Consumer Behavior: Chapter 16 - Alternative Evaluation and Selection

Three types of consumer choice processes:

1. Affective Choice 2. Attitude-Based Choice 3. Attribute-Based Choice

Decision Rules for Attribute-Based Choices

1. Conjunctive Rule 2.Disjunctive Rule 3. Elimination-by-Aspects Rule 4. Lexicographic Rule 5. Compensatory Rule

Determination of which evaluative criteria are used:

1. Direct 2. Indirect

Determination of Consumers' Judgements of Brand Performance on Specific Evaluative Criteria Measuring consumer judgements of brand performance on specific attributes can include:

1. Rank ordering scales 2. Semantic Differential Scales 3. Likert Scales

Measurement of Evaluative Criteria involves a determination of:

1. The Evaluative Criteria Used 2. Judgements of Brand performance on Specific Criteria 3. The Relative Importance of Evaluative Criteria

Individual Judgement and Evaluative Criteria

Accuracy of individual judgments Use of surrogate indicators The relative importance and influence of evaluative criteria Evaluative criteria individual judgments, and marketing strategy

Advertising Effects

Advertising can affect the importance of evaluative criteria in a number of ways

An Examination of Rational Choice Theory

Assumption 1: Consumers seek one optimal solution to a problem and choose on that basis Reality: Consumers have all sorts of "metagoals" that are different from this Assumption 2: Consumers have the skill and motivation to find the optimal solution Reality: Consumers often lack both the skill or motivation to do so Assumption 3: The optimal solution does not change as a function of situational factors such as time pressure, task definition, or competitive context Reality: Context effects are common

Situational Influences on Consumer Choice

Choices are not independent of the competitive situation, an effect sometimes called context effects One such effect is when an additional competitor makes an existing competitor appear to be the "compromise" option Choice of the compromise brand increases even though: a) Consumers are still using the same decision rule (compensatory) b )The compromise brand's attribute levels have not changed

Lexicographic Decision Rule

Consumer ranks the criteria in order of importance. Then selects brand that performs best on the most important attribute. If two or more brands tie, they are evaluated on the second most important attribute. This continues through the attributes until one brand outperforms the others. Acer would be chosen because it performs best on Price, our consumer's most important attribute.

Irrational Behavior

Consumers also often have goals that are different from, or in addition to selecting the optimal alternative We try to minimize the cognitive effort required for a decision Ex: driver's license Organ donor. Why do some countries have high participation of their population being organ donors, while other countries are low? It's not culturally motivated. Should we change they system from opt-out to opt-in? So that way if people forget about it, they're automatically an organ donor.

Disjunctive Rule

Establishes a minimum required performance for each important attribute (often a high level). All brands that meet or exceed the performance level for any key attribute are acceptable. If minimum performance was: EX: Acer, Compaq, and Dell meet the minimum for at least one important criterion and thus are acceptable. So, these three go on to the next level of elimination I'll buy the first brands that perform really well on any attribute I consider important

Conjunctive Rule

Establishes minimum required performance for each evaluative criterion. Selects the first (or all) brand(s) that meet or exceed these minimum standards. If minimum performance was You set a standard for each attribute you are looking for (1 - 5), any brand that does not meet these attributes is eliminated EX: John finds one dishwasher that meets his standards he is looking for and two that do not. He eliminated the two that do not and buys the other one

Elimination-by-Aspects Rule

First, evaluative criteria ranked in terms of importance Second, cutoff point for each criterion is established. Finally (in order of attribute importance) brands are eliminated if they fail to meet or exceed the cutoff. If rank and cutoff were: EX: Step 1: Price eliminated Lenovo and Toshiba, Step II: weight eliminated Acer, Step II: only Dell meets all quality minimums

Importance and Influence of Evaluative Criteria:

Importance of evaluative criteria varies amount consumers and within the same individual over time

Compensatory Decision Rule Example:

Low involvement purchases generally involve relatively simple decision rules because consumers will attempt to minimize the mental cost of such decisions EX: Self service High involvement decisions tend to increase evaluation efforts and often may involve more complex rules and stages of decision making EX: Interaction with sales personnel

Surrogate Indicators

are an attribute used to stand for or indicate another attribute EX: price, advertising intensity, warranties, brand, and country of origin They operate more strongly when consumers lack the expertise to make informed judgements on their own, when consumer motivation or interest in the decision is low and when other quality related information is lacking Three conditions 1. If other information regarding quality is unavailable 2. If informed judgements cannot be made by consumers 3. If consumers have a low interest in a decision EX: higher prices product = high quality

Evaluative Criteria

are the various dimensions, features, or benefits a consumer looks for in response to a specific problem Are typically associated with desired benefits and can differ in type, number, and important

What is the most common indirect method?

conjoint analysis

What is the most common direct method?

constant sum scale

Attitude-Based Choices

involves the use of general attitudes, summary impressions, institutions, or heuristics; no attribute-by-attribute comparisons are made at the time of choice Very little product information is collected from external sources Motivation, information availability, and situational factors interact to determine the likelihood that attitude-based choices are made Consumers rely on impressions and intuitions when evaluating a product EX: I like this toothpaste, so I buy it every time I need toothpaste

Blind Test

is one in which the consumer is not aware of the product's brand name

Usage Situation

is the situation in which a product or service used can have important influences on the criteria used to make a choice EX: speed of service when selection a restaurant is important during lunch time, but not dinner time

Direct Methods

methods include asking consumers what criteria they use in a particular purchase, noting what consumers say about products and their attributes consumers sometimes cannot verbalize their evaluative criteria for a product, particularly if emotions or feelings are involved

Attribute-Based Choices

requires the knowledge of specific attributes at the time the choice is made and it involves attribute-by-attribute comparisons across brands More effortful and time-consuming than the other ones Rely on the comparison of other brands EX: consumer conducts research on what features she needs in a camera and then goes to the store to compare the various types and brands of cameras. She chooses the camera that meets her most desires attributes.

Consumer Choice and Types of Choice Processes

simplistic way to look at information in this chapter

Compensatory Decision Rule

states that the brand that rates highest on the sum of the consumer's judgments of the relevant evaluative criteria will be chosen.

Indirect Methods

techniques assume consumers will not or cannot state their evaluative criteria 1. Projective Techniques: allow the respondent to indicate the criteria someone else might use 2. Perceptual Mapping: researcher uses judgement to determine dimensions underlying consumer evaluations of brand similarity

Affective Choices

tend to be more holistic; brand not decomposed into distinct components for separate evaluation evaluations generally focus on how they will make the user feel as they are used Choices are often based primarily on the immediate emotional response to the product or service Affective choice is most likely when the underlying motive is consummatory rather than instrumental 1. Consummatory: underlie behaviors that are intrinsically rewarding to the individual involved 2. Instrumental: activate behaviors designed to achieve a second goal

Sensory Discrimination

the ability of an individual to distinguish between similar stimuli

Determination of the Relative Importance of Evaluative Criteria

the importance assigned to evaluative criteria can be measured either by direct or by indirect methods The constant sum scale is the most common direct method Conjoint Analysis is the most common indirect method

Competitive Context:

the lower the variance across competing brands on a given evaluative criterion, the less influence it is likely to have in the decision process EX: you may thing the weight of a computer is important, but if all the brands you are considering weight the same, it becomes a not important factor

Just Noticeable Difference

the minimum amount that one brand can differ from another, with the difference still being noticed

Rational Choice Theory

we choose to maximize utility; rational individuals are supposed to consider their options, them pick the one that maximizes benefits to them. Implicitly or explicitly assumes a number of things about consumer choice that often are not true All consumer has bounded rationality or a limited capacity for processing information Most consumers do not pick the product that maximizes the most benefits -