Chapter 5:

[Model of Consumer Behavior]

Consumer buyer behavior:
- What consumers buy, where they buy, when they buy, and how and how much they buy; WHY?
- Central question: how do consumers respond to various marketing efforts the company might
use?
- Stimulus-response model
- buyer’s black box:
characteristic: influence how he or she perceives and reacts to the stimuli

decision process: from need recognition, information search, and alternative evaluation to the
purchase decision and post-purchase behavior

[Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior]

Culture factors
Culture:
The set of basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors learned by a member of society from
family and other important institutions.
Marketers try to spot cultural shift
Subculture:
A group of people with shared value systems based on common life experiences and
situations. (nationality, religions, racial and geographic group)
- Hispanic American Consumer:
Large, fast-growing market; 55 millions;
Deeply family oriented; children have a big say
First generation tend to be very brand loyal; young generation is price sensitive
Young generation very active on social network
- African American Consumers
More price sensitive but also strongly motivated by quality and selection
Companies develop special products, appeals and marketing programs for them
- Asian American Consumers
The most affluence US demographic segment; well-educated
Most brand conscious of all; fiercely brand loyal
- A total marketing strategy: Integrating ethic themes and cross-cultural perspectives within a
brand’s mainstream marketing, appealing to consumer similarities across subcultural segments
rather than differences

Social Factors:
Social class: society’s relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members share similar
values, interest and behaviors.
- Groups and social networks
Small groups influence a person’s behavior
Word of mouth influence: the impact of the personal words and recommendations of trusted
friends (…) on buying behaviors.
Opinion leaders: people within a reference group who exert social influence on others.
(buzz marketing: “brand ambassadors”)
Online social network.
Membership groups and aspirational groups
- Family
Most important consumer buying organization in the society
Buying roles change with evolving consumer lifestyles (man vs. woman)
Kids also have a strong influence on family buying decisions
- Roles and status

Personal Factors
- Occupation
- Age and life stage
 PRIZM lifestage groups system
- Economic situation
- Lifestyle
A person’s pattern of living as expressed in his or her psychographics.
AIO dimensions: activities, interest and opinions
- Personality and self-concept
Unique psychological characteristics.
Brand personality:
the specific mic of human trait that may be attributed to a particular brand.
Five traits: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophisticated, ruggedness
Self-concept: people’s possessions contribute to and reflect their identities
Psychological Factors:
- Motivation
A need that is sufficiently pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction
Freud theory: people are largely unconscious about the real psychological forces shaping their
behaviors.

Maslows theory: Hierarchy of Needs

- Perception
The process by which people select organize, and interpret info to form a meaming ful picture
of the world
People can form different perceptions of the same stimulus because of three perceptual
processes:
selective attention:
screen out the most important/useful info
selective distortion:
the tendency of people to interpret information in a way that will support what they already
believe
selective retention:
remember the good points made about the brand they support and forget the good points made
about the competing brand.
“Subliminal advertising”
- Learning
Changes in a individual’s behavior arising from experience
Marketers can build up demand for a product by associating it with strong drives, using
motivating cues, and providing positive reinforcement.
- Beliefs and attitudes
Attitudes are difficult to change; should fit the product to existing attitude
[Buying Decision Behavior and the Buyer Decision Process]
Types of buying decision behavior:
- Complex Buying Behavior:
Highly involved in a purchase and perceive significant differences among brands
When product is expensive, risky, purchased infrequently. (buying a new car)
Will go through a learning process.
- Dissonance-Reducing Buying Behavior
Occurs
when consumers
are highly
involved
with an
expensive,
infrequent,
or risky
purchase but see little difference among brands.
Might experience postpurchase dissonance when notice certain disadvantages of the purchased
product so after-sale communication is important
- Habitual Buying Behavior
Low-consumer involvement and little significant brand difference
Does not go through belief-attitude-behavior sequence
Often use price and sales promotion to attract customer
- Variety-Seeking Buying Behavior
Low consumer involvement but significant perceived brand differences
Consumers often switch brands.
Strategies would be different. (price, habitual…)
[The Buyer Decision Process]

1. Need Recognition
Can be triggered by internal or external stimulus
2. Information search
Personal source, commercial source, public source, experiential sources
Commercial sources normally inform the buyer, but personal sources legitimize or evaluate
products for the buyer
“Neighbor’s fence”: Apps like Yelp, Tripadvisor
3. Evaluation of Alternatives
4. Purchase Decision
Two factors between purchase intention and decision:
Attitudes of others and unexpected situational factors
5. Postpurchase Behavior
Consumer’s expectation vs. perceived performance
Larger the gap, greater the dissatisfaction.
Cognitive Dissonance:
consumers are satisfied with the benefits of the chosen brand and are glad to avoid the
drawbacks of the brands not bought

[The Buyers Decision Process for New Products]

Stages in the Adoption Process:
1. Awareness
2. Interest
3. Evaluation
4. Trail
5. adoption

Individual Differences in Innovativeness:

Innovators
Early adopters
Early mainstream
Late mainstream
Lagging adopters

Influence of Product Characteristics on Rate of Adoption

Relative advantage: superior to existing products
Compatibility: fits the values and experiences of potential consumers.
Complexity: The degree to which the
innovation is difficult to understand or use.
Divisibility: The degree to which the
innovation may be tried on a limited basis.
Communicability: the results of using the
innovation can be observed or described to
others