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Showing posts with the label CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

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MANAGING PROJECTS

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Projects represent nonroutine business activities that often have long-term strategic ramifications for a firm. In this chapter, we examined how projects differ from routine business activities and discussed the major phases of projects. We noted how environmental changes have resulted in increased attention being paid to projects and project management over the past decade. In the second half of the chapter, we introduced some basic tools that businesses can use when planning for and controlling projects. Both Gantt charts and network diagrams give managers a visual picture of how a project is going. Network diagrams have the added advantage of showing the precedence between activities, as well as the critical path(s). We wrapped up the chapter by showing how these concepts are embedded in inexpensive yet powerful software packages such as Microsoft Project. If you want to learn more about project management, we encourage you to take a look at the Web site for the Proj...
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Culture

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A culture is a society’s personality . A society’s culture includes its values, ethics, and the material objects its members produce. It is the accumulation of shared meanings and traditions among members of a society. We describe a culture in terms of ecology (the way people adapt to their habitat), its social structure, and its ideology (including moral and aesthetic principles). We distinguish between high culture and low culture. Social scientists distinguish between high (or elite) forms and low (or popular) forms of culture. Products of popular culture tend to follow a cultural formula and contain predictable components. However, these distinctions blur in modern society as marketers increasingly incorporate imagery from “high art” to sell everyday products. M yths are stories that express a culture’s values, and in modern times marketing messages convey these values to members of the culture. Myths are stories with symbolic elements that express the share...
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Subcultures

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Consumer identity derives from “we” as well as “I.” Consumers identify with many groups that share common characteristics and identities, but some of these affiliations are more central to how we define ourselves. Subcultures are large groups that exist within a society, and membership in them often gives marketers a valuable clue about individuals’ consumption decisions. Important sources of consumer identity include gender, race/ethnicity, religion, age, and place of residence. Our memberships in ethnic, racial, and religious subcultures often guide our consumption choices. A person’s ethnic origins, racial identity, and religious background often are major components of his or her identity. African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans are the three most important ethnic/ racial subcultures in the United States. Key issues to reach members of racial/ethnic subcultures are consumers’ degree of acculturation into mainstream U.S. society and the re...
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Income and Social Class

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Our confidence in our future, as well as in the overall economy, determines how freely we spend and the types of products we buy. The field of behavioral economics studies how consumers decide what to do with their money. Consumer confidence—the state of mind consumers have about their own personal situation, as well as their feelings about their overall economic prospects—helps to determine whether they will purchase goods and services, take on debt, or save their money. We group consumers into social classes that say a lot about where they stand in society. A consumer’s social class refers to his or her standing in society. Factors including education, occupation, and income determine the class to which we belong. Virtually all groups make distinctions among members in terms of relative superiority, power, and access to valued resources. This social stratification creates a status hierarchy in which consumers prefer some goods to others. Although income is an im...
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Groups and Social Media

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Other people and groups, especially those that possess social power, influence our decisions. We belong to or admire many different groups, and a desire for them to accept us often drives our purchase decisions. Individuals or groups whose opinions or behavior are particularly important to consumers are reference groups. Both formal and informal groups influence the individual’s purchase decisions, although such factors as the conspicuousness of the product and the relevance of the reference group for a particular purchase determine how influential the reference group is. Individuals have influence in a group to the extent that they possess social power. Types of social power include information power, referent power, legitimate power, expert power, reward power, and coercive power. Brand communities unite consumers who share a common passion for a product. Brandfests, which companies organize to encourage this kind of community, can build brand loyalty and rei...
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