Consumer Behavior,

Ninth Edition

Schiffman & Kanuk

Chapter 15
Consumer Decision Making and Beyond
MKT 344 Lecturer NNA
Chapter Outline

 Levels of Consumer Decision Making

 Models of Consumer Decision Making
 Consumer Gifting Behavior
 Relationship Marketing
Levels of Consumer Decision Making

 Extensive Problem Solving

 when consumers have no established criteria for
evaluating a product category or specific brand in
that category.
 A lot of information needed
 Must establish a set of criteria for evaluation
 E.g. replacing an old tube tv with hdtv
Levels of Consumer Decision Making

 Limited Problem Solving

 consumers already have established the basic
criteria for evaluating the product category and
the various brands in the category
 Criteria for evaluation established
 Fine tuning with additional information
 E.g. replacing an old laptop with a new one
Levels of Consumer Decision Making

 Routinized Response Behavior

 consumers have experience with the product
category and a well-established set of criteria with
which to evaluate the brands they are
considering.
 Usually review what they already know
 Ads often appeal
to consumers who
are looking for
information to
help them
evaluate
products.

Copyright 2007 by Prentice Hall

Models of Consumers: Four Views of
Consumer Decision Making

 An Economic View:
 to behave rationally in the economic sense, a
consumer would have to
▪ Be aware of all available product alternatives
▪ Be capable of correctly ranking each alternative in
terms of its benefits and disadvantages
▪ Be able to identify the one best alternative
 Follows the principle of maximum utility based on
diminishing marginal utility
Models of Consumers: Four Views of
Consumer Decision Making
 Criticisms of Economic
View:
 People are limited by their
▪ existing skills and habits
▪ existing values and goals
▪ the extent of their knowledge
Models of Consumers: Four Views of
Consumer Decision Making

 A Passive View
 Consumers are submissive to promotional efforts
 Consumers are perceived as impulsive and
irrational purchasers
 Consumers can be manipulated by skilled sales
people
Models of Consumers: Four Views of
Consumer Decision Making

 Criticisms of the Passive View

 Fails to recognize that consumers play an equal or
dominant role in many buying situation
▪ Impulsive decisions can’t be taken in every buying
situation
▪ Sometimes customers prefer to go through information
search, evaluation of alternative and select the product
which serves the greatest satisfaction (i.e. conscious
parents while picking baby foods)
Models of Consumers: Four Views of
Consumer Decision Making

 A Cognitive View
 Portrays consumers as thinking problem solvers or
information processors
▪ Consumers gather sufficient information instead of all
information
▪ Consumers tend to make a “satisfactory” decision
instead of making a perfect decision
Models of Consumers: Four Views of
Consumer Decision Making

 An Emotional View
 Also called impulsive view
 Driven by consumer emotion and mood
 Rather than carefully searching and evaluating
alternatives before buying, consumers are just as
likely to have made many of these purchases on
impulse because they were emotionally driven
Discussion Questions

 How are the four models of consumer

decision making similar?
 How do they differ
A Simplified Model of Consumer Decision
Making

Copyright 2007 by Prentice Hall

A Simplified Model of Consumer Decision
Making

 Input:
 Marketing inputs
 Sociocultural inputs
The Process of Consumer Decision
Making
 Process:
 Need Recognition
 Pre-purchase Search
 Evaluation of Alternatives
 Psychological field
Need Recognition

 Usually occurs when consumer has a

“problem”
 Need recognition styles
 Actual state
 Desired state
Prepurchase Search

 Begins with internal search and then moves

to external search
 The impact of the Internet
 Search may be personal or impersonal
Issues in Alternative Evaluation

 Evoked set
 Criteria used for evaluating brands
 Consumer decision rules and their application
 Decisions by functionally illiterate population
 Going online for decision-making assistance
 Lifestyles as a consumer decision strategy
 Incomplete information
 Series of decisions
 Decision rules and marketing strategy
Issues in Alternative Evaluation

All brands

Evoked set Inept set Inert set

Issues in Alternative Evaluation

 Evoked set/ consideration set

 Refers to the specific brands or models a consumer
considers in making a purchase within a particular product
category
 Inept set
 Consists of brands or models the consumer excludes from
purchase consideration because they are felt to be
unacceptable or they are seen as inferior
 Inert set
 Which consists of brands or models the consumer is
indifferent toward because they are perceived as not
having any particular advantages
Issues in Alternative Evaluation

 Consumer decision rules

 Compensatory
 Noncompensatory
▪ Conjunctive Decision Rule
▪ Disjunctive Decision Rule
▪ Lexicographic Rule
 A type of decision
rule in which a
consumer evaluates
each brand in terms
Compensatory
of each relevant
Decision Rules
attribute and then
selects the brand with
the highest weighted
score.
 A type of consumer
decision rule by which
positive evaluation of a
Non-compensatory
brand attribute does
Decision
Rules
not compensate for a
negative evaluation of
the same brand on
some other attribute.
 A non-compensatory
decision rule in which
consumers establish a
minimally acceptable
cutoff point for each
Conjunctive
attribute evaluated.
Decision Rule
Brands that fall below
the cutoff point on any
one attribute are
eliminated from further
consideration.
 A noncompensatory
decision rule in which
consumers establish a
minimally acceptable
cutoff point for each
Disjunctive Rule relevant product
attribute. Brands that fall
over the cutoff point on
any one attribute are
accepted from further
consideration.
 A non-compensatory
decision rule -
consumers first rank
product attributes in
Lexicographic Rule terms of importance,
then compare brands
in terms of the attribute
considered most
important.
 A simplified decision rule
by which consumers make
a product choice on the
Affect Referral basis of their previously
Decision Rule established overall ratings
of the brands considered,
rather than on specific
attributes.
Issues in Alternative Evaluation

 Decisions by functionally illiterate population

Issues in Alternative Evaluation

 Going online for decision-making assistance

Issues in Alternative Evaluation

 Lifestyles as a consumer decision strategy

 Incomplete information
 Delay decision until missing information is
obtained
 Ignore missing information and use available
information
 Change the decision strategy to one that better
accommodates for the missing information
 Infer the missing information
A Purchase Can Involve a Number of
Decisions.

When purchasing car, the buyer is

involved in a number of decisions – the
make, model, country of origin, the
dealer, the financing, and different
options.
Output of Consumer Decision Making

 Purchase behavior
 Three types of behavior
▪ Trial purchases
▪ Repeat purchases
▪ Long-term commitment
Postpurchase Evaluation

 Post-purchase evaluation
 Actual Performance Matches Expectations
▪ Neutral Feeling
 Actual Performance Exceeds Expectations
▪ Positive Disconfirmation of Expectations
 Performance Is Below Expectations
▪ Negative Disconfirmation of Expectations
 This article in
Cargo is
designed to
help a reader
reduce their
postpurchase
depression.

Copyright 2007 by Prentice Hall

Gifting Behavior

Gifting is an act of symbolic communication,

with explicit and implicit meanings ranging
from congratulations and love, to regret,
obligation, and dominance.
An Increasing Number of Gift
Purchases Are Now Made Online

weblink
A Simple Model of Consumption
Figure 16-5
 Marketing aimed at
creating strong, lasting
relationships with a core
group of customers by
Relationship making them feel good
Marketing about the company and
by giving them some
kind of personal
connection with the
business.
Proctor & Gamble Builds Relationships
with Their Brands
State Farm
Insurance stresses
relationship
marketing in their
advertising.