aspect of market sensing. Specifically

in this lesson and we'll look at the influences on the purchase decision process.

Last lesson, we talked about consumer decision-making process

being problem recognition, information search,

evaluation of altaernatives, purchase

and post-purchase evaluation. you can find a nice

summary these stages at this website. and also

this website you can find a summary the influences

we're going to be discussing. Wouldn't it be nice if

put consumers alone room and watch them

go through this process. Unfortunately

for marketers consumers go through this process

in a complex world with a variety of external influences.

We can group those external influences

as situational, psychological

and sociocultural. take a look at these three categories

at external influences on consumer decision-making

one by one. First of all

situational influences. What are the physical surroundings

like that the consumer is in when they're purchasing a product

or considering purchase? For example look at

how mcdonald's has changed its physical surrounding

from being a playground in primary colors

to more cafe Starbucks competitors sort

of product. Big change in the physical surroundings

there. Some people will choose

not to shop at Walmart simply because they do not like the physical surrounding

there. Another major situational influence

is social surrounding. What about the

salespeople at a particular store? Have you ever shopped at a particular store

because you liked

salesperson there or did not shop at this store

because you didn't like the people who were in that particular setting?

Another situational

influence is time. How much time a consumer has to go through

researching that process and also

what time day, week, or year it is.

For example certain products sell very well

in the second week of February because of

Valentine's Day -- chocolate, lingerie,

flowers, teddy bears -- all

related to a situational influence.

Another situational influence is the reason for purchase.

are you buying for yourself? Are you buying for a gift?

If it is a gift, your how important is the person you're buying

for. Is their any risk involved in your purchase if you

make a wrong purchase? Another situational

influence the mode of the shopper. Some shoppers will buy more

or less depending upon their mood and whether or not they like to shop.

In addition to situational influences

there are a number of psychological influences

on consumers as they go through this buying process. First of all

perception. perception

is our process of selecting all the

signals and information that are going on outside of us.

We can't possibly

interpret everything that's happening in our marketing environment

so we select and then

organizing that information we select and

interpret that information. That process is the

process of perception and we'll discuss that

more. Another psychological influence

is motives or motivation. What's the internal

force that affects our behavior

to listen to this particular lecture? My guess is

it was an assignment or you didn't understand a

particular topic or you're trying to prepare for a quiz or a test.

I'm guessing most of you aren't listening to this particular

lesson just because you wanted. There's probably

some other driving force. Other psychological influences

are learning, attitude, personality and

self-concept and lifestyle. And look at the last four

later. Let's first take

at the first one -- perception.

I mentioned earlier that we can't

possibly perceive everything that's going on

in our environment so we have a tendency to practice

what's called selective perception.

Since we can't see everything we see what we think is important

or what currently supports our points of view.

For example in this Fed Ex logo which I think you've seen

many times, how many see an arrow

regularly? Or do you never process that?

are you saying what arrow? This arrow right here.

my guess is now that the arrow's been pointed

out to you,every time you will see the Fed Ex logo

you are now notice it when previously you didn't.

What about this image? What do you see?

do you see a young man lady

or an old woman?

If you're seeing a young lady, this is her hair

with her hat.

Here's her eyes, her nose, her ear.

On her chin on the right side

her necklace and her

fur. If you're seeing an older lady,

this is her hair. This is her

bonnet.

This is her nose.

what the other person's necklace is the older person's mouth.

what was the other person's

neckline is her chin.

And again this is her fur. So it's

interesting that sometimes we

see what we want to see or hear what we want to hear.

And so if you have a particular perception

about a product or service -- even

a marketer tells you otherwise --

you don't perceive it that way because we all tend to hear

things that support our personal

beliefs and perception. That's why

we'll talk later about how we can go about changing

people's attitudes and perception

as marketers. So we practice

selective perception because we can't possibly

perceive everything that's going on in our environment

because we tend to hear things that support our own beliefs

and not hear or pay attention to

things that don't support their views.

this affects marketers when they're trying to convince you

to buy their products and services.

Let's talk next a little bit about motivation.

there's a website for reference there. probably one of the most

well recognized theories on

motivation is based upon Abraham

Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

He said that people are motivated by

different things at different times and so we can't motivate

all people by the same technique.

He says that the most basic level of need

in physiological. note -- that's not

psychological. at the beginning it's like physical --

physiological needs are our most basic needs.

Needs for food,

water, shelter,

basic clothing. Once our physical

have been met they no longer

serve to motivate us and then

move to a higher level of motivation

and is for safety. Once we feel

our physical needs met and we're safe,

we will then reach out trying to connect with other people.

You can understand most how someone who doesn't

feel safe won't be reaching out to connect with other people.

Next after we connect with other people

our feeling about ourselves --

our self-esteem -- is our next

and then at the very end -- self

actualization -- being all we were created to be. if

you think about college-- for example--

that's trying to market itself to a consumer

or perhaps to you, they might tell you that the reason to attend their

college is so that you can better provide

for your physical needs. They might also say

the reason to attend college is to provide

job security or safety within your job.

They might say the reason to attend

college is to meet other people

and connected with other people in your age.

Another reason to attend college would be to

feel good about yourself and her skills and

abilities -- your own self-esteem. Another reason to attend college

the highest level of need -- would be to be all that you can be.

so the question is -- what motivates you to learn

or attend college? What level of need

is there? We discussed one product

that might market itself at all different levels

of needs. But we could also discuss

products designed for each level.

Obviously most basic foods are designed to meet

physiological. While security systems,

funeral planning, insurance is designed to meet

safety needs. Events

or places where you can meet other people

are designed and marketed to meet social needs.

Some again, motivation is a huge

psychological influence on people as they go through the consumer decision-making

process. Let's look at other psychological

influences besides perception and motives.

Let's think about learning. we learn

through thinking or through behaviors.

If we try a product several times and we

like it we might become what is called

brand loyal. So brand loyalty

is a learned behavior. On flip side,

we might try a product and not like it and

and therefore we have learned that we do

like that particular

product. One of the biggest challenges marketers face

is people attitudes toward brand

or object -- their individual evaluation

of a brand or object. And a lot of that is based

on their perception. Some might say

when you're talking to consumers perception

is reality to them. In other words

if they perceive your brand that way it is

that way whether it is or not --

unless we can change their attitude

or their perception. So let's look at some ways

we can change people's attitudes.

One-way would be to take a negative attribute

and turn it into a positive one.

Maybe a negative attribute might be

that your local community college

doesn't offer the ability to his participate

on collegiate athletic teams.

we could take that negative attribute and

say that if you intend that local community college

you'll be focused on learning activities

that help you get a job/career and

you won't have those distractions and you don't have to pay

to support collegiate athletics when that's not really

why you go to college. Another way

to change attitude is to capitalize

on a positive attribute. Perhaps

your college has a positive

attributes like small class

sizes but maybe people don't realize how important that is.

So what you could do would be to emphasize how importance it is to

learn in environment where your professors know your name and

and communicating and care about you. And all of a sudden

people realize the importance of

that particular attribute.

You might also add a new attribute. Maybe there's a new major

or program you hadn't previously offered that

people are very interesting in. You might add that attribute.

you might also change their belief

about an existing attribute -- similar to what we talked about

before -- turning a negative attribute into a positive one. but it

doesn't even have to be negative.

It might be an attribute they just don't realize how

important that attribute is. So

what we discussed here in the importance of

consumers attitudes on going through that consumer decision-making process

of problem recognition, information search,

evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and post-purchase evaluation

and how we can affect

their attitudes. Additionally

a person's personality -- their consistent response to a situation --

some people might respond to a situation one-way

and other another, another way.

People buy products that support

their personality.Tthey wouldn't be caught wearing

particular type of clothing or using a

particular brand or drinking particular beverage

because it doesn't match their personality.

Occasionally people buy a product or service

to support an area of their personality that they think

is weak. Even though it may appear they very logically go through that purchase

decision making process

sometimes personality