CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

MODULE NO. 1

A.
Topic LEARNING OBJECTIVES
 Define consumer behavior and explain the
components that make up the definition

 Identify the domains of consumer behavior

Understanding that affect acquisition, usage, and
Consumer Behavior disposition decisions
 Discuss the benefits of studying consumer
behavior.

B. DISCUSSION

Defining Consumer Behavior

If you were asked to define consumer behavior, you might say it refers to the study of how a person
buys products. However, consumer behavior really involves quite a bit more, as this more complete
definition indicates:

Consumer behavior reflects the totality of consumers’ decisions with respect to the acquisition,
consumption, and disposition of goods, services, activities, experiences, people, and ideas by
(human) decision-making units (over time)

Consumer Behavior Involves Goods, Services, Activities,

Experiences, People, and Ideas
Consumer behavior means more than just the way that a person buys tangible products such as
bath soap and automobiles. It also includes consumers’ use of services, activities, experiences, and
ideas such as going to the dentist, attending a concert, taking a trip, and donating to UNICEF. In
addition, consumers make decisions about people, such as voting for politicians, reading books by
certain authors, seeing movies or TV shows starring certain actors, and attending concerts featuring
favorite bands. Another example of consumer behavior involves choices about the consumption of
time, a scarce resource. Will you check to see what’s happening on Facebook, search for a YouTube
video, watch a sports event live, or record a program and watch it later, for instance? How we use
time reflects who we are, what our lifestyles are like, and how we are both the same and different
from others. Because consumer behavior includes the consumption of so many things, we use the
simple term offering to encompass these entities.

Consumer Behavior Involves More than Buying

 Acquiring. Buying represents one type of acquisition behavior. As shown later in this module,
acquisition includes other ways of obtaining goods and services, such as renting, leasing, trading, and
sharing. It also involves decisions about time as well as money. For example, when consumers
experience a loss (i.e., make a purchase that does not work out well), they will perceive the time
period until the next purchase as being shorter (because they want to remove negative feeling).
 Using. After consumers acquire an offering, they use it, which is why usage is at the very core
of consumer behavior. Whether and why you use certain products can symbolize something about
who you are, what you value, and what you believe. The products you use on Christmas (e.g., making
desserts from scratch or buying them in a bakery) may symbolize the event’s significance and how
you feel about your guests. The music you enjoy (Lady Gaga or PaulMcCartney) and the jewelry you

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wear (earrings or engagement rings) can also symbolize who you are and how you feel. Moreover,
marketers must be sensitive to when consumers are likely to use a product, whether they find it
effective, whether they control their consumption of it, and how they react after using it—do they
spread positive or negative word-of-mouth reviews about a new film, for instance?
 Disposing. Disposition, how consumers get rid of an offering they have previously acquired,
can have important implications for marketers. Consumers can give away their used possessions, sell
them on eBay, or lend them to others. “Vintage” clothing stores now sell older clothes (disposed of by
the original owners) that buyers find stylish. Eco-minded consumers often seek out biodegradable
products made from recycled materials or choose goods that do not pollute when disposed of.
Municipalities are also interested in how to motivate earth-friendly disposition. Marketers
see profit opportunities in addressing disposition concerns.

Consumer Behavior Can Involve Many People

Consumer behavior does not necessarily reflect the action of a single individual. A group of
friends, a few coworkers, or an entire family may plan a birthday party or decide where to have
lunch, exchanging ideas in person, on the phone, via social media, or by e-mail or text message.
Moreover, the individuals engaging in consumer behavior can take on one or more roles. In the
case of a car purchase, for example, one or more family members might take on the role of
information gathered by researching different models. Others might assume the role of influencer and
try to affect the outcome of a decision. One or more members may take on the role of purchaser by
actually paying for the car, and some or all may be users. Finally, several family members may be
involved in the disposal of the car.

Consumer Behavior Involves Many Decisions

 Whether to Acquire/Use/Dispose of an Offering
Consumers must decide whether to acquire, use, or dispose of an offering. They may need to decide
whether to spend or save their money when they earn extra cash. How much they decide to spend may
be influenced by their perceptions of how much they recall spending in the past. They may need to
decide whether to order a pizza, clean out a closet, or download a movie. Some consumers collect
items, for example, a situation that has created a huge market for buying, selling, transporting, storing,
and insuring collectible items. Decisions about whether to acquire, use, or dispose of an offering are
often related to personal goals, safety concerns, or a desire to reduce economic, social, or
psychological risk.
 What Offering to Acquire/Use/Dispose Of
Consumers make decisions every day about what to buy. In some cases, you make choices among
product or service categories such as buying food versus downloading new music. In other cases, you
choose between brands such as whether to buy a Samsung or Apple. Your choices multiply
daily as marketers introduce new products, sizes, and packages.
 Why Acquire/Use/Dispose of an Offering
Consumption can occur for a number of reasons. Among the most important reasons, as you will
see later in the next discussions, are the ways in which an offering meets someone’s needs, values, or
goals.
 Why an Offering Is Not Acquired/Used/Disposed Of
Marketers also try to understand why consumers do not acquire, use, or dispose of an offering. For
example, consumers may delay buying a tablet computer because they believe that the
product will soon be outdated or that some firms will leave this market, leaving them without
after-sale support or service. At times, consumers who want to acquire or consume an offering
are unable to do so because what they want is unavailable.
 How to Acquire/Use/Dispose of an Offering
Marketers gain a lot of insight by understanding how consumers acquire, consume, and dispose of
an offering.

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 Eight Ways to Acquire an Offering
Acquisition Method Description
Buying Buying is a common acquisition method used
for many offerings.
Trading Consumers might receive a good or service as
part of a trade
Renting or Leasing Instead of buying, consumers rent or lease cars,
furniture, vacation
homes, and more.
Bartering Consumers (and businesses) can exchange
goods or services
without having money change hands.
Gift Each society has many gift-giving occasions as
well as informal
or formal rules dictating how gifts are to be
given, what is an
appropriate gift, and how to respond to a gift.
Finding Consumers sometimes find goods that others
have lost (hats left on a
bus) or thrown away.
Stealing Because various offerings can be acquired
through theft, marketers
have developed products to deter this
acquisition method, such as
alarms to deter car theft.
Sharing Another method of acquisition is by sharing or
borrowing. Some
types of “sharing” are illegal and border on
theft, as when
consumers copy and share movies.

Ways of Acquiring an Offering

How do consumers decide whether to acquire an offering in a store or mall, online, or at an auction?
How do they decide whether to pay with cash, a check, a debit card, a credit card, an electronic
system such as PayPal, or a “mobile wallet” payment app on their smartphones?
Ways of Using an Offering
In addition to understanding how consumers acquire an offering, marketers want to know how
consumers use an offering. For obvious reasons, marketers want to ensure that their offering is
used correctly. Improper usage of offerings like cough medicine or alcohol can create health and
safety problems. Because consumers may ignore label warnings and directions on potentially
dangerous products, marketers who want to make warnings more effective have to understand
how consumers process label information.
Ways of Disposing of an Offering
Sometimes nothing but the packaging remains of an offering (such as food) after it has been
consumed. This leaves only a decision about whether to recycle or not, and how. Consumers who
want to dispose of a tangible product have several options:
 Find a new use for it. Using an old toothbrush to clean rust from tools or making shorts out
of an old pair of jeans shows how consumers can continue using an item instead of disposing
of it.
 Get rid of it temporarily. Renting or lending an item is one way of getting rid of it
temporarily.
 Get rid of it permanently. Throwing away an item, sending it a recycling center, trading it,

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giving it away, or selling it are all ways to get rid of it permanently. However, some consumers refuse
to throw away things that they regard as special, even if the items no longer serve a
functional purpose.

 When to Acquire/Use/Dispose of an Offering

The timing of consumer behavior can depend on many factors, including our perceptions of
and attitudes toward time itself. Consumers may think in terms of whether it is “time for me” or
“time for others” and whether acquiring or using an offering is planned or spontaneous.

Consumer Behavior Involves Emotions and Coping

Consumer researchers have studied the powerful role that emotions play in consumer behavior.
Positive and negative emotions as well as specific emotions like hope, fear, regret, guilt,
embarrassment, and general moods can affect how consumers think, the choices they make,
how they feel after making a decision, what they remember, and how much they enjoy an experience.
Emotions like love sometimes describe how we feel about certain brands or possessions. Consumers
often use products to regulate their feelings—as when a scoop of ice cream seems
like a good antidote to a bad quiz score. Researchers have also studied how service employees’
emotions can affect consumers’ emotions outside of their awareness. And low-level emotions
can be very important in low-effort situations (e.g., the low-level feelings we get from viewing a
humorous ad).

What Affects Consumer Behavior?

The many factors that affect acquisition, usage, and disposition decisions can be classified into four
broad domains, (1) the psychological core, (2) the process of making decisions, (3) the consumer’s
culture, and (4) consumer behavior outcomes. For example, to make decisions that affect outcomes
like buying new products, consumers must first engage in processes described in the psychological
core. They need to be motivated, able, and have the opportunity to be exposed to, perceive, and attend
to information. They need to think about and comprehend this information, develop attitudes about it,
and form memories they can retrieve during the decision process. The cultural environment also
affects what motivates consumers, how they process information and the kinds of decisions they
make. Age, gender, social class, ethnicity, families, friends, and other factors affect consumer values
and lifestyles and, in turn, influence the decisions that consumers make and how and why they make
them.

The Psychological Core: Internal Consumer Processes

Before consumers can make decisions, they must have some source of knowledge or information
upon which to base their decisions. This source—the psychological core—covers motivation, ability,
and opportunity; exposure, attention, perception, and comprehension; memory and knowledge; and
attitudes about an offering

 Motivation, Ability, and Opportunity

Consider the case of a consumer named Jason who is deciding on a ski vacation. In Jason’s mind,
the vacation decision is risky because it will consume a lot of money and time, and he does not
want to make a bad choice. Therefore, Jason is motivated to learn as much as he can about various
vacation options, think about them, and imagine what they will be like. He has put other activities
aside to give himself the opportunity to learn and think about this vacation. Because Jason already
knows how to ski, he has the ability to determine what types of ski vacations he would find enjoyable.
Whether he focuses on concrete things (how much the trip will cost) or abstract things (how
much fun he will have) depends on how soon he plans to travel and how well the place he plans to
visit fits with his self-concept.

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  Exposure, Attention, Perception, and Comprehension
Because Jason is motivated to decide where to go on vacation and has both the ability and opportunity
to do so, he will make sure he is exposed to and attends to any information relevant to his decision.
He might look at travel ads and websites, read travel-related articles, check Twitter for special deals,
and talk with friends and travel agents. Jason will probably not attend to all vacation information;
however, he is likely to be exposed to information he will never consciously perceive or pay attention
to. He must identify what he has perceived is it an ad or something else? and then determine what
country or mountain resort is involved, all as part of the comprehension process. He might infer that
Kitzbühel, Austria, is a reasonably priced vacation destination because a website shows information
consistent with this interpretation, for example.
 Memory and Knowledge
Whether Jason can store what he learns about ski resorts in his memory and whether he can recall that
information later depends, in part, on his motivation, ability, and opportunity. As he learns something
new about ski resorts, he will organize that knowledge according to categories such as “places to stay
on aski vacation.” Jason will also associate each new piece of information with other concepts he
knows, such as “expensive” or“eco-friendly.” Note that Jason may store information in memory,
but his choices will be based only on the information that can be retrieved from memory—a key point
for marketers seeking to create strong brand images and develop memorable communications.
 Forming and Changing Attitudes
Jason is likely to form attitudes toward the vacations he has categorized and comprehended. He may
have a favorable attitude toward Kitzbühel because a website describes it as affordable, educational,
and fun. However, his attitudes might change as he encounters new information. Attitudes do not
always predict behavior. For example, although many of us have a positive attitude toward working
out, our attitude and our good intentions do not always culminate in a trip to the gym. For this reason,
attitudes and choices are considered as separate topics.

The Process of Making Decisions

The processes that are part of the psychological core are intimately tied to
the process of making decisions. This domain involves four stages: problem recognition, information
search, decision making, and post purchase evaluation.
 Problem Recognition and the Search for Information
Problem recognition occurs when we realize that we have an unfulfilled need. Jason realized that
he needed a vacation, for example. His subsequent search for information gave him insight into where
he might go, how much the vacation might cost, and when he might travel. He also examined his
financial situation. Elements of the psychological core are invoked in problem recognition and search
because once Jason realizes that he needs a vacation and begins his information search, he is exposed
to information, attends to and perceives it, categorizes and comprehends it, and forms attitudes and
memories.
 Making Judgments and Decisions
Jason’s decision is characterized as a high-effort decision, meaning that he is willing to invest a lot
of time and to exert mental and emotional energy in making it. He identifies several criteria that
will be important in making his choices: the trip should be fun and exciting, safe, educational, and
affordable. Not all decisions involve a lot of effort. Jason also faces low-effort decisions such as what
brand of toothpaste to take on the trip. Again, the psychological core is invoked in making decisions.
With a high-effort decision, Jason will be motivated to be exposed to lots of information, think about
it deeply, analyze it critically, and form attitudes about it. He may have lasting memories about this
information because he has thought about it so much. Consumers are not always aware of what they
are thinking and how they are making their choices, so Jason might not be able to explain what
affected his choices (background music in a travel agency might even be an influence). Yet the
emotions he thinks he will experience from different options (excitement, relaxation) may well
influence his ultimate choice. With a low-effort decision, such as what brand of toothpaste to buy, he

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would probably engage in less information search and process information less deeply, resulting in
less enduring attitudes and memories.
 Making Postdecision Evaluations
This step allows the consumer to judge, after the fact, whether the decision made was the correct one
and whether to purchase that offering again. When he returns from his vacation, Jason will probably
evaluate the outcome of his decisions. If his expectations were met and if the vacation was everything
he thought it would be, he will feel satisfied. If the vacation exceeded his expectations, he will be
delighted. If it fell short of them, he will be dissatisfied. Once again, aspects of the psychological core
are invoked in making postdecision evaluations. Jason may expose himself to information that
validates his experiences, he may update his attitudes, and he may selectively remember aspects of his
trip that were extremely positive or negative.

The Consumer’s Culture: External Processes

Why did Jason decide to go on a skiing trip in the first place? In large part, our consumption decisions
and how we process information are affected by our culture. Culture refers to the typical or expected
behaviors, norms, and ideas that characterize a group of people. It can be a powerful influence on all
aspects of human behavior. Jason had certain feelings, perceptions, and attitudes because of the
unique combination of groups to which he belongs and the influence they have on his values,
personality, and lifestyle.
 Reference Groups and Other Social Influences
When Jason sees groups of others he perceives as similar to himself, he regards them as reference
groups, people whose values he shares and whose opinions he respects. He might also want to
emulate the behavior of people whom he admires and to listen to the advice they offer through word
of mouth (in person, on Facebook, on Twitter, etc.). Athletes, musicians, or movie stars sometimes
serve as reference groups, influencing how we evaluate information and the choices we make.
Reference groups can also make us feel as if we should behave in a certain way. Jason may feel some
pressure to go to Kitzbühel because his friends think that doing so is cool.
 Diversity Influences
Jason is a member of many regional, ethnic, and religious groups that directly or indirectly affect the
decisions he makes. For example, although his decision to ski at a place far from home is fairly
typical for a North American man launched on his career, a consumer from a developing nation or a
single woman from a different culture may not have made the same choice. Also, his age, gender, and
educational background may all affect his impressions of what constitutes a good vacation,
accounting for his interest in a European ski trip.
 Household and Social Class Influences
Because Jason is a member of the upper middle class and lives with his parents, these household and
social class influences may affect his decision to go to a luxurious European ski resort with friends
rather than join his family at a rustic ski area near home.
 Values, Personality, and Lifestyles
The choices Jason makes are based, in part, on his beliefs, his personality, and his activities, interests,
and opinions. Thus, he may be attracted to a European ski trip because he wants a vacation that he
thinks will be exciting and out of the ordinary. He also anticipates that this vacation will test his
ability to manage on his own and give himself a sense of accomplishment.

REFERENCE: Hoyer, W. D., MacInnis, D. J., & Pieters, R. (2012). Consumer Behavior (6th
ed.). Cengage Learning.

Prepared by: RODEL P. LENON, MBA, LPT.

Instructor

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 Consumer Behavior
EVALUATION. 1

NAME: _____________________________________________
YR/SEC:_____________________________________________

How Unilever’s Brands Connect with Consumers

From soap to soup, Unilever markets a wide range of personal care products, foods, and household cleaners
under popular brands like Dove, Bertolli, Lipton, Lux, Axe, Sunsilk, Surf, and Omo. Two billion consumers buy its
products every day, adding up to annual revenue of $62 billion. The Anglo-Dutch company constantly conducts
research to learn more about what consumers want and need, identifying even seemingly small changes that
can make a big difference in the daily lives of people worldwide. One of the company’s most memorable
marketing initiatives has been Dove’s “Campaign for Real among its brand fans. For example, marketers recently
used the brand’s Facebook page (which has more than one million “likes”) to start a dialogue about getting
children to eat. Its Facebook fans responded with dozens of additional ideas, which Ragú’s ad agency turned into
helpful online videos that dish up tips with a sense of humor. Heavy use of social media is one way that Ragú
aims to create an emotional connection with its customers and understand their ever-changing needs and
interests. Campaigns combining Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and special websites have helped Unilever market
its food and personal care brands to highly targeted segments such as Latino families in the United States.
Unilever’s www.vivemejor.com, the Spanish-language website, and Facebook page provide brand-oriented
recipes, coupons, holiday ideas, household hints, and other information that Latino families can use. The
company also holds Disfruita la Pasión de la Vida events outside supermarkets to attract and engage Latino
consumers. In planning such events, the company turns to its Multicultural Consumer Marketing Insights
research team for guidance. Unilever is looking beyond immediate acquisition behavior to encourage healthy,
environmentally sustainable behavior all over the world. Through research, it has determined that the first step
is to help consumers understand why they should do something (such as wash with soap to prevent the spread
of disease). The next step is to show them how easy it is to take action (buy bars of soap and use them). Then,
they must make the new behavior desirable (washing can keep the family safe from germs). Next, it is important
Beauty.” Based on extensive consumer research into women’s attitudes and emotions, the campaign uses ads,
YouTube videos, special events, and other communications to counter beauty stereotypes and make the point
that real beauty is more than skin deep. By linking its soap brand to messages reinforcing positive selfesteem
for women of all ages, races, sizes, and shapes, Dove has won the admiration and loyalty of consumers in many
countries. Unilever’s Ragú food brand has been courting parents with Facebook and YouTube communications
that encourage ongoing conversations with marketers and to make consumers feel good about doing this action
(for themselves, their family, and society). Finally, find a way to continue the behavior over time (ask children to
wash before every meal). With these five steps, Unilever has convinced millions of consumers in developing
countries to adopt the healthy habit of washing their hands—promoting the company’s Lifebuoy soap brand at
the same time. Unilever also sells laundry products in developing nations where water is a scarce resource, yet
consumers are accustomed to rinsing clothes several times to get them clean. To address both consumer needs
and environmental issues, CEO Paul Polman explains “We’ve put products out in the market fabric softeners
that only need one rinse.” Even then, “consumers were still doing two or three rinses, so we had to be very
creative in educating them,” he says. Clearly, Unilever wants to build strong relationships with its customers by
making sure its brands are down-to-earth and “real.”118
Questions
1. How is Unilever applying its understanding of internal consumer processes in the psychological core to market
its products?
2. Which of the four external processes in the consumer’s culture do you think have been the most
important to the success of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty? Why?
3. Do you agree with Unilever’s decision to link its brands with efforts to encourage healthy and environmentally
sustainable behaviors? Explain your answer.