Consumer Behavior(SOSK-508)

Needs, wants, value?

Joel HietanenCentre for consumer society research

University of Helsinki

What are ‘needs’ in the contemporary market?

How do ‘wants’ come about?

How is ‘value’ generated in consumption?

Use-value vs. Exchange-value

Classic view of consumer behavior

Maslow’s hierarchyof needs (1954)

What assumptions are made here?

Classic view of consumer behavior

Maslow’s hierarchyof needs (1954)

WIFI

STP – Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning

The market can be divided into distinct groups

• The characteristics of each group must differ substantially (needs, preferences, behavior)

• To the extent that these distinct groups respond differently to products, services and marketing activities

Segmentation

Geographic factors• Geographical area (infra, climate etc.)

Demographic factors• The most typical method of segmentation (age, marital status, income level etc.)

Psychographic factors• The most tricky (cultural, lifestyle, social position, personality)

Behavioral factors• How, when (convenience, time of use – both daily and seasonal etc.)

Combinations of segments• Using multiple segmentation criteria based on the context of the company and

offering

Segmentation

• Lifestyle• Trendy, conservative etc.• Subcultures

• Attitudes• Environment, technology

• Social class• Elitist, blue-collar

• Personal characteristics• Ambitious, convenience-seeker,

social, creative

Segmentation

Targeting

Size and potential growth

Profitability

Competition

Alignment with brand communications (+mission and vision)

Positioning

• Position – the offering or brand has clearly distinct perceptional properties in the target market contra competition (differentiation)• Differentiating the offering in the mind of the target market contra

competition• Developing clear distinctions regarding the most important offering

attributes and benefits

Category membership• To which category an offering belongs where competing offering act as close

substitutes

Points of parity and Points of difference• Consumers typically assess products based on the most important product

attributes• Communicating the unique benefits is central (USP)

Using positional maps• A visual presentation of how brands are perceived (f.ex. quality, usability, design)

Positioning

PositioningDistinctiveaffluent

Mundaneaffordable

Traditionalsafe

Stylishplayful

And what assumptions are made here?

Bourdieu – economic, cultural and social capital

Veblen – ‘conspicuous consumption’

And, then the article…

Cova, B. (1997). Community and consumption: Towards a definition of the “linking value” of product or services.

European journal of marketing, 31(3/4), 297-316.

Beyond the individual – Enlightenment tradition and neo-tribalism

“We have never been modern”

Paradox of postmodernity – alone in a tribe

Desire to belong – linking value (serve individuality and group)

Cova, B. (1997). Community and consumption: Towards a definition of the “linking value” of product or services.

European journal of marketing, 31(3/4), 297-316.

Beyond the individual – Enlightenment tradition and neo-tribalism

“We have never been modern”

Paradox of postmodernity – alone in a tribe

Desire to belong – linking value (serve individuality and group)

A few examples forfurther consideration…

How to consume if you are a wall-streetbanker?

Amazon: Predictive shipping

Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007)

Utility vs. Excess

Consumption is labor – the activeproduction of signs of consumption

Use-value, exchange value, symbol and sign

Exchange valueUse valueSymbolic valueSign value

Fiction of needs

The whole societal narrative of consumption thus relies on “an anxiousanticipation, not that there may not be enough, but that there is too much,and too much for everyone” (Baudrillard, 1988: 30), where each person

“is reputed to be continuously raising his rate of value production”(Baudrillard, 1981: 206).

You can call use-value what you do withsomething, but this something is never

outside a code of brands and signification

In a consumer society defined by the code as the law,that which you purchase or own is never that what

it actually is as a material good or service