Consumer Behaviour

Module – 4
Dr Virupaksha Goud

Topics to be covered :
Learning : Elements of Consumer Learning, Motivation, Cues, Response, Reinforcement, Marketing
Applications of Behavioral Learning Theories, Classical Conditioning (Pavlovian Model, Neo-Pavlovian
Model), Instrumental Conditioning, Elaboration Likelihood Model.
Attitude : Basics of Attitude, The Nature of Attitude, Models of Attitude and Marketing Implications,
(Tri component model of attitude, Multiattribute attitude models.)
Persuasive Communication : Communications strategy, Target Audience, Media Strategy, Message
Strategies, Message Structure and Presentation.

Elements of Consumer Learning

Consumer learning can be thought of as the process by which individuals acquire the purchase and
consumption knowledge and experience that they apply to future related behaviour. The elements
included in most learning theories are motivation, cues, response and reinforcement.

Motivation : Motivation is based on needs and goals. It acts as a spur to learning. For eg. Men and
women who want to take up bicycle riding for fitness and recreation are motivated to learn all they
can about bike riding and also to practice often. They may seek information concerning the prices,
quality and characteristics of bicycles and learn which bicycles are the best for the kind of riding that
they do. Conversely, individuals who are not interested in bike riding are likely to ignore all
information related to the activity.

Cues : If motives serve to stimulate learning, cues are the stimuli that give direction to these
motives. An advertisement for an exotic trip that includes bike riding may serve as a cue for bike
riders, who may suddenly recognize that they need a vacation. In the marketplace, price, styling,
packaging, advertising and store displays all serve as cues to help consumers fulfil their needs in
product specific ways.

Response : How individuals react to a drive or cue- how they behave- constitute their response. The
automobile manufacturer that provides consistent cues to a consumer may not always succeed in
stimulating a purchase. However, if a manufacturer succeeds in forming a favourable image of a
particular automobile model in the consumer’s mind, it is likely that the consumer will consider that
make or model when he or she is ready to buy.

Reinforcement : increases the likelihood that a specific response will occur in the future as the result
of particular cues or stimuli. If a product lives upto the expectations of the consumer (like after using
a soap her skin starts glowing), he is likely to continue buying and using it. But if the consumer
doesn’t get any satisfaction from the product, it is unlikely that he would buy that brand again.

Classical Conditioning
Early classical conditioning theorists regarded all organisms as relatively passive entities that could
be taught certain behaviours through repetition, i.e. conditioning.
Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, was the first to describe conditioning and to propose it as a
general model of how learning occurs. According to Pavlovian Theory, conditioned learning results
when a stimulus that is paired with another stimulus that elicits a known response serves to produce
the same response when used alone.
Pavlov demonstrated what he meant by conditioned learning in his studies with dogs. The dogs were
hungry and highly motivated to eat. In his experiments, Pavlov sounded a bell and then immediately
applied a meat paste to the dog’s tongues, which caused them to salivate. Learning occurred when,
after a sufficient number of repetitions of the bell sound followed almost immediately by the food,
the bell sound alone caused the dogs to salivate. The dogs associated the bell sound (the
conditioned stimulus) with the meat paste (the unconditioned stimulus) and, after a number of
pairings, gave the same unconditioned response (salivation) to the bell alone as they did to the meat
paste.
In a consumer behaviour context, an unconditioned stimulus might consist of a well known brand
symbol (such as the Dove name) that implies pure and high quality product. This previously acquired
consumer perception of Dove is the unconditioned response. Conditioned stimuli might consist of
new products bearing the well-known symbol and the conditioned response would be trying these
products because of the belief that they embody the same attributes with which the Dove name is
associated.

UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS

Meat Paste UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE

Salivation

CONDITIONED STIMULUS

Bell

AFTER REPEATED PAIRINGS :

CONDITIONED STIMULUS CONDITIONED RESPONSE

Bell Salivation

Under neo-Pavlovian theory, the consumer can be viewed as an information seeker who uses logical
and perceptual relations among events, along with his or her own preconceptions, to form a
sophisticated representation of the world. Conditioning is the learning that results from exposure to
relationships among events in the environment; such exposure creates expectations as to the
structure of the environment.

Strategic Applications of Classical Conditioning

 Repetition : Repetition increases the strength of the association between a conditioned
stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus and slows the process of forgetting. If a consumer is
exposed to the repeated advertisement, he develops a tendency not to forget it when
entering the retail outlet to purchase a commodity.
 Stimulus Generalization : Making the same response to slightly different stimuli. Me-too
products succeed in the market place as consumers confuse them with the original product
they have seen advertised.
 Product line, Form and Category extensions : In product line extensions, the marketer adds
related products to an already established brand, knowing that the new products are more
 likely to be adopted when they are associated with a known and trusted brand name.
Marketer also offer product form extensions, such as Colgate Toothpaste to Colgate
Mouthwash.
 Family Branding : Practice of marketing a whole line of company products under the same
brand name is another strategy that capitalizes on the consumer’s ability to generalize
favourable brand associations from one product to others. For eg. P&G offers multiple
brands of laundry products, of antiperspirants and of hair care products.
 Licensing : Allowing a well known brand name to be affixed to products of another
manufacturer. The names of designers, manufacturers, celebrities, corporations and even
cartoon characters are attached for a fee to a variety of products, enabling the licensees to
achieve instant recognition and implied quality for the licensed products.
 Positioning : Image or position that a product holds in the minds of the consumer. When a
marketer targets consumer with a strong communication program that stresses the unique
ways in which its products will satisfy the consumer’s needs, it wants the consumer to
differentiate its products from those of competitors.
 Product Differentiation : Most product differentiation strategies are designed to distinguish
a product or brand from that of competitors on the basis of an attribute that is relevant,
meaningful and valuable to consumers.

Instrumental Conditioning
Instrumental learning theorists believe that learning occurs through a trial and error process with
habits formed as a result of rewards received for certain responses or behaviours. This model of
learning applies to many situations in which consumers learn about products, services and retail
stores. For eg. Consumers learn which stores carry the type of clothing they prefer at prices they can
afford to pay by shopping in a number of stores. Once they find a store that carries clothing that
meets their needs, they are likely to patronize that store to the exclusion of others. Every time they
purchase a shirt or a sweater there that they really like, their store loyalty is rewarded, and their
patronage of that store is more likely to be repeated.

Try Brand A Unrewarded :

Legs too loose

Try Brand B Unrewarded :

Stimulus Situation Tight in seat
(Need good-looking
Jeans)

Try Brand C Unrewarded :

Baggy in seat

Try Brand D Reward : Perfect

Fit

Repeat Behaviour
Reinforcement of Behaviour
Positive Reinforcement, consists of events that strengthen the likelihood of a specific response.
Using a shampoo that leaves your hair feeling silky and clean is likely to result in a repeat purchase
of the shampoo. Negative Reinforcement is an unpleasant or negative outcome that also serves to
encourage a specific behaviour. An advertisement that shows a model with wrinkled skin is designed
to encourage consumers to buy and use the advertised skin cream.

Strategic Applications of Instrumental Conditioning

Customer satisfaction (Reinforcement) : The objective of all marketing efforts should be to
maximize customer satisfaction. Aside from the experience of using the product itself, consumers
can receive reinforcement from other elements in the purchase situation such as the environment in
which the transaction takes place, the attention and service provided by employees, and the
amenities provided. For eg. An upscale beauty salon, in addition to a beautiful environment, may
offer coffee and soft drinks to waiting clients. Even if the styling outcome is not so great, the client
may feel so pampered with the atmosphere and service that she looks forward to her next visit.

Relationship Marketing : Developing a close personalized relationship with customers is another

form of nonproduct reinforcement. By informing them of a forthcoming sale.

Shaping : Reinforcement performed before the desired consumer behaviour actually takes place is
called shaping. For eg. Retailers recognize that they must first attract customers to their before they
can expect them to do bulk of their shopping. For eg. Some retailers offer most popular products at
severely discounted prices.

Elaboration Likelihood Model

The elaboration likelihood model suggests that a person’s level of involvement during message
processing is a critical factor in determining which route to persuasion is likely to be effective. For
eg. When involvement is high, consumers follow the central route and base their attitudes or
choices on the message arguments. When involvement is low, they follow the peripheral route and
rely more heavily on other message elements (such as spokespersons or background music) to form
attitudes or make product choices.
Measuring Consumer’s Involvement with Products
1. I would be interested in reading about this product.
2. I would read a Consumer Reports article about this product.
3. I have compared product characteristics among brands.
4. I usually pay attention to ads for this product.

Marketing applications of Involvement

There is evidence that people process information extensively when the purchase is of high personal
relevance and engage in limited information processing when the purchase is of low personal
relevance. For high involvement purchases, marketers should use arguments stressing the strong,
solid, high-quality attributes of their products. For low involvement purchases, marketers should use
the peripheral route to persuasion, focusing the use of celebrity spokespersons or highly visual and
symbolic advertisements rather than on the content of the message.

Attitude : Basics of Attitude

An attitude is a learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favourable or unfavourable way
with respect to a given object.

Nature of Attitude
  The attitude “object” : The word object in our consumer-oriented definition of attitude
should be interpreted broadly to include product, product category, brand, service,
possessions, product use, causes or issues, people, advertisement, Internet site, price,
medium or retailer. For eg. If we are examining consumer attitudes toward major brands of
computer, our objects might include HP, Dell, Lenovo, Sony Vaio and Apple
 Attitudes are a learned predisposition : Attitudes relevant to purchase behaviour are
formed as a result of direct experience with the product, word-of-mouth information
acquired from others, or exposure to mass media advertising, the internet and various forms
of direct marketing.
 Attitudes have consistency : Attitudes are relatively consistent with the behaviour they
reflect. For eg. If a consumer reported preferring German over Japanese automobiles, we
would expect that the individual would be more likely to buy a German brand when his
current vehicle needed to be replaced.
 Attitudes occur within a situation : Events or circumstances that, at a particular point in
time, influence the relationship between an attitude and behaviour. For eg. Ram purchases a
different brand of toothpaste everytime. His brand switching behaviour may actually reflect
a specific situation to purchase the least expensive brand.

Structural Models of Attitude

Tricomponent attitude model : According to the tricomponent attitude model, attitudes consist of
three major components : a cognitive component, an affective component, and a conative
component.

Conation

Affect

Cognition

The cognitive component : Consists of a person’s cognitions, that is, the knowledge and perceptions
that are acquired by a combination of direct experience with the attitude object and related
information from various sources. For eg. Based on past experience and the information collected
from the friends, Sanjay is able to compare two brands of Broadband Internet on the basic four
attributes : Speed, Availability, Reliability and other features.

The Affective Component : A consumer’s emotions or feelings about a particular product or brand
constitute the affective component of an attitude. These emotions and feelings are frequently
treated by consumer researchers as primarily evaluative in nature; i.e. the extent to which the
individual rates the attitude object as favourable or unfavourable, good or bad.

For eg. Compared to other aftershaves, Old Spice aftershave is:

Refreshing ------------------------------------------------------------------ Not Refreshing

Positive ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Negative

Pleasant -------------------------------------------------------------------- Unpleasant

Appealing to others ---------------------------------------------------------Unappealing to others

The Conative component : Conation is concerned with the likelihood or tendency that an individual
will undertake a specific action or behave in a particular way with regard to the attitude object. In
marketing and consumer research, the conative component is frequently treated as an expression of
the consumer’s intention to buy.

For eg. Which of the following statements best describes the chance that you will buy Old Spice
aftershave the next time?

------ I definitely will buy it.

------I probably will buy it.

------ I am uncertain whether I will buy it.

------ I probably will not buy it.

------ I definitely will not buy it.

Multiattribute attitude models

Multiattribute attitude models portray consumer’s attitudes with regard to an attitude object (eg. A
product, a service, a direct-mail catalogue, or a cause or an issue) as a function of consumer’s
perception and assessment of the key attributes or beliefs held with regard to the particular attitude
object.

The attitude-toward object model : The attitude toward object model is especially suitable for
measuring attitudes toward a product (or service) category or specific brands. According to this
model, the consumer’s attitude toward a product or specific brands of a product is a function of the
presence and evaluation of certain product specific attributes.
For eg. A Scale used to measure Attitude toward Brand Kelloggs on a scale of 1-4 (1-Definitely
Disagree, 4 – Definitely Agree)

Kellogg’s - I Like it - - - -
Kellogg’s – It is fun - - - -
Kellogg’s – I like it very much - - - -
Kellogg’s – It is useful - - - -

The attitude-toward-behaviour model : It is designed to capture the individual’s attitude toward

behaving or acting with respect to an object rather than the attitude toward object itself. It seems to
correspond somewhat more closely to actual behaviour than does the attitude-toward –object
model. For instance, knowing Sam’s attitude about the act of purchasing a Rolex wrist watch (i.e. his
attitude toward the behaviour) reveals more about the potential act of purchasing than does simply
knowing his attitude toward Rolex watches (i.e. the attitude toward the object).
 Consumer
Characteristics

Consumer
Demographics

Consumer Purchase The Attitude Online Shopping Rate

Preference toward Online
Shopping

Consumer Benefit
Perception

Consumer Lifestyle

Theory of Reasoned Action Model:

The theory of reasoned action model represents a comprehensive integration of attitude
components into a structure that is designed to lead to both better explanation and better
predictions of behaviour. The theory of reasoned action model incorporates a cognitive component,
an affective component and a conative component; however these are arranged in a pattern
different from that of the tricomponent model.

Beliefs that the

behaviour leads to
certain outcomes

Attitude toward
the behaviour

Evaluation of the
outcomes

Beliefs that specific Intention

Behaviour
referents think I should
or should not perform
the behaviour

Subjective norm

Motivation to comply
with the specific
referents
Persuasive Communication
In order to create persuasive communications, the sponsor (who may be an individual, a company)
must first establish the objectives of the communication, then select the appropriate audiences for
the message and the appropriate media through which to reach them , and then design the message
in a manner that is appropriate to each medium and to each audience.

Communications strategy
In developing its communications strategy, the sponsor must establish the primary communications
objectives. These might consist of creating awareness of a service, promoting sales of a product,
encouraging certain practices, attracting retail patronage, reducing postpurchase dissonance,
creating goodwill or a favourable image or any combination of these and other communications
objectives.

Postexperience
Preexperience Exposure
Exposure

Enhancing Organizing
Framing Perception
Experience Memory

1. Expectation 1. Sensory 1. Cueing

2. Anticipation Enhancement 2. 2. Branding
3. Interpretation 2. Social 3. Interpretation
Enhancement

Target Audience
Each individual has his own traits, characteristics, interests, needs, experience and knowledge, it is
essential for the sender to segment the audience into groups that are homogeneous in terms of
some relevant characteristic. Segmentation enables the sender to create specific messages for each
target group and to run them in specific media that are seen, heard or read by the relevant target
group.

Media Strategy
It calls for the placement of ads in the specific media read, viewed, or heard by each targeted
audience. To accomplish this, advertisers develop, through research, a consumer profile, of their
target customers that includes the specific media they read or watch. Media organizations regularly
research their own audiences in order to develop descriptive audience profiles.

Message Strategies
The message is the thought, idea, attitude, image or other information that the sender wishes to
convey to the intended audience. In trying to encode the message in a form that will enable the
audience to understand its precise meaning, the sender must know exactly what he or she is trying
to say and why. The sender must also know the target audience’s personal characteristics in terms of
education, interests needs and experiences. The sender must then design a message strategy
through words and/or pictures that will be perceived by the targeted audience.
Message Structure and Presentation
Some of the decisions that marketers must make in designing the message include the use of
resonance, positive or negative message framing, one-sided or two-sided messages, comparative
advertising and the order of presentation.
Resonance : Advertising resonance is defined as wordplay, often used to create a double meaning
used in combination with a relevant picture. Egs. Of advertising resonance include the phrase
“absolute masterpiece” appearing next to a bottle of Absolut Vodka. By using resonance in ads
marketers can improve the chances that their ads will be noticed by consumers and create
favourable and lasting impressions.
Message Framing : Should a marketer stress the benefits to be gained by using a specific product
(positive message framing eg. By using Olay Cream, you will get wrinkle free skin) or the benefits to
be lost by not using the product (negative message framing eg. U can met with an accident by not
wearing a helmet). Research suggests that the appropriate message framing decision depends on
the consumer’s attitude and characteristics as well as the product itself.
One-sided versus two-sided messages : Should marketers tell their audiences only the good points
about their products or should they also tell them the bad? Should they pretend that their products
are the only ones of their kind, or should they acknowledge competing products. It depends on the
nature of the audience and the nature of the competition.
Comparative Advertising : It is a widely used marketing strategy in which a marketer claims product
superiority for its brand over one or more competitors, either on an overall basis or on selected
product attributes. It is useful for product positioning, for target market selection and for brand
positioning strategies.
Order Effects : Is it best to present your commercial first or last? Should you give the bad news first
or last? Communications researchers have found that the order in which a message is presented
affects audience receptivity.

Thank You