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Lecture 7 Consumer behaviour Page 1 Notes are taken from i)Consumer Behaviour , Blythe J, (1999), Prentice Hall 7. Introduction to Consumer Behaviour Relations. 7.1 Goals. A goal is an external object to which a motive is directed. Goals differ from drives in that the goal is external, and pulls the person in a given direction; whereas a drive is internal and pushes the individual. In this way a goal acts as an incentive to take a course of action (or refrain as the case may be). When an individual has a drive which needs to be addressed, there may be a series of goals which would satisfy the drive. Thus if bored you might seek something to do to relieve the boredom: you might decide you need entertainment. This leads to goal choice : play a computer game, ring a friend, watch a video, channel hop or go shopping in a big department store. 7.2 Risk, uncertainty and heuristics Surprisingly there is a risk associated with buying products. Some examples are: Type of risk Explanation Examples Physical risk The fear of injury from the product Buying a car with defective brakes; buying drugs with unpleasant side effects. Financial risk Losing or wasting money Buying a car that depreciates quickly; buying a computer and finding the price falls to half within three months. Functional risk Finding out the product will not do the job you bought it for Buying a car that breaks down constantly; buying a painkiller that does not stop the pain; buying a computer and having to replace the falty hard drive every two months. Pschosocial risk The fear of looking foolish Buying a suit that friends tnink looks weird on you; buying a Robin Reliant. To deal with these risks people learn heuristics. These are simple rules that seem to work most of the time. Heuristics are subject to alteration in the light of new knowledge. Notes are from The Essence of Consumer Behaviour , Blythe J , (1999), Prentice Hall Brian Morris

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Lecture 7 Consumer behaviour Page 1

Notes are taken from i)Consumer Behaviour , Blythe J, (1999), Prentice Hall

7. Introduction to Consumer Behaviour Relations.7.1 Goals.A goal is an external object to which a motive is directed. Goals differ from drives in that the goal is external, and pulls the person in a given direction; whereas a drive is internal and pushes the individual.In this way a goal acts as an incentive to take a course of action (or refrain as the case may be). When an individual has a drive which needs to be addressed, there may be a series of goals which would satisfy the drive.Thus if bored you might seek something to do to relieve the boredom: you might decide you need entertainment. This leads to goal choice: play a computer game, ring a friend, watch a video, channel hop or go shopping in a big department store.

7.2 Risk, uncertainty and heuristicsSurprisingly there is a risk associated with buying products. Some examples are:Type of risk Explanation ExamplesPhysical risk The fear of injury from

the productBuying a car with defective brakes; buying drugs with unpleasant side effects.

Financial risk Losing or wasting money Buying a car that depreciates quickly; buying a computer and finding the price falls to half within three months.

Functional risk Finding out the product will not do the job you bought it for

Buying a car that breaks down constantly; buying a painkiller that does not stop the pain; buying a computer and having to replace the falty hard drive every two months.

Pschosocial risk The fear of looking foolish

Buying a suit that friends tnink looks weird on you; buying a Robin Reliant.

To deal with these risks people learn heuristics. These are simple rules that seem to work most of the time. Heuristics are subject to alteration in the light of new knowledge.Heuristics can be used by the consumer to simplify decision making. They may be stored in the consumers memory, or may be constructed on the spot based on the information received, but either way they allow the consumer to reach rapid decisions without overstretching his or her cognitive capacity.Use of heuristics in the extreme leads to habitual behaviour. For example I go to the same restaurant on the same night with the same bloke to eat the same meal and have a natter. I cannot be bothered with scanning a huge menu and have to go through all that decision making - I am usually too tired and simply want to enjoy the company.Some customers may have less rigid heuristics but they may still be a barrier to purchasing. A customer has the price of £1000 as the most he or she will pay for a computer. This may be so strong that a good value for money machine at £1,200 will be spurned in order to buty one which is only half as good for £800.

Notes are from The Essence of Consumer Behaviour, Blythe J , (1999), Prentice Hall Brian Morris

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Lecture 7 Consumer behaviour Page 2

7.3 Life as theatrePeople create and project images of themselves to other people; these images are called roles. The role may change according to the circumstances and environment which the individual is in. Role playing behaviour is natural, and not consciously carried out. It is true that people may unconsciously change their accents, movements and statements to fit in with the people around them. Indeed behavour in groups if acceptable often results in the conferment of status.Erving Goffman developed a useful analogy for the role playing behaviour when he developed his idea, or analogy, of life-as-theatre. This is illustrated by the table below.

Theatrical terms

Explanation Real-life example

Props Items used to make gestures, or to support and emphasis movement, or to set a scene.

Cigarettes, walking-sticks, furniture and ornaments.

Costume Items of clothing which serve to establish a role, or set a scene

Sportswear, business suits, power dressing

Stage The place where the performance is held, and where the audience is assembled.

Offices, living rooms, pubs, churches.

Backstage

The place where the dressing rooms are; where the actors prepare for their performance, and where they meet their friends and intimates.

Where the individual lives or is relaxed; home; where the persons friends and intimates can visit.

Make-up The face the actor puts on to emphasise the characterisation.

Cosmetics, perfumes, aftershave, hairdressing.

Script A pre-planned set of statements intended to communicate the role to the audience.

Jokes, sayings, conversational styles, professional jargon.

Business The movements actors make in the course of playing the role.

Gestures, body language, facial expressions used to convey emotions and ideas.

Applause Feedback from the audience; confirmation that the role projection has been effective.

Getting your way in business negotiation, having friends laugh at your jokes, having a conversational response from a friend.

However, Goffman goes to great lengths to emphasise that the role-playing is actually part of the real everyday lives of real people, not the contrived parts played by actors.

Notes are from The Essence of Consumer Behaviour, Blythe J , (1999), Prentice Hall Brian Morris

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7.4 PersonalityPersonality is the collection of individual characteristics that make a person unique, and which control an individual’s responses to and relationship with the external environment. It is a composite of subordinate processes: e.g. attitude, motivation, perception. It is the whole of the person and is the system that governs the behaviour rather than the behaviour itself.The elements that make up the behaviour are called traits. Considerable effort has gone into identifying traits and relating them to consumer buying behaviour. The totality of the traits (i.e. the personality ) dictates buying behaviour rather than any one trait.Personality has the following features:

It is integrated: that is to say, all the factors making up the personality act on each other to produce an integrated whole.

It is self-serving. The characteristics of personality facilitate the attainment of needs and goals. In other words, the personality exists to meet its own needs.

Personal characteristics are individualistic and unique, in degree and intensity as well as presence. The number of traits is large and the combinations of traits are huge, thus making each person unique.

Personality is overt. External behaviour is affected by personality. In other words by observing a persons behaviour, the personality can be deduced, albeit indirectly.

Personality is consistent. Once a person’s basic personality has been established, it will change only slowly and with some difficulty. Thus we can assume an individuals personality will remain constant throughout the buying process.

Because people are individuals it is difficult for marketers to take a standardised approach. For this reason attempts have been made to identify groupings of personality types which can be approached with a standardised offering.

7.5 Approaches to the study of personalityThere are four basic approaches to the study of personality:1. Pschoanalytic The psychoanalytic approach emphasises psychanalysis. The

focus is individual. This approach is typified by Freudianism.2. Typology Here individuals are grouped according recognised types.3. Trait & factor theories. Here the individual traits of the personality are

examined as factors making up the whole.4. Psychographics The consumers are measured using their behavioural

tendencies in order to infer personality traits.7.5.1 The psychoanalytic or Freudian approach.In this approach personality is understood in terms of the id, ego and superego.

Notes are from The Essence of Consumer Behaviour, Blythe J , (1999), Prentice Hall Brian Morris

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Notes are from The Essence of Consumer Behaviour, Blythe J , (1999), Prentice Hall Brian Morris

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According to Freud, the id is the underlying drive of the psyche. It is sometimes called the psychic energy. It is the source of the most basic, elemental, instinctive forces. It largely operates below the conscious level. The ego is the conscious self. It is the part of the mind that makes the day-to-day decisions which lead to satisfaction of the id. The superego is an ‘internalised parent’, the conscience that holds us back from selfish gratification of the id’s needs. Thus the ego is constantly making compromises between the id’s demands and the superego’s restraints.The Freudian approach led to motivation research, which tried to explain the underlying reasons for buying. However this became discredited because its claims were too fantastical. However a current spin off from this approach is the focus group. In this a group of ten or so people (called respondents) are interviewed together and asked to discuss their feelings and motivations collectively. The advantage is that the respondents will stimulate each other and there is less risk of the interviewer introducing bias.Another spin off is the notion of hedonistic consumption. This appeals to the id : it purports to satisfy animal needs. An example is the Club 18-30 holiday company.7.5.2 Typology.Followers of Freud had to adapt their thinking and a leader here was Jung. He classified people into two groups (i) introverts (preoccupied with themselves and the internal world) and (ii) extroverts (pre-occupied with others and the outside world). This was an early attempt to classify people into broad types. The process was continued by the mother and daughter team Kathryn Briggs and Isabel Myers. They developed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator with four personality dimensions:

Extrovert / introvert, Sensing / intuitive, Thinking / feeling, Judging / perceptive

The combinations of these dimensions creates sixteen different types (2x2x2x2 = 16). An example may be used to illustrate this: ‘What is an ESFJ?’ An ESFJ person is warm hearted, talkative and popular, and likes harmonious relationships. On the other hand an INTJ is likely to be quiet, intelligent, cerebral and reclusive.7.5.3 Trait & factor theories.Personality is composed of traits or ‘atoms’ of personality. Traits tend to endure over time. Those that do change tend to change slowly. Those that do change with age are anxiety level (which goes down as the the individual gets older), friendliness (which can go either way) and eagerness for novelty (which tends to go down). Over 18,000 personality traits have been identified. However this stidy has lead to few concrete results.7.5.4 Psychographics.Psycographics is sometimes known as life style studies, since it is concerned with people’s values and approaches to life. It attempts to relate quantitatively a consumer’s lifestyle to a consumer’s purchase behaviour. Thus an ecologist is more likely to buy a bike; a vegan is unlikely to buy meat. This approach combines the strengths of motivation research with those of trait and factor theories.

Notes are from The Essence of Consumer Behaviour, Blythe J , (1999), Prentice Hall Brian Morris

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In the UK the Taylor Nelson category of seven lifestyle types is given blow:Lifestyle type

Characteristics % of popn

Sustenance driven groups; motivated by the need for security

BelongerPeople who believe in the establishment, traditional family values and patriotism. Averse to change.

19

SurvivorPeople who are fighting a ‘holding action’; accepts authority, hard working, quiet traditional. Strong class consciousness

16

AimlessTwo main categories: the young unemployed whose main motivation is short-term ‘kicks’, and the very old whose motivation is simply day-to-day existence.

5

Outer-directed group Conspicuou

s consumer

Interested in material possessions, taking cues from reference groups (friends, family). Followers of fashion.

18

Inner directed groups; motivated by self-actualisation

Social resister

Caring group, motivated by ideals of fairness and a good quality of life at the societal level. Altruistic, concerned with social issues like ecology and nuclear disarmament.

11

Experimentalists

Materialistic and pro-technology, individualistic and interested in novelty. 14

Self-explorers

Motivated by self-expression and self-realisation. Tolerant, able to think big and look for global, holistic solutions.

16

Notes are from The Essence of Consumer Behaviour, Blythe J , (1999), Prentice Hall Brian Morris

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7.6 Concepts of selfSelf-concept is the person’s ideas and feelings about him or herself. It has an important role to play in understanding consumer behaviour, since people buy products which contribute to the self-concept.

‘Of all the personality concepts which have been applied to marketing, self-concept has probably provided the most consistent results and the greatest promise of application to the needs of business firms’ (Gordon Foxall.)

An example: a woman thinks she is a femme fatal - as a consequence she chooses chic clothes to enhance her image. Another example: a student thinks he is a looser - as a consequence he or she rarely washes his tea shirts, wears old scruffy jeans and rarely buys anti-perspirants.Thus in projecting an image a person can become a super-work of art exploiting all five senses: sight (by dressing well), hearing (by using voice well), smell (by wearing scent), touch (by looking after the skin, by wearing clothes that feel good - cashmere?) and even taste (flavoured lipsticks, mouth washes).The extent to which people will want to make a good impression depends on the following factors: the degree of importance attached to impressing the other person

the degree to which the individual anticipates that the target audience can be impressed

the cost in time and money in creating the desired image.

Self-concept is a learned construct. Children tend to look for role models to imitate. Children can be crushed by a denial of the role being projected: if people laugh while you are experimenting with the ‘cool dude’ role your favourite uncle adopts it is difficult to recover and try that role again.The self-concept has four attributes:1. it is learned, not innate.2. It is stable and consistent. Self-perception may change, self-concept does not. This accounts for

brand loyalty, since self-concept involves a view of which products ‘fit the image’.3. It is purposeful. There is a reason and a purpose behind it. It is there to enhance a paerson’s ego.

It is therefore advisable to not attack a person’s beliefs directly. People get angry or at least defensive when this happens.

4. The self concept is unique to the individual, and promotes individualism.

7.7 AttitudesAttitude can be defined as ‘a learned tendency to respond to an object in a consistently favourable or unfavourable way’. Whwether a product will be bought or not depends to a large extent on a on the consumer’s attitude towards it. Marketing effort may have to go into breaking down customers attitudes to product offerings. An example: an anti-racist policy is introduced in a country yet there is an attitude against it. The attitude must be changed, slowly and carefully, until people wonder what the problem was.An attitude is learned, not instinctive not behaviour; rather it is a predisposition towards a particuler behaviour implies a relationship between a person and an object fairly stable either positive or negative - you are either for something (direction) with a

certain amount of feeling (intensity).

Notes are from The Essence of Consumer Behaviour, Blythe J , (1999), Prentice Hall Brian Morris

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Attitudes are not observable - they are predispositions. They are formed through the result of ecxperience. For example: I have an attitude problem about the refectory at Uxbridge. I find it too loud and moronic. The music is a pain. However, I make myself go there to get a drink or a sandwich. I compare it unfavourably to the relative peace of the refectory at Osterley. But I realise some students must think it is marvellous.

7.8 CultureCulture is a set of beliefs and values that are shared by most people within a group. The groupings are usually relatively large. Culture is passed from one group member to another group member, and is usually passed down from one generation to another. Culture is learned, subjective and arbitrary. Culture can be understood by looking at food and language. For example in France cheese is regarded as a delicacy whereas in Japan it is regarded as rotted milk. Also the French regard snails as a delicacy whereas in Britain it would be regarded as an offensive meal to offer a guest.Even when languages are shared there will be differences across a culture. Thus when an American, speaking in English, talks about wearing pants he is actually taking about trousers. This creates huge problems for an Englishman shopping for pants in New York.Most cultures are ethnocentric. They believe their culture is the best culture.Hofstede [Culture’s consequences: International differences in Work-Related Values (sage, 1984)] carried out a a transnational survey in 66 countries with over 6,000 respondents. He found there were four dimensions to the national characteristics.1. Individualism versus collectivism . In the USA there is strong individualism.

The frontier mentality has taken a hold. Freedom of speech for the individual is enshrined in the first ammendment. In Holland there are strong individualistic tendencies - it is a land that tolerates a wide range of sexual orientations. It is on the increase in the UK particularly with the Generation X (born between mid 1960s to early 1980s). In Japan and Taiwan there is a strong collectivist culture in which service is appreciated..

2. Uncertainty avoidance . This is the extent to which a culture will keep rigidly to the rules and customs in order to reduce uncertainty. A high level of uncertainty avoidance is a culture where tradition prevails and new ideas are not welcome.

3. Power distance . This refers to the extent to which the culture favours the centralisation of power.

4. Masculinity-femininity . This is the extent to which the culture exhibits traditional male characteristics of asseriveness, achievement and wealth acquisition over the traditional feminine attributes of nurturing, concern for the environmentt and concern for the poor. By this definition America is an example a ‘masculine’ culture.

7.9 Family life cycle and gender rolesThe family is a most powerful influence for decision making and purchasing. Reasons are: For children the parental influence is the earliest and so colours their

perception of all that follows. Indeed, the super ego can be thought of as an internalised parent.

Parents desire to do the best they can for their children influences the decisions they make about family purchases. Thus the purchase disposable nappies is an example of 'comfort for the child'.

Notes are from The Essence of Consumer Behaviour, Blythe J , (1999), Prentice Hall Brian Morris

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Siblings influence each other by the examples they set: the older sibling cares for and looks after the younger sibling. There are also wider family influences - particularly in extended families.

From a marketing viewpoint, the level of demand for many products is dictated more by the number of households than by the number of families. The relevance of families to marketing is therefore much more about consumer behaviour than about consumer demand levels.As a reference group the family is charcterised by these functional characteristics:a) Face to face contactFamily members see each other every day and interact as advisers, information providers and sometimes deciders. Other reference groups rarely have this level of contact.b) Shared consumptionDurables such as fridges and furniture are shared, and despite a strong trend away from eating together, in the case of food there is collective purchasing. Children even participate in decision making for some major purchase items such as cars and holidays.c) Subordination of individual needsBecause consumption is shared, some family members will finf the chosen solution does not fully meet their needs. This effect of dissatisfaction is quite pronounced in families.d) Purchasing agentBecause of the shared consumption there will be one family member who does most of the shopping. Traditionally this is the mother, but increasing there has been the energence of shopping roles. Teenage children will be given the job of buying staple items on a routine fortnightly basis. Father may deal with Insurance and Mortgage matters. This is because the traditional mother role is changing so more must be done by the other parties. This has implications for marketers. The target for certain marketing communications has changed so the advertising placements must change too.

The family has its own life cycle as shown in the table below:Stage of life cycle ExplanationSingle stage Single people have low earnings, but also have low

outgoings so have a high discretionary income. Tend to be more fashion and recreation oriented spending money on music, clothes, holidays and eating out.

Newly married couples

Without children they are often dual-income families and threfore 'well off'.

Full nest 1 When the first child arrives one parent normally stops working, so income drops dramatically. The baby creates new needs: baby furnishings, baby food, toys. Savings decline and families are unhappy with their financial position.

Full nest 2 The youngest child is now over six. Both parents will work outside the home, perhaps with some career progression. Some recovery in parental income. Consumption patterns still affected by children: bikes, piano lessons.

Full nest 3 The youngest child is over eleven. Children have some money e.g. paper round, work in a shop on Saturday.Family purchase may be a new car or replacement furniture.

Notes are from The Essence of Consumer Behaviour, Blythe J , (1999), Prentice Hall Brian Morris

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Luxury item: childrens private education.Empty nest 1 Children have grown up and left home. Couples are at the

height of their careers and earning powers. Low mortgage, luxury holidays.

Empty nest 2 Main breadwinner has retired so a drop in income. Expenditure more health oriented. Smaller house and apartment in Spain syndrome. Chase the sun.

Solitary survivor If still in the workforce widows and widowers enjoy a good income. May spend more on holidays.

Retired solitary survivor

Reduced income and consumption. Has special needs for love, affection and security. May join clubs.

Gender RolesThere are more women in the population due to greater life expectancy and greater child mortality among boys. Women's roles have changed greatly in the lastthirty years or so. Women make most purchasing decisions, earn one third of the family income and make most decisions regarding the home and children. Major decisions are likely to be made jointly, with men participating in discussions concerning expenditure. Many males now shop for food. Fifty years ago this would have been a rarity.The change in in gender roles comes from the following: Technology means that most jobs do not require physical strength, so more

careers are open to women. Mass contraception has freed women from excessive childbearing. A more oredered society has lead to greater physical security; there is less

need for the male defence role. More widespread education means that women are not satisfied to stay at

home and do housework.Marketers must shift their communications to address this changed situation. Thus the Oxo family advertisement campaign is now no more. A decision was made not to aim at the family meal table market, since people rarely eat together these days. (Personally, I think this is a great shame, and is probably due to laziness. A shared mealtime is a great time to talk and catch up with each other in a family.) Also the power between roles is reflected in the Nissan series of ads in which a woman punishes a man for borrowing her car: 'Ask before you borrow it.'Eventually one might expect gender roles will not be an issue in advertising at all, but since advertising in part reflects society, this may be some way off. The recent revelations concerning Sheryl and Paul Gascoigne reveal how far simple gentlemany behaviour has still to go to reach an acceptable level before the sexes treat each other with mutual respect.

7.10 Newproducts: the diffusion and adoption of innovation.Products are constantly being superseded by newer, more effectiveproducts. For this reason, firms seek to develop new products. Firms that do not innovate will , eventually, be only producing products that are obsolescent. The product life cycle can be explained in terms of consumer behaviour.

Notes are from The Essence of Consumer Behaviour, Blythe J , (1999), Prentice Hall Brian Morris

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Introduction Growth Maturity Decline Death

SALES

TIMEIn the introduction and growth stages, the more innovative consumers are adopting the product. In the maturity phase the more cautious are adopting the product, until finally another product comes along which has more benefits or which does a better job, and the consumers switch to the new product. The problem for marketers is knowing how long the maturity phase will last; This makes it difficult to use the product life cycle as a predictor of of product obsolescence It does tell us all products will fade away, and marketers sholud therefore develop new products to repce the old ones as they fall out of favour with the customer.The ideal outcome is for the producer to develop products which are culturally anchored — that become part of modern life. Recent examples are the microwave, the video recorder and the personal computer. None of these would have been in the typical house of twenty years ago. Such breakthroughs are hard to achieve. Understandably firms have shown great interest in the processes of innovation, diffusion and adoption.AdoptionEverett M Rogers postulated that products would be adopted if they possessed most of the attributes in the table below:Attribute Explanation ExamplesRelative advantage

The product must have some advantage over the products already on the market. It must offer the consumer a better range of benefits than the existing solution.

Before the Sony Walkman was launched, the only way to to listen to stereo-quality music was to carry a 'ghetto blaster' on your shoulder. The Walman replaced this cumbersome and anti-social device within a few years.

Compatibility The product must fit in with the consumers lifestyle.

At one time the Welsh valleys had the highest rate of VCR ownership in the world. This was due to the high unemployment and lack of entertainment facilities in the area, making a video recorder a very convenient way of providing entertainment.

Complexity The product must not be too complex for the consumer to understand.

Apple Mac scored a great success with user-frienly software with amusing and entertaining add-ons. The company made seriouss inroads into IBM's market, despite being a smaller company

Notes are from The Essence of Consumer Behaviour, Blythe J , (1999), Prentice Hall Brian Morris

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Trialability Products which can be tried out are more likely to succeed.

When Daewoo cars were launched in Britain, several thousand customers wee invited to test drive the car. Those who took up the offer were given free videos as an inducement.

Observability The more observable the product, the quicker the diffusion process. If other potential consumers are able to see the product in use, this is bound to raise interes in it.

Part of the reason for the Walkman's worldwide success is that it can clearly be observed in use. Likewise, new fashion ideas seem to catch on very quickly. This is due to the high level of observability.

Adoption.There have been several models of the adoption process. AIDA is the most famous. This is given with a futher four (longer) models below.Attention ®Interes

t®Desire ®Action

AIDA

Awareness

®Interest

®Evaluation

®Trial

®Adoption

Adoption Process

Awareness

®Knowledge

®Liking

®Preference

®Conviction

®Adoption

Hierarchy of effects

Problem recognition

®Awareness

®Comprehen-sion

Attitude ®Legitmation

®Trial

®Adoption

®Dissonance

Robertson

Knowledge

®Persuasion

®Decision

®Implement-ation

®Confirmat-ion

Rogers

7.11 SegmentationSegmentation is concerned with grouping customers who have similar needs and producing a product ior service that will meet those needs at a profit. It recognises that no single product will appeal to all customers, consequently it attempts to identify products that will suit a single segment.

Notes are from The Essence of Consumer Behaviour, Blythe J , (1999), Prentice Hall Brian Morris

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Before the advent of mass marketing, there was demand for simple basic products. This meant manufacturers could use long production runs to keep costs down. In these circumstances undifferentiated marketing was used. It worked well because a standard product with little choice is better than no product at all. Mass production has great economies of scale over hand production. A classic example is is clothing. Prior to the industrial revolution most cloth was woven at home, made at home and people would have one or two changes of clothing. Exceptionally a suit might be custom made by a tailor. With the advent of the steam engine and steam-powered looms clothing could be mass produced, sold relatively cheaply and provide customers with a relatively greater range of choices of style.This production orientation success was guaranteed by keeping production costs (and hence prices) low. This approach works well where there is relatively little competition - such as in certain third world countries. But since the depression of the 1930s the world has slowly changed as most countries have industrialised. There is now competition around the world. The majority of clothes sold in the UK now are actually made abroad where production costs are lower. Even Marks & Spencer has given up on its 'Buy British' policy. Once people have their core benefits, the market must be segmented to find out how many people have further needs which may be met by new products and services. Consider the changes in transportation.Product type Core benefits Other benefits and drawbacks

Horse & carriage

Basic transportation for owner, passengers and goods

Easy to maintain, but unreliable. Slow, not suitable for long distance travel. Expensive. Only the most prosperous people can buy one.

Model T Ford Basic transportation for owner, passengers and goods

Faster, more reliable, expensive. Standard engine. Standard seating. Standard colour. As a consequence servicing is cheap.

Modern Ford vehicle range

Basic transportation for owner, passengers and goods

Reliable, cheap to buy and run, easy to maintain, fast and suitable for long distance travel. Available in several different styles, colours and and engine attributes. Coupled with this is a wide range of financial services to facilitate purchase. Optional extras exist e.g. air conditioning.

Segments are the result of changes in producer/consumer behaviour.Producers have realised they should produce cars as desirable as possible rather than as cheaply as possible.In turn, consumers behaviour is changing. Consumers are usually prepared to pay a premium price for a product that fits their needs more closely. By tailoring products more nearly to customers needs, manfacturers are able to charge a little more. In this way they are able to offset thye extra costs of producing non-standardised products, and increasing profits as well.Segmentation.

Notes are from The Essence of Consumer Behaviour, Blythe J , (1999), Prentice Hall Brian Morris

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Segmentation is an essential precursor to most marketing activities. Identifying a target group and knowing their needs allows us to position the product correctly in the target group's minds, and to adopt appropriate promotional strategy, by designing ads that appeal to the particular group.The aim of segmentation is to form a mental picture of the organisation's ideal customer, and to plan everything around that customer. An important step here is to assess the size of the segment so as to form an opinion whether it is worthwhile producing a specialist product for those people.Segments vary ibn size according to the folllowing criteria:

Narrowness of definition of needThere may be a a segment who prefer the colour blue, but this can subdivide into light blue, metallic blue, navy blue, etc. The narrowere the definition the smaller the segment.

Complexity of the product in terms of features available.The more features a product has, the more segments it will appeal to and threfore the smaller the individual segments.

Consumer involvement with the product categoryIf the product category attracts high-involvement consumers, the segments are likely to be small and loyal.With the rise of flexible manufacturing systems it is possible to consider a production run of size one. Cars can be custom made quite cheaply. Computers can be custom made too. Dell computers lead the way with their online 'order-and-build' systems. This guarantees every product pleases everybody — a win-win situation. Segmentation increases profitability when the value to the consumer of the improvements is greater than the cost to the manufacturer of providing them.Markets may be segmented in various ways, great skill is required in assessing which method is most appropriate. The ways are:demographically - according to income, age, family size, occupation etc.psychographically according to behaviour patterns, attitudes, expectationsgeographically - according to where people live - insurance premiums can

reflect the likelihood of risk in certain areas e.g. a house near the sea might be more liable to wear and tear and therefore more expensive to insure

behaviourally - according to patterns of behaviour e.g. do the customers have four holidays a year if so they might be more intereseted in all year travel insurance; are the customers in a segment all vegans? if so they might like to have the special vegan catalogue from Harrods.

_____

Notes are from The Essence of Consumer Behaviour, Blythe J , (1999), Prentice Hall Brian Morris