Discuss Consumer Behavior.

Chapter 1
Introduction to Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior is the study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and desires.

1) Consumers are actors on the marketplace stage.
2) Consumer behavior is a process (stages).
3) Consumer behavior involves many different roles.
Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategy

If the basic premise of marketing is that firms exist to satisfy consumers’ needs, then understanding the consumer is key to developing strategies that will lead to business success.

The market is segmented – consumers are grouped based on similarities, and then the firm devises strategies to appeal to one or more groups. There are many ways to segment a market:

• Behavioural segmentation – e.g. usage rate (such as heavy users of the product), usage occasion, etc.
• Demographic segmentation – population statistics such as age, income, gender, geographical distribution, social class, family structure, race, and ethnicity.
• Psychographic segmentation – values, activities, and the ways that people see themselves.

Relationship marketing occurs when a company makes an effort to interact with customers on a regular basis, giving them reasons to maintain a bond with the company over time.

Database marketing involves tracking consumers’ buying habits very closely and crafting products and messages tailored precisely to people’s wants and needs based on this information. Wal-Mart is a good example of a company that effectively utilizes database marketing.

What databases might you be in? How did you get there?

Marketing’s Impact on Consumers

Marketing and Culture

Popular culture consists of the music, films, sports, books, celebrities, social media, and other forms of entertainment consumed by the mass market; it is both a product of and an inspiration for marketers. Product icons often become central figures in popular culture.

People often buy products not for what they do, but for what they mean. A consumer will choose the brand that has an image (or even a personality) that is consistent with his or her underlying needs.

What are some products that might be consumed strictly for image?
How does the image of the product enhance your sense of self when you use or consume the product?

Significance of Consumption

People may have various relationships with a product:
a) Self-concept attachment—the product helps to establish the user’s identity.
b) Nostalgic attachment—the product serves as a link with a past self.
c) Interdependence—the product is a part of the user’s daily routine.
d) Love—the product elicits emotional bonds of warmth, passion, or other strong emotion.

Which products do you have a strong attachment for? What is the nature of the relationship? How did this relationship develop?

The global consumer – individuals around the world are united by their common devotion to brand name consumer goods, movie stars, and musical celebrities.

Needs and Wants: Do Marketers Manipulate Consumers?

Marketing is often criticized for trying to convince consumers that they “need” many things that they honestly do not need.

Consumers are becoming more powerful.
Mass media marketspace  Fragmented media consumerspace.

Virtual consumption in a wired world enabled and empowered through social media.

Do marketers create artificial needs? Consider that a need is a basic biological motive and a want represents one way that society has taught us that the need can be satisfied.

Are advertising and marketing really necessary? Why?

Ethics, Public Policy and Consumerism

See the American Marketing Association’s Code of Ethics – www.marketingpower.com

Consumer activism
• Adbusters discourages rampant commercialism – Buy Nothing Day, TV Turnoff Week.
• Culture jamming – see www. sniggle.net
• Consumer disgust with scandals in the corporate world
• Green marketing vs. greenwashing

Social marketing uses marketing techniques normally employed to sell products or services to encourage positive behaviors such as increased literacy and to discourage negative activities such as drunk driving.

The Dark Side of Consumer Behavior

Negative or destructive consumer behavior. Three aspects are:
a) The behavior is not done by choice.
b) The gratification derived from the behavior is short-lived.
c) The person experiences strong feelings of regret or guilt afterward.

Addictive Consumption – a physiological or psychological dependency on products or services

Compulsive Consumption – repetitive shopping, often excessive, as an antidote to tension, anxiety, depression, or boredom.

Consumer Behavior as a Field of Study
• relatively new field
• multi-disciplinary
• for application (applied science) or academic (knowledge for knowledge sake)

Paradigm Shift

From Positivism (modernism) to Interpretivism (postmodernism)

Positivist Interpretivist
Nature of Reality Objective, tangible Subjective, variable, unknown
Goal Prediction Understanding
Knowledge generated Time, context independent Time, context dependent
View of causality Real causes exist Multiple, simultaneous influences
Research More quantitative More qualitative

Positivism emphasizes that human reason is supreme, and that there is a single, objective truth that can be discovered by science. Positivism encourages us to stress the function of objects, to celebrate technology, and to regard the world as a rational, ordered place.

Interpretivism (or postmodernism) questions the positivist assumptions. Proponents argue that the ordered, rational view of consumers denies the complex social and cultural world in which we live. Interpretivists instead stress the importance of symbolic, subjective experience and the idea that meaning is in the mind of the person.
The Plan of the Book – from micro to macro.

Are you looking for a similar paper or any other quality academic essay? Then look no further. Our research paper writing service is what you require. Our team of experienced writers is on standby to deliver to you an original paper as per your specified instructions with zero plagiarism guaranteed. This is the perfect way you can prepare your own unique academic paper and score the grades you deserve.

Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.

[order_calculator]