Unit V: Individual Influences on

Consumer Behavior
Consumer motivation: nature, process and sources of consumer
motivations. Consumer learning: nature and sources of consumer
learning; learning and consumer memory.
Consumer perception: nature and process of perception.
Personality: nature and types of consumer personality. Consumer
personality and brand personality congruence.
Consumer attitudes: nature and functions of attitudes; attitude
components: component consistency among cognitive, affective and
behavioral; Communication strategy for attitude change.
 Consumer motivation: nature,
process and sources of consumer
motivations

3-2
 What Is Motivation?
 The driving force within individuals that impels them to action
Produced by a state of tension due to an unfulfilled need
Which leads to conscious/subconscious attempts to reduce the
tension
1. Motivation in simple term refers to reason for certain behavior.
2. A motive is what prompts the person to act in a certain way, or at
least develop an inclination for specific behavior.
3. Individuals have their own triggering force for the motivation.
4. The terms need and motivation are often used interchangeably.
5. When a consumer feels a gap between a desired state and an actual
state, a need is recognized and experienced as drive referred to as
motivation.
6. Example, for a college going girl or boy, getting a scooty or bike
could be a motivation factor for which she has to perform well in
3-3
exams.
 Sources of Motivation
 Intrinsic Motivation
It means that individual’s motivational stimuli are coming
from within.
The motivation comes from the pleasure one can get from
the task itself, completing the task or just working on the
task.
Example: enjoyment, achievement, sense of competence etc.
This motivation does not need to have compensation at the
end of performed activity.
Learners who are intrinsically motivated are more likely to
engage in in the task willingly as well as work to improve
skills, which will increase their competencies.
 Extrinsic Motivation:
It means that the individual’s motivational stimuli are
coming from outside source.
Examples include monetary reward,praises,awards etc.
Here the reward provides satisfaction and pleasure that
the task itself may not provide.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
Positive(Towards Goal)

Do this and I want you to

Extrinsic you get this do this
Intrinsic
Someone
You want
wants you
to do it.
to do it
Do this or I do not want
you are fired you to do this

Negative(Away from
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 Types of Needs
Innate Needs
Physiological (or biogenic) needs that are considered
primary needs or motives

Acquired needs
Generally psychological (or psychogenic) needs that are
considered secondary needs or motives

3-8
 Types of Motives
Rational Motives
Goals chosen according to objective criteria (e.g., price)
Emotional Motives
Goals chosen according to personal or subjective criteria
(e.g., desire for social status)
Latent Motives
Motives that the consumer is unaware of or unwilling to recognize
Harder to identify
Require projective techniques to identify
Manifest Motives
Motives that the consumer is aware of and willing to express
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 Goals
Generic Goals
the general categories of goals that consumers see as a
way to fulfill their needs
e.g., “I want to get a graduate degree”
Product-Specific Goals
the specifically branded products or services that
consumers select as their goals
e.g., “I want to get an MBA in Marketing from Kellogg
School of Management.”

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 The Selection of Goals
The goals selected by an individual depend on their:
Personal experiences
Physical capacity
Prevailing cultural norms and values
Goal’s accessibility in the physical and social
environment

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 Motivations and Goals
Positive Motivation Negative Motivation
A driving force toward A driving force away
some object or from some object or
condition condition
Leads to an Approach Leads to an Avoidance
Goal Goal
A positive goal toward A negative goal from
which behaviour is which behaviour is
directed directed away

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 The Dynamic Nature of Motivation
Needs are never fully satisfied
New needs emerge as old needs are satisfied
A given need may lead totally different goals
Consumers are more aware of their goals than their
needs
Consumer values, personality and self-concept
influence consumer goals
Consumers have multiple needs
Motives are difficult to infer from behaviour
Past experiences (success/failure) influence goals
3-13
 The Dynamic Nature of Motivation
Motives may conflict with each other
Three types of motivational conflict
 Approach-approach: when a consumer is drawn towards two positive goals
 Approach-avoidance: when the goal object has both positive and negative
qualities
 You are both drawn toward and away from the object
 Avoidance-avoidance: when the consequences of buying an object is
unpleasant, but the purchase does not lead to any pleasure
Motives can be aroused in many ways
Physiological arousal
 Hunger, thirst
Emotional arousal
 daydreaming
Cognitive arousal
 Random thoughts
Environmental arousal
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 Cues in the environment (e.g. smell of food)
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 McClelland’s Trio of Needs
Power
individual’s desire to control environment
Affiliation
need for friendship, acceptance, and belonging
Achievement
need for personal accomplishment
closely related to egoistic and self-actualization needs

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 Motivation and Marketing Strategy
Identify the needs and goals of the target market
Identify both latent and manifest motives
Use knowledge of needs to segment the market and
to position the product
Use knowledge of needs to develop promotional
strategies
Reduce motivational conflict

3-17
 Consumer learning:
Nature and sources of consumer
learning; learning and consumer
memory.
 Consumer Learning
A process by which individuals acquire the purchase and consumption
knowledge and experience that they apply to future related behaviour.
 Example, learn about recently introduced product in the market.
learn about adulteration practices and getting rid from buying such
products.
Learning is defined as “any relatively permanent
change in behavior that occurs as a result of
practice and experience.”
 It has 3 important elements:
 Learning is a change in behavior-better or worse.
 It is a change that takes place through experience and practice.
 The change in behavior must be relatively permanent and must last a
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fairly long time.
 Learning Processes
Intentional
learning acquired as a result of a careful
search for information
 Incidental
-- learning acquired by accident or without
much effort

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 Importance of Learning
Marketers must teach consumers:
where to buy
how to use
how to maintain
how to dispose of products

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 Learning Theories
Behavioural Theories:  Cognitive Theories: A
Theories based on the theory of learning based on
premise that learning takes mental information
place as the result of processing, often in
observable responses to response to problem
external stimuli. Also solving.
known as stimulus
response theory.

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 Elements of Learning Theories
Motivation: It is the driving force that impels individuals to action.If
a consumer has motivation to learn something, there is increased
likelihood that learning will take place.
Cues: They are relatively small stimuli, not strong enough to arouse
consumers but have the potential of providing direction to
motivated activity. It influences the manner in which, to respond to
motives. Example, a hungry man is guided by restaurant indication
or aroma of foods.
Response
Reinforcement: A positive or negative outcome that influences the
likelihood that a specific behavior will be repeated in the future in
response to a particular cue or stimulus.
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Nature and characteristics of consumer learning
Learning involves a change in behavior:
In terms to consumer learning it implies that a consumer who is
exposed to marketing stimuli, may react through purchase and
consumption. If he is satisfied he would repeat the purchase behavior in
favor of the brand. If not, he would switch brand. So learning involves
change in behavior.The change in behavior is relatively permanent:
Learning leads to development of attitudes. Until and unless there is
an attempt to change these behavior, it continues.
The change of behavior occurs due to experience, there has to be
some kind of experience for learning to occur. This experience could be
direct(self experience)or indirect(word-of-mouth)
Learning must be reinforced to have an impact; if learning as a
process is not reinforced, the behavior would disappear. This
reinforcement could be negative or positive.
It also leads to development of attitudes
Apart from experiences, consumer learning also reflects the
impact of
a. marketing(commercial) and
b. non-marketing communication(non-commercial) or
c. background characteristics.
Learning is a cognitive process and can be inferred through our
actions and behaviors. Learning includes exposure to
information, its processing and storage. This entire process
cannot be observed directly, its only reflected in our behavior
Learning is a continuous process
A person is exposed to information/knowledge and experiences
all the time. Individuals learns from them, stores them in
memory for retrieval.
Consumer Learning may be specific/intentional, ongoing and
incidental
 Behavioral Learning Theories
Classical Conditioning:
Pairing a stimulus with another stimulus that
elicits a known response to produce the same
response when used alone.
Instrumental Conditioning:
Learning based on a trial-and-error process,
with habits forced as the result of positive
experiences (reinforcement)
Modeling or Observational Learning
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 Strategic Applications of Classical
Conditioning
Repetition:
Repetition increases strength of associations and slows forgetting
but over time may result in advertising wearout.
 Stimulus Generalization
 The inability to perceive differences between slightly dissimilar stimuli.
Marketing applications
 Product Line, Form and Category Extensions
 Family Branding
 Licensing
 Generalizing Usage Situations
Stimulus Discrimination:
 The ability to select a specific stimulus from among similar stimuli because of
perceived differences.
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 Classical Conditioning and
Marketing Strategy
Identify and pair product with a known, well-liked
stimulus
More attention
More favourable attitudes
Greater intention to buy the product
Learning of key attributes
Use stimulus generalization effectively
Distinguish the product through effective use of
stimulus discrimination
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 Instrumental Conditioning
Consumers learn by means of trial and error
process in which some purchase behaviors
result in more favorable outcomes (rewards)
than other purchase behaviors.
A favorable experience is instrumental in
teaching the individual to repeat a specific
behavior.

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 Reinforcement
Positive Reinforcement:  Negative Reinforcement:
Positive outcomes that Unpleasant or negative
strengthen the likelihood outcomes that serve to
of a specific response encourage a specific
Example: Ad showing behaviour
beautiful hair as a  Example: Ad showing
reinforcement to buy wrinkled skin as
shampoo reinforcement to buy skin
cream
Other Concepts in Reinforcement
Punishment: Choose reinforcement rather than
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Extinction: Combat with consumer satisfaction
 Instrumental Conditioning and
Marketing

Make the product the ultimate reward

Provide samples and free trials
Provide non-product rewards
Practice relationship marketing
Reinforcement Schedules
Shaping

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 Cognitive Learning Theory
problem solving, which enables
Learning through

individuals to gain some control over their

environment.
Three types:
Observational learning
Rote Learning: Learning concepts through simple
repetition. Repeated ads teach consumers about a
product’s attributes
Reasoning

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 Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada
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 Retention
Information is stored in long-term
memory
Episodically: by the order in which
it is acquired
Semantically: according to
significant concepts

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 Cognitive Learning and Marketing Strategy
Use rote learning to teach consumers about the brand
Use reasoning or problem solving for complex or high-
involvement products
Use knowledge of information processing to help
consumers store, retain and retrieve messages.

Measures of Consumer Learning

Recognition and Recall Measures: Aided and Unaided
Recall
Cognitive Responses to Advertising
Copy-testing Measures
Attitudinal and Behavioural Measures of Brand Loyalty
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 Learning and Consumer Memory

Learning is essential to consumption process,

consumer behavior is largely a learned behaviors
People acquire most of the attitudes, values, tastes,
behaviors, preferences, symbolic meanings through
learning.
Learning is any change in the content or
organization of long term memory or behavior and
is the result of information processing.
 Consumer perception: nature and
process of perception.

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 Perception
Perception is a way that one selects, organizes and
interprets the stimuli into meaningful and coherent
picture of the world.
“How we see the world around us”
People act and react on basis of their perceptions.
Perception is shaped by learning, memory, and
expectations.
Subliminal Perception: Perception of very weak or
rapid stimuli received below the level of conscious
awareness.
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 Customer Perception
Judgment or experiences by our senses.
How customer perceive service?
How they assess whether the have experienced the quality
service or not?
Whether customers are satisfied or not? If yes, how satisfied
customers are?
Perception is related with expectation or it is dependent
variable of expectation.
Perception varies from person to person, people to people,
country to country. Because expectation is dynamic and also
varies for person to person…
 Nature of Perception
Perception is a complex process. After the stimulus is detected by the
sense organs, perception process comes into play and involves
interplay of 3 process which are selection, organization and
interpretation. It is a dynamic process.
It is intellectual process and involves a lot of cognitive effort. Once
sensation takes place, the perception process involves the selection,
organization and interpretation of data.
Perception is broad in nature, it includes a physiological
component(through sensation),as well as social and psychological
component.
Perception is a subjective process as two people may perceive the
same stimuli differently. The manners in which one selects, perceives
differs.
 Process of Perception

Perception process consist of 4 basic components

as:
1. Input
2. Perceptual mechanism
3. Output
4. Behavior
1.Input:
The input to the perceptual process refers to various stimuli that
surrounds an individual and exist in his environment. The perceptual
process begins when the sensory receptor detect a stimulus in the
environment, which acts as an input to the perceptual mechanism.
2.Perceptual Mechanism:
It consists of 3 sub processes as:
Perceptual selection or perceptual selectivity refers to tendency
within a person to select one or few out of many stimuli present in
the environment.
Perceptual Organization: It refers to the process of organizing the
various stimuli with other cues around so that a whole picture can be
created.
Perceptual Interpretation: It refers to process of drawing in
inferences out of the organized whole (of stimuli)and giving
meaning to it.
 Perceptual Mapping
A research technique that enables marketers to plot
graphically consumers’ perceptions concerning product
attributes of specific brands
3. Output:
Once the inputs are interpreted, it results to output.
The stimuli may take the formation of emotions and
moods, feelings and opinions and attitudes and
beliefs.

4.Behavior:
The resultant behavior is the result of output. Based
on mood, attitude a person would enact out
behavior.
 Elements of Perception
Sensation
Absolute threshold
Differential threshold
Subliminal perception
Sensation
The immediate and direct response of the sensory
organs to stimuli
A stimulus is any unit of input to any of the senses.
Sensory adaptation
The absolute threshold is the lowest level at which an
individual can experience a sensation.
Absolute Threshold
Lowest level at which individual can experience a
sensation
Difference between something and nothing
Certain sensations become accommodated to a certain
level of stimulation
Sensory adaptation
Differential Threshold
Minimal difference that can be detected between two
similar stimuli
Also known as the just noticeable difference (the
j.n.d.)
Weber’s Law
The j.n.d. between two stimuli is not an absolute
amount but an amount relative to the intensity of the
first stimulus
Weber’s law states that the stronger the initial stimulus,
the greater the additional intensity needed for the
second stimulus to be perceived as different.
 Subliminal Perception
Stimuli that are too weak or too brief to be consciously
seen or heard may be strong enough to be perceived by
one or more receptor cells.
Eat popcorn / Drink Coke

Is Subliminal Persuasion Effective?

Extensive research has shown no evidence that
subliminal advertising can cause behavior changes
Some evidence that subliminal stimuli may influence
affective reactions
 Perception and Marketing Strategy
Make perceptual selection work in your favour
Increase accidental exposure
Use the j.n.d
Draw attention to your ad using contrast and other
principles
Find creative ways to reduce blocking
Ensure that consumers organize and interpret
messages correctly
Develop suitable consumer imagery
Find ways to reduce perceived risk
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 Personality: nature and types of
consumer personality. Consumer
personality and brand personality
congruence.
 Personality
It refers to a person’s unique psychological makeup
and how it consistently influences the way a person
responds to his/her environment.
Personality can be defined as sum total ways in
which an individual interacts with people and react
to situations.
The term personality is derived from Latin word
'persona’ which means ‘to speak through’
Personality is individuals characteristics response
tendencies across similar situations.
 Personality determinants
 Heredity
 Example, many children's behave the same way their parents behave.
Twin siblings tend to have many things in common.
 Environment
 Example, no formal dress code for IT companies globally.
 Situation:
 Example, a person’s behavior will be totally different when he’s in
office and when he’s outside hanging out with his friends.
Concept and Nature of Personality
the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an
individual's distinctive character.
It emphasizes on
1. dual influences of heredity and early childhood experience
2.Social and environmental influences
3. combination of all the traits or specific traits

The inner psychological characteristics that

both determine and reflect how a person
responds to his or her environment
 The Nature of Personality

Personality reflects individual differences

Personality is consistent and enduring
Personality can change
 Theories of Personality
Freudian theory
Unconscious needs or drives are at the heart of
human motivation
Id, ego and superego
Neo-Freudian personality theory
Social relationships are fundamental to the
formation and development of personality
Trait theory
Quantitative approach to personality as a set of
psychological traits
 Big 5 personality dimensions
Extroversion: This dimension captures one’s comfort level
with relationships. Extroverts tend to be assertive, sociable.
Introverts tend to be timid, reserved and quite.
Openness to Experience: This dimension addresses one’s
range of interest and fascination with novelty. Extremely
open people are curious, creative and artistically sensitive.
Those at the end of the openness category are
conventional and find comfort in familiar things.
Emotional stability: Also commonly referred as neuroticism.
This dimension taps the persons ability to withstand stress.
People with positive emotional stability tend to be calm,
self confident and secure. Those with high negative scores
tends to be anxious, depressed and insecure.
Agreeableness: This dimension refers to an individual’s
propensity to differ to others. Highly agreeable people are
cooperative, warm and trusting while low on agreeableness
are cold and disagreeable
Conscientiousness: This dimension is a measure of
reliability. A highly conscientious people are responsible,
organized ,dependable and persistent. Those who score low
on this dimensions are easily distracted, disorganized and
unreliable.
 Brand Personality
 It is the way a brand speaks and behaves. It basically means assigning
human personality traits and characteristics to a brand so as to
achieve differentiation
 It refers to personification of brand.
 Example, HP brand represents accomplishment, competency and
influence
 Example, Allen Solley brand speaks the personality and makes the
individual who wear it stand out from the crowd.
Other examples include:
Volvo: Safety
BMW: Performance
Nike: For athlete
Levi’s 501: rough,harsh
 Dimensions of Brand Personality
Brand
Personality

Sincerity Excitement Competence Sophisticati Ruggednes

on s

• Down • Outdoors
• Daring • Reliable • Upper
to earth y
• Imaginative • Intellige class
• Honest • Tough
• Up to date nt • Charmin
• Cheerfu
• Successf g
l
ul
 Product Personality Issues
Product Personality and Gender
Often used for brand personalities
Some product perceived as masculine (coffee and
toothpaste) while others as feminine (bath soap and
shampoo)
Product Personality and Geography
Actual locations like Philadelphia cream cheese and
Arizona iced tea
Fictitious names also used such as Hidden Valley and
Bear Creek
Product Personality and Color
Color combinations in packaging and products denotes
personality
Use of personality in marketing practice
Consumer choose products that fits their personality
Brand image is what people think of and feel when
they hear or see a brand name
A particular type of image that some brands acquire
is a brand personality
Brand personality is a set of human characteristics
that become associated with a brand.
Marketers are paying increasing attention to brand
personality given its power to influence purchases.
 Communicating brand personality
Celebrity endorsement: Juhi Chaula in
Kurkure
User imagery : mountain due- features
young, active users engaged in fun and
exciting activities
Executional factors: tone, media , pace,
logo etc.
 Consumer attitudes: nature and
functions of attitudes;
attitude components: component
consistency among cognitive,
affective and behavioral;
Communication strategy for attitude
change.
 Attitude
An attitude is an enduring organization of motivational,
emotional, and cognitive process with respect to some
aspect of our environment.
It is a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently
favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given
object
Thus, an attitude is the way one thinks, feels, and acts
towards some aspect of his or her environment, such as
retail store, television program, or product etc
A positive attitude is generally a necessary, but
not sufficient, condition for purchase,
Mercedes seen as ‘top of class’ but intention to purchase was
Attitude are not directly observable, but must be inferred
from what people say or what they do.
By asking question or making inferences from behavior
The attitude as object {7 p’s or brand}
Attitude are a learned predisposition
Attitude have consistency
Attitude occur within a situation
 How attitude are formed? (Sources of influence on attitude
formation)
 Consumer direct experience
 Consumer contact with others (family, friends, admired
individuals, celebrities, socio-cultural
 Direct marketing programs
 Mass media
 Personality Factors
 Consumer Attitude: Nature
Its prerequisites for any marketers to know about their
consumer’s preferences, likes and dislikes.
Consumer attitudes are overall evaluation done by
consumers for choosing a particular product.
Attitudes help us understand why consumers do or do not
buy a particular product or shop from certain store.
They are used for judging the effectiveness of marketing
activities, for evaluating marketing actions before they are
implemented within the market place.
It is a learned predispositions to respond to an objects or
class of objects in a consistently favorable or unfavorable
way.
 Characteristics of Attitudes
Attitudes have an “object”
Attitudes are learned
Can ‘unlearn’
Attitudes have behavioural, cognitive and affective
components
Predisposition to act
Overall evaluation
Positive or negative feelings
Attitudes have consistency
 Functions of attitude
1. Utilitarian Function: Such function helps the consumer in achieving
desired benefits.
For example, in small car segments, marketers usually reflects the
utilitarian function of attitudes in the ad.like by featuring performance
characterstics,mileage etc.
Similarly in the ad of toothbrushes, they reflect utility of cleaning the teeth
and giving them whiter finish etc.
2. Value-Expressive function: Value –Expressive function works well for high
involvement products i.e. the costly products .
 Advertisers usually try to appeal to their value-expressive nature of attitudes
by implying that use or purchase of a certain item will lead to self-enhancement.
 In this way they appeal to large segments who value their self expressive traits
 Example, Revlon Cologne ad. suggests user is a confident, self-award and warm
individual.
3. Ego-Defensive Function
 Attitudes protects the ego from anxieties and threats.
 Consumers purchase many products like mouthwashes to avoid bad
breath-it is basically anxiety producing situations, or rather it creates
uncomfort when one is around people 24/7.
 It means consumers develop positive attitude towards brand
associated with social acceptance, confidence etc.
 For Example, Head and Shoulders avoid embarrassment of flaking from dry scalp.

4. Knowledge Function:

 Main function of knowledge function is reducing all the uncertainties.
 Consumers are exposed with main information. Consumers sort all
the messages ,ignoring the less relevant information. They have a
sense of confusions in buying high involvement products, then comes
the role of knowledge functions. It reduces all the uncertainties.
 How are attitudes learned?
Classical conditioning - through past associations
Operant conditioning - through trial and
reinforcement
Cognitive learning – through information
processing
We normally form our attitude towards object,
people, advertisement, issues from our learning
(Classical conditioning, Instrumental conditioning
or cognitive learning process).
 The Tri-component Model
Cognitive Component
knowledge and perceptions acquired
through direct experience and information from
various sources.
Affective component
Emotions and feelings about the object
Behavioural Component
Action tendencies toward the object
 Attitudes and Marketing Strategy
Appeal to motivational functions of attitudes
Associate product with a special group, cause or event
Alter components of the attitude
Change brand beliefs
Add an attribute
Change overall brand evaluation
Change beliefs about competitors’ brands
How Do Marketers Change Attitudes?
Persuasion involves an active attempt to change attitude.

Reciprocity: We are more likely to give if we first receive.

Scarcity: Items are more attractive when they aren’t available.

Authority: We tend to believe an authoritative sources

than one that is less authoritative.

Consistency: We try not to contradict of what we’ve said before.

Liking: We agree with those we like or admire.

Consensus: We consider what others do when we decide to do.

 Attitude change strategies
Change the cognitive component
Change beliefs: shifting beliefs about the
performance of the brand on one or more attributes
Shift importance : Oppo camera phone
Add beliefs: IBM introduced a shock absorption
features to protect its laptops from sudden jolts, as
might occur if a computer is dropped.
Change ideal: nonpolluting manufacturing, extensive
use of recycled materials, and nonpolluting
disposition after its useful life.