Marketing Chapter 4: Consumer Buyer Behavior

10 Questions

What is the primary factor in determining consumer satisfaction or disappointment?

The relationship between consumer expectations and product performance

When are consumers likely to skip some stages in the consumer buying process?

When the purchase situation is of low involvement

What is characterized by high consumer involvement and significant perceived differences among brands?

Complex buying behavior

What stimulates product trial in habitual buying behavior?

Prices and sales promotion

What is the outcome when a product meets consumer expectations?

The consumer is satisfied

What type of buying behavior is characterized by low consumer involvement and little brand differences?

Habitual buying behavior

What is the result when a product exceeds consumer expectations?

The consumer is delighted

What is the outcome when a product falls short of consumer expectations?

The consumer is disappointed

What type of buying behavior involves a learning process and a thoughtful purchase choice?

Complex buying behavior

When is a consumer highly involved in a purchase?

When the product is expensive, risky, purchased infrequently, and highly self-expressive

Study Notes

Consumer Buyer Behavior

Consumer buyer behavior refers to the buying behavior of final consumers, individuals, and households who buy goods and services for personal consumption.
Consumer market refers to all of the personal consumption of final consumers.

Model of Buyer Behavior

The model consists of buyer responses, buyer black box, and marketing stimuli.
Buyer responses include buyer attitudes and preferences, and buyer purchase behavior.
The buyer black box involves buyer characteristics and decision-making processes.
Marketing stimuli include the 4Ps (product, price, promotion, and place) and other factors such as economic, cultural, personal, psychological, social, and technological.

Cultural Factors

Culture is the most basic cause of a person's wants and behavior.
Culture is shaped by family, religion, and social class.
Each culture contains smaller subcultures, or groups of people with shared value systems based on common life experiences and situations.

Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior

Personal factors:
- Occupation affects the goods and services bought by consumers.
- Economic situation includes personal income, savings, and interest rates.
Psychological factors:
- Motivation: a need that is sufficiently pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction.
- Perception: the process by which people select, organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world.
- Learning: a relatively permanent change in behavior or mental state based on experience.
- Beliefs and attitudes: descriptive thoughts that a person has about something based on knowledge, opinion, or faith.

The Buyer Decision Process

1. Need recognition: the buyer recognizes a problem or need.
1. Information search: the consumer may or may not search for more information.
1. Evaluation of alternatives: the consumer uses information to evaluate alternative brands.
1. Purchase decision: the consumer ranks brands and forms purchase intentions.
1. Post-purchase behavior: the consumer is either satisfied or dissatisfied with the purchase.

Types of Buying Decision Behavior

Complex (extended) buying behavior: occurs in situations characterized by high consumer involvement and significant perceived differences among brands.
Habitual (routine) buying behavior: occurs under conditions of low consumer involvement and little brand differences.