Consumer Behavior: Chapter 18 - Postpurchase Processes, Customer Satisfaction, and Customer Commitment

Five Ways a Disposition Strategy can Affect a Firm:

1. Consumers are reluctant to purchase a new item until they have "gotten their money's worth" from the old one. 2. Disposition sometimes must occur before acquisition of a replacement because of space limitations. 3. Frequent decisions by consumers to sell, trade, or give away used products may result in a large used-market that can reduce the market for a new product. 4. The U.S is not a completely throwaway society. 5. Environmentally sound disposition decisions benefit society as a whole and thus the firms that are a part of society.

After the purchase is made, the consumer may utilize one or more of the following to reduce dissonance:

1. Increase the desirability of the brand purchased 2. Decrease the desirability of rejected alternatives 3. Decrease the importance of the purchase decision 4. Reverse the purchase decision (return before use)

Firms need to satisfy consumer expectations by

1.Creating reasonable expectations through promotional efforts, and 2.Maintaining consistent quality so the reasonable expectations are fulfilled.

Product Use: Consumers

Consumers are creative individuals who sometimes find unique ways to use a product; firms can use innovativeness to help develop new products, new advertising campaigns, etc. Discussion: -Describe examples of products you use in a nonstandard way -What, if any, marketing strategies can be suggested with new use strategy

The Evaluation Process

Determinants of Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction Instrumental performance relates to the physical functioning of the product. Symbolic performance relates to aesthetic or image-enhancement performance. Affective performance is the emotional response that owning or using the product or outlet provides

Repeat Purchasers, Committed Customers, and Marketing Strategy

Developing a marketing strategy for a particular segment includes identifying specific objectives to be pursued, such as: 1. Attracting new users to the product category 2. Capturing competitors' current customers 3. Encouraging current customers to use more 4. Encouraging current customers to become repeat purchasers 5. Encouraging current customers to become committed customers

Relationship Marketing

Five key elements to Relationship marketing: 1. Developing a core service or product around which to build a customer relationship 2. Customizing the relationship to the individual customer 3. Augmenting the core service or product with extra benefits 4. Pricing in a manner to encourage loyalty 5. Marketing to employees so that they will perform well for customers

Why is reducing churn a major objective of many firms today?

It typically costs more to obtain a new customer than to retain an existing one, and new customers generally are not as profitable as longer-term customers!

Product Disposition and Marketing Strategy

Marketers must be aware of the disposition factors that ultimately affect consumer purchase decisions. Helping consumers with the disposition of a used product can help the consumer through this process (e.g., developing products, packages and programs that encourage proper disposition).

Product Use

Retailers can frequently take advantage of the fact that the use of one product may require or suggest the use of other products, e.g., dresses and shoes. Retailers can promote such items 1. jointly 2. display them together, or 3. train sales personnel to make relevant complementary sales

Product Use: Retailers

Retailers can frequently take advantage of the fact that the use of one product may require or suggest the use of other products, e.g., dresses and shoes. Retailers can promote such items: -jointly -display them together, or -train sales personnel to make relevant complementary sales

Marketing Strategy and Dissatisfied Customer

When a consumer is dissatisfied, the most favorable consequence is for the person to communicate this dissatisfaction to the firm but to no one else. Unfortunately, many individuals do not communicate their dissatisfaction to the firm involved. Companies often make it difficult to complain or are unresponsive to complaints.

Switching Costs

are the costs of finding, evaluating, and adopting another solution.

Repeat Purchasers

continue to buy the same brand though they do not have an emotional attachment to it.

Brand Loyalty

involves commitment to the brand - it is a biased behavioral response expressed over time.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

is an indirect word-of-mouth (WOM) measure of true attitudinal loyalty. There are three categories of consumers: 1. Promoters 2. Passively satisfied 3. Detractors NPS = Promoters minus Detractors

Postpurchase Dissonance

occurs when a consumer has doubts or anxiety regarding the wisdom of a purchase made and is a function of the following: 1. the degree of commitment or irrevocability of the decision 2. the importance of the decision to the consumer 3. the difficulty of choosing among the alternatives 4. the individual's tendency to experience anxiety

Churn

turnover in a firm's customer base

Consumption Guilt

when guilt feelings are aroused by the product/service use marketers need to focus on validating the consumption for "high guilt" products EX: indulging in chocolate for some can cause consumption guilt you get around consumption guilt by listing the benefits of the service/ product EX: list the health benefits of chocolate

Stringent product liability laws have made firms responsible for harm caused by products not only...

when the product is used as specified by the manufacturer, but in any reasonably foreseeable use of the products. When marketers discover confusion about proper use, they should engage in communications to increase the chances of proper use.