Consumer Buying Behavior

Consumer Buying Behavior

Consumer buying behavior refers to the buying
behavior of final consumers individuals &
households who buy goods and services for
personal consumption
The central question for marketers is: How do
consumers respond to various marketing
efforts the company might use?

Five Premises of Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior is purposeful and
goal oriented
The consumer has free choice
Consumer behavior is a process
Consumer behavior can be influenced
There is a need for consumer education

A Model of Consumer Behavior

Personal Characteristics
Affecting Consumer Behavior

Cultural Factors
Social Factors
Personal Factors
Psychological Factors

Factors Influencing Consumer

Behavior

Simplified Model

Marketing
Stimuli

Black Box

Target
Audience
Response

Major Influences in the Consumers

Black Box
SITUATIONAL
INFLUENCES

PSYCHOLOGICAL
INFLUENCES
Perception

Physical and

Social Surroundings
Time
Purchase Use
Buyers Condition

Motives
Learning
Attitudes
Personality

SOCIAL
INFLUENCES
Roles
Family
Reference Groups
Social Classes
Culture

Consumer Decision Process

Problem
Recognition

Post
Purchase

Complete model of consumer behavior

Start
Need
recognition
Internal
search

Search

Exposure
Stimuli
(marketer
dominated,
other)

External
search

Attention
Comprehension

Memory

Alternative
evaluation

Acceptance

Purchase

Retention

Outcomes

Dissatisfaction

Satisfaction

Influences
culture
social class
family
situation

Individual
differences
resources
motivation &
involvement
knowledge
attitudes
personality,
values, lifestyle

Need Recognition
Marketing helps
consumers recognize
(or create) an imbalance
between present status
and preferred state

When a current product isnt

performing properly

When the consumer is running

out of an product

When another product

seems State
Preferred
superior to the one currently used

 Think of a recent important purchase briefly draw a

flowchart of the steps you recall moving through from
the awareness of need to post purchase
What influenced you at each step?

Consumer Decision-Making
Process
Need
Need Recognition
Recognition

Cultural,
Cultural, Social,
Social,
Individual
Individual and
and
Psychological
Psychological
Factors
Factors
affect
affect
all
all steps
steps

Information
Information Search
Search
Evaluation
Evaluation
of
of Alternatives
Alternatives
Purchase
Purchase
Postpurchase
Postpurchase
Behavior
Behavior

 How do you know when to shop? What are the

triggers that initiate an awareness & search?
What are the internal & external sources of these
triggers?

The information search stage

An internal search involves the
scanning of one's memory to recall previous
experiences or knowledge concerning
solutions to the problem-- often sufficient for
frequently purchased products.
An external search may be necessary
when past experience or knowledge is
insufficient, the risk of making a wrong
purchase decision is high, and/or the cost of
gathering information is low.

Personal sources
(friends and family)
Public sources (rating
services like Consumer
Reports)
Marketer-dominated
sources (advertising
or sales people)

The evoked

set: a group of

brands from which the buyer can

choose

 go back to your past purchase what were the

specific internal and external sources of
information that influenced your decision?
how do you determine (and rate) the credibility of
these sources?
what specific information influenced you?

Determinants of External Search

Buyer Behavior
Other people often influence a consumers purchase decision.
The marketer needs to know which people are involved in the
buying decision and what role each person plays, so that
marketing strategies can also be aimed at these people.
(Kotler et al, 1994).

Initiator: the person who first suggests or thinks of the idea of buying a
particular product or service.

Influencer: a person whose views or advice carry weight in making the

final buying decision

Decider: the person who ultimately makes the final buying decision or any
part of it

Buyer: the person who makes the actual purchase

User: the person who consumes the product or service
Note: teens are increasingly assuming more of these roles

Think about your past purchase who was in which role?

Consumer decision making

varies with the level of involvement in the
purchasing decision
Extensive: problem solving occurs when
buyers purchase more expensive, less
frequently purchased products in an
unfamiliar product category requiring
information search & evaluation; may
experience cognitive dissonance.
Limited: problem solving occurs when buyers are
confronted with an unfamiliar brand in a familiar product
category

Routine: response behavior occurs

when buyers purchase low cost, low risk, brand loyal,
frequently purchased, low personal identification or
relevance, items with which they are familiar.

Increase in
Consumer
evaluation
processes

 quickly list 10 items you have purchased in the past

month
reexamine how long it took you to make a decision
on each
why did such a difference in decision occur?

Factors affecting
Consumer involvement
Previous

experience: low level involvement

Interest: high involvement

Perceived

risk of negative consequences: high involvement

Situation: low to high due to risk

Social

visibility: involvement increases with product visibility

So
Offer extensive information on high involvement products
In-store promotion & placement is important for low involvement products
Linking low-involvement product to high-involvement issue can increase sales

Types of consumer involvement

and decision making

Routine

Limited

Extensive

Involvement

Short

Low to
moderate

High

Time

Low

Short to
moderate

Long

Cost

Short

Low to
moderate

High

Information
Search

Internal only

Mostly
internal

Internal &
external

Number of
alternatives

one

few

many

 think of an important purchasing decision

you have made
what are some of the thoughts you have had
following your purchase? Any regrets?
what has influenced those thoughts?
how have you dealt with the discomfort?
how has the company anticipated or dealt with
your discomfort?

Postpurchase Behavior
Cognitive Dissonance

Did I make a good decision?

Did I buy the right product?
Did I get a good value?

Can minimize through:

Effective Communication
Follow-up
Guarantees
Warranties
Underpromise &
overdeliver

Cognitive Dissonance
psychological discomfort caused by inconsistencies
among a persons beliefs, attitudes, and actions
varies in intensity based on importance of issue and
degree of inconsistency
induces a drive state to avoid or reduce dissonance
by changing beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors and
thereby restore consistency
Applications:
Tendency to avoid information can be countered by eliciting interest,
norm of fairness, or perceive usefulness of information
Post-decision buyers remorse may be increased by importance or difficulty
or irreversibility of decision
Counter-attitudinal action, freely chosen with little incentive or
justification, leads to attitude change (e.g., new product at special low
price)

 think of an innovation in your field

describe different groups of employees in your
organization who would respond early and
favorably, as well as later and unfavorably
what are the differences between these groups?
how could you use this information to market the
innovation to them more effectively?

 Identify an innovation in your organization or an

organization you are familiar with
Identify the subgroups who responded to the
innovation using the Rogers & Shoemaker
stakeholder model
What could have been done to facilitate
acceptance by each of these groups?

Elaboration Likelihood Method (ELM) of persuasion

Persuasive Communication
Motivated to Process?
personal relevance
dissonance arousal
personal importance
need for cognition
personal responsibility repetition

Ability to Process?
cognitive complexity
critical thinking
distraction free
low arousal

appropriate schema
message pace
repetition
issue familiarity

Nature of Active Cognitive Processing: (initial

attitude, argument quality, etc.)
Favorable
Thoughts
Predominate

Unfavorable
Thoughts
Predominate

Neither or
Neutral
Predominate

Cognitive Structure Change: Are new cognitions

adopted and stored in memory? Are different
responses made salient than previously?

Enduring positive
attitude change
(persuasion)

Enduring negative
attitude change
(boomerang)

Attitude Shift:
short-lived
susceptible to influence
unpredictable

Peripheral Cues Present?

reciprocity (obligated, did a favor)
consistency (way its done, similar to before)
social proof (peer pressure, conformity)
liking (attractiveness, friendliness)
celebrity (identification, prestige)
authority (expertise, experience, credibility)
rapid speech, forceful presentation, charismatic style
scarcity (limited time offer)
tangible rewards
appealing visuals & music (emotional arousal)
fear appeal
weak counter-arguments

Retain or Regain
Initial Attitude
greater persistence
resistant to counterattacks & fading
predictive of behavior
> brand memory
> elaboration
>usage intention
> attitude accessibility
> attitude confidence
> attitude-behavior consistency

Items 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 16, and 17 are reverse scored

Write in the number that best fits your view:

Need for
1
2
3
4
completely
mostly
mostly
completely
Cognition Scale
false
false
true
true
_____1. I would prefer complex to simple problems.
_____2. I like to have the responsibility of handling a situation that requires a lot of thinking.
_____3. Thinking is not my idea of fun. *
_____4. I would rather do something that requires little thought than something that is sure to
challenge my thinking abilities. *
_____5. I try to anticipate and avoid situations where there is likely chance I will have to think
in depth about something. *
_____6. I find satisfaction in deliberating hard and for long hours.
_____7. I only think as hard as I have to. *
_____8. I prefer to think about small, daily projects to long-term ones. *
_____9. I like tasks that require little thought once Ive learned them. *
_____10. The idea of relying on thought to make my way to the top appeals to me.
_____11. I really enjoy a task that involves coming up with new solutions to problems.
_____12. Learning new ways to think doesnt excite me very much. *
_____13. I prefer my life to be filled with puzzles that I must solve.
_____14. The notion of thinking abstractly is appealing to me.
_____15. I would prefer a task that is intellectual, difficult, and important to one that is somewhat
important but does not require much thought.
_____16. I feel relief rather than satisfaction after completing a task that required a lot of mental
effort. *
_____17. Its enough for me that something gets the job done; I dont care how or why it works. *
_____18. I usually end up deliberating about issues even when they do not affect me personally.