Consumer Behavior Principles Quiz

Consumer Behavior Tutorial Questions (True/False)

• Marketers often find it helpful to understand consumer interests, leisure activities, and attitudes when categorizing them based on their lifestyles. This is called psychographic characteristics, not demographic.
• A product that consistently satisfies needs is likely to achieve brand loyalty or customer loyalty.
• Consumer behavior encompasses the entire process, including the period before, during, and after a purchase, not just the point of purchase.
• Studying consumer behavior recognizes the factors influencing consumers before, during, and after a purchase.
• Post-purchase issues, like a customer not recommending a company to others, are concerns marketers need to monitor and address.

Consumer Behavior Principles

• The study of how individuals or groups select, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and desires is considered consumer behavior, not market segmentation.
• Demographic characteristics (e.g., age, gender, income, occupation) are helpful for categorizing consumers based on similarities.
• Loyalty programs, like offering a free meal on birthdays, are examples of relationship marketing.
• Analyzing extremely large data sets is called "big data."

Research Methods

• Primary data research involves gathering information specifically for the current research question.
• Secondary research uses data collected by another entity to answer a new research question (e.g., journal articles, websites).
• Surveys are methods for collecting respondent self-reported answers to questions.
• Focus groups involve small groups of consumers discussing products and providing feedback; this is useful for qualitative research.
• Techniques like storytelling are examples of qualitative research methods, not quantitative ones.

Marketing and Consumer Behavior

• Marketers can't create needs but can influence the environment in which needs are activated.
• Using consumer-generated content in advertising is a valid marketing strategy (e.g., Doritos Super Bowl ads).
• Interactions like texting while shopping and on public transportation are examples of synchronous interaction.
• Online shopping creates opportunities for small businesses, not eliminates them.
• Consumers are influenced by what products symbolize and represent to them, not just their functional aspects.
• Consumer-generated content on social media platforms significantly impacts marketing.

Ethical Considerations in Business

• Cultural values influence ethical standards; for example, various countries may have different ethical standards.
• The Canada Consumer Product Safety Act aims to protect consumers and prevent dangerous products from being sold.
• Cause-related marketing, and not green marketing, can involve offering incentives, for a product that supports an environmental cause, e.g., a fabric softener promoted through refillable containers.
• Ethical practices in business are essential guidelines for conduct in the market.
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR) implies that firms protect or enhance the natural environment as part of their business operations.

Consumer Issues

• Consumer addiction can stem from dependencies like caffeine or obsessive shopping behavior.
• Compulsive consumption is characterized by repetitive shopping, often to address emotional needs.
• Shrinkage (shoplifting/employee theft) affects businesses.
• Unlike physical addictions, consumption addiction isn't fully controllable.
• Actions like graffiti disparaging a company are examples of anti-consumption.

Consumer Interactions and Commerce

• Consumer behavior includes the entire exchange process, before, during, and after a purchase, as part of the consumer consumption process.
• C2C (consumer-to-consumer) transactions are evident on platforms like eBay where consumers list and buy from each other.
• Online communities where consumers share passions are virtual brand communities.
• Compulsive consumption behaviors, like in shopaholics, parallel addictive behaviors.
• Consumption addictions like gambling affect diverse societal groups.

Business Ethics and Anti-Consumption

• Business ethics are rules guiding conduct in the market.
• Counterfeiting is the unauthorized production and sale of replica products, not shoplifting.
• Gaining consumer insights about underlying motivations is an essential element of understanding behaviors.
• Graffiti acts, such as those directed against Nike, are a form of anti-consumption.

Consumer Segmentation

• Marketers target specific consumer groups rather than trying to reach everyone.
• Demographic segmentation focuses on identifying consumer groups based on shared characteristics (e.g., age, sex, education, income, and occupation). Psychographics is a different concept related to lifestyles.