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    Consumer Behavior A Primer
    Consumer Behavior A Primer
    Consumer Behavior A Primer
    Ebook207 pages2 hours

    Consumer Behavior A Primer

    By Gail Tom

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    GOLD NUGGETS

    Take a jar, like a two-gallon pickle jar. First fill it to the top with gold nuggets. Then pour in as much gold dust as you can, filling up all the spaces between the gold nuggets. Now dump everything out of the jar and separate the gold nuggets and the gold dust into two separate piles. OK. Now, this time pour in all the gold dust first. Then put in all the gold nuggets. What happens is that the jar can no longer hold all the gold nuggets. It’s best to put in the gold nuggets first. They are the most important. Then fill in the gaps with gold dust (i.e. the finer points and details).

    This is the idea behind this book, Consumer Behavior – A Primer. It isn’t everything. It isn’t all-inclusive. It is just the gold nuggets. Once you have collected the gold nuggets, it is much easier to fill the gaps with gold dust. The jar holds so much more when you do it this way.

    ILLUSTRATIONS AND EXAMPLES

    Each chapter in this book is accompanied by illustrations that you will find on myYoutube channel. The book and illustrations are designed to complement, supplement and repeat each other. It doesn’t matter whether you start with the book or whether you start with the illustrations. Just pick a chapter or an illustration and start. Pick and choose whatever interests you. You might not be interested in everything. That’s OK. Just explore what you like. You might find that your interest exceeds what is presented. That’s OK too. You can fill in the “gold dust.”.... Let your interest be your guide.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGail Tom
    Release dateSep 1, 2011
    ISBN9781466069824
    Consumer Behavior A Primer

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      Book preview

      Consumer Behavior A Primer - Gail Tom

      Consumer Behavior:

      A Primer

      by

      Gail Tom

      *****

      PUBLISHED BY

      Gail Tom on Smashwords

      Consumer Behavior:

      A Primer

      Copyright 2011 by Gail Tom

      Cover design by Ryan Tom Tong

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      * * * * *

      To Ray, Dale and Alice

      * * * * *

      GOLD NUGGETS

      Take a jar, like a two-gallon pickle jar. First fill it to the top with gold nuggets. Then pour in as much gold dust as you can, filling up all the spaces between the gold nuggets. Now dump everything out of the jar and separate the gold nuggets and the gold dust into two separate piles. OK. Now, this time pour in all the gold dust first. Then put in all the gold nuggets. What happens is that the jar can no longer hold all the gold nuggets. It’s best to put in the gold nuggets first. They are the most important. Then fill in the gaps with gold dust (i.e. the finer points and details).

      This is the idea behind this book, Consumer Behavior – A Primer. It isn’t everything. It isn’t all-inclusive. It is just the gold nuggets. Once you have collected the gold nuggets, it is much easier to fill the gaps with gold dust. The jar holds so much more when you do it this way.

      ILLUSTRATIONS AND EXAMPLES

      Each chapter in this book is accompanied by illustrations that you will find on myYoutube channel. The book and illustrations are designed to complement, supplement and repeat each other. It doesn’t matter whether you start with the book or whether you start with the illustrations. Just pick a chapter or an illustration and start. Pick and choose whatever interests you. You might not be interested in everything. That’s OK. Just explore what you like. You might find that your interest exceeds what is presented. That’s OK too. You can fill in the gold dust..... Let your interest be your guide.

      * * * * *

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      1. Consumer Decision Making

      2. Understanding the Consumer is the Starting Point

      3. Perception

      4. Learning and Memory

      5. Motivation

      6. Personality, Self Concept, Lifestyle

      7. Attitude and Attitude Change

      8. Small Groups and Word of Mouth Communication

      9. Subculture

      10. Culture

      References

      About the author

      * * * * *

      CONSUMER DECISION MAKING

      RATIONAL, IRRATIONAL AND PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL ¹

      _________________________________________________________

      Making Sense of No Sense

      In the study of consumer behavior, one of the things we are interested in understanding is how people make decisions. This is no small order since you can’t see the decision making process. Consumer decision making is a complex and very interesting mix of the rational and. irrational, objective analysis and intuition. Here are a few examples.

      When presented with two glasses, a tall skinny one and a fat short one and asked which glass holds more liquid, most people will tell you that the tall skinny one holds more even though they both hold the same amounts of liquid. Even experienced bartenders will choose the tall skinny glass as holding more. ² So, perhaps consumers drink less or feel like they are getting more value if they are served their drinks in tall skinny glasses rather than short fat glasses?

      When people are given bigger servings, they eat more. Moviegoers given large (8.4 oz.) tubs of fourteen-day-old stale popcorn ate more (34%) than moviegoers served medium (4.2 oz) tubs of the same stale popcorn. The effect of the size of the container was even more pronounced when moviegoers were served fresh popcorn. Moviegoers given large size containers ate 45% more of the fresh popcorn than moviegoers given medium sized containers of fresh popcorn. ³

      How many M&M candies people eat from a candy bowl depends upon the size of the serving spoon. If the serving spoon is bigger people eat more than if the serving spoon is smaller. ⁴ And how many M&M candies people eat depends upon the variety of colors. People eat less M&Ms from a bowl of M&Ms of all the same color, say all brown M&Ms, than from a similar sized bowl of M&Ms of mixed colors. ⁵

      The subtle and inconsequential influence decisions.

      When consumers are presented with two identical irons –one white and one black - and asked to pick up and examine each one, and then select the one that weighs more, consumers tend to indicate that the black iron weighs more. Objectively, each iron weighs the same. But that hardly matters. Consumers will tire more quickly using the black iron. Using the light-colored iron makes ironing a less onerous task for consumers.

      People are shown three samples of pudding and asked to taste them. Then they answer a questionnaire asking them to choose the one that is highest quality, most chocolately, creamiest, and highest priced. They choose the one that is the darkest brown as the most chocolatey, highest quality and the one for which they would pay the most. They choose the lightest brown as the creamiest. But the thing is, these are not samples of chocolate pudding. They are vanilla pudding dyed various shades of brown. Even when people were told that this was vanilla pudding, they didn’t believe it! ⁶

      Why is a fifteen minute wait in line at Disneyland so much shorter than a fifteen minute wait in line at the department store? Fifteen minutes is not always fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes spent in a line that keeps moving seems much shorter than fifteen minutes spent in a line that doesn’t move. It’s not objective reality that matters. It’s the consumer’s experience that

      matters. ⁷

      Consumer reality is not always the same as objective reality

      Frames Are Not Just For Painting

      Your child comes home with her first oil painting. It is not a Rembrandt. You notice that the perspective is off and the colors are not quite right, but you are very proud of it and hang it on the wall. One day you decide that the painting could use a frame. So you and your daughter take the painting to a frame store to have it framed. You are floored by the price, having had no idea that frames cost so much. But your daughter is beaming. You relent and let her pick out the frame. Home again you hang the painting back on the wall. Instantly you are amazed.

      The painting looks so much better. The right frame, you realize, can make a big difference. Like paintings, marketing offers can benefit from framing. For example, what is the difference between these two signs?

      In the first sign, you receive a discount if you pay cash. You save 5 cents a gallon. In the second sign, you must pay 5 cents for the privilege of using credit. In the first case, credit is framed as the reference price. In the second case, cash is framed as the reference price. It’s better to inform customers that paying in cash will save them 2.5 percent than it is to inform them that using credit cards will cost them 2.5 percent more. Using the first sign is more advantageous for the retailer.

      The same reasoning is behind the decision to label hamburger as 80 percent lean rather than labeling the hamburger as 20 percent fat.⁸,⁹

      A department store was puzzled to find that that instituting an everyday low price strategy for its fine jewelry did not improve sales as expected. The old strategy of periodic sales was more effective. One explanation for the unexpected outcome is the framing of the offer. Consumers perceive buying products at everyday low prices as spending money and buying products on sales as saving money.

      In one study a group of shoppers were asked to compare these two signs and asked Under which circumstance would you be saving more? The majority of people chose the sales price situation. The majority of another group of shoppers who were asked Under which circumstance would you be spending more? selected the everyday low price situation. Objectively, shoppers would spend $45 in both the everyday low price and the sale price

      situations. But when they buy at a sales price of $45.00 from its regular price of $60.00, they felt like they saved $15.00. When they buy at the every-day low price of $45.00, they felt like they

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