Page 191 - Marketing Management

168 PART 3 CONNECTING WITH CUSTOMERS

information, just a few, the choice set, will remain strong contenders. The consumer makes a
final choice from these. 55
Marketers need to identify the hierarchy of attributes that guide consumer decision making in
order to understand different competitive forces and how these various sets get formed. This
process of identifying the hierarchy is called market partitioning. Years ago, most car buyers first
decided on the manufacturer and then on one of its car divisions (brand-dominant hierarchy).
A buyer might favor General Motors cars and, within this set, Chevrolet. Today, many buyers decide
first on the nation from which they want to buy a car (nation-dominant hierarchy). Buyers may first
decide they want to buy a German car, then Audi, and then the A4 model of Audi.
The hierarchy of attributes also can reveal customer segments. Buyers who first decide on price are
price dominant; those who first decide on the type of car (sports,passenger,hybrid) are type dominant;
those who choose the brand first are brand dominant. Type/price/brand-dominant consumers make
up one segment; quality/service/type buyers make up another. Each may have distinct demographics,
psychographics, and mediagraphics and different awareness, consideration, and choice sets. 56
Figure 6.5 makes it clear that a company must strategize to get its brand into the prospect’s
awareness, consideration, and choice sets. If a food store owner arranges yogurt first by brand (such
as Dannon and Yoplait) and then by flavor within each brand, consumers will tend to select their
flavors from the same brand. However, if all the strawberry yogurts are together, then all the vanilla,
and so forth, consumers will probably choose which flavors they want first, and then choose the
brand name they want for that particular flavor. Australian supermarkets arrange meats by the way
they might be cooked, and stores use more descriptive labels, such as “a 10-minute herbed beef
roast.” The result is that Australians buy a greater variety of meats than U.S. shoppers, who choose
from meats laid out by animal type—beef, chicken, pork, and so on. 57
The company must also identify the other brands in the consumer’s choice set so that it can plan
the appropriate competitive appeals. In addition, marketers should identify the consumer’s infor-
mation sources and evaluate their relative importance. Asking consumers how they first heard
about the brand, what information came later, and the relative importance of the different sources
will help the company prepare effective communications for the target market.

Evaluation of Alternatives
How does the consumer process competitive brand information and make a final value judgment?
No single process is used by all consumers, or by one consumer in all buying situations. There are
several processes, and the most current models see the consumer forming judgments largely on a
conscious and rational basis.
Some basic concepts will help us understand consumer evaluation processes: First, the con-
sumer is trying to satisfy a need. Second, the consumer is looking for certain benefits from the
product solution. Third, the consumer sees each product as a bundle of attributes with varying
abilities to deliver the benefits. The attributes of interest to buyers vary by product—for example:
1. Hotels—Location, cleanliness, atmosphere, price
2. Mouthwash—Color, effectiveness, germ-killing capacity, taste/flavor, price
3. Tires—Safety, tread life, ride quality, price
Consumers will pay the most attention to attributes that deliver the sought-after benefits. We
can often segment the market for a product according to attributes and benefits important to
different consumer groups.
BELIEFS AND ATTITUDES Through experience and learning, people acquire beliefs and
attitudes. These in turn influence buying behavior. A belief is a descriptive thought that a person
holds about something. Just as important are attitudes, a person’s enduring favorable or
unfavorable evaluations, emotional feelings, and action tendencies toward some object or idea. 58
People have attitudes toward almost everything: religion, politics, clothes, music, food.
Attitudes put us into a frame of mind: liking or disliking an object, moving toward or away from
it. They lead us to behave in a fairly consistent way toward similar objects. Because attitudes econo-
mize on energy and thought, they can be very difficult to change.As a general rule, a company is well
advised to fit its product into existing attitudes rather than try to change attitudes. If beliefs and at-
titudes become too negative, however, more serious steps may be necessary. With a controversial ad
campaign for its pizza, Domino’s took drastic measures to try to change consumer attitudes.