Mkt 325 Midterm 1 - Chapter 1

Front 1

What does consumer behavior entail?

Back 1

All consumer activities associated with the purchase, use, and disposal of goods and services, including the consumer's emotional, mental and behavioral responses that precede, determine, or follow these activities

Front 2

Individual consumer

Back 2

those who purchase goods and services to satisfy their own personal needs and wants or to satisfy the need and wants of others.

Front 3

Organizational consumers

Back 3

those who purchase goods and services in order to produce other goods or services, resell them to other organizations or to individual consumers, or to help manage and run their organization

Front 4

What are the three levels of activities associated with consumer behavior?

Back 4

1. purchase activities
2. use activities
3. disposal activities

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Purchase activities

Back 5

those activities through which consumers acquire goods and services; include everything done leading up to the purchase, such as gathering and evaluating information about the product or service and choosing where to make the purchase

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Use activities

Back 6

those activities that describe where, when and how consumption takes place.

Front 7

Disposal activities

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the ways consumers get rid of products and/or packaging after consumption, and include discarding products, recycling, reuse, and resale

Front 8

What are the three types of consumer responses?

Back 8

1. Emotional responses ("affective responses")
2. Mental responses ("cognitive responses")
3. Behavioral responses

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Emotional responses

Back 9

responses that reflect a consumer's emotions, feelings, and moods (i.e. excitement and uncertainty when a consumer buys his first car)

Front 10

Mental responses

Back 10

"cognitive responses"; include a consumer's though processes, opinions, beliefs, attitudes, and intentions about products and services; can be evaluative and non-evaluative

Front 11

Behavioral responses

Back 11

a consumer's overt decisions and actions during the purchase, use, and disposal activities

Front 12

What are three of the primary reasons for studying consumer behavior?

Back 12

1. To improve business performance
2. To influence public policy
3. To educate and help consumers make better decisions

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Public policy

Back 13

the establishment of laws and regulations that govern business practice in order to protect consumers

Front 14

What is consumer behavior as a science?

Back 14

Consumer behavior is an applied social science that draws on theories and concepts of psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, and statistics.

Front 15

Selling orientation

Back 15

when companies focused on selling consumers the excess inventory of what they produced. The study of consumer behavior emerging in the 1940s started to eliminated this orientation, as companies changed their focus to the marketing concept

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Marketing concept

Back 16

the idea that firms should discover and satisfy customer needs and wants in an efficient and profitable manner, while benefiting the long-term interests of society

Front 17

Customer perceived value

Back 17

the consumer's overall assessment of the utility of a product based on perceptions of what is received and what is given; it is the estimated "net gain" customers receive from their sacrifice of time, money and effort expended to purchase, use, and dispose of a product or service (i.e. benefits vs. costs)

Front 18

Customer delight

Back 18

goes a step beyond customer perceived value, suggesting customer benefits that not only meet, but also exceed expectations in unanticipated ways; it's the "moment of truth" for the company (i.e. the "beauty pill" that provides an interconnection of cosmetic and vitamin wants in one single pill)

unanticipated benefits is the key word

Front 19

What are the three prominent approaches to consumer behavior research?

Back 19

1. motivation research
2. a behavior science perspective
3. interpretivism

Front 20

Motivation research

Back 20

one of the earliest approaches to studying consumer behavior that applies psychoanalytic therapy concepts from clinical psychology to consumer behavior research.

Front 21

who developed motivation research?

Back 21

Ernest Dichter, a Freudian psychoanalyst. He developed it shortly after World War II

Front 22

IDI

Back 22

In-depth interview--a length (sometimes serveral hours), probing interview, where a carefully trained interviewer extensively questions a subject about his or her purchase motivations; used to uncover a person's hidden or unconscious motivations

Front 23

What did Dichter conclude after his analysis of consumers in more than 200 different product categories?

Back 23

that consumers are largely immature, irrational, and driven by hidden erotic desires

Front 24

For what two primary reasons did motivation research fall out of fashion on the 1960s?

Back 24

1. methodological limitations--such as the subjective nature of interview interpretations
2. strategic and practical limitations of applying sexual explanations to most consumer actions

Front 25

What two important legacies did motivation research leave to the field of consumer research?

Back 25

1. a focus on consumer motivations (i.e. trying to answer the questions of why people behave as they do)
2. the technique of in-depth interviewing (motivation research is still used occasionally today, but usually in conjunction with other, more rigorous techniques)

Front 26

What are two other names for behavioral science?

Back 26

positivism and social science

Front 27

Behavioral science

Back 27

applies the scientific method, relying on systematic, rigorous procedures to explain, control, and predict consumer behavior.

Front 28

What do behavioral scientists study?

Back 28

people and their behaviors (they study this in the same way that natural scientists study physical phenomena)

Front 29

Experimental approach

Back 29

conducting controlled experiments

Front 30

Marketing science approach

Back 30

employing computer-based simulations and mathematical models to explain and predict consumer behavior

Front 31

How do behavioral scientists view consumers?

Back 31

they tend to view consumers as largely rational; they seek causes for behavior, conduct research to be used for strategic marketing decision making, and primarily use quantitative research methods

Front 32

Quantitative research methods

Back 32

research methods in which empirical data are collected

Front 33

Empirical data

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data that is numerical, based on observation, experiment, or experience, rather than speculation or theory

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The scientific method

Back 34

a collection of systematic activities that enables researchers to study problems and find answers to questions

Front 35

What are the steps of the scientific method?

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1. Observe and ask the question
2. Form a hypothesis and make a prediction
3. Test the hypothesis
4. Theory generation

Front 36

Empirical confrontation

Back 36

when behavioral scientists test a hypothesis, collect empirical data, and the results are compared to those suggested by the hypothesis that was formed

Front 37

Theory

Back 37

a general answer to the original question posed in a study operating under the scientific method

Front 38

Interpretivism

Back 38

also called postmodernism; researchers view consumers as non-rational beings and their reality as highly subjective; these researcher's goal is to collect data to describe and interpret this reality

Front 39

What are interpretivist consumer researchers often especially interested in?

Back 39

the consumption experience; they stress understanding consumers from a broader societal perspective

Front 40

Qualitative research methods

Back 40

(favored in interpretivism); research in which descriptive, non-empirical data are collected that describe an individual consumer's subjective experience with the product or service

Front 41

what do qualitative research methods usually lack?

Back 41

the findings generally lack generalizability, but they do provide in-depth, detail-rich descriptions of consumers' experiences that can be very useful in developing further questions and understanding consumers on an abstract level

Front 42

Marketing research

Back 42

a systematic process of planning, collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data and information relevant to marketing problems and consumer behavior; enables businesses to better understand the market(s) in which they compete and the broader environment in order to identify opportunities and threats; also used to analyze the effectiveness of marketing strategies, programs, and tactics

Front 43

In a nutshell, what are the three things market research enables businesses to do?

Back 43

1. better understand their market(s)
2. better understand the environment in which they are operating
3. analyze the effectiveness of marketing strategies, programs, and tactics

Front 44

Effective marketing and consumer research should provide marketers with relevant information for what? (3)

Back 44

1. making decisions
2. reducing uncertainty
3. improving profits

Front 45

What are the two major classifications of research?

Back 45

basic and applied

Front 46

What are the two special relationships that can exist among data?

Back 46

1. correlations
2. causal

Front 47

What are the two main sources of research data?

Back 47

1. primary
2. secondary

Front 48

Basic research

Back 48

research that looks for general relationships between variables, regardless of the specific situation (i.e. do celebrity endorsements in advertisement increase consumer's attitude toward the brand?)

Front 49

What is the key benefit of basic research?

Back 49

conclusions drawn from basic research generally apply across a variety of situations, and researchers can use these generalizations to guide strategic planning and develop marketing tactics

Front 50

Marketing Mix

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1. Product
2. Price
3. Place
4. Promotion

Front 51

Applied research

Back 51

examines a number of variables, but within a specific context of interest to a marketer.

Front 52

Which is more common: applied or basic research?

Back 52

applied

Front 53

Why is applied research more common than basic research?

Back 53

Because consumer researchers want to solve particular business-related problems of immediate interest

Front 54

Correlation

Back 54

when a statistically testable and significant relationship exists between two variables

Front 55

Variable

Back 55

any factor that can potentially change

Front 56

What are the three main types of correlation?

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1. positive (the two variables increase or decrease together)
2. negative (as one variable increases, the related variable decreases)
3. zero (there is no predictable relationship between two variables)

Front 57

Illusory correlation

Back 57

believing there is a correlation relationship between variables where none actually exists

Front 58

What is one limitation in identifying correlations?

Back 58

they tell us nothing about which variable influences the other

Front 59

A causal relationship

Back 59

a relationship between two variables when the variables are correlated and that one variable influences the other, but not vice versa

a causal relationship exists if:
1. the two variables are correlated
2. the cause must precede the effect
3. other potential causes are ruled out

Front 60

Secondary data

Back 60

data that already exists and is readily accessible

Front 61

What are three of the primary sources for secondary data?

Back 61

1. internal organizational sources
2. external sources (i.e. US and foreign government agencies that offer reports such as the census; academic and trade publications)
3. commercial syndicated data sources (such as Nielsen TV Ratings Reports)

Front 62

Syndicated data

Back 62

data that are periodically colected using standardized procedures and analyzed by a commercial firm, which then makes the results available for purchase

Front 63

What are advantages of secondary data? (3)

Back 63

1. it is usually readily available
2. rich in detail
3. may not cost any more than the time and effort it takes to search the Internet or go to the library

Front 64

What are the disadvantages of secondary data?

Back 64

1. may lack currency
2. may lack relevancy
3. the data are often aggregated, which means they are reported as a whole, rather than broken down in detail (these data may not be specific enough to directly relate to a marketer's situation)

Front 65

Primary data

Back 65

new data collected specifically for the research purpose at hand

Front 66

What are the advantages of primary data?

Back 66

1. information is specific and relevant to specific project
2. data is current
3. data collection can be controlled

Front 67

What are the disadvantages of primary data?

Back 67

1. tends to be very expensive
2. very time consuming

both of these are in relation to both collecting the data, as well as organizing and analyzing it

Front 68

What are four common primary research methods?

Back 68

1. observation
2. direct questioning
3. experimentation
4. projective techniques

Front 69

Observation

Back 69

by using observational techniques, researchers can record people's behavior, either with or without their knowledge

Front 70

Obtrusive observation

Back 70

when a person is aware of the observation beings made

Front 71

Unobtrusive observation

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"passive observation"; when a person is unaware of being observed

Front 72

Participant observation

Back 72

occurs when a researcher joins a family or group for an extended period and observes members' behavior; also called "ethnographic research"

this type of research is glowing in popularity

Front 73

Why are observational techniques valuable?

Back 73

because they can measure what consumers actually do

Front 74

What are the limitations of observational techniques?

Back 74

1. they cannot reveal a person's underlying motivations, attitudes, and preferences
2. may raise ethical issues when it is used to collect data that consumers regard as private

Front 75

What are the most popular types of consumer research methods, and why?

Back 75

Direct forms of questioning, because researchers can collect a wide variety of data and collect large amounts

Front 76

Survey

Back 76

a set of structured questions to which a person is asked to respond

Front 77

What are potential errors that can be found in an insufficient survey question?

Back 77

1. ambiguity
2. double-barreled
3. leading
4. social-desireability bias

Front 78

Mall-intercept

Back 78

when firms talk to customers face-to-face, with representatives recruiting research participants in malls and shopping centers

Front 79

What are the general advantages of surveys?

Back 79

1. useful for collecting specific, complex information
2. useful for collecting information from a large number of individuals
3. easy to administer
4. the general public is familiar and comfortable with this technique

Front 80

What are the general disadvantages of surveys?

Back 80

1. vulnerable to bias (wording questions/language implications can influence consumer's response)
2. relatively inexpensive
3. response rates are typically low

Front 81

double-barreled

Back 81

when a question is really asking more than one question (disables a mixed-feeling respondent from answering completely accurately)

Front 82

Social desirability bias

Back 82

a bias that occurs when respondents may not answer a question honestly or completely because they feel that the information is too personal or socially sensitive

Front 83

Interviewer bias

Back 83

occurs when responses are influenced by variables such as the interviewer's age, gender, appearance, verbal or non-verbal reactions, or by a desire to please the interviewer

Front 84

For what topics are IDIs particularly appropriate?

Back 84

sensitive or emotionally charged topics, or when the researcher is attempting to gather detailed information about very complication behaviors

Front 85

Focus groups

Back 85

when 6 to 12 current are potential customers are brought together; the group is run by a facilitator who monitors and guides the group discussion

Front 86

What are three of the primary reasons for why focus groups are conducted

Back 86

1. brainstorming for ideas
2. assessing new products
3. evaluating promotional campaigns

Front 87

Groupthink

Back 87

the tendency for groups to make poor quality decisions for the sake of unanimity

Front 88

When does groupthink occur?

Back 88

When groups are highly cohesive, and when they are under considerable pressure to make a quality decision

Front 89

Experiments

Back 89

experiments manipulate variables in a controlled setting to determine their relationship to one another

Front 90

Why do researchers use experiments?

Back 90

to rule out all but one explanation for a particular observation

Front 91

What are the three broad types of variables?

Back 91

1. independent variables
2. dependent variables
3. constants

Front 92

Independent variables

Back 92

factors that are changed or manipulated

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Dependent variables

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factors that change in response to researcher's manipulation of the independent variables

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Constants

Back 94

factors that researchers do not allow to change, but instead control

Front 95

Control group

Back 95

a group that is no exposed to any independent variables and serves as a standard of comparison

Front 96

How should participants in experiments be assigned to the conditions and why?

Back 96

randomly--random assignment helps rule out other possible causes for the results, such as different personalities among participants and varying levels of product knowledge and interest, among others. Random assignment forces these individual differences to cancel out

Front 97

What is the most effective technique for determining causal relationships?

Back 97

experimentation

Front 98

What is the drawback of experimentation?

Back 98

consumers are removed from their natural surroundings, which may prevent them from acting as they would in a real market setting

Front 99

Projective techniques

Back 99

unstructured, indirect form of questioning that encourages respondents to project their underlying beliefs, attitudes, feelings, and motivations in an apparently unrelated or ambiguous scenario.

In other words, projective techniques use seemingly meaningless exercises to uncover consumers' unconscious points of view

Front 100

What are four common types of projective technique categories

Back 100

1. Word-association tests
2. Completion tests (i.e. fill in the blanks by finishing sentences or stories)
3. Construction tests (i.e. fill in cartoon thought bubbles; tell a story about a picture)
4. Expression tests (i.e. role-pay activities and third-person techniques)

Front 101

third-person techniques

Back 101

a form of expression tests (projective technique)--subjects are asked to describe the actions of typical others

Front 102

What is the benefit of projective techniques?

Back 102

they often generate responses that participants would be unwilling or unable to give if questioned directly

Front 103

What are the disadvantages of projective techniques?

Back 103

1. time-consuming
2. awkward to code (input as data)
3. difficult to analyze
4. interpretation can be subjective