Consumer Behavior: Chapter 5: Motivation and Affect

1. The Motivation Process

   a. Motivation refers to the processes that cause people to behave as they do. Once

     a need has been activated, a state of tension exists that drives the consumer to

     attempt to reduce or eliminate the need.

   b. Needs can be:

     1)  Utilitarian—a desire to achieve some functional or practical benefit.

     2)  Hedonic—an experiential need, involving emotional responses or fantasies.

   c. The desired end state is the consumer’s goal. Marketers try to create products and

     services that will provide the desired benefits and permit the consumer to reduce

     this tension.

   d. With the consideration of unmet needs, a discrepancy exists between the

     consumer’s present state and some ideal state. Tension is created. The consumer

     seeks to reduce tension. The degree of arousal is called a drive.

   e. Personal and cultural factors combine to create a want. This is one manifestation

     of a need.

     1)  Once a goal is attained, tension is reduced and the motivation recedes.

     2)  Motivation can be described in terms of:

        a)  Its strength.

        b)  Its direction.

2. Motivational Strength

   a. The degree to which a person is willing to expend energy to reach one goal as

     opposed to another reflects his or her underlying motivation to attain that goal.

   Biological Versus Learned Needs

   b. Early work on motivation ascribed behavior to instinct (the innate patterns of

     behavior that is universal in a species). When an instinct is inferred from the

     behavior it is supposed to explain, this circular explanation is called tautology.

   c. Drive theory focuses on biological needs that produce unpleasant states of arousal.

     1)  Tension reduction has been proposed as a basic mechanism governing human

        behavior.

     2)  Homeostasis—goal-oriented behavior that attempts to reduce or eliminate an

        unpleasant state and return to a balanced one.

     3)  Drive theory runs into difficulty when it tries to explain why people sometimes do

        things that might increase a drive state (such as delaying gratification).

   d. Expectancy theory suggests that behavior is largely pulled by expectations of

     achieving desirable outcomes—positive incentives—rather than pushed from

     within.

3. Motivational Direction

   a. Motives have direction as well as strength. Most goals can be reached by a number of

     paths.

    

   Needs Versus Wants

   b. The specific way a need is satisfied depends on the individual’s unique history,

     learning experiences, and his or her cultural environment.

     1)  The particular form of consumption used to satisfy a need is termed a want.

   Types of Needs

   c. Needs can be:

     1)  Biogenic needs—food, water, air, and shelter.

     2)  Psychogenic needs—power, status, affiliation.

     3)  Utilitarian needs—emphasizes objective, tangible attributes (miles per gallon).

     4)  Hedonic needs—subjective and experiential (excitement, self-confidence,

         fantasy).

   Motivational Conflicts

   d. A goal has valence, which means that it can be positive or negative. Therefore

     goals can be sought or avoided.

     1)  Not all behavior is motivated by the desire to approach a goal.

     2)  Consumers often find themselves in situations in which different motives, both

        positive and negative, conflict with one another.

   e. Conflicts can occur. Three different types of goal conflicts are:

     1)  Approach-approach conflict—a person must choose between two desirable

        alternatives such as choosing between two favorite brands of automobiles.

        a)  The theory of cognitive dissonance is based on the premise that people

           have a need for order and consistency in their lives and that a state of

           tension is created when beliefs or behaviors conflict with one another.

        b)  People attempt to reduce dissonance.

        c)  A state of dissonance exists when there is a psychological inconsistency

           between two or more beliefs or behaviors.

     2)  Approach-avoidance conflict—many products or services we desire have

        negative consequences attached to them.  An example is having to undergo a root canal procedure in order to rectify tooth decay.

     3)  Avoidance-avoidance conflict—a choice between two undesirable 

        alternatives such as having to spend more on an older car or buy a newer more expensive car.

   Classifying Consumer Needs

   f. Much research has been done on classifying human needs.

     1)  Various universal need classifications have been attempted.

     2)  There seems to be no universally accepted list (though many needs are common

        to all lists).

        a)  Murray’s twenty psychogenic needs such as the need for autonomy, defendency, etc.

   g. Those needs that seem particularly relevant to buying behavior include:

     1)  Need for achievement.

     2)  Need for affiliation.

     3)  Need for power.

     4)  Need for uniqueness.

   h. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs implies that the order of development is fixed. This

     hierarchy is most closely associated with product benefits that people might be

     looking for. Lower order needs must be satisfied before climbing the needs ladder.

     The needs are:

     1)  Physiological.

     2)  Safety.

     3)  Social.

     4)  Esteem.

.

     5)  Self-actualization.        

   i. Problems with Maslow’s method include:

     1)  Climbing the ladder is not set in stone. Some activities cover several levels of

         needs.

     2)  The hierarchy may be culture-bound.

     3)  Consumer’s have different needs priorities at different stages of their life.

4. Consumer Involvement

   a. Involvement refers to “a person’s perceived relevance of the object based on their

     inherent needs, values, and interests.”

     1)  Involvement can be viewed as the motivation to process information.

     2)  As involvement increases, people devote more attention to ads related to the

        product, exert more cognitive effort to understand these ads, and focus their

        attention on the product-related information in them.

   Levels of Involvement: From Inertia to Passion

   b. The type of information processing that will occur depends upon the consumer’s

     level of involvement. It can range from simple to elaborate processing.

     1)  Simple processing—only basic features of a message are considered.

     2)  Elaboration—information is linked to one’s preexisting knowledge systems.

   c. Because a person’s degree of involvement can be conceived as a continuum,

     consumption at the low end of involvement is characterized by inertia.

     1)  In this state, decisions are made out of habit because the consumer lacks the  

         information to consider alternatives.

     2)  To the contrary, decisions can be very passionate and carry great meaning for a person.       

     3)  In consumer situations of high involvement, the consumer enters a flow state, where

        the consumer is in an elated state of focus and concentration and loses track of time.     d. Cult products command fierce consumer loyalty, devotion, even worship.

   The Many Faces of Involvement

   d. Involvement can be cognitive or emotional. There are several types of broad

     involvement:

     1)  Product involvement is related to a consumer’s level of interest in a particular

product. Sales promotions increase this involvement. A powerful way to enhance product involvement is through mass customization.

     2)  Message involvement (or advertising involvement), refers to the

        consumer’s interest in processing marketing communications. Vigilante marketing, where freelancers and fans film their own commercials for favorite products and post them on Web sites, is a hot trend.

        a)  Television is considered a low-involvement medium.

b)      Print is considered a high-involvement medium.

c)      In this digital age, the quest to heighten message involvement is fueling the rapid growth of interactive mobile marketing, where consumers participate in real-time promotional campaigns via their cell phones or PDA’s.

     3)  Situational involvement describes engagement with a store, Web site, or a location
where people consume a product or service. One way to increase this kind of involvement
is to personalize the messages shoppers receive at the time of purchase