Buyer Behavior Chapter 16

Front 1

What is rational choice theory?

Back 1

The task in it is to identify or discover the one optimal choice for the decision confronting the decision maker. The decision maker simply collects information on the levels of the attributes of the alternatives, applies pre-existing values to those levels, applies the appropriate choice rule, and the superior option is revealed.

Front 2

What is meant by bounded rationality?

Back 2

It is defined as a limited capacity for processing information.

Front 3

What is a metagoal?

Back 3

It refers to the general nature of the outcome being sought.

Front 4

What are four common metagoals for consumer decisions?

Back 4

The first metagoal is maximizing the accuracy of the decision. This is the only metagoal assumed in rational choice theory.

The second relates to how consumers often seek to minimize the cognitive effort required for the decision. This is often the goal in nominal and limited decision making. However, it can also play an important role in extended decision making as well.

The third consumer metagoal is to minimize the experience of negative emotion while making the decision. One strategy consumers use for this purpose is to avoid or delay the decision and stay with the status quo.

A fourth metagoal is to maximize the ease with which a decision can be justified.

Front 5

What is affective choice and when is it most likely to occur?

Back 5

Affective choices do not lend themselves well to either the attribute-based or the attitude-based choice approaches. The evaluation of such products is generally focused on the way they will make the user feel as they are used. The evaluation itself is often based exclusively or primarily on the immediate emotional response to the product or service. Affective choices tend to be more holistic in nature.

Front 6

What is the difference between consummatory motives and instrumental motives?

Back 6

Consummatory motives underlie behaviors that are intrinsically rewarding to the individual involved. Instrumental motives activate behaviors designed to achieve a second goal.

Front 7

How does attribute-based choice differ from attitude-based choice?

Back 7

Attribute-based choice requires the knowledge of specific attributes at the time the choice is made and it involves attribute-by-attribute comparisons across brands.Attitude-based choice involves the use of general attitudes, summary impressions, intuitions, or heuristics; no attribute-by-attribute comparisons are made at the time of choice.

Front 8

When is each (attribute choice and attitude choice) most likely?

Back 8

Example of attribute-based choice: After consulting the internet to determine what features she is most interested in, the consumer then goes to her local electronics store and compares the various brands on the features most important to her – namely camera size, zoom, automatic features, and storage size. She mentally ranks each model on these attributes and her general impression of each model’s quality. On the basis of these evaluations, she chooses the Olympus SportZoom.

Example of Attitude-based choice: The consumer remembers that her friend’s Olympus SportZoom worked well and looked “good;” her parents had a Kodak Easyshare that also worked well but was rather large and bulky; and her old Fujifilm FinePix had not performed as well as she had expected. At her local electronics store she sees that the Olympus and Kodak models are about the same price and decides to buy the Olympus SportZoom.

Front 9

What are evaluative criteria and on what characteristics can they vary?

Back 9

Evaluative criteria are the various dimensions, features, or benefits a consumer looks for in response to a problem. They can vary in terms of type (objectively specified vs. subjectively), number (normally less than six are used), and importance (usually one or two are much more important to a consumer).

Front 10

What is sensory discrimination?

Back 10

It refers to an individual’s ability to distinguish between similar stimuli.

Front 11

what role does sensory discrimination play in the evaluation of products?

Back 11

This plays a major role in the evaluation of products that may differ in characteristics. For example, one stereo may be technically superior in sound characteristics, but this difference may not be sensed by listening to this stereo and one of lesser technical quality.

Front 12

What is meant by a just noticeable difference?

Back 12

The just noticeable difference (j.n.d.) is the minimum amount of variation that would have to take place in a given stimulus such that a difference could be detected.

Marketers attempting to differentiate their brand of product must find a level of performance between their brand and competitors’ brands that surpasses the j.n.d. On the other hand, a marketer may want to change a product or price but not have consumers perceive any change, and, hence, not surpass the j.n.d.

Front 13

What are surrogate indicators?

Back 13

An attribute used to stand for or indicate another attribute is a surrogate indicator. For many products it is difficult to assess a product’s quality; consumers may therefore use the price of the product as a basis for inferring the product’s quality.

Front 14

How are they used in the consumer evaluation process?

Back 14

Marketers of clothing and alcoholic beverages use the price of these goods in product positioning because consumers often use the price of these goods as a surrogate indicator of quality. Thus, marketers of products which are difficult to differentiate on the basis of physical characteristics will use surrogate indicators to imply quality.

Front 15

What factors influence the importance of evaluative criteria?

Back 15

The usage situation, the competitive context, and advertising effects.

Front 16

What is the conjunctive decision rule?

Back 16

Selects establishes the minimum required performance standard for each evaluative criterion and selects the first or all brands that meet or exceed these minimum standards.

Front 17

What is the disjunctive decision rule?

Back 17

Establishes a minimum level of performance for each important attribute (often fairly high). All brands that meet or exceed the performance level for any key attribute are considered acceptable.

Front 18

What is the elimination-by-aspects decision rule?

Back 18

Rank the evaluative criteria in terms of importance and establish satisfactory levels for each. Start with the most important attribute and eliminate all brands that do not meet the satisfactory level. Continue through the attributes in order of importance until only one brand is left.

Front 19

What is the lexicographic decision rule?

Back 19

Rank the evaluative criteria in terms of importance. Start with the most important criterion and select the brand that scores highest on that dimension. If two or more brands tie, continue through the attributes in order of importance until one of the remaining brands outperforms the others.

Front 20

What is the compensatory decision rule?

Back 20

Select the brand that provides the highest total score when the performance ratings for all the relevant attributes are added together (with or without importance weights) for each brand.

Front 21

How can knowledge of consumers’ evaluative criteria and criteria importance be used in developing marketing strategy?

Back 21

Because information processing and decision making are guided by those evaluative criteria consumers consider important in a purchase; marketers must know which criteria are important and how they are used in decision making. This tells marketers the features they need to design into their products and what they should stress in their ads.