Culture is the most basic cause of a person’s wants and behavior. Human behavior is largely learned. Growing up in a society, a child learns basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors from his or her family and other important institutions. A child in the United States normally is exposed to the following values: achievement and success, ­freedom, individualism, hard work, activity and involvement, efficiency and practicality, material comfort, youthfulness, and fitness and health. Every group or society has a culture, and cultural influences on buying behavior may vary greatly from both county to county and country to country.

Marketers are always trying to spot cultural shifts so as to discover new products that might be wanted. For example, the cultural shift toward greater concern about health and fitness has created a huge industry for health-and-fitness services, exercise equipment and clothing, organic foods, and a variety of diets.

Each culture contains smaller subcultures, or groups of people with shared value systems based on common life experiences and situations. Subcultures include nationalities, religions, racial groups, and geographic regions. Many subcultures make up important market segments, and marketers often design products and marketing programs tailored to their needs. Examples of three such important subculture groups are Hispanic American, African American, and Asian American consumers.

Hispanic American Consumers

Hispanics represent a large, fast-growing market. The nation’s more than 55 million Hispanic consumers (almost one out of every six Americans) have total annual buying power of $1.7 trillion. The U.S. Hispanic population will surge to more than 130 million by 2030, close to one-third of the total U.S. population. Hispanics are a youthful segment—more than 52 percent of U.S. Hispanics are below age 30.3 Within the Hispanic market, there exist many distinct subsegments based on nationality, age, income, and other factors. A company’s product or message may be more relevant to one nationality over another, such as ­Mexicans, Costa Ricans, Argentineans, or Cubans.

Although Hispanic consumers share many characteristics and behaviors with the mainstream buying public, there are also distinct differences. They tend to be deeply family oriented and make shopping a family affair—children have a big say in what brands they buy. Older, first-generation Hispanic consumers tend to be very brand loyal and to favor brands and sellers who show special interest in them. Younger Hispanics, however, have shown increasing price sensitivity in recent years and a willingness to switch to store brands. Befitting their youthfulness, Hispanics are more active on mobile and social networks than other segments, making digital media ideal for reaching this segment.4

Companies ranging from P&G, McDonald’s, AT&T, Walmart, and State Farm to Google, L’Oréal, and many others have developed special targeting efforts for this fast-growing consumer segment. For example, working with its longtime Hispanic advertising agency Conill, Toyota has developed numerous Hispanic marketing campaigns that have helped make it the favorite automobile brand among Hispanic buyers. Consider its recent award-winning “Más Que un Auto” campaign:

Last fall, to celebrate its 10th year as America’s most-loved auto brand among Hispanics, Toyota ran a Hispanic campaign themed “Más Que un Auto” (translation: “More than a Car”). The campaign appealed to Hispanics’ special love for their cars and their penchant for giving everything and anything a superpersonal nickname, including their cars. The campaign offered Hispanic customers free nameplates featuring their unique car names, made with the same typeface and materials as the official Toyota nameplates. Now, along with the Toyota and model names, they could adorn their cars with personalized, official-looking brand badges of their own—whether Pepe, El Niño, Trueno (“Thunder”), Monster, or just plain Oliver, Ellie, or Rolly the Corolla.

The award-winning “Más Que un Auto” campaign created a strong emotional connection between Hispanics and their Toyotas. Within the first few months, customers had ordered more than 100,000 customer nameplates, far exceeding the goal of 25,000. Brand fans by the thousands posted pictures and shared their car love stories on campaign sites and other social media. Toyota is now shaping new phases of the “Más Que un Auto” campaign, such as turning some of the fan car stories into ads or asking customers to imagine what a how commercial featuring their beloved ride might look and then picking the best idea to produce for a real broadcast ad.5

African American Consumers

The U.S. African American population is growing in affluence and sophistication. The nation’s more than 44 million black consumers wield almost $1.3 trillion in annual buying power. Although more price conscious than other segments, blacks are also strongly motivated by quality and selection. Brands are important. African American consumers are heavy users of digital and social media, providing access through a rich variety of marketing channels.6

Many companies develop special products, appeals, and marketing programs for African American consumers—from carmakers like Ford and Hyundai to consumer products companies like P&G to even not-for-profits and government agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service. For example, the U.S. Forest Service and the Ad Council recently joined forces to create the “Discover the Forest” public service campaign to raise awareness among families of the benefits for children of getting outside and enjoying nature. One round of the campaign specifically targeted the parents of African American tweens:7

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Although more than 245 million Americans live within 100 miles of a national forest or grassland, research shows that a majority of children in some population segments are not spending active time outdoors. For example, only 37 percent of African American children ages 6 to 12 participate frequently in outdoor activities compared with 67 percent of the broader U.S. population in that age group. To help close that gap, the U.S. Forest Service and the Ad Council created the “Discover the Forest” campaign, a series of public service messages ranging from billboards and radio commercials to interactive social media and website content. With headlines such as “Unplug,” “Where Curiosity Blooms,” and “Where Imagination Sprouts,” the ads targeting African American families promote the discovery and imagination wonders of connecting with the great outdoors and the resulting physical, mental health, and emotional well-being benefits. “The forest is one of those amazing places where kids can flex their imagination muscles through exploration and discovery,” says a marketer associated with the campaign.

A Total Marketing Strategy

Beyond targeting segments such as Hispanics, ­African Americans, and Asian Americans with specially tailored ­efforts, many marketers now embrace a total ­market strategy—the practice of integrating ethnic themes and cross-­cultural perspectives within their mainstream marketing. An example is general-market commercials for Cheerios and Honey Maid that feature interracial and blended families and couples. A total market strategy appeals to consumer similarities across subcultural segments rather than differences.10

Many marketers are finding that insights gleaned from ethnic consumer segments can influence their broader markets. For example, today’s youth-oriented lifestyle is influenced heavily by Hispanic and African American entertainers. So it follows that consumers expect to see many different cultures and ethnicities represented in the advertising and products they consume. For instance, McDonald’s takes cues from African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians to develop menus and advertising in hopes of encouraging mainstream consumers to buy smoothies, mocha drinks, and snack wraps as avidly as they consume hip-hop and rock ’n’ roll. Or McDonald’s might take an ad primarily geared toward African Americans and run it in general-market media.

Almost every society has some form of social class structure. Social classes are society’s relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members share similar values, interests, and behaviors. Social scientists have identified seven American social classes: upper upper class, lower upper class, upper middle class, middle class, working class, upper lower class, and lower lower class.

Social class is not determined by a single factor, such as income, but is measured as a combination of occupation, income, education, wealth, and other variables. In some social systems, members of different classes are reared for certain roles and cannot change their social positions. In the United States, however, the lines between social classes are not fixed and rigid; people can move to a higher social class or drop into a lower one.

Marketers are interested in social class because people within a given social class tend to exhibit similar buying behavior. Social classes show distinct product and brand preferences in areas such as clothing, home furnishings, travel and leisure activity, financial services, and automobiles.

Many small groups influence a person’s behavior. Groups that have a direct influence and to which a person belongs are called membership groups. In contrast, reference groups serve as direct (face-to-face interactions) or indirect points of comparison or reference in forming a person’s attitudes or behavior. People often are influenced by reference groups to which they do not belong. For example, an aspirational group is one to which the individual wishes to belong, as when a young basketball player hopes to someday emulate basketball star LeBron James and play in the NBA.

Marketers try to identify the reference groups of their target markets. Reference groups expose a person to new behaviors and lifestyles, influence the person’s attitudes and self-concept, and create pressures to conform that may affect the person’s product and brand choices. The importance of group influence varies across products and brands. It tends to be strongest when the product is visible to others whom the buyer respects.

Word-of-mouth influence can have a powerful impact on consumer buying behavior. The personal words and recommendations of trusted friends, family, associates, and other consumers tend to be more credible than those coming from commercial sources, such as advertisements or salespeople. One recent study found that only 49 percent of consumers reported that they trust or believe advertising, whereas 72 percent said they trusted family and friends and 72 percent said they trust online reviews.11 Most word-of-mouth influence happens naturally: Consumers start chatting about a brand they use or feel strongly about one way or the other. Often, however, rather than leaving it to chance, marketers can help to create positive conversations about their brands.

Marketers of brands subjected to strong group influence must figure out how to reach opinion leaders—people within a reference group who, because of special skills, knowledge, personality, or other characteristics, exert social influence on others. Some experts call this group the influentials or leading adopters. When these influentials talk, consumers listen. Marketers try to identify opinion leaders for their products and direct marketing efforts toward them.

Buzz marketing involves enlisting or even creating opinion leaders to serve as “brand ambassadors” who spread the word about a company’s products. Consider Mercedes-Benz’s award-winning “Take the Wheel” influencer campaign:12

Mercedes-Benz wanted get more people talking about its all-new, soon-to-be-launched 2014 CLA model, priced at $29,900 and aimed at getting a new generation of younger consumers into the Mercedes brand. So it challenged five of Instagram’s most influential photographers—everyday Gen Y consumers whose stunning imagery had earned them hundreds of thousands of fans—to each spend five days behind the wheel of a CLA, documenting their journeys in photos shared via Instagram. The photographer who got the most Likes got to keep the CLA. The short campaign really got people buzzing about the car, earning 87 million social media impressions and more than 2 million Likes. Ninety percent of the social conversation was positive. And when Mercedes launched the CLA the following month, it broke sales records.

Sometimes, everyday customers become a brand’s best evangelists. For instance, Alan Klein loves the McDonald’s McRib—a sandwich made of a boneless pork patty molded into a rib-like shape, slathered in BBQ sauce and topped with pickles and onion. The McRib is sold for only short time periods each year at McDonald’s restaurants around the nation. Klein loves it so much that he created the McRib Locator app and website (mcriblocator.com), where McRib fans buzz about locations where they’ve recently sighted the coveted sandwich.13

Over the past several years, a new type of social interaction has exploded onto the scene—online social networking. Online social networks are online communities where people socialize or exchange information and opinions. Social networking communities range from blogs (Consumerist, Engadget, Gizmodo) and message boards (Craigslist) to social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn) and even communal shopping sites (Amazon.com and Etsy). These online forms of consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer dialogue have big implications for marketers.

Marketers are working to harness the power of these new social networks and other “word-of-web” opportunities to promote their products and build closer customer relationships. Instead of throwing more one-way commercial messages at consumers, they hope to use digital, mobile, and social media to become an interactive part of consumers’ conversations and lives.

For example, Red Bull has an astounding 44 million friends on Facebook; Twitter and Facebook are the primary ways it communicates with college students. Dunkin’ Donuts uses Vine personality Logan Paul to promote its Dunkin’ Donuts app and DD Perks loyalty program with posts on Vine and other social media. As it turns out, Paul is a genuine Dunkin’ Donuts fan, so the brand lets him figure out what to say to his more than 8.7 ­million Vine followers, 5.4 million Facebook fans, 2.4 million followers on Instagram, and 615 followers on Twitter.14

Other marketers are working to tap the army of self-made influencers already plying the internet—independent bloggers. Believe it or not, there are now almost as many people making a living as bloggers as there are lawyers. The key is to find bloggers who have strong networks of relevant readers, a credible voice, and a good fit with the brand. For example, you’ll no doubt cross paths with the likes of climbers and skiers blogging for Patagonia, bikers blogging for Harley-Davidson, and foodies blogging for Whole Foods Market or Trader Joe’s. And companies such as P&G, McDonald’s, Walmart, and Disney work closely with influential “mom bloggers” or “social media moms,” turning them into brand advocates (see Real Marketing 5.1).

Even Bermuda uses social media extensively. The Bermuda Tourism Authority maintains Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media pages; two mobile apps, including the Bermuda’s Very Own Mobile Events App; and a Discovering Bermuda blog featuring “Posts from Paradise.” It also hires popular users of social media such as Instagram and trendy Tastemade—which features quirky videos about restaurants—to the island and urges them to post about their visits.15

We will dig deeper into online and social media as marketing tools in Chapter 17. However, althoughmuch current talk focuses on the digital, mobile, and social media, most brand conversations still take place the old-fashioned way—face to face. So effective word-of-mouth marketing programs usually begin with generating person-to-person brand conversations and integrating both offline and online social influence strategies. The goal is to get customers involved with brands and then help them share their brand passions and experiences with others in both their real and digital worlds. Consider Chubbies:16

Chubbies is a small but trendy and fast-growing startup that targets young men with a line of “anti-cargo shorts” (and a retro 5 1/2-inch inseam). Until recently, the brand marketed itself only through its social media presence. Avid Chubsters actively swap influence via pictures, videos, and stories on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and the Chubbies website and ChubsterNation blog. But now, Chubbies is building an army of face-to-face influencers in the form of 140 student ambassadors at college campuses across the country. The ambassadors—what Chubbies calls its “badass crew of thigh-liberating patriots”—spread the Chubster manifesto that “We don’t do pants. We don’t do cargos. We don’t do capris. We do shorts and only shorts.” “Pants are for work,” they preach. Chubbies “are for having fun, or jumping off rocks, or playing beer pong, or climbing Everest.” The ambassadors personally rally the faithful at tailgate parties and other campus events, expanding the ChubsterNation and sparking even more word of mouth for the irreverent brand.

Family members can strongly influence buyer behavior. The family is the most important consumer buying organization in society, and it has been researched extensively. Marketers are interested in the roles and influence of the husband, wife, and children on the purchase of different products and services.

Husband–wife involvement varies widely by product category and by stage in the buying process. Buying roles change with evolving consumer lifestyles. For example, in the United States, the wife traditionally has been considered the main purchasing agent for the family in the areas of food, household products, and clothing. But with 71 percent of all mothers now working outside the home and the willingness of husbands to do more of the family’s purchasing, all this has changed in recent years. Recent surveys show that 41 percent of men are now the primary grocery shoppers in their households, 39 percent handle most of their household’s laundry, and about one-quarter say they are responsible for all of their household’s cooking. At the same time, today women outspend men three to two on new technology purchases and influence more than 80 percent of all new car purchases.17

Such shifting roles signal a new marketing reality. Marketers in industries that have traditionally sold their products to only women or only men—from groceries and personal care products to cars and consumer electronics—are now carefully targeting the opposite sex. Other companies are showing their products in “modern family” contexts. For example, one General Mills ad shows a father packing Go-Gurt yogurt in his son’s lunch as the child heads off to school in the morning, with the slogan “Dads who get it, get Go-Gurt.” And a recent General Mills “How to Dad” campaign for Cheerios presents a dad as a multitasking superhero around the house, a departure from the bumbling dad stereotypes often shown in food ads. This dad does all the right things, including feeding this children healthy Cheerios breakfasts. “Being a dad is awesome,” he proclaims in one ad. “Just like Cheerios are awesome. That’s why it’s the Official Cereal of Dadhood.”18

Children also have a strong influence on family buying decisions. The nation’s kids and tweens influence up to 80 percent of all household purchases, to the tune of $1.2 trillion of spending annually. In one recent survey, parents with teens reported that their children weigh in heavily on everything from where they eat out (95 percent) and take vacations (82 percent) to what mobile devices they use (63 ­percent) and cars they buy (45 percent).19

A person belongs to many groups—family, clubs, organizations, online communities. The person’s position in each group can be defined in terms of both role and status. A role consists of the activities people are expected to perform according to the people around them. Each role carries a status reflecting the general esteem given to it by society.

People usually choose products appropriate to their roles and status. Consider the various roles a working mother plays. In her company, she may play the role of a brand manager; in her family, she plays the role of wife and mother; at her favorite sporting events, she plays the role of avid fan. As a brand manager, she will buy the kind of clothing that reflects her role and status in her company. At the game, she may wear clothing supporting her favorite team.

A person’s occupation affects the goods and services bought. Blue-collar workers tend to buy more rugged work clothes, whereas executives buy more business suits. Marketers try to identify the occupational groups that have an above-average interest in their products and services. A company can even specialize in making products needed by a given occupational group. For example, Red Kap makes rugged, durable work clothes and uniform apparel for the automotive and construction industries. Since 1923, the brand has lived up to its “Done Right” slogan—it makes “Workwear. Built Better.” According to the company, “If there’s a secret to our success, it’s the quality time our design team spends in the garage. That’s where our best ideas are born. Where working prototypes are tested, fine-tuned, and tested again. The result? Top-grade [workwear] that any serious gearhead can actually feel good about wearing. Comfortable, long-lasting favorites that stand up to hard days, greasy nights, and everything in between.”20

People change the goods and services they buy over their lifetimes. Tastes in food, clothes, furniture, and recreation are often age related. Buying is also shaped by the stage of the family life cycle—the stages through which families might pass as they mature over time. Life-stage changes usually result from demographics and life-changing events—marriage, having children, purchasing a home, divorce, children going to college, changes in personal income, moving out of the house, and retirement. Marketers often define their target markets in terms of life-cycle stage and develop appropriate products and marketing plans for each stage.

One of the leading life-stage segmentation systems is the Nielsen PRIZM Lifestage Groups system. PRIZM classifies every American household into one of 66 distinct life-stage segments, which are organized into 11 major life-stage groups based on affluence, age, and family characteristics. The classifications consider a host of demographic factors such as age, education, income, occupation, family composition, ethnicity, and housing; and behavioral and lifestyle factors such as purchases, free-time activities, and media preferences.

The major PRIZM Lifestage groups carry names such as “Striving Singles,” “Midlife Success,” “Young Achievers,” “Sustaining Families,” “Affluent Empty Nests,” and “Conservative Classics,” which in turn contain subgroups such as “Brite Lites, Li’l City,” “Kids & Cul-de-Sacs,” “Gray Power,” and “Big City Blues.” The “Young Achievers” group consists of hip, single 20-somethings who rent apartments in or close to metropolitan neighborhoods. Their incomes range from working class to well-to-do, but the entire group tends to be politically liberal, listen to alternative music, and enjoy lively nightlife.21

Life-stage segmentation provides a powerful marketing tool for marketers in all industries to better find, understand, and engage consumers. Armed with data about the makeup of consumer life stages, marketers can create targeted, actionable, personalized campaigns based on how people consume and interact with brands and the world around them.

A person’s economic situation will affect his or her store and product choices. Marketers watch trends in spending, personal income, savings, and interest rates. In today’s more value-conscious times, most companies have taken steps to create more customer value by redesigning, repositioning, and repricing their products and services. For example, in recent years, upscale discounter Target has put more emphasis on the “Pay Less” side of its “Expect More. Pay Less.” positioning promise.

Similarly, in line with worldwide economic trends, smartphone makers who once offered only premium-priced phones are now offering lower-priced models for consumers both at home and in the world’s emerging economies. Microsoft’s Nokia division recently targeted emerging markets with lower-end Lumia models priced well under $100. And Apple is rumored to be introducing a lower-priced version of its iPhone. As their more affluent Western markets have become saturated and more competitive, the phone makers hope that their lower-priced phones will help them to compete effectively in less-affluent emerging Eastern markets such as China and Southeast Asia against low-cost smartphone makers such as Chinese giant Xiaomi.22

People coming from the same subculture, social class, and occupation may have quite different lifestyles. Lifestyle is a person’s pattern of living as expressed in his or her psychographics. It involves measuring consumers’ major AIO dimensions—activities (work, hobbies, shopping, sports, social events), interests (food, fashion, family, recreation), and opinions (about themselves, social issues, business, products). Lifestyle captures something more than the person’s social class or personality. It profiles a person’s whole pattern of acting and interacting in the world.

When used carefully, the lifestyle concept can help marketers understand changing consumer values and how they affect buyer behavior. Consumers don’t just buy products; they buy the values and lifestyles those products represent. For example, Title Nine markets much more than just women’s apparel:

Named after the federal act that helped end gender discrimination in high school and collegiate sports, Title Nine markets “adventure-ready athletic and sportswear” that fits a sports participation and activities lifestyle. “We are evangelical about women’s participation in sports and fitness,” says T9. Title Nine fills its web and social media sites, catalogs, and blog with images of strong, confident, and active women running on trails wearing reflective gear, snowshoeing with their dogs, stand-up paddle boarding in tropical lagoons, and running errands in ski resort towns wearing more casual, playful clothing. Title Nine’s models are all real people, and T9 highlights their lifestyles and stories through an active social media presence plus local activities sponsored by its retail shops. “They are ordinary women capable of extraordinary things,” says the company. “And, like many of you, they somehow manage to weave sports and fitness into their hectic lives.” That’s the T9 lifestyle.

Marketers look for lifestyle segments with needs that can be served through special products or marketing approaches. Such segments might be defined by anything from family characteristics or outdoor interests to the foods people eat.

Each person’s distinct personality influences his or her buying behavior. Personality refers to the unique psychological characteristics that distinguish a person or group. Personality is usually described in terms of traits such as self-confidence, dominance, sociability, autonomy, defensiveness, adaptability, and aggressiveness. Personality can be useful in analyzing consumer behavior for certain product or brand choices.

The idea is that brands also have personalities, and consumers are likely to choose brands with personalities that match their own. A brand personality is the specific mix of human traits that may be attributed to a particular brand. One researcher identified five brand personality traits: sincerity (down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, and cheerful), excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative, and up-to-date), competence (reliable, intelligent, and successful), sophistication (glamorous, upper class, charming), and ruggedness (outdoorsy and tough). “Your personality determines what you consume, what TV shows you watch, what products you buy, and [most] other decisions you make,” says one consumer behavior expert.23

Most well-known brands are strongly associated with a particular trait: the Ford F150 with “ruggedness,” Apple with “excitement,” the Washington Post with “competence,” Method with “sincerity,” and Gucci with “class and sophistication.” Many brands build their positioning and brand stories around such traits. For example, fast-growing lifestyle brand Shinola has crafted an “authentic, built in Detroit” persona that has made it one of America’s hottest brands (see Real Marketing 5.2).

Many marketers use a concept related to personality—a person’s self-concept (also called self-image). The idea is that people’s possessions contribute to and reflect their identities—that is, “we are what we consume.” Thus, to understand consumer behavior, marketers must first understand the relationship between consumer self-concept and possessions.

Hence, brands will attract people who are high on the same personality traits. For example, the MINI automobile has an instantly recognizable personality as a clever and sassy but powerful little car. MINI owners—who sometimes call themselves “MINIacs”—have a strong and emotional connection with their cars. More than targeting specific demographic segments, MINI appeals to personality segments—to people who are “adventurous, individualistic, open-minded, creative, tech-savvy, and young at heart,” just like the car.24

A person has many needs at any given time. Some are biological, arising from states of tension such as hunger, thirst, or discomfort. Others are psychological, arising from the need for recognition, esteem, or belonging. A need becomes a motive when it is aroused to a sufficient level of intensity. A motive (or drive) is a need that is sufficiently pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction. Psychologists have developed theories of human motivation. Two of the most popular—the theories of Sigmund Freud and Abraham Maslow—carry quite different meanings for consumer analysis and marketing.

Sigmund Freud assumed that people are largely unconscious about the real psychological forces shaping their behavior. His theory suggests that a person’s buying decisions are affected by subconscious motives that even the buyer may not fully understand. Thus, an aging baby boomer who buys a sporty BMW convertible might explain that he simply likes the feel of the wind in his thinning hair. At a deeper level, he may be trying to impress others with his success. At a still deeper level, he may be buying the car to feel young and independent again.

Consumers often don’t know or can’t describe why they act as they do. Thus, many companies employ teams of psychologists, anthropologists, and other social scientists to carry out motivation research that probes the subconscious motivations underlying consumers’ emotions and behaviors toward brands. One ad agency routinely conducts one-on-one, therapy-like interviews to delve the inner workings of consumers. Another company asks consumers to describe their favorite brands as animals or cars (say, a Mercedes versus a Chevy) to assess the prestige associated with various brands. Still others rely on hypnosis, dream therapy, or soft lights and mood music to plumb the murky depths of consumer psyches.

Such projective techniques might seem pretty goofy, and some marketers dismiss such motivation research as mumbo jumbo. But many marketers use such touchy-feely approaches, now sometimes called interpretive consumer research, to dig deeper into consumer psyches and develop better marketing strategies.

Abraham Maslow sought to explain why people are driven by particular needs at particular times. Why does one person spend a lot of time and energy on personal safety and another on gaining the esteem of others? Maslow’s answer is that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy, as shown in Figure 5.3, from the most pressing at the bottom to the least pressing at the top.25 They include physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.

Figure 5.3

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

A person tries to satisfy the most important need first. When that need is satisfied, it will stop being a motivator, and the person will then try to satisfy the next most important need. For example, starving people (physiological need) will not take an interest in the latest happenings in the art world (self-actualization needs) nor in how they are seen or esteemed by others (social or esteem needs) nor even in whether they are breathing clean air (safety needs). But as each important need is satisfied, the next most important need will come into play.

A motivated person is ready to act. How the person acts is influenced by his or her own perception of the situation. All of us learn by the flow of information through our five senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. However, each of us receives, organizes, and interprets this sensory information in an individual way. Perception is the process by which people select, organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world.

People can form different perceptions of the same stimulus because of three perceptual processes: selective attention, selective distortion, and selective retention. People are exposed to a great amount of stimuli every day. For example, individuals are exposed to an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 ad messages daily—from TV and magazine ads to billboards to social media ads and posts on their smartphones.26 People can’t possibly pay attention to all the competing stimuli surrounding them. Selective attention—the tendency for people to screen out most of the information to which they are exposed—means that marketers must work especially hard to attract the consumer’s attention.

Even noticed stimuli do not always come across in the intended way. Each person fits incoming information into an existing mindset. Selective distortion describes the tendency of people to interpret information in a way that will support what they already believe. People also will forget much of what they learn. They tend to retain information that supports their attitudes and beliefs. Selective retention means that consumers are likely to remember good points made about a brand they favor and forget good points made about competing brands. Because of selective attention, distortion, and retention, marketers must work hard just to get their messages through.

Interestingly, although most marketers worry about whether their offers will be perceived at all, some consumers worry that they will be affected by marketing messages without even knowing it—through subliminal advertising. More than 50 years ago, a researcher announced that he had flashed the phrases “Eat popcorn” and “Drink Coca-Cola” on a screen in a New Jersey movie theater every five seconds for 1/300th of a second. He reported that although viewers did not consciously recognize these messages, they absorbed them subconsciously and bought 58 percent more popcorn and 18 percent more Coke. Suddenly advertisers and consumer-protection groups became intensely interested in subliminal perception. Although the researcher later admitted to making up the data, the issue has not died. Some consumers still fear that they are being manipulated by subliminal messages.

Numerous studies by psychologists and consumer researchers have found little or no link between subliminal messages and consumer behavior. Recent brain-wave studies have found that in certain circumstances, our brains may register subliminal messages. However, it appears that subliminal advertising simply doesn’t have the power attributed to it by its critics.27 One classic ad from the American Association of Advertising Agencies pokes fun at subliminal advertising. “So-called ‘subliminal advertising’ simply doesn’t exist,” says the ad. “Overactive imaginations, however, most certainly do.”

When people act, they learn. Learning describes changes in an individual’s behavior arising from experience. Learning theorists say that most human behavior is learned. Learning occurs through the interplay of drives, stimuli, cues, responses, and reinforcement.

A drive is a strong internal stimulus that calls for action. A drive becomes a motive when it is directed toward a particular stimulus object. For example, a person’s drive for self-actualization might motivate him or her to look into buying a camera. The consumer’s response to the idea of buying a camera is conditioned by the surrounding cues. Cues are minor stimuli that determine when, where, and how the person responds. The camera buyer might spot several camera brands in a shop window, hear of a special sale price, or discuss cameras with a friend. These are all cues that might influence a consumer’s response to his or her interest in buying the product.

Suppose the consumer buys a Nikon camera. If the experience is rewarding, the consumer will probably use the camera more and more, and his or her response will be reinforced. Then the next time he or she shops for a camera, or for binoculars or some similar product, the probability is greater that he or she will buy a Nikon product. The practical significance of learning theory for marketers is that they can build up demand for a product by associating it with strong drives, using motivating cues, and providing positive reinforcement.

Through doing and learning, people acquire beliefs and attitudes. These, in turn, influence their buying behavior. A belief is a descriptive thought that a person holds about something. Beliefs may be based on real knowledge, opinion, or faith and may or may not carry an emotional charge. Marketers are interested in the beliefs that people formulate about specific products and services because these beliefs make up product and brand images that affect buying behavior. If some of the beliefs are wrong and prevent purchase, the marketer will want to launch a campaign to correct them.

People have attitudes regarding religion, politics, clothes, music, food, and almost everything else. Attitude describes a person’s relatively consistent evaluations, feelings, and tendencies toward an object or idea. Attitudes put people into a frame of mind of liking or disliking things, of moving toward or away from them. Our camera buyer may hold attitudes such as “Buy the best,” “The Japanese make the best camera products in the world,” and “Creativity and self-expression are among the most important things in life.” If so, the Nikon camera would fit well into the consumer’s existing attitudes.

Attitudes are difficult to change. A person’s attitudes fit into a pattern; changing one attitude may require difficult adjustments in many others. Thus, a company should usually try to fit its products into existing attitude patterns rather than attempt to change attitudes. Of course, there are exceptions. Repositioning or extending a brand calls for changing attitudes. For example, consider the Jimmy Dean brand:28

When you think of Jimmy Dean, a Tyson Foods brand, you probably think of sausage and other breakfast items, and for good reason. Jimmy Dean captures a 53 percent share of the frozen hand-held breakfast foods segment and a 36 percent share of the frozen breakfast entree segment. So when the brand recently introduced lines of lunch and dinner items, it knew it would have to change existing attitudes. The new items include pulled pork, smoked turkey, beef, and smoked sausage sandwiches and bowls with a variety of meats, potatoes, pastas, and cheeses. Half are marketed under a Jimmy Dean Delights subbrand of offerings with 300 or fewer calories.

To change consumer attitudes, Jimmy Dean launched an estimated $20 million “It’s not just for breakfast anymore” marketing campaign featuring its familiar sun-costumed character, who convinces disappointed food court and deli lunchers that Jimmy Dean Delight’s new lunch sandwiches are a better option. “It just felt like such a natural evolution for the sun to keep shining all day long, and to go from owning morning to owning noon and owning night as well,” says a Jimmy Dean advertising executive. The sunshine mascot doesn’t appear in Jimmy Dean’s most recent marketing campaign, “Shine On.” However, the campaign builds on the character’s sunny attitude and optimism to assure consumers that Jimmy Dean products are a sunny day thing.

We can now appreciate the many forces acting on consumer behavior. The consumer’s choice results from the complex interplay of cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors.