MKTG 3Ce

Chapter 6
CONSUMER
DECISION
MAKING
LO 6-1
 Learning Outcomes
1. Explain why we should understand consumer
behaviour
2. Analyze the components of the consumer decision-
making process
3. Identify the types of consumer buying decisions and
discuss their significance
4. Identify and understand the cultural, social, individual
and psychological factors that affect consumer buying
decisions

LO Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd. 6-2

 Importance of Understanding Consumers

“The aim of marketing is to

know the consumer so well
that the product or service
sells itself.”
~Peter Drucker
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 Decision-Making

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 The Consumer Decision Making Process

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Step 1 - Need Recognition (Imbalance)

Actual
state

Desired
state

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 Need Recognition

Marketing Manager’s objective:

Get consumers to recognize an

imbalance between their present status
and their preferred/desired state

LO 2 Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd. 6-7

 Want versus Need

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 Need Recognition
Stimulus
New
Internal or
Products
External
Observe
trends

Advertising Product
performance
Sales
Promotion No longer
have any

LO 2 Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd. 6-9

 Importance of Understanding Consumers

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 Step 2 - Information Search

Memory search
Internal
information
search
Past experience

LO 2 Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd. 6-11

 Information Search
Personal
experience

Nonmarketing Personal sources

controlled
Public sources
External
information Mass media
search
Salespeople
Marketing
controlled
Product labelling

Internet

LO 2 Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd. 6-12

 Information Search

Alternatives
Alternatives

Alternatives

Evoked Set
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 Step 3 – Evaluation of Alternatives
Criteria/p
roduct
Criteria/p attribute
Criteria/p
roduct roduct
attribute attribute

Consideration
set

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 Step 4 - Purchase

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 Step 5 - Postpurchase Behaviour

Decision Decision
Cognitive
Confirmation Confirmation
Dissonance
Support Support

LO 2 Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd. 6-16

 Types of Consumer Buying Decisions

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 Factors Determining the Level of Consumer Involvement

Perceived Risk
Previous
Interest of Negative
Experience
Consequences

Social
Situation Visibility

LO 3 Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd. 6-18

 Factors Determining the Level of Consumer
Involvement

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 Cultural Influences Impact on
Consumer Buying Decisions

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 Influences on Consumer Buying Decisions

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 1. Cultural
 Broadest and deepest influence
• pervasive
• functional
• learned
• dynamic
 The most defining element: values
• correspond to consumption patterns
• give rise to beliefs, which lead to attitudes

LO 4 Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd. 6-22

 Subculture
 Attitudes, values, and purchase decisions are
even more similar within subcultures
 Subcultures arise from the division of a culture
based on demographic characteristics,
geographic regions, political beliefs, and
religious beliefs

LO 4 Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd. 6-23

 Social Class
 Typically measured as a combination of
occupation, income, education, wealth, and
other variables
 Educational attainment—the most reliable
indicator of social and economic status
 Why consider it?
• Indicates which medium to use for advertising
• Where to distribute the products

LO 4 Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd. 6-24

 Social Influences on Consumer
Buying Decisions

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 Family
 The most important social institution
• Influences values, attitudes, and self-concept, hence
buying behaviour
• Family members play a variety of roles in the
purchase process:
 Initiator
 Influencer
 Decision maker
 Purchaser
 Consumer

LO 5 Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd. 6-26

 Opinion Leaders
 Important to persuade opinion leaders to try a
product because of their strong influence on
others
• first to try
• self-indulgent
• curious

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 Time Magazine Top 100

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 3. Psychological Influences on Consumer’s Buying
Decisions

 Can be affected by a person’s environment

because they are applied on specific occasions

 Perception:

Selective Selective Selective

exposure distortion retention

LO 7 Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd. 6-29

 Motivation

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 Learning

Experimenta Conceptual
l Learning Learning

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 4. Individual influences on Consumer
Buying Decisions

Gender

Lifestyle Age

Family Life
Self-Concept Cycle

Personality

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 Gender & Age

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 Beliefs and Attitudes
 Belief—organized pattern of knowledge that
an individual holds as true about their world
 Attitudes—learned tendency to respond
consistently toward a given object
• Rest on a person’s value system
• More enduring than beliefs

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 Describe how/why you decided to attend
Seneca – dissuss each of the 4 categories

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