Understanding Consumer Behavior

Hi everyone! 

Im back to talk more about marketing :) 

Chapter five is all about consumer behavior. This is extremely important in marketing because when you understand how consumers go about buying products, you can adjust your marketing to catch their eye and attention, which will help your product succeed. 

Consumer Behavior is the actions a person takes in purchasing and using products and services, including the mental and social processes that come before and after these actions. 

There is a Purchase Decision Process which consists of 5 stages: 

The (1) Problem Recognition: Perceiving a Need  is the initial step in the purchase decision. It is perceiving a difference between a person's ideal and actual situations big enough to trigger a 
decision. 
(2)Information search: Seeking Value After recognizing the problem a consumer begins to search for information the next stage in the purchase decision process. The action is called INTERNAL SEARCH. 

EXTERNAL SEARHC FOR INFORMATION; needed when past experience or knowledge is insufficient the risk of making a wrong purchase decisions is high and cost of gathering information is low.

(3) Alternative Evaluation: Assessing Value the information search stage clarifies the problem for the consumer by (1) suggesting criteria to use for the purchase (2) yielding brand names that might meet the criteria (3) developing consumer value perceptions.

-  These factors are the consumers EVALUATIVE CRITERIA which represent both the objective attributes of a brand (a display) and the subjective ones (prestige) you use to compare different products and brands.
- These criteria establish the brands in your CONSIDERATION SET the group of brands that you would consider from among all brands of which you are aware in the product class.

(4) Purchase Decision: Buying Process two choices remain (1) from whom to buy and (2) when to buy.
(5) Post Purchase Behavior: Value in Consumption or Use  After buying a product the consumer compares it with his or her expectations and is either satisfied or dissatisfied. If dissatisfied marketers must determine whether the product was deficient or consumer expectations were too high.

Now, I will tell you about the consumer involvement and Problem- Solving variations! 

 EXTENDED PROBLEM SOLVING: each of the five stages of the consumer purchase decision process is used and considerable time and effort are devoted to search for external information and identification and evaluation of alternatives.  Exists in high involvement purchase situations for items such as cars
 LIMITED PROBLEM SOLVING: seek information or rely on a friend to help them evaluate alternatives. May be used in choosing a toaster restaurant for lunch etc.
 ROUTINE PROBLEM SOLVING: for products such as table salt and milk, consumers recognize a problem, make a decision and spend a little effort seeking external information and evaluating alternatives

Looking more into the consumer as a person, the chapter discusses MOTIVATION, PERSONALITY, and PERCEPTION 

Motivation: is the energizing force that stimulates behavior to satisfy a need. 

- - knowing the motivation of a buyer is very important because the needs of a buyer are the main focus of the producer. 

      Personality: refers to a persons consistent behaviors or responses to recurring situations 

  - Knowing the personality of consumers is also extremely important because then you can adapt the way you market products, in a way which you know the consumer will buy them. 

      Perception: the process by which an individual selects organizes and interprets information to create a meaningful picture of the world.

-  - There are different subfields under perception which are: 

·      SELECTIVE EXPOSURE: occurs when people pay attention to messages that are consistent with their attitudes and beliefs and ignore messages that are inconsistent.

·      SELECTIVE COMPREHENSION: involves interpreting information so that it is consistent with your attitudes and beliefs

·      SELECTIVE RETENTION: The consumer does not remember all the information they see, read, or hear, even minutes after exposure to it.

·      SUBLIMINAL PERCEPTION: means that you see or hear messages without being aware of them.

    

     Another term to be aware of is Perceived Risk: represents the anxiety felt because the consumer cannot anticipate the outcome of a purchase but believes there may be negative consequences. Companies develop strategies to reduce the consumers perceived risk and encourage purchases

    

   Learning and Behavioral Learning comes into play later in the chapter so I will not enlighten you on this section! 

  Learning: refers to those behaviors that result (1) repeated experience and (2) reasoning,

Much of consumer behavior is learned. Consumers learn which information sources to consult for information about products and services  

Behavioral Learning: the process of developing automatic responses to a situation built up through repeated exposure to it.

            

-Four variables are central to how consumers learn from repeated experience: 

·      Drive: a need that moves an individual to action

·      Cue: a stimulus or symbol perceived by consumers,

·      Response: the action taken by a consumer to satisfy the drive

·      Reinforcement: the reward

  Well, that should give you a good idea and the low down on understanding a big amount of consumer behavior. I hope everyone enjoyed my lesson today and I am looking forward to writing to you all later on! 

  Until next time! 

Natalia