The Buyer

Behavior School

of ThoughtYiğit Kalafatoğlu

Focusing on..

Demographic information on how many

and who are the customers.

Why customer behave the way they do in

marketplace?

Understanding brand choice behavior as

opposed to other types of choices

Influenced by..

Explanations of human behavior

Psychology, sociology and anthropology

Behavioral sciences has generated the

phenomenon

Keynotes..

It has the greatest impact on the

discipline of marketing with possible

exception of the managerial school of

marketing.

It is hard to provide a chronological and

detailed evolution of this school of

thought as other schools.

Evolution and Descriptions

1. Why become so popular?

2. Pioneers in the behavioral sciences..

3. How did it evolved and where it is today?

4. Major tenets, findings and generalization

5. Impact on the dicipline & practice of marketing

Why so popular? Emergence of the marketing concept

Established body of knowledge in behavioral science

Shift from sellers economy to buyers economy

Questioning the traditional supply-oriented marketing practices including the concept of push marketing.

Beginning..

Hall (1960) proposed five silent universal languages: time, space,

friendship, material possessions, and nature of agreements.

Kotler (1967) contrasted the production, selling and customer-

oriented marketing philosophies.

Concepts from cognitive psychology borrowed: cognitive

dissonance.

Social stratification, social class, and diffusion of innovations,

opinion leadership borrowed from sociology

Focuse groups adopted from behavioral sciences into marketing

Early Pioneers from Behavioral Sciences

1. George Katona (1953): Differences between economic

and psychological behavior generated strong interest.

2. Paul Lazarsfeld: (1955): Opinion Leadership and Personal

Influence

3. Everett Rogers (1962): Diffusion of innovation, new

products, brands.

4. Leon Fistinger (1957): Coginitive Dissonance

Focus on 1950’s..

1. Emotional and irrational psychological determinants of

consumer behavior.

1. Freudian Psychology and Unconscious Motivations

2. Interpretation of consumer information is regarded as highly

subjective and lacking in consensus validation.

Research Tradition of 50’s

Conspicuous consumption and reference

group influence resulted in a series of

empirical studies.

Influence of reference groups

WOMM- - Personal Influence

Family Buying Behavior

Brand Loyalty

Research Tradition of 60’s

The use of experimental designs and

laboratory based experiments.

Theory of perceived risk in consumer behavior

Development of comprehensive theories.

Comprehensive Theory of

Buyer Behavior

Howard and Sheth (1969) and the meta-

theory based on psychology:

Simplify

Complicate

Information and Experience

Recommendation

Satisfaction

Decade of 70’s

First time, it is began to emerge as a distinct

discipline.

Foundation of Association for Consumer

Research (ACR) in 1969

The Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) in

1974

Journal of Consumer Research

JCR created a medium for interdisciplinary

echange over handling strategies in the industrial

vendor selection process

1. Anderson and Chambers (1985) proposed a

model of the organizational buying process

2. Social and public services.

3. Cross Cultural Issues

4. Family Buying Behavior.

5. Area of attitude-behavior relationship

Theory of Behavioral Intensions

Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) created a strong

enthusiasm in field;

Person’s personal belief

Person’s beliefs about his/her reference group.

Fishbein’s model generated numerous research

studies in the field like information processing.

Decade of 80’s..

The new dawn of consumer behavior.

The backlash against information processing and

multi-attribute models.

Includes rituals and symbolism.

Experiential and fantasy behavior.

Impact of religion in consumer behavior.

Era is argued as the comeback of discipline of

marketing!

Decade of 80’s..

Thinking in the era of consumer involvement…

Bloch, Shrerrell and Ridway (1986) have offered

an extended framework for consumer search

behavior.

Emotion, Temporal variety, selecting/eliminating

choice alternatives, post-purchase behaviors.

Consumer Expertise

Alba and Hutchinson (1987) examined and

argued differs from product related expertise five

dimensions of expertise:

Coginitive Efford

Coginitive Structure

Analysis Elaboration

Memory

Semiotics

Discipline that provides a structure for studiying

and analyzing how signs function within a

particular enviroment.

New Areas

Rook (1985) : Mood states of consumers.

Biehal and Chakravarti (1986): Use of memory and

external information in making brand choices.

EVALUATION

Buyer behavior school has been more

interdisciplinary than most other schools of

marketing.

There are several research traditions embedded in

the discipline ranging from highly qualitative

methods.

EVALUATION

STRUCTURE: 8

SPECIFICATION: 8

TESTABILITY:6

EMPRICAL SUPPORT: 8

RICHNESS: 9

SIMPLICITY: 8

The Activist

School of ThoughtYiğit Kalafatoğlu

Focusing On..

Emprical research and conceptual thiking related to the

issues of consumer welfare and consumer statisfaction.

Similar to buyer behaviour and macromarketing school.

At the same time differs from the marcromarketing school

by focusing on individual consumers and specific

industries or companies.

Several Institutions and

Individuals Responsible…

Consumer’s cooperatives.

American Home Economics Assosiation and pressure

groups such as women’s club, labor unions, and

educational institutions.

Business Agencies such as Better Business Bureau.

Government Agencies

Several Institutions and

Individuals Responsible…

The rapid rise is more directly attributed to consumers and

politicians.

Kennedy in 1963 attempted to establish the rights of

consumers to be informed, to choose the safe products.

Ralph Nader, was really responsible for setting off the new

Consumer Movement in 1966 with the publication of his study

of the safety of automobiles.

Emprical Researches on..

1. Malpractices of marketing..

2. Product safety research..

3. Disadvantaged consumers including the blacks,

Hispanics, poors, the disabled and other

minorities.

4. Consumer Satisfaction and dissatisfaction

Conceptual Thinking

The role of consumerism in marketing practice!

Peter Drucker (1969) defines consumerism as the

shame of marketing.

Therefore; conceptualizes the activist approach as looking

at marketing practice from the buyer viewpoint rather

than seller’s.

Bauer and Greyser (1967)

Bauer and Greyser (1967)

Kotler’S Paradigm…

Conceptual Thinking

The role of consumerism in marketing practice!

Peter Drucker (1969) defines consumerism as the

shame of marketing.

Therefore; conceptualizes the activist approach as looking

at marketing practice from the buyer viewpoint rather

than seller’s.

EVALUATION

STRUCTURE: 5

SPECIFICATION: 5

TESTABILITY:4

EMPRICAL SUPPORT: 7

RICHNESS: 5

SIMPLICITY: 6