Chapter 7

Analyzing Consumer Markets

and Buyer Behavior
by

PowerPoint by
Milton M. Pressley
University of New Orleans
Kotler on
Marketing
The most
important
thing is to
forecast
where
customers
are moving,
and be in
front of them.
 Chapter Objectives

• In this chapter, we focus on two questions:

– How do the buyers’ characteristics – cultural,
social, personal, and psychological –
influence buying behavior?
– How does the buyer make purchasing
decisions?
 Influencing Buyer Behavior
– Consumer Behavior
• Cultural Factors
– Culture
• Subcultures
• Diversity marketing
• Social class
Influencing Buyer Behavior

• Social Factors
– Reference Groups
• Reference groups
• Membership groups
• Primary groups
• Secondary groups
• Aspirational groups
• Dissociative groups
• Opinion leader
 Table 7.1: Characteristics of Major U.S. Social Classes
1. Upper Uppers The social elite who live on inherited wealth. They give
(less than 1%) large sums to charity, run the debutante balls, maintain
more than one home, and send their children to the finest
schools. They are a market for jewelry, antiques, homes,
and vacations. They often buy and dress conservatively.
Although small as a group, they serve as a reference
group to the extent that their consumption decisions are
imitated by the other social classes.

2. Lower Uppers Persons, usually from the middle class, who have earned
(about 2%) high income or wealth through exceptional ability in the
professions or business. They tend to be active in social
and civic affairs and to buy the symbols of status for
themselves and their children. They include the nouveau
riche, whose pattern of conspicuous consumption is
designed to impress those below them.

See text for complete table

Influencing Buyer Behavior
• Secondary groups
• Aspirational groups
• Dissociative groups
• Opinion leader
Influencing Buyer Behavior
• Family
– Family of orientation
– Family of procreation
• Roles and Statuses
– Role
– Status
With the “graying” of the American populace,
marketers have begun to shift images and
cultural references in advertising from things
that are relevant to the twenty-
twenty-somethings to
images of active seniors, and soundtracks
from the sixties and seventies. Can you
identify any particular
ad campaigns that fit
this pattern?
Influencing Buyer Behavior
• Personal Factors
– Age and Stage in the Life Cycle
• Family life cycle
– Occupation and Economic Circumstances
In recent years, many organizations have
“provided” televisions with limited programming
access for use in K-
K-12 classrooms. Do these
entities have a moral obligation to avoid overt
marketing to their captive audiences, or is this a
valid tool for introducing offerings to future
consumers? What should the
responsibilities of the educators
be in these situations?
 Table 7.2: Stages in the Family Life Cycle
1. Bachelor stage: Few financial burdens. Fashion opinion leaders.
Young, single, not living Recreation oriented. Buy: basic home equipment,
at home furniture, cars, equipment for the mating game;
vacations.
2. Newly married Highest purchase rate and highest average
couples: purchase of durables: cars, appliances, furniture,
Young, no children vacations.
3. Full nest I: Home purchasing at peak. Liquid assets low.
Youngest child under six Interested in new products, advertised products.
Buy: washers, dryers, TV, baby food, chest rubs
and cough medicines, vitamins, dolls, wagons,
sleds, skates.
4. Full nest II: Financial position better. Less influenced by
Youngest child six or over advertising. Buy larger-size packages, multiple-
unit deals. Buy: many foods, cleaning materials,
bicycles, music lessons, pianos.

See text for complete table

 Figure 7.2: The VALS segmentation system:
An 8-part typology
• Groups with High
Resources
1. Actualizers
2. Fulfilleds
3. Achievers
4. Experiencers
• Groups with Lower
Resources
1. Believers
2. Strivers
3. Makers
4. Strugglers
SRI Consulting Business Intelligence’s Web site
Influencing Buyer Behavior
– Personality and Self-Concept
• Personality
• Brand personality
– Sincerity
– Excitement
– Competence
– Sophistication
– Ruggedness
• Self-concept
– Person’s actual self-concept
– Ideal self-concept
– Others’ self-concept
Influencing Buyer Behavior

• Psychological Factors
– Motivation
• Motive
– Freud’s Theory
• Laddering
• Projective techniques
Influencing Buyer Behavior
• Ernest Dichter’s research found:
– Consumers resist prunes because prunes are
wrinkled looking and remind people of old
age.
– Men smoke cigars as an adult version of
thumb sucking.
– Women prefer vegetable shortening to animal
fats because the latter arouse a sense of guilt
over killing animals.
– Women don’t trust cake mixes unless they
require adding an egg, because this helps
them feel they are giving “birth.”
Influencing Buyer Behavior
– Maslow’s Theory

Figure 7.3:
Maslow’s
Hierarchy of
Needs
Influencing Buyer Behavior
– Herzberg’s Theory
• Dissatisfiers
• Satisfiers
Influencing Buyer Behavior
• Perception
– Selective attention
• People are more likely to notice stimuli than
relate to a current need
• People are more likely to notice stimuli than
they anticipate
• People are more likely to notice stimuli
whose deviations are large in relation to the
normal size of the stimuli
– Selective distortion
– Selective retention
Influencing Buyer Behavior
– Learning
• Drive
• Cues
• Discrimination
– Beliefs and Attitudes
• Belief
– Spreading activation
• Attitude
The purchase of a product from a Company A
turns out to be a positive experience. You are
looking for a loosely related product, which is also
offered by Company A. Do you assume that you
will again have a positive experience with
Company A’s offering, or do you
look for the “best of breed,”
regardless of which
company offers it?
The Buying Decision Process
• Buying Roles
– Initiator
– Influencer
– Decider
– Buyer
– User
• Buying behavior
 Table 7.3: Four Types of Buying Behavior
High Involvement Low Involvement
Significant Differences Complex buying Variety-seeking
between Brands behavior buying behavior

Few Differences between Dissonance-reducing Habitual buying

Brands buying behavior behavior
The Buying Decision Process
– Complex Buying Behavior
– Dissonance-Reducing Buyer Behavior
– Habitual Buying Behavior
– Variety-Seeking Buying Behavior
 Stages in the Buying
Decision Process
• How marketers learn about the stages:
– Introspective method
– Retrospective method
– Prospective method
– Prescriptive method
• Understanding by mapping the customer’s
– Consumption system
– Customer activity cycle
– Customer scenario
• Metamarket
• Metamediaries
The Edmunds.com home page shows the variety of
services this Web company offers those shopping
for a car.
 Stages of the Buying
Decision Process
• Problem recognition
• Information search
– Personal sources
– Commercial sources Figure 7.4:
Five-Stage
– Public sources Model of the
– Experiential sources Consumer
Buying
Process
Figure 7.5: Successive Sets Involved in Customer
Decision Making
The Buying Decision Process
• Evaluation of Alternatives
– Potential Attributes of interest
• Cameras
• Hotels
• Mouthwash
• Tires
– Brand beliefs
– Brand image
 Table 7.4: A Consumer’s Brand Beliefs
about Computers
Computer Attribute
Memory Graphics Size and
Capacity Capability Weight Price
A 10 8 6 4

B 8 9 8 3

C 6 8 10 5

D 4 3 7 8
The Buying Decision Process
• Strategies designed to stimulate interest in a
computer
– Redesign the computer
– Alter beliefs about the brand
– Alter beliefs about competitors’ brands
– Alter the importance weights
– Call attention to neglected attributes
– Shift the buyer’s ideas
The Buying Decision Process
• Purchase Decision

Figure 7.6: Steps Between Evaluation of

Alternatives and a purchase decision
The Buying Decision Process
– Informediaries
• Consumer Reports
• Zagats
– Unanticipated situational factors
– Perceived risk
– Brand decision
– Vendor decision
– Quantity decision
– Timing decision
– Payment-method decision
The Buying Decision Process
• Postpurchase Behavior
– Postpurchase Satisfaction
• Disappointed
• Satisfied
• Delighted
• Postpurchase Actions
– Postpurchase Use and Disposal
Figure 7.7: How Customers Dispose of Products
The Buying Decision Process
• Other Models of the Buying Decision
Process
– Health Model
• Stages of Change Model
– Precontemplation
– Contemplation
– Preparation
– Action
– Maintenance
– Customer Activity Cycle Model
• Pre, during and post phases
Figure 7.8:
Activity cycle for
IBM customers
in the global
electronic
networking
capability
market space
Figure 7.9:
Value adds for
IBM
customers in
the global
electronic
networking
capability
market space