Chapter 1

An Introduction toConsumer Behavior

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-7JmGB9BRA

“Remember Me?”

I'm the fellow who goes into a restaurant, sits down and patiently waits while the

waitresses do everything but take my order. I'm the fellow who goes into a

department store and stands quietly while the sales clerks finish their little chitchat.

I'm the man who drives into a gasoline station and never blows his horn, but waits

patiently while the attendant finishes reading his comic book.

"Yes, you might say, I'm a good guy. But do you know who else I am? I am the

fellow who never comes back, and it amuses me to see you spending thousands of

dollars every year to get me back into your store, when I was there in the first place,

and all you had to do to keep me was to give me a little service; show me a little

courtesy.“Source: From a Better Business Bureau bulletin submitted by An Arkansas

Reader to Dear Abby

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KAEXvjiu6Q

Defining Consumer Behavior

Consumer Behavior is the Process Involved When Individuals or Groups Select, Use, or Dispose of Products, Services, Ideas or Experiences (Exchange) to Satisfy Needs and Desires.

Issues During Stages in the Consumption Process

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqggcpL79qw

Consumers’ Impact on MarketingStrategy

• Understanding consumer behavior is good business.– Firms exist to satisfy consumers’ needs, so– Firms must understand consumers needs to satisfy them.

• The Process of Marketing Segmentation:– Identifies Groups of Consumers Who are Similar to One

Another in One or More Ways, and– Devises Marketing Strategies that Appeal to One or

More of These Groups.

Segmenting Consumers by Demographic Dimensions

Demographics are Statistics That Measure Observable Aspects of a Population Such As:

AgeAge

Family StructureFamily Structure

GenderGenderRace and Ethnicity

Race and Ethnicity

GeographyGeography

Social Class and Income

Social Class and Income

Consumers’ Impact On Marketing Strategy: Building Bonds With Consumers

• Relationship Marketing occurs when a company makes an effort to interact with customers on a regular basis, and gives them reasons to maintain a bond with the company over time.

• Database Marketing involves tracking consumers’ buying habits very closely, and crafting products and messages tailored precisely to people’s wants and needs based on this information.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97bpv2qdvu0&list=PLC901A0B24AD7CE91

Marketing’s Impact on Consumers:The Meaning of Consumption

Self-Concept Attachment Helps to Establish the User’s Identity

Nostalgic AttachmentServes as a Link With a Past Self

InterdependencePart of the User’s Daily Routine

LoveElicits Bonds of Warmth, Passion, or Other

Strong Emotion

Types of Relationships a Person May Have With a Product:

Marketing’s Impact on Consumers

– Marketing and Culture• Popular Culture

– Intangible and Tangible Objects

– The Global Consumer• Global Consumer Culture

– Virtual Consumption• Business to Consumer Selling (B2C Commerce)• Consumer to Consumer Selling (B2B Commerce)• Virtual Brand Communities

– Blurred Boundaries: Marketing and Reality

Marketing Ethics

Business Ethics are Rules of Conduct That Guide Actions in the Marketplace - the Standards Against Which Most People in a Culture Judge What is Right and What is Wrong, Good or Bad.

The Dark Side of Consumer Behavior

Compulsive Consumption

> Behavior is Not Done by Choice

> Gratification is Short-Lived> Strong Feelings of Regret or

Guilt Afterwards

Illegal Activities

> Consumer Theft (Shrinkage)> Anti-consumption– Culture Jamming– Cultural Resistance

Consumed Consumers

> People Who Are Exploited for Commercial Gain in the Marketplace.

Addictive Consumption

> Gambling

Interdisciplinary Influences

Experimental Psychology

Clinical Psychology

Developmental Psychology

Human Ecology

Microeconomics

Social Psychology

Sociology

Macroeconomics

Semiotics/Literary Criticism

Demography

History

Cultural Anthropology

Individual FocusIndividual Focus

Social FocusSocial Focus

Two Perspective on Consumer Research

Two Perspective on Consumer Research

PositivistApproach

PositivistApproach

ObjectiveObjective

PredictionPrediction

IndependentIndependent

Real CauseReal Cause

SeparationSeparation

InterpretivistApproach

InterpretivistApproach

SociallyConstructed

SociallyConstructed

UnderstandingUnderstanding

ContextualContextual

SimultaneousShaping

SimultaneousShaping

InteractionInteraction

The Wheel of Consumer Behavior