Consumer Behaviour

Question 1

What is a consumer?

Answer 1

A consumer is a person who
identifies a need or desire, makes
a purchase, and then disposes of
the product.

Question 2

What is consumer behaviour?

Answer 2

the study of the
processes involved when individuals or
groups select, purchase, use, or dispose
of products, services, ideas, or
experiences to satisfy needs and
desires.

Question 3

Why study consumer behaviour?

Answer 3

. No brand/product can appeal to all people

. Companies must position their offerings in the hearts and minds of their segmented market in a favourable way to win market share over the competition

. consumer response may often be the ultimate
test of whether or not a marketing strategy
will succeed

. consumer demands are constantly changing

Question 4

What are the key questions in understanding consumers?

Answer 4

. Who is important in the buying decision?
. What are their choice criteria?
. When do they buy?
. Where do they buy?
. How do they buy?

Question 5

What is the decision-making unit?

Answer 5

The different actors involved in the buying process

Question 6

Who are the actors in the decision-making unit?

Answer 6

. Initiator: the person who begins the process of considering a purchase. Information may be gathered by this person to help the decision.

. Influencer: the person who attempts to persuade others in the group concerning the outcome of the decision. Influencers typically gather information and attempt to impose their choice criteria on the decision.

. Decider: the individual with the power and/or financial authority to make the ultimate choice regarding which product to buy.

. Buyer: the person who conducts the transaction. The buyer calls the supplier, visits the store, makes the payment and effects delivery.

. User: the actual consumer/user of the product

Question 7

What is an example product and the actors involved?

Answer 7

Games console:
. Child may be the initiator, influencer and user
. Parents are the decider and buyer

Question 8

What are the stages in the decision making process?

Answer 8

1. Need recognition
2. Information search
3. Evaluation of alternatives
4. Purchase decision
5. Post-purchase behaviour

Question 9

Explain the need recognition stage and give an example?. What affects whether they make the purchase?

Answer 9

The identification of a need to purchase a particular good. This need can be functional (e.g petrol) or psychological (new branded perfume for a wedding).

The degree to which they intend to solve the problem= the magnitude of the differential between the desired and present situation, and the relative importance of the problem

Arguably most critical stage, without purchase=rarely buy

Question 10

Explain the information search stage and give an example?

Answer 10

Aim is to build up the awareness set—that is, the array of brands that may provide a solution to the problem.
This may be internal (memory) or external searches (internet)
e.g researching 6 seaters needed for bigger family

Question 11

What types of sources are involved in the information search? (could be added to)

Answer 11

. personal- family
. commercial- advertising
. public- consumer-rating groups
. experiential- handling, examining, using product

Question 12

Explain the evaluation of alternatives stage and give an example?

Answer 12

The first step in evaluation is to reduce the awareness set to a smaller set of brands for serious consideration. The brands in the awareness set pass through a screening filter to produce an EVOKED SET—those brands that the consumer seriously considers before making a purchase
e.g evoked set of 6 seaters under a particular price

Question 13

What does the level of evaluation depend on?

Answer 13

The level of involvement.
Highly involved-long evaluation (car, house)
Low involvement-short evaluation (food e.g bread)

Question 14

Explain the purchase decision stage and give an example

Answer 14

The final stage where the consumer makes their brand selection from their evoked set which could be swayed from a particular feature e.g the best camera in the market for a phone

Question 15

Explain the post purchase behaviour stage and give an exmaple

Answer 15

It is common for customers to experience some post-purchase concerns; this is called cognitive dissonance. These concerns arise because of uncertainty about making the right decision.
e.g if the decision was difficult and buying one car meant missing out on another feature in another car creating dissonance e.g comfort>fuel economy

Question 16

How can marketeers use post purchase behaviour?

Answer 16

.how consumers evaluate their products
. consumers' feelings and
impressions when using /
after having used the product
. marketeers may use advertisements/direct mail to reduce cognitive dissonance or Telstra=AI which automatically sends post-purchase messages

Question 17

What are the three types of buying situation that can affect decision making?

Answer 17

. Habitual decision making
. Limited decsion making
. Extended problem solving

Question 18

What is habitual decsion making? and give an example

Answer 18

Habitual problem-solving occurs when a consumer repeat-buys the same product with little or no evaluation of alternatives.—e.g, buying the same breakfast cereal on a weekly shopping trip
May due to good last experience, brand name

Question 19

What is the limited decision making process? and give an example

Answer 19

The consumer has some experience with the product in question, so an information search may be mainly internal, through memory. However, a certain amount of external search and evaluation may take place (e.g. checking prices) before purchase is made

Question 20

What is the extedned problem solving process? and give an example

Answer 20

High degree of information search, and close examination of alternative solutions using many choice criteria. e.g involved purchase of a car

Question 21

What might the internal/external information search depend on?

Answer 21

. level of involvement
. lean towards internal due to ease, bias towards brands
-cultural differences- uk more individual, Spain/brazil shown to be influenced by mothers

Question 22

How does the evaluation of alternatives affect marketing?

Answer 22

. short, sharp messages for low involvement

. emphasis positive aspects of product with evidence (high)

Question 23

How does the purchase decision affect marketing?

Answer 23

. Important to make clear usp=unique to other brands. most final decisions may be based on brands-emotional connection to brand personality

Question 24

What conclusions can be made about the consumer buying process?

Answer 24

. model good for basic understanding
. more relevant for extended marketing decisions
. less useful in practice