CHAPTER 5
Understanding Buyer Behavior and the
Communication Process
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KEY TERMS
consumer behavior
need state
functional benefits
emotional benefits
internal search
consideration set
external search
evaluative criteria
customer satisfaction
cognitive dissonance
involvement
extended problem
solving
limited problem solving
habit
variety seeking
brand loyalty
attitude
brand attitudes
beliefs
salient beliefs
multi-attribute attitude
models (MAAMs)
cognitive consistency
advertising clutter
selective attention
cognitive responses
elaboration likelihood
model (ELM)
peripheral cues
meaning
culture
values
rituals
stratification (social
class)
taste
intergenerational effect
life stage
celebrity
gender
community
brand community
Chapter 5: Understanding Buyer Behavior and the Communication Process ❖ 2
© 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a
publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
SUMMARY
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LO1 Describe the four stages of consumer decision making.
Marketers need a keen understanding of their consumers as a basis for effective brand
communication. This understanding begins with a view of consumers as systematic
decision makers who follow a predictable process in making choices among products and
LO2 Explain how consumers adapt their decision-making processes based on
involvement and experience.
Some purchases are more important to people than others, a fact that adds complexity to
consumer behavior. To accommodate this complexity, marketers think about the level of
LO3 Discuss how brand communication influences consumers’ psychological
states and behavior.
Brand messages are developed to influence the way people think about products and
brands, specifically their beliefs and brand attitudes. Marketers use multi-attribute
attitude models to help them ascertain the beliefs and attitudes of target consumers.
LO4 Describe the interaction of culture and advertising.
Advertisements are cultural products, and culture provides the context in which an ad will
be interpreted. Marketers who overlook the influence of culture are bound to struggle in
their attempt to communicate with the target audience. Culture is based on values, which
LO5 Explain how sociological factors affect consumer behavior.
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race are important influences on consumption. Who consumers are—their identity—is
LO6 Discuss how advertising transmits sociocultural meaning in order to sell
things.
Advertising transfers a desired meaning to the brand by placing the brand within a
carefully constructed social world represented in an ad, or “slice of life.” Marketers paint
CHAPTER OUTLINE
INTRODUCTORY SCENARIO: Ay Caramba!
The introductory scenario delivers a contemporary and interesting demonstration of the
changes the advertising and promotion industry is experiencing as highlighted in
Chapters 1, 2 and the end of Chapter 3. It is worth pointing out to students that this is
what those chapters were describing: more varied communications tools, branded
entertainment, more consumer involvement in the message.
• 7-Eleven Corp. teamed up with the television show characters (branded
entertainment) to draw attention to the release of The Simpson Movie.
• 7-Eleven stores were turned into Kwik-E-Marts from the The Simpsons
television show.
• The whole process was described as “as pop culture commenting on pop
culture commenting on itself.”
The main point is that brand promotion is deeply embedded in consumers’ lives and
consumer culture.
This chapter is one of the most important for students of integrated marketing
communication (IMC). Issues in consumer behavior provide an essential framework for
the conception and execution of effective brand promotion. It may take some general
discussion of the broad context of consumer behavior to have students truly understand
the importance of this chapter’s content. And, it is worth alerting students to the
enormous amount of information in this chapter—we did our best to keep it as direct and
to the point as possible.
Consumer behavior is defined as the entire broad spectrum of things that affect, derive
from, or form the context of human consumption. Like all human behavior, the behavior
of consumers is complicated. However, marketers must make it their job to understand
consumers if they are to have sustained success in creating effective advertising.
This chapter provides a summary of the concepts and frameworks we believe are most
helpful to understanding consumer behavior. We will describe consumer behavior from
two different, major perspectives:
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known as internal search. The internal search can create a
consideration set—a set of brands the consumer will consider for
purchase.
• It is possible that internal search will not turn up enough information
to yield a decision. An external search involves visiting retail stores
to examine the alternatives, seeking input from friends and relatives
about their experiences with the products in question, or perusing
professional product evaluations furnished in publications like
Consumer Reports. When consumers are in an active information-
gathering mode, they also may be receptive to detailed, informative
advertisements delivered through print media.
b. Consumers will then form evaluations based on the characteristics or
attributes shared by brands in their consideration set. These evaluative
criteria will differ from one product category to the next and can
include many factors, such as price, texture, warranty terms, color,
scent, or fat content.
3. Purchase. At this point, the consumer makes a commitment to a brand and a
4. Postpurchase Use and Evaluation. The goal for marketers must not be
simply to generate a sale; the goal must be to create satisfied and perhaps even
loyal customers.
• Brand promotion can play an important role in inducing customer
satisfaction by creating appropriate expectations for a brand’s
performance, or by helping the consumer who has already bought the
promoted brand to feel good about doing so.
• Cognitive dissonance is the anxiety or regret that lingers after a difficult
decision. Cognitive dissonance is most common when there are several
close alternatives, the item is higher priced, and the product or service
warrants a long-term commitment. Examples are automobiles, life
insurance, and computers. When dissonance is expected, it makes good
sense for the marketer to reassure buyers with detailed information about
its brands.
II. Modes of Decision Making
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Consumers aren’t always deliberate and systematic as a decision-making sequence
like the four-step process would suggest. The search time that people put into their
purchases can vary dramatically for different types of products. The text elaborates on
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four decision-making modes that help marketers appreciate the complexity of
consumer behavior.
These four modes of consumer decision making are determined by a consumer’s
Involvement is the degree of perceived relevance and personal importance
accompanying the choice of a certain product or service. Many factors contribute to
• Interests and avocations, like cooking, photography, pet ownership, or
exercise and fitness, can enhance involvement.
• When risk is associated with a purchase—high price of the item or
because the consumer will have to live with the decision for a long
time—elevated involvement is likely.
• Consumers can derive important symbolic meaning from products and
brands.
• Some purchases can also tap into deep emotional concerns or motives,
like friendship or patriotism.
• Involvement varies between product categories and between
individuals.
Experiences with product categories and brands is self-explanatory: the more
experience, the more astute the consumer, and typically lower involvement.
Modes of Consumer Decision Making
The levels of involvement and experience produce four different types of consumer
decision making, shown in text Exhibit 5.2.
A. Extended Problem Solving
• When consumers are inexperienced and the setting is highly involving,
they engage in extended problem solving. Consumers go through a
deliberate decision-making process that begins with explicit need
recognition, proceeds with careful internal and external search, continues
through alternative evaluation and purchase, and ends with a lengthy post–
purchase evaluation.
B. Limited Problem Solving
• Experience and involvement are both low in limited problem solving.
This is a common mode of decision making. A consumer will be less
systematic. The problem isn’t interesting or engaging, so information
search is limited simply to trying the first brand encountered. Examples
are low-cost products with some utilitarian value, like disposable diapers.
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C. Habit or Variety Seeking
• Habit refers to buying a single brand repeatedly. This occurs where a
decision is not involving and a consumer repurchases from the category
over and over again. Convenience goods of all sorts represent this
decision-making context. Variety seeking refers to the tendency of
consumers to switch among various brands in a category in a seemingly
random pattern. This is not to say that a consumer will buy just any brand;
he or she probably has two to five brands that provide similar levels of
satisfaction. However, from one purchase occasion to the next, the
individual will switch brands within this set, for the sake of variety.
D. Brand Loyalty
• This mode is typified by high involvement and rich experience.
Consumers demonstrate brand loyalty when they repeatedly purchase a
single brand. It is important to distinguish brand loyalty from simple habit.
Brand loyalty is based on highly favorable attitudes toward a brand and a
conscious commitment to find this brand each time. Conversely, habits are
merely consumption simplifiers that are not based on deeply held
convictions.
III. Key Psychological Processes
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To complete our consideration of the consumer as a thoughtful decision maker, one
key issue remains. We need to examine the explicit psychological consequences of
brand promotion. What do promotional messages leave in the minds of consumers
that ultimately may influence their behavior?
Two ideas borrowed from social psychology are usually the center of attention when
discussing the psychological aspects of advertising.
with the object or issue in question, can be held with great conviction. Brand
attitudes are summary evaluations that reflect preferences for various
products and brands.
The relationship between attitudes, beliefs, and the effect of brand promotion can be
understood by addressing the three following topics.
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A. Multi-Attribute Attitude Models (MAAMs)
Multi-attribute attitude models (MAAMs) provide a framework and set of
procedures for collecting information from consumers to assess their salient
beliefs and attitudes about competitive brands. MAAMs analysis has four
fundamental components:
• Consideration set is that group of brands that represents the real focal
point for the consumer’s decision. For example, the potential buyer of a
B. Information Processing and Perceptual Defense
For a message to have its intended effect, marketers must overcome two major
obstacles.
• Cognitive consistency impetus: A person develops and holds beliefs and
attitudes to help make efficient decisions that yield pleasing outcomes.
When a consumer is satisfied with these outcomes, there is really no
• Advertising clutter: Clutter derives from the context—many ads of all
sorts competing for attention. Even if a person wanted to, it would be
impossible to process and integrate every advertising message.
• Consumers employ perceptual defenses to simplify and control their own
ad processing. Selective attention means that consumers ignore most
brand messages because the brand and the message are not seen as
C. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
The basic premise of ELM is that to understand how persuasive communications
may affect a person’s attitudes, we must consider his or her motivation and ability
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• When involvement is high, the central route is taken; when it is low, the
• For low-involvement products, like batteries or tortilla chips, cognitive
responses to advertising claims are not expected. In such situations,
D. Limits of Decision-Making Models. The consumer as decision maker tells only
part of the story: this approach often takes consumer behavior out of its natural
E. Consumers as Social Beings
A second perspective on consumer behavior is concerned with social and cultural
processes. It draws on anthropology, sociology, and communications. The
industry and academics have added qualitative fieldwork, interpretive and textual
approaches in their effort to better understand consumer behavior. These
This second perspective is broken into two parts:
1. The sociocultural environment—consuming in the real world, within which
IV. Consuming in the Real World
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A. Culture
Culture is “the total life ways of a people, the social legacy the individual
acquires from his/her group.” It is the way we eat, groom ourselves, celebrate, and
A very important point for students is that cultures are not necessarily
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suggesting in their brand messages who should take charge of a given
consumption task.
• One of the best predictors of the brands adults use is the ones their parents
used. This is called an intergenerational effect.
• Advertisers focus on the major gross differences in families as this
impacts consumption. Family roles change when both parents are
employed or when children leave home to go to college. In addition, today
the concept of family is very open: there are many single-parent
households, second marriages, and gay and lesbian households.
• Life stage. Advertisers are often interested in things like the age of the
youngest child, the size of the family, and the family income. For
example, the age of the youngest child living at home tells an advertiser
where the family is in terms of needs and obligations (that is, toys,
investment instruments for college savings, clothing, and vacations).
• Celebrity is a unique sociological concept applied to consumer behavior
and can help link identities to brands. Identities have become a fashion
accessory, and consumers are very good at displaying multiple identities
throughout the day. Celebrity means a great deal to marketers, as
celebrities and brands can be used by consumers to display identities.
C. Race and Ethnicity
The question of how race figures into consumer behavior is difficult. We
experience discomfort from the desire to say, “Race doesn’t matter; we’re all the
same,” yet not wanting (or not being able) to deny the significance of race in
reaching ethnic subcultures with brand messages that have ethnic significance and
relevance. Still, race does inform one’s social identity to varying degrees. One is
not blind to one’s own ethnicity. African-Americans, Latinos, and other ethnic
groups have culturally related consumption preferences that can be communicated
about in brand promotion.
D. Geopolitics
This broad influence plays itself out in factors such as increased globalization of
brands and greater world-wide acceptance of consumer culture. In addition, global
movements, like country labor practices and politics, can create preferences for
“green brands.”
E. Gender
Gender is the social expression of sexual biology, sexual choice, or both. There
is, however, no definitive list of gender differences in consumption, because the
expression of gender, just like anything else social, depends on the situation and
the social circumstances.
• In the 1920s, advertisers openly referred to women as less logical, more
emotional, and the cultural stewards of beauty—all untouchable in
advertising in today’s context.
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• Marketers must be aware of gender and be careful not to use gender to
patronize, insult, or ignore. One market where this holds true is the gay
and lesbian market. These consumers have large disposable incomes and
have been ignored by marketers until recently. Understanding the nuances
of different cultures is a business imperative.
F. Community
Community is defined as a “wide-ranging relationship of solidarity over a rather
undefined area of life and interests.” It extends well beyond the idea of a
geographic place. Advertisers are becoming increasingly aware of its power. It is
important in at least two major ways.
• Community is where consumption is grounded. Brands have social
meanings, and community is the quintessential social domain, so
consumption is inseparable from the notion of where we live.
Communities may be the fundamental reference group.
• Brand communities are groups of consumers who feel a commonality
and a shared purpose grounded or attached to a consumer good or service.
Owners of Doc Martens shoes or Saturn cars experience a sense of
connectedness by virtue of their common ownership.
V. Advertising, Social Rift, and “Revolution”
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Advertisers see opportunity to provide the “costumes” and consumable accessories
that “revolutions” require—particularly within youth markets. Certain “looks” offer
consumers the chance to signal they are part of a political-social group.
VI. How Ads Transmit Meaning
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• Advertising can be thought of as “text” that is read and interpreted by
consumers.
• Ads can turn already meaningful things into things with very special
meaning—brands can become “cool” or develop high cultural capital through
advertising.
• Ads turn products into brands. Meaning to consumers is transmitted from ads
only because there is an intelligible social context for the ad. Exhibit 5.8
offers students a visual representation of the movement of meaning from the
world to goods to consumers and ultimately in advertisements.
• Ads have become part of consumers’ everyday language and conversation.
Ads in many ways are the sociocultural text of our time.
• Ads also become part of consumers’ everyday language as they pick up
phrases, slogans, ideas and agendas from ads.
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SOLUTIONS TO REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. When consumers have a well-defined consideration set and a list of evaluative criteria
for assessing the brands in that set, they in effect possess a matrix of information about
that category. Drawing on your experiences as a consumer, set up and fill in such a
matrix for the category of fast-food restaurants.
This question asks the student to conduct an internal search for information about
fast-food restaurants and fill in the information matrix defined by their consideration
2. Is cognitive dissonance a good thing or a bad thing from a marketer’s point of view?
Explain how and why marketers should try to take advantage of the cognitive dissonance
their consumers may experience.
Cognitive dissonance is the anxiety or regret that lingers after a difficult decision.
Marketers might view cognitive dissonance as a good thing. As the consumer is
3. Most people quickly relate to the notion that some purchasing decisions are more
involving than others. What kinds of products or services do you consider highly
involving? What makes these products more involving from your point of view?
Involvement with a product or service can be a function of several factors. Personal
4. Explain the difference between brand-loyal and habitual purchasing. When a brand-
loyal customer arrives at a store and finds her favorite brand out of stock, what would
you expect to happen next?
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5. Describe three attitude-change strategies that could be suggested by the results of a
study of consumer behavior using multi-attribute attitude models. Provide examples of
brand promotion campaigns that have employed each of these strategies.
6. Watch an hour of prime-time television, and for each commercial you see, make a
note of the tactic the marketer employed to capture and hold the audience’s attention.
How can the use of attention-attracting tactics backfire on a marketer?
7. What does it mean to say that culture is invisible? Explain how this invisible force
restricts and controls marketers’ activities.
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8. Give three examples of highly visible cultural rituals practiced annually in the United
States. For each ritual you identify, assess the importance of buying and consuming for
effective practice of the ritual.
9. Are you a believer in the intergenerational effect? Make a list of the brands in your
cupboards, refrigerator, and medicine cabinet. Which of these brands would you also
expect to find in your parents’ cupboards, refrigerator, and medicine cabinet?
10. “In today’s modern, highly educated society, there is simply no reason to separate
men and women into different target segments. Gender just should not be an issue in the
development of marketing and advertising strategies.” Comment.
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SOLUTIONS TO EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES
1. Create a list of three products or services to which you are brand-loyal. For each,
explain why you have highly favorable attitudes toward the brand and consciously seek
to buy it whenever you make a purchase from that product category. Describe what
factors could cause you to change your loyalty and switch to a competing brand.
Brand loyalty is based on highly favorable attitudes toward the brand and a conscious
commitment to find it each time the consumer purchases from this category. Brand
2. Find ads that address the following four modes of decision making: extended problem
solving, limited problem solving, habit or variety seeking, and brand loyalty. Explain why
each ad fits with that particular decision-making mode, and state whether you think the
ad is effective in persuading consumers. Be sure to include the concepts of involvement
and prior experience in your answer.
Students should be able to find the ads relatively easily. This exercise will force
3. A key issue in postpurchase evaluation is cognitive dissonance—the anxiety or
“buyer’s remorse” that can linger after high-involvement purchasing decisions.
Research has shown that some consumers are more likely to read ads for a product they
already have purchased than ads for competing brands.
With this in mind, imagine that you have been hired by the luxury watchmaker
Breitling to design an ad campaign specifically intended to ease potential cognitive
dissonance. What steps could the company make to reach out to consumers after the
purchase? What advertising messages and imagery could be most effective in reinforcing
the consumer’s decision to purchase the watch?
The work of marketers does not stop once a sale is made. That is particularly true for
high-involvement, high-cost products and services, where consumers are likely to be
Chapter 5: Understanding Buyer Behavior and the Communication Process ❖ 17
4. Working in small teams, brainstorm ideas for a brand promotion campaign that has
as its primary target audience the community of consumers who are intensely loyal to
Vans, the surf and skateboard brand best known for its quirky, slip-on canvas shoes.
What steps would you take to tap into this brand community? As you develop ideas,
explain how those approaches would connect to the rituals and values of that community.
Also consider what sociocultural meaning the campaign would convey about the brand
and its users.
This exercise allows students to explore key elements in understanding the second
POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS
Use the Instructor PowerPoint files to pace your instruction and provide class notes on
key ideas and themes. Each presentation provides a slide-by-slide coordination with the
chapter’s learning outcomes, definitions, and visuals. Encourage students to use the
accompanying Student PowerPoint presentation to align and reinforce classroom
instruction with studying outside of the classroom.
VIDEOS
To view the two videos for this chapter, go to the PROMO book companion website,
www.cengage.com/login.
(*) Indicates the correct answer in the multiple-choice video questions.
Old Spice: Matterhorn
1. The book suggests that products have benefits that may be primarily functional or
Chapter 5: Understanding Buyer Behavior and the Communication Process ❖ 18
emotional. In the Old Spice “Matterhorn” video, would you say the benefits portrayed are
functional or emotional? Why?
A good answer would point out that the spot is mostly emotional in theme, using
2. In the book, the authors discuss the process of consumer decision-making and citing
involvement and experience as key factors. In the Old Spice “Matterhorn” spot, would
you say the message focused on high involvement with the product? Why or why not?
A good answer would argue that a deodorant purchase, particularly presented in the
3. In the Old Spice “ Matterhorn” video, the main character in the video is:
4. In the Old Spice “Matterhorn” video, the product’s primary attribute and resulting
benefit are shown to be:
5. The book points out that brands in a category use a peripheral or central strategy for
advertising. Based on your reading and viewing the “Matterhorn” video, would you say
the strategy was primarily peripheral or central?
Chevrolet: Baby
1. In the book, the authors discuss product benefits that may be functional or emotional.
In the Chevrolet “Baby” video, what type or types of benefits are dramatized?
Chapter 5: Understanding Buyer Behavior and the Communication Process ❖ 19
2. The Chevrolet “Baby” video emphasizes which important benefit to potential buyers?
3. The target audience for Chevrolet “Baby,” is most likely:
4. According to the book, advertising strategies are often guided by consumer decision-
making processes that may be peripheral or central. In the Chevrolet “Baby” video,
which of these strategies is most likely in play?
5. The video “Baby” features which of the following: