Consumer

Behaviour
Consumer Decisions
and Choices

Dr Rowan E. Bedggood
Buying,
Using,
Disposing
Lecture Objectives

When you finish this lecture bite you should understand:

• The three roles consumers take in decision making: emotion
experiencers, habitual actors and problem solvers
• The five contextual effects on buying and disposal
• How the purchase environment influences the consumer buying
process
• The online and face-to-face purchase environments
Consumers as…

Problem Habitual Emotion

Solvers Actors Experiencers
Three ‘buckets’ of consumer decision making

Problem Habitual Emotion

Solvers Buyers Experiencers
Consumers as Problem Solvers

A consumer purchase is a response to a “problem”

 Actively recognises they have a ‘need’

• Most consumers go through a series of steps (or stages) when

they make a purchase

• The five steps of the consumer decision-making process (EKB

model of consumer behaviour) are usually followed.
 Stages in the Consumer
Decision-Making Process

Extended: engages with all steps

Limited: skims through most steps
Habitual: skips steps
Emotional: what steps? 
 Comparing Decision Types

LIMITED PROBLEM SOLVING EXTENDED PROBLEM SOLVING

Motivation Low risk and involvement High risk and involvement

Information search Little search Information processed Extensive search
passively Information processed actively
In-store decision likely Multiple sources consulted prior to store
visits
Alternative evaluation Weakly held beliefs Strongly held beliefs
Only most prominent criteria used Many criteria used
Alternatives perceived as basically Significant differences perceived
similar between alternatives
Non-compensatory strategy used Compensatory strategy used

Purchase Limited shopping time; may prefer self- Many outlets shopped if needed
service Communication with store personnel
Choice often influenced by store displays often desirable
Consumers as Habitual Buyers

Occurs with little or no conscious effort

Low involvement decisions as a learned response:

• Design of retail outlets
• Design of product packaging

Consumers may be primed to respond without

conscious thought:
• Manipulating the environment (e.g., layout, music).
• Framing the perspective (e.g., 95% fat free vs. 5% fat).
• Retail stores are designed to generate movement in a
certain way

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SuC6FcTfnU
The invariant right 
Consumers as Emotion Experiencers

Consumers make many choices based on emotional responses:

• Decisions are based on how the consumer feels about an item
• Thoughts and behaviours are adjusted to maintain emotions:
 Congruency
Marketing applications:
• Consumer mood adjustment – play happy music in stores
• Borrowed emotions (contagion) – consumers react to others’ emotions –
influence them to be positive
• Inform beliefs to sway pre-existing inaccurate beliefs
• Influence opinion leaders and create new social norms
Purchase and Post-Purchase Stages of CDMP

Physical Social
surroundings surroundings Post-Purchase

Satisfaction

Purchase Loyalty
Decision
Making Planned /
Ch 9 Impulse
Complaining

Value

Antecedent
Time Task
states Disposing
Contextual Effects on Buying (1 of 2)

Physical surroundings:
• Store image: location, merchandise, staff
• Atmospherics: designing space
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA5KPT7iVoI (Red Cross Store)
• Shopping malls as ‘3rd spaces’ – meeting place for socialising
Social surroundings:
• Co-consumers (what having others present means to your perception)
• Emotional contagion (e.g., crying in movies, laughing when others laugh)
Temporal effects:
• Economic / psychological / queuing theory (Hotel chain example: elevators (p326)
Task: purchase and usage occasions
Contextual Effects on Buying (1 of 2)

Antecedent States:
If it feels good, buy it…

Pleasure and Arousal:

These two dimensions
determine whether a shopper
will react positively or
negatively to a consumption
environment.
It’s All About the Experience

Consumers seek more than economic value when buying.

They seek experiences.
When combined with a high need for convenience this creates challenges.

How do businesses design a

memorable experience?
1. Theme the experience
2. Harmonise impressions with positive cues
3. Eliminate negative cues
4. Mix in memorabilia
5. Engage all five senses
The Purchase Environment

“Just make my life easier”

 Choice architecture

Habitual decision making:

Nudge / Hug / Shove / Smack

 Nudges involve positive reinforcement to change behaviours.

 Effective when decision is spontaneous/unplanned, and incentive is

more effective.
E.g., Confectionary free checkouts.
 Exchange
Framework
The Purchase Environment

Point-of-Purchase Stimuli (POP):

• An elaborate product display or
demonstration, a coupon-dispensing
machine, or someone giving out free
samples.

Are POPs
‘nudge’ or ‘hug’?

Source: (top) MAGGI and FUSIAN are registered trade marks of

Société des Produits Nestlé S.A., Vevey, Switzerland; (bottom)
courtesy of POPAI
M-Commerce: From Bricks to Clicks

Companies are moving to have both physical and

online stores.
• Online purchasing has increased substantially due to
increased trust and favourable exchange rates.
• F-commerce is the act of purchasing items on Facebook
using Facebook credits—it is already gaining ground.
• M-commerce is shopping using a mobile device.

The online experience differs due to factors such as:

• Lack of social interaction and immediate delivery.
• Greater use of technology to personalise products.

Source: Coles
Pros and Cons of e-commerce

BENEFITS OF E-COMMERCE LIMITATIONS OF E-COMMERCE

For the consumer For the consumer
• Shop 24 hours a day • Lack of security
• Less travelling • Fraud
• Can receive relevant information in seconds from • Items can get lost in the mail Source:
any location • Can’t touch items SOLOMON,
• More choices of products • Exact colours may not reproduce on computer MICHAEL R.;
MARSHALL,
• More products available monitors GREG W.;
• Greater price information • Expensive to order and then return to less-developed STUART,
• Lower prices so that less affluent can purchase countries ELNORA W.,
MARKETING:
• Participation in virtual auctions • Potential breakdown of human relationships REAL PEOPLE,
• Fast delivery REAL CHOICES,
• Electronic communities 9th Ed., ©2018.
Reprinted and
• Emailed receipts so harder to lose Electronically
reproduced by
For the marketer For the marketer permission of
• The world is the marketplace • Lack of security Pearson
• Decreases costs of doing business • Must maintain site to reap benefits Education, Inc.,
New York, NY.
• Very specialised business can be successful • Fierce price competition
• Real-time pricing • Conflicts with conventional retailers
• Legal issues not resolved
• Requires skills in e-commerce
Post-Purchase Outcomes

Possible outcomes for consumers:

1. Customer satisfaction
Indicators of Marketing
2. Customer value Strategy success
3. Brand loyalty

4. Complaining

5. Disposing
Post-Purchase Outcomes: Satisfaction

Consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction (CS/D):

• Determined by the overall feelings, or attitude, a person has about a
product after it has been purchased and used.
• Evaluation of a consumption experience.
• Marketers will look for ways to improve customer satisfaction.
Reducing Post-Purchase Dissonance

Ways to reduce cognitive dissonance:

• Rationalise decision

• Seek advertisements that support choices (avoid competitive ads)

• “Sell” friends on the positive features of the purchase

• Seek reassurance from satisfied owners

Post-Purchase Outcomes: Complaining

Three Possible Courses of Action:

• Voice: consumer appeals directly to the retailer (e.g., a refund)
• Private: express dissatisfaction about the store or product to friends
and/or boycott the store.
• Third-Party the consumer can take legal action against the merchant,
register a complaint with an Ombudsman or appropriate government
department, write a letter to the newspaper, or complain online.
Post-Purchase Outcomes: Value

Customer value represents the

unique benefits that a customer
gained from buying or
consuming a product. Economic
Altruistic
value value

Hedonic Social
value value
Post-Purchase Outcomes: Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty:
When a customer prefers a brand AND buys it regularly

Brand loyalty has attitudinal components:

1. Thoughts and feelings about rebuying
2. The action of rebuying

Without attitudinal loyalty repurchase is inertia (habit)

 Can be influenced to switch especially by increasing convenience
Post-Purchase Outcomes: Disposal

From consumable to sustainable

• Growing consumer consciousness of
the importance of sustainability
(consumption that protects resources).
• Consumers now consider the
disposal process as part of their
decision making.
• Upcycling involves repurposing an
item into a new item.

Source: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Disposal Options for Consumers

Lateral Cycling: Junk vs. ‘Junque’

Already purchased objects sold or
exchanged
Secondary markets
- second-hand stores
- eBay / Gumtree

Source: J Jacoby, CK Berning & TF Dietvorst, ‘What about disposition?’, Journal of Marketing, April
1977, 41: 23. Reprinted by permission of American Marketing Association.
Summary

The buying, using and disposing of products is a whole area of Marketing.

 Consumers make cognitive, habitual or emotional decisions
During purchase, consumers can be influenced by:
 Physical and social surroundings
 Time perceptions
 Task perceptions
 Antecedent states: emotions
Outcomes of purchasing include:
• Satisfaction / loyalty / value / complaints / disposal of items

Application for Assignment 2

• Consider any relevant purchasing influences on your TM
• Consider how your strategies (recommendations) might also ensure favourable
post-purchase outcomes
Thank you