Buyer Behavior Ch. 2

5 implications involving affect and cognition, behavior and the environment 1

1. comprehensive analysis of consumers must consider all three elements and the relationships among them. The development of marketing strategies should include an analysis of all three elements, their relationships and the direction of causal change at particular times

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2. any of the three elements may be the starting point for consumer analysis. Useful analysis could start with affect and cognition by researching what consumers think and feel about such things as the various brands of a product. The analysis could start with consumers' environments by examining changes in their worlds that could change their affect, cognition and behavior. Regardless of the start all three elements and their relationships should be analyzed

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3. Consumers can continuously change. Some consumers may change their affect, cognition, behavior and environments frequently

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4. Consumer analysis can be applied on many levels. It can be used to analyze not only a single consumer but also groups of consumers that make up a target market

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5. This framework of analyzing consumers highlights the importance of consumer research and analysis in developing marketing strategies. (Test marketing, advertising pretests, sales promotion effects, analysis of sales and market share data, pricing experiments traffic and shopping patterns, surveys and many others

Relationships among Affect and Cognition, Behavior and the Environment

Any of these can be either a cause or an effect of a change in one or more of the other elements. EX: A consumer sees an ad for a new laundry detergent that promises to clean clothes better than Tide. This ad changes what the consumer thinks about the new brand and leads to a purchase of it. In this case, a change in the consumer's environment (the ad) led to a change in cognition (consumer believing the new detergent was better) which led to a change in behavior (the consumer buying the new brand)

Societies

Changes in what a society believes and how its members behave can be analyzed with the Wheel of Consumer Analysis (ex: health and fitness have changed to become big motivators in our society and therefore products try to market themselves as more healthy in order for people to buy it)

Individual Consumers

The Wheel of Consumer Analysis can be used to analyze the consumption history, a single purchase or some aspect of a purchase for a specific consumer EX: to understand a purchase of a home security system we need to consider the person's affect, behavior, cognition and environment

Industries

The Wheel of consumer analysis can be used to analyze the relationships of a company and its competitors with consumers in specific industries. At the industry level, changes in consumer cognition, affect and behavior can threaten exisiting products and can also offer opportunities to develop products more consistent with new values and behaviors. Successful marketing strategies depend on analyzing consumer product relationships not only for the company's product but for those competitors and creating an advantage over competitive offerings

Market Segments

The wheel of consumer analysis can be used to analyze groups of consumers who have some similarity in cognition, affect, behavior and environment. Successful firms in an industry usually divide the total market into segments and try to appeal most strongly to one or more of them EX: Reebok shoe for outdoor basketball

Marketing Strategy

a set of stimuli placed in consumers' environments designed to influence their affect, cognition and behavior. These stimuli include such things as products, brands, packaging, advertisements, coupons, stores, credit cards, price tags, salespeople communications and other sensory cues. Marketing strategies should be designed not only to influence consumers but also to be influenced by them. Marketing strategies should be developed, implemented and changed based on consumer research and analysis

Reciprocal System

any of the elements can be either a cause or an effect of a change at any particular time. Affect and cognition can change consumer behavior and environments. Behavior can change consumers' affect, cognition and environments. Environments can change consumers' affect, cognition and behavior

Consumer Behavior

behavior refers to the physical actions of consumers that can be directly observed and measured by others. It is also called overt behavior to distinguish it from mental activities such as thinking, that cannot be observed directly ex: a trip to the gap at the mall involves behavior, deciding whether to go there is not an overt behavior because it cannot be observed by others

Behavior is critical for marketing strategy

only through behavior can sales be made and profits earned. Although many marketing strategies are designed to influence consumers affect and cognition, these strategies must ultimately result in overt consumer behavior to have value for the company

Consumer Environment

refers to everything external to consumers that influences what they think, feel and do. It includes social stimuli, such as the actions of others in cultures, subcultures, social classes, reference groups and families, that influence consumers. Also includes other physical stimuli such as stores, products, advertisements and signs that can change consumers thoughts, feelings and actions.

Affect

refers to their feelings about stimuli and events, such as whether they like or dislike a product Can be favorable or unfavorable and vary in intensity. Ex: affect includes relatively intense emotions such as love or anger, less strong feeling states such as satisfaction or frustration, moods such as boredom or relaxation and milder overall attitudes such as licking McDonald's french fries or disliking Bic pens.

Cognition

refers to their thinking, such as their beliefs about a particular product refers to the mental structures and processes involved in thinking, understanding and interpreting stimuli and events. It includes knowledge, meanings, and beliefs that consumers have developed from their experiences and stored in their memories. Also includes the processes associated with paying attention to and understanding stimuli and events, remembering past events, forming evaluations and making purchasing decisions and choices

Why is the consumer environment important?

the consumer environment is important to marketing because it is the medium in which stimuli are placed to influence consumers. Ex: marketers run commercials during TV shows that their target markets watch to inform, persuade and remind them to buy certain products or brand

Consumer Affect & Cognition

two types of mental responses consumers exhibit toward stimuli and events in their environment