Influences on Consumer Behaviour

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Influences on Consumer Behaviour

• Theoretical and Disciplinary
• Paradigms
• Exogenous Factors

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Pyramid of Consumer Behaviour
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Interdisciplinary research issuesin consumer
behaviour (1 of 2)?
T
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Interdisciplinary research issuesin consumer
behaviour (2 of 2)?
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Positivism and interpretivism
Positivism emphasises the objectivity of
science and the consumer as a
rational decision maker. Interpretivism
stresses the subjective meaning of the
consumers individual experience and the idea
that any behaviour is subject to multiple
interpretations rather than one single
explanation.
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Positivist versus interpretivistapproaches to
consumer behaviour
  Source Adapted from Laurel A. Hudson and Julie
L. Ozanne, Alternative Ways of Seeking Knowledge
in Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer
Research 14 (March 1988) 50821. Reprinted with
the permission of The University of Chicago Press.
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Factors affecting Behaviour
Demographic Households Education Social
Class Location Religion Employment Culture
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Households

• Households are growing in Europe
• 1 to 2 person households on increase
• Traditional family in decline
• Implications for consumer behaviour

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Education

• Systems vary but education to 18 is usual
• Tertiary education varies in style and length
• Increased level of education necessary
• Improves information processing
• Affects consumer demand

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Social Class

• Structural differences in consumers
• Life style
• Consumer behaviour
• Wealth
• Leisure
• People tend to mix with same social class
• Democracy has made class less important
• Determined by profession and education
• Income not a determinant of social class

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Social Class Classification

• Joint industry for national readership surveys
  (JICNARS)?
• A Upper middle
• B Middle
• C1 Lower Middle
• C2 Skilled working
• D Working
• E Lowest Subsistence

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Changes in Social Class

• Democratisation has led to decline in AB and E
• Class now education and profession not birth
• Mobility between classes has increased
• Income positively related to class
• Class still important for CB
• Pierre Bourdieu concept of habitus
• Use of alternative classification systems (ACORN)
  

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Location

• Location determines consumption patterns
• Neighbourhood differences
• Urbanisation v Rural
• Increasing urbanisation

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Other Factors

• Religion in Europe North / South Divide
• Increase in secularisation
• Participation in employment
• OECD EU 65.5 (Poland 50.7 v Denmark 77.8)?
• Earnings and Spending patterns
• East Europe 50 - food/clothes - West Europe 30
  
• Size of households

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Societal Norms in Europe(cultural Values)?

• Freedom and democracy
• Individual responsibility and individualism
• Steward of nature
• Equality of peoples
• Linear time perspective (progress)?

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Definition of Culture

• The entirety of societal knowledge, norms and
  values
• Norms are group beliefs on how to behave or how
  not to behave
• Values are stable beliefs regarding desired
  behaviour or end states

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Waves of Culture

• Alvin Toffler 'The Third Wave' 1981
• Pre-modern
• Modern
• Post Modern
• Frederic Jameson 1991
• Concept of late capitalism

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Transfer of Culture

• Cultural Transfer Systems
• How?
• Socialisation
• to new generations
• Acculturation
• to adults who have grown up in different cultures

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Socialisation Agents

• Values are transferred by
• Parents
• Relations
• Schools
• Friends
• Church
• Media

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Ideological State Apparatuses

• Louis Althusser points out that public and semi
  public intitutions schools, hospitals, media
  influence our background idealogy
• Interpellation is the way in which we are
  already constituted as consumers,workers etc as
  the human subject is 'constituted' (constructed)
  by pre-given structures
• The consumer is positioned through representation
  in mass media and takes it as reality

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Cultural Change

• Three main trends
• Economic Cultural Development
• Emancipatory-Cultural development
• Materialism and societal opinions

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Significant Generational Factors

• Cohort Effect
• Age Effect
• Democratisation

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Consumer Megatrends

• Datamonitor 2005 identified 10 changes in
  consumer attitudes and values
• Argue that companies must incorporate these
  megatrends in developing products and services
  for the future

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Age Complexity

• Children growing up younger but adults want to be
  teenagers
• 12 year olds behaving as if they were 17
• Adults behaving like teenagers in terms of dress.
  Snacking habits etc

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Gender Feminisation

• Society being feminised
• Women entering traditional male worlds
• Consumption of alcohol by women increased by 27
  in UK between 1998 -2003 and is continuing to
  rise
• Mens spending on personal care products
  increasing
• Fathers have maternity leave

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Lifestage Complexity

• Traditional lifestages being delayed or abandoned
• Decrease of nuclear family
• Fewer nuclear families in Europe generally
• (21m or 14 in 2005 compared 1995)
• Impact on pack sizes

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Income Complexity

• Parallel movements towards everyday luxury and
  anti-luxury
• Occasional luxuries for budget customers and
  understated luxury for high income consumers
• Premium products on rise before current recession

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Individualism

• Self expression leading to personalistion
• People prefer to live alone
• Single serving of products

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Homing

• Consumers more rooted in home and family life
• Decline of British pub and rise of home beer
• People spending more time in their homes

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Connectivity

• An increased desire to belong
• Connected through technology face books and user
  groups

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Sensory

• Importance of experience
• More tolerant of risk ( is this true ?)
• Extreme sports (generally safe of course!)
• Willingness to experiment

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Convenience

• Grazing eating habits
• Quick and convenient products

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Health

• Importance of health and physical well being
• 75 of Europeans more concerned about health in
  2005 than they were the year before
• Functional foods (healthy) consumption doubled in
  five years
• Health and fitness activities

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Mega trends

• Megatrends can change but the above illustrate
  complexity and changing nature of consumer
  behaviour
• How will the current world recession and its
  causes affect consumer behaviour in the future?

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Conclusion

• Background to consumer behaviour is complex
• One cause seldom sufficient for an explanation
• Cause interact in a dynamic process

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References

• Ch 2 and 3 Consumer Behaviour A European
  Perspective by Antonides and van Raaij (1998)?