Chapter 5
Consumer Markets and Consumer
Buying Behavior
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Consumer Buying Behavior
■ Consumer Buying Behavior refers to the
buying behavior of final consumers
-individuals & households who buy goods
and services for personal consumption.
■ All these consumers make up the
consumer market.
■ The central question for marketers is:
■ “How do consumers respond to various
marketing efforts the company might use?”
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Model of Buyer Behavior
(Fig. 5.1)
Marketing and Buyer’s Black Box Buyer Responses
Other Stimuli
Marketing Buyer Characteristics Product Choice
Product Buyer Decision Process Brand Choice
Price Dealer Choice
Place
Promotion
Other Purchase Timing
Economic Purchase Amount
Technological
Political
Cultural
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Factors Influencing
Consumer Behavior (Fig. 5.2)
Cultural
Social Personal
Age and Psycho-
life-cycle logical
Culture Referen
ce Occupati Motivati
groups on on
Economic Percepti Buyer
Sub- on
culture situation
Family Learning
Lifestyle
Personali Beliefs
Social Roles ty and
and and attitudes
class
status self-conc
ept
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Factors Affecting Consumer
Behavior: Culture
Culture is the Most Basic Cause of a Person's Wants and
Behavior.
• Set of values norms, attitudes, and other meaningful
symbols that shape human behavior and the artifacts, or
products, of that behavior as they are transmitted from one
generation to the next.
Subculture
• Group of people with shared value systems based on
common life experiences.
• African American Consumers
• Asian American Consumers 5
Factors Affecting Consumer
Behavior: Culture
Culture is the Set of Values, Perceptions, Wants &
Behavior Learned by a Member of Society from
Family.
Social Class
• Society’s relatively permanent
& ordered divisions whose
members share similar values,
interests, and behaviors.
• Measured by: Occupation,
Income, Education, Wealth and
Other Variables.
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Roles and Status
Family (most important)
Social Factors •Husband, wife, kids
•Influencer, buyer, user
Groups
•Membership
•Reference
Behavior: Social
Factors Affecting Consumer
Factors Affecting Consumer
Behavior: Social
Social Class
A group of people in a society who are considered nearly
equal in status or community esteem, who regularly
socialize among themselves both formally and informally,
and who share behavioral norms.
Society’s relatively permanent & ordered divisions whose
members share similar values, interests, and behaviors.
Measured by: Occupation, Income, Education, Wealth and
Other Variables.
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Factors Affecting Consumer
Behavior: Social
Reference Group
A group in society that influences an individual’s
purchasing behavior.
Implications 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
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Social Factors: Reference Groups
Primary
Small, informal group
Direct
Face to face
Secondary
Refere Large, formal group
nce
Group
s Aspirational
Desired to be a member
Indirect
Non-Aspirational
Avoids membership
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Consumer Decision Making:
Family Buying Roles
■ Initiator
■ Family member who initiates thinking about buying
products (gatekeeper)
■ Family member who initiates information gathering
■ Influencer
■ Family member whose opinion is sought about
purchases
■ Provides information about brands and evaluative
criteria
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Consumer Decision Making:
Family Buying Roles
■ Decider
■ Family member who has financial authority
and/or power to purchase the product
■ Buyer
■ Family member who acts as the purchasing agent
■ Performs the logistics (going to the store,
writing the check, etc.) of the purchase
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Consumer Decision Making:
Family Buying Roles…
■ User
■ Family member who actually uses or
consumes the product
Family life-cycle
■ a series of stages
■ attitudes, behaviour and particularly buyer
behaviour change over time
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Factors Affecting Consumer
Behavior: Personal
Personal Influences
Personality
Age and Life Economic &
Cycle Stage Occupation
Situation Self-Concep
t
Lifestyle Identification
Activities Interests Opinions
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SRI Values and Lifestyles
(VALS) (Fig. 5.3)
Actualizers
Experience
Fulfilleds Achievers
rs
Believers Strivers Makers
High Resources Strugglers
High Innovation
Low Resources Low Innovation
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Factors Affecting Consumer
Behavior: Psychological
Motivation
Psychological
Factors
Beliefs and Affecting Perception
Attitudes Buyers
Choices
Learning
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
(Fig. 5.4)
Self
Actualization
Esteem Needs
(self-esteem)
Social Needs
(sense of belonging, love)
Safety Needs
(security, protection)
Physiological Needs
(hunger, thirst)
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs…
Physiological….
■ Products:
■ Limited in the United States. Generic foods, medicines,
special drinks, and foods for athletes
■ Specific themes:
■ Campbell’s Soup - “Soup is good food,” with
advertising copy that stresses the nutritional benefits
of soup
■ Raisins - “Thank goodness I found a snack kids will sit
for. And mothers will stand for.”
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs…
Safety….
■ Products:
■ Smoke detectors, preventive medicines, insurance,
social security, seat belts, safes
■ Specific themes:
■ Sleep Safe - “We’ve designed a travel alarm that
might wake you in the middle of the night… You
see, ours is a smoke alarm as well as an alarm clock”
■ Alka Seltzer - “Will it be there when you need it?”
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs…
Social/Belongingness…
Products:
■ Personal grooming, foods, entertainment,
clothing, and many others.
■ Specific themes:
■ Oil of Olay - “When was the last time you
and your husband met for lunch?”
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs…
Esteem…
■ Products:
■ Clothing, furniture, liquors, hobbies, stores, cars,
and many others
■ Specific themes:
■ Sheaffer - “Your hand should look as contemporary
as the rest of you”
■ St. Pauli Girl - “People who know the difference in
fine things know the difference between imported
beer and St. Pauli Girl
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs…
Self-Actualization…
■ Products:
■ Education, hobbies, sports, some vacations,
gourmet foods, museums
■ Specific themes:
■ U.S. Army - “Be all you can be”
■ U.S. Home - “Make the rest of your life…
the best of your life”
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Types of Buying Decision
Behavior (Fig. 5.5)
High Low
Involvement Involvement
Significant Complex Variety-
differences Buying Seeking
between Behavior Behavior
brands
Few Dissonance- Habitual
differences Reducing Buying Buying
between Behavior Behavior
brands
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Habitual Buying
Behavior: Salt purchase. Dissonance-
Passively received information Reducing Buying
through TV and magazine Behavior: Carpet buying.
to create brand familiarity. Expensive, risky and brands
Passive learning through Infrequent purchase
Purchase and may not followed
between
and post purchase
Evaluation. Price and sales communication can reduce
differences
Promotions to enhance trial. this Few
Variety-Seeking Complex Buying
Behavior: Cookie purchase. Behavior: PC/Laptop
Do a lot of brand switching. Expensive, risky,
First hold a belief, Purchased infrequent and highly
choose a brand, consume and self expressive. Learning, beliefs,
brands
Evaluate. Brand switch occur attitudes, and making a thoughtful between
For the sake of variety. Encourage purchase choice. Salespeople
through lower price,
differences
should influence the
coupons, free samples and
Significant
advertising. final brand choice.
Involvement Involvement
Low High
Types of Buying Decision Behavior
High versus Low Involvement…
High Involvement purchase occasions can be
1. expensive, have serious personal consequences,
2. and/or reflect one’s social image.
3. These occasions typically involve extensive
information search, consideration of several
product attributes and brands, the formation of
attitudes, and word-of-mouth communication.
4. An example would be the purchase of an
automobile or stereo system.
5. extensive promotion to target market and good
advertisement
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High versus Low Involvement…
Low Involvement purchase occasions typically involve
1. little information search
2. or consideration of various brands, except on the
basis of price.
3. They usually don’t involve any personal
consequences. They tend to be privately consumed.
4. An example would be the purchase of soap or
toothpaste.
5. In-store promotion and eye-catching package design
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Buyer Decision Process
(Fig. 5.6)
Purchase
Decision
Evaluation Post purchase
of Alternatives Behavior
Information
Search
Need
Recognition
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Buyer Decision Process
Step 1. Need Recognition
Buyer
Recognizes Needs Arising
State Where the From:
Buyer’s Needs a
are Fulfilled and Problem Internal Stimuli –
the Buyer is or a
Hunger
Satisfied. Need.
External Stimuli-
Friends
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The Buyer Decision Process
Step 2. Information Search
Personal Sources •Family, friends, neighbors
•Most effective source of
information
Commercial Sources •Advertising, salespeople
•Receives most information from
these sources
Public Sources •Mass Media
•Consumer-rating groups
Experiential Sources •Handling the product
•Examining the product
•Using the product
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The Buyer Decision Process
Step 3. Evaluation of Alternatives
Consumer May Use Careful
Calculations & Logical Thinking
Consumers May Buy on Impulse and
Rely on Intuition
Consumers May Make Buying Decisions
on Their Own.
Consumers May Make Buying Decisions
Only After Consulting Others.
Marketers Must Study Buyers to Find Out
How They Evaluate Brand Alternatives
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The Buyer Decision Process
Step 4. Purchase Decision
Purchase Intention
Desire to buy the most preferred brand
Attitudes Unexpected
of Others Situational
Factors
Purchase Decision
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The Buyer Decision Process
Step 5. Post purchase Behavior
Satisfied Customer!
Consumer’s
Expectations of Product’s Performance.
Product’s Perceived
Cognitive
Performance.
Dissonance
Dissatisfied Customer
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Discussion Connections
■ Form small groups to discuss a specific
major purchase that one of you has
made recently.
■ What type of buying decision was it?
(slide #12)
■ Discuss the Buyer Decision Process and
what major factors influenced your
decisions.
Stages in the Adoption
Process
Awareness: Consumer is aware of
product, but lacks information.
Interest: Consumer seeks
Information about new product.
Evaluation: Consumer considers
trying new product.
Trial: Consumer tries new
product on a small scale.
Adoption: Consumer decides
to make regular use of product.
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Adopter Categories (Fig. 5.7)
Percentage of Adopters
Early Majority Late Majority
Innovators
Early
34% 34% Laggards
Adopters
13.5% 16%
2.5% Time of Adoption
Early Late
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Influence of Product Characteristics
on Rate of Adoption
Communicabi
lity Relative
Can results be Advantage
easily Is the innovation
observed or superior to
described existing
to others? products?
Compatibili
Divisibility ty
Can the Does the
innovation innovation
be used on a fit the values
trial basis? and
Complexity experience of
Is the innovation
the
difficult to
target market?
understand or
use?
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