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The Importance of Understanding Consumer Behavior

1) Understanding consumer behavior is important for marketing managers because it allows them to better understand how consumers make purchase decisions and how they use and dispose of products. 2) The consumer decision-making process is a five-step model that involves need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and post-purchase evaluation. Cultural, social, and psychological factors all influence this process. 3) Cultural factors like values, subcultures, and social class shape consumer decisions. Social factors such as reference groups, opinion leaders, and family members also exert influence. Individual characteristics including age, personality, and motivations further impact the consumer decision-making process.

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rahul jambagi
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28 views

The Importance of Understanding Consumer Behavior

1) Understanding consumer behavior is important for marketing managers because it allows them to better understand how consumers make purchase decisions and how they use and dispose of products. 2) The consumer decision-making process is a five-step model that involves need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and post-purchase evaluation. Cultural, social, and psychological factors all influence this process. 3) Cultural factors like values, subcultures, and social class shape consumer decisions. Social factors such as reference groups, opinion leaders, and family members also exert influence. Individual characteristics including age, personality, and motivations further impact the consumer decision-making process.

Uploaded by

rahul jambagi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Importance of Understanding

Consumer Behavior

Explain why
marketing managers
should understand
consumer behavior
Understanding Consumer
Behavior
consumers make
purchase decisions

Consumer
behavior = HOW

consumers use and


dispose of product
The Consumer
Decision-Making Process

Analyze the
components
of the consumer
decision-making
process
Consumer
Decision-Making Process

Consumer
Decision-Making
Process A five-step process used
by consumers when
buying goods or services.
Exhibit 6.1
Consumer Decision-
Making Process
Need Recognition
Need
Recognition

Result of an imbalance between


actual and desired states.
Need Recognition

Int
e
Sti rnal
mu
li

Preferred
Present State
Status
n al
t e r li
Ex timu
S Marketing helps consumers recognize
an imbalance between present status
and preferred state.
Stimulus
Stimulus

Any unit of input affecting


one or more of the five senses:
•sight
•smell
•taste
•touch
•hearing
Recognition of
Unfulfilled Wants
• When a current product isn’t performing
properly

• When the consumer is running out of a


product

• When another product seems superior to the


one currently used
Information Search

Internal Information Search

• Recall information in memory

External Information search

• Seek information in outside environment


• Nonmarketing controlled
• Marketing controlled
External
Information Searches
Need Less Need More
Information Information

Less Risk More Risk


More knowledge Less knowledge
More product experience Less product experience
Low level of interest High level of interest
Confidence in decision Lack of confidence
Evaluation of Alternatives
and Purchase
Evoked Set Analyze product
attributes

Use cutoff criteria

Rank attributes by
importance
Purchase!
Purchase

To buy
or not to buy...

Determines which attributes


are most important
in influencing a
consumer’s choice
Types of Consumer Buying Decisions
and Consumer Involvement

Identify the types of


consumer buying
decisions and discuss
the significance of
consumer involvement
Consumer Buying Decisions
and Consumer Involvement

Routine Limited Extensive


Response Decision Decision
Behavior Making Making

Less More
Involvement Involvement
Involvement

Involvement is…
the amount of time and effort a buyer invests in the
search, evaluation, and decision processes of
consumer behavior.
Exhibit 6.2
Continuum of
Consumer Buying
Decisions
Routine
Response Behavior
 Little involvement in selection process

 Frequently purchased low cost goods

 May stick with one brand

 Buy first/evaluate later

 Quick decision
Limited Decision Making
 Low levels of involvement

 Low to moderate cost goods

 Evaluation of a few alternative


brands

 Short to moderate time to decide


Extensive Decision Making
 High levels of involvement

 High cost goods

 Evaluation of many brands

 Long time to decide

 May experience cognitive dissonance


Marketing Implications
of Involvement

High-involvement Extensive and informative


purchases require: promotion to target market

In-store promotion,
eye-catching package
Low-involvement
design, and good displays.
purchases require: Coupons, cents-off,
2-for-1 offers
Cultural Influences on
Consumer Buying Decisions

Identify and
understand the
cultural factors that
affect consumer
buying decisions
Factors Influencing Buying
Decisions

Cultural Social
Factors Factors CONSUMER
DECISION- BUY /
MAKING DON’T BUY
PROCESS
Psycho-
Individual
logical
Factors
Factors
Components of Culture
Values

Language

Myths

Customs

Rituals

Laws

Material artifacts
Culture is. . .

Pervasive

Functional

Learned

Dynamic
Value

The regard that


Value something is held to
deserve; the
importance, worth, or
usefulness of
something.
Understanding Cultural
Differences
• A firm has little chance of selling products in
a culture that it does not understand.
• Like people, products have cultural value.

In China In U.S.
Color of
mourning
Brides wear
Subculture

A homogeneous group
Subculture of people who share elements of the
overall culture as well as cultural
elements unique to their own group.
Social Class

A group of people in a society who are


considered nearly equal in status or community
Social Class esteem, who regularly socialize among
themselves both formally and informally, and
who share behavioral norms.
Exhibit 6.4
India’s Social Classes

SOURCE: Adapted from Richard P. Coleman, “The Continuing Significance of Social Class to Marketing,” Journal of Consumer Research, December 1983, 267; Dennis Gilbert and
Joseph A. Kahl, The American Class Structure: A Synthesis (Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press, 1982), ch. 11.
Social Class
Measurements

Occupation

Education
The Impact of
Social Class on Marketing

 Indicates which medium to use for


advertising

 Helps determine the best distribution for


products
Social Influences on
Consumer Buying Decisions

Identify and
understand the
social factors that
affect consumer
buying decisions
Social Influences
Reference
Groups

Opinion
Leaders

Family
Members
Exhibit 6.5
Types of Reference Groups
Influences of
Reference Groups
 They serve as information sources and influence
perceptions.

 They affect an individual’s aspiration levels.

 Their norms either constrain or stimulate


consumer behavior.
Opinion Leaders

Opinion Leaders
An individual who influences
the opinion of others.
Opinion Leaders…
…are the first to try new products
and services out of pure curiosity.
…can be challenging to locate.

Marketers are increasingly using


blogs, social networking, and other
online media to determine and attract
opinion leaders.
Family
Purchase Process Roles
in the Family
• Initiators

• Influencers

• Decision Makers

• Purchasers

• Consumers
Individual Influences on
Consumer Buying Decisions

Identify and
understand the
individual factors
that affect
consumer buying
decisions
Individual Influences

Personality
Age
Gender Self-Concept
Life Cycle
Lifestyle
Age and Family Life
Cycle Stage
• Consumer tastes in food, clothing, cars,
furniture, and recreation are often age
related.

• Marketers define target markets


according to life cycle stages such as
“young singles” or “young married with
children.”
Personality, Self-Concept,
and Lifestyle
• Personality combines psychological
makeup and environmental forces.
• Human behavior depends largely on self-
concept.
• Self-concept combines ideal self-image
and real self-image.
Psychological Influences on
Consumer Buying Decisions

Identify and
understand the
psychological
factors that affect
consumer buying
decisions
Psychological Influences

Perception

Motivation

Learning

Beliefs & Attitudes


Perception

Selective Consumer notices certain stimuli


Exposure and ignores others

Consumer changes or distorts


Selective
information that conflicts
Distortion
with feelings or beliefs
Consumer remembers only
Selective
that information that
Retention
supports personal beliefs
Marketing Implications
of Perception
 Important attributes
 Price
 Brand names
 Quality and reliability
 Threshold level of perception
 Product or repositioning changes
 Foreign consumer perception
 Subliminal perception
Motivation

Maslow’s
Hierarchy
of Needs
A method of classifying human
needs and motivations into five
categories in ascending order of
importance.
Exhibit 6.6
Maslow’s Hierarchy
of Needs
Types of Learning

An experience changes
Experiential
behavior

Not learned through direct


Conceptual
experience
Beliefs and Attitudes

An organized pattern of
Belief knowledge that an individual
holds as true about his or her
world.

A learned tendency to respond


Attitude consistently toward a given
object.
Changing Beliefs

• Change beliefs about the brand’s attributes


• Change the relative importance of these
beliefs
• Add new beliefs

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