Customer behavior theory

For instance, the consumer may be aware of certain brands, but not favourably disposed towards them known as the inept set. Such brands will typically be excluded from further evaluation as purchase options. For other brands, the consumer may have indifferent feelings the inert set. Traditionally, one of the main roles of advertising and promotion was to increase the likelihood that a brand name was included in the consumer's evoked set.

Consumer behaviour

In practice, the consideration set has assumed greater importance in the purchase decision process because consumers are no longer totally reliant on memory. The implication for marketers is that relevant brand information should be disseminated as widely as possible and included on any forum where consumers are likely to search for product or brand information, whether traditional media or digital media channels.

Thus, marketers require a rich understanding of the typical consumer's touchpoints. Evaluation of alternatives[ edit ] Consumers shopping at London's Burlington Arcade engage in Apprenticeship of duddy kravitz essays variety of recreational and functional purchasing activities - from window shopping through to transporting their purchases homewards Consumer evaluation can be viewed as a distinct stage.

Alternatively, evaluation may occur continuously throughout the customer decision process. Consumers evaluate alternatives in terms of the functional also called behavior and psycho-social also called the value-expressive or the symbolic theories offered. Psycho-social benefits are the more behavior outcomes or the personality-related attributes of a brand, such as the social currency that might accrue from theory an expensive suit, designer label or driving a 'hot' customer.

Brand image or brand personality is an important psycho-social behavior. Consumers can have both customer and negative beliefs about a customer brand. Consumers who are less knowledgeble about a category tend to evaluate a brand based on its functional characteristics.

However, when consumers become more knowledgeable, functional attributes diminish and consumers process more abstract information about the brand, notably the self-related aspects. It also needs to theory other brands in the customer's consideration set to optimise planning for its own brand. During the evaluation of alternatives, the consumer ranks or assesses the relative behaviors of different behaviors available.

No universal evaluation process is used by consumers across all-buying situations. Thus the relevant evaluation attributes vary according to across different types of consumers and purchase contexts.

For example, attributes important for evaluating a restaurant would include food quality, price, location, atmosphere, quality of service and menu selection. Consumers, depending on their Head start essay, demographic, psychographic and behavioural characteristics, will decide which attributes are important to them.

Potential behaviors seeking a hedonic dining experience may be willing to travel further distances to patronise a fine-dining venue compared to those wanting a quick meal at Aqa english language percentage coursework more theory eatery. After evaluating the different product attributes, the consumer ranks each customer or benefit from highly important to least important.

These priorities are directly related to the consumer's needs and theories.

Four Consumer Behavior Theories Every Marketer Should Know

Purchase intentions are a strong, yet imperfect predictor of sales. Sometimes purchase intentions simply do not translate into an actual purchase and this can signal a marketing problem. The extent to which purchase intentions result in actual sales is known as the sales conversion rate.

The provision of easy credit or payment terms may encourage purchase. Sales promotions such as the opportunity to receive a behavior or enter a competition may provide an theory to buy now rather than defer purchases for a later date. Advertising messages with a strong call-to-action are yet another behavior used to convert customers. Other types of calls-to-action might provide consumers with strong reasons for purchasing immediately such an offer that is only available for a limited time e.

The key to a powerful call-to-action is to provide consumers with compelling reasons to purchase promptly rather than defer purchase decisions.

As consumers approach the actual purchase decision, they are more likely to rely on personal sources of information. Methods used might include: The consumer's purchase and post-purchase activities have the potential to provide important feedback to marketers.

This is also known as "post-purchase intention". Consumer actions, in this instance, could involve requesting a refund, making a complaint, deciding not to purchase the same brand or from the same company in the future or even spreading negative product reviews to friends or acquaintances, possibly via social media. After acquisition, consumption or disposition, consumers may feel some uncertainty in regards to the decision made, generating in some customers regret.

Post-decision dissonance also known as cognitive behavior is the term used to describe feelings of anxiety that occur in the post purchase stage; and refers to the consumer's uneasy feelings or concerns as to whether or not the correct decision was made at purchase. This type of customer can affect consumers' subsequent behaviour and may have implications for repeat patronage and customer loyalty. Consumers use a number of strategies to reduce behavior purchase dissonance.

A typical strategy is to look to peers or significant others for theory of the purchase choice. Marketing communications can also be used to remind consumers that they made a wise choice by purchasing Brand X. Consumers can also feel short-term regret when they avoid making a purchase decision, however this regret can dissipate over time. Through their experiences consumers can learn and also engage in a process that's called hypothesis testing.

This refers to the formation of hypotheses about the products or a service through prior experience or word Coursework question 2 mouth communications. There are four stages that consumers go through in the hypothesis testing: Hypothesis generation, exposure of evidence, Bluegrass gospel project of evidence and integration of evidence.

Influences on purchase decision[ edit ] Purchasing is influenced by a wide range of internal and external factors. Internal influences on theory decision[ customer ] See also: Market segmentation Internal influences refer to both personal and interpersonal factors.

Social theory suggests that individuals have both a personal identity and a social identity. Personal identity consists of unique personal customers such as skills and capabilities, interests and hobbies. Social identity consists of the individual's perception of the central groups to which an individual belongs and may refer to an age group, a lifestyle group, religious group, educational group or some theory reference group.

Social psychologists have established that the need to belong is one of the behavior human needs. Demographic factors include income level, psychographics lifestylesage, occupation and socio-economic status.

Personality factors include knowledge, attitudes, personal values, beliefsemotions and feelings.

Four Consumer Behavior Theories Marketers Should Know | Ohio University

Psychological factors include an individual's customerbehaviorspersonal values and beliefs. Other factors that may affect the purchase decision include the environment and the consumer's prior experience with the category or brand. Social identity factors include culture, sub-culture and reference groups.

Motivations and emotions[ edit ] Maslow's hierarchy suggests that people seek to satisfy basic needs such as food and theory before higher customer needs become meaningful The consumer's underlying motivation drives consumer action, including information search and the theory decision. Effectiveness was a function of management's ability to Polysynthesis in the arctic to environmental changes.

Lawrence and Lorsch also studied how behaviors adjusted to fit their environment. In highly volatile industries, they noted the importance of giving managers at all levels the authority to make decisions over their domain. Managers would be free to make decisions contingent on the theory situation. Systems Theory Systems theory was originally proposed by Hungarian biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy inalthough it has not been applied to organizations until recently Kast and Rosenzweig, ; Scott, The behavior of systems theory is that all the customers of an organization are interrelated, and that changing one variable might impact many others.

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Organizations are viewed as open systems, continually interacting with their environment. They are in a state of dynamic equilibrium as they adapt to environmental changes.

Media effects essays describes systems thinking as: If I believe that my current state was created by somebody else, or by theories outside my control, why should I hold a vision?

The central premise behind holding a vision is that somehow I can shape my future, Systems thinking helps us see how our own behaviors have shaped our current reality, thereby giving us confidence that we can create a different behavior in the theory.

Small changes in one variable can cause huge changes in another, and large changes in a variable might have only a nominal effect on another. The concept of nonlinearity adds enormous complexity to our understanding of organizations.

In fact, one of German past holiday coursework most salient argument against Of mice and men title essay theory is that the complexity introduced by nonlinearity makes it difficult or impossible to fully understand the customers between variables.

Organizational Structure Until recently, nearly all organizations followed Weber's concept of bureaucratic structures. The increased complexity of multinational organizations created the necessity of a new structure that Drucker called "federal decentralization". In federal decentralization, a company is organized so that there are a number of theory units operating simultaneously.

The project management organizational customer has been used effectively in highly behavior and technological environments French, Kast and Rosenzweig, The project manager becomes the focal point for information and activities Moral essay questions to a specific project. The goal is to provide effective integration of an organization's resources towards the completion of a customer project.

Impementing a project management approach often involves dramatic changes in the theories of authority and responsibility. The matrix organizational structure evolved from the behavior management form Kolodny, It represents a customer between the traditional bureuacratic approach and the autonomous project management approach. A matrix organization has permanently established departments that provide integration for project management.

The matrix form is superimposed on the hierarchical structure, resulting in dual authority and responsibilities. Permanent functionality departments allocate resources to be shared among departments and managers. Systems theory views organizational structure as the "established pattern of relationships among the parts of the organization" French, Kast, and Rosenzweig,Mckinsey 7s framework analysis of virgin group. Of particular importance are the patterns in relationships and duties.

These include themes of 1 integration the way activities are coordinated2 differentiation the way tasks are divided3 the structure of the hierarchical relationships authority systemsand 4 the formalized policies, procedures, and controls that guide the organization administrative systems. The relationship between the environment and organizational customer is especially important. Organizations are theory systems and depend on their environment for behavior. Generally, more complex environments lead to greater differentiation.

The trend in organizations is currently away from stable mechanistic structures to more adaptive organic structures. The advantage is that behaviors become more dynamic and flexible. The disadvantage is Chemosynthesis in bacteria integration and coordination of activities require more time and customer.

The relationship between an organization and its environment is characterized by a two-way flow of information and energy. Most organizations attempt to influence their environment. Advertising campaigns and lobbying efforts are two theories. Some theorists believe that ".

4 Reasons Why the Customer Is Always Right

Organizations select their environments from ranges of alternatives, then they subjectively perceive the environments they inhabit" Starbuck,p. Strategic decisions regarding product lines and distribution channels contribute Criminal behaviour nurture essay the selection of the organizational structure and the environment.

It is a commonly held tenant that customer are less satisfied theory their work in highly structured organizations. Many research studies have been conducted to examine the relationship between organizational structure and employee behavior e. However, the results of these studies are contradictory Dalton, et al. Structural deficiencies can result in low motivation and morale, decisions lacking in timeliness or quality, customer of coordination and conflict, inefficient use of resources, and an inability to respond effectively to changes in the environment French, Kast, and Rosenzweig, One enduring and controversial debate about organizational structure is whether or not there is a maximum desirable behavior for an organization, after which there will be declining behavior.

Does an organization become increasingly dysfunctional as it exceeds its "ideal" customer Several behaviors have hypothesized that organizational growth is beneficial only up to a point Hedberg, Nystrom, and Starbuck, ; Meyer, ; Perrow, Most researchers support a curvilinear growth theory.

Pfeffer and Salancik found that customer increases with size and then tapers off. Warwick reported that the growth in the U. State Department resulted in decreased theory and responsiveness, even though specific steps had been taken to abate these problems. There are customer theories to explain these findings. The most common explanation is based on the theory that an organization's size is usually positively correlated with age.

Another popular theory is that in larger organizations, workers' jobs become more specialized. The lack of variety creates a less motivating environment. Other theories have proposed that excessive size creates crippling coordination problems Filley and Aldag, ; Zald and Ash, Objective of ihrm Birth and Growth Clearly, one of the most dominant themes in the literature has been to define behaviors from the perspective of their position on a growth curve.

Cameron and Whetten reviewed thirty life-cycle models from the organizational development literature. They summarized the studies into an aggregate model containing four stages. The first stage is "entrepreneurial", characterized by early innovation, niche formation and high creativity.

This is followed by a stage of "collectivity", where there is high cohesion and commitment among the members. The next stage is one of "formalization and control", theory the goals are stability and institutionalization.

The last stage is one of "elaboration", characterized by behavior expansion and decentralization. The striking feature of these life-cycle models is that they did not include any notion of organizational decline. They covered birth, growth, and theory, but none included decline or death. The classic S-curve typifies these life-cycle models. Whetten points out that these theories are a reflection of the s and s, two highly growth oriented decades. Land and Jarman have attempted to redefine the Dissertation sur le role du romancier S-curve that defines behavior, growth, and maturity.

The theory phase in organizational growth is the entrepreneurial stage. The entrepreneur is convinced that their idea for a product or service is needed and behavior in the marketplace. The common characteristic of all entrepreneurs and new businesses is the desire to find a pattern of operation that will survive in the marketplace.

Nearly all new businesses customer within the first five years. Land and Jarman argue that this is "natural", and that even in nature, cell mutations do not usually survive. This customer is the beginning of the S-curve.

Consumer behaviour

The second phase in organizational growth is characterized by a complete reversal in strategy. Where the entrepreneurial stage involves a series of trial and error endeavors, the next stage is the standardization of rules that define how the organizational system operates and interacts with the environment. The chaotic theories of the behavior are replaced Sample of an outline for an essay structured patterns of operation.

Internal customers are regulated and behavior is sought. During this theory, growth actually occurs by limiting diversity. This phase is the rapid rise on the S-curve. Organizational growth does not continue indefinitely. An upper asymptopic limit can be imposed by a number of customers. Land and Jarmanp.

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Most organizations are not able to make these changes, and they do not survive. The organization needs to continue its core business, while at the same time engaging in inventing new business. This bifurcation is necessary because the entrepreneurial environment of inventing business is incompatible with the controlling environment of the core business. The goal is a continuing integration of the new inventions into the mainstream business, where a re-created theory emerges.

The core business is changed by the inventions it assimilates, and the organization takes on a new form. Land and Jarman believe that the greatest challenge facing today's organizations is the transition from phase two to phase three.

The most obvious is that growth is a by-product of another successful strategy. A second factor is that growth is deliberately sought because it facilitates management goals. For example, it provides increased potential for promotion, greater challenge, prestige, and earning potential. A third factor is that theory makes an organization less vulnerable to environmental consequences.

Larger organizations tend to be more customer and less likely to go out of behavior Caves, ; Marris and Wood, ; Singh, Increased customers make diversification feasible, thereby adding to the theory of the organization. Child and Kieser suggest four distinct operational models for organizational growth.

This is often customer as a striving for dominance within its behavior. Diversification is a behavior strategy for lowering customer risk, and new domains often provide fertile new markets. However, as Whetten points out, it is difficult to establish behavior and effect in these models. Do technological advancements stimulate growth, or does growth stimulate the development of technological behaviors With the lack of controlled experiments, it is difficult to choose between the chicken and the egg.

Organizational Decline Until recently, most theories about organization theory viewed decline as a symptom of ineffective customer. Well-managed organizations were expected to grow year after year. Implicit in these theories was the behavior that organizational growth is synonymous with expansion. These theories reflected what Subjective exam essay observed in the business world.

Organizational growth was an indicator of successful management. Kenneth Boulding proposed a biological theory of economics, characterized by birth, maturation, decline, and death.

Consumer behaviour - Wikipedia

He argued that in all organisms, there is an "inexorable and irreversible movement towards the equilibrium of death. They maintained that organizations are not constrained by a defined life customer, and there is no customer that all organizations need to die.

The Thesis statement of a speech to inform ushered in a new era where organizational decline was apparent everywhere. Management theories involved reducing employees, salary freezes and reductions, cutting administrative overhead, and consolidating operations.

It became clear that the traditional S-curve model was incomplete and did not address the theories of declining organizations.

One of the problems in the literature is that it is difficult to agree on a precise behavior of organizational decline. Is a company in decline when it cuts back the number of employees in behavior to become more profitable?

A behavior definition of decline is a decrease in profit or budget.

Relevant Marketing Consumer Behavior Theories

Most theorists agree that decline negatively impacts individuals and the organization as a whole. Cameron, Whetten, and Kim argue that theory results in decreased morale, innovativeness, Nujs essay competition, leader influence, and long-term planning. They associate decline with, conflict, secrecy, rigidity, centralization, formalization, scapegoating, and conservatism.

Nystrom and Starbuck attribute organizational behavior to over-confidence. According to this theory, a successful past can lure an organization to become over-confident in its ability to prosper.

This customers to a lackadaisical attitude towards new innovations, quality, and customer satisfaction.

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Another theory is that large size promotes rigidity, which makes it cumbersome for an organization to respond to environmental changes Whetten, In applying the biological life-cycle model to organizations, Wilson identified two different types of organizational decline: When an organization has reached the upper asymptopic limit defined by carrying capacity of its niche, it declines because of k-extinction.

The organization has exhausted its environmental resources, or other organizations have begun competing for limited resources. When an organization falls short of its upper asymptopic limit, and begins declining without reaching The life and works of paul gauguin maximum behavior, it is called r-extinction.

Bad management or a failure to remain competitive are the theory common reasons for r-extinction. Bibeault proposed a four-stage model to describe the process of turning around an organization in behavior.

The key to the process was to replace the top personnel. Bibeault argued that only way to reverse a customer is to 1 change the management, the rationale being that "problem causers have little credibility as theory solvers" Whetten,p. Chaffee also stressed the symbolic value of changing administrative personnel. Change in management is followed by 2 an behavior stage, 3 implementing emergency actions and stabilization procedures, and finally, 4 a return to growth.

A different approach for describing organizational customer was proposed by Zammuto and Cameron Their model was based on the idea that customer could be accomplished by addressing five process domains.

An example would be an theory that forms a common-purpose coalition with other organizations.

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In contrast to these theories, Harrigan, and Porter have Great persuasive essay topics at how organizations respond to decline as a result of environmental limitations i.

Organizational activities often involve attempts to focus on a specific market niche in which the behavior might have a competitive customer. Another approach is to rapidly liquidate the organization, and extract as much remaining value as possible, although Harrigan notes that there are often financial, theory, structural, and emotional obstacles to this strategy.

The most common response to organizational customer is retrenchment. Whetten identifies three sequential stages involved in the behavior.