Why People Buy: Consumer Behavior

Consumer Behavior

• The process individuals and groups go through to select, purchase, or use goods, services, ideas, or experiences

The Consumer Decision Process

Problem Recognition

Information Search

Alternative Evaluation

Product Choice

Post purchase Evaluation

Problem Recognition

• Occurs whenever a consumer recognizes a difference between the current state and the ideal or desired state

• Internal cues - consumers recognize state of discomfort

• External cues - marketers may stimulate consumers to recognize problem

Information Search

• Consumer checks memory and surveys environment to identify what options are available

• Sources might include personal experience and knowledge, friends, advertising, web sites, and magazines.

Evaluation of Alternatives

• Identify consideration set

• Narrow list and compare pros and cons

• Use evaluative criteria to decide among remaining choices

Product Choice

• People may ultimately make the choice based on heuristics

• Heuristics represent rules of thumb– brand loyalty– country of origin– liking

Post purchase Evaluation

• How good a choice was it?

• Customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction – “buyer’s remorse”

• Ultimately affects future decisions and word of mouth communication

Consumer Decision Making Influences

Internal Influences:PerceptionMotivationLearningAttitudes

PersonalityAge groups

Lifestyle

Situational Influences:Physical Environment

Time

Social Influences:Culture, Social classGroup memberships

DecisionProcess

PURCHASE

Internal Influences

• Perception

• Motivation

• Learning

• Attitudes

• Personality

• Age

• Lifestyle

Perception

• Process by which people select, organize, and interpret information– Exposure: stimulus must be within sensory

receptors to be noticed– Perceptual Selection: consumers will pay

attention to some stimuli and not to others– Interpretation: consumers assign meaning to

stimuli

Motivation

• An internal state that drives us to satisfy needs

• Once we activate a need, a state of tension exists that drives the consumer to some goal that will reduce this tension and eliminate the need

• Consequently, only unmet needs motivate

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Self-Actualization

Ego Needs

Belongingness

Safety

Physiological

Learning• A change in behavior caused by

information or experience• Behavior learning theories assume learning

takes place as the result of connections formed between events

• Cognitive learning occurs when consumers make a connection between ideas or by observing things in their environment

Attitudes

• A lasting evaluation of a person, object, or issue

• 3 components of attitudes– affect– cognition– behavior

Personality

• The set of unique psychological characteristics that consistently influences the way a person responds to situations in the environment– Innovativeness– Self-confidence– Sociability

Family Life Cycle

• Related to age groups, our purchases also depend on our current position in the family life cycle– stages through which family members pass as

they grow older

Lifestyles

• Pattern of living that determines how people choose to spend their time, money, energy and reflects their values, tastes, and preferences

• Expressed through preferences for sports activities, music interests, and political opinions

• Psychographics is the segmentation tool used to group consumers according to AIOs

SRI’s VALS Descriptions

Situational Influences

• Physical Environment– arousal– pleasure

• Time– time poverty

Social Influences

• Culture and Subcultures

• Social Class

• Group Behavior and Reference Groups

• Opinion Leaders

Cultures and Subcultures

• Culture is the values, beliefs, customs, and tastes produced and valued by a group of people

• A subculture is a group coexisting with other groups in a larger culture whose members share a distinctive set of beliefs or characteristics

Social Class

• Social class is the overall rank of people in a society

• People in the same class tend to have similar occupations, similar income levels, share common tastes in clothes, decorating styles, and leisure activities. They may share political and religious beliefs.

Reference Groups

• A reference group is a set of people a consumer wants to please or imitate

• The “group” can be composed of one person, a few people, or many people. They may be people you know or don’t know– Conformity is at work when people change as a

reaction to real or imagined group pressure– Sex roles are society’s expectations regarding

appropriate attitudes, behaviors, and appearances for men and women

Opinion Leaders

• A person who influences others’ attitudes or behaviors because they are perceived as possessing expertise about the product