Chapter 4 Consumer Buying Behavior

The Buying Process

 An example of the buying process

o Eva Mendoza a student at the university of Washington is beginning to interview for jobs
o Eva plans to wear the blue suit her parents bought her
o After looking at her suit she realizes that its not stylish and shows signs of wear
o She decided to buy a new suit
o Eva surfs the internet for tips on dressing for interviews. She surfs fashion blogs like Nurby
and checks what her friends are wearing on Facebook and what they have pinned on
Pinterest
o Before going to the mall, she issues a status update on her Fb page announcing her
intentions to go to the mall and inviting her friends to join her. Kenny meets her
o They go to Macy and salesperson approaches them
o Asks what she wants and her size. Gets showed three suits. Eva gets picture and sends them
to Betsy
o They decide that the third is more attractive and appropriate.
o Eva is happy she is concerned about dry cleaning and spends more money than planes
o Another customer sees her and she sees her and tells her she looks good in it
o They pass the shoe section; she finds a pair of pumps that she likes and realizes that she can
buy them for $20 cheaper online and have them delivered the next day
Need recognition-> information search about channels, stores, merchandise, and services-> evaluation
of alternative for channels, stores, merchandize and services-> purchase the merchandise or service->
post purchase

 Need recognition
o Unsatisfied need is the trigger for buying process
o Desired level of satisfaction differs from present level
o Any difference between the present state and the desired state
 Types of need
o Utilitarian – because of usefulness. Having a coffee maker with no coffee mugs. Goes
out and buys mugs.
o Hedonic – you buy because it gives you pleasure.
o Many retailers want to attract male shoppers
 Men who sign up for Nordstrom’s online Trunk Club undergo interviews with a
stylist, then receive a trunk full of items each month.
 How retailers satisfy hedonic needs
o Stimulation – Publix smell when people are cooking
o Status and power – self image
 o Adventure –
 Conflicting Needs
o Example: Eva’s hedonic needs conflict with her budget, and her utilitarian need to get a
job.
o Customer make trade-offs between conflicting needs.
o Cross-shopping
 Stimulating Need Recognition
o Advertising, e-mail, direct mail, publicity, special events stimulate outside store
o Visual merchandising, salespeople stimulate inside store.
 Information search
o Sources of information
 Internal sources: past shopping experience
 External sources: word of mouth, social media
o Amount of information searched
 Information search depends on perceived value of search
 Technology has decreased cost of search
 Two factors affect search
 Number of competing brands and retail outlets
 Time pressure to make purchase
o New technology used to make accurate recommendations
 Flayr combines reviews and ratings from users’ social networks with their own
preferences to make accurate recommendations about products that a
consumer might like
o Reducing Information Search
 Conversation rate
 Informed salesperson can be convincing
 Everyday low pricing strategy
o Internet/Social Media/Mobile: Information Search and Price competition
 Profound impact in information search
 Encourage customer reviews
 Showrooming – look at stuff in the store then go online and buy it cheaper
 A practice in which consumers visit stores to gather information about
the product
 Evaluation of Alternatives: The Multiabttribute Model
o Multiattribute model – fishbein
o A customer sees a retailer, product or services as a collection of attributes or
characteristics
o Predicts a customer’s evaluation
 Its performance on relevant attributes
 The importance of those attributes to the customers.
 o How important how you feel an attribute is, the belief that different brand does better
depending on the attribute.
o Importance weight
 A 10-point scale can indicate importance
 Importance of retailer’s benefits differ for each customer
o Evaluating Retailers
 Overall evaluation of an alternative is related to the sum of the performance
belief x the importance weights
o Implications for Retailers
 Alternative retailers consumer is considering
 Characteristics/benefits customers use when evaluating and choosing retailer
 Ratings of alternative performance on criteria
 Importance of criteria to consumer
 Getting into the consideration set
o Consideration set: the set of alternatives the customer evaluates when making a choice
of what retailer o patronize
 Increase belief about store’s performance
 Change customers’ importance weights
 Add new benefit
 Fair trade
o Send customers benefits
 Purchasing the merchandise or service
o Customers do not always purchase a brand with the highest overall evaluation
o The high-rated item may not be available in the store
o Ways to increase evaluation into purchase
 Make it easy to purchase
 Provide sufficient information that reinforces evaluation
 Reduce risk of making purchase mistake
 Create a sense of urgency or scarcity
 Post purchase Evaluation
o Satisfaction
o A post-consumption evaluation of how well a store or product meets or exceeds
customer expectations
o Post purchase evaluation becomes part of the customer’s internal information that
affects future store and product decisions
o Builds store and brand loyalty
Types of buying decision
Extended problem solving
Financial risk
Physical risk
Social risk
  Limited problem solving
o Some prior buying experiences
o Impulse buying or unplanned purchasing
 Habitual decision making
o Brand loyalty
o Retailer loyalty
POP and POS
Retailers encourage impulse buying behavior by using prominent point of purchase (display
made out of cardboard of randomly places) or point of sale (things placed at the register) displays to
attract customers attention

Social factors influencing the buying process

 The economy
o Recessions create uncertainty
o Hedonic products flourish when economy is good
o National economies affect each other
 Family
o Purchases are for entire family use
o Whole family participates in decision making process
o Retailers work to satisfy needs of all family members
 Reference Group
o Used as a basis