Consumer Behavior Chapter 1

Buying, Having, & Being

• Chapter 1 introduces consumer behavior concepts.

Consumer Behavior: A Process

• Consumer behavior is viewed as a process from the consumer's and marketer's perspectives.
• Pre-purchase issues involve the consumer's decision to need a product and information sources for alternative choices.
• Marketers look at how consumer attitudes form and what cues consumers use to determine which products are superior.
• Purchase issues concern if acquiring a product is stressful or pleasant, and what the purchase says about the consumer.
• Marketers analyze how situational factors affect a consumer's purchase decision.
• Post-purchase issues cover if the product provides pleasure or fulfills intended function, and how the product is disposed of.
• Marketers determine consumer satisfaction with a product and if they will repurchase and influence others' decisions.

The Meaning of Consumption

• People often purchase products for their symbolic meaning rather than just their function.
• Consumers can develop relationships with brands.
• Relationships with brands include self-attachment, nostalgic attachment, interdependence, and love.

Consumer and Social Well-Being

• Chapter 2 focuses on consumer and social well-being.

Do Marketers Create Artificial Needs?

• A need is a basic biological motive.
• A want is how society teaches us to satisfy needs.
• Marketers create awareness that needs exist and suggest ways to satisfy them through information and persuasion.

Perception

• Chapter 3 introduces the concepts of sensation and perception.

Sensation and Perception

• Sensation is the immediate response of sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, fingers) to basic stimuli (light, color, sound, odor, texture).
• Perception is the process by which sensations are selected, organized, and interpreted.

The Process of Perception

• Sensory stimuli (sights, sounds, smells, taste, textures) are received through sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin).
• The three stages of preception are Exposure, attention, and interpretation.

Stage 1: Key Concepts in Exposure

• Exposure occurs when a stimulus is within range of someone's sensory receptors.
• Key concepts in exposure include sensory threshold, psychophysics, absolute threshold, differential threshold, JND (just noticeable difference), and Weber's Law.

Sensory Thresholds

• The absolute threshold is the minimum stimulation a person can detect on a sensory channel.
• The differential threshold is the ability of a sensory system to detect changes or differences between two stimuli.

Stage 2: Attention

• Attention is the extent of processing activity devoted to a stimulus.
• Sensory overload occurs when consumers are exposed to too much information, around 3,500 ad info pieces per day.
• Marketers must break through the clutter to gain attention.

How Do Marketers Get Attention?

• Personal selection means people attend to only a small portion of stimuli to which they are exposed.
• Personal selection factors include perceptual vigilance, perceptual defense, and adaptation.

Factors Leading to Adaptation

• Factors leading to adaptation include intensity, duration, discrimination, exposure, and relevance.

Interpretation

• Interpretation is the meaning assigned to sensory stimuli, based on a schema.

Perceptual Positioning

• Brand perceptions are derived from functional and symbolic attributes.
• Perceptual map illustrates where brands are perceived in consumers' minds.
• A perceptual map can be used to analyze a company's strengths and weaknesses compared to competitors.
• Determining how brands are currently perceived informs future positioning strategies.

Learning and Memory

• Chapter 4 focuses on learning and memory.

Theories of Learning

• Behavioral learning theories focus on stimulus-response connections.
• Cognitive theories focus on consumers as problem solvers who learn when they observe relationships.

Types of Behavioral Learning Theories

• Classical conditioning involves pairing a stimulus that elicits a response with another stimulus that initially doesn't elicit a response on its own.
• Instrumental (operant) conditioning means that the individual learns to perform behaviors that produce positive outcomes and to avoid those that yield negative ones.

Classical Conditioning

• Ivan Pavlov, a scientist, used dogs in classical conditioning experiments.
• Pavlov rang a bell and then squirted dry meat powder into dogs' mouths.
• This was repeated until the dogs salivated when they only heard the bell ring.
• The meat powder is an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) with a natural reaction of drooling.
• The bell became a conditioned stimulus (CS) because the dogs learned to drool when they heard it.
• Drooling became a conditioned response (CR).

How Does Instrumental Conditioning Occur?

• Behaviors lead to positive or negative outcomes.
• Different behaviors are encouraged through positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, or punishment.

Types of Reinforcement

• Positive reinforcement strengthens responses preceding the positive event.
• Extinction happens after the removal of a positive event when responses no longer produce positive outcomes.
• Punishment weakens responses that are followed by a negative outcome.
• Negative reinforcement strengthens responses that allow avoidance of a negative outcome.

Outcomes and Schedules

• Reinforcement schedules are fixed-interval, variable-interval, fixed-ratio, and variable-ratio.

Cognitive Learning

• Observational learning involves learning about products through observing others' behavior.
• Observational learning process includes four stages: attention, retention, production processes, and motivation.

Consumer Socialization

• Consumer socialization is the process by which young people acquire skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to their functioning in the marketplace.
• Children's purchasing behavior is influenced by parents, family, teachers, television, toys, and culture.

Role of Memory in Learning

• Memory involves acquiring information and storing it over time.
• Information-processing approach views the mind as a computer and data as input/output.
• The stages in the information-processing approach are external inputs, encoding, storage, and retrieval.

How Information Gets Encoded

• Encoding is mentally programming meaning.
• Types of meaning include sensory, semantic, episodic memories, and narrative.
  • Sensory meaning example: the literal color or shape of a package.
  • Semantic meaning example: symbolic associations.
  • Episodic memories example: relate to personally-relevant events.
  • Narrative example: memories store information acquired in story form.

Memory Systems

• Sensory memory is temporary storage of sensory information with high capacity and a duration of less than 1 second (vision) or a few seconds (hearing).
• Short-term memory is a brief storage of information currently being used with limited capacity and a duration of less than 20 seconds.
• Long-term memory is relatively permanent storage of information with unlimited capacity and a long or permanent duration.
• Attention transfers information through an attentional gate to short-term memory.
• Elaborative rehearsal transfers information, subjected to deep processing, is transferred to long-term memory.

Associative Networks

• An associative network is a network of connected information.
• Knowledge structures are interconnected nodes and have a hierarchical processing model.

Spreading Activation

• When one node is activated, other associated nodes begin to be triggered.
• Other products are associated with it.
• Meaning types of associated nodes are brand-specific, ad-specific, brand identification, product category, and evaluative reactions.

Levels of Knowledge

• Individual nodes are meaning concepts.
• Two or more connected nodes equal a proposition (complex meaning).
• Two or more propositions equal schema.
• Information consistent with an existing schema is encoded more readily.

How Does Marketing Measure Memory?

• Memory is measured through recognition vs. recall.
• Problems with memory measures include response biases and memory lapses.
  • Memory lapses can be omitting, averaging, and telescoping.
• The illusion of truth effect occurs with memory measures.

Motivation and Affect

• Chapter 5 centres on motivation and affect.

Motivational Strength

• Drive Theory focuses on homeostasis and is related to the concept of retail therapy.
• Expectancy Theory is another perspective on motivational strength.

Types of Motivational Conflicts

• Approach-Approach conflicts involve two desirable alternatives, leading to cognitive dissonance.
• Approach-Avoidance conflicts involve positive and negative aspects of the desired product, resulting in guilt.
• Avoidance-Avoidance conflicts involve facing a choice with two undesirable alternatives.

Specific Needs and Buying Behavior

• Need for Achievement values personal accomplishment and places a premium on products that signify success.
• Need for Affiliation focuses on products used in groups.
• Need for Power focuses on products that allow mastery over surroundings.
• Need for Uniqueness asserts individual identity.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs includes physiological, safety, belongingness, ego needs, and self-actualization.
  • Physiological needs include water, sleep, and food.
  • Safety needs include security, shelter, and protection.
  • Belongingness needs include love, friendship, and acceptance by others.
  • Ego needs include prestige, status, and accomplishment.
  • Self-actualization needs include self-fulfillment and enriching experiences.

Conceptualizing Involvement

• Involvement is a function of person, situation, and object.
• Antecedents of involvement are person factors, object or stimulus factors, and situational factors.
• Possible results of involvement are elicitation of counter arguments to ads, effectiveness to induce purchase, relative importance of the product class, etc..

Types of Involvement

• Involvement can be product, message, or situational-based.

Five Types of Perceived Risk

• Monetary risk, functional risk, physical risk, social risk, and psychological risk.

The Self: Mind, Gender, & Body

• Chapter 6 focuses on the self-concept.

What is the self?

• The self-concept strongly influences consumer behavior.
• The self-concept is a person's beliefs about their attributes.
• The self-concept is evaluated through content, positivity, intensity, stability, and accuracy.

What is Self Esteem

• Self-esteem is the positivity of a person's self-concept.
• Low self-esteem individuals do not think they will perform well.
• High self-esteem individuals think they will be successful and take risks.
• Social comparison is when consumers evaluate themselves by comparing themselves with others, like idealized images in advertising.

Real and Ideal Selves

• Ideal self is our conception of how we would like to be.
• Actual self is our more realistic appraisal of the qualities we have.
• Products can help us reach our ideal self or be consistent with our actual self.
• Impression management is working to "manage" what others think of us.

Multiple Selves

• Each individual has many selves and roles.
• Marketers pitch products to facilitate an active role identity.

Symbolic Interactionism

• Symbolic interactionism involves relationships with others playing a big part in forming the self.
• These relationships lead to asking, “Who am I in this situation?” and "Who do other people think I am?"
• Patterning behavior on the perceived expectation of others creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Looking-Glass Self

• Looking-glass self is when people take the role of the other.
• Individuals take readings of their own identity by bouncing signals off others to determine what impression they have.

Self-Consciousness

• Self-consciousness is a painful awareness of oneself, magnified by the belief that others are intently watching.
• Public self-consciousness involves heightened concern about the nature of one's public "image.”
• High public self-consciousness results in more concern about the appropriateness of products.
• Self-monitoring is awareness of how one presents oneself in a social environment.

The Extended Self

• The extended self includes external objects that consumers consider a part of themselves.
  • Individual Level: Personal possessions
  • Family Level: Residence and furnishings
  • Community Level: Neighborhood or town one is from
  • Group Level: Social or other groups

Gender Differences in Socialization

• Gender roles are varying by culture, however, they are changing.
• Many societies expect traditional roles.
  • Agentic roles: men are expected to be assertive and have certain skills.
  • Communal roles: women are taught to foster harmonious relationships.

Body Image

• Body image, how a person thinks about their body, is a key component of self-esteem.

Personality, Lifestyles, & Values

• Chapter 7 examines personality, lifestyles, and values.

Personality

• A consumer's personality influences how they respond to marketing stimuli.

Freud

• Freud's theory of personality includes the Id, Ego, and Superego.

The Big Five

• Big Five Personality Dimensions: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

Trait Theory

• Personality traits are identifiable characteristics that define a person.
• Traits relevant to consumer behavior: Innovativeness, Materialism, Self-consciousness, Need for cognition, and Frugality.

Brand Personality

• Brand personality is a set of traits people attribute to a product as if it were a person.
• Other concepts related to brand personality include underdog brand biography, anthromorphism, and doppelganger brand image.

Lifestyles

• Lifestyle are patterns of consumption that reflect a person's choices of how they spend time and money.
• Lifestyle marketing perspective groups people based on what they like to do, how they spend leisure time, and how they spend disposable income.

Value Concepts

• Core values include value systems, enculturation, and acculturation.
• Crescive norms include custom, more, and conventions.