Marketers have developed a sophisticated understanding of how consumers go about deciding whether or not to buy a product. Using their understanding, marketers try to influence that process with messages that make consumers feel good about each phase of their purchase decision. As you’ll see in the video, CanGo, like many smart e-tailers, has constructed its Web site to mirror the consumer buying process. By sending the right messages, the site stimulates consumers to click through each page. If all goes well, consumers who reach the final page will have developed such intense liking for the product that they’ll buy it.
However, the consumer buying process rarely unfolds as marketers would like. Consumers often hem and haw, shop around to compare prices, or just lose heart when the time comes to open their wallets. The process grows all the more complicated when the consumer shops online. As Andrew and his team learn, a distressingly high number of e-consumers fail to “pull the trigger”-complete the transaction with that final click of the mouse. As you watch the video, note how the marketing team accounts for this reluctance. Notice as well what steps they take to determine how effectively the CanGo site addresses consumer needs.
As the Introductory Video suggested, consumer buying behavior is complex and unpredictable. E-tailers like CanGo work hard to build their technology around that behavior, adapting it to the informational and emotional needs of consumers as they make their purchase decisions. However, as Andrew and his team realized, even the most up-to-date e-tailing technology can’t always keep up with the shifts in consumer behavior. Marketers must continually revisit the consumer buying process, refresh their understanding of it, and use their ever-evolving insights to craft messages that appeal to consumers’ developing needs.
Recall that the consumer buying process consists of five basic stages:
- Problem or need recognition, during which consumers realize they have a need that they might fill with some product. Their sense of need motivates them to begin searching for the appropriate product.
- Information search, during which consumers gather information about products that might fill their needs. Initially they might do no more than pay closer attention to ads and other kinds of product information. As their interest in particular products develops, their search may grow more active as they seek out more detailed information. In general, the more expensive or complicated the product, the more intensively the consumer will search for information.
- Alternative evaluation, during which consumers compare the options available to them, assessing their relative advantages and disadvantages. This stage can be more or less involved, depending on the complexity and expense of the product.
- Purchase, also known as product choice, at which consumers choose from the alternatives and buy a product.
- Postpurchase evaluation (or purchase outcome), during which consumers assess their purchases. Often, consumers experience cognitive dissonance or misgivings about their purchases, particularly when the product was expensive. How thoroughly consumers overcome this dissonance depends on how effectively the product satisfies them and how well marketers are able to reassure them about the correctness of their choice.
How lengthy and elaborate this process is depends on the individual consumer and/or product. Further, marketers try to advance the process through messages that address the consumer’s needs at each stage. For example, to stimulate the problem recognition stage, marketers send messages, such as advertisements, that tell consumers about products they don’t have but might want. Similarly, at the postpurchase evaluation stage, marketers reduce cognitive dissonance in a number of ways, such as following up with customers to make sure they are happy with their purchase. The most successful marketers are those who know their consumers well enough to guide them through this process as effectively as possible. As they do so, such marketers cultivate a base of satisfied customers who buy from them over and over again.
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Introduction | Concepts | Exercises | Resolution | Case | Discussion | Print |
| 3. Exercises
Part 1: Solution In this section, test your knowledge of the consumer buying process by helping the CanGo marketing team determine if it’s effectively covered all the steps.
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Part 2: Solution
Influencing the consumer buying process is easier said than done. We cannot always understand all the reasons why consumers make the choices they do. Before you turn to the next set of exercises, consider the array of factors that can influence consumer buying behavior:
- Psychological influences. These include: perceptions, how one interprets information; motivations, what drives one to fulfill a need or want; and learning style, what will reinforce one’s sense of satisfaction, and how one solves problems.
- Personal influences. These include: personality and self-concept, how one sees oneself as a unique individual; age group, how do one’s needs change as one ages?; and lifestyle, one’s activities, interests, and opinions.
- Situational influences. These include the impact of environment (e.g., the visual and audio impact of a Web site), influences and cues (e.g., will this offer lead a consumer to make an impulse purchase?), and time commitment (e.g., is the site convenient to use, and can it quickly lead the consumer through the purchase process?).
- Social and cultural influences. These include culture, values, customs, and beliefs shared by a group. Equally important are social class (one’s income, wealth, education, and occupation) and reference groups (e.g., opinion leaders one respects who exert peer pressure).
Click here to view again a potential page on the CanGo Web site. How does the page try to influence customers by appealing to internal, situational, and social factors? For each of the following statements, select the letter that best represents the underlying influence.
| 1. | CanGo promises quick page downloads, suggesting consumers will have plenty of time to do other things while waiting for competitors’ pages to load. This factor would appeal to the: | |
| a. social influence of peer pressure. | ||
| b. psychological influence of time constraints. | ||
| c. internal influence of ego. | ||
| Your Answer: | ||
| Correct Answer: b | ||
| With the increasing speed of data communications, customers are becoming more impatient and less willing to wait for information to be downloaded. They are likely to get frustrated and abandon their pursuit of information if it takes more than just a few seconds. | ||
| 2. | CanGo compares its “artists you like” to the competitor’s “dinosaur artists.” This factor would appeal to the: | |
| a. personal influence, such as age group. | ||
| b. social influence of culture. | ||
| c. social influence of reference groups. | ||
| d. Any of the above are possible. | ||
| Your Answer: | ||
| Correct Answer: d | ||
| People buy music for a variety of reasons. Typically, they want to purchase music that is accepted by their peers in their age group, and is part of their pop culture. | ||
| 3. | The reference to no advertising at CanGo while you know what goes on at other sites, takes advantage of consumer | |
| a. motivations through belongingness to other sites. | ||
| b. learning through experience of what is at other sites. | ||
| c. self-image through attractive images in the advertising. | ||
| d. reference groups, wanting to belong to groups seen in the advertising. | ||
| Your Answer: | ||
| Correct Answer: b | ||
| CanGo assumes that potential consumers have visited other sites and have learned that advertising (usually viewed as a negative) is present. |
As the exercises demonstrated, the consumer buying process is complex and full of potential pitfalls. A Web site like CanGo’s could effectively move the customer as far as the purchase decision. However, if it fails at that point to address some important factor, it could lose the customer to a more knowledgeable competitor. As you watch the Resolution Video, note where in the process CanGo tends to lose potential customers. Notice too how Andrew and his team use information from VALS2TM to fill the gaps in their understanding of their target consumers.
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Introduction | Concepts | Exercises | Resolution | Case | Discussion | Print |
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Marketing to domestic consumers is hard enough, but how could an e-tailer like CanGo appeal to consumers in other countries? What psychological, personal, social, and situational influences motivate consumer behavior in, say, Brazil or Japan. As you’ll see in the video, CanGo has recently been filling a lot of orders from Japan, for reasons no one on the team can explain. As you watch, notice how Andrew tries to understand what might be drawing Japanese consumers to CanGo. In addition, consider more broadly the challenges of addressing the consumer buying process in international markets. |
Now that you’ve watched the Case Study Video, below you’ll find a number of discussion questions. Some of these questions ask you to reflect on what you’ve seen in this video. Others may provide links to Web sites for further exploration.
In the Resolution Video, you encountered one of the most important tools for understanding consumer behavior:VALS2TM. The database uses a wide range of information on consumers to organize them into useful marketing categories.
| 1. | Review the description of “Experiencers” at the VALSTM site. Based on what you have learned about CanGo so far, do you think this term accurately describes the typical CanGo customer? Why or why not? |
| 2. | In the video, Andrew notes that the VALSTM report categorizes CanGo customers as “Experiencers” with secondary aspects of “Achievers.” Keeping in mind the differences between Achievers and Experiencers, what conflicts might CanGo confront as it tries to market to this group? |
| 3. | Go to the site of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO). After browsing the site, discuss what influences might shape the behavior of Japanese consumers. Compare those influences with those that affect consumer behavior in the United States. |
| 4. | Based on what you now know about the Japanese market, do you think CanGo has an opportunity to sell its products there? What further steps would you take to gain a better appreciation of Japanese consumers? Finally, discuss briefly whether CanGo can expect from Japanese consumers behavior that is similar to that of the typical CanGo consumer as Andrew portrays that person. |
Write one issue with one recommendation on this case study. Provide 250 words in APA format. This assignment is due sep 26, 2014 at 1pm (PT)
Jermaine Byrant
Nicole Johnson
OVER
RATING
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