Consumer behavior
SUMMARY IMPORTANT SHEETS LECTURES
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR VU AMSTERDAM
,Tabel of content
Lecture 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 2
Lecture 2: Scientific method theoretical framework & hypotheses research strategies correlational research 4
Lecture 3: Research validity experimental research (a) ................................................................................... 7
Lecture 4: experimental research (b) factorial designs .................................................................................. 11
Lecture 5: overview of consumer decision making, product consideration, evaluation and choice. ............... 15
Lecture 6: Behavioral decision theory ........................................................................................................... 19
Lecture 7: Consumer perception ................................................................................................................... 22
Lecture 8: Persuasion: attitude and judgement metacognitive difficult ........................................................ 28
Lecture 9: Learning and memory .................................................................................................................. 36
Lecture 10: automatic information processing motivation ............................................................................ 42
Lecture 11: The (social) self .......................................................................................................................... 49
1
,Lecture 1: Introduction
Consumer behavior:
Processes involved in selecting, buying, using or disposing of products, services, ideas and
experiences to satisfy needs and wants (Solomon)
Thus:
- Obtaining products & services: deciding to buy, between brands, where to buy, how to pay
- Consuming products & services: how to use, how to store, who uses, how much consume
- Disposing of products & services: how you get rid of remaining product, how much you throw
away after, reselling, how recycle.
Why study:
Predict their reaction to marketing strategies
- Change to your product or service
- Price changes
- Change positioning
Day-care center case
- Children should be picked up at 6pm, but…
o Not all parents have picked up their children before 6pm
o à Fine people for being late
à Result of the fine, is that more people picked there kids up after 6 pm. Because, it feels like
they “pay” for picking up late, instead of being fined for running late.
Intuition trap: problems with common sense
- Often wrong: we are even bad in predicting our partner’s choices)
- Confirmation Bias:
o We are resistant to changing our prior beliefs
o We focus on confirming instances
- Your preferences are not representative
o Projection bias/ false consensus
- Limited theories
- Make decisions based on few observations
- Infer causality from correlation
- Overconfidence
Intuition trap
- Intuitive ideas are: easy, more vivid, appealing, well-remembered
- Scientific stories are: complex, careful, situational.
à “educated intuition”
2
, Marketing organizations:
- how to influence consumers
- to know what consumers want
Public policy: to regulate and encourage behavior
- how will consumers react to regulations?
- How will consumers react to market changes?
- Change the behavior: social marketing
Methods for studying consumer behavior:
- Interviews and surveys à exploratory research
- Surveys (quantitative)
Experimental research: manipulate the situation and see what the impact is.
- Explain what happens and why it happens in a controlled situation
Irrationality: people are not so rational as expected in marketing
- Rationeel: is consequent rederneren.
The “wise” consumer assumption
- Preferences are clear and accessible in consumer’s minds
- Consumers make trade-offs between quality and price
- Each product is judged on its merits alone
- Willingness to pay is the result of evaluating the object we are, interested in
- Market research instruments accurately tell us what consumers really prefer and how much
they would pay.
à in the end not all marketing instruments will tell what a consumer wants.
How much are you willing to pay? People are more willing to pay for the L than the H.
à Preference reversal
“rational” consumers?
- Rationality in Economics
o People take into account the pleasure they obtain from consuming something
o The price they pay for it
o Consumers want “value for money”
Standard economic model
- How do economist think about consumers?
o People are rational
3