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.

Message-Response Involvement

This week's blog I am going to discuss the importance of message-response involvement. "A marketer can boost a person's motivation to process relevant information via one or more of the following techniques: 1) appeal to the consumers' hedonic needs 2) use novella stimuli 3) use prominent stimuli 4) include celebrity endorsers to generate higher interest in commercials 5) provide value that customers appreciate and 6) let customers make the messages" (Solomon, pg. 134).

Appeal to the consumers' hedonic needs: "Ads that use sensory appeals" (Solomon, pg. 134). This billboard advertisement for a nose hair trimmer did a great job of appealing to the eyes because it uses power-lines as well to really emphasize the importance of trimming long nose hairs. The use of other props besides just a billboard really grabs people's attention that are walking or driving by.

Use novel stimuli: "Using unusual cinematography, sudden silences, or unexpected movements, in commercials" (Solomon, pg. 134). This commercial by Planet Green uses unusual cinematography by relaying the message that if people wore less clothing energy would be saved because we would not have to crank up the AC. 

Use prominent stimuli: "Using loud music and fast action, to capture attention in commercials" (Solomon, pg. 134). This commercial by Park Ave BMW is an example of using prominent stimuli because there is constant loud music playing and cars driving fast.

Celebrity endorsers: "People process more information when it comes from someone they admire" (Solomon, pg. 134). This Chrysler commercial featuring Eminem is an example of using celebrity endorsement because many people look up to Eminem and if they see him driving a Chrysler they may go out and buy one too.

Provide value that customers appreciate: "Charmin bathroom tissue set up public toilets in Times Square that hordes of grateful visitors used" (Solomon, pg. 134). Pictured below is Charmin bathroom tissue providing value that customers appreciate by setting up bathrooms in Times Square.

Let customers make the messages: "Consumer-generated content, where freelancers and fans film their own commercials for favorite products" (Solomon, pg. 134). This commercial for the Samsung Galaxy Note is an actual fan-made commercial that turned out to work in Samsung's favor.

What Do We Need?

A lot of consumers look at products and say, "I NEED that." The real question is... do you really need that? There are a few different types of needs such as a biogenic needs, psychogenic needs, utilitarian needs and hedonic needs that help a person decide if they truly need something.

Biogenic needs are "certain elements necessary to maintain life, such as food, water, air, and shelter" (Solomon, pg. 120). "Fred water" does a campaign explaining that without water you will die, they are letting consumers know that water is a biogenic need.

Psychogenic needs are "needs for status, power, and affiliation" (Solomon, pg. 120). Consumers who believe they are upperclass would never think of purchasing lower-class items, they have a psychogenic need for the status they portray. The picture below is a picture of the rich vs. poor. The people living on the right have more of a psychogenic need for status, power, and affiliation than the people living on the left.

Utilitarian needs are when "we emphasize the objective, tangible attributes of products, such as miles per gallon in a car; the amount of fat, calories, and protein in a cheeseburger; or the durability of a pair of blue jeans" (Solomon, pg. 121). The two pictures below are miles per gallon of a Hummer and milers per gallon of a Prius. If a consumer had an utilitarian need for miles per gallon in a car they would for sure choose the Prius because it gets way better gas mileage than the Hummer.

Hedonic needs "are subjective and experiential; here we might look to a product to meet our needs for excitement, self-confidence, or fantasy-perhaps to escape the mundane routine aspects of life" (Solomon, pg. 121). A persons hedonic needs would be fulfilled by buying a Louis Vuitton purse because of the luxurious image it portrays and helps them escape the mundane routine aspects of life when carrying this purse. Everyone knows what the LV stands for and by carrying this purse a persons need for self-confidence could increase.

Types of Message Appeals

Todays post I am going to talk about all of the different types of message appeals there are. "A persuasive message can tug at the heartstrings or scare you, make you laugh, make you cry, or leave you yearning to lean more" (Solomon, pg. 277).

The first type of message appeal is the emotional versus rational appeals. Emotional appeals are commercials that are soft and appeal to the heart. Rational appeals talk about how good a product is and appeal to your head more than heart.

***An example of an emotional appeal would be this commercial made by cheerios. This commercial is an example of emotional appeal because it shows the importance of family especially between grandmas and babies.

***An example of a rational appeal would be this commercial made by Toyota Camry. This commercial is an example of rational appeal because the message is about the car being so awesome with the technology and it gets to the consumers head more so than the heart.

The next type of message appeal is sex appeals. This type of appeal lets consumers believe they will be sexy if they buy this particular product. Consumers are also believed to like sexual ads causing them to buy the product.

***An example of sex appeal would be this commercial by Axe. This commercial says that since girls are getting hotter guys will not be able to keep their cool without buying the new Axe cool metal gel.

The next type of message appeal is humorous appeals. This type of appeal gets peoples attention, but "humor is more likely to be effective when the ad clearly identifies the brand and the funny material does not "swamp" the message" (Solomon, pg. 280).

***An example of humor appeal is this commercial by Doritos. Funny commercials will get consumers to share it with their friends, causing the brand name to spread like wildfire.

Fear appeals are another type of message appeal. "Fear appeals emphasize the negative consequences that can occur unless the consumer changes a behavior or an attitude" (Solomon, pg. 280).

***An example of fear appeal is this commercial with the message to quite smoking. This commercial says smoking kills...is it really worth it??

Montana Meth Project

When I read "The Dark Side of Consumer Behavior" I instantly thought of the Montana Meth project. Growing up Meth became extremely popular in Montana so a group got together and came up with an idea on how to get the word out on how bad this drug truly is. To learn more about the project you can visit their webpage here>> Montana Meth Project!

"Consumer addiction: is a physiological or psychological dependency on products or services" (Solomon, p.237).

Meth is considered an addictive consumption because once you do it once you will become addicted and wont be able to stop. Through ads and commercials this group did a great job of letting people know how messed up Meth can make a person.

Their slogan "not even once" lets people know how addictive this drug really is and to not try it even once.

There ads are disgusting and very detailed, but if they wanted to get the point across they had to show people that it is not worth it. Here are a few examples of the ads they've done.

Here are a few commercials the project did as well. Becoming addicted to something can be hard, but through these ads and commercials I do not understand how someone could even think of trying meth.

First Blog!

Hey guys! My first blog I decided to talk a little bit about myself and then talk about the ideals of beauty as mentioned in chapter 5.

My name is Kyla Haynie and I grew up in Great Falls, MT. My dad use to be a contractor and is obsessed with building houses so I lived in 7 houses just in Great Falls growing up. I did all sorts of sports as a child such as gymnastics, soccer, basketball, swimming, tennis, etc. I came to Bozeman because I absolutely love the beauty of Montana and I grew up coming to every Bobcat game.

I am getting a Marketing major and an International Business and Entrepreneurship minor. I love to camp, hike, fish, golf, and pretty much anything outside. Anyone that loves the outdoors don't be shy and come talk with me :)

Ideal of beauty: is a particular model, or exemplar, or appearance.

In this blog I would like to compare the ideal man and woman. I found the perfect picture to describe this.

Many commercials out there put the image in peoples head that they need to have the "perfect" body. The "perfect" body is portrayed to be a body that is perfectly tone and with washboard abs. I do not think beauty should be portrayed this way. I think more commercials should be portraying the actual self  to save both women and men from eating disorders and such. People should not have to be self conscious of who they actually are, they should be able to walk with confidence because everyone is beautiful is there own way.

This commercial is a good example of how the "ideal woman" acts. In all reality the actual woman does not act like this. This commercial gets woman thinking that they need to act this way and it also makes them think they possibly might if they buy this product.

And this commercial is a good example of how the "ideal man" acts. I love the ending words of this one!