Consumer Behavior in Action

Real-life Applications for Marketing Managers

Geoffrey Paul Lantos

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317473831
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Consumer Behavior in Action is a down-to-earth, highly engaging, and thorough introduction to consumer behavior. It goes further than other consumer behavior textbooks to generate student interest and activity through extensive use of in-class and written applications exercises. Each chapter presents several exercises, in self-contained units, each with its own applications. Learning objectives, background, and context are provided in an easy-to-digest format with liberal use of lists and bullet points. Also included in each chapter are a key concepts list, review questions, and a solid summary to help initiate further student research.

The author's practical focus and clear, conversational writing style, combined with an active-learning approach, make this textbook the student-friendly choice for courses on consumer behavior.

PART

I

INTRODUCTION TO CONSUMER BEHAVIOR AND MARKETING MANAGEMENT

CCONSUMER BEHAVIOR OVERVIEW

Chapter 1 provides a bird’s-eye view of the field of consumer behavior (CB). Exercise 1.1 reviews the fundamental types of consumer needs and wants that marketers strive to satisfy in accordance with the marketing concept. Exercise 1.2 discusses different marketing management philosophies that vary in the degree to which the marketer satisfies consumer wants and needs. Exercise 1.3 takes a sweeping look at the numerous influences on CB. Exercise 1.4 reviews some of the traditional theories of human motivation underlying CB.

MARKET SEGMENTATION

Chapter 2 summarizes some of the basics of market segmentation, a concept that is fundamental to understanding CB and marketing management. Exercise 2.1 provides a hands-on approach to mastering market segmentation strategies, which are used to select target markets. Exercise 2.2 discusses brand positioning, a means of differentiating the marketer’s brand from competitors for the targeted market. Exercise 2.3 covers benefit segmentation, a technique that both segments a market and positions a product within that market.

HOW THE EXERCISES WORK

As noted in the Preface, there are ten types of applications in this book. Each exercise begins with Objectives. Then, the Background section provides essential information to enable you to do the applications assignments.

LEARNING BY DOING

Throughout this book, we want you to learn by doing, not just by remembering the theories. Each exercise is designed to help you become familiar with a basic principle of CB, not just in theory but also in practice.

Throughout, you will see that we believe that the best way to learn about CB is by putting it into action. The study of CB is dynamic: You are always rolling up your sleeves and trying to figure out the ever-changing marketplace. Every marketing problem is a new challenge as well as an opportunity, and every marketing solution creates new problems.

So let’s learn. And let’s put that learning to work!

CHAPTER

1

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR OVERVIEW

This first chapter covers some basics and sets the scene for the study of consumer behavior (CB). Exercise 1.1 begins by discussing the different types of wants and needs that marketers identify and satisfy via their products, which are tangible goods, intangible services, ideas, or anything else that can satisfy customers’ needs or desires. There are two types of needs: utilitarian needs (also known as functional or instrumental needs) and hedonic needs (experiential needs). Each type is satisfied by a distinct marketing strategy.

ORGANIZATION OF CHAPTER ONE

Exercise 1.2 introduces various philosophies of marketing management. Some marketing philosophies focus on customer needs and wants while others focus on the interests of the organization or society. The marketing management philosophy determines the nature of the consumer marketing strategy.

Exercise 1.3 previews the rest of the textbook by observing the multiple influences on CB, each of which is later discussed in more detail. These include:

1. Elements of the decision-making process

2. Sociocultural influences

3. Individual psychological influences

Exercise 1.4 investigates some traditional theories of CB. These are most likely to be held by marketing executives who borrow ideas from fields of social (behavioral) science, such as economics, psychology, and sociology.

EXERCISE 1.1. TYPES OF NEEDS AND WANTS

OBJECTIVES

1. To show that CB is usually a form of problem solving.

2. To demonstrate that sometimes CB involves not problem solving but rather creating desired feelings and experiences.

3. To illustrate the two basic types of needs and wants that products satisfy—utilitarian needs and hedonic needs—and how marketers appeal to each in their marketing communications.

4. To help you recognize how ads appeal to these two categories of needs and wants.

BACKGROUND

MARKETING AND TWO KINDS OF CUSTOMERS

Marketing is the business function that identifies and anticipates customers’ needs and wants, creates products to satisfy those needs and wants, and then delivers the products through various techniques of pricing, distribution, and promotion. The essence of marketing is the satisfaction of human needs and wants through the exchange of values between a buyer (customer) and a seller (marketer).

Marketing’s task is to serve customers efficiently (getting more accomplished while using fewer resources) and effectively (so as to produce the best effects for both buyer and seller) as a means to the organization’s end of earning money for its owners. Marketing is like playing tennis—those who do not serve well lose!

The served customers are of two general types and are from two different markets: (1) business markets, and (2) consumer markets. Business (business-to-business, B2C, organizational) customers are those who buy on behalf of a business organization. Business buyers acquire goods and services that enter into the production of other goods and services that facilitate an organization’s operation or that can be resold.

The second type of customer market is consumers—people who purchase or use products to satisfy their own or other people’s personal needs and wants or to solve their marketplace problems. Whereas consumers buy for someone’s ultimate consumption, business buyers purchase in an organizational context. Consumer customers reside in the living room or den, not in the boardroom or office.

Organizational buyers are human beings too. They are subject to emotions; need for status and risk aversion; and other personal factors discussed throughout this book. So, much of what you will learn about CB applies in a business-buying context as well.

CB AS PROBLEM SOLVING AND SATISFACTION OF NEEDS AND WANTS

Traditionally, CB is viewed as a problem-solving process. Products are purchased and consumed as solutions to consumer problems caused by unsatisfied needs and wants. Google, eBay, and Swiffer all filled unmet desires for unlimited information, infinite product choice, and really fast housecleaning, respectively.

What the customer considers of value and buys is not merely a product, it is a utility—the product satisfies needs or provides solutions to problems. The most basic issue of marketing is how best to satisfy customers’ needs and wants. Needs are states of felt deprivation of essential physiological requirements for optimal life conditions. Being mandatory, needs are satisfied by necessities (e.g., clothing, shelter, and rest). Wants are the forms that human needs take as determined by...