Credit Sprint / Study guides / Marketing Unit 4

Credit Sprint's Guide to Marketing Unit 4: Consumer Behavior

Consumers buy for reasons that are partly rational and partly psychological and social. This unit covers the buyer decision process, involvement, psychological and social influences, and how new products spread through a population.

What you need to know

• The buyer decision process has five stages: problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and postpurchase behavior.
• Involvement varies. Routine problem solving (low involvement, cheap, frequent), limited problem solving, and extensive problem solving (high involvement, costly, risky, infrequent).
• Evoked (consideration) set: the few brands a buyer actually thinks about when making a choice, out of all the brands available.
• Cognitive dissonance is the doubt after a purchase. Firms reduce it with reassurance, guarantees and follow-up.
• Psychological factors: motivation (Maslow's hierarchy: physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, self-actualization), perception, learning, attitudes and personality or self-concept.
• Perception is selective: selective exposure, attention, comprehension and retention. People notice what fits their needs and beliefs. Subliminal advertising is not proven to work.
• Learning comes through classical conditioning (association), operant conditioning (reward and reinforcement) and cognitive learning. Attitudes are learned predispositions to respond favorably or unfavorably.
• Social factors: culture, subculture, social class, reference groups, opinion leaders, family roles and household life cycle. Reference groups can be membership, aspirational or dissociative.
• Situational factors include the purchase reason, time pressure, the physical setting, mood and the buying task.
• Diffusion of innovation: adopter categories are innovators (2.5%), early adopters (13.5%), early majority (34%), late majority (34%) and laggards (16%). Opinion leaders are common among early adopters.
• Product characteristics that speed adoption: relative advantage, compatibility, low complexity, trialability and observability.
• Brand loyalty is a strong, repeated preference for one brand. Impulse buying is unplanned and triggered in the store, often by displays.

Formulas and rules

Exam traps

Key terms

• Buyer decision process: Problem recognition, information search, evaluation, purchase, postpurchase.
• Evoked set: The brands a buyer actually considers when choosing.
• Extensive problem solving: High-involvement buying of costly, risky, infrequent products.
• Routine problem solving: Low-involvement buying of cheap, frequent items.
• Cognitive dissonance: Doubt after a purchase about whether the choice was right.
• Maslow's hierarchy: Needs ranked from physiological and safety to belonging, esteem and self-actualization.
• Selective exposure: Choosing which messages to pay attention to.
• Classical conditioning: Learning by association between a stimulus and a response.
• Operant conditioning: Learning through rewards and punishments.
• Attitude: A learned tendency to respond favorably or unfavorably to something.
• Reference group: People whose opinions and behavior influence an individual.
• Opinion leader: A person others look to for advice and information.
• Subculture: A group within a culture with its own shared values or traits.
• Social class: A ranking of people by income, occupation and education.
• Innovators: The first 2.5% of adopters of a new product.
• Early adopters: The next 13.5%; often opinion leaders.
• Early majority: The next 34% of adopters.
• Late majority: The following 34% of adopters; skeptical.
• Laggards: The last 16% of adopters.
• Brand loyalty: A strong, repeated preference for one brand.
• Impulse purchase: An unplanned buy, often triggered in the store.

Practice questions

Five of the 52 Unit 4 questions in Credit Sprint. Every choice is explained in the app.