BUYER BEHAVIOUR

CHAPTER 2:

Situational influences can be defined as all those factors particular to a time and place of observation
— other than the consumer and the product— that have a demonstrable and systematic effect on
consumer behaviour.

4 main types of situations:

- Communication: The situation in which consumers receive information about goods and
services.
- Purchase: The situation in which product selection and purchase occurs
- Usage: The situation in which the purchased 8 good or service will be used (or consumed)
- Disposal: The situation in which the product and/or product packaging is discarded before or
after use
5 dimensions of situational influence:
- Physical surrounds: store locations, interior décor, music, smell, temperature choice
- Social surrounding: Types of customers in the sore, ques and crowding, high profile people,
consumed privately or in presence of others
- Temporal influences: Product is seasonal, urgently required. Time available, how long the
previous product lasted?
- Task influence: Product is utilitarian or used as status symbol, gifts or personal use, product
is long lasting and intended for several uses.
- Antecedent states: Moods, momentary conditions

CHAPTER 3: PROBLEM RECOGNITION

Problem recognition: The first stage in the consumer decision process, it must occur before decision
making can begin; it is the result of a discrepancy between a desired state and an actual state that is
sufficient to arouse and activate the decision process.

Purchase involvement: Involves resolving the difference between the situation consumers are in
(actual vs Desired state)
Lowest level of purchase involvement is represented by the habitual decision: a problem is
recognised, long-term memory provides a single preferred brand, that brand is purchased and only
limited post-purchase evaluation occurs
Limited decision making: Decision making that covers the middle ground between habitual decision
making and extended decision making; in its simplest form (lowest level of purchase involvement),
it is very similar to habitual decision making— for example, a consumer may select a product
without seeking information beyond internal memory that it ‘tastes good’; no other alternative may
be considered.
Extended decision making: The response to a very high level of purchase involvement; an extensive
internal and external information search is followed by a complex evaluation of multiple
alternatives; after the purchase, uncertainty about its correctness is likely, and a thorough evaluation
of the purchase will take place,
Desire to resolve recognised problems:
1. The magnitude of the discrepancy between the desired sate and the actual state
2. The relative importance of the problem
CHAPTER 4: INFORMATION SEARCH

Internal Search: Search of long-term memory to determine if

1.a satisfactory solution is known
2.what are types of potential solutions
3.ways to compare the possible solutions.
External Search: If a resolution is not reached through internal search, then the search process is
focused on relevant external information. Ongoing search is done to acquire information and
because the process is pleasurable.

Ongoing search: Searching without specific problem

Exploratory search: Explicit external information search after problem recognition is limited.

Consumers can seek information from four major types of external sources:
- Personal sources, such as friends and family.
- Independent sources, such as consumer groups and government departments.
- Marketing sources, such as sales personnel and advertising.
- Experiential sources, such as direct product inspection or trial.
- Memory sources: personal experience and low involvement learning.
Information search on the Internet: Economic considerations are a major motivator of online
search. Information overload is a challenge. Comparison shopping sites use Bots or shopping bots, to
help consumers in their search and decision-making.

- Awareness set: The set of alternatives the consumer is aware of

- Unawareness set: The set the consumer is not aware of
- Evoked Set: The set of alternatives the consumer is willing to actually use
- Inert Set: The set that the consumer has for backup
- Inept Set: The set of alternatives the consumer will not consider at all.

Market characteristics: Product characteristics:

It is the consumer’s perception of, or beliefs The product characteristics that tend to
about, the market characteristics that influence influence the extent of external information
their shopping behaviour, not the actual search undertaken are the
characteristics. - Price level
- Number of alternatives - The degree of product differentiation
- Price range - ‘Positivity’ of the product
- Store distribution
- Information availability

Consumer characteristics: Situational characteristics:

A variety costs, and of consumer therefore The situational variables that affect external
affect information search. 55 characteristics search behaviour are time availability (temporal
affect perceptions the consumer’s need to carry perspective), whether the purchase is for the
of out expected a particular benefits level and shopper or for someone else (task definition),
search of external and internal search how pleasant the physical surroundings are, the
- Learning & experience nature of the social surroundings, and the
- Shopping orientation physical and mental energy the consumer has
- Social status at the time (antecedent states)
- Demographics
 - Capture: When the brand is in the target market’s evoked set and consumers engage in
limited decision making; marketers need to provide information at the point of purchase,
- Preference: Target market is using extended decision making, to cause the target market to
select a brand already in their evoked set; a campaign is used that will result in the brand
being preferred by members of the target market.
- Disrupt: Promoting is not part of the target market’s evoked set and the target market
engages in habitual decision making; the first task of this strategy is to disrupt the existing
decision pattern
- Intercept: When promoting is not part of the evoked set of the target market, and the target
market is engaged only in limited decision making; the objective is to intercept the consumer
during their search for information on the brands in their evoked set,
- Acceptance: When the brand they are promoting is not part of the target market’s evoked
set and the target market engages in extended decision making; the marketer must attract
consumers’ attention, or otherwise motivate them to learn about the brand.

CHAPTER 5: EVALUATIVE CRITERIA

Evaluative criteria are the various features a consumer looks for in response to a particular problem.
They are the performance levels or characteristics that consumers use to compare different brands
in light of their particular consumption problem. The number, type and importance of evaluative
criteria used differ from consumer to consumer and across product categories.

A critical first step in utilising evaluative criteria to develop marketing strategy involves measuring:
1. which evaluative criteria are used by the consumer
2. the way the consumer perceives the various alternatives in terms of each criterion
3. the relative importance of each criterion.

DECISION RULES
Conjunctive Surpass a min level on EACH criterion (barista style coffee, cheap 7/11
Disjunctive Surpass a satisfactory level on ANY criteria (cheap coffee=Nescafe at uni
Elimination by aspect Rank criteria in terms of importance, determine the satisfactory level for
each. Begin with the most important attribute and eliminate brands that
do not meet satisfactory
Lexicographic Select brand that score the highest on the criteria
Compensatory Select the brand that provides the highest retail store when the
performance on said criteria are added together

Determining the relative important of evaluation criteria:

Indirect methods: Conjoint analysis: a technique that provides data on the structure of consumers’
preferences for product features and their willingness to trade one feature for more of another
USE OF SURROGATE INDICATORS
Consumers frequently use an observable attribute of a product to indicate the performance of the
product on a less observable attribute.
Reliance depends on:
- predictive value (performance on one allows inference for another attribute)
- confidence value (helps to distinguish brands on the surrogate indicator
Surrogate indicators:
- Price Used to judge the perceived quality of a large range of goods Also used as a surrogate
of value- Is Gucci that great if it only costs a few bucks?
- Brand Often used as a surrogate indicator of quality
- Country of origin Authenticity and perceptions of quality e.g. Made in China vs Made in
Germany
- Celebrity endorsement e.g. George Clooney knows his coffee!

CHAPTER 6: OUTLET SELECTION, PRODUCT PURCHASE & POST PURCHASE PROCESSES

Outlet choice VS Brand choice:
- Brand first, retail outlet second… e.g.(marketing around product features. Image)
- Retail outlet first, brand second… e.g.(store sale catalogue, sales-staff incentives
Attributes affecting retail outlet:
- Retail format: Low involvement e.g.: mass merchandisers
High involvement e.g.: speciality stores
- Outlet image: A consumers or target markets perception of all attributes associates with a
retail outlet
Attributes affecting retail outlet selection:
- Retail format: Low involvement e.g.: mass merchandisers
High involvement e.g.: speciality stores
- Outlet image: A consumers/target markets perception of all the attributes associated with a
retail outlet.
The major dimensions of store image include
Store brands: merchandise, service, clientele, physical facilities,
- Exclusive brands e.g. Lush convenience, promotion, and store atmosphere.
- Home brands e.g. Woolworths Outlet location is an important attribute for many
Retail advertising: consumers, with closer outlets being preferred over
- Especially price advertising more distant ones. Larger outlets are generally
- Size of discount preferred over smaller outlets. These variables have
- Reference/comparison may be used been used to develop retail gravitation models, which
- Words accompanying the price information can predict the market share of competing shopping
areas with reasonable accuracy.

Consumer characteristics and outlet choice:

- Shopping orientation:
- Perceived risk
- Financial risk
- Online has a risk because you can not see or touch an actual product
- Instore extended warranties
- Social risk
- Self-concept related
Nature of unplanned purchases
- Reminder purchases - Generally planned decisions
- Impulse purchases - Substitute decisions (functional alter)
- Specifically, planned decisions - Unplanned decisions (not in mind)
- In store decisions
POP Point of purchase
- Instore promotional device
- Designed to quickly communicate to get unplanned sales (special features/price discount)

CHAPTER 7: POST-PURCHASE PROCESSES, CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND CONSUMER LOYALTY

Purchase dissonance: Following some purchases, some consumers experience doubts or anxiety
about the wisdom of the purchase.
THIS WILL OCCUR:
 among individuals with a tendency to experience anxiety
 after an irrevocable purchase
 when the purchase was important to the consumer
 when the purchase involves a difficult choice between two or more alternatives.

Post-purchase dissonance: Doubt or regret about a purchase

Probability & Magnitude of dissonance is a function of the:
- degree of commitment and or whether the decision can be revoked
- Importance of the decision to the consumer
- Difficulty of choosing among the alternatives
- Individuals tendency to experience anxiety
Dissonance occurs because, when a person makes a relatively permanent commitment to a chosen
alternative, they also make the decision to give up the attractive features of the unchosen
alternatives. This is inconsistent with their desire for those features. Habitual decisions or those
requiring limited decision making will not produce post-purchase dissonance, since the consumer
will not consider any attractive features in an unchosen brand that do not also exist in the chosen
brand. For example, a consumer who has an evoked set of four brands of coffee might consider
them to be equivalent on all relevant attributes except price, and therefore will always purchase the
least-expensive brand. Such a purchase would not produce post-purchase dissonance.

Product use and non-use

Types of performance:
- Instrumental: The physical or functional performance of a product
- Symbolic: The symbolic, expressive, aesthetic or image-enhancement performance of a
product
- Affective: The emotional (affective) response that owning or using a product provides
Brand loyalty is:
- Biased - A consumer selects a brand over
- A behavioural response alternative brands
- Expressed overtime - Psychological process