Consumer Behavior– you are what you buy…

• How do we make decisions about what we buy?• What are stages of the decision process?• What can reduce “buyers remorse”? • How would you prepare a “pitch” for different

audiences?

Song Airlines Commercial

Product Placement

Political audience reaction ratings

Perceptions & Decision Making

Marketing News: Downsizing products

(while keeping the price the same)

• Downsizing packages get sneakier

• Mouseprint.org

Market Research: People are more conscious of changes in pricing than changes in quantity

• Repackaging: Packaging “sleeves” to maintain freshness• Rephrasing: Old packaging was a “limited time offer”• Reframing: “Future Friendly Products…uses 15% less energy,

water or packaging…”

Economy: Commodity costs are rising

How much?!

• Chicken of the Sea tuna in 5oz instead of 6 oz cans

• Doritos, Tostitos & Fritos hold 20% fewer chips (more air)

• Kraft Premium Saltines & Honey Maid Grahams has 15% fewer crackers (sleeves)

• Tropicana orange juice from 64-oz carton to 59 oz.

• Skippy peanut butter indented the container bottom for a reduction of 1.7 oz

• Special K is down 2.4 oz

• Dial soap from .5 oz to 4.5 oz

• Quilted Northern toiler paper lost .5” from width

• Ice cream down from 1.75 to 1.5

• Whole Wheat Pasta from 16 ox to 13.5

• Box of Baby Wipes from 80 to 72

• Mrs. Stauber 16 oz can of corn down to 14.5 oz

Product overchoice

• What is your experience with overchoice?• Is it potentially a problem in your business?• What might be done to reduce it?

Consumer Decision-Making Process

Postpurchase Behavior

Postpurchase Behavior

PurchasePurchase

Evaluation of Alternatives

Evaluation of Alternatives

Information SearchInformation Search

Need RecognitionNeed Recognition

Cultural, Social, Individual and Psychological

Factors affect

all steps

Cultural, Social, Individual and Psychological

Factors affect

all steps

Complete model of consumer behavior

Search

Need recognition

Alternative evaluation

Purchase

Stimuli (marketer dominated, other)

External search

Memory

Internal search

Exposure

Attention

Comprehension

Acceptance

Retention Outcomes

Dissatisfaction Satisfaction

Individual differences• resources• motivation & involvement• knowledge• attitudes• personality, values, lifestyle

Influences• culture• social class• family• situation

Start

• How do you know when to shop? What are the triggers that initiate an awareness & search?

• What are the internal & external sources of these triggers?

Need Recognition (& reminding)

Preferred State

Marketing helps consumers recognize

(or create) an imbalance between present status

and preferred state

• When a current product isn’t

performing properly

• When the consumer is running out of an product

• When another product seems

superior to the one currently used

Buyer Behavior: The Decision Making Unit

• Initiator: the person who first suggests or thinks of the idea of buying a particular product or service.

• Influencer: a person whose views or advice carry weight in making the final buying decision

• Decider: the person who ultimately makes the final buying decision or any part of it

• Buyer: the person who makes the actual purchase

• User: the person who consumes the product or service

Other people often influence a consumers purchase decision. The marketer needs to know which people are involved in the buying decision and what role each person plays, so that marketing strategies can also be aimed at these people. (Kotler et al, 1994).

Note: teens are increasingly assuming more of these roles

Think about your past purchase– who was in which role?

Gender & Consumer Behavior

WifeDominant

HusbandDominant

Joint

100 50 075 25

Women’s clothing

Pots & pans

Child clothing

groceries

vacations

TV sets

Family car Sport equipment

Lawn mower

Paint wallpaper

lamps

Men’s leisure clothing

Men’s business clothing

cameraFinancial planning

furniture

refrigerator

luggage

carpet

NonRx

Toys/games

stereo

hardware

Extent of role specialization

Relative influence of husbands & wives

Informationsearch

Final decision

Davis & Rigaux, 1974

Purchase Persuasion for Men and Women

• quickly list 10 items you have purchased in the past month

• reexamine how long it took you to make a decision on each

• why did such a difference in decision occur?

How to make Choosing Easier

Factors affecting Consumer involvement

• Previous experience: low level involvement

• Interest: high involvement

• Perceived risk of negative consequences: high involvement

• Situation: low to high due to risk

• Social visibility: involvement increases with product visibility

• Offer extensive information on high involvement products

• In-store promotion & placement is important for low involvement products

• Linking low-involvement product to high-involvement issue can increase sales

So…

• think of an important purchasing decision you have made

• what are some of the thoughts you have had following your purchase? Any regrets?

• what has influenced those thoughts?

• how have you dealt with the discomfort?

• how has the company anticipated or dealt with your discomfort?

Buyers Remorse/

Regret

Can minimize through:Effective Communication

Follow-upGuaranteesWarranties

Underpromise & overdeliver

Cognitive Dissonance

??Did I make a good decision?

Did I buy the right product?

Did I get a good value?

Postpurchase Behavior

What can you do to reduce buyer’s remorse?

Decision Processing

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) was formulated in 1979 by R.E. Petty & J.T. Cacioppo, & describes how attitudes are formed and changed after a exposure to an important and meaningful message.

John Cacioppo & Richard Petty

ELM: Persuasion & Attitude Change

Persuasive Communication

Nature of Active Cognitive Processing: (initial attitude, argument quality, etc.)

FavorableThoughts

Predominate

UnfavorableThoughts

Predominate

Neither orNeutral

Predominate

Cognitive Structure Change: Are new cognitions adopted and stored in memory? Are different responses made salient than previously?

• personal relevance• personal importance• personal responsibility

Motivated to Process?

• dissonance arousal• need for cognition• repetition

• cognitive complexity• critical thinking• distraction free• low arousal

Ability to Process?

• appropriate schema• message pace• repetition• issue familiarity

Enduring positive or negative attitude change (persuasion)

• greater persistence• resistant to counterattacks & fading• predictive of behavior• > brand memory• > elaboration• >usage intention• > attitude accessibility• > attitude confidence• > attitude-behavior consistency

Peripheral Cues Present?• reciprocity (obligated, did a favor)• consistency (way it’s done, similar to before)• social proof (peer pressure, conformity)• liking (attractiveness, friendliness)• celebrity (identification, prestige)• authority (expertise, experience, credibility)• rapid speech, forceful presentation, charismatic style• scarcity (limited time offer)• tangible rewards• appealing visuals & music (emotional arousal)• fear appeal• weak counter-arguments

Attitude Shift:• short-lived• susceptible to influence• unpredictable

Retain or Regain Initial Attitude

Elaboration Likelihood Method (ELM) of persuasion

Write in the number that best fits your view: 

                              1                        2                      3                   4                         completely            mostly             mostly          completely                         false                      false                true              true

_____1.   I would prefer complex to simple problems.

_____2.   I like to have the responsibility of handling a situation that requires a lot of thinking.

_____3.   Thinking is not my idea of fun. *

_____4.   I would rather do something that requires little thought than something that is sure to                 challenge my thinking abilities. *

_____5.   I try to anticipate and avoid situations where there is likely chance I will have to think                 in depth about something. *

_____6.   I find satisfaction in deliberating hard and for long hours.

_____7.   I only think as hard as I have to. *

_____8.   I prefer to think about small, daily projects to long-term ones. *

_____9.   I like tasks that require little thought once I’ve learned them. *

_____10. The idea of relying on thought to make my way to the top appeals to me.

_____11. I really enjoy a task that involves coming up with new solutions to problems.

_____12. Learning new ways to think doesn’t excite me very much. *

_____13. I prefer my life to be filled with puzzles that I must solve.

_____14. The notion of thinking abstractly is appealing to me.

_____15. I would prefer a task that is intellectual, difficult, and important to one that is somewhat                 important but does not require much thought.

_____16. I feel relief rather than satisfaction after completing a task that required a lot of mental                 effort. *

_____17. It’s enough for me that something gets the job done; I don’t care how or why it works. *

_____18. I usually end up deliberating about issues even when they do not affect me personally.

Need for Cognition Scale

Items 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 16, and 17 are reverse scored

Sleeper Effect:• when secondary source becomes more credible than primary source

over time• persuasion may increase over time with a weak source• forget the source but remember the message• not if source is learned prior to the message (will ignore or bias

processing)

Example: Attack ads during political campaigns