October 2018

TYBMM - Advertising

Consumer
Behaviour Notes
Curated by Manali Parmar (Visiting Faculty at Bhavans College)
 Syllabus
Max. Marks 100 (Theory: 75, Internals: 25)

Objectives:

• To understand role of marketing in influencing consumer behaviour

• To analyze the role of marketer & the consumer in advertising
• To sensitive the students to the changing trends in consumer behaviour

Module 1: Introduction
(a) Introduction to Consumer Behaviour
• Concepts
• Need to study Consumer Behaviour
• Factors Influencing Consumer Behaviour
• Changing Trends in Consumer Behaviour
(b) Consumer Behaviour & Marketing
• Marketing Segmentation – VALS
• Components, Process of Marketing Communication
• Message
• Persuasion: Need & Importance
i. ELM
ii. Appeal
Module 2: Relevance of perception & learning in Consumer Behaviour
(a) Concepts, Elements in Perception, Subliminal Perception
(b) Learning
• Elements of Consumer Behaviour
• Cognitive Theory – Social Learning
• Behavioural Learning – Classical, Instrumental Theory
Module 3: Psychological Determinants & Consumer Behaviour
a) Motivation – Needs, Types, Theories – Role of Motivation in Consumer Behaviour
b) Personality & Attitude – Theories of Personalities & its application
• Freudian, Trait, Jungian, Self-Concept
c) Formation of Attitude – Theories & its relevance in Consumer Behaviour
• Cognitive Dissonance
• Tricomponent
• Changing Attitude in Consumer Behaviour

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Module 4: Social & Cultural Aspects of Marketing & its impact on Consumer Behaviour
(a) Family
(b) Social Stratification – Class, Age, Gender
(c) Group – Reference Group
(d) Culture, Sub-Culture
(e) Changing Indian Core Values

Module 5: CDM
(a) Consumer Decision Making
• Process
• Models
• Levels
• Opinion Leaders & Consumer Decision Making
(b) Adoption & Diffusion Process

***

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 Contents
Sr. No. Chapter Page Number
1. The Study of Consumer Behaviour 4-10
2. The Communication Process 11-21
3. Perception 22-29
4. Culture 30-38
5. Learning 39-43
6. Attitudes 44-49
7. Motivation 50-56
8. Personality 57-61
9. Market Segmentation – Psychographic Profile 62-64
10. Social Class 65-67
11. Groups 68-72
12. Family 73-77
13. Consumer Decision Making Process & Opinion Leaders 78-83
14. Diffusion and Adoption 84-88
15. Source (Reference Book titles & links) 89

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 Chapter 1: The Study of Consumer Behaviour

Narrative:
As consumers, two third of our lives revolve around consumption decisions. This could be decisions
for consumption of daily essential goods, lifestyle/ luxury products, services, content, art or even
education. Whether these decisions are deliberated or impulse, need based or want based, actual
transactions or just considerations, they all take place in our mind through a systematic
information processing and a lot of factors influence the outcome.

Concepts: What is Consumer Behaviour?

The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies by
understanding how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different alternatives (e.g.,
brands, products). It is also a study of the psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or
her environment (e.g., culture, family, signs, media).
Limitations in knowledge of consumer behaviour or consumer information processing abilities,
influence marketing decisions and outcomes.
Definitions
Consumer: One who buys and/or uses goods/services/ideas/experiences
Behaviour: An interaction with the surrounding ambiance, inherent in living creatures and
mediated by external and inner activeness
Consumer Behaviour:

• “Consumer Behaviour is the study of how individuals, groups and organisations select, buy,
use and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants.”
- Kotler & Keller

• “Consumer Behaviour is the process whereby individuals decide what, when, where, how
and from whom to purchase goods & services.” - Walters & Paul

Consumer Behaviour occurs either for the individual, or in the context of a group. Hence consumer
could be an individual, a group of people or an organization at large.

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Need to Study Consumer Behaviour
Consumer behaviour is very complex because each consumer has different mind and attitude towards
purchase, consumption and disposal of product (Solomon, 2009). Understanding the theories and concepts
of consumer behaviour helps to market the product or services successfully.

Moreover, studying consumer behaviour helps in many aspects:

- It helps brands & marketers yield important information and insight into what consumers
are thinking
- It helps marketers analyse the factors that influence the consumer purchase decisions
- It helps marketers improvise marketing and pricing strategies to align with the ever-
evolving needs of the consumer
- It helps brands and companies establish competitive advantage
As there is constant change in the living standards, trend, fashion and change in technology; consumer's
attitude towards the purchase of product varies (Kumar, 2004).

Understanding these factors is of utmost importance because the marketing of product is largely
dependent on these factors. As products are made to cater consumer's needs and demands, therefore, the
products should be carefully marketed for the successful achievements of organizational goals. The study
of consumer behaviour helps them in analyzing different factors that has influence on the buying decision
of the consumers. If the marketers failed to understand these factors, they would not meet their targets.

Thus, consumer behaviour serves as a successful tool for marketers in meeting their sales objectives.

Application of study of Consumer behaviour is conducted for marketers to study:

Perceptions

Experiences Attitudes

Lifestyles Cultures

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Perception: The perceptions consumers have of a business and its products or service have a
dramatic effect on buying behaviour. Consumers continually synthesize all the information they
have about a company to form a decision about whether that company offers value. In a sense,
consumer perception is an approximation of reality. Businesses attempt to influence this
perception of reality, sometimes through trickery and manipulation but often just by presenting
themselves in the best possible light.
Attitudes: Consumer attitudes are a composite of a consumer’s beliefs, feelings and behavioural
intentions toward some object, within the context of marketing, usually for a brand. These
components are viewed together since they are highly interdependent and together represent
forces that influence how the consumer will react to the object. Studying the traits that influence
or form attitudes is a crucial part of the study of consumer behaviour.
Cultures: The culture a person is born into goes a long way toward determining that individual's
behaviour patterns, beliefs and values. Marketers, analysts and consumers themselves use an
awareness of culture to learn how and why consumers in a particular culture behave the way they
do. It explains why some products sell well in certain regions or among specific groups, but not as
well elsewhere. Besides purchasing decisions, culture also affects how consumers use the
products they buy and how they dispose of them.
Lifestyles: The Lifestyle of individuals has always been of great interest to marketers. They deal
with everyday behaviorally oriented facets of people as well as their feelings, attitudes, interests
and opinion. A lifestyle marketing perspective recognizes that people sort themselves into groups
on the basis of the things they like to do, how they like to spend their leisure time and how they
choose to spend their disposable income.

Experiences: The consumer experience expressed for a previously successful or failed helps
marketers track the follow up from the consumers so that they can gauge the reason behind the
reasons for the failure or success of the product. This study helps marketers enhance existing
products or launch innovation in order to cater to the needs of the consumers, learnt &
understood through previous experience.

Factors Influencing Consumer Behaviour

1. Internal Factors: Internal influences basically come from consumers own lifestyle and way of
thinking. These are consumers' personal thoughts, self-concepts, feelings, attitudes, lifestyles,
motivation and memory (Kotler, 2002). These internal influences can also be known as
psychological influences. Internal influences depict the ways through which consumers
interact with the universe around them, identify their feelings, collect and examine
information, develop ideas and beliefs, and take some specific action.
a. Psychological:
i. Motivation: The level of motivation influences buying behaviour of the
consumers. It is very well explained by Maslow through his need hierarchy

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 theory comprising of basic needs, security needs, social needs, esteem needs
and self-actualization needs. Usually, the basic needs and the security needs
are more pressing needs than the other and hence, these needs become a
motive that directs the consumer behaviour to seek satisfaction.

ii. Perception: Consumer perception towards a particular product or brand

influences his or her buying decision. It is the process through which individual
selects, organizes and interprets information to draw meaningful conclusion.
The iPhone is perceived as a premium brand and consumers are motivated to
buy it to get associated with the elite class of the society.

iii. Beliefs & Attitude: Individuals have certain beliefs and attitudes towards
products on which their purchase decisions rests. These attitudes and beliefs
are the tendency to respond to a given product in a particular way, and these
make up the brand image that influences the consumer buying behaviour. Thus,
the marketers try to understand the attitudes and beliefs of the individuals and
modify these through several marketing campaigns.

b. Personal:
i. Age: Consumer buying behaviour is greatly influenced by his or her age, i.e. the
life cycle stage in which the consumer falls. People buy different products in
different stages of life cycle.

ii. Occupation: The occupation of the individual also influences his buying
behaviour. The people tend to buy those products and services that advocate
their profession and role in the society. For example, the buying patterns of the
lawyer will be different from the other groups of people such as doctor,
teacher, businessman, etc.

2. External Factors: At the time of purchasing a product or service, all of us are confronted with
several external influences that involve our own culture, subculture, household structure and
groups. These influences are also known as socio-cultural influences, as these grow from the
individuals formal and informal relationships with his friends, family and other individuals.
Understanding of these external influences is essential to affect consumers purchasing
decisions.
a. Culture: The influence of culture on the purchasing behaviour varies from country to
country, therefore sellers have to be very careful in the analysis of the culture of
different groups, regions or even countries.

i. Social Class & Status: By social class we refer to the group of people who share
equal positions in a society. Social class is defined by parameters like income,
education, occupation, etc. Within a social class, people share the same values
and beliefs and tend to purchase similar kinds of products. Their choice of

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 residence, type of holiday, entertainment, leisure all seem to be alike. The
knowledge of social class and their consumer behaviour is of great value to a
marketeer.

ii. Sub-culture: Within a culture, there are many groups or segments of people
with distinct customs, traditions and behaviour. In the Indian culture itself, we
have many subcultures, the culture of the South, the North, East and the West.
Hindu culture, Muslim culture, Hindus of the South differ in culture from the
Hindus of the North and so on. Products are designed to suit a target group of
customers which have similar cultural background and are homogeneous in
many respects.

b. Social: Social factors that influence consumer purchasing include family, peers, roles and
status. Family members such as a spouse, children and parents can exert strong influence
on the consumer’s purchasing behaviour. Peer pressure is also a strong factor that
determines a consumer’s purchasing choices. Everyone belongs to a group of some sort,
from friends to neighbors and coworkers. Rather than get left out, people purchase
products that make them fit in. A person’s role in life, for example as a manager and the
status that comes with the position, determine certain purchasing choices.
i. Social Roles: Each individual plays a dual role in the society depending on the group
he belongs to. An individual working as Chief Executive Officer with a reputed firm is
also someone’s husband and father at home. The buying tendency of individuals
depends on the role he plays in the society.

ii. Social Status: An individual from an upper middle class would spend on luxurious
items whereas an individual from middle to lower income group would buy items
required for his/her survival.

c. Environment:
i. Technology: Technology is a powerful tool in influencing and changing consumer
behaviour. Unless, companies move as swiftly as the technology used by their
consumers, they will become obsolete. Today internet and smartphones have
completely changed the way consumers choose alternatives, conduct product/brand
research and share feedback. Right from the traditional communication process to
consumer decision making process, consumer behaviour is highly influenced by
technology.

ii. Economy: Economic Factors are the factors that talk about the level of sales in the
market and the financial position of the consumer, i.e. how much an individual spends
on the purchase of goods and services that contribute to the overall sales of the
company. Several economic factor family incomes, personal income, consumer credit
history and savings influence the consumer buying behaviour.

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 iii. Inflation: Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services
is rising and, consequently, the purchasing power of currency is falling. Thus, periods
of inflation influences consumers to save rather than consume because of distrust and
uncertainty in the economy. Inflation influences consumer spending behaviour by
influencing both liquid and non-liquid assets since in period of inflation, there is
motivation to hold real assets and not assets fixed to nominal values.

iv. Politics: From the implications of Brexit to the election of Donald Trump, politics is
having a massive effect on consumers and how they relate to brands. The political
environment of a nation breeds or condemns sell or purchase of certain goods.
Reforms and public policies further influence the demand supply of certain
brands/products.

d. Marketing: Marketing strategies including promotions, pricing and packing have

tremendous impact on consumer behaviour. A revamped packing of a breakfast cereal
with revised messaging on the pack will lead to more eye balls and enhance chances of a
brand to get back to consideration set of the target audience. Similarly, contextual
promotions such as festive discounts and offers broaden the purchase horizon of
consumers, thus triggering higher than usual expenditure on lifestyle/fashion purchases.

Changing Trends in Consumer Behaviour

1. Decline in Loyalty: With every brand competing for its righteous place in the market, there is
more attention to quality and efficiency than ever before. This leads to a healthy competition
among brands even from a pricing point of view, encouraging consumers to experiment with
newer brands outside their comfort zone.

2. Want for global labels: Despite local brands taking offering contemporary options, the want for
global brands is never-ending. Despite being the power house of textiles, India has been
opening gates for global apparel brands such as H&M, Zara, Forever21, keeping consumer
demand in mind.

3. Occasion Agnostic Purchases: From a twice or thrice a year, festival-based shopping to anytime,
anyplace shopping, the periodicity of purchases is increasingly becoming dynamic.
Today, consumer do not wait for festivals or other specific occasions to purchase as
most brands have promotional offers/ discounts running all round the year. This,
coupled with the need to be most updated with regard to technology (cellphones),
clothing and home appliances, has led to occasion-agnostic purchased.

4. Online-only purchases: Over the last decade, e-commerce has grown fourfold. From daily
essentials to luxury to medical purchases, all are done through online shopping. This has led to
a decline in brick & mortar and paved way for online-exclusive launches of products. For

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 example, several cell-phone companies launch & sell their new handsets only through select e-
comm partners and have no offline purchase options what so ever.

5. Direct access to influencers: Influencers (brand ambassadors, opinion leaders, social media
bloggers/reviewers) have always played a crucial role in consumer decision making, however,
with strong penetration of social media, consumers now have direct access to influencers. Thus,
brands are focusing on engaging with key influencers regularly in order to maintain positive
brand resonance among their target audience.

6. Gratification-driven purchases: Redeemable points, cashbacks and reference discounts are

some of the most promising gratification tactics that have attracted consumers over the last
few years.

7. Money for Value over Value-for Money: Consumers are always on the lookout for alternatives
that promise value for their money. However, this trend is gradually evolving as consumers have
higher disposable incomes and they don’t mind paying a little extra as far as they receive a good
shopping experience. For example, movie goers do not mind paying a little extra for lounge
seats as they expect a first-class treatment through the extra purchase.

8. Focus on Customer Experience: Social media brought a number of positive changes for
consumers and their behaviour. It also put big companies within closer reach, allowing
customers to share their experiences in a public forum, whether good or bad. The rise of social
media and online presences, particularly for businesses, may contribute to the increased focus
on customer experience. Companies and their representatives have to work hard to make sure
that customers are satisfied.

9. Rise in Analytics: In the past, companies focused more on sales and the number of people that
came through locations and stores, but the rise in online business seems to have advanced the
necessity of tracking and analytics. Advancements in technology make it easier to track visitors
to a site, along with their locations, buying habits, and other information. Some businesses are
responding by hiring full-time employees to track analytics and look for ways to improve sales
once a buyer has landed on a specific site or page. Example: Amazon.com. When a shopper
looks at products on the website, they will likely start to see that same product pop up in ad
space on other sites visited in the next or coming weeks.

***

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 Chapter 2: The Communication Process

Key Concepts:
#1: Components of a Communication Model

Communication is a social process in which two or more persons exchange information and share
meaning. It is a two-way process and takes Place over time rather than instantaneously.
There are eight major components of the communication process:
1. Source/Sender: The source is the individual, group or institution interested in communicating
something to another party. In institutional communication, an individual may send the
message on behalf of the institution.
2. Encoding: It is the process in which the message is translated from an idea or thought into
transmittable symbols. These symbols could be words, pictures, numbers, gestures,
movements or sound. The message should be encoded in symbols in such a way that the
source and the receiver attach the same meaning to it.
3. Message: Message is a key idea that the sender wants to communicate. It is a sign that elicits
the response of recipient. Communication process begins with deciding about the message to
be conveyed. It must be ensured that the main objective of the message is clear.
4. Medium/Channel: Medium is a means used to exchange / transmit the message. The sender
must choose an appropriate medium for transmitting the message else the message might not
be conveyed to the desired recipients. The choice of appropriate medium of communication
is essential for making the message effective and correctly interpreted by the recipient. This
choice of communication medium varies depending upon the features of communication.
5. Receiver: Receiver is the person who receives the message or for whom the message is meant
for. It is the receiver who tries to understand the message in the best possible manner in
achieving the desired objectives.
6. Decoding: Decoding is the process by which the receiver of the message interprets its meaning.
The receiver uses his knowledge and experience to interpret the message. The receiver
becomes active in the decoding phase. If the meaning of the message received is interpreted
differently by the receiver, communication breaks down and misunderstanding can occur.

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7. Feedback: It is the process in which the receiver returns a message to the source that indicates
that the message has been received and understood. However, in the marketing context, the
feedback could either be in the form of a call-to-action achieved or a customer feedback
shared through survey or simply positive reviews shared for the brand on other public
platforms.
8. Noise: Noise is any disturbance in the communication process that interferes with or distorts
communication. In the marketing parlance, noise is largely associated with unplanned
distortion caused through varies factors that influence the ability of perception of the receiver.
These factors determine the consumer purchase decisions.

#2: Concept of Credibility

• The credibility of the source (marketer/spokesperson) affects the way that the target
audience decodes the message. When the spokesperson holds some kind of expert power
(he is an expert in his field), or has some charisma (he possesses charismatic power), or
holds legitimacy of position (holds legitimate power), the influence that he is able to
generate is much higher. He is able to convey his message and convince the consumer
much easily.
• The receiver (consumer) regards a source to be credible when he feels that the source
provides unbiased information. In other words, when the source is credible, honest,
respected and held in esteem, the probability of the message being believed by the target
audience is much higher. The opposite hold good too, i.e. in case when the credibility is
low, the assimilation of the message and the belief in the message is low.
• Credibility is important for both formal and informal sources. The issue of credibility
assumes importance in formal sources as the consumer rightly understands that the major
objective of the source (marketer) is to encourage a sale and earn profit.
• Other factors that affect the credibility of the message is the medium through which it is
expressed, as well as the spokesperson. The consumer's own experience with the product
or the retailer also affects the credibility of the message. The consumer basis his judgment
on factors like:
- the reputation of the company and its past performance
- the quality of its product/service offerings based on self-experience, hearsay, word-
of-mouth
- the other lines of business that they carry
- their corporate social responsibility
• Once a company gets reputed with a product line, it tries to transcend the benefits of the
reputed brand to the other product/service lines that it intends to offer. Thus, it comes up
with the concept of family branding (all product ranges in one frame), so as to get a ready
acceptance from the consumers.
• On the other hand, in case of informal sources, people rely on their family, friends, peers
and colleagues for information and advice. They regard such sources to be credible. People

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 take advice from informal sources as they feel that such sources have nothing to gain and
have no hidden agenda or ulterior motive.
• Opinion leaders also have a big role to play, and they take interest in providing information
to those who approach them. But they need to be careful, because in case they provide
wrong information and advice, they may lose their position/status as opinion leaders in the
eyes of the public.

#3: The Sleeper Effect

The persuasiveness of information gradually decreases over a period of time. Often, this
information is associated with cues such as source credibility and morality. Some of these cues are
positive, while some are negative.
Messages accompanied by positive cues are usually readily accepted and believed by people, while
those associated with negative cues are viewed suspiciously and sometimes even dismissed.
However, it has been observed in many studies that despite the initial rejection of the message,
people tend to get persuaded over time, leading to an increase in the acceptance of that message.
This phenomenon of delayed persuasion is called the sleeper effect.
However, for the sleeper effect to manifest, three basic conditions must be met:
- The message itself should be persuasive
- The discounting cue must initially suppress attitude change
- The discounting cue must become dissociated from the message over time
It must be noted that the effect is seen to disappear if the audience is reminded of the source.

Sleeper Effect in the context of Credibility:

Though a high-credibility source is initially more
influential, than a low-credibility source, research
suggests that both positive and negative effects tend
to disappear after a period of six weeks or so.
Consumers exposed initially to a low credibility source
develops opinions more closely in line with the source
as time passes. While the enhancing and depressing
effects of high & low credibility sources dissipate, the
message content tends to stay back with the
consumer.

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#4: Communication Strategy
A communications strategy is a business tool. It helps an organization align their business goals
with a marketing plan that focuses on reaching a set of predetermined results. Goals are the focus
that make you successful—whatever your goals may be: more clients, more members, breaking
into new markets, broaden audience scope, higher profit etc. A communications strategy is your
playbook to reach those goals.
It’s important to note that a communications strategy is a ‘living document’ that should be
reviewed periodically (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually — depending on the size of
the business and the activities) to see what worked, what didn’t, what you should do more of, or
less of. It may need to be reviewed more often depending on circumstances — i.e. huge crash in
the market, a new product that shadows yours, regulations underpinning your value.

#5: Components of a Persuasive Message:

The message is what the marketing communicator tries to communicate to the consumers to
attract his attention and interest, around desire and elicit action in the form of purchase. The
message should be developed in a way that it has the ability to integrate a common theme from
the awareness stage to the stage of purchase and satisfaction. The formulation of a message
involves content (what to say), structure & order (how to put forth the message), code (how to
say it symbolically) and appeal (the central objective – emotional trigger or rational reasoning).
Following are some core components of a Persuasive message that can lead to effective
communication with the consumers:

- Message Structure:
▪ One Sided:
- A message that presents only those arguments in favor of a particular position
- Such a message does not mention negative qualities, problems, or counterarguments on a
given subject/ product
- Usually works favorably for an audience who is already in favor of the message sender's
subject
- Most mass media advertising messages are one-sided
- Example: A religious fund-raising message is usually one-sided on the assumption that the
targeted audience is favorably disposed toward the view being explained and is unlikely to
be receptive to other religious beliefs
▪ Two Sided:
- A message that that presents the arguments in favor of a proposition but also considers
the opposing arguments
- While crafting such a message, marketers will show that they favor a certain position, they
will also acknowledge the competitor or opposing viewpoint
- Usually such a message begins with by showcasing points in favor about the issue in which
marketers hope to persuade the consumer, however, later they will discuss opposing
viewpoints or counterarguments
- This is usually followed by a refutation of said opposing viewpoints or counterarguments

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- Message Order:
▪ Climax order: In such a message, the advertiser or marketer saves or conveys the most
important part at the end of the message. In most cases, such a message order is effective for
audience that is on the lookout for that particular product/offering. The message then simply
validates and emphasizes on the unique selling point.

▪ Anticlimax order: In such a message, the marketer puts the best or most important information
right at the start. This message order often appeals to the consumer who is not necessarily
interested in the product but the campaign manages to attract or trigger learning/memory
towards potential future purchase.

▪ Pyramidal order: One of the lesser effective orders, pyramidal is when a marketer sandwiches
the best material in the middle of the conversation or spreads it across the message without a
flow. Such a message is likely to get strong recognition or recollection.

- Message Code:
▪ Verbal: According to Bovee and others: “Verbal communication is the expression of information
through language which is composed of words and grammar”. When messages or information
is exchanged or communicated through words is called verbal communication. Verbal
communication may be two types: written and oral communication. Verbal communication
takes place through face-to-face conversations, group discussions, counseling, interview,
radio, television, calls, memos, letters, reports, notes, email etc.

▪ Non-Verbal: According to Lesikar and Pettit, “Nonverbal communication means all

communication that occurs without words (body movements, space, time, touch, voice
patterns, color, layout, design of surroundings.)”. Non-verbal communication is a powerful
arsenal in the face-to-face communication encounters, expressed consciously in the presence
of others and perceived either consciously or unconsciously.

▪ Paralinguistic: This type of message code goes beyond the basic verbal message or speech. It is
also known as vocalics. Paralanguage includes accent, pitch, volume, speech rate,
modulation, and fluency. In simple terms it is the use of vocals and vocalization. Some
researchers also include certain non-vocal phenomena under the heading of paralanguage
including facial expressions, eye movements, hand gestures, and the like.

- Message Appeal:
At a psychological level, what is it exactly that makes you choose one brand over the competitor?
What might seem like a simple choice really has more to do with methods of persuasion used by
advertisers to make consumers feel a certain way about a product. In advertising, there are a wide
variety of ways to catch the attention of your audience. These appeals can be broken down into
emotional and rational approaches. It is up to the marketer to identify and know which type of
appeal will be most effective in leading the target audience to action (purchase).

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#6: Types of Appeals
Emotional Rational
▪ Fear ▪ Safety
▪ Humor ▪ Durability
▪ Guilt ▪ Variety
▪ Anger ▪ Time
▪ Social ▪ Efficiency
Approval ▪ Value
▪ Sadness
▪ Disgust
▪ Empathy
▪ Sex
▪ Pride

Emotional Appeals: Appealing to the audience’s emotions can be achieved through strong
imagery, impactful text or powerful music. An emotional advertising appeal depends more on
feelings and perceptions than logic or reason to provoke action.
- Fear Appeal: A fear appeal in advertising is a message that is designed to scare the intended
audience by describing a serious threat to them. The advertising tactic is to motivate the
intended audience to engage or not engage in certain behaviour based upon a fear. Ads on
global warming are most often crafted using the fear appeal. Advertisers use fear appeals to
promote an immediate behaviour change such as eating healthier or not smoking. Another
fear tactic involves isolation. People will purchase a product to avoid isolation from others
because of bad hygiene. Deodorant and toothpaste ads often employ this tactic. Government
agencies appeal to an individual’s fear of death or incarceration to prevent drinking and
driving. Fear appeals work when the recommended action is specific, effective and plausible.
For example, ads geared toward smokers can be ineffective if the person does not believe
quitting is within reach.

- Humor Appeal: Humor appeals make consumers laugh and create an emotional link with the
product. A well-executed humor appeal enhances recollection, evaluation and the intent to
purchase the product. Advertisers link the product with the humor. For example, a humorous
insurance ad hits the mark when the humor shows the consumer why having insurance is
beneficial. Using humor at the expense of one group may lead to resentment. Senior citizens
may resent a product that portrays them as grumpy, while women may refuse to purchase a
product that portrays them as overbearing. Humorous ads work best with established and
commonly purchased products such as cellphones, fast food and alcoholic beverages. While
this appeal is highly effective, there are instances when marketers avoid using humor appeal
as they do not wish their product to be ridiculed. Hence, the larger your target audience, the
more broadly you want your humor to appeal and the narrower your audience, the more niche
kind of humor and inside jokes you can pull off.

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 - Sex Appeal: The sex appeal lures audiences by appealing to their sexual desires and fantasies.
Advertisers use this approach because it is an easy and proven method for attracting attention
quickly. While the sex appeal has been widely proven successful across a variety of industries
in terms of attracting attention, it’s not always the best method to apply. As an advertiser, you
must always be conscious of the personal tastes, limits, and boundaries of what your target
audience will find appealing and tasteful. Advertisers need to find an optimum balance
between using sex appeal and not.

- Prestige/Status Appeal: There is no question

that these nice, patent-leather work shoes
were chosen for a reason: status. The point
of this ad was to get the viewer to identify
the product with a certain class. While the
manufacturer is actually selling a car, classy
shoes (clearly abused by a love for the
acceleration pedal) give a status appeal that
is somewhat subliminal in its messaging.
Apartments, furniture stores, fashion
brands and many other companies also lean
on a level of status to appeal to consumers concerned about where they are at, how they are
viewed, and where they are headed.

Rational Appeal: It is technique of designing advertising to appeal audience by using logical

arguments stating how it will satisfy customer’s practical needs. Rational appeal is based on
appealing price point and highlighting benefits of the products for the customers. The reasonable,
functional and practical aspect of the product or service is highlighted in rational appeal
advertisements. Generally small businesses use this kind of advertising method to fend off
competition.
The Rational Appeal is especially effective when the product, service, or idea contains many
features that will appeal to someone’s sense of reason. For example, if you are advertising a
vehicle that you know has technical features that will appeal to your audience (maybe enhanced
sound system, better gas mileage, higher safety rating, and so forth), you can use the rational
appeal to make your audience nod their head and say, “yep, that makes total sense. I want that.”
- Price or Value Appeal: Such an appeal makes the price offer the dominant point of the message.
Price appeal advertising is used most often by retailers to announce sales, special offers, or
low everyday prices. Price appeal ads are often used by national advertisers during
recessionary times. Low value FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) brands often use the
price appeal to attract their target audience.

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#7: Theories of Persuasion
Hierarchy of Effects Model: The hierarchy-of-effects
theory is a model of how advertising influences a
consumer's decision to purchase or not purchase a
product or service.
The hierarchy represents the progression of learning and
decision-making a consumer experiences as a result of
advertising. This model is used to set up a structured
series of advertising message objectives for a particular
product, with the goal of building upon each successive
objective until a sale is ultimately made.

The objectives of a campaign are (in order of delivery): awareness, knowledge, liking, preference,
conviction and purchase.

Awareness: The customer becomes aware of the product through advertising. This is a challenging
step, there is no guarantee that the customer will be aware of the product brand after they view
the advert. Customers see many adverts each day but will only remember the brand of a tiny
fraction of products.

Knowledge: The customer begins to gain knowledge about the product for example through the
internet, retail advisors and product packaging. In today's digital world this step has become more
important as consumers expect to gather product knowledge at the click of a button. Consumers
will quickly move to competitor brands if they do not get the information they want. The
advertiser's job is to ensure product information is easily available.

Liking: As the title states, this step is about ensuring that the customer likes your product. As an
advertiser what features can you promote to encourage the customer to like your product?

Preference: Consumers may like more than one product brand and could end up buying any one
of them. At this stage advertisers will want the consumer to disconnect from rival products and
focus on their particular product. Advertisers will want to highlight their brand's benefits and
unique selling points so that the consumer can differentiate it from competitor brands.

Conviction: This stage is about creating the customer's desire to purchase the product. Advertisers
may encourage conviction by allowing consumers to test or sample the product. Examples of this
are inviting consumers to take a car for a test drive or offering consumers a free sample of a food
product. This reassures consumers that the purchase will be a safe one.

Purchase: Having proceeded through the above stages, the advertiser wants the customer to
purchase their product. This stage needs to be simple and easy, otherwise the customer will get

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fed up and walk away without a purchase. For example, a variety of payment options encourages
purchase whilst a complicated and slow website discourages purchases.

Involvement Theory: Like motivation, involvement too is

an internal state of mind which a consumer experiences.
It makes one analyze and rationalize his/her choice.
Involvement of consumers can be induced by external
sources and agencies. Involvement is the embodiment of
time, effort, consideration given and the enjoyment that
is derived by consumer while choosing a product or
service.
The involvement theory holds that there are low and high
involvement purchases. Consumers’ involvement depends on the degree of involvement of
purchase to a consumer. For example, while buying a loaf of bread, the consumer does not feel
very much involved. It is because the life of the product is very short. Once it is consumed, it gets
exhausted. If the consumer is not satisfied with the particular bread brand, he will purchase some
other brand next time.
In the case of purchase of consumer durable (Laptop, refrigerator, household furniture, two-
wheeler etc.), the involvement of the consumer in making the purchase decision is high.
Consumers take a decision after much deliberations. These products have long-term
consequences. Consumers make lot of inquiries before they purchase the products which have a
high degree of involvement. The following table shows various degrees of involvement depending
upon the nature of the product or service.

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Elaboration Likelihood Method

Richard E. Petty and John T. Cacioppo made a theory based on the concept of persuasion in 1980
known as Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion. This model is based on the idea that
persuasion level of a message can affect the desired effect of the message. A persuasive message
will most likely change the attitude of the message recipient. Attitude change occurs even when
the intention of message sending is not to change the attitude of the recipient.
This theory divides the people into four groups
- Gullible people who are easily influenced
- Skeptic, opinionated and argumentative people who cannot be easily influenced
- People with firm beliefs but with bad communication skills
- People who are leaders, who trust others as well as make others follow their thinking and
ideas
Two Routes of Persuasion: Attitude change occurs in two ways according to the scholars who
proposed the model. They are known as the two routes of persuasion. The two routes apply to
and differ according to all the groups of people mentioned above. The two routes show that
messages take one of the two routes during the process of sending and receiving messages.
- Central Route Persuasion: Central route of persuasion tells that if a person gets to think
about a message received for a longer duration of time, then the person has a greater
chance of being persuaded. The process of thinking for a longer duration is known as
elaboration. For this, people need motivation. If the persuasion level of the message is
strong, he/she gets persuaded to change their attitude or behaviour.
There are certain features that message must have to be central route persuasive. They
are:

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 - Peripheral Route Persuasion: If a message given by a person does not elaborate on the
meaning of the message, the message can still be persuasive even if the content is not
persuasive enough. It can be due to direct relationship of the person with the content,
familiarity with the topic, positive attitude towards the sender, positive thoughts (sex,
money), etc. This kind of persuasion or attitude change might not last for a long time. This
also happens if the recipient is unable to process the message or if the content is weak.
The factors that determine the selection of either of the above routes mentioned:
Persuasive communication: It has to be one-sided and not neutral. There must be some benefits
to any of the people involved, either sender or receiver. For example, an advertisement.
Motivation to process: Relevant messages or deep relation with the topic of the message motivate
people to change their attitude, which is also known as high involvement. They must really be
gripped by the information and interested in it.
Ability to process: When there are distractions, complications and noise, people do not process
the information they get. They might be hearing but not listening. This might cripple the persuasive
power of the message.
Nature of arguments: If the message is strong, well-constructed, convincing or creative, people will
get the message better and change their attitude accordingly. This makes the recipient adopt the
attitude changes.

***

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 Chapter 3: Perception

Duck or Rabbit: In this famous optical illusion, your interpretation of this image as a duck or a rabbit depends on how
you organize the information you have stored in your memory. The stored information is a result of your perceptions
of a typical duck/rabbit image stored in your mind.

Key Concepts:
#1: The Meaning of Perception
Perception is the process by which an individual selects, organizes and interprets stimuli into a
meaningful and coherent picture of the world (or reality). It is how we see the world around us.
Perception occurs when sensory receptors receive stimuli and categorize them, assigning certain
meaning to them, depending on the person’s frame of reference. A person’s frame of reference
consists of all his previous held feelings, experiences, beliefs, likes and dislikes stored in his
memory.
Impact of Perception on Consumer Behaviour
The perceptions consumers have of a business and its products or service have a dramatic effect
on buying behaviour. In marketing, the role of perception in consumer behaviour is all about
recognizing how consumers view a company’s product or service. A consumer's motivation for
buying a particular product or service often comes down to image. People wish to be perceived as
having the ability to make the “right” choices and pick the “right” products. Marketers use
perception to target people’s need to fit in and be part of a larger group of discerning consumers.
That’s why businesses spend so much money marketing themselves, honing their customer service
and doing whatever else they can to favorably influence the perceptions of target consumers. With
careful planning and execution, a business can influence those perceptions and foster profitable
consumer behaviour.

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#2: Concept of Sensation
Sensation is defined as the process in which a sensory receptor is stimulated, producing nerve
impulses that travel to the brain, which in turn interprets such impulses as a visual image, a sound,
taste, odor, touch, or pain. The physical stimulus present in the environment emits energy that is
absorbed by a sensory organ (known as transduction), causing sensation.
Examples of stimuli include products, packages, brand names, advertisements and commercials.
Sensory organs (eyes, nose, ears, skin and mouth) receive sensory inputs generated due to the
stimuli. The sensory organs function either singly or in combinations.
Types of Sensations:
Aristotle is highly regarded for his classification of the five traditional senses. The five traditional
senses include vision or sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.
Vision or sight is the ability of the eye to capture images of visible light via the photoreceptors of
the retina in the eyes.
The sense of sound perception is called hearing or audition, in which the ears convert sound waves
into vibrations and then into nerve impulses for brain processing.
Taste or gestation is the ability to detect the taste of various substances via the tongue. The sense
of taste should not be mistaken for "favour sense", as the latter is a mixture of taste and smell
perception.
The five basic tastes include sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. On the other hand, olfaction or
smell is the ability to detect odor molecules through olfactory receptors.
Finally, the sense of touch, includes the sensory receptors in the skin and other parts of the body
to determine tactile stimulation.

#3: Information Processing for Consumer Decision Making

Consumer Information Processing is the
process of how buyers comprehend the
information that is being given to them.
Comprehension is based off cognitive and
affective elements, which are thoughts and
feelings. Consumer information processing
contains four components: exposure,
attention, comprehension and elaboration.
There are four components that impact the
information processing of a consumer as
show in the figure alongside.

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Exposure: To put simply, exposure is bringing stimulus within a proximity of a consumer so it can
be sensed [using one of the five senses]. It’s basically putting your product out there, to grasp the
attention of potential consumers. With all these advancements in technology, we have so many
outlets to use to “expose” our product.
Example: One of the most common things people do while they are idle is to scroll through their
social media apps on their phone. This is the most effective way to expose your products. Many
companies like Instagram or Facebook have been using their sites as a form of exposure for
products. When you scroll through your news feeds, you will see advertisements of various
products and companies.
Attention: The next component in consumer processing is attention. Attention is crucial in
successfully reaching the consumer on a cognitive level. After being initially exposed, the
advertisement must be able to lure an individual’s attention in order for that person to effectively
seek to learn more about the product, brand, or service on display. There are several effective
methods towards enhancing consumer attention. First, Increased intensity of Stimuli, whether it
is visual or audible stimulus, stronger ads are more likely to capture the attention of consumers.
Interpretation: Interpretation occurs when a person assigns a meaning to the sensory stimulus
from a product or brand marketing. Comprehension is aided by expectations and familiarity. A
consumer scans his memory to retrieve previous experiences with the brand or a similar brand.
Store-brand marketing frequently capitalizes on the interpretation stage when product packaging
design contains logos, colors and other elements that are similar to national brands that
consumers are generally more familiar with.
Memory/Retention: The conclusion of the consumer perception process is the retention stage.
This is marked by the storage of product or brand information in short-term and long-term
memory. The marketer's goal is to provide positive stimuli in the proceeding stages that translate
into consumers storing the information about the product or brand into long-term memory.

#4: Absolute Threshold

An absolute threshold is the smallest amount of stimulation needed for a person to detect that
stimulus 50% of the time. This can be applied to all our senses:

• The minimum intensity of light we can see

• The lowest volume of a sound we can hear
• The smallest concentration of particles we can smell
• The smallest concentration of particles we can taste
• The lightest touch we can feel
But what is that “50% of the time” part of the definition for? Why not 100% of the time?
That is because our absolute threshold can vary according to external and internal factors like
background noise, expectation, motivation and physical condition. It is easier to hear a sound

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when we are in perfect health, expecting to hear it in a quiet room than when we are tired,
unaware of it and in a noisy street.
The affirmation that there is no single absolute threshold is called signal detection theory. Because
our perception responses may vary, to find a person’s absolute threshold researchers conduct
multiple tests until they find the amount that is perceived 50% of the time.
There is also another factor that influences the absolute threshold: sensory adaptation. Sensory
adaptation happens when a stimulus remains the same for a long period of time, and our bodies
stop recognizing it.
Think of entering a room where the air conditioner is making a really loud noise. In the beginning,
the sound of the air conditioner may bother you, but after you’ve been in the room for a while,
you’ll stop noticing it. If somebody turns off the air conditioner, you’ll immediately notice the
difference, even if you were not aware of its sounds before. This is a biological response that makes
total sense because if a stimulus is perceived for an extended period of time and nothing bad
happens, then that stimulus is not dangerous and it can be ignored since it’s not worth spending
energy to sense and perceive it.

#5: Differential Threshold

A differential threshold is the minimum required difference between two stimuli for a person to
notice change 50% of the time (and you already know where that “50% of the time” came from).
The difference threshold is also called Just Noticeable Difference, which translates the concept
more clearly. Here are a few examples of difference thresholds:

• The smallest difference in sound for us to perceive a change in the radio’s volume
• The minimum difference in weight for us to perceive a change between two piles of sand
• The minimum difference of light intensity for us to perceive a difference between two light
bulbs
• The smallest difference of quantity of salt in a soup for us to perceive a difference in taste
• The minimum difference of quantity of perfume for us to perceive a difference in
something’s smell
You may have already had the experience of turning up the TV or radio volume and not noticing a
difference until a certain point. That is the difference threshold concept in action. If you don’t
notice the difference, your difference threshold has not been reached yet.
To quantify the difference threshold, psycho-physicist Ernst Weber developed what is known as
the Weber’s Law. Weber’s Law states that rather than a constant, absolute amount of change,
there must be a constant percentage change for two stimuli to be perceived as different. In other
words, the higher the intensity of a stimulus, the more it will need to change so we can notice a
difference.

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Imagine the TV/radio situation again, and imagine the manufacturers built a bad volume system
in which each increase in volume corresponds to a constant increase in absolute (not percentage)
amount. You can notice a difference when you go from volume 1 from volume 3, for example, but
you don’t perceive the same difference when the volume goes from 40 to 43. According to
Weber’s Law, for you to perceive the difference between volume 40 and 43 the same way you
perceived the difference between volume 1 and 3 (an increase of 300%), volume 40 would have
to go up to 120 (the same increase of 300%).

#6: Subliminal Perception

When peoples' thoughts, feelings and actions are influenced by stimuli without awareness. When
perception about a product is more powerful than the awareness about that product. It is the
mind control that can be achieved without awareness. Two basic types of subliminal messages can
be sent to the unconscious- auditory & visual. It occurs even when the stimulus is very weak but
still can influence people.
An organization message is called effective when it sticks in consumers’ minds and influences them
to buy. Thus, marketing messages that influence them unconsciously are called subliminal
perception of customer’s experience. Many marketers include these subliminal words and images
in advertising. They use the subliminal references to power, sex, happiness, wealth or hunger in
their online, print and television ads or in brand logos.
Example: The logo, shown alongside, features a smiley
face that connects A to Z, as to suggest that amazon can
find anything starting with A to Z and customers will
always be happy doing business with Amazon.
Subliminal marketing helps to gain attention of the
customers and influence them to prefer your product if
they are not loyal to another competing product. In
order to be influenced by subliminal perception, they must be motivated to do what the subliminal
message suggests after hearing about the brand. For example, is a subliminal message flashes
about a product related to sports gear, but you are not interested in sport, then it won’t influence
you to buy.
Many marketers don't see the need, to sway some undecided consumers by the help of subliminal
marketing. Conscious thoughts and emotions by Compelling marketing keep the consumers away
from coming back to a brand they already like. When the supposed subliminal messages or images
are exposed, impact of ads and logos on consumers’ minds is diminished.

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#7: Selection as an element of Perception
The world around us is filled with an infinite number of stimuli that we might attend to, but our
brains do not have the resources to pay attention to everything. Thus, the first step of perception
is the (usually unconscious, but sometimes intentional) decision of what to attend to. Depending
on the environment, and depending on us as individuals, we might focus on a familiar stimulus or
something new. When we attend to one specific thing in our environment—whether it is a smell,
a feeling, a sound, or something else entirely—it becomes the attended stimulus.
Perceptual selection is driven by internal and external factors.
Internal factors include:

• Personality – Personality traits influence how a person selects perceptions. For instance,
conscientious people tend to select details and external stimuli to a greater degree
• Motivation – People will select perceptions according to what they need in the moment.
They will favor selections that they think will help them with their current needs, and be
more likely to ignore what is irrelevant to their needs
• Experience – The patterns of occurrences or associations one has learned in the past affect
current perceptions. The person will select perceptions in a way that fits with what they
found in the past
External factors include:

• Size – if an object is of a larger size it is more likely for it to be selected among clutter
• Intensity – Greater intensity, in brightness, for example, also increases perceptual selection
• Contrast – When a perception stands clearly out against a background, there is a greater
likelihood of selection
• Motion – A moving perception is more likely to be selected
• Repetition – Repetition increases perceptual selection
• Novelty and familiarity – Both of these increase selections. When a perception is new, it
stands out in a person’s experience. When it is familiar, it is likely to be selected because
of this familiarity

#8: Organization of Perception & GESTALT

Once we have chosen to attend to a stimulus in the environment (consciously or unconsciously,
though usually the latter), the choice sets off a series of reactions in our brain. This neural process
starts with the activation of our sensory receptors (touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing). The
receptors transfer the energy into an activity, which is then transmitted to our brains, where we
construct a mental representation of the stimulus.
In the early part of the 20th century, Max Wertheimer published a paper demonstrating that
individuals perceived motion in rapidly flickering static images — an insight that came to him as

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he used a child’s toy tachistoscope. Wertheimer, and his assistants Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt
Koffka, believed that perception involved more than simply combining sensory stimuli.
This belief led to a new movement within the field of psychology known as Gestalt psychology. The
word gestalt literally means form or pattern, but its use reflects the idea that the whole is different
from the sum of its parts. In other words, the brain creates a perception that is more than simply
the sum of available sensory inputs, and it does so in predictable ways. Gestalt psychologists
translated these predictable ways into principles by which we organize sensory information. Some
of these principles include:

• Figure-ground – Once perceived, objects stand out against their background. This can
mean, for instance, that perceptions of something as new can stand out against the
background of everything of the same type that is old.
• Perceptual grouping – Grouping is when perceptions are brought together into a pattern.
• Closure – This is the tendency to try to create wholes out of perceived parts. Sometimes
this can result in error, though, when the perceiver fills in unperceived information to
complete the whole.
• Proximity – Perceptions that are physically close to each other are easier to organize into
a pattern or whole.
• Similarity – Similarity between perceptions promotes a tendency to group them together.
• Perceptual Constancy – This means that if an object is perceived always to be or act a
certain way, the person will tend to infer that it actually is always that way.
• Perceptual Context – People will tend to organize perceptions in relation to other pertinent
perceptions, and create a context out of those connections.
Each of these factors influence how the person perceives their environment, so responses to their
environment can be understood by taking the perceptual process into account.

#9: Interpretation as an element of Perception

After we have attended to a stimulus, and our brains have
received and organized the information, we interpret it in a
way that makes sense using our existing information about
the world. Interpretation simply means that we take the
information that we have sensed and organized and turn it
into something that we can categorize. For instance, in the
Rubin’s Vase illusion (image alongside), some individuals will
interpret the sensory information as “vase,” while some will
interpret it as “faces.” This happens unconsciously thousands of times a day. By putting different
stimuli into categories, we can better understand and react to the world around us. The same
holds true for the first image shown at the start of this chapter.

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#10: Halo Effect
The halo effect is a well-documented social-psychology phenomenon that causes people to be
biased in their judgments by transferring their feelings about one attribute of something to other,
unrelated, attributes.
For example, a tall or good-looking person will be perceived as being intelligent and trustworthy,
even though there is no logical reason to believe that height or looks correlate with smarts and
honesty.
The term "halo effect" was first introduced into psychological-research circles in 1920 in a paper
authored by Edward Thorndike. Through empirical research, Thorndike found that when people
were asked to assess others based on a series of traits, a negative perception of any one trait
would drag down all the other trait scores.
The halo effect works both in both positive and negative directions:

• If you like one aspect of something, you'll have a positive predisposition toward
everything about it
• If you dislike one aspect of something, you'll have a negative predisposition toward
everything about it
Interesting Read: The term "halo" is used in analogy with the religious concept: a glowing circle that can be
seen floating above the heads of saints in countless medieval and Renaissance paintings. The saint's face
seems bathed in heavenly light from his or her halo. Thus, by seeing that somebody was painted with a halo,
you can tell that this must have been a good and worthy person. In other words, you're transferring your
judgment from one easily observed characteristic of the person (painted with a halo) to a judgment of that
person's character.

#11: Stereotypes
A stereotype is a fixed general image or set of characteristics that a lot of people believe represent
a particular type of person or thing. They are a result of incomplete or distorted information
accepted as fact without question. Gender, race, culture, nationality, age, sexual orientation,
religion and physical ability are various categories which exist in stereotyping.
Example:
- In most parts of the world, characteristics such as adventurous, powerful, domineering and
independent are associated with men, however, females, are characterized as emotional,
submissive and superstitious.
- One of the more common stereotype examples is stereotypes surrounding race. For
example, saying that all Blacks are good at sports is a stereotype, because it’s grouping the
race together to indicate that everyone of that race is a good athlete.

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 Chapter 4: Culture

Key Concepts:
In marketing and consumer behaviour, culture is
frequently reflected in products’ features and designs,
as well as the layout, visuals and contents of
promotional messages (i.e. in print, TV and internet
advertising). The figure alongside presents a print ad of
Raymond that is likely to appeal to the Indian market
where weddings generate a very positive association.
Weddings highlight the importance of the family and
community, which are core cultural values in India.
During the 1980 Raymond appealed to the emerging
subculture that had an overtone of Westernization. As
am established brand, it has now been using
wedding/family associations that also find an important
place in the life of urban consumers.

#1: Definitions and Characteristics of Culture

Definitions:
Culture has been defined in number of ways. There is no consensus among sociologists and
anthropologists regarding the definition of culture. One of the most comprehensive definitions of
the term culture was provided by the British anthropologist Edward Tylor. He defined culture as”
that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”.
Some define culture as:
- The characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing
language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.
- The distinctive way of life of a group of people, their complete design for living
Characteristics of Culture
Every culture has rules that its members take for granted. Few of us are aware of our own biases
because cultural imprinting is begun at a very early age. And while some of culture’s knowledge,
rules, beliefs, values, phobias and anxieties are taught explicitly, most is absorbed subconsciously.

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Of course, we are all individuals, and no two people belonging to the same culture are guaranteed
to respond in exactly the same way. However, generalizations are valid to the extent that they
provide clues on what you will most likely encounter – and how those differences impact
communication. Here are three such generalizations.
- Invented: Culture is not a force, operating by itself and independent of the human actors.
There is an unconscious tendency to defy culture, to endow it with life and treat it as a
thing. Culture is a creation of society in interaction and depends for its existence upon the
continuance of society. In a strict sense, therefore, culture does not ‘do’ anything on its
own. It does not cause the individual to act in a particular way, nor does it ‘make’ the
normal individual into a maladjusted one. Culture, in short, is a human product; it is not
independently endowed with life.

- Learnt in early life: The definition of culture indicated that the learned behaviour of people
is patterned. Each person’s behaviour often depends upon some particular behaviour of
someone else, especially parents and peers surrounded by in the early stages of life. For
example, the ways in which a small child learns to handle a tyrannical father or a rejecting
mother often affect the ways in which that child, ten or fifteen years later, handles his
relationships with other people.

- Socially shared: The patterns of learned behaviour and the results of behaviour are
possessed not by one or a few people, but usually by a large proportion. Thus, many
millions of persons share such behaviour patterns as Christianity, the use of automobiles,
or the English language.

- Similar but different in its elements: Culture varies from society to society, group to group.
Hence, we say culture of India or England. While social norms of respecting elderly people
are a trait that exists across cultures, the style of greeting elders will differ from region to
region. In India, we would bend forward and touch the feet of the elders in the house,
whereas in England people would simply say Hello.

- Gratifying & Persistent: Culture is gratifying as it provides one with hope to offer all
opportunities for needs and desires’ satisfaction. These needs may be biological or social
but It is responsible to satisfy it. Our needs are food, shelter, clothing and desires are
status, fame, money, etc. are all the examples which are fulfilled according to the cultural
ways and hence it continues to persist as an integral part of our lifestyles.

- Adaptive: Culture is considered an adaptive mechanism because it provides behaviour

patterns, strategies, and techniques aimed at helping people adapt in a particular
environment. The goal of each living thing is survival. While plants and animals adapt to
their environment genetically, for humans the most important adaptive mechanism is
culture. Example: In the religious context of the Hindu culture, north Indians offer apples
to the idol of worship, whereas south Indians offer bananas. This is largely because of the

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 geographical make of the regions where either of the fruits are found in abundance and
hence are considered auspicious.

- Organized & Integrated: Culture possesses an order and system. Its various parts are
integrated with each other and any new element which is introduced is also integrated.

- Prescriptive: The cultural ways are learned by persons from persons. Many of them are
“handed down” by one’s elders, by parents, teachers, and others [of a somewhat older
generation]. Other cultural behaviour are “handed up” to elders.

- Dynamic: There is one fundamental and inescapable attribute (special quality) of culture,
the fact of unending change. Some societies at sometimes change slowly, and hence in
comparison to other societies seem not to be changing at all. But they are changing, even
though not obviously so.

#2: Cultural Communication

To acquire a common culture, the members of the society must be able to communicate with each
other through a common language. Without a common language, shared meaning could not exist
and true communication would not take place.
To be able to communicate with their audiences, marketers must use appropriate symbols to
convey the desired product message. This communication can be either verbal or non-verbal.
Verbal symbols may include a television announcement or a print advertisement, whereas Non-
verbal communication includes the use of symbols like figures, colors, shapes and even textures
to provide additional meaning to print or broadcast ads to trademarks and to packaging or product
designs.
It is the symbolic nature pf human language that sets it apart from all other animal communication.
A symbol is anything that stands for something else. Any word is a symbol. The word house calls
forth a specific image related to an individual’s own knowledge and experience. The word ‘Omega’
has a symbolic meaning – it suggests a fine luxury watch; to some it implies wealth and status.
Through a shared language and culture, individuals already know what an image or word means.
Thus, an association can be made without actively thinking about it.
A symbol may have several, even contradictory, meanings, so the advertiser must ascertain exactly
what the symbol is communicating to its intended audience. For example, the advertiser who uses
slang in an ad to attract teenage audience, must do so with great care and understanding. Slang
that is misused or outdated will symbolically date the marketer’s firm and product.
Price and channels of distribution are also significant symbols of a marketer’s product. Example:
The price of the product often implies to the quality. For products like clothes and shoes, the type
of store in which the product is sold implies the quality.

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Rituals: A ritual is a type of a symbolic activity consisting of a series of steps (multiple behaviour)
occurring in a fixed sequence and repeated over time. In practice, rituals extend over the human
life cycle from birth to death, including a host of intermediate events (such as graduation,
marriage, office confirmation). These can be public, religious and civil ceremonies and can be as
mundane as an individual behaviour.
Factors that influence Cultural Communication:
Eye contact: In most Western cultures, eye contact is considered to be a good thing. It
demonstrates attentiveness, confidence and honesty. In Asia, the Middle East, Hispanic cultures
and Native American cultures – eye contact is often considered disrespectful. In many Eastern
cultures, women are discouraged from having eye contact with men as it conveys authority or
sexual interest. In some cultures, gazing at someone is normal but, in most cultures, staring is
considered rude.
Touch: Cultural expressions and communication is often derived through touch. However,
touching other people is often taken as rudeness in many cultures. Yet, shaking hands is
considered to be acceptable in most cultures. People in Asia are more conservative in these types
of non-verbal communication. Patting head or shoulder also has different meanings in different
cultures. In some Asian cultures touching children on the head is very bad signal as head is taken
to be sacred but in the United States, we often pat children on the head and it is okay. There are
also a wide range of cultural viewpoints on the appropriate rules regarding physical contact
between both similar and opposite genders. In parts of the European Union it is common to kiss
someone you greet informally on both cheeks. In the Middle East, the left hand is customarily used
to handle bodily hygiene, so using the left hand to accept a gift or shake hands (or eat) is
considered extremely rude.
Gestures: Gestures are a common form of nonverbal communication whether we shrug our
shoulders, give a high five or nod our heads (the most recognized gesture in the world). When
traveling in Costa Rica, pedestrians give drivers a thumb up if they allowed them to walk by. In the
United States, the thumbs up means “Okay” but is seen as a vulgarism other cultures and in Japan
some even take it as money. Snapping your fingers to get the attention of a waiter is okay in some
parts of the world but is disrespect and very offensive in other areas of the globe. Some cultures
consider pointing fingers as insulting whereas in other parts of the world it is often used as a
reference. In Polynesia, people stick out their tongue to greet people, but in most other cultures
it is considered a sign of mockery.
Physical Space: Also known as proxemics, the physical space between others is a form of nonverbal
communication. There are four zones of proxemics: intimate, personal, social and public. People
in different cultures have various levels of tolerance for proxemics between people. In many
cultures, people are uncomfortable with close proximity (intimate and personal) to others and
prefer a more social distance (four to seven feet) when communicating. Entering somebody’s
personal space (1.5 – 2.5 feet) is normally an indication of familiarity or intimacy. However, it can
be problematic to maintain personal space when in a crowded situation such as a train, elevator

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or street. Many people find such physical proximity to be psychologically disturbing and
uncomfortable, although it is accepted as a fact of modern life.
Facial Expressions: Facial expressions are responsible for a huge percentage of nonverbal
communication. A simple smile, frown or smile can convey much information and a person’s face
is often the first thing we see, even before we hear what they have to say, giving rise to a lot of
nonverbal speak. Interestingly, the facial expressions for happiness, sadness, anger, and fear are
alike around the world.
Appearance: How we present ourselves to the public eye through our outward appearance is
nonverbal communication. People are often judged or assessed based on their appearance. How
one dresses (clothing), grooms oneself (hair, makeup, etc.) and even modesty can convey various
messages in communication.
Body Movement & Posture: Body movements can clearly convey intent, emotion and
communication. It can show how people feel or think about you. Whether you face a person while
talking, how you hold yourself when expressing confidence or simply whether you sit near or far
from another person can provide nonverbal communicative messages. Posture not only can
communicate or mental status at the time (i.e. defeated) but also our physical condition (i.e.
slouching may indicate being tired). In some cultures, keeping your hands in your pockets is a sign
of disrespect while in other countries, sitting cross-legged is offensive.
Paralanguage: Paralanguage refers to vocal communication that is separate from actual language
and was invented by George L. Trager in the 1950s. Paralanguage includes factors such as tone of
voice, inflection, loudness, speed and pitch. Simply changing your tone of voice may change the
meaning of a sentence. A film from the early ‘80’s called Multiracial Britain: Crosstalk, does an
excellent job of demonstrating cultural differences in paralanguage and the impact on
relationships.

#3: Sub-culture:
Subcultures are those groups that have values and norms that are distinct from those held by the
majority. Let's examine a few subcultural theories and test our knowledge with a quiz.
While small societies tend to be culturally uniform, large industrial societies are culturally diverse
and involve numerous subcultures. Subcultures are values and norms distinct from those of the
majority and are held by a group within a wider society. In the United States, subcultures might
include hippies, Goths, fans of hip hop or heavy metal and even bikers - the examples are endless.
One area of particular interest has to do with deviant subcultures.
The study of subcultures often consists of the study of symbolism attached to clothing, music and
other visible affectations by members of subcultures, and also of the ways in which these same
symbols are interpreted by members of the dominant culture. Dick Hebdige writes that members
of a subculture often signal their membership through a distinctive and symbolic use of style,

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which includes fashions and mannerisms. Subcultures can exist at all levels, highlighting the fact
that there are multiple cultures or value combinations usually evident in any one family/
organization/religion/sect/race, that can complement but also compete with the overall dominant
culture.

Category of Subcultures Examples

Nationality Jamaican, Vietnamese, French

Religion Mormon, Hindu, Catholic

Geographic region Northeast, Southwest etc.

Race Asian, Native American, African

Age Senior citizen, teenager

Gender Female, male

Occupation Bus driver, scientist, engineer.

Social class Lower, middle, upper.

Ethnicity Similar values and customs.

#4: Social Class

Social class has great impact on consumer behaviour. It can be best described as “divisions
within society composed of individuals sharing similar values, interest and behaviour”.
They are differentiated by socio-economic status differences. Leon G. Schiffman and Lisline
Lazor Kanuk measure social class “in terms of social status” such as profession, income,
quality of neighborhood and dollar value of residence and do not consider cash, region and
other social factors stating that consumer behaviour study is different than socio-culture
study.

#5: Changing Indian Core Values

The Indian demographic & psychographic landscape have witnessed enormous changes in the past
few decades. The increase in income levels, priority given toward education, and rapid
industrialization coupled with liberalization policies pursued relentlessly by the Indian government

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has transformed the Indian economy. Indian values and national culture have not been spared
from the attack from Western values.
These cultural nuances influence the purchase and consumption behaviour significantly as well as
the personality and behaviour of Indian consumers.
The following are some of the core values of Indian that help is the study of Consumer Behaviour.

- Social Sensitivity: In India, social acceptability is still more important than individual
achievement and is given priority in an individual’s life. Group affiliations are given precedence
with family traditions and values. For most Indians, family is the prime concern and an
individual’s duty lies with the family. People search for security and prestige within the
confines of the near and dear. Individual achievements are viewed in the light of family and
societal achievements. Here an individual and society are interlinked, and one cannot create
an individual identity independent from the group.

- Mythology: Mythological stories, scriptures and music are an inherent part of the Indian
culture. Apart from creating a bra d experience in a service like tourism, toys, souvenirs, and
artifacts can also be drawn from the Indian cultural background. Such products are marketed
in places of tourist interest but not necessarily branded. There is a vast potential for creating
a brand in this industry – among both foreign and domestic travelers. A value-based branding
experience can create a huge market. Local toy manufacturers cater to this specific market to
a great extent. Example: The Chota Bheem franchise that originated in the form of a TV Show
on Pogo Network is today a national phenomenon with kids (~3-12 yrs.) are seen buying/using
merchandise of this character based on Hindu mythology.

- Urbanization: As a result of fast paced life in urban areas people hardly get time for shopping
activities, this in turn has led to the growth of e-commerce in India. One of the major reasons
behind more and more people shopping online is that it is safe, easy and quick way to shop.
Thanks to urbanization and increase in per capita incomes as well as disposable incomes, there
is immense focus on the quality of every product, be it FMCG or a rare tech purchase. Under
the circumstance, the mindset of Indian consumers has transformed whereby now they view
price as an indication of quality.

- Acculturation (as a result of Migration): Acculturation refers to the process of progress and
alteration to one country's cultural environment by an individual from another country”
(Blackwell, Miniard and Engel, 2007). From shift in foods habits to influence on clothing and
home décor, migration plays a key role in blending values of multiple sub-cultures together.
Example: A professional born in Lucknow moves to Chennai for employment opportunities is
likely to spread his fondness for kebabs among his native peers who belong to Chennai but
don’t have a kebab culture in general. This can be true to dressing style too. The same migrant
is likely to purchase & use a lungi to be able to blend into the south Indian way of life, especially
during special occasions and festivities.

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- Influence of Western Culture: While the traditional Indian culture gave more importance to the
society, the trend is slowly changing with the impact of westernization. Example: Love
marriages were considered to be ant-Indian culture and were prohibited a couple of decades
ago among certain castes. However, the outlook towards marriages has evolved. Today love-
marriages, inter-caste marriages and even live-in relationships and are accepted by and large.
While this is at a societal level, there are personal choice influences too. Example: Choice of
music has moved from classical/Carnatic to EDMs and Jazz due to greater exposure to western
forms of music. Even the concept of having pets in the house or openness towards adoption
of kids has evolved.

- Concept of Family: Traditionally known for large joint families, Indians have gradually moved
to nuclear families (parents with kids, no grandparents and extended family members). While
the bond that exists between Indian family members is unique and cannot be seen in western
culture, people are seeking independent lifestyles as people prefer to start their chosen life
once they are married/ grown up.

- Technology: From high-end smartphones to pads, technology is an integral part of the Indian
lifestyle today. Consumers from both urban and rural areas have access to internet and
technology products like computers, laptops and cellphones. Brands and marketers
understand this deep connect of technology in the lives of consumers and strategically use
media and channels that can reach their audience in time for promotions and another brand
messaging.

- Festivities: With an extremely diverse set of cultures and sub-cultures co-existing, India
celebrates several festivals from Eid to Diwali to Christmas, to local harvest festivals such as
Pongal, Vishu and Lodhi, and religious ceremonies like Ganesh Chaturthi. Each giving enough
and more reason for people celebration and indulge into product consumption. Realizing the
needs & wants of consumer around the festive period, marketers activate promotional tactics
like special deals and offers to maximize sale of products under the context of auspicious/
ritualistic festive shopping.

- Culture of Saving: As a third-world country, India has grown very slowly in terms of economic
progress, hence our economy has been oriented highly towards savings unlike the western
world where the concept of saving is not as strong. Right from lucrative bank interests to
stringent rules on loans, India has managed to safeguard the interest of citizens through
systematic saving. Unfortunately, a lot of households still continue to save in cash and breed
black money or indulge in grey market (in cash) purchase of gold or property towards saving,
thus weakening the efforts of the government.

- Food Habits: As in most Asian countries, hot, spicy delicacies are popular in India too. It may
be worthwhile to note that food habits have a strong like with the culture and are difficult to
change. With the exception of Maggi noodles during the 1980s there has not been a single

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‘foreign’ food item that has become as popular. Bread, which has been around for several
decades, is still not popular barring certain urban and some semi-urban markets. But, it is
interesting to note that several variants of wheat flour are popular throughout India. The
consumption of biscuits with tea, too, has almost become a part of the eating culture for
millions of Indian both in urban and rural markets. The success of Tiger biscuits, with its low-
priced packs, reflects the strength of such a habit.

***

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 Chapter 5: Learning
Key Concepts:
#1: What is Learning?
Learning is defined as “any relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of
practice and experience”. This definition has three important elements.
- Learning is a change in behaviour—for better or worse
- It is a change that takes place through practice or experience
- This change in behaviour must be relatively permanent, and it must last a fairly long time.
All learning involves activities. These activities involve either physical or mental activities. They
may be simple mental activities or complex, involving various sensory inputs, muscles, bones, etc.
So also, the mental activities may be very simple involving one or two activities of mind or complex
which involve higher mental activities.
Learning takes place either to conditioning of mind or through cognitive understanding. There are
several theories and explanations to explain this. The same is covered ahead in the chapter.

#2: Elements of Learning:

Drive/Motivation: Learning frequently occurs in the presence of drive – any strong stimulus that
impels action. Drives are basically of two types -primary (or physiological); and secondary (or
psychological). These two categories of drives often interact with each other. Individuals operate
under many drives at the same time. To predict a behaviour, it is necessary to establish which
drives are stimulating the most.
Cue: Cue stimuli are those factors that exist in the environment as perceived by the individual. The
idea is to discover the conditions under which stimulus will increase the probability of eliciting a
specific response. There may be two types of stimuli with respect to their results in terms of
response concerned: stimulus generalization and stimulus discrimination.
Response: The stimulus results in responses. Responses may be in the physical form or may be in
terms of attitudes, familiarity, perception or other complex phenomena. In the above example,
the supervisor discriminates between the worker producing low quality products and the worker
producing high quality products, and positively responds only to the quality conscious worker.
Reinforcement: Reinforcement is a fundamental condition of learning. Without reinforcement, no
measurable modification of behaviour takes place. Reinforcement may be defined as the
environmental event’s affecting the probability of occurrence of responses with which they are
associated.

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Retention: The stability of learned behaviour over time is defined as retention and its contrary is
known as forgetting. Some of the learning is retained over a period of time while others may be
forgotten.

#3: Dynamic Nature of Learning

The psychology of learning focuses on a range of topics related to how people learn and interact
with their environments. Here are some characteristics that make learning a dynamic function of
life:
• Unpleasant things/situations/reactions might be learnt as readily as pleasant things. Ex:
Harmful effects of smoking shown in a campaign
• The capacity of each learner is different
• The most effective way to impart learning among consumers is to distribute the practice
rather than concentrate is all at once, i.e. phase out communication instead of bombarding
audience with the same message multiple times during the same phase.
• Order of presentation is critical in the process of learning. One can learn something quicker
or slowly depending on the structuring of the message/ presentation. Ex: Important points
to come up first for high impact and consumer learning
• If something unusual or out of theme occurs, it is likely to be learnt first. Ex: A black & white
ad in a colorful magazine
• Showcasing errors can help learn faster. Ex: Lack of wireless jack in the Pixel phone was
smartly positioned to get consumers to realize that the product is worth the money despite
a feature missing
• Sleeper Effect plays a key role in learning. Time impacts learning. People tend to change
opinions or learn something different over a period of time
• Consumers forget rapidly, largely due to information overload and immense media
exposure at all times
• Repetition of identical material is often effective for learning. Ex: The Ramesh & Suresh
campaign or the Zoo Zoo campaign where creative theme repeats in campaigns, thus
building stronger brand association and learning
• Choose of appeals enhances chances of higher learning. Ex: An emotional appeal is likely
to stay in the minds of a consumer, especially for purchase of products like wedding jewelry
• Knowledge of result leads to learning, i.e. if the outcome of an action is understood, it
becomes easier for the audience to learnt about the product/service

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#4: Classical Conditioning Theory
The Classical Conditioning Theory was proposed by a Russian Physiologist Ivan Pavlov. According
to this theory, behaviour is learnt by a repetitive association between the response and the
stimulus.
The classical conditioning theory assumes that learning is developed through the interactions with
the environment. Also, the environment shapes the behaviour and internal mental state such as
thoughts, feelings, emotions do not explain the human behaviour.
Here, an organism learns to transfer response from one stimulus to a previously neutral stimulus.
Classical conditioning is comprised of four elements:

- Unconditioned Stimulus (US): Which

invariably causes to react in a way.
- Unconditioned Response (UR): Takes
place when the US is presented.
- Conditioned Stimulus (CS): The object
that does not bring about the desired
response
- Conditioned Response (CR): a particular
behaviour that an organism learns to
produce, when the CS is presented.

Pavlov conducted an experiment on a dog and measured the amount of saliva secreted by a dog,
with a use of a surgical procedure, when it is exposed to different stimulus or object. At first, when
Pavlov presented a piece of meat (US) to the dog, he noticed a great amount of salivation (UR)
whereas, in the second time, when he just rang the bell, he observed there was no effect of a bell
on the dog’s salivation.
After this, Pavlov rang the bell accompanied with meat and noticed the salivation of a dog. He
repeated this process several times, and finally, one day he just rang the bell without meat and
observed that dog still salivated to the bell alone which was originally a neutral stimulus.
Thus, he found out, that the dog has become classically conditioned (CR) to the sound of the bell
(CS). And every time he rings the bell the dog salivates.

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#5: Instrumental Conditioning/ Operant Conditioning Theory
Instrumental or Operant conditioning is a learning process first described by B. F. Skinner. In
instrumental conditioning, reinforcement or punishment are used to either increase or decrease
the probability that a behaviour will occur again in the future.
Skinner identified two key aspects of the operant conditioning process. Reinforcement serves to
increase the behaviour while punishment serves to decrease the behaviour.
There are also two different types of reinforcement and two different types of punishment.
Positive reinforcement involves presenting a favorable outcome, such as giving a child a treat after
she cleans her room. Negative reinforcement involves the removal of an unpleasant stimulus, like
telling a child that if she eats all her potatoes then she won’t have to eat her broccoli. Since the
child considers broccoli an unpleasant consequence and eating the potatoes leads to the removal
of this undesirable consequence, eating the potatoes is then negatively reinforced.
Positive punishment means applying an unpleasant event after a behaviour. Spanking, for
example, is a common example of positive punishment. This type of punishment is often referred
to as punishment by application. A negative consequence is directly applied to reduce the
unwanted behaviour.
Negative punishment involves taking away something pleasant after a behaviour occurs. For
example, if a child fails to clean her room, her parents might tell her that she cannot go to the mall
with her friends. Taking away the desirable activity acts as a negative punisher on the preceding
behaviour.
Example for this theory: If a student is rewarded with praise every time she raises her hand in
class, she becomes more likely to raise her hand again in the future.
If she is also scolded when she speaks out of turn, she becomes less likely to interrupt the class. In
these examples, the teacher is using reinforcement to strengthen the hand-raising behaviour and
punishment to weaken the talking out of turn behaviour.
Instrumental conditioning is often used in animal training as well. For example, training a dog to
shake hands would involve offering a reward every time the desired behaviour occurs.

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#6: Cognitive Theory
According to Edward Tolman, individuals not only responds to stimuli but also act on beliefs,
thoughts, attitudes, feelings and strive towards goals.

In other words, an individual creates a cognitive map in his mind, i.e. an image of the external
environment, preserves and organizes information gathered, as a result of the consequences of
events encountered during the learning process. Thus, the individual learns about the event and
objects on the basis of a meaning assigned to stimuli.

Cognitive learning theory emphasizes on the free will and positive aspects of human behaviour.
Cognition refers to the individual’s thoughts, feelings, ideas, knowledge and understanding about
himself and the environment. Thus, an individual applies this cognition in learning which results in
not merely the response to a stimulus, but the application of internal image of the external
environment, so as to accomplish the goal.

Tolman has conducted an experiment to elucidate the cognitive learning theory. He trained a rat
to turn right in the ‘T’ maze in order to obtain food. One day, he started a rat from the opposite
part of the maze, according to the operant conditioning theory, the rat should have turned right
due to the past conditioning, but instead, it turned towards where the food was kept. Thus, Tolman
concluded that rat formed a cognitive map in its mind to figure out where the food has been
placed, and reinforcement was not a precondition for learning to take place.

#7: Social Cognitive Theory

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) started as the Social Learning Theory (SLT) in the 1960s by Albert
Bandura. It developed into the SCT in 1986 and posits that learning occurs in a social context with
a dynamic and reciprocal interaction of the person, environment, and behaviour. The unique
feature of SCT is the emphasis on social influence and its emphasis on external and internal social
reinforcement. SCT considers the unique way in which individuals acquire and maintain
behaviour, while also considering the social environment in which individuals perform the
behaviour. The theory considers a person's past experiences, which factor into whether
behavioural action will occur. These past experiences influence reinforcements, expectations, and
expectancies, all of which shape whether a person will engage in a specific behaviour and the
reasons why a person engages in that behaviour.
***

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 Chapter 6: Attitudes

Key Concepts:
#1: Definitions:
• A predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain idea,
object, person, or situation. Attitude influences an individual's choice of action, and
responses to challenges, incentives, and rewards.
• Attitudes are ‘learned’ dispositions to respond to an object in a consistently favorable or
unfavorable way
• Attitude (positive/negative, favorable/unfavorable) is how a person feels towards an
object

#2: Characteristics of Attitude:

• An abstract concept – object/person/activity/issue
• Has direction, intensity and degree – level of conviction in feelings
• Are learned concepts – personal experience/ media, etc.
• Have consistency – to some extent but not permanent
• Occur within a situation – corresponding attitudes for each situation

#3: Formation of Attitudes:

Different people have different attitudes towards the same thing. There are various determinants
of this attitude formation, some of which are mentioned below:
- Personal Experiences: Our personal interactions with others and experiences with things
shape our attitudes towards certain things. We form positive attitude if we have a pleasant
experience with it. Similarly, our bad experiences lead to the formation of negative attitude
towards things.

- Need Satisfaction & personal interest: If a thing or idea fulfills our needs satisfactorily, we
form a positive attitude towards it. On the other hand, an individual’s personal interest or
gains may also influence their attitude towards a thing. Example: Some shopkeepers may
deliberately hoard (store secretly) some consumables to create its shortage in the market
in order to raise its prices. These shopkeepers have a positive attitude towards hoarding
because it increases their profits. At the same time, people who have to pay higher prices
for buying those consumables have a negative attitude towards the same practice.

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 - Community Attitudes/ Group Associations: People around us have a positive or negative
attitude towards things. We interact with these community members and their attitudes
also influence us to form an attitude towards those things accordingly.

- Influence of Mass Media (as well as Social Media): Media plays a significant role in attitude
formation. Every day the sources of mass/social media communication bombard us with
certain information which has an impact on the way we think about certain brands,
products, industries as well as certain people/celebrities/communities/political parties.
From information regarding newest technologies to robbery incidences in the locality,
media provides us with information about almost everything. The tonality and context in
which this information is shared, forms attitudes & sentiments among readers (us).
Example: Our positive or negative attitude towards a certain political party is mostly an
outcome of the media we consume.

- Culture: Our cultural norms, values, traditions, beliefs and preferences also form our
attitude towards a thing. Culturally approved practices tend to have a positive attitude
towards certain things while culturally disapproved practices tend to have a negative
impact on some things. Example: Attitudes towards certain fashion trends or food choices
are an outcome of cultural differences among consumers.

- Stereotypes: A stereotype is a wide-spread belief about a thing or a practice. It may be true

or false judgement which is accepted by the majority of the people. There maybe a positive
or negative attitude towards certain stereotypes around some products, gender, ethnic
group, people or a person.

- Rational Analysis: Attitude formation is mostly the outcome of rational analysis of things.
We analyze things and weigh its pros and cons to make our choices. Observing things in
our daily life in this way leads to formation of positive or negative attitudes towards things
that come our way.

#4: Functions of Attitude:

The most important function of an attitude can only be ascertained by considering it in relation
to the person who holds it and the environment in which they operate. Broadly there are four
functions of attitude:

- Utilitarian Function: This function directs people towards pleasurable or rewarding objects
and away from unpleasant, undesirable ones. It helps maximize reward and minimize
punishment. We develop favorable attitude towards things that aid or reward us.

- Ego-defensive Function: This function refers to holding attitudes that protect our self-
esteem or that justify actions that make us feel guilty. Example: A consumer who has made
a poor investment will staunchly defend his decision by stating that he was correct at the
time of investing or it was an outcome of a poor advice from someone. Such an attitude
helps safeguard self-image.

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 - Value-expressive Function: This function enables the expression of the person’s centrally
held values. Central values tend to establish our identity and give us social approval,
thereby showing us who we are and what we stand for.

- Knowledge Function: Some attitudes are useful because they help make the world more
understandable. It allows people to organize a considerable amount of information to
which they are exposed every day.

#5: Attitude Theories:

1. Congruity Theory (By Osgood & Tannenbaum):

- Though similar to balance theory,

Congruity theory deals specifically
with the attitudes a person holds
toward sources of information and
the objects of the source’s assertions.
- In the congruity model, a person (P)
receives an assertion from a source
(S), toward which he has an attitude,
about an object (O), toward which he
also has an attitude.
- In Osgood’s model, how much P likes S and O will determine if a state of congruity or
consistency exists.
- According to congruity theory, people strive to maintain consistency among their
cognitions.
• Here, congruity exists when a person holds identical attitudes towards a source and
a topic or issue.
• Incongruity exists when there is a tendency to change cognitions so as to achieve
psychological equilibrium
• When two or more attitudes are linked by an assertion there is a tendency for both
attitudes to change
- Example: When your favorite cricketer starts to endorse a brand you dislike, you are likely
to be in a state of incongruency due to differences in attitudes towards the source and the
person. Such situations are likely to cause tension.

2. Balance Theory (By Fritz Heider):

- As a psychologist, Heider was concerned with the way an individual organizes attitudes
toward people and objects in relation to one another within that individual’s own cognitive
structure. Heider postulated that unbalanced states produce tension and generate forces
to restore balance. He says that “the concept of a balanced state designates a situation in
which the perceived units and the experienced sentiments co-exist without stress

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 - The Balance Theory, is focused on two individuals, a person (P), the object of the analysis,
some other person (O), and a physical object, idea, or event (X). Heider’s concern was with
how relationships among these three entities are organized in the mind of one individual
(P). Heider distinguished two types of relationships among these three entities.
- It is assumed that a balanced state is stable and resists outside influences. An unbalanced
state is assumed to be unstable and is assumed to produce psychological tension within an
individual. This tension “becomes relieved only when change within the situation takes
place in such a way that a state of balance is achieved”.

3. Cognitive Dissonance Theory (By Leon Festinger):

- Cognitive dissonance is the term used in modern psychology to describe the state of
holding two or more conflicting cognitions (ideas, beliefs, values, emotional reactions)
simultaneously. In a state of dissonance, people may sometimes feel surprise, dread, guilt,
anger, or embarrassment.
- It states that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by a) altering existing
cognitions, b) adding new ones to create a consistent belief system, or c) alternatively by
reducing the importance of any one of the dissonant elements.
- An example of this would be the conflict between wanting to smoke and knowing that
smoking is unhealthy; a person may try to change their feelings about the odds that they
will actually suffer the consequences, or they might add the consonant element that the
short-term benefits of smoking outweigh the long-term harm. The need to avoid cognitive
dissonance may bias one towards a certain decision even though other factors favour an
alternative.

#6: New Models of Attitude:

1. Tri-Component Attitude Model: According to the tricomponent
attitude model, attitude consists of three major components, viz., a
cognitive component, an affective component, and a conative
component.
Affective component (feelings/emotion): The affective component of an
attitude comprises of the consumers emotions or feelings (toward an
object). Buying of any product or service would be accomplished on the
basis of how each product/service makes the decision maker feel. The product that evokes the
greatest positive affective response would thus be ranked first. The affective response may be
derived through association or directly attributed to the interaction between the product or
service and the decision maker.
Behaviour/Conative component (actions): The conative component is concerned with the
likelihood or tendency of certain behavior with regard to the attitude object. It would also mean
the predisposition or tendency to act in a certain manner toward an object.
Cognitive Component (knowledge/experience): The cognitive component consists of a person’s
cognitions, i.e., knowledge and perceptions (about an object). This knowledge and resulting
perceptions commonly take the form of beliefs, images, and long-term memories. A utility

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function representing the weighted product of attributes and criteria would be used to develop
the final ranking and thus choice.

Multi-attribute Attitude Model (Fishbein):

The Fishbein Model is a multi-attribute model, which means it has more than 2 elements:
attributes, beliefs, and weights. Multi-attribute models allow many pieces of information to be
evaluated and applied to form a behavioral prediction. Some key features of this model are:
- It evaluates any relevant beliefs an individual may hold regarding a product or service on a
numerical scale
- The model then evaluates a few additional factors, including social pressure, what
motivates the individual to act, and their motivation to act according to what they believe
is right
- The result produces an indicator representing the likeliness the individual would respond
favorably to a message or call to action
- Mathematically, Fishbein is represented as: A0 = Σ Bi Ei ( i=1)
• A0 = Person’s overall attitude
• Bi = The strength of his belief related to attribute
• Ei = His evaluation or intensity of feelings
• N = Number of relative beliefs
- With Fishbein Model, the marketer can better identify how to persuade consumers to take
a desired action, reaching primary business goal.
Variations to this model are as follows:
Attitude towards object model: This model says that the consumer’s attitude toward a product or
specific brands of a product is a function of the presence or absence and evaluation of certain
product-specific beliefs or attributes. Consumers generally have favorable attitudes toward those
brands that they believe have an adequate level of attributes that they evaluate as positive, and
they have unfavorable attitudes towards those brands they feel do not have an adequate level of
desired attributes or have too many negative or undesired attributes. For instance, you may like
BMW cars.
Attitude toward behavior model: This model is the individual’s attitude toward the object itself.
The crux of the attitude-towards-behavior model is that it seems to correspond somewhat more
closely to actual behavior than does the attitude-toward-object model. So taking on from liking a
BMW, we may say you are not ready to buy/drive one because you believe that you are too
young/old to do so.
Theory of reasoned-action-model: This model represents a comprehensive integration of attitude
components into a structure that is designed to lead to both better explanations and better
predictions of behavior. This model incorporates a cognitive component, an affective component,
and a conative component; however, these are arranged in a pattern different from that of the
tricomponent model.
Attitude towards the ad model: This model lays emphasis on the impact of an advertisement, on
the formation of consumer attitudes towards product and service offerings and or brands. The

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theory behind the model states that consumers form judgments and feelings as a result of
exposure to an advertisement. Not only does a consumer form attitudes towards the
advertisement, he or she also forms an opinion towards the brand.
An Example of the Fishbein solution for restaurants:

***

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 Chapter 7: Motivation

Key Concepts:
#1: Definitions & Motivation Process:
- Definition: “Motivation is an inner drive that reflects goal-directed arousal. In
consumer behavior context, the result is a desire for a product, service, or experience. It is
the drive to satisfy needs and wants, both physiological and psychological, through the
purchase and use of products and services.

- Motivation Process:

• In the initiation a person starts feeling the lack of something. There is the starting
point of the need generation and the urge leads the bearer to venture in search of
it.
• The search may lead to creation of some amount tension, which further urges the
person to forget everything else and cater to the need first.
• This tension also creates drives and attitudes and leads the person to seek
adequate information regarding the purchase.
• Ultimately the person indulges in the final step of evaluation of alternatives where
the best alternative is chosen/purchased.
• Once the best alternative is chosen (and if), the activity satisfaction is achieved, it
helps relieves the tension in the individual

- Arousal of Motives: The arousal of any particular set of needs at a specific moment in time
may be caused by internal stimuli found either in the individual’s physiological condition
or by some emotional drive or cognitive processes or simply by a stimulus in outside
environment.

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 • Physiological Arousal: Bodily needs at any one specific moment in time are based
on the individual physiological condition at the moment. Example: A drop in blood
sugar level or stomach contractions will trigger awareness of a hunger need. OR A
decrease in body temperature will induce shivering, which makes individual aware
of the need for warmth, which arouse related needs that cause uncomfortable
tensions until they are satisfied (i.e.: Necessary medication, low fat diet, exercise,
etc.)

• Emotional Arousal: Sometimes daydreaming results in the arousal (autistic thinking)

or stimulation of latent needs. People who are bored or who are frustrated in trying
to achieve their goals often engage in daydreaming, in which they imagine
themselves in all sorts of desirable situations. Example: A young boy who may take
a solo biking trip to get away from the dissatisfaction of his job.

• Cognitive Arousal: Sometimes random thoughts can lead to a cognitive awareness

of needs. An advertisement that provides imagery of a perfect home décor might
trigger instant yearning to renovate your house or buy some new piece of furniture
that isn’t necessarily required.

• Environment Arousal: Specific cues in the environment trigger certain needs.

Without these cues the needs might remain dormant. Example: The 8’o clock news,
the sight or smell of bakery goods, fast food commercials on television, cold
weather, festivities in the locality, etc. may arouse the need for purchase of related
products/services/experiences.

#2: Types of Motives:

- Physiological Motives: Are oriented towards satisfying biological or physiological needs of
the individual like hunger, thirst, etc.

- Psychogenic Motives: Psychogenic motives focus on the satisfaction of their psychological

desires such as seeking achievements or status.

- Conscious Motives: Refers to conscious intents that drives a person towards a purchase
knowingly, such as purchase of new refrigerator for lifestyle upgrade.

- Unconscious Motives: Refers to hidden and unknown desires that are the real reasons for
things people do, such as impulse shopping of clothes while one’s objective was to save
money instead.

- Positive Motives: The type of motivation that is resulted from positive incentives/ rewards
such as promotion leading to hard work & better performance.

- Negative Motives: The type of motivation that is resulted from negative incentives or
punishments such as demotion leading to poor performance.

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 - Rational Motives: Refers to purchase goals that are totally objective driven and practically
thought through such as purchase of Mediclaim or Life insurance cover.

- Emotional Motives: Refers to selection of goals basis personal or subjective criteria.

Example: purchase of travel to an exotic location.

#3: Theories of Motivation:

- Maslow Theory of Hierarchy of Needs: This theory classifies motives into five
groupings and suggests the degree to which each would influence behaviour. The
classification divides need of an individual across the following categories: Physiological,
safety, belongingness & love, self-esteem and lastly, self-actualization.

Self
Actualization -
Self Imprvoment
Self-Esteem Needs -
Prestige/ Social Status

Social Needs - Sense of Belonging

Safety Needs - Security

Physiological Needs - Food, clothing, shelter

While the physiological motives would have the greatest influence on behaviour until they
are adequately satisfied. Once each level of need is taken care of, the individual is likely to
seek the next potent motive, graduating all through the top of the pyramid of needs drawn
above.
1) Physiological Needs: These form the most dominant needs as they are key for basic
survival. They include food, clothing and shelter. If these are not satisfied, the person
cannot function optimally. Potential Example: The ‘Meri Masala Maggi’ campaign that
features faces of real-life customers on pack.
2) Safety Needs: Once physiological needs are satisfied, one looks for security and safety
and that becomes the driving force of survival. This includes stability/ control over one’s
life. Potential Example: LIC ‘Zindagi ke saath bhi, Zindagi ke baad bhi’
3) Social Needs: People seek relationships with other people to feel a sense of belonging,
that also adds a stronger purpose for living. Potential Example: LinkedIn’s ‘In It Together’
campaign that talks about belonging from a professional network point of view.

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 4) Esteem Needs: This category of needs satisfies the ego at large. It helps one gain social
status/prestige and helps build an image either for self or the larger world. Potential
Example: Royal Stag Music’s ‘Make it Large’ campaign.
5) Self- Actualization Needs: Self-actualization is achieved when you’re able to reach your
full potential. It is about experiencing the feeling of being limitless. Most people do not
reach this stage of needs as they are busy meeting pressing needs. Potential Example:
Nike’s ‘Find your Greatness’ campaign illustrates this beautifully.
Since the five levels postulated are sufficiently generic and encompass most needs, it offers
a comprehensive framework for marketers trying to develop appropriate advertising
appeals. It also helps them focus appeals on a need level that is likely to be shared by a
large segment of the prospective audience. It also helps align product positioning/
repositioning.

- McClelland’s Theory of Need Achievement (Trio of Needs): McClelland identified

three motivators that he believed we all have: a need for achievement, a need for
affiliation, and a need for power. People will have different characteristics depending on
their dominant motivator. According to him, these motivators are learned (which is why
this theory is sometimes called the Learned Needs Theory) and he says that, regardless of
our gender, culture, or age, we all have three motivating drivers, and one of these will be
our dominant motivating driver at each phase in life. This dominant motivator is largely
dependent on our culture and life experiences:
• Need for Achievement: People motivated by achievement need challenging, but not
impossible, projects. They thrive on overcoming difficult problems or situations.
• Need for Affiliation: People motivated by affiliation work best in a group
environment, versus working alone, whenever possible as they constantly seek
social validation and warmth/affection. They also don't like uncertainty and risk.
These people often don't want to stand out.

• Need for Power: Those with a high need for power work best when they're in charge
of situations as they enjoy competition. They do well with goal-oriented tasks and
are very effective in negotiations. They like to stand out/get attention at all times.

- Alderfer’s ERG Theory of Needs: Clayton P. Alderfer's ERG theory from condenses
Maslow's five human needs into three main categories: Existence, Relatedness and
Growth.

• Existence Needs: Include all material and physiological desires (e.g., food, water,
air, clothing, safety, physical love and affection). Maslow's first two levels.

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 • Relatedness Needs: Encompass social and external esteem; relationships with
significant others like family, friends, co-workers and employers. This also means
to be recognized and feel secure as part of a group or family. Maslow's third and
fourth levels.

• Growth Needs: Internal esteem and self-actualization; these impel a person to

make creative or productive effects on himself and the environment (e.g., to
progress toward one's ideal self). Maslow's fourth and fifth levels. This includes
desires to be creative and productive, and to complete meaningful tasks.
Even though the priority of these needs differs from person to person, the ERG theory
prioritizes in terms of the categories' concreteness. Existence needs are the most concrete,
and easiest to verify. Relatedness needs are less concrete than existence needs, which
depend on a relationship between two or more people. Finally, growth needs are the least
concrete in that their specific objectives depend on the uniqueness of each person.

- Vroom’s Expectancy Theory: Vroom's expectancy theory assumes that behavior results from
conscious choices among alternatives whose purpose it is to maximize pleasure and to minimize
pain. Vroom realized that an employee's performance is based on individual factors such as
personality, skills, knowledge, experience and abilities. He stated that effort, performance and
motivation are linked in a person's motivation. He uses the variables Expectancy, Instrumentality
and Valence to account for this.
• Expectancy is the belief that increased effort will lead to increased performance i.e. if I
work harder then I will my circumstances will become better
• Instrumentality is the belief that if you perform well, a valued outcome will be received.
The degree to which a first level outcome will lead to the second level outcome. i.e. if I do
a good job, there is something in it for me.
• Valence is the importance that the individual places upon the expected outcome. For the
valence to be positive, the person must prefer attaining the outcome to not attaining it.
For example, if someone is mainly motivated by money, he or she might not value offers
of additional time off.

The three elements are important behind choosing one element over another because they are
clearly defined: effort-performance expectancy (E>P expectancy) and performance-outcome
expectancy (P>O expectancy).

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 - Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory: According to Herzberg, there are some job factors that
result in satisfaction while there are other job factors that prevent dissatisfaction. According to
Herzberg, the opposite of “Satisfaction” is “No satisfaction” and the opposite of “Dissatisfaction”
is “No Dissatisfaction”.

• Hygiene Factors - Hygiene factors are those job factors which are essential for existence of
motivation at workplace. These do not lead to positive satisfaction for long-term. But if
these factors are absent / if these factors are non-existent at workplace, then they lead to
dissatisfaction. In other words, hygiene factors are those factors which when
adequate/reasonable in a job, pacify the employees and do not make them dissatisfied.
These factors are extrinsic to work. Hygiene factors are also called as dissatisfiers or
maintenance factors as they are required to avoid dissatisfaction. These factors describe
the job environment/scenario. The hygiene factors symbolized the physiological needs
which the individuals wanted and expected to be fulfilled.

• Motivational Factors- According to Herzberg, the hygiene factors cannot be regarded as

motivators. The motivational factors yield positive satisfaction. These factors are inherent
to work. These factors motivate the employees for a superior performance. These factors
are called satisfiers. These are factors involved in performing the job. Employees find these
factors intrinsically rewarding. The motivators symbolized the psychological needs that
were perceived as an additional benefit.

#3: Motivation Theories & Marketing Strategies: Consumers do not buy products. They
buy motive satisfaction or problem solutions. A person does not buy a sofa set but he buys comfort. A
person does not buy cosmetics but he buys
hope for looking good. Marketers therefore try
to find the motives for buying, and build their
products and marketing mixes around these
motives. Another important method to find out
the motives may be by “Motivational Research”
where indirect questions are asked to elicit the
information from the respondents. This is done
by unstructured disguised interviews or
questionnaires.
Once the motives have been known, the
marketing strategy is designed around the

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appropriate set of motives. While designing the strategy, the target market has to be decided and the
communication has to be chosen for the said target market. Since there is more than one motive, more
than one benefit should be communicated by advertising and other methods of promotion.

***

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 Chapter 8: Personality

Key Concepts:
#1: Definition and Characteristics of Personality:
- “The inner psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how a person
responds to his or her environment”
- Personality shows the individual choices for various products and brands. It helps the
marketers in deciding when and how to promote the product. Personality can be
categorized on the basis of individual traits, likes, dislikes etc.
- Though personality is static, it can change due to major events such as death, birth or
marriage and can also change gradually with time. By connecting with the personality
characteristics of an individual, a marketer can conveniently formulate marketing
strategies. Some of the key characteristics of personality are:
• Reflects individual differences: Personality refers to internal as well as external
qualities, some of which are quite general. But it is unique to each individual. It is
not possible for any other individual to reproduce or imitate the qualities of the
personality of the individual.

• Is Consistent and Enduring: Every individual has certain feeling as well as other
permanent traits and qualities. Personality is mainly composed of the persistent or
permanent qualities that exhibit themselves in form of social behaviour and
attempt to make adjustment with the environment.

• Can Change: Personality represents the process of learning. It takes place in

reference to the environment. We do not acquire all the traits of personality all at
once as we are constantly evolving and changing as individuals at the same time.

#2: Definition and Characteristics of Personality:

- Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytical Theory of Personality: This theory is regarded as
the cornerstone of modern psychology. Freud based his theory on certain assumptions
which is as follows: 1) Unconscious needs or drives lie at the heart of human motivation
and personality. 2) The socialization process that takes place within people in a social set
up has a huge impact on individual behavior.

Freud explained much of how the psyche or the mind operates, and proposed that, human
psyche is composed of parts within our awareness and beyond our awareness. He said that
all behavior within an individual cannot be explained, since much lies in the subconscious.

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 • Id − According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality, the id operates
based on the pleasure principle, which stresses on immediate fulfillment of needs.
The id is the personality component made up of unconscious psychic energy which
satisfies basic urges, needs, and desires.

• Ego − Ego is that state of awareness which thinks of you as separate from the other.
It always thinks of the glories of the past and hopes of the future and focuses on
guiltiness. It always thinks of what was and what could be.

• Super Ego − The superego provides guidelines for making judgments. It is the aspect
of personality that holds all our moral standards and ideals that we acquire from
both parents and society.

- Neo Freudian Theory/ Social Personality Theory (CAD Theory): There were a group
of psychologists who believed that in order form a personality, social relationships are very
important. Here, they disagreed with their contemporary, Freud, who believed that
personality was: Biological and rooted in genetics and was groomed as a result of early
childhood experiences.
However, this group of researchers laid emphasis on the process of socialization and they
classified personality into three types:
• Complaint Personalities − They prefer love and affection and so they move towards
them and so they prefer known brands.

• Aggressive Personalities − They tend to move against others and they show off their
need for power, success etc. which is quite manipulative.

• Detached Personalities − They are not much aware of brands and are more self-
reliant and independent.

Marketers tend to use Neo-Freudian theories while segmenting markets and positioning
their products.

- Trait Theory:
• A personality theory with a primarily empirical/quantitative orientation. It focuses
upon the measurement of personality in terms of specific psychological
characteristics called traits. Trait is a distinguished relatively enduring way in which
one individual differs from another. Trait theorists are concerned with construction
of personality tests (or inventories) that enable them to pinpoint individual

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 differences through trait identification. Some key categories for understanding
traits are:
1. Consumer Innovativeness: How receptive a person is to new ideas.
2. Consumer Materialism: The degree of consumer's attachment to worldly
possessions.
3. Consumer Ethnocentrism: The consumer's likelihood to accept or reject
foreign products.

• Other personality traits that influence consumer personality are:

1. Dogmatism: Opposite of open-mindedness, Dogmatism is a personality trait
associated with a tendency to habitually, arrogantly assert opinions,
sometimes with little regard to evidence. This may be an aspect of
authoritarianism. The dogmatic personality style is characterized by
oversimplified thinking, resistance to changing attitudes or beliefs, and
appealing to authority to justify their beliefs. The personality may have its
origins in childhood, caused by anxieties linked to the parent-child
relationship or modeling from parents.

2. Novelty Seeking Consumers (Neophilia): It is defined as liking anything new

or being a novelty-seeker. Such individuals are always eager to buy or try
new products/services/experiences. Most often they are the first movers to
adopt something new as well as the first ones to discontinue the same for
a newer alternative.

3. Cognitive Personality Traits:

1. Visualizers: Consumers who prefer visual information and products
that shows the visual / visually appealing.
2. Verbalizers: Consumer who prefer verbal or written information
about the products. They don’t get attracted just by visuals of the
product.

- Carl Jung’s Personality Types:

• Jung’s original typology is built on two personality attitudes: extroversion
and introversion; four functions (or modes of orientation): thinking,
sensation, intuition, and feeling. The four functions are divided into what
Jung called rational (or judging)
and irrational (or perceiving)
functions. Thinking and
sensations are rational,

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 according to Jung, while intuition and feeling are irrational.
• Jung saw both introversion and extroversion as attitudes. Introversion,
according to him, is one’s focus on inner world, while extroversion is one’s
focus on the outside world.
• According to Jung’s view, it’s not possible to demonstrate extroversion or
introversion in isolation. To become obvious, it must be associated with one
of the four functions — thinking, sensation, intuition, and feeling. This results
in eight variations:
1. Extroverted thinking
2. Introverted thinking
3. Extroverted sensation
4. Introverted sensation
5. Extroverted intuition
6. Introverted intuition
7. Extroverted feeling
8. Introverted feeling
• All four functions — thinking, sensation, intuition, and feeling — are used at
different times depending on circumstances, but, according to Jung, typically
there will be preference for one single predominant function or “superior
function”. This tendency may be either inborn or developed over the course
of one’s life. The less preferred function — the fourth function — is used
unconsciously; Jung called it “inferior function”. Inferior function is always
the opposite of your primary
function.
• According to Jung, your
dominant function represents
your conscious behavior, and
your inferior function
represents your unconscious
or repressed behavior.
• According to the theory of Jung personality types, the opposite of thinking is
feeling, and the opposite of sensation is intuition.
• Advertisers are making use of this segmentation to profile their target
market and develop strategies to capture market share

#2: Self Concept: Self-concept can be described simply as how one perceives himself and his
behavior in the market place. It is the attitude one holds towards himself. What one thinks of

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himself. Self-concept is not always very realistic because an unconscious component is always
present. It can be divided into following types:

• Actual self (Self Appraisal): How a person actually perceives himself.

• Ideal self (Biased Appraisal): How a person would like to perceive himself.
• Social self (Reflected Appraisal): How a person thinks others perceive him.
• Ideal social self (Social Comparison): How a person would like others to perceive him.
Additionally, one can also identify with:

• Expected self: An image of self somewhere in between the actual and ideal self.
• Situational self: A person’s self-image in a specific situation.
Self-concept is a social phenomenon. It is an attitude to the self. Consequently, the way we dress,
the products we use, the services we require, depend on how we want to perceive ourselves.
There is a relationship between the self-image of a person and the product one wants to buy.
Products act as symbols for consumers.
Despite its limitations, Self-Image is a powerful tool for marketers because people like to use the
products which match their personality. These include clothing, leisure products, personal care
products – thus providing an idea of the corresponding image of the brand.

***

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 Chapter 9: Market Segmentation – Psychographic Profile

Key Concepts:
#1: What is Psychographic Segmentation?
- Psychographic segmentation involves dividing your market into segments based
upon different personality traits, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles of
consumers. This segmentation is advantageous because it allows you to engage in
product design and marketing in a focused manner.

- People have different interests, attitudes, and traits. For example, some people
really care about the environment, while other people don't. Some people are very
fitness and health conscious while others are foodies. Some people take sports very
seriously, while some just want to have some fun on the weekends. Psychographic
segmentation occurs when you break your market down along these interests and
attitudes so you can market the appropriate product to each segment of the
market.

#2: SRI VALS: VALS is a proprietary term of SRI (Standard

Research Institute) International, developed by Social scientist
and futurist Arnold Mitchell. He developed the VALS
framework to determine different classes of people who had
varying values, attitudes and lifestyle. These people were
determined by the resources they had at their disposal as well
as the amount of primary innovation they could accept or
create. Thus, the people with low resources were low on
innovation and the ones with higher resources were higher in
innovation. This formed the basis of the VALS framework.
As per the model, The X axis consisted of primary motivation
(explained below) and the Y axis consisted of resources such as
income, education, confidence etc. Thus, these two factors were determined to be critical to
define the values attitude and lifestyle of any consumer.
8 types of consumers as per VALS framework:
- Innovators – The class of consumer at the top of the VALS framework. They are
characterized by High income and high resource individuals for whom independence is

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 very important. They have their own individual taste in things and are motivated in
achieving the finer things in life.

- Thinkers – A well-educated professional is an excellent example of Thinkers in the VALS

framework. These are the people who have high resources and are motivated by their
knowledge. These are the rational decision-making consumers and are well informed
about their surroundings. These consumers are likely to accept any social change because
of their knowledge level.

- Believers – The subtle difference between thinkers and believers is that thinkers make their
own decisions whereas believers are more social in nature and hence also believe other
consumers. They are characterized by lower resources and are less likely to accept
innovation on their own. They are the best class of word of mouth consumers.

- Achievers – The achievers are mainly motivated by achievements. These individuals want
to excel at their job as well in their family. Thus, they are more likely to purchase a brand
which has shown its success over time. The achievers are said to be high resource
consumers but at the same time, if any brand is rising, they are more likely to adopt that
brand faster.

- Strivers – Low resource consumer group which wants to reach some achievement are
known as strivers. These customers do not have the resources to be an achiever. But as
they have values similar to an achiever, they fall under the striver category. If a striver can
gain the necessary resources such as a high income or social status then he can move on
to becoming an achiever – in the meantime such individuals ape the achievers by and are
conscious of their style and social acceptance.

- Experiencers – The group of consumers who have high resources but also need a mode of
self-expression are known as Experiencers. Mostly characterized by young adults, it
consists of people who want to experience being different. This class of consumers is filled
up with early adopters who spend heavily on food, clothing and other youthful products
and services.

- Makers – These are consumers who also want self-expression but they are limited by the
number of resources they have. Thus, they would be more focused towards building a
better family rather than going out and actually spending higher amount of money. Making
themselves into better individuals and families becomes a form of self-expression for the
Makers.

- Survivors – The class of consumers in the VALS framework with the least resources and
therefore the least likely to adopt any innovation. As they are not likely to change their
course of action regularly, they form into brand loyal customers. An example can include

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 old age pension earners living alone for whom the basic necessities are important and they
are least likely to concentrate on anything else.
Thus, the VALS framework can be used primarily to classify consumers based on their values,
attitudes and lifestyle. Once the classification has been done, you know which types of customers
you want to target. Depending on your target customers VALS, you can make up your marketing
strategy and your promotional message such that it hits your audience at the right spot.

***

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 Chapter 10: Social Class

Key Concepts:
#1: Importance of Study of Social Class in Consumer Behaviour
A major influence on one’s purchasing habits and consumer behaviour is the social class in which
one finds him or herself. Social class is considered an external influence on consumer behaviour
because it is not a function of feelings or knowledge. Social class is often hard to define; in fact,
many people dispute the existence of social classes in the United States. Usually, however, people
are grouped in social classes according to income, wealth, education, or type of occupation.
Perhaps the simplest model to define social class is a three-tiered approach that includes the rich,
the middle class, and the poor. Other models have as many as a dozen levels. People in the same
social class tend to have similar attitudes, live in similar neighborhoods, dress alike, and shop at
the same type of stores.
Social class can have a profound effect on consumer spending habits. Perhaps the most obvious
effect is the level of disposable income of each social class. Generally, the rich have the ability to
purchase more consumer goods than those with less income, and those goods are of higher
quality. There is also a distinction in the type of goods purchased. For example, the upper class
tend to be the primary buyers of fine jewelry and often shop at exclusive retailers. The lower class,
in contrast, are much more concerned with simply getting by; they focus more on necessities.

#2: Characteristics of Social Class

• Exhibit Status (Prestige Appeal): Class system is associated with prestige. Status is associated
with prestige. The status of the ruling class or rich class or a higher status class in every society
is superior. The prestige which a class enjoys depends upon evaluations of the people of the
society.
• Multidimensional: Researchers use a combination of variables to measure social class. A
number of socioeconomic factors are combined to form one over all members of social class
standing. They better reflect the complexity of social class than a single variable. For example,
to know the consumer perceptions of mail and phone order shopping, the socioeconomic
status was studied by using a composite of income occupational status and education. It
reveals that higher the socioeconomic status, the more positive are the consumers ratings of
mail and phone order buying, relative to in-store shopping.
• Hierarchical: Social class is determined by a hierarchical classification of individuals and families
with a distinct status. Families can climb the social ladder by achievement of members. When
each generation within a family tends to do better, there is an upward mobility in the social
ladder. When young adults have less disposable income than their successful parents, they
may slide down in the class hierarchy. The hierarchical aspect of social class is important to

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 marketers. Consumers may prefer to purchase products favored by their own or higher social
class (e.g. imported luxury automobiles). Consumers may avoid certain products because they
perceive the products to be lower class products.
• Restrict Behaviour: The social classes are bound by certain tacit restrictions which include or
exclude certain individuals, places or objects. These are tacit rules they follow by themselves.
They restrict behaviour as they share similar educational background, occupation lifestyle etc.
• Homogeneous: Social classes are homogeneous divisions of the society. Each social class shows
similar life-styles, values, status, prestige and interests. So, the behaviour pattern of the
members become similar. There are also shared attitudes and behavioural pattern among
members. So, the behavioural pattern differs among social classes. For example, a person
belonging to middle class prefers economically priced cars. But upper income group will prefer
highly priced cars. Thus, social classes exhibit varying buying pattern in purchase of products
that meets the life-style, status and prestige of their members.
• Dynamic: Social class membership is not hard and fixed. Individuals can move either up or
down in social class standing. The availability of free education and opportunities for self -
development prompts success in business and in life. Successful persons move up to the higher
class. Today, many young men and women start their own business to have higher social
status. Higher social classes become reference groups for ambitious men and women of lower
social status. Signs of upward mobility are found in India. For instance, plastic surgery was once
affordable only for movie stars and other wealthy people. Today, consumers of all economic
strata undergo cosmetic surgery.

#3: Social Class Classification by Lloyd Warner:

Based on social anthropology, Warner divided Americans into three classes (upper, middle, and
lower), then further subdivided each of these into an "upper" and "lower" segment, with the
following postulates:
• Upper-upper class. "Old money." People who have been born into and raised with wealth;
mostly consists of old, noble, or prestigious families (e.g., Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Hilton.
In the India context the Ambani or Godrej or Birla families can be an apt example).
• Lower-upper class. "New money." Individuals who have become rich within their own
lifetimes (entrepreneurs, successful movie stars).
• Upper-middle class. High-salaried professionals like doctors, lawyers, higher order
executives in the corporate world and senior professors).
• Lower-middle class. Lower-paid professionals, but not manual laborers (non-management
office workers, small business owners).

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 • Upper-lower class. Blue-collar workers and manual laborers. Also known as the "working
class."
• Lower-lower class. The homeless and permanently unemployed, as well as the "working
poor."
To Warner, social class is based more on attitudes than on the actual amount of money an
individual made. For example, the richest people in America would belong to the "lower-upper
class" since many of them created their own fortunes; one can only be born into the highest class.
Nonetheless, members of the wealthy upper-upper class tend to be more powerful, as a simple
survey of U.S. presidents demonstrates (the Roosevelts or Kennedys).
Another observation: Members of the upper-lower class might make more money than members
of the lower-middle class (a well-salaried factory worker vs. a secretarial worker), but the class
difference is based on the type of work they perform.
In his research findings, Warner observed that American social class was largely based on these
shared attitudes. For example, he noted that the lower-middle class tended to be the most
conservative group of all, since very little separated them from the working class. The upper-
middle class, while a relatively small section of the population, usually "set the standard" for
proper American behaviour, as reflected in the mass media.
Professionals with salaries and educational attainment higher than those found in the middle of
the income strata (bottom rung professors, managerial office workers, architects) may also be
considered as being true middle class.
***

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 Chapter 11: Groups

Key Concepts:
#1: What are Groups?
Definition: Baron and Byrne (1988) defined: “Groups consist of two or more persons engaged in
social interaction who have some stable structure relationship with one another, are
interdependent, share common goals and perceive that they are in fact part of a group.” Thus,
when two or more individuals gather together to serve a common purpose or common motive it
is called a group.
Characteristics:
- A group consists of more than one person

- They meet together to satisfy some common motive or common purpose say to collect money
for flood affected persons, or national defense fund. The common motive may be biogenic or
sociogenic

- The group may disintegrate when the common motive is satisfied. This refers to a temporary
group like a party or groups formed to collect money for relief fund or to celebrate Ganesh
Puja.

- But a group can also have permanent motive or purpose like family, religious groups and clubs
which are formed to fulfil some permanent purposes. These are stable groups and continue
for a long period. Usually sociogenic needs have got an upper hand in group situation.

#2: Classification/Types of Groups

- Primary & Secondary: Primary groups are those that are close-knit. They are typically small
scale, include intimate relationships, and are usually long lasting. The members of primary
groups feel a strong personal identity with the group. Example: Nuclear Family. Secondary
groups have the opposite characteristics of primary groups. They can be small or large and are
mostly impersonal and usually short term. These groups are typically found at work and school.
Example: A committee organized to plan a holiday party at work. Members of the committee
meet infrequently and for only a short period of time.

- Formal & Informal: A group having its own rules, regulations, preordained norms and
guidelines is called a formal group. These guidelines and norms determine and control the
functions and activities of its group members in a rigid manner. Each and every person in the
formal group has to function as per his position and norm and as per the guideline determined

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 for him. Example: Organization, College, Legislative Committee. An informal group on the
other hand, does not have a definite norm, rules and regulations, there is more freedom in the
informal group than its counterpart and one can develop his own role as comfortable to him.
Example: A cultural group in the colony that organizes festivals, where no one has a clear role
or designation.

- Friendship Groups: Informal groups that comprise of small friendship groups, play groups,
gangs are Friendship groups. When some people develop friendship and the friends as a group
meet in a club or village panchayat room or in a members’ house and chat, gossip, and play for
some time, it is called an informal group. It is relatively transitory.

- Work Groups: This type of group also serves as a major influence on the consumption
behaviour of members as they spend a sheer amount of time at their jobs (around 48 hours
per week). Formal work group consists of those individuals who work together as a team.
Their direct and sustained work relationship offers substantial opportunity for one or more
members to influence the consumption related attitudes and activities of other team
members. Informal friendship/work groups consist of people who have become friends as a
result of working for the same firm, they may/ may not work together as a team.

- Shopping Groups: Two or more people who shop together for either food or clothing or simply
to pass the time can be called a shopping group; people like to shop with others who are
pleasant company or who they feel have more experience or knowledge about a desired
product or service. Shopping with others reduces the risk that a purchase decision will be
socially unacceptable, collective decision is the best in which none of the members knows
about the product to be purchased.

#3: Concept of Reference Groups & its importance

A reference group includes individuals or groups that influence our opinions, beliefs, attitudes and
behaviour. They often serve as our role models and inspiration.
A reference group may or may not be a membership group. It is common to orient ourselves to
more than one reference group at a time. One’s family members, teachers, neighborhood and co-
workers shape different aspects of our self- evaluation. In addition, certain reference group
attachments change during the life cycle. We shift reference groups as we take on different
statuses during our lives. A reference group may be an actual group, a collectivity or an aggregate,
a person or personifi-cation of an abstraction.
Importance of a Reference Group:
- Social Power – Reference groups have the capacity to alter actions of others as they can
influence the purchase behaviour negatively or positively towards a brand or product

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- Referent Power – A person who tries to copy the behaviour of another person whom he takes
as an idol and wants to be identified as him. The referent power lies with the person whose
personality characteristics others try to copy and/or are attracted towards him.

- Information Power – The power entrusted by the virtue of knowledge of facts or the truth. It
is the most transitory type of power. Once you give your information away, you give your
power away. For example, you share the secret, your power is gone. It’s different from other
forms of power because it’s grounded in what you know about the content of a specific
situation. Other forms of power are independent of the content.

- Legitimate Power - This power is based on the position of the person in the
society/organization. When someone gets what is legitimately due to them as a consumer, it
is termed as legitimate power.

- Expert Power – It is the power to withhold information from others. It is based on the group’s
experience, skills and knowledge on the subject. The behaviour of consumers tends to get
modified when a person who has an expertise in the area of discussion. Such experts influence
purchase decisions to a great extent.

- Reward Power – It is the power to restrict or allocate material resources and rewards to a
person. Consumers are offered rewards in the form of kind or cash whenever they yield to the
influencers of the group they are associated with.

- Coercive – It is the power based on the application or usage of fear, pain, restrictions etc. on a
person. Many a times, consumers are threatened to go in for certain brands or to avoid a
particular brand. Here the coerciveness acts as the main power and so is termed as coercive
power.

Influence of Reference Groups on CB:

• Informational Benefit: Consumers are likely to be influenced if the information is perceived as

enhancing their knowledge of the environment or their ability to cope with some aspect of it.
That is, if they believe it will help them to achieve some goal, they will respond.
• Utilitarian Benefit: Utilitarian benefit occurs when a person complies with perceived
expectations of what others want in order to achieve rewards or avoid punishments. Product
and/or brand purchases may be influenced.
• Value Expressive Benefit: Individuals can use reference groups to enhance or support their own
self-concepts. They may accept a reference group position to bolster their self-concepts
through association with the group, or to affiliate or associate with group members that
represent desirable values.

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 #4: Types of Reference Groups
• Normative: A normative reference group influences your norms, attitudes, and values
through direct interaction. Examples of your normative reference groups include your
parents, siblings, teachers, peers, associates and friends.

• Aspirational & Comparative: A comparative reference group is a group of individuals whom

you compare yourself against and may strive to be like. Examples include celebrities and
heroes.
• Membership: The individual is currently a member of this type of group. Among the
obvious groups in this classification are fraternities and sororities, social clubs, social
networking circles or groups. Other groups may be somewhat less publicly obvious, such
as one’s family, religious organization, residential neighborhood association, country club,
etc.
• Dissociative: This group is characterized by attitudes, values, or behaviour inconsistent with
those held by an individual. The individual wants to distance him or herself from this group.
Example: Trade Union for a Factory Manager
• Virtual: A group of people who socialize and interact online through digital media such as
multiplayer games, forums, chat rooms or on social networking sites, but who have not
necessarily met offline, in real life.
• Contractual: A group in which a person holds membership or has a regular face to face
contact and of values, attitudes and standards he or she approves. Thus, a contractual
group is likely to have a congruent influence on an individual's attitudes or behaviour.
Example: Planning committees / Social change organization.
• Disclaimant: Disclaimant reference groups are groups that we belong to, but do not agree
with in regards to attitudes, social, and behaviour. Example: A bunch of society members
running a Co-operative Society.

#5: Reference Group Appeals

a) Celebrity: They represent an idealization of life that most people imagine that they would
love to live. Their credibility adds to the worthiness of the product/service they are
associated with. Advertisers spend enormous amount of money to have celebrities
promote their products with the expectation that the reading or viewing audience will
react positively to the celebrity’s association with their products. A company has the choice
to use the celebrity in different ways:
• Testimonials: The celebrity has personally used the product
• Endorsement: Celebrity adds his/her name to the product which he/she may be an
expert with or not

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 • Actor or Spokesperson: The celebrity represents the product over time in a variety
of media and in personal appearances.

b) Expert: A type of reference group appeal used by marketers is the expert – a person who,
because of his/her occupation, training, or experience, can help the consumer evaluate
the product being promoted.

c) Common Man: This appeal is based on the testimonials of satisfied customers. It

demonstrates that someone just like the customer is satisfied with the product or service.

d) Executive/ Employee Spokesperson: Like celebrity, the executive spokesperson (CEO,

Founder, MD, Head of Marketing, etc.) is admired by general people because of his/her
achievements and the status implicitly conferred on business leaders at large.

e) Trade or Spokes-characters: Spokes-characters or cartoons, serve as a quasi-celebrity

endorser. This person represents the idealized image and dispenses important product
information. Such a character is largely exclusive to the specific product or product-line.

***

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 Chapter 12: Family

Key Concepts:
#1: Concept of Family & its basic functions/benefits
A social unit of two or more persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption and having a shared
commitment to the mutual relationship is called a family. Family is an important unit that affects
the consumption and disposal of products by an individual. It is important for marketers to know/
understand family structure, family compositions, buying patterns of the consumers they are
targeting. Buying roles and motives of family members, life cycle stages, etc. in order to
understand family influence on consumer behaviour and position a product efficiency in the
market.
There are typically two types of families:
- Nuclear Family: A small unit comprising of a married couple and their children
- Joint Family: A large unit comprising of married couple, their parents, their children and their
relatives

#2: Family Life Cycle & its impact on Consumer Behaviour

Family life-cycle is a part of consumer buying behaviour study as it concerns itself with the various
phases and generations of people present within an individual family and how to target them with
your marketing efforts. This study can be applied for different kind of industries with successful
results. It focuses on shopping styles, information use and decision-making differences by a person
in the different stages of his life.
As we grow older, we are moving steadily from one stage to another, moving from an initial buying
behaviour focusing only on ourselves to a more mature and responsible one, by taking into
consideration not only our needs but also the needs of our families. By understanding in which
stage a person is in the family life cycle, marketers can anticipate their needs, and determine the
products and services they can provide him.
1) Bachelor stage in the family life cycle: During the bachelor stage people are usually characterized
by being interested mainly in appearances. Therefore, people at this stage tend to invest more in
fashionable clothing and vehicles. Impulsive buying as well as premium buying is a common
characteristic of the Bachelor stage.
2) The newly married couples: In the family life cycle, the new married couples are considered to
be in a better financial position in the initial stage due to the absence of children. It might be
possible that both, the husband and wife, are earning members. Thus, the buying decisions focus
on quality and not quantity. A family person will always think about savings and insurances, and at

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the same time, they will invest in long term products like good furniture, new home, etc. Once
married, they are less prone to impulsive decisions.
3) Full Nest I: With the arrival of the first child, parents begin to change their roles in the family,
and decide if one parent will stay to care for the child or if they will both work and buy daycare
services. Either route usually leads to a decline in family disposable income and a change in how
the family spends its income. In this stage, families are likely to move into their first home;
purchase furniture and furnishings for the child; purchase new items such as baby food, cough
medicine, vitamins, toys, etc. These requirements reduce families’ ability to save, and the husband
and wife are often dissatisfied with their financial position.
4) Full Nest II: In this stage, the youngest child has reached school age, the employed spouse’s
income has improved, and the other spouse often returns to part-or full-time work outside the
home. Consequently, the family’s financial position usually improves, but the family finds itself
consuming more and in larger quantities. Consumption patterns continue to be heavily influenced
by the children, since the family tends to buy large-sized packages of food and cleaning suppliers,
bicycles, music lessons, clothing, sports equipment, and a computer. Discount department stores
(such as Cost co and Sam’s Club) are popular with consumers in this stage.
5) Full Nest III: As the family grows older and parents enter their min-40s, their financial position
usually continues to improve because the primary wage earner’s income rises, the second wage
earner is receiving a higher salary, and the children earn spending an education money from
occasional and part-time employment. The family typically replaces some worn pieces of furniture,
purchases another automobile, buys some luxury appliances, and spends money on dental
services (braces) and education. Families also spend more on computers in this stage, buying
additional PCs for their older children. Depending on where children go to college and how many
are seeking higher education, the financial position of the family may be tighter than other
instances
6) Empty nest: Older married with no children living with them. Financial position stabilizes and
there is no expense on children. The couple is free to enjoy their own pursuits and spend on luxury
or self-improvement items and medical care.
7) Solitary survivor: Older single retired people. Retired people living alone after the death of a
partner. Life becomes lonely and income may reduce due to retirement. This again changes the
consumption pattern and living style of old people.

#4: Basic Functions provided by the family

Economic well-being: Although families in the affluent nations of North America, Europe and Asia
are no longer formed primarily for economic security, providing financial means to its dependents
unquestionably a basic family function. How the family divides its responsibilities for providing
economic well-being has changed considerably during past 30 years. No longer are traditional
husband as economic provider and wife as home maker still valid. For instance, it is very common

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for married women with children in the United States and other industrial countries to be
employed outside the home for their husbands to share household responsibilities.
Emotional support: The provision of emotional nourishment (including love, affection, and
intimacy) to its members is an important core function of the contemporary family. In fulfilling this
function, the family provides support and encouragement and assists its members in coping with
decision making and with personal or social problems.
Suitable family lifestyle: Another important family function in terms of consumer behaviour is the
establishment of a suitable lifestyle for the family. Upbringing, experience, and the personal and
jointly held goals of the spouses determine the importance placed on education or career, on
reading, on television viewing, on the learning of computer skills, on the frequency quality of dining
out, and on the selection of other entertainment and recreational activities. Family lifestyle
commitments, including the allocation of time, are generally influencing consumption patterns.

#5: Factors Influencing Family Purchase Decision

• Role Structure: In a family decision-making model, it is important to understand how the family
members interact with each other in the context of their consumer decision-making. There
are different consumption roles played by various members of the family. These roles are as
follows:
o Initiator: This member makes the family realize the need for a product or service.
He/she initiates the purchase process by demonstrating the necessary reasons for
purchase.
o Influencer/Information Gatherer: The members who influence the purchase of the
product by providing information to the family members, the son in a family may
inform the members of a new fast food joint. He can influence the family members to
visit the joint for food and entertainment.
o Decider: These are the people who have the power or, money and authority to buy.
They play a major role in deciding which product to buy.
o Purchaser: Buyers are the people who actually buy. A mother buying ration for the
house etc. Father buying crayons for his children.
o Gatekeeper: These members control the flow of information for a product or brand
that they favour and influence the family to buy the product of their choice. They
provide the information favourable to themselves and, withhold information about
other product which they do not favour.
o User: The person who actually uses or consumes the product. The product can be
consumed individually or jointly by all members of the family. Use of car by the family,
use of refrigerator, TV, etc.
o Maintainers: The member who is responsible for maintenance or proactively maintains
the product for continued use and durability.
o Disposer: The members who discards the product upon its usage/expiry.

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• Power Structure: Family consumption behaviour and the process of joint decision-making by
husbands and wives has been of keen interest to marketing and advertising strategists as well
as to sociologists and social psychologists. The last decade has witnessed a substantial change
in the family role structure and family decision-making which is, in turn, reflected in the
marketplace. Whether a family is matriarchal (where the mother plays a dominant role) or
patriarchal (where father plays a dominant role) or an equalitarian (wherein both parents play
an equal role), marketers must remain well-informed of the impact of these family role
changes and their consumer purchasing patterns in order to modify marketing and advertising
strategies accordingly.

In the last few years, representation of women in the workforce has significantly increased.
This has led to an increase in women’s contribution to the family income, thus allowing families
to afford a better standard of living. The rise in income, has further led to consumerism. Today,
with both parents working, families have the money power to spend on better quality
products, services, experiences (holidays/extra-curricular) and better education for their
children. In addition to changes in purchase behaviour, there are changes in the roles played
by men & women in a house.

Changing Female Roles:

• Contributing to the family income
• Higher fashion consciousness leading to increase in shopping branded lifestyle
products (apparel, bags, shoes, watches)
• Traveling for work within the country & outside providing access to better world
view
• Purchases timed around weekends instead of weekdays

Changing Male Roles:

• Involvement in grocery shopping
• Seeking employers that provide work hour flexibility, in order to help wives with
household chores/ baby sitting
• More men are involved in cooking/helping in the kitchen - this impacts their
involvement in brand preference for kitchen purchases as well as content viewing
preferences (food bloggers/cooking shows, etc.)

In addition to the parents, children too play a significant role in family decision making process.
Now a days, quite a few families have children as the dominant decision makers wherein purchase
decisions regarding food items, games, family entertainment preferences, décor, etc. are made by
children in the house.

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• Stage in Decision Making Process:
o Just like the consumer decision making process, a family too goes through various
stages and each member plays a role in this process. As a marketer, it is important to
learn that each stage of this process is influenced by need or want, role structure,
power structure or by context/ relevance
o This understanding of the stages of decision making helps marketers in formulating
product, pricing & promotion channels

This is a typical model of a family decision making process with various stages and roles played by members

• Family Specific Characteristics: Though marketers can categorize traits of parents/children/

grandparents or try learning the different stages of purchase and motivations, the fact is that
each family is unique. It is a composition of personalities, cultures, sub-cultures, dynamic roles
played by individuals and the social class they belong to. Thus, a middle-class Gujarati family
will have a completely different family behaviour from that of a middle-class Bengali family as
the cultural nuances and ethnocentricity have a lot of influence in the choices each make (right
from food habits to décor to apparels and lifestyle in general).

***

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 Chapter 13: Consumer Decision Making & Opinion Leaders

Key Concepts:

#1: Consumer Decision Making Process

Whether they’re purchasing a breakfast cereal or a sports car, all consumers go through basic
steps, known as the consumer decision-making process, to determine what products and services
will best fit their needs. If you work in sales or marketing, review these steps and put yourself in
the customer’s shoes to make more of an impact.

The consumer decision-making process involves five basic steps:

Need Recognition: The first step of the consumer decision-making process is recognizing the need
for a service or product. Recognition is driven by both internal and external stimuli. An internal
stimulus occurs within you—it could include basic impulses like hunger or a change in lifestyle. An
external stimulus originates from an outside source, like a billboard or review from a friend. Need
recognition, whether it occurs through internal or external means, prompts the same response: a
want. Once a consumer recognizes a want, they need to gather information to understand how
they can fulfill that want. Example: This consumer travelling to snow-clad Himalayan mountains.
This particular customer has several light jackets, but she’ll need a heavy-duty winter coat if she’s
going to survive the snow and lower temperatures.

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Search for Information: Once the consumer has recognized the need/want now comes the task of
gathering information. Consumers again rely on internal and external factors, as well as past
interactions with a product or brand, both positive and negative, to make their decision. In the
information stage, the consumer may browse through options at a physical location or consult
online resources, such as Google or customer reviews. Example: The customer might look up for
“women’s winter coats” on shopping websites/apps to see what options are out there or ask
friends and family members for recommendations of brands/shops to buy it from.

Evaluation of Alternatives: At this point in the consumer decision-making process, the prospective
buyer has developed criteria for what they want in a product. Now they weigh their prospective
choices against comparable alternatives. Alternatives may present themselves in the form of lower
prices, additional product benefits, product availability, or something as personal as color or style
options. Your marketing material should be geared towards convincing consumers that your
product is superior to other alternatives. Example: The customer compares a few brands that she
likes. She knows that she wants a bright colored coat that will complement the rest of her
wardrobe, and though she would rather spend less money, she also wants to find a coat made
from sustainable materials.

Purchase Decision: This is the moment the consumer has been waiting for: the actual purchase.
Once they have gathered all the facts, including feedback from previous customers, the consumer
should arrive at a logical conclusion on the product or service to purchase.

Throughout this process, external and internal factors impact the end decision. Even ever-
changing factors like emotions or the weather can affect when and how a purchase is made. If
you’ve done your job correctly, the consumer will recognize that your product is the best option
and decide to purchase. Example: The customer finds a red winter coat that’s on Myntra for 20%
off. After confirming that the brand uses sustainable materials and asking friends for their
feedback, she orders the coat online.

Post-Purchase Behaviour: This part of the consumer decision-making process involves reflection
from both the consumer and the seller.

As a seller, you should try to gauge the following:

• Did the purchase meet the need the consumer identified?
• Is the buyer happy with their purchase?

Remember, it’s your job, as a marketer, to ensure that your customer continues to have a positive
experience with your product. Post-purchase engagement could include follow-up emails,
discount coupons, and newsletters to entice the customer to make an additional purchase. If you
want to gain life-long customers, and in an age where anyone can leave an online review, it’s more
important than ever to keep customers happy.

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#2: Types of Consumer Decisions
To successfully reach their target market, and improve interactions with customers, marketers
need to understand just how much effort and time consumers put into decision-making. Decision-
making is both an art, and a science, which has been studied by experts across generations. Most
of the time, the secret of marketing lies in learning exactly what the customer wants, and how
their decisions can be influenced to purchase one product over its competition.

Understanding the way your consumers make decisions, is what informed marketing is all about.
Here are three types of consumer decisions to consider while aligning marketing strategies:

Nominal: Nominal decisions are often made about low-cost products. They include frequent
purchases, purchases from a familiar brand or product, buying that requires low involvement, or
little search efforts.

Example: If you’ve been using the same laundry detergent for twelve years, you’re unlikely to
spend much time researching different brands unless you notice a problem with your existing
purchase. In other words, you’ll keep picking up the same bottle without thinking about it. Nominal
decision-making doesn’t always start off as nominal. Initially, you may have spent weeks searching
for a laundry detergent that was within your budget, smelled great, and kept your clothes soft.
However, your purchase becomes nominal over time because of your loyalty to the brand you
ended up choosing.

Limited: Limited decision-making is a little more involved than nominal decision-making, but it’s
still not a process that requires in-depth research. Limited decisions are made about mid-cost
products, semi-frequent purchases, or purchases from a somewhat familiar brand. They require a
little involvement, and perhaps some searching. When customers make limited decisions, they
take a small amount of time to ponder over their purchase, but they might not go online to look
for testimonials and reviews. Instead, they could consider their memory of their product, and
make decisions based on logical inferences.

Example: For instance, you might go to a store with every intention to pick up a particular brand
of juice, but when you arrive you notice that another juice is on offer. Your memory tells you that
you enjoyed this juice before, but found it too expensive for your regular shopping habits, so you
decide to make a change for a limited time, and purchase the alternative juice instead. While the
argument could be made that limited decisions come from a lack of brand loyalty, the truth is that
they can be attributed to anything from the novelty of a new product, to a feeling of boredom
with an existing shopping habit. Hence, product attributes like quality, availability, price and
packaging play a key role in such a decision-making process.

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Extended: Finally, extended decisions are made about higher-cost products, and infrequent
purchases. They require a lot of involvement, often center around unfamiliar brands or products,
and need extended thought and search efforts to ensure buyer confidence.

Example: We don’t buy a huge flat-screen television every day, so when the time comes to make
this kind of investment, we want to know for sure that we’re making the right choice in everything
from brand to picture quality.

Major purchases come with more risk for the customer, and that means that there’s more cause
to consider things from a deeper perspective. Rather than grabbing the first television you see, or
buying one just because it’s on sale, you’d generally ask for advice from friends and family, find
out as much as you can about different specifications, and spend a substantial amount of time
looking up product reviews and testimonials.

#3: Who are Opinion Leaders?

An opinion leader is a well-known individual with an ability to influence public opinion on the
subject matter for which the opinion leader is known. An opinion leader can be a common man
with good influence among peer groups, a politician, business leader, community leader,
journalist, educator, celebrity, or sports star. They are self-motivated individuals who like to give
information or advice to others. In doing so, it also enhances their own status and self-image and
because such advice tends to reduce any post purchase dissonance that they may have. Other
motives to share opinion include product involvement, message involvement or any other
involvement.
Opinion leaders are considered as a highly credible, objective source of product information who
can help reduce two aspects: search & analysis time and perceived risk.
Generally, opinion leaders are sociable, self-confident, innovative people who like to talk.
Additionally, they may feel differentiated from others and choose to act differently (or public
individuation). They acquire information about their areas of interest through avid readership of
special interest magazines and ezines and by means of new product trials.
For marketers, finding and enlisting opinion leaders to help sell a company's product or idea can
be critical to reaching an untapped audience.

#4: Characteristics & Impact of Opinion Leaders

• Opinion leaders largely have the same social-class position as non-leaders, although they may
have higher social status within the class.
• Opinion leaders have greater exposure to mass media that are relevant to their area of interest.
For example, opinion leaders for women's fashions could be expected to have higher exposure

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 to such magazines as Vogue and Femina. Similarly, automobile opinion leaders might be
expected to read Motor Trend or Hot Rod. Exposure to relevant mass media provides them
with information useful in enhancing their leadership potential.
• Opinion leaders have greater interest and knowledge of the area of influence than do non-
leaders. This finding is closely related to their greater media exposure. Of course, knowledge is
not a prerequisite for opinion leader influence. Undoubtedly, much influence takes place by
those who are ignorant of the topic of conversation.
• Opinion leaders are more sociable than non-leaders are. This is logical, given that they must
interact with those whom they influence.
• Opinion leaders have more innovativeness than do non-leaders. This does not mean, however,
that they are innovators (the first people to purchase a new item). In fact, innovators and
opinion leaders have been found in several studies to have differing characteristics and
lifestyles. In the fashion market, for instance, the innovator is seen as an adventurer who is the
earliest visual communicator of the newest styles while the opinion leader is seen as an "editor"
of fashions, who defines and endorses appropriate standards.
• Opinion leaders are also more familiar with and loyal to group standards and values than are
non-leaders. This refers to the fact that opinion leaders are vested with leadership authority by
group members, and in order to maintain this position, the individual has to reflect underlying
norms and values for that area of consumption leadership. The clothing influential, for instance,
cannot be too far ahead of or behind fashion, but must reflect the current norms in clothing.

#5: Measuring Impact of Opinion Leaders

Market researchers identify opinion leaders by methods like self-designation, key informants, the
sociometric method and the objective method.
• Self-Designated Method: A marketing survey is conducted and people are asked a series of
questions to determine the degree to which they behave as Opinion Leaders. Questions
pertain to: a) the extent to which they have given information and advice about a
product/service category and/or brands to others in the social system b) how often they have
been able to influence the purchase decisions about others. c) how often they have been
approached by others for information and advice about that particular product/service
category.

• Sociometric Method: The sociometric method of measuring Opinion Leadership basis itself on
the study of the social system, and particularly the communication patterns and flows to
identify those to give information and advice as act as Opinion Leaders. Researchers examine
complete patterns of informal information flows among consumers of a particular
product/service category, and identify those who provide information to others as Opinion
Leaders. While the technique makes use of the analysis of the communication flow, it also uses
questionnaires that are administered to people in a social system. People in a social system

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 are asked to identify: a) those people to whom they have given information and advice about
a product/service category. In case the respondent identifies one or many people to whom he
has provided information and advice, he is regarded as an Opinion Leader.

• Key Informant Method: Based on careful observation and analysis of social communication,
key informants in a social system are identified. These key informants are those who are aware
about the communication patterns in a social environment and able to provide a fair and
impartial assessment of these patterns. These key informants are asked to identify and/or
designate individuals in the social group who are Opinion Leaders or who are most likely to be
Opinion Leaders. As a technique, it is relatively less expensive and time consuming. However,
key informants are not carefully chosen, they may provide wrong information.

• Objective Method: It identifies and measures Opinion Leadership by placing people in

controlled environments (just as controlled experiments). People are chosen, given
information about new products and service categories, and the asked to act out as Opinion
Leaders. The resulting patterns of informal interpersonal communication regarding the
relevant product or service category are then analyzed. The technique thus measures the
results of their efforts and assesses how successful their impact is on consumption behaviour.

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 Chapter 14: Diffusion & Adoption

In the broadest sense, diffusion is a macro process concerned with the spread of a new product
(an innovation) from its source to the consumer, whereas adoption is a micro process that focuses
on the stages through which an individual consumer passes when deciding to accept or reject the
new product.

Key Concepts:
#1: Diffusion Process
The concept of Diffusion begins with an innovation. The diffusion of innovation refers to the
tendency of new products, practices, or ideas to spread among people. Usually, when new
products or ideas come about, they are only adopted by a small group of people initially; later,
many innovations spread to other people.
Innovations come in different degrees.
- Continuous Innovation includes slight improvements over time. Very little usually changes
from year to year in automobiles, and even automobiles of the 1990s are driven much the
same way that automobiles of the 1950 were driven.

- Dynamically Continuous Innovation involves some change in technology, although the

product is used much the same way that its predecessors were used—e.g., jet vs. propeller
aircraft.

- Discontinuous Innovation involves a product that fundamentally changes the way that
things are done—e.g., cameras on mobile phones or advent of 3-D printers. In general,
discontinuous innovations are more difficult to market since greater changes are required
in the way things are done, but the rewards are also often significant.

Several specific product categories have case histories that illustrate important issues in adoption.
Example: ATM cards spread relatively quickly. Since the cards were used in public, others who did
not yet hold the cards could see how convenient they were. Although some people were
concerned about security, the convenience factors seemed to be a decisive factor in the “tug-of-
war” for and against adoption.
There are several factors influence the speed with which an innovation spreads. One issue is
relative advantage (i.e., the ratio of risk or cost to benefits). Some products, such as cellular
phones, fax machines, and ATM cards, have a strong relative advantage. Other products, such as
automobile satellite navigation systems, entail some advantages, but the cost ratio is high. Lower
priced products often spread more quickly, and the extent to which the product is trailable.

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 Adoption of Innovation over time

Innovators (2.5%): Innovators are the first individuals to adopt an innovation. Innovators are willing
to take risks, youngest in age, have the highest social class, have great financial lucidity, very social
and have closest contact to scientific sources and interaction with other innovators. Risk tolerance
has them adopting technologies which may ultimately fail.
Early Adopters (13.5%): This is the second fastest category of individuals who adopt an innovation.
These individuals have the highest degree of opinion leadership among the other adopter
categories. Early adopters are typically younger in age, have a higher social status, have more
financial lucidity, advanced education, and are more socially forward than late adopters. More
discrete in adoption choices than innovators.
Early Majority (34%): Individuals in this category adopt an innovation after a varying degree of
time. This time of adoption is significantly longer than the innovators and early adopters. Early
Majority tend to be slower in the adoption process, have above average social status, contact with
early adopters, and seldom hold positions of opinion leadership in a system (Rogers 1962 5th ed,
p. 283)
Late Majority (34%): Individuals in this category will adopt an innovation after the average member
of the society. These individuals approach an innovation with a high degree of skepticism and after
the majority of society has adopted the innovation. Late Majority are typically skeptical about an
innovation, have below average social status, very little financial lucidity, in contact with others in
late majority and early majority, very little opinion leadership.
Laggards (16%): Individuals in this category are the last to adopt an innovation. Unlike some of the
previous categories, individuals in this category show little to no opinion leadership. These
individuals typically have an aversion to change-agents and tend to be advanced in age. Laggards
typically tend to be focused on “traditions”, likely to have lowest social status, lowest financial
fluidity, be oldest of all other adopters, in contact with only family and close friends, very little to
no opinion leadership.

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#2: Characteristics That Influence Diffusion
- Relative Advantage: Relative advantage measures how improved an innovation is over a
competing option or the previous generation of a product. Potential users need to see how
an innovation improves their current situation. Improvements can be in one or many of
these areas: better service, consolidation of multiple functions into one tool, decreased
need for supplies and equipment, empowerment of users, improved interface, increased
customizability, etc.

- Compatibility: Compatibility refers to the level of compatibility that an innovation has with
individuals as they assimilate it into their lives. Potential adopters need to know that your
innovation will be compatible with their life and lifestyle. If an innovation requires a huge
lifestyle change or if the user must acquire additional products to make your innovation
work, then it is more likely to fail. Innovations meet with the greatest success when users
are able to seamlessly adopt them — when they replace an existing product or idea, for
the better. Example:

- Complexity v/s Simplicity: Complexity or simplicity refers to how difficult it is for adopters
to learn to use an innovation. Complexity slows down the gears of progress. The more
complex an innovation, the more difficult it will be for potential adopters to incorporate it
into their lives. Potential adopters do not usually budget much time for learning to use an
innovation. The more intuitive an innovation, the more likely it will be adopted.

- Tribality: Trialability describes how easily potential adopters can explore your innovation.
Trialability is critical to facilitating the adoption of an innovation. Potential users want to
see what your innovation can do and give it a test run before committing. This is the
underlying concept of trial sizes for tangible goods, and demo or beta releases for digital
goods. Potential adopters can see for themselves what life might be like once they adopt
the product.

- Observability: Observability is the extent to which the results or benefit of using an

innovation are visible to potential adopters. The adopter types who come after early
adopters rely on seeing members of this group using an innovation. Observability extends
beyond having earlier adopters use an innovation in view of later adopters. Potential
adopters of all types must clearly see the benefit of adopting an innovation and using it.

#3: The Adoption Process

The accepted and continued use of a product or brand by an individual is referred to as adoption.
The process of a consumer of moving from a cognitive state toward the emotional state and finally
reaching towards the behavioral or conative state is another way to explain Consumer Adoption
Process. Here the cognitive state can be defined as being informed and aware of the product

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existence, emotional state can be defined as the likes/dislikes and preferences of the customer
and behavioral state can be defined as taking the decision of purchase.
Consumer Adoption Process is a constant marketing tool, which has different stages to get itself
completed. Following are some key stages involved in this process:
- Product Awareness: Introducing a product in the market and creating awareness for that
product is the first stage. In this era of internet marketing, online shopping and social media
advertising the marketers have many advertising tools are available to create awareness
about the product in the customers.

- Product Interest: During this phase of adoption process the consumer becomes more
aware and informed about the product itself, the value the product deliver, its unique
feature and the manufacturer of the product. Creating and maintaining the interest of the
customer is very necessary for the companies. This is why the marketers use those
promotional channels which are easily accessible to the targeted market.

- Evaluation: The process of consumer examination, comparison and evaluation of the

product before making a purchase decision comprises of Stage 3 in the Adoption Process.
The Consumer behavior varies in intensity according to the need, the price of the product,
features of the product and the value that the product delivers.

- Trial: Trying out the actual product gives the consumer the idea of the product and its
benefits. The trail is the most important stage as the entire product acceptance and
rejection depends upon the trail phase. The company can provide free sample and trail
products as part of the marketing campaign. Free sampling is very important as this will
the consumer expectations about the product.

- Adoption/Rejection: It is at this stage that the consumer decides whether to go ahead with
the purchase or not. Herein is the test of the various marketing and sampling efforts that
allow marketers to understand whether an attitude/perception or mindset shift has taken
place or not. This last stage completes the Adoption process.

#4: Potential Causes of Incomplete Adoption

Several factors impact the process of adoption. These factors could be triggered either by the
marketer due to lack of adequate marketing aid at all levels of the process or by the consumer,
due to inability to navigate from one stage of adoption to the other. Here are some key causes on
either side:
Cause of Incomplete adoption due to Marketing
- Poor attempt at communication of the product (either choice of wrong medium or
message strategy)
- Complexity of message (leading to great difficulty in decoding/comprehension)
- Lack of persuasion in the marketing tactics (making it difficult for consumer to shift
attitudes/behaviour)

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 - At the trial stage, poor distribution of product samples or lack of ‘call to action’ (that helps
consumers see the end result of the trial)
- Inability to create intrigue due to lack of cutting-edge innovation

Cause of Incomplete adoption due to Consumer

- Selective exposure or attention towards the new product offering due to lack of perception
or intent
- Selective retention of information on new product due to lack of interest in the product/
product category
- Complacency suspended judgement due to lack of detailed understanding about the new
product
- Peer pressure against usage of newer products
- Lack of innovation in the product, leading to disinterest or decline in motivation for
adoption
- Availability of another better innovation in place of the one under trials

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Sources

Reference Book:

- Consumer Behavior by Leon G. Schiffman, Leslie Lazar Kanuk and S. Ramesh Kumar in collaboration
with Joseph Wisenblit (Tenth Edition)

- Vipul’s Consumer Behaviour Text Book by Anita Mandrekar & Sanchayita Banerjee

Reference Links:

- https://www.consumerpsychologist.com/cb_Introduction.html

- https://www.albert.io/blog/absolute-vs-difference-threshold-ap-psychology-crash-course-review/

- https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/importance-of-consumer-behaviour-to-business-
managers-marketing-essay.php

- https://daybuydayblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/21/components-of-consumer-information-
processing/

- https://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-perception-consumer-behavior-67136.html

- https://www.consumerpsychologist.com/cb_Attitudes.html

- https://explorable.com/sensation-and-perception

- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/halo-effect/

- https://businessjargons.com/psychological-factors-influencing-consumer-behavior.html

- https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-psychology/chapter/introduction-to-perception/

- https://www.prmoment.com/category/blog/how-politics-influences-consumers

- http://consumerbehaviour4vtu.blogspot.com/2009/04/learning.html

- https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-marketing/chapter/social-influences-on-the-
consumer-decision-process/

- https://www.consumerpsychologist.com/cb_Diffusion_of_Innovation.html

- https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/01/five-characteristics-of-innovations/

- https://mbaonline.pepperdine.edu/blog/fishbein-model-provides-insights-marketing-professionals/

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