9
Consumer Buying Behavior
Agenda
• Level of Involvement and Consumer
Problem-Solving Processes
• Consumer Buying Decision Process
• Situational Influences on the Buying
Decision Process
• Psychological Influences on the Buying
Decision Process
• Social Influences on the Buying
Decision Process
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Introduction: Key Terms
• Buying Behavior
– The decision processes and acts of people
involved in buying and using products
• Consumer Buying Behavior
– Buying behavior of people
who purchase products for
personal use and not for
business purposes
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Level of Involvement and Consumer
Problem-Solving Processes
• Level of Involvement
– An individual’s intensity of interest in a
product and the importance of the product
for that person
• High-involvement
– Visible to others
– Expensive
– High importance
• Low-involvement
– Less expensive
– Less risky
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Level of Involvement and Consumer
Problem-Solving Processes (cont’d)
• Routinized Response Behavior
– The process used when buying frequently purchased,
low-cost items that require little search-and-decision
effort
• Limited Problem Solving
– The process that buyers use when purchasing products
occasionally or when they need information about an
unfamiliar brand in a familiar product category
• Extended Problem Solving
– The process employed when purchasing unfamiliar,
expensive, or infrequently bought products
• Impulse Buying
– An unplanned buying behavior resulting from a powerful
urge to buy something immediately
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Consumer Buying Decision Process and
Possible Influences on the Process
FIGURE 9.1
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Consumer Buying Decision Process
• Problem Recognition
– Occurs when a buyer becomes aware of a
difference between a desired state and an actual
condition
– May occur rapidly or slowly
• Information Search
– Internal search
• Buyers search their memories for information about
products that might solve their problem
– External search
• Buyers seek information from outside sources
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This Visine Advertisement Is Focused On
Problem Recognition
Courtesy of Pfizer, Inc.
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Consumer Buying Decision Process (cont’d)
• Evaluation of Alternatives
– Consideration set
• A group of brands that the buyer views as
alternatives for possible purchase
– Evaluative criteria
• Objective and subjective characteristics that
are important to a buyer
– Framing the alternatives
• Describing the alternatives and their attributes
in a certain manner to make a particular
characteristic appear more important
especially to the inexperienced buyer
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Consumer Buying Decision Process (cont’d)
• Purchase
– Choosing the product or brand to be
bought based on the outcome of the
evaluation stage
– The choice of seller may affect the final
product selection.
– Factors such as terms
of sale, price, delivery,
and warranties may
affect the sale.
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Consumer Buying Decision Process (cont’d)
• Postpurchase Evaluation
– Cognitive dissonance
• A buyer’s doubts shortly after a purchase
about whether the decision was the right one
– Buyers are most
likely to seek
reassurance after
the purchase of an
expensive, highinvolvement product
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What Part of the
Consumer Buying
Decision Process
Does This Olay Ad
Focus On?
© The Procter & Gamble Company. Used by permission.
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Class Exercise
In which stage of the consumer buying decision
process are 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.
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Class Exercise
4. A car buyer gets a loan to purchase a new car.
5. A teenager compares numerous cell phones and
narrows the choice down to two phones.
6. While on the way to work, a person’s automobile
stalls and will not 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.
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Situational Influences on the Buying
Decision Process
• Situational Influences
– Factors that can influence a buyer’s purchase
decision and may cause the buyer to shorten,
lengthen, or terminate the process.
• Situational Factors
–
–
–
–
–
Physical surroundings
Social surroundings
Time perspective
Reason for purchase
Buyer’s momentary mood
and condition
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Psychological Influences on the Buying
Decision Process
• Psychological Influences
– Factors that in part determine people’s
general behavior, thus influencing their
behavior as consumers
• Perception
– The process of selecting,
organizing, and
interpreting information
inputs to produce
meaning
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Psychological Influences on the Buying
Decision Process (cont’d)
• Selective Exposure
– The process of selecting inputs to be exposed to
our awareness while ignoring others
• Selective Distortion
– An individual’s changing or twisting of information
when it is inconsistent with personal feelings or
beliefs
• Selective Retention
– Remembering information inputs that support
personal feelings and beliefs and forgetting inputs
that do not
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Psychological Influences on the Buying
Decision Process (cont’d)
• Motives
– An internal energizing force that directs a
person’s behavior toward satisfying needs
or achieving goals
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Psychological Influences on the Buying
Decision Process (cont’d)
• Learning
– Changes in an individual’s thought processes and
behavior caused by information and experience
– Behaviors that produce satisfying consequences
are likely to be repeated.
• Consumers learn about products by
– experiencing the products personally.
– gaining additional product knowledge from sellerprovided information.
– indirect information from other purchasers/users.
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Psychological Influences on the Buying
Decision Process (cont’d)
• Attitudes
– An individual’s enduring evaluation of,
feelings about, and behavioral tendencies
toward an object or idea
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Psychological Influences on the Buying
Decision Process (cont’d)
• Attitude Scale
– A means of measuring consumer attitudes
by gauging the intensity of individuals’
reactions to adjectives, phrases, or
sentences about an object
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Psychological Influences on the Buying
Decision Process (cont’d)
• Personality and Self-Concept
– Personality
• A set of internal traits and distinct behavioral
tendencies that result in consistent patterns of
behavior in certain situations
– Self-concept (self-image)
• Perception or view of oneself
• Lifestyles
– Lifestyle
• An individual’s pattern of living expressed
through activities, interests, and opinions
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Social Influences on the Buying Decision
Process
• Social Influences
– The forces other people exert on one’s buying
behavior
• Role
– Actions and activities that a person in a particular
position is supposed to perform based on
expectations of the individual and surrounding
persons
– Multiple role-expectation sets affect behavior.
– Roles influence both general and buying
behaviors.
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Social Influences on the Buying Decision
Process (cont’d)
• Family Influences
– Consumer socialization
• The process through
which a person acquires
the knowledge and skills
to function as a
consumer
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Percent Who Decide or Influence
Purchase Decisions
Age Group of Decision
Makers or Influencers
Product Category of
Purchase Decision
Ages 8-12
Ages 13-21
Clothing/apparel
93%
89%
Movie/Video/DVD
93%
87%
Video games/systems
87%
78%
Groceries
84%
84%
Sports equipment
71%
65%
Vacation
62%
69%
Software
57%
77%
Vehicles
22%
61%
Source: Harris Interactive YouthPulse, 2003, as reported in American Demographics, December 2003/January 2004, p.16.
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Social Influences on the Buying Decision
Process (cont’d)
• Reference Groups
– Any group that positively or negatively
affects a person’s values, attitudes, or
behavior
• Membership
• Aspirational
• Disassociative
• Opinion Leader
– A knowledgeable, accessible individual
who provides information about a specific
sphere of interest to followers
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How Do Reference Groups Affect
Purchase Decisions?
For each of the products below, indicate whether one’s reference group would
influence one’s decision to buy the product in general, the type of product within
the category, and/or the brand decision. Use more than one X when appropriate.
Type of Product
Product
Within the
Brand
Product
Decision
Category
Decision
Soft drink



Bar soap



Telephone



Jeans



Car



Sweatshirt with
college name



DVD player



Bathroom tissue



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Social Influences on the Buying Decision
Process (cont’d)
• Social Class
– An open group of individuals with similar
social rank
– Individuals in the same social class
• develop and assume common behavioral
patterns.
• have similar attitudes, values, language
patterns, and possessions.
– Influences many major life decisions
– Influences shopping patterns and
spending habits
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Social Influences on the Buying Decision
Process (cont’d)
• Culture
– The accumulated values, knowledge, beliefs,
customs, objects, and concepts of a society
• Culture influences buying behavior.
• Cultural changes affect product development,
promotion, distribution, and pricing.
• Subcultures
– Groups of individuals whose characteristic values
and behavior patterns are similar and differ from
those of the surrounding culture
• African American
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• Hispanic
• Asian American
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Subcultural Differences in
Movie-Going Behavior
In what ways can movie theater marketers use this information?
Source: “Now Playing,” American Demographics, September 2001, p. 14.
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