Presentation for doctoral course at Turku School of Economics.

1. BUYER BEHAVIOR IN
MARKETING STRATEGY
(John A. Howard, 2nd ed.)

2. Consumer behavior
”Consumer behavior is the study of
how consumers differentiate
among products, why people buy
and consume products, and the
way they think and act when
buying and consuming.”

3. Key concepts
• product categories
• product life cycle (PLC)
• customer decision model (CDM)

4. Key concepts (cont’d)
• product categories
”group of brands that serve the same
generic needs and are perceived
similar.” (simplifying)
• product life cycle (PLC)
• customer decision model (CDM)

5. Key concepts
• product categories
”group of brands that serve the same
generic needs and are perceived
similar.” (simplifying)
• product life cycle (PLC)
1. introduction
2. growth
3. maturity
• customer decision model (CDM)

6. Consumer Decision Model

7. Problem solving
• Extensive (EPS)
• Limited (LPS)
• Routine (RPS)
connected to Stage of PLC, Amount
of Information, Speed of Decision

8. Complex factors
• evoked set (or consideration set)
• brand loyalty (repeat purchases,
nonrecursivity)
• habitual purchasing (routine
problem solving) vs. variety
seeking (heterogeneity)

9. Critique
• explicit focus on corporate USA
– big corporations
– consumer power
• lack of service focus
• hasty generalizations
– ”all judgments about the quality of each [instant
coffee] brand had largely been made: consumers
already had formed an image of each brand.”
(impossible?)
– compare: ”Consequently, the product sat on
shelves unsold. The company had not provided
the amount of information – through advertising –
that the consumer required.”
• outdated examples (GM)

10. More critique
”Not all new products conform to
this theoretical life cycle [PLC], but
most do, so (...) it is a highly useful
description.”
– NO! Most new products DIE.
– Hence, it is useful if you have tons
of products and tons of money; if
not, it gives you ZERO help.

11. However… (the positive)
• very good methodological
implications; practical
walkthrough of measurements
• involvement of psychology
• not only praising quantitative
approach, but actually
recommending a synthesis

12. Thanks!
joni.salminen@tse.fi