Exchange value – represent what the value of a good is to the consumer and therefore what it would
be exchanged for
Use value – the value of a good to the consumer in terms of the usefulness it provides
Sign/Symbolic value – Symbolic meaning consumers attach to goods to construct and participate in
the social world
Consumption function – Maps the relationship between disposable income and level of wages
Consumer behaviour – Individuals or groups acquiring, using, and disposing of products, services,
ideas, or experiences (Arnould et al. 2004)
Heart of economic development, business, and marketing
Consumer behaviour is informing marketing, feed into marketing strategy
Marketing is prescriptive, telling manager what they should do to build effective marketing
strategy
Consumer behaviour is descriptive, describing, analysing behaviour of consumers, influences
Anthropology
History
Psychology
Economics
Sociology
Karl Marx
Was concerned that people did not recognize the value of the commodities (product of
labour) they consumed
Once goods had lost the link with their nature of production and their use value, they tool
on a mysterious quality that he termed the ‘fetishism of commodities’
o The distinguishing or masking of commodities whereby the appearance of goods
hides the story of those who made them and how they made them
Freud’s psychoanalytic
He suggested that people’s behaviour was often determined by irrational and unconscious
motives and by socialized inhibitions
Consumption is a key feature of modern society
Consumer society
Having more than you actually need
A brief history of consumption
Hundreds of years ago, people had few possessions trade
Spice route
Some centuries later, elites started consuming more
,19th century industrialisation
Reduction in costs, mass production
Start of consumption society
Consumers purchase higher priced goods when similar low-priced substitutes are available
Veblen effect
Higher prices mean higher quality
Or
Desire for conspicuous consumption, to be seen buying and using expensive items (linked to
prestige and status display)
After first world war, Increase consumption as means of economic recovery (Milton Keynes)
US became for front of mass production
Ernst Ditcher Brands acts as a mirror/extension of consumer personality
Using qualitative methods to understand consumers
Brand personalities – Brands are living entities, people can relate to them
The scope of consumer behaviour
Shifted from a production defined to a consumption defined society
‘We’ consumers
Consumers
Identity seekers
How consumers choose products
Needs Recall Search Evaluate options Buy Feedback Start again
Assumes that people make informed decision/ act rationally
Extended problem-solving model
Heuristics shortcut, to help come up with a decision quickly
Two contemporary perspectives on consumer behaviour
1) Behavioural Insights/ Economics
a. Challenging the idea that consumers make rational decisions
b. Consumer behaviour is much more complex
, c. Focuses on context and decisions
d. Emphasis on environment where the consumption is taking place
2) Consumer Culture theory (CCT)
a. Qualitative approach
b. Participate yourself, interviews
c. Taking into account societal structures
d. Emphasizing context
The relationship between marketing and consumer behaviour
Emotions drives what is going to happen
Technology to answer questions – heartbeat, sweating
Qualitative methods, ask different questions to understand if customers would buy a
product
Consumer behaviour is:
Factual – Relies on actual or self-reported observations of people making consumption
decisions
Explanative – Uses conceptual lenses to understand why and how consumers are making
their decisions
Investigative and explorative – Uses a variety of research techniques from surveys to
experiments, to interview, to focus groups, to ethnography
Quantitative and qualitative – Research attempts to measure and understand the aspects
that influence consumer behaviour
Consumers develop habits over time about what to consume, when and where (Sheth, 2020)
Types of consumer decisions
Every consumer decision (or purchase decision) is a response to a problem or need
Cognitive: Rational, deliberate, sequential, extended problem solving
1. Problem recognition
a. Need recognition: Decline in the quality of an actual state
b. Opportunity recognition: Moving upward the ideal state
2. Search
a. Need recognition: Less information about the product
i. External search
ii. Filter bubbles (research are sometimes not as
extensive as what we believe), Careful
3. Alternative evaluation
a. Complete market set: All available alternatives for
need/problem
b. Evoked set: All available alternatives aware of from
internal/external research
c. Consideration set: All available alternatives aware of that
the consumer actually consider buying
d. Inept set: All available alternatives aware of but which are
not considered for this decision
, e. Inert set: All available alternatives aware of which are not
considered at all
f. Sustainability and authenticity (heritage, sincerity,
commitment to quality) are becoming determinant
attributes
4. Choice
a. Information present at time
b. Prior experience
c. Beliefs about the brand
d. FEATURE FATIGUE
5. Outcomes of choice
a. Measured as customer satisfaction
i. Disconfirmation paradigm: Difference between a
customers’ pre-purchase expectations of a product
performance and their post-purchase experiences’
b. Social scoring – Sharing and accessing products rather than
owning them
ii. If the outcome is bad, it can negatively impact our self-concept
iii. Careful, considerate
iv. Giving more information to the customer
Habitual: Behavioural, unconscious, automatic, routine/ automatic response behaviour
o Not motivated to search for information/evaluate other alternatives
o Respond ‘automatically’
o Mental shortcut
o Does not assume rationality
o Treats purchases as behaviour which is elicited by particular stimuli in the
consumers environment
o Same behaviour
1. Problem recognition
2. Intention
3. Choice
4. Outcome of choice
Affective: Emotional, instantaneous
o Raw reactions
o Committed consumer brand relationships involve a range of feelings (love and
compassion)
o Gut feeling decisions
Perspective of constructive processing: Evaluate the effort we’ll need to make to a particular choice
and then tailor the amount of cognitive ‘effort’ we expect to get the job done
Habitual decision making Cognitive decision making
Routine/Automatic response behaviour Extended problem solving
Low-cost products More expensive products
Frequent purchasing Infrequent purchasing
Low consumer involvement High consumer involvement
Familiar product class and brand Unfamiliar product class and brands
Little thought, search or time given to purchase Extended thought, search or time given to
purchase
Role of marketers: Influence choice
