BRANDING

 Brand TYPES OF BRANDS

- An identifying name, term, design, or symbol  Manufacturer Brands
 Brand Name - brands initiated by producers
- The part of a brand that can be spoken  Private Label Brands
- Words, letters, numbers - brands initiated and owned by resellers
 Brank Mark - also known as “a store brand,” “a retailer’s
- The part of a brand not made up of words own brand” or “an in-house brand.”
- Symbols or designs.  Generic Brands
 Trade Mark - brands indicating only the product category
- A legal designation of exclusive use of a brand
 Trade Name SELECTING A BRAND NAME
- Full legal name of an organization  The name should
 Be easy to say, spell, and recall
VALUE OF BRANDING  Indicate the product’s major benefits
 For consumers  Suggest the product’s major uses and special
 Helps speed consumer purchases by characteristics
identifying specific preferred products  Be distinctive, setting it apart from
 Provides a form of self-expression and status competing brands
 Evaluates product quality to reduce the risk  Be competitive with all products in line
of purchase  Be designed for use and recognition in all
types of media
 For marketers
 Identifies and differentiates a firm’s
products from competing products BRANDS POLICIES
 Helps in the introduction of new products Individual Branding
 Facilitates the promotion of all same-brand - a policy of naming each product differently
products avoids stigmatizing all products due to a failed
 Fosters the development of brand loyalty product
 Can create valuable intangible assets. Family Branding
- branding all of a firm’s products with the same
name
BRAND LOYALTY
- promotion of one item also promotes all other
 Brand Loyalty
products
- a customer’s favorable attitude toward a
Brand-Extension Branding
specific brand - using an existing brand name for an improved
 Brand Recognition or new product
- a customer’s awareness that a brand exists and - provides support for new products through
is an alternative purchase established brand name and image
 Brand Preference
- this degree of brand loyalty in which a CO-BRANDING
customer prefers one brand over competitive  Using two or more brands on one product to
offerings capitalize on the brand equity (customer
 Brand Insistence confidence and trust) of multiple brands
- the degree of brand loyalty in which a  Brands involved must represent a
customer strongly prefers a specific brand and complementary fit in the minds of consumers.
will accept no substitute  Helps differentiate a firm’s product from those
of its competitors
Brand Equity  Helps take advantage of distribution capabilities
- refers to a value premium that a company of co-branding partners
generate from a product
Packaging
MAJOR ELEMENTS OF BRAND EQUITY - involves the development of a container and a
1. Brand Name Awareness graphic design for a product.
2. Perceived Brand Quality
3. Brand Loyalty
4. Brand Associations
 PACKAGING FUNCTIONS
 Protect the product from damage
 Offer convenience to consumers
 Prevent waste and make storage easier
 Promote the product by communicating its
features, uses benefits
MAJOR PACKAGING
 Cost of Packaging
- limited consumer willingness to pay to better
packaging
 Tamper-Resistance Packaging
- government regulations and consumer safety
concerns
 Family Packaging
- similar packaging for all of a firm’s products or
packaging that has one common design element
 Promotional Role (informing the consumer)
- Verbal and nonverbal symbols
- Size, shape, texture, color, and graphics
 Reseller Needs
- transportation storage and handling
 Environmentally Responsible
- biodegradable and recyclable
PACKAGING AND MARKETING
STRATEGY
 Altering the Package
 To update style and to meet increased
competition
 To highlight new features
 To take advantage of new packaging
materials
 To make the product safer or easier to use
 To reduce packaging costs.
 Secondary-Use Packaging
- reusable packaging adds consumer value
 Category-Consistent Packaging
- packaging reflects customer expectations for
the expected appearance of products in a
category.
 Innovative Packaging
- unique features or ways of packaging that
make a product more distinct from its
competitors
 Multiple Packaging
- bundling multiple units of a product together to
encourage usage and to increase demand
 Handling-Improved Packaging
- packaging that has been changed to facilitate
product handling in the distribution channel
CRITICISMS OF PACKAGING
 Lack of Functionality
- leak, difficult to open/close/seal, hard-to-use
designs.
 Safety
- sharp edges, broken glass, health hazards
 Deceptive
- shape, size, colors mask true nature of product
 Cost of Packaging
Labeling
- providing identifying, promotional, legal or
other information
PURPOSES OF LABELS
 Help identify the product
- display brand name and unique graphics
 Support promotional efforts for the product
- coupons, discounts, product features
 “Green Labeling” issues
- labeling packaging as made of recyclable
materials
 provide information on product origin
- “made in the USA”
Consumer Behavior
- refers to a field of study or a college course
- refers to what consumers think, feel, and do,
and everything that influences them
Difference between Overt Consumer Behavior
and Consumer Behavior
 overt consumer behavior has a specific
meaning
 It refers to the observable and measurable
responses or actions of consumers.
 overt behavior is distinct from affect and
cognition because it is external and can be
observed directly rather than being an internal
psychological process that must be inferred.
The Importance of Overt Consumer Behavior
1. Although in many cases influencing affect and
cognition leads to overt behavior, this linkage
does not hold.
2. Behavior precedes and causes affect and
cognition in some cases.
3. Most marketing strategies cannot succeed
without influencing overt consumer behavior.

A Common Behavior Sequence for a Retail Store
1) Prepurchase
2) Purchase
3) Postpurchase
2 Types of Behavior under PREPURCHASE
 Information Contact
- a common early stage in the purchase
sequence, called information contact, occurs
when consumers come into contact with
information, either intentionally or
accidentally, about products, stores, or brands.
This stage includes behaviors such as reading
or observing newspaper, magazine, and
billboard ads; surfing company and other sites
on the Web; listening to radio commercials;
watching TV commercials; and talking to
salespeople and friends.
A Comparison of Information Sources
 Fund Access
- relatively little attention has been
given to what consumers exchange in the
marketing process. Although time and effort
costs are involved, money is the primary
medium of consumer exchange. The consumer
must access this medium in one form or another
before an exchange can occur, engaging in what
is known as funds access. The primary
marketing issues at this stage are (1) the
methods consumers use to pay for particular
purchases and (2) the marketing strategies to
increase the probability that consumers will
access funds for purchase.
- example of this behavior are withdraw
cash, credit card, etc.
Types of Behavior under PURCHASE Stage
 Store Contact
– example of behaviors are locating the outlet,
traveling to the outlet, and entering the outlet.
The nature of consumers in their roles as
shoppers affects the probability of store contact.
Some consumers may enjoy shopping and spend
many hours looking in stores. To others,
shopping may be drudgery. Some shoppers may
be primarily price oriented and favor particular
low-price outlets. Others may seek a high level
of service or unique products and stores that
express their individuality.
 Product Contact
- example of behavior are locate the
product or brand in the store, physically obtain
the product or brand, and take the product or
brand to the point of exchange. Push strategies
such as trade discounts and incentives to
enhance retailers’ selling efforts. For example,
offering retailers a free case of Tide liquid
detergent for every 10 cases purchased can be a
powerful incentive for them to feature liquid
Tide in newspaper ads, put it in prominent dis-
plays, and even sell it at a lower price while
maintaining or increasing profit margins. Many
approaches also involve pull strategies, such as
cents-off coupons, to encourage the consumer to
purchase the manufacturer’s brand.
 Transaction
– ex. exchange funds for product, take
product to use location, etc.
- consumers’ funds are exchanged for
products and services. Many marketing
strategies involve removing obstacles to
transactions. The credit methods discussed
earlier are examples. So is the use of express
 checkout lanes and electronic scanners to
decrease the time consumers must wait in line.
(Some consumers will leave a store without
making a purchase if checkout lines are too
long.) Credit card companies offer prompt
purchase approvals to decrease the chances a
sale will be missed because of a long wait.
Types of Behavior under POSTPURCHASE
Stage
 Consumption and Disposition
– example of behavior are consume/use
product, dispose of packaging/ used product,
repurchase etc.
- For nondurable packaged goods,
commonly employed tactics include the use of
in- or on-package coupons to encourage the
consumer to repurchase the same brand. (Many
consumers frequently use coupons and take
pride in the money they save.)
Consumers to Marketers (Types of information from
consumers)
 information about the consumer to investigate
the quality of their marketing strategy and the
success of market segmentation.
 names of other potential buyers of the product.
 information about defective products
 Communication
- A final set of behaviors that marketers
attempt to increase involves communication.
– example of behavior are tell the others
of product experience, feedback, etc. Marketers
want consumers to communicate with two basic
audiences: They want consumers to (1) provide
the company with marketing information and (2)
tell other potential consumers about the product
and encourage them to purchase it. Consumers
can communicate with the company or other
consumers about products, brands, or stores at
any time, not just at the end of the purchase
sequence. We discuss this behavior here because
consumers who have purchased and used a
product are likely to be more knowledgeable
about it and more influential in telling other
consumers about it.
LEARNING PROCESSES
 Learning is a lasting change in Behavior or
mental process as the result of an experience.
Two important parts:
 A lasting change…a simple reflexive
reaction is not learning
 Learning regarding mental process is
much harder to observe and study.
Learning & It’s Effect on Behavior
 In human, learning has a much larger influence
on behavior than say instincts.
Types of Learning
Simple and Complex Learning
Simple Learning
 Mere Exposure Effect: A learned preference
for stimuli to which we have been previously
exposed.
Complex Learning
 Behavioral Learning: Forms of learning, such
as classical and operant conditioning which can
be described in terms of stimuli and responses.
 Classical conditioning is more simple
learning, operant conditioning is more
complex learning.
Ivan Pavlov and Classical Conditioning
 One of the famous people in the study of
learning is Ivan Pavlov.
 Originally studying salivation and digestion,
Pavlov stumbled upon classical conditioning
while he was experimenting on his dog.
 Classical Conditioning: a form of learning in
which a previously neutral stimulus (stimuli w/o
reflex provoking power) acquires the power to
elicit the same innate reflex produced by another
stimulus.
Pavlov’s Findings Explained
 Pavlov discovered that a neutral stimulus, when
paired with a natural reflex-producing stimulus,
will begin to produce a learned response, even
when it is presented by itself.
 Neutral Stimulus: any stimulus that produces
no conditioned response prior to learning.
Components of Conditioning
There are 5 main components of conditioning.
Classical Conditioning always involves these parts. They
are:
 Neutral Stimulus
 Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
 Unconditioned Response (UCR)
 Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
 Conditioned Response (CR)
Unconditioned Stimulus
 UCS: a stimulus that automatically – without
conditioning or learning – provokes a reflexive
response.
 In Pavlov’s experiment, food was used as the
UCS because it produced salivation reflex.
 Classical conditioning cannot happen
without UCS. The only behaviors that
can be classically conditioned are those
that are produced by unconditioned
stimulus.
Unconditioned Response
 UCR: a response resulting from an
unconditioned stimulus without prior learning.
 In Pavlov’s experiment, the UCR was the dog
salivating when its tongue touched the food.
 Realized that the UCS-UCR connection
involves no learning or acquisition.
From Unconditioned to Conditioned
 During acquisition, a neutral stimulus is paired
with the unconditioned stimulus.
 After several trials the neutral stimulus
will gradually begin to elicit the same
response as the UCS.
 Acquisition: the learning stage during which a
conditioned response comes to be elicited by the
conditioned stimulus.
Conditioned Stimulus
 A CS is the originally neutral stimulus that gains
the power to cause the response.
 In Pavlov’s experiment, the bell/tone began to
produce the same response that the food once
did.
Condition Response
 A CR is a response elicited by a previously
neutral stimulus that has become associated with
the unconditioned stimulus.
 Although the response to the CS is essentially
the same as the response originally produced by
the UCS, we now call it a conditioned
response.
PROCESS OF CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
 classical conditioning is a process by which a
neutral stimulus becomes capable of eliciting a
response because it was repeatedly paired with a
stimulus that naturally causes the response.
 Stimuli that cause responses naturally
are called unconditioned stimuli (the
meat powder in the Pavlov
experiments);
 the response that occurs naturally in its
presence is called an unconditioned
response (salivation in the Pavlov
experiments).
 When the neutral stimulus can cause a
similar response through repeated
pairings, it becomes a conditioned
stimulus.
 When it does cause the response, the
response is then called a conditioned
response.
 classical conditioning can be accomplished not
only with unconditioned stimuli but also with
previously conditioned stimuli.
 classically conditioned behaviors are controlled
by stimuli that occur before the behavior. For
example, in Pavlov’s experiment, the meat
powder and bell were presented before salivation
occurred. the behaviors influenced by classical
conditioning are assumed to be under the control
of the autonomic nervous system. This system
controls the so-called smooth muscles. Thus, the
behaviors are assumed to be involuntary and not
under the conscious control of the individual.
 most important for consumer behavior and
marketing strategy, affective responses often
follow the principles of classical conditioning.
 Because it can account for many of the
responses that environmental stimuli elicit from
individuals, classical conditioning has important
implications for marketing and consumer
behavior. Through this process, a particular
stimulus can come to evoke positive, negative,
or neutral feelings. Consequently, classical
conditioning can influence an individual to work
to obtain, to avoid, or to be indifferent to a wide
variety of products and services.
 Consider product-related stimuli. External
stimuli that elicit positive emotions can be
 paired with the product so that the product itself
elicits positive affect. Behavior may then be
triggered that brings the potential consumer into
closer con- tact with the product. “Closer
contact” refers to a general relationship between
a person’s behavior and a given stimulus (e.g., a
product). For example, if a product elicits
positive affect, an individual exposed to it is
more apt to behave positively toward it than if
negative emotions are elicited. Attending
behavior is also apt to be a function of
classically conditioned affect. Stimuli that elicit
stronger emotional responses (either positive or
negative) are, at least over a considerable range,
likely to receive more attention from an
individual than stimuli that are affectively
neutral. To the degree that attending behavior is
necessary for product purchase or other product-
related behavior, classical conditioning
influences whether consumers come into contact
with products.
 Similarly, stimuli may produce certain general
emotional responses, such as relaxation,
excitement, nostalgia, or some other emotion
likely to increase the probability of a desired
behavior (such as product purchase). Radio and
TV ads often use famous broadcasters whose
voices have been paired with exciting sports
events for years. These voices may elicit
excitement as a result of this frequent pairing.
Repeated pairings of these voices with
advertised products can result in feelings of
excitement associated with the products.
 Music, sexy voices and bodies, and other stimuli
are used in similar ways.
Extinction: the diminishing (or lessening) of a learned
response, when an unconditioned stimulus does not
follow a conditioned stimulus.
 To acquire a CR, we repeatedly pair a
neutral stimulus with the UCS. But, if
we want to reverse this learning, we
must weaken the strength of the
connection between the two stimuli.
 It is important to realize that extinction
does not mean complete elimination of a
response.
Spontaneous Recovery
 Extinction merely suppresses the conditioned
response, and the CR can reappear during
spontaneous recovery.
 Spontaneous Recovery: the response after a
rest period of an extinguished conditioned
response.
 Spontaneous recovery is weaker than the
original CR.
Classical vs. Operant Conditioning
 With classical conditioning you can teach a dog
to salivate, but you cannot teach it to sit up or
roll over. Why?
 Salivation is an involuntary reflex, while sitting
up and rolling over are far more complex
responses that we think of as voluntary.
Operant Conditioning
 An operant is an observable behavior that an
organism uses to “operate” in the environment.
 Operant Conditioning: form of learning in
which the probability of a response is changed
by its consequences…that is, by the stimuli that
follows the response.
B.F. Skinner
 B.F. Skinner became famous for his ideas in
behaviorism and his work with rats.
 Law of Effect: the idea that responses that
produced desirable results would be learned, or
“stamped” into the organism.
Reinforcement
 A reinforcement is a condition in which the
presentation or removal of a stimulus, that
occurs after a response (behavior) and
strengthens that response, or makes I more likely
to happen again in the future.
 Positive Reinforcement: a stimulus presented
after a response that increases the probability of
that response happening again.
Ex. getting paid for good grades
Negative Reinforcement
 Negative Reinforcement: the removal of an
unpleasant or averse stimulus that increases the
probability of that response happening again.
 The word “positive” means add or apply;
“negative” is used to mean subtract or remove.
Punishment
 A punishment is an averse/disliked stimulus
which occurs after a behavior, and decreases the
probability it will occur again.
Reinforcement vs. Punishment
  Unlike reinforcement, punishment must be
administered consistently. Intermittent
punishment is far less effective than punishment
delivered after every undesired behavior.
 In fact, not punishing every misbehavior can
have the effect of rewarding the behavior.
Punishment vs. Negative Reinforcement
 Punishment and negative reinforcement are used
to produce opposite effects on behavior.
 Punishment is used to decrease a
behavior or reduce its probability of
reoccurring.
 Negative reinforcement always
increases a behavior’s probability of
happening in the future (by taking away
an unwanted stimuli).
 Remember, “positive” means adding something
and “negative” means removing something.
Uses and abuses of Punishment
 Punishment often produces an immediate change
in behavior, which ironically reinforces the
punisher.
 However, punishment rarely works in the long
run for four reasons:
1. The power of punishment to suppress
behavior usually disappears when the
threat of punishment is gone.
2. Punishment triggers escape or
aggression.
3. Punishment makes the learner
apprehensive.
4. Punishment is often applied unequally.
 To make punishment work:
 Punishment should be swift.
 Punishment should be certain-every
time.
 Punishment should be limited in time
and intensity.
 Punishment should clearly target the
behavior, not the person.
 Punishment should not give mixed
messages.
Primary and Secondary Reinforcement
 Primary Reinforcement: something that is
naturally reinforcing: food, warmth, water…
 Secondary Reinforcement: something you
have learned is a reward because it is paired with
a primary reinforcement in the long run: good
grades.
Observational Learning
 You can think of observational learning as an
extension of operant conditioning, in which we
observe someone else getting rewarded but act
as thought we had also received the reward.
 Observational Learning: learning in which
new responses are acquired after other’s
behavior and the consequences of their behavior
are observed.
 Observational learning is also called “Vicarious
Conditioning” because it involves learning by
watching others acquire responses.
Channels of Distribution
- are thought of as providing form, time, place,
and possession utilities for consumers.
1. Form utility means channels convert raw
materials into finished goods and services in
forms the consumer seeks to purchase.
2. Time utility means channels make goods and
services available when the consumer wants to
purchase them.
3. Place utility means goods and services are
made available where the consumer wants to
purchase them.
4. Possession utility means channels facilitate the
transfer of ownership of goods to the consumer.
- Channels of distribution have a very important
impact on consumer affect, cognition, and behavior.
The locations of malls, shopping centers, and stores,
as well as specific products and other stimuli within
these environments, strongly influence what
consumers think and feel and what behaviors they
perform, such as store contacts, product contacts,
and transactions. In return, consumer actions at the
retail level determine the success or failure of
marketing strategies and have an important impact
on the selection of future strategies.
Store-Related Affect and Cognition
1. Store Image
- as what consumers think about a particular
store. This includes perceptions and attitudes based on
sensations of store- related stimuli received through the
five senses. Operationally, store image is commonly
assessed by asking consumers how good or how
important various aspects of a retail store’s operation
are. Commonly studied dimensions of store image
include merchandise, service, clientele, physical
facilities, promotion, and convenience.
2. Store Atmosphere
- involves primarily affect in the form of in-store
emotional states that consumers may not be fully
conscious of when shopping.
A Model Store Atmosphere Effects
 Approach Behavior refer to moving toward
 Avoidance Behavior refer to moving away from
 various environments and stimuli.
Four types of approach or avoidance behaviors are
related to retail stores:
1. Physical approach and avoidance, which can be
related to store patronage intentions at a basic
level.
2. Exploratory approach and avoidance, which can be
related to in-store search and exposure to a broad
or narrow range of offerings.
3. Communication approach and avoidance, which can
be related to interactions with sales personnel
and floor staff.
4. Performance and satisfaction approach and
avoidance, which can be related to frequency of
repeat shopping as well as reinforcement of time
and money expenditures in the store.
Store Atmosphere
 Pleasure
- refers to the degree to which the consumer
feels good, joyful, happy, or satisfied in the
store.
 Arousal
- refers to the degree to which the consumer
feels excited, stimulated, alert, or active in the
store.
- feelings of alertness or excitement, can
increase time spent in the store as well as
willingness to interact with sales personnel.
 Dominance
- refers to the extent to which the consumer feels
in control of or free to act in the store.
Store-Related Behavior
 Store Contact
- involves the consumer locating, traveling to,
and entering a store.
- The visibility of the store and its distance from
consumers are other variables used to select
locations that can increase store contact. For
many small retail chains and stores, selecting
locations in the vicinity of major retail stores
such as Sears, JCPenney, Walmart, or a major
grocery store may greatly increase the
probability that consumers will come into
contact with them. In fact, one major advantage
of locating in a successful shopping center or
mall is the store contact available from
pedestrians passing by on their way to another
store. From the consumer’s viewpoint, such
locations can reduce shopping time and effort by
allowing a form of one-stop shopping.
 Store loyalty
- repeat patronage intentions and behavior—can
be strongly influenced by the arrangement of the
environment, particularly the reinforcing
properties of the retail store.
- While going through the store, a favorite brand
or long-sought-after product the consumer could
not afford is found to be an unadvertised special.
This can be quite reinforcing and strongly
influence the probability that the consumer will
return to the same store, perhaps seeking other
unadvertised specials.
Store Environment
 retail stores are relatively closed environments
that can exert a significant impact on consumer
affect, cognition, and behavior. In this section,
we consider three major decision areas in
designing effective store environments: store
location, store layout, and in-store stimuli.
 3 major
1. Store Location
- is a critical aspect of channel strategy. Good
locations allow ready access, can attract large
numbers of consumers, and can significantly
alter consumer shopping and purchasing
patterns. As retail outlets with very similar
product offerings proliferate, even slight
differences in location can have a significant
impact on market share and profitability.
2. Store layout
- can have important effects on consumers. At a
basic level, the layout influences such factors as
how long the consumer stays in the store, how
many products the consumer comes into visual
contact with, and what routes the consumer
travels within the store. Such factors may affect
what and how many purchases are made. There
are many types and variations of store layouts;
two basic types are grid and free form.
 Grid Layout
- In a grid, all counters and fixtures are at right
angles to each other and resemble a maze, with
merchandise counters acting as barriers to traffic
flow. The grid layout in a supermarket forces
customers to the sides and back of the store,
where items such as produce, meat, and dairy
products are located.
 Free-Form Layout
- The merchandise and fixtures are grouped into
patterns that allow unstructured flow of
customer traffic. Merchandise is divided on the
basis of fixtures and signs, and customers can
 come into visual contact with all departments
from any point in the store. A free- form
arrangement is often used in specialty stores,
boutiques, and apparel stores. This arrangement
is particularly useful for encouraging relaxed
shopping and impulse purchases. It may also
help store salespeople move consumers to
several different types of merchandise.
3. In-Store Stimuli
- In most environments, an endless number of
stimuli can influence affect, cognitions, and
behavior. A retail store is no exception. Stores
have many stimuli that influence consumers: the
characteristics of other shoppers and
salespeople, lighting, noises, smells,
temperature, shelf space and displays, signs,
colors, and merchandise.
 Signs and Price Information
- (1) Price influences sales more than sign type does.
(2) At regular prices, the addition of a price sign will
not increase sales, but when the item is on sale, a
price sign will increase sales. (3) Benefit signs
increase sales at both regular and sale prices, but at a
greater rate when the item is on sale. (4) A benefit
sign is more effective than a price-only sign at both a
regular and a sale price.
 Color
- Color has been shown to have a variety of physical
and psychological effects on both humans and
animals.
- An interesting finding was that consumers were
drawn to warm colors (red and yellow) but felt that
warm-color environments were generally
unpleasant; cool colors (blue and green) did not
draw consumers but were rated as pleasant.
 Shelf Space and Displays
- Comparisons were made between normal display
(regular shelf space), expanded display (double the
regular shelf space allocation), and special display
(regular shelf space plus special end-of-aisle or
within-aisle product arrangement).
 Music
- music played in the background while other
activities are being performed influences attitudes
and behavior.
- The findings supported the idea that the tempo of
background music influences consumer behavior.
The pace of in-store traffic flow was slowest under
the slow- tempo treatment and fastest under the fast-
tempo treatment. Further, the slow- tempo musical
selections led to higher sales volumes, because
consumers spent more time and money under this
condition.
 Scent
- Scents in stores can influence consumer affect,
cognition, and behavior. For example, the smell of
particular products, such as leather goods, perfume,
chocolate, coffee, or flowers, can attract consumers
to come into contact with and purchase these
products. In addition, ambient scent—scent that is
not emanating from a particular product but is
present in the store environment—can influence
store and product evaluations and shopping
behavior. Ambient scent can influence feelings
about stores and their products, including products
that are difficult to scent such as office supplies and
furniture. Scents vary in terms of how pleasant they
are perceived to be, how likely they are to evoke
physiological responses, and how strong they are.
Neutral and pleasant scent categories, such as
florals, spices, woods, citrus, and mints, can be
diffused in a store to influence consumers.
Nonstore Consumer Behavior
 consumers shop for and purchase products in a
variety of other ways. These include catalogs
and direct mail, vending machines, direct sales
purchases, TV home shopping, and electronic
exchanges, such as purchasing on the Internet. 11
We refer to the method a consumer uses to shop
and purchase from store or nonstore alternatives
as the consumer purchase mode.
 Catalog and Direct Mail Purchases
- Most consumers are familiar with catalogs and
other direct mail letters and brochures sent to
their homes to present merchandise and solicit
orders. With the increase in dual-income
families and consumers’ general need to save
time, catalogs and direct mail have grown
dramatically. In addition to enjoying convenient
in-home shopping, many consumers like
browsing through catalogs searching for unique
items.
 Vending Machine Purchases
- Most vending machine purchases made by
consumers are for hot and cold beverages, food,
and candy.
- However, products in vending machines
typically are priced higher than the same
merchandise in a store. Also, when vending
machines fail to deliver the merchandise,
consumers often cannot recover their money.
Thus, consumers typically use vending machines
rather than stores for occasional purchases of
 convenience goods.
 Television Home Shopping
- Television home shopping includes cable
channels dedicated to shopping, infomercials,
and direct-response advertising shown on cable
and broadcast networks.
 Direct Sales Purchases
- Consumers make direct sales purchases in their
homes or at work from salespeople in a face-to-
face or telephone transaction. The most common
products purchased this way are cosmetics,
fragrances, decorative accessories, vacuum
cleaners, home appliances, cooking utensils and
kitchenware, jewelry, food and nutritional
products, and encyclopedias and educational
materials. Consumers can benefit from direct
sales purchases because salespeople can provide
in-depth product usage information.
 Electronic Exchanges
- Electronic exchanges involve consumers in
collecting information, shopping, and
purchasing from Web sites on the Internet. It is
the fastest-growing purchase mode. More will be
said about electronic exchanges later in this
chapter.
Consumer Behavior and the Environment
 Environment refers to all the physical and
social characteristics of a consumer’s external
world, including physical objects (products and
stores), spatial relationships (locations of stores
and products in stores), and the social behavior
of other people (who is around and what they are
doing).
 Marketers are especially interested in
the interpreted environment, sometimes
called the functional (or perceived )
environment, because this is what
influences consumers’ actions. Because
each consumer has a unique set of
knowledge, meanings, and beliefs, the
perceived or functional environment that
each consumer experiences will be
somewhat different.
Aspects/Dimensions of the Environment
1. Social Environment
2. Physical Environment
 Social environment includes all social
interactions between and among people.
Consumers can interact with other people either
directly (you discuss sports equipment or clothes
with a friend, talk to a salesperson) or
vicariously (you watch your father negotiate a
car price, observe the clothing other people are
wearing). People can learn from both direct and
vicarious social interactions.
Two Levels of Social Environment
 Macro environment includes large-scale, broad
environmental factors such as the climate,
economic conditions, the political system, and
the general landscape (seashore, mountains,
prairie).
 Macro social environment refers to
the indirect and vicarious social
interactions among very large groups of
people.
 Researchers have studied three macro
social environments—culture,
subculture, and social class—that have
broad and powerful influences on the
values, beliefs, attitudes, emotions, and
behaviors of individual consumers in
those groups.
 Micro environment refers to the more tangible
physical and social aspects of a person’s
immediate surroundings—the dirty floor in a
store, a talkative salesperson, the hot weather
today, or the people in one’s family or
household.
 Micro social environment includes face-to-
face social interactions among smaller
groups of people such as families and
reference groups.
 Face-to-face interaction with a salesclerk is
a common example of a micro social
environment
Exhibit 11.1 illustrates the flow of social influence from
the macro environments of culture, subculture, and
social class to the micro environments of reference
groups and family, and then on to the individual
consumer.

 Physical environment includes all the
nonhuman, physical aspects of the field in which
consumer behavior occurs.
The Physical Environment is Divided into these
Elements:
 Spatial elements include physical objects of all
types (including products and brands), as well as
countries, cities, stores, and interior design.
 Nonspatial elements include intangible factors
such as temperature, humidity, illumination,
noise level, and time.
Three Factors in the Nonspatial Environment:
 Time - behaviors are influenced by the time of
day (stores tend to be more crowded during the
lunch hour), the day of the week (Mondays are
often slow days for restaurants), the day of the
month (sales may drop off just before the last of
the month and pick up again after the first, when
paychecks arrive), and the season of the year
(during the pre-Christmas holiday season,
people’s shopping behaviors are quite different
from other times of the year).
 Weather - Some firms are paying even closer
attention to the weather, not just for a season but
on a daily basis.
 Lighting - Considerable evidence reveals that
lighting affects behavior. It has been found that
people work better in brighter rooms, but
workers find direct overhead lighting
unpleasant.
Situation is neither the tangible physical environment (a
checkout counter, a storefront, your living room, the
temperature today, a landscape) nor the objective
features of the social environment (the number of people
in a store, the time of day). Rather
 Situation is defined by a person who is acting in
an environment for some purpose. A situation
occurs over a period of time that can be very
short (buying a soda in a vending machine),
somewhat longer (eating lunch), or quite
protracted (buying a house).
 A situation involves a sequence of
goal-directed behaviors, along with
affective and cognitive responses and
the various environments in which they
occur.
 A situation occurs over a period of time
that can be very short
Examples of relatively simple consumption-related
situations include buying stamps at the post office,
bargaining with a salesperson over the price of a camera,
Complex situations may take place in multiple physical
and social environments, involve several (perhaps
conflicting) goals, and require many different behaviors
and cognitive and affective responses. Shopping for a
new winter coat at the mall is an example of a more
complex situation.
 Analyzing Situations - A powerful approach to
understanding environmental influences is to
analyze the situations in which the consumer
experiences the environment.
Generic Consumer Situations
Five Generic Consumer Situations:
1. Information acquisition 4.
Consumption
2. Shopping 5. Disposition
3. Purchase
 Information Acquisition Situation includes
the environments where consumers acquire
information relevant to a problem-solving goal
such as a brand or store choice.
 An information acquisition situation
may contain social factors (word-of-
mouth communications from friends,
persuasion attempts by a salesperson)
and physical stimuli (prominent signs
in a store, labels on a product package)
that can influence consumers’ affect,
cognitions, and behaviors.
 Two especially important generic
behaviors in information acquisition
situations are information contact and
communication.
 situations: Fund Access and Final
Transaction
 The shopping environment intrudes into
the purchasing environment.
 Checkout lines at grocery stores usually
include displays of products such as
magazines, gum candy items, film, and
cigarettes to stimulate impulse
purchases.

 Consumption Situation includes the social

 Shopping Situation includes the physical,
spatial, and social characteristics of places where
consumers shop for products and services.
The shopping environment includes social factors such
as:
 how many salespeople and checkout personnel
are in the store,
 how store personnel act toward customers,
 the presence of friends or relatives
accompanying the consumer,
 the degree of crowding,
 the types of other people found there.
 Store Contact is critical for retailing
success, and many marketing strategies
are intended to get consumers to come
to the store.
 Location is another critical
environmental influence on store contact
for many types of stores.
 Product Contact is another important
behavior affected by environmental
characteristics of the shopping situation
and physical factors present in the environments
where consumers actually use or consume the
products and services they have bought.
 Disposition Situation is highly relevant for
some businesses; used car lots and used-clothing
stores are obvious examples. Here the key
behavior of interest is disposal of products.
 Consumers are developing stronger
values of quality, cost consciousness,
and concern for the natural environment
that in return are fueling interest in used
products and recycling of waste.
Marketing Implications Marketers need to identify the
key social and physical environmental features of the
information acquisition, shopping, purchasing,
consumption, and disposition situations for their
products.

 Retail Store Environment is still

important, other types of shopping
environments are becoming significant.
These include shopping at home by
telephone, by mail, or via the Internet
(see Consumer Insight 11.5). Obviously,
the environment at home is dramatically
different from the in-store shopping
environment.

 Purchasing Situation includes the social and

physical stimuli present in the environment
where the consumer makes the purchase.
 Marketers are particularly interested in
influencing two behaviors in purchasing