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The Nicosia model of Consumer Behavior is divided into four major fields:
Field 1: The firms attributes and the consumers attributes. The first field is
divided into two subfields. The first subfield deals with the firms marketing
environment and communication efforts that affect consumer attitudes, the
competitive environment, and characteristics of target market. Subfield two
specifies the consumer characteristics e.g., experience, personality, and how he
perceives the promotional idea toward the product in this stage the consumer forms
his attitude toward the firms product based on his interpretation of the message.
Field 2: Search and evaluation. The consumer will start to search for other firms
brand and evaluate the firms brand in comparison with alternate brands. In this
case the firm motivates the consumer to purchase its brands.
Field 3: The act of the purchase. The result of motivation will arise by convincing
the consumer to purchase the firm products from a specific retailer.
Field 4: Feed back of sales results. This model analyses the feedback of both the
firm and the consumer after purchasing the product. The firm will benefit from its
sales data as a feedback, and the consumer will use his experience with the product
affects the individuals attitude and predispositions concerning future messages
from the firm.
With this model Nicosia was able to represent consumers behavior when receivers
of a message and has agents in the buying process generated by that flow of
information from a company.
The Nicosia model of consumer behavior offers no detail explanation of the internal
factors, which may affect the personality of the consumer, and how the consumer
develops his attitude toward the product. For example, the consumer may find the
firms message very interesting, but virtually he cannot buy the firms brand
because it contains something prohibited according to his beliefs. Apparently it is
very essential to include such factors in the model, which give more interpretation
about the attributes affecting the decision process.
Consumer Decision Making Process
The five stages of the consumer decision making process include; Problem
recognition, information search, information evaluation, purchase decision,
and evaluation after purchase. This is just a general model of the consumer
decision making process and it emphasizes that the buying decision making
process starts before the actual purchase and continues even after the
purchase. It also encourages the marketer to focus on the complete buying
process and not just on the purchase decision.
1. Problem Recognition
Personal sources;
Commercial sources;
Public sources; and
Experience sources.
The consumer receives the most information from commercial sources. these
include advertisements, salespeople, catalogs, newspapers, and
manufacturer-supplied direct mail. However, the most effective influence
often comes from such personal sources as family members and friends.
Effective marketers try to identify the information sources and their relative
influence on customers. This means asking customers how they heard about
the product, what sources of information they turned to, and what influences
each source of information had on their purchase decision. This consumer
information helps marketers plan advertisements, select information to give
Follows the information search. During this stage consumers usually compare
products with respect to their various features and benefits. They may
compare product brands, styles, sizes, colors, prices, and related services.
They may also compare products at various stores. They consumer may also
evaluate the importance of certain information. For many consumers,
perceived reliability is extremely important. For others, price, ease of
operation, related services, or prestige may be paramount. Other information
may be more important to consumers when evaluating services. While
vacation, traveling, for example some consumers may want to only stay at
the Hilton, while others are more prone to lodging at the less expensive
locations. Consumers generally evaluate goods and services by the features
or benefits that are important to them. Retailers and other marketers often
try to influence the type of criteria that consumers use in their product
evaluations. They frequently use ads that compare the features of their
products with those of their competitors.
4. Purchase Decisions
attractive alternatives. Doubt is created when the motive for buying the
alternative overshadows the actual purchase. Marketers take positive steps to
reduce cognitive dissonance and to help buyers feel good about their
purchases. Successful marketers know that a satisfied customer is an
excellent advertisement for the company and its products. They try to fulfill
their customers needs and wants. Customer oriented practices usually result
in customer recommendations, called word of mouth advertising, and
customer loyalty and repeat business.
Types of Consumer Buying Behavior
Consumers are becoming smarter day by day; it is not to fool them with any
gimmick. Nowadays, consumer does his/her homework very well before
making any purchase in the market. Even before buying a face wash a
consumer go through a rigorous process of choosing the best among the
many present in the market. Buying a face wash and buying a luxurious car is
very different, therefore the perception involved and the information
gathered by the consumer in purchasing a car is much more than buying a
face wash.
unfamiliar product class and is not clear about what criteria to consider for
buying. Extensive problem solving occurs when the consumer is encountering
a new product category. He needs information on both the product category
as well as the various brands available in it. This kind of decision is the most
complex type. For instance, you may become interested in purchasing a Color
Television set to replace the existing black and white one. You may have
heard of the various brand names, but lack clear brand concepts. You do not
know what product attributes or features to consider while choosing a good
television set. So yours is an extensive problem solving. The marketing
strategy for such buying behavior must be such that it facilitates the
consumers information gathering and learning process about the product
category and his own brand. The marketer must understand the information
gathering and evaluation activities of the prospective consumers. They have
to educate the prospective buyers to learn about the attributes of the product
class, their relative importance and the high standing of the marketers brand
on the more important brand attributes. The marketer must be able to
provide his consumer with a very specific and unique set of positive
attributes regarding his own brand, so that the purchase decision is made in
his favor. In other words, the marketing communications should be aimed at
supplying information and help the consumer to evaluate and feel good about
his/her brand choice. The concept of EPS is most applicable to new products.
The product may be new at the generic level or it may be an established
product concept but new for a particular consumer. In case of a new product
concept the entire consumer universe is unfamiliar with the product. The
marketer has to spend large amounts of money in educating the consumers
about his product. The consumer in turn need a great deal of information
before they can take a decision; and the decision process takes a longer time.
On the other hand, you may have the situation where the product concept is
well understood by a majority of the consumers, but it is being bought or
used by a particular consumer for the first time. To take a very simple
example, a tribal who is exposed to the concept of toothpaste for the first
time in his life will seek a lot of information and take a long time to decide.
Because fro him, buying a toothpaste is an EPS behavior whereas for most of
us it is simply Routinized response behavior.
Variety Seeking: Consumers often express satisfaction with their present
brand but still engage in brand switching. The motive is variety seeking,
which occurs most often when there are many similar alternatives, frequent
brand shifts, and high purchase frequency. It can occur simply because
someone is bored with his or her current brand choice, or it can be prompted
by external cues as store stock outs or coupons that promote switching. Take
the example of chocolates. The consumers has some beliefs about chocolates
chooses a brand of chocolates without much evaluation and evaluates the
product during consumption. Next time, the consumer may reach for another
brand out of a wish for a different taste. In this case the brand switching
occurs for the sake of variety rather than dissatisfaction.
Thus, depending on the type of decision being made, the degree and strength
of active reasoning will vary. There are three factors, which influence the
degree of active reasoning that is undertaken by the consumer in his process
of decision-making. These are:
1. Involvement
2. Differentiation
When the consumer perceives that the various alternatives which are
available are very different from one another in terms of their features and
benefits offered, he is likely to spend more time in gathering information
about and evaluating these different features. On the other hand, in case of
products which are not very different from one another either in terms of
their features or benefits offered, the consumer is bound to perceive them as
being almost the same and buy the first available product/brand which
satisfies his minimum expectation. He will not like to spend much time in
evaluating the various alternatives. The various brands of washing powder
available in the market today are an excellent example of low level of
differentiation with the consumer perceiving the different brands to be
offering almost identical benefit. All the brands look similar with identical
packing and carry almost the same price tag. Till a few years ago the branded
shoes was highly undifferentiated with Bata offering standard options to
consumers in terms of styles of shoes. Then came the different players in this
market like Woodlands and a host of other multinational brands creating on
the way a multitude of segments in the otherwise staid shoes market like
formal, casual, sports shoes etc.
3. Time Pressure
When you are under pressure to make a decision, you cannot afford to spend
a long time finding out about the various products or brands. You would
probably buy whatever is readily available. While traveling your car tyre busts
and you dont have a spare and hence you need to buy a new one. At that
time you would buy the brand that is available at whatever price without
giving it too much thought. But under a different situation, when you need to
buy new tyres, you would certainly like to find the features of nylon and radial
tyres and evaluate various brands on their individual advantages and
disadvantages.
However, once negative attitudes are developed, they are hard to change.
New restaurant owners often want quick cash flow and sometimes start
without excellent quality. A new restaurateur complained that customers are
fickle. A few months later after the restaurant was opened, the owner had
plenty of empty seats every night. Obviously, he had not satisfied his first
guests. Even though he may have subsequently corrected his early mistakes,
his original customers who had been disappointed, were not returning.
marketers cannot influence many of these; however, they help the marketer
to better understand customers reactions and behavior.
The theory of trying to consume has been designed to account for the many
cases where the action or outcome is not certain, but instead reflects the
consumers attempts to consume or purchase. In such cases there are often
personal impediments and/or environmental impediments that might prevent
the desired action or outcome from occurring. Here again, the key point is
that in these cases of trying, the outcome is not, and cannot be assumed to
be certain. The focus here is the trying or seeking part, rather than the
outcome (consumption).
4. Attitude-toward-the-ad Models
Normally, if you like an ad, you are more likely to purchase the advertised
brand.
The origins of the Hierarchy of effects can be traced all the way back to 1898
and the hierarchys creator, a salesman named Elias St Elmo Lewis. Lewis
believed that rather than simply closing a sale, an effective salesperson
actually guided a buyer through a series of stages. He claimed that a proper
salesman must ensure Attention, maintain Interest, create Desire and finally
spur the customer to Action (purchase). In 1910, the Hierarchy of Effects
showed up for the first time in print mentioning the hierarchys use for
advertising gain. It showed up as an editorial in Printers Ink. The model was
then expressed as Attention, Interest, Conviction, and Action. The article
declared that any complete advertisement campaign must follow this model
of persuasion. In 1961 Robert Lavidge and Gary Steiner published their
seminal paper on the Hierarchy of Effects in the Journal of Marketing. In
addition to supporting the AIDA model, they noted that consumers appeared
to progress through cognitive (thinking), then affective
(feeling) and finally conative (intention/doing) stages.
Hierarchy of effects Model can be explained with the help of a pyramid. First
the lower level objectives such as awareness, knowledge or comprehension
are accomplished. Subsequent objectives may focus on moving prospects to
higher levels in the pyramid to elicit desired behavioral responses such as
associating feelings with the brand, trial, or regular use etc. it is easier to
accomplish ad objectives located at the base of the pyramid than the ones
towards the top. The percentage of prospective customers will decline as
they move up the pyramid towards more action oriented objectives, such as
regular brand use.
necessary to first fix the problem and only then can you communicate its
renewed quality.
Preference: The target audience might like the product but not prefer it to
others. In this case, the communicator must try to build consumer preference
by promoting quality, value, performance and other features. The
communicator can check the campaigns success by measuring audience
preference before and after the campaign.
Conviction: A target audience might prefer a particular product but not
develop a conviction about buying it. The communicators job is to build
conviction among the target audience.
Purchase: Finally, some members of the target audience might have
conviction but not quite get around to making the purchase. They may wait
for more information or plan to act later. The communicator must need these
consumers to take the final step, perhaps by offering the product at a low
price, offering a premium, or letting consumers tried out. This is where
consumers make a move to actually search out information or purchase.
Purchase involvement is the level of concern for, or interest in, the purchase
process stimulated by the need to consider a certain purchase. It is important
to realize that consumer involvement can take many forms and a broad
distinction is that it can be cognitive, such as a consumer may be motivated
to learn about the latest specifications of the new iMac; or emotional, when a
consumer is considering the purchase of a gift for his wife on their first
marriage anniversary. There are several broad types of involvement related
to the product, the message, or the perceiver.
By now, you might have realized at least two points. One, it seems
reasonable that not all the consumers are at the same stage. For example,
you may be in the unawareness stage relative to Wrangler Jeans, but Lee may
be in the preference stage. Two, it also seems reasonable that not all people
at one stage move onto the next stage. For example, some consumers who
have formed preference to Maggi Tomato Sauce may not form any conviction
to buy the product. Furthermore, some people may need more time before
moving onto the next stage than others.
John Howard and Jagadish Sheth put forward the Howard Sheth model of
consumer behavior in 1969, in their publication entitled, The Theory of buyer
Behaviour.
The logic of the Howard Sheth model of consumer behavior summarize like
this. There are inputs in the form of Stimuli. There are outputs beginning with
attention to a given stimulus and ending with purchase. In between the
inputs and the outputs there are variables affecting perception and learning.
These variables are termed hypothetical since they cannot be directly
measured at the time of occurrence.
1. The first level describes the extensive problem solving. At this level
the consumer does not have any basic information or knowledge about the
brand and he does not have any preferences for any product. In this situation,
the consumer will seek information about all the different brands in the
market before purchasing.
2. The second level is limited problem solving. This situation exists for
consumers who have little knowledge about the market, or partial knowledge
about what they want to purchase. In order to arrive at a brand preference
some comparative brand information is sought.
3. The third level is a habitual response behavior. In this level the
consumer knows very well about the different brands and he can differentiate
between the different characteristics of each product, and he already decides
to purchase a particular product.
According to the Howard Sheth model of consumer behavior there are four
major sets of variables; namely:
Most scholars agree that the study of consumer behavior was advanced and
given an impetus by Howard Sheth Model. The major advantage and strength
of the model lied in the precision with which a large number of variables have
been linked in the working relationships to cover most aspects of the
purchase decision and the effective utilization of contribution from the
behavioral sciences.
Finally, no direct relation was drawn on the role of religion in influencing the
consumers decision-making processes. Religion was considered as external
factor with no real influence on consumer, which give the model obvious
weakness in anticipation the consumer decision.