Consumer Behavior Midterm Material Flashcards
What is Consumer Behavior?
Consumer behavior is the analysis of how consumers allocate their time and thoughts in the process of buying, using, and disposing of products.
Model of Consumer Behavior
(feelings, goals, thoughts, needs, attitudes, etc.) –> 4P’s (price, promotion, product, place) —> Marketing —-> black box of consumer —–> response
Why try to understand consumers?
Marketers want to influence consumers:
Targeting, promo, new product development, etc.
To influence consumers, we need to understand them:
Need to consider not only what consumers prefer, but also why they prefer it
Who needs to understand CB?
- Marketing Managers
- Ethicists/Advocacy Groups
- Public Policy Makers/Regulators
- Academics
- Consumers
What are the steps in the Loyalty Loop?
- Initial consideration set
- Active evaluation, information gathering, shopping
- Moment of purchase
- Post purchase experience/exposure
- trigger; loop reset
Why do we conduct consumer research?
- To provide data that provides basic insights into how consumers think, feel, and decide.
- Inform marketing strategy and tactics
- Understand consumer wants and needs
- Understand what drives perceived value
- Understand satisfaction and loyalty
- To guide the 4 P’s
You have been hired by Michelin to develop a new ad campaign for their tires. What kind of data might you gather?
possibility: sales data from past purchases
-prices paid
-time bw purchases
-location of purchase
-characteristics of buyer
analysis: regression that explains sales as a function of demographic characteristics of the buyer
problem: inferring causation. suppose we find that most Michelin tire purchases are made by men aged 30-45 during the summer months. should we design an ad campaign that features this combination? No.
Example survey: Asks about price, brand name, and warranty. However this is not exhaustive.
Types of Consumer Research
Quantitative:
-secondary data: uses already-avail data (e.g. sales, clickstreams) to infer prefs and buying patterns
-primary data: surveys directly measure consumer prefs
Qualitative:
-depth interviews, focus groups, projective techniques
-potentially provides deeper insights, but use of small samples makes generalization difficult
What are the weaknesses of surveys?
- The researcher may have not asked about attributes that are important
- Consumers many not have conscious insights into their own preferences
- The factors “interact” in determining importance (e.g., the importance of price may depend on the brand name) - “perfect painting example for each country”
- Respondents may “strategically misrepresent” their preferences (i.e., they are not totally honest) - handwashing by gender/country example
Correlation and Causation
Correlation
- Relationship between two
variables
Causation
- One variable affects another variable
Correlation does not equal causation.
What’s needed for causation:
- Correlation
- Temporal antecedence
- No third factor driving both
causation: stork and baby example
1) correlation: storks and babies in same house
2) temporal antecedence: storks –> baby
3) no 3rd factor driving both –> NOT TRUE
the 3rd factor is that houses are warmer with pregnant women!!
Spurious Correlation
The danger of data mining is that lots of things are correlated, but not really related.
- fulfills all of the requirements for causation, but there is still no causation.
- e.g. “number of people who drowned by falliing into a pool correlates with films nicolas cage appeared in”
Experimental Research
Test hypotheses about causal relationship between
variables
- Independent Variable (IV) (or Factor)
◦ Conditions or treatments
◦ Manipulated to see if
affect dependent
variable(s) - Dependent Variable (DV)
◦ Measured to see if
affected by independent
variable(s)
Magic of Random Assignment
suppose randomly assigned some ppl to see an online fb ad, and others not.
In large groups, anything affecting sign-ups other than ad affects both groups equally
-gender? income level? fb activity?
equated across ad and no-ad groups!
Examples of Qualitative Research
- Depth Interview
- Focus groups
- Projective techniques
Observational Research
Making and recording observations of behavior in an objective manner
- Observing what, inferring why
Systematic Coding Methods
◦ Deciding what to observe
◦ Deciding how to record observations
Observation Research Limitations
- Typically explores fewer consumers in depth
- Must infer causes
- Difficult to observe consumers in natural settings without causing reactivity
Designing an experiment
- What would be your independent variable (i.e., what you manipulate)?
- What would be your dependent variable (i.e., what you measure)?
- How would you randomly assign participants?
- What might be some issues you run into?
ZMET - Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique - assumptions
- Developed in the 1990s by two academics: Jerry Olson (Penn State) and Gerry Zaltman (Harvard)
Assumptions:
1. Most Communication is nonverbal.
2. Thoughts occur as images
3. Metaphors are essential units of thought
ZMET Process
- Respondents (usually 20) are given several days to gather 12 pictures that they associate with the topic of interest (e.g., a brand)
- Participants typically engage in 5-6 hours of preparation for interview
- Guided Interview explores images (7-10 days later)
- Uses computer program to create a collage which illustrates sub-conscious thoughts/feelings
Goal: find or develop a “strategic” metaphor that capture the core (deep) meaning of the marketing strategy
Motivation
Definition: Inner state of activation that provides energy needed to achieve a goal
Consequences:
- Willingness to engage in high effort behavior
- Motivated to acquire, use, or dispose of a product
- Motivated to engage in high-effort information processing and decision making
Consumers expend more effort when:
- Issue is personally relevant
- Consistent with values (Enduring beliefs that a given
behavior or outcome is desirable or good) - Needs are unsatisfied
- Goals are at stake
Maslow’s Hierarchy
Physiological, Safety, Social, Egotistic, Self-actualization
Issues with Maslow
- Needs not always fulfilled in the order presented
- Different cultures have different values
- Intensity of needs also influences motivation
4 Basic Needs
Need for esteem: motivated to build and maintain positive self esteem
Need for control: want to feel that they are in control of what happens to them
Need for belonging: want acceptance and connections to others
Need for meaningfulness: seek out ways to create things of significance and permanence that will endure
Why are needs important?
If people recognize a need, they’ll be more motivated to:
a) Process information relevant to that need
b) Stronger attitude toward product
Using Need Recognition in Marketing
What can you do with this understanding?
◦ Segment on needs
◦ Develop need-satisfying offerings
◦ Use needs in marketing communications
Coke Case: Why successful before the switch?
- Coherent and appealing brand meaning
◦ Strong connection with consumer culture of the 30s, 40s, and 50s:
◦ Contributed TO the culture (Santa, Rockwell’s art) - Coherent product, price, and distribution strategy
◦ One taste the world over, formula a sacred cow
◦ Extensive distribution
◦ Affordable price
Pepsi Strategy
- for younger individuals
- Coke old and traditional
- ## Pepsi Challenge (“tastes better”)
Why was new coke introduced?
- Soft Drink category was shrinking
- Tastes were changing and Coke had not
- Supermarket share was declining versus Pepsi (1984)
Issues with Coke Market Research
- Participants not told that by picking one they would lose the other
- Symbolic value of coke: they asked the wrong question
- Discounted the minority who opposed the change in focus groups
- Discounted callers who complained
Where did Coke go wrong?
Focused on product attribute: taste– not on the impact on the
“brand relationship”
Perceptual Process
Exposure –> Attention –> Perception
Exposure
Exposure is the process by which the consumer comes into contact with a stimulus
Effects:
- Increases brand awareness and recognition (which brings your brand into consumers’ consideration set)
- Without it, there is no opportunity to process
Selective Exposure
Consumers decide what they’ll be exposed to
How to influence selective exposure
◦ Ad repetition
◦ Product placement
◦ Spreading ads across different channels
◦ Make entertaining ads, hoping they’ll go “viral”?
Value Placement
- Screen time
- Character building
- Awareness and recall
- Business function
Mere exposure effect
People tend to develop a preference for things or people that are more familiar to them than others. Repeated exposure increases familiarity.
Mere exposure - Dasani
Consumers viewed 20 photographs with people for 2 seconds each:
◦ 0,4, or 12 photos had a Dasani water bottle
More exposure to Dasani in images = picking dasani more out of the four brands offered
“Central” product placement vs. “Non-central” product placement
Recall boost: 50% vs. 14%
Recognition boost: 78% vs. 32%
- Better memory when blatant
- Better associations when subtle
Know your objective
◦ Generate awareness and recall?
◦ Increase familiarity and attractiveness?
Characteristics of Attention
- Limited
- Selective
- Capable of being divided