Chapter Four

Analyzing the Consumer Market

and Consumer Buyer Behavior
Chapter outline

Define consumer buyer behavior

Define the scope of consumer behavior
Construct a simple model of consumer buyer behavior
Identify the factors that affect the consumer buyer
behavior
Identify the stages in the consumer buyer decision
process
Identify the types of buying decision behavior.
Consumer is the king, queen and boss in the marketplace.
Analyzing the consumer behavior is a pre-requisite for successful program implementation.
In todays competitive business environment, customer is the king, queen and boss in the
marketplace. Consumer is the heart of modern marketing program. The level of success of
marketing program depends on level of understanding the consumer buyer behavior of target
customers. In this chapter, we will discuss the most important element of the marketplaceconsumer. The aim of marketing is to affect how customer think and act. To affect the whats,
whens and hows of buying behavior, marketers must first understand the whys. In this chapter,
we will analyze the consumer buyer behavior, factors that influence buyer behavior and buying
decision process.

Consumer Buyer Behavior

Buying Behavior is the decision processes and acts of people involved in buying, using and
disposing the products.
Need to understand:
Why consumers make the purchases that they make?
What factors influence consumer purchases?
The changing factors in our society.
Consumer Buying Behavior refers to the buying behavior of the ultimate consumer. A firm needs
to analyze buying behavior for:
Buyers reactions to a firms marketing strategy have a great impact on the firms success.
The marketing concept stresses that a firm should create a Marketing Mix (MM) that satisfies
(gives utility to) customers, therefore need to analyze the what, where, when and how
consumers buy.
Marketers can better predict how consumers will respond to marketing strategies.
Consumer buyer behavior involves the psychological processes that consumers go through in
recognizing needs, finding ways to solve these needs, making purchase decisions (e.g., whether

or not to purchase a product and, if so, which brand and where), interpret information, make
plans, and implement these plans (e.g., by engaging in comparison shopping or actually
purchasing a product).
Before defining the consumer behavior, we have to understand who the consumer is. Consumer
buyer is the buyer who buys goods or services for his or her own consumption. Consumer buyer
behavior is the buying behavior of final consumers-individuals and households that buy goods
and services for his or her personal consumption. Consumer behavior is very important for a
marketer before developing the marketing strategies and policies. In short, we can say that
consumer behavior is the behavior whatever the consumers do before, after and during
purchasing the products. Consumer behavior is defined as the behavior that consumers display in
searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating, disposing of products, services and ideas that they
expect will satisfy their needs and wants. Consumer behavior involves the purchasing and other
consumption related activities of people engaging in the exchange process. In short, we can say
that consumer behavior is the behavior that is related to consumption. Consumer behavior is a
part of human behavior.

Bagozzi and Zaltman defined consumer behavior

The acts, processes and social relationships exhibited by individuals, groups and organizations
in the
obtainment, use of and consequent experience with products and services and other resources
If we analyze the above definition, we can identify the following three phenomena involving
consumer behavior;
Activities such as acts, processes and social relationships.
People such as individuals, groups and organizations.
Experiences such as obtaining, using and consequences etc.
Blackwell and Miniard defined consumer behavior as Those acts of individuals,
directly involved in obtaining, using and disposing of economic goods and services including the
decision processes that precede and determine these acts
This definition includes one of the very important aspects of the buyer behavior the decision
process this aspect is dealt with the discussion of the stages of the buying processes.
W. Berkman and Christopher C. Gilson defined consumer behavior as The
activities of people engaged in actual or potential use of market items whether products,
services, retail environments or ideas this definition considers both individuals and
organizations as consumers.
Thus,
the activities
of potential consumers are defined as the consumer behavior. Marketers must
Who
buys the products?
consider
activities
of potential
Whothe
makes
the decision
to buy theconsumers
product? so that they can prepare themselves well in
advance
to
capture
this
group
and
make
the sale to them.
Who influences the decision to buy the product?
How
is the purchase
decision
made? Who assumes
what role? field
The
scope
of the
consumer
behavior

field
Whatofdoes
the customer
buy?
What
must
satisfied?
The
consumer
behavior
tries
to needs
find out
thebeanswers
to the following questions

What benefits are they seeking?

How is our product perceived by customers?
What are the customers attitudes toward our product? What social factors might influence the
purchase decision?
Do customers lifestyles influence their decisions?
How do personal or demographic factors influence the purchase decision?
What are the products people buy?
Why do they buy them?
How do they buy them?
When do they buy them?
Where do they buy them?
How often do they buy them?

For instances, if you intend to produce a new variety of tooth paste, you should analyze the
nature of
individual consumer behavior as to;
Why consumer uses toothpaste (say to whiten teeth or prevent tooth decay)
Which brand of toothpaste he buys (say close-up or aromatic, Meril, Colgate)
Why he buys the close-up (because he believes that it will whiten his teeth better than competing
brands)
How he buys it (cash or credit) when he buys it (Monthly or weekly)
Where he buys it (from retail or supermarket, drug store etc.)
How often he buys it (frequency of buying, say every fortnight) and how much he buys it (100
grams or 200 grams or 400 grams).
It must also be noted that the behavior is likely to show variation from individual to individual,
from product to product and from an individual of one region to individual of another region.
Thus, analyzing consumer behavior is a prerequisite though the process is highly complicated. At
the same time, a firms ability to establish and maintain a satisfying exchange relationship
depends on the level of understanding of buying behavior of the consumer. Consumer behavior
field explores the decision process and acts of people involved in buying and using products in
the marketplace.

Why study consumer behavior?

As marketers and the future marketers
The better the firm understands its consumers the more likely it becomes successful in the
marketplace. Unless the marketing people understand the buying process of the organizations
target market, the chances for success are slim.
Knowledge of consumer behavior would render immense help for planning and implementing
marketing strategies and programs. For example, buyers reactions to a firms marketing strategy
have great impact on the firms success.
Second, the proof of establishing consumer orientation in the marketing concept of the firm
depends on how marketing mix adopted satisfies the consumers. This is known only when
marketing mix is developed to include positive answers to the questions listed in the discussion
of the scope of the consumer behavior field.
Third, by gaining a better understanding of the factors that affect consumer behavior, marketers
are in a better position to predict how consumers will respond to marketing strategies. The study
of consumer behavior helps in developing the marketing strategies.

Fourth, consumer is the principal, a priority of the business. The efficiency with which a free
market system enterprise operates, depends upon the extent of consumer understanding
possessed by the business community.
Under the marketing concept, consumers are treated as kings and queens. In order to survive in
the face of todays external competition; you must serve and satisfy your consumers in a way
better than your competitors do. To do this successfully you must know who your consumers are
and how they behave. By studying consumer behavior, you can easily get the answer to these
questions and act accordingly.
As consumers, we benefit from insight into our own consumption related decisions: what we
buy, why we buy, how we buy, and the promotional influences that persuade us to buy. The study
of consumer behavior enables us to become better and wiser consumers.
As students of human behavior, we are concerned with understanding consumer behavior with
gaining insights into why individuals act in certain consumption related ways and with learning
what internal and external influences impel them to act as they do. Indeed, the desire for
understanding consumption related human behavior has led to a diversity of theoretical
approaches to its study.

A simple model of the consumer buyer behavior

We can construct the model by using the variables related to consumption. We can show the
consumer buyer behavior through a model consisting of some variables and shows the interrelationship among the variables. In the case of consumer behavior, a consumer gets some
information from somewhere and thinks about it and response to it over the time. During
thinking, consumers are affected by varieties of factors and then response accordingly. These
variables are divided into three distinct interlocking stages; such as are;

i) The Input stage

ii) The Process stage
iii) The Output stage
The Input stage.

The input stage influences the consumer's recognition of a product

need and consists of two major sources of information;
a) The firm's marketing efforts-that is product, price, place and promotion, process, people and
physical evidences etc. b) The external sociological influences on the consumers such as are
economic, technological, political, cultural etc.
The cumulative impact of each firm's marketing efforts, the influence of family, friends and
neighbors and society's existing code of behavior are all inputs that are likely to affect what
consumers purchase and how they use what they buy. The input stage includes all the stimuli that
convince the consumers to make a purchase decision. Marketers need to concern about the input
stage.
The Process stage. The process stage of the model focuses on how consumers make
decisions. All inputs enter the buyer's black box where they are turned into a set of observable
buyer responses. The psychological factors inherent in each individual affect how the external
inputs from the input stage influence the consumer's recognition of a need, pre-purchase for
information and evaluations of alternatives. In the process stage, there are varieties of factors that
affect the decision process. Such as cultural factors, social factors, personal factors and
psychological factors.

The Output stage.

In the output stage, the consumers response in return to the input

through the process stage. The consumer responses are brand choice, dealer choice, product
choice, purchase timing and purchase amount etc.
In the output stage, consumers make the final decision to purchase the product which is decided
in the process stage.
The marketers want to understand how the stimuli are changed into responses inside the
consumer's black box, which has two parts.

Input stage
stage
Marketing
Stimuli
Product
Price
Place
Promotion
People
Process
Physical evidence

Process

Output

Other Stimuli

Buyer's black box

Buyer responses

Economic
Technological
Political
Cultural
Natural
Demographical

Buyer characteristics
&
The buyer decision process

Product choice
Brand choice
Dealer choice
Purchase timing
Purchase amount

Figure: A simple model of consumer buyer behavior

Characteristics or Factors Affecting Consumer Buyer

Behavior
Consumer behavior is motivated behavior. It is the reflection of the variety of factors. It is also
persuasive behavior. Consumer purchases are influenced strongly by cultural, social, personal
and psychological characteristics. Consumer behavior is the interaction of varieties of factors.
There are many factors behind purchasing a particular product or service.

Cultural

Social

Culture
Subculture
Social class

Referenc
e groups
Groups
Family
Roles and
status
Religion

Personal

Psychological

Age and lifecycle

stages
Occupation
Economic
situation
Life styles
Personality

Motivation
Perception
Learning
Beliefs and
attitudes

Figure: Factors affecting the consumer buyer behavior

Culture

Buyer

Culture is the set of basic values, perceptions, wants and behavior learned by a member of
society from family and other important institutions. Culture plays an important role in
purchasing the product. Culture is the most basic cause of a persons wants and behavior. Culture
is the fundamental determinant of a persons wants and behavior. Understanding the culture of a
market segment is pre-requisite for successful marketing program implementation. Cultural
factors exert a broad and deep influence on consumer behavior. The marketers need to
understand the role played by the buyers culture. Every group or society has a culture and
cultural influences on buying behavior may vary greatly from country to country. International
marketers must understand the culture in each international market and adapt their marketing
strategies accordingly. Marketers are always trying to spot cultural shifts in order to discover
new products that might be wanted.

Subculture
Each culture contains smaller subculture that provides more specific identification and
socialization for their members. Subculture means culture within the culture. Subculture is a
group of people with shared value systems based on common life experiences and situations.
Subculture includes nationalities, religions, racial groups and geographic regions. Many
subcultures make up important market segments and marketers often design products and
marketing programs tailored to their needs and wants. For example, in the United States, four
important subculture include Hispanic, African American, Asian and Mature consumers etc

Social class
Almost every society has some form of social class structure. Social classes are societys
relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members share similar values, interests,
behaviors and same demographic characteristics. The social classes consumers belong strongly
affect their buying behavior. Social class is not determined by a single factor, such as income, but
is measured as a combination of occupation, income, education, wealth and other variables.
There are different types of social classes such as are;
i)
Upper upper class
ii)
Upper lower class
iii)
Middle class
iv)
Lower middle class
v)
Lower upper class
vi)
Lower lower class
Marketers are interested in social class because people within a given social class tend to exhibit
similar buying behavior. Social classes show distinct product and brand preferences in many
areas. By conducting a survey, it is found that there are close relationship between
Social class and shopping behavior;
Social classes and leisure time activities;
Social classes and media usage;
Social classes and responding to promotion activities;
Social classes and buying decisions

Social factors
A consumers behavior also is influenced by social factors. Such as are;

Groups and social networks

Two or more people who interact to accomplish individual or mutual goals are called groups. A
persons behavior is influenced by many small groups. There are different types of groups such
as Family groups, friendship groups, formal social groups, shopping groups, consumer action
groups, work groups etc. Reference groups serve as direct or indirect points of comparison in
forming a persons attitudes or behavior. The importance of group influence varies across
products and brands. It tends to be stronger when the product is visible to others whom the buyer
respects. Purchases of products that are bought and used privately are not much affected by these
group influences.

Word of Mouth Influence and Buzz marketing

Marketers of brands subjected to strong group influence must figure out how to reach opinion
leaders- people within a reference group who, because of special skills, knowledge, personality
or other characteristics, exert social influence on others.

Family
When two or more people live together related by marriage or adoption are called family. Family
members can strongly influence buyer behavior. Marketers are interested in the roles and
influence of the husband, wife and children on the purchase of different products and services.
Husband-wife involvement varies widely by product category and by stage in the buying
process.

Roles and status

A person belongs to many groups-families, clubs, organizations. The persons position in each
group can be defined in terms of both role and status. Each role influences some of the buying
behavior. Each role carries a status reflecting the general esteem given to it by society. People
often choose products that show their status in society. Marketers must be aware of the statussymbol potential of products and brands.

Religion
Religion is one of the most important factors that affect the buying behavior. The types of
clothes, the types of food we eat and the way to eat are affected by religion. There are many
religions in the world such as Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Christian etc. the beliefs and
attitudes vary from follower of one religion to another religion.

Personal factors
A buyers decisions are also influenced by personal characteristics such as

Age and lifecycle stages

Our taste in foods, clothes, furniture and recreation is often related to our age. Consumption is
also shaped by the family life cycle and the number, age and gender of people in the household at
any point in time. People change the goods and services they buy over their lifetimes. Tastes in
food, clothes, furniture and recreation are often age related. Buying is also shaped by the stage of
the family life cycle-the stages through which families pass as they mature over the time.

Occupation

A persons occupation affects the goods and services bought. For example, computer software
companies will design different products for brand managers, accountants, engineers, lawyers
and doctors etc. Marketers try to identify the occupational groups that have an above average
interest in their products and services.

Economic situation
A persons economic situation will affect product choice. A person can buy an expensive item if
one has enough spendable income, savings, or borrowing power. Purchasing power affects the
brand a person will choose.

Lifestyles
Lifestyle is a persons pattern of living as expressed in his or her activities, interests and
opinions. It involves measuring consumers major AIO dimensions-activities (work, hobbies,
shopping, sports, social events), interests (food, fashion, family, recreation) and opinions (about
themselves, social issues, business, products). Lifestyle captures something more than the
persons social class or personality. It profiles a persons whole pattern of acting and interacting
in the world.

Personality and Self-Concept

Personality-all the internal traits and behaviors that make a person unique, uniqueness arrives
from a person's heredity and personal experience. Examples include:

Table: Personality traits shown in table;

o
o
o
o
o
o

Work holism
Compulsiveness
Self confidence
Friendliness
Adaptability
Ambitiousness

o
o
o
o
o
o

Dogmatism
Authoritarianism
Introversion
Extroversion
Aggressiveness
Competitiveness.

Traits affect the way people behave. Marketers try to match the store image to the perceived
image of their customers. Each persons distinct personality influences his or her buying
behavior. Personality refers to the unique psychological characteristics that lead to relatively
consistent and lasting responses to ones own environment. Personality is usually described in
terms of traits such as self-confidence, dominance, sociability, autonomy, defensiveness,
adaptability and aggressiveness. As a marketer, we have to concern about the personality of
consumers.

Psychological Factors
A persons buying choices are further influenced by some major psychological factors, such as
are;

Motivation
Motivation is the driving force within the individuals that impels them to action. This driving
force is produced by a state of tension which exists as the result of an unfulfilled need or want.

Motivation is a human psychological characteristic that contributes to a persons degree of

commitment. It includes the factors that cause, channel and sustain human behavior in a
particular committed direction. Motivation may be positive or negative in direction. Positive
motivations are the forces that impel us to do some action. For example; a person may be
impelled toward a restaurant to fulfill a hunger need. Some psychologists refer to positive drives
such as needs, want or desire he refers to negative drives as fears or aversions. Negative
motivations are the forces that we feel a driving force to keep away from some object or
condition.

Perception
Perception is the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting information inputs to produce
meaning. Perception varies from person to person. Perception means how you see the world. A
motivated person is ready to act. How the person acts is influenced by his or her own perception
of the situation. All of us learn by the flow of information through our five senses: sight, hearing,
smell, touch and taste. Perception is the process by which people select, organize and interpret
information to form a meaningful picture of the world.

Learning
Learning is the process through which a relatively permanent change in behavior results from the
consequences of past behavior. Learning describes changes in an individuals behavior arising
from experience. Learning theorist say that most human behavior is learned. Learning occurs
through the interplay of drives, stimuli, cues, responses and reinforcement. Learning strongly
affects the consumer buyer behavior. Previous buying experiences strongly influence whether we
will buy again or not.

Beliefs and Attitudes

Beliefs and attitudes influence consumer buyer behavior. A belief is a descriptive thought that a
person holds about something. Marketers are interested in the beliefs that people formulate about
specific products and services, because these beliefs make up product and brand images that
affect buying behavior. People have attitudes regarding religion, politics, clothes, music, food
and almost everything else. Attitude describes a persons relatively consistent evaluations,
feelings, and tendencies toward an object or idea. Attitudes put people into a frame of mind of
liking or disliking things, of moving toward or away from them.
An attitude is a mental position taken towards a topic, person or event that influence the holders
feelings, perceptions, learning processes and subsequent behaviors.

Types of Buying decision Behavior

Buying decision behaviors widely differ according to the category of the goods a consumer is
buying. Buying decision behavior for toothpaste and for a car is significantly different. Mostly
the complex products induce the buyer to be more involved in the buying process. Types of
consumer buying behavior are determined by:

Level of involvement in purchase decision. Importance and intensity of interest in a product

in a particular situation
Buyers level of involvement determines why s/he is motivated to seek information about a
certain products and brands but virtually ignores others.
High involvement purchases-Honda Motorbike, high priced goods, products visible to others,
and the higher the risk the higher the involvement. Types of risk associated with purchasing the
goods are;

Personal risk
Social risk
Economic risk
Financial risk
Psychological risk

Decision processes may be classified in different ways. One possibility is developed by Engel
and Black Will (1930), the classification into high and low involvement products.

High Involvement Products: Bear a high risk of a wrong decision because of high prices,
high importance for the self image. This lead to extended problem solving like active search and
use of information, careful evaluation of alternatives and careful choice.

Low Involvement Products: Bear a low risk of wrong decision because of low price, not
very different product alternatives, and low importance for the self-image. This leads to simple
problem solving, when the information is stored in the memory, choice is made on the basis of
existing information.
Buying decision behavior varies from product to product. Consumer buying behavior differs for
a tube of toothpaste, tennis racket, digital camera and automobiles etc. Consumer behavior also
varies from time to time and from product to product.
There are four types of consumer buying decision behavior based on the degree of buyer
involvement and the degree of differences among the brands.
Degree of involvement means that buyers need to spend a lot of time, money and energy in
purchasing the products. Degree of differences among the brand indicates that there are
significant differences between the brands.

1) Complex Buying Behavior

Consumers undertake complex buying decision behavior when they are highly involved in a
purchase and perceive significant differences among the brands. Consumers may be highly
involved when the product is expensive, risky, purchased infrequently and highly self-expressive.
The consumers have to learn about the product category very much. For example, Flat, Plot,
Automobiles and Refrigerators.
Marketers of the high involvement products must understand the information- gathering and
evaluation behavior of high involvement consumers. They need to help buyers learn about
product-class attributes and their relative importance. They must motivate store salespeople and
the buyer's acquaintances to influence the final brand choice.

2) Dissonance- Reducing Buying Behavior

Dissonance reducing buying behavior occurs when consumers are highly involved with an
expensive, infrequent or risky purchase, but see little differences among the brands. For example;
consumers buying carpeting may face a high involvement decision because carpeting is
expensive and self-expressive. Yet buyers may consider most carpet brands in a given price range
to be the same. In this case, because perceived brand differences are not large, buyers may shop
around to learn what is available, but buy relatively quickly. They may respond primarily to a
good price or to purchase convenience. After the purchase, consumers might experience postpurchase dissonance when they notice certain disadvantages of the purchased carpet brand or
hear favorable things about the brands not purchased. To counter such dissonance, the marketers
after-sale communications should provide evidence and support to help consumers feel good
about their brand choices of the consumers.

3) Habitual buying behavior

Habitual buyer behavior occurs under conditions of low consumer involvement and little
significant brand difference. Consumers have little involvement in this product category- they
simply go to the store and reach for a brand. Consumers appear to have low involvement with
most low-cost, frequently purchased products. For example, newspapers, ball pen, Beauty soap,
tooth paste etc. Because buyers are not highly committed to any brands, marketers of lowinvolvement products with few brand differences often use price and sales promotions to
stimulate product trial. Marketers of low involvement products with few brand differences often
use price and sales promotion to stimulate product trial. Ad campaigns should include high
repetition of short-duration messages. Visual symbols and imagery are important because they
can be remembered easily and associated with the brand. Television is usually more effective
than print media because it is a low involvement medium suitable for passive learning.
Companies should use the brand name very simple. It will be very easy to recall, pronounce etc.

4) Variety seeking buying behavior

Consumer buying behavior in situations characterized by low consumer involvement but
significant perceived brand differences. Brand switching occurs for the sake of variety rather
than because of dissatisfaction. In such product category, the marketing strategies may differ for
the product leader and minor brands. The market leader will try to encourage habitual buying
behavior by dominating shelf space, keeping shelves fully stocked and running frequent
reminder advertising etc.
Challenger firms will encourage variety seeking by offering lower prices, special deals.
High involvement
Low involvement
Significant differences
between the brands

Complex buying decision

Few differences
between the brands

Dissonance reducing Buying behavior

Figures: four types of buying behavior

Variety seeking Buying behavior

Habitual buying Behavior

The Buyer Decision Process

If we analyze how consumers make buying decisions. The buyer decision process consists of five
stages: Such as;

i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
v)

Need Recognition
Information search
Evaluation of alternatives
Purchase decision
Post purchase behavior

Pre-purchase
stage
Need
Recognition

Information
Search

Purchase
Evaluation of
alternatives

Purchase
Decision

Post-purchase
Post-purchase
behavior

Figure: Consumer buyer decision process

Clearly, the buying process starts long before actual purchase and continues long after. Marketers
need
to focus on the entire buying process rather than on just the purchase decision. The figure
implies that the consumer pass through all five stages with every purchase. But in more
routine purchases, consumers often skip or reverse some of these stages. The model shows
all the considerations that arise when a consumer faces a new and complex purchase
situation.

Need Recognition
The first stage of the buyer decision process in which the consumer recognizes a problem or
need. This need can be triggered by the internal stimuli such as hunger, thirst or various other
biological cues.
A need can also be triggered by external stimuli- such as commercial cues, social cues.
Here the consumer examines whether a need or want truly exists for the product. The need may
be based on a shortage or an unfulfilled desire or want. If the consumer does not recognize a
shortage or unfulfilled desire, the decision process stops at this point.
At this the marketers should research consumers to find out what kinds of needs or problem
arise, what brought them about and how they led the consumer to this particular product
category.

Information search
The stage of the buyer decision process in which the consumer is aroused to search for more
information; the consumer may simply have heightened attention or may go into active
information search. The amount of information search depends on the strength of the drive, the

amount of information starts with, the ease of obtaining more information, the values consumer
places on additional information and the satisfaction the consumer gets from searching. The
consumer can obtain information from any of several sources. These include
Personal sources (Family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances,
Commercial sources (advertising, salespeople, dealers, packaging, displays)
Public sources (mass media, consumer rating-organizations)
Experiential sources (handling, examining, using the product)
The relative influence of these information sources varies with the product and the buyer.
Generally. The consumer receives the most important information about a product from
commercial sourcesThe most effective sources tend to be personal. A person often asks others-friends, relatives,
acquaintances, professionals-for recommendations concerning a product or service. Thus,
companies have a strong interest in building such word of mouth sources.

Evaluation of alternatives
The stage of the buyer decision process in which the consumer uses information to evaluate
alternative brands in the choice set. The marketer needs to know about alternative
evaluation-that is how the consumer processes information to arrive at brand choices. It may
involve a systematic evaluation technique such as multiattribute model. Such systematic
models utilize a set of formalized steps to arrive at a decision. This process of choice
narrowing can be illustrated for Mr. Bob Jones. Bob Jones decides to attend a Private
University.
Total set
Cornell
Duke
Northern
Tulane
Dartmouth
Yale
Stanford
Harvard
De Paul
Lawrence
.

.
.
.

Awareness set
Cornell
Duke
Northern
Tulane
Dartmouth
Yale
Stanford
Harvard
Unawareness
set
De Paul
Lawrence

Consideration set
Cornell
Northern
Duke
Tulane
Dartmouth

Infeasible set
Yale
Stanford
Harvard

Choice set
Cornell
Duke
Northern
Tulane

Decision
Cornell

Nonchoice set
Dartmouth

Figure: Choice narrowing process of an individual consumer

We can now examine how Bob narrowed his choice to a specific set of colleges. The total set
represents all private colleges that exist. The total set can be divided into the consumers
awareness and unawareness set. A few colleges remain strong candidates and they constitute his
choice set. In the choice set, he carefully evaluates the Universities and then makes a final choice
in this case Cornell University. Mr. Bob John must develop some basis for forming an overall

evaluation of the alternatives in the final choice set. Suppose that Bob Jones has four criteria for
choosing among Universities.
Such as class size, cost, friendship opportunities and the quality of teachers.
A high school students beliefs about four colleges
Alternative
Small classes
Costs
Many lifelong friends
Excellent teachers
Cornell
+2
-3
+1
+1
Duke
+1
-3
+2
+1
Northern
-1
-1
0
+3
Tulane
-3
+1
0
-3
Bob Jones has revealed his beliefs about the likelihood that his University alternatives will yield
Weightings
+3
+1
+2
+1
the consequences he considers important as indicated in table. This table also portrays johns
+3=extremely likely
judgments about the goodness and badness of the four basic criteria. How then might he use
-3= extremely unlikely
these beliefs and values to reach a decision about which University to attend?
In the case of weightings, +3= very likely and -3=very unlikely
John may attempt to mentally combine the information to yield a single overall score for each
candidate and choose the one with the highest score. While there are a number of alternative
formulas that consumer behavior theorist postulate are used, the most widely accepted is what is
called formally the linear additive expectancy- value model.
This is a systematic model that proposes that the consumer creates a global score for each brand
by multiplying the ratings of the brand on each attribute by the importance attached to the
attribute and adding the scores together.
Here the consumer combines and then adds the beliefs and weightings data for each alternative
into a variable that is formally labeled the individuals attitude toward the act. In this approach,
each expectation about a consequence from choosing an alternative is weighted by the value of
the consequence. All weighted consequences for a given alternative are then added to yield an
overall score for that alternative.
The weighted sum is then considered to be a mathematical representation of an attitude toward
an act. In the case of Bob Jones we could have;
Cornell= +3 (+2) +1(-3) +2(+1) +1(+1) =6
Duke=+3(+1) +1(-3) +2(+2) +1(+1) =5
Northern= +3(-1) +1(-1) +2(0) +1(3) = -1
Tulane=+3(-3) +1(+1) +2(0) +1(-3) = -11
As a result of choice computations. Mr. Bob Jones would be most likely to choose Cornell,
followed by Duke, Northern, and Tulane in that order.

The consumption stage

The stage of the consumer decision process in which the consumer purchases and uses the
products and services. During this stage, the consumer may make a store choice-deciding to
purchase from a particular outlet, or a non-store choice deciding to purchase from a catalog,
the internet or a variety of mail-order possibilities. This stage consists of buying, using and
disposing the products and services. Purchase decision and purchase intentions may not
result in the actual purchase. Two factors may arise in this stage; such are

Attitudes of others

Unexpected situations

Attitudes of others may affect the final purchase decision, for example, attitudes of husband may
strongly affect the wifes decisions. Unexpected situation may also affect the final purchase
decisions. Such as accidents, great discounts of other competitors also affect the final purchase
decision.

Post purchase stage

Post-purchase evaluation stage is the stage of the consumer decision-making process during
which the consumer determines whether the correct purchase decision was made.
During this stage, consumers may experience varying levels of cognitive dissonance-doubt that
the correct purchase decision has been made.
After purchasing the goods, consumers may be satisfied, dissatisfied or over satisfied in the
marketplace.
Marketers often attempt to minimize the consumers cognitive dissonance by reassuring the
customer that the correct decision has been made. Strategies to minimize cognitive dissonance
include after sale contact with the customer, providing a reassuring letter in the packaging of the
product, providing warranties and guarantees and reinforcing the consumers decision through
the firms advertising.

Stages in the adoption process

Consumers go through five stages in the process of adopting a new product.

Awareness: The consumer becomes aware of the new product, but lacks information about
it.

Interest: The consumer seeks information about the new product.

Evaluation: The consumer considers whether trying the new product makes sense.

Trial: The consumer tries the new product on a small scale to improve his or her estimate of
its value.

Adoption: The consumer decides to make full and regular use of the new product.

This model suggests that the new product marketer should think about how to help consumers
move through these stages.

Individual differences in innovativeness

People differ greatly in their readiness to try new products. In each product area, there are
consumption pioneers and early adopters. Other individuals adopt new products much later. In
figure, we have seen that after a slow start, an increasing number of people adopt the new
product. The number of adopters reaches a peak and then drop off as fewer non-adopters remain.
Innovators are defined as the first 2.5 percent of the buyers to adopt a new idea. The early
adopters are the next 13.5 percent and so forth.
The five adopter groups have differing values. Innovators are venturesome-they try new ideas at
some risk. Early adopters are guided by respect-they are opinion leaders in their communities

and adopt new ideas early but carefully. The early majority are deliberate-although they rarely
are leaders, they adopt new ideas before the average person. The late majorities are skepticalthey adopt an innovation only after a majority of people have tried it. Finally, laggards are
tradition bound- they are suspicious of changes and adopt the innovation only when it has
become something of a tradition itself. This adopter classification suggests that an innovating
firm should research the characteristics of innovators and early adopters and should direct
marketing efforts toward them. In general, innovators tend to be relatively younger, better
educated and higher in income than later adopters and nonadopters. They are more receptive to
unfamiliar things, rely more on their own values and judgment and are more willing to take risks.
They are fewer brands loyal and more likely to take advantage of special promotions such as
discounts, coupons and samples etc.

Influence of Product characteristics on rate of adoption

The characteristics of the new product affect its rate of return. Some products catch on almost
overnight-for example, the i-pod, which flew off retailers shelves at an outstanding rate from the
day it was introduced. Others take a longer time to gain acceptance.

Relative advantage: It shows the degree to which the innovation appears superior to existing
products. Wheel soap of Unilever is now available in a plastic transparent package that may
convince the people that its quality is now more protected by plastic pack.

Compatibility: The degree to which the innovation fits the values and experiences of
potential consumers. HDTV, for example, is highly compatible with the lifestyles of the TVwatching public. However, many programs and channels are still not yet available in HD, and
this has slowed HDTV adoption.

Complexity: The degree to which the innovation is difficult to understand or use.

Divisibility: The degree to which the innovation may be tried on a limited basis.

Communicability: The degree to which the results of using the innovation can be observed
or described to others.
Other characteristics influence the rate of adoption, such as initial and ongoing costs, risk and
uncertainty and social approval. The new product marketer must research all these factors
when developing the new product and its marketing program and plans.