1-1
Chapter 1
An Introduction to
Consumer Behavior
1-2
“Remember Me?”
1-3
I'm the fellow who goes into a restaurant, sits down and patiently
waits while the waitresses do everything but take my order. I'm
the fellow who goes into a department store and stands quietly
while the sales clerks finish their little chitchat. I'm the man who
drives into a gasoline station and never blows his horn, but waits
patiently while the attendant finishes reading his comic book.
"Yes, you might say, I'm a good guy. But do you know who else I
am? I am the fellow who never comes back, and it amuses me to
see you spending thousands of dollars every year to get me back
into your store, when I was there in the first place, and all you had
to do to keep me was to give me a little service; show me a little
courtesy."
Source: From a Better Business Bureau bulletin submitted by An
Arkansas Reader to Dear Abby
Defining Consumer Behavior
1-4
Consumer Behavior is the Process
Involved When Individuals or Groups
Select, Use, or Dispose of Products,
Services, Ideas or Experiences
(Exchange) to Satisfy Needs and
Desires.
1-5
Issues During Stages in the
Consumption Process
Consumers’ Impact on Marketing
Strategy
1-6
• Understanding consumer behavior is good
business.
–Firms exist to satisfy consumers’ needs, so
–Firms must understand consumers needs to
satisfy them.
• The Process of Marketing Segmentation:
–Identifies Groups of Consumers Who are Similar
to One Another in One or More Ways, and
–Devises Marketing Strategies that Appeal to One
or More of These Groups.
1-7
Segmenting Consumers by
Demographic Dimensions
Demographics are Statistics That Measure Observable
Aspects of a Population Such As:
Geography
Race and
Ethnicity
Social Class
and Income
Age
Gender
Family Structure
Consumers’ Impact On Marketing
Strategy: Building Bonds With Consumers
1-8
• Relationship Marketing occurs when a
company makes an effort to interact with
customers on a regular basis, and gives them
reasons to maintain a bond with the company
over time.
• Database Marketing involves tracking
consumers’ buying habits very closely, and
crafting products and messages tailored
precisely to people’s wants and needs based
on this information.
Marketing’s Impact on Consumers:
The Meaning of Consumption
Types of Relationships a Person May Have With a
Product:
Self-Concept Attachment
Helps to Establish the User’s Identity
Nostalgic Attachment
Serves as a Link With a Past Self
Interdependence
Part of the User’s Daily Routine
Love
Elicits Bonds of Warmth, Passion, or Other
Strong Emotion
1-9
Marketing’s Impact on
Consumers:
Consumption Typology
Explores the Different Ways
Consumption
Typology
1-10
That Products and Experiences Can Provide Meaning
to People.
There Are 4 Distinct Types of Consumption Activities:
Consuming as Experience
An Emotional or Aesthetic
Reaction to Consumption Objects
Consuming as Integration
Express Aspects of Self or
Society
Consuming as Classification
Communicate Their Association
With Objects, Both to Self/ Others
Consuming as Play
Participate in a Mutual Experience
and Merge Self With Group
1-11
Marketing’s Impact on Consumers
– Marketing and Culture
• Popular Culture
– Intangible and Tangible Objects
– The Global Consumer
• Global Consumer Culture
– Virtual Consumption
• Business to Consumer Selling (B2C Commerce)
• Consumer to Consumer Selling (B2B Commerce)
• Virtual Brand Communities
– Blurred Boundaries: Marketing and Reality
Marketing Ethics
1-12
Business Ethics are Rules of Conduct That Guide
Actions in the Marketplace - the Standards Against
Which Most People in a Culture Judge What is
Right and What is Wrong, Good or Bad.
Other Marketing Ethics Issues
1-13
• Do Marketers Create Artificial Needs?
– Response: Marketing attempts to create
awareness that these needs do exist, rather than
to create them.
• Are Advertising and Marketing Necessary?
– Response: Yes, if approached from an information
dissemination perspective.
• Do Marketers Promise Miracles?
– Not if they are honest; they do not have the ability
to create miracles.
The Dark Side of Consumer
Behavior
1-14
Compulsive Consumption
Addictive Consumption
>Behavior is Not Done by Choice
>Gratification is Short-Lived
>Strong Feelings of Regret or
Guilt Afterwards
> Gambling
Illegal Activities
Consumed Consumers
> Consumer Theft (Shrinkage)
>Anti-consumption
– Culture Jamming
– Cultural Resistance
> People Who Are Exploited for
Commercial Gain in the
Marketplace.
Interdisciplinary Influences
Individual Focus
Experimental Psychology
Clinical Psychology
Developmental Psychology
Human Ecology
Microeconomics
Social Psychology
Sociology
Macroeconomics
Semiotics/Literary Criticism
Demography
History
Cultural Anthropology
Social Focus
1-15
Two Perspective on Consumer
Research
Positivist
Approach
Interpretivist
Approach
Objective
Socially
Constructed
Prediction
Understanding
Independent
Contextual
Real Cause
Simultaneous
Shaping
Separation
Interaction
1-16
Taking it From Here:
The Plan of the Book
1-17
• Section II: Consumers As Individuals
• Section III: Consumers As Decision
Makers
• Section IV: Consumers and Subcultures
• Section V: Consumers and Culture
The Wheel of Consumer Behavior
1-18