Chapter Objectives Consumer Behavior CHAPTER Define consumer behavior and describe the role it plays in marketing decisions. Describe the interpersonal determinants of consumer behavior: cultural, social, and family influences. Explain each of the personal determinants of consumer behavior: needs and motives, perceptions, attitudes, learning, and self-concept theory. Distinguish between high-involvement and low-involvement purchase decisions. Outline the steps in the consumer decision process. Differentiate among routinized response behavior, limited problem solving, and extended problem solving by consumers. 4

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior Process through which buyers make decisions. Marketers borrow extensively from psychology and sociology to better understand consumer behavior. Consumer behavior is usually understood as a function of interpersonal influences and personal factors.

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior INTERPERSONAL DETERMINANTS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CULTURAL INFLUENCES Culture Values, beliefs, preferences, and tastes handed down from one generation to the next. Culture is a broad environmental determinant of behavior. Core Values in U.S. Culture Work ethic and desire the accumulate wealth. Importance of family and home life. Individualism, education, freedom, youth, health, and others. Consumers are adopting new values as communication technology changes.

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior International Perspective on Cultural Influences Successful strategies in one country may not extend to others. Subcultures Groups within a culture that have their own modes of behavior. In U.S. subcultures can differ by ethnicity, nationality, age, rural versus urban location, religion, and geographic distribution. Population mix in U.S. is changing as the Hispanic, African American, and Asian populations grow.

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior SOCIAL INFLUENCES Everyone belongs to multiple social groups: family, neighborhood, clubs, and sports teams. Group membership influences buying decisions. Groups establish norms of behavior—values, attitudes, and behaviors that a group deems appropriate for its members. Differences in status and roles within groups also influence behavior. Some Americans make purchases to enhance their status within social groups, and others work to reduce their consumption dramatically. The Asch Phenomenon Theory of psychologist S. E. Asch that individuals conform to majority rule, even if that majority rule goes against their beliefs.

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior Reference Groups Reference groups People or institutions whose opinions are valued and to whom a person looks for guidance in his or her own behavior, values, and conduct, such as family, friends, or celebrities. Influence of reference group depends on two conditions: Purchased product must be seen and identifiable. Purchased product must be conspicuous, something not everybody owns. Social Classes Six classes: upper-upper, lower-upper, upper-middle, lower-middle, working class, lower class. Income not always a primary factor. Individuals’ buying habits sometimes reflect the class to which they aspire.

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior Opinion Leaders Reference groups Trend- setters who purchase new products before others in a group and then influence others in their purchases. Individuals tend to act as opinion leaders for specific goods or services. Information sometimes flows from mass media to opinion leaders to consumers; sometimes flows directly to consumers.

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior FAMILY INFLUENCES Like other influences, families have norms of expected behavior, status relationships, and roles. Family structure changing. 1900Today Percent of households headed by married couple 8053 Percent of households that include extended family 5010 Percnet of married women who work outside the home 660

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior FAMILY INFLUENCES Four roles of spouses: Autonomic role—partners independently make an equal number of decisions. Husband-dominant role—husband usually makes certain buying decisions, such as purchasing life insurance. Wife-dominant role—wife makes buying decisions, such as buying children’s clothing. Syncratic role—buying decision made jointly. Increasing occurrence of two-income households increases likelihood of spouses making joint buying decisions. Children and Teenagers in Family Purchases Have $192 billion in purchasing power either directly or by influencing family purchasing decisions.

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior PERSONAL DETERMINANTS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR NEEDS AND MOTIVES Need Imbalance between a consumer’s actual and desired states. Motive Inner state that directs a person toward the goal of satisfying a need. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Developed by psychologist Abraham H. Maslow Identifies five levels of human needs. Person must at least partially satisfy lower-level needs before higher-level needs affect behavior.

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior PERCEPTIONS Perception Meaning that a person attributes to incoming stimuli gathered through the five senses. Results from two types of factors: Stimulus factors—characteristics of the physical object such as size, color, weight, and shape. Individual factors—unique characteristics of the individual, including not only sensory processes but also experiences with similar inputs and basic motivations and expectations. Perceptual Screens Consumers are bombarded by commercial messages. Perceptual screens help people filter out some messages. Advertisers work to break through these screens such as through using large ads, word-of-mouth advertising, and virtual reality.

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior Subliminal Perception Subconscious receipt of incoming information. Use is aimed at subverting perceptual screens. Unlikely to work in customers not already inclined to buy. ATTITUDES Attitudes Person’s enduring favorable or unfavorable evaluations, emotions, or action tendencies toward some object or idea. Attitude Components Cognitive—individual’s knowledge about an object or concept. Affective—deals with feelings or emotional reactions. Behavioral—tendencies to act in a certain manner.

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior Changing Customer Attitudes Marketers have two choices for appealing to consumer attitudes: Attempt to produce consumer attitudes that will motivate purchase of a particular product. Evaluate existing consumer attitudes and then make the product features appeal to them. Attitudes may not be unfavorable, just not motivating the consumer toward a purchase. Modifying the Components of Attitude Provide information about product benefits and correcting misconceptions. Engaging buyers in new behavior. New technologies can encourage changes in customers’ attitudes.

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior LEARNING Learning Knowledge or skill that is acquired as a result of experience, which changes consumer behavior. Learning process: Drive—any strong stimulus that impels action. Cue—any object in the environment that determines the nature of the consumer’s response to a drive. Response—an individual’s reaction to a set of cues and drives. Reinforcement—the reduction in drive that results from a proper response; creates bond between the drive and the purchase of the product.

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior Applying Learning Theory to Marketing Decisions Marketers use shaping, the process of applying a series of rewards and reinforcements to permit more complex behavior to evolve. Product and promotional strategy work together in the shaping process. SELF-CONCEPT THEORY Self-concept Person’s multifaceted picture of himself or herself. Four components—real self, self-image, looking-glass self, and ideal self— influence purchasing decisions.

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior THE CONSUMER DECISION PROCESS High-involvement purchasing decisions include buying a car. Low-involvement purchasing decisions include buying a candy bar.

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior PROBLEM OR OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION Consumer becomes aware of a significant discrepancy between the existing situation and a desired situation. SEARCH Consumer gathers information about the attainment of a desired state of affairs. Evoked set Number of alternatives that a consumer actually considers in making a purchase decision. EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES Consumer accepts, distorts, or rejects information as they receive it. Evaluative criteria Features that a consumer considers in choosing among alternatives.

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior PURCHASE DECISION AND PURCHASE ACT Consumer decides where or from whom to make the purchase. POST-PURCHASE EVALUATION Buyer feels either satisfaction at the removal of the discrepancy between the existing and desired states or dissatisfaction with the purchase. Cognitive dissonance Imbalance among knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes that occurs after an action or decision, such as a purchase. Reasons dissonance may increase: The dollar value of a purchase increases. The rejected alternatives have desirable features that the chosen alternatives do not provide The purchase decision has a major effect on the buyer.

CHAPTER 5 Consumer Behavior CLASSIFYING CONSUMER PROBLEM-SOLVING PROCESSES Results from two types of factors: Routinized Response Behavior Consumer makes many purchases routinely by choosing a preferred brand or one of a limited group of acceptable brands. Limited Problem Solving Consumer has previously set evaluative criteria for a particular kind of purchase but then encounters a new, unknown brand. Extended Problem Solving Results when brands are difficult to categorize or evaluate. Typical of high-involvement purchases.