- 4Ps
- the “marketing mix”—product, price, promotion, and place
- attitudes
- a learned set of emotions, beliefs, and behaviors developed toward a particular brand, object, person, thing, or event
- beliefs
- ideas that a person holds as being true
- buyer’s black box
- a model used in the study of the buying behavior of consumers
- cognitive dissonance
- the mental conflict that occurs when a person’s behaviors and beliefs do not align; also referred to as buyer’s remorse
- complex buying behavior
- the consumer buying behavior that occurs when the consumer is highly involved with the purchase and perceives significant differences between brands
- consumer buying behavior
- the actions taken by consumers before buying a product or service
- consumer decision process
- the process through which consumers become aware of and identify their needs, collect information on how to best solve those needs, evaluate alternative options, make a purchasing decision, and evaluate their purchase
- consumer market
- a market where consumers purchase products and/or services for consumption
- cultural factors
- a set of values or ideologies of a particular community or group of individuals that include culture, subcultures, social class, and gender
- culture
- the pattern of learned and shared behavior and beliefs of a particular social, ethnic, or age group
- dissonance-reducing buying behavior
- any activity aimed at decreasing the tension or feelings of discomfort and unease that accompany an unfamiliar purchase
- economic situation
- a measure of a consumer’s income and financial situation
- environmental factors
- factors such as music, lighting, ambient noise, and smell that can either discourage or encourage a consumer’s purchase decision
- family
- a group of persons united by ties of marriage, blood, or adoption, or those who live in the same household
- gender
- the socially constructed roles, behaviors, and norms of individuals, which vary between societies and over time
- habitual buying behavior
- consumer buying decisions made out of “habit” and without much deliberation or product comparison
- heuristics
- mental shortcuts that allow people to solve problems and make judgments quickly and efficiently
- learning
- the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or being taught
- life cycle stages
- various stages in a human’s life, including fetus, baby, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and elderly
- lifestyle
- the habits, attitudes, tastes, moral standards, economic level, etc. that together constitute the mode of living for an individual or group
- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
- a theory of motivation by Abraham Maslow which states that five categories of human needs dictate an individual’s behavior
- motivation
- the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors
- occupation
- an activity or task with which one occupies oneself, usually the productive activity, service, trade, or craft for which one is regularly paid
- perception
- the manner in which sensory information is organized, interpreted, and consciously experienced
- personality
- the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s distinctive character
- product differentiation
- a marketing strategy in which a brand identifies the one thing that makes it genuinely different from competitors
- reference groups
- groups that consumers compare themselves to or associate with
- roles
- the set of norms, values, behaviors, and personality characteristics attached to a status
- selective attention
- the process of directing one’s awareness to relevant stimuli while ignoring irrelevant stimuli in the environment
- selective distortion
- a tendency of people to interpret information in a manner that supports what they already believe
- selective retention
- the tendency of people to retain only part of the information to which they are exposed
- social class
- a group of people within a society that possesses the same or similar socioeconomic status
- social factors
- factors that are prevalent in the society where a consumer lives
- status
- the relative social, professional, or other standing of an individual
- subculture
- a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those in the larger culture
- variety-seeking buying behavior
- the buying tendencies of consumers who do not have a high involvement with a product when there are significant differences between brands