What are the three types of consumer decisions?

What characterizes them?

Routine Response Behavior: low cost items, frequent purchases, low consumer involvement, familiar product class and brand, little thought, search, or time given to purchase

Limited Problem Solving: intermediate efforts

Extensive Problem Solving: more expensive products, infrequent purchases, high consumer involvement, unfamiliar product class or brand, extensive thought, search and time

Problem Recognition

Search for Information

Pre-purchase Evaluation of Alternatives

Product Choice

Purchase/Consumption

consumer sees difference between current state and ideal state

recognizes needs and then seeks to fulfill them

Internal: retrieving knowledge from memory or genetic tendencies

External: collecting information from peers, family or the market place

Deliberate Search: existing product knowledge obtained from previous information search or experience of alternatives

Accidental: mere exposure over time to the stimuli conditions response

mental rules-of-thumb for efficient decision making

Product signals- signaling effect like when you expect a nice looking store to sell nice things

Market beliefs- what people believe will occur

country of origin..

Simple- consumer chooses product that has the largest amount of points when they are all added up

Weighted- consumer takes into account weight of specific categories, multiplying importance by points

What are the 3 noncompensatory rules?

How does each work?

Lexicographic- pick product that is best on most important attribute

Elimination-by-Aspect- establish minimum cut-off for each aspect; select most important attribute and eliminate all brands that don't meet cutoff. Continue until one brand remains

Conjunctive Rule- looking at brands as a whole, set minimum cutoff, first brand where every attribute is equal or exceeds cutoff is selected

Personal motives: diversion, self-gratification, the thrill of the hunt, physical activity

Social motives: social experiences, sharing of common interests, peer-group attraction

benefits: good customer service, more options, more convenience

limitations: lack of security, fraud, lack of actual shopping experience,  shipping charges, lack of instant gratification

What is retail store image?

What factors shape or influence it?

How do store environments influence purchases?

What is a POP stimulus?

Point of Purchase stimuli- when people are at the point of purchase and you influence them to buy something extra by offering discounts or additional items 

In-store environment can increase impulse or unplanned buying by displays, coupon machines or employees handing out free products

expectancy disconfirmation compares expectation with actual attitude after purchase

Negative Disconfirmation: product delivers less than expected

Positive Disconfirmation: product delivers more than expected

Confirmation: product matches expectation

1. Iconic transfer- taking pictures and videos of objects before we sell them

2. Transition-place ritual- putting items in an out-of-the-way location such as a grage or attic before we dispose of them

3. Ritual Cleansing- washing, ironing, and/or meticulously wrapping the item

Normative- when individuals alter their behaviors or beliefs to meet the expectations of a particular group

Informational- when people have difficulty in assessing product or brand characteristics by their own observations or contacts

Value-Expressive- when a need for psychological association with a group causes acceptance of its values, attitudes, or behaviors

Membership groups are where individuals are recognized as members of a group, they have achieved formal acceptance status in the group where as Aspirational groups are ones in which individuals exhibit a desire to adopt the norms, values and behaviors of others in the group

Advertisers use common people for membership groups but celebrities for Aspirational groups

Old social networks mass media had exclusive access to public information spread, who then spread it to opinion leaders (gatekeepers) who then decided what trickled down to everyone else

New social networks are less formatted and there is not a clear distinction between opinion leaders and everyone else, more interactive system; easier diffusion of information

market mavens are actively involved in transmitting marketplace information of all types, into shopping and what's happening in the marketplace, overal knowledge of how and where to get products

Surrogate consumers act as agents to guide, direct, and conduct activities in the marketplace- interior decorators, stockbrokers, professional shoppers, college consultants, consumer relinquishes control of decision-making functions, marketers should not overlook importance of surrogates

WOM- word-of-mouth communication, product information transmitted by individuals to individuals

more reliable form of marketing

social pressure to conform

influences 2/3 of all sales

we rely upon WOM in later stage of product adoption

Powerful when we are unfamiliar with product category

a distinct cultural group that exists as an identifiable segment within a larger more complex society, categories include nationality, religion, geographic region, race, age, gender, occupation, social class

consumers lifestyles are affected by group membership within the society-at-large

share a strong identification with an activity or art form

have own unique set of norms, vocabulary, and product insignias

a self-perpetuating group of consumers who share common cultural or genetic ties where both its members and others recognize it as a distinct category

affects level/type of media exposure, willingness to try new products

minorities find an advertising spokesperson from their own group more trustworthy

the process of movement and adaptation to one cultural environment by a person from another culture

occurs, at least in part, with the influence of acculturation agents (family, friends, church organizations, media)

"my generation"

marketers target specific age cohorts

feelings of nostalgia

our possessions let us identify with others of a certain age or stage

Generation Y

Generation X

Baby Boomers

Gray Market

Born 1977-1994 or 1982-2000

Echo boomers or millenials

make up 1/3 of population

spend $170 bil/year

first to grow up with computers in teir homes, a 500-channel universe

Born 1966-1976

Gen-Xers, Baby busters, slackers

do not like labels, are cynical, and do not want to be marketed to

desire stable families, save portion of income, and view home as an expression of individuality

Born 1946-1965

more than 40% of the adult population

Active and physically fit

currently in peak earning years (food, apparel, and retirement programs; midlife crisis products)

roughly 65 years and older

growing segment due to better medcare, declining birthrate and the aging of the large baby boomer segment

people are now leading longer/healthier lives

• Teens are "consumers in training
• brand loyalty develops during adolescence
• teens influence family purchase decisions
• research firms come up with innovative ways to tap teen desires
• coolhunters are kids in major markets who roam urban streets and report back on cutting edge trends

Perceived is how old a person feels as opposed to his/her chronological age; age is more a state of mind than of body

the older we get the younger we feel relative to actual age

A societies personality, the accumulation of shared meaning, rituals, norms, and traditions among the members of an organization of society

Culture is evolving, a culture system consists of

Ecology: way system adapts to habitat

Social structure: way people maintain an oderly social life

Ideology: the mental characteristics of a people and the way they relate to their environment and social groups

1. Power Distance: way members perceive differences in power when they form interpersonal relationships
2. Uncertainty avoidance: degree to which people feel threatened by ambiguous situations and have beliefs and institutions that help them to avoid this uncertainty
3. Masculinity/Feminity- degree to which a culture clearly defines sex roles
4. Individualism: the extent to which the culture values the welfare of the individual vs. that of the group
5. High-Context vs. Low-context: extent to which communication is abstract or literal; very situational and contextual (high-context) or very spelt out and concrete (low-context)