The Routledge Companion to Consumer Behavior Analysis

Gordon Foxall, Gordon R. Foxall, Gordon Foxall, Gordon R. Foxall

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780415729925
• eBook ISBN: 9781317913450
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Advertising
• Index: Business

The Routledge Companion to Consumer Behavior Analysis provides a unique and eclectic combination of behavioral, cognitive and environmental perspectives to illuminate the real-world complexities of consumer choice in a marketing-oriented economy. Edited by a leading authority in the field, the contributing authors have created a unique anthology for understanding consumer preference by bringing together the very latest research and thinking in consumer behavior analysis.

This comprehensive and innovative volume ranges over a broad multi-disciplinary perspective from economic psychology, behavioral psychology and experimental economics, but its chief focus is on the critical evaluation of consumer choice in the natural settings of affluent, marketing-oriented economies. By focussing on human economic and social choices, which involve social exchange, it explores and reveals the enormous potential of consumer behavior analysis to illuminate the role of modern marketing-oriented business organizations in shaping and responding to consumer choice.

This will be of particular interest to academics, researchers and advanced students in marketing, consumer behavior, behavior analysis, social psychology, behavioral economics and behavioral psychology.

Part I

Introduction

1

Consumer behavior analysis comes of age

Gordon R. Foxall

Consumer behavior analysis

Consumer behavior analysis combines behavioral psychology, behavioral economics, and marketing science to increase understanding of the behavior of consumers. Its principal focus has until now been on consumer behavior in affluent, marketing-oriented economies but there is no inherent reason why it should not concern itself with the study of consumption in any context. It has also tended toward the analysis of human economic behavior in natural settings, though this is far from inimical to experimental analyses which are in fact essential to the evaluation of the approach. In this chapter, I should like to introduce the research program that stems from consumer behavior analysis, describe its central model, and discuss its evaluation through empirical research, and the applications and interpretations to which it has led.

A primary objective of the Consumer Behavior Analysis Research Program (Foxall, 2001, 2002) has been to ascertain the contribution that behavioral psychology, also known as behavior analysis, behaviorology, and radical behaviorism, can make to the study of consumer choice (Foxall, 1994, 1998). A second objective, equally important, has been to discover the “bounds of behaviorism” as a means of explicating consumer choice, the point, if any, at which a behaviorist explanation breaks down, and therefore the point at which we have to resort to intentional, including cognitive, explanation. The first endeavor in either case has been the development of a behaviorist model of consumer choice and its testing, to destruction if necessary, in the process of defining and determining the role of behaviorism in making consumer choice more intelligible. The second of these objectives, the development of an intentional model of consumer choice, has been the subject of other works (Foxall, 2004, 2007a, in preparation). It is the first stage in the research program, the generation and evaluation of the Behavioral Perspective Model of consumer choice (BPM; Foxall, 1990/2004), with which this volume is predominantly concerned.

The current chapter presents the behaviorist depiction of consumer choice, the BPM, that is the primary vehicle for the intellectual inquiry I have briefly described, and describes the scope of the research that has been concerned to test it and to establish the behaviorist explanation of consumer choice. In addition, the chapter introduces the chapters that follow, which provide state-of-the-art discussions of the most recent research. This research has two interconnected strands: behavioral-economic investigations of consumer choice, and interpretive analyses of complex consumer behavior that is not directly amenable to experimental or correlational research. While some of the chapters involve both facets of the research program, Parts II and III of the volume comprise contributions that, for the most part, deal respectively with these themes.

The Behavioral Perspective Model

Consumer behavior is influenced by both the economic and technical properties of goods on one hand and the social meaning of acquiring, owning, and using them on the other. People drive cars to get around and to be seen getting around, wear clothes for protection from the elements and to signal to everyone how well they are doing as earners and consumers, adorn themselves with jewelry not only to impress their fellows or fit in with social expectations but also to raise or confirm their own self-esteem. To the extent that consumption is influenced by consequences such as these, it is operant; to the extent that it reflects both the functional and the social, it is under the influence of a complex of utilitarian and informational reinforcers. Businesses meet these consumer wants by offering marketing mixes that stress product attributes of both kinds, advertising and distribution channels that complement and enhance them, and price levels that are consonant with both the technical-economic purposes and the social-psychological meanings that the resulting brands address. Both sources of reinforcement must be included in a behavior-analytic model of consumer choice. So must the punishing consequences associated with each, for every economic transaction meets with aversive outcomes as well as those that reward. These consequential causes of behavior are depicted on the right-hand side of the BPM (Figure 1.1).

The BPM is essentially an elaboration of the “three-term contingency” that is the basic explanatory device of operant behaviorism:

S^D → R → S^r

in which a discriminative stimulus, S^D, is an element of the environment in the presence of which a response, R, has been rewarded by the appearance of another environmental element, S^r, which because of its “strengthening” effect on the behavior is known as a reinforcer.

Behavior setting scope

The consumer behavior setting comprises the stimuli that set the occasion for these causal consequences should particular acts of purchase and consumption be enacted. The consumer behavior setting is composed of stimuli that signal the outcomes of behavior – the availability of particular brands, for instance, within a supermarket – and stimuli that motivate the behavior – say, a point-of-sale advertisement that emphasizes the unique taste or value-for-money that buying the item will generate. The stimuli that compose the consumer behavior setting are, first, discriminative stimuli, elements of the environment in the presence of which the individual discriminates behaviorally by performing only those behaviors that have been previously reinforced in similar circumstances; and, second, motivating operations, aspects of the environment that enhance the value of a reinforcer. For instance, while the wording of an advertisement for a washing powder that promises “Our brand produces whiter clothes!” may be a discriminative stimulus for buying this product, the accompanying picture of a child wearing pristine, clean clothes might enhance the efficacy of the reinforcer if this symbol has previously been associated with sound parenting: i.e., it acts as a motivating operation (Fagerstrøm et al., 2010).

Figure 1.1 Summative Behavioral Perspective Model

Note that the essence of the model is the consumer situation → consumer behavior link. At the initiation of any particular instance of consumer behavior the only relevant behavioral consequences (reinforcement and punishment) are those that have occurred in the past when similar behaviors were enacted within similar situations. These are now embedded in the consumer’s learning history and the consumer behavior setting (comprising discriminative stimuli and motivating operations), the interaction of which comprises the consumer situation

Motivating operations are, like discriminative stimuli, pre-behavioral stimuli under the control of which behavior may fall: specifically, a motivating operation enhances the relationship between a response and its reinforcing consequences (Michael, 1993). Motivating operations have been discussed in the literature of consumer behavior analysis by Fagerstrøm, (2010; see also Fagerstrøm et al., 2010; Fagerstrøm et al., 2011). Sigurdsson et al. (2013) integrate motivating operations with utilitarian and informational reinforcement in an examination of the appropriateness of the BPM to managerial decision-making in e-mail marketing. The addition of this source of stimulation expands the three-term to the four-term (and, indeed, the n-term) contingency (Sidman, 1994).

The scope of the consumer behavior setting is of prime importance in gauging its likely influence on consumer choice (Schwarz & Lacey, 1988). Relatively open settings permit a wider range of behaviors to be enacted – they offer more choices – than relatively closed settings in which just one or a few behaviors are possible. Consumer behavior settings can be described on a continuum from relatively open to relatively closed. This conceptualization is especially relevant to the study of consumer behavior, and particularly, retail research. Generally, though not inevitably, in the relatively closed setting, persons other than the consumer arrange the discriminative stimuli that compose the setting in a way that compels conformity to the desired behavior. The open setting, however, is marked by a relative absence of physical, social, and verbal pressures to conform to a pattern of activity that is determined by others (what ecological psychologists call a behavior program; see Schoggen, 1989); it is comparatively free of constraints on the consumer, who, thus, has an increased range of choices. He or she has some ability to determine personal rules for choosing among the products and brands on offer, which stores to visit, and so on. A typical open setting is represented by a departmental store in which the consumer can move from section to section, browsing here, considering there, making a purchase or leaving altogether to find another store, or even giving up on shopping and going home.

In contrast, extremely closed consumer behavior settings are exemplified by the dental surgery or the gymnasium where only one course of action is reinforced and removing oneself from the situation, while not impossible, is fraught with social and, ultimately, health-related costs. Less extreme but still distinctly closed for the consumer behavior context, a bank is usually a physically closed setting, arranged to encourage orderly queuing by customers and to discourage behavior that detracts from the efficient execution of transactions. Social and verbal elements also enter into the closed nature of the setting: the single-file line that leads to the teller window does not encourage conversation, at least not to the point where the business of the bank is likely to be delayed. Social and regulatory aspects of the consumer behavior setting are also apparent in less formal contexts such as having to purchase a birthday gift for a friend, which is closer to the center of the open-closed continuum. The setting is closed insofar as the consumer conforms to social rules that describe moral or material rewards for reciprocity or punishments for ignoring generosity in others, though it has facets of openness stemming from the capacity of friends to depart from social norms or even break the rules on occasion, not only without censure but with a strengthening of the relationship.

Consumer situation

Also on the left of the BPM shown in Figure 1.1 is the consumer’s learning history for this and similar products, what he or she has done in the past, and the reinforcing and punishing outcomes this has had. The learning history primes the discriminative stimuli (S^D) and motivating operations (MO) that make up the consumer behavior setting and evokes the behavior that will generate or avoid the consequences on offer.

The term “contingencies of reinforcement” refers to the setting in which behavior occurs, the behavior itself, the rewarding and punishing consequences of the behavior, plus the relationships among them. These determine the rate at which the behavior is performed, the basic datum of behavior analysis (Skinner, 1950, 1963): for now it is enough to note that rewards or reinforcing consequences have the effect of increasing the rate at which it occurs while punishers reduce it.

It is the consumer situation that results from the interaction of learning history and consumer behavior setting that is the immediate precursor of consumer behavior. The consumer situation induces or inhibits particular consumer behaviors depending on whether the consumer behavior analysis is relatively open or relatively closed. In this non-intentional construal of the BPM, the consumer situation thus amounts to the scope of the setting, i.e., its degree of openness or closedness, weighted by the individual’s consumption history, which directly impacts upon the probability that particular consumer behaviors will occur.

Patterns of reinforcement

The stimuli that comprise the consumer behavior setting and that enter into the consumer situation prompt the consumer to discriminate his or her behavior by purchasing or consuming certain products and services, marques, and brands rather than others. The behaviors performed are those that have been reinforced in the past, and the discriminative stimuli, motivating operations, and learning history that interact to form the consumer situation are associated with utilitarian or functional and informational or symbolic reinforcements that will result from current behaviors. These consequences of behavior, shown on the right-hand side of the model in Figure 1.1, may be positive or aversive, reinforcing or punishing in their effects on future consumer choice. Utilitarian reinforcers, which are mediated by the products themselves, are associated with the technical and operational qualities of the item bought and consumed. Informational reinforcers are socially mediated, however, and consist in performance feedback on the consumer behavior in question or other behaviors instrumental in making it possible. Almost any car will provide the utilitarian benefits of “getting from A to B.” But a Porsche usually delivers the performance feedback that comes from recognition of the owner’s occupational status, social position, and other sources of honor and prestige. Like other socially constructed, symbolic outcomes of behavior, informational reinforcers are relative to the values of the community: in a social system conscious of CO₂ emission or fossil fuel consumption, a prestige car might not confer the positive social feedback just assumed.

Figure 1.2 Patterns of reinforcement and operant classes of consumer behavior

Source: Foxall, G. R. (2010). Interpreting Consumer Choice: The Behavioral Perspective Model. New York: Routledge

Consumers acquire combinations of utilitarian and informational benefits in the course of buying and using products, represented as a pat...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Praise
• The Routledge Companion to Consumer Behavior Analysis
• Routledge Companions in Business, Management and Accounting
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• PART I Introduction
• PART II Behavioral Economics Meets Marketing Science
• PART III Behavioral Interpretation of Consumer Choice
• Index