The document discusses key concepts in analyzing consumer markets and behavior. It outlines factors that influence consumer characteristics and decision-making processes, including cultural, social, and personal factors. It also describes the five stages consumers pass through from problem recognition to post-purchase evaluation. Additionally, it discusses how perceived risk can impact a consumer's purchase decision and how a marketer should monitor post-purchase satisfaction, actions, and product use.

1. Top 10 Concepts : Chapter 6 Analyzing Consumer MarketsCh6 Concepts : Analyzing Consumer MarketsConsumer characteristics are determined by studying how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, and dispose of goods, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants. It may be influenced by : (a) Cultural factors showing a person’s view of oneself, relationship to others , and rituals (b)Social factors stressing how a person’s roles and status as well as his or her relationships with reference groups and family and (c) Personal factors that refer to a person’s personality, self-concept, lifestyles and values.Four key psychological processes- motivation (drive to act), perception (idea or view of something), learning (behavior arising from experience) and memory (linked association of a thing or an experience)---fundamentally influence consumer response. Analyzing consumer behavior involves a basic stimulus-response model : (a)The 4 P’s of marketing (product, place, price and promotion ) and other external factors ( economic, technological and political ) enter the consumer’s consciousness providing a very strong influence. (b)A response is characterized by a set of psychological processes combine with consumer characteristics that lead to a decision process and purchase decisions.The marketer’s task is to understand what happens in the consumers’ consciousness between the arrival of the outside marketing stimuli and the ultimate purchase decisions.Consumers pass through five-stages: problem recognition (what is the need triggered by a stimuli?), information search (where would consumers turn to solicit information?),evaluation of alternatives (how does consumer create preference among competing brands?), purchase decision (how does a consumer execute intention to buy?) and post purchase decision behavior (what are the consumer’s behavior and reactions towards their purchases ?)The basic concepts in understanding consumer evaluation process involves : (a) the consumer is trying to satisfy a need, (b)consumer looks for certain benefits from a product solution, and (c)the consumer sees each product as a bundle of attributes with varying abilities for delivering the benefits sought to satisfy a need.In executing a purchase intention, aside from deciding to actually buy, the consumer may make up five subdecisions: (a) What is the brand to buy? (b) Who is the dealer? (c) How many? (d) When to buy? (e) What is the payment method?The attitude of others can intervene between the purchase intention and the purchase decision. The extent to which another person’s attitude reduces consumers preference for an alternative depends on two aspects: (1) the intensity of the other person’s negative attitude toward the preferred alternative and (2) the motivation to comply with the other person’s wishes.Anticipated situational factors may change purchase intention. A consumer’s decision to modify, postpone, or avoid a purchase decision is heavily influenced by perceived risk that may take different forms : (a) functional risk-the product does not perform as expected, (b)physical risk-the product poses threat to physical well-being and health, (c)financial risk- product not worth the price, (d)social risk- product as a source of embarrassment, (e) psychological risk-the product poses threat to the mental well-being of the user, and (f)time risk-failure of the product results to opportunity cost of finding another satisfactory product.The marketer’s job doesn’t end with the purchase, they must monitor postpurchase satisfaction (closeness between expectations and the products perceived performance), postpurchase actions (positive or negative reactions resulting from a satisfied or dissatisfied consumer), and postpurchase product uses (consumer’s usage and disposal of the product).When product performance meets or exceeds expectations, consumers may be satisfied and delighted resulting to repeat purchase and/or positive grapevine. If it falls short of expectations, customers are disappointed.This may result to stop purchases, return products, negative grapevine and/or public action (public complaints, case filing, etc.). Edgardo V. Basa ( January 12, 2010 )