Chapter 5 Understanding Consumer and Business Buyer Behavior
1) ________ refers to the practice of including ethnic themes within a company's mainstream marketing. A) Cross-cultural marketing B) Buzz marketing C) Viral marketing D) Guerilla marketing E) Cause marketing Answer: A
2) Which of the following is a social factor that influences consumer buying behavior? A) family B) life-cycle stage C) economic situation D) personality E) occupation Answer: A
3) ________ are people within a reference group who, because of special skills, knowledge, personality, or other characteristics, exert social influence on others. A) Opinion leaders B) Late mainstream adopters C) Strangers D) Barnacles E) Lagging adopters Answer: A
4) Opinion leaders are also known as ________.
A) lagging adopters B) leading adopters C) early mainstream adopters D) late mainstream adopters E) barnacles Answer: B
5) Which of the following is a personal factor that influences a consumer's buying behavior? A) life-cycle stage B) motivation C) status D) family E) social networks Answer: A
6) Which of the following is a psychographic characteristic of a consumer?
A) gender B) age C) lifestyle D) occupation E) economic status Answer: C
7) Which of the following terms is used to describe a specific mix of human traits that may be attributed to a particular brand? A) brand perception B) brand architecture C) brand personality D) brand loyalty E) brand equity Answer: C
8) A(n) ________ is a need that is sufficiently pressing to direct a person to seek satisfaction. A) stimulus B) motive C) cue D) perception E) attitude Answer: B
9) Which of the following needs in Maslow's hierarchy is generally satisfied last?
A) physiological needs B) social needs C) esteem needs D) self-actualization needs E) safety needs Answer: D
10) A(n) ________ becomes a motive when it is directed toward a particular stimulus object. A) cue B) drive C) response D) belief E) attitude Answer: B
11) ________ are minor stimuli that influence where, when, and how a person responds to an idea. A) Cues B) Drives C) Motives D) Needs E) Attitudes Answer: A
12) A(n) ________ describes a person's relatively consistent evaluations, feelings, and tendencies toward an object or idea. A) role B) cue C) drive D) attitude E) motive Answer: D
13) Which of the following is the first stage of the buyer decision process? A) need recognition B) information search C) alternative evaluation D) purchase decision E) postpurchase behavior Answer: A
14) Becca wants to buy a new coat. She asks her friends to recommend a store and/or a style of coat. She looks for sale advertisements for coats in newspapers and also visits nearby stores to check if she can find something in her budget. In this case, Becca is most likely in the ________ stage of the buyer decision process. A) product evaluation B) alternative evaluation C) need recognition D) information search E) purchase decision Answer: D
15) In which of the following stages of the buyer decision process does a consumer compare multiple products with similar attributes? A) alternative evaluation B) need recognition C) information search D) purchase decision E) postpurchase behavior Answer: A
16) ________ is a discomfort caused by postpurchase conflict.
A) Selective retention B) Cognitive dissonance C) Selective attention D) Restraint bias E) Subliminal perception Answer: B
17) Bill thought he had received the best deal on his new car. Shortly after the purchase, Bill started to notice certain disadvantages of his new car as he learned more about other cars available in the same price range. Bill is in which of the following stages of the buyer decision process? A) purchase decision B) need recognition C) postpurchase behavior D) information search E) alternate evaluation Answer: C
18) In which of the following stages of the adoption process does a consumer seek information about a new product? A) interest B) adoption C) evaluation D) awareness E) trial Answer: A
19) In which of the following stages of the adoption process does a consumer consider whether trying a new product makes sense? A) interest B) adoption C) evaluation D) awareness E) trial Answer: C
20) ________ is the degree to which an innovation appears superior to existing products. A) Relative advantage B) Compatibility C) Complexity D) Divisibility E) Communicability Answer: A
21) ________ is the degree to which an innovation is difficult to understand or use.
A) Relative advantage B) Compatibility C) Complexity D) Divisibility E) Communicability Answer: C
22) Which of the following generally increases the total demand for business products? A) an increase in product price B) a reduction in the number of business buyers C) an increase in consumer demand D) low buyer demand E) high production costs Answer: C 23) ________ is defined as a business strategy where business buyers prefer to buy a complete solution to a problem from a single seller rather than buying separate products and services from several suppliers. A) Modified rebuy B) Straight rebuy C) New task buying D) Systems selling E) Supplier development Answer: D
24) Which of the following statements about buying centers is true?
A) The buying center is a fixed and formally identified unit within a buying organization. B) Roles in the buying center are specified in the organizational chart of a firm. C) The CEO of an organization is always the decision maker in a buying center. D) An individual's role in a buying center does not change with time. E) Some buying centers involve informal participants. Answer: E
25) Voorhees' Farms raises chickens. For years, it has used wooden coops for hauling its poultry to market. When the owner, Jason Voorhees, went to reuse some of his coops, he noticed many of them could not be sufficiently cleaned for reuse and needed to be replaced. Which stage of the business buying process was Voorhees in when he decided to replace his old coops? A) problem recognition B) general need description C) product specification D) product value analysis E) performance review Answer: A
26) Explain the cultural factors that influence consumer behavior.
Answer: Culture is the most basic cause of a person's wants and behavior. Each culture contains smaller subcultures, or groups of people with shared value systems based on common life experiences and situations. Subcultures include nationalities, religions, racial groups, and geographic regions. Many subcultures make up important market segments. Social classes are society's relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members share similar values, interests, and behaviors. Unlike nationality or ethnic subculture, social class is determined by a combination of many variables, such as occupation, income, education, and wealth. Social scientists have identified seven social classes within the American culture, ranging from upper class to lower class.
27) Explain Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Answer: Maslow suggested that our unfulfilled needs motivate us and that our needs are arranged in a hierarchy. That hierarchy includes these needs: physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization. Maslow suggested that we fulfill the lower-level, basic needs first before moving up the hierarchy. Until more important, basic needs such as safety are fulfilled, an individual has little interest in higher-level needs such as esteem and self-actualization. When that need is satisfied, it will stop being a motivator, and the person will then try to satisfy the next most important need. For example, starving people (physiological need) will not take an interest in the latest happenings in the art world (self-actualization needs) nor in how they are seen or esteemed by others (social or esteem needs) nor even in whether they are breathing clean air (safety needs). But as each important need is satisfied, the next most important need will come into play.
28) Describe the steps of the buyer decision process.
Answer: The buyer decision process consists of five stages: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and postpurchase behavior. 1. Need Recognition: The buying process starts with need recognition–the buyer recognizes a problem or need. The need can be triggered by internal stimuli when one of the person's normal needs–for example, hunger or thirst–rises to a level high enough to become a drive. A need can also be triggered by external stimuli. 2. Information Search: An interested consumer may or may not search for more information. If the consumer's drive is strong and a satisfying product is near at hand, he or she is likely to buy it then. If not, the consumer may store the need in memory or undertake an information search related to the need. 3. Evaluation of Alternatives: Marketers need to know about alternative evaluation, that is, how the consumer processes information to arrive at brand choices. Unfortunately, consumers do not use a simple and single evaluation process in all buying situations. Instead, several evaluation processes are at work. The consumer arrives at attitudes toward different brands through some evaluation procedure. 4. Purchase Decision: In the evaluation stage, the consumer ranks brands and forms purchase intentions. Generally, the consumer's purchase decision will be to buy the most preferred brand, but two factors can come between the purchase intention and the purchase decision. The first factor is the attitudes of others. The second factor is unexpected situational factors. The consumer may form a purchase intention based on factors such as expected income, expected price, and expected product benefits. However, unexpected events may change the purchase intention. 5. Postpurchase Behavior: After purchasing the product, the consumer will either be satisfied or dissatisfied and will engage in postpurchase behavior of interest to the marketer. If the product falls short of expectations, the consumer is disappointed; if it meets expectations, the consumer is satisfied; if it exceeds expectations, the consumer is delighted. The larger the gap between expectations and performance, the greater the consumer's dissatisfaction.
29) Identify and describe the stages in the adoption process of a new product. Answer: Consumers go through five stages in the process of adopting a new product. In the awareness stage, consumers become aware of the new product but lack information about it. Then, consumers seek information about the new product in the interest stage. In the evaluation stage, consumers consider whether trying the new product makes sense. Consumers try the product on a limited basis in the trial stage. Finally, consumers decide to make full use of the product in the adoption stage.
