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134 Part 2 Understanding Buyers and Markets
CHAPTER 6
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Why do people buy one product and not another? Finding answers to this question is at the center of
every marketer’s job. The answers—and there are many—aren’t always obvious. But they directly affect
every aspect of marketing strategy, from the development of a product, its pricing, its presentation to the
target audience, and its promotion to various segments.
Marketers who plan to succeed with today’s consumers need to understand how their potential market
behaves. This calls for an understanding of consumer behavior—the process through which consumers
(and business buyers) make purchase decisions, from toothbrushes to autos to vacations. The study of
Changes in the 17th Edition
A number of new features have been added to this edition:
• The Opening Vignette and Evolution of a Brand talks about hummus, a Middle Eastern
spreadable vegetable paste, which is poised to take over the multi-billion dollar snack market in
the United States. In a joint effort by PepsiCo and the Strauss Group called Sabra, the marketing
efforts for hummus have made it even more popular than salsa as a snack food. In the beginning
• Solving an Ethical Controversy analyzes whether facial recognition technology should go
incognito. Facial recognition mechanisms at store entrances will help ensure that customers see
only digital and mobile ads that matter to them. But, privacy advocates are concerned about
• Marketing Success illustrates how, Klout, a San Francisco startup tracks what is in effect a
person’s “social credit score” by analyzing the person’s online influence and the power of the
person’s network. Nike, Disney, HP, and Audi were among Klout’s first customers. The company
Chapter 6 Consumer Behavior 135
puts these firms in touch with relevant influencers who have signed up with it, and then it is up to
the marketers to offer deals they hope will persuade their influencers to generate the appropriate
online buzz. The challenge, strategy, and outcome are included in “Klout Measures Social Media
Influence.”
• Career Readiness provides tips on how to avoid major distractions at work. It gives a few tips for
getting your focus back when phone calls, emails, visitors, etc. distract you from your daily work
activities. Insights, details, and tips are included in ”Avoiding Major Distractions at Work.”
• Video Case 6.2 includes an overview of the importance of studying consumer behavior at Ski
Butternut.
LECTURE OUTLINE
The Opening Vignette and Evolution of a Brand—“Hummus Is the New Salsa.” In a joint venture
with the Strauss Group called Sabra, PepsiCo is poised to take over the multi-billion dollar snack
market in the U.S. with hummus, a spreadable Middle Eastern vegetable paste. How can Sabra
continue to make inroads into this lucrative consumer market?
Chapter Objective 1: Define consumer behavior and its role in marketing decisions.
Key Terms: consumer behavior
PowerPoint Basic: 4
PowerPoint Expanded: 5
1. Consumer behavior
a. Developing a marketing strategy requires an
2. The study of consumer behavior builds on an understanding of
human behavior
a. Marketers borrow from the sciences of psychology and
136 Part 2 Understanding Buyers and Markets
Assessment check questions
1.1. Why is the study of consumer behavior important to marketers? If
1.2. Describe Kurt Lewin’s proposition. Kurt Lewin proposed that
behavior (B) is the function (f) of the interactions of personal influences
(P) and pressures exerted by outside environmental forces (E). This
research sheds light on how consumers make purchase decisions.
Chapter Objective 2: Describe the three interpersonal determinants of consumer
behavior.
Key Terms: culture, subcultures, reference groups, opinion leaders
PowerPoint Basic: 5-12
PowerPoint Expanded: 6-23
1. Interpersonal determinants of consumer behavior
a. Every buying decision is influenced by a variety of external
and internal factors
2. Cultural influences
a. Culture can be defined as the values, beliefs, preferences,
and tastes handed down from one generation to the next
i. It is the broadest environmental determinant of
consumer behavior
ii. Marketing strategies that work in one country may
be offensive or ineffective in another, especially
where population continues to diversify at a rapid
rate
b. Core values in U.S. culture
i. Some cultural values change over time, but core
values do not
Chapter 6 Consumer Behavior 137
Figure 6.1 Ethnic
and Racial Minorities
as a Percentage of
the Total U.S.
Population. Which
three groups make
up the largest ethnic
populations? Which
make up the
smallest? How can
this information be
used by marketers?
effects. (As technology rapidly changes the way
people exchange information, consumers adopt
values that include communicating with anyone,
anytime, anywhere in the world.)
c. International perspective on cultural influences
i. Cultural differences are particularly important for
international marketers
d. Subcultures
i. Cultures are not homogeneous groups with
universal values, even though core values tend to
dominate
ii. Each culture contains subcultures—groups with
their own distinct modes of behavior
iii. The U.S. is composed of significant subcultures
that differ by ethnicity, nationality, age, rural versus
urban location, religion, and geographic distribution
iv. America’s population is aging and is also becoming
more diverse
v. The three largest and fastest-growing U.S. ethnic
subcultures are Hispanics, African Americans, and
Asians
vi. Marketers need to be sensitive to the differences in
shopping patterns and buying habits of the
members of different subcultures
vii. As important as differences in national origin may
be, the differences in acculturation, or the degree
to which newcomers have adapted to U.S. culture,
plays a vital role in consumer behavior
e. Hispanic American consumers
i. The 53 million U.S. Hispanics in the U.S. are not a
homogeneous group
f. African American consumers
i. The U.S. African American population stands at
more than 43 million people, with their buying
power at more than $1 trillion
Klout Measures
Social Media
Influence
How do companies
know who wields the
most influence when
it comes to product
endorsements or
recommendations?
3. Social influences
a. Every consumer belongs to a number of social groups
i. Group membership influences an individual
consumer’s purchase decisions and behavior in
both overt and subtle ways
ii. Every group establishes certain norms of behavior
iii. Norms are the values, attitudes, and behaviors a
group deems appropriate for its members
iv. Norms can even affect nonmembers
v. Individuals who aspire to join a group may adopt its
standards of behavior and values
b. The Asch phenomenon
i. Groups influence people’s purchase decisions
more than they realize
ii. Most people adhere in varying degrees to the
general expectations of any group they consider
important, often without conscious awareness
iii. The surprising impact of groups and their norms on
individual behavior has been called the Asch
Chapter 6 Consumer Behavior 139
phenomenon
iv. Psychologist S.E. Asch found that individuals
conformed to majority rule, even if it went against
their beliefs
c. Reference groups
i. Reference groups are those groups whose value
structures and standards influence a person’s
behavior
ii. Consumers usually try to coordinate their purchase
behavior with their perceptions of the values of
their reference groups
d. Social classes
i. W. Lloyd Warner’s research identified six classes
within the social structures of both small and large
U.S. cities—upper-upper, lower-upper, upper-
middle, lower-middle, working class, and lower
class
ii. Class rankings are determined by occupation,
income, education, family background, and
residence location
e. Opinion leaders
i. Opinion leaders are trendsetters within a reference
group who are likely to purchase new products
before others in the group and then share their
experiences and opinions via word of mouth
ii. Generalized opinion leaders are rare; instead,
individuals tend to act as opinion leaders for
specific products or services based on their
knowledge of and interest in those products
iii. Opinion leaders are found within all segments of
4. Family influences
a. Most people are members of at least two families during
their lifetimes—the ones they are born into and those they
eventually form later in life
b. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the structure of
families has changed greatly over the last century
i. Only about half of all households are headed by
married couples
ii. There has been an increase in households headed
by same-sex couples
c. Marketers describe the role of each spouse in a household
in terms of four categories:
i. Autonomic role is seen when the partners
independently make equal numbers of decisions
ii. Husband-dominant role occurs when the husband
usually makes certain purchase decisions
iii. Wife-dominant role has the wife making most of
certain buying decisions
iv. Syncratic role refers to joint decisions
d. The increasing occurrence of the two-income family
means that women have a greater role in making large
family purchases
togetherness, emphasize safety, or encourage health and
fitness appeal to the family values and influences of today
i. Children and teenagers in family purchases
i. Children and teenagers represent a huge market—
nearly 54 million strong
ii. They have significant influence over the goods and
services their families purchase
Assessment check questions
2.1. List the interpersonal determinants of consumer behavior. The
2.2. What is a subculture? A subculture is a group within a culture that
2.3. Describe the Asch phenomenon. The Asch phenomenon is the
impact of groups and group norms on individual behavior.
Chapter Objective 3: Explain the five personal determinants of consumer behavior.
Key Terms: need, motives, perception, stimulus factors, individual factors, perceptual screens,
subliminal perception, attitudes, learning, shaping, self-concept
PowerPoint Basic: 13-21
PowerPoint Expanded: 24-38
1. Personal determinants of consumer behavior
a. Consumer behavior is affected by a number of internal,
2. Needs and motives
a. A need is an imbalance between the consumer’s actual
and desired states
Table 6.1 Marketing
Strategies Based on
Maslow’s Hierarchy
of Needs. For each
individual as they
determine what
meets their needs?
For example, can
the same product fill
one person’s
physiological needs
while also filling
another person’s
esteem needs?
3. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
a. Psychologist Abraham H. Maslow identified five levels of
needs, beginning with physiological needs and
progressing to the need for self-actualization
i. A person must at least partially satisfy lower-level
needs before higher needs can affect behavior
c. Safety needs
i. Second-level needs include financial or lifestyle
security, protection from physical harm, and
avoidance of the unexpected
ii. To gratify these needs, consumers may buy life
insurance, alarm systems, or retirement plans
d. Social/Belongingness needs
i. Satisfaction of physiological and safety needs
leads a person to attend to third-level needs—the
desire to be accepted by people and groups
important to that individual
f. Self-actualization needs
i. At the top rung of Maslow’s ladder of human needs
is people’s desire to realize their full potential and
find fulfillment by expressing their unique talents
and capabilities
ii. Companies that run exotic adventure trips and not-
for-profit organizations that invite paying volunteers
to assist in such projects as archaeological digs or
building homes for the needy appeal to these
needs
g. Maslow believes that a satisfied need no longer has to be
4. Perceptions
a. Perception is the meaning that a person attributes to
incoming stimuli gathered through the five senses—sight,
hearing, touch, taste, and smell
i. A buyer’s behavior is influenced by his or her
perceptions of a good or service
ii. Researchers now recognize that people’s
perceptions depend as much on what they want to
perceive as on the actual stimuli
b. A person’s perception of an object or event results from
the interaction of two types of factors:
i. Stimulus factors—characteristics of the physical
object such as size, color, weight, and shape
ii. Individual factors—unique characteristics of the
individual, including not only sensory processes but
also experiences with similar inputs and basic
motivations and expectations
c. Perceptual screens
i. The average American consumer constantly is
barraged with marketing messages
ii. A typical supermarket now carries 30,000 different
packages, each serving as a miniature billboard
vying to attract consumers’ attention
iii. More than 6,000 commercials are aired on network
TV each week
vii. Doubling the size of an ad, using certain colors or
graphics, or developing unique packaging are
some techniques that marketers use to elicit a
positive response from consumers
viii. The psychological concept of closure—the human
tendency to perceive a complete picture from an
incomplete stimulus—also helps marketers create
messages that stand out
144 Part 2 Understanding Buyers and Markets
Solving an Ethical
Controversy
Should Facial
Recognition
Technology Fade
Away?
Is it acceptable for
companies to use
facial recognition
technology without
telling customers?
d. Subliminal perception
i. Subliminal perception is the subconscious receipt
of incoming information
ii. Subliminal advertising is aimed at the
subconscious level of awareness to circumvent the
audience’s perceptual screens
iii. Although it is considered manipulative, it is
exceedingly unlikely to induce purchasing except
by people already inclined to buy
iv. There are three reasons for this: strong stimulus
factors are required just to get a prospective
5. Attitudes
a. Perception of incoming stimuli is greatly affected by
attitudes about the product, store, or salesperson
i. Attitudes are a person’s enduring favorable or
unfavorable evaluations, emotions, or action
Chapter 6 Consumer Behavior 145
b. Attitude components
i. An attitude has cognitive, affective, and behavioral
components
ii. The cognitive component refers to the individual’s
information and knowledge about an object or
concept
c. Changing consumer attitudes
i. A favorable consumer attitude is vital to the
success of a marketing effort
ii. Marketers can approach this in one of two ways:
or (2) By evaluating existing consumer attitudes
and creating or modifying products to appeal to
these attitudes
iii. If consumers view a product unfavorably, the seller
might redesign the product, offer new or desired
options, or enhance service
d. Modifying the components of attitude
i. Attitudes frequently change in response to
inconsistencies among the three components
ii. The most common inconsistencies result when
new information changes the cognitive or affective
6. Learning
a. Marketing is concerned as seriously with the process by
which consumer decisions change over time as with the
current status of those decisions
i. Learning, in a marketing context, refers to
Career Readiness
Avoiding Major
Distractions at Work
cues and drives
v. Reinforcement is the reduction in drive that results
from a proper response
vi. As a response becomes more rewarding, it creates
a stronger bond between the drive and the
purchase of the product, likely increasing future
purchases by the consumer
b. Applying learning theory to marketing decisions
i. Shaping is the process of applying a series of
rewards and reinforcements to permit more
complex behavior to evolve
ii. Both promotional strategy and the product itself
play a role in the shaping process
iii. The first step in getting consumers to try the
product might be to use a cue—such as a free-
sample—as a shaping procedure
7. Self-concept theory
a. Self-concept—a person’s multifaceted picture of himself or
herself—plays an important role in consumer behavior
b. The concept of self emerges from an interaction of many
of the influences—both personal and interpersonal—that
affects buying behavior
c. A person’s needs, motives, perceptions, attitudes, and
learning lie at the core of his or her conception of self
Chapter 6 Consumer Behavior 147
Assessment check questions
3.1. Identify the personal determinants of consumer behavior. The
3.2. What are the human needs categorized by Abraham Maslow? The
3.3. How do perception and learning differ? Perception is the meaning
that a person attributes to incoming stimuli. Learning refers to immediate
or expected changes in behavior as a result of experience.
Chapter Objective 4: Distinguish between high-involvement and low-involvement
purchase decisions.
Key Terms: high-involvement purchase decisions, low-involvement purchase decisions
PowerPoint Basic: 22
PowerPoint Expanded: 39, 40
1. The consumer decision process
a. Although they might not be aware of it, consumers
complete a step-by-step process in making purchase
decisions
b. The time and effort spent devoted to a particular
purchasing decision depend on how important it is
i. Purchases with high levels of potential social or
economic consequences are said to be high-
involvement purchase decisions
ii. Routine purchases that pose little risk are low-
involvement purchase decisions
148 Part 2 Understanding Buyers and Markets
Assessment check questions
4.1. Differentiate between high-involvement decisions and low-
involvement decisions. High-involvement decisions have high levels of
4.2. Categorize each of the following as a high- or low-involvement
product: toothpaste, laptop, apartment, cup of coffee, and cell phone
Chapter Objective 5: Outline the six steps in the consumer decision process.
Key Terms: evoked set, evaluative criteria, cognitive dissonance
PowerPoint Basic: 21
PowerPoint Expanded: 41-43
Figure 6.2 Integrated
the six steps. Then
think of a common
item you buy
regularly and see if
you can define the
six steps during
those purchase
decisions.
1. Problem or opportunity recognition
a. During the first stage in the decision process, the
consumer becomes aware of a gap between the existing
2. Search
a. During the second step in the decision process, a
consumer gathers information about the attainment of a
desired state
b. This search identifies different ways to solve the problem
c. A high-involvement purchase might mean conducting an
extensive search for information, whereas a low-
involvement purchase might require much less research
d. The search may cover internal or external sources of
information
e. An internal search is simply a mental review: Is there past
experience with the product? Was it good or bad?
3. Evaluation of alternatives
a. The third step in the consumer decision process is to
evaluate the evoked set of options
b. Actually, it is difficult to completely separate the second
and third steps because some evaluation takes place as
d. Evaluative criteria are the features a consumer considers
in choosing among alternatives
i. These criteria can either be objective facts or
subjective impressions
e. Marketers attempt to influence the outcome of this stage in
three ways:
i. They try to educate consumers about attributes
they view as important in evaluating a particular
class of goods
4. Purchase decision and purchase act
a. The search and alternative evaluation stages of the
