Lecture 1:
Intro to consumer behavior
Consumers are a strange breed
What is Consumer Behavior?
- “The study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use, or
dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and desires.”
Applications of Consumer Behavior
- Marketing strategy
- Regulatory policy
- Social marketing
Marketing Strategy and Consumer Behavior
Market Analysis
- Company
o Recognizing firms’ (marketing) abilities (strength/ weaknesses), including NPD,
channel, advertising, service, research, consumer knowledge, …
- Competitors
o Knowledge of competitors’ capabilities and strategies
- Conditions
o State of economy, physical environment, government regulations, technological
developments
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Consumers
o Knowledge of consumers’ needs and desires and anticipate their reactions
Market segmentation
Market strategy
- Product
o Consumers buy need satisfaction, not a physical product
- Price
o Consumer cost: everything a consumer must surrender in order to receive the
benefits of owning/using a product
- Communication
o With whom? What? Where? When? What effect?
- Distribution
o How? Where? When?
- Service
o Auxiliary or peripheral activities that are performed to enhance the primary product
Consumer decision process
Outcomes
- Firm outcomes
o Product/Brand position
o Sales and profits
o Customer satisfaction
- Individual outcomes
o Need satisfaction
o Injurious consumption
- Society outcomes
o Economic
o Physical environment
o Social welfare
Consumer Research
Consumer trends
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Health undefined
Collective empowerment
Priority shift
Coming together
Sustainable spaces
Digital dilemmas
Science insight
Introduction
Sharing experiences with others can benefit consumers in multiple ways, for example boost
their mood and enhance their sense of meaning (Lambert et al. 2013; Reis et al. 2010)
Theoretical background
Hypotheses
H1: Relative to taking photos for the self, taking photos with the intention to share with others will
reduce enjoyment of an experience.
H2: Relative to taking photos for the self, taking photos with the intention to share with others will
increase self-presentational concern.
H3: Self-presentational concern will diminish enjoyment both directly and indirectly through reduced
engagement in the experience.
Study 1: Photo Taking at a Tourist Attraction
Study 2: Field Experiment
Study 4: Moderation by Self-consciousness
Study 5: The Effect of Sharing with Different Audiences
Discussion
Contributions
Research on sharing experience (Lambert et al. 2013; Reis et al. 2010; Tamir and Mitchell 2012):
Previous research: effects of sharing after an experience
This research: intention of sharing an experience during an experience
Research on impression management (Baumeister 1982)
Identification of hedonic costs of anticipating future self-presentation: seeking future utility from
sharing photos can diminish hedonic utility in the present.
Research on photo taking (Barasch et al., 2017; Diehl et al. 2016)
Previous research: effects of taking versus not taking photos on enjoyment of an experience
This research: effects of taking photos for different audiences
Future research
• Examining how photo-taking goals affect features of the photos
• Additional situational variables
Now, You Know…
…how certain goals while taking a photo can affect the enjoyment of an experience
…how to empirically test these effects
…how examining these effects contributes to consumer research
Case
Case – Alexa
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Choose two of your favorite brands and devise an idea for an Alexa “skill” that consumers
could find useful. How would these skills help sell more of the brands’ products and/or
increase customer loyalty?
How can brands remain relevant in the Age of Alexa? What strategies should brand
managers employ to continue to influence consumer purchase decisions if consumers
become more reliant on AI assistants?
What kind of products or brands will most likely be either negatively or positively affected by
an increased use of AI assistants?