chapter 1 excerpt

7/30/2019 Chapter 1 Excerpt

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CHAPTER 1

Ecerpe from

CONSUMERBEHAVIOR

OPEN MENTIS

How Humans Think, Feel, An Act In The

Marketplace

2008


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MY

1

PARTI

2

INTRODUCTION

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Welcome

to the Fascinating World

of Consumers

Dear DiaryHere Is My

Consumer BehaviorVisions of the ConsumerFrom Shopper to RevelerExchange, Value, ResourcesThe Holy Trinity of Market andConsumptionMarketing Creates a Need!AProfession Under Delusion

Seeing The Future FirstMarketings Not-So-ObviousMission


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MY

Phoebe. Phoebe an Racheltwo friens, two roommates.Phoebe is ecite to see in theirlivin room a new coffee table Ra-

chel bouht that ayan antiqueapothecary table from PotteryBarn. The problem is that Phoebehates Pottery Barn because sheoesnt like anythin that is mass-prouce. So Rachel lies aboutthe source of the table, tellinPhoebe that she bouht the tablefrom the ea market. Phoebe getsall wrappe up, eaminin the ta-ble an takin pleasure in visual-izin how, in the rawers of that

table, they must have kept all thestuff to make their potions. Sheis very happy, havin somethinwith a history behin it.

Rumor Has It, Phobe Loves Pottery Barn!

One ay Rachel an Phoebe are takin a walk when they arrive in frontof a Pottery Barn store, an, peekin throuh the lass oor, Phoebe spotsan ientical table in the store. Afrai the lie she (Rachel) tol Phoebe isabout to be epose, Rachel tries to pull Phoebe away, but Phoebe is rawnin by the look of the entire livin room isplay in the store, which, shenotices, looks eactly ientical to her (an Rachels) own apartment. She

realizes now that, inee, Rachel ha bouht not only the table, but also allthe other items from this storeitems about which, too, Rachel ha maeup stories of their unique historic oriins.

All the items ecept alamp, that is. The lamp isthere in the store but not intheir apartment. While Rachelis bein Phoebe not to bema at iscoverin the truthabout the source of the stuffin their apartment, Phoebe is

actually now contemplatinbuyin that lamp. She takesRachel insie the store anbuys that lamp. Hate PotteryBarn? No, Phoebe actuallyloves it!

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INTROdUCTION

Phoebe. Phoebe Buay. One o the six most amous Friendsin V land, who sharetheir everyday lie with one another, and, vicariously, with millions o viewers around theworld. A lie lled with the usual quota o travails and jubilations o coming to grips withmature adulthood. O working at a job, a career, a credo. O alling in love and then all-ing out o it. O nding a date and a mate. O choosing things, buying stu, admiring it,connecting to it. O constructing an inner world, only hal grounded in the reality o thestu we buy and use and live our lives with and through; the other hal existing only as

gments o our imaginations. Show Phoebe a thinglike this coee table, tell her it isan antique, and she has transported hersel to an extra-terrestrial experience o the mind.An experience where she is unique, and proving it is all her one o a kind stu. ell herinstead that it was really mass-marketed ware rom Pottery Barn, and she is back on terrafrma, questioning i it is worthy o her real-sel, her cherished identity (no matter thatPottery Barn is actually a store many consider chic). But terra frmahas, by denition, itsown solid ooting, and it reminds her that this stu is realtake it or leave it. She will takeit, o course, that coee table and a ew more thingslike that lamp out there.

Phoebe. Each one o us has a little bit o Phoebe in us. Tat is our nature, as humansand as consumers. Male or emale, young or old, rich or poor, we are all consumers in thePottery Barn that the marketplace is. We love it. We hate it. But we cant live without it.From it we pick things, to build the mosaic we call living. It is a hassle. It is un. But above

all, it is an experience.Welcome to the ascinating world o consumers. In this book, we are going to de-

scribe, dissect, and discourse about consumer behaviorhuman behavior in the world oproducts. We will study how we think, eel, and act in the marketplacehow we come tosee the products the way we see them, how we make our choices rom the mind-bogglingarray o goods, how we buy them and then weave them into the tapestry o our lives. Howwe consume them to sustain and energize our bodies, eed our minds, and construct ouregos and our identities. Tis is the study o consumer behavior.

WE ARE CONSUMERS24-7!

We are all consumers. Tis much must come as no surprise to you. But what you

may have not realized is how much o your waking day you spend being a consumerandwe count not just when you are consuming or you are buying something, but rather, as

we will explain later, you are a consumeranytime you are even thinking about ac-quiring and/or consuming anything. obe sure, we also live at least part o ourlives not being consumerslike whenwe are conversing with a riend (withoutusing a phone or any other product), re-ecting on our utures or or that mat-ter the uture o mankind. But most othe rest o the day is lled with plottingand enacting consumption. Write a dailyjournal or a week i you like and see oryoursel. A group o consumers did justthat, at our request. We reproduce oneo them (see box: Te Diary o a Con-sumer). Tis journal was quite represen-tative o all we received in one respect;they all showed the same thingWe areconsumers 24-7!

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dear diaryHere is My Consumer Behaviorby Ellen Tibbs

Monday, 10 July 2006This morning on the way to work I bought a Sugar Free Red Bull and SpecialK blueberry breakast bar. On the way out I spotted the newest issue oCosmopolitan , grabbed it, got back in line and made my second purchase o the

day.I ran out o laundry detergent so I went to Kroger to pick some up. ..I was walking to my car earlier and saw a woman with a new Coach purse. I amgetting sick o the one I am carrying now. Once I save up some money I mighttreat mysel and buy one!My riend just called and said she had an extra ticket to go to the Journey concertin two weeks. I really want to go so I told her I would meet up with her later to

pay or the ticket.

Tuesday, 11 July 2006I got my hair colored and highlighted at the salon, Madalyn San Tangelo thismorning.My riend Lindsay and I wanted to eat sushi so I placed a carry out order at AOI, a

Japanese cuisine restaurant at Newport on the Levee. We both ordered CaliorniaRolls, rice and we split an appetizer.

Lindsay and I are planning to see Pirates o the Caribbeanwith some riends to-night. We dont know i we want to go to see it at the Levee because it costs topark and is kind o a hassle. The other movie theatre we could see it at wouldbe Wilder. We will probably go there because it is close, has ree parking and isnever crowded.I was online today and bought and downloaded music rom iTunes. I have a gitcerticate or music downloads and bought some songs by James Blunt and JackJohnson. I also checked out some iPods online because I am thinking o upgrading. I

currently have the Mini, but I think I might want a Nano..

Wednesday, 12 July 2006I bought gas today at UDF on my way to work. I went inside, grabbed a SugarFree Red Bull (my morning x) and prepaid or my gas.For lunch, I was craving barbeque so I called Hoggys, a new restaurant near myoce and requested they ax a menu. I decided on the pulled pork lunch with a

sweet potato and a sweet tea.I love my car, but I want a new one. I saw a new dark gray/silver Scion today andwant it badly. I called my mom and talked to her about trading my car in or a new car. She said she wouldhave to think about it because she is buying a car or my younger brother.I looked online or a desk or my room. I have a computer and printer, but no work station. I usually sit atmy kitchen table or on the oor to do homework and its getting really annoying. I looked at Pottery Barn,

Bova and a couple o random sites, but didnt see anything I liked.

Saturday, 15 July 2006I bought an Icee Mango at Panera BreadI went shopping today at Kenwood Mall or something to wear tonight. I went to a couple o stores, butdidnt nd anything. I went into Forever 21 and was excited when I ound a white skirt and black camisole.I was even more excited when I ound great accessories to match!I bought a birthday card and git bag at Hallmark. It is my riend Brittneys 21st birthday and we are goingout tonight. I also need to stop at a liquor store beore meeting up so I can buy a mini bottle o Patron togive to her as a present.We met at Brio on the Levee or appetizers and cocktails. ..

Sunday, 16 July 2006I had a headache this morning and was out o Advil so I went to Walgreens. I bought water and a bottle oAdvil gel caplets. In line I grabbed a new tube o Burts Beeswax and bought that too.I had to buy gas again today. I eel like I lled up! I hate buying gas. It is so expensive and is a pain in thebutt. The only thing worse than buying it is to know you will have to buy it again in three days!I work at J B Fins on the Levee, so I went shopping on my break. I went to Hollister and PacSun. I didnt ndanything I liked. However, I did buy a new belly button ring rom the outside vendor.

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CONSUMERS ARE FASCINATINg

As consumers, we are ascinating. Consider a conversation we recently had with a con-sumer, Jackie, 30. We will let that interview speak or itsel, and you decide whether youagree that conusmers are indeed ascinating.

V I S I O N S O F T H E C O N S U M E R

When we think o consumers such as Jackie, several images come to mind. Tey are thebrowsers in the department store, shoppers in the mall, patrons enjoying a meal in a res-taurant, visitors standing in long lines at Disneyland, youngsters ocking to video arcades,and old ladies rushing to grab the door-buster sale items. Tese and many other visions othe consumer can be aptly grouped into the ollowing ve categories:

1. Consumer as a Problem-Solver

2. Consumer as an Economic Creature

3. Consumer as a Computer

4. Consumer as a Shopper

5. Consumer as a Reveler

Consumer as a Problem SolverIn this vision, consumers are searching or solutionsto the needs o daily lie, looking or a product or service that will meet that need in thebest possible way. Once they nd the solution product, they can relax and move on withtheir lives. Te ollowing sel-report rom a consumer illustrates this1:

After I purchased my new pants recently, I spent most of my free time thinkingabout the shoes I already have, which ones would go with the new outt that

was also forming in my mind. Finally, I decided that I didnt have any shoes togo with my new pants. I formed an idea in my mind about the type of shoes thatwould be a perfect match for my new pants. On Tuesday, I started my search

at Payless Shoe Source, but didnt have any luck. I continued my search atDillards and JC Pennys but once again I just didnt see what I was looking for.I became very discouraged. I decided that later that evening, my nal store to

shop would be Shoe Carnival. As soon as I walked in I saw them, the perfectpair of shoes. They were a little pricey at $38.99 but with a 10% sale, I boughtthem. I was very excited and relieved that I had found the shoes I was lookingfor. Angie, 22

Consumer as an Economic Creature Consumers are also planners and manag-ers o personal nances; they want to use their money wisely. As such they seek to buyproducts at the best prices available. Tis does not mean that they always go or the lowestprice (although oten they do), but always that they want to maximize their utility. As oneconsumer stated:

My ance and I always cut coupons before we go grocery shopping. It always

saves us at least $20 per trip. We both agree that Kroger and Thriftway are tooexpensive for our large bi-monthly shopping trips. We prefer to go to Meijerand likely save another $40 just by going there. Once at Meijer, we arenttoo picky about the brands we buy. We can often be seen calculating the perunit price based on the Meijer brand versus the name brand with coupon. Onmost everything, the lower per-unit cost always wins. Oddly enough ketchup isthe one item that I purchase based on the brand name. I grew up with HeinzKetchup and I still prefer it to generic. Other than that, I would rather savemoney and buy the generic version of canned vegetables, macaroni & cheese,chips, soda, etc. Christopher, 23.

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Consumer as a Computer We also see consumers reading package labels, askingsalespersons questions, checking-o items on a shopping list, pondering inormation intheir heads, looking at an ad, making sense o instructions on how to use a productinother words, sorting out all the inormation about products and the marketplace. Indeed,our brains act like human computers. Tis vision can be seen in the ollowing sel-reportrom a couple:

We were in the market for a house. We began by searching the MLS site onthe Internet. We searched listings by price, by location, by school district, andby features. Then we found a realtor and let him do the searching. He showed

I Obey My Thirst! A Consumer Interview

______________________1. Pretty hot and tempting.2. Down Low

We intercepted Jackie Cooper, a 30-year old Arican-Americanmale, walking with a shopping bag in hand, in the Downtown Mall,Cincinnati. Our interviewer was Pamela Ryckman, a junior marketingstudent, who conducted the interview as part o her class project.

Q. Excuse me sir, would you mind answering a ew questions or my

class project?A. Sure, you can ask me anything.Q. Great, thank you. (Pointing at the shopping bag) What did you

buy today?A. I just bought this new y Fubu jersey. It is uh, blue and yellow,

double zero on the back. Its phat.1

Q. How do you buy your clothing?A. You know, whatever looks good. Stay away rom stripes though.Q. Why?A. Oh, it could make you look bulky, you know.Q. What kind o clothes do you buy?A. Well, I have a lot o Nike. My avorite is Fubu, you know. I also got

Sean-John. That is the only kind o stuf I buy.

Q. Why do you like these brands? What do you look or when you

buy clothes?A. Its gotta be comortable. I have to be able to move in it, or play

ball in it, and still go to the clubs comortable but still nice.

Q. Do you go on spending sprees?A. Nah, I try to keep my platinum bill on the D.L.2

Q. Are you happy with the way you buy clothes?A. Yeah, I got my own system. Hasnt ailed me yet.

Q. Do you like shopping or clothes?A. Clothes shopping? Yes, I like it. I love it. You know, I gotta keep my

threads on top o the game.Q. Is choosing clothes a problem or you?A. Nah, I usually just try whatever catches my eye and I just buy it. I

go in, do my business, and then I m out. I am like ash youknow ashin in, ashin out. Bling blingin!

Q. What role does clothing play in your lie?A. See, I look at clothing like its a part o me. Its like people be lookin at my

clothes. It is like theyre seein into my soul. You know what I mean? Thatswhy I dress the way I dress.

Q. Do you pay attention to clothes advertising?A. Nah, I just buy what I like; I will not bow to any sponsor. I buy what I want!

Im like SpriteI obey my thirst. That is the way it is.

INTERVIEWER: Ok. Thank you or your time.

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us several houses on the computer within our price range. One house seemedto have all the features but was on a street with no sidewalks, and sidewalkswere important to us because we have children. Another house had everythingbut the deck was small; a third house had a large deck but the kitchen wassmall. We tried to gure how much it would cost to make the deck bigger, and

we thought that expanding the kitchen would be very cumbersome. We keptturning in our heads the three houses we liked and their various features, andnally, taking everything into account, we settled on the one with the small

deck. Jenny, 23, and Paul, 24

Consumer as a Shopper Tis is the amiliar image o consumers, coming out o astore, loaded with shopping bags in both hands. Inside the store, they are totally taken inby vast merchandise, enchanted by all that is on display, theirs to have i they like, but toenjoy the sight anyway. Stores and marketplaces are the proverbial Alices Wonderland orthe consumer as a shopper. As one o our research respondents put it:

I shop all the time. Days, evenings, weekdays, weekends. Whenever I can getout. I shop at department stores and just as much at boutique shops. And Ishop onlinemy favorite site is Alloy.com. I shop for sales and I shop for raremerchandise. If I am getting bored I will go to the mall. In fact if I dont go shop-ping for 2 or 3 days at a stretch, I begin to feel depressed. I buy very carefully,after full deliberation, but I browse a lot and I window-shop a lot. Mall is a place

I couldnt live without. You could say I was born to shop.Christy, 22

Consumer as a RevelerFinally, we all have visions o consumers just having agood timeat a restaurant, a rock concert, a beach resort on Spring Breakenjoy-ing lie with all the wonderul things the marketplace has to oer. Below are twoexcerpts rom consumer interviews.

I am really big into smelling good. I spend hundreds of dollars on top namecologne. I feel that appearance and smell at rst are what make the man what

he is. I can be running to the grocery store and I put on cologne. Chad, 22.

I love attending a live concert. Rap, country, rock, gospel, alternativeI love

them all. My favorite band is Dave MathewsI have got all 14 of their CDs andtwo live concert DVDs! Joe , 23.

We obtained a photo o a group o consumers. When it comes to consumers as revelers, apicture does speak a thousand words!

All o these visions are true. Tey exist not only in dierent consumers, but alsosometimes in the same consumer. Tus, we are economic creatures sometimes, watchingevery penny; at other times, we just want to experience, just want to be revelers, withmoney as no object. Sometimes, we are assessing a product and soaking up all the inorma-tion, with our internal computers drives whirring. A consumer is indeed multi-aceted.And our study will cover all these acets.

Now, we are ready to begin our ormal study consumer behavior.

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WHAT IS CONSUMER BEHAVIOR?

We dene consumer behavior as the mental and physical activities undertaken byconsumers to acquire and consume products so as to ulll their needs and wants.

Our denition oconsumer behaviorhas several elements worth noting. Let us discussthese one by one.Mental an Physical Activities First, consumer behavior includes both mental andphysical activities. Mental activities are acts o the mind, and they relate to what we think,eel, and know about products. Physical activities are, in contrast, acts o the human

body, and they relate to what we physically do to acquire and consume products.When you are contemplating buying a product, even dreaming about it, you are

engaging in a mental activity. You are also engaging in a mental activity when you aremulling over a products benets and risks; making sense o an advertisement; trying toremember the price o a product in the store you previously visited; trying to recall whatyou read in Food and Wine magazine about the wines that go well with the pasta you areplanning to cook tonight; or just wondering i a three-buttoned suit jacket will be good towear to a orthcoming job interview or i instead you should stick to the more conservativetwo-buttoned jacket.

Physical activities include visiting stores, clipping coupons, talking to salespeople,surng the Internet, test-driving a car, placing an item in the shopping cart, abandoning ashopping cart, and saving empty cartons or later recycling. Physical activities entailed in

actual consumption are also includedsuch as preparation to consume (e.g., setting thetable, soaking o grease rom pizzas and ries, etc.), consumption situations (e.g., choosingtake out or dining in, using cell phone while driving), consumption rituals (e.g., a makeupregimen), or routine trivial behaviors (e.g., V channel ipping). Indeed, it is by observingconsumer inconveniences and improvisations during product use that market-ers oten conceive new products and tailor their communications. Some activi-ties are hybridsboth physical and mentalsuch as reading Consumer Reports,or reading product labels.

It should be noted that mental and physical activities we study under con-sumer behavior are not limited to the specic act o buying and using the prod-uct. Rather they include activities that the consumer undertakes in preparationor and prior to the actual buying act, and they include activities that continuelong ater the product is actually consumed or used. When a consumer hearsa riend praising a product and makes a mental note to try it sometime in theuture, this preparatory activity is part o consumer behavior. Likewise, a ewmonths ater using the product, i the consumer suddenly recalls the experienceo using that product and chuckles about it, enjoying the memory o past con-sumption, then that post-use mental activity is also consumer behavior.Prouct Second, we use the term productbroadly, to reer to any physicalor nonphysical product or service that oers some benet to the consumer,including a place, a person, or an idea oered or exchange. Tus, not onlyare the physical products we buy included, such as a car, a shirt, a gol club,etc., but also services such as a tness club, college education, wireless phone

service, V programs, and a breakup letter servicemore on that later. Alsoincluded are places such as vacation destinations, outlet malls, or video arcades.And persons such as political candidates or candidates or the student councilo your college seeking your votes are included. And, nally, ideas are includedsuch as the idea o opposing a tax levy or a new stadium, donating blood, veg-etarianism, or buying virtual ice cream (!) (read about it in Chapter 19). Teimportant point here is that casting your vote or a candidate is just as good anexample o consumer behavior as is buying a brand o toothpaste; so is visitinga museum, choosing a college, donating to the sunami Relie Fund, readingMalcolm Gladwells 2005 best seller, Blink, or displaying a Save Our Environ-ment bumper sticker on your new Element.

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Consumers Tird, our denition includes the word consumers. In general, a consumeris anyone engaged in the acquisition and use o products and services available in themarketplace. Although a ew humans on our planet might well be living lives sustainedentirely by sel-produced products and services (rather than those acquired in the market-place), most o us acquire the products and services we need and want through market-

place exchange. Each o us, thereore, is a consumer.Te use o the term consumer in this text is broader than in practice, where dierent

marketers call them, instead, by dierent names. For example, retail stores generally reerto their patrons as customers (rather than as consumers); so do utility companies (e.g.,electricity or phone service providers), nancial companies (e.g., banks), and service com-panies (e.g., dry cleaners, etc.). Proessional service providers reer to them as clients (e.g.,lawyers, real estate agents, tax advisors) or by their more context-specic roles (e.g., doc-tors call them patients, educators call them students, und-raisers call them donors,etc.). And personal service providers call them either customers or clients (e.g., palm read-ers and ortune tellers, massage therapists, and boutiques that do the piercing and tattoo-ing o our bodies). Only manuacturers who do not routinely deal with the end-users oa product (e.g., Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Krat, and General Foods, etc.)

reer to these household end users as consumers. In this text, however, we reer to all othese kinds o acquirers and users o products and services as consumers.

Our use o the term consumer also goes beyond its literal meaningpersons whoconsume. O course, some products do get consumed, such as ood items, but other prod-ucts do not get consumed (i.e., depleted), such as household appliances or other du-rables. For these products, we are users rather than consumers. Again, we will use theterm consumersto reer to the users o all products or services, whether these products areconsumables or durables.

Correspondingly, we dene consumption as any and all usage o products whetheror not the products are actually consumed away; i.e., depleted. Tus, when we look atour digital pictures and we show them to others or email them, we are consuming them.

Hi, My Name Is Bon MilanoHi, my name is Bon Milano. I was born on July 21, 2006. I live on HappyIsland. On this Island, we dont count our ae by the earthly clock. Iwas born 35 years old. As soon as I was born, I ot myself some newskin, a face job, and a mini hair transplant too. But most excitin wasettin a new wardrobe. See the blue shirt, black jeans, and beie blazerI am wearin? My new clothes are cool, arent they? In case you didnt

realize it, they are all virtual.So is my Avatarmy alter ego in Second Life world.

Soon I plan to buy some land on the island and build myself a house.And et to know the Residents. The other day, I met Kooletti godmother, WaterfalzzExtraordinaire, Anomaly Rothschild, and Nevermind Bliss. They told me about thelistenin party for Reina Spektors new album Bein to Hope, podcasted exclusively inSecond Life worldand exclusively means you cant hear it in meatspace (that is what

we avatars call our First Life world, namely, our equally wonderful planet earth).I missed it. But I am oin to have my avatar audition for MTVs next Virtual Fashion

Show. Someday, you and I miht share a discussion onMyCBBook,here on the Happy Island. Life here is surreal.

Visit me sometime.

We Are Consumersand This Is What We Do

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And o course we also count as consumption activities such as V viewing, visiting art gal-leries, and being in a chat-room on our PCs.Nees an Wants Finally, two important words in our denition are needsand wants.Needsand wantsare perhaps the two words most reely used by consumersreely in thesense that they seldom ponder beore uttering these words. Tey utter these words merely,but unmistakably, to indicate their desire or intent to possess and/or consume something.Philosophers o diverse ilk have ruminated or centuries as to what needand wantmean,and understandably there is no consensus. Consequently, consumer researchers who studyconsumer needs and wants also vary in their denitions o the terms. Indeed, it would beutile to search or a denition on which everyone would agree. So, here is the denitionwe will use in this book.

Aneedcan be dened as a discomorting human condition. It can be discomortingin a physiological sense or in a psychological sense. Examples o the physiologically dis-comorting condition are a hungry stomach or a body unprotected against the winter cold;examples o discomortingpsychologicalconditions are eeling bored, eeling insecure, orexperiencing being looked down upon. As consumers, we seek products or services in themarketplace exchange so as to alleviate these conditions o discomort. Awantis a desireor a specic object or product. Te consumer who wants a product judges that it wouldrestore his or her condition to a satisactory state. Tus, the elt discomort o a hungrystomach is a need; desire or ood and or a specic kind o ood is a want. Feeling insecure

is a need; desire or the latest model o Nike shoes, even when barely within ones means,is a want.Te denitions we use here dier rom common speech, where needs are equated

with necessities, and wants with luxuries. Tere are good reasons or this, which we willexplore in a later section. For now, just remember that needis your elt discomort, period.And remember also that the discomort has to be perceived by the person himsel or her-sel. Tus, a need is not someone elses assessment o your condition. I cannot say that yourhair looks long, so you need a haircut, or that your clothes look all aded and worn out, soyou need a new pair o jeans. Or, that you dont need a PDA (personal digital assistant), adiamond ring, hair coloring, body piercing, or a HUMMER. It is or you to decide i nothaving these things is discomorting or you, psychologically speaking. Indeed, then, needis a very subjective word. It is a very personal eeling.

ExCHANgE, VALUE, ANd RESOURCES

Three Essentials of Consumer Behavior

Tere are three essential elements in all consumer behavior. Without these, no con-sumer behavior can take place. And they work in unisoninseparably, as three grandenablers o consumer behavior. Tese are exchange, resources, and value. Let us examineeach.

ExCHANgE

Exchange reers to an interchange between two parties where each receives rom theother something o more value and gives up something o less value. Within that specicexchange, what is given up is o less value to the giver than it is to the receiver, so that bothparties gain more in value than they give up. Tus, when we buy a shirt, we part with ourmoney (say, 20 dollars or 40 rubles or 25 euros or 120 pesos or 80 yen) because at thattime that particular shirt is more valuable to us than keeping that money in our pockets;conversely, when we sell that shirt in a garage sale or one dollar, at that time, that shirtsvalue to us is less than even one dollar.

Although an exchange can also occur between any two consumers, it is customaryto call one o the parties the marketerand the other party the consumer. Amarketer is an


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individual or an organization with an organizational goal that oers products and servicesin exchange or the consumers money or (occasionally) other resources. When a marketerprimarily seeks money and has making money as the principal organizational goal, thenthat marketer is reerred to as acommercial entity. When a marketer oers products andservices either ree o cost or at a nominal charge insufcient to cover costs or make anyprot, the marketer is typically anon-proftor social organization. ypically, nonprotor social organizations promote an idea (e.g., smoking cessation) or a person (e.g., a presi-dential candidate). An important point here is that the study o consumer behavior is justas useul or non-prot and social and community organizations.

RESOURCESAresource is something we own or possess that people value. Since people value

those resources, more or less universally, as consumers we can use them to acquire a wholehost o products and services. Tat is, as humans, we value resources ourselves, and, be-cause other humans value them too, we can exchange some o them to satisy our needsand wants.

Five ResourcesTere are ve types o resources: money, time, skills and knowledge, body and physi-

cal energy, and social capital. O these, money is the most oten used resource or market-place exchangeswhen we acquire products and services, we typically pay or them withmoney. We also use money to acquire the other our resources. We buy time-saving devicesto gain more time; we hire a maid so we ourselves dont expend time in housekeepingchores. We buy books and take college courses to gain knowledge, we buy home-improve-ment books to learn to do handiwork, and we pay or dancing lessons to acquire dancingskills.

o build our bodies and enhance physical energy as a resource, we spend money andjoin a gym. We spend time doing yoga. And we buy vitamins and nutrition-supplementsto get energy. Finally, we spend time and money to build social capitalthe network oriends and proessional connections that can be o help in our hours o need. We buydesigner brand clothes that will help us gain acceptance among our peers. We spend timewriting thank-you notes and sending gits to keep the riends we have. And we pay ees tojoin social clubs and associations to enlarge our social networks.

Sometimes we use other resources so we can pay less in money. We pay, in part, withour time when we choose to take a cheaper airline ight with a stopover instead o a directight. Or when we buy a modular urniture system that we have to assemble ourselves, weexchange our time, physical energy, and skills to save money. I we believe that we have therequisite skills, then we choose a low ee discount broker rather than a ull service invest-ment advisor, or we buy stocks online. We use our healthy bodies themselves as a resourcewhen we donate blood or pledge to donate some organ. And good looks are themselvesexchanged to attract a date, companion, and mate.

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VALUE

Te third essential element in all consumer behavior is value. Value is the sum totalo net benets we receive rom an activity or an exchange. Indeed, value is the core goal oall exchanges humans undertake.

Value, not money, is the basic currency of all human interaction. When we

meet someone, we try to quickly assess how long it would be worth our while

to be talking to that person. If an incoming phone call shows up on our caller

ID, we promptly decide if we would gain anything by taking that call at that

time. It is even more true of marketplace exchanges. The only reason cus-tomers are even in the marketplace is that they are looking for something of

value. (ValueSpace, 2001, p. 3-4.)2

Value comes rom all the benets, all the desired outcomes that consumers obtain andexperience rom their use o products. When a cream eradicates our zits, that is a desiredoutcome to us and hence a value; when a musical play uplits our moods, that is a desiredoutcome and hence it is a value; when wearing a particular suit or dress brings us compli-ments rom others, we are receiving value. And when we eel good about ourselves donat-ing to a charity, we are experiencing value. In everything we buy, in everything we con-sume, in every advertisement to which we pay attention, rom every salesperson to whomwe lend our ears, in every store we enter, on every Web site we visit, we seek value.

Tus, value comes in multiple orms. Basically, value accrues when some need is sat-ised. Because human needs are countless, so also are orms o value. However, they canbe categorized into our major types, captured in the acronym USER: (a) utilitarian, (b)social, (c) ego/identity, and (d) recreational.3

Utilitarian value is the set o tangible outcomes o a products usage (or o an activ-ity). It comprises physical consequences o a product and its eects in the physical worldaround us and within us (i.e., our body). Also called unctional value, utilitarian valuecomes rom objects when they enable us to manage our lives as biological and physicalbeings and to manage our external physical environments as well. Examples include llingour bellies with ood, energizing our bodies with nutrients, moisturizing our skin with lo-tions, navigating physical distance by using a Segway, etc. But dont mistake it or merebasic necessity. A computer that allows us to write and save letters, a personal jet thatenables us to reach places at will, and a digital camera phone that lets us shoot picturesanytime anywhere and then email them instantly to our riendsthese products yieldspecic benets that are also utilitarian.

Social value comes rom our ability to manage our social worlds

dOES MARKETINg CREATE A NEEd?Some people blame marketing or creating consumer needs. Tey charge that market-

ing creates a desire or products we dont need. Does it? Let us examine this closely. Mainly,

this charge is based on two prevalent views o what aneedis. First, the charge comes romthose who dene true needs as only the basic things we require or survival. Consequently,they argue that we only need a basic car, not a ancy car, but marketers create in us a desireor a ancy car, and that we do not need a $150 Nike shoe, but ancy advertising beguilesus into believing that we do.

Te second denitional problem is that in common parlance, a need is conusedwith a product. Tis leads to the argument that no one needed a DVD player until DVDscame along, and no one needed hair transplants until hair transplants became available. Adiscourse on whether or not we needed something is impossible i we use the terms needandproductinterchangeably.

In contrast, we have dened needas a condition (an unsatisactory one), not as a

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product that improves that condition. So the need to be entertained always existed; DVDsprovided a solution. And the need to impress peers or express ourselves had always existed;Nike oers, to some consumers, a way to do it. Consider digital camera cell phones. Beorethey became available, we did not need digital camera cell phones. In act, we did not evenneed cell phones. But the need to be able to call our moms or riends rom a place withno payphone nearby had always existed. And every once in a while we were in a place andwe were looking at something, some product, some transient scene, and then we wishedwe could capture it in a photo and show it to a riend ar away in real time to get his orher opinion. We had always needed, too, the ability to see the callers ace in our tiny cellphones screen. Since these possibilities were not available, we dreamed about them everyonce in a while and then pushed the thought away rom our active attention. Until oneday, science made available the cell phone, and then the cell phone with digital cameraand with email capabilities, and we suddenly recognized these products as solutions toour long-dormant needs. But it was science that gave us those products, not marketing.Marketing brought the news and explained their unctions and benets. Te same goesor every inventionrom Post-it Digital Notes to hair transplants, science made themavailable, and, aterthat, marketing brought us the inormation and oered the inventionat a price (sometimes a hety sum, mind you). And those who saw these products as solu-tions to their needsthe conditions that were bugging thembought them immediately,without much persuasion, whereas others waited a while or never bought them (a high

intensity marketing eort, not withstanding!).Speaking o the products science has brought us, smart consumers would have discov-ered their benets even in the absence o marketers, and rom them, in turn, all consumerswould have. Marketers should be attered to receive this credit, but it is not duly theirs.Consumers who credit marketers with creating in them the need or all those new inven-tions are merely shiting responsibility, or guilt i you will, rom themselves to marketers.

What about products that are not scientic inventions, but mere packaging o im-age, you might ask. Like designer brands? Here, too, marketing receives more blame (orcredit) than it deserves. Imagine a world where only one brand and one type o shoes (inall sizes, o course) was available, and only one brand and one style o clothes, and only onemake and style o car. Would you then have been happier? When people got their clothestailored, they got them customized not only or size but or style as well; when they sewed

them themselves, they always gave them little personal touches, to reect their personali-ties. Tis need to dierentiate, not to be stamped rom a cookie cutter, to show somethingunique, is also an inherent human need. What marketers do, to consumers benet, is sim-ply to make those varieties, those dierentiations in product oerings available to humanswho had until then improvised those style dierentiations. And in countries where these

I

Two consumers.Two different self-identities.Expressed through clothes.

_____, a watch repair artist (L),

______ an eco-design professor,Fedora hat and tie-dye T-shirttoeach his own, courtesy of themarketplace.

(Incidently, no amount of clevermarketing can make ____ trade hisfedora hat for the tie-dye T. And __

__ will absolutely, positively not dothe trade either. They might as well,but not because of marketing.)

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products are not reely available (and thus there is no marketing), many consumers wouldkill to get them rom the gray market i they could!

Somehow, consumers have their ideas o what will make them happy, and they willdo anything to get those things, marketing or no marketing. Te important questionthereore is this: From where do consumers get their ideas? From diverse sources, actu-ally. From the media or one. From seeing what the lm stars are driving, and what therap artists are wearing. And they observe people around them. Who is wearing Seven7 or rue Religion jeans, who is driving the Scion, and who is walking with iPod ear budsas a ashion statement? Tus, it is the media, and it is the society as a whole, the culture,the world around us, or the streets we are roaming

these are the sources o our desires.

Marketing is a part o this environment, no more, and no less.Let us look at it another way. Consider how many products are introduced in a typi-

cal year, and how many o them become abysmal ailures. With all the marketing prowessbehind them, marketers just cant convince enough number o consumers to part withtheir money to buy those products. And then there is the battle o the brands. In clothing,there is Kenneth Cole, and there is ommy Hilger. Open any issue oGQor Esquireandyou can nd advertisements or both. And yet, why do you buy one brand and not theother? Tere is a very simple reason: each brand makes a certain brand promise, each proj-ects a certain image, each ts a certain consumers inner sel-image, and the consumer buysthat which speaks to him or her. o other marketers, consumers vote a Nowith their

wallets and purses. Yes, consumers respond to advertising, to marketing, but only to thebrand and only to the marketer that in act respond rst to what is within the consumeralready. As one tattoo artist, describing how he helps his clients choose a design, put it:Te tattoo is already within the consumer; all I do is bring it out or the world to see!

SEEINg THE FUTURE FIRST: MEETINg

CONSUMERS LATENT NEEdS

Consider the telephone. It is a miracle. It was invented in 1876. Suddenly, two per-sons continents apart could talk to each other. Since then, the technology experts in phonecompanies have upgraded the device over the years, improving sound delity and addingsuch eatures as pulse tone, and later speed dial, memory, and mute eatures. But their gaze

remained ocused on the telephone device. And while they kept in mind the consumerneed the device served, that need seems to have been understood in its most obvious orm:the need to talk to someone not within hearing range. Tey did not look deeper; it wasassumed, inadvertently, that whenever someone wanted to talk to a distant person, thatother person would be available at that location and at that time, and that he or she wouldwant to talk to the caller. Furthermore, it was assumed that the two would speak the same

A car is more than transportation.For some consumers, it is anextension of themselves. Jamie Schworer, a thirty-

something consumer, a res-ident of Clincinnati (U.S.A.)

A marketing graduate, shenow runs her own Limo Ser-vice business. She boughtthe 2006 Scion tC the mo-ment she saw it.

The Tattoo is alreayinsie you!This consumer, VictorStrunk, used to sixth-senseextra-terrestrial charactersprotecting him from dangerboth from outside and fromwithin, and then got them ohis skin.


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language! Ater all, it was not until 1971 that the answering machine was invented. 4 Andit was not until 1987 that caller ID was rst oered to consumers.5 And nally, technologyexperts are only now building automatic, built-in translation sotware. Maybe consumershad to wait until appropriate technologies were invented; maybe they had to wait untilmass-manuacturing o these devices became commercially easible; or maybe they had towait until government regulatory bodies cleared the way. Regardless, the important pointis that there had been no recognition o these consumer communication needs. No onehad bothered to look deeper.

Marketin Is All About Satisfyin A Consumer Nee

MATERIAL OMITTEd (2 PAgES)

Consider some other products and see i they createa new need, or, merely, albeitadmirably, satisya latent need o consumers.

Self-watering ower pot Te pot has two chambers; the lower hal is lled withwater; a wick rom the top hal, which contains soil, reaches out to the bottom chamber.Would you buy it? I yes, that is becasue the moment you see it, you recognize it as theperect solution to a latent needthe challenge o taking care o plants while on vacation.I not, then no amount o marketing eort will make you buy it.

Five Finger Shoes A shoe with ve ngers. Yes, the shoe ts your oot and toesindividually; provides the same sole support. Liberate your toes. Walkbareoot. Like the idea? Ten, you will buy it. I not, no amount o mar-keting will make you buy it. (Check it out at www.vibramvengers.com.)

Ipod My Photo You send in your photo, and, or $19.99, they willput the iPod, complete with the white ear buds on it. Since its inceptionin early 2001, the company has been doing brisk business. Did it createa need? Or just gave us one more avenue to exercise our whims, our needto be playul, to make our photos cool and then savor them. (Check itout at www.ipodmyphoto.com.)

Hug Shirt It has wearable electronics. It enables a person to sendyou a hug rom ar away. Here is how it works: It has two high-tech com-ponents, embedded in the abric: (1) sensorsthat will sense the strengtho the touch, skin warmth, and the heart beat o the sender at a distance;and (2) actuatorsthat will reproduce the same sensations or the wearer.Yes, now you can hug your teacher everyday. (Check it out at www.cutecircuit.com.)

Finger Ring Suppose you are in a group conversation, and theother persons phone rings. Dont you wish it hadnt. Now you can makeit happen. Each person in the group wears a special ring. Ten, an in-coming call on any o your cell phones will send a vibration to each ring,

and each ring-wearer will press a button to allow or disallow the phoneto ring. O course, none o the wearer knows whose phone is receivingthe call. Tis is called social pollinglet your company decide i you cantake the call or not.

Silent Dating Tis is a new concept in social networking. You meetup people in a group, but you are not allowed to talk at all. Tey giveyou a generous supply o index cards and a pen. Scribble a message onone and slide it over to the other person. And wait or him/her to doodleback. Says one recent, happy, silent-dater: I havent had this much unsince passing notes in school. Te parties are held in such cities as New

EvaDenmark

&ToolsDesign

Five Finges Shoefrom Vibram

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York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and even Beijing. Check out the schedule or thenext party at www.quietparty.com.

Now, let us consider briey what role marketing plays (or will play) or these prod-ucts. Consider the hug shirt. Okay, hugging your teacher was the wrong pitch. Howabout hugging your spouse, or your children, when you are away rom home. I the wear-able vest doesnt cost too much, some o us may just buy it. But, and this is an importantbut, only i the sensations are realistic; and i we can bring ourselves to believe that thehug we just experienced elt just as i the other person was in touching proximity. I not,no amount o marketing prowess is going to get you to part with your money. (Unless,realistic or not, you wanted to send hugs to an interesting stranger, but that is anotherstory, and, at any rate, that need too, will have not been created by marketing.) Te truthis, many o us cant wait to try it on. At least as a novelty experience, initially, and then,later, also or real emo-interace with a loved one ar away.

Will you buy the social polling Finger Ring? Yes or No, whatever be your answer,it isyouranswerthe outcome o you determining i it will meet any o your needs. Amillion dollar ad campaign might make you buy it? No, a million dollar ad campaign willmakeyou, at most and i at all, reassess i it will satisy your need. Tat is all.

Silent dating, now what can we you say about this cool idea! Tat other dating scene,with loud music and the noise o a thousand conversations, has been utterly rustrating orany intelligent interaction. Silent Dating is also a resh breather or the tongue-tied among

us. And it is a low risk, reversible, venture (you can always go back to your regular datingvenues). More than anything else, it is a new, alluring, sport to play out your spontaneityand your desire or sensation-seeking. (Check out some o the notes someone glided overto you!) Tose o us, who have this mindset o constant exploration will nd it a value;those who do not, will not, marketing or no marketing.

Te point is, marketing gets alse blame; or, alse credit. Te irony is that marketerswill, when charged, deny that they create a need. In their hearts, though, many believe thatthey do. Ater all, all that marketing planning, all that multi-million dollar ad budget, allthose positioning games, they couldnt have been in vain. But in all likellihood what theybelieve is actually alse, and that which they deny, knowing they are lying, is actually thetruth. Marketing does not createa need, period.

Creatin Consumer Value: The Supreme Purpose ofBusiness

What is the purpose o marketing? For that matter, what is the basic purpose o busi-ness itsel? o make money? Wrong, says Harvard proessor Teodore Leavitt, who ex-plains this by an analogy: all humans have to breathe to survive, but breathing is not theirpurpose. Likewise, making money cannot be called the purpose o business.9 Te basicpurpose has to relate to why society allows businesses to exist. It is, says Peter F. Drucker,one o the worlds leading management gurus, to create a satised customer.10

Marketing does not create a need. It creates a satised consumer. And in striving to doso, marketing serves a very important role or consumers, and or society. It creates prod-ucts it hopes will satisy the latent needs o some segment o consumers; or it commercial-

izes inventions o inventors, adapting them to suit consumer needs and tastes. It brings,too, art, culture, aesthetics, design, and creativity to morph and sculpt a socio-culturalidentity or the productthe so called brand image, one it hopes will resonate with the tar-get consumer. However, creating that brand image in the marketers own image will bringall that multi-million dollar eort and all that marketing prowess to naught (see the storyo OK Soda in Chapter 7); creating it, instead and as it should, in the target consumersimage (backed by a product that can withstand the burdens imposed by that brand im-age, and live up to what the brand image promises) will bring admiration (and economicvotes, i.e., dollars or Euros or Yen) o its target consumers. (As examples, see any o thebrand ads in this bookthey, each and every one o them, have been chosen with thiscriterion in mind). Marketers belabor as well deciding what price will make it a good value

Thats a loud shirtfor a quiet party.

Forget the paper.Write on my body.

Notes from SilentDaters (source:www.

quietparty.com)


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or the consumer and still bring the rm air economic returns on investment. It bringsthe product to the consumers doorsteps or to the Web portal on their cell phone screens.And it creates the physical, social, and cultural milieu that makes smooth the acquisitiono the product and that invites, enables, and enhances the consumption experience. Tisis the art o marketing and doing it right is the proession o marketing. Tis is, in eect,the supreme mission o marketing.

How do you ulll this mission? How do you create a satised customer? How elsebut by studying consumer needs, by analyzing how the consumer thinks, eels, and actsin the marketplace and how he or she connects products and specic bands to his or herneeds. By seeing the proverbial tattoo that is already within the consumer, so to speak.Tat is why understanding consumer behavior is o paramount importance to the successo all organizations, commercial or social.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR AS A FIELd OF STUdY

When we seek to understand consumer behavior, we seek to understand, basically,human behavior, albeit in the world o goods. As an applied eld o study, it draws onall our elds o basic social sciences dedicated to the study o human behavior; namely,anthropology, sociology, economics, and psychology. You already know what these eldsare, but here is a quick reresher:11

MATERIAL OMITTEd (2 PAgES)

Self-Parkin Cars from Toyota

When it comes to parallel parking a car, even most expert drivers sometimes struggle with the chore, especially on cramped citystreets. A fantasy wish runs through ourminds: how nice it would be if these carscould park themselves. Well, your fan-tasy wish might be about to come true.All thanks to the innovative car design-ers at Toyota Motor Company.

Toyota engineers have invented anautomatic car parking system the com-pany calls Intelligent Parking Assist,now available on its Prius models in theUK. All you need do is bring the car nextto a parking space and press a buttonon the dash. The cars rear mountedcamera and a radar sensor senses and

judges whether the space is adequatefor the car and then guides the car to-ward the curb into the parking spot.The system has been available in Japansince 2003 and in the U.K. since 2005. Itis soon coming to the U.S. Look for it ona road near you.

The Intelligent Parking Assist is but one component of a program at Toyota called Mobility TomorrowProviding mobilitythat is friendly to people, society, and the environment. One of its works in progress is a collision avoidance and injury reduc-

tion system. The roadside sensors mounted on the car will detect approaching vehicles, pedestrians, even a curbside or aroadblock, and warn the driver. In a second application, the system will provide information in real time about trafc conditions

ahead and will suggest alternative routes. It will also update information on parking lot availability and make a reservation ifdesired. A network hookup will send notices for the cars scheduled maintenance, send automatic alerts about an accident ortheft, make automatic payments at gas stations, transmit medical records to a preauthorized medical facility, and of course,

download your favorite music. The goal of the Mobility Tomorrow program is to enhance your total usability experience.Marketing is a lot of things to a lot of people. But its core purpose is to make a consumers life more satisfying.

To Keep Romancing the Consumer.

Source: Toyota Motors Corporation Web site.

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WHO SHOULd STUdY CONSUMER BEHAVIOR?

Tere are our parties who should be interested in a study o consumer behavior and canbenet rom understanding consumer behavior. Tey are (1) marketers, (2) social organi-zations, (3) public policy makers, and (d) consumers themselves.

An Experiential JourneyBut dont worry, this is nota preachy reading. We wont draw your attention to your

splurges and shopping sprees, and we wont embarrass you or your stinginess or penny-wise, pound-oolish actions. Te books goal is to describe the consumer phenomenon,not to prescribe it. In act, we dont really tell you anything about your own behavior atall. You see, when we say you will understand your motives, or example, we dont meanthat in the book we tell you specically what yourmotives are. How could we? Rather,what we do is this: we give a litany o possible consumer motives and tell you what sorto behaviors these motives cause and under what circumstances. And we do the same orother topics, such as perceptions, attitudes, and decision-making. Now, that is where theun begins. You read a topic with all its whats, hows, and whys and then apply it to your

own personal situation.We give you a universal template with a collage o mirrors o dierent shapes and siz-es, so to speak, and you nd or yoursel which mirror reects you the best. Tat is whereit becomes a learning experience. Or experiential learning. Tat is why it is a discovery ex-peditionabout yoursel and about the world o consumers. Welcome to the expedition!

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receive rom an exchange. And we identied our broadcategories o value: utilitarian, social, ego, and recreation-al (i.e., hedonic), captured in the acronym USER. Allconsumer needs can be grouped into this classication.We then raised a question, Does marketing create con-sumer needs? Tis charge, oten levied against market-

ing, is based on the mistaken view o consumer needs,we argue. Marketing merely presents products and bringstheir benets to consumers attention, and consumerspick and choose what meets their needs. We point outthat many products ail despite great marketing prowess,and the only products that succeed are those that satisyconsumers needs.

Satisying a consumer need is the very purpose obusiness. And in order to do just that, marketers must, weargue, study consumer behavior. Te study o consumerbehavior is built upon the core disciplines o anthropol-ogy, sociology, psychology, and economics. And besides

marketers, social organizations and public policy agentstoo must study it. Lastly, consumers themselves shouldstudy it so they may understand their own consumer be-havior. Tis book is directed at all students o consumerbehaviorand who among us is not a student in theschool o lie? Our gain rom reading the book is two-oldrst, we reect on and understand our own behav-ior as consumers; and second, we become knowledgeableabout how, as marketers, we must ashion our marketingprograms so as to appeal to consumers.

We began this introductory chapter with a basic act:we spend most o our waking hours as consumers. We areconsumers 24/7! Tis is because we dened consumerbehavior as not just the act o buying and consuming butalso as all o the mental and physical activities we under-take when we contemplate and experience productsan

ongoing process that begins much beore we actuallyacquire and consume a product, and continues, in ourmemories, long aterwards.

aking the viewpoint o consumers 24/7, we por-trayed marketplace products as solutions to consumerneeds and wants. We then dened needas a discomort-ing condition, whether physiological or psychological,and want as a desire or specic solutions to that con-dition. We next identied three essentials that rame allconsumer behavior: exchange, resources, and value. Con-sumers marketplace activities are basically an exchangewith marketers, where consumers acquire products and

part with their money. Money is one o the ve resourcesconsumers possess, the other our being time, knowledge,physical energy, and social capital. Sometimes consumersconserve money (i.e., pay less) by supplementing the pay-ment with their time, eort, or skills. And many productsare acquired with money so as to build up the other ourresources. In all these exchanges, and regardless o what-ever resources they invest and expend, what consumersseek rst, oremost, and always is value.

We dened value as the set o net benets consumers

S U M M A R Y

K E Y T E R M SMarketersMental activitiesNeedPhysical activitiesProductPsychologyRecreation Value

AnthropologyConsumerConsumer BehaviorEconomicEgo/Identity ValueExchangeHedonic Value

ResourceSocial CapitalSocial ValueSociologyUtilitarian ValueValueWant

Y O U R T U R N

Briey explain what aspects o consumer behavior areenlightened by various disciplines, such as econom-ics, anthropology, sociology, etc.

THINK+ApplyGive an example rom your own lie in which youexchanged one resource or the other our.Give an example o each exchange value you havesought in recent marketplace exchange.Some accuse marketing o creating consumer needs,making us buy things we did not need. Do you agree

6.

1.

2.

3.

REVIEW+RewinWhat is consumer behavior? Isnt it basically peoplebuying products? Why or why not?Who should study consumer behavior and why?How are needs and wants dened here? Are thesedenitions dierent rom how we use the words needand wantsin everyday language? Which approach todening these is better and why?What are the ve resources all consumers have?What is the USER model o consumer value?

1.

2.3.

4.5.

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whether your arguments had any eect on his/hinitial view.

An Extended Engagement Because this question undamental to consumer behavior and marketing, thexercise can become an extended engagement as you reathe rest o the book.

Maybe the interview in Question 4 above has caugup with you, and you are now eager to educate everyonabout this enlightened point o view. Over the next severmonths, carry on the same dialog with several consumerand record your experience with their responses. Reeon and describe why you were successul (in educatinthese consumers) in some cases and not in others.[Remember, or the rst hal o your conversation, antowards the closing, you are more o a listener, trying understand the consumers point o view rom the cosumers perspective. I you do this successully, you whave developed the important skills o listening and bready to understand consumers rsthand on a variety topics we will cover in this book.]

In the Marketin Manaers ShoesMost concepts in the chapter have some lessons

the marketing manager; i.e., they suggest to the markeing manager what to do dierently in practice. Indeeoten these applications are implicit in our explanatioo the concepts and models in the chapter. Identiy least ve specic applications o the chapters conceptsall o which should be entirely newdierent rom thexamples cited here.

or disagree? Deend your answer.

A Must doWrite a short memo to yoursel, evangelizing howthis book is going to benet you personally in yourrole as (a) a consumer, and (b) a marketing proes-sional (current or uture).

PRACTICE+Eperience

Write a journal o your own consumer behavior othe past one week, Record one episode each or whenyou were an economic creature, a problem solver, acomputer, a shopper, and (here comes your avoritepart) a reveler.Find our advertisements that oer, individually, eacho the our values o the USER model, and explainyour selections.Interview a consumer (similar to the interview oJackie in the chapter), and then identiy the ourvalues o the USER model in his or her consumerbehavior. (Direct your topics so that the interview re-

veals all our values.)Set up a dialog with a consumer to debate the twin-concepts o needs and wants. Start by asking whatproducts he or she has bought recently and why. Leadinto whether the consumer thinks he or she neededthem and then whether he or she thinks marketerscreated this need. First listen so you understand hisor her point o view, and then proceed to argue thepoint o view laid out in this chapter. Make a noteo the consumers reactions, and then comment on

4.

1.

2.

3.

4.

A Photo Quiz

A product can servemore than one need, as cap-tured in the acronym USER.Which needs do the productsin this picture serve for thisconsumer, ------------?

Discuss the role market-ing might have played in ___acquisition and consumption

experience of these products,especially in relation to therole of other factors or forcesin ____s life.

2002 Suzuki Intruder VS800;helmet by HJC Helmets;

jacket by Joe Rockets(Ballistic Series); and coolshades from Serengeti.

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chapter 1 excerpt

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