consumer behavior 6th section
TRANSCRIPT
Consumer behavior
Lecture notes are available at:http://Arash-management.blogspot.com
1Arash
Groupcommunication
social classstratification
culture
3Arash
Consumer behaviorRoger D. Blackwell
Paul W. Miniard James F. Engel
Outline of this chapter….
Group influence and communication
Verbal and non verbal communications
Marketer-dominated stimuli
Stratification and Culture
Social Factor– Culture & subculture– Norms– Values– Religious groups– Groups• Reference groups
Group , communication
• Belonging to groups, trying to “fit in,” and striving to please others, affects directly every stage in the decision process.
• Reference group: any person or group of people who significantly influences an individual’s behavior
• May be individuals (celebrities, athletes, or political leaders) or groups of individuals with similarities (musical groups or sports teams)
Types of Types of InfluenceInfluenceNormativeNormative
Value ExpressiveValue ExpressiveInformationalInformational
TransmissionTransmission
Personal Personal Influences: Influences: ••Groups Groups
••IndividualsIndividuals
Lifestyles Behaviors Purchases
Consumption
Low Degree of Influence
High Degree of InfluencePersonal and Group Influence on
Individuals
Types of Reference Groups
Primary Groups: a social aggregation that is sufficiently intimate to permit and facilitate unrestricted direct interaction (e.g., family)
Types of Reference Groups
Secondary Groups: also have direct interaction, but it is more sporadic, less comprehensive, and less influential in shaping thought and behavior (e.g., professional associations or community organizations)
Types of Reference Groups
Formal Groups: characterized by a defined structure (often written) and a known list of members and requirements for membership
Informal Groups: have less structure than formal groups and are likely to be based on friendship or interests
Types of Reference Groups
Membership: when individuals are recognized as members of a group, they have achieved formal acceptance status in the group
Aspirational Groups: exhibit a desire to adopt the norms, values, and behaviors of others with whom the individuals aspire to associate
Types of Reference Groups
Dissociative Groups: groups from which an individual tries to avoid association
Virtual Groups: groups that are based on virtual communities rather than geographic ones
Types of Group InfluenceNormative: when individuals alter their behaviors or beliefs to meet the expectations of a particular group
Value-expressive: when a need for psychological association with a group causes acceptance of its norms, values, attitudes, or behaviors
Informational: when people have difficulty assessing product or brand characteristics by their own observations or contact
How Reference Groups Influence Individuals
Socialization: permits an individual to know what behavior is likely to result in stability both for the individual and the group
Company manual may explain the dress code in the workplace
Informal groups may tell them what styles are most comfortable and easiest to maintain
How Reference Groups Influence Individuals
Self-concept: people protect and modify their self-concept by their interactions with group members
People can maintain self-concept by conforming to learned roles
Testimonial advertising is effective when the self projected in the ad is consistent with the idealized self of the target consumer
How Reference Groups Influence Individuals
Social comparison: individuals often evaluate themselves by comparing themselves to others
Consumers often use reference groups as benchmarks to measure their own behaviors, opinions, abilities, and possessions
Advertising or television can be sources of social comparison
How Reference Groups Influence Individuals
Conformity: a change in beliefs or actions based on real or perceived group pressures
Compliance: when an individual conforms to the wishes of the group without accepting all its beliefs or behaviors
Acceptance: when an individual actually changes his or her beliefs and values to those of the group
How Reference Groups Influence Individuals
Factors affecting how likely people are to conform to group norms:
Desire for social acceptance
Degree of experience in situation or with decision
Conspicuousness
Complex product or luxury item
Transmission of Influence Through Dyadic Exchanges
Exchange between two individuals that influence these individual’s behaviors or beliefs
Dyadic exchange requires the exchange of resources (opinions and comments)
Dyadic Exchanges
Word-of-mouth Communication
Service Encounters
Opinion Leadership
Opinion Leadership
Opinion leadership: the sender of information is often considered an opinion leader—a person who influences the decisions of others
Opinion leaders might be experts in one area but not in others
The greater the perceived knowledge of a category, the more likely that person’s opinions are to influence others’ decisions
Service Encounters
Customer intimacy: detailed understanding and focus on customers’ needs lifestyles and behaviors in an effort to create a deep cultural connections with the customers
Reverse customer intimacy: how well marketers facilitate customers knowing the marketer
Two-step Flow
Opinion Opinion LeaderLeader
Opinion Opinion SeekersSeekers
Mass Mass MediaMedia
Information and InfluenceInformation
How Personal Influences Are Transmitted
Multistep Flow
Opinion Opinion LeaderLeader
Opinion Opinion SeekersSeekers
Mass Mass MediaMedia
How Personal Influences Are Transmitted
Gatekeepers
WOM and Opinion Leaders in Advertising and Marketing Strategy
WOM and personal communication can have a more decisive role in influencing behavior than advertising and other marketer-dominated sources
Viewed as a more trustworthy and credible source of information than salespeople or paid advertising
WOM and Opinion Leaders in Advertising and Marketing Strategy
Advertising can provide information to consumers about products they might seek from other sources and which may be discussed in WOM
However, consumers don’t always trust that the advertiser has their best interests in mind
WOM and Opinion Leaders in Advertising and Marketing Strategy
Advertising influences the effectiveness of WOM and vice versa
Advertising can provide information about products consumers might not seek from other sources
Advertising can create WOM among consumers and peer groups
For some occasions, companies rely on WOM as a substitute for advertising
Direct Response Advertising
Primary Reliance on Word-Of-Mouth
Stimulating Word-Of-Mouth
Firms may stimulate WOM by giving away or loaning products to opinion leaders to display and use
Organizations may induce opinion leaders to influence consumers
Creating Opinion Leaders
Curbing Negative WOM
When something goes terribly wrong, denying the problem is not the answer
The best strategy is immediate acknowledgement by a credible company spokesperson as negative WOM rarely goes away by itself
Make sure you have all your facts straight and tell the truth
The Diffusion ProcessDiffusion: the process by which an innovation (new idea) is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system
Includes:Diffusion of information and communication
Consumer decision process
Diffusion or demise of innovation
The Diffusion Process
InfluencerInfluencer
CCoonnssuumme e rr
Organi-Organi-zationzation
RejectReject
AcceptAccept
Demise Demise of of
InnovationInnovation
Diffusion Diffusion of of
InnovationInnovation
Consumer decision process
Diffusion of Information and Communication
(X number of people)
Factors Affecting Diffusion
Communication (how consumers learn about new products and communicate findings)
Time (how long it takes for a person to move from product awareness to product purchase or rejection)
Social system (groups or segments to which individuals belong affect adoption or rejection)
Knowledge: begins when the consumer receives physical or social stimuli that gives exposure and attention to the new product and how it works
How a person receives and interprets the knowledge is affected by their personal characteristics
Rogers Model of Innovation Decision Process
Rogers Model of Innovation Decision Process
Persuasion: refers to the formation of favorable or unfavorable attitudes towards the innovation
Persuasiveness is related to the perceived risks and consequences of adopting and using the new product
Rogers Model of Innovation Decision Process
Decision: involves a choice between adopting and rejecting the innovation
Adoptors are people who have made a decision to use a new product whereas other are nonadoptors
Rejection may be active or passive
Rogers Model of Innovation Decision Process
Implementation: occurs when the consumer puts an innovation to use
The process has been a mental exercise until this point where it requires a behavioral change
The strength of the marketing plan may be the critical determinant in a sale resulting
Rogers Model of Innovation Decision Process
Confirmation: during this stage, consumer seek reinforcement for their innovation decision
Consumer may reverse previous decision due to conflicting messages resulting in dissonance
Discontinuance is a serious concern to marketers who strive for continued acceptance
Rogers Model of Innovation Decision Process
Implemen-Implemen-tationtation DecisionDecisionKnowledgeKnowledge ConfirmationConfirmation PersuasionPersuasion
Communication Channels
A B C D E
A= Innovators (2.5%)B= Early Adopters (13.5%)C= Early Majority (34%)D= Late Majority (34%)E= Laggards (16%)
Adopter Classes
Consumers Likely to Buy New Products
Innovators: the first consumer group to adopt products
Early adopters: opinion leaders and role models for others, with good social skills and respect within larger social systems
Early majority: consumers who deliberate extensively before buying new products, yet adopt them just before the average time it takes the target population as a whole
Consumers Likely to Buy New Products
Late majority: tends to be cautious when evaluating innovations, taking more time than average to adopt them, and often at the pressure of peers
Laggards: the last groups that tend to be anchored in the past, are suspicious of the new, and exhibit the lowest level of innovativeness among adopters
Consumers Likely to Buy New Products
Innovativeness: the degree to which an individual adopts an innovation earlier than other members of a social system
Cognitive innovators: have a strong preference for new mental experiences
Sensory innovators: have a strong preference for new sensory experiences
Advertising and other communications can be targeted accordingly
social classstratification
culture
What Is Culture?
A set of values, ideas, artifacts, and other meaningful symbols that help individuals communicate, interpret, and evaluate as members of society
Blueprint of human activity, determining coordinates of social action and productive activity
A set of socially acquired behavior patterns transmitted symbolically through language and other means to the members of a particular society
Values and Norms
Norms: rules of behavior held by a majority or at least a consensus of a group about how individuals should behave
Cultural (social) values: values shared broadly across groups of people
Personal values: terminal (goals) or instrumental (behaviors) beliefs of individuals
Values and Norms
Values and norms represent the beliefs of various groups within a society
Macroculture: values and symbols that apply to an entire society or most of its citizens
Microculture: values and symbols of a restrictive group or segment of consumers, defined according to variables such as age, religion, ethnicity, or social class
Values and Norms
Socialization: the process by which people develop their values, motivations, and habitual activity
The Values Transfusion Model shows how the values of a society are reflected in families, religious institutions, and schools, all of which expose and transmit values to individuals
Characteristics Influenced by Culture
Sense of self and space Communication and language Dress and appearance Food and feeding habits Time and time consciousness Relationships Values and norms Beliefs and attitudes Mental processes and learning Work habits and practices
Used to define and differentiate cultures
Values and Norms
People adopt values that influence how they live, how they define right and wrong, how they shop, and what is important to them
The values adopted by individuals today shape the values of society in the future
Values of SocietyValues of Society
Religious Religious InstitutionsInstitutions
Early Early Lifetime Lifetime
ExperiencesExperiences
FamilyFamilyEducational Educational InstitutionsInstitutions
Society of Society of FutureFuture
Individual Individual Internalized Internalized
ValuesValuesPeersPeers MediaMedia
The Values Transfusion Model
Changing Values
Society’s values change continuously even though core values are relatively permanent
Changes in values may alter the response to advertising, service offerings, and retailing formats
Changing Values
Will people become more like their parents as they get older, or will they carry with them the values of their generation?
Depends on elements in the Cultural Transfusive Triad and early lifetime experiences
Changing Values
Life-cycle explanation: values change according to life-cycle (as individuals grow older, their values change)
Theory of behavioral assimilation: Younger people grow into the values of their parents as they get older
Generational change: gradual replacement of existing values by those of young people who form the leading generation in value terms
Religious Religious InstitutionsInstitutionsFamilyFamily
Educational Educational InstitutionsInstitutions
The Values Transfusion Model
Cultural Transfusive Triad
Early Early Lifetime Lifetime
ExperiencesExperiences
How Culture Affects Consumer Behavior:
Pre-purchase and Purchase Activities
Consumption and Divestment Activities
Influence of Culture on Pre-purchase and Purchase Activities
Culture affects what consumers think they need and what they perceive as frivolous
Culture affects how consumers are likely to search for information
Culture affects the importance placed on certain attributes of alternatives
Culture affects the amount of price negotiation during the purchase process
Culture affects how consumers use or consume products
Consumers’ expectations about form and function vary between cultures
Culture influences how individuals dispose of products—reselling products after use, giving them to others for use, or recycling them and their packaging when possible
Influence of Culture on Consumption and Divestment Activities
Changing Family Influences
Less time for in-home or parent-child influence
Increasing divorce rates
Isolated nuclear family (geographic separation of generations)
Changing Religious Influences
Traditional churches and religions have seen a decline in loyalty
Increase in non-Christian religions
A shift from traditional religion to spirituality
Women are more religious
Religion and spirituality are big business and influence big business
Changing Educational Influences
Dramatic increase in formal education
Teaching has evolved from memorization to questioning
Digital learning has increased in popularity
Acculturation: measures the degree to which a consumer has learned the ways of a different culture compared to how they were raised
Just as individuals adapt to cultural changes, so do
companies
Advertisements Appealing to
the Latin-American Market
Advertisements Appealing to the Latin-American Market
Social Class Microcultures
Social class: relatively permanent and homogeneous divisions in a society into which individuals or families sharing similar values, lifestyles, interests, wealth, status, education, economic positions, and behavior can be categorized
Social Class Microcultures
Concrete variables that define social classes include occupation, education, friendships, ways of speaking, and possessions
Perceived variables that define social class include power, and prestige
Social class, in part, determines the mix of goods consumers will buy
Social Class Microcultures
Status groups: reflect community’s expectations for style of life among each class as well as the positive or negative social estimation of honor given to each class
Social Class Microcultures
What determines social class?
Economic Variables
Interaction Variables
Political Variables
Personal Prestige Personal Prestige Association SocializationAssociation Socialization
Power Class Power Class consciousness Mobilityconsciousness Mobility
Occupation Income Occupation Income Wealth Wealth
Social Class Microcultures
Consumer analysts often focus on six variables which determine social class
Occupation
Personal performance
Interactions
Possessions
Value orientations
Class consciousness
Social Class Microcultures
Occupation: best single indicator of social class
Personal performance: a person’s success relative to that of others (often in the same occupation)
Interactions: the people with whom one associates and socializes
Possessions: symbols of class membership
Social Class Microcultures
Value orientations: values are indicators of our social class
In some countries, values are more important than possessions and social class is determined more by achievements than by possessions
Class consciousness: the degree to which people in a social class are aware of themselves as a distinctive group
Social Class Microcultures
Social stratification: perceived hierarchies in which consumers rate others as higher or lower in social status
Achieved status: earn a higher status due to work or study
Ascribed status: lucky to be born wealthy or beautiful
Status inconsistency: when a person rates high on one variable and low in another (some athletes or musicians)
Market Segmentation
Identification of social class usage of the product
Comparison of social class variables for segmentation with other variables
Description of social class characteristics identified in target markets
Development of marketing program to maximize effectiveness of marketing mix based on consistency with social-class attributes
Positioning Based on Social Class
Understanding social class helps marketers create perceptions about products or organizations in consumers’ minds
Appeal to those who are in a social class and those who aspire to be there
Positioning Based on Social Class
Brands such as Coach and Godiva are positioned to middle class consumers with simple, sleek ads
Wanting it all is a hallmark of the middle class and buying the best on at least a few occasions sets them apart and bolsters their self-image