TOPIC VI: APPLICATION OF SOCIAL PSYCOLOGY TO CONSUMER
BEHAVIOUR
Definition of Consumer Behavior
-
Consumer behavior refers to the study of when, what, how, where and why
people do or do not buy products. It attempts to understand the buyer
decision making process, both individually and in groups.
-
CP tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as a family,
friends, reference groups and society in general.
-
Perner defines consumer behavior as the study of individuals, groups or
organizations and the process they use to select, secure, use and dispose of
products , services, experiences or ideas to satisfy needs and the impact that
these processes have to the consumer and society.
-
Consumer behavior study is based on consumer buying behavior, with the
consumer playing 3 district roles of user, player and buyer.
-
Importance is also placed on consumer retention ,customer relationship
management , personalization and one to one marketing.
-
The study of consumers help firms and organizations improve their marketing
strategies by understanding issues such as how-
(a) Consumers think, feel, reason and select between different alternatives (e.g.
brands and products)
(b) Consumers are influenced by the environment (e.g.) culture, family, and
media)
(c) Consumers behave while shopping or making other marketing decisions
(d) limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities
influence decision and marketing outcome.
(e) Consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products that
differ in their level of importance or interest that they entail for the consumer
(f) Marketers can adopt and improve their marketing campaigns and marketing
strategies to more effectively reach the consumer.
-
Belch and Belch define consumer behavior as a process and activities people
engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using evaluating and
disposing of products and services so as to satisfy their needs and desires.
Models of Consumer Decision Making
The Black Box Model
-
The
black
box model
shows
the
interaction
of
stimuli,
consumer
characteristics, decision process and consumer responses. The focus is not
set on the process inside a consumer, but relationship between the stimuli
and the response of the consumer.
-
The marketing stimuli are planned and processed by the companies, whereas
the environmental stimuli are given by social factors, based on the economical
, political and cultural circumstances of a society. The buyers black box
contains the buyer characteristics and the decision process, which determines
the buyer’s response.
-
The black box model considers the buyers`, response as a result of
conscious, rational decision process in which it is assumed that the buyer has
recognized the problem however , in reality many decisions are not made in
awareness of a determined problem by a consumer.
BUYER`S BLACK BOX
marketing
environmental
buyer`s
decision
buyer`s response
stimuli
stimuli
characteristics
process
product
economic
attitudes
problem recogn
product choice
place
technological
motivation
info search
brand choice
promotion
political
perceptions
alternative
dealer choice
evaluation
price
cultural
personality
purchase
purchase timing
decision
demographics
lifestyle
Post
purchase Purchase amount
behavior
natural
knowledge
Internal Influences
-
Consumer behavior is influenced by: demographics, psychographics,
(lifestyle), personality, motivation, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, feelings.
External Influence
-
Culture, sub- culture, locality, royalty, ethnicity, family, social class, reference
group.
(1) Problem Recognition
-
One has to realize that something is not as it should be e.g. car is getting
more difficult to start and not accelerating well.
(2) Information Search
-
The second step- what are some alternative ways of solving the problem –
e.g. buy a new car, a used car, repair, ride bicycle etc.
-
According to Belch and belch (2007) consumers undertake both an internal
(memory) and external search.
-
Internal search involves the consumer identifying alternatives from his or her
memory. E.g. few people will search the yellow pages for fast food restaurants
– consumer just retrieves information from memory (low environment goods)
-
For high involvement products , consumers are more likely to use external
search – before buying a car consumer may also ask friends opinions.
-
Firms that make products that are selected predominantly through external
search must invest in having information available to the consumer in need
e.g. though brochures
(3) Alternative evaluation
-
Consumer compares the brands and products that are in their evoked set.
Consumers evaluate alternatives in terms of the functional and physical
benefits consumers are seeking and therefore which attributes are most
important in terms of making a decision
(4) Purchase Decision
-
once the alternatives have been evaluated the consumer is ready to make a
purchase decision
-
Sometimes purchase intention does not result in actual purchase. The
marketing organization must facilitate the consumer to act on their purchase
intention. The provision of credit or payment terms may encourage purchase.
The relevant internal physical process that is associated with purchase
decision in integration
Post purchase Evaluation
-
It is common for customers to experience concerns after making a purchase
decision. This arises form a concept that is known as cognitive dissonance.
The customer after buying a product may feel that an alternative would be
preferable in that circumstance the customer will purchase immediately.
THE AIUAPR MODEL
-
This is a very simple model, and as such apply quite generally. Its lessons are
that you cannot obtain repeat purchases without going through the stages of
building awareness and then obtaining trial use, which has to be successful.
-
It is a pattern which applies to all repeat purchase products and services.
(1) Awareness – before anything else the potential customers must become
aware that the product or services exists. If audience never hears the
message, they will not act on it.
(2) Interest – it is not sufficient just to grab attention. Message must interest them
and persuade them that the product or service is relevant to their needs.
(3) Understanding- once an interest is established. The prospective customer
must be able to appreciate how well the offering may meet his /her needs.
(4) Attitudes – the message must go further, to persuade the reader to adopt a
sufficiently positive attitude towards the product or service that he/she will
purchase it.
(5) Purchase – the above stages may take a few minutes – the final buying
decisions, may take place some time later, perhaps weeks later, when the
prospective buyer actually tries to find a shop which stocks the products.
(6) Repeat Purchase – only if the experience is a success for the customer will it
be turned into repeat purchases .It is these repeats, not the single purchase
which is the focus of most models.
COGNITIVE AND PERSONAL BIASES IN DECISION MAKING.
Biases can creep into our decision making processes, making one question the
correctness of a decision.
(1) Selective search for evidence – we tend to be willing to gather facts that
support certain conclusions but disregard other facts that support different
conclusions.
(2) Premature termination of search evidence - we tend to accept the first
alternative that looks like it might work.
(3) Conservation and inertia – unwillingness to ∆ thought patterns that we have
used in the past in the face of new circumstances.
(4) Selective perception – we actively screen out information that we do not think
is salient
(5) Recency- we tend to place more attention on more recent information and
either ignore or forget distant life.
(6) Repetition bias- a tendency to believe what we have been told most often and
by the greatest of services.
(7) Group think- peer pressure to conform to group opinion
(8) Source credibility bias- we reject something if we have a bias towards the
person or organization. (Tiger Web)
(9) Role Fulfillment- we conform to the decision making expectations that others
have of someone in our position
10)Assumption of causality - we tend to ascribe causation even only when the
evidence only suggest correlation.
# Attitude and Attitude change
# Customer socialization.