Marketing/Consumer Behavior

Marketing Book Sections

Marketing

CH.1-Introduction CH.2-Marketing Strategy  CH.3-Marketing Plan  CH.4-Targeting & Segmentation

CH.5-Consumer Behavior CH.6-Product Development  CH.7-Market Research  CH.8-Marketing Ethics

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In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy.

-Ivan Illich

Consumer Market
Refers to a target audience where the end customers are the purchasers and users of the goods and services.

Industrial Market
Refers to a market where other businesses (B2B), not end consumers, are the purchasers of the goods and services.

Consumer behaviour is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy a product. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics and behavioural variables in an attempt to understand people's wants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general.

Customer behaviour study is based on consumer buying behaviour, with the customer playing the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer. Relationship marketing is an influential asset for customer behaviour analysis as it has a keen interest in the re-discovery of the true meaning of marketing through the re-affirmation of the importance of the customer or buyer. A greater importance is also placed on consumer retention, customer relationship management, personalisation, customisation and one-to-one marketing. Social functions can be categorized into social choice and welfare functions.

Each method for vote counting is assumed as social function but if Arrow’s possibility theorem is used for a social function, social welfare function is achieved. Some specifications of the social functions are decisiveness, neutrality, anonymity, monotonicity, unanimity, homogeneity and weak and strong Pareto optimality. No social choice function meets these requirements in an ordinal scale simultaneously. The most important characteristic of a social function is identification of the interactive effect of alternatives and creating a logical relation with the ranks. Marketing provides services in order to satisfy customers. With that in mind, the productive system is considered from its beginning at the production level, to the end of the cycle, the consumer (Kioumarsi et al., 2009).

Psychological variables
Variables related to process such as motivation, perception, learning, attitude, personality, and lifestyle.

Social influences
Influences such as family, social class, reference groups, and culture.

Purchase situation
Situation-dependent variables such as purchase reason, time, and surroundings.

Needs motivation
A theory that explains why consumers make decisions to satisfy their salient needs.

Needs
The basic, motivating forces that shape decision making.

Wants
Wants are the learned needs that extend beyond the basic needs.

Economic needs
The types of product features consumers desire.


 * Value
 * Convenience
 * Efficiency in operation
 * Dependability in use
 * Improvement in earnings

Search for information
Both internal and external searches.

Problem solving
The amount of effort exerted in information gathering and problem solving. The type of problem solving depends on several variables:


 * Extensive problem solving: more effort is expended to decide how to satisfy a need. This type is used for infrequently purchased, expensive, high-risk, or new goods or services.
 * Routine problem solving: Low-involvement, inexpensive, limited risk purchase requiring minimal effort. Used when the consumer has considerable experience in how to meet the need.

Purchase product
The actual purchase transaction.

Post purchase evaluation
Cognitive dissonance occurs as consumers seek out positive reinforcement to reaffirm their purchase decision and to minimize negative uncertainty that can cause dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction is most often referred to as "buyers remorse".

Adoption process for new products
Occurs when a consumer's previous buying experiences are not relevant to the current problem he or she would like to solve.


 * Awareness: consumer is aware of, but lacks details of, the brand
 * Interest: consumer gathers information about the brand
 * Evaluation: consumer imagines trying the brand and anticipates the benefit from its use
 * Trial: consumer tries the brand
 * Decision: consumer adopts the brand for future use or rejects it
 * Confirmation: consumer will seek information to support his or her decision and to reduce tension (cognitive dissonance)

Consumer behavior for industrial markets
Characterized by buyers who:


 * Less emotional than consumer buyer markets
 * Look for specific product attributes, such as economy in cost and use, productivity, and quality
 * Want to partner with businesses that are reliable, fair, consistent, speedy, and cooperative
 * Are generally spending a larger amount of money. thus, the process tends to be more complex and lengthy
 * Is more task oriented and rational than consumer product buyer.
 * Has firm motives of Quality, price and delivery against emotional motives in the other cases.