Page 182 - DMGT551_RETAIL_BUSINESS_ENVIRONMENT

Unit 9: Motivation and Perception

9.8 Modelling Consumer Behaviour: Objectives Notes

The objectives of modelling have mainly confined to the following:
1. Description of buying behaviour: Models with this objective focus upon the various
constructs which play key roles in the buying process and behaviour. These constructs are
highlighted through their locations in the schematic diagrams representing overall
consumer behaviour. These models are like snapshots of the consumer behaviour. Thus,
they are strong in representing the values that different variables of the model take. But,
they are weak in explaining causality.

One of the major use of such models is to communicate marketers visualization of his
consumers to his audiences. Models prepared with this objective are also found to be
convenient starting points for building more complex and higher objective models. Various
market definition or consumer profile surveys provide the data sources for achieving
these objectives. Through such surveys the demographic, socio-economic, psychographic
and other buying stages related data can be provided. These data can portray the consumers
in terms of their key dimensions as well as on overall basis. Thus, for example, one
microwave oven marketing company can describe its consumers as aware but not yet sure
about the utility of these ovens in their type of cooking. The company can also profile such
customers along their other salient characteristics for marketing programmes. The company
can, therefore, hypothesise about the likely causes of the poor sales among the target
customers by identifying certain patterns in the data obtained through such descriptions
of consumers. For becoming more sure or establishing causalities, the marketer shall
have to approach modelling in alternative ways, as well.
2. Describing the consumer processes: This objective focuses upon the processes which take
place in influencing the consumer behaviour rather than the state of consumers. Nicosia
model (see later) is one of the examples which is built with such an objective. The objectives
take the marketer one step closer to the causality models. They also help in linking
various constructs and provide directions to these linkages within the models of consumer
behaviour. Whenever these linkages are quantified the marketer gets even stronger handles
to design the input mix for achieving the resultant consumer states.
3. Predictability and Control of Consumer behaviour: This is the ultimate objective of
consumer behaviour modelling. It presupposes the data to describe the states of consumer
behaviour as well as the relationships among them. Understandably, it is the hardest to
achieve. For one reason, the knowledge base for achieving this objective depends upon
the entire knowledge base in marketing and rest of other disciplines connected with the
prediction of human behaviour. The state of knowledge in all such disciplines have not
yet reached to a stage where they can attempt this task. In the marketing contexts, the
variables involved are of micro nature like brand choice of a consumer, perception about
a product or learned associations about a product category or brand or consumption
occasions etc. While predicting such micro-level phenomena with the help of usual
variables the accuracy suffers acutely.

Task Hailing from a middle class family you wish to buy a 100 c.c motorcycle. List out all
the activities which precede before deciding on the specific Brand. Also, comment on the
criteria for choosing the said brand in view of your economic status.

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