Chapter 3 Consumer Behaviour

CHAPTER 3
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Learning objectives:
• After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

– Illustrate how a marketer should take motivation into
account in his or her marketing messages
– Explain the perception process and the marketing
implications of perceptual defence
– Explain and illustrate the nature and elements of learning
– Illustrate the use of the components of attitudes and how
attitudes can be changed
– Explain the characteristics of personality and its value to
marketers
© 2017 Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd Marketing Management - A South African Perspective 3e
– Explain the nature of lifestyle
– explain family decision making in terms of family roles and
types
– explain the nature and implications of culture
– illustrate the implications of different social classes
– explain the different reference groups
– illustrate types of decision making and the decision-
making process
– understand the stages and categories of adoptingnew
products.
Introduction
• Consumer behaviour is the decision-making process used in

selecting, evaluating, using and disposing of products and
services.
• A consumer’s buying decision is not determined by only one
factor but mostly by a number of factors.
• This chapter will focus on the individual and group factors
influencing consumers’ behaviour as well as the decision-
making process. Figure 3.1 provides an overview of consumer
behaviour.
Individual factors
• Individual factors refer to those factors which are

inherent in human behaviour.
Motivation:
• Motivation is what moves people to action.
– Needs are the basic sources of buyer behaviour, but they have to be
stimulated before the consumer is driven to action.
– When a person wishes to satisfy a need we call it motivation.
– There is a close relationship between needs and motives.
– Needs lead to motives and a motive is a need sufficiently stimulated to
move an individual to seek satisfaction.
– Two classifications of motives that are particularly relevant to the
marketer are Maslow’s hierarchy of motives, and the economic and
emotional classification.
• Economic and emotional classification of motives
– Consumers are not always motivated by physiological needs in decision
making.
– Customers also purchase products taking price, quality, performance
and reliability into consideration. This is known as economic motives.
– Emotional motives represent those motives that involve emotions and
correspond with Maslow’s social and esteem motives.
Perception:
• Perception is influenced by what we have learnt. The way in
which we perceive things is influences by what we know
about them.
• The perception process:
– Exposure:
• occurs when the stimuli come within range of one of the five
primary receptors (vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch).
• Most of the stimuli to which an individual is exposed is deliberately
selected.
• This is known as selective exposure.
– Attention:
• Is activated when one or more of the sensory receptors are
stimulated and the resulting sensations are processed in the brain.
• Because the individual is exposed to more stimuli than he/ she can
process, the individual is selective in attending to marketing and
other messages – selective attention.
– Interpretation:
• The meaning that people assign to sensory stimuli.
• Consumers usually interpret information on the basis of their own
attitudes, beliefs, motives and experiences, known as selective
interpretation.
– Recall (memory):
• Consumers do not remember all the information they see, hear or
read even after attending to and interpreting it – this is known as
selective recall.
Learning ability:
• Any facet of a person’s behaviour is dependent on what he or
she learns and remembers about objects and situations.
• Elements of learning:
– Stimulus: the consumer can either be stimulated by physical things
such as products, brands and size, or intangibles such as service and
quality.
– Response: is any action, reaction or state of mind which results from a
particular stimulus or cue.
– Reinforcement: increases the likelihood that a particular response will
occur in the future as the result of particular cues or stimuli.
– Repetition: the act of repeating past actions or experiences and thus
enhances learning.
Attitudes:
• A learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favourable
way toward market-related objects, events or situations.
• Components of attitudes:
– Cognitive component: refers to a person’s knowledge and perceptions
that may be acquired by direct experience with the product and other
sources of information.
– Affective component: the consumer’s feelings or emotions with
respect to the focus of the attitude.
– Behavioural (conative) component: represents the outcome of the
cognitive and affective components – to buy or not to buy.
• There are various ways in which the marketer can influence or change
consumer attitudes:
– Changing consumer beliefs of a brand.
– Changing consumers’ behaviour towards a product.
– Adding new beliefs.
– Strengthening beliefs.
Personality:
• Personality: those inner psychological characteristics that
determine and reflect how a person responds to his/ her
environment.
• Characteristics of personality
– Personality reflects individual differences
– Personality is consistent and enduring
• The value of personality to marketers

– Knowledge of personality is essential for the marketer because
consumers tend to buy products that reflect, enhance or defend their
personalities.
– It also assists marketers in designing appropriate advertisements that
will appeal to groups of similar personalities.
Lifestyle:
• Marketers assess people’s lifestyles to discover how they
spend their time, what they find interesting and important,
and how they view themselves and the world around them.
• Lifestyle is related to people’s values.
Group factors
• Consumer behaviour is strongly influenced by family, culture,

social class, reference groups and opinion leaders.
Family:
• Family has a major influence on the consumer behaviour of its
members.
• There are two levels of family:
– the Nuclear family comprising a husband, wife and children; and
– the extended family which includes grandparents or other relatives
who live under the same roof as the nuclear family.
• Family roles:
– Initiator: first person to suggest that a specific product should be
bought
– Influencer: the person influences the final decision either explicitly
or implicitly
– Decision-maker: this person takes the actual decision and makes the
final choice
– Purchaser: person that buys the products
– User: the person that uses the product at the end
•Family types:
– Families are usually classified in terms of the dominant member –
the person who makes or influences the decision:
• Husband-dominant families
• Wife-dominant families
• Nuclear family
• Child-dominant families
Cultural group:
• Culture refers to the system of shared beliefs and behaviours in
a society that are learnt and transmitted from generation to
generation.
• A consumer’s culture further determines his or her overall
priorities in respect of different activities and products.
• A product that provides benefits consistent with those desired
by members of a culture has a better chance of being accepted
in the market.
Social class:
• These are groups of people who have the same social standing
in society and who show similar behavioural patterns.
• Social class strongly influences consumer lifestyles and is in
general a good indicator of the type of product that the
consumers would be interested in.
• Consumers buy products to demonstrate their membership to
a particular social class and to advance their social standing in
society.
• Marketing implications of social class:
– Media usage: more educated individuals generally focus more on
reading and going out to cinemas than less educated individuals who
spend more time watching TV.
– Collection of information: higher social groups are more informed and
more exposed to information sources.
– Store choice: higher social classes shop more at branded stores in
upmarket areas and less at downtown discount stores.
– Leisure pursuits: individuals in the higher social classes spend more
time on leisure and sporting activities that are often related to some
level of prestige.
Reference groups:
• A reference group is a group of people that an individual uses
as standard when making decisions.
• Types of reference groups that influence consumer behaviour:
– Membership groups: group to which an individual has gained
membership e.g. Nike running club
– Automatic groups: groups that individuals fall into because of gender,
age or occupation
– Negative groups: groups that individuals intentionally avoid being
associated with
– Associative groups: groups that individuals want to belong to and work
towards being a part of, because these groups are of high status and
social standing.
Opinion leader:
• A reference group can also be a reference person, an individual
to whom others will look in forming opinions and taking
consumer decisions, this reference person can be regarded as
an opinion leader.
Consumer decision-making process
Types of decision-making:
• Real decision making: this is a complex process and involves
extensive problem solving e.g. the decision to buy a new car.
• Impulse decision making: refers to unplanned action on the
spur of the moment e.g. while standing in the queue, you buy
a chocolate bar displayed at the till.
• Habitual decision making: occurs when a consumer is loyal
and buys a certain product (e.g. a large tin of Ricoffy)
automatically without considering competitors.
Phases in consumer decision-making:
• Need-recognition: when consumer becomes aware of a need.
• Search for information: consumer does research and find
information from various sources.
• Evaluation: consumer looks at various options and makes
comparisons.
• Purchase decision: a decision is made once the consumer has
chosen the best alternative.
• Post-purchase evaluation: the consumer re-evaluates his/ her
decision and if the product fulfils all expectations, this can lead
to brand loyalty.
The adoption of new products
• Refers to the different stages of the process in which an

individual makes a decision to purchase a new product or not,
and then whether to continue using that product or service.
• When a product is unknown and there is a certain degree of
risk attached to its use, it is only adopted gradually as part of a
learning process.
• The perceived risk associated with the adoption of a new
product includes:
– financial risk (the money spent on the product will be wasted if the
product is unsatisfactory);
– functional risk (there is a danger that the product may not perform as
desired);
– social risk (consumers may feel that others may look down on them if
they purchase the product); and
– physical risk (the potential for personal harm or health hazard).
• Consumers usually move through the following five stages in
arriving at a decision to purchase or reject the new product:
– Awareness: consumers are exposed to the product innovation. They
know about the new idea but lack sufficient awareness about it.
– Interest: the consumer becomes interested in the product and seeks
more information about it.
– Evaluation: consumers draw conclusions about the innovation and
determine whether more information is necessary. If the evaluation is
satisfactory then the consumer will try the product.
– Trial: consumers use the product on a limited basis.
– Adoption or rejection: after experience with the product, the
consumer decides whether to continue using it or to reject the
product.

Chapter 3 Consumer Behaviour

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Chapter 3 Consumer Behaviour

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CHAPTER 3

• After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

• Consumer behaviour is the decision-making process used in

• Individual factors refer to those factors which are

• The value of personality to marketers

• Consumer behaviour is strongly influenced by family, culture,

• Refers to the different stages of the process in which an

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