Read the case on page 211 in your text and answer, using concepts from the chapter, questions 1, 2 & 3.

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Chapter 10
Buying and Disposing

By Michael R. Solomon

Consumer Behavior

Buying, Having, and Being

Sixth Edition

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Opening Vignette: Rob

• What kind of background research did Rob do on the car?
• What preconceptions did Rob have about his ability to negotiate the deal?
• What were Rob’s perceptions about the salesperson?
• Why did Rob feel that he negotiated well when he paid more than he expected?

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Autobytel

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Situational Effects on
Consumer Behavior

• Consumption Situation:
• Factors beyond characteristics of the person and of the product that influence the buying and/or using of products and services
• Situational Self-Image:
• The role a person plays at any one time.

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Purchase and Postpurchase Issues

Figure 10.1

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Situation Influences Choice

• Clothing choices often are heavily influenced by the situation in which they need to be worn.

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Social and Physical Surroundings

• Co-consumers:
• Other patrons in the setting
• Density
• The actual number of people occupying a space
• Crowding:
• Exists only if a negative affective state occurs as a results of density
• Temporal Factors:
• Time Poverty: A consumer’s feeling that he or she is pressed for time

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Physical Environments

• Many stores and services (like airlines) try to differentiate themselves in terms of the physical environments they offer, touting amenities such as comfort.

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Temporal Factors

• Economic Time:
• Time is an economic variable (i.e., it is a resource that must be allocated)
• Time Poverty: A consumer’s feeling that they are pressed for time
• Psychological Time
• Time Categories

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Time Poverty

• Time poverty is creating opportunities for many new products (like portable soups) that let people multitask.

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Drawings of Time

Figure 10.2

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Psychological Time

• Linear Separable Time:
• Events proceed in an orderly sequence and different times are well defined.
• Procedural Time:
• When people ignore the clock and do things “when the time is right”
• Circular or Cyclic Time
• Time is governed by natural cycles
• Queuing Theory
• The mathematical study of waiting in lines

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Antecedent States

• If It Feels Good, Buy It…
• Pleasure and Arousal:
• Two dimensions which determine if a shopper will react positively or negatively to a consumption environment
• Mood:
• Some combination of pleasure and arousal
• Consumers give more positive evaluations when they are in a good mood
• Can be affected by store design, weather, or other factors specific to the consumer

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Dimensions of Emotional States

Figure 10.3

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Shopping: A Job or An Adventure?

• Reasons for Shopping:
• Shopping Orientation: General attitudes about shopping
• Hedonic Shopping Motives:
• Social Experiences
• Sharing of Common Interests
• Interpersonal Attraction
• Instant Status
• The Thrill of the Hunt
• E-Commerce: Clicks Versus Bricks

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Customizing at Covergirl

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Pros and Cons of E-Commerce

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Discussion Question

• E-Commerce is changing the way people shop. E-commerce sites like Bluefly give shoppers the option of shopping without leaving home.
• What products do you not feel comfortable buying online? Why?

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Retailing as Theater

• Retail Theming
• The strategy of creating imaginative environments that transport shoppers into fantasy worlds or providing other kinds of stimulation.

• Store Image
• The personality of a store including the store’s location, merchandise suitability, and the knowledge and congeniality of its sales staff.
• Atmospherics
• The “conscious designing of space and its various dimensions to evoke certain effects in buyers.”

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FedEx Brand Position

Figure 10.4

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In-Store Decision Making

• Spontaneous Shopping
• Unplanned buying: Occurs when a person is unfamiliar with a store’s layout or when under some time pressure; or, a person may be reminded to buy something by seeing it
• Impulse buying: Occurs when the person experiences a sudden urge that cannot be resisted
• Impulse items: Items conveniently placed near a checkout

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Spontaneous Shopping

• Smart retailers recognize that many purchase decisions are made at the time the shopper is in the store. That’s one reason why grocery carts sometimes resemble billboards on wheels.

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One Consumer’s Image
of an Impulse Buyer

Figure 10.5

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Categorizing Shoppers
by Advance Planning

• Planners
• Tend to know what products and specific brands they will buy beforehand.
• Partial Planners
• Know they need certain products, but do not decide on a specific brand until they are in the store
• Impulse Purchasers
• Do no advance planning

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Point-of-Purchase Stimuli

• Point-of-Purchase Stimuli (POP)
• An elaborate product display or demonstration, a coupon-dispensing machine, or someone giving out free samples
• Some more dramatic POP displays:
• Timex
• Kellogg’s Corn Flakes
• Elizabeth Allen
• Tower Records
• Trifari
• Charmin
• The Farnam Company

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Music Samplers

• Music samplers that allow shoppers to check out the latest music tunes before buying have become a fixture in many stores.

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The Salesperson

• Exchange Theory:
• Every interaction involves an exchange of value.
• Commercial Friendships:
• When service personnel and customers form relationships
• Identity Negotiation:
• A relationship in which some agreement must be reached about the roles of each participant
• Interaction Styles:
• Salespeople can adapt their approach according to customer’s traits and preferences

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Postpurchase Satisfaction

• Consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction (CS/D):
• Determined by the overall feelings, or attitude, a person has about a product after it has been purchased.
• Perceptions of Product Quality:
• Consumers use a number of cues to infer quality
• Quality Is What We Expect It To Be:
• Expectancy Disconfirmation Model: Consumers form beliefs about product performance based on prior experience with the product and/or communications about the product that imply a certain level of quality.
• Managing Expectations: Customer dissatisfaction is usually due to expectations exceeding the company’s ability to deliver.

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Quality Perceptions

• This ad for Ford relies on a common claim about quality.

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Customer Expectation Zones

Figure 10.6

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Acting on Dissatisfaction

• Three Possible Courses of Action
• Voice Response: The consumer can appeal directly to the retailer for redress.
• Private Response: Express dissatisfaction about the store or product to friends and/or boycott the store.
• Third-Party Response: The consumer can take legal action against the merchant, register a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, or write a letter to the newspaper.
• TQM: Going to the Gemba
• Gemba: The one true source of information.

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Going to the Gemba

Figure 10.7

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Planet Feedback

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Product Disposal

• Disposal Options:
• (1) Keep the item
• (2) Temporarily Dispose of it
• (3) Permanently dispose of it
• Lateral Cycling: Junk Versus “Junque”
• Lateral Cycling: When already purchased objects are sold to others or exchanged for other things.
• Underground Economy: Secondary markets (e.g. eBay)

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Consumers’ Disposal Options

Figure 10.8

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Volkswagen

• This Dutch ad says, “And when you’ve had enough of it, we’ll clear it away nicely.”

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Discussion Question

• How do secondary markets created by such sites as eBay affect the sales of new goods from traditional retailers? What can they do to compete with these products?

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Used CD’s

• The used recording market is alive and well.

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ReDo