Consumer Behaviour 9781642875690, 9788183186124

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CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR:

DR. RAJEEV KUMRA M.B.A, Ph.D. (Marketing) Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Indore

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GJIimalaya 'Publishing GJIouse MUMBAI CJ DELHI CJ BANGALORE CJ NAGPUR CJ HYDERABAD

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Publishel'& [No part of this book shall be reproduced, reprinted or translated for any purpose whatsoever without prior permission of the Publisher in writing.]

ISBN First Edition

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BRIEF CONTENTS

1: Introduction to the Consumer Behaviour 2: Modeling and Consumer Research 3: 4: 5: 6: 7:

Motivation Personality Consumer Perception Learning Attitude Formation and Change

8: Indian Culture and Subculture 9: Reference Group 10: Indian Family and Social Class 11: Diffusion of Innovation 12: Consumer Decision-Making Process 13: Market Segmentation 14: Business Buying Behavior 15: Customer Relationship Marketing and Experiential Marketing 16: Consumer Protection Act' 17: Consumer Trends in India

"This page is Intentionally Left Blank"

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR AND MARKETING MANAG-EMENT CHAP fER CONTAINS

Concept and Meaning of Consumer Behaviour Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Management Linkage Marketing Strategy Based on Consumer Behaviour in Indian Context Internal and External Factors of Consumer Behaviour

1.1 INTRODUCTION The rules of marketing are so frequently changing as has never been expected by the companies. Now the companies are developing new set of marketing capabilities to survive in the emerging competitive environment. This shift in marketing can be attributed to factors like emergence of competitive marketing environment in the wake of the process of deregulation, privatization and globalization; recessionary pressure forcing companies to frequently introduce new products, which result in reduction in product life cycle and proliferation in brands; fast changing customers' profile (including his fickle brand loyalty) in terms of increase in their buying power and change in buying pattern, which resulted in more and more urge for better products, thus forcing the companies to face rapid customers' turnover; and advancement in information technology, which has shifted the power from marketer to customer by providing a greater amount of information practically about anything which makes customer more active, cautious and informed. These factors have forced the companies to re-orient their marketing philosophy and do adjustments such as re-engineering of the structure of marketing department, where the focus is on flat and small structures headed by CEOs; using information technology for marketing, thus facilitating two way communication between the company and the customer and also improving the accuracy and quality of logistics and opE:rations, which help in minimizing the associated costs; and shifting the focus of marketing towards the recent concepts of consumer behaviour, such as, customer relationship management, where the

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Consumer Behaviour: An Applied Orientation in Indian Context

emphasis is on building relationship with high networth customers. In the marketing literature the consumer behaviour is a young discipline, yet it is getting the maximum attention of the marketers. There is plethora of academic and applied research, which is being done in this area. The concept of human behaviour is all pervasive and has been analyzed by experts in the disciplines of sociology, social psychology, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, economics, theology and management from its different dimensions. Thus, consumer oehaviour is an applied subset of human behaviour, which derives many theories from the~e disciplines.

1.1.1 Consumer Behaviour Conceptual Framework Consumer behaviour involves the psychological processes that consumers go through in recognizing needs, finding ways to solve these needs, Gollect and interpret information, make plans, and implement these plans (e.g., by engaging in comparison shopping or acQ.1ally purchasing a product), making purchase decisions (e.g., whether or not to purchase a product and, if so, which brand and where) and post purchase behaviour. In simple words, consumer behaviour can be defined as, "Study of how people or organization behave when obtaining, using, and disposing of products (and services)". This definition highlights few points that are noteworthy; Behaviour occurs either for the individual, or in the context of a group (e.g., in family kids pester the parents to purchase confectionary items) or an organization (example purchase department of Maruti purchases car air-conditioners from Subros company). Consumer behaviour involves the use and disposal of products as well as the study of how they are purchased. This means understanding that consumers behaviour process form the perspective from the what, when, where, how, from whom, and how often to purchase goods and services. Product use is often of great interest to the marketer, because this may influence how a product is best positioned or how we can encourage increased consumption. For example, during initial year of launch of washing machine in India. Marketers found Dabhawallas of Punjab uses that washing machine also for Lassi making! In India even the post purchase behaviour such as, product disposal is of great area of interest in consumer behaviour, for example second hand market for car is quite big, hence Maruti entered in this segment by introducing TrueValue. Recently, research is underway to reduce the bad impact of the mobile phone on the environment. If research is successful than the body cover of mobile phone if disposed in the ground can grow into sunflower. Last but not the least, the impact of consumer behaviour on society is also of relevance. For example, aggressive marketing of liquor and cigarette may have serious repercussions for the health, in this view government has banned all the liquor advertisement. Consumer behaviour has emerged as a strategic solution to modem business problems. Consumer behaviour analysis at\d its application offers immeasurable benefit to the organizations, hi. terms of better sales, profitability, customer satisfaction and reduced cost. To achieve this end result, it requires, redefining of core businesses, designing and integrating business processes, implementing and monitoring program's by focusing on the consumer.

Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Management

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1.2 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR AND MARKETING MANAGEMENT Marketing theory held that the first step is to determine customer needs, then next, produce a product or service that will satisfy these needs. The underlying philosophy was that all the firm's strategic decisions were driven by customer expectations. This core idea has gone though many incarnations in the intervening decades, and gone under various names including: marketing orientation, customer driven, the marketing philosophy, customer intimacy, customer focus, and market driven. Marketing as a discipline has seen a gradual evolution, refining its key concepts, adding many new concepts, and broadening its scope. For example, there has been a gradual shift from mass marketing to segmentation marketing. A sound understanding of consumer behaviour is essential to the success of any marketing program. In fact, it is seen as a cornerstone of the marketing concept, an important orientation of philosophy of many marketing managers. The essence of the marketing concept is captured in three interrelated orientations; viz. market opportunity analysis, target market selection, and marketing mix determination. Theses are discussed below:

1.2.1 Market-opportunity Analysis A firm concentrates only on few of consumer wants and need depending on their own objective and resources. Hence, company can identify the unsatisfied needs and formulate the innovative offerings. For example, Sony had innovated the product, Walkman by uncovering the hidden need of consumers to listen music and still remain mobile. Similarly, Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad producing Lijjat papad founded by Chaggan Bapa was quick to realize that pappad is an integral part of Indian food. He started a cooperative comprising of seven housewives, whose inherent strength is papad making, rest the runaway success of this venture is story. The detail case of Lijjat Papad is given under in Exhibit 1.1. EXHIBIT 1.1 Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad Everyone enjoys 'rags to riches' stories and everyone likes tales of stupendous success achieved through sheer determination. The story of Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad is all that and much more. Today, Lijjat is more than just a household name for 'papad' (India's most popular crispy bread). Started with a modest loan of Rs 80, the cooperative now has annual sales exceeding Rs 301 crore (Rs 3.1 billion). What's more stunning than its stupendous success is its striking simplicity. And perhaps that is the most interesting lesson managers can pick up from Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad. Sticking to its core values for the pa."',"

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Word association tests, where the respondent reacts to words with other words; the respondent may also show signs of anxiety and some kind of apparatus is often used to measure emotional state Thematic apperception tests, where the respondent makes up a story around the people they see in a picture-the assumption is that they will project their pl'Oblems on to the people in the story Rorschach inkblot tests, where the respondent tells the tester what they 'see' in the inkblots. The MMPI-2 (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - 2) which consists of 567 statements, which subjects either agree or disagree with. These are primarily used for people receiving therapy.

B. VALS VALS is a marketing and consulting tool that helps businesses worldwide develop and execute more effective strategies. The system identifies current and future opportunities by segmenting the consumer marketplace on the basis of the personality traits that drive consumer behaviour. VALS applies in all phases of the marketing process, from new-product development and entry-stage targeting to communications strategy and advertising. The basic tenet of VALS is that people express their personalities through their behaviours, VALS specifically defines consumer segments on the basis of those personality traits that affect behaviour in the marketplace. Rather than looking at what people do and segregating people with like activities, VALS uses psychology to segment people according to their distinct personality traits. The personality traits are the motivation-the cause. Buying behaviour becomes the effect-the observable, external behaviour prompted by an internal driver. About VALS: VALS reflects a real-world pattern that explains the relationship between personality traits and consumer behaviour. VALS uses psychology to analyze the dynamics underlying consumer preferences and choices. VALS not only distinguishes differences in motivation, it also captures the psychological and material constraints on consumer behaviour. . VALS is based on current personality research into specific components of social behaviour. VALS asserts that people express their personalities through their behaviours. People with different personalities engage in different behaviours or exhibit similar behaviours for different reasons. By using psychology to analyze and predict consumer preferences and choices, the current VALS system creates an explicit link between personality traits and purchase behaviour. The current VALS system is described in depth in The VALS Segments. Innovators are successful, sophisticated, take-charge people with high self-esteem. Because they have such abundant resources, they exhibit all three primary motivations in varying degrees. They are change leaders and are the most receptive to new ideas and technologies. Innovators are very active consumers, and their purchases reflect cultivated tastes for upscale, niche products and services.

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Consumer Behaviour: An Applied Orientation in Indian Context

Image is important to Innovators, not as evidence of status or power but as an expression of their taste, independence, and personality. innovators are among the established and emerging leaders in business and government, yet they continue to seek challenges. Their lives are characterized by variety. Their possessions and recreation reflect a cultivated taste for the finer things in life. Thinkers (formerly Fulfilleds) Primary Motivation: Ideals with high resources and high innovation. Thinkers are motivated by ideals. They are mature, satisfied, comfortable, and reflective people who value order, knowledge, and responsibility. They tend to be well educated and actively seek out information in the decision-making process. They are well informed about world and national events and are alert to opportunities to broaden their knowledge. Thinkers have a moderate respect for the status quo institutions of authority and social decorum, but are open to consider new ideas. Although their incomes allow them many choices, Thinkers are conservative, practical consumers; they look for durability, functional. Believers Primary Motivation: Ideals with low resources and low innovation. Like Thinkers, Believers are motivated by ideals. They are conservative, conventional people with concrete beliefs based on traditional, established codes: family, religion, communit;, und the nation. Many Believers express moral codes that are deeply rooted and literally interpreted. They follow established routines, organised in large part around home, family, community, and social or religious organisations to which they belong. As consumers, Believers are predictable; they choose familiar products and established brands. They favour American products and are ger:erally loyal customers.

Achievers Primary Motivation: Achievement with high resources and high innovation. Motivated by the desire for achievement, Achievers have goal-oriented lifestyles and·a deep commitment to career and family. Their social lives reflect this focus and are structured around family, their place of worship, and work. Achievers live conventional lives, are politically conservative, and respect authority and the status quo. They value consensus, predictability, and stability over risk, intimacy, and self-discovery. With many wants and needs, Achievers are active in the consumer marketplace. Image is important to Achievers; they favour established, prestige products and services that demonstrate success to their peers. Because of their busy lives, they are often interested in a variety of time saving devices. Strivers Primary Motivation: Achievement with low resources and low innovation. Strivers are trendy and fun loving. Because they are motivated by achievement, Strivers are concerned about the opinions and approval of others. Money defines success for Strivers, who don't have enough of it to meet their desires. They favor stylish products that emulate the purchases of people with greater material wealth. Many see themselves as having a job rather than a career, and a lack of skills and focus often prevents them from moving ahead. Strivers are active consumers because shopping is both a social activity and an opportunity to demonstrate to peers their ability to buy. As consumers, they are as impulsive as their financial circumstance will allow. Experiencers Primary Motivation: Self-expression with high resources and high innovation. Experiencers are motivated by self-expression. As young, enthusiastic, and impulsive

Consumer Personality and Self-Concept

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consumers, Experiencers quickly become enthusiastic about new possibilities but are equal1\' quick to cool. They seek variety and excitement, savoring the new, the offbeat, and the risky. Their energy finds an outlet in exercise, sports, outdoor recreation, and social activities. Experiencers are avid consumers and spend a comparatively high proportion of their income on fashion, entertainment, and socialising. Their purchases reflect the emphasis they place on looking good and having "cool" stuff. Makers Primary Motivation: Self-expression with low resources and low innovation. Like Experiencers, Makers are motivated by self-expression. They express themselves and experier.ce the world by working on it-building a house, raising children, fixing a car, or canning vegetables-and have enough skill and energy to carry out their projects successfully. Makers are practical people who have constructive skills and value self-sufficiency. They live within a traditional context of family, practical work, and physical recreation and have little interest in what lies outside that context.

Makers are suspicious of new ideas and large institutions such as big business. They are respectful of government authority and organized labour, but resentful of government intrusion on individual rights. They are unimpressed by material possessions other than those with a practical or functional purpose. Because they prefer value to luxury, they buy basic products. Survivors (formerly Strugglers) VERY LOW ON Ideals/ Achievement/Self-expression VERY LOW on resources and innovation. Survivors live narrowly focused lives. With few resources with which to cope, they often believe that the world is changing too quickly. They are comfortable with the familiar and are primarily concerned with safety and security. Because they must focus on meeting needs rather than fulfilling desires, Survivors do not show a strong primary motivation. Survivors are cautious consumers. They represent a very modest market for most products and services. They are loyal to favorite brands, especially if they can purchase them at a discount.

4.6 SELf-CONCEPT Self-concept is defined as the ideas, attitudes, and perceptions people have about themselves or also as the image one has of oneself. The totality of an individual's thoughts and feelings having reference to himself/herself as an object. Research indicates that the self-concept is a relatively important variable in how a person judges and evaluates other persons or products. Basically, self-concept is how we see ourselves, and how we feel about ourselves. In order to let others know what "image" we are portraying, we buy and use products that reflect our image. Most of us want to see ourselves as acceptable, both to ourselves and to other people in society. It is our self-concept that compels us to fulfill this need. The consumer faces several possible selves. The actual self-reflects how the individual actually is, although the consumer may not be aware of that reality (e.g., many anorexic consumers who are dangerously thin believe that they are in fact fat). In contrast, the ideal self reflects a self that a person would like to have, but does not in fact have. For example, a couch potato may want to be a World famous athlete, but may have no actual athletic

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Consumer Behaviour: An Applied Orientation in Indian Context

ability. The private self is one that is not intentionally exposed to others. For example, a police officer may like and listen to rap music in private, but project a public self-image of a country music enthusiast, pIa} ing country songs at work where police officers are portrayed as heroes. The key here is to keep in mind which kind of self we are trying to reach in promotional messages. If we appeal to the hidden self, for example, we must be careful to make our appeals subtle and hint, if appropriate, on how the ~ndividual's confidentiality and privacy can be enhanced.

4.6.1 Self-Concept Characteristics Many of the successes and failures that people experience in many areas of life are closely related to the ways that they have learned to view themselves and their relationships with others. It is also becoming clear that self-concept has at least three major qualities of interest to counselors: (1) it is learned, (2) it is organised, and (3) it is dynamic. Each of these qualities, with corollaries, follow.

Self-concept is learned As far as we know, no one is born with a self-concept. It gradually emerges in the early months of life and is shaped and reshaped through repeated perceived experiences, particularly with significant others. Self-concept is developed .through experience, it possesses relatively boundless potential for development and actualization. Individuals perceive different aspects of themselves af different times with varying degrees of clarity. Therefore, inner focusing is a valuable tool for counselling. Individuals may perceive themselves in ways different from the ways others see them. Any experience which is inconsistent with one's self-concept may be perceived as a threat, and the more of these experiences there are, the more rigidly self-concept is organized to maintain and protect itself. When a person is unable to get rid of perceived inconsistencies, e~otional problems arise.

Self-concept is organized Most researchers agree that self-concept has a generally stable quality that is characterized by orderliness and harmony. Each person maintains countless perceptions regarding one's personal existence, and each perception is orchestrated with all the others. It is this generally stable and organised quality of self-concept that gives consistency to the personality. This organised quality of self-concept has corollaries. Self-concept requires consistency, stability, and tends to resist change. If self-concept changed readily, the individual would lack a consistent and dependable personality. The more central a particular belief is to one's self-concept, the more resistant one is to changing that belief. Basic perceptions of oneself are quite stable, so change takes time.

Self-Concept is dynamic Self-concept provides consistency in personality and direction for behaviour. The world and the things in it are not just perceived; they are perceived in relation to one's selfconcept. Self-concept development is a continuous process. There is constant assimilation

Consumer Personality and Self-Concept

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of new ideas and expulsion of old ideas throughout life. Individuals strive to behave in ways that are in keeping with their self-concepts, no matter how helpful or hurtful to oneself or others. Self-concept usually takes precedence over the physical body. Individuals will often sacrifice physical comfort and safety for emotional satisfaction. Self-concept continuously guards itself against loss of self-esteem, for it is this loss that produces feelings of anxiety.

4.6.2 Types of Self-concept There are four basic dimensions to self-concept that create motives for buying certain products. These dimensions include actual self-concept, ideal self-concept, private selfconcept, and social self-concept. These self-concepts are perceptions that we have of ourselves that help us to develop reaso~s for buying products. Other personality theorists have attempted to look at an individual's self-concept. The main idea of this theory is the individual's specific perception of him/herself and his/her ego. It is believed that an individual can measure self on criteria such as happy, careful, · dependable, confident, and social; and then compare this data with his/her ideal self. This belief translates into the concept that "individuals perceive products that they own or would like to own in terms of their meaning to themselves and others". Thus, if there is congruence between the image of the product and his / her own self-image there will be a greater likelihood of purchase. The self-concept theory suggest$ that an individual's selfimage or image of the ideal self determines behaviour.

A. Actual Self-concept Actual self-concept is the perception of "who I am now". This is a realistic perception of one's self. Example, I am a college student. This is a real perception of myself and is what I portray to others. One's actual self-concept can include social status, age, gender, etc. Most people can describe how they see themselves in their present state. There are many products on the market that attempt to reinforce one's actual self-concept. Similar to how target markets are determined by the different roles that consumers play in their daily lives, marketers also target segments on the basis of actual self-concept. Marketers advertise products to target markets by tuning into the actual self-concepts of individuals in that target market. An example of this would be minivans how the individual perceives himself. A group of consumers may perceive themselves as rebellious, non-conformists who seek individuality and freedom In their lifestyles. Charms brand of cigarettes, during the early eighties, was perhaps one of the ~arly brands in the Indian context to create a brand personality using the power of self-concept. The Spirit of Freedom and Charms is the way you are were some of the punchlines in the advertisement of the brand, which featured young models. In order to add to the claims about freedom they had packaged the brand in the pack that carried denim type of design. This was the time when denim, which has its origin in the US, was getting accepted in the Indian context for its functional and symbolic appeals. The lifestyle type of advertising and the association (normally associated in the West with casualness and freedom) made the brand an inherent part of the youth culture during its time. The brand had used either actual self-concept. or others actual selfconcept (how an individual likes others to perceive him).

94

Consumer Behaviour: An Applied Orientation in Indian Context

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Many consumer purchases are habitual responses deriving from prior satisfying experience with the products. Habits which develop on the basis of past experience and reinforcement of prior purchase responses therefore lend efficiency to consumer shopping. Loyalty can be considered logical if it reduces ambiguity in decision-making and the brand responses made are sufficiently reinforced to result in learned behaviour. The tendency of consumers to develop brand loyalties benefits the manufacturers of established brand. However, for the manufacturer of a new brand, it becomes has the usually difficult task of breaking such loyalties and encouraging brand switching-unless existing product offerings are not providing adequate reinforcement. To the extent that learning and brand loyalty can be gained for a product, the manufacturer achieves a more stable sales profile and is not as subject to competitive in roads. Sometimes when for various reasons companies withdraw products from market it creates bad impact on the loyal customers as given in the Exhibit 6.1 on next page. However habits can be broken when response ceases to gratify (boredom or satiation with a product), or when a new response can be shown to be potentially more gratifying. Deal activity and free sampling are marketing strategies to break response pattern and establish new patterns. Thus, what has been learned can be unlearned--extinction can occur. An individual may prefer a specific brand, but some unpleasant experience may cause extinction of the learned prl'lL'rt'nce. When a response is followed by reward, its probability of recurrence increases; but when a response is followed by punishment or lack of reward, its probability of recurrence decreases, On the other hand, some consumers may be observed to seek gratification through variety-perhaps extending their patronage to several different brands of a product or service in succession. However, behaviour theory is criticized on various accounts as animal research has provided a very important foundation for the behavioural approach. When the behavioural model is applied to mental illness, it tends to be used for a wide variety of presenting problems. It is perhaps most effective in treating behavioural disorders and disorders of impulse control, such as excessive drinking, obesity, or sexual problems. Behavioural approaches may be quite useful in treatment of mental disor.ders but to understand consumer learning is always debated and human being is not a passive person as he also attempt to learn on its own.

6.2.3 Observational (Social) Learning Observational learning or social learning is learning that occurs as a function of observing, retaining and replicating behaviour observed in others. It is most associated with the work of psychologist Albert Bandura, who implemented some of the seminal studies in the area and initiated social learning theory. Although observational learning can take place at any stage in life, it is thought to be particularly important during childhood, particularly as authority becomes important. Because of this, social learning theory has influenced debates on the effect of television violence and parental role models. Bandura's Bobo doll experiment is widely cited in psychology as a demonstration of observational learning.

149

Learning EXHIBIT 6.1 Brand Loyalty Hurts

Companies withdraw brands because Given that such customer loyalty exists, and the costs and difficulty of creating a new brand, why withdraw brands? Bharat Puri, director, sales and marketing, Cadbury India Ltd states the basic manufacturer's position: manufacturing and distribution have fixed costs which need certain volumes to cover them. "If we don't get those volumes after a point, then the cost of selling the product is more than any money we make from it," he says. In such cases, he adds, the company's policy is now to destroy products that are clearly defective, but otherwise to feed them into the market till supplies run out. Brand withdrawals can also happen because of internal company reasons. A spokesman for Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL) explains that this was what happened with Signal. According to HLLS spokesman, Signal's demise was part of a restructuring of the company's personal products division. "At that time personal products wasn't as important for us as it is today, and so wasn't very well organised," he says. When the company finally got round to restructuring the division, it was evident that some products would have to go. "Despite its loyal customers, Signal was still a niche brand and was withdrawn at that time," he says. Does it have to be this way? Are companies too qUick to kill off brands that might have potential if they stick with it? Yes, says Jagdeep Kapoor, president of Samsika Marketing. For evidence, he points to the contrasting cases of two brands of tea. The first is Paloma, the iced tea brand introduced by Nestle in the early eighties. "As a concept, it was a little ahead of its time; Indians are very strongly wedded to hot tea," says Kapoor. Paloma did get a core of loyal consumers in the metros, but Nestle still withdrew the product, then relaunched it under the Nestea name, final withdrew that too. Yet today, iced tea is slowly becoming popular and Nestle have again launched the brand Nestea. Sosyo, a soft drink from Surat-based Hajoori & Sons. This 51-year-old brand was a popular niche brand in Gujarat and Mumbai among consumers, particularly in certain communities like Gujratis who appreciated its distinctive sweety fruity taste. But the onslaught of the cola wars burned niche players like Sosyo and the brand withdrew from most of its markets. For survival, the company took up a Cadbury-Schweppes franchise, while the main brand was restricted mostly to Surat. With the Cadbury-Schweppes business drying up too, the company was left wondering what to do, and approached Kapoor, a soft drink veteran from Parle. Noting that a number of other old brands had disappeared from the market, like Parle's Rim-Zim and Roger's ice cream soda, he advised them to relaunch. "There is a market for a taste that's not just the big colas, plus Sosyo had a loyal base to build on," says Kapoor. Today, he says the brand is thriving in its old haunts, sales driven by loyal customers ("There are even Sosyo Clubs in Mumbai"). Still, Bijoor counsels that one has to be philosophical abut brand lives. "The reality is that brands are quite like human beings. Born today. To die at some point of time in the future. In the meanwhile, if they have proliferated variants in tune with the changing needs of the day, fine ..." But for irredeemable nostalgists like me, it's nice to know that the newest of technologies could possibly offer hope of life to the oldest brands. And the dead. For detailed list of brands withdrawn from a market is given in Appendix 1.

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Observational learning allows for learning without any change in behaviour and has therefore been used as an argument against strict behaviourism which argued that behaviour change must occur for new behaviours to be acquired. As shown in Fig. 6.3, child is undergoing a observational learning in Bajaj advertisement.

Required conditions The process of social learning have four conditions required for a person to successfully model the behaviour of someone else: •

Attention to the model A person must first pay attention to a person engaging in a certain behaviour (the model).

•

Retention of details Once attending to the observed behaviour, the observer must be able to effectively remember what the model has done.

•

Motor reproduction The observer must be able to replicate the behaviour being observed. For example, juggling cannot be effectively learned by observing a model juggler if the observer does not already have the ability to perform the component actions (throwing and catching a ball).

•

Motivation and Opportunity The observer must be motivated to carry out the action they have observed and remembered, and must have the opportunity to do so. For example, a suitably skilled person must want to replicate the behaviour of a model juggler, and needs to have an appropriate number of items to juggle to hand.

Effect on behaviour Social learning may effect behaviour in the follow ways: •

Teaches new behaviours

•

Increases or decreases the frequency -of which previously learnt behaviours are carried out

•

Can encourage previously forbidden behaviours

•

Can increase or decrease similar behaviours.

Some advertisement depicts negative consequences Cbnsumer's ability to learn vicariously by observing how the behaviour of others is reinforced makes the lives of marketers much easier. They can show what happens to desirable models who use or do not use their products, knowing that consumers will often be motivated to imitate these actions at a later time.

6.3 COGNITIVE THEORY OF LEARNING Many researchers have argued that stimulus-response theories are overly mechanistic and

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reductive. Mechanistic because by using only observable phenomena such as stimuli and reinforcement schedules and treating humans as passive recipients of them, they take no account of the mental activity which may occur in individuals during learning. Reductive because the theories have to break down complex behaviour into small stimulusresponse units in order to explain how they are acquired. Critics of stimulus-response theories have claimed that we need to develop more holistic units of analysis and accept that internal mental processes, though difficult to monitor, do play an important part in the learning process. Cognitive psychology has been concerned primarily with the processes of learning, memory, and thinking, but has also explored many other domains as well. Cognitive psychology is characterized by a willingness to explain observable behaviours by means of complicated but hidden processes. Cognitive learning occurs as a result of mental processes. In contrast to behavioural theories of learning, cognitive learning theory stresses the importance of internal mental processes. This perspective views people as problem solvers who actively use information from the world around them to master their environment. Cognitive theory emphasizes events that take place inside the learner. That is, cognitive research seeks to describe the role of the person's own mental activity in learning and remembering. This approach has centered on learning as the acquisition of new knowledge, rather than focusing on behavioural change. Consumers affective and cognitive systems are active in every environment, but only some of this internal activity is conscious. While a great deal of activity may occur with out much awareness. A consumer may pay attention to certain aspects of the store and ignores other parts. Some products capture people's attention while others do not. Consumers interprets large amount of information in the store - from the signs to brand names to ·. price tags to labels. A consumer evaluates some products he still has on hand at home and those that he or she does not have and needs to replace. The consumer makes choices from the items found in the store and makes decisions out of other specific behaviours. Purchasing behaviour is a complex function of a consumers social and physical environment, the marketing strategies intended to influence him, his own behaviour, and the processes of his affective and cognitive systems. Each factor interacts with and reciprocally influences the others.

(A) Cognition as a psychological response Cognition consists of mental (thinking) processes, thoughts or beliefs (ex. You believe that diet soda or drinks are not fattening, knowledge where the store is; and thinking that my web pages are very cool) . As a mental states cognition are not usually felt in the body.

(B) Cognitive process of consumer decision-making The most important aspect of consumer behaviour for marketers to understand is how consumers make decisions. Consumers make decisions about many types of behaviour.

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Consumers use information to make decisions, most aspect of the market environment is potential information. The decisions underlie many human actions can be understood in terms of these processes consumers must interpret relevant information in the environment to create personal meanings or knowledge. Consumers must combine this knowledge to evaluate products and choose among alternative behaviours. Consumers must retrieve product knowledge from memory to use in integration processes.

(C) Cognitive Processing Terms •

Activation: Stored cognitive representations are made available for retrieval from memory for processing.

•

Spreading Activation: Activation of one representation will spread to and activate other representations with which it is associated.

•

Capacity Limits: The cognitive processing system has a finite limit in the amount of information that can be processed at one time.

•

Automatism: As cognitive processes are practiced (i.e., the limited capacity system is used), they eventually require less conscious control. and less

There is a difference petween Behaviorism and Cognitive Theories. These are linked by the principle of feedback. In behavioural theories, feedback works to reinforce particular responses through a system of rewards supposedly without a conscious mind intervening. In the various forms of cognitive theories, people form plans and images based on their needs, motives, values, and beliefs about themselves; they act on these; get feedback about the effects or consequences; and then actively modify perceptions, plans, and behaviour accordingly.

(D) Implications for Advertisements by Cognitive Elaboration Marketing and companies face the problem of measuring advertising effectiveness. Companies use cognitive elaboration to influence brand choices and advertisements to build brand equity and sustain it. It helps the customers to differentiate a brand from the competitor's on the dimensions which are important to the consumers. For example, Surf in 70s differentiated itself through unique positioning and confirmatory advertising. Lifebuoy, dettol and TATA were all created by consistent and sustainable advertising campaign. Thums up created a macho image featuring Akshay Kumar in the advertisement and association of VIP luggage with durable luggage. There are 3 consumer insights: 1. What consumer believes about the brand? 2.

In which category does the brand hold membership?

3.

How the consumer processes advertising information to arrive at a brand choice:

The company arrives at the consumer insights by continuously tracking the brand in the market through focus groups, in depth interviews and purchase labs.

Consumer Behaviour: An Applied Orientation in Indian Context

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The personal care bath soap in the Indian market seen as: 1. The soap with direct benefit, Le., skin care and protection from odor. e.g., Dettol, Margo, Neem.

2.

The soap for looking beautiful and glowing skin. e.g., Dove, Lux, Evita.

The Ad campaign should match the consumer belief, as in case of UJALA-"char bundo walla". It is an effective way to counter the use Robin Blue powder-through "Dhabba Wala" campaign. COGNITIVE ELABORATION is the task to analyze how consumers think, process and use the advertising information for brand and choice. Advertising helps consumer to relate advertising information to their current repertoire of knowledge about the category, brand and its competitors. The company the strategies such as hard sell, story grammer, big idea spokesman, colour and comparative advertising. •

HARD SELL says buy this brand and get this benefit, e.g., * Vicks Action 500-immediate relief from cold. * Mediker shampoo gives antilice treatment.

•

STORY GRAMMER says that the consumer store information in the memory in different forms like problem, episode to address problem and outcomes. Children have the ability to remember fables and fairy tales. It also includes the testimonial evidence campaign like Harpic, Move, and Glycodin.

•

BIG IDEA APPROACH identifies a benefit that is focal to consumer and presents a variety of attributes that implies the benefit to sustain the brand information over a period of time. e.g., Lifebuoy has undergone a substantial attribute changes but talks about Tandrushti ki raksha karta hai lifebuoy. It works when attribute is one but imply many benefits. It means that the spokespeople build credibility, believability & trustworthiness for the brand. e.g., Amitabh for Dabur, Nerolac paints and Chavanprash; Shahrukh for Santro; Akshay Kumar for Thums up; Sachin for TVS Victor.

•

COLOR evokes the audience to elaborate on their feelings. e.g., Eveready-'give me red'; Reliance-green in the web world and retail outlets; Blue--cool, serene, Black-desire, passion, sex, Pastel-feminine and Dark brown-muscularity.

6.4 MEMORY There are three types of memory, namely, sensory memory, short-term memory, and longterm memory. Another important concept discussed here is linkage of memory and branding.

(A) 'Sensory Memory First, the marketers provide external stimuli in the form of text, pictures, and audio (Le., packaging, advertisement, etc.) that gains the attention of the receptors (customers) in the eyes and ears. The receptors pass this information into sensory storage for automatic processing. Sensory storage processes all stimuli in real-time, so as new information comes in, it replaces the previous information.

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The human sensory system processes all external stimuli, and it can be easily overloaded with too much .stimulation. Information overload can occur even from background noise or peripheral images and animation. A multimedia program that plays continuous background music or repeats a complex animation on ~ screen to engage the user is just as likely to distract him or her. In reality, this type of overuse of visuals or "eye candy" can wnflict with the processing of more relevant content. This means many time customer instead of focusing on the product gets lost in the model or celebrity endorsing the product. Marketers can make more sense of an input if we can associate it with inputs or cues from other senses. In many skilled activities it is essential to learn the auditory, tactile, and balance inputs associated with a visual input. This also enables the skilled individual to make more use of sensory information derived from receptors in muscles and joints. These kinaesthetic cues are more immediate than visual cues and so make possible increases in the rapidity and accuracy of movement.

(B) Short Term Memory Stimuli, or information, that has any value to the perceiver will be passed along into shortterm memory, also known as working memory. Short-term memory or 'Working memory capacity is a simple storage buffer. The function of working memory is to maintain memory representations in the face of distractions. Working memory is described as a part of our memory as providing a kind of 'mental workspace' which can be used to maintain information while actions are being carried out or compare with items already stored in long-term memory. In addition our secondary memory houses our long-term storage capacity and thus any previous learning. This division implies that at least two processes are involved in the storage of information. Primary memory appears to be the conscious or working store in which information can be stored for a few seconds. If important, information is transferred to the secondary, long-term store. Primary memory is thought to be located in circuits in the frontal lobes of the brain, whereas secondary memory appears to involve irreversible changes in the molecular structure. Primary memory is a fragile store and is easily disrupted. For example, if you have to attend to another input while trying to memorize a telephone number, you are unlikely to be able to remember what the number is. Fatigue and stress also disrupt the primary memory. As well as being a fragile store, primary memory also appears to have a limited capacity. Whereas secondary memory has an almost infinite storage capacity, primary memory seems to be able to hold a small amount of information. Scientists have shown that short-term memory can only hold about seven to nine items at a time, and these items will be held for only about 30 seconds unless a memory aid is used, such as repetition or chunking. In fact short term memory capacity seems to be between five and nine 'chunks' of information. These chunks need not represent individual items such as numbers. By subjectively grouping items more information can be contained in the primary store. A nine-figure number, for example, can be remembered as three chunks each containing three digits. Learned customer seem to be able to deal with many more items of information by chunking them--categorizing according to the action-relevant categories they have developed.

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For an everyday example of the use of a short-term memory aid, consider how you try to remember a phone number given to you when you don't have pen and paper handy. You might repeat the number several times to keep it present in your short-term memory "908-555-1212, 908-555-1212, 908-555-1212". Of course, rather than memorizing one long string, "9085551212," you would "chunk" the numbers into three smaller pieces - "908555-1212" - to aid your memory.

(C) Long-Term Memory In order for something to enter into long-term memory, which is more permanent, you must usually "rehearse" it several times. For example, when you move and get a new phone number, you will probably repeat it to yourself many times. Alternatively, you get to learn your car number or bank account numb~rs with time, not because you deliberately memorize them, but instead because you encounter them numerous times as you look them up. Stimuli -> Receptors (Eyes, Ears, Hands) -> Sensory Storage -> Short-Term Memory -> Long-Term Memory The real challenge when working with long-term memory is not just how to store information in that memory area, but rather how to get it back out again when needed. Research indicates that there are many tactics that will improve a person's ability to find and access information locked up in long-term memory. Among devices used to aid in future recall are mental pictures, emotional intensity, word associations and use of multiple senses.

(D) Implications For Marketers: Linkage of Memory and Advertisements Every marketer is interested to know the impact of advertisement on the learning of the consumer. There are few points that marketer has to take into considerations while measuring the response of the advertisement. Each person's has personal relationship with the brand which produces unique advertising response, includes all that is known about the brand, its cognitive and emotive associations and behavioural learning relationships with the brand. All the; current knowledge and experie~ce available about the advertisement efficacy is as follows: 1. Response level to advertisment differs by the individual's prior knowledge and experience of brand and its competitors. 2. Good creative is worth hundreds of GRP. Thus it is far better to reach the right audience fewer times with effective advertising, that to repeatedly bombard them with meaningless imaging and ideas. 3. When advertising effects occur, they occur most frequently during early exposures. Repeated exposure does not change them unless the person has changed internally. 4. Most of the learning from advertising is implicit, i.e., affecting brand feeling without audience being aware of them. So, asking them about their learning is futile. And also, this response is pre-conditioned by pre-knowledge. 5. Best of ideas and memories are stored and accessed in many different parts of the brain. Some of these are explicit, some being implicit and the only time they can be inter-

Learning related is when they are brought together into working memory few ideas concurrently 6.

157 which holds only

It is widely accepted that feelings are intrinsically involved with the way one thinks

about anything. Reasoning comes later as we rationalize what already feels right. Thus, when consumers think about a brand - the ideas they access tend to be ones that support their current attitude to it. Positive association is taken and negative is discarded or adjusted to fit pre-existing brand perceptions and feelings. 7.

Reach of the advertising can be measured through recall and recognition and people recognize images better than they recall names. Recognition is not equivalent to exposure but effective exposure. Here creativity and brand experience play a vital role in heightening attention.

Thus, the key measures in brand communication are: •

Degree of attention involved

•

Change in knowledge and perception

•

Change in feeling and brand

•

Degree of brand tie-in.

(E) Memory and Branding Pavlov's research contributes to our understanding of branding by demonstrating how to use memory recall to build an associative link to a positive memory, and then having the memory recalled on demand. How memory is created and stored in our brains has implications for branding. Because a goal of branding is "top of mind" recall and recognition, successful brands aim to become a short and, ultimately, a long term memory. Brand messages have to be relevant to targeted audiences and frequent, using multisensory experiences to forge a memory. That's why it's not enough to limit an information service brand to just a logo or to a single visibility campaign. To make a brand memory, branding has to go beyond the "here and now" of short-term memory, and instead, regularly activate the long-term memory--over an extended period of time with as many different "mental" connections as possible. Seeing the brand. Saying the brand. Hearing the brand. Reading the brand. Experiencing the brand. The multisensory approach creates short-term, electrical memories and with repeated brand exposure converts the short-term into long-term memory. Even when the brand is imprinted in the long-term memory, branding can not rest. If the memory is left unused for a period of time, it will disappear. This implies that the minute an information service brand rests on its laurels, brand erosion begins. It's the reason why limited-time promotion offers or one-time visibility campaigns are not successful brandbuilding activities. Both focus on the short-term memory. It takes consistent, long-term brand building marketing and communications activities to keep the memory alive. When planning brand strategies for products, marketer should consider how the strategies

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will affect the three different forms of memory. You can increase message transfer from the short-term memory to the long-term, by incorporating two important considerations into your branding plans. First, increase the relevancy of the message. Know your target markets and understand what information service features are important to them. Your message should answer the "So what?" question from the perspective of your customer. Second, increase the frequency of message repetition. Not only repeat messages, but increase the number of times they are repeated. Your messages have to get beyond the electrical memory of the "here and now," and increasing the frequency across different sensory routes will help to store the message in the chemical memory. Examine your brand communications mix. Does it rely on one or two types of message transmissions? Are you maximizing all the sensory avenues to the memories of your target market?

6.5 HOW TO MAKE CUSTOMER LEARN All information that is perceived via the senses passes through three processors that encode it as linguistic, nOlllillguistic, or affective representations. This is how customer learn.

6.5.1 The Linguistic Mode Product knowledge is most commonly presented linguistically (the study of language), so perhaps this mode receives the most attention from a learning standpoint. The linguistic mode includes verbal communication, reading, watching (e.g., learn the rule of chess through observation), etc. 3asically, the linguistic processor encodes our experiences as abstract propositions. The linguistic mode provides the way to the most accurate method of learning, hence the reason for its impact upon the education and training world. There are a number of ways for increasing linguistic retention.

(A) Note Taking Note taking has a positive impact on this mode since it involves the customers in the communication given by the company. Companies can help them with the note taking by pro\'jding rough outlines and fill-in-the-blanks., But do not just rely on one method. For example, fill-in-the-blanks can also be concept or semantic maps (mapping) - company provide the fill in the blanks in the advertisement or tag line or benefits offered by the, while the customers fill them in. Based on the correctness of the answer he is given gifts and prizes by the company.

(B) Charting Learning can be reinforced with such tools as flowcharts, diagrams, and maps. Providing tools that directly support procedures or processes helps in explaining the communication of the company.

(C) Active Learning Use activities (manipulatives) to engage the learners. While customers can learn not really only by understanding it until they actually do it. Placing the customers in small groups

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allows them to not onl y receive and express company information, but to also manipulate it in various forms to gain a full understanding of it. Cooperative learning is very effective due to give and take of various linguistic forms. It in'!olves cooperation, in that customers work in small groups on an assigned project or problem under the guidance of the trainer who monitors the groups. Multilevel marketing is working on this very concept such as Amway company. This company organizes home parties and get together of successful customers with the prospects. Successful customers of the company explain how they have been able to achieve the success and what is the concept of multilevel marketing followed by jnformal interaction with prospects. This generates active learning for the prospects.

6.5.2 The Non-Linguistic Mode This includes mental pictures, smell, kinesthetic, tactile, auditory, and taste. At first, we might believe that they are entirely different structures, however these representations are quite similar to each other in that these nonlinguistic sensations function in a similar fashion in permanent memory. That is, although we sense things differently, such as smell and touch, they are stored in mental representations that are quite similar. They also lose a lot of their robustness once the experience is over and transferred to memory. For example, picturing the smell of a rose from memory is not as vivid as actually smelling a real rose. What really needs to happen is to allow customers to touch, move, listen and/or smell the product if at all possible this can generate learning.

6.5.3 Affective Mode Use the power of feelings and emotions to reinforce the affective mode. Use of "arousal" (emotions) can to increase learning. A certain amount of arousal can be a motivator toward .change (with change being learning). But too much or too little will have a negative affect. Marketer should provide a mid-level point of arousal to provide the motivation to chimge (learn). Too little arousal has an inert affect on the learner, while too much has a hyperactive affect. Each type of learning has its own optimal level of arousal. The more intellectually or cognitive a task is, then the more lower the level of arousal should be so that you do not "overload" the learners. On the opposite end of the scale are tasks that require less mental activities or tasks requiring endurance and persistence. They require higher levels of arousal to fully engage the customers in the learning process. In the preceding section we will discuss the role of emotions in learning.

(A) The picture of emotions: ICON (ICON, FCB's Proprietary Technique) ICON is a FCB proprietary technique that unearths subtle emotions customers weren't aware existed . Consider a piece of conversation between a moderator of a company and a housewife. Moderator (to a hesitant Housewife): 'So can you tell me how do you feel when you wash clothes?' Housewife (deep in her thoughts): 'Well it's a mixed bag of emotions you see. On one hand I feel very traditional about it after all it has been the duty of housewives for ages. There. is warmth and a feeling of caring and affection for my famil y. On the other hand you feel

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all keyed up and competitive, like an athlete about to clear a hurdle, washing clothes is such a challenge no? Plus of course there is some anger - why do I have to do it all the time, such a thankless back-breaking job! And the fear of an accident always lurks around. What if the new saree runs colour? What if the stain doesn't go? What if the colour fades? Of course once it is all done and the clothes are hanging to dry, I feel like I have won a trophy... such a sense of achievement!!!' Each time consumers feel about the products snacking, wearing contact lenses (or ordinary glasses), owning a brand of mobile phone or even washing clothes! The picture consumers paint for is as rich and vivid as the example above and it happens each time. This leads to learning. Great help in today's times where, with increasing product parity, it is the emotional connect that makes or breaks a brand consumer bond. The better you understand their emotions, the better the chances of your brand beating the rival.

The evolution of ICON in India ICON was First developed in the US in the mid-80s and was launched in India in the late 90s. In order to adapt the list of emotions and pictures to the Indian context an exhaustive, multi-stage process was undertaken: 1. The list of US emotions was reviewed and only the relevant ones were kept in the Indian list; the rest were either dropped or modified. For instance, 'Respect' is very relevant in our context but was not a part of the US list. in contrast, 'Sexy' was a part of the US list but was dropped from the Indian list. 2.

The short-listed emotions were ratified by a psychologist.

3. The deck of pictures was reviewed: An internal qualitative check revealed that some visuals would represent different emotions in the Indian context.

The US vislIal for tenderness

The Indian Adaptation

Adapting visuals for the Indian context For example, while the hands visual stood for 'tenderness' in the US, it cued 'consolation' in India. It was therefore replaced by another visual more suitable for India. 4.

Finally, the Indian bank of visuals was finalized after a qualitative study followed by a quantitative study to validate the learnings. And more often than not, while the basic emotion may be known to all and done to death, it is a more complete, well-rounded picture of emotions that makes the difference.

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What ... ICON? ICON (Image Configuration) is a non-verbal research technique used to uncover consumer feelings and emotions associated 'with:

A brand or category: What are the emotions associated with wearing glasses? And when these glass wearers think Zlbout wearing contact lenses what emotions do they experience? Is there a barrier ev ident there? And a potential hot button to make them convert? A task or all experience: How does it feel while washing clothes? While cooking?

All ad: What do consumers decode out of your ad? And your rivals' ads?

ICON is a set of 32 emotionally evocative pictures of people, objects, events and situations. These let us dig beneath the surface to explore the full range of emotions, that are difficult for consumers to express with standard verbal research techniques. ICON's theoretical approach is based on combining the two main approaches to emotions: •

Robert Plutchik's Categorical approach, which states that all emotions stem from 8 primary emotions.

•

Albert Mehrabian's Dimensional approach which establishes the bipolar dimensions that underlie emotions. So what we have is the Circle of Emotions, which is derived from the set of eight primary emotions (and within that there is a total of 32 subemotions).

These emotions are c1assifil'd on bi-polar dimensions cold (Fig. 6.1).

negative and positive; warm and

What Makes ICON Unique? Using pictures to measure emotions is not revolutionary. Researchers have already discovered the power of pictures. However, they rely on a subjective interpretation of what the pictures mean.

Fig. 6.4. !\ Xl'IlpliiCllI representatioll of

till'

Circle of Emotions

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Consumer Behaviour: An Applied Orientation in Indian Context

With ICON we know exactly what our pictures mean to the Indian consumers Because the emotions associated with each picture have been pre quantified (using a large sample quantitative study), each picture has a definitive score that corresponds to an emotion (See Fig. 6.2). .

What can ICON deliver? JCON can provide inputs to determine the strength of the consumer's relationship with a brand/ category or the kind of emotions that a piece of advertising or a concept evokes. Let's illustrate with the help of an example. During a session using ICON, the pictures that consumers chose to describe their feelings about cellular services, pointed towards a strong, warm, positive association with the category (Fig. 6.3). However when it came to the brand of service provider, it was a different story. Brand A in that category has an acceptable position. But there are signs of erosion and a potential for the relationship to get colder (the positive emotions are milder). On the other hand Brand B has a lot more going for it. The positive emotions (e.g., excitement) are a lot stronger. The implication one could draw for Brand A is that they need to quickly re-affirm their bond with their current consumers. While they need to improve their delivery to the consumer ego better service standards, at the same time they need to involve them in a warmer, more pleasant fashion. This could be by way of loyalty programs or holding exclusive events for them. The use of the Circle of Emotions can be quite versatile. In addition to showing in a single graphic how the Category, Brand and Competitor are positioned according to ICON's emotional profiling, or it can plot the current relationship the brand has with consumers . and show the potential relationships it can develop.

Brand consumer relationship ICON opens up for brand to bond better with her customer. If we compare different advertising mnemonics for their 'memorability' such as "Jab ghar ki raunak badhani ho, dew(laron ko jab sajana ho ... " This advertising jingle for Nerolac Paints has lasted in people's minds through decades. Its simplicity and catchiness help it achieve what jingles are meant to achieve- effectively pass on the brand message. But then who can forget the Air India Maharaja or the Amul Butter girl? Or for that matter slogans such as "Fill it, Shut it, Forget it" of Hero Honda fame. So then what is it that leaves a lasting impression in the minds of the consumers when they see an advertisement? Is it a catchy jingle, an endearing visua l or a memorable slogan?

1. Visual mnemonics relatively better on recall Brands associated with visual mnemonics were recalled more than brands associated with other mnemonic types (See Fig. 6.5). Highest spontaneous recall among visual mnemonics

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was for the Amul Butter girl (93%), among audio mnemonics it was for 'Hamara Bajaj' (91 %) and among slogans it was for Amul 'Taste of India' (78%).

Percentage Recall Scores 80%

' 12%

70% 60%

I

50%

I I 40%

I I III

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30%

21%

20% 10% 0% Spontaneous Recall

Category Recall

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IOVisual Mnemonic-

Audio Mnemonic OSloganl

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Fig 6.5. Percentage recall scores

Methodology 1.

For each of 3 mnemonic types, audio, visual and slogan, examples were selected by a panel of experts, on the basis of media weight, time in market and creative power. Each of the selected 29 mnemonics was then exposed to the consumer and recall for brand was tested at 2 levels. (a) Unaided level - Responses at this level could either be spontaneous brand recall (this is the nerolac jngle), category recall (this is a paints jingle) , some recall ( I know it from somewhere) or absolutely no recall. (b) In case the response was any of the last 3 the respondent was aided with other brands (including other brands in the category) and recall wash.

2.

This research was conducted in 3 cities, Mumbai Delhi and Bangalore with a response base of 450. It was done among Sec AB individuals who watch TV and read newspapers on a daily basis.

3. List of brands selected (a) Audio: Bacardi, Bajaj, Nescafe, Cadbury, VIP, Liril, Titan, Godrej Storwel, Nerolac, Britannia. (b) Visual': Pepsi, Nike, Kelvinator, Amul, McDonalds, Nerolac,Nestle, Air India, Ceat, LG.

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Consumer Behaviour: An Applied Orientation in Indian Context

Fig. 6.5 .

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(c) Slogan: Britannia, Amul, Ceat, Indica, Raymond, Hero Honda, Kinley, Peter England, Clinic. 'Includes logos like Pepsi Circle, as well as mascots such as the Air India Maharaja .' But couldn't this trend be deceptive? More often than not. Not only is recall a function of the power of a mnemonic but also of its age and media spends. Hence it becomes necessary for us to compare recall in the context of these two parameters. 4.

For younger messages/brands (media exposure less than 5 years) visual mnemonics get the point across better than either slogans or audio mnemonics (See Fig. 6.5; quadrants 3 and 4). Highest spontaneous recall among visual mnemonics was for Nike (87'X,), among audio mnemonics it was for Nescafe (80%) and among slogans it was for Britannia (63%).

5.

For older messages/brands (media exposure more than 5 years) audio mnemonics perform a stellar role (See Fig. 6.5, quadrants 1 and 2). From the brands in quadrant 2 (Fig. 2), the highest spontaneous recalI among visual mnemonics was for Air India 'Maharaja' (63%) and among audio mnemop.ics it was for Nerolac 'Jab ghar ki ...' (8001:,).

5. Audio mnemonics die fastest when discarded For mnemonics which have been unused (primarily) for more than o;1e year, audio mnemonics seem to fade away from the consumers memory faster than the other two mnemonic types (See Fig. 6.6).

60%

57.% 51%

50%

'v

40% '.

I0

30%

Recallo~oJ

.-

20% 10% 0% Visual Mnemonic

Fig. 6.6. Recall

For

Slogan

Audio Mnemonic

Mnemonics which have

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been IIsed ill the last yenr

Some examples of spontaneous recall: Among visual mnemonics 44% for Ceat 'Rhino'. Among audio mnemonics 29% for VIP 'Kal bhi, aaj bhi .. .' Among slogans 40% for Hero Honda 'Fill it, Shut it, Forget it'. So what are the implications for advertisers?

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Consumer Behaviour: An Applied Orientation in Indian Context

Numerous advertisers focus a lot of time, effort and energy in crafting that 'sign off line'. But this study reveals that slogans are not necessarily the most critical way of getting the brand message through to the consumer. Though, on the face of it, visual mnemonics score on 'memorabilty' ... they don't perform as well for long-term messages. A visual mnemonic works best for short-term communication efforts. While a visual mnemonic performs well for short-term communication and has a good residual impact, it requires sustained and high media budgets to maintain recall over a period of time. For a long term, steady, more or less unchanging identity, like in corporate brands, it might make sense to invest in building an audio mnemonic.

SUMMARY Learning is called as the process by which individuals acquire the purchase and consumption knowledge and experience that they apply to future related behaviour. Element of learning consists of motives, cues, response, and reinforcement. Learning is a process that evolves with knowledge, and experience. Most consumer behaviour is learned behaviour, which means that consumer behaviour is based on previous experience under similar circumstances. Thus it throws vast opportunities for marketers to make customers learn about companies offer and products. There are various theories of learning that focus on that how learning takes place. Classical conditioning occurs when a stimulus that elicits a response is paired with another stimulus that initially does not elicit a response in its own. Over time, this second stimulus causes a similar response because it is associated with the first stimulus. Classical conditioning utilizes an innate response. Pavlov discovered the classical conditioning theory. It has application in marketing for example, stimulus generali~ation when company make an attempt to appear as leader and stimulus discrimination when leader makes an attempt to appear differently compare to competitors. The theory of B.P. Skinner is based upon the idea that learning is a function of change in overt behaviour. Changes in behaviour are the result of an individual's response to events (stimuli) that occur in the environment. When a particular Stimulus-Response (S-R) pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual is conditioned to respond. It has application in brand loyalty. Another theory observational theory highlights that consumer learns by o.bserving other consumers. Most important learning theory is cognitive theory. Cognitive learning occurs as a result of mental processes. In contrast to behavioural theories of learning, cognitive learning theory stresses the importanc·e of internal mental processes. In last chapter discusses memory is of three types, namely, sensory, short term and long term memory. It also points out the methods to make customer remember companies' promotions in Indian context.

REVIEW QUESTIONS 1. Which of the learning theory explain the following consumption behaviours: (a) Buying a pack of Wrigley chewing gums (b) Always flying by Air Deccan

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(c) First time buying a Laptop only from branded well known company. (d) Buying Louis Philips shirt after observing boss also wears same brand of shirt. 2. What are the marketing implications of: (a) Encoding in memory (b) Mnemonics 3. What are the implications of sensory, short term, and long term memory for marketers in developing promotions? 4. Choose any product ~ategory and discuss the reasons of stimulus generalization and discrimination principals used by marketers? 5. What are the various types of brand loyalty? Based on learning principles how marketer develop loyalty? Also explain the problems for marketers associated with brand loyalty?

SUGGESTED READING 1. Schiffman, Leon and Leslie Lazer, P "Consumer Behaviour" Eighth edition, Pearson Education, pp. 207-230. 2. Laudon, David and Bitta, Albert, "Consumer Behaviour", Tata Mc Graw Hill, Ed. 2002, p.388-418 3. "Advertising and Marketing Research" Chunawala, Reddy, Appanaiah. 4. "Advertising Management" Aaekar, Batra Myers. 5. "Advertising and Sales Promotion" Kazmi, Batra 6. Various articles fro A&M 15th January, 2001 January 2001 7. "leveraging the corporate brand" by David A. Aaker, CMR, vol. 56 No. III spring-04. 8. "framing for lessons" by Amy C. Edmondson CMR Vol. 45 No. II, winter-03. 9. FCB ULKA literature. 10. The Living Dead, Brand Equity - 20-26 September, 2000. 11. The Sods Killed It' Brand Equity - 20-26 September, 2000. 12. "Making Advertising Work Through Cognitive Elaboration" Indian Management. 13. "What advertising Testing Might Have Been, If We had Only Known ", Journal of Advertisement Research.

WEB RESOURCES 1. 2. 3. 4.

http:Uwww.sykronix.com/tsoc/courses/cb/cbcog.htm http:Uwww.yupingliu.com/consumer acculturation.pdf http:Uwww.geocities.com/sykedelikph/consumer.html http:Uwww.ciadvertising.org/studies/studenU98spring/theoryJlearning.html

APPENDIX 1 Do you remember brands that you liked, but were withdrawn by the companies? That was a question we put to a wide range of people and the responses we got were immediate - and intense. People had vivid memories of bygone brands and regrets at their passing. They even produced names that their parents remembered and missed. Some of them are as follows:

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Consumer Behaviour: An Applied Orientation in Indian Context

77- "This was a Cola! It packed in it the josh of the raring late-seventies. We had just emerged out of the emergency and here was a Cola that typified the spirit in its name itself. I loved the numeric brand name and what it stood for." Appela - "Launched by Cadbury's. Along with Mangola, it was probably the only non carbonated bottled Fruit drink." Apple Macintosh SE - "Irrational, 'coz it would be slow, clunky machine in this day and age, but still, but still. .. " Binaca - "Because of the charms which came with it. As Cibaca, it lost its luster." Binaca Geet Mala - "On Ceylon radio - Wednesday, 8 pm - best music and never replaced, even when Amin Saab jockeyed other programs." Blue Bird cigarettes - "Cheap, really cheap. It was less than a rupee for a packet of 10." Cadbury's Caramelio/Orangelio chocolate - "They came out in the standard 40 gm bar pack in the late 1970s. I think they may have been the first locally choccy with a soft filling." Camlin geometry boxes - "They are not the same as they were." Campa(lime/ginger) - "The most refreshing liquid in the summers; it's brown bottle and the lime/ginger taste was irresistible." Caress - "Levers soap, which came quickly and went fast too - great texture and fragrance." Colgate Tartar Control - "My mom loved and yearns for it. She doesn't think Colgate total is a patch on the earlier version." Cookie Feast - "My favourite cookies ... Voltas which has ventured into the FMCG sector withdrew them suddenly one day, no rationale known. I still miss the hexagon shaped packet, the fine orange checked pattern on the pack, the divine tasting biscuits ... " Cream Puff biscuits - "I don't know why those at Britannia killed it." Cup-o-noodles - "The instant noodles made by just pouring hat water into a cup ... great concept. I 'loved' the taste too." Do It and Thrill - "The colas that were launched after Coke's exit in 1977. 'Do It' was ahead of its time - it was a diet cola and Nandini Sen modelled for it in leotards." Double Cola - "The American Cola was another name which blundered - and how!" Elmac's Balachong - "Prawn paste burmese style - an Anglo Indian favourite." Essex sausages - "There's nothing like it today." Forhans toothpaste - "The non-fluoride paste, in the dull orange tube. Loved it 'coz it was the only toothpaste that didn't make me want to throw up while I was brushing." Gazebo shorts - "And yes, button fly too!". Ginger Nut biscuits from Britannia - "Britannia should reconsider." Great Shake Soya drink - "This had me onto it with its absolutely irreverent advertising style." Guinea Gold mini cigarettes - "Sold loose for a quick smoke, 30 paise for 10." Harts chocolate powder - "My mom is in no mood to make those yummy choc cakes of hers without them."

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HMV records - "Damn, I miss ALL my records: And those big old radios that were separate pieces of furniture by themselves .. :' The Illustrated Weekly - "Used to wait to read the comics and the jokes as a kid." Indrajal comics - "I went bonkers hunting them down from old paper stores for a cousin in the US. He now plans on buying a library which stocks these when he comes to India next", Kolynos toothpaste - "Give me that anyday." Kwality's Black Magic and Golden Fantasy - "Frozen desserts by Kwality - I don't know if you still get them?" Kwality bon bons - "Don't remind me of them." Le Sancy - "The soap which was launched and it failed. And then guess what, it was relaunched, and it failed again, proving the pundits at HLL wrong. What I remember most about the brand was its spiffy commercial done by O&M, 'Rahul paani chala jayega" and its signature line which said, Is duniya main jahan kuch nahin chalta, shukr hai Le Sancy to hai - sabun jo chalta jaye ... "Ironically, Le Sancy bhi nahin chala." Lipton Covo bread spread lingers on in me."

"Delicious chocolate bread-spread, the taste of which still

Lux Shower Gel - "I always felt like was Karen Lunel under my shower when I opened that glorious yellow shower gel bottle. It hung on my shower on a green string." Mangoni - "A drink which I remember from early Vizag days." Mllkfood yoghurt - "Strawberry flavour: whatever happened to it? I loved that stuff and used to have it in lieu of lunch." Murphy - "As a brand icon - very memorable." Neko soap - "Surely if I used this serious-looking (and serious smelling) medicinal soap, I would not need to see a doc quite so often." NP bubblegum - "I traded several favours with my sisters with the promise of gum - I always reneged after they had done the deed." Original cigarettes - "I loved the packaging." Ovaltine - "We were given Bournvita as kids saying it was Ovaltine." Pears' face scrub - 'This thing at last controlled my pimples and now it's gone ..." Plus chocolate - "I loved it. I think it was jelly or something like that coated with chocolate." Polson's butter - "Utterly, butterly, Polson." Prutina's peanut butter - "For some strange reason suddenly unavailable in Patna over the past two years." Quaker Oats Champion oats - "Give to me the oats I lov'd." Signal toothpaste - "It was fun using it, colourful stripes. the only fun looking toothpaste." Vaseline Intensive Care body lotion - "Fab for people with sensitive skin. it vanished." Vimto - "Ever had anything so purple? Unique taste."

ATTITUDE FORMATION AND CHANGE CHAPTER CONTAINS

Attitude Definition Attitude Fonnation Structural Models of Attitude Strategies for Attitude Change Behavior Can Precede or Follow Attitude

7.1 INTRODUCTION "Wear your attitude" successful campaign focused on attitude of consumer by weekender is really memorable. This means express feeling of 'like', 'dislike', and 'damn care' through dressing. Attitude is an important concept that helps people to understand others and world around them. They help us define how we perceive and think about others, as well as how we behave toward them. Attitude is a psychological construct that cannot be observed directly. At the most attitudes are inferred from the behaviour (actions) of the consumer. Attitudes are inferred from the opinions expressed by the consumers. Marketers can use their knowledge of consumer attitude to develop two kinds of strategies. One strategy reinforces existing attitudes and other tries to change them. Reinforcing existing attitudes is easier than changing them. Most advertising of well-known brands attempts to maintain and reinforce positive attitude. Successful themes such as Milk Federation of India "Doodh Doodh Doodh" reinforced consumer attitude through long run campaign. . Attitude is a key concept in social psychology. In academic psychology parlance, attitudes are positive or negative views of an "attitude object": a person, behaviour, or event. Research has shown that people can also be "ambivalent" towards a target, meaning that they simultaneously possess a positive and a negative attitude towards it. There is also a great deal of new research emerging which states that attitude is an internal state which affects an indiviudal's choice of action (behaviour) toward some object, person, or event. Examples might be: Choosing to visit an art museum, writing letters in pursuit of a cause. (170)

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7.1.1 Attitude Defined Social psychologists Judd, Ryan, and Parke defines attitude as, "An enduring organisation of motivational, emotional, perceptual, and cognitive processes to evaluate various objects that are stored in memory". This views attitude as being made up of three components: 1) the cognitive, or knowledge component, 2) the affective, or emotional, component, and 3) the cognitive, or behavioural-tendency, component. Thus an attitude is a way one thinks, feels, and acts favourably or unfavourably based on learning towards some aspect of market stimuli such as retail store, product, and brand. Thus, Attitudes are: Predispositions towards action. About or towards people and things. Evaluative of people, objects and ideas. Made up of emotional reactions (affective), thoughts and beliefs (cognitive), and actions (behavioural) components. Strength of attitude increases with accessibility and knowledge about the topic in question. Attitudes are often learned from other people and are often a defining characteristic of groups. It can also be genetic. A strong attitude is very resistant to change.

7.1.2 Attitude Characteristics The main characteristics of attitudes are: Attitudes are learned from personal experience, information provided by personal sources, and company sources, in particular exposure to mass media. Attitude is concerned with the evaluation of all the objects that are stored in. the memory. Persons do not formulate the attitude for the objects that are not in the memory. Based on the learning in memory customer make his purchase decisions. Marketers' job is to make customer learn about their product. Fro example, pepsi came out with a promotion scheme at the launch of Lehar Pepsi. It gave an ad in the newspaper, inviting readers to try it simply by tearing the ad and getting a free pepsi in exchange of it. The promotion generated excellent word of mouth publicity for the brand. In the process consumer read the advertisement and learned about the new product. •

Attitudes are predisposed. When customer learns then he formulates his attitude inclined as either positive or negative, which directs the customer actions. Thus, attitudes have a motivational quality; that is, they might propel a consumer toward a particular behaviour or repel the consumer away from a particular behaviour.

•

Attitudes are directed towards an object, here objects means anything living or nonliving that means anything that is stored in the memory of the individual. Consumers can have an attitude towards a tangible such as air-conditioning product, or intangible as Voltas AC brand, is called an attitude object. Objects in which marketer are interested to know the attitude of the customers is brand, company, product, advertisement, price etc. In other words an attitude is about evaluating people, objects and issues. For

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Consumer Behaviour: An Applied Orientation in Indian Context Example, Coca-Cola knew that most of the Indians have positive attitude towards cricket (Object). Also colour red is associated with youth, energy and passion (positive attitude). Coca-Cola got associated with the cricket fever in India. It said "The World of Cricket refreshed by Coca Cola". The main "Passion has a colour", commercial, which hits TV screens, was an attempt to show how much both cricket and red objects are linked to the Coca-Cola. This is forming an attitude toward the product with the help of favourable factors. Attitudes are consistent, thus consumer show consistency in behaviour. Attitude once formed is long lasting because it tends to endure over time. But attitudes can change they are not permanent. Hence marketer job is to maintain the positive attitude and change the negative attitude, if any, towards their product. Attitudes in most of the cases have direct relationship with behaviour. Yet it would be wrong to conclude that positive attitude would result in purchase of the product. Situations mean events or circumstances that, at any given point of time, influence the linear or direct relationship between an attitude and behaviour. That means customer can have positive attitude towards the product yet he may not purchase due to certain circumstances. Contrary consumer may have negative attitude towards the product but would still buy the product. A consumer can have different attitudes towards the same product depending on the situation. For example, one may have positive attitude towards a Peter England shirt in the range of Rs 500-700 and consider it appropriate to buy it. On the other hand, he may have negative attitude towards a Van Hussein shirt costing Rs 1500 bu.t would like to gift his boss. North Indian may like to have Idli Sambhar as a snack but not as regular food. Similarly, one would like to have Dal Roti as a regular meal in lunch but would take out friend for Pizza.

7.1.3 Functions of Attitude Consumer behaviourists are interested in attitude because attitude occur before the behaviour. Attitude is an indicator of behaviour. Based on the attitude survey marketer can easily forecast that consumer would buy the product or not. More interestingly attitude is based on learning thus marketers can make an effort to make them learn good things about their product and develop positive attitude. The functional theory of attitudes was initially developed by psychologist Daniel Katz to explain how attitudes facilitate social behaviour. According to this pragmatic approach, attitudes exist because they serve some function for the person. Attitude serves four key functions for individuals: KNOWLEDGE FUNCTION: A consumer belief is a mental statement about the feature or attribute of product or brand. Beliefs are formulated based on mental processing or knowledge. Some attitudes serves primarily as a means of organizing beliefs about objects or activities such as brands and shopping. For example, attitudes belief component about the airconditioner product can be, ''It is not good for health, it germinates the bacteria growth". This is a part of his coginition (knowledge) irrespective of the fact that these attitudes are accurate or inaccurate with respect to objective reality. This

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would translate into negative attitude formation and subsequently resultant beh(wiuur is not to buy A.C. VALUE EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION: Some central beliefs are core in nature these beliefs are tightly held cannot be changed by marketer. These formulate attitudes that serve to express an individuals central values and self-concepts. For example, those consumer who value animals or are animal lovers. They would have positive attitude towards the product that are vegetarian and would have negative attitude towards the product that are formed by animal extracts. UTILITARIAN FUNCTION: This function is based on the operant conditioning. People tend to form favourable attitudes toward objects and activities that are rewarding and negative attitudes those that are not. Marketers frequently promise rewards in advertising and conduct extensive product testing to be sure the products are indeed rewarding. EGO DEFENSIVE FUNCTION: People always try to defend their ego. For detailed discussion refer to topic of frustration in motivation chapter. Any product that threatens people ego would be viewed negatively and they would formulate the negative attitude. For example, products promoted as very macho may be viewed favorably by men who are insecure in their masculinity or individuals who feel threatened in social situations may form favorable attitudes towards objects and brands that promise success or at least safety in such situations. For example, Thums up new commercial of a bungee jumper picking up the thums - up bottle, hinges on what the agency sees as a shift in the Thums up drinker's psychology make up. Seen purely as a macho extrovert for so long, he now wants to draw as much attention with his brains as brawns. Thumps have redefined machismo in a more intelligent way. This would form the positive attitude of the males who carve for macho image. Any given attitude can perform multiple functions, though one may predominate. Marketers need to be aware of the function that attitudes relevant to the purchase and use of their brands fulfill or could fulfill for their target markets. Attitudes are formed as the result of all the influences and they represent an important influence on an individual's lifestyle.

7.2 ATTITUDE MODELS There are different attitude models. Each one of them describes the one or the other component of the attitude. No single model can be the 'right' or 'absolute' model. Every model has its own limitations. Models do not provide answers; at the most they provide insight. Though these models can assist in describing attitudes so that, marketers are in better position, to explain, and hopefully predict the attitudes of target consumer, and ultimately their purchase behaviour. We will review four different attitude models:

A. Tri-component Attitude Model As this model name suggest it propagates attitude is composed of three component parts: cognitive (I think/know /believe), affective (I feel), and conative (I do/intend to do). The tri-component attitude model considers all three components to be present in an attitude, with each component playing an important role in attitude formation and having the potential to influence the overall attitude.

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Cognitive component is related to the belief (thinking) statements. Beliefs are mental statements about any object. This component is developed over a time based on learning, past experience, knowledge, and memory. For example cognition component consists of beliefs statements about car like, "My car should have features like power window, power steering"; or- "High bhp in car means more acceleration". Affect is made up of beliefs plus the way in which we feel about or evaluate those beliefs based on our emotions. Affect is the way that we feel in response to marketplace stimuli such as brands. Consumers emotional reactions are often reflected in their statements, like, "I hate boxy type design of Wagon R"; or "Body colour bumpers look wow." Behavior component has the tendency to respond or when action is involved. In marketing terms it could mean purchases or no purchase, recommendation to others, repurchase etc. This component of attitude is reflected in the consumers statements like "I would repurchase the Maruti Zen which has been my previous car"; -or- "I would recommend this car dealer to my friend as they are the best" reflect this part.

B. Single-component Attitude Model This model focuses only on one component that is affective component. Other two components, namely the cognitive and conative components are not given importance. The affective component is thought to be the only determinant of attitude. Feelings are not a sufficient driver to induce buying in the customer specifically in complex buying behaviour. This model has limitations it does not provide insight into 'why' a consumer has a particular attitude, as they ignore the cognitive component, which addresses consumer knowledge and experience about a product. More importantly it does not measure conative component that is behavioural intent to purchase whereas this is important component for the marketers.

c.

Multi-attribute Attitude, Model

Unlike single component attitude model, this model consider attitude as multi dimensional. Various theories include attitude towards the object, attitude towards behaviour, theory of reasoned buying, and attitude towards advertisements. Attitude towards object: A product can have one or more than one attribute (features). Consumer may consider that some of attribute as more important compare to others. Consumer can form a belief about performance of each of these attributes. Here, a person's overall attitude toward an object is seen to be a function of two things: 1. The strength of each of a number of beliefs the person holds about various aspects of the object. 2. The evaluation he gives to each belief as it relates to the object. For example, a consumer may believe strongly that, Colgate toothpaste have five different attributes, kills germ, fight cavities, whitens teeth, stop bad breath, and prevent gum bleeding. If this consumer evaluates cavity and whiting of teeth is most important attribute of toothpaste. As per his evaluation colgate performs good on these two attributes this would result in strongly favourable overall attitude toward the brand. On the other hand, a second consumer might believe that Colgate possesses all five of these traits, however, she is more

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interested in bad breath, and may evaluate Colgate performance bad on this attribute. Therefore, her overall attitude toward the brand would be less favourable compare to first customer. This model assumes that a consumer's attitude of an attitude object (AO) will depend on the beliefs he has about several or many attributes of the object. Its use implies that an attitude towards a product or brand can be predicted by Identifying these specific beliefs and combining them to derive a measure of the consumer's overall attitude. Three specific things about this model are:

Attributes of the prodllct: Marketers should identify the most relevant characteristics of the product. That is, the researcher can include those attributes that consumers take into consideration when evaluating the product for purchase. Belief~

measllres: A belief measure assesses the extent to which the consumer perceives that a brand perform on a particular attribute.

Importance weights reflect the relative priority of an attribute to the consumer. Although consumer can consider a number of attributes, some are likely to be more important than others. Furthermore, these weights are Ii.kely to differ across consumers. For example, even though consumer may be evaluating five salient beliefs, perhaps he may consider one of them to be more important, and therefore, his ('valuation of that salient belief will carry more weight in the ultimate attitude. The simple version of this model is: Ab

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the product already has a strong identity and a USP that is well established, then a celebrity can come in and give the brand an added fillip and generate some more interest value. However, what is of paramount importance is to find a complete fit between the values of the brand and the values of the celebrity.

1. Causes of letdown Improper positioning: Associating with a star, however big he or she may be, in itself does not guarantee sales. At the most it can create awareness or generate interest in the product. Take the case of Maruti Versa, which was launched amidst a lot of fanfare about three years ago. In spite of Maruti signing up superstar Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abhishek Bachchan as brand ambassadors for Versa, the brand's sales remained sluggish. To be fair, the Big B magic did work and the ads created significant interest, drawing people into the showroom. But perhaps the positioning itself was faulty as people were expecting a larger than life car, just like the brand's ambassador. Big B is good for cars like Benz but for Versa it is questionable? Brand-celebrity disconnect: If the celebrity used represents values that conflict with the brand values and positioning, the advertising will create a conflict in the minds of the target audience who may reject the proposition. Home trade advertisement using many stars like Shah Rukh Khan and others but there was no connection between the financial services and film stars. In the last decade or so, there has been a spurt in the use of celebrity endorsements. Clutter Flutter: In recent times, there has been too many celebrity endorsements that has led to the very clutter. For instance, Amitabh Bachchan endorses or had endorsed Pepsi, ICICI, BPL, Parker pens, Nerolac, Dabur, Reid & Taylor, Maruti Versa, Cadbury, Boroplus and a few social messages too. Recently in a brand recall study done by Nerolac paints pointed that consumers were associating Amitabh Bachchan with the Asian Paints. Dissatisfaction with product quality/performance: One cannot sell an ordinary product just by making a celebrity endorse it. In fact, if anything, the product will fail faster because the presence of the celebrity will create a buzz and more people will know about the "ordinariness" of the product. Sachin Tendulkar's endorsement of Fiat Palio was quite a success initially. But as word about the poor fuel efficiency of Palio spread, its sales took a beating. Confusion/Skepticism: The use of celebrities can be confusing. Some viewers forget brand that a celebrity is approving. The brand is overshadowed in the overwhelming presence of the star. Marketing manager of Cadbury have said, "We are using Amitabh Bachchan for endorsement with the aim that customers should not recall saying yeah we remember Amitabh Bachchan had endorsed some brand of chocolate rather they should say, Amitabh Bachchan had endorsed the Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate." Risks associated with Celebrity Endorsements: Celebrities, being human, make mistakes. But their mistakes get as much attention as their celebrity status and this can adversely affect the brands that they are endorsing. Also, hit or flop of their movie

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affects film stars rating. There are a number of examples, both Indian and International, where scandals and scams involving celebrity endorsers have caused embarrassment to the brands they endorse. It's a tricky situation for marketers. If a brand continues with the celebrity, it may adversely affect the image of the brand and consequently, brand sales. If the brand chooses to distance itself with the tainted celebrity, the huge costs spent on roping in the celebrity and making of the ads may go down the drain and even then the association of the brand with the celebrity might by then be so ~ngrained that the damage is already done. During the cricket scam all the advertisement featuring cricket were taken off the air, except the advertisement of the Pepsi featuring Shane Warne. When Pepsi had released the first part of. advertisement campaign of "Iskhi to gayai" featuring Shane Warne, 'Soon scam broke out involving Shane Warne. Company had two options to either withdraw the campaign or go ahead. As company had invested quite in the campaign so they decided to go ahead with the concluding second part of the campaign. Star endorsement deals are big in every way. They are big on expenses and can have big implications on the brand's fortunes Ct>lebrities have an enormous potential to shape the destinies of the brands they endorse, albeit sometimes negatively. Therefore, marketers who use celebrities must do so prudently, thinking through the concept of such endorsements carefully before adapting it into the message strategy.

2. Expert Another type of reference group appeal used by marketers is the expert, a person who, because of his or her occupation, special training or experience, is' in a unique position to influence the consumers. Members of reference groups are people the consumer feels are experts in a certain field. For example, a trichologist may be a reference for shampoo. These people do not necessarily tell the consumer what to do, but influence buyers in typical conversation. Methods of influence include reporting, recommendations, invitations, requests, prompts, coercion, criticism, compliments, and teasing. .

3. The "Common Man" Advertisement based on this appeal is called as slice of life commercials. A reference group appeal that uses the testimonials of satisfied customers who is not a celebrity rather a common man resembling socio-economically like target consumer is known as the common man approach. The advantage of common man appeal is that it demonstrates to prospective customers that someone just like them uses and is satisfied with the product or service being advertised. For example, the ad of ralco tyres - leading manufacturing of cycle tyres and tubes. This ad shows that the tyre is being used by young families, rickshaw pullers and others common consumers.

4. The Executive and Employee Spokesperson Firms use their top executives or employees as spokespersons in consumer ads. This is quite effective strategy as consumer view product as not just non living entity rather he views the it as vibrant and alive by relating it with the employees and this increases the

Reference Group

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confidence in the product quality. Tata Steel has shown in an advertisement their employees standing in a group and makes a Tata brand logo, copy says, "We also make steel". Like Celebrity spokespersons executive spokespersons enjoys the success and publicity in the eyes ot the consumer due to their status. Vijay Mallya, Ratan Tata, or owner of MDH masala has promoted their products. The appearance of a company's CEO in its advertising seems to install more confidence in the firm's products or services.

5. Trade or spokes -

Characteristics

Trade and spoke characters as well as famous cartoon characters serve as quasi - celebrity endorsers. Trade characters serve as exclusive spokesperson for a particular product or service. They sometimes provide a kind of personality for the product or service. Asian paint had their spokes character, which was 'gattu'. It was very famous in the rural India where people used to say that "ladkewala brand". Ronald of McDonald is associated with fun and frolic by the Kids.

SUMMARY A group may be defined as two or more individuals who wish to accomplish a common goal. Group has various properties such as, status to its members, set norms, designate role, help in socialization and exert power on its members. Whereas, reference group is any person or group of people that directly or indirectly influences an individual's behaviour. It provides marketers various methods to effect desired changes in consumer behaviour. Reference group may be classified according to a number of variables, including degree of personal involvement, membership, content, and degree of organization. Various other types of reference groups are friendship groups, shopping groups, consumer - action groups and work groups. Further, work group is of two types, namely, formal and informal work group. Reference group has great influences on consumers. Reference group has various properties such as status, norms, role, and power. However influence varies usually depends on the individual factors, product related factors and reference group related factors. Five major types of reference groups appeal in common marketing usage are: celebrities, expert, common man, trade or spokes - characteristics and executive and employee spokesperson. It is worth mentioning that this chapter discusses celebrities in Indian context.

REVIEW QUESTIONS 1. Amway corporation is a US $5 billion company based at Michigan USA. Established in 1995 Amway India is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amway Corporation. Amway has a distributor base of 3,00,000 and growing rapidly. Distribution network spreads across 26 cities serving more than 306 locations. Amway India has emerged as the largest selling company of country. Amway manufactures 450 products. Flagship product lines are personal care with 8 products, home care with 10 products, nutrition with 3 herbal product, and soft toys with 2 products. Mr Stephen Beddoe, GM-Distribution and marketing of Amway India is planning to run a advertisement campaign, Advertisement agency Rediffusion is handling this account. What factors Mr. Beddoe should suggest to rediffusion to take into consideration while using group appeal for advertisement?

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2. What factors influence the perceived credibility of an informal communication source? List and discuss factors that determine the credibility .of formal communication sources of product information? 3. When using an aspirational group likely to be more effective strategy than a contractual group? 4. Discuss the factors that marketer should consider before hiring celebrities for an advertisement? 5. Collect and analyze few slice of the life commercial? What kind of reference group is this? In the same product category compare this with celebrity endorsed advertisements?

SUGGESTED READINGS 1. Prashant Mishra, Upinder Dhar, and Saifuddin Raotiwala, (2001) "Celebrity endorsement", Vikalpa, Oct. 2. http://www.etstrategicmarketing.com/SmMay-June04/art21.html#top 3. www.amway.com 4. www.peta.co.in

INDIAN FAMILY AND SOCIAL CLASS CHAPTER CONTAINS

Family Concept Evolution of Indian Families Consumer Socialisation Husband and Wife Decision-Making Stages of Family Lifecycle and its Implication for Marketers

10.1 INTRODUCTION A family is a group of two or more persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption who reside together. Family has great implication for marketing as it has one of the strongest, most immediate and pervasive effects on a consumer's personality, motivation, and attitudes. Family might be described as the most basic social group of individual members who live together and interact to satisfy their personal and mutual needs. The nuclear family consists of a mother and a father and one or more children living together. The extended family includes the nuclear family, plus other relatives, such as grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, and in-laws. In India there may be three generations living together. In one of the survey done by the ORC-MARC they estimated that 74 percent of Indian households were nuclear family and typical family consist of 3.9 individual. The one in which one is born that consist of ones parent and siblings is called the family of orientation, whereas the one established by marriage is the family of procreation. Family is also referred as households, however there is a technical difference between family and household. Family has great implication for marketing as it has one of the strongest, Household differs from family in that household describes all unrelated persons, who occupy a housing unit, such as roommates, hostlers, living relationship couples etc. However, in this chapter we are concerned with family and not households.

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10.1.1 Significance of the Family in Consumer Behaviour The family is both a primary group and strongest reference group because bonds within the family are more powerful than any other type of groups. Family also operates as an economic unit. From the marketing point of view, investigating the family becomes important since attitudes towards saving and spending, brands and products are often moulded by the family. Many products are some time together purchased or consumed by family unit. Even when an individual makes purchases, other members of the family may heavily influence the buying decision of the individual. Thus, family decision-making is a widely researched topic. The parameters on which such studies have been conducted include role structure and relative influence, employment status of women, the role of children in family decisions, conflict resolution, and family lifecycle. All of these are discussed in the following paragraphs.

10.2 THE EVOLVING INDIAN FAMILY Family structures the world over are undergoing a metamorphosis. Indian families have been found to be more cohesive in consumption habits. Unlike in the west India is a society of consumer-seekers, we rely a great deal on our family. Even the purcha::>lf' decisions in h1dia are made jointly by the families. Why is this? It could be a hangover from the past when everyone stayed in large, extended families and was used to make decisions through consensus. Or it could be unlike in the West, Indians don't have social security to fall back on. The family is the only support system to rely upon. Today this institution is coming undergoing changes. To substantiate this statement, JWT short listed 24 families from all over India - DINKs (double income no kids) in Bangalore, affluent Punjabis in Lajpat Nagar (Delhi), a middle-class family from small town India (Bareilly), an MNC executive family in Mumbai, an extended family in Warangal, and so on. Feeling conventional research lays too much emphasis on the individual, JWT relied on anthropology. In this research researchers spend a week with these families, just observing the interplay. This was followed by in-depth interviews with every family member. Their objective was to identify the common pressures acting on each of these families, and how they are responding to these. Their findings are as follows: Family is changing partly because of the media boom that has created high degree of awareness. The dotcom boom and frequent success stories of Indians who have made it big internationally make everyone believe that they too can achieve it. Now there are seventy odd channels, not counting the venerable Doordarshan this media boom is also pushing the western value systems into Indian homes. New generation is adopting western lifestyles and is increasingly comfortable with consumerism. Kids prefer to go to their peers or seniors for career advice rather than family. This means influence of comparative refernce group is increasing compare to normative refernce group. However, there is great appreciation of parental advice when it comes to areas like managing interpersonal relationships. Thus, Indian families are undergoing certain visible changes few of them are, from joint family to nuclear family, nuclear urban family, and working women,

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10.2.1 From Joint Family to Nuclear Family Hindu epics have given the impression that the entire Indian society was made up of joint families. Thus this has been at the core of Indian society based on a tightly structured caste system, which was further structured on hereditary occupation (Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras). Joint family unlike abroad, can have three to four paterilineally related generation, all living under one roof, working, eating, worshipping, and cooperating. Whenever there are economic changes, the family structure faces pressure to alter. Fac.tors such as urbanization, industrialization and westernisation have led to the wreckage of traditional joint family. These factors are causing occupational changes which will mean that all members of a family will no longer share a unifying work interest, need for some members to move from village to city to take advantage of employment opportunities, and hence will gradually breakdown into smaller units, though there are moral obligations as part of the Indian culture that keep putting pressure for joint families. Formation of nuclear families not necessarily means breaking of ties with kin groups of the husband and wife. Still today also there are occasions when whole family unites on various function and festivals. Two rituals that have became popular with Hindu family are, one fasting for the longevity of the husband and second worship of Lakshmi. Thus, husband-wife relationship has strengthened and more joint decision-making takes place. Second wealth has become the centrestage of life. Women are more and more exploring their potential in the workforce though they have to balance their professional lives and responsibilities at home. The birth of nuclear family has removed the stress and strain of the daily life, specially, mother-inlaw and daughter-in-law fights. Even if they live together, the power structure between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law would change in the new nuclear structure they would require each other's cooperation. This would means more time for the women to explore their potential in workplace. The needs and ambition of the family also imply that women have to work to maintain the standard of the living. Due to this there is also changes in the role of various family members. The division of labour and decision-making as well as the distribution of power and authority within the family would also change. In nuclear families woman has been given more freedom in decision making than in joint families. Thus, we see that on one hand there is assumption of new responsibilities due to nuclearisation of the family, which were not experienced in the past. On the other hand, shrinking domestic help is pushing her to perform certain household tasks which were either left to the servants or were performed by other members in the family. Thus, in the survey, Ariel detergent advertisement showing men washing clothes (earlier women dominated product) was rated as the best advertisement by the women. The increasing percentage of nuclearisation is because of primarily two reasons: 1. The opportunities for a better standard of living improve with the size of the town

and are highest in the metropolitan cities. 2. Lack of accommodation in the large cities and expensive living compel families to stay small.

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Due to all this there is also a shift in the roles performed by the male and female members of the family. There is increased role in the husband's role in caring for the sick and a shared pattern in household tasks such as cooking and other chores among households with educated working woman. Woman also participates in what were recently the male domain, e.g., financial tasks such as control of money, control of expenditure and keeping track of money and bills. All this is bringing perceptible changes in their attitudes towards time and effort spent. They are more conscious of the quality and efficiency of cleaning and caring products and less negative towards processed foods. Nuclear Urban Family: The family structure in India has moved from that of a joint family to that of a Nuclear Urban Family (NbJF). The NUF family in all probability will have different toothpastes, different soaps and even separate brand of chocolates for each member. The main characteristics of a NUF family are: The members are highly individualistic. The members have divergent tastes. They have adequate spending power. They have unique needs that require unique solutions. Despite the above characteristics, marketers are discovering that it's not just the man, woman or the kid but the family that makes the purchase decisions. Herein lies the paradox. Though the family members consume separate products, the choice is taken as 'one.' Also more and more products are being purchased for collective consumption. If a family plans for an evening out, each member's choice is taken into account and a collective decision taken. The family set-up is witnessing a distinct shift from a strict, authoritarian structure to a more democratic set-up. The NUF generation has seen the woman graduate from a housewife to a working woman. The man remains the breadwinner but is more adaptable.

10.2.2 Working Women Working women on rise is generating new lucrative segments for marketers. For instance with rise in the work force of women their need for the safe transportation from home to workplace has risen. Maruti in recent survey on its Zen car, found that woman constitutes the major percentage of the Zen cusmmers. Zen has been repositioned by redesign giving contemporary feminine looks for its new Zen model, appealing to women. Another example, is of Fair & Lovely. The brand has for many years been the leading brand of fairness cream. The effect of the use of the brand, in terms of delivering noticeable fairness, has most often been shown in communication, in the reaction of others, who notice the difference. The search for a fairer skin is not new among women. But beyond wanting to look attractive, there are changes in the self-perception and desires of the young urban Indian woman. She wants to go beyond looks and marriage as her ultimate goal, to being independent and financially self-reliant. In no way inferior to the son, who her parental generation considered the "ghar ka chirag" Fair & Lovely'S commercial portrays an interesting dimensionalisation of this cultural change. The daughter of the house is already running the house; yet her father laments, "if only we had a son". The unthinking remark strengthens the girls resolve to do better, and she does so - with a little help from Fair &

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Lovely. The father calling her "beta", at the end of the commercial is a reaffirmation of her emancipation. At the end it is important for the marketers to understand that needs of the women. Exhibit given below highlights the subtle differences that marketers should take ,-. care of. EXHIBIT 10.1 Women Power In absence of alternatives women have to use products that are not designed for them. Women crave to look good. They wish to be independent and mobile. They wish they could do without help from men. They wish to be themselves. Few manufacturers care. A certain Kinetic Honda came around with electric start and gearless driving. It looked feminine. Kinetic Honda was a huge success. An Activa rode in with nicer looks, good power, better brakes, and decent fuel efficiency. Activa became a runaway success without so much of bragging and boasting by Honda. These were mere happy coincidences on a long road littered with products born to insensitive design and brought to customers by arrogant marketing. There are many more examples - a ketchup bottle with a crown cap which needs a man to open, a tin with tough metal seal that requires a hacksaw for cutting, a sachet of shampoo that requires a pair of scissors, a coconut oil bottle that drips with oil despite all the fancy packaging, a cell phone requiring complex menu navigating abilities and that comes with complicated telephone bills, and movie theaters where women can not walk between two rows without feeling embarrassed. Products should cater to what women need. Your services should take into account their pressures, sensitivities, and vulnerabilities. Your services need to reassure a woman that you will be around in a predictable way when she needs help. Observe that women wear scarves over their faces when riding two-wheelers to protect them from pollution, breeze, and sun. They do it despite inconvenience. Pears could have built a partnership with women to discover, share, and meet their needs. We have seen examples of what are known to be women's products. But why haven't companies created and marketed products for women in other categories where there is tremendous scope? Take the case of holiday packages. Typically a man, who is the head of family, decides. But his role is usually limited to budget, timing etc. It is his wife who does most of holiday planning and preparation. It is she who has to bear the brunt should something ~o wrong. All over the world, hotels are gearing up to satisfy needs of women guests. Women have different needs as compare rl to men. They take extra-ordinary efforts to satisfy their needs. A woman will travel to another end of town to buy something like rice, dry fruits, or vegetables if they believe that they are getting something special. Few men will take such efforts on their own. Women simply do not have enough opportunities to follow their natural behaviour, because must products and services do not recognise their needs. At a fundamental level a woman yearns to be understood. The way a woman narrates happenings in a day with the finest of details to anyone close to her holds a significant lesson to those connected with marketing. A woman needs attention. She needs to be listened to. Small things matter to women. These could be matching of colors, co-ordination of accessories, a texture, or a pretty hairclip. A woman has an uncanny ability to spot what she wants amidst clutter and chaos. Children are very close to the centre of her attention. Show them something that is genuinely good or useful for their children. If your products, services, and communications combine to make a woman feel beautiful, you have a great opportunity to build enduring brand in her mind. You should enhance her self-image. Women feel beautiful in many ways. It takes earnestness and consistency throughout product cycles to nurture and enhance their self-image. It takes intensity to win their hearts. Source: www.etstrategicmarketing.com

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In one of the study done by advertising agency Lintas on attitude and psychographics points that women can be classified as troubled homebody, tightfisted traditionalist, contended conservative, gregarious hedonist, archetypal provider, anxious rebel, contemporary housewife, and affluent sophisticated professional. Troubled homebody is characterised as one with large family size, young motherhood, low monthly income and educational level, low media penetration. Around 18.3 percent fell in this category. Second category of women called as tightfisted. traditionalist compromises housewives who are above 40 years of age with low to middle monthly household income, high family consciousness, insular and introvert lifestyle, thrift and economy focused character. This consists of around 10 percent of the women. Third category of women is called as contended conservative who is having larger than average families with older children, early marriage and middle income, they are 9.3 percent of population. Fourth one gregarious hedonist is more likely to be a working women,. They have liberal food habits, she is successful and her personal life is more important than family. She is extrovert who indulges in herself and uses all personal products. They are around 6.6 percent of population. Fifth category of women named archetypal provider are women who take pride in their home with low servant usage. They are affluent and of penetration of consumer durable, they consist of 8.8 percent of population. Sixth category of women is named as anxious rebel, which includes who are better educated, desire to study and work but are pessimists and not satisfied with their lot.

10.3 SOCIALISATION OF FAMILY MEMBERS Socialisation refers to the process by which a family member learns the system of values, norms, and expected behaviour patterns from each other. Consumer socialisation is the process by which individuals acquire skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to their effective functioning as consumers in the marketplace. The socialisation of family members, ranging from young children to adults, is a central family function.

10.3.1 Consumer Socialisation of Children In case of young children, this process includes imparting to children the basic moral and values consistent with the cultures. These generally include moral and religious principles, interpersonal skills, and etiquettes and manners. From the marketing point of view, the family inculcates attitudes towards saving and spending, and purchase of brands and products in the child. Consumer socialisation of children is defined as the process by which children acquire the skills, knowledge, attitudes and experiences necessary to function as consumers. Child learn about price-quality relations, ways to shop fro quality product, how to be comparison shopper and how to buy products on sale, brand preferences, and understand advertisements form their parents. Children watch and imitate parent's behaviour, which serve them as role model. Children acquire their consumer behaviour explicitly through observation of their parents and older sibling, implicitly when they ;

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accompany family members on shared shopping experiences. But, adolescents and teenagers are likely to look to their friends for comparison. Socialisation can also be done by direct experiences. For example, Pepsodent commercial, about consuming snacks on the way to school (and back) is a consumer socializing of children done by the mother. It is typical behaviour, which the masses can associate with. The commercial for the toothpaste captures this (and the traditional behaviour of the mother scolding the child). This gets the attention of viewers before the brand benefit of 'protection' is conveyed effectively.

10.3.2 Adult Socialisation It is now accepted that socialisation begins in early childhood and extends throughout a persons entire life. Specifically in India, adult lives with their parents up to the age of minimum 2S years and through out life in joint families thus his process of socialising is quite extended compare to his western counterpart. Marketers understand this and try to make adult learn about the new products and product categories. For example, Frooti, which is one time kidoo drink is trying to crack the adult mind scape with the ads showing adults consuming frooti. Even, when Cadbury first targeted adults for chocolates it never showed adults consuming chocolates. As per the consumption role only kids are the consumers of chocolates. So to change this Cadbury had to show adults consuming chocolates in its ads. The following figure of the socialisation process that focuses on the socialisation of young children which includes child and adult. Children and adults get socialised both by family and friends. Family guides them on broader values such as, what is or bad, what is ethical behaviour, how you should treat other person, what is the value of education in EXHIBIT 10.2 Consumer Socialisation

Young Person

Influences More Basic Valucs/BehavlOur ~ Moral/religious prinCIples :.- Interpersonal skills ~ Dress/grooming standards ~ Mannerand speech ~ Educational motivation

Influences More Expressive Attitudc/Behaviour :.- Styel ;;.

Fashion

,. Fads

>-

"In/Out"

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life, how to behave in society, what you should purchase? Whereas, friends make them learn specific behaviour, what is fashion, what is in, what is out? The arrows given in the figure under run both ways between the young person and other family members and between young person and his or her friends which signifies that socialisation is really a two way street in which a young person is both socialized and influences those who are doing the socialising. .

10.3.3 Intergenerational Socialisation 'Many pro"ducts and brands are transferred from one generation to another may be for even three or four generations within the same family called as integenerational brand transfer. FOr instance, specific brand preference for products such as tea, coffee etc. Example of this is of Dabur Lal Tail advertisement highlighting the benefits of the oil and its usage by the three generations for the baby body message

10.4 OTHER FUNCTIONS OF THE FAMILY Family perform instrumental roles function known as functional or economic roles, involve financial aspects. Family do exhibit expressive role function that involve support to other family members in the decision-making process and expression of aesthetic or emotional needs of the family, including upholding norms of the family. These basic functions of family are:

(A) Economic Well-Being Family provides the economic support to its members. In India as child do not earn and study unlike their western counterparts they are provided pocket money by the parents. Girls and boys till their marriageable age are dependent on their parents. In middle class families even though they may earn still they would give all their earnings to their parents and would be given the pocket money. However, the family division of its responsibilities for providing economic well being has changed considerably in past decade. As discussed above, no longer are the traditional roles of husband as economic provider and wife as of homemaker. For example, Ariels ad showing a husband washing cloths got best ad award but when women were asked whether they like their husband wash cloths or not they refused.

(B) Emotional Support The provision of emotional nourishment (including love affection, and intimacy) to its members is most important function of the family. In India which does not believe in individualistic approach and family bonds are quite strong, members of families irrespective of all ages look towards the family for emotional support. Specifically, during some happy or sad occasions and get-together of family to show solidarity is common site in India. In fulfilling this function, the family provides support and encouragement and assists its members in coping with personal or social problems. For example, Pillsbury atta focused on the features of Indian family t'hat the house wives feels guilty if she is not able to provide soft roties to the families. This in tum generated emotional appeal for women. This gave women a reason to show to the family that she is emotional and cares for the family.

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(C) Sustainable Family Lifestyle Another important function of the family in terms of consumer behaviour is the establishment of a suitable lifestyle for the family. Based on culture, attitude, and economic conditions family decides the importance of various things in their kids life, education or career, insurance, dress, etc. For example, The ad of royal challenge showed a father winning a basket ball game in front of his son that makes the son satisfied. This shows that in the eyes of the son the role of the father is that of hero.

10.5 FAMILY DECISION-MAKING AND CONSUMPTION RELATED ROLES Who in the family initiate to the purchasing function of any product? Who influences whom at what stage of the decision-making? How can they influence the family rather than the individual in making the purchase decision? These are the dilemmas of ·the marketers of today face and there are no straight answers. The family shapes its members personality characteristics, attitudes, and evaluation criteria. There are distinct roles in the family decision process, which throw light on how family members interact in various consumption related roles. To effectively market the products, marketers must identify who makes and give input into the buying decision.

10.5.1 Key Consumption Roles For a family to function as a cohesive unit, individual members perform multiple tasks. There is no stereotyping in the society, family related duties are constantly changing. A look at these roles provides further insight into how family members interact in their various consumption related roles. One or more than one member of the family can play these roles. Marketer's task is to identify the specific persons in the family who plays which role in their product category. Marketers must know who makes purchase decisions in a household in orde~ to be able to gear campaigns to attract consumers. Schiffman and Kanuk have proposed. roles in the family decision-making are Initiator, Influencers, Gatekeepers, Deciders, Buyers, Preparers, Users, Maintenance and Disposers. Different members play different role in respect to purchase of the particular product. Role and the description are given below: EXHIBIT 10. 3 ' I Consumer Role and its Description in Family Role

Description

Initiator

Who thinks about buying products and the gathering of information to aid decision.

Influencers

Individuals whose opinions are sought concerning the criteria the family should use in purchases and which product of brands most likely fit those evaluative criteria.

Gatekeepers

Who controls the flow of information about a product or service into the family.

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238 Deciders

The person with the financial authority and/or po~er to choose how the family's money will be spent and the products of brands that will be chosen.

Buyers

The person who purchases the product.

Prepares

Who transforms the product into a form suitable for consumption by other family members.

.Users

Who use or consume a particular product or service .

Maintainers

Who service or repair the p'roduct so that it will provide continued satisfaction.

Disposers'

Who initiate or carry out the disposal or discontinuation of a particular product or service.

(A) Role Structure and Relative Influence Across Product Categories Role structure in decision-making describes the manner in which influence across elements of the decision process in distributed among members of a decision-making unit. Role structure is seen to vary by stage in the decision-making process, the product category and specific product attributes. While men have traditionally been associated with instrumental (function) roles, wives usually play the expressive (social or emotional) role. Some of the product categories that have been widely researched are automobiles, housing, and financial management. Some of the findings were: Decision for personal consumption items were made individually, while for the purchase of items of mutual interest, couples made decision jointly. Relative influence in seven different types of automobile-purchase decision (such as when, where, how much, make etc) varied substantially within the family, with the main influence being exerted either by the husband or the husband and wife together. Relative influence of a person at product selection' stage (model, make, color) is unrelated to the relative influence of that person in 'allocation' or 'scheduling' (how much or when to buy decisions). Relative preference intensity was highly significant and made the highest contribution to relative influence of husband and wife. Decision took more time both when spouses were indifferent, and when they cared intensely. While relative expertise, sociability, and desire to win contributed to influence, the desire to support the relationship reduced influence. When preferences of spouses were not equally intense, the couple chose the alternative preferred by the spouse with more intense preference or the one who had had his/her way less often in the past. In these studies, researchers have typically focused on 'who' makes decisions across different· product categories while there is little insight into 'how' such decisions are arrived at. However, it is seen that as norms for society and family are changing, the role played by husband .and wife are also witnessing a sea change. While the husband were earlier typically associated in 'budgeting' or other technical decisions, increasing education levels have prompted. increased participation by wives as well. Thus who makes decisions in a family with the changing demographic and structural changes calls for a revised study

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of roles and relative influence across product categories. Instead of looking for 'eitheror' responses in decision-making, co-operative group decision-making should be extended further.

(B) Role Structure and Relative Influence by Stage of Decision-making Process Research on how families arrive at decisions forms the backbone of research in this steam. Some important findings are: While no significant differences were found in average relative influence across the three decision stages (problem recognition, information search, final selection), joint decisions were significantly higher for the information search phase. All members of the family triad ( husband, wife, and children) were greatly involved at all the three stages while considering products that affect the entire family, such as fast food restaurants of family trips. However, the wife and child dyad was significantly important in initiating a purchase and providing information. in the c~se of washing machines, for instance, it is the wife who initiates the purchase. Initiation of joint purchase comes from the most influential member in the family. However, if all members are equal in power, the initiation of a purchase will not be centralised in any person. Search for information is carried out by all members proportional to their expertise in various aspects of a specific decision, while the actual shopping and buying is governed by the role specialisation in relation to a product category. As initiators of ideas or influencers in decision-making, all family members, husbands, wives, and children prove to the important; but, as Deciders and Buyers, the male members, particularly the head of the family, played more effective roles. With respect to decisions such as purchase outlay and dealer selection, the husband's influence was high. While purchasing a durable household product like a television set, the husband and wife jointly took decisions on when to buy, which brand, model and size to buy. Children also played an active role in the decision-making process, especially in the selection of the brand. Researchers have stressed the relative influence of spouses alone across decision stages, necessitating a re-examination of whether such influences should be termed as spousal influence or familial influence.

10.5.2 How Family Make Purchase Decisions Important area which marketers need to consider is how family reach their final decisions. Major characteristics of Indian family are as follows: 1. Family makes and spends money continuollsly for many years:

2. Fa11lily decisions are nlade with private, intimate, and social group 3. Family consurnption decisions are often not independent from one another: They are difficult to study in isolation. Usually family needs and desires are more than the limited money. The allocation of resources is thus necessary and trade-offs occur among alternative products and services.

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4. Family has multiple decision makers: Decisions range from individual choices made by . members within the home to truly joint decisions that may involve any combination of members. 5. Family decision-making differs by the type of product being studied. 6. Family differ significantly among themselves specifically how decision-making take place between husband and wife is discussed below.

(A) Decision-making and Dual-career Families Researchers have focused on husband-wife interactions in family decision-making dynamics and the implications of the wife's working status in such interactions. Several studies showed that working women adopt strategies that assist in their managing time effectively, and are inclined to primarily purchase time-saving goods. Researchers found that when income, assets and other variables were held constant, no significant differences were found between working and non-working wives' house-hold expenditure for durables. The effect of work status on decision~making has been more of a source of debate than consensus amongst researchers. Although work status is observed to produce a difference in decision-making styles, in order to measure its effect in entirety, the effect of other confounding variables, such as income, should be first controlled. Thus, it is suggested that while using employment status of wife as an importance construct, the nature of work, that is number of hours spent away from home should also be given due consideration.·

(B) Demographics and Family Decision-making Demographic variables also play a role in the understanding of family decision-making processes. Research over the years indicates greater autonomy with respect to expenditure at the top and at the bottom of the socio-economic hierarchy, than among the middle classes, although one-study found that in low-income families the husband dominated in all major purchase decisions, while in upper and middle class families, the husband and wife jointly participated in most of the decision concerning the purchase of a TV set. Research indicates that the education of a spouse is positively related to search behaviour in individual, with higher levels of education producing greater propensity to search for information and alternatives before making final purchase. Higher levels of education were also generally associated with higher levels of services expenditures.

10.5.3 Dynamic Husband-wife Decision-Making Marketers build marketing communication based on the knowledge of consumers family decision. In particular marketers are interested in understanding spousal influence patterns and decisions processes in order to communicate messages, shapp brand choice and guide personal selling activities. For example, to persuade couples effectively to choose a sponsor's brand, a marketer may want to know which spouse has primary influence in the purchasing decision for the product category. This knowledge may enable a marketer to target communications more accurately. There are four type of decision making with regard to purchase can take place between the spouses, viz. autonomic, husband dominant, wife dominant, and syncratic. This means

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when decision is taken without any consultation between husband and wife it is automatic buying decision. There are some decisions that are taken by only husbands as seen in patriarch society like India these are husband-dominated decision-making. Now, changes in family structure are causing husband and wife make increasingly jOintly or syncratic decisions. As discussed above it has more to do with the change in the women employment status and role.

(A) Studies on Family Decision-making in Indian Context In India lot of studies has been carried in this field however few of them is reproduced here for understanding. Husband-wife decision-making also appears to cultural influence. Research comparing husband-wife decision-making patterns in Urban and Rural India reveal that in rural India there were substantially fewer "joint" decisions and more "husband dominated" decisions for many household purchases. In another cross-cultural study, husband wife decision-making was studied among Asian Indians living in the USA, and American national. Results shows that American nationals have more wife dominated decision compare to Asian Indians in USA. The relative influence of a husband and wife on a particular consumer decision depends on the product and service category, type of the product, product attribute and stage of purchase decision. As given below in the exhibit: EXHIBIT 10. 4 Husband and Wife Decision-Making Categories

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Dominance with respect to Purchase decisions for pro- Exerts more influence on specific products. ducts like Insurance, Auto- groceries, and Kitchen appliamobile and T.V. nces. Dominance with respect to Concern themselves with Concentrates minor aesthetics product attributes. relatively important product like colour. attributes like the price. Relative influence on or during Dominated at the important Dominates at the Minor phase the purchase decision. decision phases (Le., decision (i.e., suggesting the purchase). to buy).

A study was conducted in India to analyze the influence of the husband, wife and interaction between them in the purchase decision. The study reveals that the husband's influence is considerably higher in respect of certain decisions such as dealer selection and the purchase outlay. While purchasing in durables household products like television the husband and wife jointly take decision on when to buy, which brand to buy, and what model and size to buy. Furthermore it has been noticed that in the later stages of the family lifecycle when person has grown up children the influence of husband decreases and the influence of wife and children increases in comparison to earlier stages. As a result more joint decision takes place.

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The study reveals that the more qualified the wife is the more is her influence in purch,)se decision and consequently joint decision making increases. It has also been found that working women exert greater influence in the decision making process than the housewives. In families where the wife and children are all working there are more joint decisions in matter of purchase of durables goods. The influence pattern in a family purchase situation is also determined by the income of the family. In families having lower income husband dominates in all major purchase decisions. In the upper middle class families the husband and wife jointly participate in most of the decisions concerning the purchase of television. Another study in the product categories like, television, furniture, crockery, and woollen garments. The study reveals that in case of television and furniture the influence of husband was quite high compare to wife. In case of crockery it was wife dominance in buying the product. Advertisement of Kenstar washing machine body line says, "Do you have the heart to make her bend? Give her the ease of top loader ....... " targeting husbands and photograph shows a pregnant wife thus clearly underlining the importance of joint decisionmaking in product like w'ashing machine (fig. 10.1).

(B) Husband and Wife Conflict Resolution In line with gender roles changing, the view of family decision-making is changing from autonomic to syncratic. In joint decision-making sometimes conflict can arise between the husband and wife on the purchase decision. Disagreement could be on, Which brand is best? Where to buy? How much to spend? When to Buy? Even on what to buy? Therefore, family purchase decisions can be conceptualised as involving couples whose preferences or priorities are sometimes irreconcilable. Family decision-making thus may represents a strategic tonflict-resolution process that yields decision acceptable to both husband and wife but satisfactory to only one spouse. Marketers are interested to understand how spouses manage conflict in an accommodative family purchase decision context. The conflict is resolved by means of various influence strategies, such as persuasion and bargaining. It has been argued groups, particular families, reach decisions quite often by means of bargaining, coercion, and/or compromise rather than by spontaneous consensus. There have been two contrary assumptions about conflict management in family purchase decisions. The first assumption is that spouses try to avoid conflict in decision-making. In contrast the second assumption stresses the conflictual or zero-sum nature of family purchase decision. A variety of influence techniques are used depending on the nature of purchase, the characteristics of individual participating in the purchase in the discussion, and its importance to the individual. These differences may result either in a preference agreement or consensus, or disagreement and conflict. Blood and Wolfe argued that the involuntary and diffuse character of family relationship, the family's small size and changing developmental tasks lead to high degree of conflict. One study of spousal agreement on purchase of automobiles demonstrated that a considerable level of agreement existed between spouses on first choice preferences, with moderate divergence beyond first choice comparisons. In the anticipated purchase of an

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Consumer Behaviour: An Applied Orientation in Indian Context

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automobile, the husband was afforded considerable authority to resolve discrepancies, especially in decisions that required specific knowledge and or experience.

Conflict Resolution It was noted that conflict resolution generally depends upon the empathy between family

members, their involvement with the purchase situation and the authority designated to a member. In a study, it was found that, of the 834 decisions made by 62 couples, only 32% were disagreements. This may have been influenced by the fact thi'J.t preference ratings change due to empathy and the feelings about the outcomes of preceding decisions when subjects know that they will be rating the same items as members of a group. Other researchers reported that family members had limited knowledge and awareness of each other's preferences. Yet, couples reached a choice effectively by identifying common preference levels such as empathy and legitimate authority. Some of the issues that have been studied in the area of conflict resolution are: Modes of compromise as a strategy. Problem solving, bargaining and politics as major modes employed by families. Consensus (role structure, budget, budget, problem solving)and A ~commodation (persua~ion and bargaining)as alternative ways of conflict resolution. Classification of influence strategy items as expert, legitimate, bargaining, reward/ referent, emotional and impression manage~ent strategies. Classification of strategy types entitled: bargaining, use of authority, search fOl information, reasoning, impression management, and playing on emotions. Based on the use of joint strategy patterns, husband-wife dyads were grouped as Compromising couples, and Light-influencing couples. Several theories and measures for conflict resolution have been propounded by various researchers. But an empirical validation of the nature of strategies that are most commonly employed has yet to come in light of the changing socioeconomic environment in India. The conflict resolution behaviour is divided into following two types:

Assertiveness - is defined, as the attempt to satisfy one's own needs by means of competitive or coercive strategies. Cooperativeness - is the attempt to satisfy the other person's needs by means of cooperative strategies such as accommodation and/or concession. When assertiveness is used for the conflict resolution then spouse uses influence strategies, such as inducing the other spouse to give up his or her preferred decision. However, spouses will also consider what they would loose if they exert influence on other spouse. Type of influencing strategy that could be adopted by the spouse is dependent on this traits: Spouses are power conscious, and they weigh their power advantages relative to those of their partner. Spouses commit to a long-term marital relationship and love as emotional dependence underlies the marriage. Love is synonyms with tolerance and empathy; more loving

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spouse is, more understanding and willing to forgo his or her own interest in response to other spouse need.

10.6 FAMILY LIFE-CYCLE Sociologist and consumer researchers have long been attracted to the concept of family life cycle (FLC). Families' progresses through various steady and predictable stages in their life called as FLC. Typically the family goes from the bachelor stage to the young couple stage to the young couple with children stage to the middle aged stage, to the grown children stage, to the retired stage to the sole survivor stage. The amount of money readily available for purchases changes as this cycle progresses. However, with the advent of many diverse family and lifestyle arrangements, it is becoming difficult to predict the FLC, yet in India we find most family following the traditional family life cycle path. The FLC is a composite variable created by systematically combining such commonly used demographic variables as marital status, size of family, age of family members, presence or absence of children at home, and employment status of head of the family. The age of parents and relative amount of disposable income usually are inferred from the stages in the FLC. Traditional family life- cycle is discussed as follows:

Stage 1: Bachelorhood (Youth) The first stage consists of young single men and women who have established household apart from their parents. Although most members of this FLC stage are fully employed, many are college or graduate students who have left their parents homes. This is a most important segment for marketers as 54% of the India population is below 25 years that is around 16 million. Youth or bachelorhood, can be defined as the person in the age group of 15 to 24 or may be ends at 40 who is not married. As, youth has something to do with psyche (mental age) rather than physical age. However, traditionally defined youth is between the age group 15-24 years. But the youth at 15 is behaviourally different than the 24 year of age group. Best way of categorising youth would be, early youth is between the age group of 14-21, middle youth is between 22-28 and late youth is from age 29 to as long as one feels young. Early youth, age group of 14-21: Their key decision is education and career. Major influencers on them are of their parent and peers. Pocket money ranges between Rs 1000 to 2000 p.m. they are major spender on clothing, accessories, food and entertainment. They are always looking for value for money. Airtel prepaid mobile recharge cards in the range of Rs 50 to Rs 100 is appropriate product for them. They prefer to shop at unorganised outlet because of the price constraints. Middle youth, 22-28 years: With the increase in job opportunities in BPO and IT sector boom their income ranges from Rs. 7000-Rs 40000 p.m. they are major spender on personal clothing, accessories, food, consumer durable and entertainment. Major influencers on them are peer group and workmates. They keep on looking for innovative and trendy brands.

Stage 2: Honeymooners The honeymoon stage starts immediately after the marriage vows are taken and generally

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continues until the arrival of the couples' first child. In India wedding is a big industry and great opportunity for marketers. There are at least half a dozen wedding exhibitions each year, which showcase the enormous range of area in which one can seek professional help. Bandwallahs, mehandiwallis, photographer, caterers, make-up artist, and travel agents have always been a part of marriage ceremony. But even these services have become branded. Along with the marriage coordinators and trousseau designers. According to a report in Economist, Indians spend over Rs. 50000 crore on wedding each year. The wedding season bring out more shoppers than any other season in India including Diwali. The expenditure is growing they add up to 20 percent every year. An upper middle class income family spends anywhere between Rs 6 to Rs 10 lakh at wedding. The estimated value of gifts received by the approximately 300-500 guests amount to Rs 2 Lakh. Practically 23 percent is spent on the trousseau. A wedding lehnga cost anything between Rs 15000- Rs 1 lakh. Bridal make up and mehandi cost may go anywhere between Rs 2000- Rs 50000. With 1.4 crore Indians get married every -year there is no limit for marketers to tap this market. This FLC stage serves as a period of adjustment to married life. This group is generally better of financially then when they were single. This group has highest purchase rate. This is late youth, from age 29 to ?: At this stage he is no more bachelor he moves to next stage of family life cycle that is honeymooner. There major consumption area inCl,~des, children education, household products, clothing, accessories, food and entertainment. Major influencers on them are peer group, spouse, kids and workm.ates. They are looking for a fun and status mix brand. However, some look for functionality and others for luxury. For example, The electronic media advertisement of Tata Indica shows that when a young person gives a lift to a girl in his Indica he dreams about his full life- from bachelorhood to post parenthood. Advertisement of LG washihg machine shows married couple holding cloth washed by the LG as if they are holding a baby (fig. 10.2).

Stage 3: Parenthood When a couple has its first child, the honeymoon is considered to be over. The parenthood stage (sometimes called the full-nest stage) usually extends over more than a 20-year period. With the arrival of the first child, some wives stop working outside the home, and consequently family income declines. The parents are quite interested in new products and more dissatisfied with their financial positions. This type of family has a high average expenditure. The family buys several luxury appliances, and spends a considerable amount of money on education for the children. Because of its long duration, this stage can be divided into shorter phases: the elementary school phase, the high school phase, and the college phase. The impact of kids on family purchase decision is of prime importance for marketers.

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