Chapter 1
Buying, Having, and Being: An Introduction
to Consumer Behavior
Question
• What have you bought recently?
• Why did you buy that thing?
• If you make the decision again, would you still buy
that thing?
What Is Consumer Behavior?
• It is the study of the processes involved when individuals
or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products,
services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and
desires.
• A consumer is a person who identifies a need or desire,
makes a purchase, and then disposes of the product
during the three stages of the consumption process.
THE CONSUMPTION PROCESS
MARKET SEGMENTATION
Common types:
• Demographic segmentation (age, gender, family
structure, race, social class and income)
• Geographic segmentation
• Psychographic segmentation (psychological and
lifestyle characteristics)
• Behavioral segmentation (relationship marketing
and database marketing)
MARKET SEGMENTATION (cont.)
• Homogeneous (no segmentation)
• A single variable segmentation scheme
• A multivariate segmentation scheme
MARKETING’S IMPACT ON CONSUMERS
• Popular culture (the music, movies, sports, books,
celebrities, and other forms of entertainment)
• Marketers play a significant role in our view of the world
and how we live in it.
• Role theory
MOTIVATION TO CONSUME
• People often buy products not for what they do, but for
what they mean: this principle does not imply that a
product’s basic function is unimportant, but rather that
the roles products play in our lives extend well beyond
the tasks they perform.
• Why do you choose a [specific product] among tons of
alternatives out there?
Need: something a person must have to live or
achieve a goal
Want: a specific manifestation of a need that
personal and cultural factors determine
VIRTUAL WORLDS
• The cyberspace explosion has created a revolution in
consumer-to-consumer activity (C2C e-commerce)
• Information flow
• Social media (the online means of communication,
conveyance, collaboration, and cultivation among
interconnected and interdependent networks of people,
communities, and organizations enhanced by
technological capabilities and mobility)
• Synchronous interactions vs. asynchronous interactions
VIRTUAL WORLDS (cont.)
• Enable:
• A culture of participation;
• A belief in democracy;
• The ability to freely interact with other people,
companies, and organizations;
• Open access to venues that allow users to share
content from simple comments to reviews, ratings,
photos, stories, and more;
• The power to build on the content of others from your
own unique point of view.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR COURSE
Section 1:
Introduction to consumer behavior
The consequences of consumers’
decisions for the environment and
themselves
Section 2:
Internal factors, how they learn about
products and services and then use this
information to decide how they feel
about the products and themselves
Section 3:
How they choose products and services
from a field of competitors and how
they decide to purchase, use and even
dispose of these products
Section 4:
External influences on these decisions