Marketing ch 5 midterm

Marketers often try to influence consumers' attitudes toward a company, brand, or product. What exactly is an attitude? How is it different from a belief?

-Attitude describes a person's relatively consistent evaluations, feelings, and tendencies toward an object or idea. Attitudes put people into a frame of mind of liking or disliking things, of moving toward or away from them. -A belief is a descriptive thought that a person holds about something. Beliefs may be based on real knowledge, opinion, or faith and may or may not carry an emotional charge.

Describe the steps of the consumer buying decision process.

Need recognition- -Triggered by -internal stimuli (drives) -external stimuli (advertising, reference groups) Information search- -personal sources (family/friends) -commercial sources (advertising internet) -public sources (mass media, consumer organization) -experiential sources ( handling, examining, using the product) Evaluation of alternatives- -how the consumer processes information to arrive at brand choices Purchase decision- -consumers act of buying the most preferred brand -can be affected by -attitudes of others -unexpected situational factors Post purchase Behavior -the satisfaction or dissatisfaction that the consumer feels about the purchase -cognitive dissonance- the discomfort caused by a post purchase conflict

Perception is one of the psychological factors that influences consumer behavior. Define perception. Describe three processes by which consumers selectively perceive their world. Why is it important for marketers to understand processes of perception?

Perception is the process by which people select, organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world. People can form different perceptions of the same stimulus because of three perceptual processes: selective attention, selective distortion, and selective retention. Selective attention: the tendency for people to screen out most of the information to which they are exposed—means that marketers must work especially hard to attract the consumer's attention. Selective distortion: describes the tendency of people to interpret information in a way that will support what they already believe. People also will forget much of what they learn. They tend to retain information that supports their attitudes and beliefs Selective retention: means that consumers are likely to remember good points made about a brand they favor and forget good points made about competing brands. Because of selective attention, distortion, and retention, marketers must work hard just to get their messages through.

Consumer behavior is influenced by a variety of cultural and social factors, including reference groups, membership groups, and aspirational groups. How are these groups similar? How are they different from one another? How do each of these groups influence consumer behavior?

Groups that have a direct influence and to which a person belongs are called membership groups. In contrast, reference groups serve as direct (face-to-face interactions) or indirect points of comparison or reference in forming a person's attitudes or behavior. People often are influenced by reference groups to which they do not belong. For example, an aspirational group is one to which the individual wishes to belong, as when a young basketball player hopes to someday emulate basketball star LeBron James and play in the NBA.

When marketers refer to consumer lifestyles, what do they mean? How does lifestyle influence consumer behavior? How is lifestyle different from social class?

Social classes are society's relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members share similar values, interests, and behaviors. Social scientists have identified seven American social classes: upper upper class, lower upper class, upper middle class, middle class, working class, upper lower class, and lower lower class. Life style involves the idea that woman would typically buy household items

What does the Diffusion of Innovation curve describe? Characterize each of the five groups of buyers included in the Diffusion of Innovation curve.

The diffusion of innovation curve shows the typical distribution of adoption rates for five different categories of consumers. Rank the order of these consumers, starting with the left-most and ending with the right-most group. 1. Innovators 2. Early adopters 3. Early majority 4. Late majority 5. Laggards