Week 4: Consumer Decision-Making
Belch & Belch Chapter 4
4.1 An Overview of Consumer Behavior
1A. Problem Recognition
Problem recognition: When the consumer perceives a need and becomes motivated to
solve the problem.
Out of stock
Dissatisfaction
New Needs / Wants
Related products / purchases
Marketeer-Induced Problem Recognition
New products
1B. Motivation
Motivation: Factors that compel a consumer to take a particular action
Hierarchy of Needs
,Psychoanalytic Theory: Many motives for purchase and/or consumption may be driven
by deep motives one can determine only by probing the subconscious.
Criticized for being vague, overly focused on early development, and based on small,
unrepresentative samples. Despite criticisms, qualitative methods like focus groups and
projective techniques help understand consumer motivations.
2A. Information Search
Internal Search: an attempt to scan information stored in memory to recall past
experiences and/or knowledge regarding various purchase alternatives.
External search: If the internal search does not yield enough information, the consumer
will seek additional information (internet, public sources, advertising, experience)
Determining how much and which sources of external information to use:
importance of the purchase decision
e ort needed to acquire information
amount of past experience relevant
degree of perceived risk associated with the purchase
time available
,2B. Perception
Perception: filtering process in which internal and external factors influence what is
received and how it is processed and interpreted.
1. Sensation: direct response of the senses (ad, package, brand name)
2. Selecting information: Internal psychological factors such as the consumer’s
personality, needs, motives, expectations, and experiences.
3. Interpreting the Information: organizing, categorizing, and interpreting the
incoming information
4. Selective perception:
- Exposure: whether or not to make themselves available to information
- Attention: focus attention on certain stimuli while excluding others
- Comprehension: interpreting on the basis of their own attitudes, beliefs,
motives and experiences (often supports their own position)
- Retention: Mnemonics: symbols, rhymes, associations, and images that
assist in the learning and memory process
5. Subliminal Perception: ability to perceive a stimulus that is below the level of
conscious awareness.
3A. Alternative Evaluation
Alternative Evaluation: the consumer compares the products he or she has identified
as being capable of solving the consumption problem and satisfying the needs or
motives that initiated the decision process.
Evoked Set: The various brands identified as purchase options to be considered during
the alternative evaluation process.
Evaluative Criteria: dimensions or attributes of a product or service that are used to
compare di erent alternatives, objective (price, warranty) or subjective (image, styling)
Consumers tend to think about products or services in terms of:
1. Functional consequences: concrete outcomes that are tangible and directly
experienced by consumers (taste, speed).
2. Psychosocial consequences: abstract outcomes that are more intangible,
subjective, and personal (how a product makes you feel or how you think others
will view you for purchasing or using it).
, 3B. Attitudes
Attitudes: individual’s overall feelings toward or evaluation of an object.
Multi-attitude model
Views an attitude object, such as a product or brand, as possessing a number of
attributes. Consumers have beliefs about specific brand attributes and attach di erent
levels of importance to these attributes.
Salient beliefs: beliefs concerning specific attributes or consequences that are
activated and form the basis of an attitude.
Attitude Change Strategies
1. Identify an attribute or consequence that is important and remind consumers
how well their brand performs on this attribute.
2. Getting consumers to attach more importance to the attribute.
3. Adding a new attribute (improve product, focusing on additional benefits)
4. Changing perceptions of belief ratings for a competing brand
4A. Purchase Decision
Purchase intention: matching of purchase motives with attributes or characteristics of
brands under consideration.
Brand loyalty: preference for a particular brand that results in its repeated purchase.
Purchase decisions for nondurable, convenience items sometimes take place in the
store, almost simultaneous with the purchase: marketers must ensure that consumers
have top-of-mind awareness of their brands.
4B. Integration Processes and Decision Rules
Integration Processes: the way product knowledge, meanings, and beliefs are
combined to evaluate two or more alternatives.
Heuristics: simplified decision rules
A ect referral decision rule: consumers have a ective impressions of brands
stored in memory that can be accessed at the time of purchase.
5A. Postpurchase Evaluation
Cognitive dissonance: psychological tension or postpurchase doubt that a consumer
experiences after making a di icult purchase choice. Consumer uses strategies to
attempt to reduce it (opinions, information). important for companies to advertise to
reinforce consumer decisions.
