Chapter 6

Attribute Sets

Universal, Evoked, Retrieval

Universal Sets

Includes all possible choices for a product category.

Retrieval Sets

Includes those brands or stores that the consumer can readily bring forth from memory

Performance Risk

Involves the perceived danger inherent in a poorly performing product or service

Consumer Decision Process

Need Recognition --> Information Search --> Alternative Evaluation --> Purchase --> Post Purchase

Love Needs

Needs expressed through interactions with others.

Esteem Needs

Needs that enable people to fulfill inner desires

Impulse Buying

A buying decision made by customers on the spot when they see the merchandise.

Multi-Attribute Model

A compensatory model of customer decision making based on the notion that customers see a product as a collection of attributes or characteristics. The model uses a weighted average score based on the importance of various attributes and performance on those issues.

Behavioral Component

A component of attitude that comprises the actions a person takes with regard to the issue at hand

Cognitive Component

A component of attitude that reflects what a person believes to be true.

Affective Component

A component of attitude that reflects what a person feels about the issue at hand—his or her like or dislike of something.

Lifestyle

A component of psychographics; refers to the way a person lives his or her life to achieve goals.

Motive

A need or want that is strong enough to cause the person to seek satisfaction.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

A paradigm for classifying people's motives. It argues that when lower-level, more basic needs (physiological and safety) are fulfilled, people turn to satisfying their higher-level human needs (social and personal); see physiological, safety, social, and personal needs.

Attitude

A person's enduring evaluation of his or her feelings about and behavioral tendencies toward an object or idea; consists of three components: cognitive, affective, and behavioral.

Extended Problem Solving

A purchase decision process during which the consumer devotes considerable time and effort to analyzing alternatives; often occurs when the consumer perceives that the purchase decision entails a lot of risk.

Habitual Decision Making

A purchase decision process in which consumers engage with little conscious effort.

Psychological Risk

Associated with the way people will feel if the product or service does not convey the right image

Noncompensatory Decision Rule

At work when consumers choose a product or service on the basis of a subset of its characteristics, regardless of the values of its other attributes.

Compensatory Decision Rule

At work when the consumer is evaluating alternatives and trades off one characteristic against another, such that good characteristics compensate for bad ones.

Evoked Set

Comprises the alternative brands or stores that the consumer states he or she would consider when making a purchase decision.

Evaluative Criteria

Consist of a set of salient, or important, attributes about a particular product.

Involvement

Consumer's interest in a product or service. High: Greater Attention, deeper processing, develops strong attitudes and purchase intentions Low: Less attention, peripheral processing, generates weak attitudes and increased use of cues

Situational Factors

Factors affecting the consumer decision process; those that are specific to the situation that may override, or at least influence, psychological and social issues.

Limited Problem Solving

Occurs during a purchase decision that calls for, at most, a moderate amount of effort and time.

Negative Word of Mouth

Occurs when consumers spread negative information about a product, service, or store to others.

Internal Search for Information

Occurs when the buyer examines his or her own memory and knowledge about the product or service, gathered through past experiences.

External Search for Information

Occurs when the buyer seeks information outside his or her personal knowledge base to help make the buying decision.

Safety Needs

One of the needs in the PSSP hierarchy of needs; pertain to protection and physical well-being.

Reference Group

One or more persons whom an individual uses as a basis for comparison regarding beliefs, feelings, and behaviors.

Actual or Perceived Risk

Performance Risk Psychological Risk Financial Risk Social Risk Physiological Risk

Functional Needs

Pertain to the performance of a product or service.

Psychological Needs

Pertain to the personal gratification consumers associate with a product or service.

Determinant Attributes

Product or service features that are important to the buyer and on which competing brands or stores are perceived to differ.

Learning

Refers to a change in a person's thought process or behavior that arises from experience and takes place throughout the consumer decision process.

External Locus of Control

Refers to when consumers believe that fate or other external factors control all outcomes

Internal Locus of Control

Refers to when consumers believe they have some control over the outcomes of their actions, in which case they generally engage in more search activities.

Financial Risk

Risk associated with a monetary outlay; includes the initial cost of the purchase, as well as the costs of using the item or service.

Need Recognition

The beginning of the consumer decision process; occurs when consumers recognize they have an unsatisfied need and want to go from their actual, needy state to a different, desired state. (psychological or functional)

Physiological Risk

The fear of an actual harm should a product not perform properly.

Social Risk

The fears that consumers suffer when they worry others might not regard their purchases positively.

Perception

The process by which people select, organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world.

Postpurchase Cognitive Dissonance

The psychologically uncomfortable state produced by an inconsistency between beliefs and behaviors that in turn evokes a motivation to reduce the dissonance; buyers' remorse.

Consumer Decision Rules

The set of criteria that consumers use consciously or subconsciously to quickly and efficiently select from among several alternatives.

Physiological Needs

Those relating to the basic biological necessities of life: food, drink, rest, and shelter.

Self-Actualization

When a person is completely satisfied with his or her life.