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Demographics Chapter dont necessarily explain why consumers behave as they do, so marketers have
turned to the social and behavioral sciences in order to consider the full range of buying
influences.
Economic needs affect most buying decisions.
Economic buyers: have all facts, make logical choices to purchase goods that best fulfill needs.
"Of course people will buy our product--each of its features is better than the competition." Too
simplistic.
Economic needs: needs concerned with making the best use of consumers time and money.
Ie: Dependability in use, Economy of use, Convenience, Efficiency in use
Marketers can't create internal drives in consumers.
Needs:
Needs: basic forces that motivate consumers to do something.
Wants: learned needs..
Jo is status-oriented and only considers items with well-known "labels" that her friends will
notice.
Drive: a strong internal stimulus that encourages action to reduce a need. When a consumer
purchases product
Physiological needs: the most basic needs people experience. Must be satisfied first.
Examples: biological needs for food, drink, and rest.
Safety needs: concerned with protection and physical well-being.
Examples: health, medicine, exercise.
Social needs: derived from a persons interactions with others.
Examples: love, friendship, status.
Personal needs: concerned with an individuals need for personal satisfaction, unrelated to what
others do.
Examples: self-esteem, fun, and freedom.
A higher level need may develop before lower level needs are satisfied; if lower level needs are
reasonably satisfied, those at higher levels become more dominant; a particular product may
satisfy 1+ needs simultaneously; all needs are never completely satisfied.
When satisfying needs - total consumer satisfaction is unlikely; understand how marketing mix
can satisfy set of needs, rather than only one; realize that one cannot create needs.
Perception: how people gather/interpret information. How do people process incoming
marketing mix stimuli. The volume is too great to process all information.
1. Selective exposure: seeking and noticing only information that interests them. Ie: Pepe
Corona has itchy eyes/stuffy nose, suddenly becomes aware of many TV ads for allergy
products that he never noticed before.
Carmen Corley is planning to buy a pair of running shoes and has noticed more Adidas ads in
magazines.
2. Selective perception: people screen out/modify ideas, messages, info that conflict with
previously learned attitudes/beliefs.
Ie: On his way to a GM dealership to pick up a new truck he has purchased, Luke Bigfist hears a
Ford ad that says that Ford trucks have more power than Chevy trucks. Luke thought that the ad
said that the Chevys had more power.
3. Selective retention: remembering only what consumer wants to remember.
Most of consumer behavior is learned - how can marketers positively affect the learning process.
Learning: change in persons thought processes caused by prior experience.
1. Drive: strong internal stimulus that encourages action to reduce a need.
2. Cues: stimuli in the environment that trigger a drive or response. Taco Bell shows a large
close-up of a chicken taco to encourage a response to the hunger drive. Packaging. using a label
with red, white, and blue colors to stir patriotic feelings; adding lemon scent to a soap; using a
package that looks like the one for a popular brand; adding pine scent to a cleansing fluid. A
grocery store sprays an aerosol scent that smells like fresh baked bread near its packaged bakery
items
3. Response: ffort to satisfy a drive.
4. Reinforcement occurs when the response is followed by satisfaction (satisfaction with a
product), which reduces the drive; strengthens relationship between a cue and a response.
Repeated reinforcement is likely to lead to routine buying.
Attitude: Persons point of view about something. tend to be learned liking and disliking.
shape information processing in the consumers mind. Can be learned from: exposure to the
attitudes of others;promotion which is directed toward them; previous experiences. Attitudes
also relate to buying - consumers with a favorable attitude toward a product may have no
intention to buy it . things we believe strongly enough to be willing take to some action; more
action-oriented that beliefs. Ie:"I like Southwest Air." Tend to be enduring.
Beliefs: opinions people have about something. Ie: "Almond Joy is made with real almonds"
try to understand attitudes and beliefs - they can both affect buying.
Creating new attitudes/changing attitudes - difficult. Especially negative attitudes.
Expectations: outcomes or events that a person looks forward to.
Meeting expectations are important to build long-term relationships with customers.
Personality and lifestyles - psychological variables affecting consumer behavior.
Personality affects how people see things.
Lifestyle analysis (Psychographics):
1. Activities: identify what people do--objectively observable.
2. Interests: tend to create stronger drives that may pinpoint market opportunities.
3. Opinions: the ways in which people feel about things.
Relations with other people--social influences--are also important.
Social Influences
Social class: group of people who have approximately equal social position.
U.S., social class is less rigid than in other countries and income is not the main determinant.
People with similar incomes can be in different social classes due to occupation, education, and
type/location of housing.
Reference group: People that an individual looks to when forming attitudes about a particular
topic. May have no face to face contact. Members may not even know the person whose
attitudes they influence.
Ie: Brooke was interested in a new set of golf clubs. she discussed the various types with
knowledgeable friends and relied on their advice
Opinion leaders: people who influence others.
Their influence matters because of some characteristic they have.
Can provide important word-of-mouth advertising, if marketers reach the opinion leaders who
are buyers.
OL for one social class usually are not opinion leaders for another social class.
Culture: the whole set of beliefs, attitudes, and ways of doing things of a reasonably
homogeneous group of people. different cultural subgroups are likely to require different
marketing mixes.
Situation one is in at time of purchase can have an effect.
Purchase reason can vary: Time available for the purchase, Physical surroundings, Emotions
affect buying.
Ie: A college student on her way to take an exam remembers that she doesn't have a pencil with
an eraser--which the instructor asked everyone to bring. The store where she stops doesn't have
regular pencils--but it does sell Scripto mechanical pencils priced at $2.95. That is what she
buys due to the purchase situation.
Purchasing can take many steps: Awareness; Gathering Information; Evaluate Alternatives;
Choosing a Solution; Evaluating the Decision.
The time, effort, and source of information used in making a purchase can be influenced by level
of involvement the consumer experiences.
1. Extensive problem solving, consumer attempts to satisfy NEW or important need.
Much information is needed; NO experience; decision/risk of making wrong decision -- are
important.
High involvement purchases. HOUSE, CAR, furniture, New Computer, electronics
3. In limited problem solving, willing to put forth some effort, update/add to past experience;
problem is moderately important. Running shoes, coffee maker, reference book.
Ie: Wally went to a grocery store to buy his favorite brand of ice cream. The store was out of that
brand, so he looked over the other brands and bought a well advertised brand.
3. In routinized response behavior, consumer resorts to habit.
Low-involvement purchases - little importance. soap, salt, milk, fruit. Buying a coke, purchasing
a taco, filling up the gas tank.
Many new product concepts require adoption process.
Awareness stage, learns of product; If the interest stage is reached, gather information; In
evaluation, mental trial; In trial, buys and experiments with it; makes a decision-- adoption or
rejection; confirmation. further support.
Dissonance may set in after the decision--tension caused by uncertainty about the rightness of a
decision. Less likely when consumer has repeatedly purchased product
A marketing manager usually must blend intuition and judgment with findings from the
behavioral sciences to explain and predict consumer behavior.