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Characteristics Affecting Consumer BehaviorComments by Dr. Laukamm
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Consumer
purchases are influenced strongly by cultural, social, personal, and
psychological characteristics, shown in Figure 6.2. For the most part,
marketers cannot control such factors, but they must take them into
account. We illustrate these characteristics for the case of a
hypothetical consumer named Anna Flores. Anna is a married college
graduate who works as a brand manager in a leading consumer
packaged-goods company. She wants to find a new leisure-time activity
that will provide some contrast to her working day. This need has led
her to consider buying a camera and taking up photography. Many
characteristics in her background will affect the way she evaluates
cameras and chooses a brand.
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Cultural FactorsComments by Dr. Laukamm
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Cultural
factors exert a broad and deep influence on consumer behavior. The
marketer needs to understand the role played by the buyer's culture, subculture, and social class.
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CultureComments by Dr. Laukamm
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Culture
is the most basic cause of a person's wants and behavior. Human
behavior is largely learned. Growing up in a society, a child learns
basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors from the family and
other important institutions. A child in the United States normally
learns or is exposed to the following values: achievement and success,
activity and involvement, efficiency and practicality, progress,
material comfort, individualism, freedom, humanitarianism,
youthfulness, and fitness and health.
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Every
group or society has a culture, and cultural influences on buying
behavior may vary greatly from country to country, or even neighborhood
to neighborhood. International differences are most pronounced. Whether
or not a company adjusts to such difference can spell the difference
between success and failure. For example, different cultures assign
different meanings to colors. White is usually associated with purity
and cleanliness in Western countries. However, it can signify death in
Asian countries. When General Motors was competing for the right to
build its cars in China, GM executives gave Chinese officials gifts
from Tiffany's jewelers. However, the Americans replaced Tiffany's
signature white ribbons with red ones, since red is considered a lucky
color in Japan. GM ultimately won approval of its proposal.3
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In
contrast, business representatives of a U.S. community trying to market
itself in Taiwan learned a hard cultural lesson. Seeking more foreign
trade, they arrived in Taiwan bearing gifts of green baseball caps. It
turned out that the trip was scheduled a month before Taiwan elections,
and that green was the color of the political opposition party. Worse
yet, the visitors learned after the fact that according to Taiwan
culture, a man wears green to signify that his wife has been
unfaithful. The head of the community delegation later noted, "I don't
know what ever happened to those green hats, but the trip gave us an
understanding of the extreme differences in our cultures."
International marketers must understand the culture in each
international market and adapt their marketing strategies accordingly.
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Anna
Flores's cultural background will affect her camera buying decision.
Anna's desire to own a camera may result from her being raised in a
modern society that has developed camera technology and a whole set of
consumer learnings and values.
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Marketers are always trying to spot cultural shifts
in order to discover new products that might be wanted. For example,
the cultural shift toward greater concern about health and fitness has
created a huge industry for health and fitness services, exercise
equipment and clothing, and lower-fat and more-natural foods. The shift
toward informality has resulted in more demand for casual clothing and
simpler home furnishings.
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SubcultureComments by Dr. Laukamm
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Each culture contains smaller subcultures,
or groups of people with shared value systems based on common life
experiences and situations. Subcultures include nationalities,
religions, racial groups, and geographic regions. Many subcultures make
up important market segments, and marketers often design products and
marketing programs tailored to their needs. Examples of four such
important subculture groups include Hispanic, African American, Asian,
and mature consumers. As we discuss them, it is important to note that
each major subculture is, in turn, made of many smaller subcultures,
each with its own preferences and behaviors.
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HISPANIC CONSUMERS The U.S. Hispanic market—Americans
of Cuban, Mexican, Central American, South American, and Puerto Rican
descent—consists of 35 million consumers. Hispanic consumers bought
more than $425 billion worth of goods and services each year, up 25
percent from just two years earlier. Expected to grow in number by 64
percent during the next 20 years, Hispanics are easy to reach through
the growing selection of Spanish-language broadcast and print media
that cater to them.4
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Hispanics
have long been a target for marketers of food, beverages, and household
care products. Most marketers now produce products tailored to the
Hispanic market and promote them using Spanish-language ads and media.
For example, General Mills offers a line of Para su Familia (for your
family) cereals for Hispanics, and Colgate's Suavitel fabric softener
is the number two brand in the Hispanic segment. Mattel has opened a
Spanish-language site for its Barbie dolls—BarbieLatina.com—targeting
U.S. Hispanic girls. But as the segment's buying power increases,
Hispanics are now emerging as an attractive market for pricier products
such as computers, financial services, apparel, large appliances, and
automobiles. Hispanic consumers tend to buy more branded,
higher-quality products—generics don't sell well to Hispanics. Perhaps
more important, Hispanics are very brand loyal, and they favor
companies who show special interest in them.5
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Sears
makes a special effort to market to Hispanic American consumers,
especially for the 20 percent of its stores that are located in heavily
Hispanic neighborhoods:
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Sears currently markets heavily to the attractive Hispanic segment. Last year, it spent some $25 million on advertising to Hispanics—more than any other retailer—and it recently launched a Spanish-language Web site. Sears neighborhoods receive regular visits from a Fiesta Mobile, a colorful Winnebago that plays music, gives out prizes, and promotes the Sears credit card. Sears also sponsors major Hispanic cultural festivals and concerts. One of its most successful marketing efforts is its magazine Nuestra Gente—which means Our People—the nation's largest Spanish-language magazine. The magazine features articles about Hispanic celebrities alongside glossy spreads of Sears fashions. As a result of this careful cultivation of Hispanic consumers, although Sears has lost sales in recent years to discount retailers, the Hispanic segment has remained steadfastly loyal.6 Comments by Dr. Laukamm
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Targeting
Hispanics may also provide an additional benefit. With the passage of
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—which reduced trade
barriers between the United States, Mexico, and Canada—U.S. and Mexican
companies have sought new opportunities to market "pan-American"
brands. Companies on both sides of the border see the U.S. Hispanic
population as a bridge for spanning U.S. and Latin American markets.
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AFRICAN AMERICAN CONSUMERS If the U.S. population of 35 million African Americans were a separate nation, its buying power of $527 billion annually would rank among the top 15 in the world.7
The black population in the United States is growing in affluence and
sophistication. Although more price conscious than other segments,
blacks are also strongly motivated by quality and selection. They place
more importance on brand names, are more brand loyal, and do less
"shopping around."
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In
recent years, many companies have developed special products and
services, packaging, and appeals to meet the needs of African
Americans. Hallmark launched its Afrocentric brand, Mahogany, with only
16 cards in 1987. Today the brand features more than 900 cards designed
to celebrate African American culture, heritage, and traditions. Other
companies are moving away from creating separate products for African
Americans. Instead, they are offering more-inclusive product lines
within the same brand that goes out to the general market. For example,
Sara Lee discontinued its separate Color-Me-Natural line of L'eggs
pantyhose for black women and now offers shades and sheer styles
popular among black women as half of the company's general-focus
subbrands.8
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A
wide variety of magazines, television channels, and other media now
target African American consumers. Marketers are also reaching out to
the African American virtual community. Per capita, black consumers
spend twice as much as white consumers for online services. African
Americans are increasingly turning to Web sites such as The Black World
Today, a black USA Today on the Internet, that address black
culture in ways that network and cable TV rarely do. Other popular
sites include Urban Sports Network, NetNoir, Afronet, and Black Voices.9
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ASIAN AMERICAN CONSUMERS Asian Americans,
the fastest-growing and most affluent U.S. demographic segment, now
number more than 10 million, with a disposable income of $229 billion
annually. Chinese Americans constitute the largest group, followed by
Filipinos, Japanese Americans, Asian Indians, and Korean Americans. The
U.S. Asian American population is estimated to reach 30 million by 2050.10 Financial services marketers have long targeted Asian American consumers:
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Discount broker Charles Schwab goes all out to court the large and particularly lucrative Chinese American market. Schwab estimates that the U.S. Chinese community holds as much as $150 billion in investable assets. Schwab has opened 14 Chinese-language offices in such places as New York's and San Francisco's Chinatowns and plans to add many more. Its Chinese-language Web site, launched in 1998, now racks up more than 5 million hits per month. Schwab recently added an online Chinese-language news service, where customers can check market activity, news headlines, and earnings estimates. Although relatively small in number, Chinese Americans have plenty of money. The median Chinese-American household income is $65,000 a year, compared with $40,000 for Americans in general. Even more appealing to brokers is that Chinese American investors pour money into stocks—they trade two and three times as much as other investors, generating a lot of commissions.11 Comments by Dr. Laukamm
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Until
recently, packaged-goods firms, automobile companies, retailers, and
fast-food chains have lagged in this segment. Language and cultural
traditions appear to be the biggest barriers. For example, 66 percent
of Asian Americans are foreign born, and 56 percent of those five years
and older do not speak English fluently. Still, because of the
segment's rapidly growing buying power, many firms are now looking
seriously at this market. For example, Wal-Mart now caters to this
fast-growing market. Today, in one Seattle store, where the Asian
American population represents over 13 percent of the population,
Wal-Mart stocks a large selection of CDs and videos from Asian artists,
Asian-favored health and beauty products, and children's learning
videos that feature multiple language tracks.12
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MATURE CONSUMERS As the U.S. population ages, mature consumers
are becoming a very attractive market. Now 75 million strong, the
50-and-older population will swell to 115 million in the next 25 years.
The 65-and-over crowd alone numbers 35 million and will swell to 70
million by 2030. Mature consumers are better off financially than are
younger consumer groups—the 50-plus group controls 50 percent of all
discretionary income, and the median net worth of 65-plussers is more
than double that of the national average.13
Because mature consumers have more time and money, they are an ideal
market for exotic travel, restaurants, high-tech home entertainment
products, leisure goods and services, designer furniture and fashions,
financial services, and health care services.
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Their
desire to look as young as they feel also makes more-mature consumers
good candidates for cosmetics and personal care products, health foods,
fitness products, and other items that combat the effects of aging. The
best strategy is to appeal to their active, multidimensional lives. For
example, a recent Nike commercial features a senior weight lifter who
proudly proclaims, "I'm not strong for my age. I'm strong!" Similarly,
Kellogg aired a TV spot for All-Bran cereal in which individuals
ranging in age from 53 to 81 are featured playing ice hockey, water
skiing, running hurdles, and playing baseball, all to the tune of "Wild
Thing." And an Aetna commercial portrays a senior who, after retiring
from a career as a lawyer, fulfills a lifelong dream of becoming an
archeologist.14
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Anna
Flores's buying behavior will be influenced by her subculture
identification. These factors will affect her food preferences,
clothing choices, recreation activities, and career goals. Subcultures
attach different meanings to picture taking, and this could affect both
Anna's interest in cameras and the brand she buys.
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Social ClassComments by Dr. Laukamm
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Almost every society has some form of social class structure. Social classes
are society's relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members
share similar values, interests, and behaviors. Social scientists have
identified the seven American social classes (see Table 6.1)
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Social
class is not determined by a single factor, such as income, but is
measured as a combination of occupation, income, education, wealth, and
other variables. In some social systems, members of different classes
are reared for certain roles and cannot change their social positions.
In the United States, however, the lines between social classes are not
fixed and rigid; people can move to a higher social class or drop into
a lower one. Marketers are interested in social class because people
within a given social class tend to exhibit similar buying behavior.15
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Social
classes show distinct product and brand preferences in areas such as
clothing, home furnishings, leisure activity, and automobiles. Anna
Flores's social class may affect her camera decision. If she comes from
a higher social class background, her family probably owned an
expensive camera and she may have dabbled in photography.
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Social FactorsComments by Dr. Laukamm
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A consumer's behavior also is influenced by social factors, such as the consumer's small groups, family, and social roles and status.
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GroupsComments by Dr. Laukamm
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A person's behavior is influenced by many small groups. Groups that have a direct influence and to which a person belongs are called membership groups. In contrast, reference groups
serve as direct (face-to-face) or indirect points of comparison or
reference in forming a person's attitudes or behavior. People often are
influenced by reference groups to which they do not belong. For
example, an aspirational group is one to which the individual
wishes to belong, as when a teenage basketball player hopes to play
someday for the Los Angeles Lakers. Marketers try to identify the
reference groups of their target markets. Reference groups expose a
person to new behaviors and lifestyles, influence the person's
attitudes and self-concept, and create pressures to conform that may
affect the person's product and brand choices.
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Manufacturers of products and brands subjected to strong group influence must figure out how to reach opinion leaders—people
within a reference group who, because of special skills, knowledge,
personality, or other characteristics, exert influence on others.
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Many
marketers try to identify opinion leaders for their products and direct
marketing efforts toward them. For example, the hottest trends in
teenage music, language, and fashion start in America's inner cities,
then quickly spread to more mainstream youth in the suburbs. Thus,
clothing companies who hope to appeal to these fickle and
fashion-conscious youth often make a concerted effort to monitor urban
opinion leaders' style and behavior. In other cases, marketers may use buzz marketing by enlisting or even creating opinion leaders to spread the word about their brands.
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Frequent the right cafes . . . in and around Los Angeles this summer, and you're likely to encounter a gang of sleek, impossibly attractive motorbike riders who seem genuinely interested in getting to know you over an iced latte. Compliment them on their Vespa scooters glinting in the brilliant curbside sunlight, and they'll happily pull out a pad and scribble down an address and phone number—not theirs, but that of the local "boutique" where you can buy your own Vespa, just as (they'll confide) the rap artist Sisqo and the movie queen Sandra Bullock recently did. And that's when the truth hits you: This isn't any spontaneous encounter. Those scooter-riding models are on the Vespa payroll, and they've been hired to generate some favorable word of mouth for the recently reissued European bikes. Welcome to the [new world of buzz marketing. Buzz marketers are now] taking to the streets, as well as cafes, nightclubs, and the Internet, in record numbers. Vespa . . . has its biker gang. Hebrew National is dispatching "mom squads" to grill up its hot dogs in backyard barbecues, while Hasbro Games has deputized hundreds of fourth- and fifth-graders as "secret agents" to tantalize their peers with Hasbro's POX electronic game. Their goal: to seek out the trendsetters in each community and subtly push them into talking up their brand to their friends and admirers.16 Comments by Dr. Laukamm
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The
importance of group influence varies across products and brands. It
tends to be strongest when the product is visible to others whom the
buyer respects. Purchases of products that are bought and used
privately are not much affected by group influences, because neither
the product nor the brand will be noticed by others. If Anna Flores
buys a camera, both the product and the brand will be visible to others
whom she respects, and her decision to buy the camera and her brand
choice may be influenced strongly by some of her groups, such as
friends who belong to a photography club.
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FamilyComments by Dr. Laukamm
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Family
members can strongly influence buyer behavior. The family is the most
important consumer buying organization in society, and it has been
researched extensively. Marketers are interested in the roles and
influence of the husband, wife, and children on the purchase of
different products and services.
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Husband-wife
involvement varies widely by product category and by stage in the
buying process. Buying roles change with evolving consumer lifestyles.
In the United States, the wife traditionally has been the main
purchasing agent for the family, especially in the areas of food,
household products, and clothing. But with 70 percent of women holding
jobs outside the home and the willingness of husbands to do more of the
family's purchasing, all this is changing. For example, women now make
or influence up to 80 percent of car-buying decisions and men account
for about 40 percent of food-shopping dollars.17
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Such
changes suggest that marketers who've typically sold their products to
only women or only men are now courting the opposite sex. For example,
with research revealing that women now account for nearly half of all
hardware store purchases, home improvement retailers such as Home Depot
and Builders Square have turned what once were intimidating warehouses
into female-friendly retail outlets. The new Builders Square II outlets
feature decorator design centers at the front of the store. To attract
more women, Builders Square runs ads targeting women in Home, House Beautiful, Woman's Day, and Better Homes and Gardens. Home Depot even offers bridal registries.
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Children
may also have a strong influence on family buying decisions. For
example, children as young as age six may influence the family car
purchase decision. "By six, they know the names of cars," says an
industry analyst. "They see them on TV." Chevrolet recognizes these
influences in marketing its Chevy Venture minivan. For example, it runs
ads to woo these "back-seat consumers" in Sports Illustrated for Kids,
which attracts mostly 8- to 14-year-old boys. "We're kidding ourselves
when we think kids aren't aware of brands," says Venture's brand
manager, adding that even she was surprised at how often parents told
her that kids played a tie-breaking role in deciding which car to buy.18
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Roles and StatusComments by Dr. Laukamm
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A
person belongs to many groups—family, clubs, organizations. The
person's position in each group can be defined in terms of both role
and status. With her parents, Anna Flores plays the role of daughter;
in her family, she plays the role of wife; in her company, she plays
the role of brand manager. A role consists of the activities
people are expected to perform according to the persons around them.
Each of Anna's roles will influence some of her buying behavior. Each
role carries a status reflecting the general esteem given to
it by society. People often choose products that show their status in
society. For example, the role of brand manager has more status in our
society than does the role of daughter. As a brand manager, Anna will
buy the kind of clothing that reflects her role and status.
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Personal FactorsComments by Dr. Laukamm
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A buyer's decisions also are influenced by personal characteristics such as the buyer's age and life-cycle stage, occupation, economic situation, lifestyle, and personality and self-concept.
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Age and Life-Cycle StageComments by Dr. Laukamm
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People
change the goods and services they buy over their lifetimes. Tastes in
food, clothes, furniture, and recreation are often age related. Buying
is also shaped by the stage of the family life cycle—the
stages through which families might pass as they mature over time.
Marketers often define their target markets in terms of life-cycle
stage and develop appropriate products and marketing plans for each
stage.
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Traditional
family life-cycle stages include young singles and married couples with
children. Today, however, marketers are increasingly catering to a
growing number of alternative, nontraditional stages such as unmarried
couples, singles marrying later in life, childless couples, same-sex
couples, single parents, extended parents (those with young adult
children returning home), and others. For example, more and more
companies are now reaching out to serve the fast-growing corps of the
recently divorced.
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Sony
recently overhauled its marketing approach in order to target products
and services to consumers based on their life stages. It created a new
unit called the Consumer Segment Marketing Division, which has
identified seven life-stage segments. They include, among others, Gen Y
(under 25), Young Professionals/D.I.N.K.s (double income no kids, 25 to
34), Families (35 to 54), and Zoomers (55 and over). Sony's goal is to
create brand loyalty early on and to develop long-term relationships.
"The goal is to get closer to consumers," says a Sony marketing
executive. 19
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OccupationComments by Dr. Laukamm
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A
person's occupation affects the goods and services bought. Blue-collar
workers tend to buy more rugged work clothes, whereas executives buy
more business suits. Marketers try to identify the occupational groups
that have an above-average interest in their products and services. A
company can even specialize in making products needed by a given
occupational group. Thus, computer software companies will design
different products for brand managers, accountants, engineers, lawyers,
and doctors.
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Economic SituationComments by Dr. Laukamm
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A
person's economic situation will affect product choice. Anna Flores can
consider buying an expensive Nikon if she has enough spendable income,
savings, or borrowing power. Marketers of income-sensitive goods watch
trends in personal income, savings, and interest rates. If economic
indicators point to a recession, marketers can take steps to redesign,
reposition, and reprice their products closely.
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LifestyleComments by Dr. Laukamm
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People coming from the same subculture, social class, and occupation may have quite different lifestyles. Lifestyle is a person's pattern of living as expressed in his or her psychographics. It involves measuring consumers' major AIO dimensions—activities (work, hobbies, shopping, sports, social events), interests (food, fashion, family, recreation), and opinions
(about themselves, social issues, business, products). Lifestyle
captures something more than the person's social class or personality.
It profiles a person's whole pattern of acting and interacting in the
world.
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Several research firms have developed lifestyle classifications. The most widely used is the SRI Consulting's Values and Lifestyles (VALS)
typology. VALS classifies people according to how they spend their time
and money. It divides consumers into eight groups based on two major
dimensions: self-orientation and resources. Self-orientation groups include principle-oriented consumers who buy based on their views of the world; status-oriented buyers who base their purchases on the actions and opinions of others; and action-oriented buyers who are driven by their desire for activity, variety, and risk taking.
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Consumers within each orientation are further classified into those with abundant resources and those with minimal resources,
depending on whether they have high or low levels of income, education,
health, self-confidence, energy, and other factors. Consumers with
either very high or very low levels of resources are classified without
regard to their self-orientations (actualizers, strugglers).
Actualizers are people with so many resources that they can indulge in
any or all self-orientations. In contrast, strugglers are people with
too few resources to be included in any consumer orientation.
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Iron
City beer, a well-known brand in Pittsburgh, used VALS to update its
image and improve sales. Iron City was losing sales—its aging core
users were drinking less beer, and younger men weren't buying the
brand. According to VALS research, experiencers drink the most beer,
followed by strivers. To assess Iron City's image problems, the company
interviewed men in these categories. It gave the men stacks of pictures
of different kinds of people and asked them to identify first Iron City
brand users and then people most like themselves. The men pictured Iron
City drinkers as blue-collar steelworkers stopping off at the local
bar. However, they saw themselves as more modern, hardworking, and fun
loving. They strongly rejected the outmoded, heavy-industry image of
Pittsburgh. Based on this research, Iron City created ads linking its
beer to the new self-image of target consumers. The ads mingled images
of the old Pittsburgh with those of the new, dynamic city and scenes of
young experiencers and strivers having fun and working hard. Within
just one month of the start of the campaign, Iron City sales shot up by
26 percent.20
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Lifestyle
segmentation can also be used to understand Internet behavior.
Forrester developed its "Technographics" scheme, which segments
consumers according to motivation, desire, and ability to invest in
technology.21 The framework splits people into 10 categories, such as:
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Delta
Airlines used Technographics to better target online ticket sales. It
created marketing campaigns for time-strapped Fast Forwards and New Age
Nurturers, and eliminated "Technology Pessimists" from its list of
targets.
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Lifestyle
classifications are by no means universal—they can vary significantly
from country to country. Advertising agency McCann-Erikson London, for
example, found the following British lifestyles: Avant Guardians
(interested in change), Pontificators (traditionalists, very British),
Chameleons (follow the crowd), and Sleepwalkers (contented
underachievers). The agency D'Arcy, Masius, Benton, & Bowles agency
identified five categories of Russian consumers: Kuptsi (merchants),
Cossacks, Students, Business Executives, and Russian Souls. Cossacks
are characterized as ambitious, independent, and status seeking;
Russian Souls as passive, fearful of choices, and hopeful. Thus, a
typical Cossack might drive a BMW, smoke Dunhill cigarettes, and drink
Remy Martin liquor, whereas a Russian Soul would drive a Lada, smoke
Marlboros, and drink Smirnoff vodka.22
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When
used carefully, the lifestyle concept can help the marketer understand
changing consumer values and how they affect buying behavior. Anna
Flores, for example, can choose to live the role of a capable
homemaker, a career woman, or a free spirit—or all three. She plays
several roles, and the way she blends them expresses her lifestyle. If
she becomes a professional photographer, this would change her
lifestyle, in turn changing what and how she buys.
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Personality and Self-ConceptComments by Dr. Laukamm
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Each person's distinct personality influences his or her buying behavior. Personality
refers to the unique psychological characteristics that lead to
relatively consistent and lasting responses to one's own environment.
Personality is usually described in terms of traits such as
self-confidence, dominance, sociability, autonomy, defensiveness,
adaptability, and aggressiveness. Personality can be useful in
analyzing consumer behavior for certain product or brand choices. For
example, coffee marketers have discovered that heavy coffee drinkers
tend to be high on sociability. Thus, to attract customers, Starbucks
and other coffeehouses create environments in which people can relax
and socialize over a cup of steaming coffee.
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The
idea is that brands also have personalities, and that consumers are
likely to choose brands whose personalities match their own. A brand personality
is the specific mix of human traits that may be attributed to a
particular brand. One researcher identified five brand personality
traits:23
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The
researcher found that a number of well-known brands tended to be
strongly associated with one particular trait: Levi's with
"ruggedness," MTV with "excitement," CNN with "competence," and
Campbell's with "sincerity." Hence, these brands will attract persons
who are high on the same personality traits.
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Many marketers use a concept related to personality—a person's self-concept (also called self-image).
The basic self-concept premise is that people's possessions contribute
to and reflect their identities; that is, "we are what we have." Thus,
in order to understand consumer behavior, the marketer must first
understand the relationship between consumer self-concept and
possessions. For example, the founder and chief executive of Barnes
& Noble, the nation's leading bookseller, notes that people buy
books to support their self-images:
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People
have the mistaken notion that the thing you do with books is read them.
Wrong. . . . People buy books for what the purchase says about
them—their taste, their cultivation, their trendiness. Their aim . . .
is to connect themselves, or those to whom they give the books as
gifts, with all the other refined owners of Edgar Allen Poe collections
or sensitive owners of Virginia Woolf collections. . . . [The result is
that] you can sell books as consumer products, with seductive displays,
flashy posters, an emphasis on the glamour of the book, and the
fashionableness of the bestseller and the trendy author.24Comments by Dr. Laukamm
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Psychological FactorsComments by Dr. Laukamm
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A person's buying choices are further influenced by four major psychological factors: motivation; perception; learning; and beliefs and attitudes.
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MotivationComments by Dr. Laukamm
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We know that Anna Flores became interested in buying a camera. Why? What is she really seeking? What needs is she trying to satisfy? A person has many needs at any given time. Some are biological, arising from states of tension such as hunger, thirst, or discomfort. Others are psychological, arising from the need for recognition, esteem, or belonging. A need becomes a motive when it is aroused to a sufficient level of intensity. A motive (or drive)
is a need that is sufficiently pressing to direct the person to seek
satisfaction. Psychologists have developed theories of human
motivation. Two of the most popular—the theories of Sigmund Freud and
Abraham Maslow—have quite different meanings for consumer analysis and
marketing.
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Sigmund
Freud assumed that people are largely unconscious about the real
psychological forces shaping their behavior. He saw the person as
growing up and repressing many urges. These urges are never eliminated
or under perfect control; they emerge in dreams, in slips of the
tongue, in neurotic and obsessive behavior, or ultimately in psychoses.
Thus, Freud suggested that a person does not fully understand his or
her motivation. If Anna Flores wants to purchase an expensive camera,
she may describe her motive as wanting a hobby or career. At a deeper
level, she may be purchasing the camera to impress others with her
creative talent. At a still deeper level, she may be buying the camera
to feel young and independent again.
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The term motivation research
refers to qualitative research designed to probe consumers' hidden,
subconscious motivations. Motivation researchers collect in-depth
information from small samples of consumers to uncover the deeper
motives for their product choices. The techniques range from sentence
completion, word association, and inkblot or cartoon interpretation
tests, to having consumers describe typical brand users or form
daydreams and fantasies about brands or buying situations.
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Many
companies employ teams of psychologists, anthropologists, and other
social scientists to carry out motivation research. One agency
routinely conducts one-on-one, therapy-like interviews to delve into
the inner workings of consumers. Another agency asks consumers to
describe their favorite brands as animals or cars (say, Cadillacs
versus Chevrolets) in order to assess the prestige associated with
various brands. Still another agency has consumers draw figures of
typical brand users. In one case, the agency asked 50 participants to
sketch likely buyers of two different brands of cake mixes.
Consistently, the group portrayed Pillsbury customers as apron-clad,
grandmotherly types, whereas they pictured Duncan Hines purchasers as
svelte, contemporary women.
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Abraham
Maslow sought to explain why people are driven by particular needs at
particular times. Why does one person spend much time and energy on
personal safety and another on gaining the esteem of others? Maslow's
answer is that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy, as shown in
Figure 6.4, from the most pressing at the bottom to the least pressing
at the top. They include physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.
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A
person tries to satisfy the most important need first. When that need
is satisfied, it will stop being a motivator and the person will then
try to satisfy the next most important need. For example, starving
people (physiological need) will not take an interest in the latest
happenings in the art world (self-actualization needs), nor in how they
are seen or esteemed by others (social or esteem needs), nor even in
whether they are breathing clean air (safety needs). But as each
important need is satisfied, the next most important need will come
into play.
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What
light does Maslow's theory throw on Anna Flores's interest in buying a
camera? We can guess that Anna has satisfied her physiological, safety,
and social needs; they do not motivate her interest in cameras. Her
camera interest might come from a strong need for more esteem. Or it
might come from a need for self-actualization—she might want to be a
creative person and express herself through photography.
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PerceptionComments by Dr. Laukamm
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A
motivated person is ready to act. How the person acts is influenced by
his or her own perception of the situation. All of us learn by the flow
of information through our five senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch,
and taste. However, each of us receives, organizes, and interprets this
sensory information in an individual way. Perception is the process by which people select, organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world.
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People
can form different perceptions of the same stimulus because of three
perceptual processes: selective attention, selective distortion, and
selective retention. People are exposed to a great amount of stimuli
every day. For example, one analyst estimates that people are exposed
to about 5,000 ads every day.25 It is impossible for a person to pay attention to all these stimuli. Selective attention—the
tendency for people to screen out most of the information to which they
are exposed—means that marketers have to work especially hard to
attract the consumer's attention.
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Even
noted stimuli do not always come across in the intended way. Each
person fits incoming information into an existing mind-set. Selective distortion
describes the tendency of people to interpret information in a way that
will support what they already believe. Anna Flores may hear a
salesperson mention some good and bad points about a competing camera
brand. Because she already has a strong leaning toward Nikon, she is
likely to distort those points in order to conclude that Nikon is the
better camera. Selective distortion means that marketers must try to
understand the mind-sets of consumers and how these will affect
interpretations of advertising and sales information.
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People
also will forget much that they learn. They tend to retain information
that supports their attitudes and beliefs. Because of selective retention,
Anna is likely to remember good points made about the Nikon and to
forget good points made about competing cameras. Because of selective
exposure, distortion, and retention, marketers have to work hard to get
their messages through. This fact explains why marketers use so much
drama and repetition in sending messages to their market.
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Interestingly,
although most marketers worry about whether their offers will be
perceived at all, some consumers worry that they will be affected by
marketing messages without even knowing it—through subliminal advertising.
In 1957, a researcher announced that he had flashed the phrases "Eat
popcorn" and "Drink Coca-Cola" on a screen in a New Jersey movie
theater every five seconds for 1/300th of a second. He reported that
although viewers did not consciously recognize these messages, they
absorbed them subconsciously and bought 58 percent more popcorn and 18
percent more Coke. Suddenly advertisers and consumer-protection groups
became intensely interested in subliminal perception. People voiced
fears of being brainwashed, and California and Canada declared the
practice illegal. Although the researcher later admitted to making up
the data, the issue has not died. Some consumers still fear that they
are being manipulated by subliminal messages.
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Numerous
studies by psychologists and consumer researchers have found no link
between subliminal messages and consumer behavior. It appears that
subliminal advertising simply doesn't have the power attributed to it
by its critics. Most advertisers scoff at the notion of an industry
conspiracy to manipulate consumers through "invisible" messages.
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LearningComments by Dr. Laukamm
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When people act, they learn. Learning
describes changes in an individual's behavior arising from experience.
Learning theorists say that most human behavior is learned. Learning
occurs through the interplay of drives, stimuli, cues, responses, and reinforcement.
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We saw that Anna Flores has a drive for self-actualization. A drive is a strong internal stimulus that calls for action. Her drive becomes a motive when it is directed toward a particular stimulus object, in this case a camera. Anna's response to the idea of buying a camera is conditioned by the surrounding cues. Cues
are minor stimuli that determine when, where, and how the person
responds. Seeing cameras in a shop window, hearing of a special sale
price, and receiving her husband's support are all cues that can
influence Anna's response to her interest in buying a camera.
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Suppose
Anna buys the Nikon. If the experience is rewarding, she will probably
use the camera more and more. Her response to cameras will be reinforced.
Then the next time she shops for a camera, binoculars, or some similar
product, the probability is greater that she will buy a Nikon product.
The practical significance of learning theory for marketers is that
they can build up demand for a product by associating it with strong
drives, using motivating cues, and providing positive reinforcement.
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Beliefs and AttitudesComments by Dr. Laukamm
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Through doing and learning, people acquire beliefs and attitudes. These, in turn, influence their buying behavior. A belief
is a descriptive thought that a person has about something. Anna Flores
may believe that a Nikon camera takes great pictures, stands up well
under hard use, and costs $350. These beliefs may be based on real
knowledge, opinion, or faith, and may or may not carry an emotional
charge. For example, Anna Flores's belief that a Nikon camera is heavy
may or may not matter to her decision.
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Marketers
are interested in the beliefs that people formulate about specific
products and services, because these beliefs make up product and brand
images that affect buying behavior. If some of the beliefs are wrong
and prevent purchase, the marketer will want to launch a campaign to
correct them.
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People have attitudes regarding religion, politics, clothes, music, food, and almost everything else. Attitude
describes a person's relatively consistent evaluations, feelings, and
tendencies toward an object or idea. Attitudes put people into a frame
of mind of liking or disliking things, of moving toward or away from
them. Thus, Anna Flores may hold attitudes such as "Buy the best," "The
Japanese make the best products in the world," and "Creativity and
self-expression are among the most important things in life." If so,
the Nikon camera would fit well into Anna's existing attitudes.
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Attitudes
are difficult to change. A person's attitudes fit into a pattern, and
to change one attitude may require difficult adjustments in many
others. Thus, a company should usually try to fit its products into
existing attitudes rather than attempt to change attitudes. Of course,
there are exceptions in which the great cost of trying to change
attitudes may pay off handsomely:
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By
1994, milk consumption had been in decline for 20 years. The general
perception was that milk was unhealthy, outdated, just for kids, or
good only with cookies and cake. To counter these notions, the National
Fluid Milk Processors Education Program (MilkPEP) began an ad campaign
featuring milk be-mustached celebrities like Cindy Crawford, Danny
DeVito, Patrick Ewing, and Ivana Trump with the tag line "Milk: Where's
your mustache?" The campaign has not only been wildly popular, it has
been successful as well—not only did it stop the decline, milk
consumption actually increased. The campaign is still running. Although
initially the target market was women in their twenties, the campaign
has been expanded to other target markets and has gained cult status
with teens, much to their parents' delight. Teens collect the print ads
featuring celebrities ranging from music stars Hanson and LeAnn Rimes,
supermodel Tyra Banks, Kermit the Frog, and Garfield to sports idols
such as Mark McGwire, Jeff Gordon, Pete Sampras, Mia Hamm, and Venus
and Serena Williams. Building on this popularity with teens, the
industry also promotes milk to them through grass-roots marketing
efforts. It recently sponsored a traveling promotion event featuring a
28-foot truck that turns into a backdrop that looks like Manhattan's
Times Square. Once recruited, teens can listen to music and do a
15-second "audition" on an artificial set of MTV's "Total Request
Live." They can also enter a contest to make an appearance in Rolling Stone
magazine with a milk mustache of their own. While there, teens are
encouraged to drink milk rather than soda. Each is invited to sign a
pledge to reduce the national "calcium debt."26Comments by Dr. Laukamm
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We
can now appreciate the many forces acting on consumer behavior. The
consumer's choice results from the complex interplay of cultural,
social, personal, and psychological factors.
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