Consumer Behaviour

NAME: KRISHNAN GANESAN

REGISTRATION NUMBER: 200312897

SUBJECT: CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

ADDRESS: AGILISYS 26-28 HAMMERSMITH GROVE LONDON W6 7AW

EMAIL: [e-mail]

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

QUESTION NO.13:

Explain with neat block diagrams various consumer models studied by you.

ANSWER:

The consumer models are set out below accompanied by the requisite block diagrams:

THE NICOSIA MODEL:

In recent years, marketing scholars have built buyer behaviour models taking into consideration the views of the marketer. The Nicosia model developed by Francesco Nicosia is one such model. This model tries to explain buyer behaviour by establishing a link between the organization and its prospective consumer. The model suggests that the message from the organization first influences the predisposition of the consumer towards the product/service. Based on the situation, the consumer will have a certain attitude towards the product. This may result in a search for the product or an evaluation of the product attributes by the consumer. If the above step satisfies the consumer, it may result in a positive response, with a decision to buy the product lest the reverse is the outcome.

DIAGRAMMATIC REPRESENTATION OF THE NICOSIA MODEL

Explanation of the Nicosia model diagram

The Nicosia Model groups the activities into 4 basic areas as postulated below:

FIELD 1

This embodies 2 sub areas, viz. the attributes of the consumer and the attributes of the organization. The advertising message flowing from the Company will touch the attributes of the consumer. Depending upon the manner the message is received by the consumer, certain attributes are developed. This newly inculcated attributes are transformed into the inputs for area 2.

AREA 2

Is related to the search and evaluation undertaken by the consumer, of the advertised product, and also, to verify if other viable alternatives exist. In case this step results in a motivation to purchase the product/service offered, the motivation forms the input for the third area

AREA 3

Is representative of the explanation of how the consumer actually procures the product.

AREA 4

Is related to the utilization of the product/service procured. This area may also be employed as an input to receive feedback on the results of the sales effort to the organization.

ENGEL, BLACKWELL AND MINIARD MODEL

The core of the EBM Model is a decision process, which is augmented with inputs from information processing and other influencing factors. The Model has four distinctive sections viz. Input, Information Processing, Decision Process, and Variables influencing decision process.

Information Input

Information from marketing and non-marketing sources are fed into the Information Processing section of the model. The model also suggests additional information to be collected as available from memory or when post-purchase dissonance occurs.

Information Processing

Before information can be used in the rest of the model, the consumer will first be exposed to the information processing. That is, the consumer must get exposed to the information, attend to it, comprehend and understand it, accept it, and finally maintain it in memory. Any selective attention/exposure mechanisms that may occur in post-purchase dissonance would operate at this stage.

Decision Process

Need Recognition: This acknowledges the fact that there exists a problem. The individual is aware that there exists a need to be satisfied.
Search: When enough information is available in memory to take a decision, then only internal search will be required. If internal information is limited, an external search for information is undertaken.
Alternative Evaluation: An evaluation of the alternatives found during the search is undertaken. It is observed from the model that the attitudes and beliefs are taken into account during this process.
Purchase: A purchase is made on the chosen alternative.
Outcomes: The outcome can be either positive/negative depending on whether the purchase satisfies the original perceived need. Dissatisfaction can lead to post-purchase dissonance.

Variables influencing Decision Process

This considers the individual, social, and situational factors influencing the decision processes.

This model is very flexible and coherent. It includes human processes like memory, information processing and considers both the positive and negative purchase outcomes. However the model has been criticized on the somewhat vague definition of the role of influencing variables, and also it is felt that the separation of information search and alternative evaluation is to an extent, artificial.

THE SHETH MODEL OF ORGANISATIONAL BUYING

This model concentrates on the purchasing process and highlights the importance of the following four main factors:

Expectations of the individuals constituting the Decision Making Unit (DMU)

These elements are represented by the block in the diagram below highlighted as 1. According to this model, every person in the DMU brings with them, their own unique set of attitudes and orientations. The individual background like education, role orientation, and lifestyle condition their expectations. The following factors will also influence their expectations:

The various sources of information like sales people, trade shows, exhibitions, press releases, direct mail etc;
Perceptual Distortion (1d in the Block Diagram);
The person’s previous experience (1e in the Block Diagram);
The active search (1c in the Block Diagram)

Characteristics of both the Product and the Organisation

The model refers to the actual buying process and contends that it is affected by the following:

Product specific factors like:

• Time Pressure: Group decision will take a longer time as compared to individual ones
• Perceived Risk: More the risk, more the members involved in DMU
• Type of Purchase: When the problem is extensive, more members will be involved in DMU

Company specific problems like:

• Organisational Orientation
• Organisation size
• Degree of Centralisation

The Nature of the Decision Making Process

The model differentiates between autonomous decisions and joint decisions. It also considers the following:

• Problem Solving
• Persuasion
• Bargaining
• Politicking

The Situation Variables

These variables are coded (4) in the Model. Here the model refers to Unforeseen factors, those which fall outside the control of the DMU and could affect the purchasing organization of supplies and can include, for example labour problems, major breakdowns, cash flow problems, bankruptcy etc.

DIAGRAMMATIC REPRESENTATION OF THE SHETH MODEL FOLLOWS THIS PAGE

QUESTION NO.8

Explain the meaning of Consumerism. What were the efforts taken by the Government of India towards protection of consumer rights?. Explain the limitations for the growth of consumerism in India.

ANSWER:

Consumerism is the tendency of people to identify strongly with products or services they consume, especially those with commercial brand names and obvious status-enhancing appeal, e.g. an expensive automobile, rich jewellery. It is a pejorative term which most people deny, having some more specific excuse or rationalization for consumption other than the idea that they're "compelled to consume". A culture that has a high amount of consumerism is referred to as a consumer culture.
To those who accept the idea of consumerism, these products are not seen as valuable in themselves, but rather as social signals that allow them to identify like-minded people through consumption and display of similar products. Few would yet go so far, though, as to admit that their relationships with a product or brand name could be substitutes for the healthy human relationships lacking in dysfunctional modern societies. The older term "conspicuous consumption" spread to describe this in the United States in the 1960s, but was soon linked to larger debates about media theory, culture jamming, and its corollary productivism. The term and concept of "conspicuous consumption" originated at the turn of the 20th century in the writing of economist Thorstein Veblen. The term describes an apparently irrational and confounding form of economic behaviour. Veblen's scathing proposal that this unnecessary consumption is a form of status display is made in darkly humorous observations like the following: "It is true of dress in even a higher degree than of most other items of consumption, that people will undergo a very considerable degree of privation in the comforts or the necessaries of life in order to afford what is considered a decent amount of wasteful consumption; so that it is by no means an uncommon occurrence, in an inclement climate, for people to go ill clad in order to appear well dressed." (The Theory of the Leisure Class, 1899). "Overcoming Consumerism" is a growing philosophy. It is a term that embodies the active resistance to consumerism. It is being used by many universities as a term for course material and as an introduction to the study of marketing from a non-traditional approach. Both consumerism and overcoming consumerism are influenced by the herding instinct in humans.
CONSUMERISM IN INDIA
In India, as a developing economy, the plight of the consumers is not different form that of their conuterparts in the rest of the world. Indian consumers are not all that well educated and therefore are unable to comprehend and understand the complex marketing methodologies. They are exploited and more often than not are victims of false claims of products, misled by deceptive advertisements, unreliable packaging and abysmal after sales services. Due to the aforeaid perils, there is seen a surging wave of consumer awareness leading to the growth of consumerism and an increasing demand for Consumer Protection in India.

The total spending power of the Indian youth is about $6.5 billion--their own discretionary income plus what their families spend on them. They carry considerable economic clout, as well as the power to influence their parents' purchasing. Indian teens alone buy nearly 60% of the fizzy drinks, chocolates, and jeans sold in India. That's a reality marketers in India are increasingly waking up to, as demographic trends push the number of young consumers higher every year. And unlike their parents, this computer-savvy generation has no qualms about consumerism.
Consider this:
In the 1950s, there were just two cars in India: the boxy Ambassador and the equally stolid Fiat. The waiting list took six years, and customers took whatever color rolled off the assembly line that month. Now there is a choice at every conceivable price point. The consumer is simply spoilt for choice with auto manufacturers falling on top of each other for a place in the consumer’s mind and on the road.In a bid to stump competition Mahindra and Mahindra will launch car-buying via the Internet in the November of 2003. It's not just a question of punching in an order. Customers will be able to use software to create their own customized versions of the new Quadro, a sport-utility vehicle. Mahindra is targeting young drivers for the $10,500 car, buying slick advertising spots on video music channels like Channel V. The youth-consumerism age ushered in India with the MNCs which brought with them a range of experience. The Indian youth was ready to embrace consumerism and these companies pitched it right at them. And they scored! These companies used famous actors, sports figures, and catchy slogans to woo the youth. And the Indian companies followed the leader.
Even stodgy-old-family-owned companies are increasingly catering to the youth market. Changing buying patterns - in which teens are no longer content to have their father's hand-me-down watch and instead want to buy their own - are part of the reason. In many such cases, the key driver for the change is that the helm of the company has been passed down a generation, and younger CEOs are more hip and with it.
Take the stodgy Bajaj Auto Ltd., the world's second-largest scooter maker, based in Pune. Since Rajiv Bajaj, 32, son of owner Rahul Bajaj, joined the family business as vice-president for product development, Bajaj scooters have changed from value-for-money vehicles targeted at the middle-class male to scooters with style and performance catering to youths of both genders. Hence the new zippy Spirit, Bravo, and Legend scooters, which hit the market in quick succession in the past year, aimed at 18-to-24 year olds.

Government Protection for Consumerism in India
The Government of India has been to a great extent responsible for the creation of a protective environment conducive to the growth of consumerism. This protection has been effected by promulgating legislations protecting the interest of the consumers. There have been various measures taken by the Government in this regard, a few of which are highlighted below:
1. Statutory Regulation
2. Development and Expansion of the Public Sector
Statutory Regulations;
The primary statutes providing consumer protection umbrellas are:
 Sale of Goods Act,1930
 Drugs Control Act, 1950
 Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954
 Essential Commodities Act, 1955
 Trademarks and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958
 Competition Act, 2002
 Packaged Commodities (Regulation) Order, 1975
However, the aforesaid statutory regulations proved ineffective in handling consumer problems in the post-liberalisation era. Consumers had to use the same channels in the judiciary to get justice, and this was considered to be a major drawback in providing a speedy justice. In view of this, the Government passed an important statutory regulation in the form of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. This Act has been comprehensively amended in 2002. The objectives of this statute are to provide for better protection of consumer interests, and to fulfill the said objective by establishing consumer councils and authorities for the settlement of consumer disputes. LIMITATIONS FOR THE GROWTH OF CONSUMERISM IN INDIA:
In India, consumerism can however be termed to be in a stage of infancy. The progress of Consumerism in India has been impeeded due to the following factors:
 The high rate of Illiteracy and ignorance
 Consumer tendency to get carried away by clever advertising and promotion tactics
 Traditional outlook of the people in silent suffering, lack of education and dearth of information
 Inability to grasp the technical complexity of the products offered
 Vastness of the country, imbalance in the wealth distribution and a rampant backwardness
 Accepting manufacturers at face value.

QUESTION NO.5:

Write short notes on:
• Perceptual Selection
• Price-Quality Relationship
• Risk Perceptions

ANSWER:

PERCEPTUAL SELECTION

There are basically three steps in the process of perception viz., selection, organization and interpretation. The first component of perception, selection, requires consumers to be exposed to marketing and to attend to these stimuli. Consumers will pick and choose marketing stimuli based on there needs and attitudes. The car buyer will be more attentive their needs and attitudes .In each case the consumer is processing stimuli selectively by picking and choosing them based on his her psychological set.

The process of perceptual selection is increasingly difficult because of the greater clutter of advertising messages. By estimate, consumers are bombarded by an average of 300 to 600 messages a day, and the number of ads has more than tripled in the last 25 years, creating significant advertising clutter. For such perceptual selection to occur, the consumer must first see or hear the stimulus and then respond to it. Therefore three processes define selection: exposure, attention and selective perception.

Exposure:

Exposure occurs when consumer’s sense (sight, hearing, touch, and smell) are activated by a stimulus. Exposure to stimulus either occurs or it does not. Consumers interesting and involvement with the stimulus is reflected in the level of attention they devote to it. Consumers will pick and choose the stimuli they are exposed to. For example, a consumer in the market for a new car is more likely to look for car ads. Similarly consumers are likely to avoid exposure to stimuli that are unimportant and uninteresting.

Attention:

It is the momentary focusing of a consumer’s cognitive capacity on a specific stimulus. When consumers notice a T.V ad, a new product on a shelf or a car in a showroom, attention has taken place. Advertisers can use many of the structural factors to attract consumers attention such as size, through large ads, position by placing an ad in the upper half of a page, and novelty by using eye catching photos or illustration.

Selective Perception:

Consumers perceive marketing stimuli selectively because each individual is unique in the combination of his or her needs, attitudes, experiences and personal characteristics selective perception means that two consumers may perceive the identical advertisement. Package or product differently. For example some consumers may believe a claim that Fair & Lovely increases the fairness in the skin to a degree greater than other fairness creams, another may believe such a claim as untrue and may infer that all fairness creams to be the same. Selective perception operates for both high and low involvement purchases. In the high involvement case, consumers selectively choose information that

(1) helps them evaluate brand that meets their needs and,

(2) conforms to their beliefs and predisposition .In the low involvement case, consumers selectively screen out most information in an attempt to avoid cognitive activity and informational clutter.

PRICE-QUALITY RELATIONSHIPS

Various research studies indicate that there is a strong relationship between price and quality. This relationship is strengthened further when:

• Consumers lack product knowledge and use price as the quality index
• The source of price information is credible
• When the product differentiation is so large e.g. BMW automobile, Tag Heur watches, Mont Blanc pens etc.

There can be competition between price quality segments. The illustration below depicts nine price-quality strategies. The diagonal strategies 1,5, and 9 can all co-exist in the same market; that is, one firm offers a high quality product at a high price, another offers an average quality product at an average price and still another offers a low quality product at a low price. All three competitors can co-exist as long as the market consists of three groups of buyers, those who insist on quality, those who insist on price and those who balance the two.

Strategies 2,3, and 6 are ways to attack the diagonal positions. Strategy 2 says, “Our product has the same high quality as product 1, but we charge less”. Strategy 3 says the same thing and offers an even greater saving. If quality sensitive customers believe these competitors, they will sensibly buy from them and save money.

Positioning strategies 4,7, and 8 amount to over pricing the product in relation to its quality. The customers will feel “taken” and will probably complain or spread bad word of mouth about the Company.

PRICE

1. PREMIUM STRATEGY

2. HIGH VALUE STRATEGY 3. SUPER VALUE STRATEGY
4 OVERCHARGING STRATEGY

5. MEDIUM VALUE STRATEGY 6. GOOD VALUE STRATEGY
7 RIP-OFF STRATEGY

8. FALSE ECONOMY STRATEGY 9.. ECONOMY STARTEGY
P
R
O
D
U
C
T
Q
U
A
L
I
T
Y

RISK PERCEPTIONS

When consumers see potential risk in purchase, they may be about the outcome of the division or they may be commend about the consequences of the division. Thus the two components of perceived risk are uncertainty about the outcome of the decision and concern about the consequences of the division. Several factors are likely to increases the risk consumers see in purchasing. Perceived risk is likely to be greater when:

• There is little information about the product category.
• The product is new.
• The product is technologically complex.
• Consumers have little self-confidence in evaluating brands.
• There are variations in quality among brands.
• The price is high.
• The purchase is important to consumers.

For example, perceived risk in purchasing a palmtop is high because most of the listed will be met. As the product category is relatively new for many consumers, they have little experience with alternatives. Moreover the product is technology complex, making evaluation more difficult. As a result, consumer’s confidence in selecting brand over another is low. Furthermore, substantial variations among brands and incompatible systems heighten risk. A high price will also contribute to perceived risk. Finally such a purchase is probably important to consumers.

Consumers strategies to Reduce Risk:

Consumers use various strategies to reduce risk.

• By acquiring additional information that will allow consumers to better asses risk.

• Engaging more extensive information processing to better evaluate alternatives.

• Buying most popular and well-known brands. Reducing the consequences of failure. This is done by:

1. Buying the lowest priced item or the smallest size.

2. Obtaining a warranty or guarantee on the product also reduces the consequences of failure.

3. Reducing the level of expectations before making the purchase. For example, a consumer who decides that cars are a necessary evil and produce mechanical failures and repair bills. This purchase is going to be terribly disappointed if his or her car does not perform well, he or she expects it.

QUESTION NO.10.

Explain the characteristics of Organisational Buyers. State the factors affecting Organisational Buying behaviour and clearly differentiate between Organisational Buying and individual Consumer Buying behaviours.

ANSWER:

Webster and Wind define Organisational Buying as “the decision making process by which formal organizations establish the need for purchased products and services and identify, evaluate and choose among alternative brands and suppliers”

CHARACTERESTICS OF ORGANISATIONAL BUYING AND DIFFERENCES VIS-A-VIS CONSUMER BUYING

The Business market consists of all the organizations that acquire goods and services used in the production of other products or services that are sold, rented or supplied to others. The major industries making up the business market include agriculture, manufacturing, mining, banking, finance and insurance, construction, transportation and communication etc. Business markets have several characteristics that contrast sharply with those of the consumer markets as illustrated below:

Professional Purchasing:
Business goods are purchased by trained purchasing agents, who must follow their organisation’s purchasing policies, constraints and requirements. Many of the buying instruments- for example, request for quotations, proposals, and purchase contracts are not typically found in consumer buying. Business marketers now put their products, services and other information on the internet.
When Cisco first offered routers and switches over its web site, Cisco Connection Online, customers quickly recognized the advantage of seeing prices and configuring products electronically. They simply click onto a program called Configuration Agent, which walks them through the dozen major components that go into a router. At Sprint, a major customer of Cisco, it used to take 60 days from the signing of the contract to complete a networking project. Now due to the efficiency of ordering online, it takes 35 to 45 days.

Fewer Buyers:
The business marketer normally deals with far fewer buyers than the consumer marketer does. Michellin Tyre Company’s fate depends on getting contracts from a few major automakers and the Formula 1 Auto racing companies.

Fluctuating Demand:
The total demand for many business goods and services tends to be more volatile than the demand for consumer goods and services. A given percentage increase in consumer demand can lead to a much larger percentage increase in the demand for plant and equipment necessary to produce the additional output. Economists refer to this as the acceleration effect.

Close Supplier-Customer Relationships:
Because of the smaller customer base and importance and power of the larger customers, suppliers are frequently expected to customize their offerings to individual businesses. Sometimes buyers require sellers to change their practices and performances. E.g. Motoman Inc, a leading supplier of industry robotic systems, and Stillwater Technologies, a contract tooling and Machinery Company, and a key supplier to Motoman, are tightly integrated. Not only do they occupy office and manufacturing space in the same facility, but their telephone and computer systems are linked and they share a common lobby, cafeteria, and conference room.

Larger Buyers:
A few larger buyers do most of the purchasing in such industries as aircraft engines and defense weapons.

Inelastic Demand:
The total demand for many business goods and services is inelastic-that is, not much affected by price changes. Shoe manufacturers are not going to buy much more leather if the price of leather falls, nor will they buy much less leather if the price rises, unless they can find satisfactory substitutes. Demand is especially inelastic in the short run because, producers cannot make quick changes in the production methods.

Derived Demand:
The demand for business goods is ultimately derived from the demand for consumer goods. For this reason, the business marketer must closely monitor the buying patterns of the consumers. It has been found that the auto-makers in Detroit are driving the boom in demand for steel-bar products.

Reciprocity: Business buyers often select suppliers who also buy from them. An example would be a paper manufacturer that buys chemicals from a chemicals company that buys a considerable quantity of its paper.

Multiple Sales Calls: Because more people are involved in the selling process, it takes multiple sales calls to win most of the business orders, and some sales cycles can take years. A study by McGraw-Hill found that it takes 4-4.5 years to close an average industrial sale. In the case of capital equipment sales for large projects it may take multiple attempts to fund a project, and the sales cycle – between quoting a job and delivering the product- is often measured in years.

Direct Purchasing:
A business buyer often buys directly from manufacturers rather than through intermediaries, especially items that re technically complex or expensive.

Several Buying Influences:
More people typically influence business buying decisions. Buying committees consisting of technical experts and even senior management are common in the purchase of major goods.

MAJOR INFLUENCES ON BUYING DECISIONS: Business buyers respond to many influences when they make their decisions. When supplier offerings are similar, business buyers can satisfy the purchasing requirements with any supplier, and they place more weight on the personal treatment they receive. Business buyers respond to four main influences:
• Environmental
• Organisational
• Interpersonal; and
• Individual
The following figure illustrates the aforementioned four influences:

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS:
Business buyers pay close attention to current and expected economic factors, such as the level of production, investment, consumer spending and the interest rate. Companies that fear a shortage of key materials are willing to buy and hold large inventories. Du-Pont, Ford, and several other major companies regard long-term supply planning as a major responsibility of their purchasing managers. Business buyers actively monitor technological, political-regulatory, and competitive developments.

ORGANISATIONAL FACTORS:
Every organization has specific purchasing objectives, policies, procedures, organizational structures, and systems. Business marketers need to be aware of the trends in purchasing areas such as: Purchasing Department Upgrading Cross-Functional Roles Centralised Purchasing Decentralized Purchasing of Small Value Items Internet Purchasing Long Term Contracts Purchasing-Performance Evaluation and Buyer’s Professional Development Improved Supply Chain Management Lean Production

Examples of Organisational factor utilization:
With the launch of OfficeMax.com in 1995, this office supply retailer became the first business in its segment to offer e-commerce solutions for small businesses. In addition to an online catalogue of over 30,000 items, the site offers @MaxSolutions, a small business resource centre.

INTERPERSONAL AND INDIVIDUAL FACTORS:
Buying centres usually include several participants with differing interests, authority, status, empathy and persuasiveness. The business marketer is not likely to know what kind of group dynamics take place during the buying decision process, although whatever information he or she can discover about personalities and interpersonal factors will be useful.
Each buyer carries personal motivations, perceptions and preferences, which are influenced by the buyer’s age, income, education, job position, personality, attitudes toward risk and culture. Buying factors vary from country to country.

ORGANISATIONAL BUYING BEHAVIOUR IN A JAPAN: PACKAGING-MACHINE PURCHASE PROCESS

QUESTION NO.6

Define and explain the meaning of ‘Attitude’. Explain in brief the factors affecting the relationship between Attitude, Belief, and Behaviour. Explain the two theories of attitude.

ANSWER:

Attitudes
Components of attitudes

It is generally accepted that attitudes are composed of affective (feelings) component

cognitive (beliefs) component behavioural (actual actions) component as shown graphically above (from Spooncer (1992)). Similarly, Baron and Byrne define attitudes as relatively lasting clusters of feelings, beliefs, and behaviour tendencies directed towards specific persons, ideas, objects or groups (1984: 126)
The fact that there are these components makes the notion of an attitude somewhat slippery, to say the least. Some beliefs certainly don't seem to involve attitudes. I believe that Timbuktu is in the Sahara desert, but I don't particularly think that's a jolly good thing or a dreadful shame. On the other hand, a belief in God will entail a range of attitudes. In that case, beliefs shape attitudes. It could work the other way round: a negative attitude towards, say, women could lead one readily to believe that most of them are bad drivers.
INTERACTION BETWEEN ATTITUDE, BEHAVIOUR AND BELIEF
It is that interaction between beliefs and attitudes, as well as the interaction with whatever underlying values we may hold and opinions we may express that makes attitudes difficult to get a hold on. And, of course, we can't directly observe them - we can only ask people or infer their attitudes from what they do.

Our desire to maintain such consistency, and avoid changing our attitudes if we possibly can accounts for the results of Allport's and Postman's study (1954). Subjects were asked to describe a picture which showed a white man arguing with a black man. The white had an open razor in his hand. As the story was passed from one to another the details changed. Those who were prejudiced against blacks changed the details so that it was the black who held the razor.
An interesting TV investigation into the reliability of eyewitness reports produced similar results. A mugging was carried out by an actor in a shopping precinct in broad daylight. The mugger was clearly not a stereotypical mugger. He was white, middle-aged, reasonably well dressed and wearing glasses. In the eyewitness reports, all described him as a teenager or in his early twenties. Many described him as black. No one mentioned the glasses.
As the media analyst, James Curran, puts it: 'Believing is seeing'.

Attitude change & consistency
Although deep-seated attitudes may be difficult to change, it's not impossible.
Rokeach's study
An interesting study conducted by Rokeach in 1968 demonstrated this. He asked three groups of individuals to rank twelve values in order of importance. The three groups were
• those who had participated in civil rights demonstrations in the 60s
• those who had not participated but were sympathetic to the civil rights activists' cause
• those who were hostile to the activists' cause
The results, showing how highly each group ranked the values of freedom and equality were: Participated Sympathetic Hostile
Freedom 1 1 2
Equality 3 6 11
As you can see, freedom was put in first or second place by everyone, but equality was rated as pretty unimportant (eleventh place) by those who were unsympathetic to the civil rights protesters.
The experimenter then discussed these results with the participants in the study. He speculated aloud that maybe those who gave equality a low ranking cared a great deal about their own freedom, but not much about other peoples. The participants were then invited to ponder on their own attitudes in the light of this possibility.
Three weeks later, then three months later and, finally, five months later they were asked to rank their values again. Those who were pro-civil rights but had originally ranked equality low now gave it a higher ranking and remained pro-civil rights. Perhaps more significantly, though, those who had ranked equality high but were hostile to civil rights protesters became more pro-civil rights, while still ranking equality high.

Attitudes as predictors of behaviour
If we know what people's attitudes are then we should be able to predict their behaviour. If people have a positive attitude towards a party's political programme, the chances are that they will vote for that party; if they have a positive attitude towards our beans, they'll buy them.
1992 Election
That's the theory at any rate. In practice, the correlation between attitudes and behaviour does not appear to be as straightforward as that. One problem is quite simply that people may lie about their attitudes, so it's difficult to know what their attitudes are in the first place. The public opinion polls before the 1992 General Election consistently showed voters' favourable attitudes towards the Labour Party, but a large proportion voted for the Conservatives on polling day.

La Piere
One such example of a mismatch between expressed attitudes and behaviour which is frequently quoted is that reported by LaPiere in 1934 (LaPiere Attitudes versus actions, 1934, quoted in Atkinson et al (1990)). LaPiere, a Caucasian professor travelled across the USA with a young Asian couple. At the time prejudice against Asians was widespread and there were no laws against racial discrimination. They stayed at over 200 hotels, motels and restaurants and - with one exception - were served without problem. Later, a letter was sent to all of the establishments visited asking if they would refuse to serve Asians. Of the 128 replies received, 98% said they would refuse; in other words an attitude which was contradicted by their actual behaviour.
Characteristics of attitudes as predictors
Assuming that we can actually determine what people's attitudes are in the first place, then it seems that attitudes work best as predictors of behaviour when they are strong and consistent
Thus it is not easy to predict the behaviour of voters who have weak or ambivalent attitudes. Katz and Lazarsfeld's research shows that, if any voters are going to be moved by pre-election publicity, it is the uncommitted, floating voters. So they are the ones targeted by the campaigns.
It is interesting that prior to the 1992 election, the survey of British Social Attitudes suggested that the values of Thatcherism had not really taken root in the British electorate, most preferring a greater level of provision of social services and showing a willingness to pay for them with higher taxes. Labour gambled on this, saying that they were going to put up taxes for moderately high earners. That provided the Conservatives with an easy target and much of the Conservative campaign focused on Labours intention of increasing taxes. It seems likely that, when put to the test, the belief in paying higher taxes proved to be inconsistent with the desire for personal enrichment and the widespread belief that charity begins at home. It would be only by attacking that belief that Labour could hope to win support for the realisation of the desire for better services.

they are based on and related to personal experience
There is plenty of evidence to support the view that attitudes which are based on personal experience are much better predictors of behaviour than those which have come from simply reading or hearing about an issue. It is also much more likely to be the case that people will act on their attitudes towards an issue if that issue is likely to have a direct effect on them For example, you might have grown fed up during your two years at college that there is not enough parking space for students and you feel strongly that there should be more. When approached by the Students' Union to support the first-year students inn their campaign to ensure that a large area of the new site just acquired by the college is set aside for student parking, the chances are that you'll sign a petition, but not much more - quite simply, because you'll have left the college by then and so won't be affected. they are specifically related to the behaviour being predicted
Attitudes which are only generally related to a specific behaviour do not seem to be good predictors of that behaviour. For example, attitudes towards environmental matters are not a good predictor of people's willingness to turn out on a march for Greenpeace, whereas their attitudes towards Greenpeace are better predictors of such behaviour. Asking people about their immediate intentions rather than their general beliefs seems to produce more accurate predictions.
THEORIES OF ATTITUDE
OSGOOD’S CONGRUITY THEORY
All good theories are tested, extended, twisted, and played with in efforts to prove or disprove their worth or validity. One mutation of Heider’s balance theory and Newcomb’s Symmetry theory was Osgood’s principle of congruity. Heider presented the theory of balanced relationships, and Newcomb took the theory further by theorizing that attitudes change based on the relationships at hand. Osgood was concerned with the “problem of direction of attitude change” (Zajonc, 286: 1960). Osgood placed a different emphasis on the subject of positive and negative relationships which was the major element that set his theory apart from Newcomb’s. He claimed that “extreme judgments are simpler than refined ones,” and that there was “a continuing pressure towards polarization” (Zajonc, 286: 1960). Furthermore, when “change in attitude occurs it always occurs in the direction of increased congruity with the prevailing frame of reference” (Zajonc, 287: 1960). In other words, the person who is experiencing an incongruous state is more likely to change their attitude towards the object or person who they share the least congruity. Again, the example of Bush and Bin Laden will simplify and explain.

According to the example, Bush is in an unbalanced/incongruous state. He feels congruity with Bin Laden and his feelings concerning the state of the world, yet Bin Laden’s feelings concerning the state of the world do not concur with those of President Bush. According to Heider, Bush will seek balance. According to Newcomb, Bush will be affected by his relationships with each in his attempt to achieve balance. According to Osgood, Bush will side with the person or object with which he has the most affinity. In this case, Bush’s decision would be to change his relationship towards Bin Laden to that of a negative one. Bush has a stronger frame of reference with his feeling concerning the state of the world than he does with Bin Laden. This may be because he feels that he should protect the world or that he has more in common with the world as a whole than he has with Bin Laden. The main point is that Osgood took balance theory and enabled people to “predict the direction in which changes will occur” (Zajonc, 290: 1960).
HEIDER’S BALANCE THEORY
Heider (1958) proposes Balance Theory as a simple system for describing the way our environment is perceived by us. He says a person's environment is made up of entities (people, ideas and events), and relations between these entities. Balance theory deals with three kinds of entities. The person (P) whose subjective environment we are concerned with, another person (O); and the object (X), which may be a third person.
Balance theory is concerned with how relations between the three entities, POX, are organised in terms of the person's (P's) cognitive structure. Balance theory proposes that with three entities, person-another person-object (POX), three sets of relations exist i.e. Between P and O; between P and X and; between O and X.
Each of the three relations, P-O, P-X and O-X, can have one of two values. You can either 'like' (+) or 'dislike' (-). With three sets of possible relationships, each taking on one of two values (+/-) eight possible states of affairs exists. Here is a schematic of Heider's Balance Theory, which is represented by eight triads for three entities with positive or negative sentiment relations. The four triads on the left are balanced, the four on the right imbalanced.

Take the second triad on the left hand. This could be represented as follows.

Krishna likes Sheena (P + O); Krishna is a vegetarian and dislikes eating meat (P - X); Krishna believes Sheena to dislike meat (O - X). Notice that it is what Krishna believes Sheena 's attitude to be, which may or may not be right. This is a balanced or harmonious state of affairs. By contrast, and using the same people and issues again, take the top triad on the right hand side. This triad presents an uncomfortable state of affairs. Krishna likes Sheena (P + O); Krishna dislikes eating meat (P - X) but this time Krishna believes Sheena to like eating meat (O + X). Assuming (this is important for Balance theory) the issue of eating meat is important to Krishna, something has to change.
A number of options are available to achieve this balance or cognitive consistency. Krishna can stop being a vegetarian, and begin to like meat. He could try and persuade Sheena to dislike eating meat, or more radically perhaps, Krishna could abandon his relationship with Sheena.

To predict which attitude is likely to change we would have to know more about the two people. With further information, Rosenberg and Abelson (1960), maintain that attitude change occurs according to a principle of minimum effort, which states that the attitude that requires the least effort to change will be the one that changes. Or to put it more simply the one you feel is the least important to you. Balance theory is quite good with our intuitions about harmony and disharmony between people and the significant things in life. Where it breaks down is when the object (X) is another person. Maybe this is why marriage guidance in a situation of an affair is such a struggle. Why do you think this would be the case? Balance theory has a number of downsides. It suggests that relations between entities are either positive or negative. Degree of like or dislike is not taken into account. It also can only deal with relationships between three entities. Multiple relations often exist between people and/or objects. Generally, Balance theory oversimplifies, but is quite successful within it's own domain.

QUESTION NO.14
Explain various attitude measurement techniques. ‘It is possible to change the attitude of consumers towards products and brands’. Do you agree to this statement? Justify your claims with a few examples.
ANSWER:
ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES
Kelly's personal construct theory

The individual as scientist
Kelly placed the emphasis on cognition in personality development. Cognition includes the processes involved in thinking, problem solving and predicting events in the environment and Kelly believed that each of us acts like a natural scientist in that one of our prime needs is to predict and control events in our environment. We think about what happens to us and we construct theories about what's going on, attempting to satisfy the drive to make sense of things. If you ask your normally helpful Communication Studies lecturer (!) for help and she gives you the brush-off, you don't just leave it at that. You try and figure out a reason: did you ask in the wrong way? had you done something to upset her? perhaps she's got problems with the management? You'd cast your mind back over her and your behaviour and try to work out why this has happened, establishing a theory or two and trying to see how they fit the observed facts - just like a scientist in fact: 'man creates his own ways of seeing the world in which he lives; the world does not create them for him. He builds constructs and tries them on for size.' (1963: 12) In an uncertain universe, the constructs we establish should, like a scientific hypothesis, also have predictive power. According to the philosopher of science, Karl Popper, the proper scientific method is to establish a hypothesis and then seek to falsify it. We can never confirm a scientific hypothesis; the best we can claim for a hypothesis can only ever be that it has so far successfully withstood such and such a series of tests intended to falsify it. Kelly recognizes, however, that, in our personal constructs, we will not always proceed like the 'good' scientist and may often practice unsound science, seeking confirmation of our hypotheses, rather than seeking to falsify them. We don't always simply establish a hypothesis and test it against observed facts in an entirely disinterested and neutral fashion. Rather, it may well happen that we actively seek confirmation of the hypotheses we have established. Kelly takes the example of a man who construes his neighbour as hostile, i.e. that his neighbour will seek to do him harm, given the opportunity. He tests this hypothesis by throwing rocks at his neighbour's dog. When the neighbour responds angrily, 'the man may then believe that he has validated his construction of his neighbour as a hostile person.
Kelly argued that social cognition consists of the constant development, testing and, possibly, discarding of such theories. Although we will develop theories about all kinds of things in our environment, the prime focus of our concern is other people and what makes them tick and Kelly saw his theory as being restricted 'more particularly, to problems of interpersonal relationships'.

Personal constructs
In Kelly's view we all develop a set of personal constructs which we use to make sense of the world and the people in it. The constructs are bipolar (i.e. they have two ends), or dichotomous and will vary from one person to another. Thus, his psychology is a psychology of individual differences:
People can be seen as differing from each other, not only because there might have been differences in the events which they have sought to anticipate, but also because there are different approaches to the anticipation of the same events.

They might consist of, say, 'sensitive/unfeeling', 'thoughtful/thoughtless', 'tough-minded/easy-going', 'honest/dishonest'. Each of us has a whole 'repertoire of such constructs which we apply to and test on the people around us. So, for example, a student of mine might hypothesise that I am pretty easy-going and so hypothesise that I am likely to accept sloppy work. When that turns out not to be true, the construct is revised. The student may then attempt to apply her construct of me as dishonest and predict that I will take a bribe for better marks. When I take the money, the construct is supported.
It's important to note the word 'personal' in 'personal construct theory'. We won't all have the same constructs in our repertory. Each individual has her own set of constructs. Within the set of constructs,
... the person builds his life upon one or the other of the alternatives represented in each of the dichotomies. This is to say that he places relative values upon the ends of his dichotomies. Some of the values are quite transient and represent merely the convenience of the moment. Others are quite stable and represent guiding principles. Even the stable ones are not necessarily highly intellectualized - they may appear, rather, as appetitive preferences.

Repertory grid
To find out how a person's construct system worked, Kelly developed what became known as a repertory grid. The therapist asked clients to think about people they knew and find words to describe them - that provides the therapist with the main constructs. The main constructs are then arranged in a grid and the client's assessment of other significant people is noted down on the grid. In this way, by seeing if certain constructs were likely to cluster together, the therapist could come to see if the client had distinctive ways of understanding the world.

REPERTORY GRID

OSGOOD’S SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL THEORY

The psychologist and communication scholar Charles E. Osgood developed work in the measurement of the last of those dimensions of meaning: connotation (see Osgood (1957)). His concern was with semantics and he devised a method to plot the differences between individuals' connotations for words and thus map the psychological 'distance' between words. Osgood's method is known as the 'semantic differential'.
Subjects were given a word, for example 'car' and presented with a variety of adjectives to describe it. The adjectives were presented at either end of a seven-point scale, ranging from, say, 'good' to 'bad' or from 'fast' to 'slow'. In this way, he was able to draw up a 'map' of people's connotations for a given word. In the window opposite, you can find Osgood's map of people's connotations for the word 'polite'. The graphic shows ten of the scales used by Osgood. The graphic maps the average responses of two groups of 20 people to the word 'polite'.
Factors of judgement
Osgood's method is a development of the Likert scale in that Osgood adds in three major factors or dimensions of judgement:
• evaluative factor (good - bad) - that can be seen in the example as 'Good-Bad', 'Fresh - Stale', 'Cold - Hot')
• potency factor (strong - weak) - seen in the example as 'Weak - Strong'
• activity factor (active - passive) - in the example as 'Active - Passive', 'Tense - Relaxed' The intention is that this should differentiate between attitudes in a way that other methods don't and should shed more light on the links between attitudes and behaviour. Osgood gives the example of two subjects' connotations for the word 'negro':
Subject 1: unfavourable, strong, active
Subject 2: unfavourable, weak, passive
Both views are unfavourable, but the actual behaviour of each subject towards negroes may well be different. Subject 1 might be inclined to treat negroes in a placatory manner, anxious to avoid conflict; subject 2 might be inclined to treat them exploitatively, being more likely to boss them around.
The Osgood experimentation grid is highlighted in the following page:

Pitfalls
There are objections to Osgood's method - one is that it appears to assume that the adjectives chosen mean the same to everyone. Thus, the method becomes self-contradictory - it starts from the assumption that people's connotations for a word differ, but has to rely on the assumption that, for certain words at least, they don't. Looking at the example shown , how do know that your 'tense/relaxed' is the same as my 'tense/relaxed'?
There are often objections that the correlation between stated attitudes and actual behaviour turns out to be quite low and attitudes are often poor predictors (as shown in La Piere's study). This should be overcome somewhat by the relative sophistication of Osgood's method, but there are still the problems of
• respondents giving socially desirable responses - what they think are the 'right' answers
• respondents developing a response set - giving consistently moderate answers, or always either agreeing or disagreeing

SCALOGRAM ANALYSIS

Gutman proposed this attitudinal scale. This method of scaling is based on the assumption that, an individual with a more favourable attitude score than another must be just as favourable or more favourable in his response to every statement in the set than the other individual,i.e if a respondent replies positively to a difficult question, then he will also respond positively to all questions which are simpler than the earlier question.

THURSTON SCALE

Also known as the Thurston and Clave scale, this is one of the best techniques of measuring attitudes with the help of equal appearing intervals. It is a technique in which a large number of statements are collected regarding a subject. This can be done through past experience, brainstorming, expert opinions etc. the statements should range from one extreme of favourable response to the other extreme of highly unfavourable responses. There is no definite number of statements to be collected, but they should be sufficiently large. Care should be taken that the statements are brief, they truly indicate the attitude f the respondents leading to acceptance/rejection of the statement, and they should not contain double entendres.
Thurston and Clave had collected 130 statements regarding the attitude of the respondents towards church. Respondents were asked to sort the statements in 11 piles evenly divided into those favourable and unfavourable responses.

The Likert scale

Principle
The Likert technique presents a set of attitude statements. Subjects are asked to express agreement or disagreement of a five-point scale. Each degree of agreement is given a numerical value from one to five. Thus a total numerical value can be calculated from all the responses.
QUESTIONNAIRE EXAMPLE OF THE RENESIS LIKERT SCALE

Conditions for change in attitude:

• Beliefs are easier to change than desired benefits. Marketers could seek to change beliefs about a brand. They could also attempt to change the benefits consumers’ desire by changing the value consumer’s place on brand attributes. Desired benefits are more enduring, ingrained and internalized than beliefs because they are more closely linked to consumer values. For instance, a manufacturer of pain relievers produces a brand that consumers regard as significantly stronger and as providing more immediate relief. However, most consumers put more value on the beliefs of a mild, safe brand that doctors recommend. The manufacturer could try to convince customers that pain relievers are non-prescription items that do not need a doctor’s recommendation, that safety should be of no concern, and a stronger product is perfectly acceptable. Alternatively the manufacturer could tone down the emphasis on strength in the advertising, continue to emphasize quick relief, and point out the safety of the product based on Indian Medical Association. The latter strategy is going to be more effective than the former because the marketer is trying to change beliefs about the brand within the consumer’s existing value structure.

• Brand beliefs are easier to change than brand attributes. Cognitions(beliefs) are easier to change than affect(attitudes). The traditional high involvement hierarchy of effects state that a change in beliefs precedes a change in brand attitudes. The information that a car has fast acceleration will change the beliefs about the brand, but the evaluation of the car will not necessarily change unless consumers see a benefit in fast acceleration. Most advertising implicitly follows the principle that beliefs are easier to change because advertising generally communicates the attributes of a brand.

• For hedonic products, attitudes are a more relevant vehicle for a change than beliefs: When consumers buy a product based on emotion or fantasy, they are relying on affect(attitudes) rather than cognitions(beliefs). Therefore, for hedonic products, attitudes are the more relevant strategic vehicles for a change. Paradoxically attitudes are harder to change for involving products, and hedonic products are more involving.

• Attitudes are easier to change when there is low level of involvement with the product. Attitudes towards uninvolving products are easier to change because consumers are not committed to the brand. This principle is true for the three key components of involvement that is, consumer attitudes are easier to change if there is little self-identification with the product, little emotional attachment to it, and no badge value associated with it. When consumers have high level of involvement with a product, they will accept messages only if messages agree with their beliefs. When involvement is low, consumers are more likely to accept a message even if it does not agree with prior beliefs.

• Weak attitudes are easier to change than strong ones: If consumer brand attitudes are not strong, marketers can more easily establish new associations with the brand. Weakly held attitudes make it easier for the competitors to continue consumers to switch brands.

• Attitudes are easier to change when they are based on ambiguous information: Consumers faced with ambiguous claims about competitive products or with highly technical information they cannot assess seek clarifying information that may produce attitude change. When information is highly ambiguous, any clarifying information may cause change in attitudes.

QUESTION NO.7

Explain with the help of a few examples how social class, lifestyle, and culture affect the buying patterns of consumers.

ANSWER:

A consumer’s buying behaviour is influenced by cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors. Cultural factors exert the broadest and deepest influence.

CULTURAL FACTORS

Culture, sub-culture, and social class are particularly important in buying behaviour. Culture is the fundamental determinant of a person’s want and behaviour. Each culture consists of smaller sub-cultures that provide more specific identification and socialization for their members. Sub-cultures include nationalities, religions, racial groups, and geographic regions. When sub-cultures grow large and affluent enough, companies often design specialized marketing programmes to serve them. Such programmes are known as Diversity Marketing, a practice which was pioneered during the 1980’s by large companies like Coca-Cola, AT&T and Sears Roebuck.
Diversity Marketing grew out of careful marketing research, which revealed that different ethnic and demographic niches did not always respond favourably to mass-market advertising,

Virtually all human societies exhibit social stratification. This sometimes takes the form of a caste system, where the members of different castes are reared for certain roles and cannot change their caste membership. More frequently, it takes the form of social classes, relatively homogenous and enduring divisions in a society, which are hierarchically ordered and whose members share similar values, interest, and behaviour. Social classes reflect not only income, but other indicators such as occupation, education and area of residence. The following diagram depicts the 7 social classes identified by social scientists:

SOCIAL FACTORS

In addition to cultural factors, a consumer’s behaviour is influenced by such social factors as Reference groups, family, and social roles and statuses.

REFERENCE GROUPS

A person’s reference group consists of all the groups that have a direct or indirect influence on the person’s attitudes or behaviour. Groups having a direct influence on a person are called membership groups. Some membership groups are primary groups such as family, friends, neighbours, and co-workers, with whom the person interacts fairly continuously and informally. People also belong to secondary groups, such as religion, professional, and trade-union groups, which tend to be more formal and require less continuous interaction. People are also influenced by groups to which they do not belong. Aspirational groups are those which a person hopes to join; dissociative groups are those whose values or behaviour an individual rejects.
Manufacturers of products and brands where group influence is strong must determine how to reach and influence opinion leaders in these reference groups. Opinion leaders are the persons in informal, product related communications who offer advise/information about a specific product/product category.
E.g. to ensure that its stores reflect the lifestyle of the core customer base, Abercombie and Fitch, fills its sales staff with college students and recruits 75% of its sales force from college campuses near each store-location. The visual appeal of the sales staff is vital to creating the right in-store environment.

ROLES AND STATUSES:

A role consists of the activities a person is expected to perform. Each role carries a status. People choose products that communicate their role and status in society.
E.g Millionaire sportsmen often wear Tag Heur and Omega watches, drape themselves in Armani suits and sample Black Dog Scotch. Marketers must be aware of the status symbol potential of products and brands.

FAMILY:

Is the most important consumer-buying organization in society, and its members constitute the most influential primary reference group. Marketers are interested in the roles and relative influence of the husband, wife, and children in the purchases of a large variety of products and services. These roles vary widely in different countries and social classes. Families can be categorized into two, Family of orientation – consisting of parents and siblings, and Family of procreation- consisting of one’s spouse and children. Women are rapidly gaining purchasing power in the household.
E.g. in the year 2000, Mattel targeted mothers, instead of young girls, with a print advert campaign that emphasized Barbie merchandise in new-product categories. The ads were intended to raise awareness among mothers for such Barbie products as apparel and nail polish.

Women account for 50% of the luxury car market in the United States and the Cadillac Catera features an air-conditioned glove box to preserve such items as lipstick and film. This greater attention to detail has led to a rise in number of female Cadillac owners to 28% in the year 2000.

Today companies are likely to use the Internet to exhibit their products to solicit market information from the prospective customers. Marketers have joined online with the customers, offering freebies in exchange for personal information.

LIFESTYLE:

People from the same sub-culture, social class, and occupation may lead quite different lifestyles. A lifestyle is a person’s pattern of living in the world as expressed in activities, interests and opinions. Lifestyle portrays the “whole person” interacting with his/her environment. Marketers search for relationships between their products and lifestyle groups. For example, a computer manufacturer might find that most computer buyers are achievement-oriented. The marketer may aim the brand more clearly at the achiever life-style. Lifestyle segmentation schemes are by no means universal. McCann-Erickson, London, for example, identified the following British lifestyles:

• Avant – Gardians (interested in change)
• Pontificators (traditionalists)
• Chameleons (follow the crowd)
• Sleepwalkers (contended under achievers)

The advertising agency D’Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles published The Russian Consumer: A New Perspective and a Marketing Approach which revealed the following five categories of Russian consumers:

 Merchants
 Cossacks
 Students
 Business executives
 Russian souls

There are even lifestyle segmentation frameworks for classifying people according to their technology orientation.

QUESTION NO.12:

Explain the term ‘Involvement’ in detail. Discuss the strategies to shift products from low to high involvement.

ANSWER:

A consumer is said to have a high involvement in purchase, when he considers the product to be important and strongly identifies with it.

CONDITIONS FOR INVOLVEMENT:

The product has a symbolic meaning tied to customer values. E.g. Possessing a MayBach car, having Luis Vitton apparel, Christian Dior perfumes are all symbolic of the rich and famous.

It has some important functional value. E.g. Tennis racquets for a tennis player, Hard disk capacity for a computer professional etc.

The consumer’s self image is tied to the product. E.g. Vintage motorcycle lovers are mostly seen with Harley Davidsons, while the ones believing in a need for speed prefer to associate themselves with the likes of Duggatti and Aprillia motorbikes.

The product is expensive. E.g. yachts, villas, chartered aircrafts etc.

Product is identified with the norms of the group. E.g. Rock band lovers buying antique as well as used guitars.

Product is of continual interest to the consumer. E.g. A collector of vintage cars has an unceasing and continuous interest in select styles of cars.

Product entails significant risks. E.g. investing in the procuring of tiny self-contained islands, yachts, and, other technologically complex products.

TYPES OF INVOLVEMENT:

SITUATIONAL INVOLVEMENT

It is the one that occurs only in certain specific situations and is purely temporary. E.g. A person buying a blazer for his marriage as formal suitings in a marriage are necessary normally.

ENDURING INVOLVEMENT

It indicates an ongoing interest in the product category. E.g. A connoisseur of vintage cars such as Vijay Mallya will be having a never ending thirst towards the area of his interest. Such a thirst will lead him to unfailingly visit every automobile exhibition, expo, and sales programmes, irrespective of whether such a visit leads/does not lead to a purchasing situation.

High involvement may not always lead to a complex decision making. At times it may lead to brand loyalty. Here past experience plays a very critical role.

It is impertinent to note that involvement is consumer needs specific and not product specific. The same product may be a high involvement for one consumer and a low involvement for another. For example, a person attuned to drinking whisky, he may not find whisky to be a high involvement product. As if he does not get his regular whisky brand, he may make do with an alternative brand so long as the alternative is restricted to being whisky. But for an occasional drinker, brand specifics constitute a vital factor, and he may not drink if he does not manage to lay hands on his favourite brand. Thus in this instance, the brand becomes a high involvement product for the occasional drinker.

SHIFTING CONSUMERS FROM LOW TO HIGH INVOLVEMENT

Every marketer wants his product to be a high involvement product. Involvement means commitment, as involved consumers are more likely to remain brand loyal in the face of competitive activity. Following are some of the strategies that can be adopted for this purpose:

 Link the product to an involving issue. When a low- involvement product is linked to an involving issue, the consumer gets involved in the product. For example, edible oil is a low-involvement product. In the Suffola ad, oil is linked to the health of the heart. The recent ad mentions that every fourth papa, mama, brother, friend etc. in India is susceptible to a heart problem. A recent finding in India indicated the possibility of every fourth Indian being a likely heart patient. Such linking makes edible oil i.e. Suffola an involving product.

 Create a problem and solve it. Madison Avenue tried to increase involvement in mundane products by attempting to convince consumers that they have problems they never knew about in 1940s and 1950s. it was halitosis and body odour. In 1960s and 1970s, it was coffee nerves and dishpan hands.

 Link the product to a currently involving situation. In India, during cricket matches, marketers create involvement by linking the product to cricket. One finds maximum advertisements involving cricketers. This may create an involving situation. All Amul advertisements use this strategy to create an involvement in Amul products.

 Link the product to an involving advertisement: the recent ad of Close Up “Kya ap close up karte hai”…Colgate had also created an involving ad in the past titled “talk to me”. Toothpaste is a low involvement product and such ads increase the involvement of some consumers.

 Change the importance of product benefits. A more difficult strategy is to try to change the importance consumers attach to product benefits. Vicco Turmeric cream advertises itself as not being a cosmetic but an antiseptic cream that can also be used for minor cuts and wounds. Vicks VapoRub advertises as being an ayurvedic medicine.

 Introduce an important characteristic in the product. This considers the possibility of introducing an attribute into a product that had not been considered important or that did not previously exist. Example include the recent ad of Speed where it talks about being better petrol because of addition of few additives. QUESTION NO:11

Discuss the characteristics of rural buying behaviour. What are the factors affecting it?

ANSWER:

Characteristics of rural markets

Environment:

 Small contiguous settlement units of villages widely dispersed

 Low infrastructural level such as roads and electricity

 Low density of population per square kilometer of space

 Poor physical connectivity with other villages and towns, low mobility

Social relations peculiarity:

 Less number of interpersonal interactions, more frequent interactions between the same people

 Individual better known, and identified

 Social norms influencing individuals are more visible

 Status is ascribed, determined by birth in a family

 Caste influence is direct and strong

Low exposure to marketing stimuli:

 Low product exposure, low exposure to branded products

 Low ad exposure, low comprehension of ads, low brand awareness

 Low exposure to marketing researchers, limited sources of information and learning

 Less convenient buying, low rate of retail outlets per 1000 population and low market reach, availability of limited range of branded products along with imitation products

Dependence on nature:

 Abundance of natural resources and high dependence on them for a large number of household needs

 Differential access to resources based on caste, political and money power

 High dependence on livelihoods/employment and income on natural factors

Employment and income seasonality

 Mostly agrarian based, small land holdings per household (two hectares or less) and more than 70% people in small agricultural occupations

 Acute seasonality in income receipts; high chance element in income receipts because of the dependence on agriculture and natural resources.

Diagnosis of the failures

The reasons for the urban-rural disparities can be noted as below:

 Low priority to agriculture: the importance of agriculture in total economy has steadily declined form 56 in 1050-51 to 29 percent in 1995-96. growth rate in agricultural production is quite low compared to other sectors of the economy. India has only 30% of its agricultural land irrigated and 70% of the land is dependant on rains.

 Subsistence orientation of agriculture: agriculture is mainly subsistence oriented. The productivity is quite low. There is not enough value addition leading to low cost benefit ratio. Increasing input costs have made aviculture less and less profitable, the increased subsidies since mid seventies led to inefficient use of land and water resources. There are increasing number of problems like land degradation, chemicalization of agriculture, water logging and ground water depletion due to indiscriminate use of land, water resources and chemical fertilizers.

 Failure of land reforms: land reforms both in the form of redistribution of land in favour of the poor and tenancy reforms are largely failures, except in Kerala, West Bengal and Maharashtra. More than 70% farmers have land lower than 2.5 acres.

 Inadequate food supplies: although India is self-sufficient in food grains at the national level, it continues to be inadequate at the household level. The increase in food production was mainly due to a few crops, namely, wheat and rice. The area and production of other crops like sorghum, pear millet, barley, ragi etc. have gone down, this might adversely affect food security of rural poor.

 Slow growth of infrastructure: the growth of infrastructure has not been satisfactory. About 40% of villages in India are without proper roads, 1.8 lakh villages have no primary school within 1 km. radius. About 4.5 lakhs villages have drinking water problems and there is a shortage of 140 lakh rural dwelling units.

 Inadequate inputs: the research and extension systems are very weak and suffer from lack of adequate funds and organizational weaknesses. There is no direct link between scientists, extension personnel and farmers. Timely availability of inputs like improved quality of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides in required quantity is another major problem faced by farmers. Credit is also a major problem that adversely affects adoption of new technology especially by small farmers. Information about new technology and marketing of their products is yet to be within the reach of small farmers.

 Slow down of rural industrialization: industry growth in rural India has slowed down. The Khadi and Gramodyog industries started during independence have not been able to achieve growth. One reason is the reduction in planned outlays for this purpose. The percentage outlay for rural industry vis-à-vis the public sector, that was 2.1 in 1960 has gone down to 1.6 in the seventh plan.

Areas of concern

Regional skew

 Worst governed states like Bihar, Jharkand, U,P, M,P and Orissa account for 40% of unemployed youth

 Every seventh younger in Bihar, Assam and West Bengal is unemployed

 One of two Biharis is illiterate and 9 out of 10 villages have no electricity

 Per capita of Bihar is $100 as against national average of $480

 Industry has shed 1 Million jobs since 1996. 0.421 Million in central PSUs, 0.15 Million in Bnaks and 0.39 Million in textile sector

 Employment growth in agriculture is as low as 0.01%

 India already has 41.6 Million jobless. We will add 35.29 Million to the labour force by 2007. most of them in the rural India

 At 7% growth, we will add 27 Million jobs and at 8%, 30 Million. This still would leave 40 Million jobless.

Q-3. Do you agree that personality greatly affects the buying motives of consumers? Justify your claim on the basis of some personality theories. Give examples.

Ans An individual’s personality represents another set of characteristics that contributes to an understanding of consumer behavior. Personality characteristics can be valuable guide to marketers. For example knowing that users of a brand of headache remedies are more likely to be compulsive led one company to advertise the product in an orderly setting that described a fixed routine.

Marketers have used four personality theories to describe consumers:

1) Self concept theory
2) Psychoanalytic theory
3) Social/Cultural theory
4) Trait theory

These four theories vary greatly in there approach to personality measurement. Self-concept theory is, arguably, the most relevant for marketers because it focuses on how an individual’s self image affects his or her purchasing behavior. It recognizes that what we buy & own is a reflection of who we are. Extensions of psychoanalytic theory have also been widely used in marketing to develop qualitative insights into why consumers buy.

We will first describe self-concept theory, and then the more qualitatively oriented psychoanalytic & social theories.

1. SELF CONCEPT THEORY

This theory holds that individuals have a concept of self-based on which they think are (the actual self) & a concept of which they think they would like to be (the ideal self). Self-concept theory is governed by two principles; the desire to attain self-consistency & the desire to enhance one’s self-esteem. Attaining self-consistency means that individuals will act in accordance with their concept of actual self. For example, a consumer may see himself as a practical & self-controlled individual. He buys conservative suits drives a large four door sedan, & spend quiet evenings at home. Deep down, however he would like to be more carefree & reckless. If he were to act more like his ideal self, he might own a small sports car, dress in jeans & sports shirts & go to rock clubs. Such actions would enhance his self-esteem by drawing him closer to his ideal self.

Actual Self: - There is no actual self. Consumers have various role identities-Wife, Mother, Working woman etc. One of these roles dominant in specific situations, the particular role will affect the individual’s style of dress & behavior. The amalgams of the individual’s roles make up the actual self. Applied to marketing, the concept of actual self says that consumer’s purchases are influenced by the image they have of themselves. They attain self-consistency by buying products they perceive as similar to their self-concept. For Example; Enfield bullet is targeted to persons who consider or cherish to have an authoritative image. This is the reason for its higher sales among policemen & affluent agriculturists.

Ideal Self: - The concept of the ideal self relates to one’s self esteem. The greater the difference between the actual self and ideal self, the lower an individual’s self-esteem. In a marketing context, dissatisfaction with oneself could influence purchases, particularly for products that could enhance self-esteem. Thus, a woman who would like to be more efficient, modern & imaginative may buy a different type of perfume or deodorant or tend to shop at different stores than a woman who would like to be more warm & attractive.

Consumption and the extended self: - Another dimension of self-concept theory is applicable to consumers. Not only does our self-image influence the products we choose but also the products we choose frequently influence our self-image. Certain products have symbolic value. They say something about us and the way we feel about ourselves. For example, when we buy a certain suit or dress, we may anticipate that it enhance our self-esteem

2. PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory stresses the unconscious nature of personality as a result of childhood conflicts: Id, ego & superego. The id controls the individual’s most basic needs & urges such as hunger, sex & self-preservation. The source of all innate forces that drive behavior, the id operates on one principle: directing behavior to achieve pleasure & to avoid pain. The id is entirely unconscious, with no anchor in objective reality. A newborn baby’s behavior for example is governed totally by the id.

The ego is the individual’s self-concept & is manifestation of objective reality as it develops an interaction with the external world. As manager of id, the ego seeks to attain the goals of id in a socially acceptable manner. For example, rather than manifest a basic need to be aggressive in antisocial ways, an individual may partially satisfy this need by buying a powerful sports car. The superego is the leash on the id and works against its impulses. It does not manage the id but restrains it by punishing unacceptable behavior through the creation of guilt. Like the id, it operates in the unconscious and often represses behavior that would otherwise occur based on the id. The superego represents the ideal rather than the real. It motivates us to act in a moral way. According to Freud, the ego manages the conflicting demands of the id and the superego. The way the child manages these conflicts (particularly sexual conflicts) determines the adult personality. Conflicts that are not resolved in childhood will result in defense mechanisms (strategies that the ego uses to reduce tension) and will frequently influence later behavior in a manner of which the adult is unaware.

3. SOCIAL/CULTURAL THEORIES

A number of Freud’s disciples shifted from his view of personality in two respects. First they sought that social and cultural variables, rather than biological drives are more important in personality development. Second, Freud’s understanding of personality focused primarily on observations of emotionally disturbed people. His disciples subsequently believed that insights into personality development should also rely on observations of people who function normally in the social environment. Kevin Thorny, a social theorist believed that personality is developed as an individual learns to cope with basic anxieties stemming from parent child relationships. She hypothesized three approaches to coping with this, anxiety; compliance; a strategy of moving towards people and stressing the needs for love, approval and affection; aggressiveness moving against people and stressing the need for power, strength and manipulate others; and detachment; moving away from people and stressing the need for freedom and self-reliance. In one of the few studies relying on social theories of personality to explain purchase behavior, when developed a compliance-aggressiveness-detachment (cad) scale based on Thorne’s Work. In applying the cad scale, when found that compliant types used more cologne and after shave lotion and bought old spice deodorant and Van-Heusen shirts and detached types drank more tea and less beer.

4. TRAIT THEORIES

Trait theory states that personality is composed of a set of traits that describe general response predisposition. Trait theorists construct personality inventories and ask respondents to respond to many items, perhaps agreeing or disagreeing with certain statements or expressing likes or dislikes for certain situations or types of people. These items then are statistically analyzed and reduced to a few personality dimensions. A number of studies have used personality traits to segment markets. A study of smoking behavior found that heavy smokers scored higher on heterosexuality, aggression and achievement and lower an order and compliance. Heavy smokers are more likely to orient towards power and competitiveness and may be more influenced by sexual themes and symbols. They are not as compulsive or submissive as non-smokers.

However consumer behavior researchers have seen drawbacks in using personality characteristics to explain consumer behavior. Personality theories are meant to describe envying patterns of behavior. Quite often, the focus is an aberrant, rather than typical, behavior. To apply measures developed for these purpose to consumer behavior assumes that consumers are motivated to buy based on deep-seated drivers. The consumer behavior is a day-to-day affair clearly unequivocal results are to emerge, consumer behavior researchers should develop there own definitions and design there own instruments to measure the personality variables that go into the purchase decision.