IMC 301: Consumer Insight Chapter 1

Consumed Consumers

people who are used or exploited, willingly or not, for commercial gain in the marketplace. Consumer become commodities. For example: Prostitutes, organ/blood/hair donors, babies for sale.

Consumer addiction

physiological or psychological dependency on products or services (alcoholism, drug addiction, etc.)

Interpretivism

A newer paradigm that questions assumptions of positivism. Society emphasizes science and technology too much, and they feel that this ordered, rational view of behavior denies the complex social and cultural world in which we really live. Stress importance of symbolic, subjective experience and the idea that meaning is in the mind of the person.

Paradigm

A set if beliefs that guide our understanding of the world.

Economics of information

Advertising is an important source of consumer information. The economic cost of the time spent searching for products is important. Consumers are willing to pay for advertising services because it reduces search time.

Bioterrorism

Attacks on the consumer space to hold the marketplace hostage. For example, anthrax scares in 2001. Placing harmful substances within products, the environment, and supply networks.

B2C e-commerce

Businesses selling to consumers

C2C e-commerce

Consumer-to-consumer selling and activity; virtual brand communities are present

Demorgraphics

Descriptive characteristics of a population (age, gender, income, education, occupation)

Database marketing

Involves tracking specific consumers' buying habits very closely and crafting products and messages tailored precisely to people's wants and needs based on this information.

Consumption communities

Members share opinions and recommendations about products and services

Positivism

THE BASIC SET OF ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING THE DOMINANT PARADIGM AT THIS POINT IN TIME (sometimes known as modernism). Emphasizes that human reason is supreme and that there is a single, objective truth that science can discover.

Market segmentation strategies

Targeting a brand only to specific groups of consumer rather than to everybody.

Need

a basic biological motive. (i.e. thirst)

Pastiche

a mixture of images. (i.e. the world we live in through the scope of interpretivism) Consumption offers a diverse set of experiences.

Consumer

a person who identifies a need or desire, makes a purchase, and then disposes of the product during the three stages in the consumption process

Culture jamming

a strategy to disrupt efforts by the corporate world to dominate our cultural landscape. (Buy Nothing Day and TV Turnoff Week by Adbusters)

Exchange

a transaction in which two or more organizations or people give and receive something of value

Psychographics

aspects of a person's lifestyle and personality.

Popular culture

consisting of the music, movies, sports, books, celebrities, and other forms of entertainment the mass market consumes, is both a product of and an inspiration for marketers. Affects lives ranging from how we acknowledge cultural events to how we view social issues.

Global consumer culture

culture which unites people around the world by their common devotion to brand-name consumer goods, movie stars, celbrities, and leisure activities

Anticonsumption

events in which people deliberately deface or mutilate products and services

Green marketing

firms protect or enhance the natural environment as they go about their business activities (reduce wasteful packaging)

Relationship marketing

interacting with customers on a regular basis and give them reasons to maintain a bond with the company over time. Lifetime r'ship b/w brand and consumer is goal

Shrinkage

inventory and cash losses from shoplifting, employee theft.

Heavy users

most faithful customers. sometimes companies define market segments by these individuals. Core customer.

Want

one way that society has taught us to satisfy the need. (i.e. Coca Cola teaching us to satisfy thirst by drinking soda instead of water)

RFID tag

plastic tag containing a computer chip and a tiny antenna that lets the chip communicate with a network. Within a product. For example, grocery items will tell the store what needs to be restocked and which are past expiration; keep tabs on laundry.

Compulsive Consumption

refers to repetitive shopping, often excessive, as an antidote to tension, anxiety, depression, or boredom.

Role theory

sociological perspective that takes the view that much of consumer behavior resembles actions in a play. as in a play, each consumer has lines, props, and costumes necessary to put on a good performance. People act out many roles, so consumption decisions depend on the particular play they are in at a certain time. Prepurchase Issues: How do I decide I need product? Best source of info to learn about alternatives? Purchase Issues: Is obtaining product stressful or fun? What does purchase say about me? Postpurchase Issues: Does product perform intended desire? How is product disposed?

Consumer behavior

the study of processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and desires.

U-commerce

the use of ubiquitous that will slowly but surely become a part of us, whether in the form of wearable computers or customized advertisements beamed to our cell phones.

Social marketing

use techniques marketers normally use to sell beer or detergent to encourage positive behaviors such as increased literacy and to discourage negative activities such as drunk driving. Make sure people are not exploited/deceived in ads (children: program-length toy commercials; understand ads)