Copyright 2008 Pearson Education Canada
IndividualDecision Making
Chapter 9
Copyright 2008 Pearson Education Canada
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Consumers as Problem Solvers
ā¢ Consumer purchase = response to problem
ā¢ Decision-making processā After realization that we want
to make a purchase, we go through a series of steps in order to make it
ā Can seem automatic or like a full-time job
ā Complicated by consumer hyperchoice
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Decision-making ProcessProblem Recognition
Information Search
Evaluation of Alternatives
Product Choice
Consumptions and Learning
Bill realizes that he dislikes his B&W TV
Bill talks to his friends to learn about TVs
Bill chooses a TV with an appealing feature
Bill compares models on reputation and features
Bill brings home and enjoys his TVFigure 9.1 (abridged)
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Decision-making Perspectives
ā¢ Rational perspectiveā Purchase momentumā Constructive processing
ā¢ Behavioural influence perspective
ā¢ Experiential perspective
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Types of Consumer Decisionsā¢ Continuum of Decision Making
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Extended Problem Solving
ā¢ Initiated by self-concept motive
ā¢ Eventual purchase decision is perceived as a risk
ā¢ Consumer collects extensive informationā Internal and external search
ā¢ Careful evaluation of brand attributes (one at a time)
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Limited Problem Solving
ā¢ More straightforward/simple
ā¢ Simple decision rules to choose among alternativesā Cognitive shortcuts
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Habitual Decision Making
ā¢ Automaticity: choices made with little/no conscious effortā Efficient decisions: minimal time/energy
ā¢ Challenge for marketersā¦ā Consumers must be convinced to āunfreezeā
their former habit and replace it with new one
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Problem Recognitionā¢ Occurs when consumer sees difference
between current state and ideal stateā¢ Need recognition: actual state moves
downwardā Running out of a product, buying a deficient
product, or creating new needs
ā¢ Opportunity recognition: ideal state moves upwardā Exposed to different/better quality products
(standard of comparison)
ā¢ Marketers: primary and secondary demand
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Individual Decision Making
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Information Search
ā¢ Consumers need information to solve problemā We survey our environment for appropriate
data to make decision
ā¢ Prepurchase search vs. ongoing search
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Internal vs. External Search
ā¢ Internal searchā Scanning memory to assemble product
alternative information
ā¢ External searchā Obtaining information from ads, retailers,
catalogs, friends, family, people-watching, Consumer Reports, etc.
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Deliberate vs. āAccidentalā Search
ā¢ Directed learning: existing product knowledge obtained from previous information search or experience of alternatives
ā¢ Incidental learning: mere exposure over time to conditioned stimuli and observations of others
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The Economics of Information
ā¢ Variety Seeking
ā¢ Consumers will gather as much data as needed to make informed decisionsā We continue to search until costs exceed
utility of information search (as long as process is not too onerous/time-consuming)
ā We will collect most valuable information first
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Do Consumers Always Search Rationally?
ā¢ Some consumers tend to avoid external search, especially with minimal time to do so and with durable goods (e.g., autos)
ā¢ Symbolic items = more external searchā High perceived risk
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Do Consumers Always Search Rationally? (Contād)
ā¢ Brand switchingā Variety seeking: unpredictability can be
rewarding to consumersā¢ When in good mood or little stimulation elsewhere
(sensory-specific satiety)
ā We select familiar brands, when decision situation is ambiguous or when there is little information about competing brands
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Biases in Decision-Making Process
ā¢ Mental accountingā Framing a problem in terms of gains/losses
influences our decisions
ā¢ Sunk-cost fallacy: We are reluctant to waste something we have paid forā Study: hockey ticket vs. storm
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Biases in Decision-Making Process (Contād)
ā¢ Loss aversion: We place more emphasis on loss than on gainā Prospect theoryā Gambling study
ā¢ Extraneous characteristics of the choice situation can influence our selectionsā āBeer on the beachā study
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How Much Search Occurs?
ā¢ Search activity is greater whenā¦ā Purchase is importantā There is a need to learn more about purchaseā Relevant info is easily obtained/utilizedā One is younger, is better-educated, and
enjoys shopping/fact-findingā One is female (compared to male)ā One places greater value on own style/image
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Consumerās Prior Expertiseā¢ Moderately
knowledgeable consumers tend to search more than product experts and novices
ā¢ Experts: selective search
ā¢ Novices: othersā opinions, ānonfunctionalā attributes, and ātop downā processing
Figure 9-5
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Perceived Riskā¢ Belief that product has negative
consequencesā Expensive, complex, hard-to-understand
productsā Product choice is visible to others (risk of
embarrassment for wrong choice)
ā¢ Risks can be objective (physical danger) and subjective (social embarrassment)
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Evaluation of Alternatives
ā¢ Choosing a brand/product among available alternatives requires much of the effort that goes into a purchase decisionā Just think about how many brands or different
brand variations there are!ā Discussion: Do you agree that having too
many choices is a bigger problem than not having enough choices? Is it possible to have too much of a good thing?
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Identifying Alternatives
ā¢ Extended problem solving = evaluation of several brandsā Occurs when choice conflicts arouse negative
emotions (involving difficult trade-offs)
ā¢ Habitual decision = consider few/no brand alternatives
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Identifying Alternatives (Contād)
ā¢ Evoked set vs. consideration setā We usually donāt seriously consider every
brand we know aboutā In fact, we often include only a surprisingly
small number of alternatives in our evoked set
ā¢ Marketers must focus on getting their brands in consumersā evoked setā We often do not give rejected brands a
second chance. Discussion: Why?
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Identifying Alternative (Contād)
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Product Categorization
ā¢ We evaluate products in terms of what we already know about a (similar) product
ā¢ Evoked-set products usually share similar featuresā When faced with a new product, we refer to existing
product category knowledge to form new knowledge
ā¢ Marketers want to ensure that their products are correctly grouped in knowledge structuresā Jell-O gelatin flavours for salads
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Levels of Categorization
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Strategic Implications of Product Categorization
ā¢ Product positioningā Convincing consumers that product should be
considered within a given categoryā¢ Orange juice: āItās not just for breakfast anymoreāā¢ Pepsi A.M.
ā¢ Identifying competitorsā Products/services different on the surface can
actually compete on superordinate level for consumer dollars
ā¢ āEntertainmentā (bowling vs. ballet)
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Strategic Implications of Product Categorization (Contād)
ā¢ Exemplar productsā Brands strongly associated with a category get to
ācall the shotsā by defining evaluative criteriaā But āmoderately unusualā products may stimulate
more information processing and positive evaluations
ā¢ Locating productsā Products that do not fit clearly into categories
confuse consumers (e.g., frozen dog food)
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Product Choice
ā¢ Selecting among alternativesā Once we assemble and evaluate relevant
options from a category, we must choose among them
ā Decision rules for product choice can be very simple or very complicated
ā¢ Prior experience with (similar) productā¢ Present information at time of purchaseā¢ Beliefs about brands (from advertising)
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Evaluative Criteria
ā¢ Dimensions used to judge merits of competing options
ā¢ Determinant attributes: features we use to differentiate among our choicesā Criteria on which products differ carry more
weightā Marketers educate consumers about (or even
invent) determinant attributesā¢ Pepsiās freshness date stamps on cans
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Evaluative Criteria (Contād)
ā¢ Procedural learning: cognitive steps before making choiceā Marketers often point out significant
differences among brands on relevant attributeā¦
ā¢ Then supply consumers with decision-making rule (āif, thenā) that has helped them make previous decisions
ā¢ Should convey a rule that can be easily integrated with the way the person has made this decision in the past
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Cybermediaries
ā¢ The Web delivers enormous amounts of product information in secondsā Problem is narrowing down our choices!
ā¢ Cybermediary: helps filter and organize online market informationā Consumers can identify/evaluate alternatives
more efficiently
SHOPPING.COM
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Electronic Recommendation Agents
ā¢ Intelligent agents and collaborative filteringā Learn from past user behaviour to recommend new
purchasesā āShopping robotsā filtering
ā¢ Discussion: Will ābotsā make our lives too predictable? If so, is this a problem?
ā¢ Electronic recommendation agentsā Asks user to communicate preferencesā Recommends list of sorted alternativesā Findings associated with such agents
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Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts
ā¢ Mental rules-of-thumb that lead to a speedy decisionā Examples: higher price = higher quality,
buying the same brand your mother bought
ā¢ Can lead to bad decisions due to flawed assumptions (especially with unusually named brands)
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Relying on a Product Signal
ā¢ Observable product attributes that communicate underlying qualitiesā Clean and shiny car = good mechanical
condition
ā¢ Covariation: perceived associations among eventsā Product type/quality and country of originā Consumers are poor estimators of covariation
(self-fulfilling prophecy: we see what we are looking for)
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Market Beliefs
ā¢ Consumer assumptions about companies, products, and stores that become shortcuts for decisionsā Price-quality relationship: we tend to get what we pay
forā Other common marketing beliefs (see Table 9.3 for
full list):ā¢ All brands are basically the sameā¢ Larger stores offer better prices than smaller storesā¢ Items tied to āgiveawaysā are not a good value
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Country-of-Origin
ā¢ Overall, we tend to rate our own countryās products more favourably than do people who live elsewhere
ā¢ Industrialized countries make better products than developing countries do
ā¢ Attachment to own vs. other culturesā Nationalistsā Internationalistsā Disengaged
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Country-of-Origin (Contād)
ā¢ We strongly associate certain items with specific countries (stereotyping)
ā¢ Country-of-origin effects stimulate consumer interest in the product
ā¢ Expertise with product minimizes country-of-origin effects
ā¢ Ethnocentrism (ābuy Canadianā)ā āThe Rantā ā Molson Canadian
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Choosing Familiar Brand Names: Loyalty or Habit?
ā¢ Branding = heuristic for loyal consumersā Fierce loyalty to a brand = dominant market
shareā Marketers try to cultivate loyalty
ā¢ Rock band fan packages
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Inertia: The Fickle Customer
ā¢ Many buy the same brand every timeā We buy out of habit because it requires less
effortā Little/no underlying commitment here
ā¢ Brand switching frequently occurs (cheaper price, original brand out-of-stock, point-of-purchase displays)
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Brand Loyaltyā¢ Repeat purchase behaviour reflecting a
conscious decision to continue buying the same brandā Repeat purchase + positive attitude toward brandā Emotional attachment and commitment often result
over time (via self-image and prior experiences)
ā¢ Information overload and too many alternatives strengthen reliance on brands for quality
ā¢ We are often less picky about where we buy our favourite brandsā Discussion: How can retailer compete if we believe
we can get the same brands everywhere?
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Decision Rules
ā¢ Noncompensatory: shortcuts via basic standardsā Lexicographic ruleā Elimination-by-aspects ruleā Conjunctive rule
ā¢ Compensatoryā Simple additive ruleā Weighted additive rule