Consumer behavior
The actions a person takes in purchasing and using
products and services,
including the mental and social processes that
precede and follow these actions.
The behavioral sciences help answer questions such
as :
Why people choose one product or brand over
another,
How they make these choices, and
How companies use this knowledge to provide value
to consumers

I. CONSUMER PURCHASE DECISION PROCESS
•Behind the visible act of making a purchase lies a decision process that must be
investigated.
•The purchase decision process is the stages a buyer passes through in making choices
about which products and services to buy. :
Five Stages of Consumer Behavior
1.problem recognition,
2.information search,
3.alternative evaluation,
4.purchase decision, and
5.post-purchase behavior

B. Information Search: Seeking Value
The information search stage clarifies
the options open to the consumer and
may involve

Two steps of information search
Internal search External search
•Personal sources, such as
•When past experience or friends and family.
knowledge is insufficient •Public sources, including
various product-rating
•The risk of making a organizations such as
wrong purchase decision Consumer Reports.
is high •Marketer-dominated
sources, such as
•The cost of gathering advertising, company
information is low. websites, and salespeople

C. Alternative Evaluation: Assessing Value
The information search clarifies the problem for
the consumer by
(1)Suggesting criteria to use for the purchase.
(2)Yielding brand names that might meet the
criteria.
(3)Developing consumer value perception.

D. Purchase Decision: Buying Value
Possibilities
From whom to buy When to buy
which depends on such which can be influenced by
considerations
•Terms of sale •store atmosphere
•Past experience •time pressure
buying from the
seller •pleasantness of the
shopping experience.
•Return policy.

E. Postpurchase Behavior: Value in Consumption or Use
After buying a product, the consumer compares it with expectations and is either
satisfied or dissatisfied.
Satisfaction or dissatisfaction affects
oconsumer value perceptions
oconsumer communications
orepeat-purchase behavior.
Many firms work to produce positive postpurchase communications among
consumers and contribute to relationship building between sellers and buyers.
Cognitive Dissonance. The feelings of postpurchase psychological tension or anxiety a
consumer often experiences
Firms often use ads or follow-up calls from salespeople in this postpurchase stage to
try to convince buyers that they made the right decision.

F. Involvement and Problem-Solving Variations
Routine Problem Solving Limited Problem Solving
•Virtually a habit •Involves the use of moderate
•involves little effort seeking information-seeking efforts.
external information and •Often used when the buyer has
evaluating alternatives.
little time or effort to spend.
•Typically used for low-
priced, frequently purchased
products
Extended Problem Solving Involvement and Marketing Strategy
•Each stage of the consumer •Low and high consumer
purchase decision process is used
•Considerable time and effort on involvement has important
oexternal information search implications for marketing
and in identifying strategy, which differs for
oevaluating alternatives.
•Used in high-involvement products that are market
purchase situations. leaders from their challengers.

II. PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCES ON
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
A. Motivation and Personality
1. Motivation 2. Personality
•is the energizing force •A person's consistent behavior or
responses to recurring situations.
that causes behavior that •Research suggests that key traits
satisfies a need. affect brand and product-type
preferences.
•Needs are hierarchical •Cross-cultural analysis also
•Once basic physiological suggests that residents of different
countries have a national character,
needs are met, people or a distinct set of personality
seek to satisfy learned characteristics common among
needs. people of a country or society.

B. Perception
•The process by which an individual uses
information to create a meaningful picture of the
world by
•selecting,
•organizing
•interpreting
•Perception is important because people
selectively perceive what they want and it affects
how people see risks in a purchase.

C. Learning
1. Behavioral Learning 2. Cognitive learning
•The process of •Involves making
connections between
developing
two or more ideas
automatic •or simply observing
responses to a the outcomes of
situation built up others’ behaviors
•through repeated •and adjusting one's
exposure to it. accordingly.

D. Values, Beliefs, and Attitudes
Attitude
• A learned predisposition to respond to an object or class
of objects in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way.
• Shaped by our values and beliefs, which are learned
Values
• personally or socially preferable modes of conduct or
states of existence that are enduring.
Beliefs
• consumer's subjective perception of how well a
product or brand performs on different attributes.

III. SOCIOCULTURAL INFLUENCES ON
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Sociocultural influences evolve from a formal
and informal relationships with other people.
Influences Include
•Personal influence
•Reference groups
•The family
•Social class
•Culture
•Subculture

•A. Personal Influence
Opinion leaders Word of mouth
•People influencing each other during
•individuals who exert face-to-face conversations.
direct or indirect social •Power of word of mouth has been
influence over others magnified by the Internet and e-mail
•B. Reference Groups
•Reference groups are people to whom an
individual looks as a basis for self-appraisal or as a
source of personal standards. Reference groups
have an important influence on the purchase of
luxury products but not of necessities.

•C. Family Influence
•Family influences on consumer behavior result from three
sources:
•consumer socialization
•passage through the family life cycle
•decision making within the family.
•D. Social Class
•The relatively permanent, homogeneous divisions in a society into which people sharing
similar values, interests, and behavior are grouped.
•Determinants of social class include
•occupation,
•source of income (not level of income)
•education.
•Social class is a basis for identifying and reaching particularly good prospects for products
and services.
•Upper classes are targeted by companies for items such as financial
investments, expensive cars, and evening wear.
•Middle classes represent a target market for home improvement centers and
automobile parts stores.
•Lower classes are targeted for products such as sports and scandal magazines.

•E. Culture and Subculture
•Culture refers to the set of values, ideas and attitudes
that are accepted by a homogeneous group of people
and transmitted to the next generation. Subcultures -
groups within the larger, or national, culture with
unique values, ideas, and attitudes.
•three largest racial/ethnic subcultures in the U.S
•Hispanics,
•African-Americans
•Asians .
•Each of these groups exhibits sophisticated social and
cultural behaviors that affect their buying patterns.

•1. African-American
•Buying Patterns African-Americans have the largest spending power of the three subcultures
While price conscious, they are motivated by product quality and choice.
Respond to products and advertising that appeal to their African-American pride and
heritage as well as address their ethnic features and needs.
•2. Hispanic Buying Patterns
•Hispanics represent the largest subculture
About 50% are immigrants
The majority are under the age of 25.
Sensitivity to the unique needs of Hispanics by firms has paid huge dividends.
•3. Asian Buying Patterns
•The Asian is the fastest growing subculture.
About 70% of Asians are immigrants
Most are under the age of 30.
Asians represent a diverse subculture, including
Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Koreans, Asian-Indians, people from Southeast Asia, and Pacific
Islanders.

THANK YOU