BUSML 4201 Class Notes Chapter 1 Introduction o The study of consumer behavior has developed within the scientific discipline of marketing Marketing deals with the human exchange behavior where one person sells trades something o Consumer behavior The activities involved in purchasing and using goods and services Three different types of activities identified Physical Verbal Mental psychological So consumer behavior is like applied social psychology Marketing involved the exchange of value between two parties Why Study Consumer Behavior Give and take o Important for marketing to have an understanding of what makes consumers decide to buy certain products Should help us provide services more efficiently o Better manage commercial transactions and personal transactions Types of Behavior o Overt behavior o Verbal Behavior The actual physical behavior that people display Facial expressions gestures habits skills posture etc Requires some amount of energy so there must be some perceived reason motivation to engage in behavior Motivation expected benefits expected costs All word oriented communications Voice inflections vocabulary word choice syntax etc Distinction between verbal and overt behavior is important Difference between what people say and what people actually do is important o Actual correlation is quite low r 0 3 o Cognitive Behavior How people think Only by knowing WHY people act as they do can we predict how they will act next Cannot directly observe how person thinks feels Closest approximation is to ask Models of Behavior o Models are used to simplify a complex process idea o Earliest models of human behavior greatly influenced by myths superstitions and rituals Spirits gods and evil forces Ex Athena Aphrodite and Apollo Showed that human behavior was directed in some way by organized forces But low predictive ability o Next kind of models were based on philosophy Socrates Aristotle Plato Rules based on sacrifice for the group benefit Ten Commandments Limited scope The Scientific Method o Best to have a point of view that is completely objective Observer would need to have no vested interest in the results of the observed behavior BUT most people pay attention to behaviors that relate to their lives So we made the scientific method to help eliminate this bias o A similar test should obtain similar results o Five steps Examine existing knowledge Develop a testable hypothesis Collect objective observations Analyze data Draw conclusions and report findings Consumer Constituencies o Professional Consumer Constituencies Customers at work o External Consumer Constituencies End users Retailers Wholesalers People who use consumer the product service Stores or vendors who sell the service product Companies that sell the product service to the retailers Advertising Agencies Government Agencies Company that creates ads for end users Organizations that regulate or control important aspects of the marketing of the procut service Media TV radio newspapers websites etc o Internal Consumer Constituencies People who work in the same company as you and consumer your physical and verbal behaviors Supervisors Peers Subordinates Staff o Personal Consumer Constituencies People who consume your physical and verbal behavior outside of the workplace family and friends Important to your self concept o Key Account Any consumer constituency that determines a significant amount of the rewards or punishments you receive In professional supervisor End users that buy a lot of a product service Parents siblings spouse Chapter 2 Forces that influence human behavior are Internal factors and External factors o Internal feelings instincts memories and intentions o External physical surroundings other people and scarce resources The Environment o Sub Environments Physical environment geography climate and scarce resources Economic environment specialization of labor productivity income distribution consumption Social environment social structure social dynamics social rules social influence Family environment behaviors in your family of origin Requirements for Survival o Nourishment Must replenish the energy supply to survive Plans to find subdue and digest protein o Protection When a threat to survival is encountered can do one of three things Do nothing Withdraw Counterattack o Reproduction o Considered the last resort action Instinctual Evaluations Your body must constantly reproduce new cells to perform the same function as the cells they replace Sexual reproduction Finding attracting and courting a mate o More complex higher forms of life usually have larger behavioral repertoires can choose from a larger number of available behaviors o Your internal behaviors and your external behaviors are controlled by your genetic programming DNA and the genetic code o Instincts Genetically determined response tendencies Human bodies and their overt actions are complex survival machines o Instincts are powerful motivators Instinctual instructions are accompanied by physiological impulses that exert strong pressures for their own satisfaction Compulsiveness o Instincts are non verbal o Instincts are fixed for life Models of Behavior o The Instinctual Model The Internal Model Overt behaviors based on genetic instruction and physiological stimulus response Primary perception using the five senses o The Cognitive Model Neocortex memory learned evaluations o The ability to acquire store and remember verbal symbols enables the individual to construct an internal symbolic model of the external environment Store associations with certain environments and act on demand o Help us predict future survival related events o Different people model the world quite differently Optimist VS pessimist o People almost always act in accordance with how their model of the world tells them they should Schedule of Reinforcement o Positive reinforcements Rewards are applied o Negative reinforcements Negatives are removed o Punishment Maladaptive Behaviors Application of disincentives or the removal of rewards o Instinctual Failure The individual s behavioral repertoire is missing important behaviors or contains approximations not close enough to be rewarded Faulty genetic code o Perceptual Failure Failure of the sensory apparatus to properly identify the environment obviously can generate maladaptive behavior Can come form genetic variations like deafness or blindness OR perceptual alteration o Learning Failure Cannot adapt properly