Consumer Behavior and Customer Analysis

Motivation, Ability and Opportunity

Introduction to MAO
Consider Australia. It has a booming health and fitness industry which has grown around 4.8% in
the last five years into a billion dollar industry. However, you may not know that Australia is also
ranked as one of the fattest nations in the developed world, with 63% of its citizens considered
overweight or obese. If weight gain continues at current levels, by 2025, close to 80% of all
Australian adults and a third of all children will be overweight or obese, an alarming trend! The
Australian Health Survey indicates that only one-third of children, and one in ten young people
undertook the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity every day, and 60% of Australian
adults did less than the recommended 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per day.
The highest levels of physical activity were among the young adults with 53% of 18–24 year olds
being classed as sufficiently active.

So how do we drive motivation, increase ability, or provide opportunity?

Motivation
Define: What is motivation?
Motivation is defined by the Latin word of “movere” which means “to move”. Furthermore
motivation could be boiled down to how a person’s inner feelings is awakened by needing to reach
a certain goal.
High motivation (high effort behavior):
High motivation is also defined by the effort consumers takes to research about certain products or
services. The time and effort in e.g. researching a new smartwatch you would take time to find out
the details of a watch that would suit your personal preferences. Puls-control, messaging options
and so on. If a customer is highly motivated, they are more likely to complicate the buying-process
by “overthinking” the decision.
High-effort Information processing and decision-making:
Motivation also affects how we process information and making decisions. If consumers are highly
motivated to achieve a goal (Eq.: if you want to buy a new mobile)
  pay careful attention to it
 attempt to understand or comprehend goal-relevant information
 evaluate information critically
 try to remember for later use.
= This requires much effort.

When consumers have low motivation, they put little effort to processing information and making
decisions. They use decision-making shortcuts. (eq.: buy the cheapest one, same brand as the first
time).  Grocery products is an example of what could be of low motivation

Motivated reasoning:
When consumers engage in motivated reasoning, they process information in a biased way so that
they can obtain the particular conclusion they want to reach and not the accurate information.
E.g.: If you want to lose weight and you see an ad for a diet product, there’s a change that you will
read the ad in a biased way to try an convince yourself that you found the solution.

Felt Involvement:
A final outcome of motivation is that it evokes a psychological state in consumers called
involvement. There are 4 types of involvement:
1. Enduring involvement: show interest in an offering or activity over a long period of time.
a. Eq. if you are interested in cars, you engage in activities that reveals this interest.
Like going to car shows, visiting car websites etc.
2. Situational (temporary) involvement:
a. Eq. If a consumer wants to buy a car they temporary are involved in the market
during the car-buying process. After they buy the car the involvement will decline
dramatically.
3. Cognitive involvement: The consumer is interested in thinking about and processing
information related to his/her goal.
4. Affective involvement: The consumer is willing to expend emotional energy in or has
heightened feelings about an offering or activity.
a. Eq. Listening to music to experience some emotions.
Objects can include a product or retail category (cars, clothing stores) or can involve experiences
(going to a football match).
Consumers can also exhibit cognitive and/or affective involvement with a brand.  intense brand
love leads to high customer loyalty and a strong motivation to lavish:
- Time
- Money
- Energy, on that brand.
Consumers can also be involved with ads that are interesting or relevant to them.
In addition, consumers may be involved with a medium (TV, newspapers, internet), or with a
particular article or show which an ad is placed.

Response involvement:
Interest in certain decisions and behavior’s.
- Eq. deciding between two brands
Consumers can be involved with many different entities, that’s why it is important to specify the
object of involvement when using the term involvement.
- Eq. consumers that are involved in an ad because it is funny or interested, may not be
involved in the ad brand because they are loyal to another brand.

What determines motivation?

Motivation affect outcomes of interest like, goal relevant behaviors  purchasing, information
processing, and felt involvement.
Motivation is affected when consumers regard something as:
1. Personal relevant
2. Consistent with their self-concept, values, goals, emotion and self-control processes.
3. Perceived risk
4. Moderately inconsistent with their prior attitudes

Define: Personal relevance

The extent to which it has a direct bearing on and significant implications for your life.
- Eq.: careers, relationships, car, house etc.
Consistency with self-concept:
Your view of yourself and the way you think others view you.  help us define who we are.
- Eq. The cloths you buy.

Inconsistency with self-concept can make you feel bad.

- Eq.: When you try on clothing in what you thought was your size and you discover you need
a larger one. When self-concept is threatened, consumers will take action to repair their
bruised ego  Eq.: buying a product that improves the appearance of their hair.
Identifying with a brand and making an emotional connection with it, strengthens brand loyalty and
make those consumers less price sensitive toward the brand.
- (Eq. Harley- Davidson customers).
TV plays also an important role in the way who the consumer wants to be. But, when consumers
feel threatened about their social identity
- (Eq. you are an Ajax sports fan and the team is not having a good season), they cope by
“motivated forgetting”.
Motivated forgetting
Consumers may very well forget the details of a marketing message if they can’t identify their self
with it anymore
- (Eq.: if your team has a bad season).
Discuss: why is this important?
MANGLER!
Define: Values
Abstract beliefs that guide what people regard as important or good. If the information of a product
is close to a consumers values, naturally consumers are more motivated to remember and process
said information.
- Eq. family security, protecting environment, feeling fit etc.

Discuss: why is this important?

MANGLER!

Needs and Wants:

Internal state of tension experienced as a discrepancy between the current state and an ideal or
desired state.
- Eq.:
o feeling hungry (current state)
o you need food (desired/ideal state)
o You buy some food (behavior towards a certain outcome)
When you are motivated to satisfy a particular need, objects unrelated to that need seem less
attractive. Marketers for diet products will appeal to the consumers ideal state, by for an example
show the results of the use of the products.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

Within this hierarchy, lower-level needs generally must be satisfied before higher- level needs
become activated.
1. Physiological needs: The need for food,
water & sleep.
2. Safety: Shelter, protection & security.
3. Social: Need for affection, friendship and
to belong
4. Egoistic: The need for prestige, success,
accomplishment & self-esteem
5. Self-actualization: The need for self-
fulfilment and enriching experience.

Incompleteness model:
- Needs are not always ordered exactly as in this hierarchy (eq. consumer buys lottery ticket
instead of food. Or, consumers appreciate art even when they feel insecure).
- The ordering of needs may not be consistent across individuals or cultures.
- The hierarchy ignores the intensity of needs and the resulting effect on motivation.

Types of Needs
Another way to categorize needs is as (1) social & personal needs & (2) functional, symbolic, and
hedonic needs.
Social needs = externally directed and relate to
other individuals “being part of a group”
- Eq. use of FB (social media) to achieve a
need of affiliation.
Nonsocial needs = achievement not based on
other people.
- Eq. Purchasing of the same brand
repeatedly to maintain consistency in your
own world – buy something different to
fulfil a need for variety.

Personal  Social

Functional needs = motivate the search for products that solve consumption-related problems.
- Eq. (social-functional): hiring a nanny for support, or getting side airbags for your car.
- Eq. (personal-functional): car with a backup camera for safety needs.
Symbolic needs = how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us. Symbolic needs are
connected with our sense of self.
- Eq. (symbolic-social): Buying high-end brand to get the recognition from others og the
status of buying something expensive.
Hedonic needs = inherent desires for sensory pleasure.
- Eq. Axe body spray appeals to sexual stimulation

Needs for cognition and stimulation affect motivation and behavior as well. Consumers wants to
understand the world themselves and see some structure in it.
- Consumers with high need for cognition  enjoy being involved in mentally taxing
activities like reading and deeply processing information when making decisions.
- Consumers with low need for cognition  prefer activities that requires less thought.
- high optimum stimulation level  consumers enjoy a lot of sensory stimulation and tend to
be: involved in shopping and seeking brand info + height involvement in ads
 - Overstimulated  Get away from people, noise and demands.

Characteristics of needs
All of the preceding needs share several characteristics:
- Needs can be internally or externally activated.
o Eq. smelling nice food affect your perceived need for food.
- Need satisfaction is dynamic.
o needs are never permanently satisfied (temporary).
o Needs are dynamic: daily life is a constant process of need fulfilment. Eq. hunger.
- Needs exist in a hierarchy.
o If several needs may be activated at one time, some assume more importance than
others.
- Needs can conflict.
o There are various types of need conflicts:
 Approach-avoidance conflict
The consumer wants both: to engage in the behavior and to avoid it.
(Eq. smoking: you know it’s bad for your health – it is also cool (belong of
affiliate))
 Approach-approach conflict
Consumers must choose between two or more equally desirable options that
fulfill different needs.
(Eq. a consumer is invited to a career-night event (consistent with
achievement needs) and is invited to see a basketball game with friends
(consistent with affiliation and stimulation needs) on the same event.
 Avoidance-avoidance conflict
Consumer must choose between two equally undesirable options.

Identifying needs
Needs influence motivation and its effects, that’s why marketers are interested in identifying and
measuring them. This is difficult:
- Consumers are often unaware of their needs and cannot readily communicate them to others.
- Giving need might not be linked to a specific behavior.
 o So, the same need (e.g., affiliation) can be exhibited in various and diverse behaviors
(visiting friends, going to the gym), and the same behavior (going to the gym) can
reflect in various needs (affiliation, achievement).
- Cross-cultural differences in the importance of needs even for the same basic products.
o E.g. French women drink water so they will look better (symbolic need), German
consumers drink it for its health powers (functional need).

Given these challenges, researchers sometimes use “indirect” research techniques.

- “Direct techniques” ask people to openly report their needs
- “Indirect techniques” ask people for something else and the researcher then tries to infer
what the needs of the consumers are.

Goals
A particular end state or outcome that a person would like to achieve.
- Goal setting and goal pursuit
Consumer behaviour is a continuous cycle of setting goals, pursuing them, determining
success and failure of goal pursuit, and adapting the goals  all with implications for
marketing.
- Goals and Effort
Consumers vary in how much effort they exert to achieve in a goal.
“Coasting to the finish”  When people have multiple goals and they are close to attaining
one of their goals, people tend to reduce effort on pursuing that goal and redirect it to other
goals.
- Types of Goals
Goals can vary in being more concrete or abstract & goals also differ in whether they are
promotion-focused or prevention-focused.
Concrete  they are specific to a given behavior or action and determined by the
situation at hand (Eq. going earlier to bed when you are tired)
Abstract  endure over a long period (Eq. being a good student, or looking good).
- Promotion focused goals
Consumers are motivated to act in ways to achieve positive outcomes; focused on hopes,
wants, and accomplishments.
 - Prevention focused goals
Consumers are motivated to act in ways that avoid negative outcomes; focus on
responsibilities, safety and guarding against risks.

Goals and emotions

The extent to which we are successful or unsuccessful in attaining our goals determines how we
feel.
- Appraisal theory  Our emotions are determined by how we think about or “appraise”
(schatten) a situation or outcome. We feel positive emotions when an outcome is consistent
with our goals.

- Appraisal dimensions:
1. Normative/moral compatibility: is the outcome relevant to what is expected of us or what we
should do?
2. Certainty: Is the outcome certain to occur or not?
3. Agency: Was I the cause of the outcome? Or did the environment cause it, or by change?

Satiation  When consumers repeat a consumption experience, they tend to like it less over time.

Self-control and goal conflict

Process consumers use to regulate feelings, thoughts, and behavior in line with long-term goals,
rather than to pursue short-term goals. They arise when we face decisions about actions related to
goals that are in conflict.
- Ego depletion  Outcome of decision-making effort that results in mental resources being
exhausted (deplete of consumer’s mental energy).

Time plays a role in your self-control: if you repeatedly face the same choice (candy – yoghurt), and
you first choose yoghurt, this initial decision reinforces your self-control and you are more likely to
choose yogurt later.  you can train to gain self-control.

- Challenge of information processing

 Psychological conflict between desire; short-term hedonic force (I want the CANDY now),
and willpower; long-term utilitarian force (I have a long-term healthy lifestyle).

- Challenge of Emotion Regulation

Embodiment of the mind  connection between mind and body that influences and
expresses consumer self-control and behavior. Eq. In marketing: try furniture in a store and
imagine relaxing on it at home.

Perceived Risk
The extent to which the consumer anticipates negative consequences of buying, using, or disposing
of an offering to emerge and positive consequences to not emerge.
Two components:
1. Uncertainty component
2. Consequences component
Perceived risk is high when negative outcomes are likely or positive out are unlikely. Perceived risk
can be associated with any product or service, but it tends to be higher when:
1. The offering is new
2. The price is high
3. Technologically complexity
4. Brands offer differ fairly substantially in quality
5. Little confidence or experience in evaluating the offering.
6. Opinions of others.
7. Little information.

Types of perceived risk

- Performance risk:
o The possibility that the offering will not perform as well as hoped or expected.
- Financial risk:
o The extent to which buying, using, or disposing of an offering is perceived to have
the potential to create financial harm. Eq. buying a house.
- Physical (or safety risk):
 o The potential to create physical harm or harm one’s safety. Eq. not buying groceries
that passed the expiration date.
- Social risk:
o Potential harm to one’s social standing that may arise from buying, using, or
disposing of an offering.
- Psychological risk:
o reflects the consumers’ concern about the extent to which a product or service fits
with the way they perceive themselves.
- Time risk:
o uncertainties about the length of time.

Inconsistency with attitudes

We tend to be motivated to process messages that are moderately inconsistent with our knowledge
or attitudes  messages are perceived as moderately threatening or uncomfortable.  consumers
want to understand this.
On the other hand, consumers are less motivated to process information that is highly inconsistent
with their prior attitudes.

Discuss: what is the difference between Maslow’s hierarchy and the Categorisation of Needs

Ability
Define: what is ability?
Ability: The extent to which consumers have the necessary resources to make the outcome happen.
Financial resources
Cognitive resources
E.g. cycling sport is expensive, which extends to the consumers
for the ability to have the financial resources to market their
product.
Knowledge about and experience of an offering. Gain knowledge
from:
- Ad exposure
- Interaction with salespeople
- Information from friends

Emotional resources
Physical resources
- Media
- Previous decision-making
- Memory
- Product usage
Ability to experience empathy and sympathy and has an effect
on the actions consumers take to participate in charitable events
or donate to causes. (pink ribbon action)
“body power”, mind-body connection.

Social and cultural resources Network of social relationships  social media.

The above can be affected by other factors: education / age

- “experts” = knowledgeable  consumers can process information about specific attributes
- “novices” =less knowledgeable consumers
- “financial literacy” = expertise knowledge about financial matters  low financial literacy
people have lower savings and higher debts.

The five abilities will either help or hinder the motivation for achieving your goals.
You can be extremely motivated, but if you don’t have the ability and resources, the marketers will
fail to market their product.

What are the five key resources consumers need to enhance their abilities?
Opportunity
Define: what is opportunity?
We might have high motivation and the abilities to do it, but if the opportunity is failing, the goals
might not be achieved.

Someone may not take actions or make decisions because of three key influences:
1) lack of time
Consumers under time pressure will:
- acquire less information
- process the information less systematically
- place more emphasis on negative information
2) distraction
Distraction from the advertised message.
3) the complexity, amount, repetition, and control of information
Complexity  Technical/ quantitative information is more difficult to handle than nontechnical and
qualitative data.

Repetition  if consumers are repeatedly exposed to information, they will think more about, relate
to, and remember the information.
Control of information  how more control consumers have of the information how more they
remember and learn from the chosen information.

What impacts our opportunity to follow through on our goals?

Even when motivation is high, consumers may not achieve their goals if their ability or opportunity
to do so is low. Similarly, if consumers lack the financial, cognitive, emotional, physical, or social
and cultural resources, they may not have the ability to make a decision. Age and education also
affect ability. In addition, consumers may not achieve the goal if they are at- tending to information
that is incompatible with their processing styles. Highly motivated consumers may also fail to
achieve goals if lack of time, distractions, complex or large amounts of information, or lack of
control over information flow limit the opportunity to make decisions.

Exposure, Perception, Attention, and Comprehension

Attention
What are some tactics that marketers use to draw attention to their brands? What type of mediums
could marketers use to communicate them to their customers? Can you think of at least one
example of each?
I’ve put together the below table for you and filled in one example. To check your understanding of
this topic area, fill in the rest of the table.