Consumer Behavior Date: 29-9-2022 Consumer Behavior is a process 1/15/2023 2 Consumer's Impact on marketing Strategy • Marketers have to understand the wants and needs of different consumer segments. • As a rule of thumb, marketers use the 80/20 rule: 20 percent of users account for 80 percent of sales. 1/15/2023 3 Demographic Variables • Age: Although people who belong to the same age group differ in many other ways, they do tend to share a set of values and common cultural experiences that they carry throughout life. • Gender: Many products, from fragrances to footwear, target either men or women. • Family Structure: A person’s family and marital status is yet another important demographic variable because this has a huge effect on consumers’ spending priorities. • Social Class and Income: People who belong to the same social class tend to have similar tastes in music, clothing, leisure activities, and art. The distribution of wealth is of great interest to marketers because it determines which groups have the greatest buying power and market potential. 1/15/2023 4 • Race and ethnicity: As our society becomes increasingly multicultural, new opportunities develop to deliver specialized products to racial and ethnic groups and to introduce other groups to these offerings. • Geography: Many national marketers tailor their offerings to appeal to consumers who live in different parts of the country. • Life Style: . The way we feel about ourselves, the things we value, the things we like to do in our spare time—all of these factors help to determine which products will push our buttons or even those that make us feel better 1/15/2023 5 Segmentation by Behavior • Relationship Marketing: interact with customers on a regular basis and give them solid reasons to maintain a bond with the company over time. A focus on relationships is even more vital, especially during the nasty economic conditions we’ve recently experienced; when times are tough, people tend to rely on their good friends for support! • Database Marketing: tracks specific consumers’ buying habits closely and crafts products and messages tailored precisely to people’s wants and needs based on this information. ( facebook's Data breach) 1/15/2023 6 Marketing's impact on consumers • Our choices as consumers relate in powerful ways to the rest of our lives. "Popular Culture is marketing is popular culture" • Popular culture: —the music, movies, sports, books, celebrities, and other forms of entertainment that the mass market produces and consumes—is both a product of and an inspiration for marketers. • It also affects our lives in more far-reaching ways, ranging from how we acknowledge cultural events such as marriage, death, or holidays to how we view social issues such as climate change, gambling, and addictions. 1/15/2023 7 All the world's a stage • The sociological perspective of role theory takes the view that much of consumer behavior resembles actions in a play. • We as consumers seek the lines, props, and costumes necessary to put on a good performance. • Because people act out many different roles, they sometimes alter their consumption decisions depending on the particular “play” they are in at the time. • The criteria they use to evaluate products and services in one of their roles may be quite different from those they use in other roles. T 1/15/2023 8 What does it mean to consume? • Our motivations to consume are complex and varied. • People often buy products not for what they do, but for what they mean. • This principle does not imply that a product’s basic function is unimportant, but rather that the roles products play in our lives extend well beyond the tasks they perform. • our motivations to consume range from the practical to the fanciful ( to gain experience) • our choice of a product links more to our broader identity as a member of a larger entity such as an ethnic group or a country 1/15/2023 9 What do we need- really?! • How can we predict if someone will be happy? How does that feeling relate to living a meaningful life? • What is the difference between needing something and wanting it? • The answer to this deceptively simple question actually explains a lot of consumer behavior! A need is something a person must have to live or achieve a goal. A want is a specific manifestation of a need that personal and cultural factors determine. 1/15/2023 10 The digital native • It’s fair to say that 24/7 access to smartphones and other social media devices has kindled a fascination among many of us with documenting exactly what we’re doing and sharing the exciting news with others. • There’s little doubt that the digital revolution is one of the most significant influences on consumer behavior, and the impact of the Web will continue to expand as more and more people around the world log in. • it’s not all about businesses selling to consumers (B2C e-commerce). The cyberspace explosion has created a revolution in consumer-to-consumer activity (C2C e-commerce): Welcome to the world of virtual brand communities. 1/15/2023 11 Interdisciplinary Research Issues in Consumer Behavior 1/15/2023 12 THE PYRAMID OF CONSUMR BEHAVIOR 1/15/2023 13 Two perspectives on CB • positivism (sometimes called modernism): It emphasizes that human reason is supreme and that there is a single, objective truth that science can discover. Positivism encourages us to stress the function of objects, to celebrate technology, and to regard the world as a rational, ordered place with a clearly defined past, present, and future. • interpretivism (or postmodernism): Proponents of this perspective argue that our society emphasizes science an technology too much, and they feel that this ordered, rational view of behavior denies or ignores the complex social and cultural world in which we really live. 1/15/2023 14 Discussion What aspects of consumer behavior would interest a financial planner? A university administrator? A graphic arts designer? A social worker in a government agency? A nursing instructor? 1/15/2023 15
