Analyzing Consumer Markets

Chapter Questions

How do consumer characteristics influence

buying behavior?
What major psychological processes influence
consumer responses to the marketing
program?
How do consumers make purchasing
decisions?
In what ways do consumers stray from a
deliberate rational decision process?

Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar: Connecting

with Customers

Consumer Behavior
Consumer behavior is the study of
how individuals, groups, and
organizations select, buy, use, and
dispose of goods, services, ideas, or
experiences to satisfy their needs and
wants.

What Influences
Consumer Behavior?
Cultural Factors

Social Factors

Personal Factors

What Is Culture?
Culture is the fundamental determinant of a
persons wants and behaviors acquired
through socialization processes with family
and other key institutions.

Subcultures

Nationalities
Religions
Racial groups
Geographic regions

Social Classes
A1
A2
B1
B2
C
D
E1
E2

Social Factors
Reference groups
Family
Social roles
Statuses

Reference Groups

Membership groups
Primary groups
Secondary groups
Aspirational groups
Disassociative groups

Family
Family of orientation: parents and
siblings
Family of procreation: spouse and
children

Personal Factors

Age
Life cycle stage
Occupation
Wealth

Personality
Values
Lifestyle
Self-concept

Age and Stage of Lifecycle

Occupation and Economic

Circumstances
Marketers try to identify the occupational
groups that have above-average interest in
their products and services. Product and brand
choice are also affected by economic
circumstancesspendable income, savings
and assets, debts, borrowing power, and
attitudes toward spending and savingto a
great extent.

Personality
Personality refers to a set of distinguishing human
psychological traits that lead to relatively consistent
and enduring responses to environmental stimuli.
Personality can be a useful variable in analyzing
consumer brand choices.

Brand Personality

Sincerity
Excitement
Competence
Sophistication
Ruggedness

Lifestyle and Values

Figure 5.1 Model of

Consumer Behavior

Motivation
Freuds
Theory

Maslows
Hierarchy
of Needs

Herzbergs
Two-Factor
Theory

Behavior
is guided by
subconscious
motivations

Behavior
is driven by
lowest,
unmet need

Behavior is
guided by
motivating
and hygiene
factors

Maslows Hierarchy

Source: A. H. Maslow, Motivation and

Personality, 3rd ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall, 1987). Printed and electronically
reproduced by permission of Pearson
Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Perception

Selective attention
Selective retention
Selective distortion
Subliminal perception

Learning
Drive: A strong internal stimulus impelling action
Cue: Minor stimuli that determine when, where,
and how a person responds
Discrimination: Learning to recognize differences
in sets of similar stimuli and adjusting our
responses accordingly

Emotions

Memory

Short term memory

Long term memory

Figure 5.3 Hypothetical LIC Mental

Map

Figure 5.4 Consumer Buying Process

Problem Recognition

Information Search

Evaluation of alternatives

Purchase Decision

Postpurchase Behavior

Sources of Information

Personal

Commercial

Public

Experiential

Figure 5.5 Successive Sets in

Decision Making

Table 5.3 A Consumers Brand

Beliefs about Laptop Computers

Figure 5.6 Steps Between

Alternative Evaluation
and Purchase

Perceived Risk

Functional
Physical
Financial
Social
Psychological
Time

Figure 5.7 How Customers

Use or Dispose of Products

Source: Jacob Jacoby, et al., What about Disposition? Journal of Marketing (July
1977), p. 23. Reprinted with permission from the Journal of Marketing, published by the
American Marketing Association.

Low-Involvement Decision Making

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Central Route

Peripheral route

Decision Heuristics

Availability
Representativeness
Anchoring and adjustment

Framing

Choice architecture
Nudge

Mental Accounting

Consumers tend to:

Segregate gains
Integrate losses
Integrate smaller losses with larger gains
Segregate small gains from large losses

For Review

How do consumer characteristics influence

buying behavior?
What major psychological processes influence
consumer responses to the marketing
program?
How do consumers make purchasing
decisions?
In what ways do consumers stray from a
deliberate rational decision process?