The aim of marketing is to meet and satisfy target customers’ needs and wants better than competitors. Marketers must have a thorough understanding of how consumers think, feel, and act and offer clear value to each and every target consumer.
LEGO of Billund, Denmark, may have been one of the first mass customized brands. Every child who has ever had a set of the most basic LEGO blocks has built his or her own unique and amazing creations, brick by plastic brick. When LEGO decided to become a lifestyle brand and launch theme parks; its own lines of clothes, watches, and video games; and products such as Clikits craft sets designed to attract more girls to the brand franchise, it neglected its core market of five- to nine-year-old boys. Plunging profits led to layoffs of almost half its employees as the firm streamlined its brand portfolio to emphasize its core businesses. To better coordinate new product activities, LEGO revamped its organizational structure into four functional groups managing eight key areas. One group was responsible for supporting customer communities and tapping into them for product ideas. LEGO also set up what was later renamed LEGO Design byME, which let customers design, share, and build their own custom LEGO products using LEGO’s freely downloadable Digital Designer 3.0 software. The creations that result can exist—and be shared with other enthusiasts solely online, or, if customers want to build them, the software tabulates the pieces required and sends an order to LEGO’s Enfield, Connecticut, warehouse. Customers can request step-by-step building guide instructions and even design their own box to store the pieces.
Successful marketing requires that companies fully connect with their customers. Adopting a holistic marketing orientation means understanding customers — gaining a 360-degree view of both their daily lives and the changes that occur during their lifetimes so the right products are always marketed to the right customers in the right way. This chapter explores individual consumer buying dynamics; the next chapter explores the buying dynamics of business buyers.
What Influences Consumer Behavior?
Consumer behavior is the study of how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, use, and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants. Marketers must fully understand both the theory and reality of consumer behavior. This Table provides a snapshot profile of U.S. consumers
Cultural Factors
Culture,
subculture, and social class are particularly important influences on consumer
buying behavior. Culture is
the fundamental determinant of a person’s wants and behavior. Through family and
other key institutions, a child growing up in the United States is exposed to
values such as.
|
Expenditures |
|
|
|
Average U.S.
outlays for goods and services in 2009 |
|
|
|
|
$ |
% |
|
Housing |
$16,920 |
34.1% |
|
Transportation |
$8,758 |
17.6% |
|
Food |
$6,133 |
12.4% |
|
Personal
insurance and pensions |
$5,336 |
10.7% |
|
Healthcare |
$2,853 |
5.7% |
|
Entertainment |
$2,698 |
5.4% |
|
Apparel and
services |
$1,881 |
3.8% |
|
Cash
contributions |
$1,821 |
3.7% |
|
Education |
$945 |
1.9% |
|
Miscellaneous |
$808 |
1.6% |
|
Personal care
products and services |
$588 |
1.2% |
|
Alcoholic
beverages |
$457 |
9% |
|
Tobacco
products and smoking supplies |
$323 |
0.7% |
|
Reading |
$118 |
0.2% |
|
Ownership |
|
|
|
Percentage of
households with at least one vehicle owned or leased |
|
77.0% |
|
Percentage of
households that own homes |
|
67% |
|
Percentage of
households that own their homes “free and clear” |
|
23% |
|
Time use on an
average workday for employed persons ages 25–54
with children in 2008 |
|
|
|
Working and
related activities |
8.8
hours |
|
|
Sleeping |
7.6
hours |
|
|
Leisure and
sports |
2.6
hours |
|
|
Caring for
others |
1.3
hours |
|
|
Eating and
drinking |
1.0
hours |
|
|
Household
activities |
1.0
hours |
|
|
Other |
1.7
hours |
|
|
Monthly users’
time spent in hours: Minutes per user aged 2+ years—Q1 2009 |
|
|
|
|
# Of Americans |
Average
minutes per day spent |
|
Watching TV in
the home |
285,574,000 |
153
minutes |
|
Watching
time-shifted TV |
79,533,000 |
8
minutes |
|
Using the
Internet |
163,110,000 |
29
minutes |
|
Watching video
on the Internet |
131,102,000 |
3
minutes |
|
Mobile
subscribers watching video on a mobile phone |
13,419,000 |
4
minutes |
Sources: Bureau
of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey, www.bls.gov/cex; AC Nielsen,
A2 M2 Three Screen Report, 1st Quarter 2009, http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/
uploads/2009/05/nielsen_threescreenreport_q109.pdf.
achievement and success, activity, efficiency and practicality, progress, material comfort, individualism, freedom, external comfort, humanitarianism, and youthfulness. A child growing up in another country might have a different view of self, relationship to others, and rituals. Marketers must closely attend to cultural values in every country to understand how to best market their existing products and find opportunities for new products.
Each culture consists of smaller subcultures that provide more specific identification and socialization for their members. Subcultures include nationalities, religions, racial groups, and geographic regions. When subcultures grow large and affluent enough, companies often design specialized marketing programs to serve them.
Virtually all human societies exhibit social stratification, most often in the form of social classes, relatively homogeneous and enduring divisions in a society, hierarchically ordered and with members who share similar values, interests, and behavior. One classic depiction of social classes in the United States defined seven ascending levels: (1) lower lowers, (2) upper lowers, (3) working class, (4) middle class, (5) upper middles, (6) lower uppers, and (7) upper uppers.
Social class members show distinct product and brand preferences in many areas, including clothing, home furnishings, leisure activities, and automobiles. They also differ in media preferences; upper-class consumers often prefer magazines and books, and lower-class consumers often prefer television. Even within a category such as TV, upper-class consumers may show greater preference for news and drama, whereas lower-class consumers may lean toward reality shows and sports. There are also language differences—advertising copy and dialogue must ring true to the targeted social class.
