Introduction To Consumer Behaviour Relations.: 7.1 Goals

Lecture 7 Consumer behaviour Page 1
Notes are taken from i)Consumer Behaviour , Blythe J, (1999), Prentice Hall
7. Introduction to Consumer Behaviour Relations.

7.1 Goals.
A goal is an external object to which a motive is directed. Goals differ from drives in that
the goal is external, and pulls the person in a given direction; whereas a drive is internal and
pushes the individual.
In this way a goal acts as an incentive to take a course of action (or refrain as the case may
be). When an individual has a drive which needs to be addressed, there may be a series of
goals which would satisfy the drive.
Thus if bored you might seek something to do to relieve the boredom: you might decide
you need entertainment. This leads to goal choice: play a computer game, ring a friend,
watch a video, channel hop or go shopping in a big department store.
7.2 Risk, uncertainty and heuristics

Surprisingly there is a risk associated with buying products. Some examples are:
Type of risk Explanation Examples
Physical risk The fear of injury from the Buying a car with defective brakes;
product buying drugs with unpleasant side
effects.
Financial risk Losing or wasting money Buying a car that depreciates quickly;
buying a computer and finding the
price falls to half within three
months.
Functional risk Finding out the product will Buying a car that breaks down
not do the job you bought it constantly; buying a painkiller that
for does not stop the pain; buying a
computer and having to replace the
falty hard drive every two months.
Pschosocial risk The fear of looking foolish Buying a suit that friends tnink looks
weird on you; buying a Robin
Reliant.
To deal with these risks people learn heuristics. These are simple rules that seem to work
most of the time. Heuristics are subject to alteration in the light of new knowledge.
Heuristics can be used by the consumer to simplify decision making. They may be stored in
the consumers memory, or may be constructed on the spot based on the information
received, but either way they allow the consumer to reach rapid decisions without
overstretching his or her cognitive capacity.
Use of heuristics in the extreme leads to habitual behaviour. For example I go to the same
restaurant on the same night with the same bloke to eat the same meal and have a natter. I
cannot be bothered with scanning a huge menu and have to go through all that decision
making - I am usually too tired and simply want to enjoy the company.
Notes are from The Essence of Consumer Behaviour, Blythe J , (1999), Prentice Hall Brian
Morris
Some customers may have less rigid heuristics but they may still be a barrier to purchasing.
A customer has the price of £1000 as the most he or she will pay for a computer. This may
be so strong that a good value for money machine at £1,200 will be spurned in order to buty
one which is only half as good for £800.
7.3 Life as theatre

People create and project images of themselves to other people; these images are called
roles. The role may change according to the circumstances and environment which the
individual is in. Role playing behaviour is natural, and not consciously carried out. It is
true that people may unconsciously change their accents, movements and statements to fit
in with the people around them. Indeed behavour in groups if acceptable often results in
the conferment of status.
Erving Goffman developed a useful analogy for the role playing behaviour when he
developed his idea, or analogy, of life-as-theatre. This is illustrated by the table below.
Theatrical Explanation Real-life example

terms
Props Items used to make gestures, or to Cigarettes, walking-sticks,
support and emphasis movement, furniture and ornaments.
or to set a scene.
Costume Items of clothing which serve to Sportswear, business suits,
establish a role, or set a scene power dressing
Stage The place where the performance Offices, living rooms, pubs,
is held, and where the audience is churches.
assembled.
Backstage The place where the dressing Where the individual lives or
rooms are; where the actors is relaxed; home; where the
prepare for their performance, persons friends and intimates
and where they meet their friends can visit.
and intimates.
Make-up The face the actor puts on to Cosmetics, perfumes,
emphasise the characterisation. aftershave, hairdressing.
Script A pre-planned set of statements Jokes, sayings, conversational
intended to communicate the role styles, professional jargon.
to the audience.
Business The movements actors make in Gestures, body language,
the course of playing the role. facial expressions used to
convey emotions and ideas.
Applause Feedback from the audience; Getting your way in business
confirmation that the role negotiation, having friends
projection has been effective. laugh at your jokes, having a
conversational response from
a friend.
However, Goffman goes to great lengths to emphasise that the role-playing is actually part
of the real everyday lives of real people, not the contrived parts played by actors.
Morris
7.4 Personality
Personality is the collection of individual characteristics that make a person unique, and
which control an individual’s responses to and relationship with the external environment.
It is a composite of subordinate processes: e.g. attitude, motivation, perception. It is the
whole of the person and is the system that governs the behaviour rather than the behaviour
itself.
The elements that make up the behaviour are called traits. Considerable effort has gone into
identifying traits and relating them to consumer buying behaviour. The totality of the traits
(i.e. the personality ) dictates buying behaviour rather than any one trait.
Personality has the following features:
 It is integrated: that is to say, all the factors making up the personality act on
each other to produce an integrated whole.
 It is self-serving. The characteristics of personality facilitate the attainment of
needs and goals. In other words, the personality exists to meet its own needs.
 Personal characteristics are individualistic and unique, in degree and intensity as
well as presence. The number of traits is large and the combinations of traits are
huge, thus making each person unique.
 Personality is overt. External behaviour is affected by personality. In other
words by observing a persons behaviour, the personality can be deduced, albeit
indirectly.
 Personality is consistent. Once a person’s basic personality has been
established, it will change only slowly and with some difficulty. Thus we can
assume an individuals personality will remain constant throughout the buying
process.
Because people are individuals it is difficult for marketers to take a standardised approach.
For this reason attempts have been made to identify groupings of personality types which can
be approached with a standardised offering.
7.5 Approaches to the study of personality

There are four basic approaches to the study of personality:
1. Pschoanalytic The psychoanalytic approach emphasises psychanalysis. The focus is
individual. This approach is typified by Freudianism.
2. Typology Here individuals are grouped according recognised types.
3. Trait & factor theories. Here the individual traits of the personality are examined as factors
making up the whole.
4. Psychographics
The consumers are measured using their behavioural tendencies in
order to infer personality traits.
7.5.1 The psychoanalytic or Freudian approach.
In this approach personality is understood in terms of the id, ego and superego.
Morris
Morris
According to Freud, the id is the underlying drive of the psyche. It is sometimes called the
psychic energy. It is the source of the most basic, elemental, instinctive forces. It largely
operates below the conscious level. The ego is the conscious self. It is the part of the mind
that makes the day-to-day decisions which lead to satisfaction of the id. The superego is an
‘internalised parent’, the conscience that holds us back from selfish gratification of the id’s
needs.
Thus the ego is constantly making compromises between the id’s demands and the
superego’s restraints.
The Freudian approach led to motivation research, which tried to explain the underlying
reasons for buying. However this became discredited because its claims were too
fantastical. However a current spin off from this approach is the focus group. In this a
group of ten or so people (called respondents) are interviewed together and asked to
discuss their feelings and motivations collectively. The advantage is that the respondents
will stimulate each other and there is less risk of the interviewer introducing bias.
Another spin off is the notion of hedonistic consumption. This appeals to the id : it purports
to satisfy animal needs. An example is the Club 18-30 holiday company.
7.5.2 Typology.
Followers of Freud had to adapt their thinking and a leader here was Jung. He classified
people into two groups (i) introverts (preoccupied with themselves and the internal world)
and (ii) extroverts (pre-occupied with others and the outside world). This was an early
attempt to classify people into broad types. The process was continued by the mother and
daughter team Kathryn Briggs and Isabel Myers. They developed the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator with four personality dimensions:
 Extrovert / introvert, Sensing / intuitive, Thinking / feeling, Judging / perceptive
The combinations of these dimensions creates sixteen different types (2x2x2x2 = 16). An
example may be used to illustrate this: ‘What is an ESFJ?’ An ESFJ person is warm hearted,
talkative and popular, and likes harmonious relationships. On the other hand an INTJ is
likely to be quiet, intelligent, cerebral and reclusive.
7.5.3 Trait & factor theories.
Personality is composed of traits or ‘atoms’ of personality. Traits tend to endure over time.
Those that do change tend to change slowly. Those that do change with age are anxiety
level (which goes down as the the individual gets older), friendliness (which can go either
way) and eagerness for novelty (which tends to go down). Over 18,000 personality traits
have been identified. However this stidy has lead to few concrete results.
7.5.4 Psychographics.
Psycographics is sometimes known as life style studies, since it is concerned with people’s
values and approaches to life. It attempts to relate quantitatively a consumer’s lifestyle to a
consumer’s purchase behaviour. Thus an ecologist is more likely to buy a bike; a vegan is
unlikely to buy meat.
This approach combines the strengths of motivation research with those of trait and factor
theories.
Morris
In the UK the Taylor Nelson category of seven lifestyle types is given blow:
Lifestyle type Characteristics % of
popn
Sustenance driven People who believe in the establishment,
groups; motivated traditional family values and patriotism. 19
Belonger
by the need for Averse to change.
security
People who are fighting a ‘holding action’;
accepts authority, hard working, quiet 16
Survivor
traditional. Strong class consciousness
Two main categories: the young unemployed
whose main motivation is short-term ‘kicks’, 5
Aimless
and the very old whose motivation is simply
day-to-day existence.
Outer-directed Interested in material possessions, taking cues
group from reference groups (friends, family). 18
Conspicuous
Followers of fashion.
consumer
Inner directed Caring group, motivated by ideals of fairness
groups; motivated and a good quality of life at the societal level. 11
Social resister
by self-actualisation Altruistic, concerned with social issues like
ecology and nuclear disarmament.
Materialistic and pro-technology,
individualistic and interested in novelty. 14
Experimentalist
s
Motivated by self-expression and self-
realisation. Tolerant, able to think big and 16
Self-explorers
look for global, holistic solutions.
Morris
7.6 Concepts of self

Self-concept is the person’s ideas and feelings about him or herself. It has an important role
to play in understanding consumer behaviour, since people buy products which contribute
to the self-concept.
‘Of all the personality concepts which have been applied to
marketing, selfconcept has probably provided the most
consistent results and the greatest promise of application
to the needs of business firms’ (Gordon Foxall.)
An example: a woman thinks she is a femme fatal - as a consequence she chooses chic clothes
to enhance her image. Another example: a student thinks he is a looser - as a consequence
he or she rarely washes his tea shirts, wears old scruffy jeans and rarely buys anti-
perspirants.
Thus in projecting an image a person can become a superwork of art exploiting all five senses: sight
(by dressing well), hearing (by using voice well), smell (by wearing scent), touch (by looking after the
skin, by wearing clothes that feel good cashmere?) and even taste (flavoured lipsticks, mouth
washes).The extent to which people will want to make a good impression depends on the following
factors:
 the degree of importance attached to impressing the other person
 the degree to which the individual anticipates that the target audience can be
impressed
 the cost in time and money in creating the desired image.
Selfconcept is a learned construct. Children tend to look for role models to imitate. Children can be
crushed by a denial of the role being projected: if people laugh while you are experimenting with the
‘cool dude’ role your favourite uncle adopts it is difficult to recover and try that role again.
The selfconcept has four attributes:
1. it is learned, not innate.
2. It is stable and consistent. Selfperception may change, selfconcept does not. This accounts for
brand loyalty, since selfconcept involves a view of which products ‘fit the image’.
3. It is purposeful. There is a reason and a purpose behind it. It is there to enhance a paerson’s ego.
It is therefore advisable to not attack a person’s beliefs directly. People get angry or at least
defensive when this happens.
4. The self concept is unique to the individual, and promotes individualism.
7.7 Attitudes
Attitude can be defined as ‘a learned tendency to respond to an object in a consistently
favourable or unfavourable way’. Whwether a product will be bought or not depends to a
large extent on a on the consumer’s attitude towards it. Marketing effort may have to go
into breaking down customers attitudes to product offerings. An example: an anti-racist
policy is introduced in a country yet there is an attitude against it. The attitude must be
changed, slowly and carefully, until people wonder what the problem was.
An attitude is
 learned, not instinctive
 not behaviour; rather it is a predisposition towards a particuler behaviour
 implies a relationship between a person and an object
 fairly stable
Morris
 either positive or negative - you are either for something (direction) with a certain
amount of feeling (intensity).
 Attitudes are not observable - they are predispositions. They are formed through the
result of ecxperience. For example: I have an attitude problem about the refectory at
Uxbridge. I find it too loud and moronic. The music is a pain. However, I make myself
go there to get a drink or a sandwich. I compare it unfavourably to the relative peace of
the refectory at Osterley. But I realise some students must think it is marvellous.
7.8 Culture
Culture is a set of beliefs and values that are shared by most people within a group. The
groupings are usually relatively large. Culture is passed from one group member to another
group member, and is usually passed down from one generation to another. Culture is
learned, subjective and arbitrary. Culture can be understood by looking at food and language.
For example in France cheese is regarded as a delicacy whereas in Japan it is regarded as
rotted milk. Also the French regard snails as a delicacy whereas in Britain it would be
regarded as an offensive meal to offer a guest.
Even when languages are shared there will be differences across a culture. Thus when an
American, speaking in English, talks about wearing pants he is actually taking about
trousers. This creates huge problems for an Englishman shopping for pants in New York.
Most cultures are ethnocentric. They believe their culture is the best culture.
Hofstede [Culture’s consequences: International differences in Work-Related Values (sage, 1984)]
carried out a a transnational survey in 66 countries with over 6,000 respondents. He found
there were four dimensions to the national characteristics.
1. Individualism versus collectivism. In the USA there is strong individualism. The
frontier mentality has taken a hold. Freedom of speech for the individual is enshrined in
the first ammendment. In Holland there are strong individualistic tendencies - it is a
land that tolerates a wide range of sexual orientations. It is on the increase in the UK
particularly with the Generation X (born between mid 1960s to early 1980s). In Japan
and Taiwan there is a strong collectivist culture in which service is appreciated..
2. Uncertainty avoidance. This is the extent to which a culture will keep rigidly to the rules
and customs in order to reduce uncertainty. A high level of uncertainty avoidance is a
culture where tradition prevails and new ideas are not welcome.
3. Power distance. This refers to the extent to which the culture favours the centralisation
of power.
4. Masculinity-femininity. This is the extent to which the culture exhibits traditional male
characteristics of asseriveness, achievement and wealth acquisition over the traditional
feminine attributes of nurturing, concern for the environmentt and concern for the
poor. By this definition America is an example a ‘masculine’ culture.
7.9 Family life cycle and gender roles

The family is a most powerful influence for decision making and purchasing. Reasons are:
 For children the parental influence is the earliest and so colours their perception of all
that follows. Indeed, the super ego can be thought of as an internalised parent.
 Parents desire to do the best they can for their children influences the decisions they
make about family purchases. Thus the purchase disposable nappies is an example of
'comfort for the child'.
Morris
 Siblings influence each other by the examples they set: the older sibling cares for and
looks after the younger sibling. There are also wider family influences - particularly in
extended families.
From a marketing viewpoint, the level of demand for many products is dictated more by
the number of households than by the number of families. The relevance of families to
marketing is therefore much more about consumer behaviour than about consumer demand
levels.
As a reference group the family is charcterised by these functional characteristics:
a) Face to face contact
Family members see each other every day and interact as advisers, information providers
and sometimes deciders. Other reference groups rarely have this level of contact.
b) Shared consumption
Durables such as fridges and furniture are shared, and despite a strong trend away from
eating together, in the case of food there is collective purchasing. Children even participate
in decision making for some major purchase items such as cars and holidays.
c) Subordination of individual needs
Because consumption is shared, some family members will finf the chosen solution does not
fully meet their needs. This effect of dissatisfaction is quite pronounced in families.
d) Purchasing agent
Because of the shared consumption there will be one family member who does most of the
shopping. Traditionally this is the mother, but increasing there has been the energence of
shopping roles. Teenage children will be given the job of buying staple items on a routine
fortnightly basis. Father may deal with Insurance and Mortgage matters. This is because
the traditional mother role is changing so more must be done by the other parties. This has
implications for marketers. The target for certain marketing communications has changed
so the advertising placements must change too.
The family has its own life cycle as shown in the table below:
Stage of life cycle Explanation
Single stage Single people have low earnings, but also have low outgoings so
have a high discretionary income. Tend to be more fashion and
recreation oriented spending money on music, clothes, holidays
and eating out.
Newly married Without children they are often dual-income families and threfore
couples 'well off'.
Full nest 1 When the first child arrives one parent normally stops working, so
income drops dramatically. The baby creates new needs: baby
furnishings, baby food, toys. Savings decline and families are
unhappy with their financial position.
Full nest 2 The youngest child is now over six. Both parents will work outside
the home, perhaps with some career progression. Some recovery in
parental income. Consumption patterns still affected by children:
bikes, piano lessons.
Morris
Full nest 3 The youngest child is over eleven. Children have some money e.g.
paper round, work in a shop on Saturday.Family purchase may be a
new car or replacement furniture. Luxury item: childrens private
education.
Empty nest 1 Children have grown up and left home. Couples are at the height of
their careers and earning powers. Low mortgage, luxury holidays.
Empty nest 2 Main breadwinner has retired so a drop in income. Expenditure
more health oriented. Smaller house and apartment in Spain
syndrome. Chase the sun.
Solitary survivor If still in the workforce widows and widowers enjoy a good income.
May spend more on holidays.
Retired solitary Reduced income and consumption. Has special needs for love,
survivor affection and security. May join clubs.
Gender Roles
There are more women in the population due to greater life expectancy and greater child
mortality among boys. Women's roles have changed greatly in the lastthirty years or so.
Women make most purchasing decisions, earn one third of the family income and make
most decisions regarding the home and children. Major decisions are likely to be made
jointly, with men participating in discussions concerning expenditure. Many males now
shop for food. Fifty years ago this would have been a rarity.
The change in in gender roles comes from the following:
 Technology means that most jobs do not require physical strength, so more careers are
open to women.
 Mass contraception has freed women from excessive childbearing.
 A more oredered society has lead to greater physical security; there is less need for the
male defence role.
 More widespread education means that women are not satisfied to stay at home and do
housework.
Marketers must shift their communications to address this changed situation. Thus the
Oxo family advertisement campaign is now no more. A decision was made not to aim at the
family meal table market, since people rarely eat together these days. (Personally, I think
this is a great shame, and is probably due to laziness. A shared mealtime is a great time to
talk and catch up with each other in a family.) Also the power between roles is reflected in
the Nissan series of ads in which a woman punishes a man for borrowing her car: 'Ask
before you borrow it.'
Eventually one might expect gender roles will not be an issue in advertising at all, but since
advertising in part reflects society, this may be some way off. The recent revelations
concerning Sheryl and Paul Gascoigne reveal how far simple gentlemany behaviour has still
to go to reach an acceptable level before the sexes treat each other with mutual respect.
7.10 Newproducts: the diffusion and adoption of innovation.

Products are constantly being superseded by newer, more effectiveproducts. For this
reason, firms seek to develop new products. Firms that do not innovate will , eventually, be
only producing products that are obsolescent.
The product life cycle can be explained in terms of consumer behaviour.
Morris
In the introduction and growth stages, the more innovative consumers are adopting the
product. In the maturity phase the more cautious are adopting the product, until finally
another product comes along which has more benefits or which does a better job, and the
consumers switch to the new product. The problem for marketers is knowing how long the
maturity phase will last; This makes it difficult to use the product life cycle as a predictor of
of product obsolescence It does tell us all products will fade away, and marketers sholud
therefore develop new products to repce the old ones as they fall out of favour with the
customer.
The ideal outcome is for the producer to develop products which are culturally anchored —
that become part of modern life. Recent examples are the microwave, the video recorder
and the personal computer. None of these would have been in the typical house of twenty
years ago. Such breakthroughs are hard to achieve. Understandably firms have shown
great interest in the processes of innovation, diffusion and adoption.
Adoption
Everett M Rogers postulated that products would be adopted if they possessed most of the
attributes in the table below:
Attribute Explanation Examples
Relative The product must have Before the Sony Walkman was launched,
advantage some advantage over the the only way to to listen to stereo-quality
products already on the music was to carry a 'ghetto blaster' on
market. It must offer the your shoulder. The Walman replaced this
consumer a better range of cumbersome and anti-social device within
benefits than the existing a few years.
solution.
Compatibility The product must fit in At one time the Welsh valleys had the
with the consumers highest rate of VCR ownership in the
lifestyle. world. This was due to the high
unemployment and lack of entertainment
facilities in the area, making a video
recorder a very convenient way of
providing entertainment.
Complexity The product must not be Apple Mac scored a great success with
too complex for the user-frienly software with amusing and
consumer to understand. entertaining add-ons. The company made
seriouss inroads into IBM's market, despite
being a smaller company
Trialability Products which can be When Daewoo cars were launched in
tried out are more likely to Britain, several thousand customers wee
succeed. invited to test drive the car. Those who
took up the offer were given free videos as
an inducement.
Morris
Observability The more observable the Part of the reason for the Walkman's
product, the quicker the worldwide success is that it can clearly be
diffusion process. If other observed in use. Likewise, new fashion
potential consumers are ideas seem to catch on very quickly. This
able to see the product in is due to the high level of observability.
use, this is bound to raise
interes in it.
Adoption.
There have been several models of the adoption process. AIDA is the most famous. This is
given with a futher four (longer) models below.
Attention ®Interest ®Desire ®Action
AIDA
® ®Evaluati ® ®
Awareness Interest on Trial Adoption
Adoption Process
®Knowled ® ®Preferen ®Convictio ®

Awareness ge Liking ce n Adoption
Hierarchy of effects
Problem ®Awarene ®Compreh

recognition ss en-sion
Attitude ®Legitmat ® ® ®Dissonan
ion Trial Adoption ce
Robertson
®Persuasi ® ®Impleme ®Confirma

Knowledge on Decision nt-ation t-ion
Rogers
7.11 Segmentation
Segmentation is concerned with grouping customers who have similar needs and
producing a product ior service that will meet those needs at a profit. It recognises that no
single product will appeal to all customers, consequently it attempts to identify products
that will suit a single segment.
Morris
Before the advent of mass marketing, there was demand for simple basic products. This
meant manufacturers could use long production runs to keep costs down. In these
circumstances undifferentiated marketing was used. It worked well because a standard
product with little choice is better than no product at all. Mass production has great
economies of scale over hand production. A classic example is is clothing. Prior to the
industrial revolution most cloth was woven at home, made at home and people would have
one or two changes of clothing. Exceptionally a suit might be custom made by a tailor.
With the advent of the steam engine and steam-powered looms clothing could be mass
produced, sold relatively cheaply and provide customers with a relatively greater range of
choices of style.
This production orientation success was guaranteed by keeping production costs (and
hence prices) low. This approach works well where there is relatively little competition -
such as in certain third world countries. But since the depression of the 1930s the world has
slowly changed as most countries have industrialised. There is now competition around the
world. The majority of clothes sold in the UK now are actually made abroad where
production costs are lower. Even Marks & Spencer has given up on its 'Buy British' policy.
Once people have their core benefits, the market must be segmented to find out how many
people have further needs which may be met by new products and services. Consider the
changes in transportation.
Product type Core benefits Other benefits and drawbacks
Horse & Basic transportation Easy to maintain, but unreliable. Slow, not
carriage for owner, passengers suitable for long distance travel. Expensive.
and goods Only the most prosperous people can buy one.
Model T Ford Basic transportation Faster, more reliable, expensive. Standard

for owner, passengers engine. Standard seating. Standard colour. As a
and goods consequence servicing is cheap.
Modern Ford Basic transportation Reliable, cheap to buy and run, easy to
vehicle range for owner, passengers maintain, fast and suitable for long distance
and goods travel. Available in several different styles,
colours and and engine attributes. Coupled
with this is a wide range of financial services to
facilitate purchase. Optional extras exist e.g. air
conditioning.
Segments are the result of changes in producer/consumer behaviour.

Producers have realised they should produce cars as desirable as possible rather than as
cheaply as possible.
In turn, consumers behaviour is changing. Consumers are usually prepared to pay a
premium price for a product that fits their needs more closely.
By tailoring products more nearly to customers needs, manfacturers are able to charge a
little more. In this way they are able to offset thye extra costs of producing non-standardised
products, and increasing profits as well.
Segmentation.
Morris
Segmentation is an essential precursor to most marketing activities. Identifying a target

group and knowing their needs allows us to position the product correctly in the target
group's minds, and to adopt appropriate promotional strategy, by designing ads that appeal
to the particular group.
The aim of segmentation is to form a mental picture of the organisation's ideal customer,
and to plan everything around that customer. An important step here is to assess the size of
the segment so as to form an opinion whether it is worthwhile producing a specialist
product for those people.
Segments vary ibn size according to the folllowing criteria:
Narrowness of definition of need

There may be a a segment who prefer the colour blue, but this can subdivide into light blue,
metallic blue, navy blue, etc. The narrowere the definition the smaller the segment.
Complexity of the product in terms of features available.

The more features a product has, the more segments it will appeal to and threfore the
smaller the individual segments.
Consumer involvement with the product category

If the product category attracts high-involvement consumers, the segments are likely to be
small and loyal.
With the rise of flexible manufacturing systems it is possible to consider a production run of
size one. Cars can be custom made quite cheaply. Computers can be custom made too. Dell
computers lead the way with their online 'order-and-build' systems. This guarantees every
product pleases everybody — a win-win situation. Segmentation increases profitability
when the value to the consumer of the improvements is greater than the cost to the
manufacturer of providing them.
Markets may be segmented in various ways, great skill is required in assessing which
method is most appropriate. The ways are:
demographically - according to income, age, family size, occupation etc.
psychographically according to behaviour patterns, attitudes, expectations
geographically - according to where people live - insurance premiums can reflect the
likelihood of risk in certain areas e.g. a house near the sea might be
more liable to wear and tear and therefore more expensive to insure
behaviourally - according to patterns of behaviour e.g. do the customers have four
holidays a year if so they might be more intereseted in all year travel
insurance; are the customers in a segment all vegans? if so they might
like to have the special vegan catalogue from Harrods.
_____
Morris

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Lecture 7 Consumer behaviour Page 1

7. Introduction to Consumer Behaviour Relations.

7.2 Risk, uncertainty and heuristics

7.3 Life as theatre

Theatrical Explanation Real-life example

7.5 Approaches to the study of personality

7.6 Concepts of self

7.9 Family life cycle and gender roles

7.10 Newproducts: the diffusion and adoption of innovation.

®Knowled ® ®Preferen ®Convictio ®

Problem ®Awarene ®Compreh

®Persuasi ® ®Impleme ®Confirma

Model T Ford Basic transportation Faster, more reliable, expensive. Standard

Segments are the result of changes in producer/consumer behaviour.

Segmentation is an essential precursor to most marketing activities. Identifying a target

Narrowness of definition of need

Complexity of the product in terms of features available.

Consumer involvement with the product category

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