Consumer Behavior 8th edition van Hoyer, MacInnis & Pieters (2024)
Date: 19th of February 2024
Weight: 15%
Chapter 1 – Understanding consumer behavior
Consumer Behavior reflects the totality of consumers’ decisions with respect to the acquisition,
competition, and disposition of goods, services, activities, experiences, people, and ideas by
(human) decision-making units over time.
Buying represents one type of acquisition behavior. It includes other ways of obtaining goods
and services, such as renting, leasing, trading and sharing. Deadlines can affect acquisition
behavior: consumers tend to procrastinate in redeeming coupons and gift cards with far-future
deadlines, but move more quickly when deadlines are closer, because they do not want to regret
having missed out.
Disposition refers to how consumers get rid of an offering they have previously acquired and can
have important implications for marketers. Consumers can give away their used possessions,
recycle them, sell them on eBay or vintage stores, rent them via sharing websites or lend them to
others. There’s growing concerns towards environmental health and sustainability among
marketers and consumers.
Consumers generally know how to budget and plan for ordinary purchases, but they tend to
underestimate spending on out-of-the-ordinary purchases and, in particular, spend more than
anticipated on individual purchases. In some cases, with gas prices (it’s price is very salient) for
instance, consumers tend to shop less frequently, switch to one-stop shopping at low-price
retail establishments and reduce overall spending to compensate when the price of gas rises.
One study found four segments of consumers in terms of financial well-being:
1. Stretched spenders : live paycheck to paycheck and feel anxious about their financial
situation.
2. Carefree spenders : live paycheck to paycheck and do not feel anxious about their
financial situation.
3. Security seekers : don’t live paycheck to paycheck, yet feel anxious about their financial
situation.
4. Cushioned savers : don’t live paycheck to paycheck and do not feel anxious about their
financial situation.
Consumers prefer to borrow money when purchases involve experiences as opposed to material
goods. Experiential goods may be more time sensitive.
Today’s consumers are more connected, easily able to research offerings online, access
communications and promotions in multiple media and check what others think of brands with
a quick search; in contrast to people fifty years ago for example.
Consumer decision making involves a lot of time and effort and it’s an everyday, on-going
process. Sometimes we make choices among product or service categories (buying food or
downloading music) whereas in other cases we choose between brands (Apple or Samsung).
Among the most important reasons for consumption to occur are the ways in which an offering
meets someone’s needs, values or goals.
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,Transparency is increasingly of concern when consumers want to know what a brand or
company stands for. Some consumers want to avoid products made in factories with
questionable labor practices.
A relatively new “sharing economy” or “peer-to-peer” business model has developed, facilitated
by online communities such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb etc.
Eight ways to acquire an offering → buying, trading, renting/leasing, bartering, gifting, finding,
stealing and sharing.
Research suggests that we like to have things organized in our homes because we feel less
anxiety and a greater sense of control over our lives when things are structured. Also, we often
use products as part of our routines, which consumers enjoy because they convey that things
are normal, easy and safe.
Consumers who want to dispose of a tangible product have several options: find a new use for it,
get rid of it temporarily (renting or lending it e.g.) or get rid of it permanently.
Decisions about when to acquire or use an offering are also affected by knowing when others
might or might not be buying or using it (choose to go to the gym when we know others will not
be doing so).
Consumers can sometimes mispredict how happy we will be from usage. Although we might
want to binge-watch eight episode of favorite TV-show, research shows that longer breaks
between episodes will makes us enjoy the series more.
Sales of a product can be increased when the consumer :
1. Uses larger amounts of the product
2. Uses the product more frequently
3. Uses it for longer periods of time
Bonus packaging may motivate consumers to buy more of a product as well.
Positive and negative emotions as well as specific emotions like loneliness, hope, fear, regret,
guilt, embarrassment and general moods can affect how consumers think, the choices they
make, how they feel after making a decision, what they remember and how much they enjoy an
experience. Emotions affect goal pursuit, reactions to marketing stimuli and other aspects of
consumer behavior.
Consumer Behavior encompasses four domains:
1. The psychological core
2. The process of making decisions
3. The consumer’s culture
4. Consumer behavior outcomes and issues
The cultural environment also affects what motivates consumers, how they process information
and the kinds of decisions they make. Age, gender, social class (demographics) influence the
decisions that consumers make and how and why they make them.
Motivation, Ability and Opportunity + Exposure, Attention, Perception and Comprehension →
“Aria university choice example, page 12”
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, Consumers may store information in memory, but their choices will be based only on the
information that can be retrieved from the memory. A key point for marketers seeking to create
strong brand images and develop memorable communications.
Problem recognition occurs when we realize that we have an unfulfilled need. Elements of the
psychological core are invoked in problem recognition and search, because once a consumer
realizes that he or she needs to make a (big) choice and begins to search for information, is
exposed to information, attends to and perceives it, categorizes and comprehends it and forms
attitudes and memories.
A high-effort decision is a decision one is willing to invest a lot of time into and exert mental and
emotional energy in making it. Low-effort decisions are ones that are easier made like choosing
what brand of laundry to take to college. They do not require intensive information search or
process resulting in less enduring attitudes and memories.
Postdecision evaluation allows the consumer to judge whether the decision made was the
correct one.
Culture refers to the typical or expected behaviors, norms and ideas that characterize a group of
people.
Reference groups are a group of people who perceive themselves similar with each other, who
share values and whose opinions are respected (within that group). Reference groups can also
make us feel as if we should behave in a certain way.
Values, personality and lifestyles are relatively broad and stable psychographic characteristics
that influence a range of consumer behaviors over time, but usually with a modest effect on
each specific behavior.
The groups we belong to and our sense of self can affect the symbols (external signs that
consumers use to express their identity) we use, consciously or unconsciously to express our
actual or desired identity.
Many consumers are interested in whether products have been produced in an ethical manner,
with ethically sourced inputs. Similarly, marketing decisions may involve conflicting priorities
and sometimes lead to ethical questions (promoting obesity etc.). Concerned customers
sometimes form advocacy groups to create public awareness of inappropriate practices. They
influence other consumers as well as the targeted companies through strategies such as media
statements and boycotts.
Marketing (American marketing association’s definition) is the activity, set of institutions, and
process for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for
customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
Consumer behavior research helps government officials understand and try to improve
consumer welfare. One example is the increase in childhood obesity over the past few decades.
Marketers need to identify who is likely to be involved in acquisition, usage and disposition
decisions. What one consumer values in a product may not be the same as what another does.
Research helps marketers understand the different groups that make up the market and
whether they can make an offering to appeal to one or more of these groups.
Crowdsourcing helps companies obtain information about their products, typically through
websites/internet. They can also obtain new ideas for products/activities by their buyers.
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