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Consumer Behavior and Marketing

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consumer behavior

What is the definition of consumer behavior?

By Christopher Lee

Consumer behavior is human behavior.

That’s it. Often, I think we get too caught up in marketing with definitions, terms, and abstract references to “target market” or “consumers” or “customers” or “personas”. Those terms are important but, at the end of the day, all of those are people. Consumer behavior is why, and how, human beings behave in the way that they do.

You might assume that a consumer is somebody who is buying something. Perhaps. That is not always the case though. For example, right now. You are consuming this page. You made some sort of behavior to get here, are behaving in a certain fashion right now (i.e. reading), and perhaps even consuming (i.e. behaving) a beverage such as coffee.

What is the textbook definition of consumer behavior?

Let’s look at a few textbook and academic definitions of consumer behavior. In Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being, Michael Solomon defines consumer behavior as:

“It is the study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and desires.”

In CB8: Consumer Behavior, Barry Babin and Eric Harris define consumer behavior as:

“Consumer behavior is the set of value-seeking activities that take place as people go about addressing and attempting to address real needs.”

Where does psychology fit in?

In many ways, consumer behavior is applied psychology. With that in mind, let’s look at one of the early and prominent definitions of applied psychology from Applied Psychology by Harry Levi Hollingworth and Albert Theodor Poffenberger:

“every situation in which human behavior is involved and where economy of human energy is of practical importance.”

What do you notice about the above consumer behavior and psychology definitions?

The above definitions include people, individuals, and human. Again, consumer behavior is human behavior. It is about understanding people.

With that in mind, let’s look at when consumer behavior became a thing. If you look at Google’s ngram viewer, it wasn’t until the 1950s that the term “consumer behavior” even started appearing in books:

Consumer behavior on Google Ngram Viewer.

Now, let’s add in “human behavior” just for fun. As you’ll see, the term “human behavior” began appearing in books much earlier:

consumer behavior vs human behavior

Finally, let’s do one last search. In many ways, consumer behavior is simply an applied version of psychology. It is applied in the sense of taking everything we know about human behavior and applying it to a business, or consumption, context. Thus, when did “applied psychology” begin appearing in books? As you’ll see, that started even earlier:

consumer behavior vs human behavior vs applied psychology

In short, the terms have evolved over the years and “consumer behavior” is a relatively new term. Thus, many of the consumer behavior definitions reference humans, people, and individuals. Consumer behavior is effectively an applied version of human behavior and psychology within a business (or consumption) context.

When are people interested in consumer behavior and human behavior?

According to Google Trends, interest in consumer behavior and human behavior appears to be seasonal:

Consumer behavior on Google Trends.

I suspect that the seasonal interest is due to education interests and, more specifically, college classes. Millions of students researching course titles and more information for potential assignments or quizzes. This isn’t overly relevant to the original question of the definition of consumer behavior, but it is interesting to see, using a modern tool, when people are interested in the term “consumer behavior”.

What does this all mean?

If you’re getting too wrapped up in the definition, take a step back. What is consumer behavior? It is the study of how humans behave. Outside of possibly sleeping, humans are *always* consumer something. Our senses are constantly evaluating (i.e. consuming) everything around us. The screen you’re looking at now. The smells in the room. The sound of the surrounding area (birds, cars, chatter in a coffee shop, etc).

At the end of the day, understand human behavior and you will understand consumer behavior.

Filed Under: consumer behavior Tagged With: consumer behavior, definition, marketing

What’s In A Name? Stadium Section Names and Perceptions

By Christopher Lee

I flew out to Arizona last week to watch some spring training baseball. Since I was thinking about baseball and tickets, I wanted to explore the naming of sections within a stadium. In my experience, the naming of sections is not as calculated at it might appear (or should be). In other words, come up with a name for a section that sounds neat or luxurious and run with it. Although this isn’t a spring training example, let’s take a look at Angel Stadium. The Angels have the following section names in their upper deck:

[Read more…] about What’s In A Name? Stadium Section Names and Perceptions

Filed Under: consumer behavior, marketing Tagged With: #1QFriday, framing, linguistics

On Time Versus Late: The Effect of Framing on Subway Delays

By Christopher Lee

After reading this post on Gawker about New York City subway delays, I was intrigued by how the information was (or could be) framed. The article mentions that 78.8% of New York City subway trains were on time in 2014. Mathematically, that suggests (as the article mentions as well) subway trains are late 21.2% of the time.

This got me thinking…what do people perceive as an acceptable rate for trains to be on time? What do people perceive as an acceptable rate for trains to be late? Look at those two questions again. Virtually the same question but framing the information in a slightly different way may influence perceptions. Thus, half of the people who answered the survey saw the following:

One report estimates that New York City subway trains are on time 78.8% of the time. Given a variety of potential issues (weather, construction, etc.), what do you think is a reasonable percentage for trains to be on time? [Read more…] about On Time Versus Late: The Effect of Framing on Subway Delays

Filed Under: consumer behavior, marketing Tagged With: #1QFriday

Framing and Issues With Nutrition Labels

By Christopher Lee

All of my #1QFriday questions thus far have focused on a numerical response. How few miles is it from Eugene, OR to Philadelphia, PA? What percentage of 40-yard field goals does the average college kicker make? All of them required some sort of numerical estimate. This week’s question switched to choice. Specifically, the task was to choose between two cans of soup:

Assuming you plan to eat the entire can of soup by yourself for dinner, which soup do you think is the healthiest choice?

[Read more…] about Framing and Issues With Nutrition Labels

Filed Under: consumer behavior, marketing Tagged With: #1QFriday

Anchoring and The Effect of Survey Answer Format

By Christopher Lee

A lot of the consumer behavior effects I have demonstrated thus far in my #1QFriday series have been on the question side of things. For example, “How many miles…” versus “How few miles” is a markedness effect built into the actual question. This week’s survey looks at the answer side of things:

What do you think is the average attendance at a (FBS) college football game?

[Read more…] about Anchoring and The Effect of Survey Answer Format

Filed Under: consumer behavior Tagged With: #1QFriday, anchoring, psychology

How Few Miles? Markedness and Distance

By Christopher Lee

Markedness. Kind of a funny word. I barely knew how to pronounce it when I first saw it. But it has a serious influence on numerical perceptions. I have said on multiple occasions that words matter. A lot. This week’s question continues to explore that idea:

How many miles do you think it is from Philadelphia, PA to Eugene, OR?

As you might be used to (if you’re signed up to receive my surveys), there was more than one condition. Here are the other three options you might have seen: [Read more…] about How Few Miles? Markedness and Distance

Filed Under: consumer behavior Tagged With: #1QFriday, anchoring, markedness

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