Consumer Behavior

Understanding How
Consumers Make
Purchase Decisions
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 Learning Outcomes
1 Explain why marketing managers should understand consumer behavior

2 Analyze the components of the consumer decision-making process

3 Explain the consumer’s postpurchase evaluation process

4 Identify and understand the cultural factors that affect consumer buying decisions

5 Identify and understand the social factors that affect consumer buying decisions

6 Identify and understand the individual factors that affect consumer buying
decisions

7 Identify and understand the psychological factors that affect consumer buying
decisions

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The Importance of Understanding
Consumer Behavior

Explain why
marketing managers
should understand
consumer behavior

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 Understanding Consumer
Behavior
consumers make
purchase decisions

Consumer
behavior = HOW

consumers use and

dispose of product

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 The Consumer
Decision-Making Process

Analyze the
components
of the consumer
decision-making
process

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 Consumer
Decision-Making Process

Consumer
Decision-Making
Process A five-step process used
by consumers when
buying goods or services.

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 Exhibit 6.1
Consumer Decision-
Making Process

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 Need Recognition
Need
Recognition

Result of an imbalance between

actual and desired states.

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 Need Recognition

Int
e
Sti rnal
mu
li

Preferred
Present State
Status
n al
t e r li
Ex timu
S Marketing helps consumers recognize
an imbalance between present status
and preferred state.

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 Stimulus
Stimulus

Any unit of input affecting

one or more of the five senses:
•sight
•smell
•taste
•touch
•hearing

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 Recognition of
Unfulfilled Wants
• When a current product isn’t performing
properly

• When the consumer is running out of a

product

• When another product seems superior to the

one currently used

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 Information Search

Internal Information Search

• Recall information in memory

External Information search

• Seek information in outside environment

• Nonmarketing controlled
• Marketing controlled

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 External
Information Searches
Need Less Need More
Information Information

Less Risk More Risk

More knowledge Less knowledge
More product experience Less product experience
Low level of interest High level of interest
Confidence in decision Lack of confidence

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 Evoked Set

Evoked Set

Group of brands, resulting from an

information search, from which a
buyer can choose

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 Evaluation of Alternatives

Evoked Set Analyze product

attributes

Use cutoff criteria

Rank attributes by
importance
Purchase!
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 Purchase

To buy
or not to buy...

Determines which attributes

are most important
in influencing a
consumer’s choice

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 Postpurchase Behavior
Consumers can reduce dissonance by:
 Seeking information that reinforces positive
ideas about the purchase

 Avoiding information that contradicts the

purchase decision

 Revoking the original decision by returning

the product
Marketing can minimize dissonance through effective
communication with purchasers.

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 Postpurchase Behavior

Explain the consumer’s

postpurchase
evaluation process

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 Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive Inner tension that a

Dissonance
consumer experiences
after recognizing an
inconsistency between
behavior and values or
opinions.

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 Types of Consumer Buying Decisions
and Consumer Involvement

Identify the types of

consumer buying
decisions and discuss
the significance of
consumer involvement

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 Involvement

Involvement is…
the amount of time and effort a buyer invests in the
search, evaluation, and decision processes of
consumer behavior.

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Exhibit 6.2
Continuum of
Consumer Buying
Decisions

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 Routine
Response Behavior
 Little involvement in selection process

 Frequently purchased low cost goods

 May stick with one brand

 Buy first/evaluate later

 Quick decision

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 Limited Decision Making
 Low levels of involvement

 Low to moderate cost goods

 Evaluation of a few alternative

brands

 Short to moderate time to decide

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 Extensive Decision Making
 High levels of involvement

 High cost goods

 Evaluation of many brands

 Long time to decide

 May experience cognitive dissonance

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Factors Determining the Level
of Consumer Involvement
Previous Experience

Interest

Perceived Risk of
Negative Consequences

Situation

Social Visibility

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 Marketing Implications
of Involvement

High-involvement Extensive and informative

purchases require: promotion to target market

In-store promotion,
eye-catching package
Low-involvement
design, and good displays.
purchases require: Coupons, cents-off,
2-for-1 offers

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 Cultural Influences on
Consumer Buying Decisions

Identify and
understand the
cultural factors that
affect consumer
buying decisions

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 Factors Influencing Buying
Decisions

Cultural Social
Factors Factors CONSUMER
DECISION- BUY /
MAKING DON’T BUY
PROCESS
Psycho-
Individual
logical
Factors
Factors

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 Components of Culture
Values

Language

Myths

Customs

Rituals

Laws

Material artifacts
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 Culture is. . .

Pervasive

Functional

Learned

Dynamic

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 Value

Value Enduring belief that a

specific mode of conduct
is personally or socially
preferable to another
mode of conduct.

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 Understanding Cultural
Differences
• A firm has little chance of selling products in
a culture that it does not understand.
• Like people, products have cultural value.

In China In U.S.
Color of
mourning
Brides wear

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 Subculture

Subculture A homogeneous group

of people who share
elements of the overall
culture as well as cultural
elements unique to their
own group.

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 Social Class

A group of people in a society

Social Class who are considered nearly
equal in status or community
esteem, who regularly
socialize among themselves
both formally and informally,
and who share behavioral
norms.

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 Social Class
Measurements
Occupation

Income

Education

Wealth

Other Variables
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 The Impact of
Social Class on Marketing

 Indicates which medium to use for

advertising

 Helps determine the best distribution for

products

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 Social Influences on
Consumer Buying Decisions

Identify and
understand the
social factors that
affect consumer
buying decisions

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 Social Influences
Reference
Groups

Opinion
Leaders

Family
Members

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 Influences of
Reference Groups
 They serve as information sources and influence
perceptions.

 They affect an individual’s aspiration levels.

 Their norms either constrain or stimulate

consumer behavior.

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 Opinion Leaders

Opinion Leaders
An individual who influences
the opinion of others.

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 Opinion Leaders…
…are the first to try new products
and services out of pure curiosity.
…can be challenging to locate.

Marketers are increasingly using

blogs, social networking, and other
online media to determine and attract
opinion leaders.

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 Family
Purchase Process Roles
in the Family
• Initiators

• Influencers

• Decision Makers

• Purchasers

• Consumers

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 Individual Influences on
Consumer Buying Decisions

Identify and
understand the
individual factors
that affect
consumer buying
decisions

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 Individual Influences

Personality
Age
Gender Self-Concept
Life Cycle
Lifestyle

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 Age and Family Life
Cycle Stage
• Consumer tastes in food, clothing, cars,
furniture, and recreation are often age
related.

• Marketers define target markets

according to life cycle stages such as
“young singles” or “young married with
children.”

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 Personality, Self-Concept,
and Lifestyle
• Personality combines psychological
makeup and environmental forces.
• Human behavior depends largely on self-
concept.
• Self-concept combines ideal self-image
and real self-image.

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 Psychological Influences on
Consumer Buying Decisions

Identify and
understand the
psychological
factors that affect
consumer buying
decisions

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 Psychological Influences

Perception

Motivation

Learning

Beliefs & Attitudes

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 Perception

Selective Consumer notices certain stimuli

Exposure and ignores others

Consumer changes or distorts

Selective
information that conflicts
Distortion
with feelings or beliefs
Consumer remembers only
Selective
that information that
Retention
supports personal beliefs

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 Marketing Implications
of Perception
 Important attributes
 Price
 Brand names
 Quality and reliability
 Threshold level of perception
 Product or repositioning changes
 Foreign consumer perception
 Subliminal perception

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 Motivation

Maslow’s
Hierarchy
of Needs
A method of classifying human
needs and motivations into five
categories in ascending order of
importance.

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 Exhibit 6.6
Maslow’s Hierarchy
of Needs

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 Types of Learning

An experience changes
Experiential
behavior

Not learned through direct

Conceptual
experience

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 Beliefs and Attitudes

An organized pattern of
Belief knowledge that an individual
holds as true about his or her
world.

A learned tendency to respond

Attitude consistently toward a given
object.

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 Changing Beliefs

• Change beliefs about the brand’s attributes

• Change the relative importance of these
beliefs
• Add new beliefs

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 THANK YOU - 

ANY
QUESTIONS?

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