CH-6 Consumer Buying Behavior – Foundations of Marketing : Book Guide

Chapter 6 Consumer Buying Behavior TEACHING RESOURCES QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE Resource Location Purpose and Perspective IRM, p. 126 Lecture Outline IRM, p. 127 Discussion Starters IRM, p. 139 Class Exercises IRM, p. 140 Chapter Quiz IRM, p. 142 Semester Project IRM, p. 143 Answers to Issues for Discussion and Review IRM, p. 144 Answers to Marketing Applications IRM, p. 148 Answers to Internet Exercise IRM, p. 150 Answers to Developing Your Marketing Plan IRM, p. 151 Comments on Video Case 6 IRM, p. 152 PowerPoint Slides Instructor’s website Note: Additional resources may be found on the accompanying student and instructor websites at www.cengagebrain.com. PURPOSE AND PERSPECTIVE The chapter begins by defining buying behavior and consumer buying behavior. It recognizes and describes the major stages of the consumer buying decision process—problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and post-purchase evaluation. It then examines how the customer’s level of involvement affects the type of problem solving employed and discuss the types of consumer decision making processes, including routinized response behavior, limited decision making, extended decision making, and impulse buying. Next, it discusses in detail the situational, psychological, and social influences on the consumer decision-making process. Situational influences include physical surroundings, social surroundings, time perspective, purchase reason, and the buyer’s momentary mood and condition. The primary psychological influences on consumer behavior are perception, motives, learning, attitudes, personality and self-concept, and lifestyles. Forces other people exert on buying behavior are called social influences. Social influences include the influence of roles, families, reference groups and opinion leaders, social class, and culture and subcultures. LECTURE OUTLINE Introduction A. Buying behavior is the decision processes and acts of people involved in buying and using products. B. Consumer buying behavior refers to the buying behavior of ultimate consumers—those who purchase products for personal use and not for business purposes. I. Consumer Buying Decision Process A. The consumer buying decision process includes five stages—problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and post purchase evaluation (Figure 6.1). 1. This process can be affected by numerous influences, which are categorized as situational, psychological, and social. 2. The actual act of purchasing is usually not the first stage of the process. 3. Not all decision processes lead to an ultimate purchase; individuals may terminate the process at any stage. 4. Not all consumer decisions include all five stages. B. Problem Recognition 1. Problem recognition occurs when a buyer becomes aware of a difference between a desired state and an actual condition. 2. The speed of consumer problem recognition can be rapid or slow. 3. It is possible that a person has a problem or need but is unaware of it until marketers point it out. a. Marketers use sales personnel, advertising, and packaging to help trigger recognition of such needs or problems. C. Information Search 1. After recognizing the problem or need, the buyer will decide whether or not to pursue satisfying their need. a. If the consumer chooses to move forward, he or she will next search for product information to help resolve the problem or satisfy the need. 2. An information search has two aspects: a. In an internal search, buyers search their memories for information about products that might solve their problem. b. If buyers cannot retrieve enough information from memory to make a decision, they seek additional information from outside sources in an external search. (1) The external search may focus on communication with friends or relatives, comparison of available brands and prices, marketer-dominated sources, and/or public sources. (2) Consumers may also use marketer-dominated sources of information, such as salespeople, advertising, websites, package labeling, and in-store demonstrations and displays because they typically require little effort. (3) The Internet has become a major resource during the consumer buying decision process, with its many sources for product descriptions and reviews and the ease of comparing prices. (4) Buyers can also obtain information from independent sources—for instance, government reports, news presentations, publications such as Consumer Reports, and reports from product-testing organizations. 3. Repetition, a technique well-known to advertisers, increases consumers’ information retention and recall. a. When they see or hear an advertising message for the first time, recipients may not grasp all of its important details, but they recall more details as the message is repeated. b. However, marketers should be wary not to repeat a message too many times, as consumers can grow tired of it and begin to respond unfavorably. D. Evaluation of Alternatives 1. A successful information search within a product category yields a group of brands that a buyer views as possible alternatives. a. This group of brands is sometimes called a consideration set (or an evoked set). 2. To assess the products in a consideration set, the buyer uses evaluative criteria—objective characteristics (such as the size) and subjective characteristics (such as style) that are important to him or her. a. The buyer rates and eventually ranks brands in the consideration set using the selected evaluative criteria. 3. Marketers can influence consumers’ evaluations by framing the alternatives—that is, describing the alternatives and their attributes in a certain manner. a. Framing can make a characteristic seem more important to a consumer and facilitate its recall from memory. E. Purchase 1. In the purchase stage, the consumer chooses to buy the product or brand yielded by the evaluation of alternatives. 2. Product availability may influence which brand is ultimately purchased. 3. During this stage, buyers also pick the seller from which they will buy the product—it could be a specific retail shop, chain, or online retailer. a. The choice of seller may affect final product selection and therefore the terms of sale, which, if negotiable, are determined at this stage. F. Post purchase Evaluation 1. After the purchase, the buyer evaluates the product to ascertain if its actual performance meets expected levels. 2. Many criteria used in evaluating alternatives are applied again during post purchase evaluation in order to make a comparison. 3. Shortly after the purchase of an expensive product, evaluation may result in cognitive dissonance, doubts in the buyer’s mind about whether purchasing the product was the right decision. a. Cognitive dissonance is most likely to arise when a person recently bought an expensive, high-involvement product that is found lacking compared to desirable features of competing brands. 4. Three major categories of influences are believed to affect the consumer buying decision process—situational, psychological, and social. II. Types of Consumer Decision Making and Level of Involvement A. To acquire products that satisfy their current and future needs, consumers engage in different types of decision making processes that vary depending on the nature of the product. B. The amount of effort, both mental and physical, that buyers expend in solving problems also varies considerably with the cost and type of product. C. A major determinant of the type of problem-solving process employed depends on the customer’s level of involvement—the degree of interest in a product, and the importance the individual places on that product. 1. High-involvement products tend to be those that are visible to others (such as real estate or high-end electronics) and are more expensive. High-importance issues, such as health care, are also associated with high levels of involvement. 2. Low-involvement products are much less expensive and have less associated social risk, such as grocery or drugstore items. 3. A person’s interest in a product or product category that is ongoing and long-term is referred to as enduring involvement. 4. Situational involvement is temporary and dynamic and results from a particular set of circumstances, such as the sudden need to buy a new bathroom faucet after the current one starts leaking and will not stop. 5. Consumer involvement may be attached to product categories (such as sports), loyalty to a specific brand, interest in a specific advertisement (e.g., a funny commercial) or a medium (such as a television show), or to certain decisions and behaviors (e.g., a love of shopping). 1. There are three types of consumer decision making, which vary in involvement level and other factors: a. A consumer uses routinized response behavior when buying frequently purchased, low-cost items that require very little search-and-decision effort. b. Buyers engage in limited decision making when they purchase products occasionally or from unfamiliar brands in a familiar product category. This type of decision making requires slightly more time for information gathering and deliberation. c. The most complex type of decision making, extended decision making, occurs with high-involvement, unfamiliar, expensive, or infrequently-purchased items—for instance, a car, home, or college education. The buyer uses many criteria to evaluate alternative brands or choices and spends much time seeking information and deciding before making the purchase. 2. Purchase of a specific product does not elicit the same type of decision making process every time. Consumer may engage in extended decision making the first time they buy a product, but find that limited decision making suffices when they buy it again. 3. Impulse buying involves no conscious planning and stems from a powerful urge to buy something immediately. III. Situational Influences on the Buying Decision Process A. Situational influences result from circumstances, time, and location that affect the consumer buying decision process. B. Situational factors can influence the buyer during any stage of the consumer buying decision process, and may cause the individual to shorten, lengthen, or terminate the process. C. Situational factors can be divided into five categories: 1. Physical surroundings include location, store atmosphere, scents, sounds, lighting, weather, and other factors in the physical environment in which the decision process occurs. a. Retail chains try to design their store environment and layout in a way that makes shopping as enjoyable and easy as possible, so consumers are more inclined to linger and make purchases. 2. Social surroundings include characteristics and interactions of others who are present during a purchase decision, such as friends, relatives, salespeople, and other customers. a. Buyers may feel pressured to behave in a certain way because they are in a public place such as a restaurant, store, or sports arena. 3. The time dimension influences the buying decision process in several ways. a. It takes various amounts of time to progress through the steps of the buying decision process, including learning about, searching for, purchasing, and using a product. b. Time also plays a role when consumers consider the frequency of product use, the length of time required to use it, and the overall product life. c. Other time dimensions that can influence purchases include time of day, day of the week or month, seasons, and holidays. 4. Buyer’s moods (e.g. anger or anxiety) or conditions (e.g., fatigue or illness) may also affect the consumer buying decision process. a. They can affect a person’s ability and desire to search for or receive information, or seek and evaluate alternatives. b. Moods can also significantly influence a consumer’s post-purchase evaluation. IV. Psychological Influences on the Buying Decision Process A. Psychological influences partly determine people’s general behavior and thus influence their behavior as consumers. B. Even though psychological factors operate internally, they are strongly affected by external social forces. C. Perception 1. Perception is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting information inputs to produce meaning. 2. Information inputs are sensations received through sight, taste, hearing, smell, and touch. 3. Perception is complicated and can be influenced and compounded by different factors. 4. Perception can be interpreted different ways because, although consumers constantly receive pieces of information, only a few reach their awareness. a. Consumers would be completely overwhelmed if they paid equal attention to all sensory inputs, so they select some and ignore others. b. This process is called selective exposure because an individual selects (mostly unconsciously) which inputs will reach awareness. c. An individual’s current set of needs affects selective exposure. d. Information inputs that relate to one’s strongest needs are more likely to reach conscious awareness. 5. The selective nature of perception may also result in two other conditions: a. Selective distortion is changing or twisting received information. It occurs when a person receives information inconsistent with personal feelings or beliefs, and he or she interprets the information, changing its meaning to align more closely with expectations. b. In selective retention, a person remembers information inputs that support personal feelings and beliefs and forgets inputs that do not. 6. The second step in the process of perception is perceptual organization. a. Information inputs that reach awareness are not received in an organized form. b. To produce meaning, an individual must organize and integrate new information with what is already stored in memory. c. People use several methods to achieve this: (1) One method called closure, occurs when a person fills in missing information in a way that conforms to a pattern or statement. In an attempt to draw attention to its brand, an advertiser may capitalize on closure by using incomplete images, sounds, or statements in its advertisements. 7. Interpretation, the third step in the perceptual process, involves assigning meaning to what has been organized. a. A person interprets information according to what he or she expects or what is familiar. 8. Although marketers cannot control buyers’ perceptions, they often try to influence them. a. A consumer’s perceptual process may operate such that a seller’s information never reaches the target. b. A buyer may receive information but perceive it differently than was intended, as occurs in selective distortion. c. A buyer who perceives information inputs to be inconsistent with prior beliefs is likely to forget the information quickly, as in the case with selective retention. D. Motives 1. A motive is an internal energizing force that directs a person’s behavior toward satisfying needs or achieving goals. a. Buyers are affected by a set of motives rather than just one. b. At any point of time, certain motives will have a stronger influence on a person than others. c. Motives affect the direction and intensity of behavior. 2. According to Abraham Maslow, humans seek to satisfy five levels of needs, from most to least basic to survival (Figure 6.2). a. The pyramid is known as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. b. Maslow proposed that people are constantly striving to move up the hierarchy, fulfilling one level of needs then aspiring to fulfill the next. c. At the most basic level are physiological needs, requirements for survival such as food, water, sex, clothing, and shelter. d. At the next level are safety needs, which include security and freedom from physical and emotional pain and suffering. e. Next are social needs—the human requirements for love and affection and a sense of belonging. f. At the level of esteem needs, people require respect and recognition from others as well as self-esteem, a sense of one’s own worth. g. At the top of the hierarchy are self-actualization needs. These refer to people’s need to grow and develop and to become all they are capable of becoming. 3. Motives that influence which establishments a customer frequents are called patronage motives. a. A buyer may shop at a specific store because of such patronage motives as price, service, location, product variety, or friendliness of salespeople. E. Learning 1. Learning refers to changes in a person’s thought processes and behaviors caused by information and experience. 2. Consequences of behavior strongly influence the learning process. a. Behaviors that result in positive consequences tend to be repeated. 3. The type of information inexperienced buyers use may differ from the type used by experienced shoppers who are familiar with the product and purchase situation. 4. Purchasing decisions require that customers process information, an ability that varies by individual. a. Marketers help customers learn about their products by helping them gain experience with them, perhaps through free samples, in-store demonstrations, and test drives. 5. Marketers help customers learn about their products by helping them gain experience with them, which makes customers feel more comfortable. a. Free samples, sometimes coupled with coupons, can successfully encourage trial and reduce purchase risk. 6. Consumers learn by experiencing products indirectly through information from salespeople, advertisements, websites, friends, and relatives. a. Through sales personnel and advertisements, marketers offer information before (and sometimes after) purchases that can create favorable consumer attitudes toward the product. F. Attitudes 1. An attitude is an individual’s enduring evaluation of feelings about and behavioral tendencies toward a tangible or intangible object or idea. 2. Although attitudes can change over time, they generally remain stable and do not vary, particularly in the short term. 3. An attitude consists of three major components: a. Cognitive—the person’s knowledge and information about an object or idea b. Affective—the individual’s feelings and emotions toward an object or idea c. Behavioral—the person’s actions regarding an object or idea 4. Consumer attitudes toward a company and its products greatly influence success or failure of the firm’s marketing strategy. 5. Because attitudes play an important part in determining consumer behavior, marketers should regularly measure consumer attitudes toward prices, package designs, brand names, advertisements, salespeople, repair services, store locations, features of existing or proposed products, and social responsibility efforts. 6. Seeking to understand attitudes has resulted in two major academic models: a. The attitude toward the object model (the Fishbein Model) can be used to understand, and possibly predict, a consumer’s attitude. (1) This model consists of three elements: beliefs about product attributes, the strength of beliefs, and the evaluation of beliefs. b. The behavior intentions model (Theory of Reasoned Action), rather than focusing on attributes, focuses on intentions to act or purchase. (1) This model considers consumer perceptions of what other people, particularly peers, believe is the best choice among a set of alternatives. (2) This model focuses on attitudes toward buying behavior, not toward the object. 7. Several methods help marketers gauge and influence consumer attitude: a. One of the simplest ways is to question people directly. (1) The Internet and social networking sites are useful tools for marketers seeking to garner information on attitudes directly from consumers. b. Marketers also evaluate consumer attitudes through attitude scales. (1) An attitude scale usually consists of a series of adjectives, phrases, or sentences about an object. (2) Respondents indicate the intensity of their feelings toward the object by reacting to the adjectives, phrases, or sentences. c. When marketers determine that a significant number of consumers have negative attitudes toward an aspect of a marketing mix, they may try to improve those attitudes. (1) This task is generally lengthy, expensive, and difficult and can require extensive promotional efforts. (2) To alter responses so that more consumers purchase a certain brand, a firm might launch an information-focused campaign to change the cognitive component or a consumer’s attitude, or a persuasive (emotional) campaign to influence the affective component. d. Both business and nonbusiness organizations try to change people’s attitudes about many things using marketing messages, from health and safety to prices and product features. G. Personality and Self-Concept 1. Personality is a set of internal traits and distinct behavioral tendencies that result in consistent patterns of behavior in certain situations. a. An individual’s personality is a unique combination of hereditary characteristics and personal experiences. b. Even though a few links between several personality traits and buyer behavior have been determined, studies have not proven a definitive link. c. Many marketers are convinced that personalities do influence types and brands of products purchased. (1) Because of this believed relation, marketers aim advertising at specific personality types. 2. Self-concept (sometimes called self-image) is one’s perception or view of oneself. a. Research shows that buyers purchase products that reflect and enhance their self-concepts and that purchase decisions are important to the development and maintenance of a stable self-concept. b. Consumer’s self-concepts can influence whether they buy a product in a specific product category and may affect brand selection as well as the retailers they frequent. H. Lifestyles 1. A lifestyle is an individual’s pattern of living expressed through activities, interests, and opinions. 2. Lifestyle patterns include the ways people spend time, the extent of their interaction with others, and their general outlook on life. 3. People partially determine their own lifestyles, but it is also affected by personality and demographic factors such as age, education, income, and social class. 4. Lifestyles have a strong impact on many aspects of the consumer buying decision process, from problem recognition to posy purchase evaluation. 5. Lifestyles influence consumers’ product needs, brand preferences, types of media used, and how and where they shop. 6. One of the most popular frameworks for exploring consumer lifestyles is a survey from Strategic Business Insights (SBI), a spin-out of SRI International. a. The company’s VALS Program links personality with consumer’s lifestyles by using a short questionnaire classify consumers into eight basic groups—Innovators, Thinkers, Achievers, Experiencers, Believers, Strivers, Makers, and Survivors. V. Social Influences on the Buying Decision Process A. Forces that other people exert on buying behavior are called social influences. 1. They are divided into five major groups—roles, family, reference groups and opinion leaders, social classes, and culture and subcultures. B. Roles 1. All of us occupy positions within groups, organizations, and institutions. a. In these positions we play one or more roles, which are sets of actions and activities a person in a particular position is supposed to perform based on expectations of both the individual and surrounding persons. 2. Because every person occupies numerous positions, they have many roles. 3. An individual’s roles influence both general behavior and buying behavior. a. The demands of a person’s many roles may be diverse and even at times inconsistent or at odds. C. Family Influences 1. Family influences have a direct impact on the consumer buying decision process. 2. Consumer socialization is the process through which a person acquires the knowledge and skills to function as a consumer. 3. The extent to which different family members take part in family decision making varies among families and product categories. a. Traditional family decision making processes are divided into four categories—autonomic, husband dominant, wife dominant, and syncratic (Table 6.2). 4. The family life cycle stage affects individual and joint needs of family members. a. Family life-cycle changes can affect which family members are involved in purchase decisions and the types of products purchased. 5. When two or more family members participate in a purchase, their roles may dictate that each is responsible for performing certain purchase-related tasks, such as initiating the idea, gathering information, determining if the product is affordable, deciding whether to buy the product, or selecting the specific brand. a. The specific purchase tasks performed depend on the types of products being considered, the kind of family purchase decision process typically employed, and the presence and amount of influence children have in the decision process. 6. Within a household, an individual may perform one or more buying-decision roles. a. The gatekeeper is the household member who collects and controls information, including price and quality comparisons, locations of sellers, and assessment of which brand best suits the household’s needs. b. The influencer is a family member who tries to influence buying decisions by expressing his or her opinions. c. The decider is a member who makes the buying choice. d. The buyer is the family member who actually makes the purchase. e. The user is a household member who consumes or uses the product. D. Reference Groups 1. A reference group is a group, either large or small, with which a person identifies so strongly that he or she adopts the values, attitudes, and behavior of the group members. 2. In general, there are three major types of reference groups—membership, aspirational, and dissociative. a. A membership reference group is one to which an individual actually belongs, with which the individual identifies intensely enough to take on the values, attitudes, and behaviors of people in that group. b. An aspirational reference group is one to which a person aspires to belong. The aspiring member desires to be like group members. c. A group that a person does not wish to be associated with is a dis-associative or negative reference group. (1) The individual does not want to take on the values, attitudes, and behavior of group members. 3. A reference group may serve as an individual’s point of comparison and source of information. a. A customer’s behavior may change over time to be more in line with the actions and beliefs of group members. 4. Reference group can affect whether a person does or does not buy a product at all, buys a type of product within a product category or buys a specific brand. 5. The extent to which a reference group affects a purchase decision depends on the product’s conspicuousness and on the individual’s susceptibility to reference group influence. 6. A marketer sometimes tries to use reference group influence in advertisements by suggesting that people in a specific group buy a product and are satisfied with it. E. Opinion Leaders 1. An opinion leader is a member of an informal group who provides information about a specific topic, such as smartphones, to other group members seeking information. a. The opinion leader is in a position or has knowledge or expertise that makes him or her a credible source of information on a few topics. 2. An opinion leader is likely to be most influential when consumers have high product involvement but low product knowledge, when they share the opinion leader’s values and attitudes, and when the product details are numerous or complicated. F. Social Classes 1. A social class is an open aggregate of people with similar social rank. a. A class is referred to as open because people can move into and out of it. 2. Criteria for grouping people into classes vary from one society to another. a. In the United States, many factors are taken into account, including occupation, education, income, wealth, race, ethnic group, and possessions. b. Analyses of social class in the United States divide people into three to seven class categories (Table 6.4). 3. To some degree, individuals within social classes develop and assume common behavioral patterns. a. They may have similar attitudes, values, language patterns, and possessions. 4. Because people most frequently interact with others within their own social class, people are more likely to be influenced by others within their own class than by those in other classes. 5. Social class also influences people’s spending, saving, and credit practices. a. It can determine the type, quality, and quantity of products a person buys and uses. G. Culture and Subcultures 1. Culture is the accumulation of values, knowledge, beliefs, customs, objects, and concepts that a society uses to cope with its environment and passes on to future generations. 2. Culture permeates most things people do and objects they interact with, from the style of buildings in their town, to the education they receive, to the laws governing their country. 3. Culture influences buying behavior because it saturates people’s daily lives. a. Their culture determines what they wear and eat and where they reside and travel. 4. Global marketers will find that people in other regions of the world have different attitudes, values, and needs, which call for different methods of doing business and different marketing mixes. 5. A subculture is a group of individuals whose characteristics, values, and behavioral patterns are similar within the group and different from those of people in the surrounding culture. a. Subcultural boundaries are often based on geographic designations and demographic characteristics, such as age, religion, race, and ethnicity. b. Subcultures can play a significant role in how people respond to advertisements, particularly when pressured to make a snap judgment. c. It is important for marketers to understand that a person can be a member of more than one subculture and that the behavioral patterns and values attributed to specific subcultures do not necessarily apply to all group members. d. The population growth of different ethnic and racial subcultures represents a potential opportunity for marketers because of cultural-specific tastes and desires. e. Businesses recognize that, to succeed, their marketing strategies have to take into account the values, needs, interests, shopping patterns, and buying habits of the various subcultures. H. African American Subculture 1. In the United States, the African American subculture represents 13.7 percent of the U.S. population. 2. African American consumers spend much of their money on depreciable products such as phone services, children’s clothing, and shoes. 3. Many companies are increasing their focus on the African American community. I. Hispanic Subculture 1. Hispanics represent 16.7 percent of the U.S. population. 2. Hispanics represent a large and powerful subculture, and are an attractive consumer group for marketers. 3. When considering the buying behavior of Hispanics, marketers must keep in mind that this subculture is really composed of many diverse cultures from a huge geographic region that encompasses nearly two dozen nationalities, including Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Caribbean, Spanish, and Dominican. a. Each has its own history and unique culture that affect consumer preferences and buying behavior. 4. Marketers need to capitalize on subtle but important differences so that they can attract a target market and retain them as loyal customers. J. Asian American Subculture 1. The term Asian American includes Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese, Asian Indians, Koreans, and Vietnamese, encompassing people from more than 15 ethnic groups. a. This group represents 5.7 percent of the U.S. population. b. The individual language, religion, and value system of each group influences its members’ purchasing decisions. c. Some traits of this subculture, however, carry across ethnic divisions, including an emphasis on hard work, strong family ties, and high value placed on education. VI. Consumer Misbehavior A. Approaching the topic of inappropriate consumer behavior requires some caution because of varying attitudes and cultural definitions of what comprises misbehavior. 1. Consumer misbehavior is defined as behavior that violates generally accepted norms of a particular society. 2. Shoplifting is one of the most obvious misconduct areas, with organized retail crime (where people are paid to shoplift goods from retail stores) on the rise. 3. Consumer fraud includes purposeful actions to take advantage of and/or damage others. a. Fraudulently obtaining credit cards, checks, bank accounts, or false insurance claims fall into this category. 4. Piracy is copying computer software, video games, movies, or music. a. It is a growing legal problem that some estimate costs the electronics and entertainment industries $59 billion annually, although the number is difficult to calculate precisely. 5. Yet another area of concern with consumer misbehavior is abusive consumers. a. Rude customers engage in verbal or physical abuse, can be uncooperative, and may even break policies. B. Understanding the psychological and social reasons for misconduct can be helpful in preventing or responding to the problem. DISCUSSION STARTERS Discussion Starter 1: Consumer Buying Behavior and Social Classes To do this exercise which links consumer behavior tastes with various social strata, click on the hyperlink below to access a PBS game on consumer and class tastes. http://www.pbs.org/peoplelikeus/games/chintz.html Students can work individually or in teams. As explained on the website, the game has students make a series of choices to decorate a living room. Upon completion of the game, it tells students what their choices mean about their social class inclinations based on prior research of consumer behavior. Students generally have fun with this exercise because they have leeway to decorate the room however they want. If students play this in groups they may find that the group decision making process leads them to make different choices than they otherwise would have. Discussion Starter 2: Level Of Consumer Involvement Recommended as a group activity In this chapter we have examined how the level of involvement in a purchase often determines the type of behavior exhibited by consumers. In this exercise you are asked to examine how consumer behavior changes as the level of consumer involvement changes. You will be given a series of scenarios. After each one, write how your group would respond to the purchase situation. At work you are informed there is a “Secret Buddy” gift buying program for the holiday party. Each person’s name is entered into a hat and each person will draw one name. You choose the name of a person who works in another department that you do not know. Ask: What type of gift do you purchase? How much do you spend? How much time do you take choosing this gift? In the mail you receive an invitation to a favorite cousin’s surprise birthday party. You will not be able to attend, so you decide to send a gift Ask: What type of gift would you send? How much do you spend? How much time do you take choosing this gift? You got engaged recently and have received an invitation to your future spouse’s mother’s birthday party. This will be the first family party you attended. Ask: What type of gift do you bring? How much do you spend? How much time did you take choosing this gift? CLASS EXERCISES Class Exercise 1: Social Influences on Consumption The objective of this class exercise is to help students understand how social influences affect their consumption behaviors. Prompt for Students: Imagine that you are going out tonight. Which of the following social influences will determine what you wear, where you go, what you do, and what you will buy or consume? 1. Your role as a student, family member, employee, church member, or fraternity or sorority member. 2. Identification with a positive reference group. Disassociation from a negative reference group. 3. Membership within a particular social class. Aspirations to be in a different social class. 4. Cultural values that accept or reject certain types of behavior. Gender roles: expectations of how men and women should act. 5. Membership in a subculture based on geography, age, or ethnic background. 6. Knowing how these factors affect your consumption behavior, how can marketers adjust their marketing mixes to meet your needs? Answers: 1. As fraternity or sorority members, students may be influenced to stay out late for social reasons, which may conflict with their roles as students, employees, and church members. The demands of a person’s many roles may be inconsistent and confusing. Some married students may describe joint decision-making situations and the influence of children. Other likely responses will relate to clothing, restaurant choice, and food or beverage consumption. 2. You may also want to ask, “When ordering at a restaurant, do you find that people often order the same thing?” After one person (opinion leader) has decided to order something, others may order the same thing (“I’ll take what he/she ordered”). Reference groups clearly affect the choice of clothing and patronage at retail outlets. Some students may indicate that there are places they will not go because of the presence of negative reference groups. 3. The cars that students drive may reflect either their present social status or their desired social status. Social class may also affect what beer, wine, or other beverages students drink. You may also want to ask, “How does social class affect where you shop?” 4. Ask students the following: “Have any of you been in other cultures where you saw people doing things that would never be accepted in the United States?” If you have international students in class, ask them what they find peculiar about American culture. Discussion may be geared toward views of time and women. 5. Students may be able to identify certain types of food (catfish in the South), clothing (surf wear in the West), vehicles (pickups in the Midwest and Southwest), or accessories (Gucci handbags in the East) that are associated with subcultures. 6. Some possible examples include the following: • Promotion—show upper-class individuals in luxury car ads. • Product—design products (cars) that meet joint needs of family. • Price—offer price discounts to students with limited income. • Distribution—allocate more pickups to Midwest and Southwest. Class Exercise 2: The Stages of the Consumer Buying Decision Process For this exercise, each of the stages of the consumer buying decision process should be thoroughly discussed and made available to the students before they answer these questions. Prompt for Students: In which stage of the consumer buying decision process is each of the following people? 1. A recent college graduate reads Consumer Reports to compare automobile ratings. 2. On the first day of class, a student finds out that a programmable calculator is needed for the course, but she doesn’t own one. 3. After purchasing an evening gown, a woman decides that it is not quite appropriate for her special occasion. 4. A car buyer gets a loan to purchase a new car. 5. A teenager compares numerous MP3 players and narrows the choice down to two players. 6. While on the way to work, a person’s automobile stalls and doesn’t start again. 7. At an open-house party, a guest realizes that the host already owns the gift he plans to give. 8. A person receives a sample package of laundry detergent in the mail and uses it to wash a load of clothes. Answers: There are many possible answers for each question. For example, in Question 1, the recent college graduate reading Consumer Reports to compare automobile ratings could be in any of four stages: • Problem Recognition: The consumer suddenly sees his or her present car as inferior compared to the ratings of other cars in the magazine. • Information Search—the consumer has decided to buy a new car and is seeking all possible information to make an intelligent choice. • Evaluation of Alternatives—the consumer has narrowed choices to a few car brands and is comparing them by using the ratings in the magazine. • Post purchase Evaluation—the consumer has just purchased a new car and is comparing its ratings to those of some other cars. CHAPTER QUIZ 1. When individuals choose which information inputs will reach their awareness and ignore other inputs, they are using a. perception. b. selective distortion. c. selective exposure. d. cognitive dissonance. e. selective retention. 2. Which type of problem solving is frequently used for purchasing high-involvement products? a. impulse b. routinized c. extended d. limited e. selective 3. Human requirements for love, affection, and a sense of belonging would be classified by Maslow as __________ needs. a. safety b. esteem c. social d. physiological e. self-actualization 4. A publication such as Consumer Reports may be initially used during a(n) a. product recognition. b. evaluation of alternatives. c. internal information search. d. external information search. e. purchase decision. Answers to Chapter Quiz: 1. c; 2. c; 3. c; 4. d. SEMESTER PROJECT Increasingly, organizations seek to attract and hold onto top talent by offering a variety of unique benefits designed to appeal to employees. These benefits go beyond the traditional health care, retirement, and vacation plans to include such benefits as concierge services, provisions to bring your dog to work, vegan or vegetarian entrees in the cafeteria, etc. For many employees, these benefits are crucial to their lifestyle and therefore crucial to their work environment. In this exercise, you are to consider the types of benefits you want an organization to provide. Conduct some research on which types of organizations provide these types of benefits. Step 1: Research some of the alternative benefits being offered by organizations. Step 2: Explore what types of industries and organizations provide these benefits. Step 3: Determine if these industries or organizations offer positions in your chosen career field. Step 4: Identify a list of the types of benefits you would like to have at your workplace. ANSWERS TO ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION AND REVIEW 1. What are the major stages in the consumer buying decision process? Are all of these stages used in all consumer purchase decisions? Why or why not? The major stages in the consumer buying-decision process are problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and post-purchase evaluation. Not all consumer decisions include all five stages. The individual may terminate the process at any stage, and not all decisions lead to a purchase. Sometimes individuals engaged in routine behavior eliminate some stages, while those engaged in extended problem solving usually transition through all five stages. 2. How does a consumer’s level of involvement affect his or her choice of decision-making process? In a particular situation, a consumer’s level of involvement determines the importance and interest in a product. A buyer’s level of involvement determines why he or she is motivated to seek information about certain products and brands but virtually ignores others. The extensiveness of the buying-decision process varies greatly with the consumer’s level of involvement. Routinized response behavior is likely to be used for low-involvement products. Limited- or extended-decision making is required for high-involvement products. 3. Name the types of consumer decision-making processes. List some products you have bought using each type. Have you ever bought a product on impulse? If so, describe the circumstances. The types of consumer decision-making processes include routinized response behavior, limited decision making, and extended decision making. Routinized response behavior occurs when people buy frequently purchased, low-cost items which require little search-and-decision effort. Examples of routinely purchased products include milk, bread, packaged food products, and laundry services. Limited decision making occurs when consumers occasionally buy products and when they need to obtain information about an unfamiliar brand in a familiar product category. This type of decision making requires a moderate amount of time for information gathering and deliberation. Purchase decisions might include a new pest control company, a mechanic to install a muffler, or a new “healthy” cereal. Extended decision making is used when a purchase involves unfamiliar, expensive, or infrequently purchased products, such as cars, homes, or stereo systems. Most students probably will indicate they have purchased a product on impulse. Typical impulse products include candy, a compact disc, or a pair of jeans. 4. What are the categories of situational factors that influence consumer buying behavior? Explain how each of these factors influences buyers’ decisions. Situational factors can be classified into five categories—physical surroundings, social surroundings, time perspective, purchase reason, and the buyer’s momentary mood and condition. Physical surroundings, such as location, store atmosphere, scents, sounds, and lighting, can influence purchase behavior by creating settings more or less conducive to buying. Social surroundings influence buying behavior when a customer feels pressured to behave in a particular way, depending on who is in proximity of the buyer. The amount of time required to become knowledgeable about a product, to search for it, and to buy it, influence the buying decision process. The time of day, week, or year, such as seasons or holidays, also affect the buying-decision process. The purchase reason raises the questions about what the product purchase should accomplish and for whom. The buyer’s momentary moods can affect a person’s ability and desire to search for information, to receive information, and to seek and evaluate alternatives. 5. What is selective exposure? Why do people engage in it? Selective exposure is the process of receiving information, then internally screening information with only partial awareness of the total experience. People select some inputs and ignore many others because they cannot be conscious of all inputs at one time. An input is more likely to reach awareness if it relates to an antecedent event or to an unmet need. People are more likely to notice a TV advertisement for McDonald’s when hungry and wonder about where to eat lunch. 6. How do marketers attempt to shape consumers’ learning? Marketers attempt to influence consumers’ learning by exposing them to product experiences through free samples. Indirect experiences of products through product information from salespeople and advertisements are other avenues by which marketers attempt to influence purchases through the learning process. 7. Why are marketers concerned about consumer attitudes? Consumer attitudes toward an organization and its products strongly influence the success or failure of the marketing program. Negative attitudes among consumers may result in loss of sales, whereas strong, positive attitudes may increase sales. Because attitudes play such an important role in determining consumer behavior, marketers seek to measure consumer attitudes toward prices, packaging, branding, advertising, salespeople, services, images, and new-product features. If a significant number of consumers hold negative attitudes toward a firm or its products, the marketing program should be changed to positively impact consumer attitudes. 8. In what ways do lifestyles affect the consumer buying decision process? A lifestyle is an individual’s pattern of living expressed through activities, interests, and opinions. Lifestyles have a strong impact on many aspects of the consumer-buying process from problem recognition to post-purchase evaluation. Lifestyles influence product needs, brand preferences, types of media used, and how and where people shop. 9. How do roles affect a person’s buying behavior? Provide examples. A role consists of a set of actions and activities expected of a person holding a certain position within a group, organization, or institution. All individuals assume several roles depending on the number of positions they occupy. Roles may affect whether, what, where, when, or why a person buys. The roles of other persons also influence purchasing behavior. Marketers want to know who does the actual buying as well as who influences the purchase decisions. Students could consider the types of clothes they buy and wear to work, school, church, or the gym. They and the people at each of these destinations know the types of appropriate clothing for each place. 10. What are family influences, and how do they affect buying behavior? Family influences have a very direct impact on the consumer buying decision process. Parents teach children how to cope with a variety of problems, including purchasing decisions. Children often gain consumer socialization, the process through which a person acquires the knowledge and skills needed to function as a consumer, from their parents. Through observation of family buying practices and choice of brand names, children are influenced to use some of these techniques or products when they establish their own families. The extent to which family members participate in the buying process also affects who will be allowed input later in a person’s life when consumer buying decisions are made. 11. What are reference groups? How do they influence buying behavior? Name some of your own reference groups. A reference group is a group of people with which an individual strongly identifies, taking on many of the values, attitudes, or behaviors of group members. The reference group can be large or small. Individuals usually identify with several reference groups. The effect of reference groups on purchasing behavior is dependent upon the type of product, an individual’s susceptibility to group influence, and the extent of an individual’s group involvement. 12. How does an opinion leader influence the buying decision process of reference group members? An opinion leader is viewed as being well informed about a sphere of interest and is willing and able to share information with followers. An opinion leader is trusted by followers because they share similar values and attitudes. 13. How might consumer behavior be influenced by digital networks? Increasingly, consumers use the Internet for information about products and services. Consumers also use the Internet to post personal satisfaction or dissatisfaction with products and services. During the decision-making process and a consumer’s information search, many consumers locate an organization’s product information as well as information provided by consumers. As a result, consumers have access to more decision-making information than ever before. 14. In what ways does social class affect a person’s purchase decisions? Individuals within social classes often exhibit common consumer behavior patterns; they share similar attitudes, values, and possessions. Social class influences a person’s attitudes, perceptions, motives, personality, and learning processes, all of which affect purchasing decisions. Marketers need to understand how consumer behavior is impacted by social class. 15. What is culture? How does it affect a person’s buying behavior? Culture is the accumulation of values, knowledge, beliefs, customs, objects, and concepts that a society uses to cope with its environment and passes on to future generations. Culture influences what we wear and eat, where we live, and how we live. It affects the ways we buy and use products and influences the satisfaction we receive from products. Culture affects the entire marketing mix because it determines the ways products are purchased and used. 16. Describe the subcultures to which you belong. Identify buying behavior unique to one of your subcultures. This question lets students probe the unique subcultures to which they belong. Students should be encouraged to relate the particular features of their subcultures to their purchasing behavior. 17. What is consumer misbehavior? Describe the various forms of consumer misbehavior. Consumer misbehavior is behavior that violates generally accepted norms of a particular society. Shoplifting, consumer fraud, abusive consumers, and pirating/illegally copying products are all examples of consumer misbehavior, and students should describe each in detail. ANSWERS TO MARKETING APPLICATION 1. Assume that Reebok has developed two new types of athletic shoes. One is designed for distance runners, and the other has been developed for skateboarders. As a marketer, you need to evaluate the potential psychological influences for each of these distinct target markets. Rank each of the following on a scale of 1 to 5 in order of importance for distance runners vs. skate boarders. Consider 1 as the most important variable and 5 is the least important. • Roles • Family Influences • Reference Groups • Opinion Leaders • Social Classes • Culture and Subcultures Are your top two ranks for the distance runner and the skateboarder markets the same or different? If they’re dissimilar, explain why various social influences affect contrasting target markets. Students' answers will vary, but they should provide thoughtful analysis based on their study of consumer behavior. Social influences affect different target markets differently and change factors like people’s attitudes and their willingness to spend. 2. Consumers use one of three decision-making processes when purchasing goods or services: routinized response behavior, limited decision making, or extended decision making. Describe three buying experiences you have had (one for each type of decision making), and identify which decision-making type you used. Discuss why that particular process was appropriate. Students’ answers will vary, but they should support their answers with descriptions of each type of consumer decision making. Everyday products should involve routinized response behavior, limited decision making should involve products like clothes or books, and extended decision making should involve products like cars or computers. 3. The consumer buying process consists of five stages: problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and post purchase evaluation. Not every buying decision goes through all five stages, and the process does not necessarily conclude in a purchase. Interview a classmate about the last purchase he or she made. Report the stages used and those skipped, if any. Students’ answers will vary based on each student’s experience. 4. Attitudes toward products or companies often affect consumer behavior. The three components of an attitude are cognitive, affective, and behavioral. Briefly describe how a beer company might alter the cognitive and affective components of consumer attitudes toward beer products and toward the company. The cognitive component is the person’s knowledge and information about the object or idea, so a beer company may try to inform consumers about its special brewing process or about benefits like reduced calories. The affective component comprises the individual’s feelings and emotions toward the object or idea. Some beer companies will focus on local issues, social responsibility, or fun promotions as a way to influence the affective component. 5. An individual’s roles influence that person’s buying behavior. Identify two of your roles, and give an example of how they have influenced your buying decisions. Students’ responses will vary based on their roles. They should support their answers with how their role directly influences a buying decision (for example, their role as a parent influencing the food that they purchase). 6. Select five brands of toothpaste and explain how the appeals used in advertising these brands relate to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Students’ answers will vary based on the brands of toothpaste and current advertising, but responses should cover some basic ideas: • Physiological needs—not included (humans can survive without toothpaste) • Safety needs—fights decay and cavities • Social needs—fights bad breath • Esteem needs—whitening (may also be social needs) • Self-actualization needs—connect to career or relationship success (depends on advertising) 7. Develop your analytical and communication skills using the Role-Play Exercises Online at www.cengagebrain.com. Students can visit the website and develop their analytical and communication skills. ANSWERS TO INTERNET EXERCISE Amazon Some mass-market e-commerce sites, such as Amazon.com, have extended the concept of customization to their customer base. The company has created an affinity group by drawing on certain users’ likes and dislikes to make product recommendations to other users. Check out this pioneering online retailer at www.amazon.com. 1. What might motivate some consumers to read a “Top Selling” list? Students’ responses will vary, but they should discuss ideas from their study of consumer behavior. Answers could include meeting social, esteem, and self-actualization needs, or using the list as a tool in an information search. 2. Is the consumer’s level of involvement with an online book purchase likely to be high or low? Because books are low-priced and low-risk products, consumer involvement is likely to be low, especially because no one can see an individual’s purchase history. However, students could argue that the visibility of some books once they are purchased or the time commitment of reading could raise some consumers’ levels of involvement. 3. Discuss the consumer buying decision process as it relates to a decision to purchase from Amazon. Students’ responses should cover the following general ideas: • Problem recognition—consumers realize that they would like to purchase a product • Information search—consumers search for information, which is easy to do directly on Amazon because of extensive product information and customer reviews • Evaluation of alternatives—consumers consider all of the benefits of products; this may take place online, or they may go to other stores to actually touch and try out products • Purchase—consumers purchase the product from Amazon, which is easy if the consumer has an account with the company because mailing and billing information is already stored (1-click shopping) • Post purchase evaluation—consumers evaluate products, potentially sharing their evaluations with others via Amazon ANSWERS TO DEVELOPING YOUR MARKETING PLAN The information obtained from these questions should assist you in developing various aspects of your marketing plan. Develop your marketing plan online using the Interactive Marketing Plan at www.cengagebrain.com. 1. See Table 6.1. What type of decision making are your customers likely to use when purchasing your product? It is essential for marketers to be able to identify and anticipate consumer decision making responses, as this may affect how a product is marketed. The type of response engendered will depend on the type of product offered. If a student’s product is low in cost, customers may have a routinized response. However, if the product is high in cost and very specialized, their response may be extended. 2. Determine the evaluative criteria that your target market(s) would use when choosing between alternative brands. There are many different criteria that customers may consider when looking to purchase a product. The criteria will vary depending on the type of product. Some possible criteria are price, features, customer service, color, styling, or packaging. 3. Using Table 6.2, what types of family decision making, if any, would your target market(s) use? The different types are husband dominant, wife dominant, autonomic, and syncretic. These are general types, and individuals may vary considerably from one household to the next. 4. Identify the reference groups or subcultures that may influence your target market’s product selection. There are many different possible answers to this question and responses will vary widely depending on students’ products. COMMENTS ON VIDEO CASE 6: STARBUCKS REFINES THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Summary Starbucks is popular in the United States thanks to its focus on the customer experience. While the company continues to improve its American stores through innovations such as mobile pay, Starbucks is also expanding globally, especially in Asian markets. It is also diversifying; Starbucks recently purchased premium-juice company Evolution Fresh and is adding the company’s nutritious blended drinks to the traditional Starbucks menu. Starbucks plans to open more Evolution Fresh stores as the demand for healthy foods increases. The company is also competing with energy drink companies after releasing its all-natural Starbucks Refreshers. Starbucks is also promoting its focus on social responsibility. Questions for Discussion 1. In terms of situational influences and level of involvement, what are the benefits of mobile pay? Starbucks is working to keep customers involved by creating routinized response behavior. Mobile pay reduces search-and-decision effort, and the ease of payment and accumulation of Starbucks rewards makes it easy for their customers to prefer Starbucks as a brand. Starbucks is also taking advantage of customers’ momentary conditions to make sure they have an easy and fast way to pay. 2. With Evolution Fresh, which psychological influences on consumer buying decisions does Starbucks seem to be addressing? Motives, attitudes, personalities, and lifestyles are all important to Starbucks. With Evolution Fresh, Starbucks is primarily addressing consumers’ attitudes, especially perceptions and interpretations of the company. By providing products such as smoothies, juices, salads, and wraps, Starbucks is creating the impression that it cares about consumers’ health and is working to fit into their healthy lifestyles. 3. Why would Starbucks want customers to know that it believes in social responsibility? Starbucks wants to improve consumers’ perceptions and interpretations of the company and its actions. If consumers believe the company values ethical and socially responsible behavior, they will be more involved with the brand and more willing to purchase the company’s products. Solution Manual for Foundations of Marketing William M. Pride, O. C. Ferrell 9781305361867, 9781305405769, 9780357033760