Transcript Principles of MKTG - Auburn University, College of Business

Principles of
Marketing
Chapter 5:
Understanding
Consumer & Business
Buying Behavior
Consumer Buying Behavior
• Consumer buying behavior:
 Refers
to the buying behavior of individuals and
households who buy goods and services for
personal use.
•
These people make up the consumer market.
• The central question for marketers is:
 “How
do consumers respond to various marketing
efforts the company might use?”
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Model of Consumer Behavior
• Marketing mix factors and other external
stimuli are inputs into the “buyer’s black
box.”
 Stimuli
are evaluated in light of the buyer decision
process and the buyer’s characteristics.
 Buyer
•
•
•
responses include:
Formation of attitudes and preferences
Purchase(s), and
Development of a relationship with the brand or firm.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Consumer Buying Behavior
• Factors influencing consumer behavior:
 Cultural
•
Culture, subculture, social class
 Social
•
factors:
Reference groups, family, roles, and status
 Personal
•
factors:
factors:
Age/life-cycle stage, occupation, economic situation,
lifestyle, personality, and self-concept
 Psychological
•
factors:
Motivation, perception, learning, beliefs, and attitudes
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Culture
• Culture is the most basic cause of a person’s
wants and behavior.
 Culture:
•
•
Is learned from family, church, school, peers,
colleagues.
Reflects basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors.
 Cultural
shifts create opportunities for new
products or may otherwise influence consumer
behavior.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Subculture
• Subculture:
 Groups
of people with shared value systems based
on common life experiences.
 Examples
•
•
•
of major subculture groups:
Hispanic consumers
Asian-American consumers
Mature consumers
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Social Class
• Social class:
 Relatively
permanent & ordered divisions who
share similar values, interests, & behaviors
 Measured by a combination of occupation, income,
education, wealth, and other variables.
 Class categories include:
•
•
•
•
Upper class,
Middle class,
Working class, and
Lower class.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Social Factors
• Groups and social networks:
 Membership,
reference, and aspirational groups.
 Marketers
attempt to reach opinion leaders within
groups important to target market.
•
•
Opinion leaders are recruited as brand ambassadors or
for buzz marketing.
Online social networks allow marketers to interact with
consumers.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Social Factors
• Family:
 Strongly
influences buying behavior.
 Gender stereotypes for certain types of purchases
are relaxing in the U.S.
 Children are very influential, and have substantial
disposable income of their own.
• Roles and status:
 Role
= Expected activities.
 Status = Esteem given to role by society.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Personal Factors
• Age and life-cycle stage:
•
People change the goods they buy over their lifetimes.
• Occupation:
•
Occupation influences the purchase of clothing and
other goods.
• Economic situation:
•
•
Some goods and services are especially incomesensitive.
Economic situation often influences choice of store as
well.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Personal Factors
• Yet,
 People
within the same subculture, social class,
and occupation may have different lifestyles.
• Lifestyle:
 Pattern
of living as expressed in his or her
activities, interests, opinions.
 People buy the lifestyles represented by products
or services.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Personal Factors
• Personality:
 Refers
to the unique psychological characteristics
that distinguish a person or group.
 Generally defined in terms of traits.
 Self-Concept
•
theory:
Suggests that people’s possessions contribute to and
reflect their identities
 Brands
also have personalities, thus requiring a
perceived “match” to be present
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Psychological Factors
• Perception:
 Process
by which people select, organize, and
interpret information to form a meaningful picture
of the world.
 Perception can be influenced by:
•
Selective attention

•
Selective distortion

•
Screening out most of what one’s exposed to
Interpret information so as to “support” what one believes true
Selective retention

Remember good points of “liked” brands but not of “unliked”
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Psychological Factors
• Learning:
 Defined
as changes in an individual’s behavior
arising from experience.
 Occurs
due to an interplay of drives, stimuli, cues,
responses, and reinforcement.
•
Strongly impacted by the consequences of an
individual’s behavior.
 Behaviors
with satisfying results tend to be
repeated.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Beliefs and Attitudes
• Belief:
A
descriptive thought that a person holds about
something.
• Attitude:
A
person’s consistently favorable or unfavorable
evaluations, feelings, and tendencies toward an
object or idea.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Buying Decision Process
1. Need recognition
2. Information search
3. Evaluation of alternatives
4. Purchase decision
5. Post-purchase behavior
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Need Recognition and
Information Search
• Need recognition can be triggered by internal
or external stimuli.
 Several
sources of information may be used during
information search:
•
Personal sources
•
•
Commercial sources
•
•
Advertising, salespeople, etc.
Public sources
•
•
Friends and family
Mass media, consumer ratings, etc.
Experiential sources
•
Handling, examining, or using the product
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Evaluation of Alternatives and
Purchase Decision
• Evaluation is highly idiosyncratic
 Dependent
upon the specific buying situation and
the individual consumer.
• Purchase decision
 Two
factors may interfere with realization of
purchase intentions:
1.
Attitudes of others
•
2.
Particularly those deemed “important”
Unexpected situational factors
•
In the economy, in one’s life (job loss), or even due to others’
experiences with the product unknown prior
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Post Purchase Behavior
• Consumer satisfaction
 Function
of consumer expectations and perceived
product performance.
•
•
•
Performance < Expectations ----- Disappointment
Performance = Expectations ----- Satisfaction
Performance > Expectations ----- Delight
 Cognitive
•
dissonance:
A buyer’s doubts shortly after a purchase about whether
it was the right decision due to inherent compromise in
all buying decisions
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Stages in the Adoption Process
 Awareness
•
One becomes aware of existence but lacks info about
 Interest
•
Consumer seeks information about new product.
 Evaluation
•
Considering whether trying product makes sense
 Trial
•
Small scale trial to improve one’s estimate of value
 Adoption
•
Decision to make full and regular use of product
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Adopter Categorization
• Speed to try a product is highly idiosyncratic
 Leads
•
to five general “adopter” categories:
Innovators
•
•
Early adopters
•
•
Deliberate; rarely leaders but adopt before average person
Late majority
•
•
Guided by respect; they’re opinion leaders who try early but “carefully”
Early majority
•
•
Venturesome & don’t mind risk
Skeptical; adopt only after a majority have tried
Laggards
•
Tradition-bound; suspicious of change & adopt once somewhat a
tradition itself
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Product Characteristics that
Influence the Rate of Adoption
 Relative advantage:
 Is the innovation superior to existing products?
 Compatibility:
 Does the innovation fit or “work with” the existing products,
uses, values, or experience of the target market?
 Complexity:
 Is the innovation difficult to understand or use?
 Divisibility:
 Can the innovation be tried on a limited basis?
•
(i.e., degree of commitment and applicability affects rate)
 Communicability:
 Can results be easily observed or described to others?
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Business Markets
and Business Buyer Behavior
• Business buyer behavior:
 The
buying behavior of the organizations that buy
goods and services for use in the production of
other products and services or for resell or rent to
others for a profit.
 The
business market is significantly larger than the
consumer market in terms of both dollars and
items sold.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Characteristics of the
Business to Business (b2b) Market
• Market structure and demand:
 Far
fewer buyers than b2c
 Yet
a larger in purchase size
 Business
demand is derived from consumer
demand.
•
Thus they have more fluctuating demand due to
anticipating consumers then having to react

Inefficiency due to “peaks and valleys”
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Nature of Business Buying
Versus Consumer Buying
• Nature of the buying participants & process:
 Participants:
•
•
Routinely involve more individuals
Much more lengthy and sophisticated that b2c
 Process:
•
•
•
Business buyers usually face more complex buying
decisions
Thus, the business buying process tends to be more
formalized
Buyers and sellers are much more dependent on each
other in business markets due to number & timing
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Types of Buying Situations
• Straight rebuy:
•
Buyer routinely reorders something without any
modifications.
• Modified rebuy:
•
Buyer wants to modify product specifications, prices,
terms, or suppliers.
• New task:
•
Buyer purchases a product or service for the first time.
• Systems (solution) selling is becoming more
common.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Participants in the
Business Buying Process
• The “Buying Center”
 All
the actors that participate in the business (or
industrial) buying-decision process, and who are
responsible for the consequences that result*
•
Actors can, each, be an individual or unit of firm
 Not
a fixed or formally identified unit, but unique
to each decision
 In
the consumer market, this decision-unit is often
referred to as the “family buying unit”*
•
Due to similar roles performed as in industrial buying
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Six Roles of the “Buying Center”*
• Six roles must be performed
1.
Users
Member(s) of the unit that will use the product or service

Often initiate process & help define specifications
•
2.
Influencers
People who simply influence the buying decision

Help define “specs” & provide info for evaluating alternatives
Technical individuals
•
•
3.
Deciders

People with ultimate power to decide on the product’s
requirements and/or on the suppliers that can be used
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Six Roles of the “Buying Center”*
• Six roles must be performed (cont.)
4.
Buyers
People with the formal authority for selecting the supplier
and arranging the terms of the purchase

•
5.
Approvers
People who must authorize the proposed actions of the
deciders and/or buyers

6.
Can have overlap with decider if only one supplier allowed ~ thus
becoming only the negotiator unless both performed by one individual
Gatekeepers
People with power to prevent sellers & information from
reaching members of the buying center.

•
Most common gatekeeper is the secretary or receptionist
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
The Business Buying Process
• Steps or stages (similar to consumers):
Problem recognition
2. General need description
3. Product specification
4. Supplier search
5. Proposal solicitation
6. Supplier selection
7. Order-routine specification
8. Performance review
1.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University