Consumer Behavior &
Research
Lecture 3
COMT 492/592
Overview
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Researching your audience
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Product - Perceived benefits
Price – Perceived costs
Promotion – Channels
Other concerns
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Publics – Pertinent groups
Partnerships
Policy
Purse strings – Your budget
Product
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If motivating people to change health &
social behavior were as easy as
convincing them to switch toothpaste
brands, then there would be no difference
between social & commercial marketing.
But social marketing requires affecting a
complex set of emotional & psychological
decisions.
Product
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The “product” is the behavior you want to
promote.
Perceived susceptibility & perceived severity
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Perceived benefits
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To be viable, people must feel they have a genuine
problem.
Influenced by…?
The behavior must be seen as offering a good
solution.
Response efficacy
Self-efficacy
Perceived susceptibility & severity
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If audience does not see themselves at risk,
then you may have to:
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Build awareness of the problem or risk
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Present facts (e.g. Tobacco-related deaths)
Portray the problem or health threat as personally
relevant to target audience
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Present identifiable role models who have suffered
Present facts relevant to target audience (e.g., Tobacco
deaths among adults who started as teens)
Present perceived cons that are relevant to target audience
(e.g., peer disapproval, bad breath, getting fat, etc.)
Perceived susceptibility & severity
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Research questions
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Are you aware of the problem?
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Do you personally feel at risk?
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(e.g. how serious smoking is, or how prevalent cancer deaths
due to tobacco are)
If so, why? (e.g., find example argument)
If not, why not? (e.g., figure out where you need to debunk
myths)
Do you care?
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Friends, subculture may frown on changing behavior
More benefits of continuing risky behavior
Perceived benefits & barriers
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Benefits of product must outweigh barriers:
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Make sure product is available & accessible (e.g.,
Family planning clinic must be within walking
distance, or open after work hours)
Product must be portrayed as appealing
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“Positioning” - Show how product is better than
alternatives (e.g. Healthy life vs. smoking)
“Create niche” - Show how product is good for
specific types of people
Identify attributes that position product in minds of
target audience
Perceived benefits
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Research questions
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Find out what audience values
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“So what?” – Find out why they value what they do
“What’s in it for me?”
What’s the value they currently get from not
practicing the behavior?
By determining what audience truly deems as
important, you can find out more effective
ways to appeal to them
Perceived benefits: Exercise
Attribute
Benefit
Benefit
Increases
heart rate
Lose
weight
Look better Be sexier
Increases
LPD
Lowers risk Live longer
of heart
attack
Produces
Lowers
Feel
endorphins stress
energetic
Benefit
Watch
grandchildren
Get more
done
Price: Perceived barriers (costs)
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The negatives of taking on the new behavior
and of giving up an old practice are very real.
They may include:
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Discomfort
Change
Loss of peer group support
Effort
Embarrassment
Financial cost
Price: Perceived costs
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Research questions
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What’s the worst thing that might happen if
you stopped smoking?
What’s the hardest part about becoming a
non-smoker?
What are your barriers to quitting?
Identify the specific perceived costs that the
audience feels towards the specific behavior