Consumer Behavior

Time: 2 hours PGDMII December 18, 2008

Answer all questions

1. During the past two decades, an increasing number of firms have used their top executives as
spokespeople in consumer ads. How does this practice encourage customers to purchase the
advertised product or service?
5 marks

2. How does the conspicuousness of a product affect reference group influence?

5 marks

3. How do marketers try to make sure their customers don’t jump to the wrong conclusions?
5 marks

4. One important concept of perception is the differential threshold. Talk about Weber’s law and cite
an example.
(3+2=) 5 marks

5. How does a product’s country of origin influence how consumers rate quality and which brands they
will ultimately select? Give an example.
(3+2=) 5 marks

6. In a recent Survey, it was reported that about 18 percent of married women of childbearing age (15
to 44 years old) were childless, with a sub group of these women calling themselves "voluntarily
childless." This sub has risen from 2.4 percent in 1982 to 6.6 percent in the mid-1990s (the most recently
available statistic), with all available data indicating that this percentage is going to climb higher. The
trend toward a desire to be child-free appears to cover all the ranges within the 15- to 44-year-old group
for females. For example, the 25 to 29 year-old bracket has gone from 16 percent childless in 1976 to 28
percent childless in 1998, whereas the 40- to 44-year-old segment was 10 percent childless in 1976 and
19 percent childless in 1998. It is also of interest to note that child-free married couples, in the manner
similar to married couples with children, consider themselves to be a family.
Other data indicate that 30 percent of child-free couples are composed of two college graduates (for
couples with children, it's 17 percent) and that they are more professional or managerial jobs.
Furthermore, child-free couples appear to be a group that marketers tend to pay little attention to, with
most of their advertising targeted to 30 to 40 year olds who are or wish to be parents.

a) How do child-free couples fit into the family life cycle?

b) How would you imagine that their consumption of products and services might differ from couples
with children?

(3+2= 5 marks)