CONSUMER BEHAVIOR VOCABULARY
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Consumer Behavior: processes a consumer uses to make purchase decisions, as well as to use
and dispose of purchased goods or services; also includes factors that influence purchase
decisions and product use.
Decision Making Process: a five step process used by consumers when buying goods or services.
Problem Recognition (need recognition): result of an imbalance between actual and desired
states.
Want: recognition of an unfulfilled need and a product that will satisfy it.
Stimulus: any unit of input affecting one or more of the five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch,
and hearing.
Information Search:
o Internal Information Search: the process recalling past information stored in the
memory.
o External Information Search: the process of seeking information in the outside
environment
o Nonmarketing-Controlled Information Search: a product information search that is not
associated with advertising or promotion.
o Marketing-Controlled Information Search: a product information source that originates
from an information search from which a buyer can choose.
Post-Choice Behaviors:
o Cognitive Dissonance: inner tension that a consumer experiences after recognizing an
inconsistency between behavior and values of opinions.
Involvement: the amount of time and effort a buyer invest in the search, evaluation, and
decision process of consumer behavior.
Routine Response Behavior: the type of decision making exhibited by consumers buying
frequently purchased low-cost goods and services; requires little search and decision time.
Limited Decision Making: the type of decision making that requires a moderate amount of time
for gathering information and deliberating about an unfamiliar brand in a familiar product
category.
Extensive Decision Making: the most complex type of consumer decision making, used when
buying an unfamiliar, expensive product or an infrequently bought item; requires use of several
criteria for evaluating options and much time for seeking information.
Culture: the set of values, norms, attitudes, and other meaningful symbols that shame human
behavior and the artifacts, or products, of that behavior as they are transmitted from one
generation to the next.
Subculture: a homogeneous group of people who share elements of the overall culture as well
as unique elements of their own group.
Value: the enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct is personally or socially preferable to
another mode of conduct.
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Social Class: a group of people in a society who are considered nearly equal in status or
community esteem, who regularly socialize among themselves both formally and informally, and
who share behavioral norms.
Primary Membership Group: a reference group with which people interact regularly in an
informal, face-to-face manner, such as family, friends, and coworkers.
Secondary Membership Group: a reference group with which people associate less consistently
and more formally than a primary membership group, such as a club, professional group, or
religious group.
Aspirational Reference Group: a group that someone would like to join.
Norm: a value or attitude deemed acceptable by a group.
Noninspirational Group: a group with which an individual does not want to associate.
Socialization Process: how cultural values and norms are passed down to children.
Evoked Set (consideration set): a group of brands resulting from an information search from
which a buyer can choose.
Reference Group: all of the formal and informal groups in a society that influence an individual’s
purchasing behavior.
Opinion Leader: an individual who influences the opinions of others.
Personality: a way of organizing and grouping the consistencies of an individual’s reactions to
situations.
Self-Concept: how consumers perceive themselves in terms of attitude, perceptions, beliefs,
and self-evaluations.
Ideal Self-Image: the way an individual would like to be perceived.
Real Self-Image: the way an individual actually perceives himself or herself.
Perception: The processes by which people select, organize, and interpret stimuli into a
meaningful and coherent picture.
Selective Exposure: the process whereby a consumer notices certain stimuli and ignores others.
Selective Distortion: process whereby a consumer changes or distorts information that conflicts
with his or her feelings or beliefs.
Selective Retention: a process whereby a consumer remembers only the information that
supports his or her personal beliefs.
Motive: a driving force that causes a personal to take action to satisfy specific needs.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: a method of classifying human needs and motivations into five
categories in ascending order of importance: physiological, safety, social, esteem, and selfactualization.
Learning: a process that creates changes in behavior immediate or expected through experience
and practice.
Stimulus Generalization: a form of learning that occurs when one response is extended to a
second stimulus similar to the first.
Stimulus Discrimination: a learned ability to differentiate among similar products.
Belief: an organized pattern or knowledge that an individual holds as true about his or her
world.
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Attitude: a learned tendency to respond consistently toward a given object.