Chp-5 -Consumer Markets and Buyer Behavior

1-Consumer buyer behavior – the buying behavior final consumers individuals and households that buy goods
and services to personal consumption.
2-Consumer market – all individuals and households that buy goods and services for personal consumptions

Model of buyer behavior "( we can measure the what’s, where’s and when’s of consumer buying
behavior )
$ The environment: Marketing stimuli: product, price, place, promotion. Others: economic, technological,
social, cultural.
&Buyer’s black box: Buyer’s characteristics, Buyer’s decision process.
$Buyers response: Buying attitudes and preferences, Purchase behavior: what the buyer buys, when, where,
and how much Brand engagements and relationship behavior. ((end result))

Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior

Factors influencing consumer behavior??
Cultural Factors: Culture, Subculture, Social class. ((culture most basic cause)
 Culture- the set of basic values , perceptions, wants and behavior learned by member of society from
family and other institutions. Culture is the most basic cause.
Cultural shifts: Order to discover new products that might be wanted (ex. health and fitness)
 Subculture: A group of people with share value system based on common life experiences and situation.
Subculture include, nationalities, religions, racial groups, and geographic regions including language.
 Social class-: relative permanent and ordered divisions in a society whose members share similar values,
internets and behavior.
social class not determined by a single factor such as income but is measured as combination of , occupation,
income, education, wealth and other variables.

Social Factors: groups and social networks, Family, Roles and status
Social Factors- Influenced, such as the consumer’s small groups , family, and social roles and status.
 Groups and Social Networks
 Membership Groups: Groups with direct influence and to which a person belongs eg- Golds gym
membership
 Aspirational Groups: Groups an individual wishes to belong to eg- a kid have passion to play
someday in NBA teams
 Reference Groups: Groups that form a comparison or reference in forming attitudes or behavior

Word-of-mouth influence : the impact of the personal words and recommendations of trusted friends, family,
associates, and other consumers on buying behavior

opinion leaders: people within a reference group who, because of special skills, knowledge, personality, or
other characteristics, exert social influence on others. Some experts call this group the influential or leading
adopters.
Buzz marketing involves enlisting or even creating opinion leaders to serve as “brand ambassadors” who spread
the word about a company’s products. Many companies are now turning everyday customers into brand
evangelists.
Online social networks- are online communities where people socialize or exchange information and opinions.
Blogs –social networking site (face book) virtual worlds second life.
An Arab Examples: Social Classes in the UAE
Nationals: 1. The Ruling Sheikhly Families 2.Merchant Class 3. New Middle Class 4. Law Income Group.
Foreign Immigrants: 1. Top Professionals and International contractors. 2. Middle range Professionals 3.
Low-paid ,Semiskilled, and Unskilled workers.

Personal Factors: Age and life cycle stage, Occupation, Economic situation, Lifestyle, Personal and self-
concept.
1. Age and life-cycle: people change the good and services they buy over their lifetime. Tastes in food , clothes,
furniture and recreation are often age related. (ex. PRIZM)
2. Occupation: affects the goods and services bought.
3. Economic Situation: A person’s economic situation will affect store product choice. Marketers watch
trends in spending personal income, savings and interest rates.
4. Lifestyle- Person’s pattern of living in his or her psychographics. Measuring consumer’s major AIO,
activities, interest, opinions.
o Activities ( work , hobbies , shopping . sport , social events)
o Interest ( food , fashion , family , recreation )
o Opinions (themselves, social issues , business , product )
5. Personality- The unique psychological characteristics that distinguish a person or group.
- Personality is usually described in terms of, self-confidence, dominance, sociability, autonomy,
defensiveness, adaptability, and aggressiveness.
Brand Personality- The specific mix of human traits that may be attributed to a particular brand.
Five Brand Personality Traits:
1. Sincerity (down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, and cheerful.) Dove
2. Excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative, and up-to-date.) Apple
3. Competence (reliable, intelligent, and successful.) BBC , Skills
4. Sophistication (upper class and charming.) Rolex
5. Ruggedness (outdoorsy and tough.) Jeep , Hammers

Psychological Factors: Motivation, Perception, Learning, Beliefs and attitudes

 Motivation/or drive- Needed that is sufficiently pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction.
 Perception - The process by which people select organizations and interpret information to form a
meaningful picture of the world.
Perception process :
 Selective attention:The tendency for people to screen out most of the information to which they exposed.
 Selective distortion: Describes the tendency of people to interpret information in a way that will support
what they already believe.
 Selective retention: Remember good points made about a brand they favor and to forget good points made
about competing brands.

 Learning - Changes in an individual’s behavior arising from experience. Occurs through, drives, stimuli,
cues, responses, and reinforcement.

 Beliefs and Attitudes
• A belief is a descripted though that a person has about something. Based on, real knowledge, opinion
or faith.
• Attitude described a person’s relative consistent evaluations, feelings, and tendencies toward an object
or idea.

TYPES OF BUYING DECISION BEHAVIOR: degree of buyer involvement and degree of different among
brand.
1.Complex Buying Behavior – Highly involved in a purchase and perceive significant differences among
brand . consumer may be highly involved when the product is expensive, risky, purchased infrequently, and
highly self-expressive.
Example: car, furniture, electronics.
Marketers of high involvement product must ? understand the information gathering and evaluation behaver
of high involvement consumers. They need to help buyers learn about product -class attributer and their relative
importance. They need to differentiate their brand’s features, perhaps by describing and illustrating the brand’s
benefits through printed promotional.
Significant differences/ between brands: High involvement: Complex buying behavior. Low involvement:
Variety seeking buying behavior.
Few differences/ between brands: high involvement: dissonance reducing buying behavior. Low
involvement: Habitual buying behavior.

2. Dissonance – Reducing Buying Behavior (dissonance/dis comfortable) – Occurs when consumers are
highly involve with an expensive, infrequent or risk purchase, but little difference among brands.
Characterize by high involvement but few perceived differences among brands.
Example: carpets, hand made
After the purchase : consumer might experience post purchase dissonance ( after , sale , discomfort ) .

3. Habitual Buying Behavior ( salt/sugar) – Occurs under conditions of low consumers involvement and little
significant brand difference. Low consumer involvement significantly perceived brand differences.
Example ,take salt. Consumers have little involvement in this product category – they simply go to store and
reach for a brand.

4. Variety – Seeking Buying Behavior (chocolate/fast food) – Low consumer involvement but significant
perceived brand differences.
- Brand switching occurs for the sake of variety rather than because of dissatisfaction.
Example: fast food chain, candy

Buyers Decision Process:

1. Need recognition –> 2. Information search -> 3. Evaluation of alternatives -> 4. Purchase decision ->
5. Post purchase behavior.
The Buyer Decision Process :
1. Need Recognition – The buyers recognize a problem or need. Internal stimuli – person’s normal needs –
hunger, thirst. External stimuli – friend.
Consumer can obtain Information from any several sources – Include personal sources (family, friends,
neighbors , acquaintances ) commercial sources (advertising, sales , people , dealer websites, packaging ,
displays) public sources (mass media, consumer rating.) Experiential sources (handling , examining using
the product.)

2. Information Search – The stage of the buyer decision process in which the consumer is roused to search
for more information; the consumer may simple have heightened attention or may go into an active
information search.
Most information about a product from commercial sources. The most effective sources, personal, commercial
sources, normally inform the buyers, personal assure or evaluate products for the buyers.

3. Evaluation of Alternatives – The stage of the buyer’s decision process in which the consumers uses
information to evaluate alternatives brands in the choice set.

4. Purchase Decision – the buyers decision about which brand to purchase. Two factors: attitudes of others,
unexpected situational factors.

5. Post purchase Behavior – The stage of the buyers decision process in which the consumers take action,
based on their satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
Determines whether the buyer is satisfied or dissatisfied. Relationship between the consumer’s expectations and
product’s perceived performance.
Cognitive Dissonance – Buyer discomfort cause by purchase conflict.

The Buyer Decision Process for New Products:

New product – A good, service, or idea that is perceived by some potential costumer as new.
Stages in the Adoption process is the mental process an individual goes through from first learning about an
innovation to final regular use.
Stages in the Adoption Process :
• Awareness (the consumer becomes aware of the new product , but lacks information about it)
• Interest(the consumer seeks information about the new product)
• Evaluation ( the consumer considers whether trying the new product makes sense)
• Trial (the consumer tries the new product on a small scale to improve his or her estimate of its value )
• Adoption (the consumer decides to make full and regular use of the new product)

The five adopter have differing values :

1. Innovators : are venturesome – they try new ideas some risk.
2. Early adopters : are guided by respect – they are opining leaders in their communities and adopt new
ideas early but carefully.
3. Early majority : are deliberate – although they rarely are leader , they adopt new ideas before the
average person.
4. Late majority : are skeptical –they adopt an innovation only after a majority of people have tried.
5. Laggards : are tradition bound – they are suspicious of changes and adopt the innovation only when it
has become something of a tradition itself.
6.
Five Influence of Product Characteristics on Rate of Adoption:
1. Relative advantage : the degree to which the innovation appears superior to existing product . HDTV
offers substantially improved picture quality . will speed its rate of adoption.
2. Compatibility: the degree to which the innovation fits the values and experiences of potential
consumers . ex: highly compatible with the lifestyles . slowed adoption.
3. Complexity: the degree to which the innovation is difficult to understand . not very complex.
4. Divisibility: the degree to which the innovation may be tried on a limited basis .very expensive ,
slowing the rate of adoption.
5. Communicability: the degree to which the result of using the innovation can be observed or described
to other. Spread faster .

- Describe the adoption and diffusion process for new products

New-product marketers must think about how to help consumers move through these stages. With
regard to the diffusion process for new products, consumers respond at different rates, depending on
consumer and product characteristics