Kolter - MM - AP - 7e - Chapter 06

Connecting with
Customers
Analyzing Consumer Markets
2 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

Learning Issues for Chapter Six
1. How do consumer characteristics influence buying behavior?
2. What major psychological processes influence consumer

responses to the marketing program?
3. How do consumers make purchasing decisions?
4. In what ways do consumers stray from a deliberative,

rational decision process?

Importance of Understanding Consumer
• Marketers must have a thorough understanding of how consumers

think, feel, and act and offer clear value to each and every target
consumer.
• Successful marketing requires that companies fully connect with

their customers.
• Adopting a holistic marketing orientation means understanding

customers—gaining a 360-degree view of both their daily lives and
the changes that occur during their lifetimes so the right products
are always marketed to the right customers in the right way.

What Influences Consumer Behavior?
• Consumer behavior is the study of how individuals, groups,

and organizations, select, buy, use, and dispose of goods,
services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and
wants.
• Marketers must fully understand both the theory and reality

of consumer behavior.
• A consumer’s buying behavior is influenced by cultural, social,

and personal factors. Cultural factors exert the broadest and
deepest influence.

Cultural Factors
• Culture, subculture, and

social class are
particularly important
influences on consumer
buying behavior.
• Culture is the
fundamental
determinant of a
person’s wants and
behaviors.

Cultural Factors: Fukubukuro
Fukubukuro—Marketers use cultural factors

to their advantage. In Japan, for instance, it
is a New Year’s custom for merchants to offer
fukubukuro (福袋) or lucky mystery bags.
These grab bags are filled with unknown
random products and sold to customers at a
substantial discount. The low prices are to
attract customers to shop at the store during
the new year. In major department stores,
these grab bags are usually themed to
specific departments. For instance, the shoe
department will have several high-priced Fukubukuro are lucky mystery bags started
shoes in the bag. Some stores include extra by Ginza Matsuya Department Store and has
items such as expensive purses, travel since spread to most Japanese retailers. This
tickets, and vouchers for electronics to entice Japanese custom has spread to other
shoppers to take a chance and shop at their cultures.
store. The randomness of such inserts is why
fukubukuro are sometimes known as lucky
bags.

Sub-Cultures
• Each culture consists of smaller subcultures that provide

more specific identification and socialization for their
members.
• Subcultures include nationalities, religions, racial groups, and

geographic regions.
• Multicultural marketing grew out of careful marketing

research, which revealed that different ethnic and
demographic niches did not always respond favorably to mass
marketing.

Examples of Behaviors in Different Asian Sub-
Cultures
• Chinese consumers, for instance, may respond differently from
Indian, Malay, or Filipino consumers.
• To the Chinese, especially those of the Cantonese dialect group,

feng shui (literally meaning wind water) or geomancy is important.
• Some Chinese avoid buying houses with the number four in the
address because it sounds like, and thus connotes, “death;” while
favoring the number eight as it sounds like “prosperity.”
• The Beijing Olympics was officially opened on 8 August 2008

(8-8-08) at 8:08 pm.

Hong Kong Disneyland and Feng Shui
Disney—Disney officials consulted feng shui experts in building Hong Kong’s

Disneyland. The park faces water with mountains behind to suggest plentiful
inflow of revenue and visitors, while being protected at the rear. The park’s
front gate was shifted 12 degrees to bring prosperity. To ensure the flow of
positive energy or chi, Disney put a bend in the walkway from the train station
to the gate. Water is heavily used in the park in the form of lakes, streams,
and waterfalls placed strategically to accumulate good fortune and wealth. In
kitchens, stoves are placed in lucky locations and some areas are designated
“no fire zones” to balance the five elements and reduce accidents. The lucky
color red frequently accents Main Street. Lucky numbers have also been
incorporated throughout the theme park facilities. Disneyland Hotel’s main
ballroom measures 888 square meters and the chandelier in its Chinese
restaurant contains 2,238 crystal lotuses, a number which sounds like the
characters “easily generate wealth” in Cantonese. Both Disney hotels have no
fourth floors. No clocks are sold as merchandise in Disney stores because the
phrase “giving a clock” sounds the same as “going to a funeral.” The park’s
groundbreaking and opening dates were also picked for their auspiciousness.

Hong Kong Disneyland and Feng Shui
Hong Kong Disneyland employed feng shui when developing the theme park and hotels.

Social Stratification
• Virtually all human societies exhibit social stratification.
• More frequently, it takes the form of social classes, relatively

homogeneous and enduring divisions in a society, hierarchically
ordered and with members who share similar values, interests, and
behavior.

Social Classes
One class depiction of social classes in the United States defined

seven ascending levels:
1. Lower lowers Upper

2. Upper lowers
3. Working class
4. Middle class Middle
5. Upper middles
6. Lower uppers
7. Upper uppers Lower

Characteristics of Social Classes
1. First, those within each class tend to behave more alike than
persons from two different social classes. Social classes
differ in dress, speech patterns, recreational preferences,
and many other characteristics.
2. Second, people are perceived as occupying inferior or

superior positions according to social class.
3. Third, social class is indicated by a cluster of variables—for

example, occupation, income, wealth, education, and value
orientation—rather than by any single variable.

Characteristics of Social Classes
4. Fourth, individuals can move up or down the social class

ladder during their lifetimes. The extent of this mobility
varies according to how rigid the social stratification is in a
given society.

Marketing Implications of Social Classes
1. Social classes show distinct product and brand preferences in many areas,
including clothing, home furnishings, leisure activities, and automobiles.
2. Social classes differ in media preferences, with upper-class consumers

often preferring magazines and books, and lower-class consumers often
preferring television. Even within a media category such as TV, upper-
class consumers tend to prefer news and drama, and lower-class
consumers tend to prefer soap operas and sports programs.
3. There are also language differences among the social classes. Advertising
copy and dialogue must ring true to the targeted social class.

Social Factors
• In addition to cultural factors, a consumer’s behavior is

influenced by such social factors as reference groups, family,
and social roles and statuses.

Reference Groups
• A person’s reference groups are all the groups that have a direct
(face-to-face) or indirect influence on their attitudes or behavior.
• Groups having a direct influence are called membership groups.
• Some membership groups are primary groups such as family,

friends, neighbors, and co-workers with whom the person interacts
fairly continuously and informally.
• People belongs to secondary groups such as such as religious,

professional, and trade-union groups, which tend to be more
formal.

Reference Groups
People are also influenced by groups to which they do not belong:
• Aspiration groups are those a person hopes to join.
• Dissociative groups are those whose values or behavior an individual

rejects.

Influence of Reference Groups
• Reference groups expose an individual to new behaviors

and lifestyles, influencing attitudes and self-concept.
• They create pressures for conformity that may affect

actual product and brand choices.

Opinion Leaders
• Where reference group influence is strong, marketers must

determine how to reach and influence the group’s opinion leaders.
• An opinion leader is the person in informal, product-related

communications who offers advice or information about a specific
product or product category.
• Marketers try to reach opinion leaders by identifying demographic

and psychographic characteristics associated with opinion
leadership, identifying the media read by opinion leaders, and
directing messages at opinion leaders.

Cliques
• Society can be seen as consisting of cliques, small groups

whose members interact frequently.
• Clique members are similar, and their closeness facilitates

effective communication but also insulates the clique from
new ideas.
• Its helped along by people who function as liaisons,

connecting two or more cliques without belonging to either,
and by bridges, people who belong to one clique and are
linked to a person in another.

Family
• The family is the most important consumer-buying

organization in society, and family members
constitute the most influential primary reference
group.
• There are two families in the buyer’s life.
– The family of orientation consists of parents and siblings.
– A more direct influence on everyday buying behavior is the

family of procreation—namely, the person’s spouse and
children.

Families in Asia
In Asia, the family is a strong reference group, influencing members on numerous

aspects of their daily life.

Family—Roles and Influence of Family Members
• Marketers are interested in the roles and relative influence of family

members in the purchase of a large variety of products and
services.
• These roles vary widely in different countries and social classes.
• Given women’s increasing wealth and income generating ability,

household purchasing patterns are gradually changing in Asia.
• Thus, marketers of products traditionally purchased by men are

now thinking about women as possible buyers.

Marketing Implications
• Men and women may respond differently to marketing

messages.
• Another shift in buying patterns is an increase in the amount

of dollars spent and the direct and indirect influence wielded
by children and teens.
• Direct influence describes children’s hints, requests, and

demands.

Roles and Statuses
• A person participates in many groups—family, clubs, and

organizations.
• The person’s position in each group can be defined in terms of role

and status.
• A role consists of the activities a person is expected to perform.
• Each role carries a status.
• Marketers must be aware of the status symbol potential of products

and brands.

Marketing Insight: Face-Saving and the Chinese
Consumer

Personal Factors
A buyer’s decisions are also influenced by personal

characteristics. These include the buyer’s age and stage in the
life cycle; occupation and economic circumstances; personality
and self-concept; and lifestyle and values.

Age and Stage in Life Cycle
• People’s taste in food, clothes, furniture, and recreation is often age-

related.
• Japanese teenagers dye their hair fire-engine red and wear the latest street
fashion which includes tutus over pants.
• They quit school because the strict discipline in schools is not compatible
with what they want at this stage of their life cycle.
• Their independence and confidence, coupled with the rise of individuality,

has fueled their desire for things that express these traits.
• The aging population, especially in Japan, affects what products are

purchased.

Japan’s aging population
Japan’s aging population has

seen the introduction of a
plethora of elderly-friendly
products such as therapeutic
electronic pets like Paro, the
furry robot seal.

Malaysia Vs. Indonesia Population Pyramids
32
Example of a Marketer Responding to the Critical
Life Event of Motherhood
Eversoft realizes that in Asia,
being a mother is a critical life
event. In a symbiotic way,
Eversoft cares for your skin,
just like how a mother cares for
her child.

Occupation and Economic Circumstances
• Occupation also influences consumption patterns.
• Marketers try to identify the occupational groups that have

above-average interest in their products and services.
• Product choice is greatly affected by economic circumstances.
• Spendable income (level, stability, and time pattern), savings

and assets (including the percentage that is liquid), debts,
borrowing power, and attitudes toward spending and saving.

Economic Circumstances
Growing middle class—China’s

emerging middle class is growing. There
are not necessarily the richest, but as a
large number of young people are put
into this category, they are promised
more wealth, with higher purchasing
power. Many aspire to own cars. They are
drawn to modern technology such as the
Internet, smartphones, and tablets. On
an annualized basis, China’s emerging
middle class is expected to spend 49 Luxury-goods makers such as Gucci, Prada,
billion yuan on luxury watches, 36 billion and Louis Vuitton do well when the
economy is booming.
yuan on female skincare products, and
300 billion yuan on overseas travel; to
drink 2.7 billion cups of coffee and 56
million bottles of whisky or brandy; and https://www.theedgemarkets.com/arti
to buy 50 million smartphones, 16 million cle/short-queues-china-apples-
laptops, 12 million TV sets, and 7.2 newest-iphone-12-hits-stores
million tablets.

Personality and Self-Concept
• Personality is a set of distinguishing human psychological

traits that lead to relatively consistent and enduring
responses to environmental stimuli.
• It is often described in terms of such traits as self-confidence,

dominance, autonomy, deference, sociability, defensiveness,
and adaptability.
• We define brand personality as the specific mix of human

traits that may be attributed to a particular brand.

7 Brand Personalities—Jennifer Aaker
1. Sincerity (down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, and

cheerful)—For example, Hello Kitty
2. Excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative, and up-to-date)—

For example, MTV
3. Competence (reliable, intelligent, and successful)

For example, Samsung
4. Sophistication (upper-class and charming)

For example, Shiseido

7 Brand Personalities—Jennifer Aaker
5. Ruggedness (outdoorsy and tough) For example, Timberland
6. Passion (emotional intensity, spirituality, and mysticism) For

example, Zara
7. Peacefulness (harmony, balance, and natural) For example,

Yamaha

Hello Kitty Brand Personality
Hello Kitty has a wholesome, sincere personality. Consumers who see themselves as
being honest and down-to-earth are more likely to purchase Hello Kitty products than
those who have a different self-concept.
https://tokyotreat.com/news/history-of-hello-kitty-kawaii
Self-Concept
• Consumers often choose and use brands with a brand

personality consistent with their actual self-concept (how we
view ourselves).
• Although in some cases, the match may instead be based on

the consumer’s ideal self-concept (how we would like to view
oneself).
• Others self-concept (how we think others see us).

Lifestyles and Values
• People from the same subculture, social class, and occupation

may lead quite different lifestyles.
• A lifestyle is a person’s pattern of living in the world as

expressed in activities, interests, and opinions.
• Lifestyle portrays the “whole person” interacting with his or

her environment.

Marketing and Lifestyles
• Marketers search for relationships between their products and

lifestyle groups.
• For example, a computer manufacturer might find that most

computer buyers are achievement oriented.
• The marketer may then aim the brand more clearly at the
achiever lifestyle.
• Marketers are always uncovering new trends in consumer

lifestyles.

Neko or cat cafés are popular in Japan as many Japanese live in small apartments
that do not allow pets. These indoor pet rentals offer companionship and comfort
to Japanese who are harried by their hectic lifestyle.

Neko cafes—Neko, or cat cafes, first appeared in Taipei. It soon became a tourist
destination. However, this concept of paying an hourly fee for supervised indoor pet
rental has taken Japan by storm. As many apartments in Japan forbid pets, the
Japanese are turning to Neko cafes to play with cats for an hour or so, helping them
to de-stress from their hectic urban life. Neko cafes have become a popular
destination for Japanese customers looking for companionship and comfort.

Lifestyle: Time Constraints
• Lifestyles are shaped partly by whether consumers are

money-constrained or time-constrained.
• Companies aiming to serve money-constrained consumers

will create lower cost products and services.

Lifestyle: Time Constraints
• Local brands usually fill this need in many emerging markets,

while their foreign counterparts target more affluent
consumers.
• Consumers who experience time famine are prone to
multitasking, that is, doing two or more things at the same
time. Companies aiming to serve them will create convenient
products and services for this group.

Core Values
• Consumer decisions are also influenced by core values, the
belief systems that underlie consumer attitudes and
behaviors.
• Core values go much deeper than behavior or attitude, and

determine, at a basic level, people’s choices and desires over
the long-term.
• Marketers who target consumers on the basis of their values

believe that by appealing to people’s inner selves, it is
possible to influence their outer selves—their purchase
behavior.

Key Psychological Processes
• The starting point for understanding consumer behavior is the

stimulus-response model.
• See Figure 6.1.
• Marketing and environmental stimuli enter the consumer’s

consciousness. A set of psychological processes combine with
certain consumer characteristics to result in decision processes and
purchase decisions.
• The marketer’s task is to understand what happens in the

consumer’s consciousness between the arrival of the outside
marketing stimuli and the ultimate purchase decisions.

Figure 6.1: Model of Consumer Behavior

Motivation: Freud, Maslow, Herzberg
• A person has many needs at any given time.
• Some needs are:

a. Biogenic (arise from physiological states of tension such as
hunger).
b. Others are psychogenic, arise from a need for recognition,

esteem, or belonging.
• A need becomes a motive when it is aroused to a sufficient

level of intensity.

Motivation: Freud, Maslow, Herzberg
• A motive is a need that is sufficiently pressing to drive the

person to act.
• Motivation has both direction—we select one goal over

another—and intensity—we pursue the goal with more or less
vigor.
• Three of the best-known theories of human motivation—those

of Sigmund Freud, Abraham Maslow, and Frederick Herzberg
— carry quite different implications for consumer analysis and
marketing strategy.

Freud’s Theory
• Sigmund Freud assumed that the psychological forces

shaping people’s behavior are largely unconscious, and that a
person cannot fully understand his or her own motivations.
• When a person examines specific brands, he or she will react

not only to their stated capabilities, but also to other, less
conscious cues.
• A technique called laddering lets us trace a person’s

motivations from the stated instrumental ones to the more
terminal ones.

Motivation Research
• Motivation researchers often collect “in-depth interviews” with

a few dozen consumers to uncover deeper motives triggered
by a product.
• Projective techniques such as

• word association, sentence
• completion, picture interpretation,
• and role-playing are used.

Maslow’s Theory
• Abraham Maslow sought to explain why people are driven by

particular needs at particular times.
• Maslow’s answer is that human needs are arranged in a

hierarchy from most to least pressing.
• In order of importance, they are:

a. Physiological needs
b. Safety needs
c. Social needs
d. Esteem needs
e. Self-actualization needs

Figure 6.2: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Source: A. H. Maslow, Motivation

and Personality, 2nd ed., (Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall,
1970). Reprinted by permission of
Prentice Hall Inc.

Maslow’s Theory
Singaporean youth market—A study found that
youths worldwide are motivated by commune (the
need for connection and community), justice (the
need to do what is right), and authenticity (the
need to see things as they are). However, in
Singapore, journeying (the need for exploration,
inspiration, and discovery) replaced justice in the
top three motivations. Young Singaporeans want to
be remembered for the quality of their
relationships and not their power or influence. Said
one Singaporean, “I want to influence my friends
but it’s not like changing their beliefs or opinions .
Young Singaporeans are relationship
conscious and do not like to force their . . It’s good if you can get someone to reflect on
opinion on others. what they think about things.” Similarly, brands
have to adopt a similar perspective. As young
Singaporeans are not going to force their way or
opinion on others, they would also expect brands
to do the same.

Asian Perspective on Needs Importance
• In collectivistic societies like Asia, it is debatable whether

self-actualization is applicable to Asian consumers.
• These needs may be socially directed instead, given the

strong desire of Asians to enhance their image and position
through contributions to society.
• Socially directed needs considered the most important for

Asians:
– Affiliation
– Admiration
– Status

Three types of socially directed needs may be
considered the most important for Asians:
• Affiliation—This is the acceptance of an individual as a
member of a group. Consumers seeking this need will tend to
conform to group norms.
• Admiration—Once affiliation needs are satisfied, admiration is

sought. This is respect from group members, which is earned
through acts.
• Status—This is esteem received from society at large. Unlike

admiration which tends to be at a more intimate level, status
requires the regard of outsiders.

Herzberg’s Theory
• Frederick Herzberg developed a two-factor theory that

distinguishes dissatisfiers (factors that cause dissatisfaction)
and satisfiers (factors that cause satisfaction).
• The absence of dissatisfiers is not enough to motivate a

purchase; satisfiers must be present.
• Herzberg’s theory has two implications:

i. Sellers should do their best to avoid dissatisfiers.
ii. Sellers should identify the major satisfiers or motivators of
purchase in the market and supply them.

Perception
• A motivated person is ready to act—how is influenced by his

or her perception of the situation.
• Perception is the process by which we select, organize, and

interpret information inputs to create a meaningful picture of
the world.
• It depends not only on physical stimuli, but also on the

stimuli’s relationship to the surrounding environment and on
conditions within each of us.

Selective Attention
• Attention is the allocation of processing capacity to some

stimulus.
• It is estimated that the average person may be exposed to

1,500 ads or brand communications a day.
• Because we cannot possibly attend to all these, we screen

most stimuli out—a process called selective attention.
• Selective attention means that marketers have to work hard

to attract consumers’ notice.

Selective Perception

Selective Attention: Some Findings
1. People are more likely to notice stimuli that relate to a

current need.
2. People are more likely to notice stimuli that they anticipate.
3. People are more likely to notice stimuli whose deviations are

large in relation to the normal size of the stimuli.

Tobacco Warnings: An Example of Overcoming
Selective Attention
Tobacco warnings—The Indian

government is wrapping tobacco products
with photographs of rotting gums and
faces eaten away by cancer to try to
scare Indians into quitting smoking. Such
vivid pictorial scare tactics have been
used in Singapore and elsewhere after Vivid pictures are used on cigarette packs to
capture attention regarding the harmful
text warnings failed to deter smokers. effects of smoking.
Previously, pictorial warnings showed a
scorpion or a variation of skull and bones.
These were considered too mild to wrest
the attention of the smokers and
influence them.

Marketing Applications of Selective Attention
• Although people screen out much of the surrounding stimuli,

they are influenced by unexpected stimuli, such as sudden
offers in the mail, over the phone, or from a salesperson.
• Marketers may attempt to promote their offers intrusively to

bypass selective attention filters.

Selective Distortion
• Selective distortion is the tendency to interpret information in a way that

fits our preconceptions.
• Consumers will often distort information to be consistent with prior brand

and product beliefs.
• Consumers report different opinions between branded and unbranded

versions of identical products, it must be the case that the brand and
product beliefs.
• Selective distortion can work to the advantage of marketers with strong

brands when consumers distort neutral or ambiguous brand information to
make it more positive.

Selective Distortion
The size and shape of the glass

and the color and smell of the
liquid are all cues which may
affect consumer perceptions
and evaluations when drinking
a glass of orange juice.
Eg.
Diet Pepsi vs Diet Coke under
brand vs. no brand condition

Selective Retention
• People do not remember much information to which they are

exposed, but will tend to retain information that supports
their attitudes and beliefs.
• Because of selective retention, consumers are likely to

remember good points about a product they like and forget
good points about competing products.

Subliminal Perception
• The selective perception mechanisms require consumers’

active engagement and thought.
• The topic of subliminal perception, the argument that

marketers embed covert, subliminal messages in ads or
packages and consumers are not consciously aware of these
messages, but yet they affect their behavior.
• https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ads-with-subliminal-
messages
• https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/10/24/sublimina
l-advertising

Learning
• Learning involves changes in behavior arising from

experience.
• A drive is a strong internal stimulus impelling action.
• Cues are minor stimuli that determine when, where, and how
a person responds.
• Discrimination means that the person has learned to

recognize differences in sets of similar stimuli and can adjust
responses accordingly.

Marketing Implications of Learning Theory
• Learning theory teaches marketers that they can build

demand for a product by associating it with strong drives,
using motivating cues, and providing positive reinforcement.
• A new company can enter the market by appealing to the

same drives that competitors use and by providing similar
cue configurations, because buyers are more likely to transfer
loyalty to similar brands (generalization); or the company
might design its brand to appeal to a different set of drives
and offer strong cue inducements to switch (discrimination).

De Beers Diamonds in China
De Beers—De Beers’ savvy advertising and China’s booming

middle class has enabled China to be the world’s second
largest consumer for diamond jewelry after the United
States overtaking Japan. The idea that diamond symbolizes
a lifetime of love has taken root in China, a country that
traditionally prefers gold and jade. Chinese consumers have
learnt to associate diamond with love, and diamond rings
are now popular for weddings. Says one bride-to-be, “A
diamond ring, in my heart, means eternity and will make me
shimmer on my bridal day.” The younger generation of
Chinese are influenced by Western lifestyle and culture
where diamonds are seen as the most important symbol of
love and loyalty. Many Chinese are also buying diamonds for
investment purposes. However, unlike their Western
counterparts, some Chinese consumers are still ignorant of
the pricing systemsand basic methods of evaluating
diamonds such as the 4Cs (cut, color, carat, and clarity).

Hedonic Bias
• The hedonic bias says people have a general tendency to

attribute success to themselves and failure to external
causes.
• Consumers are thus more likely to blame a product than
themselves, putting pressure on marketers to carefully
explicate product functions in well-designed packaging and
labels, instructive ads and Web sites, and so on.

Emotions
• Consumer response is not all cognitive and rational; much

may be emotional and invoke different kinds of feelings.
• A brand or product may make a consumer feel proud,

excited, or confident.
• Marketers are increasingly recognizing the power of

emotional appeal, especially if these are rooted in some
functional aspects of the brand.

Marketers Impact on Emotions
Axe—A pioneer in product development—it established the male body wash category—
and in its edgy sex appeal, Unilever’s Axe personal-care brand has become a favorite of
young males all over the world. With scents employing different combinations of
flowers, herbs, and spices, the Axe line includes deodorant body sprays, sticks, roll-ons,
and shampoos. The brand was built on the promise of the “Axe Effect”—an over-the-top
notion that using Axe products would get women to enthusiastically and sometimes
even desperately pursue the user. For Axe, Unilever employs both traditional and
nontraditional media with a heavy dose of sexual innuendo and humor. A recent social
media-driven campaign gave a cheeky wink to environmentalism while advocating the
practice of “showerpooling.” As one ad proclaimed, “When you Showerpool, you can
save water while enjoying the company of a like-minded acquaintance, or even an
attractive stranger.” Facebook promotions, YouTube videos, and other social media
messages all helped to spread the word. By cleverly serving as the “wing man” for
confidence in the “mating game”—especially for 18- to 24-year-old males— the brand
has become a key player in the multibillion-dollar male grooming market. Axe has
concentrated grassroots marketing efforts on college campuses with brand ambassadors
who hand out products, host parties, and generate buzz. A Twitter account dispenses
advice and giveaways.

Marketers Impact on Emotions
Axe runs edgy promotional campaigns to connect with its young male target audience, like this
Showerpooling event hosted by spokesperson and actress Nikki Reed.

Memory
• Cognitive psychologists distinguish between short-term memory

(STM)—a temporary repository of information, and
• Long-term memory (LTM)—a more permanent repository.
• The associative network memory model views LTM as a set of nodes

and links.
• Nodes are stored information connected by links that vary in

strength.
• Any type of information—verbal, visual, abstract, or contextual—can

be stored in the memory network.

Brand Associations
• Consumer brand knowledge is a node in memory with a

variety of linked associations.
• The strength and organization of these associations will be

important determinants of the information that can be
recalled about the brand.
• Brand associations consist of all brand-related thoughts,

feelings, perceptions, images, experiences, beliefs, attitudes,
and so on that become linked to the brand node.

Brand Association
Sangaria Oxygen Water—In Japan, bottled
water with an extra shot of oxygen is the rage,
especially among women. With the trend
towards healthier lifestyles, women associate
oxygen water as an energy booster and a
natural way to obtain extra oxygen molecules.
To fortify such brand associations, Sangaria’s
bottle comes in white and has O2 written boldly
on it.

Marketing Applications of Consumer Brand
Knowledge
• Marketing can be seen as making sure that consumers have
the right types of product and service experiences such that
the right brand knowledge structures are created and
maintained in memory.
• Companies seek to create mental maps highlighting brand

beliefs in different product categories.

Figure 6.3: Hypothetical Haier Mental Map

Memory Processes
• Memory is a very constructive process, because we don’t

remember information and events completely and accurately.
• Often we remember bits and pieces and fill in the rest.
• Memory encoding describes how and where information gets

into memory.
• The more attention placed on the meaning of information

during encoding, the stronger the resulting associations in
memory will be.

Memory Retrieval
• Memory retrieval refers to how information gets out of

memory.
• Affected by three factors:

i. The presence of other product information in memory can
produce interference effects.
ii. The time between exposure to information and encoding has
been shown generally to produce only gradual decay.
iii. Information may be “available” in memory (potentially
recallable) but may not be “accessible” (unable to be recalled)
without the proper retrieval cues or reminders.

The Buying Decision Process: The Five Stage Model
• Marketing scholars have developed a “stage model” of the

buying-decision process.
• The consumer passes through five stages: problem

recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives,
purchase decision, and post-purchase behavior.
• Consumers do not always pass through all five stages in

buying a product. They may skip or reverse some stages.

Figure 6.4: Five-Stage Model of the Consumer
Buying Process

Problem Recognition
• The buying process starts when the buyer recognizes a

problem or need.
• The need can be triggered by internal or external stimuli.
• Marketers need to identify the circumstances that trigger a

particular need by gathering information from a number of
consumers.
• They can then develop marketing strategies that trigger

consumer interest.

Information Search
• An aroused consumer will be inclined to search for more

information. We can distinguish between two types of
arousal:
• The milder state is called heightened attention where a

person simply becomes more receptive to information about a
product.
• The second level is active information search where a person

looks for reading material, going online, etc. to learn about
the product.

Information Sources
1. Personal—Family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances
2. Commercial—Advertising, Web sites, salespersons, dealers,

packaging, displays
3. Public—Mass media, consumer-rating organizations
4. Experiential—Handling, examining, using the product

Relative Importance of Information Sources
• The relative amount and influence of these sources vary with

the product category and the buyer’s characteristics.
• Generally speaking, the consumer receives the most

information about a product from commercial sources—that
is, marketer-dominated sources.
• However, the most effective information often comes from

personal sources or public sources that are independent
authorities.

Relative Importance of Information Sources
• Each information source performs a different function in

influencing the buying decision.
• Commercial sources normally perform an information

function, whereas personal sources perform a legitimizing or
evaluation function.

Search Dynamics
• By gathering information, the consumer learns about competing brands and

their features.
• See Figure 6.5.
• The first box shows the total set of brands available to the consumer.
• The individual consumer will come to know only a subset of these brands
(awareness set).
• Some brands will meet initial buying criteria (consideration set).
• As the consumer gathers more information, only a few will remain as

strong contenders (choice set). The consumer makes a final choice from
this set.
Figure 6.5: Successive Sets Involved in Consumer
Decision Making

Search Dynamics
• Marketers need to identify the hierarchy of attributes that

guide consumer decision making in order to understand
different competitive forces and how these various sets get
formed.
• This process of identifying the hierarchy is called market

partitioning.

Search Dynamics
• The hierarchy of attributes also can reveal customer segments.
• Buyers who first decide on price are price dominant; those who first
decide on the type of car (sports, passenger, station wagon) are
type dominant; those who first decide on the car brand are brand
dominant.
• Type/price/brand-dominant consumers make up a segment;

quality/service/type buyers make up another.
• Each segment may have distinct demographics, psychographics,

and mediagraphics, and different awareness, consideration, and
choice sets.

Search Dynamics and Marketing Implications
• From Figure 6.5 it is important that a company seeks to

strategize to get its brand into the prospect’s awareness set,
consideration set, and choice set.
• The company must also identify the other brands in the

consumer’s choice set so that it can plan the appropriate
competitive appeals.
• In addition, marketers should identify the consumer’s

information sources and evaluate their relative importance.

Evaluation of Alternatives
• No single process is used by all consumers, or by one consumer

in all buying situations.
• There are several processes, the most current models of which

see the process as cognitively oriented
• That is, they see the consumer as forming judgments largely on

a conscious and rational basis.

Consumer Evaluation Process
1. First, the consumer is trying to satisfy a need.
2. Second, the consumer is looking for certain benefits from the

product solution.
3. Third, the consumer sees each product as a bundle of

attributes with varying abilities for delivering the benefits.

The attributes of interest to buyers vary by product.
For example:
•Cameras—Picture sharpness, camera speed, camera size, price
•Hotels—Location, cleanliness, atmosphere, price
•Tires—Safety, tread life, ride quality, price

Beliefs and Attitudes
• Through experience and learning, people acquire beliefs and

attitudes.
• These in turn influence buying behavior.
• Belief—a descriptive thought that a person holds about

something.
• Attitude—a person’s enduring favorable or unfavorable

evaluation, emotional feeling, and action tendencies toward
some object or idea.

Attitudes
• Attitudes put people into a frame of mind: liking or disliking

an object, moving toward or away from it.
• Attitudes lead people to behave in a fairly consistent way

toward similar objects.
• Because attitudes economize on energy and thought, they

can be very difficult to change.
• A company is well-advised to fit its product into existing

attitudes rather than to try to change attitudes.

Cosmetic Surgery—Changes in Attitudes
Cosmetic surgery—More teenagers in Singapore are going under the knife.

While plastic surgery used to be frowned upon by the older generation, the
younger ones feel that such surgery is acceptable and are willing to go for
more invasive procedures like double eyelid surgery and liposuction. Several
reasons account for the change in attitude. With the Internet, information
about various procedures is easily available. Youths are also influenced by the
celebrities they see in the media and want to be like them. One teenaged girl
underwent surgery for double eyelids to get rid of her “sleepy eyes.” The
surgery made her eyes look brighter and more awake. This positive
experience enhanced her belief that cosmetic surgery is safe and beneficial
and increased her favorable attitude towards it. Her experience encouraged
her younger sister to follow suit with a similar surgery.

Expectancy-Value Model
• The consumer arrives at attitudes (judgments, preferences)

toward various brands through an attribute evaluation
procedure, developing a set of beliefs about where each
brand stands on each attribute.
• The expectancy-value model of attitude formation posits that

consumers evaluate products and services by combining their
brand beliefs—the positives and negatives—according to
importance.

Table 6.1: A Consumer’s Brand Beliefs about
Computers
Note: Each attribute is rated from 0 to 10, where 10 represents the highest level on that
attribute. Price, however, is indexed in a reverse manner, with a 10 representing the
lowest price, because a consumer prefers a low price to a high price.

Computations on Expectancy-Value
• Suppose the buyer assigned 40% of the importance to the

computer’s memory capacity, 30% to graphics capability,
20% to size and weight, and 10% to price.
• This computation leads to the following perceived values:
1. Computer A = 0.4(10) + 0.3(8) + 0.2(6) + 0.1(4) = 8.0

2. Computer B = 0.4(8) + 0.3(9) + 0.2(8) + 0.1(3) = 7.8
3. Computer C = 0.4(6) + 0.3(8) + 0.2(10) + 0.1(5) = 7.3
4. Computer D = 0.4(4) + 0.3(3) + 0.2(7) + 0.1(8) = 4.7
An expectancy-model formulation would predict that the buyer will favor computer A,
which (at 8.0) has the highest perceived value.

What could the manufacturer of Brand B do in order
to stimulate interest in the brand?
1. Redesign the computer—This technique is called real
repositioning.
2. Alter beliefs about the brand—This technique is called

psychological repositioning.
3. Alter beliefs about competitors’ brands—This strategy, called

competitive de-positioning, makes sense when buyers
mistakenly believe a competitor’s brand has more quality
than it actually has.

What could the manufacturer of Brand B do in order
to stimulate interest in the brand?
4. Alter the importance weights—The marketer could try to
persuade buyers to attach more importance to the attributes
in which the brand excels.
5. Call attention to neglected attributes—The marketer could

draw buyers’ attention to neglected attributes, such as
styling or processing speed.
6. Shift the buyer’s ideals—The marketer could try to persuade

buyers to change their ideal levels for one or more
attributes.

Influencing Consumer Attitudes
Consumer attitude towards GOLD by Safi

is optimized by its adherence to Islamic
beliefs, the reminder of gold as a
traditional Malayan treatment for beauty,
and an endorsement from the religious
authority.

Purchase Decisions
• In the evaluation stage, the consumer forms preferences

among the brands in the choice set. The consumer may also
form an intention to buy the most preferred brand.
• In executing a purchase intention, the consumer may make

up to five sub-decisions:
i. Brand (brand A)
ii. Dealer (dealer 2)
iii. Quantity (one)
iv. Timing (weekend)
v. Payment method (credit card)

Non-Compensatory Models of Consumer Choice
• The expectancy-value model is a compensatory model, in

that perceived good things about a product can help to
overcome perceived bad things.
• But consumers often take “mental shortcuts” called heuristics

or rules of thumb in the decision process.
• With non-compensatory models of consumer choice, positive

and negative attribute considerations do not necessarily net
out.

1. With the conjunctive heuristic, the consumer sets a minimum

acceptable cutoff level for each attribute and chooses the
first alternative that meets the minimum standard for all
attributes.
2. With the lexicographic heuristic, the consumer chooses the

best brand on the basis of its perceived most important
attribute (here, memory capacity).

3. With the elimination-by-aspects heuristic method, the

consumer compares brands on a attribute selected and
eliminates brands that do not meet minimum acceptable
cutoffs.
Consumers do not adopt only one type of

choice rule and may
combine two or more decision rules.

Intervening Factors
• Even if consumers form brand evaluations, two general

factors can intervene between the purchase intention and the
purchase decision.
• See Figure 6.6.
• There are two main factors:

i. Attitude of others
ii. Unanticipated situational factors

Figure 6.6: Steps Between Evaluation
of Alternatives and a Purchase Decision

Attitude of Others
• The extent to which another person’s attitude reduces the

preference for an alternative depends on two things:
i. the intensity of the other person’s negative attitude toward the

consumer’s preferred alternative and
ii. the consumer’s motivation to comply with the other person’s

wishes.
• The more intense the other person’s negativism and the

closer the other person is to the consumer, the more the
consumer will adjust his or her purchase intention.

Attitude of Others
Wipro introduced the “cloth

feel” diapers to overcome the
attitude Indian grandmothers
have towards disposable
diapers and satisfy the needs of
comfort sought by modern
mothers.

Influence of “informediaries”
• Related to the attitudes of others is the role played by

infomediaries who publish their evaluations.
• Examples include Consumer Reports, which provides

unbiased expert reviews of all types of products and services;
professional movie, book, and music reviewers; customer
reviews of books and music on Amazon.com; and the
increasing number of chat rooms where people discuss
products, services, and companies.

Unanticipated Situational Factors
• The second factor is unanticipated situational factors that

may erupt to change the purchase intention.
• A consumer might lose her job, some other purchase might

become more urgent, or a store salesperson may turn her
off.
• Preferences and even purchase intentions are not completely

reliable predictors of purchase behavior.

Perceived Risks
• A consumer’s decision to modify, postpone, or avoid a

purchase decision is heavily influenced by perceived risk.
• Six types of risks are discussed.

1. Functional risk—The product does not perform up to
expectations.
2. Physical risk—The product poses a threat to the physical well-

being or health of the user or others.
3. Financial risk—The product is not worth the price paid.

Types of Perceived Risks
4. Social risk—The product results in embarrassment from

others.
5. Psychological risk—The product affects the mental well-

being of the user.
6. Time risk—The failure of the product results in an

opportunity cost of finding another satisfactory product.
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/026513303104987
71/full/pdf?title=a-crosscultural-comparison-of-internet-buying-behavior-
effects-of-internet-usage-perceived-risks-and-innovativeness

Post-purchase Behavior
• After the purchase, the consumer might experience

dissonance about their purchase and be alert to information
that supports their decision.
• Marketing communications should supply beliefs and

evaluations that reinforce the consumer’s choice and help him
or her feel good about the brand.
• Marketers must monitor post-purchase satisfaction, post-

purchase actions, and post-purchase uses.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24936719?casa_token=I7tX7ftMpR0AAAAA%3AR6ecUJ4ee5J-tnsXsKYD8V5O2gIvC-
H6_1IJZITPHIVwXP0FSYn9OMWL79T7lLGEwjYDhUuN7bLmNhKXHwDGR_8S-
fHDjq1nxppIxHXxRbU8UT6t7T2v&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Post-purchase Satisfaction
• Satisfaction is a function of the closeness between

expectations and the product’s perceived performance.
• If the performance falls short of expectations the consumer is

disappointed.
• If the performance meets expectations the consumer is

satisfied.
• If the performance exceeds expectations the consumer is

delighted.

Post-purchase Actions
• A satisfied consumer is more likely to purchase the product

again and will also tend to say good things about the brand to
others.
• On the other hand, dissatisfied consumers may abandon or

return the product. They may take public action by
complaining to the company, going to a lawyer, or
complaining to other groups (such as business, private, or
government agencies).
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096969891730022X?casa_token=UZ
yZ4YF2xxkAAAAA:anH319AFlMzmtN9nqD5M2sPs2s5KLqvNF3EDwjcrlZ07Vhq7ZpbjbPK1f
WUCDGMz6gW1mkKfnl0

Post-purchase Actions
• Private actions include making a decision to stop buying the

product (exit option) or warning friends (voice option).
• Post-purchase behavior will have implications for customer

relationship management (CRM).

Post-purchase Use and Disposal
• Marketers should also monitor how buyers use and dispose of

the product. A key driver of sales frequency is product
consumption rate.
• The more quickly buyers consume a product, the sooner they

may be back in the market to repurchase it.
• Marketers also need to know how the consumer disposes of

the product once it is used.

Figure 6.7: How Customers Use or Dispose of
Products

Reminding Consumers on Replacements
Oral B toothbrushes come with color indicators to inform consumers when the bristles are worn off
and the toothbrushes need to be changed.

Product Disposal
• If consumers throw the product away, the marketer needs to

know how they dispose of it, especially if it can damage the
environment (as in the case with batteries, beverage
containers, and toner cartridges).
• Increased public awareness of recycling and ecological

concerns as well as consumer complaints need to be
considered.

Moderating Effects on Consumer Decision-Making
The manner or path by which a consumer moves through the

decision-making stages depends on several factors, including
the:
a. level of involvement; and
b. extent of variety-seeking.

Low-involvement Consumer Decision-making
• The expectancy-value model assumes a high level of

consumer involvement, or engagement and active processing
the consumer undertakes in responding to a marketing
stimulus.
• Elaboration Likelihood Model
https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-
abstract/12/3/341/1856886

Low-involvement Consumer Decision-making
• Describes how consumers make evaluations in both low and

high involvement circumstances.
– Central route
– Peripheral route
• Consumers follow the central route only if they possess

sufficient motivation, ability, and opportunity. If any of these
are lacking then the consumers tend to follow the peripheral
route.

Converting a Low-Involvement Product into One of
Higher Involvement
Techniques used by marketers include:
a. Link the product to some involving issue.
b. Link the product to some involving personal situation.
c. Design advertising to trigger strong emotions related to

personal values or ego defense.
d. Add an important feature.

The Peripheral Route
• If, regardless of what the marketer can do, consumers still have low
involvement with a purchase decision, they are likely to follow the
peripheral route.
• Marketers must pay special attention to giving consumers one or

more positive cues that they can use to justify their brand choice.
• Brand familiarity can be important if consumers decide to just buy

the brand about which they have heard or seen the most.
• Frequent ad repetition, visible sponsorships, and vigorous PR are all

ways to enhance brand familiarity.

Variety-seeking Buying Behavior
• Some buying situations are characterized by low involvement

but significant brand differences.
• Brand switching occurs for the sake of variety rather than

dissatisfaction.

Kit Kat—Example of Variety Seeking Behavior
In Japan, KitKat has a wide offering of flavors such as Green Tea, Creme
Brulee, and Canteloupe Melon to satisfy Japanese’ penchant for variety and
limited editions
https://jw-webmagazine.com/japanese-kit-kat-flavors-list-2016-ed64bceb1337/

Market Leaders versus Challenger Firms
• The market leader and the minor brands in this product

category have different marketing strategies.
• The market leader will try to encourage habitual buying

behavior by dominating the shelf space with a variety of
related but different product versions, avoiding out-of-stock
conditions, and sponsoring frequent reminder advertising.
• Challenger firms will encourage variety seeking by offering

lower prices, deals, coupons, free samples, and advertising
that tries to break the consumer’s purchase and consumption
cycle and presents reasons for trying something new.

Behavioral Decision Theory and Behavioral
Economics
• As a result of low-involvement decision making and variety-
seeking, consumers don’t always process information or
make decisions in a deliberate, rational manner.
• One of the most active academic research areas in marketing

over the past three decades has been behavioral decision
theory.
• Behavioral decision theorists have identified many situations

in which consumers make seemingly irrational choices.

Table 6.2: Selected Behavioral Decision Theory
Findings

Decision Heuristics
• Other heuristics similarly come into play in everyday decision

making when consumers forecast the likelihood of future
outcomes or events.
a. The availability heuristic—Consumers base their predictions on

the quickness and ease with which a particular example of an
outcome comes to mind.
b. The representativeness heuristic—Consumers base their
predictions on how representative or similar the outcome is to
other examples.
c. The anchoring and adjustment heuristic— Consumers arrive at
an initial judgment and then adjust it based on additional
information.
Framing
• Decision framing is the manner in which choices are

presented to and seen by a decision-maker.
• Framing effects can be found in comparative advertising,

where a brand can put its best foot forward by comparing
itself to another with inferior features.

Framing
In a clever promotion by VW to emphasize

its environmental friendliness, more people
used the stairs when they made it into a
piano keyboard coming out of a subway
station.

Mental Accounting
• Researchers have found that consumers use mental

accounting when they handle their money.
• Mental accounting refers to the way consumers code,

categorize, and evaluate financial outcomes of choices.
• Formally, it is “the tendency to categorize funds or items of

value even though there is no logical basis for the
categorization, e.g., individuals often segregate their savings
into separate accounts to meet different goals even though
funds from any of the accounts can be applied to any of the
goals.

Core Principles of Mental Accounting
1. Consumers tend to segregate gains. When a seller has a

product with more than one positive dimension, it’s desirable
to have the consumer evaluate each dimension separately.
Listing multiple benefits of a large industrial product, for
example, can make the sum of the parts seem greater than
the whole.
2. Consumers tend to integrate losses. Marketers have a

distinct advantage in selling something if its cost can be
added to another large purchase. House buyers are more
inclined to view additional expenditures favorably given the
high price of buying a house.

Core Principles of Mental Accounting
3. Consumers tend to integrate smaller losses with larger

gains. The “cancellation” principle might explain why
withholding taxes from monthly paychecks is less aversive
than large, lump-sum tax payments—the smaller
withholdings are more likely to be absorbed by the larger
pay amount.
4. Consumers tend to segregate small gains from large losses.

The “silver lining” principle might explain the popularity of
rebates on big-ticket purchases such as cars.

Prospect Theory
• The principles of mental
accounting are derived in part
from prospect theory.
• Prospect theory maintains
that consumers frame their
decision alternatives in terms of
gains and losses according to a
value function.
• Consumers are generally loss-
averse. They tend to overweight
very low probabilities and
underweight very high
probabilities.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00122574

Thank you

Kolter - MM - AP - 7e - Chapter 06

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Kolter - MM - AP - 7e - Chapter 06

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Connecting with

2 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

1. How do consumer characteristics influence buying behavior?

2. What major psychological processes influence consumer

3. How do consumers make purchasing decisions?

4. In what ways do consumers stray from a deliberative,

3 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

• Marketers must have a thorough understanding of how consumers

• Successful marketing requires that companies fully connect with

• Adopting a holistic marketing orientation means understanding

4 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

• Consumer behavior is the study of how individuals, groups,

• Marketers must fully understand both the theory and reality

• A consumer’s buying behavior is influenced by cultural, social,

5 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

• Culture, subculture, and

6 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

Fukubukuro—Marketers use cultural factors

7 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

• Each culture consists of smaller subcultures that provide

• Subcultures include nationalities, religions, racial groups, and

• Multicultural marketing grew out of careful marketing

8 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

• To the Chinese, especially those of the Cantonese dialect group,

• The Beijing Olympics was officially opened on 8 August 2008

9 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

Disney—Disney officials consulted feng shui experts in building Hong Kong’s

10 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

11 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

• Virtually all human societies exhibit social stratification.

• More frequently, it takes the form of social classes, relatively

12 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

One class depiction of social classes in the United States defined

1. Lower lowers Upper

13 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

2. Second, people are perceived as occupying inferior or

3. Third, social class is indicated by a cluster of variables—for

14 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

4. Fourth, individuals can move up or down the social class

15 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

2. Social classes differ in media preferences, with upper-class consumers

16 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

• In addition to cultural factors, a consumer’s behavior is

17 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

• Groups having a direct influence are called membership groups.

• Some membership groups are primary groups such as family,

• People belongs to secondary groups such as such as religious,

18 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

People are also influenced by groups to which they do not belong:

• Aspiration groups are those a person hopes to join.

• Dissociative groups are those whose values or behavior an individual

19 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

• Reference groups expose an individual to new behaviors

• They create pressures for conformity that may affect

20 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

• Where reference group influence is strong, marketers must

• An opinion leader is the person in informal, product-related

• Marketers try to reach opinion leaders by identifying demographic

21 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved

• Society can be seen as consisting of cliques, small groups

• Clique members are similar, and their closeness facilitates

• Its helped along by people who function as liaisons,

22 © Pearson Education Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved