Test 4: Situational Influences

Question 1

Do companies change their marketing tactics geographically depending on the weather and how it is changing?

Answer 1

YES!

Examples:

1. Italy – vendors selling umbrellas on the street when raining
2. Campbell Soup – “misery index”
3. Lands’ End – coats in the fall and summer clothes in the spring

Question 2

Define: “Situational influence”

Answer 2

All factors particular to a time and place that do not follow from a knowledge of the stable attributes of the consumer and the stimulus and that have an effect on current behavior.

Short version: Consumers often behave very different depending on the situation

Question 3

Do Consumers respond to stimuli such as advertisement and products presented by marketers in isolation?

Answer 3

NO!

*They do not respond to stimuli such as advertisements and products presented by marketers in isolation

Instead..
*They respond to marketing influences and the situation simultaneously

Question 4

What 3 thing do we need to know about, if we wanna understand the consumer behavior ?

Answer 4

To understand the consumer’s behavior, we must know about the 1. consumer; 2. about the primary stimulus object, such as a product or advertisement that the consumer is responding to; and 3. about the situation in which the response is occurring

Question 5

Name the 4 types of situation:

Answer 5

1. The Communications Situation
2. The Purchase Situation
3. The Usage Situation
4. The Disposition Situation

Question 6

Situations can be described on a number of dimensions which determine their influence on consumer behavior.\

Name the 5 dimensions or characteristics:

Answer 6

1. Physical surroundings
2. Social surroundings
3. Temporal perspectives
4. Task definition
5. Antecedent states

Question 7

What is store atmosphere/physical surroundings ?

Answer 7

The sum of all the physical features of a retail environment.

• Atmospherics influences consumer judgments of the quality of the store and the store’s image.
• Atmosphere is referred to as servicescape when describing a service business such as a hospital, bank or restaurant.

Question 8

Explain the Typology of Service Environments (Utilitarian and Hedonic vs. Small amount of time to large amount of time)

Answer 8

Look up answer in slide 25 (If you can’t remember)

Examples:

Question 9

What are the components of physical surroundings ?

Answer 9

• Colors
• Aromas
• Music
• Crowding

Question 10

What is temporal perspectives ?

Answer 10

Temporal perspectives deal with the effect of time on consumer behavior.

• Limited purchase time often limits search.
• Internet shopping is growing rapidly as a result of the time pressures felt by consumers.

Question 11

What is task definition ?

Answer 11

Task definition is the reason the consumption activity is occurring.

Major distinction between purchases for self versus gift.

Consumers give gifts for many reasons:
social expectations; ritualized situations; and to elicit return favors

Question 12

What is Antecedent States?

Answer 12

Antecedent States are features of the individual person that are not lasting characteristics, such as momentary moods or conditions.

2 Types of Antecedent States:

• Moods (transient feeling states)
• Momentary Conditions (temporary states of being)

Question 13

What is ritual situations ?

Answer 13

A ritual situation is a socially defined occasion that triggers a set of interrelated behaviors that occur in a structured format and that have symbolic meaning.

• Critical to marketers because they often involve prescribed consumption behaviors.
• -ritual behavior can involve injurious consumption, such as binge drinking

Question 14

Does situations happen randomly ?

Answer 14

It is important to know that individuals do not encounter situations randomly.
* Most people “create” many of the situations they face

Marketers’ must:

• seek to identify the different situations that might involve the consumption of a product
• remember that momentary conditions reflect temporary states of being

Question 15

Go through the 5 steps for developing Situation Based Marketing Strategies:

Answer 15

1. Use observational studies, focus group discussions, depth interviews, and secondary data to discover the various usage satiations that influence the consumption of the product.
2. Survey a larger sample of consumers to better understand and quantify how the product is used and the benefits sought in the usage situation by the market segment.
3. Construct a person-situation segmentation matrix.
4. Evaluate each cell in terms of potential.
5. Develop and implement a marketing strategy for those cells that offer sufficient profit potential given your capabilities.