Consumer Behavior

Introduction to consumer
behavior: Buying, having
and being

November 2018
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Session 1
• How do consumers rule?

• Consumer behavior as a field

• Consumer behavior as a process

• Consumer behavior aspects

November 2018
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 Chapter 1
Consumers Rule

CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR,
Michael Solomon
What is Consumer Behavior?
The study of the processes
involved when individuals
or groups select, purchase,
use, or dispose of
products, services, ideas,
or experiences to satisfy
needs and desires.

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Interdisciplinary Research Issues in
Consumer Behavior
Disciplinary Focus Product Role
Experimental Perception, learning, and memory processes
Psychology
Clinical Psychology Psychological adjustment
Microeconomics/Human Allocation of individual or family resources
Ecology
Social Psychology Behavior of individuals as members of social groups
Sociology Social institutions and group relationships
Macroeconomics Consumers’ relations with the marketplace
Semiotics/Literary Verbal and visual communication of meaning
Criticism
Demography Measurable characteristics of a population
History Societal changes over time
Cultural Anthropology Society’s beliefs and practices

November 2018
Table 1.2 (abridged)
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Pyramid of Consumer Behavior
MICRO CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
(INDIVIDUAL FOCUS)

Consumer behavior
involves many different
disciplines
Experimental Psych
Clinical Psychology
Develop Psychology
Human Ecology
Microeconomics
Social Psychology
Sociology
Macroeconomics
MACRO CONSUMER Semiotics/Literary Criticism
BEHAVIOR Demography
History
(SOCIAL FOCUS) Cultural Anthropology
November 2018

Figure 1.2 1- 6
Wheel of Consumer Behavior

November 2018

Figure 1.3 1- 7
Consumer Behavior is a “Process”

November 2018

Figure 1.1 1- 8
Aspects of Consumer Behavior
Gail, business student and consumer
• Segmented by marketers by
demographics
• Market segmentation: targeting a
brand to specific groups of
consumers
• Influenced by peer groups
• Exposed to competing brands seeking
her loyalty
• Evaluates products by the appearance,
taste, texture, smell

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 Application 1
Apply the consumer behavior process in a context of a
customer visiting:
A Hospital
A Retail store
Online booking website for hotels
A Restaurant
A University
Disneyland
A country
Show the differences in stages between marketers and
customers
November 2018
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 Session 2
• Who are the consumers?

• The various roles played by cosnumers in the

market place- role playing on market stage

• How advertising changed to show these roles?

• Consumer behavior importance

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Actors in Consumer Behavior

Consumer: a person who

identifies a need or
desire, makes a
purchase, and then
disposes of the product.
• Purchaser versus user
versus influencer
• Organization/group as
consumer

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Consumers’ Impact on Marketing
Understanding consumer behavior is good business
• Understanding people/organizations to satisfy
consumers’ needs
• Knowledge and data about customers:
• Help to define the market
• Identify threats/opportunities to a brand

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 Brainstorm

How the different consumers’

roles affected the way the
message is built/designed?

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Application 2

Ritz Carlton case

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 Questions
1- How does The Ritz-Carlton match up to competitive
hotels? What are the key differences?

2. Discuss the importance of the “wow stories” in customer

service for a luxury hotel like The Ritz-Carlton.

3. What cues proved the customer relationship marketing

at Ritz?

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 Session three

How segmenting, targeting different in advertising to

reflect the consumer behavior?

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Segmenting Consumers: Demographics
Demographics: statistics
that measure observable
aspects of a population,
such as:
• Age
• Gender
• Family structure
• Social class and income
• Race and ethnicity
• Geography
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Segmenting Consumers: Lifestyles

Psychographics
• The way we feel
about ourselves
• The things we value
• The things we do in
our spare time

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Tapping into Consumer Lifestyles
• Relationship marketing: interact with customers
regularly; give them reasons to maintain a bond
with the company
• Database marketing: tracking specific consumers’
buying habits and crafting products and messages
tailored precisely to people’s wants

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Application 3
Give examples of the different segmentation bases
presented in various marketing messages

Apply this to case Harley Davidson

November 2018
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Session 4
• The meaning of consumption
What make people do what they do? Choices
What are the main consumption values?

• Other views for consumption activities

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The Meaning of Consumption
• People often buy products not for what they do, but
for what they mean
• Consumers can develop relationships with brands:

Self-Attachment Concept Nostalgic Attachment

Interdependence Love

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Consumption activities

•Consumption as experience
•Consumption as integration
•Consumption as play
•Consumption as classification

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 Application 4

• Discuss how consumption activities are practiced by

a charitable organization or an organization directing
its efforts to causes.

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Session 5

• consumerism
• Relating marketing orientations to
consumer behavior
• Dark side of Marketing
• Dark side of consumers
• Positivism and interpretivism
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Marketing Ethics and Public Policy
• Business ethics: rules of conduct that guide
actions in the marketplace
• Cultural differences in ethics:
• Codes of ethics less formal in Mexico
• U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits use
of bribery by U.S. businesspeople—no matter
where they’re doing business
• Bribery commonly practiced in other countries

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Consumerism & Consumer Research
• JFK’s “Declaration of • Social Marketing
Consumer Rights” • Green Marketing
(1962)
• The right to safety • Cause-related
marketing
• The right to be
informed
• The right to redress
• The right to choice

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Application 5 Give examples
• Messages to include • Messages to include
Social marketing sustainability and
and causes green

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 Dark side of Marketing

What are the different criticisms to

the marketing field?

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Do Marketers Create Artificial Needs?
Objective of marketing: create awareness that
needs exist, not to create needs

• Need: a basic versus • Want: one way that

biological motive society has taught us
that the need can be
satisfied

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Are Advertising & Marketing Necessary?

Does advertising foster materialism?

• Products are designed to meet existing needs;
• Advertising only helps to communicate their
availability

Advertisers are often blamed for promoting a

materialistic society by making their products as
desirable as possible.

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Do Marketers Promise Miracles?

Does advertising
promise “magical”
products?
• Advertisers simply do
not know enough
about people to
manipulate them

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The Consumer “Dark Side”

Consumer
terrorism
Addictive
consumption

Compulsive
consumption Consumed
consumers

Illegal activities
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Compulsive consumption conditions
• Buying behavior not guided by choice

• Satisfaction is short lived

• Feelings of regret and guilt

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Positivist versus Interpretivist Approaches

Assumptions Positivist Approach Interpretivist Approach

Nature of Objective, tangible Socially constructed

reality Single Multiple

Goal Prediction Understanding

Knowledge Time free Time-bound

generated Context-independent Context dependent

View of Existence of real causes Multiple, simultaneous

causality shaping events

Research Separation between Interactive, cooperative

relationship researcher and subject with researcher being
part of phenomenon
under study
November 2018

Table 1.3 1- 36