Chapter 4

Motivation and Values

CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR
Global Edition 9e
Michael R. Solomon

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Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education
 Learning Objectives
When you finish this chapter, you should
understand why:
• It’s important for marketers to recognize that
products can satisfy a range of consumer needs.
• The way we evaluate and choose a product
depends upon our degree of involvement with the
product, the marketing message, and/or the
purchase situation.

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 Learning Objectives (continued)
• Our deeply held cultural values dictate the types
of products and services we seek out or avoid.
• Consumers vary in the importance they attach to
worldly possessions, and this orientation in turn
has an impact on their priorities and behaviors.

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 The Motivation Process
• Motivation refers to the
process that leads people
to behave as they do
• It occurs when a need is
aroused
• The ad shows desired state
and suggests a solution
(purchase of equipment)

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 Needs and Motivation
• Needs may be utilitarian or hedonic
• The desired end state is the goal
• Personal and cultural factors combine to create
a want – one manifestation of a need
• Motivation is described in terms of strength and
direction

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 Motivational Strength
• Motivational strength: degree of willingness to
expend energy to reach a goal
• Drive theory: biological needs that produce
unpleasant states of arousal (e.g., hunger)
• Expectancy theory: behavior is pulled by
expectations of achieving desirable outcomes

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 What Do We Need?

Biogenic Needs

Psychogenic Needs

Utilitarian Needs

Hedonic Needs

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 Motivational Conflicts
• Goal valence (value): consumer will:
• Approach positive goal
• Avoid negative goal
• Example: Partnership for a Drug-Free
America communicates negative
consequences of drug addiction for those
tempted to start

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 Figure 4.1 Types of Motivational Conflicts

• Two desirable alternatives

• Cognitive dissonance

• Positive & negative aspects

of desired product
• Guilt of desire occurs

• Facing a choice with two

undesirable alternatives

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 Specific Needs and Buying Behavior

NEED FOR ACHIEVEMENT NEED FOR AFFILIATION

Value personal accomplishment Want to be with other people
Place a premium on products Focus on products that are used
that signify success (luxury in groups (alcoholic
brands, technology products) beverages, sports bars)

NEED FOR POWER NEED FOR UNIQUENESS

Control one’s environment Assert one’s individual identity
Focus on products that allow Enjoy products that focus on
them to have mastery over their unique character
surroundings (muscle cars, (perfumes, clothing)
loud boom-boxes)

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 Levels of Needs in the Maslow Hierarchy

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 An Appeal to One’s Need for Safety

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 Discussion
• Create an advertising slogan for a pair of
jeans, which stresses one of the levels of
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

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 Consumer Involvement
• Involvement: perceived relevance of an object
based on one’s needs, values, and interests
• We get attached to products:
• “All in One” restaurant tattoo on consumer’s
head
• Lucky magazine for women who obsess
over shopping
• A man tried to marry his car when his
fiancée dumped him

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Figure 4.3 Conceptualizing Involvement
 Levels of Involvement:
From Inertia to Passion
• Inertia is consumption at the low end of
involvement; decisions made out of habit (lack of
motivation)
• Flow state occurs when consumers are truly
involved
• Sense of control
• Concentration
• Mental enjoyment
• Distorted sense of time
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 Cult Products

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 Product Involvement

• Product involvement is the consumer’s

level of interest in a product

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 Discussion
• Interview each other about a particular
celebrity.
• Describe your level of involvement with the
“product” and devise some marketing
opportunities to reach this group.

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 Tactics to Boost Motivation to Process
• Appeal to consumers’ hedonic needs
• Use novel stimuli
• Use prominent stimuli
• Include celebrity endorsers
• Provide value customers appreciate
• Let customers make messages
• Develop mobile experiences

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 Purchase Situation Involvement
• Purchase situation involvement:
differences that occur when buying the
same object for different contexts.
• Example: wedding gift
• For boss: purchase expensive vase to show
that you want to impress boss
• For cousin you don’t like: purchase
inexpensive vase to show you’re indifferent

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 Table 4.1 Measuring Involvement

To me (object to be judged) is:

1. important _:_:_:_:_:_:_ unimportant
2. boring _:_:_:_:_:_:_ interesting
3. relevant _:_:_:_:_:_:_ irrelevant
4. exciting _:_:_:_:_:_:_ unexciting
5. means nothing _:_:_:_:_:_:_ means a lot
6. appealing _:_:_:_:_:_:_ unappealing
7. fascinating _:_:_:_:_:_:_ mundane
8. worthless _:_:_:_:_:_:_ valuable
9. involving _:_:_:_:_:_:_ uninvolving
10. not needed _:_:_:_:_:_:_ needed

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 Consumer Values
• Value: a belief that some condition is preferable to
its opposite
• Example: looking younger is preferable to
looking older
• Products/services = help in attaining value-related
goal
• We seek others that share our values/ beliefs
• Thus, we tend to be exposed to information that
supports our beliefs

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 Core Values
• Core values: values
shared within a culture
• Enculturation: learning the
beliefs and values of one’s
own culture
• Acculturation: learning the
value system and
behaviors of another
culture

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 Discussion
• What do you think are the three to five core
values that best describe Americans today?
• How are these core values relevant to the
following product categories:
• Cars?
• Clothing?
• Higher education?

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 Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions
• Power distance
• Individualism
• Masculinity
• Uncertainty avoidance
• Long-term orientation

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 Table 4.2 Terminal and Instrumental Values

Instrumental Value Terminal Value

Ambitious A comfortable life

Capable A sense of
accomplishment
Self-controlled Wisdom

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 List of Values (LOV)
• Identifies nine consumer segments based on
values they endorse; and
• Relates each value to differences in
consumption behaviors.
• Example: those who endorse sense of belonging
read Reader’s Digest and TV Guide drink and
entertain more, and prefer group activities

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 Means-End Chain Model
• Very specific product attributes are linked at
levels of increasing abstraction to terminal
values
• Alternative means to attain valued end
states
• Laddering technique uncovers consumers’
associations between specific attributes
and general consequences

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 Figure 4.4 Hierarchical Value Maps
for Vegetable Oil in Three Countries

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 Conscientious Consumerism
• Conscientious consumerism is a focus on
personal health merging with a growing interest
in global health
• LOHAS (lifestyles of health and sustainability):
Consumers who:
• Worry about the environment
• Want products to be produced in a
sustainable way
• Spend money to advance what they see as
their personal development and potential
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 Figure 4.5 Carbon Footprint Breakdown

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 Materialism
• Materialism: the importance people attach
to worldly possessions
• “The good life”...“He who dies with the
most toys, wins”
• Materialists: value possessions for their
own status and appearance
• Non-materialists: value possessions that
connect them to other people or provide
them with pleasure in using them

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 Chapter Summary
• Products address a wide range of consumer
needs.
• How we evaluate a product depends on our
involvement with that product, the marketing
message, and the purchase situation.
• Our cultural values dictate the products we
seek out and avoid.
• Consumers vary in how important
possessions are to them.

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