MKT400 Final Exam Notes Manochehry 1
- Consumer Culture: Commonly held societal beliefs that define what is
socially gratifying – Gives meaning to objects and activities
How is Culture Learned?
- Socialization: Learning through observation and the active processing of
information about lived, everyday experience
- Enculturation: The most basic way a consumer learns their own native
culture
- Acculturation: Consumers learn about a culture other than their own
o Factors associated with faster acculturation:
▪ Low ethnic identification, relatively young, low ethnocentrism
▪ Culture Identification: Consumers feel a sense of belonging to
the culture of their ethnic origins
• Makes consumers feel close minded about new things
▪ Consumer Ethnocentrism: A belief among consumers that
their ethnic group is superior to others and that their products
are inferior compared to the ones from their culture
o Shaping: Behaviours slowly adapt through a series of rewards
o Modeling: Process of imitating others’ behaviours
Glocalization: Idea that marketing strategy may be global but the implementation
of that strategy at the marketing tactics level should be local
Micro-Culture: A group of people who share similar values and tastes that are
subsumed within a larger culture.
- Each has role expectations for its members
o Role Conflict: A situation where a consumer experiences conflicting
expectations based on cultural expectations
o Divergence: A situation in which consumers choose membership in
micro-cultures in order to stand out to define themselves
o Habitus: Mental and cognitive structures through which individuals
perceive the world based on their social class
▪ Social Class: A cultural group to which a consumer belongs
based on resources like prestige, income, occupation, and
education
o Homogamy: Marriages in the same social class
o Social Stratification: Division of society into classes
o Stigmatization: The consumer is marked in a way that indicates their
place in society
Age-Based Micro-Culture: People of the same age tend to share similar values and
consumer preferences
- This is especially true of teens and seems to apply across nations leading to a
world teen culture
- Cohort: A group of people who have lived the same major experiences, which
end up shaping their core values
o Marketers pay close attention to generational effects in order to
successfully promote products to each cohort
Types of Groups MKT400 Final Exam Notes Manochehry 2
- Reference Group: Group of individuals who have significant relevance for a
consumer and who has an impact on the consumer’s evaluations, aspirations,
and behaviour
- Group Influences: Ways in which group members attitudes, options, and
behaviours of others within the group
- Group members
o Share common goals and interests
o Communicate with, and influence one another
o Share a set of expectations, rules, and roles
o View themselves as members of a common social unit
- Primary Group: A group that includes members who have frequent, direct
contact with one another
o Generally have the most influence on their members, and social ties
for these groups are very strong
- Secondary Group: Interaction within the group is much less frequent than
in a primary group
o The influence of these groups on members is not as strong as the
influence of primary groups on their members and social ties are not
as strong as they are in primary groups
o Brand Communities: Groups of consumers who develop
relationships based on shared interest or product usage
- Formal Group: A group in which a consumer formally becomes a member
o Usually have a set of stated rules, accepted values, and codes of
conduct that members are expected to follow
- Informal Group: A group that has no membership or application
requirements, and codes of conduct may be nonexistent
o May not have as much of an influence as formal groups but they still
have an effect
- Aspirational Group: A group in which a consumer desires to become a
member of – Often appeals to the consumer’s ideal self
- Dissociative Group: A group to which a consumer does not want to belong
Generations
- Baby Boomers (1945-1964)
o Grew up in the post-war economic prosperity of the 50’s and 60’s
o Have had a significant impact on popular and consumer culture in
North America
o Enormous buying power
o Expected to continue to have a transformative impact on sectors of
the economy such as health care, pensions, real estate, and tourism
- Generation X (1965-1979)
o Grew up in the turbulent economic climate of the 70’s and 80’s
o Characterized by the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union
o Careers have been marked by recession and recovery
o Described as independent and self-reliant, cynical, and skeptical
- Generation Y (1980-2000)
o Aka. Millennials MKT400 Final Exam Notes Manochehry 3
o Grown up in the midst of economic, cultural, and technological
globalization
o Known to have children later and stay in school longer
o More ethnically and culturally diverse
o Sophisticated consumers who are cynical of companies that try to
persuade them through mass marketing – prefer to be treated as
heterogeneous individuals rather than a homogeneous mass
Peer Pressure: The extent to which group members feel pressure to behave in
accordance with group expectations
Different Kinds of Power
- Referent Power: Being trusted, respected, admired
- Legitimate Power: Having a position of power
- Reward Power: Rewarding individuals for compliance
- Expert Power: Experience, skills, knowledge
- Coercive Power: Fear of negative consequences
Word-of-Mouth (WOM): Information about products, services, and experiences
that is transmitted from consumer to consumer
- Organic WOM: Occurs naturally when consumers truly enjoy a
product/service and want to share their experience with others
- Amplified WOM: Occurs when marketers attempt to launch or accelerate
WOM in existing customer circles
- Positive WOM: When consumers spread info from one to another about
positive consumer experiences with companies
- Negative WOM: Takes place when consumers pass on negative info about
one company to another
Guerilla Marketing: Marketing a product using unconventional means
- Buzz Marketing: Includes marketing efforts that focus on generating
excitement that is spread from consumer to consumer
- Viral Marketing: Uses online technologies to facilitate WOM by having
consumers spread marketing messages through online conversations
- Stealth Marketing: Deceiving consumers about the involvement of
marketers in a communication
- Shilling: Compensating consumers to talk about, or promote, products
without disclosing they that are working for the company
- Infiltrating: Using fake identities in online discussions to promote a product
Diffusion Process: The way in which new products are adopted and spread
throughout a marketplace
- Different groups of consumers tend to adopt new products at different rates
- Innovators and early adopter consumers tend to be influential when
discussing products and services with members of other groups
o They tend to be opinion leaders for specific product categories
o Innovators are risk takers and are financially well off
- Early adopter consumers are generally young and well educated
- Late majority consumers, and laggards, tend to be more cautious about
buying new products and wait significantly longer to buy the latest
innovations MKT400 Final Exam Notes Manochehry 4
- Innovators – Early Adopters – Early Majority – Late Majority – Laggards
Consumer Decision Making
- Decision Making Process
o Need Recognition
o Search for Information
o Evaluation of Alternatives
o Choice
o Post-Choice Evaluation
- Decision Making Perspectives
o Rational Decision Making Perspective: Assumes that humans are
rational and carefully consider their options and can identify the
expected value associated with a purchase
▪ Carefully comparing various brands and attributes of products
o Experimental Decision Making Perspective: Assumes that
consumers often reach decisions based on the affect/feeling attached
to the product/behaviour
▪ Focuses on hedonic value, considering sheer enjoyment rather
than cognitive effort
o Behaviour Influence Decision Making Perspective: Assumes that
behaviour is influenced by environmental forces rather than cognitive
thinking
▪ Helps explain how consumers react to store layout/design
- Risk in Decision Making
o Decision making approaches depend on the amount of involvement a
consumer has with a product category/purchase and the amount of
risk involves with the decision
o As involvement increases, consumers are more careful with their
decision making
o Financial Risk: Cost of the product
o Social Risk: How other consumers will view the purchase
o Performance Risk: Likelihood of a product performing as expected
o Physical Risk: Safety of product, likelihood of physical harm being
caused from the product
o Time Risk: Time required to search for the product, time necessary
for the product to be serviced/maintained
Limited and Extended Decision Making
- Extended Decision Making: Consumers search for the best information that
will help them reach a decision – high involvement, high risk
- Limited Decision Making: Consumers search very little for information and
often reach decisions based on prior beliefs – low involvement, low risk
- Habitual Decision Making: Consumers generally do not seek information at
all, they recognize a product and pick it based on habit
o Brand Loyalty: Deeply held commitment to rebuy a product or
service regardless of situational influence that could lead to switching
behaviour
▪ Reduces searching time drastically MKT400 Final Exam Notes Manochehry 5
▪ Allows consumers to enjoy benefits that come with long-term
relationships with co
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