FACTORS INFLUENCING BUYING DECISIONS

Lecture 4: Marketing Principles

a. Cultural Influences

CULTURE – the set of values, norms, attitudes, and other meaningful symbols that shape human behavior and the artifacts, or products, of that behavior as they are transmitted from one generation to the next.

Elements of Culture:•Values•Language•Myths•Customs•Rituals•Laws

Characteristics of Culture:•Culture is pervasive.•Culture is functional – gives order to society•Culture is learned – from families and friends•Culture is dynamic – it adapts to changing needs and an evolving environment.

A culture can be divided into SUBCULTURE – a homogeneous group of people who share elements of the overall culture as well as cultural elements unique to their own group.

Once marketers identify subcultures, they can design special marketing to serve their needs.

SOCIAL CLASS – a group of people who are considered nearly equal in status or community esteem, who regularly socialize among themselves both formally and informally, and who share behavioral norms.

Marketers are interested in social class for two (2) main reasons:•It often indicates which medium to use for advertising; and•Knowing what products appeal to which social classes can help marketers determine where to distribute their products.

b. Social Influences

Many consumers seek out opinions of others to reduce their search and evaluation effort or uncertainty, especially as the perceived risk of the decision increases.

Consumers interact socially with the following:

1. REFERENCE GROUP – consists of all the formal and informal groups that influence the buying behavior of an individual.

REFERENCE GROUP

DIRECT(face to face membership)

INDIRECT(non

membership)

PRIMARY SECONDARY ASPIRATIONAL NON-ASPIRATIONAL

1.A DIRECT – face to face membership

• Primary Membership Group – a reference group with which people interact regularly in an informal, face-to-face manner, such as family, friends, and co-workers.

• Secondary Membership Group – a reference group with which people associate less consistently and more formally than a primary membership group, such as clubs, professional group, or religious group.

1.B INDIRECT – non-membership group.

• Aspirational Reference Group – a group that someone would like to join. To form this group, a person must at least conform to the norms of that group. Norm consists of values and attitudes deemed acceptable by the group.

• Non-aspirational Reference Group – a.k.a. ‘dissociative group’, influences our behavior when we try to maintain distance from them.

For marketers, reference groups have three (3) important implications: a) They serve as info-sources and

influence perception;b) They affect an individual’s aspiration

levels; andc) Their norms either constrain or

stimulate consumer behavior.

2. OPINION LEADER – a.k.a. ‘group leader’, a person who influences others.

3. FAMILY – is the most important social institution for many consumers, strongly influencing values, attitudes, self-concept, and buying behavior

The family is responsible for the Socialization Process – the passing down of cultural values and norms to children.

Family members assume a variety of roles in the purchasing process:

Roles of Family Members:

• Initiator – suggest, initiate, or plant the seed for the purchase process;

• Influencers – are those members of the family whose opinions are valued.

• Decision Maker – is the family member who actually makes the decision to buy or not to buy.

• Purchaser – is the one who actually exchanges money for the product.

• Consumer – is the actual user.

Marketers should consider family purchase situations along with the distribution of consumer and decision-maker roles among family members.

c. Individual Influences

A person’s buying decisions are also influenced by personal characteristics that are unique to each individual such as:

1. GENDER – physiological differences between men and women result in different needs, such as health and beauty products. Trends in gender marketing are influenced by the changing roles of men and women in society.

2. AGE and FAMILY LIFE CYCLE STAGE – how old a consumer generally indicates what products he/she may be interested in purchasing. Family Life Cycle is an orderly series of stages through which consumers’ attitudes and behavioral tendencies evolve through maturity, experience, and changing income status.

Marketers often define their target markets in terms of family life cycle such as:•Young singles•Young married couples with children, and•Middle-aged married couples with children

3. PERSONALITY, SELF-CONCEPT, and LIFESTYLES

PERSONALITY is a way of organizing and grouping the consistencies of an individual’s reactions to situations.

SELF-CONCEPT – a.k.a. ‘self-perception’, is how consumers perceive themselves in terms of attitudes, perceptions, beliefs, and self-evaluation. Self-concept combines the following:a.Ideal Self-image – the way an individual would like to be perceived, andb.Real Self-image – how an individual actually perceives him or herself.

Consumer seldom buy products that jeopardize their self-image.

d. Psychological Influences

These are factors that consumers use to interact with their world.1. Perception – the process by which people select, organize, and interpret stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture. People cannot perceive every stimulus in their environment thus, they use:

• Selective Exposure – the process whereby a consumer notices certain stimuli and ignore others.

• Selective Distortion – a process whereby a consumer changes or distorts info.that conflicts with his/her feelings or beliefs.

• Selective Retention – a process whereby a consumer remembers only that info.that supports his/her personal beliefs.

2. Motivation – a driving force that causes a person to take action to satisfy specific needs. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a method of classifying human needs and motivations into five (5) categories in ascending order of importance:

3. Learning – a process that creates changes in behavior, immediate or expected , through experience and practice. There are two (2) types of learning:•Experiential Learning – occurs when an experience changes your behavior.•Conceptual earning – not acquired through direct experience.

The following are ‘learning boosters’:•Reinforcement – can be positive or negative.•Repetition – a key strategy in promotional campaigns because it can lead to increased learning.

4. Beliefs and Attitudes – both are closely linked to values.

Belief – is an organized pattern of knowledge that an individual holds as true about his/her world.

Consumers tend to develop a set of beliefs about a product’s attributes and then, through these beliefs, form a Brand Image – a set of beliefs about a particular brand. In turn, the brand image shapes consumers; attitudes toward the product.

Attitudes – is a learned tendency to respond consistently toward a given object, such as a brand.

Marketers must strive to change target consumers’ attitude toward products.

Change can be accomplished in three (3) ways:1.Changing beliefs about the brand’s attributes;2.Changing the relative importance of these beliefs; and3.Adding new beliefs.