INTEGRATED

MARKETING
COMMUNICATION
Chapter 3 :
Perspectives on Consumer Behaviour
& Brand Communication
Chapter Learning Objective:-
LO 1 : To understand the role consumer behaviour
plays in the development and implementation of
advertising and promotional programs.

LO2 :To understand the consumer decision-making

process and how it varies for different type of
purchases.

LO 3 : To recognize external factors such as culture,

social class, group influences and situational
determinants and how they affect consumer
behaviour.
Introduction
Consumer behaviour can be defined as the
process and activities people engage in
when searching for, selecting, purchasing,
using, evaluating and disposing a
product/service to satisfy their needs and
desires.
Notes: Process and activities people engage in =
extensive information of brand search, brand
comparison and evaluation and other activities.
What do you do before purchasing a product/service?
Do you make impulse purchase?
Factors that Influence
Consumer Behaviour
Psychological
Economic Factor Personal Factor
Factor

Income Age Motivation

Standard of
Lifestyle Perception
living

Cultural & Social

Factor

Opinion Leader

Social Class
 Basic Model of Consumer
Decision Making

Post-
Alternat
Problem Informa Purchas purchas
ive
recogni tion e e
evaluati
tion Search decision evaluati
on
on

Stages in the Consumer Decision-Making

Process

https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcV9y_LLdR8
Stages in the Consumer
Decision-Making Process –
Problem Recognition
Occurs when the consumer perceives a need and
becomes motivated to solve the problem.
Source of problem recognition:-
1. Out of stock
2. Dissatisfaction
3. New needs/wants
4. Related product/purchases
5. Marketer-induced problem recognition
6. New products
 Stages in the Consumer Decision-
Making Process – Information
Search
1. Consumers begin to search for information needed before
deciding to purchase a product/service.
2. Consumer begin to conduct an internal search – an
attempt to scan information stored in memory or to recall
past experience and/or knowledge regarding the purchasing
alternatives.
3. When internal search does not provided with information
needed, consumer will search for additional information by
engaging in external search. The source for external search
are:-
a. Personal sources – friends, relatives, co-workers.
b. Marketer controlled (commercial) sources –
advertisement, salespeople, point-of-purchase displays
and Internet.
c. Public sources – article in magazines or newspapers,
reports on TV and so on.
d. Personal experience – actual handling, examining, or
testing product.
 Stages in the Consumer Decision-Making
Process – Alternative Evaluation
1. In this stage, consumer compare the various
brands or product/service he/she has identified.
2. Various brands identified as purchase option to be
considered during the alternative evaluation
process are referred to as consumer evoked set.
3. Evaluation criteria and consequences – the stage
where consumers have identified an evoked set
and have a list of alternatives, they must evaluate
various brand:-
a. Evaluative criteria
Refers to the attributes (qualities/features) of a product
b. Functional consequences
refers to the concrete outcomes of product/service that are
tangible or directly experienced by consumers. Ex: the taste of
soft drinks or fast food meal, t angible of a car, speed of the Internet.
c. Psychosocial consequences
It is an abstract outcomes and more tangible, subjective and
personal – how a product make you feel or how you think others
Stages in the Consumer
Decision-Making Process –
Purchase Decision
1. Purchase decision is influenced by purchase
intentions.
2. Purchase intentions are based on matching
purchasing motives with attributes or
characteristics of brand under consideration.
3. Purchase decision is not the same as actual
purchase. Before actual purchase, consumer
normally need to do additional decisions – when
to buy, where to buy, how much money to
spend.
4. Brand loyalty – a preference for a particular
brand that results in its repeated purchase – it is
not limited to nondurable product/service
The role of Marketing in Determining
Consumer Purchase Decision

1.Sensory Marketing
It is used to stimulate the senses of the consumer
sand developed their interest in your product/service.

2.Ritual
Refers to a set of repetitive and routine actions.

3.Guerilla Marketing
An execution of unexpected/unusual and low-cost
marketing activities to generate a buzz for product or
service.
 SENSORY MARKETING –
McDonald’s
VISION SMELL & TASTE
Vision is used in TV McDonalds uses smell/scent
commercials, print marketing by having an open kitchen
advertisement. so that customers can smell their
food.

SOUND
Make an impactful advertisement
with the sound effects that can
attract the customers.
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuLCNby
Mdjs
 Ritual
Example : Some people
drink coffee to start their
morning routine. So, you
can target these people
by marketing McDonald’s
coffee like this :-

“Running late? Don’t

worry McCafe will save
the day.”
Guerilla Marketing
Stages in the Consumer Decision-Making
Process – Post-purchase Evaluation
1. After using the product or service, the
consumer compares the level of
performance with expectations (satisfied
or dissatisfied).

2. Another possible outcome of a purchase

is cognitive dissonance – a feeling of
psychological tension or post-purchase
doubt.
BRANDING
Definition and concept of branding
a. In general, brand refers to goods of particular
name or trade mark.
b. Product branding represents the benefits that
the consumers will gain by using the product or
service that the corporation offers by
emphasizing on the quality.
c. Product branding also refers to all other assets
that are related to the corporation including the
name of the brand, design and packaging,
advertising and promotional activities, place of
distribution of the product and reputation
(Gilmore, 1997).
d. Other type of branding : organizational
branding; corporate branding.
The role of IMC in brand
communication
a. Marketing communication involves every
communication activities or contact between
the brand and the market – everything from packaging,
the outside of the truck that transports the company ’ s products, sales
kits for the trade, business cards, sponsorships, store signs, collateral,
retail store layout (if the brand is sold at retail, or is in fact a retail
store), newsletters – you get the point. This is why IMC is so critical in
building successful brands.

b. Brand attitude is also crucial in building the

foundation for building strong brands.
c. Everyone has brands that they like and brands
that they don’t like. That preference reflects
their brand attitude.
 Think about a product like
YOGURT DRINK.
What are some of the things you
KNOW or BELIEVE about YOGURT
DRINK?

NO
LESS
NATURAL ARTIFICIAL
SUGAR
COLOURING
 Think about a product like
YOGURT DRINK.
What are some of the things you
KNOW or BELIEVE about YOGURT
DRINK?
Cont.
a. Our attitude towards the brand will be the result of how many
things are important to us in the product that are delivered
by that brand.
b. The more benefits that are important to us, that we feel the
brand offers, the more positive brand attitude we have for the
brand.
c. Consumers’ judgement and attitude towards the brand are
associated with their experience and knowledge they have
about the brand.
d. IMC plays vital role in providing the knowledge about the
brand to the consumers.
e. When brand faces aggressive competition in marketplace,
brand personality and reputation of the brand help it
distinguish from competing offerings. This can result in
gaining customer loyalty and achieve growth. A strong brand
identity that is well understood and experienced by the
customers helps in developing trust which, in turn, results in
differentiating the brand from competition
Establishing brand identity
a. Aaker & Joachimsthaler (2000) suggest that in
order to develop the brand name and identity, the
brand needs to :-
 resonate with customers
 differentiate the brand from competitors, and
 represent what the organization can and will do over
b. Knapp (2000) suggest that in order for the brand
to excel, a brand image must be well planned,
nurtured, supported, and vigilantly guarded.
c. One key to successful brand-building is to
understand how to develop a brand identity – to
know what the brand stands for and to effectively
express that identity (Aaker, 1996).
Strategies to develop brand identity
a. PCDL Model (Ghodeswar, 2008). The four
elements of this model, namely, positioning the
brand, communicating the brand message,
delivering the brand performance, and
leveraging the brand equity
Evaluating the Brand
a. There are four (4) primary measures that can be
observed in identifying brand effectiveness.
a. Behaviours
When the brand increases in value, one expects—all other
factors being unchanged—that customers will purchase the
brand more regularly and will be less likely to switch away
from the brand. Thus, one way to measure the strength
of a brand is to measure behavioural loyalty. Measurements of
loyalty behaviours alone can be misleading, because so many
factors influence purchase behavior.

b. Attitudes
Valued brands tend to share certain consumer attitudes:
they are well known among the relevant customers for
delivering particular benefits, they are associated with
influential users, and they are personally relevant. Attitudinal
measures are gathered from traditional market research as
well as other informal feedback mechanisms (Web sites,
customer centers, retailers) to make benchmarked
comparisons on attitudinal strength.
Evaluating the Brand
d. Relationships
When brand value is high, customers tend to rely heavily on the
brand in their daily life and, so, develop deep relationships with the
brand. Like a personal relationship, people come to depend on the
brand, enact norms of reciprocity, and exhibit strong emotions and
feelings about the brand. Hence, measures of relationship strength
can provide accurate indicators of brand value.

e. Equity
The ultimate measure of brand value is the brand’s
reservation price (the price at which consumers are indifferent
between the brand and competitive offerings). If the demand curve
shifts outward, all other factors being equal, the brand is more
valued by customers. Successful branding allows firms to
charge more for their products or to sell more at the existing price,
or some combination thereof. The future stream of earnings
produced by this shifting of the demand curve attributed to
branding is called brand equity.
END OF NOTES