Models of Consumer Behaviour

1
Models of Consumer Behaviour

• Week 2 17 January 2003

2
Models of Consumer Behaviour

• Types of consumption
• Purchase paradigms
• Modelling food consumption behaviour
• Most of the topics of this lecture are covered by
  East (Chap. 1)

3
What determines food choice?

• There are three types of influences on preference
  and choices for food
• Characteristics of the product
• Characteristics of the individual
• Characteristics of the environment

4
Types of consumption

• Important purchases
• Repetitive consumption
• Involuntary consumption
• Group consumption

5
Important purchases

• Product purchased for the first time
• Infrequently purchased products
• Time and effort to choose
• Little experience
• High involvment
• Going to a new restaurant

6
Repetitive consumption

• Frequent purchase
• (Low price)
• Little conscious attention
• Low involvement
• Experience goods
• Sugar at the supermarket

7
Involuntary consumption

• Unavoidable consumption
• Petrol for the car
• Telephone
• Repair of roads (social form, public goods)
• Choice between brands?
• Tab water

8
Group consumption

• Purchase based on some group influence process
• Family expenditures
• Company purchases
• Mineral water

9
Purchase paradigms, theories and models
Paradigm (perspective, framework)
Theory
MODEL
10
Purchase paradigms

• Are not mutually exclusive
• Subjective preferences
• Appropriateness for particular conditions

11
Purchase paradigms

• Cognitive paradigm (US)
• Purchase as the outcome of problem-solving
• Reinforcement paradigm (UK)
• Purchase as learned behaviour
• Habit paradigm
• Pre-established pattern of behaviour

12
The Cognitive paradigm

• Decision-making as an explanation for consumer
  behaviour
• The cognitive consumer is credited with the
  capacity to receive and handle considerable
  quantities of information, to engage actively in
  the comparative evaluation of alternative
  products and brands, and to select rationally
  among them Foxall

13
Cognitive paradigm

• Does it work?
• Typical purchase (especially for food)
• Few alternatives
• Little external search
• Few evaluative criteria
• Engel, Blackwell and Miniard (1995)

14
Extended Problem Solving

• New and important purchases

Problem/need recognition
Search for information
Evaluation of alternatives
Purchase
Consumption
Post-consumption evaluation
15
Limited problem solving

• Even in new purchase there are no time, resource
  and motivation to the search
• Search for information and evaluation of
  alternatives are limited

16
Habitual decision-making

• Loyalty to the brand
• Inertia
• The need is satisfied, but there is no special
  interest in the product
• Food products
• Satisficing behaviour
• Accept the first solution that is good enough to
  satisfy your need, even if a better solution may
  be missed

17
Satisficing behaviour (Simon, 1957 Klein, 1989)
Need recognition
Evaluation of single Option
NO
Purchase?
YES
END
18
(No Transcript)
19
The Reinforcement paradigm

• Reinforcer an experience which raises the
  frequency of responses associated with it
• Punisher an experience which reduces the
  frequency of such response
• Skinner, 1938 1953

20
The learned behaviour theory

• Past behaviour teaches us, and after learning we
  can modify later behaviour
• Satisfaction/unsatisfaction with a product
• It is valid for both the reinforcement and habit
  paradigm

21
Some types of learning

• Classic conditioning (Pavlovs dog)
• Learning is generalised
• Use of an existing brand for a new product
• Use of stimuli packaging, brand names, colours,
  smells, music, context of purchase/consumption
• Reinforcement learning
• Trial and error learning
• Shaping (behaviour changed by reinforcing the
  performances that show change in a desired
  direction)

22
The satiation effect

• Heavily used reinforcements lose power (satiation
  effect)
• Wearout in advertisement
• Desensitisation stimulus satiation

23
Stimuli and reinforcement learning

• Continuous and Intermittent learning
• Continuous is quicker
• Intermittent has a larger final effect
• Extinction period after the end of reinforcement
  is longer for intermittent learning

24
Punishment and reinforcement learning

• Food poisoning consequences
• One failure is enough
• Undiscovered later improvements of the product
• Effect is long-lasting

25
Reinforcement and marketing strategy

• Control stimuli to direct behaviour
• Reinforcers
• Pleasure
• Information
• Degree of opennes (range of activities
  available to the consumer)
• Environment affects behaviour

26
The Habit paradigm

• While the cognitive and reinforcement paradigms
  are based on dynamics and change, the habit one
  is related to aggregate stable markets, where
  behaviour is seen as relatively unchanging.
• The habit paradigm excludes problem-solving or
  planning
• Judgment comes after purchase and habits may be
  broken

27
The involvement factor

• Involvement
• Importance of purchase
• Risks involved
• Potential costs
• Irreversibility of the decision
• Type of cognitive process that is generated

Example beef consumption after the BSE crisis
28
Frustration factor

• Frustration as blocked motivation
• No options are available
• Minor frustrations in using products may lead to
  change products
• New products should be designed to avoid
  frustration

29
Social influence

• Theory of planned behaviour
• The intention to perform an action is driven by
• Perceived gains and losses
• Beliefs about what other important persons think
  about the action
• Perceived conditions that make the action more,
  or less, easy to perform

30
Managerial control and the purchase paradigms

• Cognitive paradigm
• Provide information and persuasion
• Suitable for one-off decisions
• Reinforcement paradigm
• Change the environment and stimuli
• Habit paradigm
• Packaging
• Advertising

31
Consumer behaviour towards food

• Steenkamps wheel (1993)
• Von Alvenslebens approach (1995)

32
Steenkamps wheel (1993)
Nutritional content
Chemical
Socio-cultural
Food properties
Appearance
Food consumption
Environment
Biological
Economic
Consumer factors
Psychological
Marketing
Personality
33
Von Alvenslebens approach (1995)

• Basic forces of consumer behaviour
• Emotion
• Motive
• Attitude
• Emotion Motive Attitude Behaviour

34
Food properties and quality (Hooker, Caswell,
1996)
35
Main motives of food consumption

• Nutritional needs
• Desire to enjoy food
• Health motive
• Convenience motive
• Safety motive
• Compliance with others
• Prestige motive
• Ethical motive

36
(No Transcript)
37
Problem/need recognition

• In general, individuals recognise they have a
  need for something when there is a discrepancy
  between their actual state and ideal state.

38
Need recognition and marketing strategy

• Advertising
• In-store promotion
• Visibility

39
Need recognition