LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Having read this
you
be able to:
•
Understand t he
of the individua l consumers in the
•
Ex amine the many factors that in f luence consumer behavior.
•
Re c ogn i ze t he var i ous principles of psychology, sociology, and
social psychology that are (If value in exp l aining consumer
behavior.
•
Ex amine t h e relationsh i p of consumer behavior to marketing
m anagemen t. decisions-part ic ularly, target market selection and
t h e design
the marketing mix .
•
Unde r stand how organizatio n al market behavior
from con-
sume r m arket behavior.
•
Ex amine how organizations ma k e purchase decisions.
TILL DEATH DO US PART
At 1:58 P.M. on Wednesday,
5, in Houston's St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, a
consumer was born. Her name was Alyssa 1.
and by the time she went home
three days later, some of America's biggest marketers were pursuing her with samples,
coupons, and assorted freebies. Proctor & Gamble hoped its Pampers brand would win
the battle for Alyssa's bottom. Johnson & Johnson offered a tiny sample of its baby soap.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. sent along
of its Enfamil baby formula.
Like no generation before, Alyssa enters a
culture surrounded by logos,
labels, and acts almost from the moment of birth. As an infant. Alyssa may wear Sesame
Street diapers and miniature pro-basketball jerseys. By the time she's 20 months old, she
will start to recognize some of the thousands of brands flashed in front of her each day.
At age 7, if she's anything like the typical ki d, she will see some 20,000 TV commer-
cials a year. By the time she 's 12, she will have her own entry in
massive data banks
of marketers. Multiply
by 30 million-tre number of babies born in this country
since 1990- and you have the largest
to flood the market since the baby
boom. More impressive th an their
though, is
wealth. The increase in sin-
gle-parent and dual-earner households
that
are making shopping decisions
once left to Mom. Combini ng allowance, earnings, and gifts, kids aged 14 and under will
di rectly spend an estimated $20 billion this year, and will influence another $200 billion.
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