Chap 3: Buyer Behaviors

 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
3.1 Which elements are involved in internal and external information searches
by consumers, as part of the purchasing process?
3.2 What three models explain how individuals evaluate purchasing
alternatives?
3.3 What trends are affecting the consumer buying environment?
3.4 How do the roles played by various members of the buying center and the
factors that influence them impact business purchases?
3.5 What types of business-tobusiness sales are made?
3.6 What are the steps of the business-to-business buying process?
3.7 How does dual channel marketing expand a company’s customer base and
its sales?
3.8 How can a company overcome international differences when adapting to
buying processes

 SUMMARY
Buyer behaviors are part of the purchasing process in both consumer markets
and business-to-business transactions. An effective IMC program accounts for
the ways in which customers purchase goods and services. The consumer buying
decision-making process consists of five steps. For the purposes of creating
effective marketing communications, the information search stage and the
evaluation of alternatives stage are the most important.

After recognizing a want or need, a consumer searches for information both

internally and externally. Marketing messages attempt to place the product or
service in the consumer’s evoked set of viable prospects. Three factors that
influence search behaviors include involvement, needs for cognition, and
enthusiasm for shopping. Customers consider the benefits and costs of searches
and make decisions regarding how extensively they will seek information.
Evoked sets, attitudes, values, and cognitive maps explain how individuals
evaluate various purchasing choices.

Marketers face an evolving buying decision-making environment. Cultural

values and attitudes, time pressures and busy lifestyles influence what people
buy, how they buy, and the manner in which they can be enticed to buy. Many
consumers try to escape through indulgences and pleasure binges, by finding
excitement or fantasy, and by planning to meet social needs. An aging baby
boom population concentrates more on lasting values and on health issues.
Social media has affected the ways in which consumers communicate with one
another. Marketing experts address these needs and lead customers to purchases
based on them.

By understanding business buyer behaviors, the marketing team constructs a

more complete and integrated marketing communications program. Business
purchases are driven by members of the buying center. These members include
users, buyers, influencers, deciders, and gatekeepers. Members of the buying
center are influenced by both organizational and individual factors that affect
various marketing decisions.

Business-to-business sales take three forms. A straight rebuy occurs when the
firmhas previously chosen a vendor and intends to place a reorder. A modified
rebuy occurs when the purchasing group is willing to consider and evaluate new
alternatives.A new task purchase takes place when a company buys a good
orservice for the first time, and the product involved is one with which
organizational members have no experience.

The business-to-business buying process is similar to the consumer purchase

decision-making process. A more formal purchasing process includes formal
specifications, bids from potential vendors, and a contract finalizing the
purchasing agreement.
Dual channel marketing means that the firm sells virtually the same goods or
services to both consumers and businesses. The challenge to the marketing team
is to create strong and consistent marketing messages to every potential buyer,
accounting for how buyer behaviors are present in purchasing processes.

 KEY TERMS
involvement The extent to which a stimulus or task is relevant to a consumer’s
existing needs, wants, or values
need for cognition A personality characteristic of an individual who engages in
and enjoys mental activities
enthusiasm for shopping Customers who like to shop will undertake a more in-
depth search for details about goods and services
attitude A mental position taken toward a topic, person, or
event that influences the holder’s feelings, perceptions,
learning processes, and subsequent behaviors
values Strongly held beliefs about varioustopics or concepts
cognitive maps Simulations of the knowledge structures
embedded in an individual’s mind
evoked set The set of brands a consumer considers during
the information search and evaluation processes
inept set The part of a memory set that consists of the
brands held in a person’s memory but are not considered
because they elicit negative feelings
inert set The part of a memory set that consists of the
brands the consumer has an awareness of but has neither
negative nor positive feelings about
affect referral A purchasing decision model in which the
consumer chooses the brand for which he or she has the
strongest liking or feelings
buying center The group of individuals who make a purchase decision on
behalf of a business
straight rebuy A repurchase from a supplier during which
no alternatives are considered
modified rebuy A situation in which the company’s
buying center considers and evaluates new purchasing
alternatives
new task A purchase in which the company buys a good
or service for the first time or the product involved
is one with which organizational members have no
experience
derived demand Demand based on, linked to, or generated by the production
and sale of some other good or
service
dual channel marketing Marketing virtually the same
goods or services to both consumers and businesse

 REVIEW QUESTIONS
3-1. What is the first step in the search for information when a consumer decides
that they need to make a purchase and there are alternatives open to them?
3-2. What is “level of motivation,” and what are the three factors that determine
it?
3-3. Distinguish between cognitive and conative components as part of an
assessment of consumer attitudes. Give examples of each.
3-4. What are the key factors that are said to affect a person’s values?
3-5. Define the term “opportunity cost.”
3-6. Why is repetition so important for marketing messages? Would they work
without repetition?
3-7. In relation to an individual’s evoked sets, distinguish between inept and
inert sets.
3-8. What is meant by affect referral? When is a person likely to rely on such a
cognitive approach to evaluating purchasing alternatives?
3-9. What new trends in the consumer buying environment affect consumer
purchasing decisions?
3-10. Name and describe the five roles played in a buying center.
3-11. What organizational and individual factors affect members of the business
buying center?
3-12. Describe the three main forms of business-to-business sales.
3-13. Name the steps in the business-to-business buying process.
3-14. Describe dual channel marketing and explain why it is important to a
company’s well-being.

 CRITICAL THINKING
3-15. Compulsive buying and/or shopping takes place when a person becomes
obsessed with making purchases, many of which are unnecessary or impractical.
For college students and other individuals with compulsive buying behaviors, a
primary influence is the family. Often one or both parents are compulsive
shoppers. Families that display other forms of dysfunctional behaviors such as
alcoholism, bulimia, extreme nervousness, or depression tend to produce
children who are more inclined to exhibit compulsive shopping behaviors. Why
do dysfunctional behaviors among parents produce compulsive shopping
behavior among children? Another component of compulsive buying behaviors
is self-esteem. Again, self-esteem is partly inherited, but it also develops in the
home environment. How would self-esteem be related to compulsive shopping
behaviors? What influences other than family might contribute to compulsive
shopping behaviors? If an individual tends to be a compulsive shopper, what can
(or should) be done?
3-16. Identify and explain each of the steps in the consumer decision-making
process. Discuss each of the steps as it would relate to the purchase of a new
computer. Discuss the pros and cons of the three methods of evaluation in terms
of the computer purchase.
3-17. Think about the ways you purchase products and consider a recent
purchase that involved an external search. Discuss your ability to search, the
need for cognition, your personal level of shopping enthusiasm, and the
perceived costs versus the perceived benefits of the search. How much time did
you spend in the external search, and what was the outcome?
3-18. Study the list of personal values presented in Figure 3.3. Identify the five
most important to you. Rank them from first to last. Beside each value, identify
at least one product you have purchased to satisfy those values. Explain how that
good or service satisfied that value.
3-19. Review the three methods of evaluating alternatives. Explain each method.
For each of the following product categories, which method of evaluation would
you use for your next purchase? Explain why. a. Meal with your significant
other at a dine-in restaurant b. Auto service repair for your vehicle c. Pair of
jeans d. Resort location for spring or winter break
3-20. Pick two of the product categories below. Identify brands in your evoked
set, inept set, and inert set for that product category. Explain the rationale for the
placement of each of the brands.
a. Quick service restaurants b. Retail clothing stores c. Grocery stores
d. Computers
3-21. What are the consumer buying trends in your own country? Choose a
product or service category and examine how trends have changed over the past
few years. What has influenced these changes? Are the changes consumer-led,
marketing-led, or technological?
3-22. As a business and marketing advisor to a mediumsized business that tends
to favor traditional forms of communication with their customers, outline how
they could benefit from the communications revolution and how technology
could have a positive impact on their sales and image. Take into account the fact
that they may not even use email to a great extent.You should also assume that
they do not have a website and cannot take payments electronically.
3-23. A purchasing agent for a clothing manufacturer is in the process of
selecting vendors to supply the materials to produce about 30 percent of its
clothes. The clothing manufacturer employs about 300 people. As the audit
nears completion, what factors are most important to the purchasing agent?
3-24. Identify four brands you have used in a work environment that you also
have purchased in your personal life. Discuss the dual channel marketing
approach each of the brands uses. Discuss the process that occurred in
purchasing the product for personal use and the influence that using the brand in
the work environment had on the purchase, or the reverse if you used it
personally first.

CHAPTER 4: The IMC Planning Process

 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
4.1 What makes marketing research critical to the IMC planning process?
4.2 What categories do companies use to identify consumer target markets or
market segments?
4.3 What categories do organizations use to identify business-tobusiness market
segments?
4.4 How do the various approaches to positioning influence the IMC planning
process?
4.5 How do the marketing communications objectives interact with the other
elements of an IMC planning process?
4.6 How are communications budgets established?
4.7 What are the features of an international IMC planning program

 SUMMARY
A marketing communications planning program will be based on information
derived from communications research. Product-specific, consumer-oriented,
and target market research assist marketers in understanding the ways in which
people view and purchase products. They then select target markets that match
product-positioning approaches tactics.
Market segmentation identifies sets of business or consumer groups with distinct
characteristics. Segments must be clearly different, large enough to support a
marketing campaign, and reachable through available media. Company
employees identify consumer groups or segments by demographics, including
gender, age, income, and ethnicity. Markets are also identified using
psychographic, generational, and geographic delineations. Geodemographic
segmentation combines demographic, psychographic, and geographic
information together. Other ways to categorize consumers are by the benefits
they receive from goods or services and by the ways they use products.
Business-to-business segmentation may be accomplished by targeting business
customers by industry, business type, the size of the company, geographic
location, usage, and customer-value calculations. Marketing managers specify
the company’s consumer and business market segments. All other promotions
opportunity analysis processes are tied to the identification of key customers.
Product positioning represents the perceptions in consumer minds of the nature
of a company and its products relative to the competition. Positioning may be
based on product attributes, competitors, product uses or applications, the price–
quality relationship, product class, or through the association with a cultural
symbol.
Marketing objectives lead to the development of communications objectives that
are matched to the product, target market, and product positioning. These
objectives form the basis for developing communications budgets and selecting
IMC components for actual marketing campaigns.
Globally integrated marketing communications efforts are guided by the IMC
planning process. National differences, cultural concerns, language issues, and
other challenges must be viewed in light of the target markets an individual
company intends to serve.

 KEY TERMS
product-specific research A form of communications
research that seeks to identify key product characteristics that become selling
points
consumer-oriented research A form of communications research that seeks to
discover the context of a
product’s use through anthropological, sociological, or
psychological analysis
target-market research A form of communications
research that identifies the recipients of a planned communications campaign
focus group A set of consumers who talk about a particular topic, product, or
brand in front of a moderator or
panel who tracks consumer comments and ideas
market segment A set of businesses or group of individual customers with
distinct characteristics
market segmentation Identifying specific groups (target
markets) based on needs, attitudes, and interests
demographics Population characteristics such as gender,
age, educational levels, income, and ethnicity
psychographics Patterns of responses that reveal a person’s activities, interests,
and opinions (AIO)
geo-targeting Marketing appeals made to people in a
geographic area or region
product positioning The perception in the consumer’s
mind of the nature of a company and its products relative to the competition
benchmark measure Starting points that are studied in
relation to the degree of change following a promotional
campaign
percentage-of-sales budget A form of communications
budgeting in which budgeting is based on sales from the
previous year or anticipated sales for the next year
meet-the-competition budget A communications budget in which expenditures
are raised or lowered to match
the competition
“what we can afford” budget A communications budget that is set after all of
the company’s other budgets
have been determined or while the other budgets are
set; communications money is allocated based on what
company leaders feel they can afford to spend
objective-and-task budget A communications budget in
which management first lists all of the communications
objectives to pursue during the year and then calculates
the cost of accomplishing those objectives
payout-planning budget A budgeting method that
establishes a ratio of advertising to sales or market share
pulsating schedule An advertising program that is continuous throughout the
year with bursts of higher intensity at specific times
flighting schedule An advertising schedule in which
communications are present only at peak times during
the year
continuous campaign schedule An advertising schedule that involves level
amounts of spending and messages throughout the year

 REVIEW QUESTIONS
4-1. What three forms of market research are used to develop marketing
communications?
4-2. What is involved in product-specific research? How can it be used?
4-3. Define market segment and market segmentation.
4-4. What are the three approaches for consumer-orientated research?
4-5. Why do many marketers believe that age alone is not a valuable
segmentation criterion?
4-6. How do you distinguish between geographic and demo-geographic
segmentation?
4-7. How does income and education link together in segmentation?
4-8. List all of the segments of the VALS typology.
4-9. What are the views of generational segmentation proponents?
4-10. Describe usage segmentation and benefit segmentation.
4-11. What are the common business-to-business market segments?
4-12. Describe the NAICS approach to business market segmentation.
4-13. Describe a usage segmentation approach in a business-to-business setting.
4-14. Describe a segmentation approach based on company size.
4-15. Define product positioning and identify the types of positioning
approaches that can be used in the IMC planning process.
4-16. What is a benchmark measure?
4-17. What common marketing communications objectives do firms establish?
4-18. Describe the methods that can be used to establish a communications
budget.
4-19. Describe the three types of advertising schedules that may be used during
the course of a year.
4-20. Which IMC components are more likely to be used in business-to-business
marketing communications programs, as compared to consumer markets

 CRITICAL THINKING
4-21. A common approach to understanding customers is to use focus groups.
They can help identify the most relevant communication research required, the
information that is needed, and how it can be used in marketing. Suggest how
focus groups might help a business launching a new fast-food chain.
4-22. The digital media company TotallyAwesome found in their APAC 2020
Kids Digital Insights study that online content creators in the Asia-Pacific region
play a key role in establishing a relationship between young consumers and
brands. Some 59 percent of children ask their parents to make purchases for
them after seeing a brand endorsed by a content creator or influencer. Similarly,
55 percent of parents are convinced to make a purchase afterseeing content from
an influencer. Read the article titled “Study: Brands Winning the Hearts of
Children in Asia amidst COVID-19” at the Marketing Interactive website,
available at www.marketing-interactive.com/study-brandswinning-the-hearts-of-
children-in-asia-amidstcovid-19. Classify or quantify the segments common to
the brands that feature heavily in the study. What similarities do you notice?
4-23. Make a list of five consumer goods or services that are segmented on the
basis of male/female gender but sold to all genders. Are there any differences in
the product or service attributes? Are there differences in how they are
marketed? What are those differences? Do you think using a different marketing
approach has worked?
4-24. Make a list of five consumer goods or services that are segmented on the
basis of age. Are there actual differences in the product or service attributes?
Are there differences in how they are marketed? What are those differences? Do
you think using a different marketing approach has worked?
4-25. Examine the list of demographic segmentation variables. For each
demographic variable listed in the text, identify two products that are marketed
to a specific demographic segment. Identify the specific demographic segment
and explain why the product is aimed at that particular market segment. Identify
one brand that has been especially successful at reaching a specific demographic
segment
4-26. Examine the VALS psychographic groups presented in the chapter. For
each of the following goods or services, identify the VALS segment that would
be the best to target. Justify your choice. Describe an advertisement or
marketing communication that could be used for the VALS segment you
identified for each product.
a. Health food store b. Trampoline court for children
c. Dermatologist and beauty-enhancement company
d. Appliance store (refrigerators,stoves, dishwashers) e. Scooter retailer in
Taiwan
4-27. Generation Z is rapidly becoming an attractive generation for marketers.
Explain how you would create marketing messagesfor this group and how you
would deliver messages to them. How would the approach differ from one
targeting millennials?
4-28. Usage segmentation targets heavy users, average users, light users, or
nonusers. Describe campaigns for each of the usage segments for a major hotel
chain frequency program. In your discussion, identify the best communications
objective for each of the campaigns and the product positioning strategy that you
would use for each segment. Justify your decisions.
4-29. For each of the product-positioning strategies discussed in this chapter,
identify two brands that feature the strategy and explain how the strategy is used
to successfully market the brand.