Chapter 5/Consumer Behavior Flashcards
Economic Buyers:
People who know all the facts and logically compare choices to get the greatest satisfaction from spending their time and money. Consumers are assumed to be economic buyers.
Economic Needs:
Concerned with making the best use of a consumer’s time and money as the consumer judges it.
• A consumer’s ability to satisfy economic needs is largely dependent upon their income
Discretionary Income:
What is left of income after paying taxes and paying necessities. Spent on “luxuries.” However, it is not a solid concept, because the definition of necessities differs from family to family and over time.
Consumer confidence affects spending as well; in a strong economy, consumers are more confident and secure in their jobs and so are more likely to spend more money.
Needs:
The basic forces that motivate a person to do something. Can involve physical well-being, self-view, and relationship with others. Many are culturally/socially learned.
Wants:
“Needs” that are learned during a person’s life; not essential to survival.
Drive:
A strong stimulus that encourages action to reduce a need. They are internal reasons behind certain behavior patterns.
Hierarchy of Needs:
From bottom (more basic) to top: Physiological Needs Safety Needs Social Needs Personal Needs
Physiological Needs:
Concerned with biological needs such as food, liquid, rest, and sex.
Safety Needs:
Concerned with protection and physical well-being (concerned with health, financial security, medicine, and exercise). An example of this is when Charmin created luxury public restrooms in Times Square (as stores do not let noncustomers use their restrooms).
Personal Needs:
Concerned with the need for personal satisfaction, unrelated to what others think or do (e.g. accomplishment, freedom, fun, relaxation, and the desire to make the world a better place).
Perception:
How people gather and interpret information from the world around them. Consumers meet needs in different ways because of differences in perception.
Selective Exposure:
People’s eyes and minds seek out and notice only information that interests them.
Selective Perception:
People screen out or modify ideas, messages, and information that conflict with previously learned attitudes and beliefs.
Selective Retention:
People remember only what they want to remember.
These selective processes help explain why some people are not affected by some advertising.
Learning:
A change in a person’s though process caused by prior experience. Often based on direct experience, but may also be based on indirect experiences or associations. Almost all consumer behavior is learned.
Cues:
Stimuli in the environment such as products, signs, ads.
Response:
An effort to satisfy a drive. The response chosen depends on the cues and the person’s past experience.
Reinforcement (of learning):
Occurs when response is followed by satisfaction/reduction in drive. Reinforcement strengthens the relationship between a cue and a response. Repeated reinforcement leads to habits.
Marketers often try to add cues or images that have positive associations from other situations to their marketing mix. An example of this is how lemon scent is added to household cleaning products because many people associate the smell of it with cleanliness.
Attitude:
A person’s point of view toward something. Involve liking or disliking. Attitudes alone are not good predictors of intentions to buy.
Belief:
A person’s opinion about something. May shape consumer’s attitudes, but don’t necessarily involving liking or disliking.
Consumer attitudes tend to be enduring, so marketers usually try to work with existing attitudes rather than changing them.
Expectation:
A combination of attitudes and beliefs; an outcome or event that a person anticipates or looks forward to.
Trust:
The confidence a person has in the promises or actions of another person, brand, or company. Trust drives expectations, because when people trust, they expect the other party to fulfill promises or perform capably. Trust lends many advantages to companies in the marketplace.
Psychographics/Lifestyle Analysis:
The analysis of a person’s day-to-day pattern of living as expressed in that person’s activities, interests, and opinions (AIOs). By understanding the lifestyles of target customers, marketers have a more human portrait of the target market, which is helpful in providing ideas for advertising themes.
Empty Nesters:
People whose children are grown and who are now able to spend their money in other ways. This is usually a high-income period and they are an attractive market for many items.
Marketers have to consider who makes the decisions in family purchases; usually buying responsibility and influence vary greatly depending on the product and the family.
