Behavioral Dimensions of the Consumer Market

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Behavioral Dimensions of the Consumer Market

• Dr. John T. Drea
• Professor of Marketing
• Western Illinois University

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Consumer behavior is the study of why people buy.

• Basic concepts
• Affect feelings, moods or otherwise emotional
  responses elicited by a stimulus
• Cognition processing, storage, and purposive
  retrieval of information (beliefs)
• Attitude a product of the beliefs and the
  evaluations of those beliefs about a given
  concept. ?(biei) where
• bi the belief about attribute i (is it
  present/absent?)
• ei the evaluation of attribute i (is it
  good/bad?)
• (This is a cognitive representation of attitude)

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Why do we study attitudes?
Values
Attitudes
Intentions
Behavior
Values are perceived to influence attitudes,
which influence intentions, which influence our
behavior.
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Key terms and concepts

• The household is a purchasing entity.
• Stages of the HLC
• Who is the purchasing agent for certain products?
• Reference groups groups to whom a consumer looks
  when forming an attitude on a product, service or
  concept
• Membership groups
• Aspirational groups
• Disassociative groups
• Culture influences behavior indirectly, through
  influencing values and attitude formation.
• Situational influences

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Behavioral approaches to understanding buyer
behavior

• Operant Conditioning people do what they do in
  anticipation of a reinforcement
• Types of reinforcement
• Positive
• Negative
• Punishment
• Schedules of reinforcement
• Regular
• Fixed Interval
• Irregular
• Examples reinforcement from product, from
  others, coupons/rebates, etc.

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Behavioral approaches to understanding buyer
behavior

• Classical Conditioning In marketing, we use a
  previously conditioned stimulus (PCS) to produce
  a conditioned response (CR).

The PCS is then preceded by something neutral,
called an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). The
subject learns to associate the UCS with the CS.
Eventually, the UCS produces the same response
as the CS.
UCS
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Behavioral approaches to understanding buyer
behavior

• Other Classical Conditioning Concepts
• Stimulus Generalization the response associated
  with one stimulus is generalized to a broader
  category of stimuli
• Stimulus Discrimination being able to
  distinguish between two or more objects/concepts
• Classical conditioning typically requires
  numerous repetitions to become effective.
• Uses of classical conditioning celebrity
  endorsers, ad backgrounds, associations with
  winners

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Buyer Behavior A Problem Solving Process

• Need A state of felt deprivation (Kotler
  Armstrong1999)
• Want A need that is learned through a persons
  life, shaped by culture and individual
  personality
• Drive A strong stimulus that encourages action.
• Cue a stimulus that triggers a response
• Response the action taken to satisfy a drive
• Evoked Set the set of alternatives that come to
  mind for a given product category
• Involvement the degree of relevance a purchase
  has for an individual consumer

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Consumer Buying Decision Process
Problem recognition
Information search
Evaluation of alternatives
But is this always a linear process?
Purchase
Post purchase evaluation
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Types of Problem Solving

• Routinized response behavior
• Routine purchases, convenience items commonly
  fall in this category
• Habitual in nature. Low involvement, limited
  information needs, little risk
• Tip Avoid comparisons if you are an existing
  brand. Evoked set and location are critical.

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Types of Problem Solving

• Limited problem solving
• Some clothing items, CDs
• Some consideration of alternatives, some effort
  expended, limited cognitive processing of
  information.
• Tip Consumers may not view other brands,
  location shouldnt impede, and being in the
  evoked set is important

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Types of Problem Solving

• Extensive problem solving
• Cars, computers, college, etc.
• For new/important needs. High involvement,
  greater feelings of risk, infrequently purchased.
• Tip Put information where people will be
  looking for it, be ready to identify competitive
  strengths and address weaknesses.

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7 Steps to Analyzing Consumer Behavior

• Information Contact
• Funds Access
• Store Contact
• Product Contact
• Transaction
• Consumption
• Communication

A sequential, linear process!