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Chapter 1

An Introduction toConsumer Behavior

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1-3“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

1-4Defining 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.

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Issues During Stages in the Consumption Process

1-6Consumers’ 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.

1-7Segmenting Consumers by Demographic Dimensions

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

Age

Family Structure

GenderRace and Ethnicity

Geography

Social Class and Income

1-8Consumers’ Impact On Marketing Strategy: Building Bonds With Consumers

• Relationship Marketing 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 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.

1-9Marketing’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:

1-10Marketing’s Impact on Consumers:Consumption TypologyConsumption Typology Consumption Typology Explores the Different Ways That Products and Experiences Can Provide Meaning

to People. There Are 4 Distinct Types of Consumption Activities:

Consuming as Experience

Consuming as Integration

Consuming as Classification

Consuming as Play

An Emotional or Aesthetic Reaction to Consumption Objects

Express Aspects of Self or Society

Communicate Their Association With Objects, Both to Self/ Others

Participate in a Mutual Experienceand Merge Self With Group

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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

1-12Marketing Ethics

Business 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.

1-13Other Marketing Ethics Issues

• Do Marketers Create Artificial Needs?– Response: Marketing attempts to create awareness

that these needs do exist, rather than to create them.

• Are Advertising and Marketing Necessary?– Response: Yes, if approached from an information

dissemination perspective.

• Do Marketers Promise Miracles?– Not if they are honest; they do not have the ability to

create miracles.

1-14The Dark Side of Consumer Behavior

Compulsive ConsumptionCompulsive Consumption

>Behavior is Not Done by Choice>Gratification is Short-Lived>Strong Feelings of Regret or Guilt Afterwards

Illegal ActivitiesIllegal Activities

> Consumer Theft (Shrinkage)>Anti-consumption

– Culture Jamming– Cultural Resistance

Consumed ConsumersConsumed Consumers

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

Addictive ConsumptionAddictive Consumption

> Gambling

1-15Interdisciplinary Influences

Experimental PsychologyClinical Psychology

Developmental PsychologyHuman EcologyMicroeconomics

Social PsychologySociology

MacroeconomicsSemiotics/Literary Criticism

DemographyHistory

Cultural Anthropology

Individual Focus

Social Focus

1-16Two Perspective on Consumer ResearchPositivist

Approach

Objective

Prediction

Independent

Real Cause

Separation

InterpretivistApproach

SociallyConstructed

Understanding

Contextual

SimultaneousShaping

Interaction

1-17Taking it From Here: The Plan of the Book• Section II: Consumers As Individuals• Section III: Consumers As Decision

Makers• Section IV: Consumers and

Subcultures• Section V: Consumers and Culture

1-18The Wheel of Consumer Behavior