Consumer behaviour Flashcards
what is the definition of consumer behaviour? Cite a study.
consumer behaviour refers to the study of how customers, both individual and organisations, satisfy their needs and wants by choosing, purchasing, using, and disposing of goods, ideas, and services (AMA, 2021)
what are the 5 stages of the Consumer Decision-Making (CDM) process? and offer and example to illustrate how marketers may target each stage.
- Problem recognition: need a new phone
- Information search: search online for reviews, prices, etc.
- Evaluation of alternatives: compare between a favoured few phones and packages.
- Product choice: decide on one phone (perhaps because of a favoured attribute).
- Post Purchase evaluation: receive poor reception, take the phone back to shop only to find that you would need to buy yourself out of the contract as you bought in store (if you bought online, you could cancel the agreement, etc) results in frustration and dissatisfaction, begin to communicate this dissatisfaction to friends and colleagues, this is not good for marketers in the long run.
How would you make a product/service more involving for consumers?
- make it more personal; allow personalisation (like how coca cola, dairy milk, and apple products allow you to have your name on it).
- adding features to target a specific group: for tissues, adding a moisturising effect - would attract women, older people and younger babies. Making a ‘sensitive’ alternative to attract more consumers. In turn, this would improve the company image as they are considering options to satisfy a wide variety of consumer needs.
Define what internal, social, and situational influences mean on CDM and offer an example.
Internal: the attitudes, motivation, beliefs, and feelings of a consumer.
E.g. a consumer who believes in cruelty free products may avoid products that don’t visibly mention they use cruelty free products.
Social: Social media, stereotypes, trends.
E.g. there is a growing trend of buying cargo pants, therefore there are many consumers who think they need one too.
Situational: seasonal holidays, dates, weddings, etc.
E.g. a consumer is going on a date, so they feel inclined to spend more money than usual, and may purchase expensive clothes or gifts to accommodate.
What good is knowing consumer behaviour?
- Marketers try to work out how consumers respond to the the different elements of the marketing mix (Product, Place, Price, Promotion)
- To help, academics and practitioners have created models of buyer behaviour to explain the stages of the buying process.
- allows markets to target communications and promotional offers.
- recognise that the person who uses a product may not be the most influential in choosing it.
Describe the consumer roles in the decision making unit.
Initiator: starts the process, may gather acknowledgement; e.g. bring home a holiday flier.
Influencer: attempts to persuade the others.
Decider: has the financial power to make the final decision.
Buyer: the person who conducts the transition; makes the payment, visits stores/website.
User: the actual consumer.
what are the stages of the consumer decision making process?
Need (recognition/problem awareness) > information search > evaluation of alternatives > purchase > post-purchase evaluation of alternatives
what are the involvement levels when purchasing a good/service? what does this mean?
High involvement: requires lots of time, effort, and attention to make an informed decision.
Low involvement: requires limited attention, unconscious, simple.
how do marketers make their product/service appeal more to the consumers? Name a source:
- appeal to the consumer’s hedonistic needs.
- use celebrity endorsement
- link the brand with personal situations
- use creativity or attention grabbing imagery and stimuli.
‘if the advertising merely excites your curiosity or interest, that will be enough.’ Maloney, 1962
What are the types of learning and perception that could affect consumer behaviour? Cite studies.
Operant learning: learning through rewards; having a point card system with bubble tea makes you ‘work’ towards the end to get a free cup, making the consumer feel rewarded when they make a purchase.
Classical conditioning: Skinner (1954) states this as ‘reinforcement’, when a stimuli becomes association to something: when an iconic song is used in a food advert, whenever that song comes on, the consumer will associate that song with the food item and suddenly think about it, either wanting to eat it or remembering it exists.
Social learning: Bandura (1977) states this as ‘modelling’, when buyers are influenced by others around them. this is shown when parents buy particular brands, and in turn, affect their children and cause them to grow and buy the same brands.
Explain Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of consumer needs, starting from the top of the triangle (5 levels), and what this means for consumer behaviour.
- Self-actualisation
- Esteem and status
- Belongingness
- Safety
- Physiological
This explains the priority consumers have before purchasing a product/service (starting from physiological, practical needs).
What are ways marketers could engage consumers with strong beliefs?
- developing favourable beliefs and attitudes to give off an image and stand for messages that consumers do.
How does Apple try to meet consumer needs? Cite a source.
Carrigan (2017) shows new generations value minimalism, decluttering, less ownership.
Cognitive dissonance is when a customer is dissatisfied with a purchase. What responses may happen due to this?
- Return the product
- Never buy again
- Choose a competitor
How does consumer behaviour link with the marketing mix? Provide an example.
Being aware of CB allows organisations to better understand their consumers and their market to adjust the 4 P’s better to meet the needs and demands of consumers.
An example would be changing a product packaging to fit the ideals of their market, making it more appealing to purchase.
