Consumer behaviour

By: Tulika
What is consumer behaviour

Consumer behaviour can be defined as the study of the behaviour displayed by an individual while
obtaining, consuming or disposing products and services and the decision processes that precede
and follow these actions
A complete example

● You see an ad of Zomato on TV just before dinner time. This acts as a stimulus in your mind to order
food from outside. (Stimuli)
● If you are with friends you may want to order Pizza or some other exotic cuisine. But if you are with
family, you may opt for some more traditional cuisine of food. (External Influence)
● You decide to order from EatFit as your perception about the brand is positive based on the ads you have
seen (Internal Influence)
● You place the order for Eatfit food from Zomato based on the Stimuli received and external and internal
influencers (Purchase)
External influencers
 Culture can be defined as a set of

Culture fundamental beliefs and customs that

influences an individual’s way of life and
choices. These practices may have been
passed on by the family, society or other
similar institutions.
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5A4zWJ2czM

Tanishq Ad

What do you think is the key message Tanishq is trying to deliver to its audience through this ad?
- It’s a brand that caters to various styles of jewellery influenced by different cultures
- Traditionally viewed as a north Indian brand, its trying to project itself to customers from other cultures too
Starbucks case

• Starbucks’ entry into the Australian market was faced with a disappointing customer response. In 2008 it
closed 2/3rd of its stores in Australia.
• This majorly happened because Australian coffee market was more influenced by Italian style Cafés than
American style.
• Australians wanted more Coffee specialities, less sugary and smaller sized drinks.
• However Starbucks offered a standard coffee menu with many sugary drinks and large sized mugs.
Family and friends
Example - Ola / Uber

• How did you get to first know about Ola and Uber?

Friends and family not just have a high influence in your decision making process, but also are a great
source or trusted reference for . Hence many marketeers have started using Referrals as a regular
marketing activity.
Socio economic Socio-economic classification is based on two
parameters:

classification 1. The education level of the chief earner of

the individual's family
2. The number of consumer durables owned
by the individual's family
Lifestyle
It is the pattern of living as
expressed through an individual’s
activities, interests and opinions.
Lifestyle

● Lifestyle based marketing includes brands like Apple, Zara.

● Lifestyle ads try to invoke inspiration and aspiration to belong to the community of individuals that
also adhere to their specific product lifestyle
Example
Internal Influencers
Internal influencers
Motivation Motivation is the reason for people’s actions,
desires and needs.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Physiological needs
Safety
Belongingness – Social needs
Esteem
Esteem
Self Actualisation
Difference between Esteem and Self actualisation

● Esteem needs are more centred around ego, respect of others, confidence, Competition, recognition and
validation
● Self actualisation is more driven by internal factors of being the best version of yourself, becoming who
you really are
Perception Perception is the process by which firms
target consumers identifies, organizes and
interprets stimuli or information to create
meaning out of it.
Perceptual Blocking

● When exposed to a large number of stimuli simultaneously, people may often block the various stimuli, as
they get stressed out. This is because the body cannot cope up with so many stimuli at the same time.
The people thus, blocks out the various stimuli from their conscious awareness. This is called perceptual
blocking.
● For example, we all have a tendency to “mute” the TV when the channels bombard us with so many
advertisements, or to “zap” across or switch over channels when an advertisement appears so as to
avoid watching the advertisements.

● So while the ads used to be longer earlier, now ads try to convey much more in a shorter span of time.
Selective Attention

● We have limited visual working memory. And in order to focus on something and lighten our memory
load, we unconsciously apply what is called “selective attention” to filter out any distractions.
● Example: you are in a room full of people, where there are a dozen simultaneous conversations. You will
filter out most of what is being said to focus on your interlocutor’s conversation. But if your name is
mentioned by someone else outside your own conversation, you are likely to pick it up and focus your
attention to where it came from.

● Example – How about the multiple promo emails that you get? Most of them you don’t give any thought
to, but maybe go through the ones that have your name mentioned?
Share a Coke campaign

● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X8Bd3-G6IU&t=48s

What do you what so unique about this campaign that made the youth of Australia reconnect/ taste Coke?

● Personalisation… if so why does it work? Breaks the clutter and gets your attention – right?

● And of course makes you feel special

Perceptual Defense

● Sometimes people may select stimuli which they later find as psychologically threatening and
uncomfortable. In such cases, they have a tendency to filter out that stimuli, although initial exposure has
taken place. The threatening stimuli is consciously filtered away. This is called perceptual defense. Often
people may also distort the stimuli as per their desire and give meaning to their advantage.
● For example, a smoker is exposed to an advertisement stating the harmful effects of cigarette smoking.
As soon as such an advertisement appears, he would have a tendency to switch to another channel, and
watch something else, so that he does not have continue with the exposure to the stimulus and
subsequent processing.

● This is why many products that use Fear to drive sales (insurance products etc.) deal with the subject in a
subtle manner which doesn’t appear too threatening to its consumers.
Difference between Selective attention and blocking

● When a consumer’s senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch are activated by a stimulus, exposure is
said to have occurred. If exposure itself doesn’t happen, its blocking
● But the interest and involvement with the stimulus will be reflected at the level of attention they devote to
it. That is Selective attention.
Perception – takeaways

● People are more likely to get attracted to the stimuli which relates to the current need.
● It is more likely that people may observe the stimuli that they anticipate.
● People are more likely to notice a large deviation of the stimuli than the usual size of the stimuli (For
example, a consumer who is interested in the purchase of a car is more likely to notice an ad offering
15000/- off the list price of an “A” brand than ‘B’ offering Rs. 1500/- off the list price).
Learning ● Learning involves changes in an
individual’s behaviour, arising out of
experiences.
Cognitive learning

Thinking is required for interpretation of information

– cognitive behaviour, problem solving

This ad makes you think about your experiences so

far to appreciate the message.
Behavioural learning

Based on learning from past experiences or experiences or reinforcements.

Modelling

Modelling learning happens when you try to learn by observing others.

Typically here the marketers try to use step wise instructions/ keywords/ numbers to aid in consumer
learning. This is very effective if the product is new or complicated to understand.

Examples
● Maggi – break, boil, and add masala
● Ujala – 4 boondo wala
Attitudes and ● Beliefs are the way people think and

beliefs ●
believe about a particular product /
service/ brand
Attitude is a learned way to behave in a
consistently favourable or unfavourable
manner concerning a given object
Classical conditioning

● Classical conditioning refers to a learning procedure in which a biologically potent stimulus (e.g. food)
is paired with a previously neutral stimulus (e.g. a bell).

● From marketing perspective, the goal here is to get consumers to associate brands with a particular
feeling or response.
Lets look at the following Coke ad:

● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0jCXcaJK0Y
Operand Conditioning

● In operant conditioning, person has used the product and has a positive or negative attitude towards it.
● Here marketers also try to change consumers' behavior by using rewards or punishment.
Example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KgJuiXpsrM
Mercedes – Brake assist system plus
Cognitive

● Customer forms their attitude / belief based on data/ information.

● You may have formed a positive attitude towards Milk supplement products based on the information
given to you saying its good for you.
● Danone curd
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3lUTZKlHXk
Decision making process
Decision making process
Decision making process

1. Need recognition: You want to purchase laptop

2. Information Search: You go online/ offline and start
searching for available products
3. Evaluation: You see there are multiple products and then
you compare to see which one suits you the best
4. Purchase: Having made the decision which one to
purchase doesn’t mean you go ahead and purchase the
product. You may still need a push to take the decision of
shelling out money for that product. Once this happens,
purchase takes place.
5. Post-purchase: Once you have purchased an item you
form an opinion about the product (and maybe share it
with others)
 Evaluation process may use decision rules

Under compensatory rules, a lower rating on

an attribute may be offset by a higher rating
on another.

However in Non-Compensatory rules a

negative evaluation of any one important
attribute eliminates the brand from
consideration.

Affect referral rule is more subjective and

based on other people’s views and ratings
Compensatory decision rule

As per compensatory
decision rule, in this
case, we will select
Samsung
Conjunctive

As per conjunctive
decision rule, in this
case, we will only
have Samsung left
in the consideration
set
Disjunctive

As per disjunctive
decision rule, in this
case, we will remove
only Whirlpool for
negative rating in
Technology (an
important attribute).
Hence Samsung
and LG will be left
in the consideration
set
Lexicographic decision rule

As per Lexicographic
decision rule, assuming
Price is the most important
attribute, Whirlpool and LG
will be considered, then we
will move to second most
important attribute –
Capacity where LG has
higher score. Hence we
will be selecting LG as
part of this process.
Affect referral rule
Thank you!