Transcript Issues in a Changing Marketplace

Consumer (Buying) Behavior
Copywriting for the Electronic Media
(Meeske)
Consumer Behavior: Elements
• Personal Characteristics: Cultural
Factors (Subcultures & Social Class)
• Social Factors: Status, Family,
Reference Groups
• Personal Elements: Age and Life Cycle,
Occupation, Lifestyle, VALS
Segmentation
Consumer Research
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What consumers buy
Where consumers buy
When consumers buy
Why consumers buy
Information locked
in consumer’s
head
Such data helps
advertisers
understand HOW
consumers
respond to
advertising
approaches
Cultural Factors
• A child learns perceptions, behaviors, basic
values, and wants from key institutions and from
the family. These include material comfort,
freedom, achievement, individualism, fitness etc
• Eg: Americans spend lot of time in their cars
and desire safety, room, and comfort. SUVs.
suit the “soccer mom” who transports her kids to
various activities, as well as outdoors-oriented
individuals who need room for camping gear
• Office cultures have changed too because of
the Internet, conservative dress style dropped
Subcultures
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Racial groups
Religious groups
Age groups
Ethnic groups
Geographical groups
Social Class
• Virtually all societies have some system of
social classes that are uniform and relatively
permanent partitions within society whose
members share values, behaviors, interests,
and even buying behavior. In some societies,
members of social classes are born into
certain positions and cannot change them. In
the US, people are not fixed in rigid social
classes. A combination of variables (income,
education, occupation interact to determine
social class)
Levels of Class Structure
(Upper Americans)
• Upper-Upper: World of inherited wealth and
aristocratic names (0.3%)
• Lower-Upper: New social elite, drawn from
contemporary professional, corporate
leadership (1.2%)
• Upper-Middle: Other college grad
professionals and managers; lifestyle centers
on the arts, causes, and private clubs
(12.5%)
Levels of Class Structure
(Middle Americans)
• Middle Class: White-and-blue collar workers
who make average pay, do “the proper
things,” and live on the better side of town
(32%)
• Working Class: Blue-collar workers who
make average pay and lead “working class
lifestyles” regardless of school, job, income,
and background (38%)
Levels of Class Structure
(Lower Americans)
• Upper-Lower Class: Working, not on
welfare but having a living standard just
above poverty. Behavior regarded as
“trashy” and “crude” (9%)
• Lower-Lower Class: On welfare, usually
out of work, visibly poverty-stricken.
Considered “common criminals” or
“bum” who have the dirtiest jobs (7%)
Status
• We all belong to groups such as clubs,
organizations, and family. ROLE and
STATUS define our position in each
group. ROLE: is defined as the activities
a person is expected to fulfill according to
the people around him/ her. Each role
carries a status that reflects the position
given to it by society. People often
choose products that show their status
Family
• From family, individuals receive an
orientation toward economics, religion,
and politics. Marketers need to
determine which family member usually
has the greatest influence on purchase
of a given product/ service. Children
also enter the purchasing process.
Reference Groups
• Influence people by exposing them to
new behaviors and lifestyles,
influencing the person’s attitudes and
self-concept because he or she wants
to “fit in.” Creates pressures to conform
that may influence the person’s product
and brand choices
Age and Life Cycle
• Preferences for specific items of
furniture, clothes, food, and recreation
often relate to age. These preferences
don’t remain static
Occupation
• People working in construction jobs
wear boots and jeans. Individuals
employed in law firms are usually
expected to wear dark, conservative
suits
Lifestyle
• Examines a person’s day-to-day living
pattern and is expressed as an individual’s
psychographics - method of measuring
lifestyles and developing lifestyle
classifications. It measures consumers’
activities (sports, hobbies, work, shopping,
social events), interests (recreation, food,
fashion, family), and opinions (about
business, products, social issues, and
themselves)
To measure lifestyle …
1. How people spend their time
2. Their interests, in other words, what is
important to them in their immediate
environments
3. Their view of themselves and the world
around them
4. Basic demographic data such as income,
education, and location of residence
How does it help?
1.
It could help an advertiser to know that the
average member of a target audience for an SUV
is 32.5 years old, is married, has 1-3 children, and
owns a house. These demographic factors are
useful, but don’t paint a human picture of target
audience. Lifestyle analysis might show him as
community-oriented, traditional lifestyle, enjoys
outdoor sports and family activities. Commercial
might show a happy family piling into an SUV to
attend a soccer match. Thus, target audience
could readily identify with the commercial.
VALS System
• Categorizes U.S. adults into consumer
groups that think and act differently based on
a combination of primary motivation and
resources. These signify distinct
psychological characteristics, attitudes, and
decision-making styles. The 8 primary
classifications classify consumer behavior in
terms of 3 primary motivations
VALS System
• The eight primary classifications classify consumer
behavior in terms of three primary motivations:
• Ideals: Consumers whose decisions are led by their
beliefs rather than by desires for acceptance
• Achievement: Consumers whose buying choices are
regulated by the approval and opinions of others
• Self-expression: Consumers whose purchases are
motivated by an inclination for risk taking, variety,
and physical or social activity
VALS System
• Actualizers: Successful, sophisticated, attracted to new
products, have high resources (income, energy, education)
• Fulfilleds: Little interest in image, Mature, knowledgable
• Achievers: Family, worship, work, respect authority, status
quo, conventional, politically conservative
• Experiencers: Enthusiastic, impulsive, seek variety,
excitement, self-expression, offbeat, risky
• Believers: Slow to change, modes lifestyle, strong
attachments, morals, predictable, established brands
• Strivers: Image-conscious, stylish, sporty, emulate wealth
• Makers: Practical, self-sufficient, traditional
• Strugglers: Poor, ill-educated, despairing, passive, aging,
cautious, urgent concerns for security, safety
Points to Remember
• Consumer’s wants and behavior are primarily
determined by culture
• Advertisers must be aware of cultural shifts
that might provide new ways to serve
consumers
• Consumers choose brands and products that
reinforce their reference group roles and
status
• Lifestyle - the system of acting and
interacting with those around us significantly influence buyers’ decisions
Points to Remember
• Factors in buyer behavior cannot be
controlled, but they can be useful to
advertisers in efforts to understand
consumers they attempt to influence
• Psychographic methods are used to classify
consumer behavior by psychological and
demographic variables. Psychological
researchers evaluate items such as media
usage, leisure-time activities, and attitude
toward social issues