In marketing, advertisements or salespeople can activate a consumer's purchase decision process by

5

Understanding Consumer Behavior

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading this chapter you should be able to:

LO 5-1Describe the stages in the consumer purchase decision process.

LO 5-2Distinguish among three variations of the consumer purchase decision process: routine, limited, and extended problem solving.

LO 5-3Identify the major psychological influences on consumer behavior.

LO 5-4Identify the major sociocultural influences on consumer behavior.

ENLIGHTENED CARMAKERS KNOW WHAT CUSTOM(H)ERS VALUE

Who makes 60 percent of new-car buying decisions? Who influences 80 percent of new-car buying decisions? Women. Yes, women.

Women are a driving force in the U.S. automobile industry. Enlightened carmakers have hired women designers, engineers, and marketing executives to better understand and satisfy this valuable car buyer and influencer. What have they learned? While car price and quality are important, women and men think and feel differently about car features and key elements of the new-car buying decision process and experience.

•The sense of styling. Women and men care about styling. For men, styling is more about a car’s exterior lines and accents or “curb appeal.” Women are more interested in interior design and finishes. Designs that fit their proportions, provide good visibility, offer ample storage space, and make for effortless parking are particularly important.

•The need for speed. Both sexes want speed, but for different reasons. Men think about how many seconds it takes to get from zero to 60 miles per hour. Women want to feel secure that the car has enough acceleration to outrun an 18-wheeler trying to pass them on a freeway entrance ramp.

•The substance of safety. Safety for men is about features that help avoid an accident, such as antilock brakes and responsive steering. For women, safety is about features that help to survive an accident. These features include passenger airbags and reinforced side panels.

•The shopping experience. The new-car-buying experience differs between men and women in important ways. Generally, men decide up front what car they want and set out alone to find it. By contrast, women approach it as an intelligence-gathering expedition. Referred to as CROPing, women shoppers look for CRedible OPinions. They actively seek information and postpone a purchase decision until all options have been evaluated. Women, more frequently than men, visit auto-buying websites, read car-comparison articles, and scan car advertisements. Still, recommendations of friends and relatives matter most to women. Women typically shop three dealerships before making a purchase decision—one more than men.

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Carmakers have learned that women, more than men, dislike the car-buying experience—specifically, the experience of dealing with car salespeople. In contrast to many male car buyers, women do not typically revel in the gamesmanship of car buying. “Men get all excited about going out to buy a car and talk about how they’re going to one-up the salesman and get a great deal,” said Anne Fleming, president of www.women-drivers.com, a consumer ratings site. “I’ve never heard or seen any comments from women like that.” In particular, women dread the price negotiations that are often involved in buying a new car. Not surprisingly, about half of women car buyers take a man with them to finalize the terms of sale.1

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This chapter examines consumer behavior , the actions a person takes in purchasing and using products and services, including the mental and social processes that come before and after these actions. This chapter shows how the behavioral sciences help answer questions such as why people choose one product or brand over another, how they make these choices, and how companies use this knowledge to provide value to consumers.

CONSUMER PURCHASE DECISION PROCESS AND EXPERIENCE

Behind the visible act of making a purchase lies an important decision process and consumer experience that must be investigated. The stages a buyer passes through in making choices about which products and services to buy is the purchase decision process . This process has the five stages shown in Figure 5–1: (1) problem recognition, (2) information search, (3) alternative evaluation, (4) purchase decision, and (5) postpurchase behavior.

LO 5-1Describe the stages in the consumer purchase decision process.

Problem Recognition: Perceiving a Need

Problem recognition, the initial step in the purchase decision, is perceiving a difference between a person’s ideal and actual situations big enough to trigger a decision.2 This can be as simple as finding an empty milk carton in the refrigerator; noting, as a first-year college student, that your high school clothes are not in the style that other students are wearing; or realizing that your notebook computer may not be working properly.

In marketing, advertisements or salespeople can activate a consumer’s decision process by showing the shortcomings of competing (or currently owned) products. For instance, an advertisement for a new generation smartphone could stimulate problem recognition because it emphasizes “maximum use from one device.”

Information Search: Seeking Value

After recognizing a problem, a consumer begins to search for information, the next stage in the purchase decision process. First, you may scan your memory for previous experiences with products or brands.3 This action is called internal search. For frequently purchased products such as shampoo and conditioner, this may be enough.

In other cases, a consumer may undertake an external search for information.4 This is needed when past experience or knowledge is insufficient, the risk of making a wrong purchase decision is high, and the cost of gathering information is low. The primary sources of external information are (1) personal sources, such as relatives and friends whom the consumer trusts; (2) public sources, including various product-rating organizations such as Consumer Reports, government agencies, and TV “consumer programs”; and (3) marketer-dominated sources,such as information from sellers including advertising, company websites, salespeople, and point-of-purchase displays in stores.

FIGURE 5–1

The purchase decision process consists of five stages.

Suppose you are considering buying a new smartphone. You will probably tap several of these information sources: friends and relatives, advertisements, brand and company websites, and stores carrying these phones (for demonstrations). You also might study the comparative evaluation of selected smartphones appearing in Consumer Reports, a portion of which appears in Figure 5–2.5

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FIGURE 5–2

Consumer Reports provides an evaluation of smartphones for consumers.

Source: “Ratings: Smart Phones,” Consumer Reports (August 2013), p. 39. This excerpted list of smartphones is only for Verizon customers. These smartphones are listed alphabetically and not in the order of their ratings.

Consumer Reports

www.consumerreports.org

Alternative Evaluation: Assessing Value

The alternative evaluation stage clarifies the problem for the consumer by (1) suggesting criteria to use for the purchase, (2) yielding brand names that might meet the criteria, and (3) developing consumer value perceptions. Given only the information shown in Figure 5–2, which selection criteria would you use in buying a smartphone? Would you use price, display quality, voice quality, messaging, web browsing, camera image quality, battery life, or some other combination of these or other criteria?

For some of you, the information provided may be inadequate because it does not contain all the factors you might consider when evaluating smartphones. These factors are a consumer’s evaluative criteria , which represent both the objective attributes of a brand (such as display) and the subjective ones (such as prestige) you use to compare different products and brands.6 Firms try to identify and capitalize on both types of criteria to create the best value for the money paid by you and other consumers. These criteria are often displayed in advertisements.

Consumers often have several criteria for evaluating brands. Knowing this, companies seek to identify the most important evaluative criteria that consumers use when comparing brands. For example, among the seven criteria shown in Figure 5–2, suppose you use four in considering smartphones: (1) a retail price of $200 or less, (2) excellent messaging capability, (3) good voice quality, and (4) very good to excellent camera image quality. These criteria establish the brands in your consideration set —the group of brands a consumer would consider acceptable from among all the brands in the product class of which he or she is aware.7

This advertisement for the Dröid Razr Maxx HD by Motorola focuses on the brand’s extended battery life, which limits the need for frequent charging, often at awkward times and places.

Your evaluative criteria result in two brands, Samsung and Motorola, and their respective models (the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the Motorola Dröid Razr Maxx HD and Dröid 4) in your consideration set. If the brand alternatives are equally attractive based on your original criteria, you might expand your list of desirable features. For example, you might decide that battery life is also important and compare the alternatives based on that criterion as well.

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Purchase Decision: Buying Value

Having examined the alternatives in the consideration set, you are almost ready to make a purchase decision. Two choices remain: (1) from whom to buy and (2) when to buy. For a product like a smartphone, the information search process probably involved visiting retail stores, seeing different brands advertised on television and newspapers, and viewing a smartphone on a seller’s website. The choice of which seller to buy from will depend on such considerations as the terms of sale, your past experience buying from the seller, and the return policy. Often a purchase decision involves a simultaneous evaluation of both product attributes and seller characteristics. For example, you might choose the second-most preferred smartphone brand at a store or website with a liberal refund and return policy versus the most preferred brand from a seller with more conservative policies.

Deciding when to buy is determined by a number of factors. For instance, you might buy sooner if one of your preferred brands is on sale or its manufacturer offers a rebate. Other factors such as the store atmosphere, pleasantness or ease of the shopping experience, salesperson assistance, time pressure, and financial circumstances could also affect whether a purchase decision is made now or postponed.8

Use of the Internet to gather information, evaluate alternatives, and make buying decisions adds a technological dimension to the consumer purchase decision process and buying experience. For example, 45 percent of consumers with price comparison smartphone apps routinely compare prices for identical products across different sellers at the point of purchase prior to making a purchase decision.9

Postpurchase Behavior: Realizing Value

After buying a product, the consumer compares it with his or her expectations and is either satisfied or dissatisfied. If the consumer is dissatisfied, marketers must determine whether the product was deficient or consumer expectations were too high. Product deficiency may require a design change. If expectations are too high, a company’s advertising or the salesperson may have oversold the product’s features and benefits.

Sensitivity to a customer’s consumption or use experience is extremely important in a consumer’s value perception. For example, research on telephone services provided by Sprint and AT&T indicates that satisfaction or dissatisfaction affects consumer value perceptions.10Studies show that satisfaction or dissatisfaction affects consumer communications and repeat-purchase behavior. Satisfied buyers tell three other people about their experience. In contrast, about 90 percent of dissatisfied buyers will not buy a product again and will complain to nine people.11 Satisfied buyers also tend to buy from the same seller each time a purchase occasion arises. The financial impact of repeat-purchase behavior is significant, as described in the Marketing Matters box.12

Firms such as General Electric (GE), Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, and British Airways focus attention on postpurchase behavior to maximize customer satisfaction and retention. These firms, among many others, now provide toll-free telephone numbers, offer liberalized return and refund policies, and engage in extensive staff training to handle complaints, answer questions, record suggestions, and solve consumer problems. For example, GE has a database that stores 750,000 answers regarding about 8,500 of its models in 120 product lines to handle 3 million calls annually. Such efforts produce positive postpurchase communications among consumers and foster relationship building between sellers and buyers.

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Marketing Matters

customer value

How Much Is a Satisfied Customer Worth?

Customer satisfaction and experience underlie the marketing concept. But how much is a satisfied customer worth?

This question has prompted firms to calculate the financial value of a satisfied customer over time. Frito-Lay, for example, estimates that the average loyal consumer in the Southwestern United States eats 21 pounds of snack chips a year. At a price of $2.50 a pound, this customer spends $52.50 annually on the company’s snacks such as Lay’s and Ruffles potato chips, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips, and Fritos corn chips. Exxon estimates that a loyal customer will spend $500 annually for its branded gasoline, not including candy, snacks, oil, or repair services purchased at its gasoline stations. Kimberly-Clark reports that a loyal customer will buy 6.7 boxes of its Kleenex tissues each year and will spend $994 on facial tissues over 60 years, in today’s dollars.

These calculations have focused marketer attention on the buying experience, customer satisfaction, and retention. Ford Motor Company set a target of increasing customer retention—the percentage of Ford owners whose next car is also a Ford—from 60 percent to 80 percent. Why? Ford executives say that each additional percentage point is worth a staggering $100 million in profits.

This calculation is not unique to Ford. Research shows that a 5 percent improvement in customer retention can increase a company’s profits by 70 to 80 percent.

Often a consumer is faced with two or more highly attractive alternatives, such as an Samsung Galaxy S4 or Motorola Dröid Razr Maxx HD. If you choose the Galaxy S4, you might think, “Should I have purchased the Dröid Razr Maxx HD?” This feeling of postpurchase psychological tension or anxiety is called cognitive dissonance . To alleviate it, consumers often attempt to applaud themselves for making the right choice. So after your purchase, you may seek information to confirm your choice by asking friends questions like, “Don’t you like my new phone?” or by reading ads of the brand you chose. You might even look for negative features about the brands you didn’t buy and decide that the Dröid Razr Maxx HD smartphone did not feel right. Firms often use ads or follow-up calls from salespeople in this postpurchase behavior stage to comfort buyers that they made the right decision. For many years, Buick ran an advertising campaign with the message, “Aren’t you really glad you bought a Buick?”

LO 5-2Distinguish among three variations of the consumer purchase decision process: routine, limited, and extended problem solving.

Consumer Involvement Affects Problem Solving

Sometimes consumers don’t engage in the five-stage purchase decision process. Instead, they skip or minimize one or more stages depending on the level of involvement , the personal, social, and economic significance of the purchase to the consumer.13 High-involvement purchase occasions typically have at least one of three characteristics: The item to be purchased (1) is expensive, (2) can have serious personal consequences, or (3) could reflect on one’s social image. For these occasions, consumers engage in extensive information searches, consider many product attributes and brands, form attitudes, and participate in word-of-mouth communication. Low-involvement purchases, such as toothpaste and soap, barely involve most of us, but audio and video systems and automobiles are very involving.

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FIGURE 5–3

Comparison of problemsolving variations: extended problem solving, limited problem solving, and routine problem solving.

There are three general variations in the consumer purchase decision process based on consumer involvement and product knowledge. Figure 5–3 shows some of the important differences between the three problem-solving variations.

Extended Problem Solving In extended problem solving, each of the five stages of the consumer purchase decision process is used and considerable time and effort are devoted to the search for external information and the identification and evaluation of alternatives. Several brands are in the consideration set, and these are evaluated on many attributes. Extended problem solving exists in high-involvement purchase situations for items such as automobiles and audio systems.

Limited Problem Solving In limited problem solving, consumers typically seek some information or rely on a friend to help them evaluate alternatives. Several brands might be evaluated using a moderate number of attributes. Limited problem solving is appropriate for purchase situations that do not merit a great deal of time or effort, such as choosing a toaster or a restaurant for lunch.

Routine Problem Solving For products such as table salt and milk, consumers recognize a problem, make a decision, and spend little effort seeking external information and evaluating alternatives. The purchase process for such items is virtually a habit and typifies low-involvement decision making. Routine problem solving is typically the case for low-priced, frequently purchased products.

Consumer Involvement and Marketing Strategy Low and high consumer involvement have important implications for marketing strategy. If a company markets a low-involvement product and its brand is a market leader, attention is placed on (1) maintaining product quality, (2) avoiding stockout situations so that buyers don’t substitute a competing brand, and (3) repetitive advertising messages that reinforce a consumer’s knowledge or assure buyers they made the right choice. Market challengers have a different task. They must break buying habits by using free samples, coupons, and rebates to encourage trial of their brand. Advertising messages will focus on getting their brand into a consumer’s consideration set. For example, Campbell’s V8 vegetable juice advertising message—“Could’ve Had a V8”—is targeted at consumers who routinely consider only fruit juices and soft drinks for purchase. Marketers can also link their brand attributes with high-involvement issues. Post Cereals does this by linking consumption of its whole grain cereals with improved heart health and protection against major diseases.

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What does this ad for V8 vegetable juice and its slogan, “Could’ve Had a V8,” have to do with getting the brand into a consumer’s consideration set? Read the text to find out.

Marketers of high-involvement products know that their consumers constantly seek and process information about objective and subjective brand attributes, form evaluative criteria, rate product attributes in various brands, and combine these ratings for an overall brand evaluation—like that described in the smartphone purchase decision. Market leaders ply consumers with product information through advertising and personal selling and use social media to create online experiences for their company or brand. Market challengers capitalize on this behavior through comparative advertising that focuses on existing product attributes and often introduce novel evaluative criteria for judging competing brands. Challengers also benefit from Internet search engines such as Microsoft Bing and Google that assist buyers of high-involvement products.

Situational Influences That Affect Purchase Decisions

Often the purchase situation will affect the purchase decision process. Five situational influences have an impact on the purchase decision process: (1) the purchase task, (2) social surroundings, (3) physical surroundings, (4) temporal effects, and (5) antecedent states.14

The purchase task is the reason for engaging in the decision. The search for information and the evaluation of alternatives may differ depending on whether the purchase is a gift, which often involves social visibility, or for the buyer’s own use. Social surroundings, including the other people present when a purchase decision is made, may also affect what is purchased. Consumers accompanied by children buy about 40 percent more items than consumers shopping by themselves. Physical surroundings such as decor, music, and crowding in retail stores may alter how purchase decisions are made. Temporal effects such as time of day or the amount of time available will influence where consumers have breakfast and lunch and what is ordered. Finally, antecedent states, which include the consumer’s mood or the amount of cash on hand, can influence purchase behavior and choice. For example, consumers with credit cards purchase more than those with cash or debit cards.

Figure 5–4 on the next page shows the many influences that affect the consumer purchase decision process. In addition to situational influences, the decision to buy a product also involves and is affected by important psychological and sociocultural influences. These two influences are covered in the remainder of this chapter. Marketing mix influences are described in Chapters 10 through 20. Chapter 21 elaborates on consumer behavior in the context of online information search and buying.

learning review

5-1. What is the first stage in the consumer purchase decision process?

5-2. The brands a consumer considers buying out of the set of brands in a product class of which the consumer is aware are collectively called the _________________.

5-3. What is the term for postpurchase anxiety?

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FIGURE 5–4

Influences on the consumer purchase decision process come from both internal and external sources.

PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Psychology helps marketers understand why and how consumers behave as they do. In particular, psychological concepts such as motivation and personality; perception; learning; values, beliefs, and attitudes; and lifestyle are useful for interpreting buying processes and directing marketing efforts.

LO 5-3Identify the major psychological influences on consumer behavior.

Consumer Motivation and Personality

Motivation and personality are two familiar psychological concepts that have specific meanings and marketing implications. These concepts are closely related and are used to explain why people do some things and not others.

Motivation Motivation is the energizing force that stimulates behavior to satisfy a need. Because consumer needs are the focus of the marketing concept, marketers try to arouse these needs.

An individual’s needs are boundless. People possess physiological needs for basics such as water, shelter, and food. They also have learned needs, including self-esteem, achievement, and affection. Psychologists point out that these needs may be hierarchical; that is, once physiological needs are met, people seek to satisfy their learned needs.

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FIGURE 5–5

The Maslow hierarchy of needs is based on the idea that motivation comes from a need. If a need is met, it’s no longer a motivator, so a higher-level need becomes the motivator. Higher-level needs demand support of lower-level needs.

QR 5-1

Match.com Video

Figure 5–5 shows one need hierarchy and classification scheme that contains five need classes.15 Physiological needs are basic to survival and must be satisfied first. A Red Lobster advertisement featuring a seafood salad attempts to activate the need for food. Safety needsinvolve self-preservation as well as physical and financial well-being. Smoke detector and burglar alarm manufacturers focus on these needs, as do insurance companies and retirement plan advisors. Social needs are concerned with love and friendship. Dating services, such asMatch.com and eHarmony, and fragrance companies try to arouse these needs. Personal needs include the need for achievement, status, prestige, and self-respect. The American Express Centurian Card and Brooks Brothers Clothiers appeal to these needs. Sometimes firms try to arouse multiple needs to stimulate problem recognition. Michelin has combined safety with parental love to promote tire replacement for automobiles. Self-actualization needs involve personal fulfillment. For example, a long-running U.S. Army recruiting program invited enlistees to “Be all you can be.”

Personality While motivation is the energizing force that makes consumer behavior purposeful, a consumer’s personality guides and directs behavior. Personality refers to a person’s consistent behaviors or responses to recurring situations.

Although many personality theories exist, most identify key traits—enduring characteristics within a person or in his or her relationships with others. Such traits include assertiveness, extroversion, compliance, dominance, and aggression, among others. These traits are inherited or formed at an early age and change little over the years. Research suggests that compliant people prefer known brand names and use more mouthwash and toilet soaps. Aggressive types use razors, not electric shavers, apply more cologne and aftershave lotions, and purchase signature goods such as Gucci and Yves St. Laurent as an indicator of status.16

These personality characteristics are often revealed in a person’s self-concept , which is the way people see themselves and the way they believe others see them. Marketers recognize that people have an actual self-concept and an ideal self-concept. The actual self refers to how people actually see themselves. The ideal self describes how people would like to see themselves.

These two self-images—actual and ideal—are reflected in the products and brands a person buys, including automobiles, home appliances and furnishings, magazines, consumer electronics, clothing, grooming and leisure products, and frequently, the stores in which a person shops. The importance of self-concept is summed up by a senior marketing executive at Lenovo, a global supplier of notebook computers: “The notebook market is getting more like cars. The car you drive reflects you, and notebooks are becoming a form of self-expression as well.”17

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Making Responsible Decisions

ethics

The Ethics of Subliminal Messages

For over 50 years, the topic of subliminal perception and the presence of subliminal messages and images embedded in commercial communications have sparked heated debate.

The Federal Communications Commission has denounced subliminal messages as deceptive. Still, consumers spend $50 million a year for subliminal messages designed to help them raise their self-esteem, stop compulsive buying, quit smoking, or lose weight. Almost two-thirds of U.S. consumers think subliminal messages are present in commercial communications; about half are firmly convinced that this practice can cause them to buy things they don’t want.

Subliminal messages are not illegal in the United States, however, and marketers are often criticized for pursuing opportunities to create these messages in both electronic and print media. A book by August Bullock, The Secret Sales Pitch, is devoted to this topic. Bullock identifies images and advertisements that he claims contain subliminal messages and describes techniques that can be used for conveying these messages. Do you “see” the subliminal message that is embedded in the book’s cover?

Do you believe that a marketer’s attempts to implant subliminal messages in electronic and print media are a deceptive practice and unethical, regardless of their intent?

Consumer Perception

One person sees a Cadillac as a mark of achievement; another sees it as ostentatious. This is the result of perception —the process by which an individual selects, organizes, and interprets information to create a meaningful picture of the world.

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Selective Perception Because the average consumer operates in a complex environment, the human brain attempts to organize and interpret information with a process called selective perception, a filtering of exposure, comprehension, and retention. Selective exposure occurs when people pay attention to messages that are consistent with their attitudes and beliefs and ignore messages that are inconsistent with them. Selective exposure often occurs in the postpurchase stage of the consumer decision process, when consumers read advertisements for the brand they just bought. It also occurs when a need exists—you are more likely to “see” a McDonald’s advertisement when you are hungry rather than after you have eaten a pizza.

Selective comprehension involves interpreting information so that it is consistent with your attitudes and beliefs. A marketer’s failure to understand this can have disastrous results. For example, Toro introduced a small, lightweight snowblower called the Snow Pup. Even though the product worked, sales failed to meet expectations. Why? Toro later found out that consumers perceived the name to mean that Snow Pup was a toy or too light to do any serious snow removal. When the product was renamed Snow Master, sales increased sharply.18

Selective retention means that consumers do not remember all the information they see, read, or hear, even minutes after exposure to it. This affects the internal and external information search stage of the purchase decision process. This is why furniture and automobile retailers often give consumers product brochures to take home with them when they leave the showroom.

Because perception plays an important role in consumer behavior, it is not surprising that the topic of subliminal perception is a popular item for discussion. Subliminal perception means that you see or hear messages without being aware of them. The presence and effect of subliminal perception on behavior is a hotly debated issue, with more popular appeal than scientific support. Indeed, evidence suggests that such messages have limited effects on behavior.19 If these messages did influence behavior, would their use be an ethical practice? (See the Making Responsible Decisions box.)20

Perceived Risk Perception plays a major role in the perceived risk in purchasing a product or service. Perceived risk represents the anxiety felt because the consumer cannot anticipate the outcomes of a purchase but believes there may be negative consequences. Examples of possible negative consequences are the size of the financial outlay required to buy the product (can I afford $500 for those skis?), the risk of physical harm (is bungee jumping safe?), and the performance of the product (will the whitening toothpaste work?). A more abstract form is psychosocial (what will my friends say about my tattoo?). Perceived risk affects a consumer’s information search. The greater the perceived risk, the more extensive the external search stage is likely to be.

Why does Clorox tout the Good Housekeeping Seal for its Fresh Step cat litter? Why does Mary Kay, Inc., offer a free sample of its Velocity brand fragrance through its website? The answers appear in the text on the next page.

The Clorox Company

www.freshstep.com

Mary Kay, Inc.

www.marvkav.com

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Recognizing the importance of perceived risk, companies develop strategies to reduce the consumer’s perceived risk and encourage purchases. These strategies and examples of firms using them include the following:

•Obtaining seals of approval: The Good Housekeeping Seal for Fresh Step cat litter.

•Securing endorsements from influential people: Endorsements for Promise soft spread from 9 out of 10 cardiologists.

•Providing free trials of the product: Samples of Mary Kay’s Velocity fragrance.

•Giving extensive usage instructions: Clairol hair coloring.

•Providing warranties and guarantees: Kia Motors’s 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty.

Consumer Learning

Much consumer behavior is learned. Consumers learn which information sources to consult for information about products and services, which evaluative criteria to use when assessing alternatives, and, more generally, how to make purchase decisions. Learning refers to those behaviors that result from (1) repeated experience and (2) reasoning.

Behavioral Learning Behavioral learning is the process of developing automatic responses to a situation built up through repeated exposure to it. Four variables are central to how consumers learn from repeated experience: drive, cue, response, and reinforcement. A drive is a need that moves an individual to action. Drives, such as hunger, might be represented by motives. A cue is a stimulus or symbol perceived by consumers. A response is the action taken by a consumer to satisfy the drive. Reinforcement is the reward. Being hungry (drive), a consumer sees a cue (a billboard), takes action (buys a sandwich), and receives a reward (it tastes great!).

Marketers use two concepts from behavioral learning theory. Stimulus generalization occurs when a response elicited by one stimulus (cue) is generalized to another stimulus. Using the same brand name for different products is an application of this concept, such as Tylenol Cold & Flu and Tylenol P.M. Stimulus discrimination refers to a person’s ability to perceive differences in stimuli. Consumers’ tendency to perceive all light beers as being alike led to Budweiser Light commercials that distinguished between many types of “light beers” and Bud Light.

How does this advertisement for Tylenol 8-Hour apply to cognitive learning? Read the text to find out.

Tylenol

www.tylenol.com

Cognitive Learning Consumers also learn through thinking, reasoning, and mental problem solving without direct experience. This type of learning, called cognitive learning, involves making connections between two or more ideas or simply observing the outcomes of others’ behaviors and adjusting your own accordingly. Firms also influence this type of learning. Through repetition in advertising, messages such as “Feel Better, Tylenol 8-Hour” link a brand (Tylenol 8-Hour) and an idea (pain reliever) by showing someone using the brand and finding relief.

Brand Loyalty Learning is also important to marketers because it relates to habit formation—the basis of routine problem solving. Furthermore, there is a close link between habits and brand loyalty , which is a favorable attitude toward and consistent purchase of a single brand over time. Brand loyalty results from the positive reinforcement of previous actions. A consumer reduces risk and saves time by consistently purchasing the same brand of shampoo and has favorable results—healthy, shining hair. There is evidence of brand loyalty in many commonly purchased products in the United States and the global marketplace. However, the incidence of brand loyalty appears to be declining in North America, Western Europe, and Japan.21

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Attitudes toward Colgate Total toothpaste and Hellmann’s Real Mayonnaise were successfully changed by these ads. How? Read the text on the next page to find out how marketers can change consumer attitudes toward products and brands.

Colgate-Palmolive

www.colgate.com

Hellmann’s

www.hellmanns.com

Consumer Values, Beliefs, and Attitudes

Values, beliefs, and attitudes play a central role in consumer decision making and related marketing actions.

Attitude Formation An attitude is a “learned predisposition to respond to an object or class of objects in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way.”22 Attitudes are shaped by our values and beliefs, which are learned. Values vary by level of specificity. We speak of American core values, including material wellbeing and humanitarianism. We also have personal values, such as thriftiness and ambition. Marketers are concerned with both but focus mostly on personal values. Personal values affect attitudes by influencing the importance assigned to specific product attributes. Suppose thriftiness is one of your personal values. When you evaluate cars, fuel economy (a product attribute) becomes important. If you believe a specific car brand has this attribute, you are likely to have a favorable attitude toward it.

Beliefs also play a part in attitude formation. Beliefs are a consumer’s subjective perception of how a product or brand performs on different attributes. Beliefs are based on personal experience, advertising, and discussions with other people. Beliefs about product attributes are important because, along with personal values, they create the favorable or unfavorable attitude the consumer has toward certain products, services, and brands.

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Marketing inSite

Identifying Your VALS Profile: What Motivates You?

The VALS™ system run by Strategic Business Insights has identified eight unique consumer segments based on a person’s primary motivation and resources. The text provides a brief description of each segment.

Do you wish to know your VALS profile? If you do, respond to the questions on the VALS survey at www.strategicbusinessinsights.com. Simply click “VALS.” Next, click the “Take the VALS Survey” link. In addition to obtaining your profile in real time, you can examine the characteristics of your own and other profiles in greater detail.

Attitude Change Marketers use three approaches to try to change consumer attitudes toward products and brands, as illustrated in the following examples.23

1. Changing beliefs about the extent to which a brand has certain attributes. To allay mothers’ concerns about ingredients in its mayonnaise, Hellmann’s successfully communicated the product’s high Omega 3 content, which is essential to human health.

2. Changing the perceived importance of attributes. Pepsi-Cola made freshness an important product attribute when it stamped freshness dates on its cans. Before doing so, few consumers considered cola freshness an issue. After Pepsi spent about $25 million on advertising and promotion, a consumer survey found that 61 percent of cola drinkers believed freshness dating was an important attribute.

3. Adding new attributes to the product. Colgate-Palmolive included a new antibacterial ingredient, triclosan, in its Colgate Total toothpaste and spent $100 million marketing the brand. The result? Colgate Total toothpaste is now a billiondollar-plus global brand.

Consumer Lifestyle

Lifestyle is a mode of living that is identified by how people spend their time and resources, what they consider important in their environment, and what they think of themselves and the world around them. The analysis of consumer lifestyles, called psychographics, provides insights into consumer needs and wants. Lifestyle analysis has proven useful in segmenting and targeting consumers for new and existing products and services (see Chapter 9).

Psychographics, the practice of combining psychology, lifestyle, and demographics, is often used to uncover consumer motivations for buying and using products and services. A prominent psychographic system is VALS from Strategic Business Insights (SBI).24 The VALS system identifies eight consumer segments based on (1) their primary motivation for buying and having certain products and services and (2) their resources.

According to SBI researchers, consumers are motivated to buy products and services and seek experiences that give shape, substance, and satisfaction to their lives. But not all consumers are alike. Consumers are inspired by one of three primary motivations—ideals, achievement, and self-expression—that give meaning to their self or the world and govern their activities. The different levels of resources enhance or constrain a person’s expression of his or her primary motivation. A person’s resources include psychological, physical, demographic, and material capacities such as income, self-confidence, and risk-taking. Before reading further, visit the VALS website discussed in the Marketing inSite box. Complete the short survey to learn which segment best describes you.

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The VALS classification system places consumers with abundant resources—psychological, physical, and material means and capacities—near the top of the chart and those with minimal resources near the bottom. The chart segments consumers by their basis for decision making: ideals, achievement, or self-expression. The boxes intersect to indicate that some categories may be considered together. For instance, a marketer may categorize Thinkers and Believers together.

The VALS system seeks to explain why and how consumers make purchase decisions.

•Ideals-motivated groups. Consumers motivated by ideals are guided by knowledge and principles. Thinkers are mature, reflective, and well-educated people who value order, knowledge, and responsibility. They are practical consumers and deliberate information-seekers who value durability and functionality in products over styling and newness. Believers, with fewer resources, are conservative, conventional people with concrete beliefs based on traditional, established codes: family, religion, community, and the nation. They choose familiar products and brands, favor American-made products, and are generally brand loyal.

•Achievement-motivated groups. Consumers motivated by achievement look for products and services that demonstrate success to their peers or to a peer group they aspire to. Achievers have a busy, goal-directed lifestyle and a deep commitment to career and family. Image is important to them. They favor established, prestige products and services and are interested in time-saving devices given their hectic schedules. Strivers are trendy, fun-loving, and less self-confident than Achievers. They also have lower levels of education and household income. Money defines success for them. They favor stylish products and are as impulsive as their financial circumstances permit.

•Self-expression-motivated groups. Consumers motivated by self-expression desire social or physical activity, variety, and risk. Experiencers are young, enthusiastic, and impulsive consumers who become excited about new possibilities but are equally quick to cool. They savor the new, the offbeat, and the risky. Their energy finds an outlet in exercise, sports, outdoor recreation, and social activities. Much of their income is spent on fashion items, entertainment, and socializing and particularly on looking good and having the latest things.Makers, with fewer resources, express themselves and experience the world by working on it—raising children or fixing a car. They are practical people who have constructive skills, value self-sufficiency, and are unimpressed by material possessions except those with a practical or functional purpose.

•High- and low-resource groups. Two segments stand apart. Innovators are successful, sophisticated, take-charge people with high self-esteem and abundant resources of all kinds. Image is important to them, not as evidence of power or status, but as an expression of cultivated tastes, independence, and character. They are receptive to new ideas and technologies. Their lives are characterized by variety. Survivors, with the least resources of any segment, focus on meeting basic needs (safety and security) rather than fulfilling desires. They represent a modest market for most products and services and are loyal to favorite brands, especially if they can be purchased at a discount.

Each of these segments exhibits unique media preferences. Experiencers and Strivers are the most likely to visit Internet chat rooms. Innovators, Thinkers, and Achievers tend to read business and news magazines such as Fortune and Time. Makers read automotive magazines. Believers are the heaviest readers of Reader’s Digest. GeoVALS™ estimates the percentage of each VALS group by zip code.