where no one exchanges money.
5. People who are attached to their stuff may hire a professional organizer to help them
declutter and simplify their lives.
6. Some researchers examined how consumers practice divestment rituals, where they
take steps to gradually distance themselves from things they treasure so that they can
sell them or give them away. The rituals included:
a. Iconic transfer ritual (taking pictures and videos before disposal)
b. Transition-place ritual (putting items away in a garage before disposal)
c. Ritual cleansing (washing, ironing, and wrapping the item before disposal)
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to think of an example where you have lateral cycled
something. Describe the experience. Think of something where you have purchased something
that has been lateral cycled. What did you feel about the experience? How did you deal with
doubts? How should the marketer try to persuade you to buy new rather than used? Where do
you think new industries in lateral cycling will occur in the future?
Discussion Opportunity—Have students share and discuss experiences they have had
buying/selling items on eBay or other online auction sites. How do they think such sites have had
an impact on the underground economy?
End-of-Chapter Support Material
SUMMARY OF SPECIAL FEATURE BOXES
1. Net Profit
Virtual currency has increased in use, leading to digital wallets, which are electronic devises that
individuals to make e-commerce transactions.
2. Marketing Opportunity
Stores are being converted to being spaces, places that act as social living rooms. These places,
such as coffee shops, offer comfy chairs and sofas, Wi-Fi, and work spaces.
3. CB As I See It: Julie Baker, Texas A&M University
Consumers depend heavily on visual cues in the physical environment when making purchase
decision. Features such as windows, doorways, lighting, and architectural style are visual cues
that shape perceptions of and feeling about a store.
4. Net Profit
Because of frustration and hassles associated with brick-and-mortar stores, the use of shopping
apps has increased. Those who use a handheld mobile computer reported an improved shopping
experience.
5. CB As I See It: Jean-Charles Chebat, HEC-Montreal, Canada and Technion, Israel
Store atmosphere affects emotion, basically arousal and pleasure, that affect shopper’s cognitive
activity and behavior, mostly how much time and money shippers spend in stores. Shopper
behavior also changes based on who they shop with.
6. The Tangled Web
The site customerssuck.com allows those who work in the retail and food industries to vent about
customers and their questions, and attitudes.
