MKTG330

Introduction to Consumer Behavior (1 of 4)

Introduction to Consumer Behavior

This online commentary is designed to build on and complement the information in your textbook. It is essential that you read and understand the assigned textbook readings prior to reading the online commentary and completing the assignments. It is also suggested that you take the quiz after completing the assigned reading to make sure that you understand the concepts in this lesson before completing the other assignments. You'll find that the information in the lesson content is critical for successfully completing the end-of-lesson assignments.

Lesson 1: Consumer Behavior and Value

In this first lesson, you will be introduced to the importance of the study of consumer behavior and why it is so closely examined by marketers. We will first define consumer behavior and discuss why it can be a challenging endeavor. Examining the meaning and driving forces of consumption is important for understanding consumer behavior.

Learning Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to do the following:

Define consumer behavior.
Explain why marketers study human behavior.
Recognize the components of the consumer value framework (CVF) when applied to an actual marketing scenario.

Lesson Readings and Activities

By the end of this lesson, make sure you have completed the readings and activities found in the Course Schedule.

Why Marketers Study Consumer Behavior (2 of 4)

Why Marketers Study Consumer Behavior

Core objectives: Define consumer behavior, and articulate why marketers study consumer behavior.

In this section, you'll discover what consumer behavior is and why marketers should study consumer behavior. Let’s get started!

What Is Consumer Behavior?

Consumer behavior is the study of how consumers search for, acquire, consume, and dispose of goods and services (both known as products). It is an incredibly complex area of marketing that changes constantly. Some jokingly refer to it as the moving target! Figure 1.1 is Exhibit 12.1 (pg 261) from the textbook that indicates the consumption process and the decision-making process side-by-side. These both serve as a roadmap for the course, as much of what we will discuss we relate to these processes.

Notice that the first part of the consumer decision-making process on the right in green starts with need recognition. Related to need recognition is the acknowledgment of both needs and wants. Remember that needs or things that are essential to survival, or at least to thrive whereas once relate more to less than practical, possibly more hedonistic desires. We need food to survive, but we may want a T-bone steak cooked medium rare. What’s important to recognize is that consumer behavior starts with this step. Problem recognition relates to the transition between two states of being:

Actual State ⇒ Desired State

This could be a physical state of being such as hunger or an emotional state of being such as bored. The desired state would be the opposite, which would be achieved after a purchase. What’s most profound about this particular stage of consumer behavior is the concept represented by the arrow that indicates the transition between the actual and desired states. This force is called motivation. There are many things throughout life that consumers decide they want and perhaps think they need (and marketers can be skilled at blurring the line once and needs), but recognition becomes significant enough that it triggers action, that is when there is sufficient motivation. Motivation proceeds human behavior. You may have heard the term motives used, and these are individual things that create motivation in an individual.

Remember that motivation has two sources, intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is internal, and consumers can be self-motivated to consume products without any external influence. However, extrinsic motivation can be exerted by clever marketers using a variety of promotional tools, such as personal selling, sales, promotion, or advertising.

While the course is called consumer behavior, consumers actual behavior is of some value to observe, but the real value to markers is to observe motivation. As mentioned at the beginning of this section, consumer behavior changes rapidly. By understanding what motivates consumers to behave the way they do, companies might be able to predict changes as they occur and create competitive advantages. Regardless, the real value here is to understand what motivates consumers to buy so that we can appeal to these motives by developing a resonant marketing strategy. Marketer should also be aware of three significant categories of influencers that can impact and change consumer behavior:

internal influences like customer perceptions and motivations, learning processes, attitudes, personalities, lifestyles, and self-concept that influence their behaviors;
external influences of consumer behavior like group influences, opinion leaders and thought leaders, social interactions, and culture, including subcultures; and
situational influences like time and atmospherics, and the consumer decision-making process.

Knowing why we study consumer behavior is just the beginning of this lesson. In the remainder of the lesson, we will discover how customers perceive value, demonstrate why building value for customers is important for brand success, and learn how to discover customer insights that can help build customer value and ultimately make effective marketing decisions.

Why Marketers Study Consumer Behavior and Why is it Difficult? (3 of 4)

Why Marketers Study Consumer Behavior and Why is it Difficult?

Marketing does not occur in a vacuum. Consumers are a big part of the process, and the ultimate success of any marketing campaign is contingent upon its ability to resonate with living breathing human beings. The better that markers can understand these individuals and what motivates them to purchase products, the more successful we will be overall. In addition, it’s important to consider the role that competition plays in marketing. The more viable options consumers have, the harder marketers must work to understand their decision-making process in order to better satisfy these consumers than competitors will.

However, this could be a very difficult undertaking. Many refer to consumer behavior as a moving target. Once marketers understand a group of consumers, consumers change. They could change based upon a number of factors such as:

new technology disrupting the market
sharing of new culture and changes of cultural values between generations; and
introduction of additional competitors

These are just a few examples of why examining consumer behavior can be difficult. For example, we could examine groups of consumers in a particular generation, such as generation Z, which many of you may be a member of. And we may find that Z consumers in the United States behave in a completely different way than they do in other countries. That means we’ve learned it is not necessarily generalizable to the population at large within that group of consumers.

We also need to consider the fact that individuals change over time. As they get older, they may behave differently as they gain new experiences and have perhaps developed more skill when it comes to shopping and finding good value. Therefore, even an individual is not consistent over a number of years.

So why do we examine consumer behavior if it can be so confounding and it changes so quickly? Recall earlier in the lesson when we talked about understanding the motives of consumers. Remember, it isn’t so much studying the behavior of individuals but trying to ascertain the meaning and motives behind it that drives the behavior. If we understand what is important to these consumers and what drives their behavior, we have a sustainable competitive advantage over companies that do not share this understanding. And this is why we study consumer behavior!

Lesson 1 Comments (4 of 4)

Lesson 1 Comments

Studying Consumer Behavior Makes Building Consumer Value Possible

Clearly, customer value plays a large role in a brand’s success. However, we cannot simply assume we know who our customers are and what value they expect from our brands. Thus, to build customer value and subsequent brand success, marketers study consumer behavior. In this lesson, we discussed value from a variety of perspectives: how customers perceive value, why brands work to build value, and how customer insights are used to create value for both customers and brands.

In the lessons to come, we will discuss why marketers look to understand internal, external, and situation influences of consumer behavior, as well as customer decision-making processes.

MKTG330:

Lesson 1: Introduction to Consumer Behavior