3.7. Models of selective consumer behavior - Consumer Psychology

Among the attempts to describe the consumer choice is the most well-known and applied in practice model shown in Fig. 6

Fig.6. Model F. Kotler.

A detailed model of consumer behavior was proposed by well-known marketing expert F. Kotler. The model was built in the framework of the classical concept of behaviorism and is presented in the form of three successively connected blocks:

- marketing incentives and other irritants;

- “black box” of the consumer’s mind;

- feedback from the buyer.

Having passed through the “black box” of the consumer’s consciousness, all sorts of irritants (first block) cause a number of consumer reactions (third block) that are accessible to observation. The greatest interest for psychologists is the "black box" of the mind of the buyer. It consists of two parts, one of which contains the characteristics of the buyer, affecting the perception of stimuli and reactions to them, the second part includes the adoption of a purchasing decision.

The characteristics of the buyer include factors of various levels that influence the purchases made by him. These include:

1. Factors of cultural order: culture (basic set of values, perceptions, preferences, manners and actions characteristic of his family and basic institutions of society); subculture (culture of smaller groups); social status.

2. Factors of social order: reference groups; family; roles and statuses.

3. Personal factors: age and stage of the family life cycle; occupation, economic situation; Lifestyle; personality type or self-image.

4. Factors of a psychological order: motivation; perception; learning; conviction.

Kotler also proposes a diagram of the purchasing decision process, which consists of five stages: awareness of the problem, information search, evaluation of options, purchase decision, purchase response.

The purchase process begins with the fact that the buyer is aware of the problem or need. He feels the difference between his real and desired state. From past experience, a person knows how to cope with this impulse, and his motivation is oriented towards a class of objects that are able to satisfy the impulse that has arisen.

A motivated consumer may or may not be looking for more information. If the impulse is strong, and the product that can satisfy it, is readily available, the consumer is likely to make a purchase. If not, the need may be stored in his memory. At the same time, the consumer either stops searching for information, or tries to search a little more, or is actively searching. In search of information, the consumer refers to the following sources:

- personal sources (family, friends, acquaintances);

- commercial sources (advertising, sellers, dealers, packaging, exhibitions);

- publicly available sources (mass media);

- sources of empirical experience.

At the stage of evaluating options, it is important to highlight the following points. First, each consumer views a product as a specific set of properties, but pays the most attention to those properties that are relevant to his needs. Secondly, the consumer is inclined to give different weight indicators of the significance of the properties that he considers relevant to himself. Thirdly, the consumer forms a set of beliefs about the brands of goods, which can be called the image of the brand. Further, the consumer assigns a utility function to each property. Finally, the attitude towards brand alternatives is formed by the consumer as a result of his evaluation. Evaluation of options leads to the ranking of objects from a variety of alternatives of choice. The consumer is forming an intention to make a purchase of the most preferred object. However, on the way from intention to decision making, two more factors may interfere in the matter: 1) attitudes of other people; 2) unforeseen circumstances.

Having bought a product, a consumer will either be satisfied or not satisfied, which will affect his subsequent behavior and attitude towards this product, brand, company.

More psychologized behavioral models of consumer choice are presented in the review by M. Friedman ²⁷ . The author considers five conceptual models. All of them try to exhaustively explain the selection process, using graphic schemes for this, reflect the various interrelationships of endogenous and exogenous variables that influence consumer behavior, and trace the main stages of consumer behavior.

Model Andriasen. The first behavioral model of consumer choice, developed by Andriasen, can be called a relationship formation model ²⁸ . The core of the model is a set of installations and the ability to process information from an individual consumer. Andriasen argues that it is the consumer’s attitudes to the goods that most influence his reactions in the area of ​​consumer choice. In turn, these factors can be influenced by five factors:

1) the identity of the individual consumer;

2) past experiences associated with the satisfaction of needs;

3) past experience, not including satisfaction;

4) social perception, i.e. the person’s perception of the hopes, norms and values ​​of other people significant to him;

5) personal installations on objects related to the product of interest.

A change in attitude towards a product may be the result of a change in one or more of these generating factors. Information received by an individual from various sources is subjected to a “filtering process”, after which it interacts with a multitude of phenomena (for example, beliefs, emotions). As a result, the installation is formed, which affects the future behavior.

There are three possible actions of the consumer. The consumer can choose a product (buy), continue the search or refrain from action. The decision to choose a product, like the other two options, is made with some element of coercion (income, budget priorities, technical capabilities, for example, overall, economic utility). Selected alternatives contain a feedback mechanism that influences filtering processes in the future.

Model Nicosia. One of the relatively compact models of consumer behavior is the Nicosia model ²⁹ . Based on the computer framework, it focuses on the nature of the interaction of sale and purchase. Another advantage of the model is the leading role assigned to the selling company. As can be seen from fig. 7, the model contains four main blocks:

1) a chain of events, starting with activation through a marketing message - before the formation of a consumer installation;

2) search and evaluation processes;

3) the act of purchase or purchase;

4) feedback process.

The first block is divided into two parts: elements of the firm’s marketing, influencing consumer attitudes, and psychological attributes (especially prejudices), affecting the consumer’s perception of the firm’s marketing messages. The installation of the consumer in relation to the products of the company is the result of the action of this block.

Fig. 7. Model Nicosia.

The second block contains the processes of finding relevant information for evaluating the company's products as compared with other alternatives and purchasing. The result of these processes is the presence or absence of motivation to acquire the goods of a given company.

In the event of a motivation to purchase, an act of acquisition is carried out (third block).

The fourth block provides after the acquisition two types of feedback: feedback from the company that carries information about the sale, and feedback from the consumer, generating experiences associated with the purchase. The second type of communication influences consumer biases in the future.

The Howard-Shesa model reflects five stages in the consumer's decision-making process: drawing attention, perceiving a product, forming an installation, the occurrence of intent, the act of acquiring The model considers three groups of factors as input stimuli : qualitative physical characteristics (size, shape, quality, etc.), symbolic stimuli (for example, name) and social incentives (social class, etc.).

Next, perceptual constructs are connected, such as attention and open search; they filter the information. Acquired constructs (motives, selection criteria, installation, brand perception, etc.) are the core of this model and interact in a complex way.

If perceptual and acquired constructs are considered as internal unobservable mechanisms of consumer behavior, the exit factors, which again include attention, perception, installation, intention, and a new construct — acquisition, are based on directly observable data. Among other things, the model takes into account exogenous variables, namely: gender, personality traits, religious attitudes, financial status, etc.

The Angel-Kolat-Blackwell model is similar to the aforementioned ³¹ models. The process of solving here is also presented in five stages: awareness of the problem, search for information, evaluation of alternatives, choice, results (dissonance-satisfaction).

The peculiarity and dignity of the model is that at the stage of evaluating alternatives, the authors add such decision-making factors as lifestyle, adherence to norms, and exposure to information. As external factors, the authors note cultural norms and values, reference (significant) groups, unforeseen circumstances.

Betman model. The newest behavioral model of consumer choice is the development of Betman. ³² As its key elements, the following are presented: the ability to process information, motivation, attention and perception, information acquisition and evaluation, memory usage, decision processes, consumption and recognition. Individual differences and situational influences are also taken into account.

The main difference of the model is that it includes a scanning mechanism for constantly adjusting the environment, a mechanism for interrupting current behavior, interpreting and managing conflict situations. The selection process is viewed as a repetitive procedure rather than a sequential one. Elections are made at each stage of the cycle; thus, decision processes are critical in the model. Decision processes take place during the selection of defining goals, selection of information, comparison of alternatives when purchasing

Models of consumer selective behavior differ in the comprehensiveness of the process components and factors affecting it. Despite the attempts of the authors of the models to exhaustively examine the entire range of phenomena related to consumer choice, each of them met with a number of critical remarks from experts in the field of psychology and economics. Nevertheless, the theoretical significance of developing models of consumer choice, in our opinion, consists in the authors' understanding of the complexity and multilevelness of consumer behavior, the impossibility of its unambiguous forecasting. Although each of the models is aimed at finding the components and mechanisms of consumer choice in order to optimally manage it, the problem remains unsolved. Models, as a rule, are cumbersome and unsuitable for application purposes, since consumer choice is due to many factors.