CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
& MARKETING ACTIONS
ANH HOANG
, Week 1 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR INTRODUCTION
• Video: Watching shopper
o Digital technology used to track customer behaviour: VR,…
→ WHY ?
• Anticipate shoppers' needs and desires
• Discover the points of engagement and friction
• Improve retail experience
→ Increase retail ability
→ Build royalty, reward customers' royalty
• Understand consumers' DNA --> customize the needs
• Help customers find what they need: connect with what customers have in
their minds with product available
• Marketing professionals want to find out what consumers buy and why
→ This information is hidden in consumers' minds
→ Research: testing theory about CB → experimental to confirm the theory
Marketing professionals investigate how consumers respond to various
marketing actions such as advertising
➢ CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: the study of how and why individuals or groups
acquire, consume and dispose products
Is a PROCESS: Consumer consumption process: issues that influence the
consumer before, during and after a purchase
o It is all about the needs, marketers are supposed to customize consumers' needs
o Why is it important to know why people dispose products? To create a new
needs → motivate consumers to long for the new products/new version of a
product
• Many people are involved in this process
E.g., selling candy: parents or kids? Appeal both? ->> Attract kids with appealing
packages, attract parents for example zero sugar, healthier, more energetic
o Purchaser → User
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, o Influencer: most are celebrities but also people who can have impact on other
customers (e.g., those who have blogger with high followers that became
celebrities)
o Groups and organizations
Family: we tend to trust people close to us --> trustworthy advisers, biggest
influencers
Designers:
CB is IMPORTANT
• Consumers have a huge impact on marketing strategies
o ‘Firms exist to satisfy consumers' needs’
o Creating needs: e.g., Head n' Shoulder: dandruff used to be considered as just
a biological thing, but HnS make it become something represented your
hygienic --> use HnS
• Consumers have a huge impact on CB since manufacturers want to know how we are
motivated to buy their products
• Relevant questions for business?
o Who are our consumers?
o How do we reach them?
o What should we sell them?
o What motive them to buy?
o What makes them satisfied?
→ REQUIRED UNDERSTANDING OF CB
• The meaning of consumption: "People often buy brands, not for what they do, but
for what they mean"
o Convey images or personality
▪ e.g., People buy Nikes because of the images being marketed (rock
stars, athletes,…) → not only buying shoes, but making a lifestyle
statement about the type of person you are/wish you were
o Help us to form bonds with those who share similar preferences
• Types of relationship a person might have with a product:
o Self-concept attachment: the product helps to establish the user’s identity
o Nostalgic attachment: the product serves as a link with a past self
o Interdependence: the product is part of the user’s daily routine
o Love: the product elicits emotional bonds of warmth, passion, or other strong
emotion.
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, ARE DECISIONS CONSCIOUS?
➢ Experiment 1: Dijksterhuis et al. (2006) "On making the right choice: The
deliberation-without-attention effect"
• Select between different car and you have to decide which one you want to buy
• Each car is described with 4 characteristics
• 2 groups of participants:
o Group 1: Not thinking: do something else to be distracted
o Group 2: Thinking
• Manipulation
o 1st time: 4 characteristics with SIMPLE task
o 2nd time: 4 characteristics with COMPLEX task
➢ Result
➢ Conclusion
• Simple task: simple decisions are enhanced by conscious thought
• Complex task: Complex decisions are enhanced by unconcious thought
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