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STUDY QUESTIONS ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR -- Read all the assigned material, but expect the quizzes to cover a number of the following terms and concepts. The final exam is usually drawn directly from these study questions.
CHAP 1 – Introduction to Consumer Behavior
Know the definition of consumer behavior. Be able to expand on it in a short discussion.
The idea of breaking consumers down into types or segments is emphasized in the text. Explain the importance of this concept. What characterizes valid segments?
How important is the issue of ethics to those involved in marketing?
Consumer behavior has a "dark side." Explain with some of your favorite examples.
Terms (be able to define and discuss): compulsive consumption, positivism vs interpretivism, culture
jamming,
consumed consumers, green marketing, social marketing
CHAP 2 -- Perception
Distinguish between sensation and perception.
Explain the relevance of sensation and perception to this course using an example from your own consumer behavior.
Know the different sensory systems (five for our purposes).
What is the story on subliminal persuasion? Does it work?
What are the factors affecting attention and adaptation?
Terms: j.n.d., Weber's Law, gestalt, hedonic consumption, hyperreality
CHAP 3 -- Learning and Memory.
You should be able to distinguish between classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning, and cognitive learning. Be able to give examples of the marketing applications of these types of learning.
The three memory systems are worth reviewing. But the activation approach (associative networks, etc.) is most pertinent to consumer behavior.
Be able to list and discuss the factors influencing retrieval of stored information.
Terms: encoding, nostalgia, brand equity, frequency marketing, stimulus generalization
CHAP 4 -- Motivation and Values
What is the motivation process and how does it relate to consumer behavior?
Explain with examples the concept of consumer involvement. Along what dimensions does it vary?
Distinguish between needs and wants. Can marketers create needs?
What are the more important categories of need for the field of consumer behavior?
Terms: cognitive dissonance, laddering, homeostasis, instrumental vs terminal values.
CHAP 5-- The Self
Explain the relevance of self-concept and self-esteem to the field of consumer behavior.
Describe the traditional sex-role stereotypes and explain how they have been changing in recent advertising.
How have marketers responded to our concern with body image?
Terms: body cathexis, extended self, symbolic interactionism, symbolic self-completion theory, self-image congruence models.
CHAP 6 -- Personality and Lifestyles
People have personalities; can the same be true of brands?
Understand the role of psychographics in consumer behavior--especially the VALS system.
What are some of the current trends in consumer lifestyle? Which ones apply to you?
Terms: brand equity, motivational research, AIOs, geodemography, consumption constellations,
80/20 principle,
CHAP 7-- Attitudes
Know the functions of attitudes.
How are hierarchies of effects related to the ABC model?
Explain the importance of the consistency principle using an original example.
Why have multi-attribute models caught on in consumer behavior?
What are some of the problems in predicting consumer behavior from consumer attitudes?
Terms: affect, balance theory, social judgment theory, foot-in-the-door technique
CHAP 8-- Attitude Change and Interactive Communications
Be able to explain the effects on persuasion of source credibility, attractiveness, celebrity status, message arguments, use of sex, humor, and fear.
Explain the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) using your own examples.
Terms: metaphor, sleeper effect, resonance.
CHAP 9-- Individual Decision Making
Know the 5-step model of rational decision making.
Explain problem recognition in terms of actual and ideal state.
How rational are we when we seek information for consumer decisions?
On what grounds do consumers decide among alternatives?
Terms: evaluative criteria, heuristics, inertia, cybermediary
CHAP 10—Buying and Disposing
Of the many topics associated with purchase and disposal, the most important (for testing purposes) are: time, mood, non-store shopping, store image, POP, satisfaction, and disposal.
Terms: atmospherics, lateral cycling, time poverty
CHAP 11 -- Group Influence and Opinion Leadership
Understand the influence of reference groups in our lives -- especially as regards forms of influence (informational, etc.), membership vs. aspirational, and positive vs. negative.
What is WOM, what influences it, and how powerful is it?
What are opinion leaders? Do such people really exist? If so, describe one.
Terms: market maven, reactance, social comparison theory, surrogate consumer, guerrilla marketing
CHAP 12 -- Organizational and Household Decision Making.
How are marketers dealing with the family as a buying unit?
Describe the significance of the child consumer to marketing today.
Summarize the ethical issues involved in advertising designed to influence children.
Terms: syncratic decisions, family life cycle, boomerang kids
CHAP 13 -- Income and Social Class.
Describe the main social classes in the
Is there any problem with the social class concept?
How is social class related to purchase decisions?
Compare "targeting the poor" and "targeting the rich." Any parallels?
Are status symbols "dead" or does conspicuous consumption still rule?
Terms: parody display, taste cultures.
CHAP 14 -- Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Subcultures.
Be able to discuss the specific features and sensitivities of the following ethnic consumer groups: African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American.
Terms: acculturation agent, progressive learning model
CHAP 15 -- Age Subcultures.
Be able to discuss the marketing significance of the following age cohorts: teens, Generation X, baby boomers, and the gray market.
Terms: age cohort, gerontographics, tweens
CHAP 16 -- Cultural Influences on Consumer Behavior.
Define "culture."
Describe the more common consumer rituals in Western society.
Discuss some of the sacred aspects of consumer behavior. What makes them sacred?
Terms: collectivism vs individualism, monomyth, sacred vs profane, sacralization
CHAP 17 – Creation and Diffusion of Consumer Culture
What are some of the factors that affect the successful adoption of innovations?
How can we predict whether an innovation will be a fad or a trend.
Explain the etic and emic perspectives with an example of the use of each.
Terms: creolization, fashion acceptance cycle, meme theory, reality engineering, trickle-down theory