Chapter 4

Perspectives on Consumer
Behavior

©McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Authorized only for instructor use in the classroom. No reproduction or further distribution permitted without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
 Learning Objectives 1 of 2
LO1 Discuss why an understanding of consumer
behavior is valuable in developing advertising
and promotional programs.
LO2 Describe the steps in the consumer decision-
making process.
LO3 Explain the influence on consumer behavior of
psychological processes like perception and
motivation.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Learning Objectives 2 of 2
LO4 Discuss behavioral learning theory and cognitive
learning theory.
LO5 Explain the influence of external factors like
culture and demographic variables.
LO6 Identify new ways to study consumer behavior.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 An Overview of Consumer Behavior
Consumer Behavior: Process and activities people
engage in with relation to products and services to
satisfy their needs and desires
– Searching and selecting
– Purchasing and using
– Evaluating
– Disposing

Source: Telluride Ski & Golf Resort

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Figure 4-1 Basic Model of Consumer Decision Making

Jump to Appendix 1 long image

description
©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 1 of 23
Problem Recognition
– Consumer perceives a need and gets motivated to solve
the problem
– Caused by a difference between consumer’s ideal state
and actual state
– Sources
• Out of stock
• Dissatisfaction, new needs or wants
• New products, related products or purchases
• Marketer-induced problem recognition

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 2 of 23
Examining Consumer Motivations
– Helps in understanding the reasons underlying consumer
purchases
– Motives: Factors that compel a consumer to take a
particular action

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Exhibit 4-5
While Volvo uses an appeal to security needs by focusing on
safety, why is the Jaguar ad an appeal to self-actualization?

Source: Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC. All Rights Reserved
© Volvo Cars of North America, LLC

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Figure 4-2 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Jump to Appendix 2 long image

description
©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 3 of 23
Examining Consumer Motivations continued
– Psychoanalytic Theory
• Influenced modern psychology and explanations of motivation and
personality
• Applied to the study of consumer behavior
• Deep motives can only be determined by probing the
subconscious

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Figure 4-3 Some of the Marketing Research Methods
Used to Probe the Mind of the Consumer

Jump to Appendix 3 long image

description
©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 4 of 23
Examining Consumer Motivations continued
– Problems of Psychoanalytic Theory and Motivation
Research
• Psychoanalytic theory
– Very vague
– Unresponsive to the external environment
– Too reliant on early development of the individual
– Uses a small sample for drawing conclusions
• Motivation
– Results are difficult to verify
– Lack of experimental validation
– Findings are not generalizable to the entire population
©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 5 of 23
Examining Consumer Motivations continued
– Contributions of Psychoanalytic Theory and Motivation
Research
• Psychoanalytic theory
– Insights gained make more effective strategies than rationally
based appeals
• Motivation
– Helps assess how and why consumers buy
– Helps get around stereotypical or socially desirable responses
– Forerunner of psychographics

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 6 of 23
Information Search
– Internal search: Information retrieval that involves
recalling:
• Past experiences
• Information regarding various purchase alternatives

– External search: Seeking information from external

sources
• Internet, personal, and public sources
• Marketer-controlled sources
• Personal experience

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 7 of 23
Information Search continued
– Extent of external source to be used depends on the:
• Importance of the purchase decision
• Effort needed to acquire information
• Amount of past experience relevant
• Degree of perceived risk associated with the purchase
• Time available

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 8 of 23
Perception
– Receiving, selecting, organizing, and interpreting
information to create a meaningful picture of the world
– Depends on:
• Internal factors
• Characteristics of a stimulus

Source: Simply Orange Juice Company

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 9 of 23
Perception continued
– Sensation
• Immediate, direct response of the senses to stimulus

– Selecting Information
• Internal psychological factors determine what one focuses on
and/or ignores

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 10 of 23
Perception continued
– Interpreting the Information
• Organizing and categorizing information influenced by:
– Internal psychological factors
– The nature of the stimulus

– Selective Perception
• Results from the higher number of complexity of the marketing
stimuli a person is exposed to

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 11 of 23
Perception continued
– Selective Perception continued
• Selective exposure
– Consumers choose whether or not to make themselves
available to info
• Selective attention
– Consumers choose to focus attention on certain stimuli and
not others

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 12 of 23
Perception continued
– Selective Perception continued
• Selective comprehension
– Consumers interpret information on the basis of their own
attitudes, beliefs, motives, and experiences
• Selective retention
– Consumers do not remember all the information they see,
hear, or read even after attending to and comprehending it
– Mnemonics: Symbols, rhymes, associations, and images that
assist in the learning and memory process

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 13 of 23
Perception continued
– Subliminal Perception
• Ability to perceive a stimulus that is below the level of conscious
awareness
• Controversial tactic with strong ethical implications

Source: The Coca-Cola Company

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 14 of 23
Alternative Evaluation
– Comparing the brands one has identified as being
capable of:
• Solving the consumption problem
• Satisfying the needs or motives that initiated the decision
process

– Evoked set – Subset of all the brands of which the

consumer is aware
• Size depends on the:
– Importance of the purchase
– Time and energy spent comparing alternatives

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 15 of 23
Alternative Evaluation continued
– Evaluative Criteria and Consequences
• Evaluative criteria: Dimensions or attributes of a product that are
used to compare different alternatives
– Objective or subjective
– Viewed as product or service attributes
• Functional consequences: Concrete outcomes of product or
service usage
– Tangible and directly experienced by consumers

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 16 of 23
Alternative Evaluation continued
– Evaluative Criteria and Consequences continued
• Psychosocial consequences: Abstract outcomes that are more
intangible, subjective, and personal
• Subprocesses
– Process by which consumer attitudes are created, reinforced,
and changed
– Decision rules or integration strategies used to compare
brands and make purchase decisions

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 17 of 23
Attitudes
– Learned predispositions to respond to an object
– Theoretically summarize a consumer’s evaluation of an
object
– Represent positive or negative feelings and behavioral
tendencies

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 18 of 23
Attitudes continued
– Multiattribute Attitude Model
• Attributes of a product or brand provide the basis on which
consumers form their attitude
• Consumers attach different levels of importance to different
attributes
• Salient beliefs
– Beliefs concerning specific attributes
– Consequences that are activated and form the basis of an
attitude

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 19 of 23
Attitudes continued
– Multiattribute Attitude Model continued
𝑛

𝐴𝐵 = ෍ 𝐵𝑖 × 𝐸𝑖
𝑖=1
where 𝐴𝐵 = attitude toward a brand
𝐵𝑖 = beliefs about the brand’s performance on attribute i
𝐸𝑖 = importance attached to attribute i
n = number of attributes considered

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 20 of 23
Attitudes continued
– Attitude Change Strategies
• Changing the strength or belief rating of a brand on an important
attribute
• Changing consumers’ perceptions of the importance or value of an
attribute
• Adding a new attribute to the attitude formation process
• Changing perceptions of belief ratings for a competing brand

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Exhibit 4-12
This Michelin ad stresses
advantages over competitors’
ads. What positioning strategy
is being employed?

Source: Michelin North America, Inc.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 21 of 23
Integration Processes and Decision Rules
– Integration processes
• Combining product knowledge, meanings, and beliefs to evaluate
alternatives

– Decision rules: strategies to decide among alternatives

• Heuristics:
– Simplified decision rules customers use for purchase decisions
• Affect referral decision rule:
– Selection is made on the basis of overall impression or
summary evaluation of the various alternatives under
consideration

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 22 of 23
Purchase Decision
– Purchase intention
• Predisposition to buy a certain brand by matching purchase
motives with attributes of brands considered

– Brand loyalty
• Preference for a particular brand that results in its repeated
purchase

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Decision-Making Process 23 of 23
Postpurchase Evaluation
– Satisfaction—Consumer’s expectations are met or
exceeded
– Dissatisfaction—Product performance is below
expectations
– Cognitive dissonance: Psychological tension experienced
after a difficult purchase choice

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Learning Process 1 of 3
Behavioral Learning Theory
– Based on the stimulus–response orientation (S–R)
– Learning occurs as a result of responses to external stimuli
in the environment
– Classical conditioning: Learning is an associative process
with existing relationship between a stimulus and a
response

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Figure 4-6 The Classical Conditioning Process

Jump to Appendix 4 long image

description
©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Learning Process 2 of 3
Behavioral Learning Theory continued
– Operant Conditioning
• Learning occurs when individual actively operates or acts on some
aspect of the environment
• Reinforcement: Reward or favorable consequence associated with
a particular response
– Reinforced behavior strengthens the bond between stimulus
and response

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Figure 4-7 Instrumental Conditioning in Marketing

Jump to Appendix 5 long image

description
©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Consumer Learning Process 3 of 3
Behavioral Learning Theory continued
– Schedules of Reinforcement
• Continuous—Learning occurs rapidly and every response is
rewarded
– Behavior is likely to cease when reinforcement stops
• Partial or intermittent—Learning occurs more slowly but lasts
longer
– Only some responses are rewarded
• Shaping: Reinforcement of successive acts that lead to a desired
behavior pattern or response

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Figure 4-8 Application of Shaping Procedures in Marketing

Jump to Appendix 6 long image

description
©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Figure 4-9 The Cognitive Learning Process

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Environmental Influences on Consumer Behavior 1 of 2
Culture
– Complexity of learned meanings, values, norms, and
customs shared by members of a society
Subcultures
– Smaller segments within a culture, whose beliefs, values,
norms, and patterns of behavior set them apart from the
larger cultural mainstream
Social Class
– Homogeneous divisions in a society into which people
sharing similar lifestyles, values, norms, interests, and
behaviors can be grouped

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Environmental Influences on Consumer Behavior 2 of 2
Reference Groups
– Group whose presumed perspectives or values are being
used by an individual as the basis for his or her judgments,
opinions, and actions
Situational Determinants
– Specific situation in which consumers plan to use the
product or brand directly affects their perceptions,
preferences, and purchase behaviors
– Types: Usage, purchase, and communications situation

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Alternative Approaches to Consumer Behavior
New Methodologies
– Qualitative methods
– Linguistic or historical perspective of communications
– Examining the symbolic meanings of advertising and the
facets of consumption
New Insights
– Leads to better understanding of:
• Cultural significance of advertising messages
• Influence of advertising images on society

©McGraw-Hill Education.