MOTIVATION, ABILITY AND OPPORTUNITY

Consumer Behavior
Sem 2, 2023-2024

Adapted from Hoyer W. D., MacInnis D. J. and Pieters R. (2018), Consumer Behavior, 7th ed., Cengage Learning.
Learning objectives
1. Show how motivation influences high-effort behavior and high-effort
information processing and decision-making

2. Discuss the four types of influences that determine the consumer’s

motivation to process information, make a decision, or take an action

3. Explain how financial, cognitive, emotional, physical, and social and cultural
resources, plus age and education, can affect the individual’s ability to
engage in consumer behaviors

4. Identify the three main types of influences on the consumer’s opportunity to

process information and acquire, consume, or dispose of products
What affects consumer behavior?

 The process of making decisions

 The psychological core

 The consumer's culture

Consumer motivation and its effects
 Motivation: An inner state of activation that provides energy needed to
achieve a goal.

 Consumers can be motivated to acquire, use, or dispose of an offering.

Consumer motivation and its effects

 Marketers conduct research to

find out what motivate
consumers to make the
purchases they make.
Consumer motivation and its effects
 High-effort behavior
• Drives that bring a goal closer and create a willingness to spend time and money
 High-effort information processing and decision-making
• When consumers are highly motivated to achieve a goal, they are more likely to
pay careful attention to it, think about it, attempt to understand or comprehend
goal-relevant information, evaluate that information critically, and try to
remember it for later use
 Felt involvement
• Consumer's experience of being motivated with respect to products or services,
or decisions and actions regarding these
Drivers of motivation
 Personal relevance
• Something that has direct
bearing on self that has
potentially significant
consequence or implication
 Self-concept
• Mental view of who one is
 Values
• Abstract, enduring beliefs
about what is right or
wrong, important, or good
or bad
Drivers of motivation
 Need
• Internal state of tension
experienced as a discrepancy
between current and ideal state
(physical or psychological)
 Goal
• Outcome one would like to achieve
• Can be concrete or abstract and
promotion-focused or prevention-
focused
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Kotler P. T. & Amstrong G. 2018, Principles of Marketing (17th Global Edition), Pearson.
Quester P., Pettigrew S., Rao Hill S., Kopanidis F., Hawkins D. I. 2014, Consumer Behaviour - Implications for
Marketing Strategy, McGraw-Hill Education.
Characteristics of needs
 Needs can be internally or externally activated

 Need satisfaction is dynamic

 Needs exist in hierarchy

 Needs can conflict

• approach-approach conflict

• approach-avoidance conflict

• avoidance-avoidance conflict
Motivational conflicts
 We direct our behavior toward  Sometimes we’re motivated to
goals we value positively; we are avoid a negative outcome rather
motivated to approach the goal than achieve a positive outcome.
and to seek out products that will
help us to reach it.
 Motivational conflicts

Marketers attempt to satisfy consumers’ needs by providing possible solutions to these dilemmas
Discovering purchase motives
 Manifest motives: motives that are known and freely admitted.

 Latent motives: motives that are either unknown to the consumer or that the
consumer is reluctant to admit them.
Quester P., Pettigrew S., Rao Hill S., Kopanidis F., Hawkins D. I. 2014, Consumer Behaviour - Implications for Marketing
Strategy, McGraw-Hill Education.
What research says about consumer motivation …
 Consumer motivation for luxury consumption: Self-acceptance, Affiliation,
Financial success (money), Attractive appearance (image), Social recognition
(popularity), Need for uniqueness

Shao, W., Grace, D., & Ross, M. (2019). Consumer motivation and luxury consumption: Testing moderating
effects. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 46, 33-44.
What research says about consumer motivation …
 Motivational drivers of counterfeit consumption: Enhanced self-image,
Express themselves and/or to fit in, Desire to create and sustain ideal
identities, Saving money, Genuine interest etc.

Bian, X., Wang, K. Y., Smith, A., & Yannopoulou, N. (2016). New insights into unethical counterfeit
consumption. Journal of Business Research, 69(10), 4249-4258.
What research says about consumer motivation …
 Consumer motivation to share information on goods and services on
consumer opinion platforms: Concern for other consumers, Economic
incentives, Social benefits, Advice seeking, Extraversion/ positive self-
enhancement

Hennig-Thurau, T., Gwinner, K. P., Walsh, G., & Gremler, D. D. (2004). Electronic word-of-mouth via
consumer-opinion platforms: what motivates consumers to articulate themselves on the internet?. Journal of
Interactive Marketing, 18(1), 38-52.
What research says about consumer motivation …
 Consumer motivation to shop online

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hedonic-utilitarian-motivation-ecommerce-abhay-kumar
Goals
 A goal is a particular end state or
outcome that a person would like
to achieve.
• Consumers are more likely to be
involved in ads when brands are
relevant to consumers’ goals

 Types of goals: promotion-focused

or prevention-focused
Consumer persuasion based on promotion or prevention focused goals

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/consumer-persuasion-based-
promotion-prevention-focused-farah-khan
Marketing implications of needs and goals

 Consumers do not buy products; instead, they by motive satisfaction or

problem solutions.

 An advertising campaign needs to cover the important purchase motives of

the target market, and develop marketing mixes around these motives.

 Enhancing motivation to process communications

 Product development and positioning

Consumer involvement
Imagine this conversation between two shoppers at a car dealership.
Who has a higher level of involvement?

I want the one I read about in

the latest issue of Car and
Driver magazine: It has a six-
cylinder turbo engine, a
double-clutch transmission, a
90 strokebore, and 10:1 I want a red one.
compression ratio.
Involvement & motivation to process information

 Our motivation to attain a goal increases our desire to acquire the products or
services that we believe will satisfy it.

 However, not everyone is motivated to the same extent.

 Involvement (i.e. a person’s perceived relevance of the object based on their

inherent needs, values, and interests) reflects our level of motivation to
process information about a product or service we believe will help us to
solve a problem or reach a goal.
Perceived risk
 Extent to which the consumer anticipates:
• Negative consequences of an action to emerge
Risk &
• Positive consequences to not emerge involvement

 Tends to be high because of:

• New offering
• High price
• Complex technology
• Brand differentiation
• Little confidence or experience in evaluation
• Opinions of others and fear of judgment
Types of perceived risk

Performance risk Financial risk Physical (safety) risk

Social risk Psychological risk Time risk

Three ‘quit smoking’ ads
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIyqcST29wQ

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhuHeI4H00U

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxCM5Mb5Hnc
Marketing implications of perceived risks
 Consumers are motivated to engage in any number of behaviors and
information-processing activities to reduce or resolve risk, e.g.
• collect additional information (e.g. social media, online research, news, sales
specialists experts)
• remain brand loyal
• purchase famous brands
• buy the most expensive offering, choose a heavily advertised brand

 When perceived risk is high, marketers can either reduce uncertainty or

reduce the perceived consequences of failure.
Marketing implications of perceived risks
Consumer ability and opportunity

Motivation may not result in action unless a consumer has the ability to
process information, make decisions, or engage in behaviors.

 Ability
• Factors that affect consumers' ability to process information and make decisions
• Financial, cognitive, emotional, physical, social, cultural resources,
education, and age
 Key influences in consumer opportunity
• Lack of time, distraction, and the amount, complexity, repetition, and control of
information
Marketing implication of enhancing information processing

 Repeating marketing communications

 Reducing time pressure

 Reducing time needed for purchase and learning about a product or service

 Providing information when and where consumers choose to access it