Customer Behavior

19.09.2013

Objectives

Consumer Behaviour

• Enable us to comprehend the concepts and theories developed by social scientists to explain the complexity of human behaviour • Improve judgements about likely customer response to our marketing activities with a view to reducing product failure

Albert Caruana Ph.D.

Basis

• Originally economics ‘consumer as utility maximizer’ • Freudian psychology ‘consumer manipulated by subliminal messages’ • Pavlovian psychology ‘consumer conditioned by repetitive advertising’, • Psychophysics ‘consumer sensory thresholds sensitized by just noticeable differences’ • Cognitive psychology ‘consumer overwhelmed by information processing and risky decision making’ • Social psychology ‘consumer swayed by opinion leadership and social influence’, • Sociology ‘consumer immersed in social class and subcultures’ • Anthropology ‘consumer subject to folklore, ritual, myth, and symbolism’.

Decision Making

Input

Decision making

Output

Decision Making Process

Culture

• The way of life of a particular society

– pitfalls – unspoken languages

• Identifies opportunities for international marketing strategies

– e.g. Coke

• provides clues concerning pitfalls of positioning, distribution, etc.

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Sub-Culture

• Any grouping that has unifying characteristics • Age

– Mature customers - Woopies – Teenagers

Social Class

• Identifying with a particular social class is associated with differences in values and behaviour • Determinants

– Income – Education – Occupation * – Housing

• Gender • Region • Religion/ ethnic

Social Class (UK)

• • • • • • A: Professional/ Senior managerial B: Middle managers/ Executives C1: Junior managers/ Non-manual C2: Skilled manual D: Semi-skilled/ Unskilled manual E: Unemployed/ State dependents

Family

• Marketers are primarily interested in the family as a social group engaged in purchasing and consumption of products. • Family Life Cycle - recognition that...