CONSUMER DECISION MAKING respect to diet-snacking.

For these kinds of

Lesson 3 consumers, maintaining the diet is an eternal
effort. So, the marketer, when he plans his
Content communication, whether it is advertising or
• Types of Decision and Decision making point of purchase posters, needs to take into
• Consumer Decision Making Influencers account whether the target segment reflects
• Role of Culture in Decision Making an enduring involvement or a situational
• Rational and Irrational Decisions involvement.
• Motivation and Emotion  Besides these kinds of decision making, there
• low and high involvement is also something known as impulse buying.
• Excitation transfer theory When a consumer sees an ice cream, sees a
• Social Judgement theory probably an attractive apparel for that matter,
• Experiential Utility they may feel like simply buying it. So,
psychologically, there is some tension created
TYPES OF DECISION AND DECISION MAKING because the brand or the product is seen by
 Decision-making is one of the complex areas of the consumer and the tension is resolved only
human behavior, and we are trying to apply when the consumer buys it.
decision making to how consumers decide on a  In this case, this is known as impulsive buying
host of aspects. because the consumer just wants to buy the
 Consumer decision making can involve day-to- product without going much into the
day decisions. It can involve well thought-out consequences of making the buy. So, to start
decisions. It can also involve impulsive with, these are some kinds of aspects which
decisions, which are taken on the spur of the are probably preliminary from the viewpoint of
moment. Why is consumer decision making so decision making.
complex? The complexity of consumer decisions
can be attributed to a combination of aspects. CONSUMER DECISION MAKING INFLUENCER
These include the motivation of the consumer. • Mental Activities
When we say motivation of the consumer, it is • Physical Activities
extremely complex because we are all different • Needs and Wants
kinds of individuals. It could be because of the
money involved. Let us take a look at the other aspects of
1. Routine Decision Making- known as decision making. There are decisions on what to
repeated decision- making, as it is what acquire and when to acquire; how to consume it; how
happens when a consumer makes a to acquire; how often to acquire; where to acquire;
repeated decision on a regularly where to consume; and how to dispose of the product
purchased brand or product. If a because today, disposal is also an important aspect in
consumer has brand or company loyalty both from the environmental viewpoint as well as from
to a particular product, they make a very generating value based on the old product from the
quick and habitual choice. viewpoint of the consumer. So, when we talk about
2. Intermediary Decision Making- It is different kinds of decisions associated with the
where the consumer has options on consumer in terms of acquisition, consumption, the
products that he/she wants, either manner of acquisition, the place where it is acquired,
lifestyle, need and wants. and the disposal aspects of consumer decision-making.
3. Elaborate Decision-Making- tremendous There are many, many insights which come into the
amount of information processing as well picture.
as a high degree of involvement. For
example, buying a car for most people ROLE OF CULTURE IN DECISION MAKING
would involve elaborate decision making. o Let us quickly take a look at how the cultural
backdrop affects the decision making in a
Degree of Involvement context like India. We have brands like
 there is also an additional complexity of Manchester United, McDonald, and Omega.
enduring involvement and situational These are Western brands and they stand for
involvement. For example, there could be specific brand propositions.
consumers who are probably interested in a For example, Manchester United is always
snack just to reduce their weight, just to feel about the group experience, recreational
good. And there are consumers who in an experience that is to do with enjoying the
enduring manner are probably involved with game.
 McDonald is all about the values associated emotional element with respect to a dance
with a quick meal, inexpensive meal, clean that had a several rational benefits associated
meal, and so on. This is the proposition all over with health and fitness. So, there's a global
the world. When we talk about again example to show how the power of emotion
something like a Mercedes as a brand, can appeal. In the earlier case, we had a
Mercedes stands for prestige and even in the discussion on the experiential utility with
Indian context, Mercedes is bought for a respect to decision-making, where the
symbolic appeal. These are one set of brands. pleasurable aspects of a brand, in that case a
o Let us take the other set of brands that clearly brand of wine was happening even without the
tells us how the ethnic aspects of decision consumer fully not being aware that he is
making is slightly different. experiencing the effects of wine. In this case, it
For example, when we take a brand like is a conspicuous emotion that has appeal to
Kellogg's, they entered into the Indian context millions of people all over the world. So, there
during the mid-90s and at a later point in time, are a number of categories in the Indian
they started advertising the Kellogg Cornflakes context that use emotions, shampoos,
with hot milk. Kellogg Cornflakes is always chocolates, soaps, cosmetics, two-wheeler's,
taken with cold milk in several other parts of branded wheat, and the category goes on and
the world. It is the symbolic significance of on.
warm milk in the Indian context that prompted  There is another interesting aspect that is to do
Kellogg's to introduce cornflakes with warm with Automatic Information Processing. This is
milk. an extremely interesting aspect because
There are several other examples of how to consumers may process information
take into account the cultural aspects before automatically without their complete
entering into the decision-making domain of knowledge and at the same time, the
the consumer. So, culture is something that automatic processing has an impact on their
needs to be dovetailed into the marketing feelings, goals, and behaviors. That is the
program when consumer decision making is concept of Adaptive Unconscious which means
considered. that the consumer can use the automatic
processing system to create an automatic set
RATIONAL AND IRRATIONAL DECISIONS of behaviors concerned with a routine matter.
 There are rational and irrational decisions.
Rational means that it is not completely MOTIVATION AND EMOTION
rational from the economic choice viewpoint.  Motivation is the actionable part of the
It only means that consumers are trained to consumer, which propels the consumers into
apply the reason when coming out with a action.
decision-making as we had examined the  Without specific motivation or without the
elaborate decision-making sometime back. direction of the motivation, a consumer will
"Irrational" emphasizes within quotes because not be able to focus his efforts.
it is just not irrational, it is more of an  From the viewpoint of motivation, a need and
emotional decision where the consumer is not want is something that needs to be rectified as
given in for rational arguments. it goes down.
 So, the power of emotion can be find in a  Motivation is the internal drive from that
variety of contexts wherever consumer choices consumer with respect to his involvement and
being made. Emotion has become extremely motivation propels the consumer into action.
important in today's context where the  Motivation along with emotion provides a
consumer across a host of categories decide on powerful focus for the consumer.
the brand, not just on rational decision making
but also with respect to emotions that go along INVOLVEMENT
with rational decision making. Involvement is the degree of personal
 A very interesting example is the case of the relevance associated with a particular consumer's
brand Zumba where millions of consumers all perception.
over the world celebrate their fitness program LOW INVOLVEMENT
with Zumba dance. Zumba originated from one Low-involvement decisions are more
of the South American countries and one of the straightforward, require little risk, are repetitive,
founders of Zumba wanted to have a very and often lead to a habit. In effect, these purchases
appealing caption which said, "Ditch the are not very important to the consumer.
Workout, Join the Party". One can see the
 HIGH INVOLVEMENT different price tag would be fed into the mouth
Low-involvement decisions are more of the respondent.
straightforward, require little risk, are repetitive, c) Each respondent was monitored through an
and often lead to a habit. In effect, these purchases MRI scan. This meant that the brain waves
are not very important to the consumer. could be observed as and when the
respondent was tasting the wine. It is so turned
EXCITATION TRANSFER THEORY out that the portions of the brain, which were
• Means when consumers experience an to do with pleasure was flashing more
involvement with regard to one stimuli, they whenever the respondent experienced a wine
transfer the same involvement and emotion to which was priced higher.
another stimuli. d) So, this meant that when the respondent had
• A celebrity promotes a whitening soap, and the tasted a wine costing $90, those parts of the
consumers develop an emotion towards that brains which was associated with the
celebrity who uses that soap. Due to the pleasurable zones were flashing much more
consumer's emotion, it becomes his/her than when it flashed when the respondent was
motivation to buy that specific kind of soap experiencing a wine, which was priced lower.
promoted by the celebrity. e) Interestingly, all the wines tasted by each of the
respondents were the same. This clearly
SOCIAL JUDGEMENT THEORY showed that the experiential aspect
• Developed by Sheriff concerning the wine had a profound impact on
• Assumption in this theory is that an individual's the pleasure perceived by that respondent.
position with respect to a belief is based on his
involvement with respect to an issue.
• The individual takes a position with respect to
his thinking based on his involvement on a
specific issue.
• As we have seen in recent times in the Filipino
context, male grooming is an important part of
a man's ritual of grooming. We find creams for
men. Hair oil for men and several other
cosmetic aspects that were the exclusive
preserve of women in the previous year's
slowly getting opened up for men.
• One is Ponds from men and women which is
strongly entrenched in the Filipino context. The
brand entered the Filipino context by its
offering for women, and today it has a variant
for men
1. Zone of Acceptance
2. Zone of non-commitment
3. Zone of Rejection
EXAMPLE
a) Baba Shiv came out with a very interesting
experiment. This is an experiment where
respondents had to taste different kinds of
wines, which were ranging from $5 to $90.
Each respondent was randomly shown
different kinds of prices with respect to the
wine, and the respective wine was injected into
his mouth with a specific mechanism.
b) The respondent would be given the wine after
the prices were flashed so that he could see
that. The respondent would have the wine in
his mouth for some time and at a later point in
time, the mouth would be washed off, and
again, another type of wine which had a