Master in Marketing and Communication
Module 5
Consumer Markets and Consumer
Buyer Behavior
Module 5 - slide 1
Consumer Markets and Consumer
Buyer Behavior
Topic Outline
• Model of Consumer Behavior
• Characteristics Affecting Consumer
Behavior
• Types of Buying Decision Behavior
• The Buyer Decision Process
• The Buyer Decision Process for New
Products
Module 5 - slide 2
Model of Consumer Behavior
Consumer buyer behavior refers to the buying
behavior of final consumers—individuals and
households who buy goods and services for
personal consumption
Consumer market refers to all of the personal
consumption of final consumers
Module 5 - slide 3
Analysing consumer behaviour
• What do consumers buy? • Why do they buy?
• Where do they buy? • How do they buy?
• When do they buy? • Who buys?
Module 5 - slide 4
Stimulus-response model of buyer
behaviour
Marketing
and stimuli
Buyer’s
black box
Buyer
responses
Module 5 - slide 5
Model of Consumer Behavior
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
Derren Brown
Module 5 - slide 6
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
Module 5 - slide 7
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Culture is the learned values, perceptions,
wants, and behavior from family and other
important institutions
Module 5 - slide 8
Culture
Country Clusters
NEAR NORDIC
EASTERN
Turkey Finland
Denmark
ARAB Iran GERMANIC
Bahrain Greece Sweden
Austria
United Arab Emirates Norway
Abu-Dhabi Germany
Kuwait Oman Saudi Arabia Switzerland
Singapore Malaysia
United States Australia
Hong
FAR
Kong Chile Canada ANGLO
EASTERN France
South Vietnam Philippines Argentina United Kingdom
Belgium New Zealand
Thailand Indonesia Mexico Ireland
Taiwan Peru LATIN
LATIN EUROPEAN South Africa
AMERICAN
Italy Spain
Venezuela
Columbia Portugal
Brazil Israel
Japan India
INDEPENDENT
Chapter 5- slide 9
Culture - Geert Hofstede
•Power distance
•Uncertainty avoidance
•Individualism/collectivism
•Masculinity/femininity
Chapter 5- slide 10
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Subculture are groups of people within a culture
with shared value systems based on common life
experiences and situations
• Hispanic
• African American
• Asian
• Mature consumers
Module 5 - slide 11
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Social classes are society’s relatively
permanent and ordered divisions whose
members share similar values, interests,
and behaviors
• Measured by a combination of occupation,
income, education, wealth, and other
variables
Module 5 - slide 12
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Social classes
[Link]
Module 5 - slide 13
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Groups and Social Networks
Membership Aspirational Reference
Groups Groups Groups
• Groups with • Groups an • Groups that
direct individual form a
influence wishes to comparison
and to belong to or reference
which a in forming
person attitudes or
belongs behavior
Module 5 - slide 14
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Groups and Social Networks
• Word-of-mouth influence and
buzz marketing
– Opinion leaders are people
within a reference group who
exert social influence on others
– Also called influentials or
leading adopters
– Marketers identify them to use
as brand ambassadors
[Link]
Module 5 - slide 15
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Groups and Social Networks
• Online Social Networks are
online communities where
people socialize or exchange
information and opinions
• Include blogs, social
networking sites (facebook),
virtual worlds (second life)
Module 5 - slide 16
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Social Factors
• Family is the most important consumer-buying
organization in society
– Family of orientation
– Family of procreation
• Wife as main purchasing agent
• Children’s influence on family buying decisions
Module 5 - slide 17
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Children in Europe
• 76 million under 14
• Estimated €18bn in disposable income
• Influence an additional €100bn that their families spend
in food, clothing, entertainment, personal care items.
• Influence family decision about vacations, cars, mobile
phones
Module 5 - slide 18
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Social Factors
• Social roles and status
are the groups, family,
clubs, and organizations
that a person belongs to
that can define role and
social status
Module 5 - slide 19
Consumer buying roles
• Initiator: Person who first suggests or
thinks of the idea of buying a particular
product.
• Influencer: A person whose views or
advice will influence the product or
service.
• Decider: Buying decision maker of the
product
• Buyer: Ultimate purchaser
• User: Ultimate user
Module 5 - slide 20
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Personal Factors
• Age and life-cycle stage
• RBC Royal Band stages
– Youth: younger than 18
– Getting started: 18–35
– Builders: 35–50
– Accumulators: 50–60
– Preservers: over 60
Module 5 - slide 21
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Personal Factors
Occupation affects the goods and services
bought by consumers
Economic situation includes trends in:
Personal Interest
Savings
income rates
Module 5 - slide 22
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Personal Factors
Lifestyle is a person’s
pattern of living as
expressed in his or her
psychographics
• Measures a consumer’s
AIOs (activities, interests,
opinions) to capture
information about a
person’s pattern of acting
and interacting in the
environment
Module 5 - slide 23
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Personal Factors
• Personality and self-concept
– Personality refers to the unique psychological
characteristics that lead to consistent and
lasting responses to the consumer’s
environment
Module 5 - slide 24
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Personal Factors
Personal
Dominance Autonomy
Factors
Defensiveness Adaptability Aggressiveness
Module 5 - slide 25
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Brand Personality Traits
A brand personality is the specific mix of human traits that may
be attributed to a particular brand. One researcher identified
five brand personality traits:
1. Sincerity (down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, and
cheerful)
2. Excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative, and up-to-date)
3. Competence (reliable, intelligent, and successful)
4. Sophistication (upper class and charming)
5. Ruggedness (outdoorsy and tough)
Module 5 - slide 26
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Personal Factors
• Self-concept (or self-image)
– The complex mental picture that people have
of themselves.
– How do you view yourself?
– “We are what we have” (?)
Module 5 - slide 27
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Psychological Factors
Motivation
Perception
Learning
Beliefs and attitudes
Module 5 - slide 28
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Psychological Factors
Motivation
A motive is a need that is sufficiently pressing to
direct the person to seek satisfaction
– Biological
– Psychological
Motivation research refers to qualitative research
designed to probe consumers’ hidden,
subconscious motivations
Module 5 - slide 29
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Module 5 - slide 30
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Psychological Factors
Perception is the process by
which people select,
organize, and interpret
information to form a
meaningful picture of the
world from three perceptual
processes
– Selective attention
– Selective distortion
– Selective retention
Module 5 - slide 31
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Psychological Factors
Selective attention is the tendency for people to
screen out most of the information to which they
are exposed
Selective distortion is the tendency for people to
interpret information in a way that will support
what they already believe
Selective retention is the tendency to remember
good points made about a brand they favor and
forget good points about competing brands
Module 5 - slide 32
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Psychological Factors
• Learning is the change in an individual’s
behavior arising from experience and
occurs through interplay of:
Drives Stimuli Cues
Responses Reinforcement
Module 5 - slide 33
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Psychological Factors
Beliefs and Attitudes
Belief is a descriptive thought that a person
has about something based on:
• Knowledge
• Opinion
• Faith
Module 5 - slide 34
Characteristics Affecting
Consumer Behavior
Psychological Factors
Attitudes describe a
person’s relatively
consistent evaluations,
feelings, and
tendencies toward an
object or idea
Module 5 - slide 35
Types of Buying Decision
Behavior
Complex buying behavior
Dissonance-reducing buying behavior
Habitual buying behavior
Variety-seeking buying behavior
Module 5 - slide 36
Types of Buying Decision
Behavior
Four Types of Buying Behavior
Module 5 - slide 37
Buying decision behaviour
• Complex buying behaviour: High involvement in a purchase and
perceived significant differences among brands. Consumers may
be highly involved when the product is expensive, risky,
purchased infrequently, and highly self-expressive. (Ex.: car)
• Dissonance-reducing buying behaviour: Situations characterised
by high involvement with an expensive, infrequent or risky
purchase but few perceived differences among the brands. (Ex.:
carpeting)
• Habitual buying behaviour: Characterised by low consumer
involvement and few significant perceived brand differences
(Ex.: salt)
• Variety seeking buying behaviour: Low consumer involvement
but significant perceived brand differences (Ex.: cookies)
Module 5 - slide 38
The buyer decision process
Need
recognition
Information
search
Evaluation of
alternatives
Purchase
decision
Postpurchase
behaviour
Module 5 - slide 39
The Buyer Decision Process
Need Recognition
• Occurs when the buyer recognizes a
problem or need triggered by:
– Internal stimuli
– External stimuli
Module 5 - slide 40
The Buyer Decision Process
Information Search
Sources of Information
• Personal sources - family and
friends
• Commercial sources -
advertising, Internet
• Public sources - mass media,
consumer organizations
• Experiential sources - handling,
examining, using the product
Module 5 - slide 41
The Buyer Decision Process
Evaluation of Alternatives
During this stage consumers:
• Look for certain benefits that can be acquired by
buying a product
• Attach degrees of importance to each attribute
• Develop brand beliefs about each brand
• Use a utility function for each attribute
• Arrive at attitudes toward each brand through an
evaluation procedure
Module 5 - slide 42
The Buyer Decision Process
Evaluation of Alternatives – Expectancy value model
Example: notebook computer
Importance Alternative
Brands
Attributes Weight A B C
Size 0.2 4 6 2
Memory 0.5 6 3 7
Warranty 0.1 5 5 4
Price 0.2 4 6 7
A score can be calculated for each brand by multiplying the importance weight for
each attribute by the brand’s score on that attribute. These weighted scores are then
summed to determine the score for that brand. For example:
ScoreBrand A = (0.2 x 4) + (0.5 x 6) + (0.1 x 5) + (0.2 x 4) = 0.8 + 3.0 + 0.5 + 0.8 = 5.1.
This consumer will select the brand with the highest score.
Module 5 - slide 43
The Buyer Decision Process
Evaluation of Alternatives – Expectancy value model
Example: notebook computer
Importance Alternative
Brands
Attributes Weight A B C
Size 0.2 4 6 2
Memory 0.5 6 3 7
Warranty 0.1 5 5 4
Price 0.2 4 6 7
Calculate the scores for brands B and C. Which brand would this consumer likely
choose?
ScoreBrand B = (0.2 x 6) + (0.5 x 3) + (0.1 x 5) + (0.2 x 6) = 1.2 + 1.5 + 0.5 + 1.2 = 4.4
ScoreBrand C = (0.2 x 2) + (0.5 x 7) + (0.1 x 4) + (0.2 x 7) = 0.4 + 3.5 + 0.4 + 1.4 = 5.7
Based on this analysis, the consumer would probably select Brand C because it has
the highest score.
Module 5 - slide 44
The Buyer Decision Process
Purchase Decision
• The act by the consumer to buy the most
preferred brand
• The purchase decision can be affected by:
– Attitudes of others
– Unexpected situational factors
Module 5 - slide 45
The Buyer Decision Process
Post-Purchase Decision
• The satisfaction or dissatisfaction that the
consumer feels about the purchase
• Relationship between:
– Consumer’s expectations
– Product’s perceived performance
• The larger the gap between expectation and
performance, the greater the consumer’s
dissatisfaction
• Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort caused
by a post-purchase conflict
Module 5 - slide 46
The Buyer Decision Process
Post-Purchase Decision
Customer satisfaction is a key to building
profitable relationships with consumers - to
keeping and growing consumers and
reaping their customer lifetime value
Module 5 - slide 47
The Buyer Decision Process for
New Products
Adoption process is the mental process an
individual goes through from first learning
about an innovation to final regular use.
• Stages in the process include:
Awareness Interest Evaluation Trial Adoption
Module 5 - slide 48
Adopter categorisation on the
basis of relative time of adoption
of innovations
Source: Reprinted with permission of The Free Press, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., by Everett
M. Rogers. Copyright © 1995 by Everett M. Rogers from Diffusion of Innovations, fourth edition.
Copyright © 1962, 1971, 1983 by The Free Press
Module 5 - slide 49
The Buyer Decision Process for
New Products
Influence of Product Characteristics
on Rate of Adoption
Relative
Compatibility Complexity
advantage
Divisibility Communicability
Module 5 - slide 50
Discussing the concepts
• Thinking about the purchase of a hi-fi system, indicate
the extent to which cultural, social, personal, and
psychological factors affect how a buyer evaluates hi-
fi products and chooses a brand.
• Describe and contrast any differences in the buying
behaviour of consumers for the following: a music
download, a notebook computer, a pair of trainers,
and a breakfast cereal.
Module 5 - slide 51
Discussing the concepts
• How do consumers respond to various marketing
efforts the company might use? List the buyer
characteristics that affect buyer behavior and
discuss which one(s) influence you most when
making a new-car purchase decision.
• Name and describe the types of consumer buying
behavior. Which one would you most likely use if
deciding on a laptop computer purchase and which
for picking a restaurant for dinner?
• Explain the stages of the consumer buyer decision
process and describe how you or your family went
through this process to make a recent purchase.
Module 5 - slide 52
Discussing the concepts
1. How might a marketer influence a consumer’s
information search through each of the four
information sources discussed in the chapter?
2. What is a “new” product and how do consumers
go about deciding whether to adopt a new
product?
3. What product characteristics influence an
innovation’s rate of adoption? Discuss the
characteristics of mobile navigation systems in
relation to the rate of adoption.
Module 5 - slide 53
Exercise
• You are the Marketing Team of a company
that produces and sells frozen food.
• In order to develop the best marketing
strategy, you have to identify the cultural,
social, personal and psychological factors
that can influence the purchase of your
products.
