What is Consumer Behavior?
Consumer behavior is the analysis of how consumers allocate their time and thoughts in the process of buying, using, and disposing of products.
Model of Consumer Behavior
(feelings, goals, thoughts, needs, attitudes, etc.) –> 4P’s (price, promotion, product, place) —> Marketing —-> black box of consumer —–> response
Why try to understand consumers?
Marketers want to influence consumers:
Targeting, promo, new product development, etc.
To influence consumers, we need to understand them:
Need to consider not only what consumers prefer, but also why they prefer it
Who needs to understand CB?
What are the steps in the Loyalty Loop?
Why do we conduct consumer research?
You have been hired by Michelin to develop a new ad campaign for their tires. What kind of data might you gather?
possibility: sales data from past purchases
-prices paid
-time bw purchases
-location of purchase
-characteristics of buyer
analysis: regression that explains sales as a function of demographic characteristics of the buyer
problem: inferring causation. suppose we find that most Michelin tire purchases are made by men aged 30-45 during the summer months. should we design an ad campaign that features this combination? No.
Example survey: Asks about price, brand name, and warranty. However this is not exhaustive.
Types of Consumer Research
Quantitative:
-secondary data: uses already-avail data (e.g. sales, clickstreams) to infer prefs and buying patterns
-primary data: surveys directly measure consumer prefs
Qualitative:
-depth interviews, focus groups, projective techniques
-potentially provides deeper insights, but use of small samples makes generalization difficult
What are the weaknesses of surveys?
Correlation and Causation
Correlation
- Relationship between two
variables
Causation
- One variable affects another variable
Correlation does not equal causation.
What’s needed for causation:
causation: stork and baby example
1) correlation: storks and babies in same house
2) temporal antecedence: storks –> baby
3) no 3rd factor driving both –> NOT TRUE
the 3rd factor is that houses are warmer with pregnant women!!
Spurious Correlation
The danger of data mining is that lots of things are correlated, but not really related.
Experimental Research
Test hypotheses about causal relationship between
variables
Magic of Random Assignment
suppose randomly assigned some ppl to see an online fb ad, and others not.
In large groups, anything affecting sign-ups other than ad affects both groups equally
-gender? income level? fb activity?
equated across ad and no-ad groups!
Examples of Qualitative Research
Observational Research
Making and recording observations of behavior in an objective manner
Systematic Coding Methods
◦ Deciding what to observe
◦ Deciding how to record observations
Observation Research Limitations
Designing an experiment
ZMET - Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique - assumptions
Assumptions:
1. Most Communication is nonverbal.
2. Thoughts occur as images
3. Metaphors are essential units of thought
ZMET Process
Goal: find or develop a “strategic” metaphor that capture the core (deep) meaning of the marketing strategy
Motivation
Definition: Inner state of activation that provides energy needed to achieve a goal
Consequences:
Consumers expend more effort when:
Maslow’s Hierarchy
Physiological, Safety, Social, Egotistic, Self-actualization