Analyzing Consumer Markets

• Consumer behavior


  The study of how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, use, and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants
• Consumer Characteristics

  • Cultural
  • Social
  • Personal
• Culture


  The fundamental determinant of a person's wants and behavior
• Subcultures


  Smaller groups that provide more specific identification and socialization for their members
• Social classes

  • Lower lowers
  • Upper lowers
  • Working class
  • Middle class
  • Upper middles
  • Lower uppers
  • Upper uppers
• Social Factors


  Reference groups, family, and social roles and statuses affect our buying behavior
• Reference groups


  Groups that have a direct (face-to-face) or indirect influence on a person's attitudes or behavior
• Membership groups


  Groups having a direct influence
• Primary groups


  Groups with whom the person interacts fairly continuously and informally, such as family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers
• Secondary groups


  Groups that are more formal and require less continuous interaction, such as religious, professional, and trade-union groups
• Aspirational groups


  Groups a person hopes to join
• Dissociative groups


  Groups whose values or behavior an individual rejects
• Opinion leader


  A person who offers informal advice or information about a specific product or product category
• Family


  The most important consumer buying organization in society
• Family of orientation


  Consists of parents and siblings
• Family of procreation


  Consists of the person's spouse and children
• Role


  The activities a person is expected to perform
• Status


  The position a role connotates
• Personal Factors

  • Age and stage in the life cycle
  • Occupation and economic circumstances
  • Personality and self-concept
  • Lifestyle and values
• Brand personality


  The specific mix of human traits that can be attributed to a particular brand
• Stanford's Jennifer Aaker researched Brand Personalities
• Lifestyle


  A person's pattern of living in the world as expressed in activities, interests, and opinions
• Multitasking


  Doing two or more things at the same time, which consumers who experience time famine are prone to?
• Core values


  The belief systems that underlie attitudes and behaviors
• Psychological Processes

  • Motivation
  • Perception
  • Learning
  • Memory
• Motive


  A need that becomes aroused to a sufficient level of intensity to drive us to act
• Marketing Stimuli

  • Products and services
  • Price
  • Distribution
  • Communications
• Other Stimuli

  • Economic
  • Technological
  • Political
  • Cultural
• Consumer Buying Process

  • Problem recognition
  • Information search
  • Evaluation of alternatives
  • Purchase decision
  • Post-purchase behavior
• Purchase Decision

  • Product choice
  • Brand choice
  • Dealer choice
  • Purchase amount
  • Purchase timing
  • Payment method
• Perception


  The process by which we select, organize, and interpret information inputs to create a meaningful picture of the world
• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

  • Physiological Needs
  • Safety Needs
  • Social Needs
  • Self-actualization Needs
• Perceptual Processes

  • Selective attention
  • Selective distortion
  • Selective retention
• Selective attention


  The tendency for marketers to work hard to attract consumers' notice
• Selective distortion


  The tendency to interpret information in a way that fits our preconceptions
• Subliminal perception


  The embedding of covert, subliminal messages in ads or packaging
• Learning


  Induces changes in our behavior arising from experience
• Drive


  A strong internal stimulus impelling action
• Cues


  Minor stimuli that determine when, where, and how a person responds
• Discrimination


  Learning to recognize differences in sets of similar stimuli and adjust our responses accordingly