Consumer behaviour = totality of consumer decisions in acquisition, consumption and disposition of goods, services, time and ideas by human-decision making units over time.
Offering = product/service/activity/experience/idea offered by marketing to consumers.
Acquisition = process by which consumers comes to own an offering. 8 ways to acquire an offering: buy, trade, rent/lease, barter/exchange, gift, find, steal or share.
Usage = process of using an offering
Disposition = process of discarding an offering. Several options to dispose a tangible product: find a new use for it, get rid of it temporarily, get rid of it permanently.
Consumer behaviour is a dynamic process, which involves many people. Markets are designed around consumers disposition decision to other consumers acquisition decisions. Broader changes in consumer behaviour change over time. Decisions consumer behaviour involves are: whether to acquire/use/dispose an offering, what offering to acquire/use/dispose of, why acquire/use/dispose of an offering, why an offering is no acquire/use/dispose of, and how to acquire/use/dispose of an offering. Consumer behaviour also involves emotions and coping.
Model of consumer behaviour = 4 domains, 1. Consumers culture, 2. Psychological core, 3. Process of making decisions, 4. Consumer behaviour outcomes and issues. Model is shown at the beginning of each chapter.
Consumer culture (1) = culture is typical or expected behaviours, norms and ideas that characterize a group of people. Consists of 4 subjects, 1. Reference groups and other social influences, 2. Diversity influence, 3. Household and social class influences, 4. Values, personality and lifestyles.
Psychological core (2) = consists of 4 subjects, 1. Motivation,ability and opportunity (MAO), 2. Exposure, attention, perception and comprehension , 3. Memort and knowledge, 4. Attitude formation and change.
Process of making decisions (3) = consists of 3 subjects, 1. Problem recognition and search for information, 2. Making judgements and decisions, 3. Making postdecision evaluation.
Consumer behaviour outcomes and issues (4) = consist of 3 subjects, 1. Symbols, 2. Innovation adoption and diffusion, 3. Behaviour, ethics and social responsibility.
Benefitting from consumer behaviour research = marketing managers (marketing is activity, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large), ethicists and advocacy groups, public policy makers and regulators, academics, and consumers and society. In general it helps to develop product-specific plans, broader strategies for market segmentation, targeting and positions, and making decisions about the marketing mix.
Developing and implementing consumer-oriented strategy = to create a value for customers. Think about how the market is segmented, how profitable each segment is, what the characteristics of consumers in each segment are and if consumers are satisfied with the existing offerings. Selecting the target market by determining which group they want to target and identify who is likely to be involved in the acquisition, usage and disposition.
Developing products = think about what ideas consumers have for new products, what attributes can be added/changed in existing offerings, how the offering should be branded and what the package/logo should look like.
Positioning = think about how competitive are the offerings positions, how should the offering be positioned and should the offering be repositioned.
Marketing promotion and communication decisions = Think about what the advertising objectives are, what the advertisement should look like, where and when the advertising should be placed, if the advertisement was effective, sales promotion objective and tactics, have the sales promotions been effective and how can salespeople best serve customers.
Making price decisions = think about what price should be charged (too low is cheap, your product will be compared with other brands and think about choice overload/default option), about sensitivity for price and price changes and when certain price tactics should be used
Making distribution decisions = think about when and where the target consumer is likely to shop, what customers want to see in the store and how stores should be designed (such as stock products that are often used together near each other, and are the customers shopping for fun or seeking quickly).
Consumer motivation and its effects
Motivation = an inner state of arousal that provides energy needed to achieve a goal. A motivated person is willing to engage in a goal-relevant activity, e.g., buying a new product. A result of motivation is effortful behavior, like researching product information online and asking for advice in a store. If there has to be put too much effort into a purchase, the consumer may choose to delay it or buy the product somewhere else (e.g. in case of a long waiting line). The higher the motivation, the more the consumer takes effort in paying attention, thinking about the offer, attempting to understand and evaluate information, and to remember that later on.
Motivated reasoning = processing information in a way that allows consumers to reach the conclusion that they want to reach. Example: people that are on a diet, believe more in the benefits of diet products than people who are not dieting.
Felt involvement = self-reported arousal or interest in an offering, activity, or decision. It is the psychological experience of the motivated consumer, and can be:
Enduring: when a person shows interest in an offering over a long period of time (e.g. car enthusiasts);
Situational (temporary): when a person shows more interest during a limited period of time (e.g. when looking for a new car);
Cognitive: when a person is interested in thinking about and processing information related to his goal (where the goal is learning about the offer, e.g., a football fan wanting to know everything about the tactics of the game);
Affective: when a person is willing to expend emotional energy in/has deep feelings about an offering (e.g., listening to music in order to feel better).
Response involvement = interest in certain decisions and behaviors, for example being highly involved in the process of choosing between brands. It is important to specify the object of involvement: consumers may only buy a certain brand because they are a fan, but if they are only fan of a certain commercial, they may still not buy the brand that is the object of that commercial because they are loyal to another brand.
What affects motivation?
Motivation is affected when consumers regard something as:
Personally relevant;
Consistent with their values, needs, goals, emotions, and self-control processes;
Risky;
Moderately inconsistent with their prior attitudes.
Personal relevance = the extent to which something has a direct bearing on and significant implications for your life. Every offering may be relevant to the extent that it bears on a person’s self-concept = our mental view of who we are and the way we think others see us. This can influence buying behaviors, e.g., when using clothes to communicate our personal style.
Values = abstract, enduring beliefs about what is right or wrong, important, or good or bad.
Needs = internal states of tension caused by disequilibrium from an ideal/desired physical or psychological state. Example: feeling that your stomach is empty and has the need for food, and eating to resolve this problem.
Maslow identifies five need levels. In general, lower leveled needs (1, 2, 3, 4) should be satisfied before higher level needs (5, 4, 3, 2) can be activated:
Physiological (food, water, and sleep);
Safety (shelter, protection, and security);
Social (affection, friendship, and to belong);
Egoistic (prestige, success, accomplishment, and self-esteem);
Self-actualization (self-fulfillment and enriching experiences).
Another categorization of needs:
Social needs = externally directed and relate to other individuals (e.g., needs for status and affiliation). Fulfilling them requires other people to be around. Antisocial needs exist as well, e.g., the needs for space and distance from other people.
Nonsocial needs = those for which achievement is not based on other people (e.g., sleep, control, understanding, and consistency).
Functional needs = motivate the search for offerings that solve consumption-related problems.
Symbolic needs = how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us, how we relate to others, and the esteem in which we are held by others (e.g., achievement, independence, and self-control).
Hedonic needs = needs for sensory/cognitive stimulation, novelty (non-social), and reinforcement, sex, and play (social).
Needs for cognition and stimulation = the higher the needs for understanding and sensory stimulation, the more involved a consumer is.
All the needs above have various characteristics. They are dynamic in that they are never fully satisfied, and satisfaction is only temporary. They exist in a hierarchy: some are more important at a time than others (e.g., when you have to pee, all other things can wait),
but they can also be combined (e.g., eating with friends satisfies both social and non-social needs). Some can be internally activated, why others are externally cued. Conflicts:
Approach-avoidance conflict = an inner struggle about acquiring/consuming an offering that fulfills one need but fails to fulfill another.
Approach-approach conflict = an inner struggle about which offering to acquire when each can satisfy an important, but different, need.
Avoidance-avoidance conflict = an inner struggle about which offering to acquire when neither can satisfy an important but different need.
Consumers may find it hard to define their needs, and because they often satisfy a certain need in various ways, they are also hard to observe. To uncover needs, marketers use indirect research techniques.
Goal = a particular outcome that a person would like to achieve. Goals are more specific than needs. Goal setting includes what to pursue (e.g. saving money), and at what level (e.g. 500 Euros). Consumers are constantly setting goals, pursuing them, determining success and failure, and adapting their goals. The easier a goal can be visualized, the easier it is to pursue. Certain goals can be more abstract than others. ‘Being on time tomorrow’ is concrete, while ‘being a good person’ is rather abstract.
A promotion-focused goal motivates consumers to act in ways to achieve positive outcomes. With prevention-focused goals, they are motivated to avoid negative outcomes.
Appraisal theory = a theory of emotion that proposes that emotions are based on an individual’s assessment of a situation or an outcome and its relevance to his goals. A person feels positive emotions when an outcome is consistent with his goals. A person might feel proud when a good outcome happens, when he is the cause of that outcome, and when it is consistent with what he should have done.
Benign envy = paying more for a product because others, who are socially admired, have it. Malicious envy = paying more because others, who are socially admired, do not have it.
Self-control = a process consumers use to regulate feelings, thoughts, and behavior in line with long-term goals. The mental effort in decision making may result in ego depletion = mental resources being exhausted. This reduces decision quality. People seeking to exert self-control are in a conflict between short-term desire (hedonic) and long-term will-power (utilitarian). Goals can thus be used to regulate how you feel (e.g., eating ice cream to feel better) or to regulate what you do. Embodiment = connection between mind and body that influences consumer self-control and behavior.
Marketers can enhance consumers’ motivation to process and act on advertisements by making the information personally relevant for them and by appealing to consumers’ self-concepts, values, needs, or goals. New products/services are often better suited to consumers’ needs when consumers are involved in their development (co-creation).
Perceived risk = the extent to which the consumer is uncertain about the consequences of an action. The more likely a negative outcome will result, the higher the risk. Perceived risk is higher when:
Little information is available,
The offering is new, expensive, or technologically complex,
Brands differ fairly substantially in quality and may lead to the consumer making a non-optimal choice,
The consumer has little experience in evaluating the offer;
The opinions of others are important, and the consumer is likely to be judged based on his decisions.
Types of risk are:
Performance risk = the possibility that the offering will perform less than expected;
Physical risk = the extent to which buying, using, or disposing of an offering is perceived to have the potential to create physical harm or harm one’s safety;
Psychological risk = the extent to which buying, using, or disposing of an offering is perceived to have the potential to harm one’s sense of self and thus create negative emotions;
Financial risk = the extent to which buying, using, or disposing of an offering is perceived to have the potential to create financial harm;
Social risk = the extent to which buying, using, or disposing of an offering is perceived to have the potential to do harm to one’s social standing;
Time risk = the extent to which buying, using, or disposing of an offering is perceived to have the potential to lead to loss of time.
Consumers reduce risk and uncertainty by collecting information online, reading news articles, engaging in comparative shopping, talking to friends or experts, and by being brand loyal. They can also use simple decisions rules like buying the most expensive product or a well-known brand.
Consistency with attitudes = the extent to which new information is consistent with previously acquired knowledge/attitudes. Messages that are perceived to be uncomfortable or threatening because they are inconsistent with our prior beliefs, get more attention than consistent ones. Highly inconsistent information is often ignored, because consumers don’t believe it can be true (e.g., a negative review of their favorite brand).
Consumer ability: resources to act
Ability = the extent to which consumers have the necessary resources to make the outcome happen.
The higher the ability to process information, the higher the engagement in active decision making. Various resources can affect consumers’ abilities:
Financial resources: money can be used to hire experts to do the things for you that you can’t do by yourself.
Cognitive resources: knowledgeable consumers are better able to think thoroughly than are equally motivated, but less knowledgeable consumers. Experts look at the attributes, while novices look at the benefits. When a person isn’t knowledgeable about a certain object, he may use heuristics (simple decision cues) to make his decision. Some people are more visually oriented, while others like information to be verbally presented to them.
Emotional resources: consumers’ ability to experience empathy and sympathy affects their information processing and decisions. It also affects the actions they take to engage in charitable events and the likelihood they will donate to good causes.
Physical resources: body power can affect decisions, for example when fit people decide to go for a challenging hike.
Social and cultural resources: these can affect acquisition, consumption, and disposition behavior. They also affect the degree to which strong word of mouth will be supported by a person’s social network.
Education and age: better-educated people will have more cognitive resources to use. Older people take more time to process information and to make decisions.
Marketers should make sure that consumers have enough prior knowledge about an advertised product and appeal to different processing styles, education levels, and ages.
Consumer opportunity
The final factor affecting whether motivation results in action is consumers’ opportunity to engage in a behavior. A person may not take an action because of lack of time, distraction, or the complexity, amount, repetition, and control of information.
Time affects the consumer’s opportunity to process information, make decisions, and perform behaviors. The higher the time pressure, the more consumers will engage in limited information processing. Such consumers are also likely to put more weight on negative information and thus quickly reject brands with negative features.
Distraction = any aspect of a situation that diverts consumers’ attention. It influences the effect of consumers’ thoughts on their choices, not the effect of their emotions on choices.
Technical, quantitative information is harder to process (complexity). Information may also be perceived as complex if there is a lot of it (amount). When repeatedly exposed to the same information, consumers find the information easier to process (repetition). Consumers also find information easier to process when they can control what is presented to them, for how long, and in what order.
Marketers can take various actions to make information processing more convenient for consumers:
Repeating marketing communications (through different media channels) increases the chance that consumers will notice and process information.
Reducing time pressure can lessen distractions, e.g., extending opening hours.
Reducing the time needed to buy, use, and learn about a product/service allows for more chances to process information and act on decisions, e.g., clear signage in a store.
Offering information when and where consumers choose to access it will provide more opportunities for processing and acting on information.
Exposure and consumer behavior
Exposure = coming into physical contact with a stimulus.
Marketing stimuli = contain information about products/brands/other offerings communicated by either the marketer or by non-marketing sources like consumer reviews. The position of an advertisement is important (e.g., TV commercials shown during primetime). Also product distribution and shelf placement affect how, when, and where consumers are exposed to brands. Consumers can choose toRead more
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