Chapter 1
An Introduction to
Consumer Behavior
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97JmGB9BRA
“Remember Me?”
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
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KAEXvjiu
6Q
Defining Consumer Behavior
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.
Issues During Stages in the
Consumption Process
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqggcpL79
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Consumers’ Impact on Marketing
Strategy
• 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.
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
• 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.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97bpv2qd
vu0&list=PLC901A0B24AD7CE91
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
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
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.
The Dark Side of Consumer
Behavior
Compulsive Consumption
>Behavior is Not Done by Choice
>Gratification is Short-Lived
>Strong Feelings of Regret or
Guilt Afterwards
Addictive Consumption
> 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
Two Perspective on Consumer
Research
Positivist
Approach
Interpretivist
Approach
Objective
Socially
Constructed
Prediction
Understanding
Independent
Contextual
Real Cause
Simultaneous
Shaping
Separation
Interaction
The Wheel of Consumer Behavior