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SECTION 2
Consumers as Individuals
MyMarketingLab
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understanding of chapter objectives.
OBJECTIVE 3
Consumer activities can
be harmful to individuals
and to society.
Consumer Terrorism
The terrorist attacks of 2001 were a wake-up call to the free-enterprise system. They
revealed the vulnerability of nonmilitary targets and reminded us that disruptions of our
financial, electronic, and supply networks can potentially be more damaging to our way
of life than the fallout from a conventional battlefield. These incursions may be deliberate
or noteconomic shockwaves from mad cow disease in Europe are still reverberating
in the beef industry.64 Assessments by the Rand Corporation and other analysts point to
the susceptibility of the nations food supply as a potential target of bioterrorism.65
Even before the anthrax scares of 2001, toxic substances placed in products threatened to hold the marketplace hostage. This tactic first drew public attention in the United
States in 1982, when seven people died after taking Tylenol pills that had been laced with
cyanide. A decade later, Pepsi weathered its own crisis when more than 50 reports of
syringes found in Diet Pepsi cans surfaced in 23 states. In that case, Pepsi pulled off a PR
coup de grace by convincing the public that the syringes could not have been introduced
during the manufacturing process. The company even showed an in-store surveillance
video that caught a customer slipping a syringe into a Diet Pepsi can while the cashiers
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head was turned.66 Pepsis aggressive actions underscore the importance of responding
to such a crisis head-on and quickly.
More recently, a publicity campaign for a late-night cartoon show backfired when
it aroused fears of a terrorist attack and temporarily shut down the city of Boston. The
guerrilla marketing effort consisted of 1-foot-tall blinking electronic signs with hanging wires and batteries that marketers used to promote the Cartoon Network TV show
Aqua Teen Hunger Force (a surreal series about a talking milkshake, a box of fries, and
a meatball). The signs were placed on bridges and in other high-profile spots in several
U.S. cities. Most depicted a boxy, cartoon character giving passersby the finger. The bomb
squads and other police personnel required to investigate the mysterious boxes cost the
city of Boston more than $500,000and a lot of frayed nerves.67
Addictive Consumption
Although most people equate addiction with drugs, consumers can use virtually any
product or service to relieve (at least temporarily) some problem or satisfy some need
to the point that reliance on it becomes extreme. Though addictions of course include
alcoholism, drug addiction, and nicotine addiction, it seems we can become dependent
on almost anythingthere is even a Chapstick Addicts support group with 250 active
members!68 Consumer addiction is a physiological or psychological dependency on
products or services. Many companies profit from selling addictive products or from selling solutions for kicking a bad habit.
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Consumers as Individuals
Addiction to Technology
Even technology can be addicting, as anyone with a BlackBerry can attest: Some people call
this little device by the nickname of CrackBerry because its so hard to stop checking it
constantly. Some psychologists compare social media addiction to chemical dependency,
to the point of inducing symptoms of withdrawal when users are deprived of their fix. As one
noted, Everyone is a potential addicttheyre just waiting for their drug of choice to come
along, whether heroin, running, junk food or social media.69 The country with the largest
number of social media addicts today? According to a Nielsen survey, its Italy, which has
the highest per capita use of Facebook of any nation. Psychologists there report that addicts
are ignoring the real world as they choose to stay connected to their virtual worlds day and
night. The countrys 16 million Facebook users spend an average of 6 hours and 27 minutes
on the site per month.70 The problem continues to grow as more of us drink the Kool-Aid;
you may have spent that much time on your Facebook page before you came to class today!
Internet addiction has been a big headache for several years already in South Korea,
where 90 percent of homes connect to cheap, high-speed broadband. Many young
Koreans social lives revolve around the PC bang, dim Internet parlors that sit on practically every street corner. A government study estimates that up to 30 percent of South
Koreans under 18 are at risk of Internet addiction. Many already exhibit signs of actual
addiction, including an inability to stop themselves from using computers, rising levels of
tolerance that drive them to seek ever-longer sessions online, and withdrawal symptoms
such as anger and craving when they cant log on. Some users have literally dropped dead
from exhaustion after playing online games for days on end.71
Other problems arise when people become overly involved in playing online games.
Consider these two tragic cases:
In the UK, a 33-year-old widowed mother let her two dogs starve to death and neglected her three kids after becoming hooked on the online game Small World. A
judge banned her from going on the Internet. The woman slept only two hours a night
as she played the virtual reality game (in which dwarves and giants battle to conquer
the world) almost nonstop for six months. Her childrenaged 9, 10, and 13had
no hot food and drank cold baked beans from tins because there were no spoons.
When the familys two dogs died from neglect, she left their bodies rotting in the dining room for two months.72
An American woman pled guilty to a charge of second-degree murder in the death
of her three-month-old son. The 22-year-old mother lost her temper when her child
began crying while she was playing FarmVille on Facebook; she shook the baby until
it died.
Compulsive Consumption
Some consumers take the expression born to shop quite literally. They shop because
they are compelled to do so rather than because shopping is a pleasurable or functional
task. Compulsive consumption refers to repetitive and often excessive shopping performed as an antidote to tension, anxiety, depression, or boredom.73 Shopaholics turn
to shopping much the way addicted people turn to drugs or alcohol.74 One man diagnosed with compulsive shopping disorder (CSD) bought more than 2,000 wrenches and
never used any of them. Therapists report that women clinically diagnosed with CSD
outnumber men by four to one. They speculate that women are attracted to items such
as clothes and cosmetics to enhance their interpersonal relationships, whereas men tend
to focus on gadgetry, tools, and guns to achieve a sense of power.
One out of twenty U.S. adults is unable to control the buying of goods that he or she
does not really want or need. Some researchers say compulsive shopping may be related
to low self-esteem. It affects an estimated 2 to 16 percent of the adult U.S. population.75
In some cases, like a drug addict the consumer has little or no control over his or her consumption. Whether it is alcohol, cigarettes, chocolate, diet colas, or even Chapstick, the
products control the consumer. Even the act of shopping itself is an addicting experience
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for some people. Three common elements characterize many negative or destructive
consumer behaviors:76
1 The behavior is not done by choice.
2 The gratification derived from the behavior is short-lived.
3 The person experiences strong feelings of regret or guilt afterward.
Gambling is an example of a consumption addiction that touches every segment
of consumer society. Whether it takes the form of casino gambling, playing the slots,
betting on sports events with friends or through a bookie, or even buying lottery tickets,
excessive gambling can be quite destructive. Taken to extremes, gambling can result in
lowered self-esteem, debt, divorce, and neglected children. According to one psychologist, gamblers exhibit a classic addictive cycle: They experience a high while in action
and depression when they stop gambling, which leads them back to the thrill of the action.
Unlike drug addicts, however, money is the substance that hard-core gamblers abuse.
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Marketing Pitfall
As the song says, one
is the loneliest number. A German print ad
campaign for one-calorie
PepsiMax depicts a lonely calorie trying to
kill himself in a variety of grisly ways, such
as slitting his blue wrist with a razor blade.
Suicide prevention groups reacted angrily. In
the United States, General Motors encountered similar protests when it aired a Super
Bowl commercial that showed a lonely robot
considering suicide.77
Consumed Consumers
Consumed consumers are people who are used or exploited, willingly or not, for commercial gain in the marketplace. The situations in which consumers become commodities can range from traveling road shows that feature dwarfs and midgets to the selling of
body parts and babies. Check out these consumed consumers:
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Consumers as Individuals
Babies for saleSeveral thousand surrogate mothers have been paid to be medically
impregnated and carry babies to term for infertile couples. A fertile woman between
the ages of 18 and 25 can donate one egg every 3 months and rake in $7,000 each
time. Over 8 years, thats 32 eggs for a total of $224,000.81 In one case in Germany, police arrested a couple when they tried to auction their 8-month-old son on eBay. The
parents claimed that the offer, which read Babycollection only. Offer my nearly
new baby for sale because it cries too much. Male, 70 cm long was just a joke.82
Illegal Activities
In addition to being self-destructive or socially damaging, many consumer behaviors are
illegal as well. Analysts estimate the cost of crimes that consumers commit against business at more than $40 billion per year. A survey the McCann-Erickson advertising agency
conducted revealed the following tidbits:83
Ninety-one percent of people say they lie regularly. One in three fibs about his or her
weight, one in four about income, and 21 percent lie about their age. Nine percent
even lie about their natural hair color.
Four out of ten Americans have tried to pad an insurance bill to cover the deductible.
Nineteen percent say theyve snuck into a theater to avoid paying admission.
More than three out of five people say theyve taken credit for making something
from scratch when they have done no such thing. According to Pillsburys CEO, this
behavior is so prevalent that weve named a category after itspeed scratch.
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having friends who also shoplift. It is also more likely to occur if the adolescent does not
believe that this behavior is morally wrong.89
And what about shoppers who commit fraud when they abuse stores exchange
and return policies? Some big companies, such as Guess, Staples, and Sports Authority,
use new software that lets them track a shoppers track record of bringing items back.
They are trying to crack down on serial wardrobers who buy an outfit, wear it once,
and return it; customers who change price tags on items, then return one item for the
higher amount; and shoppers who use fake or old receipts when they return a product.
The retail industry loses approximately $16 billion a year to these and other forms of
fraudulent behavior. Retail analysts estimate that about 9 percent of all returns are
fraudulent.90
Anticonsumption
Some types of destructive consumer behavior are anticonsumption, events in which
people deliberately deface or mutilate products and services. Some of these actions are
relatively harmless, as when a person goes online at dogdoo.com to send a bag of dog
manure to a lucky recipient. This site even lets customers calibrate the size of the gift
by choosing among three Poo Poo Packages: Econo-Poop (20-pound dog), Poo Poo
Special (50-pound dog), and the ultimate in payback, the Poo Poo Grande (110-pound
dog).91 The moral: Smell your packages before opening.
Anticonsumption ranges from relatively mild acts like spray-painting graffiti on
buildings and subways to serious incidences of product tampering or even the release
of computer viruses that can bring large corporations to their knees. It can also take the
form of political protest in which activists alter or destroy billboards and other advertisements that promote what they feel to be unhealthy or unethical acts. For example, some
members of the clergy in areas heavily populated by minorities have organized rallies
to protest the proliferation of cigarette and alcohol advertising in their neighborhoods;
these protests sometimes include the defacement of billboards promoting alcohol or
cigarettes.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Now that you have finished reading this chapter you should
understand why:
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Consumers as Individuals
KEY TERMS
80/20 rule, 231
AIOs, 231
animism, 226
anticonsumption, 241
archetypes, 218
beacon, 236
behavioral targeting, 235
bioterrorism, 236
brand personality, 223
compulsive consumption, 238
REVIEW
1 Describe the id, ego, and superego and tell how they work
together according to Freudian theory.
2 What is motivational research? Give an example of
a marketing study that used this approach.
3 Describe three personality traits relevant to marketers.
4 List three problems that arise when we apply trait theory
to marketing contexts.
5 Define a brand personality and give two examples.
6 Define psychographics, and describe three ways marketers
can use it.
them what Web sites he visits. Do you believe this knowledge power presents any ethical problems with regard to
consumers privacy? Should the government regulate access to such information? Should consumers have the right
to limit access to these data?
4 Should organizations or individuals be allowed to create
Web sites that advocate potentially harmful practices?
Should hate groups such as al-Qaeda be allowed to recruit
members online? Why or why not?
5 An entrepreneur made international news when he set
up a Web site to auction the egg cells of fashion models to
the highest bidder (minimum bid: $15,000). The site was
targeted to people who wanted to have very attractive babies because they believed this would maximize their offsprings chances of succeeding in our society. Is the buying
and selling of humans just another example of consumer
behavior at work? Do you agree that this service is simply
a more efficient way to maximize the chance of having
happy, successful children? Should this kind of marketing
activity be allowed? Would you sell your eggs or sperm on
a Web site?
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APPLY
1 Construct a brand personality inventory for three different
brands within a product category. Ask a small number of
consumers to rate each brand on about 10 different personality dimensions. What differences can you identify?
Do these personalities relate to the advertising and packaging strategies used to differentiate these products?
2 Compile a set of recent ads that attempt to link consumption of a product with a specific lifestyle. How does a marketer usually accomplish this goal?
3 Political campaigns may use psychographic analyses. Conduct research on the marketing strategies a candidate used in
a recent, major election. How did the campaign segment voters in terms of values? Can you find evidence that the campaigns communications strategies used this information?
4 Construct separate advertising executions for a cosmetics
product that targets the Believer, Achiever, Experiencer,
and Maker VALS2 types. How would the basic appeal differ for each group?
Case Study
ZIPCAR CREATES A RENTAL
CAR CULTURE
U.S. travelers have been able to rent cars since 1946, when Avis
offered three cars for hire at a small Michigan airport. Today the
rental car industry is a mature business that is fiercely competitive in terms of price and service levels. But, about a decade ago
a new company shook up the market with a brand-new business model. Zipcar was a Cambridge, Massachusetts, start-up
with a radical concept: Rent cars by the hour. Along with the
motto, Wheels when you need them, Zipcar eliminated trips
to car rental centers, extended contracts, and confusing insurance options. It was a godsend to people in urban areas or on
large college campuses who just needed a set of wheels to run
errands or go out for an evening.
Mention Zipcar to any driver in the 50 cities or 100 college campuses where the company operates, and odds are they
know the name. Beyond simple awareness, though, they most
likely have a sense of the brands unique personality. Thats because Zipcar works hard to establish its service as simple and
fun. A customer can get a car in minutes by reserving online
or through a mobile app, or simply by walking to the nearest
Zipcar lot. Fast Company describes the companys Web site
as fun, conversational and clever. Instead of a boring corporate video on how a business works, when you visit the site you
watch a retro geeky guy talking about Zipcar in what feels like
a homemade video.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1 Compare the brand personality of Zipcar to that of Avis or
Hertz.
2 How would you describe the psychographic profile of a
typical Zipster?
Sources: Jeff Cram, Web Sites with Personality: What Marketers Can
Learn from Zipcar.com, Fastcompany.com (August 3, 2010), accessed June 22, 2011; Kathy Marquardt, 5 Keys to Zipcars Success,
U.S.NewsandWorldReport.com (June 5, 2008), accessed June 22, 2011;
Zipcar IPO Soars 66% Out of the Gate, www.wsj.com (April 14, 2011), accessed June 22, 2011; www.zipcar.com, accessed June 22, 2011.
NOTES
1. www.jettygirl.com, accessed May 29, 2011.
2. For an interesting ethnographic account of skydiving as a voluntary
high-risk consumption activity, see Richard L. Celsi, Randall L. Rose, and
Thomas W. Leigh, An Exploration of High-Risk Leisure Consumption
Through Skydiving, Journal of Consumer Research 20 (June 1993): 123.