Consumer Behavior : An

Introduction
Proliferation of goods
 Examples on color, eye movement, association
 The ubiquitousness of consumption goods
 Marketed goods have become entrenched in our lives

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A marketer’s view of a consumer
 Demographics
 Psychographics
 Consumption communities
 Market segmentation strategies
 Personalities
 Lifestyles
 Sensory stimuli
 This course is about YOU!

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What is Consumer Behavior?
 Activities people undertake when
obtaining, consuming, and disposing of
products and services
 Remember that your understanding
of consumer behavior is not limited
to the act of procuring!
 Pre and post-purchase behavior equally
important
 Consumers come in many forms – so
do consumption goods!

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Consumer Behavior is a process
 Buyer behavior to consumer behavior
 The exchange theory
 Moving beyond exchange theory
 Emphasis on entire consumption process

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Consumer Behavior is a process
CONSUMER PERSPECTIVE MARKETER PERSPECTIVE
PURCHASE PREPURCHASE

How do I decide I need a How are consumer attitudes

product? How do I learn toward products influenced?
about alternatives? What cues do consumers use?

Is acquiring the product How do situational factors

stressful or pleasant? What such as time constraints or
does it say about me? store displays affect purchase?
POSTPURCHASE

Did the product serve its What determines product

purpose? How is it disposed satisfaction and repurchase?
of? Environmental Will consumer recommend or
consequences berate product?

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CB and Marketing Strategy
 Understanding consumers critical to good business
 Need to stay abreast of changes in target markets
 Re-branding exercises
 A successful rebranding?
 Example of Snapdeal
 Example of Holiday Inn

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CB and Marketing Strategy
 Failed rebranding?
 Tropicana, Mastercard, Gap

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CB and consumers
 Consumers are different
 The 80/20 rule
 ‘Heavy’ users
 Important to sell right products to segments
 Different ways of dividing up consumers

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Dividing up consumers
 Age
 Gender
 Social class & income
 Race, ethnicity
 Geography
 Changes in positioning
 Beyond demographics
 Consumer lifestyles

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Marketing and popular culture
 Marketers influence popular tastes
 Provides frameworks for behavior which we
unconsciously follow
 Creates cultural symbols and even rituals!

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CB and globalization
 Interconnectedness and trade flows
 Global consumer culture
 Cultural homogenization
 Levi’s, Coke, McDonald’s
 However,‘creolization’ occurs along with homogenization
 The vegetarian burger

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CB and hyper-connectivity
 The availability of information 24/7
 The rise of C2C e-commerce/relationships
 Virtual brand communities
 Second Life, matrimonial sites
 Post-truth
 Sharing economy
 Loss of marketer control?

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CB and marketing ethics
 Business ethics – rules of conduct
 Varies according to culture
 Indian regulatory bodies
 MRTPC/CCI
 ASCI
 Consumer privacy
 The quantified self

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Some ambiguities…
 Do marketers create wants?
 Do marketers create artificial needs?
 Does marketing activity increase materialism?
 How much of advertising is trickery?
 Do advertisers make false promises?
 Should advertisers(always) be opportunistic?

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The study of CB
 CB involves varied consumption decisions and processes
 Makes it a highly interdisciplinary field
 Economists
 Psychologists
 Anthropologists
 Multiple methods
 Experimental psychology, neural imaging, focus groups,
observation

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The study of CB
MICRO CB (INDIVIDUAL FOCUS)

Exp. Psychology
Clinical Psychology
Dev. Psychology
Human Ecology
Microeconomics
Social Psychology
Sociology
Macroeconomics
Semiotics
Demography
History
Cultural Anthropology

MACRO CB (SOCIAL FOCUS)

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Things to do
 Visit the websites of ACR and JCR. What do they tell you
about consumer behavior as a field? How is it relevant to
you?
 Visit the website of ASCI. Check the complaints
document. Do you think the complaints are relevant?
What do you think about ASCI’s actions?

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A summary…
 Consumer Behavior involves varied issues ranging from
sensory perception to culture
 It’s a multidisciplinary field
 We can look at it from a micro to macro spectrum
 Topics are interlinked, not watertight compartments

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Perception
Sensation
 Constant exposure to sensory data
 Selective absorption
 Personal biases
 Perception
 Way consumers absorb sensations

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Sensation
 Sensation
 Immediate response to physical stimuli

 Perception shapes interpretation

 Cultural priming
 Stages of information processing
 Not passive

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Information Processing

STIMULI RECEPTORS

- Sights Eyes

- Sounds Ears
Interpret
- Smells Nose Exposure Attention
ation

- Tastes Mouth

- Textures Skin

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Sensation – Perception Gap
 Sensation-perception gap examples
 Ponzo illusion
 Eggs and cavities illusion

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Sensory signatures
 Ad jingles
 Distinctive logos
 Colors
 Harley Davidson rev
 Hedonic consumption

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The Design Economy
 Form becomes function
 Old wine in new bottles sells!
 Apple products

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Sensory marketing
 Using perception to competitive advantage
 Sensory marketing
 Food industry
 Malls
 Airlines
 Product names

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Vision
 Visual element in advertising
 Color, size, styling
 Influence of red and blue
 If you’re a cricket team, dress in red!

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Vision
 Color – cultural connotations
 Color and meeting rooms…
 Biological differences in color perception
 Yellow pages
 Examples of shoe brands and bank logos

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Vision
 Some visual signatures…
 Examples of Hershey’s Kisses, Pears
 Visual biases
 Direct distance bias
 Underestimating width
 “Light things float”

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Scent
 Scents can trigger memories
 Starbucks, CCD
 Smell as a learned sense
 Context specificity
 Parmesan cheese labeled negatively
 Scent marketing!

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Sound
 Response to various types of sounds
 Music played in stores
 Auditory signatures
 German car doors

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Touch
 Haptic sense
 Store displays
 Online shopping – disadvantage
 Automobile design
 Feelings of luxury/utility

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Touch
 Law of contagion
 Touch and product purchase
 Other products
 Other consumers
 Positive contamination only for attractive member of
opposite sex
 Bag packing at supermarket

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Taste
 Flavor houses
 Cultural influences
 Taste – amalgamation of the senses
 Taste and hardwired associations
 Sweet vs bitter
 Taste tests
 Toothpaste, tea

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Taste
 Taste and context-specificity
 Taste and smell
 Taste and haptic properties of foods
 Granularity of food
 Tea in flimsy plastic cup vs ceramic cup
 Retroactive impacting of taste
 Come to think of it, Maggi did not taste so good…
 Taste and product names
 Short, tall, grande, venti

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Exposure
 Stimulus within range of sensory receptors
 Consumers selectively notice
 Absolute threshold
 Minimum stimulation detected sensorily
 Differential threshold
 Ability to detect changes between stimuli

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Exposure
 J.n.d
 Minimum difference detectable between two stimuli
 Relative
 Weber’s Law
 K = ∆i / I
 K= constant
 ∆I = minimal change in stimulus required to produce j.n.d
 I = intensity of stimulus where change occurs
 Illustration – clothing sale mark downs

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Exposure
 Reference prices
 Refrigerator A:
 220 litres, 5 star energy rating, regular price Rs. 20000, sale price Rs.
17000
 Refrigerator B:
 220 litres, 5 star energy rating, regular price Rs. 19000, sale price Rs.
17000
 Which product will you choose?
 Biscuit packaging in the recent past

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Exposure
 Subliminal perception
 Stimuli falling below threshold of perception
 Controversial but ineffective
 Need for customization
 People differ in thresholds

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Attention
 Extent to which processing activity devoted to stimulus
 Sensory overload
 Multitasking
 Automated Attention Analysis

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Attention
 “Most people would rather die than think; in fact they do
so”
 Bertrand Russell
 Most consumers have limited cognitive abilities…
 So think twice before airing that smart ad!

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Perceptual Selection
 Consumers subconsciously are selective as to what
they perceive.
 Stimuli selected depends on two major factors
 Consumers’ previous experience
 Consumers’ motives
 Selection depends on the
 Nature of the stimulus
 Expectations
 Motives

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Perceptual Selection

 Selective Exposure  Consumers seek out

 Selective Attention messages which:
 Are pleasant
 Perceptual Defense  They can sympathize
 Perceptual Blocking  Reassure them of good
purchases

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Perceptual Selection

 Selective Exposure  Heightened awareness

 Selective Attention when stimuli meet their
 Perceptual Defense needs
 Consumers prefer
 Perceptual Blocking
different messages and
medium

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Perceptual Selection

 Selective Exposure  Screening out of stimuli

 Selective Attention which are threatening
 Perceptual Defense
 Perceptual Blocking

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Perceptual Selection

 Selective Exposure  Consumers avoid being

 Selective Attention bombarded by:
 Tuning out
 Perceptual Defense  TiVo
 Perceptual Blocking

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Stimulus factors
 Size
 Color
 Position
 Novelty

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Interpretation
 Schema
 Priming

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Organization

 Figure and ground  People tend to organize

 Grouping perceptions into figure-
and-ground relationships.
 Closure
 The ground is usually hazy.
 Marketers usually design so
the figure is the noticed
stimuli.

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Organization

 Figure and ground  People group stimuli to

 Grouping form a unified
 Closure impression or concept.
 Grouping helps memory
and recall.

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Organization

 People have a need for

 Figure and ground
closure and organize
 Grouping perceptions to form a
 Closure complete picture.
 Will often fill in missing
pieces
 Incomplete messages
remembered more than
complete
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Interpretational biases
 Consumers carry unconscious biases…
 Biases and stereotypes color interpretations

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Interpretational biases

 Physical  People hold meanings

Appearances related to stimuli
 Stereotypes  Stereotypes influence
 First Impressions how stimuli are
perceived
 Jumping to
Conclusions
 Halo Effect
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Interpretational biases
 Physical
Appearances
 Stereotypes
 First Impressions
 Jumping to
Conclusions
 Halo Effect
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 Positive appearance
linked to positive
attributes
 Important for model
selection
 Attractive models are
more persuasive for
some products
Interpretational biases

 Physical  First impressions are

Appearances lasting
 Stereotypes  The perceiver is trying
 First Impressions to determine which
stimuli are relevant,
 Jumping to
important, or predictive
Conclusions
 Halo Effect
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Interpretational biases

 Physical  People tend not to

Appearances listen to all the
 Stereotypes information before
 First Impressions making conclusion
 Important to put
 Jumping to
persuasive arguments
Conclusions
first in advertising
 Halo Effect
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Interpretational biases

 Physical  Consumers perceive and

Appearances evaluate multiple objects
 Stereotypes based on just one
 First Impressions dimension
 Used in licensing of names
 Jumping to
 Important with
Conclusions
spokesperson choice
 Halo Effect
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Perceptual contrast
 A customer wishes to shop for a shirt, shoes and belt at
Shopper’s Stop
 Which item should the salesperson show first?

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