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Chapter 6
Consumer Decision Making
This chapter begins with the learning outcome summaries followed by a set of lesson plans for
instructors to use to deliver the content.
Lecture (for large sections) on page 4
Company Clips (video) on page 7
Group Work (for smaller sections) on page 9
Review and Assignments begin on page 10
Review questions
Application questions
Application exercise
Ethics exercise
Video assignment
Case assignment
Great Ideas for Teaching Marketing from faculty around the country begin on page 22
Learning Outcomes
6-1 Explain why marketing managers should understand consumer behavior
Consumers’ product and service preferences are constantly changing. Marketing managers must
understand these desires in order to create a proper marketing mix for a well-defined market. So
it is critical that marketing managers have a thorough knowledge of consumer behavior.
Consumer behavior describes how consumers make purchase decisions and how they use and
dispose of the purchased goods or services. Value is a personal assessment of the net worth one
obtains from making a purchase. Purchases are made based upon perceived value, which is what
you expect to get.
6-2 Analyze the components of the consumer decision-making process
Consumers generally follow the consumer decision-making process: (1) need recognition, (2)
information search, (3) evaluation of alternatives, (4) purchase, and (5) postpurchase behavior.
Wants can be viewed in terms of four goals: economizing, sustaining, treating, and rewarding. If
additional information is required to make a purchase decision, the consumer may engage in an
internal or external information search. The consumer then evaluates the additional information
and establishes purchase guidelines. Finally, a purchase decision is made.
6-3 Explain the consumers postpurchase evaluation processʼ
When buying products, consumers expect certain outcomes from the purchase. Consumer
postpurchase evaluation is influenced by prepurchase expectations, the prepurchase information
search, and the consumer’s general level of self-confidence. When a purchase creates cognitive
dissonance, consumers tend to react by seeking positive reinforcement for the purchase decision,
avoiding negative information about the purchase decision, or revoking the purchase decision by
returning the product. When people recognize inconsistency between their values or opinions,
and their behavior, they tend to feel an inner tension called cognitive dissonance.
6-4 Identify the types of consumer buying decisions and discuss the significance of
consumer involvement
. All consumer buying decisions generally fall along a continuum of three broad categories:
routine response behavior, limited decision making, and extensive decision making. As the
perceived risk in purchasing a product increases, so does a consumer’s level of involvement. The
types of risks that concern consumers include financial risk, social risk, and psychological risk.
The main factors affecting the level of consumer involvement are previous experience, interest,
perceived risk of negative consequences (financial, social, and psychological), and social
visibility. By contrast, low-involvement decisions are characterized by brand loyalty and a lack
of personal identification with the product. As the perceived risk in purchasing a product
increases, so does a consumer’s level of involvement. The types of risks that concern consumers
include financial risk, social risk, and psychological risk. A purchase decision can be highly
involved due to a wide range of factors, including product involvement, situational involvement,
shopping involvement, enduring involvement, and emotional involvement.
6-5 Describe how some marketers are reconceptualizing the consumer decision-making
process
Rapid changes in digital technology have given consumers unprecedented power to express likes
and dislikes, compare prices, find the best deals, and sift through huge numbers of
recommendations on sites like Trip Advisor and Yelp and, finally, have items delivered quickly—
sometimes on the same day the order was placed. . Another way firms are keeping customers in
the loyalty loop is by using automated reordering. Underlying cultural, social, individual, and
psychological factors strongly influence the decision process. Psychological process includes
perception, motivation, and learning.
6-6 Identify and understand the cultural factors that affect consumer buying decisions
Of all the factors that affect consumer decision making, cultural factors exert the broadest and
deepest influence. Marketers must understand the way people’s culture and its accompanying
values, as well as their subculture and social class, influence their buying behavior. Cultural
influences on consumer buying decisions include culture and values, subculture, and social class.
Culture is the set of values, norms, attitudes, and other meaningful symbols that shape human
behavior and the artifacts, or products, of that behavior as they are transmitted from one
generation to the next. Culture is the essential character of a society that distinguishes it from
other cultural groups. The underlying elements of every culture are the values, language, myths,
customs, rituals, and laws that are transmitted from one generation to the next. The most defining
element of a culture is its values. A culture can be divided into subcultures on the basis of
demographic characteristics, geographic regions, national and ethnic background, political
beliefs, and religious beliefs. A subculture is a homogeneous group of people who share elements
of the overall culture as well as cultural elements unique to their own group. The United States,
like other societies, has a social class system. A social class is a group of people who are
considered nearly equal in status or community esteem, who regularly socialize among
themselves both formally and informally, and who share behavioral norms.
6-7 Identify and understand the social factors that affect consumer buying decisions
Many consumers seek out the opinions of others to reduce their search and evaluation effort or
uncertainty, especially as the perceived risk of the decision increases. Social factors include such
external influences as reference groups, opinion leaders, and family. Consumers seek out others’
opinions for guidance on new products or services and products with image-related attributes or
because attribute information is lacking or uninformative. Specifically, consumers interact
socially with reference groups, opinion leaders, and family members to obtain product
information and decision approval. Consumers may use products or brands to identify with or
become a member of a group. Opinion leadership is a casual phenomenon and is usually
inconspicuous. Family members also influence purchase decisions; children tend to shop in
similar patterns as their parents. Social influence also plays an important role in consumer
behavior especially when the consumer knows or feels that he or she is being watched.
6-8 Identify and understand the individual factors that affect consumer buying decisions
Individual factors that affect consumer buying decisions include gender; age and family life
cycle stage; and personality, self-concept, and lifestyle. Physiological differences between men
and women result in many different needs, such as with health and beauty products. Beyond
obvious physiological differences, men and women differ in their social and economic roles, and
that affects consumer buying decisions. A consumer’s age generally indicates what products he
or she may be interested in purchasing. Marketers often define their target markets in terms of
family life cycle, such as “young singles,” “young married couples with children,” and
“middle-aged married couples without children.” Finally, certain products and brands reflect
consumers’ personality, self-concept, and lifestyle.
6-9 Identify and understand the psychological factors that affect consumer buying
decisions
An individual’s buying decisions are further influenced by psychological factors: perception,
motivation, and learning. These factors allow consumers to interact with the world around them,
recognize their feelings, gather and analyze information, formulate thoughts and opinions, and
take action. Perception allows consumers to recognize their consumption problems. Motivation
is what drives consumers to take action to satisfy specific consumption needs. Almost all
consumer behavior results from learning, which is the process that creates changes in behavior
through experience and practice.
Key Terms
Aspirational reference group Maslow’s hierarchy of needs Selective exposure
Cognitive dissonance Motive Selective retention
Connected self-schema Need recognition Self-concept
Consumer behavior Nonaspirational reference
group Separated self-schema
Consumer decision-making
process
Nonmarketing-controlled
information source Showrooming
Culture Norm Social class
Evoked set (consideration
set) Opinion leader Socialization process
Extensive decision making Perceived value Stimulus
External information search Perception Stimulus discrimination
Hedonic value Personality Stimulus generalization
Ideal self-image Primary membership group Subculture
Internal information search Real self-image Utilitarian value
Involvement Reference group Value
Learning Routine response behavior Want
Limited decision making Secondary membership group
Marketing-controlled
information source Selective distortion
Lesson Plan for Lecture
Suggested Homework
The end of this chapter contains assignments for the Ski Butternut video and for the Netflix
case.
This chapter’s online study tools include flashcards, visual summaries, practice quizzes, and
other resources that can be assigned or used as the basis for longer investigations into
marketing.
Lesson Plans for Video
Company Clips
Segment Summary: Ski Butternut
Ski Butternut is a ski resort in the Berkshires. Because it is a “soft” mountain, Ski Butternut
collects large amounts of data based on rentals and Web traffic to make sure that it understands
who the customer is and to whom they need to market. Matt Sawyer also discusses how it
changes the mountain itself to meet the needs of the customer.
Pre-class Prep for You: Pre-class Prep for Your Students:
Preview the Company Clips video segment
for Chapter 6. This exercise reviews
concepts for LO1, LO2, LO5, and LO6.
Review your lesson plan.
Stream the video HERE.
Have students familiarize themselves with
the following terms and concepts: consumer
behavior, need recognition, want, culture,
social class, and opinion leader.
Review the Ski Butternut website with those
terms in mind:
http://www.skibutternut.com/.
Video Review Exercise
Activity
Warm-up
Begin by asking students, “What is the relationship between a marketing strategy
and consumer behavior?” (You cannot build the first without understanding the
second.)
In-class
Preview
Ask students to draw a line down the center of a sheet of paper. The title of
the first column should be “What I Want” and the second column “What I
Need.”
Give students a few minutes to fill their columns.
Then ask students to circle items from the “Want” column that were definitely
influenced by someone’s marketing strategy. Draw arrows from any entry in
the “Need” column into the “Want” Column for that same reason.
Finally, have students mark each entry in each column with a “C” if the want
or need was culturally influenced or an “S” if it was socially influenced. (If
necessary, refer students to review Learning Outcomes 5 and 6 for a summary
of cultural and social factors.)
Segue into a discussion of the consumer decision-making process.
Write the five steps of the process on the board. Consider using the graphic
Exhibit 6.1, Consumer Decision-Making Process, as your diagram.
Viewing
(Solutions
below)
1. Why is the perception of Butternut as a fun place so important?
2. In general, which type of consumer behavior for new skiers is described in
this video? What involvement factors are likely to be associated with
choosing which ski resort to visit?
Follow-up
Have students break into groups of up to four students to describe the cultural,
social, and psychological influences that are likely at work on Ski Butternut
patrons. Given these influences, what are the implications for Butternut’s
marketing managers? Give students about five minutes and then come back
together as a class to share results.
Solutions for Viewing Activities
1. Why is the perception of Butternut as a fun place so important?
Being perceived as fun is important for Ski Butternut to ensure that it builds a loyal set of
young customers. Without the social influence of opinion leaders who enjoy Butternut’s
terrain park, Butternut would lose many of its customers as soon as they were old enough
to ski or board at another mountain with a more “fun” perception.
2. In general, which type of consumer behavior for new skiers is described in this video?
What involvement factors are likely to be associated with choosing which ski resort to
visit?
Consumers making infrequent, expensive, or unfamiliar purchases, such as new skiers,
engage in extensive decision making. If a customer has had previous positive experiences
with skiing in general or at Ski Butternut in particular, his or her involvement may be
lower than that of another customer with no previous experience. If a consumer is
concerned with [perceived] social visibility, his involvement may remain high, particularly
in the teenage group. In addition, the statistic that the first-time skier makes seven trips to
the same mountain before trying another mountain suggests that enduring involvement
would be a factor. Based on the pricing offered to first timers and the addition of the terrain
parks to entertain youths, Ski Butternut is well aware of the importance of these factors of
involvement.
Lesson Plan for Group Work
For “Class Activity: Consumer Buying Behavior,” divide the class into small groups of four
or five people. Provide the information and the questions asked by the class activity.
Application questions 3 and 5 lend themselves well to group work. For this activity, divide
the class into small groups of four or five people. Each group should read the question and
then use their textbooks, or any work that was completed previously, to perform the
exercise. Then each group should discuss or present their work to the class.
Class Activity: Consumer Buying Behavior
Have students select a product such as athletic shoes or jeans, and determine the way in which
their selection of that particular brand reflects their self-concept. Then have them determine a
slogan and sketch a print ad that would appeal to the consumers who seek to express this same
self-concept through their product purchase.
