Chapter 1: Understanding Consumer Behavior
CHAPTER 1
Understanding Consumer Behavior
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Consumer behavior involves understanding the set of decisions (what, whether, why,
when, how, where, how much, and how often) that an individual or group of
consumers makes over time about the acquisition, use, or disposition of goods,
services, ideas, or other offerings. The psychological core exerts considerable
influence on consumer behavior. A consumer’s motivation, ability, and opportunity
affect his or her decisions and influence what a person is exposed to, what he or
she pays attention to, and what he or she perceives and comprehends. These
factors also affect how consumers categorize and interpret information, how they
form and retrieve memories, and how they form and change attitudes. Each aspect
of the psychological core has a bearing on the consumer decision-making process,
which involves (1) problem recognition, (2) information search, (3) judgments and
decision making, and (4) evaluating satisfaction with the decision.
Consumer behavior is affected by the consumer’s culture and by the typical or
expected behaviors, norms, and ideas of a particular group. Consumers belong to a
number of groups, share their cultural values and beliefs, and use their symbols to
communicate group membership. Household and social class influences are
involved in consumer behavior, as are each individual’s values, personality, and
lifestyles. Consumer behavior can be symbolic and express an individual’s identity. It
is also indicative of how quickly an offering spreads throughout a market. Further,
ethics and social responsibility play a role in consumer behavior.
Marketers study consumer behavior to gain insights that will lead to more
effective marketing strategies and tactics. Ethicists and advocacy groups are keenly
interested in consumer behavior, as are public policy makers and regulators who
want to protect consumers from unsafe or inappropriate offerings. Consumers and
society can both benefit as marketers learn to make products more user-friendly and
to show concern for the environment. Finally, studying consumer behavior helps
marketers understand how to segment markets and how to decide which to target,
how to position an offering, and which marketing-mix tactics will be most effective.
CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
1. Define consumer behavior and explain the components that make up the
definition.
2. Identify the four domains of consumer behavior that affect acquisition, usage,
and disposition decisions.
3. Discuss the benefits of studying consumer behavior.
4. Explain how companies apply consumer behavior concepts when making
marketing decisions.
Chapter 1: Understanding Consumer Behavior, 7th edition
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Defining Consumer Behavior
The totality of consumers’ decisions with respect to the acquisition, consumption,
and disposition of goods, services, time, and ideas by human decision-making
units (over time).
A. Consumer Behavior Involves Goods, Services, Activities, Experiences,
People and Ideas
1. In addition to products, services, activities, ideas, people and time are
2. The term offering is used to encompass all entities that can be
marketed.
B. Consumer Behavior Involves More Than Buying
1. How consumers acquire, use, and dispose of products, services,
activities, and ideas must be considered by marketing managers.
2. Disposition, how consumers get rid of an offering they have previously
acquired, can have important implications for marketers.
3. Buying represents one type of acquisition behavior.
4. Managing money and making financial decisions.
C. Consumer Behavior Is a Dynamic Process
1. Consumers interact with the offerings they encounter in various
environments over a period of time as they move through the process of
acquisition, use, and disposition.
D. Consumer Behavior Can Involve Many People
1. Many individuals may be involved in the acquisition, use, and disposal of
an offering, each person holding one or more consumer roles in the
process.
E. Consumer Behavior Involves Many Decisions
1. Whether to Acquire/Use/Dispose of an Offering
a) Is this an offering for me?
2. What offering to Acquire/Use/Dispose of
a) Which category should I choose from? Which brand
* refer students to figure- Average Annual U.S. Consumer Spending, By
Category and note that most of spending are on basic needs such
as housing
3. Why Acquire/Use/Dispose of an Offering
a) Is this offering compatible with my needs, values, and goals? Will it
help me to fit in?
4. Why an Offering is Not Acquired/Used/Disposed of
a) What keeps me from purchasing an item?
5. How to Acquire/Use/Dispose of an Offering
a) Ways of Acquiring an Offering––Can I trade for this product? Rent
or lease it. Should I give it as a gift? Can I barter for the item?
b) Ways of Using an Offering––What are the appropriate uses for an
item? Are there innovative uses of this product? How are
consumers educated to use this product?
Chapter 1: Understanding Consumer Behavior
c) Ways of Disposing of an Offering––What should I do when I am
done with it. Should I find a new use? Get rid of it temporarily?
Permanently?
6. When to Acquire/Use/Dispose of an Offering
a) When is it “appropriate” to acquire or use an offering in a given
situation. Special occasions? Every day? 24 hours a day?
7. Where to Acquire/Use/Dispose of an Offering
a) Is this offering easily found or returned at a general merchandisers
or is it a specialty item? Retail? Wholesale? Cyber sale?
8. How Much, How Often, and How Long to Acquire/Use/Dispose of an
Offering
a) Do I use this all the time? Infrequently?
F. Consumer Behavior Involves Emotions and Coping
b) Emotions, both positive and negative, as well as specific emotions
such as hope, fear, regret, guilt, embarrassment, and general
moods can affect consumers’ behavior.
c) Consumers may have to cope with stress from consumption
situations.
c) There is differing coping behavior among certain segments, such
as low-literacy consumers.
II. What Affects Consumer Behavior?
A. The Psychological Core: Internal Consumer Processes
1. Motivation, Ability, and Opportunity
a) Is the consumer motivated to focus on the decision?
b) Will the consumer have the opportunity to make an informed
choice?
c) Does the consumer have the ability to distinguish one offering from
another?
2. Exposure, Attention, Perception, and Comprehension
a) Is the consumer exposed to information related to the choice?
b) Is the consumer able to attend to and perceive the information that
is available? And to categorize and comprehend the information?
c) This process is termed the comprehension process.
3. Memory and Knowledge
a) Storage and recall in part depends on MAO.
b) Choice is based on information retrieved, not stored.
4. Forming and Changing Attitudes
a) Based on the information the consumer receives, what attitudes are
formed? How do these evaluations change in the presence of new
information?
B. The Process of Making Decisions
1. Problem Recognition and the Search for Information
a) Does the consumer recognize problems and search for necessary
information?
2. Making Judgments and Decisions
Chapter 1: Understanding Consumer Behavior, 7th edition
a) To what extent does the consumer expend time, and mental and
emotional energy in making a decision?
3. Making Post-decision Evaluations
a) To what extent does the consumer’s post–decision evaluation
provide feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction?
C. The Consumer’s Culture: External Processes
1. Reference Groups and Other Social Influences
a) What groups does the consumer perceive the he/she is a
member and how do these groups influence the consumer’s
behavior?
2. Diversity Influences
a) Ethnic or religious groups affect consumer decisions; these may
be regional or broader.
b) Diversity impacts one’s vacation choices, for example.
3. Household and Social Class Influences
a) For example, the upper middle class and living with parents
impact decisions.
4. Values, Personality, and Lifestyles
a) To what extent do the consumer’s beliefs, personality, activities,
interests and opinions influence the consumer choices he/she makes?
D. Consumer Behavior Outcomes and Issues
1. Consumer Behaviors Can Symbolize Who We Are
a) How do consumers’ behaviors reflect and project “who they are”?
2. Consumer Behaviors Can Diffuse Through a Market
a) How do the behaviors of certain individuals spread to others in the
market?
3. Consumer Behavior, Ethics, and Social Responsibility
a) Sometimes consumers face potentially conflicting priorities.
b) Consumers and marketers can and do use marketing for
constructive purposes.
III. Who Benefits from the Study of Consumer Behavior?
A. Marketing Managers
1. How do marketing managers use consumer behavior to develop
marketing strategies and tactics?
2. How do they adapt to consumers’ different wants and needs?
B. Ethicists and Advocacy Groups
1. To what extent is it appropriate to use knowledge of consumer behavior
to promote certain types of products or services?
C. Public Policy Makers and Regulators
1. To what extent is it appropriate to use knowledge of consumer behavior
to influence laws and business rules?
D. Academics
Chapter 1: Understanding Consumer Behavior, 7th edition
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND DISCUSSION
Possible answers are as follows.
1. How is consumer behavior defined?
3. What are some of the factors in the psychological core that affect consumer
decisions and behavior?
MAO– Motivation, ability, opportunity
4. What aspects of the consumer’s culture influence decisions and behavior?
5. How is marketing defined?
6. How can public policy decision makers, advocacy groups, and marketing
managers use consumer research?
To understand what consumers and clients value. To help develop and
7. What kinds of marketing questions can companies use consumer behavior
research to answer?
How is the market segmented?
Are customers satisfied with existing offerings?
Chapter 1: Understanding Consumer Behavior
How are competitive offerings positioned?
8. How can you benefit from studying consumer behavior?
Supplementary Material
IN CLASS ASSIGNMENT
(Courtesy of Lars Perner, Ph.D., University of Southern California)
ANALYZING CONSUMER
GENERATED CONTENT
Your task is to analyze consumer generated online postings—e.g., blog entries,
pictures, and videos—for a product category or brand of your choice. The material
should be generated by consumers (advertisements are usually created by firms
and/or their advertising agencies and are not appropriate).
Please:
1. Select some individuals with whom you will be comfortable working. Teams
can be any size from one through the entire class.
2. Select (a) a product category (e.g., baseballs, tomatoes, aftershave) or (b) a
brand that may encompass several product categories or (c) a specific
product category for a specific brand (e.g., Nike basketball shoes) of
interest.
3. Find a number of online postings by consumers discussing or portraying
their experience with the product or brand. You may want to consider:
a. Blog entries (which can be searched through the Google Blog Search
feature at http://blogsearch.google.com/).
b. Consumer product evaluations sites such as epions.com and
evaluations on merchant sites such as Amazon.com.
Chapter 1: Understanding Consumer Behavior, 7th edition
c. Photos (available from Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/) , WebShots
(http://www.webshots.com/), Picasa Web (http://www.picasaweb.com),
and any other photo share sites. You can also search using the
Google Images search feature (http://images.google.com).
d. Video recordings (available from YouTube and Google Video Search
(http://video.google.com).
e. Other online media.
4. Discuss the possible motives of the consumers generating the material in
question (e.g., genuine desire to help others, wanting to look good, desire to
promote a favorite brand, desire to present an alternative brand to the
market leader, “blowing off steam,” show off creative talents more than
dealing with substance per se, desire to entertain).
5. Identify the extent to which different people who create material on similar
topics/brands either compete with each other or promote other people’s
material.
6. Identify theme or issues identified. Note that photos and videos may be
“staged” or sensationalized to some extent. Nevertheless, do these at least
suggest certain underlying consumer motivations, emotions, and/or
perceptions?
7. Identify implications for the marketing of the product or brand in question—
e.g.,
a. Effective advertising messages (e.g., could a particular photo—with
proper permissions—be used as an ad with a suitable caption?)
b. Issues for product design and or content (e.g., are there aspects
enjoyed or aspects causing frustration apparent?)
c. Information that should be available for consumers on manufacturer
web sites.
8. Prepare a brief report to the rest of the class (up to four minutes in length,
including time spent on showing illustrations).
IMPORTANT NOTE: The purpose here is not to find
advertisements or other marketer generated materials.
You should focus on finding material generated by
consumers. You can, however, show ads to demonstrate how
consumer generated material differs from firm generated
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