Understanding customers

321 Pages·1997·1.889 MB·English

by  Chris Rice, Chartered Institute of Marketing

Understanding Customers
The Marketing Series is one of the most comprehensive collections of books in
marketing and sales available from the UK today.
Published by Butterworth-Heinemann on behalf of The Chartered Institute of
Marketing, the series is divided into three distinct groups: Student(fulfilling the
needs of those taking the Institute’s certificate and diploma qualifications;
Professional Development (for those on formal or self-study vocational training
programmes); and Practitioner (presented in a more informal, motivating and
highly practical manner for the busy marketer).
B B B
H H H
THE THE THE
MARKETING SERIES MARKETING SERIES MARKETING SERIES
STUDENT PROFESSIONAL PRACTITIONER
DEVELOPMENT
Formed in 1911, The Chartered Institute of Marketing is now the largest profess-
ional marketing management body in Europe with over 60,000 members located
worldwide. Its primary objectives are focused on the development of awareness
and understanding of marketing throughout UK industry and commerce and in
the raising of standards of professionalism in the education, training and practice
of this key business discipline.
Titles in the series
Behavioural Aspects of Marketing
K. C. Williams
Cases in Marketing Financial Services
Edited by Chris Ennew, Trevor Watkins and Mike Wright
The CIM Piploma Case Study Book 1995–96
David Pearson and Paul Fifield
Economic Theory and Marketing Practice
Angela Hatton and Mike Oldroyd
Effective Sales Management
John Strafford and Colin Grant
Financial Aspects of Marketing
Keith Ward
The Fundamentals of Advertising
John Wilmshurst
The Fundamentals and Practice of Marketing
John Wilmshurst
International Marketing
Stanley J. Paliwoda
Marketing Financial Services

Edited by Chris Ennew, Trevor Watkins and Mike Wright
Strategic Marketing Management
R. M. S. Wilson and C. T. Gilligan
Understanding Customers
Second edition
Chris Rice
Published on behalf of
The Chartered Institute of Marketing
Butterworth-Heinemann
Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP
Adivision of Reed Educational and Professional Publishing Ltd
Amember of the Reed Elsevier plc group
OXFORD BOSTON JOHANNESBURG
MELBOURNE NEWDELHI SINGAPORE
First published as Consumer Behaviour1993
Reprinted 1994
Second edition 1997
©Chris Rice 1993, 1997
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7506 2322 5

Typeset by Avocet Typeset, Brill, Aylesbury, Bucks
Printed and bound in Great Britain
Contents
Foreword vii
Preface viii
Part One Identifying the Customer
1 ‘Marketing, management, customers, competitive advantage and the
meaning of life!’ 3
Ahistorical perspective
2 ‘There’s more to this than meets the eye…!’ 29
Perception
Part Two Understanding CustomerBehaviour
3 ‘What I need is a one-armed economist…’ 49
Ideas from economics
4 ‘So you want to be a social climber?’ 69
Marketing aspects of sociology
5 ‘Here we go, here we go, here we go…’ 88
People in groups
6 ‘That’s all I need – a customer with attitude…’ 107
Attitudes and social behaviour
Part Three Investigating Customers
7 ‘There’s nowt so strange as folk…’ 133
The behavioural sciences – problems and methods
8 ‘Excuse me, could I a sk you a few questions…?’ 153
An introductory look at marketing research
9 ‘What do you mean – I’m about average…?’ 182
The presentation and interpretation of data
Part Four Predicting and Influencing CustomerBehaviour
10 ‘Whatever made you buy that?’ 199
Consumer decision making and modelling
11 ‘Teach me tonight…’ 218
Learning
12 ‘Segments? – I don’t even like grapefruit!’ 236
Segmentation
13 ‘So how can we make it work…?’ 257
Attitude change
14 ‘Pass me my crystal ball…’ 282
Forecasting, change and the future
vi Contents
References, bibliography and further reading 307
Index 309
Foreword
If there were prizes for writing textbooks which combine up-to-date information
with reader-friendliness and even a soupcon of style and wit, then Chris Rice
would walk away with an armful of them. We all know that students find
preparing for examinations to be work of a peculiarly unforgiving, implacable
and unpleasant kind, especially as so many textbooks seem to be written as if
their authors were trying to emulate the tedium of Kennedy’s Latin Primer. Any-
one approaching Understanding Customers with such depressing expectations
cannot fail to be jolted with warm shocks and pleasant surprises as they read
about (for example) the wonders of cat-food preparation and the elegant delicacy
of the Rice PV/PPS model of consumer decision making.
This new edition has been revised, partly because of recent developments in
the investigation of consumer behaviour, and partly because of new syllabus
requirements initiated by The Chartered Institute of Marketing. It is even more
comprehensive than before, yet remains firmly focused on the instrumental
demands of students. It can be picked up voluntarily and read for pleasure. Few
technical publications justify such an accolade (apart from sex manuals), yet in
Rice’s case it is well deserved.
Dr Ted Johns
CIM Senior Examiner, Understanding Customers
Preface
Four years ago, when writing Consumer Behaviour, I put forward some ideas
about control and its problems. In the process I discussed ‘Sod’s Law’– the idea
that if something can go wrong, it will. As the book was published, The Chartered
Institute of Marketing announced a change of syllabus to the new ‘Understanding
Customers’programme at Certificate level. So Sod’s Law had struck.
This new edition has some six new chapters and much material which reflects
the new syllabus.
The subject remains as fascinating as ever and we have seen a continued
growth in the use of influencing techniques well beyond the area of ‘shopping’.
Vast efforts are now expended to convince us of the need to vote in favour of
particular political parties, to conserve the environment, to support charities and
other, similar, ‘non-commercial’ideals. The basic element of influencing other
people remains at the core, however, and it is this process which forms the main
thread of the ideas within this text.
The book has been designed to meet the requirements of The Chartered
Institute of Marketing professional education scheme, but will also be of
immediate relevance to undergraduate and Higher National business studies
courses. In a field which has such a rapid rate of change it was decided, as a
matter of policy, to encourage the reader to look around to find current examples.
This has the advantage that reading newspapers and watching television may now
be counted as ‘coursework’!
My objective in writing this book has been to produce something which is
‘user-friendly’. The aim was to attempt to reproduce the processes which make a
‘good’class when teaching – involvement of teacher and students, exchange of
ideas, activity, thought and , above all, fun.
My thanks to all those who wrote giving such positive feedback on Consumer
Behaviourand the style in which it was produced. In other places, I have referred
to ‘the loneliness of the long-distance learner’– the problems experienced by the
solitary student (whether as a long-term experience or because of missing a
session at college). It is hoped that, by emphasizing some of the discussion points
in this way, some of the difficulties may be reduced. For those who are study-
ing in a group, the ‘Think’ exercises have no ‘right’ answers, so comparisons
of opinions and subsequent arguments are not only common, but are to be
welcomed.
Aspecial note of thanks to Ted Johns for his encouragement at the start of the
project and his insights at the end. Lastly, my thanks to all the students who have
been the experimental proving ground for so much of my work and enjoyment.
Chris Rice
Nottingham
Part One Identifying the
Customer
Introduction
This section introduces ideas and concepts which can be used throughout the programme
of study. It attempts to review different stages in marketing development, and looks at
some contributions from wider organization/management studies to set a context for the
more specific study of aspects of consumer behaviour. Thus many of the ideas in this first
section should continue to be considered as part of the background to most of the
remainder of the book.
At the end of this section the reader should be familiar with the following concepts (and
the associated language) and should be able to relate them to marketing situations and
activities:
● Historical perspective – differing marketing orientations
● Customers and users
● Decision Making Units (DMUs)
● Segmentation
● Dependency theory
● Stakeholders in the business/enterprise
● Demographic changes
● Competition
● Ethical issues
– Deontological/transcendental and utilitarian perspectives
● Total Quality Management
● Customer care

● Organizations as customers
– Similarities and differences between individual, family and organization buying
situations
– Roles in the organizational buying process
– Different levels of complexity of buying decisions
– Decision Making Units (DMUs) and the associated roles (again)
– American Marketing Association 4-cell model
● Perception as a crucial concept which runs throughout the whole book:
– The senses, sensation, awareness thresholds
– Weber’s Law
– Selectivity of perception – external and internal factors affecting perception
– Habituation
– Awareness sets
– Communication