Understanding Consumer Behavior (Chap. 5)

-involves the actions and decision processes of indiv. and households in discovering, evaluating, acquiring, consuming and disposing of products

Low involvement-not related to image of self, lower risk of visibility (passive decision making-learning in which little nergy is devoted to thinking about/elaborating on information; purchase; brand evaluation) (ex. candy bar/soap/soft drinks)
-high involvement-related to image of self, higher risk of visibility (active decision making-learning in which substantial energy is devoted to thinking about information; brand evaluation; purchase) (ex. computer, car, house)
-decision making steps
1) problem recognition-becoming aware of an unfulfilled need (ex. Erin's Ford Explorer is giving her trouble, so she thinks about getting a new car.)
2) information search-thinking through a situation by recalling info stored in memory or obtaining it from external sources (ex. Erin decides what she likes about her old Explorer. She talks with family and friends and searched internet sources on vehicles)
3) alternatives evaluation-use of decision rules that attempt to determine which product would be most likely to satisfy goals (ex. Erin establishes some decision rules (price/features/style), test drives several vehicles, and evaluates her options)
4) purchase decision-decisions of whether or not to buy and which competing product to buy, which is made after carefully weighing the alternatives (ex. Erin decides on a Ford Escape Hybrid and determines that leasing will work best for her.)
5) purchase evaluation-process of determining satisfaction with a buying choice (ex. friends and family like the car, which reinforces Erin's decision. interaction with the Ford dealer after the sale is positive)

1) Motivation-an internal force that directs behavior toward the fulfillment of needs (Maslows Hierarchy of Needs: physiological-nutrition and air; safety-security and protection; love/belonging-friendship/acceptance; esteem-prestige and status; self actualization-self fulfillment and personal enrichment)
-motivational conflicts: avoidance/avoidance conflict-consumers must choose between 2 undesirable alternatives (ex. muffler repair leads to depleted savings or not leads to bothersome exhaust noise; stress the unpleasantness of one alternative; muffler ads that show how embarrassing a bad muffler is); approach/avoidance conflict-consumer desires an alternative that has positive and negative qualities (ex. college education requires hard work/expense but leads to greater earnings opportunities; emphasize positive benefits of desired action; college ad campaign that shows earnings between grad and non grad); approach/approach conflict-consumer desires 2 objectives but cannot have both (ex. toothpaste, we want health with fluoride and sex appeal with breath freshener; provide both benefits)

2) Perception
-types: selective exposure-tendency to seek out or avoid information sources (consumer is exposed to the ad; sees/hears it; didn't see/hear ad); selective attention-tendency to heed info that supports current views/behaviors (consumer pays attention to ad; didn't pay attention to ad); selective comprehension-tendency to interpret products and messages according to current beliefs (consumer understands the ad; misunderstood the ad); selective retention-tendency to remember some and forget other info (consumer remembers the ad; didn't remember the ad)

3) Learning-any change in consumer behavior caused by experience
-types: classical conditioning-after 2 stimuli are presented together repeatedly, people learn to respond to one in the same way as the other (Pavlov rang a bell before feeding dog so it drooled; then when a bell was rung without food, dog still drooled); generalization-making same response to different stimuli; discrimination-making different responses to different stimuli; operant conditioning-use of reinforcement/punishment to shape behavior

4) Attitudes-state of readiness with cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components, which reflects the beliefs of the consumer with regard to messages, brands, products, product characteristics
-cognitive-knowledge about a product's attributes not influenced by emotion
-affective-emotional feeling of like/dislike
-behavioral-tendency to act positively or negatively
-belief-a conviction that something is true or that descriptive statements are factual

5) Information processing-process whereby consumers acquire, store, and evaluate the data they use in making decisions (encoding-process of converting info to knowledge, memory-brain function that stores and recalls encoded info)