Chapter 10: Buying, Using, and Disposing

10-1 Many factors at the time of purchase dramatically influence the consumer’s
decision-making process. (An)
A consumer’s choice is affected by many personal factors. As Figure 10.1 illustrates, many
contextual factors affect our choice, such as our mood, whether we feel time pressure to make
the purchase, and the particular reason we need the product.
The consumption situation
A consumption situation includes a buyer, a seller, and a product or service—but also many
other factors, such as the reason we want to make a purchase and how the physical
environment makes us feel. For example, in some situations, such as when we buy a car or a
home, the salesperson plays a pivotal role in our final selection.
In addition to the functional relationships between products and usage situation, another
reason to take environmental circumstances seriously is that a person’s situational self-image
—the role he or she plays at any one time—helps to determine what he or she wants to buy or
consume. A guy who tries to impress his date as he plays the role of “man-about-town” may
spend more lavishly, order champagne instead of beer, and buy flowers: purchases he would
never consider when he hangs out with his friends, plays the role of “one of the boys.”
A consumer’s physical and social environment affects his or her motives to use a product, as
well as how he or she will evaluate the item. Dimensions of the physical environment, such
as decor, odors, and even temperature, can significantly influence consumption. One study
even found that if a Las Vegas casino pumped certain odors into the room, patrons fed more
money into the slot machines!
Temporal Factors
Time is one of consumers’ most precious resources. We may change what we want to buy
based on temporal influences like what time it is or how much time is left before we need the
product. Economic time points out that time is an economic variable – think “time is money.”
People’s priorities determine their timestyle. Your timestyle determines how you spend your
time resource. Some people feel that they are time poverty. That means that they simply feel
that they do not have sufficient time. It may be just a perception because people actually have
more time free from work than ever before.
In addition to physical cues, other people who are in the situation affect purchase decisions.
which refers to co-consumers.The type of consumers who patronize a store or service or who
use a product affects our evaluations. Another temporal factor is psychological time because
we’re more likely to be in a consuming mood at certain times than we are at others.
The psychological dimension of time—how we actually experience it—is an important factor
in queuing theory, the mathematical study of waiting lines. When we have to wait on
something, initially we must feel that it is of higher quality. In other words, that it is worth
the wait. But after some time, we develop a negative feeling toward having to wait. Because
of the negative impact of waiting experiences, marketers try to minimize the perception of
waiting.
Five Perspectives on Time
Those same researchers found that women viewed time in different ways and they developed
five metaphors to capture how women viewed time. Women who view time as a pressure
cooker are analytical and monochronic. They usually feel like they are under pressure and
they shop in a methodical manner. Women who view time as a map are also analytical but
they focus on the future and tend to multitask. They tend to engage in extensive information
search and comparison shopping. Women who view time as a mirror are analytical and
polychronic but they have a past temporal orientation (as opposed to the time as a map
women). These women are risk averse and they stick to brands they trust. Women who view
time as a river tend to be very spontaneous with a focus on the present. They go shopping on
the spur of the moment. Women who view time as a feast are analytical planners with a
present focus. They view time as something that allows them to enjoy life. For this reason,
they tend to seek out opportunities for hedonic consumption.
10-2 The information a store’s layout, website, or salespeople provides strongly
influences a purchase decision. (Ngọc + Bảo + Nga Mai )
THE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE (B)
Today most of us never have to visit a “bricks-and-mortar” store to purchase almost anything
we want, nearly all of the things we need can be found online. As a result, the competition
among retailers that want to lure you to their store or website to actually make the transaction
has become more fierce. This is one reason that a management perspective called design
thinking is so hot right now. It emphasizes the importance of creating products, services, and
stores that have to make sense in terms of how customers actually live their lives and use
these things.
*
The concept was influenced by the Japanese approach to total quality management which
they called gemba, meaning “the one true source of information.” According to this
philosophy, it’s essential to send marketers and designers to the precise place where
consumers use the product or service rather than to ask laboratory subjects to use it in a
simulated environment. Figure 10.2 illustrates this idea in practice.
*
1. Mood (B)
Two basic dimensions, pleasure and arousal, determine whether we will react
positively or negatively to a consumption environment. As Figure 10.3 indicates,
different combinations of pleasure and arousal levels result in a variety of emotional
states. The state of happiness is high in pleasantness and moderate in arousal, whereas
elation is high on both dimensions.
A mood state biases our judgments of products and services in that direction. Put
simply, we give more positive evaluations when we’re in a good mood which can be
affected by many factors, including store design, the weather or your attitude.
*
2. When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Go Shopping (B)
Shopping is how we acquire needed products and services, but social motives for
shopping also are important. Thus, shopping is an activity that we can perform for
either utilitarian or hedonic reasons.
 We segment consumers in terms of their shopping orientation, or general attitudes
about shopping. These orientations vary depending on the particular product
categories and store types we consider.
*
Some scale items that researchers use to assess our shopping motivations illustrate the
diverse reasons we may shop, they are:
- Social experiences: Many people nowadays use shopping as a way to spend
their leisure time. Shopping centers in modern time often serve as a
community gathering place for the citizens.
- Sharing of common interests: Stores frequently offer specialized goods that
allow people with shared interests to communicate
- Status: some people savor the experience of being served, as if they are
important and special. They say that what makes shopping a pleasurable
experience.
- The thrill of the hunt: Some people pride themselves on their knowledge of the
marketplace. They may love to haggle and bargain, and even view this process
as a sport.
- Group pressure: We shop differently when we’re part of a group. For example,
people who shop with at least one other person tend to make more unplanned
purchases than do those who browse solo.

3. E-Commerce: Clicks versus Bricks (Nga Mai)

- From Bricks to Clicks
+ Showrooming: the process whereby consumers shop their stores to
obtain product information and then purchase the chosen product
online at a lower price
+ Social shopping is an emerging form of e-commerce that allows an
online shopper to simulate the experience of shopping with others in a
bricks-and-mortar store. As the technology continues to mature, social
shopping may offer an even more compelling purchase experience
than the in-store interactions it replaces.
+ Table 10.2 summarizes some of the current approaches to social
shopping
- From Clicks Back to Bricks
+ The obituary for bricks-and-mortar shopping appears to have been
premature. Ironically, we’re seeing a big trend now where pure play
Near field communications (NFC): technology that allows devices
near to one another (like a smartphone and an NFC terminal in a store)
to establish radio communication businesses (i.e., those that only
operate online) are investing in the types of physical stores they
threatened to make obsolete
ex
4. Digital Currency
 - Near field communications (NFC): technology that allows devices near to
one another (like a smartphone and an NFC terminal in a store) to establish
radio communication.
- P2P (peer to peer) payment systems (such as Google Pay Send, PayPal, and
Venmo) empower ordinary citizens to transact business with one another—
this is a corner of the sharing economy that allows consumers to give and
receive payments for products and services
- Digital wallets: electronic devices that allow an individual to make e-
commerce transactions
- Bitcoin system:
+ an online currency system uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with
no central authority or banks.
+ It’s the most prominent form of cryptocurrency that relies upon a
revolutionary encryption technique called the blockchain rather than
banks to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the
transfer of funds. This refers to the idea that cryptocurrencies like
Bitcoin aren’t saved in a file that can be hacked.
+ The data are transparent to the public but also that there is no single
institution responsible for keeping financial records.
+ Because the information is distributed across the internet, a single
company, bank, or even government has no control over what goes on.
- For marketers, the growth of online commerce is a sword that cuts both ways
- Benefits: reach customers around the world, provide extra value to their customers
- Limitations: lack of data security and privacy, more competitive environment (they
now compete not only with the store across the street but also with thousands of
websites worldwide) and eliminates the intermediary
- More generally, online shoppers value these aspects of a website:
+ The ability to click on an item to create a pop-up window with more details
about the product, including price, size, colors, and inventory availability.
+ The ability to click on an item and add it to your cart without leaving the page
you’re on.
+ The ability to “feel” merchandise through better imagery, more product
descriptions, and details.
+ The ability to enter all data related to your purchase on one page, rather than
going through several checkout pages.
+ The ability to mix and match product images on one page to determine
whether they look good together
5. Retailing As Theater
- Retail theming: strategies where stores create imaginative environments that
transport shoppers to fantasy worlds or provide other kinds of stimulation.
- Innovative merchants today use four basic kinds of theming techniques:
+ Landscape themes rely on associations with images of nature, Earth, animals,
and the physical body.
Ex: Cabela’s general store and cafe
 + Marketscape themes build on associations with manufactured places.
Ex: The Paris hotel in Las Vegas would be an example of this, which
represents parts of real Paris, France with the Eiffel Tower
+ Cyberspace themes build on images of information and communications
technology.
ex: eBay’s retail interface instills a sense of community among its vendors and
traders.
+ Mindscape themes draw on abstract ideas and concepts, introspection and
fantasy, and often possess spiritual overtones.
Ex: An example of a mindscape theme would be the Carneros Inn in Napa
Valley, which offers Wine-themed health treatments.
6. Store Image (Ngọc)
- As we have learnt in Chapter, stores have “personalities.”
- What factors shape this personality, or store image?
Some of the important dimensions of a store’s image are location, merchandise,
suitability, and the knowledge and congeniality of the sales staff.
❖ Atmospherics
- The retailers want you to come in and stay as long as possible because they found that
when people lingered just 1 percent longer, sales rose by 1.3 percent.And they have
lots of tricks to do so.
- For example, they call the area just inside a supermarket’s entrance the
“decompression zone”. People tend to slow down and take stock of their
surroundings when they enter the store, so store designers use this space to promote
bargains rather than to sell

- The design of the store is also important, its various dimensions to evoke certain
effects in buyers.”These dimensions include colors, scents, and sounds. For example,
stores with red interiors tend to make people tense, whereas a blue decor imparts a
calmer feeling.
- Some retailers create activity stores that let consumers participate in the production of
the products or services they buy there. One familiar example is the Build-A-Bear
Workshop chain, where customers dress bear bodies in costumes.

- Music also can affect eating habits. Another study found that diners who listened to
loud, fast music ate more food. In contrast, those who listened to Mozart or Brahms
ate less and more slowly.
7. In-Store Decision Making
- Despite all their efforts to “pre-sell” consumers through advertising, marketers
increasingly recognize that the store environment exerts a strong influence on many
purchases. Women tell researchers, for example, that store displays are one of the
major information sources they use to decide what clothing to buy.
- Here are some “tricks of the trade”:
1. Sell sweets at eye level, midway along aisles, where shoppers’ attention
lingers longest.
2. Use the ends of aisles to generate big revenues—endcap displays account for
45 percent of soft drink sales.

3. Use freestanding displays toward the rear of the supermarket and on the left
side of aisles. Shoppers tend to move through a store in a counterclockwise
direction and they are more likely to choose items from shelves to their left.

4. Sprinkle(Put) the same product throughout the store, rather than grouping it in
one spot to boost sales through repetitive exposure.

5. Group ingredients for a meal in one spot.

 6. Post health-related information on kiosks and shelf tags to link groceries to
good health in shoppers’ minds, even though only 23 percent of them say they
always look for nutritional information on labels.
8. Spontaneous Shopping
When a shopper suddenly decides to buy something in the store, one of two different
processes explains why:
1. He or she engages in unplanned buying when he or she is unfamiliar with a store’s
layout or perhaps he or she is under some time pressure. Or, if a person sees an item
on a store shelf, this might be a reminder that he or she needs it. About one-third of all
unplanned buying occurs because a shopper recognizes a new need while in the store.
2. He or she engages in impulse buying when he or she experiences a sudden,
unresistable urge.
Point-of-Purchase Stimuli
Well-designed in-store display boosts impulse purchases by as much as 10 percent. That
explains why U.S. companies spend about $19 billion each year on point-of-purchase (POP)
stimuli.
- The importance of POP in shopper decision-making explains why product packages
increasingly play a key role in the marketing mix as they evolve from the functional
to the fantastic:
In the past 100 years, Pepsi changed the look of its can, and before that its bottles, only 10
times. Now the company switches designs every few weeks. It’s also testing cans that spray
an aroma when you open one to match the flavor of the drink, such as a wild cherry scent
misting from a Wild Cherry Pepsi can.
 9. The Salesperson: A Lead Role in the Play
The salesperson is one of the most important players in the retailing drama. As we saw way
back in Chapter 1, exchange theory stresses that every interaction involves a trade of value.
Each participant gives something to the other and hopes to receive something in return. A
(competent) salesperson offers a lot of value because his or her expert advice makes the
shopper’s choice easier.
10-3 The growth of a “sharing economy” changes how many consumers think about
buying rather than renting products. (Nga Quỳnh)
- A sharing economy is defined as an economic system in which assets and services are
shared between private individuals. In this business model people rent what they need
rather than buying it.
- A recent major survey reported that 44% of U.S. adults (more than 90 million people)
have participated in the sharing economy, playing the roles of lenders and borrowers,
drivers and riders, hosts and guests.
- There are a lot of platforms to support this sharing economy.
- They use Omni platforms to rent out their stuff such as suitcases and sporting
equipment if it is unused or not needed for now.
- Or if you need to use a car, go to Zipcar and rent one by the hour.

- The sharing economy is revolutionizing industries including taxis (Uber), which

allows customers to find nearby drivers – who use their own cars rather than being
managed by a fleet – via a mobile app.

- With car parking spaces increasingly at a premium, both in terms of availability and
price, JustPark is a good option which helps drivers to find the nearest parking space
 via website and mobile app. Of course, many of those spaces will be under-utilised
driveways and allocated spots owned by homeowners - meaning they can earn extra
cash with very little effort.

- Even if you want to buy or rent a house but are unable to visit in person, Spotahome
employs a team of “homecheckers”- people who are paid by the company to view a
house or flat on behalf of someone. They are asked to verify a property’s quality,
check utilities, create a floorplan and take both 360-degree photographs and a video
tour so that prospective renters can browse houses remotely.

- Many people appreciate the intimacy of exchanging items with “real people” rather
than getting them from big companies. Many seem more than willing to do things
with total strangers. That’s one reason the notion of doing business with other
consumers rather than with companies goes by the name P2P commerce (peer-to-
peer).

10-4 Our decisions about how to dispose of a product are as important as how we decide
to obtain it in the first place. (Mai)
- Post purchase Satisfaction and disposal
Our overall reactions to a product after we’ve bought it—what researchers call consumer
satisfaction/ dissatisfaction (CS/D)—obviously play a big role in our future behavior.
+ Post purchase Satisfaction
Satisfaction or dissatisfaction is more than a reaction to how well a product or service
performs.

- the expectancy disconfirmation model we form beliefs about product performance

based on our prior experience with the product or communications about the product
that imply a certain level of quality

When something performs the way we thought it would, we may not think much about it. If it
fails to live up to expectations, this may create negative feelings. However, if performance
happens to exceed our expectations, we’re happy campers.
Shopping online experience is one of the most common situations to illustrate this case.

This perspective underscores how important it is to manage expectations. We often trace a

customer’s dissatisfaction to his or her erroneous expectations of the company’s ability to
deliver a product or service. (2 slides)

- Product disposal
Product disposal is also an important element of consumer behavior.

believe it or not, it’s more economical for many returns to get trashed instead of being
returned to store inventories.86 Because we do form strong attachments to some products, it
can be painful to get rid of them. Our possessions anchor our identities; our past lives on in
our things
In many cases we acquire a new product even though the old one still functions—that’s one
of the hallmarks of our materialistic society. Some reasons to replace an item include a
desire for new features, a change in the individual’s environment (e.g., a refrigerator is the
wrong color for a freshly painted kitchen), or a change in the person’s role or self-image.

- Recycling and the Underground economy

The issue of product disposition is vital because of its enormous public policy implications.
We live in a throwaway society, which creates problems for the environment and also results
in a great deal of unfortunate waste.

Iphone recently proposes the recycle campaign. That’s to charge a lower new phone to
exchange for an old one.

During lateral cycling, one consumer exchanges something he or she owns for something the
other person owns. Reusing other people’s things is especially important in our throwaway
society because, as one researcher put it, “there is no longer an ‘away’ to throw things to.”