Consumer Behaviour — Summer 2024

Explain the following terms.

Consumer Research Process

Psychological Segmentation

Positive and Negative Motivation

Halo Effect

Perceived Risk

Cognitive Learning Theory

Cross Cultural Consumer Behavior

Describe the interrelationship between consumer research, market segmentation and targeting, and the development of the marketing mix.

Assume a NRI friend of yours is planning to set up a chain of fast food restaurants in cities like Ahmedabad, Pune, Jaipur, and Indore. Knowing the Indian consumers, which cultural, social, personal and psychological variables you think will work for or against the success of the proposed business? Why?

“The Uncola”, “Yeh dil maange more”, and “Jshan Mana Le” are the taglines of 7UP, Pepsi and Coca- Cola respectively. Which consumer behavior trends, you think might have been considered while the taglines were worked out for the ads?

Discuss the differences between the absolute threshold and the differential threshold. Which one is more important to marketers? Explain your answer.

Amarketer of health foods is attempting to segment a certain market on the basis of consumer self- image. Describe the four types of consumer self- image and discuss which one(s) would be most effective for the stated purpose.

Page 1 of

What do you understand by the term ‘Attitude’? Explain with an example, why marketers and consumer researchers are interested in learning about the link between consumer behavior and attitudes?

Imagine you work in the marketing department of a major athletic shoe firm. Your supervisor wants to understand how consumers view the top competitors in terms of brand personality. Describe the brand personality.

What do you mean by the term ‘reference group’? Identify the type of social groups which can influence an individual’s choice of a health club.

You are a member of an advertising team assembled to develop a promotional campaign for a new digital camera. Develop three headlines for this campaign, each based on one of the levels in Maslow’s need hierarchy.

Albert Einstein once wrote that “the whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking”. Do you think that this quote applies to the development of the consumer decision- making process?

Most human needs are hidden much of the time. What factors cause their arousal? Give examples of ads for audio/ video equipment that are designed to arouse latent consumer needs.

CASE STUDY: Imagine you work in the marketing department for a mid- sized regional bakery that sells doughnuts, cookies, and snack cakes in retail grocery stores. Your company would like to increase sales of its doughnuts and is considering an in- store sampling campaign to generate more interest in the product. This campaign would involve offering retail customers free samples of doughnuts in stores, along with a coupon for a discount on a box of doughnuts. You know that taste is a powerful sense and would like to engage the consumer in as many ways as possible to tempt them to buy the product. For this campaign to be implemented, you need to convince your superiors in the company that giving away free doughnut samples, a sizable investment in product and labor, may actually increase sales. In addition, you suspect that retail grocery store managers are likely to be interested in how this in- store sampling campaign may influence overall store sales. You realize that some marketing research is needed. You decide to run an experiment in one local grocery store. Page 2 of

Design an experiment to test whether in-store doughnut sampling influences sales of the doughnuts and the overall store sales. What should the independent and dependent variables be?

What experimental outcomes do you predict will occur? Relate sensory marketing for the situation.

How might a participant in your experiment who is very hungry affect results?

Based on your answer above, is in-store food sampling a smart marketing technique for your company’s product? Why? Page 3 of