(website:http://online.sfsu.edu/~fho/CH03-R.ppt.com)
Many of our experiences are locked inside our heads and may surface years later if prompted by the right cues. Marketers rely on consumers to retain from their memory information they have learned about products and services, trusting that it will later be applied in situations in which purchase decisions must be made.
The first stage is the search and evaluation of information, where consumers survey their environment for appropriate data to make a reasonable decision. At this stage consumers try to recall products/services, which they believe, would match their demands. As a result of prior experience and simply living in a consumer culture, each of us often have some degree of knowledge already in memory about many products. Various relative advertisements or opinions from
friends, family, or just plain people on certain brand names will influence the consumer’s search. Repetition is a significant factor applied with advertisements which unconsciously but significantly affects the consumer. During search, people carefully integrate as much information as possible with what they already know about a product, weighing the pluses and minuses of each alternative.
Once the relevant options have been assembled and evaluated, the consumer must choose amongst the available alternatives. But again learning and memory plays an important role here since consumers have been “brainwashed” by plenty of different advertisements that they store in their memories. Advertising is a form of classical conditioning, which is a fundamental form of learning. For example, many beer advertisements prominently feature attractive young women wearing bikinis. The young women (Unconditioned Stimulus) naturally elicit a favourable, mildly aroused feeling (Unconditioned Response) in most men. The beer is simply associated with this effect. This is a very successful way for marketers to draw the consumer’s attention. What we think we know about products can be influenced by advertising messages to which we are exposed after using them. Advertising can make a remembered product experience more favourable than it actually was. During the decision-making process, internal memory is combined with external memory, which includes all of the product
details on packages, in shopping lists, and other marketing stimuli, to permit brand alternatives to be identified and evaluated. Learning also influences the likelihood that the same choice will be made the next time the need for a similar decision occurs. Behaviours are reinforced, positively or negatively, by resultant satisfaction (punishment) that leads to learning. Such kind of learning is a form of operant conditioning. For example, marketers put sales and special offers on products in order to encourage people to buy. On the package of Kellogg’s you can observe the phrase; “Here’s your chance to win the holiday of your choice with Kellogg’s Special K”. In many situations, the consumer’s decision is a learned response to environmental signs or even a routinised decision where consumers act with very little conscious. So managers in this case concentrate on assessing the characteristics of the environment, such as the design of retail outlet or whether the package is enticing.
Following is the stage where the consumer decides whether to make the purchase or not, when to buy the product, where to make the purchase, how to pay. If the consumer decides to purchase the product he/she must choose one retailer over another retailer, or some other form of retailing such as catalogs, electronic sales with the aid of TV or PC, or direct sales. Learning and memory at this point will help the consumer make such a decision since he/she will recall,
from prior experiences or perhaps from external information, the location of the store, customer service provided, store cleanliness, price, value, any deals or sale offers available, facilities offered in the store and generally the store environment. Consequently, marketers manipulate the design of the building, interior space, layout of aisles, texture of carpets and walls, scents, colours, shapes and sounds experienced by customers to achieve a certain effect.
The last stage of the consumer cycle is post purchase behaviour and disposal. When a consumer decides that a product is no longer of use, several choices are available. The person can keep the item, temporarily dispose of it, or permanently dispose of it. The issue of product disposal is vital because of its enormous public policy implications. The growing environmental awareness has made recycling and lateral cycling more stressed options. Consumers use learning and memory at this stage in order to recall or discover any consequences from disposal of the potential purchase decision. Management marketers should bear in mind that people are aware of the environmental issues and prefer purchasing products which do not negatively effect the environment with their use or disposal. It is vital for marketing managers to analyse the level of environmental awareness regarding the consumption of products as well as the disposal of post-consumption items. Consumer associations as well as
governmental authorities can use this information to develop the legal structure for post consumption and protection of the environment.
Following I would like to highlight the implications perception brings on the consumer’s behaviour and consequently on the decision making process.
“Perception is the process by which sensations are selected, organised and interpreted to form a meaningful picture of the world. It concerns the observation of the surroundings of people and objects, of sounds, smells, movements and colours” (Antonides and Raaij 1998:112).
The taste of Kellogg’s cornflakes, the sight of a Volvo car ad, the sound of a Madonna song, the smell of “Glamorous” perfume, the feeling of a Dior cashmere sweater, the taste of a Mc Donald’s burger… We live in a world overflowing with sensations. Marketers certainly take advantage of this. Consumers are never far from advertisements, product packages, radio and television commercials all clamouring for our attention.
The three stages of perception are; Selective attention where people perceive only a subset of the information to which they are exposed, selective distortion where consumers tend to interpret information to support their existing beliefs and attitudes, and selective retention that occurs when consumers only retain part of the information they have selectively perceived. Since selective exposure,
distortion, and retention filter marketer’s messages, consumers spend relatively little time and effort in processing advertisements. As a result, marketers must work very hard to attract the consumer’s attention and they do this by using flashing phrases and logos, rapid scene changes, pulsating music and sounds, and embedded symbols in print advertisements.
Whilst searching and evaluating information on a certain product, consumers can judge situations, shops, products, brands and advertisements with vision. They observe the product colour, size and styling. Marketers rely heavily on visual elements in advertising, store design and packaging. Many companies realise that their colour choices can exert a big influence on consumer’s assumptions about what is inside the package. Auditory perception is also of importance regarding radio and broadcast messages. Background music affects consumer judgement of shops and products and thus buying behaviour. Advertising jingles
maintain brand awareness and create desired moods. In a supermarket store, study found that sales increased by 38 percent when slower music was played (http://prenhall.com/mowen). The slight fragrancing of certain products can make them more attractive to consumers with the help of olfactory perception. Odours can invoke memories or relieve stress. In supermarkets, a manufactured smell of freshly baked bread may stimulate appetites and thus increase food buying activities (Solomon 2002). Tactile observation is of major importance
during the search and decision making process. Think how you understand if a fruit is fresh or ripe, if a coat is soft and comfortable, if a soft drink is cool enough to relief your thirst. People associate the texture of fabrics and other surfaces with product qualities, and marketers are exploring how touch can be used in packaging to arouse consumer interest. Our taste receptors obviously contribute to our experience of many products. Overall one could say that most information a consumer seeks during the first stage of the consumption cycle may be found with the help of his/her senses, which are essential to consumer perception.
Marketing communication and other forms of promotional communication aim at developing a positive network of associations (schemas) about a brand or company name. Schemas facilitate information processing and when they influence the perception of incoming information they are called frames.
Following is the well-known Muller-Lyer illusion that illustrates the working of frames.
Something about the arrowheads are distorting our perception and make us believe that the bottom line is larger than the top one.
Marketers continually make use of frames for effective influence on impressions consumers have concerning products. The unique sensory quality of a product can play an important role in helping it stand out from the competition, especially if the brand creates a unique association with the sensation. Consumers use products to express their social identities, so symbols, signs and objects are important to understanding consumer behaviour. For example, Marlboro
cigarettes (object) use a cowboy as a sign and consumers interpret the meaning as a rough American (Solomon 2002:63). This is a way for marketers to communicate with the consumer by creating a relationship between their products and desired traits and thus effecting their decisions with great success.
Going on to the stage of purchase, I would like to emphasise on the point-of-purchase advertising displays (P-O-P) which are sales promotions directed to the trade market. According to studies, 68 percent of items bought during major shopping trips and 54 percent on smaller trips are unplanned (R.Blackwell, P.Miniard and J. Engel 2001:128). Such impulse sales can be prompted by POP displays. Anything that a consumer is exposed to at the point of purchase can perform an important communications function. A variety of P-O-P materials, signs, displays, and various in-store media, are used to attract the consumer’s attention to particular products and brands, provide information, affect perceptions and ultimately influence shopping behaviour.
Since marketing is all about responding to the needs of consumers, it is therefore logical that understanding those consumers is of crucial and fundamental importance. Manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and distributors of goods and services need to be aware of the market trends and the influences on consumer behaviour, with a view to developing appropriate marketing strategies and segmenting markets accordingly. Information is important to them in order to channel their marketing efforts and to avoid wasting precious marketing resources. Marketing managers should accentuate on the internal dynamics of consumers. Since “no man is an island”, each person is to some degree a self-contained receptor for information about the outside world. Numerous studies have shown that memory, learning, and perception spring major impacts on the consumption process. Thus marketing managers should appreciate these factors and act accordingly in order to translate and predict consumer behaviour and successfully reach the goals of the business.
REFERENCES
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J. Paul Peter, Jerry C. Olson & Klaous G. Grunert (1999), Consumer Behaviour And Marketing Strategy: European Edition, McGraw Hill, London.
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M.R.Solomon, G. Bamossy & S. Askegaard (1998), Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspectve, Prentice Hall, London.
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David A., Statt (1997), Understanding The Consumer: A Psychological Approach, MacMillan, London.
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J.F.Engel, R.D. Blackwell & P.W.Miniard (1995), Consumer Behaviour, 8th Edition, Dryden Press, Part III.
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S.J.Hock & J.Deighton (1998), Managing What Consumers Learn from Experience, Journal of Marketing, 53, pp 1-20.
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J.R.Bettman (1979), Memory Factors in Consumer Choice: A Review, Journal of Marketing, 53, pp 1-20.
INTERNET SOURCES
- website:http://terra.uow.edu.au/mark/mark101.com
- website:file:///C:/WINDOWS/Local%20Settings/Temporary%20internet%20Files/content.LES/HIMBIVEC/288,10Perception.com
- website:http://online.sfsu.edu/~fho/CH03-R.ppt.com
- www.consumerbehavior.com
