Module 4 - Understanding Customers - Consumer Behavior PDF
Module 4 - Understanding Customers - Consumer Behavior PDF
Marketing
Product Buyer Characteristics Product Choice
Price
Place Brand Choice
Promotion
Dealer Choice
Other Buyer Decision
Economic Process Purchase
Technological Timing
Political Purchase
Cultural Amount
Social
Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior
Cultural Factors Social Factors
• Buyer’s culture • Reference groups
• Buyer’s subculture • Family
• Buyer’s social class • Roles and status
Personal Factors
Psychological Factors
•Age and life-cycle stage
•Motivation
•Occupation
•Perception
•Economic situation
•Learning
•Lifestyle
•Beliefs and attitudes
•Personality and self-concept
Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior :
Cultural Factors
Culture is the learned values, perceptions, wants, and
behavior from family and other important institutions
Subculture are groups of people within a culture with
shared value systems based on common life
experiences and situations e.g. Fanti, Ashanti,
Social classes are society’s relatively permanent and
ordered divisions whose members share similar values,
interests, and behaviors
Social class is measured by a combination of occupation,
income, education, wealth, and other variables e.g.
Upper Class, Middle Class, Working Class, Lower Class in
the US.
Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior :
Social Factors
Membership groups have a direct influence and to which a person belongs
Aspirational groups are groups to which an individual wishes to belong
Reference groups are groups that form a comparison or reference in forming
attitudes or behavior
Opinion leaders are people within a reference group with special skills,
knowledge, personality, or other characteristics that can exert social
influence on others
• Buzz marketing enlists opinion leaders to spread the word
• Social networking is a new form of buzz marketing
• MySpace.com
• Facebook.com
• Family is the most important consumer-buying organization in society
e.g. cooking ingredients
• Social roles and status are the groups, family, clubs, and organizations to
which a person belongs that can define role and social status
Characteristics Affecting Consumer :
Personal Factors
Personal characteristics
• Age and life-cycle stage
Age and life-cycle stage
• Occupation
• Youth—younger than 18yrs
• Economic situation • Getting started—18-35yrs
• Lifestyle • Builders—35-50yrs
• Accumulators—50-60yrs
• Personality and self-concept
• Preservers—over 60yrs
Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior :
Personal Factors
Occupation affects the goods and services bought by
Consumers
Economic situation includes trends in:
• Personal income
• Savings
• Interest rates
Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior :
Personal Factors
Personality and Self Concept
• Inner characteristics or properties of each individual. Those
characteristics which differentiate each of us and lead to relative
consistent and lasting response to one’s own environment e.g. self-
confidence, dominance, sociability, autonomy, aggression etc
Lifestyle
• This is the analysis of a person’s day to day pattern of
living as expressed in that persons activities, interests and opinions.
Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior :
Personal Factors
Brand personality refers to the specific mix of
human traits that may be attributed to a
particular brand
• Sincerity
• Excitement
• Competence
• Sophistication
• Ruggedness
Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior :
Psychological Factors
• Motivation
• Perception
• Learning
• Beliefs and attitudes
Self-actualization
needs
Esteem Needs
Self Esteem, Recognition Status
Social Needs
Love, status, friendship, acceptance
Safety Needs
Physical well being, protection
Evaluation of Alternatives
Evaluation of alternatives is how the consumer processes information to
arrive at brand choices
The Buyer Decision Process
Purchase Decision
The purchase decision is the act by the consumer to buy
the most preferred brand
The purchase decision can be affected by:
• Attitudes of others
• Unexpected situational factors
The Buyer Decision Process
Post-Purchase Decision
The post-purchase decision is the satisfaction or
dissatisfaction the consumer feels about the purchase
Relationship between:
• Consumer’s expectations
NB: Post Purchase dissonance: Tension caused by uncertainty about the rightness of
a decision. Ask students to recount their experiences on Post Purchase dissonance.
The Buyer Decision Process for New Products
Stages in the Adoption Process
Awareness is when the consumer becomes aware of the
new product but lacks information
Interest is when the consumer seeks information about the
new product
Evaluation is when the consumer considers whether trying
the new product makes sense
Trial is when the consumer tries the new product to
improve his or her estimate of value
Adoption is when the consumer decides to make full and
regular use of the product
The Buyer Decision Process for New Products
Individual Differences in Innovation
Innovators are venturesome- they try new ideas at
some risk.
Early adopters are opinion leaders and adopt new
ideas early but cautiously
Early majority are deliberate and adopt new ideas
before the average person
Late majority are skeptical and adopt new ideas only
after the majority of people have tried it
Laggards are suspicious of changes and adopt new
ideas only when they become tradition
The Buyer Decision Process for New Products
Influence of Product Characteristics on Rate of Adoption
Relative advantage is the degree to which an innovation
appears to be superior to existing products
Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation fits the
values and experiences of potential consumers
Complexity is the degree to which the innovation is difficult
to understand or use
Divisibility is the degree to which the innovation may be
tried on a limited basis
Communicability : The degree to which the results of using
the innovation can be observed or described to others
Types of Buying Decision Behavior
• Complex buying behavior
• Dissonance-reducing buying behavior
• Product is risky
• Attitudes
• Behaviors
Class discussion
Based on the knowledge acquired;
Discuss with reasons and examples which is appropriate for
marketers ‘to either adapt or standardize’ their products
and marketing activities to achieve maximum consumer
participation and inclusion.
Class Assignment
1. Explain what is meant by hierarchy of needs and provide
examples of one or more products that enable you to
satisfy each of the four levels of need
2. Briefly describe your own beliefs about the potential value
of wearing an automobile seat belts, your attitude toward
seat belts and your intention about using a seat belt the
next time you’re in a car
3. Give an example of a recent purchase experience in which
you were dissatisfied because a firm’s marketing mix did
not meet your expectations. Indicate how the purchase fell
short of your expectations-and also explain whether your
expectations were formed based on the firm’s promotion
or something else.
Friday Tutorial Presentation
Take Ashesi University as an example of business customer for books and
other educational materials. Imagine that you are representative of a
publisher who intends to sell to Ashesi University.