MRKT 640 Week 5 DB Forum 5 Example

Discussion Board Forum 5: Thread and Two Replies

MRKT 640 Consumer Behavior, Discussion Board Forum 5 (thread and two replies)

Thread by [Student Name]

The prompt, the heating and cooling contractor and the classmates' posts are composites standing in for the course's own forum; the textbook, Scripture and published studies are real; the requirements follow Liberty's public course guide for MRKT 640.

Thread

At four in the afternoon on a 98-degree day in July, a homeowner in Richmond notices that the air from the vents is warm. By evening the house is 88 degrees, and there is an infant asleep upstairs. Chapter 14 of Mothersbaugh and Hawkins (2016) describes problem recognition as a gap between a desired state and an actual state, and here the actual state has changed suddenly. This is the kind of unplanned, urgent problem recognition the textbook contrasts with the planned replacement of a product that is wearing out, and it changes everything that follows.

Chapter 13 builds on Belk (1975), who described a situation as everything about a particular moment and setting that cannot be predicted from knowing the shopper or the product, yet still measurably changes what the shopper does. Belk grouped them into five dimensions, and each one bears on this purchase. The physical surroundings are a hot house that grows hotter every hour. The social surroundings include a spouse at work and a baby, which raise the stakes. The temporal perspective is the most powerful: the homeowner wants cool air tonight, not a better price next week. The task definition is not "buy the best system" but "make the house livable," and the antecedent state is stress and fatigue after a long day.

Chapter 15 explains that the amount of external search depends on what the consumer stands to gain from searching and what it costs. Beatty and Smith (1987), studying buyers in several durable product categories, found that the time a buyer had available, along with involvement in the purchase, was among the factors associated with how much external search took place. A homeowner with a hot house has almost no time, so search collapses: a phone search for "AC repair near me," a look at the star ratings, and a call to the first company that answers. Suri and Monroe (2003) found that time constraints change how consumers process information about price and products, shifting them away from careful evaluation toward shortcuts. In this situation, the shortcuts are availability and reassurance, not price. The homeowner is unlikely to ask about the efficiency rating of a new compressor or to compare warranty terms, questions the same person might research for weeks if the system were simply old.

For a heating and cooling contractor, the analysis suggests three actions. First, answer the phone, including evenings, since in an emergency the first company to respond often wins. Second, design the search listing for the stressed homeowner, with "same-day service" and a clear service fee in the first line of the listing, because the textbook's discussion of information search shows that consumers in a hurry rely on whatever is easy to read. Third, separate the emergency from the larger decision. If the technician finds that the system must be replaced, the contractor should offer a temporary fix or portable units and give the family a day to compare quotes, because a replacement bought in panic invites regret and complaints later.

The third recommendation is also a matter of integrity. In Proverbs, diligent planning is the road to abundance and hurry is the road to want (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Proverbs 21:5). A contractor who profits from a family's haste by pressing a $9,000 replacement on a night when the family cannot think clearly may make a sale but will lose a customer. A contractor who slows the big decision down while solving the urgent one serves the family and builds the trust that brings the next call.

The situation does not just influence the purchase; it defines what the customer is buying, which is relief tonight rather than equipment.

Classmates: can you think of a purchase in which a company should deliberately slow the customer down, even at the risk of losing the sale to a faster competitor?

Reply to Kendra

Kendra, your thread on supermarket atmospherics argued that background music is one of the cheapest ways a store can influence behavior, and you cited the textbook's discussion of physical surroundings as a situational influence. The research supports you strongly, and I think it goes further than pace.

Milliman (1982), in a field experiment in a supermarket, varied the tempo of background music and found that slow music slowed the pace of shoppers' movement through the store and was associated with higher daily sales than fast music. Most shoppers did not report noticing the music, which suggests its effect worked below conscious attention. That finding fits your point about atmospherics as a low-cost tool. It also has a limit worth noting for your recommendation: the study was run in one store decades ago, and today's shoppers often wear earbuds, so a store would need to test whether the effect survives in its own aisles before redesigning its playlist.

A later study showed that music can steer not only how long shoppers stay but what they buy. North et al. (1999) played French or German music on alternating days beside a wine display that held French and German wines of similar price and sweetness. French wine outsold German wine when French music played, and German wine outsold French when German music played. When shoppers were asked afterward, few said the music had influenced their choice. The music seems to have activated knowledge associated with each country, which made the matching wine come to mind.

These two studies raise a question your thread touched on but did not answer: when does atmospheric influence become manipulation? Mothersbaugh and Hawkins (2016) present situational influences as factors marketers can use, and most uses, such as pleasant lighting and music, help shoppers enjoy the store. But the wine study shows that shoppers can be moved toward a product without knowing why, which is a reason for care, especially with products such as alcohol.

Scripture shows music's power over the spirit. When King Saul was troubled, David played the lyre, and Saul was refreshed and the distress left him (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, 1 Samuel 16:23). Music that refreshes shoppers serves them, as David's music served Saul. Music chosen to move people toward purchases they would not otherwise make, without their awareness, uses the same power for a different end, and a Christian marketer should ask which purpose a store's playlist serves.

Your thread recommended slow music for the produce section, which the Milliman results support if the goal is longer visits. Would you also consider testing it in the store's checkout lines, where wait times may feel shorter with the right music, and where the benefit goes to the shopper as much as to the store?

Reply to Brandon

Brandon, your thread argued that online shopping improves decisions because consumers can compare far more options than any store can stock, and you used chapter 15's discussion of information search to show how much easier search has become. I agree that the cost of search has fallen, but research suggests that more options do not always mean better decisions, and that the tools a site offers make the difference.

Iyengar and Lepper (2000) set up a tasting display of jams in an upscale grocery store, alternating between 24 flavors and 6. The larger display attracted more visitors, but only about 3 percent of those who stopped at it bought a jar, compared with about 30 percent at the smaller display. In later studies, people facing more options were less satisfied with their choices. If abundant choice can discourage buying in a grocery aisle, it may do the same on a website with hundreds of versions of a product.

The story changes when sites help consumers manage the options. In an experiment with an online store, interactive decision aids, a recommendation agent that screened products against the shopper's stated preferences and a comparison matrix, reduced the effort shoppers spent searching and improved the quality of their decisions, leaving them with smaller but better sets of products to consider (Häubl & Trifts, 2000). In other words, the advantage of online shopping lies not in the number of options but in tools that narrow them. The two studies are not in conflict. The jam display offered abundance with no help in sorting it, while the online store offered abundance together with a way to sort it, and the second arrangement produced better decisions with less effort.

This qualifies your recommendation to the retailer you studied. Rather than adding more products, the retailer might invest in filters and comparison tools that let customers reach a short list quickly. Mothersbaugh and Hawkins (2016) describe how consumers limit their search to an evoked set of brands, and good tools build that set for them.

Proverbs links failed plans to a lack of advice and successful ones to plenty of it (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Proverbs 15:22). A well-designed decision aid can act as a kind of counselor, helping a shopper weigh options against what they actually need, as long as it gives honest advice rather than steering every shopper to the highest-margin product.

Did the retailer in your thread have any data on how many shoppers used its filters? If filter users bought more often, that would support your point and theirs at the same time. If they bought less, the filters may be too complex, and a simpler set of three or four choices, such as price, size and rating, might work better.

References

Beatty, S. E., & Smith, S. M. (1987). External search effort: An investigation across several product categories. Journal of Consumer Research, 14(1), 83-95. https://doi.org/10.1086/209095

Belk, R. W. (1975). Situational variables and consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Research, 2(3), 157-164. https://doi.org/10.1086/208627

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Häubl, G., & Trifts, V. (2000). Consumer decision making in online shopping environments: The effects of interactive decision aids. Marketing Science, 19(1), 4-21. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.19.1.4.15178

Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. R. (2000). When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 995-1006. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.6.995

Milliman, R. E. (1982). Using background music to affect the behavior of supermarket shoppers. Journal of Marketing, 46(3), 86-91. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224298204600313

Mothersbaugh, D. L., & Hawkins, D. I. (2016). Consumer behavior: Building marketing strategy (13th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

North, A. C., Hargreaves, D. J., & McKendrick, J. (1999). The influence of in-store music on wine selections. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84(2), 271-276. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.84.2.271

Suri, R., & Monroe, K. B. (2003). The effects of time constraints on consumers' judgments of prices and products. Journal of Consumer Research, 30(1), 92-104. https://doi.org/10.1086/374696