MARK2051: Consumer Behaviour Study Notes
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR AND MARKETING STRATEGY
• Marketing strategy: combination of product, price, distribution and promotion most suited to a particular group of consumers.
• ! key to successful marketing strategy is an understanding of CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
(CB): discipline dealing w/ how and why consumers purchase (or don’t) goods + services.
o Dynamic interaction of cognitive, behaviour and environmental events by which human beings conduct the exchange aspects of their lives – (American Marketing Association)
• Org must provide customer value:
different between all benefits derived from a total product + all the costs of acquiring those benefits.
Consumer behaviour a crucial aspect of:
Marketing strategy
• MARKET SEGMENTATION
o = identifying consumer groups w/ unique needs/purchasing
processes and developing specific marketing programs targeted at individual groups.
o Basis of most marketing strategies.
o e.g. benefit segmentation: focus on particular outcome consumers seek from using a product.
• POSITIONING STRATEGY
o = the way a product/brand compares to its competitors, as perceived by customers.
New market applications
• Examining CB can yield insights that can produce new marketing opportunities and markets.
Global marketing
• = form of international marketing that aims to target particular consumer segments, regardless of where they are located in the world.
o ! using STANDARDISED marketing mixes.
o More cohesive, less costly.
o But, may fail when there is no universal appeal.
• Must understand differences in CB between international markets.
Marketing mix
• = 4 Ps = Product, Price, Place (Distribution), Promotion.
• Products must solve a consumer problem.
• Consumer behaviour audit: systematic review of all important aspects of consumer behaviour.
o List of key questions as guide to develop marketing strategy from CB perspective.
o Organised around key decisions MMs must make re:
" Target market/segmentation.
" Product positioning.
" Marketing mix – 4Ps.
o Reveals gaps ! points to need for future research.
An overview of consumer behaviour The nature of consumption
• MMs view the consumer as a decision-making unit that takes in info, processes it and takes action to achieve satisfaction and enhance their lifestyle.
• Past decisions and time-related events lead to lifestyle
CHANGES that pose additional consumption problems and result in new
purchases/attitudes ! further lifestyle changes.
Model of consumer behaviour
Interna l inf
luences
Ex tern
al inf lue nc
es
• Key to understanding consumers to develop marketing strategies ! maximise sales .:
profitability.
• LIMITATIONS:
o Appears static ! does reflect dynamic nature of CB.
o Consumers are continually evolving and changing as they process new information related to their lifestyle and the outcome of past purchase decisions.
o .: underlying model is the assumption that information processing is a never-ending activity.
Consumer behaviour and society
• Consumerism: evolving activities of govts, businesses, orgs and consumers aimed at protecting/enhancing rights of consumers.
o Movement in response to increasing roles of ethics in business.
• Issue of injurious consumption for MMs = CB that may be harmful/have negative consequences – e.g. cigarettes, alcohol, gambling.
PART A: Internal influences
1) PERCEPTION
• Perception: process through which people notice/attend to/interpret the stimuli (objects, messages, events) they encounter.
• Critical activity that links individual consumers to group/situation/marketer influences.
The nature of perception
• Critical part of human brain’s information processing system: series of interlinked activities by which stimuli are transformed into info and stored.
•
PERCEPTION PROCESS:
1. Exposure
2. Attention 3. Interpretation
• 4TH step in information processing system = MEMORY: how the meanings given to perceptual situations are recorded as info for s-t/l-t storage.
• Distinction between s-t and l-t memory referred to as duplex theory of memory.
• Perceptual selection – only small % of info person is exposed to is passed onto the brain for interpretation.
1. Exposure
• = stimulus comes w/in a range of person’s sensory receptors.
• Stimulus must be placed in consumer’s immediate environment – via different promotional/distribution channels.
• Stimulus must exceed absolute threshold: lowest level of stimulation necessary for detection by a person’s sensory receptors.
• Selective exposure: process by which individuals deliberately seek out exposure to certain stimuli and avoid others; exposure can be:
o RANDOM.
o DELIBERATE ! consumers seek info that will help them achieve certain GOALS (immediate + long-range).
2. Attention
• = stimulus activates sensor receptor nerves and resulting sensations go to brain for processing.
Attention determined by…
1.
Stimulusfactors
Physicalcharacteristics of stimulus
• Size and intensity (loudness/brightness) o Bigger.
o Insertion frequency: no. of times the same ad appears in the same program.
• Colour and movement
• Position
o Centre – e.g. competition for eye-level space in grocery stores.
• Isolation (separation from other objects)
• Format o Simple.
• Contrast
o Adaptation level theory: people adjust to the level/type of stimulus to which they are accustomed.
" .: MMs must change campaigns regularly.
o Differential threshold: consumer’s ability to notice differences in levels of stimulation.
" Just-noticeable difference (jnd): min amount of change in a
stimulus that needs to occur for consumers to notice difference.
• Compressed messages (sped up to increase attention)
• Information quantity
o MMs must avoid info overload.
2. I
ndividualfactors
Personal characteristics influencing perception
• Consumer INTERESTS/NEEDS/MOTIVATIONS are the primary individual characteristics that influence attention.
o ! reflection of lifestyle and goals.
• Tendency for customers to demonstrate a:
o Heightened awareness of stimuli relevant to their needs/interests
= perceptual vigilance.
o Decreased awareness of stimuli not relevant to their needs/interests = perceptual defence.
• Increasing trend of ‘adversarial shoppers’ and ‘ad sceptics’.
3.
Situationalfactors
Environmental elements other than the focal object
• Program involvement
o Gain in attention occurs when program involvement moves from low to moderate levels.
o But high levels of program involvement may detract from attention paid to some types of commercials.
Non-focused attention
• = automatic monitoring = superficial/distracted allocation or processing ability to a stimulus.
• Explained by hemispheric lateralisation: two sides of brain control different types of activities.
o Left: rational though, verbal info.
o Right: pictorial, geometric, non-verbal info.
• Controversy over subliminal messaging: message not consciously attended to by audience exposed.
o Prohibited under the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice.
3. Interpretation
• = assignment of MEANING to sensations.
• Gestalt psychology: school of psychology that examines the process by which stimulus info is organised/categories by human brain into patterns.
• 2 components:
a) COGNITIVE
INTERPRETATION: stimuli are placed in existing categories of meaning.
" Adding meaning from existing knowledge.
" FACTUAL.
" Info more likely to be recalled w/out prompting.
b) AFFECTIVE INTERPRETATION: emotional response triggered by stimulus.
" Adding meaning from feeling.
" EMOTIONAL.
" Info more likely to be recognised w/out prompting.
• Must distinguish between semantic meaning (conventional) and psychological meaning (based on experience/context).
Interpretation determined by…
1.
Individualcharacteristics
• Learning
o Provides framework w/in which people give meaning to new events/data.
o Can vary across different cultures.
• Expectations
o Play a role in how quality is perceived and how satisfaction is experienced.
