Marketing Chapter 6 Homework Motives Are Inner States That Direct Person

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