1. Consumers and the Internet Describing consumers Understanding online consumption Recognizing marketing opportunities

2. The Big Picture, in Words People need resources to exist –Foa’s Resource Theory –Six types of resources People exist within environments –Environments create resource opportunities –Environments impose resource constraints People establish relationships to exchange resources

3. More Review The Internet is an environment –Contains resources –Affects resource consumption The Internet players –Consumers and marketers (direct effect on each other) –Technologists and policy makers (indirect effect on C’s and M’s, through the CEE)

4. Deja Vu: The Big Picture Agent AAgent B Technology Public Policy The Central Exchange Environment

5. Perspectives in Perspective: A Consumer Focus Need to understand how consumers obtain resources in the Internet environment –Who uses the Internet to get resources? –What do they get? –How do they get it? Need to leverage this knowledge to create and implement marketing strategy

6. Why Are We Doing This??? This is not “traditional” consumer behavior –New ways to consume online –New things to consume online Transaction-related activities are important –Psychology is relevant, but it’s not everything –Need to focus on exchanges Can’t just condense a CB text and expect it to make sense...

7. Who Are The Online Consumers? Descriptive research and inferential research Demographics and psychographics –Who they are... A profile of the typical user Some characteristics of online consumers –What they do…

8. Why Do They Do What They Do? Meeting needs with resources Transaction Agent AAgent B Internet Environment Facilitators & inhibitors Resources Exchanges Relationships ProcessesOutcomes

9. Resources and the Internet: Money What is it? –The meaning of money Does it change on the Internet? –Change of form (e.g., cash and poker chips) –Loss of tangibility effects –Do consumers’ money behaviors change? Different types of money for different goals –E.g., cash (tangible) for gifts, cybercash for bad things Patterns of discounting: intertemporal choice

10. More Money: Environmental Factors Facilitating effects of the Internet –New ways to get it Surf for cash Email chain letters (network patterns) –New ways to transfer it –New ways to use it (online gambling?) Inhibiting effects of the Internet –Show me the money! –Security fears

11. Resources and the Internet: Information What is it? –Earliest benefit of the Internet From data communications To information repository –Information as information E.g., News, communication –Information as product E.g., Entertainment –Information as service E.g., tax, medical information

12. More Information: Environmental Factors Using information as a resource –E.g., Decision making: search, evaluation, choice –Facilitating and inhibiting effects of the Internet Search: lots of information/too much information –How much to get? (Economics of information) –What is the quality of the information? Evaluation: how to structure the information –Effort/accuracy (cost/benefit) approaches –Heuristics Choice: confidence and satisfaction

13. The Other Resources, Next Class Goods (more concrete) Services, status, emotion –More personalizable –More interpersonal Your mission… –Group responsibility, bring examples to class –Find one example for each of the resources on the Internet