Internal variables of consumer behavior

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 470.

According to psychological theory, consumer behavior is influenced by internal and external variables. Knowledge of these variables can help marketing communicators to create successful advertising.

Internal variables includeperception, attitude, and learning (познание. Per­ception is an individual's way of interpreting what he sees, hears, touches, smells, or tastes. His way will be very different from another person's. Perception is subjective, entirely within one person's mind. Two people may look at the same car. One sees its color and style. The other sees its capacity and construction. One buys and the other doesn't, although both may have similar transportation requirements and ability to pay. Perception is also selective. At any moment, we are surrounded by hundreds of stimuli, by sights, sounds, and other sensa­tions. But the human mind can perceive only one stimulus at a time. The mind selects those that are most important, or that it is most ready for. One task of advertising is to communicate product image, that is, to have consumers perceive the product, subjectively, in a certain way. Another is to get their attention, to have them select the desired stimuli.

Attitudes have three components: feelings toward an object (such as a product), knowledge about the object, and readiness to behave toward the object in a certain way. The three components are generally consistent with each other. Someone who has favorable feelings to­ward a product is more likely to learn about it and to buy it. This is an extremely important principle in advertising. If a person has unfavor­able feellngs toward a product, and those can be changed to positive feelings, his or her entire attitude is likely to change. The potential con­sumer will be much more inclined to study and buy the product. Simi­larly, increasing someone's knowledge of the product, or inducing one to try it for the first time, will also influence the other components of one's attitude. Advertising that affects all three components increases the probability of changing attitudes. Therefore, most advertisers combine all three approaches in their appeals. They try to create favorable feelings, give information, and promote purchasing at the same time.

A knowledge of learning theory can also be applied effectively in advertising and merchandising.Four principles are of particular impor­tance: meaning, contiguity, reward, and repetition. The principle of meaning is used to relate something in an advertisement to the con­sumer in a personal way. "Would you like a 14K gold chain for $8?" is meaningful to the person who would indeed like a gold chain, "if you are a tall or big man . . . here's a great-looking knit that fits!" is meaning­ful to a tall or big man. The principle of contiguity is used when, in an advertisement, the product is pictured in a particular situation. The situ­ation illustrates a mood or quality which the producer wants the con­sumer to associate with the product. An example is someone smoking a cigarette in a beautiful mountain setting.

The reward principle is employed in an advertisement promising favorable results from using the product: "Scope in the new plastic bottle takes care of morning breath and morning fumbles." Of the four learning principles, repetition is perhaps the most used. The brand name might be repeated frequently in the advertisement; the same advertisement might appear on television several times in one evening.