Consumer Behaviour
Topic 3
Marketers try to satisfy consumer needs, but the reasons any product is
purchased can vary widely. The identification of consumer motives is an
important step in ensuring that the appropriate needs will be met by a product.
Motivation refers to the processes that cause people to behave as they do.
Marketers are very interested in consumer goals, drives, and wants.
Traditional approaches to consumer behaviour have focused on the abilities of
products to satisfy rational needs (utilitarian motives), but hedonic motives
(e.g., the need for exploration or for fun) also play a role in many purchase
decisions. Drive theory focuses on biological needs that produce unpleasant
states of arousal. This theory explains some of human behavior but not all.
Expectancy theory suggests that behaviour is largely pulled by expectations of
achieving desirable outcomes—positive incentives—rather than pushed from
within.
Motivational conflicts occur. Three conflicts are characterized in the chapter.
First, in an approach-approach conflict, a person must choose between two
desirable alternatives. Second, in approach-avoidance conflict, many products
and services we desire have negative consequences attached to them. Lastly, in
avoidance-avoidance conflict, consumers face a choice with two undesirable
alternatives.
As demonstrated by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the same product can satisfy
different needs, depending upon the consumer’s state at the time. In addition
to the consumer’s objective situation (i.e., whenever basic physiological needs
have already been satisfied), the consumer’s degree of involvement with the
product must be considered.
A fact of the marketplace is that not all consumers are motivated to the same
extent. Involvement refers to the level of perceived personal importance and/or
interest evoked by a stimulus (or stimuli) within a specific situation.
Involvement has many faces. Included in these are product involvement,
message-response involvement, and purchase situation involvement. Degree of
involvement becomes a means by which to segment a market and, therefore,
devise strategies to reach different involved segments.
Consumer motivations are often driven by underlying values. In this context,
products take on meaning because they are seen as being instrumental in
helping the person to achieve some goal that is linked to a value (such as
individuality or freedom) Numerous forms of values are examined in the
chapter. Also examined are scales that measure the shift in values over time.
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This chapter concludes with an examination of the impact that the events of
September 11, 2001, had on societal values.
Lecture Outline
1. The Motivation Process
a. Motivation refers to the processes that cause people to behave as they do.
Once a need has been activated, a state of tension exists that drives the
consumer to attempt to reduce or eliminate the need.
b. Needs can be:
1) Utilitarian—a desire to achieve some functional or practical benefit.
2) Hedonic—an experiential need, involving emotional responses or
fantasies.
c. The desired end state is the consumer’s goal. Marketers try to create
products and services that will provide the desired benefits and permit the
consumer to reduce this tension.
d. With the consideration of unmet needs, a discrepancy exists between the
consumer’s present state and some ideal state. Tension is created. The
consumer seeks to reduce tension. The degree of arousal is called a drive.
e. Personal and cultural factors combine to create a want. This is one
manifestation of a need.
1) Once a goal is attained, tension is reduced and the motivation
recedes.
2) Motivation can be described in terms of:
a) Its strength
b) Its direction
2. Motivational Strength
a. The degree to which a person is willing to expend energy to reach one
goal as opposed to another reflects his or her underlying motivation to attain
that goal.
Biological Versus Learned Needs
b. Early work on motivation ascribed behavior to instinct (the innate
patterns of behavior that are universal in a species) When an instinct is
inferred from the behavior it is supposed to explain, this circular explanation is
called tautology.
c. Drive theory focuses on biological needs that produce unpleasant states
of arousal.
1) Tension reduction has been proposed as a basic mechanism
governing human behavior.
2) Homeostasis—goal-oriented behavior that attempts to reduce or
eliminate an unpleasant state and return to a balanced one.
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3) Drive theory runs into difficulty when it tries to explain why people
sometimes do things that might increase a drive state (such as delaying
gratification).
d. Expectancy theory suggests that behavior is largely pulled by
expectations of achieving desirable outcomes—positive incentives—rather than
pushed from within.
3. Motivational Direction
a. Motives have direction as well as strength. Most goals can be reached by
a number of paths.
Needs Versus Wants
b. The specific way a need is satisfied depends on the individual’s unique
history, learning experiences, and his or her cultural environment.
1) The particular form of consumption used to satisfy a need is termed
a want.
Types of Needs
c. Needs can be:
1) Biogenic needs—food, water, air, and shelter
2) Psychogenic needs—power, status, affiliation
3) Utilitarian needs—emphasizes objective, tangible attributes (miles
per gallon)
4) Hedonic needs—subjective and experiential (excitement, selfconfidence, fantasy)
Motivational Conflicts
d. A goal has valence, which means that it can be positive or negative.
Therefore goals can be sought or avoided.
1) Not all behavior is motivated by the desire to approach a goal.
2) Consumers often find themselves in situations in which different
motives, both positive and negative, conflict with one another.
e. Conflicts can occur. Three different types of goal conflicts are:
1) Approach-approach conflict—a person must choose between two
desirable alternatives.
a) The theory of cognitive dissonance is based on the premise that
people have a need for order and consistency in their lives and that a state of
tension is created when beliefs or behaviors conflict with one another.
b) People attempt to reduce dissonance.
c) A state of dissonance exists when there is a psychological
inconsistency between two or more beliefs or behaviors.
2) Approach-avoidance conflict—many products or services we desire
have negative consequences attached to them.
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3) Avoidance-avoidance conflict—a choice between two undesirable
alternatives.
Classifying Consumer Needs
f. Much research has been done on classifying human needs.
1) Various universal need classifications have been attempted.
2) There seems to be no universally accepted list (though many needs
are common to all lists).
a) Murray’s psychogenic needs—used as the basis for the Thematic
Appreciation Test (TAT).
g. Those needs that seem particularly relevant to buying behavior include:
1) Need for achievement
2) Need for affiliation
3) Need for power
4) Need for uniqueness.
h. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs implies that the order of development is
fixed. This hierarchy is most closely associated with product benefits that
people might be looking for. Lower order needs must be satisfied before
climbing the needs ladder.
The needs are:
1) Physiological
2) Safety
3) Social
4) Esteem
5) Self-actualization
i. Problems with Maslow’s method include:
1) Climbing the ladder is not set in stone. Some activities cover several
levels of needs.
2) The hierarchy may be culture-bound.
3) Consumer’s have different needs priorities.
3. Consumer Involvement
a. Involvement refers to “a person’s perceived relevance of the object based
on their inherent needs, values, and interests.”
1) Involvement can be viewed as the motivation to process information.
2) As involvement increases, people devote more attention to ads
related to the product, exert more cognitive effort to understand these ads, and
focus their attention on the product-related information in them.
Levels of Involvement: From Inertia to Passion
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b. The type of information processing that will occur depends upon the
consumer’s level of involvement. It can range from simple to elaborate
processing.
1) Simple processing— only basic features of a message are considered.
2) Elaboration—information is linked to one’s preexisting knowledge
systems.
c. Because a person’s degree of involvement can be conceived as a
continuum, consumption at the low end of involvement is characterized by
inertia.
1) In this state, decisions are made out of habit because the consumer
lacks the information to consider alternatives.
2) To the contrary, decisions can be very passionate and carry great
meaning for a person.
3) In consumer situations of high involvement, the consumer enters a
flow state, where the consumer is in an elated state of focus and concentration
and loses track of time.
d. ‘Cult’ products command fierce consumer loyalty.
The Many Faces of Involvement
d. Involvement can be cognitive or emotional. There are several types of
broad involvement:
1) Product involvement is related to a consumer’s level of interest in a
particular product. Sales promotions increase this involvement.
2) Message-response involvement (or advertising involvement), refers to
the consumer’s interest in processing marketing communications.
a) Television is considered a low-involvement medium.
b) Print is considered a high-involvement medium.
3) Purchase-situation involvement refers to differences that may occur
when buying the same object for different contexts. Social risk is considered.
4. Measuring Involvement
a. Measurement of involvement is important for a variety of reasons.
1) An involvement profile can be constructed using the following
components:
a) Personal interest in a product category.
b) Perceived importance of the potential negative consequences
associated with a poor product choice.
c) The probability of making a bad purchase.
d) The pleasure value of the product category.
e) The sign value of the product category.
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2) It is possible to segment by involvement levels. There is diversity
among involvement groups.
3) There are specific strategies that can be used to increase
involvement.
a) Appeal to hedonic needs (sensory appeals).
b) Use novel stimuli (cinematography, sudden silences, or
unexpected movements in commercials).
c) Use prominent stimuli (loud music, large ads, color, fast action).
d) Include celebrity endorsers.
e) Build a bond with the consumer (relationship marketing).
b. A value is a belief that some condition is preferable to its opposite.
1) Two people can believe in the same behaviors but their underlying
belief systems may be quite different.
2) Consumers often seek out those that have similar belief systems to
their own.
Core Values
c. Every culture has a set of core values that it imparts to its members. Core
values do change over time. In many cases, values are universal.
1) What sets cultures apart is the relative importance or ranking of
universal values. This set of rankings is a culture’s value system.
2) Every culture is characterized by its members’ endorsement of a
value system.
3) Each set of core values that uniquely define a culture is taught to
that culture by socialization agents (parents, friends, and teachers).
a) The process of learning the beliefs and behaviors endorsed by
one’s own culture is termed enculturation.
b) Acculturation is the process of learning the value system and
behaviors of another culture.
Applications of Values to Consumer Behavior
d. Despite their importance, values have not been as widely applied to
direct examination of consumer behavior as might be expected. The reason is
that many values are very general or relative by nature (e.g., freedom, security,
inner peace). Because values drive much of consumer behavior, it could be said
that virtually all consumer research is ultimately related to the identification
and measurement of values.
1) Research has tended to classify values as being:
a) Cultural (such as security)
b) Consumption-specific (such as convenient shopping or prompt
service)
c) Product-specific (such as ease of use or durability)
2) Research in values:
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a) The Rokeach Value Survey—the psychologist Milton Rokeach
identified two sets of values:
1. Terminal values—desired end-states that apply to many
different cultures.
2. Instrumental values—composed of actions needed to achieve
these terminal values.
b) The List of Values (LOV)—identifies nine consumer segments
based on the values they endorse (and then relates these to consumption).
c) The Means-End Chain Model—specific product attributes are linked in
increasing abstraction to terminal values via “laddering.”
Laddering is a technique whereby consumers’ associations between specific
attributes and general consequences are uncovered.
1. Advertising uses this concept to develop advertising strategy.
2. Elements include:
a. Message elements—which attributes or product features.
b. Consumer benefit—positive consequences of use.
c. Executional framework—style and tone of ad.
d. Leverage point—how to link terminal values with product
features.
e. Driving force—end value on which the advertising will
focus.
(d) Syndicated Surveys—a variety of surveys are available
1. The Yankelovich Monitor attempts to track changes in values
over time.
2. This survey identifies voluntary simplifiers as consumers who
believe that once basic needs are met, additional income will not add to
happiness.
3. Modern syndicated surveys that track changes in values are
VALS2, GlobalScan, New Wave, and the Lifestyles Study.
Materialism: “He Who Dies with the Most Toys, Wins . . .”
e. Materialism refers to the importance people attach to worldly
possessions.
1) Finland is a highly materialistic society.
2) Materialists are more likely to value possessions for their status and
appearance-related meanings.
Consumer Behaviour in the Aftermath of September 11
a. The events of September 11, 2001, led to a marked shift in values.
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b. This value shift was evident in the shift in consumer purchases from
travel and hospitality to home improvement products and carry-out foods.
c. One of the biggest value shifts related to consumers’ willingness to
sacrifice privacy for security.
End.
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