MARKETING

Real People, Real Choices

Fourth Edition

CHAPTER 5
Consumer Behavior:
How and Why
People Buy

Michael R. Solomon Greg W. Marshall Elnora W. Stuart

 Chapter Objectives_1

• Define consumer behavior and explain

the reasons why consumers buy what
they buy
• Explain the prepurchase, purchase, and
postpurchase activities consumers
engage in when making decisions
• Describe how internal factors influence
consumers’ decision-making processes

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 Chapter Objectives _2
• Understand how situational factors at the time
and place of purchase may influence
consumer behavior
• Describe how consumers’ relationships with
other people influence their decision-making
process
• Understand how the Internet offers consumers
opportunities for consumer-to-consumer
marketing

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 Consumer Behavior

The process individuals and groups go

through to select, purchase, or use
goods, services, ideas, or experiences
to satisfy their needs and desires

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Figure 5.1: The Consumer Decision-
Making Process

Problem Recognition

Information Search

Evaluation of Alternatives

Product Choice

Postpurchase Evaluation

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Figure 5.2: EPS versus HDM

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Minolta Copier

This ad seeks
to ease
perceived risk

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 Problem Recognition

• Occurs whenever a consumer

recognizes a difference between the
current state and the ideal or desired
state
– Internal cues
– External cues

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 Information Search

Knowledge

Personal Friends
Experience
Advertising
Web sites

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 Evaluation of Alternatives

• Identify consideration set

• Narrow list and compare pros and cons
• Use evaluative criteria to decide among
remaining choices

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Epinions.com

Web sites like this

one help
consumers in the
evaluation of
alternatives stage

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 GM

GM attempts to persuade consumers that

making the decision to buy a GM-certified
used vehicle is a good decision

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 Product Choice

• People may ultimately make the choice

based on heuristics
• Heuristics represent rules of thumb
– brand loyalty
– country of origin
– liking

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 Postpurchase Evaluation

• How good a choice was it?

• Customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction
• Ultimately affects future decisions and
word-of-mouth communication

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Figure 5.4: Influences on Decision Making

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 Internal Influences

Motivation
Perception Learning

Lifestyle Attitudes

Age Personality

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 Perception

• Process by which people select, organize,

and interpret information

Exposure Attention Interpretation

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 Pepsi

This ad embeds
images in the ad to
affect perception

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 Motivation

• Motivation is an internal state that drives

us to satisfy needs
• Once we activate a need, a state of
tension exists that drives the consumer
to some goal that will reduce this
tension and eliminate the need
• Consequently, only unmet needs
motivate

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Figure 5.5: Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs

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 Learning

• Learning is a change in behavior

caused by information or experience

Cognitive Behavior
Learning Learning

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Observation Learning

Companies desire
observational
learning when they
use endorsers

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 Attitudes

• An attitude is a lasting evaluation of a

person, object, or issue
• 3 components of attitudes

Affect

Cognition Behavior

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 Personality

Innovativeness

Self-confidence

Sociability

Materialism

Need for Cognition

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Allen Edmonds

Some marketers
believe we choose
products that
express our
personalities

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Are you what you buy? Does your personality
match the personality of the brands you
purchase?

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 Age Groups

Children

Teens
Young Adults
Middle-aged

Elderly

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Holland America

Products like
luxury cruises to
exotic locales
often target older
consumers who
are retired and
have the time
and money for
expensive travel

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 Family Life Cycle

• Related to age groups, our purchases

also depend on our current position in
the family life cycle
– stages through which family members
pass as they grow older

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 Lifestyles

• A lifestyle is a pattern of living that determines

how people choose to spend their time,
money, and energy and reflects their values,
tastes, and preferences
• Expressed through preferences for sports
activities, music interests, and political opinions
• Psychographics is the segmentation tool used
to group consumers according to AIOs

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SRI’s VALS Descriptions

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 Situational Influences

Physical
Time
Environment

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 Place-based Media

Place-based
media offers a
way to reach
consumers
when they are
a captive
audience

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 Social Influences

• Culture and Subcultures

• Social Class
• Group Behavior and Reference Groups
• Opinion Leaders

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 Cultures and Subcultures

• Culture is the values, beliefs, customs,

and tastes produced and valued by a
group of people
• A subculture is a group coexisting with
other groups in a larger culture whose
members share a distinctive set of
beliefs or characteristics

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 Table 5.1: Ideas of Success

• Baby Boomer Women (born 1946-1964)

– Home life and being with friends and family
are of utmost importance. Work is just a
monetary thing.
– I’m starting to demand a certain quality of
relationships.
• Generation X Men (born 1965-1976)
– The main goal is being at peace with myself.
– I want to make sure that I have a job I enjoy, a
personal life, and the opportunity to enjoy
things outside of work.

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Sprite targets a specific subculture

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Enrique Inglesias

Music crossovers
give mainstream
music Hispanic flavor

Video: How
Reebok reaches
the youth culture
through Hip Hop
music

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 Social Class

• Social class is the overall rank of people

in a society
• People in the same class tend to have
similar occupations, similar income
levels, share common tastes in clothes,
decorating styles, and leisure activities.
They may share political and religious
beliefs.

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 Group Memberships

• A reference group is a set of people a

consumer wants to please or imitate
• The “group” can be composed of one
person, a few people, or many people.
They may be people you know or don’t
know.
– Conformity is at work when people change as
a reaction to real or imagined group pressure

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 Sex Roles

‘Cool
Shoppin’
Barbie
reinforces
sex roles

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Challenging Sex Roles

This German
ad for Schick
razors challenges
sex role
expectations:
They are men!

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 Opinion Leaders

• An opinion leader is
a person who
influences others’
attitudes or
behaviors because
they are perceived
as possessing
expertise about the
product

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Consumer-to-Consumer E-Commerce
• Communications and purchases that occur among
individuals without directly involving the manufacturer or
retailer
• Virtual Communities
– Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs)
– Rooms, Rings, Lists
– Boards
– Auction sites
– Product Rating sites
– Protest sites

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Online Communities

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 Disgruntled BK Employee

A former
Burger King
employee
created this
protest site

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 Issues for Discussion_1

• What are some big cultural or

demographic trends that may affect
marketing for the following products?
– Housing
– Magazines
– Education
– Telecommunications
– Travel and tourism
– Automobiles

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 Issues for Discussion_2

• What are the core values of your

culture? What subcultures are you a
member of? What distinctive beliefs,
characteristics, or experiences are a
part of the subcultures?
• Does conformity from reference groups
exert a positive or negative influence on
consumers? With what types of
products is conformity more likely to
occur?

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 Issues for Discussion_3

• What do you think the future of C2C e-

commerce is? How will it affect
traditional marketing firms?
• How would you describe the decision
process for impulse products placed
near a store’s checkout area?
• What are some ways you think sex
roles differ in different countries? What
are the implications for marketers?

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