MKTG Chapter 7

Social Class

an open group of individuals with similar social rank

Impulse Buying

an unplanned buying behavior resulting from a powerful urge to buy something immediately

Reference Groups

group that a person identifies with so strongly that he or she adopts the values, attitudes, and behavior of group members

Influencer

family member who expresses his or her opinions and tries to influence buying decisions

Social Influences

forces that other people exert on buying behavior; grouped into 5 major areas: roles, family, reference groups and opinion leaders, social classes, and culture and subcultures

Time Perspective

frequency of product use; length of time required to use the product; length of the overall product life; time required to become knowledgable about a product, search for it, and buy and use it; time of day, week, month, season/holiday

Examples of Learning

gaining experience through free samples; indirect experience through advertisements, websites, friends, etc

Primary Psychological Influences on Consumer Behavior

perception, motives, learning, attitudes, personality and self concept, and lifestyles

Behavioral Component of Attitude

person's actions regarding the object or idea; firm could distribute free samples to help change this component of a consumer's attitude

Cognitive Component of Attitude

person's knowledge and information about the object for idea; firm could launch an information focussed campaign to change this component of a consumer's attitude

Selective Exposure

the process by which some inputs are selected to reach awareness and others are not

Consumer Buying Decision Process

(1) Problem recognition, (2) information search, (3) evaluation of alternatives, (4) purchase, (5) post purchase evaluation; affected by situational, psychological, and social influences

Categories of Situational Factors

(1) physical surroundings, (2) social surroundings, (3) time perspective, (4) reason for purchase, and (5) the buyer's momentary mood and condition

Information Search

2 aspects: internal and external search

Esteem Needs

People require respect and recognition from others as well as self-esteem, a sense of one's own worth; examples: owning a Lexus, getting a makeover, flying first class

Cognitive Dissonance

a buyer's doubts shortly after a purchase about whether the decision was the right one; most likely to arise when a person has recently bought an expensive, high-involvement product that lacks some of the desirable features of competing brands

Routinized Response Behavior

a consumer decision making process used when buying frequently purchased, low cost items that require very little search-and-decision effort; associated with low-involvement purchases

Limited Decision Making

a consumer decision making process used when purchasing products occasionally or needing information about an unfamiliar brand in a familiar product category; requires a moderate amount of time

Consideration Set

a group of brands within a product category that a buyer views as alternatives for possible purchase

Subculture

a group of individuals whose characteristics, values, and behavioral patterns are similar within the group and different from those of people in the surrounding culture; usually based on geographic designations and demographic characteristics

Attitude Scale

a means of measuring consumer attitudes by gauging the intensity of individuals' reactions to adjectives, phrases, or sentences about an object

Self Concept

a perception or view of oneself (self image); developed and altered based on an iteration between psychological and social dimensions

Personality

a set of internal traits and distinct behavioral tendencies that result in consistent patterns of behavior in certain situations; arises from hereditary characteristics and personal experiences

Selective Distortion

an individual's changing or twisting of information that is inconsistent with personal feelings or beliefs

Attitude

an individual's enduring evaluation of feelings about and behavioral tendencies toward an object or idea; acquired through experience and interaction with other people

Lifestyle

an individual's pattern of living expressed through activities, interests, and opinions; can be affected by personality and by demographic factors such as age, education, income, and social class

Family Decision Making Processes

autonomic, husband dominant, wife dominant, syncratic

Purchase

based on the outcome of the evaluation stage and on other dimensions like product availability

Consumer Misbehavior

behavior that violates generally accepted norms of a particular society

Post Purchase Evaluation

buyer evaluates the product to ascertain if its actual performance meets expected levels; outcome is either satisfaction or dissatisfaction

Internal Search

buyers search their memories for information about products that might solve their problem

External Search

buyers seek information from sources other than their memories

Buyer's Momentary Mood/Condition

can affect a person's ability and desire to search for information, receive information, or seek and evaluate alternatives; can also significantly influence a consumer's post purchase evaluation

Social Surroundings

characteristics and interactions of others who are present during a purchase decision

VALS Types

classifies customers into 8 groups: innovators, thinkers, achievers, experiencers, believers, strivers, makers, and survivors; based on psychological characteristics that are correlated with purchase behavior and four key demographics

Components of Attitude

cognitive, affective, and behavioral

External Search Examples

communication with friends/relatives; comparison of available brands and prices; marketer-dominated sources (sales people, advertising, websites, package labeling, etc); public sources; independent sources (consumer reports, government reports, news presentations)

Affective Component of Attitude

comprises the individual's feelings and emotions toward the object or idea; firm could launch a persuasive campaign to influence this component of a consumer's attitude

Autonomic Decision Making

decision equally likely to be make by the husband or wife, but not both

Syncratic Decision Making

decision made jointly by husband and wife

Physical Surroundings

factors in the physical environment in which the decision process occurs

Psychological Influences

factors that in part determine people's general behavior, thus influencing their behavior as consumers

Social Needs

human requirements for love and affection and a sense of belonging; examples: ads for cosmetics, jewelry, beauty products, even cars

Patronage Motives

influence where a person purchases products on a regular basis; examples: price, service, location, product variety , friendliness of sales people

Situational Influences

influences that result from circumstances, time, and location that affect the consumer buying decision process

Situational Involvement

interest in a product or product category is is temporary and dynamic, results from a set of circumstances

Enduring Involvement

interest in a product or product category is ongoing and long term

Motive

internal, energizing force that directs a person's activities toward satisfying needs or achieving goals

Examples of Opinion Leaders

local religious leaders on charities, lifestyle choices, etc; sorority president on clothing and shoe purchases, hair styles, etc; family doctor on prescription drugs, vitamins, etc.

Level of Involvement

major determinant of decision making process employed; it is the degree of interest in a product and the importance the individual places on that product

Opinion Leaders

member of an informal group who provides information about a specific topic to other group members who seek that information; most influential when consumers have high product involvement but low product knowledge, when share opinion leader's values/attitudes, and when the product details are numerous or complicated

Trickle Down Effect

members of lower classes attempt to emulate members of higher social classes

Types of Reference Groups

membership, aspirational, dissociative

Perceptual Organization

mentally organizing and integrating new information with what is already stored in memory to produce meaning of information inputs

Interpretation

third step in the perceptual process; the assignment of meaning to what has been organized; based on what a person expects or what is familiar

Evaluative Criteria

objective characteristics (such as size) and subjective characteristics (such as style) that are important to him or her

Self Actualization Needs

people's need to grow and develop and to become all they are capable of becoming

Perception

process of (1) selecting, (2) organizing, and (3) interpreting information inputs to produce meaning

Consumer Socialization

process through which a person acquires the knowledge and skills to function as a consumer; often influenced by family

High Involvement Products

products that are visible to others and expensive; high-importance issues such as health care

Learning

refers to changes in a person's thought processes and behavior caused by information and experience; strongly influenced by the consequences of behavior

Selective Retention

remembering information inputs that support personal feelings and beliefs and forgetting inputs that do not

Physiological Needs

requirements for survival such as food, water, sex, clothing, and shelter; people try to satisfy first

Types of Consumer Decision Making

routinized response behavior, limited decision making, and extended decision making; affected by involvement level

Safety Needs

security, freedom from physical and emotional pain and suffering; product examples: life insurance, automobile air bags, decay-fighting toothpaste, vitamins, etc.

Behavioral Intentions Model

seeks to understand attitude by focusing on consumers' intentions to act or purchase; considers consumer perceptions of what other people, such as peers, believe is the best choice among a set of alternatives

Attitude Toward the Object Model (Fishbein)

seeks to understand, and possibly predict, a consumer's attitude by combining beliefs about product attributes, the strength of the belief, and the evaluation of the belief

Information Inputs

sensations received through sight, taste, hearing, smell and touch

Roles

sets of actions and activities a person in a particular position is supposed to perform based on expectations of both the individual and surrounding persons

Consumer Misbehavior Examples

shoplifting, consumer fraud, copying computer software, video games, movies, or music (piracy)

Categories that Affect Consumer Buying Decision Process

situational, psychological, and social

Culture

the accumulation of values, knowledge, beliefs, customs, objects, and concepts that a society uses to cope with its environment and passes on to future generations

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

the five levels of needs that humans seek to satisfy, from most to least important: physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization

Gatekeeper

the household member who collects and controls information

Extended Decision Making

the most complex consumer decision making process employed when purchasing unfamiliar, expensive, or infrequently bought products; associated with high-involvement products

Situational Involvement Example

the need to buy a new car after an accident

Problem Recognition

when a buyer becomes aware of a difference between a desired state and an actual condition; marketers trigger by sales personnel, advertising, and packaging

Status Float

when a product traditionally associated with a lower class gains status and usage among upper classes; example: blue jeans