Course Wrap-up

Consumer Behavior is defined as "the study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and desires" (Solomon, pg. 7).

For my final blog I am going to sum up a few major points I took away from the semester. The main points that stood out to me were how attitudes, lifestyles, personality, and culture all affect consumer behavior. 

Attitudes: "lasting, general evaluation of people, objects, advertisements, or issues" (Solomon, pg. 249). A consumer makes decisions by their attitude. When a consumer has a bad attitude they are most likely going to just go buy what they need from the store. If a consumer has a good attitude they would most likely shop around and buy items they do not necessarily need. Consumers choose certain products due their attitude toward certain products. The consumer shown below will make her decision on what product to buy due to her attitude or preference toward a brand. 

Lifestyles: "defines a pattern of consumption that reflects a person's choices of how to spend her time and money" (Solomon, pg. 469). If a person has a more outdoorsy lifestyle they will follow more ads from stores such as REI. This REI ad lets customers know their store will have the gear needed for a customer to take an adventure, such as one up a mountain. 

Personality: "a person's unique psychological makeup and how it consistently influences the way a person responds to her environment" (Solomon, pg. 213). A consumer who has a personality of partying is more than likely to respond to alcoholic ads. A consumer who has a serious/business personality is more than likely to respond to business ads. The Absolut ad below is targeted toward the party personality, whereas the briefcase ad is targeted toward the serious/business personality. 

Culture: "a society's personality. It includes both abstract ideas, such as values and ethics, and material objects and services, such as the automobiles, clothing, food, art, and sports a society procedures" (Solomon, pg. 525). The Mexican culture tends to eat more mexican food than any other culture, whereas the American culture tends to much on burgers and fires a lot more. When a consumer sees the first picture below they relate it to the Mexican culture, whereas when a consumer sees the second picture they relate it to the American culture. 

Overall, there are a lot of factors that determine a consumers behavior. The main ones that stood out to me throughout the course were how attitudes, lifestyles, personality, and culture all affect consumer behavior. A consumer does not make a decision "just because", there is always a reason behind the decision made. 

Product Placement

"Product placement is the insertion of real products in fictional movies, TV shows, books, and plays" (Solomon, pg. 555). "Marketers pay about $25 billion per year to plug their brands in TV and movies" (Solomon, pg. 555). Marketers choose to pay this large amount of money to put their brand in popular shows so consumers become more aware of their brand. If consumers see one of their idols using a particular brand, they are more likely to buy it. 

This use of the Mini Cooper in the movie, The Italian Job is an example of product placement. Throughout this movie they make sure watchers clearly know that the car used is a Mini Cooper. Also throughout the movie it shows all of the unique features the Mini Cooper has, hopefully leading consumers to purchase this vehicle. 

The product used in the TV show American Idol is Coke. All of the judges have the Coke cup in front of them throughout the TV show. People watching American Idol will most likely be influenced to purchase Coke with the amount this product is shown throughout the show. 

Coke is also used is this children's book. Children learn a lot from things they see. When a parent is reading their child this book, the parent may choose Coke over Pepsi when at the grocery store because of this book. When someone likes a book, they are most likely going to trust and purchase the brands mentioned. 

The product used in the play Grease, is the 1948 Ford De Luxe vehicle. This movie was very popular back in the day and showing how cool this car is, leads consumers to make a potential purchase. 

Overall, in order for consumers to become more aware of particular brands, marketers choose to pay a large amount of money to put their brand in popular shows, books, and plays. 

Holiday Rituals

Throughout cultures there are holiday rituals, meaning people take certain days to stray from their normal routine and celebrate the holiday. As the holiday's change, the rituals change. The American culture tends to celebrate Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's Day, New Years, Easter, Thanksgiving, and a handful of others.

Christmas-> "Myths and rituals fill the Christmas holiday, from Santa's adventures at the North Pole to others' adventures under the mistletoe" (Solomon, pg. 537). The Christmas holiday ritual is for Santa to deliver gifts to the homes while the children are sleeping. Once the children awaken on Christmas morning they will have a handful of gifts both under their Christmas tree they decorated with their family and the stockings they hung on their fireplace.

Halloween-> "In contrast to Christmas, it celebrates evil instead of good and death rather than birth" (Solomon, pg. 538). The Halloween holiday ritual is to get dressed up either in a scary costume or as a favorite character. Parents take their kids from house to house saying "trick or treat" and in return they get handfuls of candy. As children get older they will no longer go trick or treating, they will go to haunted houses.

Valentine's Day-> "We relax our standards about sex and love and we express feelings we may hide during the rest of the year" (Solomon, pg. 538). The Valentine's day holiday ritual is to go out to a nice romanic dinner with a loved one. The male typically brings the female flowers, chocolates, a teddy bear, and/or balloons as a gift to show their love.

New Year's-> They typical New Year's holiday ritual is to have a big party with friends and family to celebrate the new year. Around midnight on December 31st, people will turn on their TV to count down and watch the ball drop to celebrate the new year. A toast of champaign and blowing of party whistles are also common.

Easter-> The typical Easter holiday ritual is to die eggs, hunt for eggs filled with candy, and find Easter baskets full of gifts that the Easter bunny hid over the night.

Thanksgiving-> The typical Thanksgiving holiday ritual is to have family gather at one house or restaurant and have turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, vegetables, cranberries, pumpkin pie, and much more. The idea of Thanksgiving is to be together with family while eating a big feast and giving thanks to everything everyone is thankful for.

As the holiday's change, the rituals change. Holiday rituals are a nice time for people to switch up their normal routine, and spend time with family and friends. From year to year these holiday rituals typically stay exactlythe same. 

Age Subcultures

The generation a person grew up in changes a consumers purchasing decisions. "All things equal, we are more likely to have things in common with others of our own age than with those younger or older" (Solomon, pg. 498). This weeks blog I am going to discuss the change in advertisements and purchasing decisions throughout the different generations. 

"The Interbellum Generation- People born at the beginning of the 20th century" (Solomon, pg. 499). Jell-O seemed to be a popular dessert to those consumers born at the beginning of the 20th century. Nowadays people will tend to choose chocolate moose or tiramisu over Jell-o. The food preference in dessert has seemed to change. 

"The Silent Generation- People born between the two World Wars" (Solomon, pg. 499). This particular ad fits this generation because woman have always been know as the lower power to men, especially in the olden days. This ketchup brand wants consumers to know that a man does not need to be around to assist their woman in opening the bottle, it is so simple woman can do it. 

"The War Baby Generation- People born during World War II" (Solomon, pg. 499). This ad is perfect for this generation because during World War II woman really started helping in the workforce, proving they could do it too. 

"The Baby Boom Generation- People born between 1946 and 1964" (Solomon, pg. 499). Advertisements during this time featured a lot of babies, due to the increase in woman producing children. 

"Generation X- People born between 1965-1985" (Solomon, pg. 499). As you can tell, during this generation ads starting to feature more woman and they started to become "sexier". 

"Generation Y- People born between 1986-2002" (Solomon, pg. 499). Smoking seemed to be popular during this generation, causing an increase in ads targeted toward cigarettes to become more popular. This particular ad shows how much fun consumers will have if they smoke Salem Lights. People in this generation were also brought up with the use of technology, meaning people born in this generation (me) are fairly familiar with technology and know how to adapt to the increases in it more so than the previous generations. 

"Generation Z- People born 2003 and later" (Solomon, pg. 499).  People born in this generation have grown up with pretty much the constant use of technology. Consumers in this generation will be persuaded by ads more focused on the changes in technology. 

As you can see, throughout the years ads have changed both is quality and what advertisers have to offer to consumers. Younger consumers will purchase more high-tech products, whereas older consumers will continue to purchase products they trust and are familiar with.

Retailing as Theater

With the increase in ways to shop though new technology and the amount of stores available nowadays, it makes it hard for U.S. malls to stand out. Stores have to turn to retail theming, which is "the quest to entertain means to many stores go all out to create imaginative environments that transport shoppers to fantasy worlds or provide other kinds of stimulation" (Solomon, pg. 348). The four types of retail theming are landscape, marketscape, cyberspace, and mindscape themes. 

"Landscape themes rely on associations with images of nature, Earth, animals, and the physical body" (Solomon, pg. 348). REI does a great job of landscape advertising in the majority of their ads. REI is a sports store, therefore they like to show consumers about all of the outdoor adventures REI could make possible for them.  This particular advertisement shows an intense rock-climbing type of landscape. 

"Marketscape themes build on associations with manmade places" (Solomon, pg. 348). The Paris hotel in Las Vegas would be an example of this, which represents parts of real Paris, France with the Eiffel Tower. 

"Cyberspace themes build on images of information and communications technology" (Solomon, pg. 348). An example of a cyberspace theme would be Groupon. Groupon uses this advertising tactic to grow the Groupon community. When existing users see this they will most likely refer a friend because it takes minimal effort and they will score $20 to go toward a product on Groupon, making Groupon's community to grow. 

"Mindscape themes draw on abstract ideas and concepts, introspection and fantasy, and often possess spiritual overtones" (Solomon, pg. 348). An example of a mindscape theme would be the Carneros Inn in Napa Valley, which offers Wine-themed health treatments.

Overall, retailers need to come up with ways on how to make shoppers choose their product/store over others. Therefore, Innovative merchants today use landscape, marketscape, cyberspace, and mindscape themes to make that happen (Solomon, pg. 348). 

Brand Personality

Brand Personality: "The set of traits people attribute to a product as if it were a person" (Solomon, pg. 223).

Consumers give brands personalities without even realizing it. When consumers see products they instantly think if it is for active, rich, classy, cheap, etc. kind of people, just by how the product looks and by what they have heard about the brand. What do you think of when you hear the brands Victoria Secret, Lululemon, Tiffany, and Carlo Rossi?

When a consumer hears the brand Victoria Secret they most likely think sexy, quality, woman, pink, etc. If someone has never heard of Victoria Secret and saw the advertisement below they would instantly think the exact same things. This particular brand wants consumers to see them as a store with sexy clothing.

When a consumer hears the brand Lululemon they most likely think athletic, rich, outdoorsy, quality, etc. If someone has never heard of Lululemon and saw the advertisement below they would think athletic as well. This particular brand focuses on clothing for people who enjoy being comfy in cute athletic wear as well as for people who like to work out on a regular basis. 

What do you think of when you hear the brand Tiffany? Most of us think rich, classy, love, etc. If someone has never heard of Tiffany and they saw the advertisement below they would most likely come up with the same brand personalities as consumers who are familiar with the brand.

Lastly, what do you think of when you hear the brand Carlo Rossi? Most of us think college, cheap, sweet, etc. If someone has never hear of Carlo Rossi, but saw the big jug advertised they would most likely think cheap, college life, etc. as well.

Learning

"Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior caused by experience" (Solomon, pg. 83). Many consumers will know what jingle goes to what product even if they do not purchase those particular products, this is called incidental learning (Solomon, pg. 83). Click the link below to see if you can correctly identify the brand by its jingle. Also, view the YouTube video to see 15 commercial jingles in under 3 minutes. Name That Brand!

Consumers are also learning about company logos on a daily basis even if they do not realize it. The more a person sees a logo, the more they become aware of the company. The problem companies run into a lot of the time is that consumers may know their jingle, logo, or slogan, but they may not know what exactly the company does. Click the link below to see how many logos you can correctly name. Which ones do you know, but have no idea what they are for? Can You Name The Logos?

Along with jingles and logos, slogans are very important in advertising. A company needs to make sure they have a catchy slogan so when someone thinks of a company they can instantly say their slogan. Click the link below to see how many slogans you can match with the brand logo. Can You Name the Slogan That Matches the Brand Logo?

Consumer behavior is influenced by the awareness of a product. If a consumer is aware of the jingle, logo, or slogan they are more likely to buy that product. The more known a product is, the more consumers can trust it.