Internal variables of consumer behavior

According to psychological theory, consumer behavior is influenced by internal

and external variables. Knowledge of these variables can help marketing
communicators to create successful advertising.

Internal variables: include perception, attitude, and learning.

Perception has three components: individual, subjective, and selective

 Perception is an individual is way of interpreting what he sees, hears,

touches, smells, or tastes. His way will be very different from another
person’s.
 Perception is subjective, entirely within one person’s mind. Two people
may look at the same car. One sees its color and style. The other sees its
capacity and construction.
 Perception is selective. At any moment, we are surrounded by hundreds
of stimuli, by sights, sounds, and other sensations. But the human mind
can perceive only one stimulus at a time. The mind selects those that are
most important, or that it is most ready for.
One task of advertising is to communicate product image, that is, to have
consumers perceive the product, subjectively, in a certain way. Another is
to get their attention, to have them select the desired stimuli.

Attitudes have three components: feelings toward and object:

Learning theory has four components: meaning, contiguity, reward, and

repetition

The principle of contiguity is used when, in an advertisement, the product is

pictured in a particular situation. The situation illustrates a mood or quality
which the producer wants the consumer to associate with the product. An
example is someone smoking a cigarette in a beautiful mountain setting

The reward principle is employed in an advertisement promising favorable

results from using the product: Scope in the new plastic bottle takes care of
morning breath and morning fumbles.”Of the four learning principles,
repetitions perhaps the most used.

The principle of meaning is used to relate something in an advertisement to the

consumer in a personal way. Would you like a 74K gold chain for S8?
 The principle Repetition is perhaps the most used.

External variables of consumer behavior

Although External variables that influence consumer behavior are social and cultural in
‫رغم ان‬ nature.

Heavily Socials man is a social being. Our need to be accepted as a member of a group is
‫بقوة‬/‫بشدة‬ very strong, although often unconscious. Our values, opinions, and behavior are
Belong heavily influenced by groups to which we belong. Because we refer to these
/‫انتماء‬ groups for guidance, they are called reference groups. We are also influenced by
‫يغص‬ groups to which we would like to belong.
Custom Cultures the set of attitudes, customs, values, ways of perceiving, and behavior
‫عرف‬ handed down from one generation to another.
Set
Cultural traits include how people dress; how men and women, and children and
‫مجموعة‬
adults,
Perceive
‫فهم‬

For market segmentation, consumers are analyzed and defined in three

ways: demographically, psychographica1and geographically.

Demographic data are measurable facts. They are generally available from
census reports. Useful demographic data include information about number of
total population, rate of population growth, population density, per capita
income, marital status, spans, patterns, employment, ethnic origin, age, and
education.

Demographic facts usually receive the most emphasis in market segmentation,

because they are easiest to obtain and measure,

Psychographics become more important. They deal with both the quantity and
quality of prospects. Psychographic, they are likely to be very different in their
values, attitudes, and purchasing patterns. The potential market is segmented
according to such factors as way of life and personality traits. Some people like
to stay at home and watch television, others prefer more active outside
entertainment. Some are careful shoppers who look for bargains: others buy on
impulse.

Demographics show what people do.

Psychographics are concerned with why they do it, Thus psychographics more
clearly show the relation between consumer and product.

Geographic analysis can reveal striking dissimilarities in consumer, attitudes

and patterns of consumption. In the United States, surveys show that certain
products sell much better in some areas than in others: dinnerware in the
Northeast, fishing poles Ed the Midwest, home freezers in the Southeast, and
sleeping bags in the Northwest. Favorite colors vary: blue and white in the
Southeast: yellow, orange, and pink in the West: blue, green, and brown in the
Northwest