Consumer Behavior: Its Origins and Strategic Applications
The study of consumer behavior enables marketers
to understand and predict consumer behavior in the marketplace; it is concerned
not only with what consumers buy but also with why, when, where, and how they
buy it. Consumer research is the methodology used to study consumer behavior;
it takes place at every phase of the consumption process: before the purchase,
during the purchase, and after the purchase.
Consumer behavior is interdisciplinary; that is,
it is based on concepts and theories about people that have been developed by
scientists in such diverse disciplines as psychology, sociology, social
psychology, cultural anthropology, and economics.
Consumer behavior has become an integral part of
strategic market planning. The belief that ethics and social responsibility
should also be integral components of every marketing decision is embodied in a
revised marketing concept—the societal marketing concept—that calls on marketers
to fulfill the needs of their target markets in ways that improve society as a
whole.
INTRODUCTION
1.
Consumer
behavior has changed dramatically in the past decade.
2.
For example,
the use of the Internet has allowed consumers to order online, receive
information without leaving their homes, and sell products without advertising
in the local newspaper.
3.
All of these
new ways of selling products and services became available to consumers during
the past fifteen years and are the result of digital technologies. They exist
today because they reflect an understanding of consumer needs and consumer
behavior.
4.
Consumer behavior is defined as the behavior that consumers
display in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of
products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs.
a)
Consumer
behavior focuses on how individuals make decisions to spend their available
resources on consumption-related items.
b)
As
consumers, we play a vital role in the health of the economy—local, national, and
international.
c)
Marketers
need to know everything they can about consumers.
d)
Marketers
need to understand the personal and group influences that affect consumer
decisions and how these decisions are made.
e)
Marketers
need to not only identify their target audiences, but they need to know where
and how to reach them.
5.
The term consumer behavior is often used to describe two different kinds of consuming
entities: the personal consumer and the organizational consumer.
a)
The personal consumer buys goods and services
for his or her own use, for the use of the household, or as a gift for a
friend.
i)
Products are
bought for final use by individuals (referred to as end users or ultimate
consumers).
b) The organizational consumer—includes profit and not-for-profit businesses,
government agencies, and institutions, all of which must buy products,
equipment, and services in order to run their organizations6. Despite the importance of both categories of consumers, individuals and
organizations, this book will focus on the individual consumer, who purchases
for his or her own personal use or for household use. a) End-use consumption is perhaps the most pervasive of all
types of consumer behavior.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARKETING
CONCEPT AND THE DISCIPLINE OF
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
1.
The field of
consumer behavior is rooted in the marketing
concept, a business orientation that evolved in the 1950s through several
alternative approaches toward doing business referred to, respectively, as the production concept, the product concept, and the selling concept.
2.
The production concept is characterized as
the concept used by Henry Ford in the early 1900s.
a)
Ford
produced a car for $850 in an era when only the wealthy could afford a car.
b)
The assembly
line concept allowed him to reduce the price to $360.
c)
Because of
Ford’s products, Americans developed the nation’s extensive highway system and,
eventually, suburbs and their adjacent shopping malls.
d)
The
production concept assumes that consumers are mostly interested in product
availability at low prices.
i)
Implicit
marketing objectives are cheap, efficient production, and intensive
distribution systems.
ii)
This concept
makes sense when consumers are more interested in obtaining the product than
they are in specific features.
3.
The product concept assumes that consumers
will buy the product that offers them the highest quality, the best
performance, and the most features.
a) A
product orientation leads the company to strive constantly to improve the
quality of its product and to add new features that are technically feasible
without finding out first whether or not consumers really want these features.b) This concept leads to “marketing
myopia,” that is, a focus on the product rather than on the consumer needs it
presumes to satisfy.
i)
Railroads are often used as an example of
marketing myopia.
ii)
A more
modern example of marketing myopia might be the PDA.
4.
The selling concept is a natural extension
of the production and product concepts. In this concept, marketing’s primary
focus is selling the product(s) that it has unilaterally decided to produce.
a)
A hard sell
approach is often used to persuade consumers to buy something (even if they do not
really want it).
b)
A negative
of this concept is that consumers may not return for repeat sales because they
may not have wanted the product to begin with.
c)
This
approach is typically used by the marketers of unsought goods (such as life
insurance).
The Marketing Concept
1.
The field of
consumer behavior is rooted in a marketing strategy that evolved in the late
1950s.
2.
Instead of
trying to persuade customers to buy what the firm had already produced,
marketing-oriented firms found that it was a lot easier to produce only
products they had first confirmed, through research, that consumers wanted.
a)
This consumer-oriented concept came to be known
as the marketing concept.
b)
Consumer needs and wants became the firm’s
primary focus.
The key assumption:
c)
To be
successful, a company must determine the needs and wants of specific target
markets and deliver the desired satisfactions better than the competition.
3.
The
marketing concept is based on the premise that a marketer should make what it
can sell, instead of trying to sell what it has made.
a)
The older
selling concept focused on the needs of the seller.
b)
The
marketing concept focuses on the needs of the buyer.
Implementing the Marketing Concept
1.
The
widespread adoption of the marketing concept by American business fed the need
to study consumer behavior.
2.
They
discovered that consumers were highly complex individuals, subject to a variety
of psychological and social needs quite apart from their survival needs.
a)
The needs
and priorities of different consumer segments differed dramatically, and in
order to design new products and marketing strategies that would fulfill
consumer needs, they had to study consumers and their consumption behavior in
depth.
3.
The term consumer research represents the
process and tools used to study consumer behavior.
Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
1.
The focus of
the marketing concept is consumer needs.
2.
The marketer
must adapt the image of its product so that each market segment perceives the
product as better fulfilling its specific needs than competitive products.
a)
The three
elements of this strategic framework are: market segmentation, targeting, and
positioning.
3.
Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market into subsets
of consumers with common needs or characteristics.
4.
Market targeting is the selection of one or more of the segments
identified for the company to pursue.
5.
Positioning refers to the development of a distinct image for the product or service
in the mind of the consumer, an image that will differentiate the offering from
competing ones and squarely communicate to the target audience that the
particular product or service will fulfill their needs better than competing
brands.
a)
Successful
positioning centers around two key principles:
i) The first principle says that the marketer should communicate
the benefits that the product will provide rather than the product’s features.
ii) The second principle states that because
there are many similar products in almost any marketplace, an effective
positioning strategy must develop and communicate a “unique selling
Proposition”—a distinct benefit or point of difference—for the product or service.
The Marketing Mix
1.
The marketing mix consists of a company’s
service and/or product offerings to consumers and the methods and tools it
selects to accomplish the exchange.
2.
Four basic
elements (known as the four Ps) include:
a)
The product—features, designs, brands,
packaging, etc.
b)
The price—list price (including discounts,
allowances, and payment methods)
c)
The place—distribution of the product or
service
d)
Promotion—advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and sales efforts
designed to build awareness of and demand for the product or service
CUSTOMER VALUE, SATISFACTION, AND RETENTION
1.
Since the
1950s many companies have successfully adopted the marketing concept.
2.
The
marketplace is now increasingly competitive.
3.
Savvy
marketers today realize that in order to outperform competitors they must
achieve full profit potential from each and every consumer.
a)
An exchange
with a consumer is part of a customer
relationship, not just a transaction.
4.
Three
drivers of successful relationships between marketers and consumers are:
a)
Customer value
b)
High levels
of customer satisfaction
c)
Building a
structure of customer retention
Providing Customer Value
1.
Customer value is defined as the ratio between the customer’s perceived benefits
(economic, functional, and psychological) and the resources (monetary, time,
effort, psychological) used to obtain those benefits.
a)
Perceived
value is relative and subjective.
b)
Developing a
value proposition is the core of successful positioning.
1.
Customer satisfaction is the individual’s perception of the
performance of the product or service in relation to his or her expectations.
2.
The concept
of customer satisfaction is a function of customer expectations.
3.
With respect
to customer satisfaction there might be several types of customers:
a)
Loyalists—completely satisfied customers who keep purchasing
b)
Apostles—those whose experiences exceed their expectations and who provide very
positive word of mouth about the company to others
c)
Defectors—those who feel neutral or merely satisfied and are likely to stop doing
business with the company
d)
Terrorists—those who have had negative experiences with the company and who spread
negative word of mouth
e)
Hostages—unhappy customers who stay with the company because of no choice (or
other reasons)
f)
Mercenaries—very satisfied customers but who have no real loyalty to the company and
may defect
Customer Retention
1.
The overall objective of providing value to customers
continuously and more effectively than the competition is to have and to retain
highly satisfied customers.
2.
This strategy of customer retention makes it in
the best interest of customers to stay with the company rather than switch to
another firm
3.
In almost all business situations, it is more
expensive to win new customers than to keep existing ones.
4.
Studies have shown that small reductions in
customer defections produce significant increases in profits because:
a.
Loyal customers buy more products.
b.
Loyal customers are less price sensitive and pay
less attention to competitors’ advertising.
c.
Servicing existing customers, who are familiar
with the firm’s offerings and processes, is cheaper.
d.
Loyal customers spread positive word-of-mouth
and refer other customers.
5.
Sophisticated marketers build selective relationships with customers,
based on where customers rank in terms of profitability, rather than merely
strive to “to retain customers.”
6.
Customer
profitability-focused marketing tracks costs and revenues of individual
customers and then categorizes them into tiers based on consumption behaviors that
are specific to a company’s offerings.
The impact
of digital technologies on marketing
strategies
1.
Digital technologies allow much greater customization of products,
services, and promotional messages than older marketing tools.
2.
They enable
marketers to adapt the elements of the marketing mix to consumer’s needs more
quickly and efficiently, and to build and maintain relationships with customers
on a much greater scale.
3.
Online
communication and emerging digital technologies have introduced several drastic
changes into the business environment.
a)
Consumers
have more power than ever before.
b)
Consumers
have access to more information then ever before.
c)
Marketers
can offer more services and products than ever before.
d)
The exchange
between marketers and customers is increasingly interactive and instantaneous.
e)
Marketers
can gather more information about consumers more quickly and easily.
f)
Impact
reaches beyond the PC-based connection to the Web.
Challenges Marketers Face
1.
The digital
revolution in the marketplace, and its impact on consumer behavior, presents
many challenges for today’s marketers.
2.
Some suggest
that because virtual competition eliminates distance and location-based
benefits, online sellers will compete almost exclusively on the basis of price
for branded merchandise. This statement leads to the question, “Does this mean
that competitive differentiation will become meaningless in the virtual
marketplace?”
MARKETING ETHICS AND
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
1.
The societal marketing concept requires
that all marketers adhere to principles of social responsibility in the
marketing of their goods and services.
2.
A
restructured definition of the marketing concept (to reflect social
responsibility) would be to fulfill the needs of the target audience in ways
that improve society as a whole while fulfilling the objectives of the
organization.
a)
A serious
deterrent to the societal marketing concept is a short-term orientation toward
increased market share and quick profits.
b)
The societal
marketing concept advocates a long-term perspective, recognizing that all
companies that incorporate ethical behavior and social responsibility in all of
their business dealing attract and maintain loyal consumer support over the
long term.
3.
The primary
purpose for studying consumer behavior as part of a marketing curriculum is to
understand why and how consumers make their purchase decisions.
4.
These
insights enable marketers to design more effective marketing strategies,
especially today when advanced technologies enable marketers to collect more
data about consumers and target them more precisely.
5. To
avoid exploiting consumers, marketers should develop a code of ethics—many have
accomplished this task.
6. It is better to self-regulate
than to be regulated by government.
7. Marketing
ethics and social
responsibility are important components of organizational effectiveness.
Consumer Behavior and Decision Making Are
Interdisciplinary
1.
Consumer
behavior was a relatively new field of study in the mid-to-late 1960s.
2.
Marketing
theorists borrowed heavily from concepts developed in other scientific
disciplines:
a)
Psychology—the
study of the individual
b)
Sociology—the
study of groups
c)
Social
psychology—the study of how an individual operates in groups
d)
Anthropology—the
influence of society on the individual
e)
Economics—to
form the basis of this new marketing discipline
3.
Many early
theories concerning consumer behavior were based on economic theory, the idea
that individuals act rationally to maximize their benefits (satisfactions) in
the purchase of goods and services.
4.
Later
research discovered that consumers are just as likely to purchase impulsively,
and to be influenced not only by family, friends, advertisers and role models,
but by mood, situation, and emotion.
A Simplified Model of Consumer Decision-Making
1.
The process
of consumer decision-making can be
viewed as three distinct but interlocking stages: the input stage, the process
stage, and the output stage.
2.
The input stage influences the consumer’s
recognition of a product need and consists of two major sources of information:
a)
The firm’s
marketing efforts (the product itself, its price, promotion, and where it is
sold)
b)
The external
sociological influences on the consumer (family, friends, neighbors, other
informal and noncommercial sources, social class, cultural and subcultural
memberships)
3.
The process stage focuses on how consumers
make decisions.
a)
The
psychological factors inherent in each individual (motivation, perception,
learning, personality, attitude) affect how the external inputs influence the
consumer’s recognition of a need, prepurchase search for information, and
evaluation of alternatives.
b)
The
experience gained through evaluation of alternatives, in turn, affects the
consumer’s existing psychological attributes.
4.
The output stage of the consumer
decision-making model consists of two closely-related post decision activities:
a)
Purchase
behavior, which can be a trial purchase or a repeat purchase
b)
The
postpurchase evaluation of the product feeds directly into the consumer’s
experience in the process stage of the model.
Consumer Attitude Formation and Change
SUMMARY
An attitude is a learned
predisposition to behave in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way with
respect to a given object (e.g., a product category, a brand, a service, an
advertisement, a Web site, or a retail establishment). Each property of this
definition is critical to understanding why and how attitudes are relevant in
consumer behavior and marketing.
Of considerable importance in understanding the role of attitudes in
consumer behavior is an appreciation of the structure and composition of an
attitude. Four broad categories of attitude models have received attention: the
tricomponent attitude model, multi-attribute attitude models, trying-to-consume
attitude model, and attitude-toward-the-ad model.
The tricomponent model of attitudes consists of three parts: a cognitive
component, an affective component, and a conative component. The cognitive
component captures a consumer’s knowledge and perceptions (i.e., beliefs) about
products and services. The affective component focuses on a consumer’s emotions
or feelings with respect to a particular product or service. Evaluative in
nature, the affective component determines an individual’s overall assessment
of the attitude object in terms of some kind of favorableness rating. The
conative component is concerned with the likelihood that a consumer will act in
a specific fashion with respect to the attitude object. In marketing and
consumer behavior, the conative component is frequently treated as an expression
of the consumer’s intention to buy.
Multiattribute attitude models (i.e., attitude-toward-object,
attitude-toward-behavior, and the theory-of-reasoned-action models) have
received much attention from consumer researchers. As a group, these models examine
consumer beliefs about specific-product attributes (e.g., product or brand
features or benefits). Recently, there has been an effort to better accommodate
consumers’ goals as expressed by their “trying to consume” (i.e., a goal the
consumer is trying or planning to accomplish). The theory of trying is designed
to account for the many cases in which the action or outcome is not certain.
The attitude-toward-the-ad models examine the influence of advertisements on
the consumer’s attitudes toward the brand.
How consumer attitudes are formed and how they are changed are two
closely related issues of considerable concern to marketing practitioners. When
it comes to attitude formation, it is useful to remember that attitudes are
learned and that different learning theories provide unique insights as to how
attitudes initially may be formed. Attitude formation is facilitated by direct
personal experience and influenced by the ideas and experiences of friends and
family members and exposure to mass media. In addition, it is likely that an
individual’s personality plays a major role in attitude formation.
These same factors also have an impact on attitude change; that is,
attitude changes are learned, and they are influenced by personal experiences
and the information gained from various personal and impersonal sources. The
consumer’s own personality affects both the acceptance and the speed with which
attitudes are likely to be altered.
Strategies of attitude change can be classified into six distinct
categories: (1) changing the basic motivational function; (2) associating the
attitude object with a specific group or event; (3) relating the attitude
object to conflicting attitudes; (4) altering components of the multiattribute
model; (5) changing beliefs about competitors’ brands; and (6) the elaboration
likelihood model. Each of these strategies provides the marketer with
alternative ways of changing consumers’ existing attitudes.
Most discussions of attitude formation and attitude change stress the
traditional view that consumers develop attitudes before they act. This may not
always, however, or even usually be true. Both cognitive dissonance theory and
attribution theory provide alternative explanations of attitude formation and
change that suggest that behavior might precede attitudes. Cognitive dissonance
theory suggests that the conflicting thoughts, or dissonant information, that
follow a purchase decision might propel consumers to change their attitudes to
make them consonant with their actions. Attribution theory focuses on how
people assign causality to events and how they form or alter attitudes as an
outcome of assessing their own behavior, or the behavior of other people or
things.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
1. Consumers
have a vast number of attitudes toward products, services, advertisements,
direct mail, the Internet, and retail stores.
a)
Within the context of consumer behavior, an
appreciation of prevailing attitudes has considerable strategic merit.
2. At
the heart of consumer behavior, attitude research has been used
to study a wide range of strategic marketing questions; to determine whether
consumers will accept a proposed new product idea; to gauge why a firm’s target
audience has not reacted more favorably to its new promotional theme; or to
learn how target customers are likely to react to a proposed change in the
firm’s packaging design.
What Are Attitudes?
1. Researchers
tend to assess attitudes by asking questions or making inferences from
behavior.
2. An
attitude is a
learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way
with respect to a given object.
The Attitude “Object”
1. Object
refers to such things as: product, product category, brand, service,
possessions, product use, advertisement price, or retailer.
a)
In attitude research we tend to be object-specific.
Attitudes Are a Learned Predisposition
1. Attitudes
are learned.
a)
They are formed as a result of direct experience
with the product, information acquired from others, and exposure to mass media.
b)
Although attitudes may result in behaviors, they
are, however, not synonymous with behavior.
2. As
learned
predispositions, attitudes have a motivational quality.
Attitudes Have Consistency
1. Attitudes
are relatively consistent with the behavior they reflect.
a)
Attitudes are not necessarily permanent; they do
change.
b)
We should consider situational influences on
consumer attitudes and behavior.
Attitudes Occur Within a Situation
1. Consumer
attitudes occur within, and are affected by, the situation.
a)
By “situation,” we mean events or circumstances
that, at a particular time, influence the relationship between an attitude and
a behavior.
2. Individuals
can have a variety of attitudes toward a particular behavior, each tied to a
specific situation.
a)
This can cause consumers to behave in ways
seemingly inconsistent with their attitudes.
3. It
is important when measuring attitudes that we consider the situation in which
the behavior takes place, or the relationship between attitudes and behavior
could be misinterpreted.
Structural Models of Attitudes
1. Psychologists
have developed a number of models in order to understand consumer attitudes.
a)
Each of these models provides a somewhat
different perspective on the number of component parts of an attitude and how
those parts are arranged or interrelated.
Ø Tricomponent Attitude Model
1. According
to the tricomponent attitude model,
attitudes consist of three major components: cognition, affect, and conation.
The Cognitive Component
1. Cognitions
are previous knowledge or experiences with or about the object.
a)
This previous knowledge/experience allows the
consumer to form perceptions or beliefs about the product.
1. The
affective
component of an attitude consists of the consumer’s emotions
or feelings.
a)
Researchers frequently treat these emotions and
feelings as evaluative in nature.
2. Affect-laden
experiences manifest themselves as emotionally charged states (such
as happiness or sadness).
a)
These states may enhance positive or negative
experiences for the consumer.
3. Consumer
researchers try to measure this element using global evaluative measures.
The Conative Component
1. Conation,
the final component of the tricomponent attitude model, is concerned with the likelihood
or tendency that an individual will undertake a specific action or
behave in a particular way with regard to the attitude object.
a)
The conative component may include the actual behavior
itself.
2. In
marketing and consumer research, the conative component is frequently treated
as an expression of the consumer’s intention to buy.
a)
Intention-to-buy
scales are used to assess the likelihood of a consumer purchasing a
product or behaving in a certain way.
Multi-Attribute Attitude Models
1. Multi-attribute attitude models
examine attitudes in terms of selected product attributes or beliefs.
The Attitude-Toward-Object Model
1. According
to the attitude-toward-object model, the consumer’s attitude
toward a product or specific brands of a product is a function of the presence
(or absence) and evaluation of certain product-specific beliefs and/or
attributes.
2. What
consumers will purchase is a function of how much they know, what they feel are
the important features for them, and their awareness as to whether particular
brands possess (or lack) these valued attributes.
The Attitude-Toward-Behavior Model
1. The
attitude-toward-behavior model is the individual’s attitude
toward behaving or acting with respect to an object, rather than the attitude
toward the object itself.
2. The
appeal of this model is that it seems to correspond somewhat more closely to
actual behavior than does the attitude-toward-object model.
Theory-of-Reasoned-Action
Model
1. The
theory-of-reasoned-action
is a comprehensive integration of attitude components into a structure that is
designed to lead to both better explanation and better predictions of behavior.
2. Like
the basic tricomponent attitude model, the theory-of-reasoned-action model
incorporates a cognitive component, an affective
component, and a conative component; however, these are arranged in a
pattern different from that of the tricomponent model.
3. To
understand intention we also need to measure the subjective norms that
influence an individual’s intention to act.
a)
A subjective norm can be measured
directly by assessing a consumer’s feelings as to what relevant others (family,
friends, roommates, co-workers) would think of the action being contemplated.
b)
Consumer researchers can get behind the
subjective norm to the underlying factors that are likely to produce it.
c)
They accomplish this by assessing the normative
beliefs that the individual attributes to relevant others, as well as the
individual’s motivation to comply with each of the relevant others.
Attitude-Toward-the-Ad Models
1. As
the attitude-toward-the-ad model
depicts, the consumer forms various feelings (affects) and judgments
(cognitions) as the result of exposure to an ad.
2. These
feelings and judgments in turn affect the consumer’s attitude toward the ad
and beliefs about the brand acquired from exposure to the ad.
3. Finally,
the consumer’s attitude toward the ad and beliefs about the brand influence his
or her attitude toward the brand.
4. It
appears that for a novel product (e.g., “contact lenses for pets”), the
consumer’s attitude toward the ad has a stronger impact on brand
attitude and purchase intention than for a familiar product (e.g., pet food).
5. This
research points to the importance of considering the nature of the attitude
object in assessing the potential impact of advertising exposure.
6. Consumer
socialization has also shown itself to be an important determinant of a
consumer’s attitudes toward advertising.
Attitude
Formation
1. How
do people, especially young people, form their initial general attitudes toward
“things”?
2. How
do family members and friends, admired celebrities, mass media advertisements,
even cultural memberships, influence the formation of their attitudes
concerning consuming or not consuming each of these types of apparel items?
3. Why
do some attitudes seem to persist indefinitely, while others change fairly
often?
4. The
answers to the above are of vital importance to marketers, for without knowing
how attitudes are formed, they are unable to understand or to influence
consumer attitudes or behavior.
How Attitudes Are Learned
1. When
we speak of the formation of an attitude, we refer to the shift from having no
attitude toward a given object to having some attitude toward it.
2. Consumers
often purchase new products that are associated with a favorably viewed brand
name.
a)
Their favorable attitude toward the brand name
is frequently the result of repeated satisfaction with other products produced
by the same company.
3. In
terms of classical conditioning, an established brand name is an
unconditioned stimulus that through past positive reinforcement resulted in a
favorable brand attitude.
a)
A new product, yet to be linked to the
established brand, would be the conditioned stimulus.
4. Research
suggests that the “fit” between a parent brand (e.g., Oil of Olay) and a brand
extension (e.g., Oil of Olay Daily Renewal Moisturizing Body Wash
a)
The similarity between the pre-existing product
categories already associated with the parent brand and the new extension
b)
The “fit” or match between the images of the parent
brand and the new extension
5. Sometimes
attitudes follow the purchase and consumption of a product.
6. In
situations in which consumers seek to solve a problem or satisfy a need, they
are likely to form attitudes (either positive or negative) about products on
the basis of information exposure and their own cognition (knowledge and
beliefs).
7. In
general, the more information consumers have about a product or service, the
more likely they are to form attitudes about it, either positive or negative.
8. Consumers
are not always ready or willing to process product-related information.
9. Consumers
often use only a limited amount of the information available to them.
10. Research
suggests that only two or three important beliefs about a product dominate in
the formation of attitudes and that less important beliefs provide little
additional input.
Sources of Influence on Attitude Formation
1. The
formation of consumer attitudes is strongly influenced by personal experience,
the influence of family and friends, direct marketing, mass media and the Internet.
2. The
primary means by which attitudes toward goods and services are formed is
through the consumer’s direct experience in trying and evaluating them.
3. As
we come in contact with others, especially family, close friends, and admired
individuals (e.g., a respected teacher), we form attitudes that influence our
lives.
a)
The family is an extremely important source of
influence on the formation of attitudes.
4. Marketers
are increasingly using highly focused direct marketing programs to target small
consumer niches with products and services that fit their interests and
lifestyles.
a)
Niche marketing is sometimes called micromarketing.
5. Direct
marketing efforts have an excellent chance of favorably influencing target
consumers’ attitudes because the products and services offered and the promotional
messages conveyed are very carefully designed to address the individual
segment’s needs and concerns and, thus, are able to achieve a higher “hit rate”
than mass marketing.
6. Mass
media communications provide an important source of information that influences
the formation of consumer attitudes.
7. Another
issue with regard to evaluating the impact of advertising messages on attitude
formation is the level of realism that is provided.
a)
Research has shown that attitudes that develop
through direct experience (e.g., product usage) tend to be more confidently
held, more enduring, and more resistant to attach than those developed via
indirect experience (e.g., reading a print ad).
Personality Factors
1. Individuals
with a high need for cognition (information) are likely to form positive
attitudes in response to ads that are rich in product-related information.
2. Consumers
who are relatively low in need for
cognition are more likely to form positive attitudes to ads that feature
attractive models or well-known celebrities.
Strategies
of Attitude Change
1. Attitude
changes are learned; they are influenced by personal experience
and other sources of information, and personality affects
both the receptivity and the speed with which attitudes are likely to be
altered.
2. Altering
attitudes is a key strategy for marketers, especially when taking aim at market
leaders.
3. Marketers
have several attitude-change strategies from which to choose:
a)
Changing the consumer’s basic motivational function
b)
Associating the product with an admired group or event
c)
Resolving two conflicting attitudes
d)
Altering components of the multi-attribute model
e)
Changing consumer beliefs about competitors’ brands
Changing the Basic Motivational Function
1. An
effective strategy for changing consumer attitudes toward a product or brand is
to make particular needs prominent.
2. One
method for doing this is called the functional
approach and can be classified into four functions: the utilitarian
function, the ego-defensive function, the value-expressive function, and the
knowledge function.
The
Utilitarian Function
1. Utilitarian function—changing
attitudes by showing that the product serves a useful purpose that the consumers
did not previously consider
The
Ego-Defensive Function
1. Ego-defensive function—offers
reassurance to the consumer’s self-concept
The
Value-Expressive Function
1. Value-expressive function—anticipates
and appeals to the consumer’s values, lifestyle, and outlook
The
Knowledge Function
1. Knowledge function—individuals
generally have a strong need to know and understand the people and things with
whom they come in contact.
a)
Most product and brand positioning are attempts
to satisfy the consumer’s need to know and to improve the consumer’s attitudes
toward the brand by emphasizing its advantages over competitive brands.
Combining
Several Functions
1. Combining
Several Functions—involves using more than one of the above because different
consumers may like a product for different reasons.
Associating the Product with a Special Group, Event, or Cause
1. It
is possible to alter attitudes toward products by pointing out their
relationships to particular social groups, events, or causes.
Resolving Two Conflicting Attitudes
1. If
consumers can be made to see that their attitude toward a brand is in conflict
with another attitude, they may be induced to change their evaluation of the
brand.
Altering Components of the Multi-Attribute Model
1. Multi-attribute
models provide marketers with insights as to how to bring about attitude
change.
Changing
the Relative Evaluation of Attributes
1. The
market for many product categories is structured so that different consumer
segments are attracted to brands that offer different features or beliefs.
2. In
these market situations, marketers have an opportunity to persuade consumer’s to
“crossover,” or to shift their favorable attitude toward another version of the
product. It serves to upgrade consumer beliefs about one product although
downgrading another.
Changing
Brand Beliefs
1. This
is the most common form of advertising appeal.
2. Advertisers
constantly remind us that their product has “more,” or is “better,” or “best”
in terms of some important product attribute.
3. Within
the context of brand beliefs, there are forces working to stop or slow down
attitude change.
a)
Therefore, information suggesting a change in attitude
needs to be compelling and repeated enough to overcome the natural resistance
to letting go of established attitudes.
Adding an
Attribute
1. This
cognitive strategy pivots on adding a previously ignored attribute, or adding
an attribute that reflects an actual product or technological
innovation.
Changing
the Overall Brand Rating
1. Another
cognitive-oriented strategy is altering consumers’ overall assessment of the
brand directly, without attempting to improve or change their
evaluation of any single brand attribute.
Changing Beliefs About Competitors’ Brands
1. This
strategy involves changing consumer beliefs about attributes of competitive
brands.
a)
One tool is comparative advertising.
b)
But comparative advertising can boomerang by giving
visibility to competing brands.
Consumer Perception
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter students should be able to:
1. Define
perception and its key elements.
2. Differentiate
between absolute threshold and differential threshold.
3. Explain
the marketing applications of just noticeable difference (j.n.d.).
4. Review
the concept of subliminal perception and the reality of its use.
5. Discuss
the dynamics of perception in terms of its three main aspects—selection,
organization, and interpretation.
6. Discuss
the various forms of selective perception.
7. Explain
the concept of Gestalt psychology.
8. Discuss
the various forms of perceptual distortion.
9. Understand
the implications of consumer imagery by positioning and repositioning products.
10. Understand
the positioning of services.
11. Explain
the impact of price on consumer perception of products, service, and quality.
12. Discuss
the terms retail store image and manufacturer’s image.
13. Describe
consumers’ perception of risk and key risk reduction strategies.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Perception is the process by which individuals select, organize,
and interpret stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture of the world.
Perception has strategy implications for marketers because consumers make
decisions based on what they perceive rather than on the basis of objective
reality.
The lowest level at which an
individual can perceive a specific stimulus is that person’s absolute
threshold. The minimal difference that can be perceived between two stimuli is
called the differential threshold or just noticeable difference (j.n.d.). Most
stimuli are perceived by consumers above the level of their conscious
awareness; however, weak stimuli can be perceived below the level of conscious
awareness (i.e., subliminally). Research refutes the notion that subliminal
stimuli influence consumer-buying decisions.
Consumers’ selection of stimuli
from the environment is based on the interaction of their expectations and
motives with the stimulus itself. The principles of selective perception
include the following concepts: selective exposure, selective attention,
perceptual defense, and perceptual blocking. People usually perceive things
they need or want, and block the perception of unnecessary, unfavorable, or
painful stimuli.
Consumers organize their
perceptions into unified wholes according to the principles of Gestalt
psychology: figure and ground, grouping, and closure. The interpretation of
stimuli is highly subjective and is based on what the consumer expects to see
in light of previous experience, on the number of plausible explanations he or
she can envision, on motives and interests at the time of perception, and on
the clarity of the stimulus itself. Influences that tend to distort objective
interpretation include physical appearances, stereotypes, halo effects,
irrelevant cues, first impressions, and the tendency to jump to conclusions.
Just as individuals have
perceived images of themselves, they also have perceived images of products and
brands. The perceived image of a product or service (how it is positioned) is
probably more important to its ultimate success than are its actual physical
characteristics. Products and services that are perceived distinctly and
favorably have a much better chance of being purchased than products or
services with unclear or unfavorable images.
Compared with manufacturing
firms, service marketers face several unique problems in positioning and
promoting their offerings because services are intangible, variable,
perishable, and are simultaneously produced and consumed. Regardless of how
well positioned a product or service appears to be, the marketer may be forced
to reposition it in response to market events, such as new competitor
strategies or changing consumer preferences.
Consumers often judge the quality
of a product or service on the basis of a variety of informational cues; some
are intrinsic to the product (such as color, size, flavor, and aroma), whereas
others are extrinsic (e.g., price, store image, brand image, and service
environment). In the absence of direct experience or other information,
consumers often rely on price as an indicator of quality. How a consumer
perceives a price—as high, low, or fair—has a strong influence on purchase
intentions and satisfactions. Consumers often rely on both internal and
external reference prices when assessing the fairness of a price.
Consumer imagery also includes
perceived images of retail stores that influence the perceived quality of
products they carry, as well as decisions as to where to shop. Manufacturers
who enjoy a favorable image generally find their new products are accepted more
readily than those of manufacturers with less favorable images.
Consumers often perceive risk in
making product selections because of uncertainty as to the consequences of
their product decisions. The most frequent types of risk that consumers
perceive are functional risk, physical risk, financial risk, social risk,
psychological risk, and time risk. Consumer strategies for reducing perceived
risk include increased information search, brand loyalty, buying a well-known
brand, buying from a reputable retailer, buying the most expensive brand, and
seeking reassurance in the form of money-back guarantees, warranties, and
prepurchase trial. The concept of perceived risk has important implications for
marketers, who can facilitate the acceptance of new products by incorporating
risk-reduction strategies in their new-product promotional campaigns.
The perception-related ethical
issues include: blurring the distinction between advertising and the
informational or entertainment content of print or electronic media (i.e.,
figure-and-ground confusion); the large increase in product placements and
branded advertising to combat the avoidance by consumer of TV commercials;
using the physical environment and stimulus factors to increase consumption;
using subliminal messages; and portraying socially-undesirable stereotypes in
advertising.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
1. Individuals
act and react on the basis of their perceptions, not on the basis of objective
reality.
a)
Therefore, consumers’ perceptions are more
important to a marketer than their knowledge of objective reality because
people make decisions based on their perceptions.
2. In
this chapter we examine the psychological and physiological bases of human
perception and the principles that control that perception and the
interpretation of what we see.
a)
Understanding this information enables marketers
to develop more effective advertisements.
ELEMENTS OF PERCEPTION
1. Perception is the process
by which an individual selects, organizes, and interprets stimuli into a
meaningful and coherent picture of the world.
Sensation
1. Sensation is the immediate and
direct response of the sensory organs to stimuli (an advertisement, a package,
and a brand name).
2. A
stimulus
is any unit of input to any of the senses.
3. Sensory receptors are the human organs (i.e., the eyes,
ears, nose, mouth, and skin) that receive sensory inputs, sight, sound, smell,
taste, or touch.
4. Human
sensitivity refers to the experience of sensation.
a)
Sensitivity to stimuli varies with the quality
of an individual’s sensory receptors and the amount or intensity of the stimuli
to which he/she is exposed.
b)
Sensation itself depends on energy change, or
the difference of input.
c)
Thus, a constant environment, whether very busy and
noisy or relatively quiet, would provide little sensation because of the lack
of change—the consistent level of stimulation.
5. As
sensory input decreases, the ability to detect changes increases.
a)
This ability of the human organism to
accommodate itself to varying levels of sensitivity as external conditions vary
not only protects us from damaging, disruptive, or irrelevant bombardment when
the input level is high, but has important implications for marketers.
The Absolute Threshold
1. The
lowest level at which an individual can experience a sensation is called the absolute threshold.
a)
The point at which a person can detect the
difference between “something” and “nothing” is that person’s absolute
threshold for the stimulus.
b)
For example, the distance at which a driver can
note a specific billboard on a highway is that individual’s absolute threshold.
c)
Under conditions of constant stimulation, such
as driving through a “corridor” of billboards, the absolute threshold increases
(that is, the senses tend to become increasingly dulled).
2. Sensory
adaptation refers specifically to “getting used to” certain sensations, or
becoming accustomed to a certain level of stimulation.
a)
Sensory
adaptation is a problem that causes many advertisers to
change their advertising campaigns regularly.
3. Marketers
try to increase sensory input in order to cut through the daily clutter
consumers experience in the consumption of advertising.
a)
Some increase sensory input in an effort to cut
through the advertising “clutter.”
4. Other
advertisers try to attract attention by decreasing sensory input.
a)
Some advertisers use silence (the absence of
music or other audio effects) to generate attention.
b)
Some marketers seek unusual media in which to
place their advertisements in an effort to gain attention.
c)
Some use scent researchers to enhance their
products with a unique smell.
5. Package
designers try to determine consumers’ absolute thresholds to make sure that
their new product designs will stand out from competitors’ packages on
retailers’ shelves.
The Differential Threshold
1. The
minimal difference that can be detected between two stimuli is called the difference threshold or the j.n.d. (just noticeable difference).
2. A
19th century German scientist named Ernst Weber discovered that the j.n.d. between
two stimuli was not an absolute amount, but an amount relative to the intensity
of the first stimulus.
3. Weber’s law states that the
stronger the initial stimulus, the greater the additional intensity needed for
the second stimulus to be perceived as different.
a)
Also, an additional level of stimulus,
equivalent to the j.n.d., must be added for the majority of people to perceive
a difference between the resulting stimulus and the initial stimulus.
b)
Weber’s law holds for all senses and almost all
levels of intensity.
Marketing Applications of the J.N.D.
1. Manufacturers
and marketers endeavor to determine the relevant j.n.d. for their products so
that:
a)
Negative changes—reductions or increases in
product size, or reduced quality—are not readily discernible to the public,
b)
so that product improvements are readily
discernible to the consumer without being wastefully extravagant.
2. Marketers
use the j.n.d. to determine the amount of change or updating they should make
in their products to avoid losing the readily recognized aspects of their
products.
3. Marketers
want to meet or exceed the consumers’ differential threshold so that they
readily perceive the improvements made in the original product.
4. Marketers
use the j.n.d. to determine the amount of improvement they should make in their
product.
a)
Less than the j.n.d. is wasted effort because
the improvement will not be perceived.
b)
More than the j.n.d. is wasteful because it
reduces the level of repeat sales.
5. Marketers
often want to update their existing package designs without losing the ready
recognition of consumers.
a)
In such cases, they usually make a number of
small changes, each carefully designed to fall below the j.n.d., so that
consumers will perceive minimal difference between succeeding versions.
Subliminal Perception
1. People
are also stimulated below their level of conscious awareness—they can perceive
stimuli without being consciously aware of it.
2. The
threshold for conscious awareness appears to be higher than the absolute
threshold for effective perception.
3. Stimuli
below the “limen” of conscious awareness, too weak or brief to be consciously
seen or heard, may be strong enough to be perceived by one or more receptor
cells.
a)
This is subliminal perception.
4. In
the late 1950s there was a stir when consumers were being exposed to subliminal
advertising messages they were not aware of receiving.
a)
Messages were supposedly persuading people to
buy goods and services without their being aware of it.
b)
The effectiveness of the concept was tested at a
drive-in theater by flashing the words “eat popcorn” and “drink Coca-Cola” on
the screen during the movie so quickly that the audience was not aware of it.
c)
In a six-week test, popcorn sales increased 58
percent and Coca-Cola sales 18 percent.
d)
No scientific controls were used, and results
were never replicated.
Evaluating
the Effectiveness of Subliminal Persuasion
1. There
is no evidence that subliminal advertising works.
2. Current
research is based on two approaches:
a)
The first theory is that constant repetition of
very weak stimuli will have incremental effects.
b)
A second approach is based on sexual stimulation
through sexual embeds.
3. There
is some indication that subliminal advertising may help modify antisocial
behavior by calling for generalized behavior change.
4. In
summary, although there is some evidence that subliminal stimuli may influence
affective reactions, there is no evidence that subliminal stimulation can
influence consumption motives or actions.
5. A
recent review of the evidence on subliminal persuasion indicates that the only
way for subliminal techniques to have a significant persuasive effect would be
through long-term repeated exposure under a limited set of circumstances, which
would not be economically feasible or practical within an advertising context.
6. As
to sexual embeds, most researchers are of the opinion that “What you see is
what you get.”
a)
That pretty much sums up the whole notion of
perception: individuals see what they want to see (e.g., what they are
motivated to see) and what they expect to see.
7. Several
studies concerned with public beliefs about subliminal advertising found that a
large percentage of Americans know what subliminal advertising is, they believe
that it is used by advertisers, and that it is effective in persuading
consumers to buy.
8. To
correct misperceptions among the public, the advertising community occasionally
sponsors ads that ridicule the notion that subliminal techniques are effective
or that they are used in advertising applications.
DYNAMICS OF PERCEPTION
1. Raw
sensory input by itself does not produce or explain the coherent picture of the
world that most adults possess.
2. The
study of perception is largely the study of what we subconsciously add to or
subtract from raw sensory inputs to produce our own private picture of the
world.
3. Human
beings are constantly bombarded with stimuli during every minute and every hour
of every day.
4. Perception
is not a function of sensory input alone; rather, perception is the result of
two different kinds of inputs that interact to form the personal pictures—the
perceptions—that each individual experiences.
a)
Physical stimuli from the outside
environment and internal stimuli based on expectations, motives, and learning
are based on previous experiences.
5. Because
each person is a unique individual, with unique experiences, needs, wants,
desires, and expectations, it follows that each individual’s perceptions are
also unique.
6. There
are three aspects to perception—selection,
organization, and interpretation of stimuli.
a)
Individuals are very selective as to which stimuli
they “recognize.”
b)
They subconsciously organize the stimuli they do
recognize according to widely held psychological principles.
c)
They interpret such stimuli (i.e., they give
meaning to them) subjectively in accordance with their needs, expectations, and
experiences.
Perceptual Selection
1. Consumers
subconsciously exercise selectivity as to the stimuli they perceive.
2. Which
stimuli get selected depends on two major factors in addition to the nature of
the stimulus itself:
a)
Consumers’ previous experience as it affects their expectations.
b)
Their motives
at the time (their needs, desires, interests, and so on).
3. Each
of these factors can serve to increase or decrease the probability that a
stimulus will be perceived.
Nature of
the Stimulus
1. Marketing
stimulus contains an enormous number of variables. Examples include:
a)
Nature of the product
b)
Its physical attributes
c)
The package design
d)
The brand name
e)
The advertisements and commercials
f)
The position of a print ad or commercial
g)
The editorial environment
2. Contrast
is one of the most attention-compelling attributes of a stimulus.
a)
Advertisers use extreme attention-getting
devices to get maximum contrast and penetrate the consumer’s perceptual screen.
b)
Advertisers use color contrasts, size, etc., to
create stopping power and gain attention.
3. Packaging
is also differentiated sufficiently to ensure rapid consumer perception.
Expectations
1. People
see what they expect to see.
2. What
they expect to see is usually based on familiarity, previous experience, or
preconditioned set expectations.
3. Stimuli
that conflict sharply with expectations often receive more attention than those
that conform to expectations.
4. For
years, certain advertisers have used blatant sexuality in advertisements for
products to which sex was not relevant in the belief that such advertisements
would attract a high degree of attention.
5. Ads
with irrelevant sexuality often defeat the marketer’s objectives, because
readers tend to remember the sexual aspects of the ad, not the product or brand
advertised.
Motives
1. People
tend to perceive things they need or want.
a)
The stronger the need, the greater the tendency
to ignore unrelated stimuli in the environment.
2. An
individual’s perceptual process attunes itself more closely to those elements
of the environment that are important to that person.
3. Marketing
managers recognize the efficiency of targeting their products to the perceived
needs of consumers.
Selective Perception
1. The
consumer’s “selection” of stimuli (selective
perception) from the environment is based on the interaction
of expectations and motives with the stimulus itself. These factors give rise
to four important concepts concerning perception.
a)
Selective exposure—consumers
actively seek out messages they find pleasant or with which they are
sympathetic.
i)
Consumers actively avoid painful or threatening
messages.
b)
Selective attention—consumers
have a heightened awareness of the stimuli that meet their needs or interests.
i)
Consumers have a lower awareness of stimuli irrelevant
to their needs.
ii)
People vary in terms of the kind of information in
which they are interested and the form of message and type of medium they
prefer.
c)
Perceptual
defense—threatening or otherwise damaging stimuli are less likely to
be perceived than are neutral stimuli. Individuals unconsciously may distort
information that is not consistent with their needs, values, and beliefs.
d)
Perceptual
blocking—consumers screen out enormous amounts of advertising by
simply “tuning out.”
Perceptual Organization
1. People
do not experience the numerous stimuli they select from the environment as
separate and discrete sensations.
a)
People tend to organize stimuli into groups and
perceive them as unified wholes.
2. Gestalt psychology (Gestalt,
in German, means pattern or configuration) is the name of the school of
psychology that first developed the basic principles of perceptual
organization.
3. Three
of the most basic principles of perceptual organization are figure
and ground, grouping, and closure.
Figure
and Ground
1. Stimuli
that contrast with their environment are more likely to be noticed.
2. The
simplest example is the contrast between a figure and the ground on which it is placed.
a)
The figure is usually perceived clearly.
b)
The ground is usually perceived as indefinite,
hazy, and continuous.
3. The
figure is more clearly perceived because it appears to be dominant—the ground
appears to be subordinate and less important.
4. Advertisers
have to plan their advertisements carefully to make sure that the stimulus they
want noted is seen as figure and not as ground.
5. Marketers
sometimes run advertisements that confuse the consumer because there is no
clear indication of which is figure and which is ground.
Grouping
1. Individuals
tend to group stimuli in “chunks” rather than as discrete bits of information.
2. Grouping can be used
advantageously by marketers to imply certain desired meanings in connection
with their products.
a)
Most of us remember things like a social
security number because it can be broken into three “chunks.”
Closure
1. Individuals
have a need for closure.
a)
As a result, people organize a perception so that they
see a complete picture.
b)
If the pattern of stimuli to which they are exposed is
incomplete, they tend to perceive it as complete—they fill in the missing
pieces.
2. The
very act of completion serves to involve the consumer more deeply in the
message.
Perceptual Interpretation
1. The
interpretation of stimuli is uniquely individual because it is based on what
individuals expect to see in light of their previous experience.
2. Stimuli
are often highly ambiguous.
a)
When stimuli are highly ambiguous, individuals
usually interpret them in such a way that they serve to fulfill personal needs,
wishes, and interests.
3. How
close a person’s interpretations are to reality depends on the clarity of the
stimulus, the past experiences of the perceiver, and his or her motives and
interests at the time of perception.
4. Stimuli
are often highly ambiguous.
5. Consumers
usually attribute the sensory input they receive to factors they consider most
likely to have caused the specific pattern of stimuli.
6. When
stimuli are highly ambiguous, an individual will usually interpret them in such
a way that they serve to fulfill personal needs, wishes, interests, and so on.
7. How
close a person’s interpretations are to reality depends on the clarity of the
stimulus, the past experiences of the perceiver, and his or her motives and
interest at the time of perception.
Perceptual
Distortion
1. With
respect to perceptual distortion,
individuals are subject to a number of influences that tend to distort their perceptions.
2. Physical
Appearances—people tend to attribute the qualities they
associate with certain people to others who may resemble them.
a)
Attractive models are more persuasive and have a
more positive influence on consumer attitudes and behavior than do
average-looking models.
3. Stereotypes—individuals
tend to carry “pictures” in their minds of the meaning of various kinds of
stimuli.
4. First
Impressions—these tend to be lasting but formed while the perceiver
does not know which stimuli are relevant, important, or predictive.
5. Jumping
to Conclusions—many people tend to jump to conclusions before examining
all the relevant evidence, for example, hearing the beginning of an ad and
drawing the incorrect conclusion.
6. Halo
Effect—describes situations where the evaluation of a single object
or person on a multitude of dimensions is based on the evaluation of just one
or a few dimensions
a)
Consumers often evaluate an entire product line
on the basis of the one product within the product line.
b)
Licensing also is based on the halo
effect—associating products with a well-known celebrity or designer name.
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