Samenvatting boek Consumer Behavior
Part 1: An introduction to consumer behavior
Hoofdstuk 1: Understanding consumer behavior
Consumer behavior: reflects the totally of consumer’ decisions with respect to the acquisition,
consumption and disposition of goods, services, activities, experiences, people and ideas by (human)
decision-making units (over time).
Buying / acquisition usage disposition (how consumers get rid of an offering they acquired)
Eight ways to acquire an offering:
- See picture on the left
Ways of disposing of an offering:
- Find a new use for it: using an old toothbrush to clean
- Get rid of it temporarily: renting or lending an item
- Get rid of it permanently: throwing away an item,
sending it to a recycling center, trading it, giving it
away or selling it
Four broad domains that affect acquisition, usage and disposal:
1. The psychological core: motivation, ability, opportunity, exposure, attention, perception,
understanding, memory, knowledge, forming and changing attitudes
2. The process of making decisions: four stages of problem recognition, information search,
decision-making and postpurchase evaluation (the psychological core is involved in making
decisions)
3. The consumer’s culture: culture refers to the typical or expected behaviors, norms and ideas
that characterize a group of people (reference groups, diversity influences, household, social
class influence, values, personality and lifestyle)
4. Consumer behavior outcomes: ethics and social responsibility
, These domains have interrelationships, because they influence each other
Who use consumer behavior research?
- Marketing managers: marketing is the activity, set of institutions and processes for creating,
communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients,
partners and society at large
- Ethicists and advocacy groups: making public awareness of inappropriate practices
- Public policy makers and regulators: protecting consumers from unfair, unsafe or
inappropriate marketing practices
- Academics: teaching courses on the subject
- Consumers and society: better understanding differences among brands
Making business decisions based on the marketing implications of consumer behavior:
- Developing and implementing customer-oriented strategy
o How is the market segmented? How profitable is each segment? What are the
characteristics of consumers in each segment? Are customers satisfied?
- Selecting the target market
- Developing products
o What ideas do consumers have for new products? What attributes can be added to
change an existing offering? How should the offering be branded and packaged?
- Positioning:
o Positioning should suggest that the product is superior on one or more attributes valued
by the target market.
- Making promotion and marketing communications decisions
o What, when and where should the advertising be placed? Is it effective?
o Word of mouth: when consumers tell other consumers about the offering.
o Sales promotions include premiums, contests, sweeptakes, free samples, coupons and
rebates.
- Making pricing decisions
o White sales: consumers are likely to be most responsive to various pricing tactics like with
Black Friday.
o Endowment effect: organizations should not set a higher price than buyers are willing to
pay (ownership increases the value of an item)
o When making a purchase, consumers consider how much they must pay in relation to the
price of other relevant brands or to the price they previously paid for that product, so
marketers must be aware of these references.
o Prices end with number 9 are perceived as cheaper than prices that end with 0.
- Making distribution decisions
o Where and when are target consumers likely to shop? What do customers want to see in
stores? How should stores be designed?
Part 2: The psychological core
Hoofdstuk 2: Motivation, ability and opportunity
Motivation: an inner state of activation that provides energy needed to achieve a goal. Motivation is
what people moves (in Latin movere).
Effects/outcomes of motivation:
- High-effort behavior: motivation drives financial behaviors that bring a goal closer and also
creates a willingness to expend time and energy on preparatory behaviors. Consumers try to
match anticipated and actual effort, but if they believe their anticipated effort will be too
much, they simplify the decision by for example by not waiting in line but order online. If they
think an important decision will be too simple, they complicate it with extra effort.
, - High-effort information processing and decision making: when consumers are highly
motivated to achieve a goal, they are more likely to pay careful attention to it, think about it
etc. Consumers make decision-making shortcuts, such as deciding to buy the cheapest if they
are not motivated. When consumers engage in motivated reasoning they process information
in a way that allows them to reach the conclusion that they want to reach. For example a
confirmation bias, consumer seek information that support and not accurate information.
- Felt involvement: consumer’s experience of being motivated with respect to a product/service
or decisions and actions about these. Involvement can be
o Enduring involvement: long-term interest in an offering, activity or decision
o Situational (temporary) involvement: temporary interest in an offering, activity or
decision often caused by situational circumstances
o Cognitive involvement: interest in thinking about and learning information pertinent to
an offering, activity or decision
o Affective involvement: interest in expending emotional energy and evoking deep feelings
about an offering, activity or decision
o Response involvement: interest in certain decision and behaviors.
Drivers of motivation: motivation is affected when consumers regard something as:
- Personally relevant: when something has significant consequences for a consumer
Consistent with their self-concept, values, needs, goals, emotions and self-control processes:
o Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: people fulfill
lower-order needs before they fulfil higher -
order needs
o Categorizing needs:
Social needs are externally directed and
relate to other individuals
Personal needs are not based on other
people.
Functional needs motivate the search for
offerings that solve consumption-related
problems.
Symbolic needs affect how others perceive
us and we perceive ourselves.
Hedonic needs reflect our inherent desires
for sensory pleasure.
o Characteristics of needs:
Needs can be internally or externally
activated (smelling pizza)
Need satisfaction is dynamic (needs are never permanent satisfied)
Needs exist in a hierarchy (several needs may be active but some are more important
than others)
Part 1: An introduction to consumer behavior
Hoofdstuk 1: Understanding consumer behavior
Consumer behavior: reflects the totally of consumer’ decisions with respect to the acquisition,
consumption and disposition of goods, services, activities, experiences, people and ideas by (human)
decision-making units (over time).
Buying / acquisition usage disposition (how consumers get rid of an offering they acquired)
Eight ways to acquire an offering:
- See picture on the left
Ways of disposing of an offering:
- Find a new use for it: using an old toothbrush to clean
- Get rid of it temporarily: renting or lending an item
- Get rid of it permanently: throwing away an item,
sending it to a recycling center, trading it, giving it
away or selling it
Four broad domains that affect acquisition, usage and disposal:
1. The psychological core: motivation, ability, opportunity, exposure, attention, perception,
understanding, memory, knowledge, forming and changing attitudes
2. The process of making decisions: four stages of problem recognition, information search,
decision-making and postpurchase evaluation (the psychological core is involved in making
decisions)
3. The consumer’s culture: culture refers to the typical or expected behaviors, norms and ideas
that characterize a group of people (reference groups, diversity influences, household, social
class influence, values, personality and lifestyle)
4. Consumer behavior outcomes: ethics and social responsibility
, These domains have interrelationships, because they influence each other
Who use consumer behavior research?
- Marketing managers: marketing is the activity, set of institutions and processes for creating,
communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients,
partners and society at large
- Ethicists and advocacy groups: making public awareness of inappropriate practices
- Public policy makers and regulators: protecting consumers from unfair, unsafe or
inappropriate marketing practices
- Academics: teaching courses on the subject
- Consumers and society: better understanding differences among brands
Making business decisions based on the marketing implications of consumer behavior:
- Developing and implementing customer-oriented strategy
o How is the market segmented? How profitable is each segment? What are the
characteristics of consumers in each segment? Are customers satisfied?
- Selecting the target market
- Developing products
o What ideas do consumers have for new products? What attributes can be added to
change an existing offering? How should the offering be branded and packaged?
- Positioning:
o Positioning should suggest that the product is superior on one or more attributes valued
by the target market.
- Making promotion and marketing communications decisions
o What, when and where should the advertising be placed? Is it effective?
o Word of mouth: when consumers tell other consumers about the offering.
o Sales promotions include premiums, contests, sweeptakes, free samples, coupons and
rebates.
- Making pricing decisions
o White sales: consumers are likely to be most responsive to various pricing tactics like with
Black Friday.
o Endowment effect: organizations should not set a higher price than buyers are willing to
pay (ownership increases the value of an item)
o When making a purchase, consumers consider how much they must pay in relation to the
price of other relevant brands or to the price they previously paid for that product, so
marketers must be aware of these references.
o Prices end with number 9 are perceived as cheaper than prices that end with 0.
- Making distribution decisions
o Where and when are target consumers likely to shop? What do customers want to see in
stores? How should stores be designed?
Part 2: The psychological core
Hoofdstuk 2: Motivation, ability and opportunity
Motivation: an inner state of activation that provides energy needed to achieve a goal. Motivation is
what people moves (in Latin movere).
Effects/outcomes of motivation:
- High-effort behavior: motivation drives financial behaviors that bring a goal closer and also
creates a willingness to expend time and energy on preparatory behaviors. Consumers try to
match anticipated and actual effort, but if they believe their anticipated effort will be too
much, they simplify the decision by for example by not waiting in line but order online. If they
think an important decision will be too simple, they complicate it with extra effort.
, - High-effort information processing and decision making: when consumers are highly
motivated to achieve a goal, they are more likely to pay careful attention to it, think about it
etc. Consumers make decision-making shortcuts, such as deciding to buy the cheapest if they
are not motivated. When consumers engage in motivated reasoning they process information
in a way that allows them to reach the conclusion that they want to reach. For example a
confirmation bias, consumer seek information that support and not accurate information.
- Felt involvement: consumer’s experience of being motivated with respect to a product/service
or decisions and actions about these. Involvement can be
o Enduring involvement: long-term interest in an offering, activity or decision
o Situational (temporary) involvement: temporary interest in an offering, activity or
decision often caused by situational circumstances
o Cognitive involvement: interest in thinking about and learning information pertinent to
an offering, activity or decision
o Affective involvement: interest in expending emotional energy and evoking deep feelings
about an offering, activity or decision
o Response involvement: interest in certain decision and behaviors.
Drivers of motivation: motivation is affected when consumers regard something as:
- Personally relevant: when something has significant consequences for a consumer
Consistent with their self-concept, values, needs, goals, emotions and self-control processes:
o Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: people fulfill
lower-order needs before they fulfil higher -
order needs
o Categorizing needs:
Social needs are externally directed and
relate to other individuals
Personal needs are not based on other
people.
Functional needs motivate the search for
offerings that solve consumption-related
problems.
Symbolic needs affect how others perceive
us and we perceive ourselves.
Hedonic needs reflect our inherent desires
for sensory pleasure.
o Characteristics of needs:
Needs can be internally or externally
activated (smelling pizza)
Need satisfaction is dynamic (needs are never permanent satisfied)
Needs exist in a hierarchy (several needs may be active but some are more important
than others)
