Building Customer

Relationships and
Consumer Behavior
5&6

© 2011 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. All rights reserved.

 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
or PSYCHOLOGY 101

‣ Women buy more than

55% of new cars and
light trucks, spend
billions on accessories,
and influence 85% of all
decisions.
‣ So, why does that
matter to a marketer?

© 2011 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. All rights reserved.

 Take a Minute and

‣ Write down all the items you’ve purchased in the past

week.
‣ Food
‣ Books
‣ Clothes
‣ Etc.

‣ Did you follow the same steps (thought process) for

each item?
 FIGURE 5-1
Purchase decision process

LO1
 Question:

‣ Where might a consumer find information when

conducting an external search?
FIGURE 5-2 Comparison of problem-solving variations

© 2011 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. All rights reserved. LO 2

 PROBLEM SOLVING OPTIONS IN THE
CONSUMER PURCHASE DECISION PROCESS

‣ Involvement depends on personal, social and financial

impact
‣ The greater the impact, the greater the involvement.

‣ High involvement purchases generally:

‣ are expensive; can have serious personal consequences; can reflect
on your social image
‣ Eg. Probably will skip some of the decision making process to buy ice
cream but not to buy a car or new camera or select a vacation
destination.

© 2011 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. All rights reserved. LO 2

 Continued:

‣ Problem-Solving Variations

‣ Extended problem Solving – engage all five stages

(major purchases)

‣ Limited problem Solving – engage in some information

gathering – maybe from a friend or on-line ask through social
media (eg. Coffee maker versus Keureg, gym membership)

‣ Routine problem Solving – minor purchases such as milk,

toilet paper – habitual purchasing
 Continued:

‣ High or Low Involvement and Marketing Strategy

‣ Market leaders in low involvement products focus on:
‣ Maintaining quality
‣ Maintaining supply to avoid substitutions
‣ Advertising messages reassuring the consumer made the right choice

‣ High involvement products focus on:

‣ provide consumers with information through advertising, on-line
chat rooms, brand websites and personal selling to help them with
the five steps of the decision
Lexus
FIGURE 5-3
Influences on the
consumer purchase
decision process

- culture and social

factors r the most
important

LO2
 SOCIOCULTURAL INFLUENCES ON
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

‣ Personal Influence – purchases are often influenced by

the views, opinions and behaviours of others.
‣ Opinion Leadership – having direct or indirect influence over
others. Celebrities endorsing a product.
‣ Tim's

‣ Word of Mouth – influence of others during conversation

‣ Buzz marketing – popularity due to word of mouth
‣ Viral marketing – popularity due to social media

© 2011 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. All rights reserved. LO 4

 SOCIOCULTURAL INFLUENCES ON
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
‣ Reference Groups – individuals or groups we look to for their
input in our decisions – friends, family, colleagues etc.
‣ Family Influence
‣ Consumer Socialization – learning to buy and what to by
through exposure and experience with products as a child
‣ Family Life Cycle – purchases are based on where you are in
your family life cycle
‣ Family Decision Making – spouse dominant or joint
‣ Wives are dominant in food, toys, clothing, medicine
‣ Husbands are dominant in tools, home and car repairs
‣ Children influence billions in the industry as well

© 2011 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. All rights reserved. LO 4

 SOCIOCULTURAL INFLUENCES ON
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
‣ Social Class – group to which you fit into in terms of
values, lifestyles, interests and behaviours

‣ Culture (values, ideas and attitudes) and Subculture

(unique sub-groups within the larger group)
‣ French Canadian Subculture
‣ Acadian Subculture
‣ Chinese-Canadian Subculture
‣ Other Ethnic Subcultures

© 2011 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. All rights reserved. LO 4

 Finally

‣ There are multiple ways marketers influence

consumer behaviour.
‣ In the end, consumers make the choice based on their
personal circumstances
‣ Consumer behaviour is HEAVILY influenced by
marketing strategies,
AND
‣ Marketing strategies are HEAVILY influenced by
consumer behaviour.
 Target Marketing….

‣ Ethical business practice ??

‣ Sound business practice ??

‣ Exploitive/bad ??

‣ What about targeting visible minorities/vulnerable

target markets ??