Consumer behavior

second session
Reference book for this session:

Consumer behavior by:

Roger D. Blackwell
Paul W. Miniard
James F. Engel

Lecture notes are available at:

http://Arash-
management.blogspot.com
Consumer behavior (CB)

Arash Najmaei

Arash.unity@gmail
Arash.unity@yahoo.com
H/P : 0172116875
 Outline of the session
1. Review of the previous notes
2. Pre-purchase behavior
3. Purchase behavior
4. Purchase decision making model
and process
5. Consumer resources involved in
purchase
6. IMC
7. consumption behavior
8. Consumption experiences
Pre-purchase Evaluation
• Having prior knowledge facilitates
decision making and accelerates
formation of evoked set.

• Without prior knowledge consumer

start asking from friends and going
through external materials.
Constructing the Consideration
Set Primarily from Memory
•Retrieval set: consideration set that depends
on recall of alternatives from memory

•Not all alternatives retrieved from memory will

be considered

•Consumers limit their consideration to those

alternatives toward which they are favorably
predisposed
Constructing the Consideration
Set Without Prior Knowledge
•Consumers may talk to others or consider all
brands in the store

•External factors have greater opportunity to affect

consideration set with less knowledgeable
consumers than when search is from memory

•Recognition of brands or products at point of sale

is important to get into consumers’ consideration
set
 Deciding How to Evaluate
Choice Alternatives

Rely on preexisting product

evaluations stored in memory
Direct Experience: prior purchase or
consumption experiences with product
Indirect Experience: experiences or
impressions gained second-hand-
through word of mouth.
Construct new evaluations based
on information acquired through
internal or external search
 Constructing New Evaluations
The Categorization Process: the
evaluation of a choice alternative
based on the evaluation of the
category to which it is assigned
Categories may be general (drinks) or
specific (colas). Evaluation of a
category can be transferred to a new
product assigned to that category

Brand extensions allow firms to use

categorization to their advantage
 Constructing New Evaluations
The Piecemeal Process:
constructing an evaluation of a
choice alternative by considering its
advantages and disadvantages
along important product
dimensions
 Constructing New Evaluations
The Piecemeal Process:
Determine the particular criteria or
product dimensions to be used in
evaluation
Evaluate each considered alternative
based on the identified criteria
Cutoff: restriction or requirement for
acceptable performance
Signals: product attributes used to infer
other product attributes (e.g., using
high price to infer higher quality)
 How Good Are We at Evaluating
Alternatives?

Consumers are often not very good at figuring

out which alternative is best for them

•- Tend to rely on certain signals (e.g., price,

brand name, warranty, package) to make
inferences about a product quality; however,
such signals may be inaccurate

•- Often possess limited abilities to accurately

evaluate choice alternatives
 The Purchase Process

Consumers decide:
•Whether to buy
•When to buy
•What to buy (product type/brand)
•Where to buy
•How to pay
•Many factors influence their shopping decisions,
including in-store promotion, store ambience and
cleanliness, level of service, price, value, logistics and
retail experience.
•For some purchases consumer may never enter a
store, but rather purchase from internet, a catalog or
direct persons.
 The Purchase Process

Fully Planned Purchase: both the product and

brand are chosen in advance
Purchase planning is more likely to occur when
product involvement is high with purchase
affected by in-store factors and marketing efforts
It might be influenced by marketing tactics like
product sample, price reductions, point of
purchase or promotional activities.
 The Purchase Process

Partially Planned Purchase: intent to

buy the product exists, but brand choice is
deferred until shopping.

When involvement is low, consumers resort to

buying a brand they know and like but may
also be influenced by price reductions or
special displays
 The Purchase Process
Unplanned Purchase: both the
product and brand are chosen at
point of sale.

In-store influences can guide

product and brand choices made
by consumers reminding them of
a need and triggering a purchase
of something they have seen on
TV or website.
 The Purchase Factor
When and if purchase occurs is
affected by timing factors such as
seasonality-Umbrella, A.C,
Seasonal apparel.

Timing also affects the price and the

likelihood of a purchase-Airlines ticket at peak
season.
When making a purchase, consumer must
also decide how to pay—cash, checks, or
plastic (credit/debit card)
The Purchase Decision Process
Consumer Resources: What
People Spend When They
Purchase

Money

Attention Time
 Integrated Marketing
Communications (IMC)

A systematic, cross-organizational
marketing communication process
that is customer-centric, data-
driven, technically anchored, and
branding effective
 Integrated Marketing
Communications (IMC)
1. IMC programs are comprehensive
2. IMC programs are unified
3. IMC programs are targeted
4. IMC programs have coordinated

execution of all the communications components of the

organization
IMC programs emphasize productivity in reaching targets when
selecting communication channels and allocating resources
to media
 Post purchase and
consumption
• Consumption is :Consumers’ usage of
the acquired product.
• In this phase we are trying to know how
many and which consumers fall into
the user and nonuser categories
• Size of user market is one indicator of
market attractiveness
• Size of nonuser group speaks to future
growth opportunities
• Characterized along many dimensions
Consumption Behavior
 Consumption Behavior
When does Consumption Occur?
•How much time passes between purchase and
consumption?

•What time of day is product used?

•When in the year or during which season is

product consumed?

The situation in which consumption

occurs can affect product choice—
e.g., beers sales for in-home versus
on-premise consumption
Would Consumers Pour the Same
Amount into Each Glass?
Consumption Behavior
The Influence of Package Size
 Consumption Experiences
How Does It Feel?

Positive or negative things you feel when

using a product
Firms can position products based on:

- Positive feelings resulting from

consumption
- Elimination of negative feelings
resulting from consumption
 Consumption Experiences
How Rewarding or Punishing Was
the Experience?
Positive reinforcement: when
consumer receives positive
outcome from product usage
Negative reinforcement: when
consumption helps person avoid
negative outcome

Punishment: when consumption

leads to negative outcome
Purchase Product Product Receiving
Need Purchase Consumption Positive
Outcomes

Positive Reinforcement

Purchase Product Product Avoiding

Need Purchase Consumption Negative
Outcomes

Negative Reinforcement

Purchase Product Product Receiving

Need Purchase Consumption Negative
Outcomes

Punishment
 Summary…
1. Pre-purchase behavior
2. Purchase behavior
3. Purchase decision making model
and process
4. Consumer resources involved in
purchase
5. IMC and its importance and roles
6. consumption behavior
7. Consumption experiences