CHAPTER 1
UNDERSTANDING
CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR
Hoyer | MacInnis | Pieters
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Consumer Behavior
The totality of consumers' decisions with
respect to the acquisition,
consumption and disposition of
goods, services, time and ideas by
human decision-making units.
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Consumer Behavior Involves More than Buying
▸ How consumers buy is extremely
important to marketers. However,
marketers are also intensely
interested in consumer behavior
related to using and disposing of an
offering.
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Consumer Behavior Involves More than Buying
▸ Acquisition
- the process by which a consume comes to
own an offering
▸ Usage
- the process by which a consumer uses an
offering
▸ Disposition
- the process by which a consumer discards an
offering
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What Affects the Consumer Behavior?
▸ The Psychological Core: Internal Consumer Processes-
covers motivation, ability and opportunity; exposure,
attention, perception and comprehension; memory and
knowledge; and attitudes about an offering.
▸ The Process of Decision Making - this domain includes four
stages: Problem Recognition, Information Search. Decision
Making and Post purchase Evaluation.
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The Consumer's Culture: External Processes
Culture- The typical or expected behaviors, norms
and ideas that characterize a group of people
Reference group- A group of people consumers
compare themselves with for information regarding
behavior, attitudes or values
Symbols- external signs that consumers use to
express their identity
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Who Benefits from the Study of Consumer Behavior?
▸ Marketing Managers
▸ Ethicists and Advocacy Groups
▸ Public Policy makers and Regulators
▸ Academics
▸ Consumer Society
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Marketing Implications of Consumer Behavior
▸ Developing and Implementing Customer-Oriented
strategy - marketers must conduct research to
understand the various groups of consumers
within the market place
▸ Selecting the Target Market- understanding
consumer behavior helps marketers determine
which consumer groups are appropriate targets for
marketing tactics.
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Marketing Implications of Consumer Behavior
▸ Developing Products - developing goods and services that
satisfy consumers' wants and needs is a critical marketing
activity. Marketers apply consumer research when making a
number of decision about products and branding.
▸ Positioning- strategic choice is deciding how an offering
should be positioned in consumers' minds.
▸ Making Promotion and Marketing Communication Decisions-
research can help companies make decisions about
promotional/ marketing communication tools.
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Marketing Implications of Consumer Behavior
Making Pricing Decision- price of the product or service can
have a critical influence on consumers' acquisition, usage
and disposition decisions.
▸ Making Distribution Decision- Another important marketing
decision involves how products are distributed and sold to
consumer retail stores.
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Consumer behavior research methods
▸ Surveys-one of the most familiar tool
▸ Focus groups-brings together groups of 6-12
persons
▸ Interviews-it involves direct contact with customers
▸ Storytelling-consumers tell researchers stories
about their experiences with a product
▸ Photography and pictures-using a technique in
which they show pictures of experience to help
consumers remember and report experiences
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Consumer behavior research methods
▸ Diaries-asking consumers to keep diaries can
provide important insights into their behavior
including product purchasing and media usage.
▸ Experiments-conducting experiments to determine
whether certain marketing phenomena affect
consumer behavior.
▸ Field experiment-conducting experiments in the
real world
▸ Database marketing-marketers can dig deeper into
