Consumer Behaviour

Syddansk Universitet
Esbjerg

Autumn semester 2003

 Consumer Behaviour
Aims of the course:
–overview of the act of buying, examining
the activities relating to having and being.
–understand how our lives are touched by
the marketing system.
–study the European consumer; European
perspective on Consumer Behaviour.
–internationalization of markets
–culture.
 Literature
–Basic textbook: Michael Solomon, Gary
Bamossy & Søren Askergaard,” Consumer
Behaviour: A European Perspective,
London: Prentice-Hall Europe, Second
Edition, 2002.
–Supplementary readings.

Ana Oliveira
 Consumer Behaviour
• Evaluation: 4 hours written exam.- open book

• Teaching Style:
– 30 lectures (45 minutes)
– 5 credits
– ? Nations

Ana Oliveira
 Consumer Behaviour
Plan of the course:

• Consumers in the Marketplace (2 classes)……….micro

• Consumers as individuals (10 classes)
• Consumers as decision makers (5 classes)
• European Consumers (5 classes)
• Culture and European Lifestyles (8 classes)……..macro

Ana Oliveira
My view on consumer Behaviour:
•Marketing orientation of companies
presupposes an understanding of
consumers.
•Consumer Behaviour is very relevant
for marketing decisions.
•Challenge to understand new marketing
opportunities.e.g.: JLo

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 Consumer Behaviour is...
The study of the processes involved when
individuals or groups select, purchase, use
or dispose of products, services, ideas or
experiences to satisfy needs and desires.
but
•Different people
•various role/parts

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 Importance of Consumer
Behaviour:
•Consumers may be irrational and have
no idea what they want, but is a fact that
some products sell better than others and
that some advertising works better than
others.

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 Importance of Consumer
Behaviour

• Therefore, in order to be able to sell, we

need to understand what makes some
marketing plans work better than others
when trying to persuade consumers to buy.

05 September 2002- Ana Oliveira

 Some issues that arise during stages in the consumption process-
figure 1.1
Consumer’s perspective Marketer’s perspective
• How does a consumer decide that • How are consumer attitudes
Before he/she needs a product? What are towards products formed and/or
purchase the best sources of information to changed? What cues do consumers
issues learn more about alternative use to infer which products are
choices? superior to others?

Purchase • Is acquiring a product a stressful or • How do situational factors, such as

issues pleasant experience? What does the time pressure or store displays,
purchase say about the consumer? affect the consumer’s purchase
decision?

• Does the product provide pleasure • What determines whether a

or perform its intended function? consumer will be satisfied with a
After product and whether he/she will
How is the product eventually
purchase buy it again? Does this person tell
disposed of, and what are the
issues others about his/her experiences
environmental consequences of this
act? with the product and affect their
purchase decisions?
Total Food Quality Model
Technical product
specifications

Extrinsic Intrinsic
Cost cues quality cues quality cues

Meal
Perceived cost Perceived Perceived preparation
cues extrinsic intrinsic quality
quality cues cues
Sensory
Expected characteristics
quality
Experience
Perceived costs
quality
Intention to Expected
buy purchase
motive
fulfilment
Experienced
purchase Future
motive purchase
fulfilment

Before purchase After purchase

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 Consumers’ impact on Marketing Strategy
– Understanding consumer behaviour is a good business.
• A basic marketing concept states that firms exist to satisfy consumers’
needs.
– Consumer is always the final decision-maker at the end of the
value chain.
– Research is cheap compared to the risk of product
introduction failures.
– Data about consumers helps organizations to define the
market and to identify threats and opportunities in their own
and different countries. Database marketing involves tracking
consumers’ buying habits very closely, and crafting products
and messages tailored precisely to people’s wants and needs
based on this information.e.g.:Portuguese young boys.

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 The concept of Branding
– When a product succeeds in satisfying a consumer’s
specific needs or desired, it may be rewarded with many years
of brand loyalty
– Brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, design…
identifying a product, manufacturer… or combinations.
– Consumer loyalty is deeply held commitment to re-buy a
preferred product or service -the brand- consistently in the
future, despite situational influences and marketing efforts
having the potential to cause switching behaviour.
– Quality=>Satisfaction=>Loyalty…….=>Profit!!!

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 The concept of Branding
– Brand equity is the value of the brand
-to marketers
-to consumers

– Brand equity can be

• built (communication)
– E.g.: Coca-Cola
• borrowed (brand name extensions)
– E.g.: LEGO, Harley Davidson
• bought

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 Relationship Marketing
-Building Bonds with Consumers

• It occurs when a company makes an effort

to interact with customers on a regular
basis, and giving them reasons to maintain a
bond with the company over time.
-life time relationships

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 Variables for Marketing Segmentation -table 1.1
Category Variables
• Age (needs & wants)
• Demographics
• Gender (perfume, baby clothes, car purchase,6/10 net
users, www..bikini)
• Social class, occupation, income (determines witch group
have the greatest buying power and market potential.)
• Ethnic group, religion (Turkish chain in Berlin; GB motor
service for Muslim).
• Stage in life (family with young/old kids, students ….-
spending priorities)
• Geographic's • Purchase vs. User.
• Region
• Country differences
• Psychographic • Self-concept, personality
• Lifestyle
• Brand loyalty, extent of usage
• Behavioural • Usage situation
• Benefits desired
 Geographic examples
Cheese consumption :
France = 16.9 kg per capita/year
Ireland= 6.1 kg per capita/year
Potatoes consumption:
Finland=59.9 kg per capita/year
Italy=13.8 kg per capita/year
Level of Wealth per inhabitant in 1987:
- as compared to an index base for the EU of 100:
Hamburg(Germany)=182,6
North of Portugal=42,2
Note:
The way consumers perceive the quality of products must be assumed to
be culturally dependent. Any analysis of consumers’ must therefore also
include a cross-cultural dimension.
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 New segments
Disable people: 10-15% of the population
Barbie’s sister, Beeky, in a wheelchair.

Gay community: Economic up market; involved in travelling

and short holidays to metropolitan areas.

Single females: Well educated, Intelligent women, Career focus,

Brand loyal, Highly influenced by their friends.

The way to reach this attractive consumer group is to speak to their feelings of
independence and self-respect.

Ana Oliveira
 Marketing’s impact on Consumers
• Popular Culture consists of the music, sports, books,
celebrities, and other forms of entertainment consumed by
the mass market, and is both a product of and an
inspiration for marketers.

• Case of 007; Elvis song.

• “…. Consumers buy products not for what they Do but for
what they mean…….they will choose the brand that has
an image (or even a personality) that is consistent with his
or her underlying needs." Levy

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 Marketing Ethics

• Business Ethics essentially are rules of conduct that

guide actions in the market place-the standards against
which people in a culture judge what is right and what is
wrong, good or bad.
• E.g.: Mercedes A class (socially responsible behaviour)
• European consumer protection laws/codes of ethics include
– avoidance of false or deliberately mislead advertising (Danish
supermarket).
– rejection of high-pressure or misleading sales tactics (Benetton)
– disclosure of all substantial risks associated with a product or
service.

Ana Oliveira
Public Policy issues:
Governments and EU have regulations to improve

our lives as consumers. E.g.: Pollution, genetically

manipulated food, violence on TV, children's’ exploitation,
alcohol consumption.

Needs and wants: do marketers manipulate

consumers?
Need=biological motive…but formed from the social
environment….artificial!!!
Want=socially learned to satisfy the need.
Advertising is an indispensable way to communicate the
existence of products and the needs and wants that these
products may satisfy…but must be followed by a sense of
responsibility concerning social and individual effects of their
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Interdisciplinary research issues in consumer behaviour
• Disciplinary focus
• Experimental Psychology: Product
role in perception, learning and
memory processes.
. • Ways that ads in a magazine affect
• Social Psychology: Prod role in the
behaviours of individuals as members
of social groups..
• Demography: Prod role in
measurable characteristics of a
population.
• History: Prod role in societal changes
over time.
• Cultural Anthropology: Prod role in
society’s beliefs and practices
note: the elephant and the blind
table 1.3
• Magazine usage sample research issues
• How specific aspects of magazines,
such as their design or layout, are
recognized and interpreted; which parts
of a magaz are most likely to be read.
readers’ attitudes towards the products
depicted; how peer pressure influences
a person’s readership decisions.
• Effects of age, income and marital
status of a magazine’s readers.
• Ways in which our culture’s depictions
of “femininity” in magazines have
changed over time.
• Ways in which fashions and models in
a magaz affect readers’ definitions of
masculine vs. feminine behaviour (e.g.
the role of working women, sexual
taboos).
 Positivist vs. Interpretivist approaches to consumer behaviour- table 1.4

Assumptions Positivist approach Interpretivist approach

Nature of reality Objective, tangible, Socially constructed

Multiple
Understanding
Single
Goal Prediction Time-bound

Knowledge Time-free;
generated Context-independent

Context-dependent
View of causality Existence of real

Multiple, simultaneous