Consumer Behaviour: Meaning/Definition and Nature of Consumer Behaviour

Meaning and Definition:

Consumer behaviour is the study of how individual customers, groups or organizations select, buy, use,
and dispose ideas, goods, and services to satisfy their needs and wants. It refers to the actions of the
consumers in the marketplace and the underlying motives for those actions.

Marketers expect that by understanding what causes the consumers to buy particular goods and
services, they will be able to determine—which products are needed in the marketplace, which are
obsolete, and how best to present the goods to the consumers.

The study of consumer behaviour assumes that the consumers are actors in the marketplace. The per -
spective of role theory assumes that consumers play various roles in the marketplace. Starting from the
information provider, from the user to the payer and to the disposer, consumers play these roles in the
decision process.

The roles also vary in different consumption situations; for example, a mother plays the role of an
influencer in a child’s purchase process, whereas she plays the role of a disposer for the products
consumed by the family.

Some selected definitions of consumer behaviour are as follows:

1. According to Engel, Blackwell, and Mansard, ‘consumer behaviour is the actions and decision
processes of people who purchase goods and services for personal consumption’.

2. According to Louden and Bitta, ‘consumer behaviour is the decision process and physical activity,
which individuals engage in when evaluating, acquiring, using or disposing of goods and services’.

Nature of Consumer Behaviour:

1. Influenced by various factors:

The various factors that influence the consumer behaviour are as follows:

a. Marketing factors such as product design, price, promotion, packaging, positioning and distribution.

b. Personal factors such as age, gender, education and income level.

c. Psychological factors such as buying motives, perception of the product and attitudes towards the
product.

d. Situational factors such as physical surroundings at the time of purchase, social surroundings and time
factor.

e. Social factors such as social status, reference groups and family.

f. Cultural factors, such as religion, social class—caste and sub-castes.

2. Undergoes a constant change:

Consumer behaviour is not static. It undergoes a change over a period of time depending on the nature
of products. For example, kids prefer colourful and fancy footwear, but as they grow up as teenagers
and young adults, they prefer trendy footwear, and as middle-aged and senior citizens they prefer more
sober footwear. The change in buying behaviour may take place due to several other factors such as
increase in income level, education level and marketing factors.

3. Varies from consumer to consumer:

All consumers do not behave in the same manner. Different consumers behave differently. The
differences in consumer behaviour are due to individual factors such as the nature of the consumers,
lifestyle and culture. For example, some consumers are technoholics. They go on a shopping and spend
beyond their means.

They borrow money from friends, relatives, banks, and at times even adopt unethical means to spend on
shopping of advance technologies. But there are other consumers who, despite having surplus money,
do not go even for the regular purchases and avoid use and purchase of advance technologies.

4. Varies from region to region and country to county:

The consumer behaviour varies across states, regions and countries. For example, the behaviour of the
urban consumers is different from that of the rural consumers. A good number of rural consumers are
conservative in their buying behaviours.

The rich rural consumers may think twice to spend on luxuries despite having sufficient funds, whereas
the urban consumers may even take bank loans to buy luxury items such as cars and household
appliances. The consumer behaviour may also varies across the states, regions and countries. It may
differ depending on the upbringing, lifestyles and level of development.

5. Information on consumer behaviour is important to the marketers:

Marketers need to have a good knowledge of the consumer behaviour. They need to study the various
factors that influence the consumer behaviour of their target customers.

The knowledge of consumer behaviour enables them to take appropriate marketing decisions in respect
of the following factors:

a. Product design/model

b. Pricing of the product

c. Promotion of the product

d. Packaging

e. Positioning
f. Place of distribution

6. Leads to purchase decision:

A positive consumer behaviour leads to a purchase decision. A consumer may take the decision of
buying a product on the basis of different buying motives. The purchase decision leads to higher
demand, and the sales of the marketers increase. Therefore, marketers need to influence consumer
behaviour to increase their purchases.

7. Varies from product to product:

Consumer behaviour is different for different products. There are some consumers who may buy more
quantity of certain items and very low or no quantity of other items. For example, teenagers may spend
heavily on products such as cell phones and branded wears for snob appeal, but may not spend on
general and academic reading. A middle- aged person may spend less on clothing, but may invest money
in savings, insurance schemes, pension schemes, and so on

8. Improves standard of living:

The buying behaviour of the consumers may lead to higher standard of living. The more a person buys
the goods and services, the higher is the standard of living. But if a person spends less on goods and
services, despite having a good income, they deprives themselves of higher standard of living.

9. Reflects status:

The consumer behaviour is not only influenced by the status of a consumer, but it also reflects it. The
consumers who own luxury cars, watches and other items are considered belonging to a higher status.
The luxury items also give a sense of pride to the owners.

Introduction (Explanation)

The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies by
understanding issues such as how

 The psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different
alternatives (e.g., brands, products);
 The the psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment (e.g.,
culture, family, signs, media);
 The behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions;
 Limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities influence
decisions and marketing outcome; 
 How consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products that differ in
their level of importance or interest that they entail for the consumer; and
 How marketers can adapt and improve their marketing campaigns and marketing
strategies to more effectively reach the consumer.
Consumer behavior involves the study of how people--either individually or in groups--acquire,
use, experience, discard, and make decisions about goods, serivces, or even lifestyle practices
such as socially responsible and healthy eating. As an evolving phenomenon, one should not be
overly dogmatic about this defintion. Numerous alternatives, each taking a slighly different
angle and emphasizing different aspects. However, the scope presented here suggests that:

 The havior occurs either for the individual, or in the context of a group (e.g., friends
influence what kinds of clothes a person wears, or family tradition influences which
brand of laundry detergent is bought).
 Consumer behavior involves the use and disposal of products as well as the study of
how they are purchased. Product use is often of great interest to the marketer, because
this may influence how a product is best positioned or how we can encourage increased
consumption. Since many environmental problems result from product disposal (e.g.,
motor oil being sent into sewage systems to save the recycling fee, or garbage piling up
at landfills) this is also an area of interest.
 Consumer behavior involves services and ideas as well as tangible products.
 The impact of consumer behavior on society is also of relevance. For example,
aggressive marketing of high fat foods, or aggressive marketing of easy credit, may have
serious repercussions for the national health and economy.

There are four main applications of consumer behavior:

 The most obvious is for marketing strategy—i.e., for making better marketing

campaigns. For example, by understanding that consumers are more receptive to food
advertising when they are hungry, we learn to schedule snack advertisements late in the
afternoon. By understanding that new products are usually initially adopted by a few
consumers and only spread later, and then only gradually, to the rest of the population,
we learn that (1) companies that introduce new products must be well financed so that
they can stay afloat until their products become a commercial success and (2) it is
important to please initial customers, since they will in turn influence many subsequent
customers’ brand choices.
 A second application is public policy. In the 1980s, Accutane, a near miracle cure for
acne, was introduced. Unfortunately, Accutane resulted in severe birth defects if taken
by pregnant women. Although physicians were instructed to warn their female patients
of this, a number still became pregnant while taking the drug. To get consumers’
attention, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) took the step of requiring that very
graphic pictures of deformed babies be shown on the medicine containers.
 Social marketing involves getting ideas across to consumers rather than selling
something. Marty Fishbein, a marketing professor, went on sabbatical to work for the
Centers for Disease Control trying to reduce the incidence of transmission of diseases
through illegal drug use. The best solution, obviously, would be if we could get illegal
drug users to stop. This, however, was deemed to be infeasible. It was also determined
that the practice of sharing needles was too ingrained in the drug culture to be stopped.
As a result, using knowledge of consumer attitudes, Dr. Fishbein created a campaign
 that encouraged the cleaning of needles in bleach before sharing them, a goal that was
believed to be more realistic.
 As a final benefit, studying consumer behavior should make us better consumers.
Common sense suggests, for example, that if you buy a 64 liquid ounce bottle of laundry
detergent, you should pay less per ounce than if you bought two 32 ounce bottles. In
practice, however, you often pay a size premium by buying the larger quantity. In other
words, in this case, knowing this fact will sensitize you to the need to check the unit cost
labels to determine if you are really getting a bargain.

There are several units in the market that can be analyzed. Our main thrust in this course is
the consumer. However, we will also need to analyze our own firm’s strengths and weaknesses
and those of competing firms. Suppose, for example, that we make a product aimed at older
consumers, a growing segment. A competing firm that targets babies, a shrinking market, is
likely to consider repositioning toward our market. To assess a competing firm’s potential
threat, we need to examine its assets (e.g., technology, patents, market knowledge, awareness
of its brands) against pressures it faces from the market. Finally, we need to assess conditions
(the marketing environment). For example, although we may have developed a product that
offers great appeal for consumers, a recession may cut demand dramatically.

Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Strategies,

Consumer behaviour is the study of the way people seek, purchase, use, evaluate and dispose
of products and services. It is the phycology of marketing, and it is used to determine why
consumers seek one product alternative from the other.
But why do consumers seek and purchase products? This is linked to the ideology of needs and
wants. Needs and wants exist if a consumer is unsatisfied, consumers seek and purchase the
products that can provide them with maximum satisfaction.
Consumer behaviour can be used by marketers to create the marketing strategy; targeting each
consumer effectively once they understand their needs and wants through the research of
consumer behaviour.

Consumer behavior can be described as the study of who, where, when, how and why of
consumers’ buying behavior. Loudon (2001) defines consumer behavior as “the decision
process and physical activity individuals engage in when evaluating, acquiring, using or
disposing of goods and services.  Hoyer et al. (2009) define consumer behavior as “the
reflection of the totality of consumers’ decisions with respect to the acquisition, consumption
and disposition of goods, services and activities, experiences, people and ideas by human
decision making units”.
Importance of consumer behavior

The concept of consumer behavior can be described as a blend of sociology, psychology,

economics and social anthropology. The subject aims to understand the consumers’ decision-
making process and terminology, collectively as well as in isolation. It also attempts to
understand other characteristics of the buyer such as the social behavior, their demographic
profiles, etc. because it helps them identify their needs better. Consumer behavior also
establishes the control of the buyer’s family, peers and friends on their buying decisions. This
can be seen in Mooij’s (2009) definition of consumer behavior: it is the study of the processes
involved when people select, purchase, use or dispose of products, services, ideas or
experiences to satisfy their needs and desires.

In the concept of consumer behavior, consumer plays three significant roles: a payer, user and
a buyer. It is important to study the concept as it emphasizes on understanding customer
relationship management (CRM), categorization and retention of customers, personalization,
etc. In order to do so, it is also important to understand how consumers decide on a particular
product, spend their effort and money on the goods (Schiffman and Kanuk, 1997). Similarly,
Belch (1998) defines the term as a process involving activities that consumers engage in while
searching for, evaluating and selecting, using and disposing of the products/ services in order to
satisfy their desires. Behavior here was referred to as an individual’s, a group’s, or an
organisation’s.

Consumer behavior reflects several elements, shown as under:

Elements of Consumer behavior (Source: ‘Consumer Behavior’, Hoyer & Macinnis, 2008)

Stralser (2004, p. 153) defines strategy as a ‘bridge that connects the firm’s internal
environment with its external environment, leveraging its resources to adapt to, and benefit
from, changes occurring in its external environment’. Thus, strategy can be referred to as a
decision-making process that transforms a long-term objective into daily activities that help
achieving the long-term goal. It is a rather continual process of valuation, revaluation and
analysis which acts as a constant guide to the organization .

Marketing strategy

Marketing strategies and tactics are normally based on explicit and implicit beliefs about

consumer behavior. Decisions based on explicit assumptions and sound theory and research
are more likely to be successful than the decisions based solely on implicit intuition.
Knowledge of consumer behavior can be an important competitive advantage while
formulating marketing strategies. It can greatly reduce the odds of bad decisions and market
failures.
It is a strategy used to maximise limited resources of an organisation to increase its
opportunities in sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.
A marketing strategy is created by market research, which the needs, attitudes and competitors
products are evaluated, as well as the packaging, sales and distribution of a product.

How to research the consumer

Use primary and secondary research. Marketers must analyse their consumers, as well as using
secondary information to make decisions to target their market. They may do this through:
surveys, focus groups, observation, interviews and secondary methods such as online
researching.

Marketers may also make decisions for their marketing strategy based on the consumers
demographic information. This information includes the consumers: income, educational level,
occupation, age, and location. This is known as segmenting the market.

This information is used to predict purchasing habits of the consumer and make key decisions in
the product they are selling, such as pricing. For example, marketers targeting consumers will a
low income in a low socio-economic area will have to be particularly price conscious when
pricing their items.

Marketers must also understand the values of the consumer; this will provide them with more
success in their marketing campaigns. An example of this is quality; when targeting consumers
who value quality, marketers must sell them products that deliver and re-enforce their values.

Marketers will be unsuccessful in any marketing campaign that doesn’t take into account and
reflect the values of the consumer.

Values impacting consumer choices are their knowledge, beliefs, morals and customs, it has a
significant impact on the products consumers seek and purchase. 

Benefits for an organization

When the marketing strategy and consumer behaviour are intervened, marketers can expect
success in their sales, higher profit margins and competitive sustainability in the market place.

The benefits of using consumer behaviour to create a marketing strategy are the knowledge
marketer’s gain about the needs and values of their target market. Once marketers understand
this, it is most likely their message will be delivered to the correct target market, resulting in an
end sale.
Overall, consumer behaviour is the study of people that is used the market place as a marketing
tool to reach out to target segments. Where would we be without it?

Consumer involvement is the state of mind that motivates a consumer to make a purchase, or
the importance a consumer places on a product or service. There are different levels of
involvement a consumer can have in the decision-making process and different factors that
influence that involvement.

The involvement theory is based on the concept that there are low and high involvement con-
sumers and there are high and low involvement purchases. According to this theory consumers
involvement depends on the degree of relevance of purchase to a consumer. If for instance,
consumer wants to buy a packet of tea or food or bread or butter he does not feel very much
involved. It is because the life of these products is very short and ones consumed they exhaust.
If the experience with the product is not good, next time some other brand can be purchased.

However, this is not true in case of consumer durables and certain services. If one buys an
automobile, refrigerator, air conditioner, furniture, or a house he is forced to use it for long
period and cannot change early and if he decides to dispose off there is big loss. Hence in these
products there is high degree of involvement, therefore, consumer takes a decision after lot of
deliberations. In case of insurance policy ones taken one has to live with it.

If a child has been admitted to a particular school, the child is forced to study in that school till
the end of the session. If someone gets himself admitted in a hospital for operation it is not
possible to withdraw till the operation is completed even if one is not satisfied. Such products
and services have high degree of involvement and long term consequences. Therefore,
consumer should make lot of inquiries before making a final decision so that he may not suffer
later on. These are called high involvement purchases and involve high risks. As against this
purchases of daily consumer items are items of little perceived risk because one can change
over to alternative at the time of next purchase.

Thus involvement is a theory of consumer learning which presumes that the degree of interest
in purchase of an item depends upon risk involved which is from limited risk to extensive risk
and the involvement depends upon the type of product under consideration for purchase. The
risk involved decides the degree of involvement and comes in selection of a product.

Based on this hypothesis researchers have developed theories of high relevant/high

involvement, low relevance/low involvement. In case of high involvement products the
consumer collects all possible information and access it in detail based on his knowledge and makes
efforts to get the opinion of family members, relatives and friends and sometimes even of experts.
If someone decides to buy a car he will consider large number of attributes but in case of daily
consumption items, the same consumer will make quick and effortless decision. The involvement is
dependent not only on nature of product or service to be purchased but also on the psychology of the
consumers. Even for same product involvement is not uniform for all consumers. For instance if a packet
of tea or biscuit is to be purchased, there are consumers who take it casually and simply ask the retailer
to give a packet without mentioning any brand and everything is left to the retailer.

For such consumers tea is tea and biscuit is biscuit. They are not brand conscious nor make any
investigation before purchases. But for same tea or biscuit there is other set of consumers who will
collect information about various brands available in the market and their attributes. Thus degree of
involvement differs not only on the nature of product but also on the psychology of consumers.

Some consumers take risk even for vital services and products. They take decisions without
consideration of all attributes. For instance, if someone needs to be admitted into a hospital for
treatment of serious injury or fracture there are persons who will take treatment in a near by hospital.
But there are other persons who in a similar situation will make lot of inquiry before deciding the
hospital for admission.

Levels of Involvement

Sally is looking into purchasing a house. This requires Sally to do research on the neighborhoods
she wants to live in, the schools in the area, the type of house, the distance the house is from
her work, and so on. This type of purchase requires a high level of involvement. Depending on
the type of purchase and how important the product or service is to the person impacts the
level of involvement.

 Low Involvement: These type of decisions are considered habitual decisions and are
products or services that a person buys on a regular basis and does not have to do any
research on. For example, a low-involvement decision can include groceries, laundry
detergent, and household items that are purchased all the time, and the consumer
already knows what they want to buy.

Type of Buying Behaviour

1. Complex Buying Behavior
In complex buying behavior consumer shows high level of involvement while purchase and
observe considerable differences among brands. Complex consumer buying behavior is
noticeable when the product price is high, risky, low quality after sale service and so on. Its
good example is buying a mobile or laptop. Both the products are expensive and variety of
brands. Consumers feel uncomfortable to decide for a specific brand.

2. Dissonance Reducing Buying Behavior

In dissonance reducing buying behavior consumer involvement is very high due to high price
and infrequent purchase with less significance differences among brands. In this case buyer
purchases the product which is easily available. After the product purchase, consumers may
face dissonance post purchase behavior.

3. Habitual Buying Behavior

In Habitual buying behavior consumer involvement is low as well as low is no significance
among brands names. The good example is a lighter or match box. They just go for it and
purchase it, there is no brand loyalty. Consumers do not need information regarding brand
purchase, characteristics. For such brands tv commercials, news papers and magazines build
positive attitude of consumers towards.

4. Variety Seeking Buying Behavior

In variety seeking buying behavior situation consumer involvement is very low but there are
significance differences among brands. In this situation consumers perceive brand switching. A
good example is purchase is chips. In such case consumer purchase chips and make results are
consumption. Next time they purchase another brand just to change the taste.

Information Search and Decision Making

Problem Recognition.  One model of consumer decision making involves several steps. The
first one is problem recognition—you realize that something is not as it should be.  Perhaps, for
example, your car is getting more difficult to start and is not accelerating well.    The second
step is information search—what are some alternative ways of solving the problem?  You might
buy a new car, buy a used car, take your car in for repair, ride the bus, ride a taxi, or ride a
skateboard to work.  The third step involves evaluation of alternatives.  A skateboard is
inexpensive, but may be ill-suited for long distances and for rainy days.   Finally, we have
the purchase stage, and sometimes a post-purchase stage (e.g., you return a product to the
store because you did not find it satisfactory).  In reality, people may go back and forth
between the stages.  For example, a person may resume alternative identification during while
evaluating already known alternatives.

Consumer involvement--the amount of effort a consumer puts into searching depends—on a

number of factors such as the market (how many competitors are there, and how great are
differences between brands expected to be?), product characteristics (how important is this
product? How complex is the product? How obvious are indications of quality?), consumer
characteristics (how interested is a consumer, generally, in analyzing product characteristics
and making the best possible deal?), and situational characteristics (as previously discussed).

Involvement can be either temporary or permanent (enduring). In the case of temporary

involvement, the consumer may not be particularly interested in the product category, but may
become involved long enough to be able to make an informed decision in an important product
category:
In the case of enduring involvement, the consumer remains interested in the category--usually
because of an inherent interest--even if he or she does not anticipate making a purchase
immediately.  For example, many "geeky" individuals spend a great deal of time reading
computer magazines when new issues come out:

When the purchase has been made, the consumer may stop giving much attention to that
product category.
It is important to consider the consumer’s motivation for buying products.  To achieve this goal,
we can use the Means-End chain, wherein we consider a logical progression of consequences of
product use that eventually lead to desired end benefit.  Thus, for example, a consumer may
see that a car has a large engine, leading to fast acceleration, leading to a feeling of
performance, leading to a feeling of power, which ultimately improves the consumer’s self-
esteem.  A handgun may aim bullets with precision, which enables the user to kill an intruder,
which means that the intruder will not be able to harm the consumer’s family, which achieves
the desired end-state of security.  In advertising, it is important to portray the desired end-
states.  Focusing on the large motor will do less good than portraying a successful person
driving the car.

Information search and decision making.  Consumers engage in both internal

and external information search. 

Internal search involves the consumer identifying alternatives from his or her memory.  For
certain low involvement products, it is very important that marketing programs achieve “top of
mind” awareness.  For example, few people will search the Yellow Pages for fast food
restaurants; thus, the consumer must be able to retrieve one’s restaurant from memory before
it will be considered.  For high involvement products, consumers are more likely to use
an external search.  Before buying a car, for example, the consumer may ask friends’ opinions,
read reviews in Consumer Reports, consult several web sites, and visit several dealerships. 
Thus, firms that make products that are selected predominantly through external search must
invest in having information available to the consumer in need—e.g., through brochures, web
sites, or news coverage.
A compensatory decision involves the consumer “trading off” good and bad attributes of a
product.  For example, a car may have a low price and good gas mileage but slow acceleration. 
If the price is sufficiently inexpensive and gas efficient, the consumer may then select it over a
car with better acceleration that costs more and uses more gas.  Occasionally, a decision will
involve a non-compensatory strategy.  For example, a parent may reject all soft drinks that
contain artificial sweeteners.   Here, other good features such as taste and low
calories cannot overcome this one “non-negotiable” attribute.

The amount of effort a consumer puts into searching depends on a number of factors such as
the market (how many competitors are there, and how great are differences between brands
expected to be?), product characteristics (how important is this product?  How complex is the
product?  How obvious are indications of quality?), consumer characteristics (how interested is
a consumer, generally, in analyzing product characteristics and making the best possible deal?),
and situational characteristics (as previously discussed).

Two interesting issues in decisions are:

 Variety seeking (where consumers seek to try new brands not because these brands are
expected to be “better” in any way, but rather because the consumer wants a “change
of pace,” and
 “Impulse” purchases—unplanned buys. This represents a somewhat “fuzzy” group.  For
example, a shopper may plan to buy vegetables but only decide in the store to actually
buy broccoli and corn.  Alternatively, a person may buy an item which is currently on
sale, or one that he or she remembers that is needed only once inside the store.

A number of factors involve consumer choices.  In some cases, consumers will be

more motivated.  For example, one may be more careful choosing a gift for an in-law than when
buying the same thing for one self.  Some consumers are also more motivated to comparison
shop for the best prices, while others are more convenience oriented.  Personality impacts
decisions.  Some like variety more than others, and some are more receptive to stimulation and
excitement in trying new stores.  Perception influences decisions.  Some people, for example,
can taste the difference between generic and name brand foods while many
cannot.  Selective perception occurs when a person is paying attention only to information of
interest.  For example, when looking for a new car, the consumer may pay more attention to
car ads than when this is not in the horizon.  Some consumers are put off by perceived risk. 
Thus, many marketers offer a money back guarantee.  Consumers will tend to change their
behavior through learning—e.g., they will avoid restaurants they have found to be crowded and
will settle on brands that best meet their tastes.  Consumers differ in the values they hold (e.g.,
some people are more committed to recycling than others who will not want to go through the
hassle).  We will consider the issue of lifestyle under segmentation.
Definition Evaluative Criteria
Standard measures established to evaluate the degree to which alternative solutions, proposals, or
individuals are able to meet expectations or objectives through direct comparisons of their
strengths, weaknesses and trade-offs.

Evaluative criteria is when a customer selects a different product, than the one they originally
had in mind, because of things like quality, price, and features. Some customers may take a
while to research and compare different products before purchasing. Others, may make the
decision spontaneously, just before they buy. There are many reasons why customers may
change their minds last minute and everyone has his or her own reasons for doing so.

Before people can decide whether or not they like a product, they must decide what constitutes
a good or a bad product. In other words, they should create criteria against which to measure
products’ ability to solve their problems. The standards by which consumers judge the products
they find during search are referred to as “evaluative criteria.” Generally speaking, evaluative
criteria are “product attributes that consumers believe will provide the benefits consumers
seek, and therefore the attributes they desire in the products they purchase.” Evaluative criteria
can be both tangible and intangible. For example, suppose a consumer wished to buy a new
digital camera. Tangible evaluative criteria he or she might use could include being lightweight,
having a powerful zoom lens, and within a certain price range. In tangible criteria might include
a brand with a good reputation and being perceived as fun to use.

Formation of Evaluative Criteria. For a given purchase, evaluative criteria can be formed from
one or both of two sources. First, people commonly recall evaluative criteria from memory. In
brand loyal purchases, the brand itself is the only evaluative criteria because it stands for all
attributes desired in a particular product. However, with routine purchases for which a
consumer has no preferred brand or for which the preferred brand is unavailable, consumers
recall detailed evaluative criteria, perhaps from prior purchases, and match available brands to
those criteria. Second, for new or novel purchases, evaluative criteria can be formed during
search. As consumers learn about the attributes of various market offerings, they select the
desirable attributes that will become the criteria for evaluating the suitability of the brands
under consideration. When criteria are formed during search, consumers update the list of
criteria as new information becomes available. After the product is used and its performance
assessed, the product attributes that contributed most to the product’s problem solving abilities
are committed to memory for future reference.

Determinants of Evaluative Criteria.

Demographics Geographic
Characteristics Characteristics
 Lifestyles Motives

Evaluative Criteria

Exhibit 1 illustrates these relationships. It shows the two primary determinants of evaluative
criteria as motives and lifestyle. It also shows lifestyle as being significantly determined by
demographic and geographic characteristics. Finally, consistent with the earlier discussion of
consumer market segmentation and simply for the sake of completeness, the diagram also
shows motives to be in part determined by lifestyle. The relationships shown in Exhibit 1 help
marketers get a more complete picture of why consumer groups with particular lifestyles prefer
products with certain attributes. Marketers can more effectively target products with certain
attributes to the most promising targets, and communicate to each target that the marketers’
brands possess the attributes that are valued most.