Consumer

Markets
 • How do consumer characteristics
Discussion
Chapter

influence buying behavior?

• What major psychological processes
influence consumer responses to the
marketing program??
• How do consumers make purchasing
decisions?
• How do marketers analyze consumer
decision making?
NCH
 Consumer Buying Behavior
Consumer/Customer Buying Behavior refers to the buying
behavior of final consumers - individuals & households who
buy goods and services for personal consumption

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR can be defined as the mental and

emotional processes and the physical activities that people
engage in when they select, purchase, use and dispose of
products or services to satisfy particular needs and wants

The central question for marketers is:

“How do consumers respond
. to various marketing efforts
the company might use?”
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 Model of Consumer Behavior

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 Model of Consumer Behavior
Buyer’s Black Box

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What Influences Consumer Behavior?

Cultural Factors

Social Factors

Personal Factors

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 What is Culture?

Culture is the fundamental

determinant of a person’s
wants and behaviors acquired
through socialization processes
with family and other key
institutions.

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 Culture
Religions
Nationalities

Sub-Cultures

Racial Geographic
Groups Regions
more specific identification and
NCH socialization for their members.
 Culture’s Pervasive Impact

• Culture influences every part of our lives

• Cultures impact on birth rates in Taiwan, Japan, and
Singapore
• Birthrates have implications for sellers of diapers,
toys, schools, and colleges
• Consumption of different types of food influence on
culture: chocolate by Swiss, seafood by Japanese, beef
by British, wines by France and Italy

• Even diseases are influenced by culture: stomach

cancer in Japan, and lung cancer in Spain
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What Influences Consumer Behavior?

Cultural Factors

Social Factors

Personal Factors

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 Social Factors

Reference
Family
groups

Social
Statuses
roles

NCH Who and what ?

 Reference Groups family, friends, neighbors,
and co-workers with whom
A person’s reference groups consists of all the the person interacts fairly
continuously and informally.
groups that have a direct (face-to-face) or
indirect influence on his/her attitudes or behavior
membership group - a direct influence on a person
Primary
Direct
religious, professional groups that
tend to be more formal

Secondary
Reference
Groups
Aspirational
Indirect
Non-aspirational
whose values or behavior an individual rejects.
NCH The buyer evaluates these elements together with the
monetary cost to form a total customer cost.
Implications of Reference
Groups

They serve as information sources and influence

perceptions

Their norms either constrain or stimulate consumer

behavior

Reference groups expose an individual to new behaviors

and lifestyles, influencing attitudes and self-concept

They affect an individual’s aspiration levels

They create pressures for conformity that may affect actual

product and brand choices
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Reference Groups Member’s Purchases
Requires two conditions:

The purchased product must be

one that others can see and
identify.

The purchased item must be

conspicuous; it must stand out as
something unusual, a brand or product
that not everyone owns.
NCH
 Family

Purchase Roles in
 Initiators
the Family
 Influencers
 Decision Makers
 Purchasers
Children
Influence  Consumers
Purchase
Decisions
NCH
 Family
Marketers are interested in the roles and relative
influence of family members in the purchase of a
large variety of products and services.

With expensive products and services, the vast

majority of husbands and wives engage in more
joint decision-making

Men and women may respond differently to

marketing messages.

Another shift in buying patterns is an increase in

the amount of dollars spent and the direct and
NCH indirect influence wielded by children and teens.
 Roles and Status

What degree of status is

associated with various
occupational roles?

NCH Each role carries a status

 Characteristics of Social Classes
• Within a class, people tend to behave alike
• Social class conveys perceptions of inferior or superior
position
• Class may be indicated by a cluster of variables
(occupation, income, wealth)
• Class designation is mobile over time
• Social classes show distinct product and brand
preferences in many areas.
• Social classes differ in media preferences.
• There are language differences among the social
classes.
NCH
What Influences Consumer Behavior?

Cultural Factors

Social Factors

Personal Factors

NCH
 Personal Factors
Age
Life cycle
Self-
stage
concept
Lifestyle Occupation

Values Wealth

Personality
Personality: A set of distinguishing human psychological traits that lead to relatively
consistent and enduring responses to environmental stimuli.
NCH
 The Family Life Cycle

NCH
 Brand Personality
Consumers choose and use brand that have a
brand personality consistent with their own actual self-concept (how one views themselves).

(down-to-earth)
Sincerity

Excitement (daring)

Competence (reliable)

Sophistication (upper-class)

Ruggedness (outdoorsy)
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 Lifestyle Influences
A lifestyle is a person’s pattern of living in the world as expressed in
activities, interests, and opinions.

Lifestyle portrays the “whole person” interacting with his or her

environment.

Multi-tasking

Time-starved

Money-constrained
Lifestyles are shaped partly by whether consumers are money-constrained or
time-constrained. Consumers who experience time famine are prone to
multitasking, doing two or more things at the same time.
NCH
What Influences Consumer Behavior?

Cultural Factors

Social Factors

Personal Factors

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 Model of Consumer Behavior
Buyer’s Black Box

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 Key Psychological Processes
Four main psychological processes affect consumer behavior:

Motivation Perception

Learning Memory

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 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

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 Perception is the meaning that a person attributes
Perception to incoming stimuli gathered through the five senses
—sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.
A person’s act is influenced by his or her view or perception of the situation.

Selective Attention

Selective Retention

Selective Distortion

Subliminal Perception
not consciously aware of these messages, but yet they affect their behavior
NCH
 Perceptions

Selective Consumer notices certain stimuli

Exposure/Attention and ignores others

Consumer remembers only

Selective
that information that
Retention supports personal beliefs

Selective Consumer changes or distorts

Distortion information that conflicts
with feelings or beliefs

NCH 29
 Marketing Implications
of Perception Marketing is
about
• Important attributes perceptions

• Higher price

• Brand names

• Quality and reliability

• Threshold level of perception

• Product or repositioning changes

NCH 30
 Key Psychological Processes
Four main psychological processes affect consumer behavior:

Motivation Perception

Learning Memory

NCH
 Model of Consumer Behavior
Buyer’s Black Box

NCH
 Consumer Buying Process

Problem Recognition

Information Search

Evaluation

Purchase Decision

Postpurchase
Behavior
NCH
 Types of Consumer
Buying Decisions

Routine Limited Extensive

Response Decision Decision
Behavior Making Making

Less More
Involvement Involvement

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 Problem Recognition

NCH
 Information Search

Personal Sources •Family, friends, neighbors

•Most effective source of
information

Commercial Sources •Advertising, salespeople

•Receives most information from
these sources

Public Sources •Mass Media

•Consumer-rating groups

•Handling the product

Experiential Sources •Examining the product
•Using the product
36
NCH
 A Consumer’s Evaluation of Brand
Beliefs About Laptops

NCH
 Consumer Buying Process

Problem Recognition

Information Search

Evaluation

Purchase Decision X

Postpurchase
Behavior
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 Postpurchase Behavior
Cognitive Dissonance

?
Did I make a good decision?

Did I buy the right product?

Did I get a good value?

Can minimize through:
Effective Communication
Follow-up
Guarantees
Warranties

Inner tension that a consumer experiences

after recognizing an inconsistency between behavior and values
or opinions.
NCH
 Types of Consumer
Buying Decisions

Routine Limited Extensive

Response Decision Decision
Behavior Making Making

Less More
Involvement Involvement

NCH
Analyzing
Business
Markets
 B2B
• The business market consists of all the
organizations that acquire goods and services
used in the production of other products or
services that are sold, rented, or supplied to
others.

• The major differences between the consumer

market and the B2B market lie:
• in the complexity of the decision process and
• the amount of people involved in the final purchasing
decision.
NCH
 The Special Set of Concepts And
Skills in B2B
Professional Salespeople

Products That Meet Specific And Sometimes Specially

Engineered Needs Of A Set Of A Few Customers;

Deemphasize Price In Exchange For Services

Delivery Terms

Special Financing Arrangements

Other Traditional “Non-marketing” Considerations.

NCH
In the B2B marketing both the selling
firm and the buying firm includes

Members of Other The Addition Of

Disciplines These People
(Engineering, Fosters Strong Ties
Transportation, Between The Two
Warehousing, Finance,
And Others) From The Firms But Also
Beginning Of The Lengthens The Time
Process To The Time and Complexity Of
Of Actual Purchase The Salle

NCH
Characteristics of Business Markets
• Fewer, larger • Multiple sales calls
buyers • Derived demand (derived
from the demand for consumers goods – important to
• Close supplier- understand consumer buying behavior)

customer
Customize offerings to
individual business
customer needs
• Inelastic demand (not
much affected by price change esp in short run)

relationships • Fluctuating demand

• Professional (volatile – an increase in consumer demand can lead to
much larger increase in demand…)

purchasing • Geographically
• Many buying concentrated buyers
influences(buying committees) • Direct purchasing

NCH
 Buying Situation
The business buyer faces many decisions in making a purchase. The number
of decisions depends on the buying situation:
complexity of the problem being solved, newness of the buying requirement,
number of people involved, and time required.

reorder
Straight rebuy

Change product specifications

Modified rebuy

New task
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Stages in the Buying Process: Buyphases
The difference(s) lie in the amount of time involved, the degree of
research expended, the decision-maker’s role and the evaluation
of the product or service.

• Problem recognition
• General need description
• Product specification
• Supplier search
• Proposal solicitation
• Supplier selection
• Order-routine specification
•
NCH Performance review