CHAPTER 1

UNDERSTANDING
CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR

Hoyer | MacInnis | Pieters

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Consumer Behavior
The totality of consumers' decisions with
respect to the acquisition,
consumption and disposition of
goods, services, time and ideas by
human decision-making units.
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Consumer Behavior Involves More than Buying

▸ How consumers buy is extremely

important to marketers. However,
marketers are also intensely
interested in consumer behavior
related to using and disposing of an
offering.
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Consumer Behavior Involves More than Buying

▸ Acquisition
- the process by which a consume comes to
own an offering
▸ Usage
- the process by which a consumer uses an
offering
▸ Disposition
- the process by which a consumer discards an
offering
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What Affects the Consumer Behavior?

▸ The Psychological Core: Internal Consumer Processes-

covers motivation, ability and opportunity; exposure,
attention, perception and comprehension; memory and
knowledge; and attitudes about an offering.

▸ The Process of Decision Making - this domain includes four

stages: Problem Recognition, Information Search. Decision
Making and Post purchase Evaluation.
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The Consumer's Culture: External Processes

 Culture- The typical or expected behaviors, norms

and ideas that characterize a group of people

 Reference group- A group of people consumers

compare themselves with for information regarding
behavior, attitudes or values

 Symbols- external signs that consumers use to

express their identity
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Who Benefits from the Study of Consumer Behavior?

▸ Marketing Managers
▸ Ethicists and Advocacy Groups
▸ Public Policy makers and Regulators
▸ Academics
▸ Consumer Society
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Marketing Implications of Consumer Behavior

▸ Developing and Implementing Customer-Oriented

strategy - marketers must conduct research to
understand the various groups of consumers
within the market place

▸ Selecting the Target Market- understanding

consumer behavior helps marketers determine
which consumer groups are appropriate targets for
marketing tactics.
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Marketing Implications of Consumer Behavior

▸ Developing Products - developing goods and services that
satisfy consumers' wants and needs is a critical marketing
activity. Marketers apply consumer research when making a
number of decision about products and branding.

▸ Positioning- strategic choice is deciding how an offering

should be positioned in consumers' minds.

▸ Making Promotion and Marketing Communication Decisions-

research can help companies make decisions about
promotional/ marketing communication tools.
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Marketing Implications of Consumer Behavior

 Making Pricing Decision- price of the product or service can

have a critical influence on consumers' acquisition, usage
and disposition decisions.
▸ Making Distribution Decision- Another important marketing
decision involves how products are distributed and sold to
consumer retail stores.
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Consumer behavior research methods

▸ Surveys-one of the most familiar tool

▸ Focus groups-brings together groups of 6-12
persons
▸ Interviews-it involves direct contact with customers
▸ Storytelling-consumers tell researchers stories
about their experiences with a product
▸ Photography and pictures-using a technique in
which they show pictures of experience to help
consumers remember and report experiences
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Consumer behavior research methods

▸ Diaries-asking consumers to keep diaries can

provide important insights into their behavior
including product purchasing and media usage.
▸ Experiments-conducting experiments to determine
whether certain marketing phenomena affect
consumer behavior.
▸ Field experiment-conducting experiments in the
real world
▸ Database marketing-marketers can dig deeper into