Chapter 1

Consumers Rule
By Michael R. Solomon

Consumer Behavior
Buying, Having, and Being
Sixth Edition
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MTV
Cognitive Component (Measuring
Beliefs about Specific Attributes Using
the Semantic Differential Scale)
Diet Coke
Good music

Bad music

Interesting

Not interesting

Fun shows

Boring shows

Sucks

Doesnt suck

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Thought listing (cognitive response)

We would now like for you to list your thoughts that come to
mind as you view the product. Next to the first number write
the first thought that comes to your mind regarding the product
shown, next to the second number write the second thought
that comes to your mind regarding the product shown, etc.
Please put only one thought next to each number

1.

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Sentence Completion and

In-Depth Response
Please complete the following question:
People who watch MTV:
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
___________________________________
Please describe what MTV means to you.

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Why study Buyer Behavior?

What is Marketing myopia?
What companies have fallen prey to this?
Saturation + Myopia = Failure
What companies have fallen prey to this?
Saturation + Consumer Identification, Need matching, and
Relationship maintenance = Long term stability.
Success stories?

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Who are your customers?

End-use consumer
Employees
Shareholders
Members of supply chain
Society (including critics): Treat them as
disgruntled customers (Holt et. al 2004).

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What is Consumer Behavior?

Consumer Behavior:
The study of the processes involved when individuals or
groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products,
services ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and desires

Role Theory:
Identifies consumers as actors on the marketplace stage

Consumer Behavior is a Process:

Exchange: A transaction in which two or more
organizations give and receive something of value

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Some Issues That Arise During Stages in

the Consumption Process

Figure 1.1

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Consumer Behavior Involves

Many Different Actors
Consumer:
A person who identifies a need or desire, makes a
purchase, and then disposes of the product
Many people may be involved in this sequence of
events.
Purchaser / User / Influencer

Consumers may take the form of organizations

or groups.

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Consumers Impact on
Marketing Strategy
Market Segmentation:
Identifies groups of consumers who are similar to
one another in one or more ways and then devises
marketing strategies that appeal to one or more
groups

Demographics:
Statistics that measure observable aspects of a
population
Ex.: Age, Gender, Family Structure, Social Class and
Income, Race and Ethnicity, Lifestyle, and
Geography
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A Lesson Learned
Nike was forced to pull
this advertisement for a
running shoe after
disabilities rights groups
claimed the ads were
offensive.
How could Nike have
done a better job of
getting its message
across without offending
a powerful demographic?

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Market Segmentation
Finely-tuned marketing
segmentation strategies
allow marketers to
reach only those
consumers likely to be
interested in buying
their products.

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Marketing Strategy and Consumer

Behavior
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Outcomes
Individual
Firm
Society
Consumer decision process
Problem Recognition
Information Search
Alternative Evaluation
Purchase
Use
Evaluation
Marketing strategy
Product, Price, Distribution,
Promotion, Service
Marketing segmentation
Identify product-related need sets
Group Customers with similar need sets
Describe each group
Select attractive segment(s) to target
Marketing analysis
Company
Competitors
Conditions
Consumers
Copyright 2001 by The McGraw-Hill Companies,
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Consumers Impact on
Marketing Strategy (cont.)
Relationship Marketing: Building
Bonds with Consumers
Relationship marketing:
The strategic perspective that stresses the long-term,
human side of buyer-seller interactions

Database marketing:
Tracking consumers buying habits very closely, and
then crafting products and messages tailored
precisely to peoples wants and needs based on this
information
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Marketings Impact on Consumers

Marketing and Culture:
Popular Culture:
Music, movies, sports, books, celebrities, and other
forms of entertainment consumed by the mass
market.

Marketers play a significant role in our view of the

world and how we live in it.

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Popular Culture

Companies often create product icons to develop an

identity for their products. Many made-up creatures and
personalities, such as Mr. Clean, the Michelin tire man and
the Pillsbury Doughboy, are widely recognized figures in
popular culture.

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Marketings Impact on Consumers: The

Meaning of Consumption
The Meaning of Consumption:
People often buy products not for what they do,
but for what they mean.
Types of relationships a person may have with a
product:

Self-concept attachment
Nostalgic attachment
Interdependence
Love

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Marketings Impact on Consumers: The

Global Consumer
By 2006, the majority of people on earth
will live in urban centers.
Sophisticated marketing strategies
contribute to a global consumer culture.
Even smaller companies look to expand
overseas.
Globalization has resulted in varied
perceptions of the United States (both
positive and negative).
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The Global Consumer

American products like Levi jeans are in
demand around the world.

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Marketings Impact on Consumers:

Virtual Consumption
The Digital Revolution is one of the most
significant influences on consumer behavior.
Electronic marketing increases convenience
by breaking down the barriers of time and
location.
U-commerce:
The use of ubiquitous networks that will slowly but surely
become part of us (i.e., wearable computers, customized
advertisements beamed to cell phones, etc.)

Cyberspace has created a revolution in C2C

(consumer-to-consumer) activity.
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Blurred Boundaries
Marketing and Reality
Marketers and consumers coexist in a
complicated two-way relationship.
Its increasingly difficult for consumers to
discern the boundary between the
fabricated world and reality.
Marketing influences both popular culture
and consumer perceptions of reality.

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Marketing Ethics and Public Policy

Business Ethics:
Rules of conduct that guide actions in the
marketplace
The standards against which most people in the
culture judge what is right and what is wrong, good
or bad

Notions of right and wrong differ among

people, organizations, and cultures.

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Needs and Wants:

Do Marketers Manipulate Consumers?
Consumerspace
Do marketers create artificial needs?
Need: A basic biological motive
Want: One way that society has taught us that need can be
satisfied

Are advertising and marketing necessary?

Economics of information perspective: Advertising is an
important source of consumer information.

Do marketers promise miracles?

Advertisers simply dont know enough to manipulate
people.
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Discussion Question
This ad was created
by the American
Association of
Advertising Agencies
to counter charges
that ads create
artificial needs.
Do you agree with the
premise of the ad?
Why or why not?
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Public Policy and Consumerism

Consumer efforts in the U.S. have contributed
to the establishment of federal agencies to
oversee consumer-related activities.

Department of Agriculture
Federal Trade Commission
Food and Drug Administration
Securities and Exchange Commission
Environmental Protection Agency

Culture Jamming:
A strategy to disrupt efforts by the corporate world to
dominate our cultural landscape
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Culture Jamming
Adbusters Quarterly
is a Canadian
magazine devoted to
culture jamming. This
mock ad skewers
Benetton.

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Consumerism and
Consumer Research
Green Marketing:
When a firm chooses to protect or enhance the
natural environment as it goes about its activities
Reducing wasteful packaging
Donations to charity

Social Marketing:
Using marketing techniques to encourage positive
activities (e.g. literacy) and to discourage negative
activities (e.g. drunk driving)
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Kennedys
Declaration of Consumer Rights (1962)
The right to the satisfaction of basic needs.
The right to be protected against hazardous products
and processes.
The right to have the facts needed to make an informed
choice.
The right to choose between a variety of products and
services.
The right to be heard in the making and execution of
government policy.
The right to a fair settlement of just claims.
The right to acquire the skills and knowledge to be an
informed and responsible consumer.
The right to live in a healthy and sustainable
environment.
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Consumer Related Issues

UNICEF sponsored this advertising campaign against child labor.

The field of consumer behavior plays a role in addressing important
consumer issues such as child exploitation.
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The Dark Side of

Consumer Behavior
Consumer Terrorism:
An example: Susceptibility of the nations food
supply to bioterrorism

Addictive Consumption:
Consumer addiction:
A physiological and/or psychological dependency on
products or services

Compulsive Consumption:
Repetitive shopping as an antidote to tension,
anxiety, depression, or boredom
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Positivist vs. Interpretivist Approaches to CB

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Consumer Behavior
As a Field of Study
Consumer behavior only recently a
formal field of study
Interdisciplinary influences on the
study of consumer behavior
Consumer behavior studied by researchers from
diverse backgrounds
Consumer phenomena can be studied in different
ways and on different levels

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Journal of Consumer Research

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The Pyramid of Consumer Behavior

Figure 1.2

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The Wheel of Consumer Behavior

Figure 1.3

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