Consumer Markets and Consumer Buyer Behavior
Chapter PREVIEW
In the previous chapter, you studied how marketers obtain, analyze, and use information to understand the marketplace and to assess marketing programs. In this and the next chapter, we'll continue with a closer look at the most important element of the marketplace—customers. The aim of marketing is to affect how customers think and act. To affect the whats, whens, and hows of buying behavior, marketers must first understand the whys. In this chapter, we look at final consumer buying influences and processes. In the next chapter, we'll study the buyer behavior of business customers. You'll see that understanding buyer behavior is an essential but very difficult task.
To get a better sense of the importance of understanding consumer behavior, let's look first at Harley-Davidson, the maker of top-selling heavyweight motorcycles. Who rides these big Harley "Hogs"? What moves them to tattoo their bodies with the Harley-Davidson emblem, abandon home and hearth for the open road, and flock to Harley rallies by the hundreds of thousands? You might be surprised, but Harley-Davidson knows very well.
Few brands engender such intense loyalty as that found in the hearts of Harley-Davidson owners. Harley buyers are granitelike in their devotion to the brand. "You don't see people tattooing Yamaha on their bodies," observes the publisher of one motorcycle industry publication. And according to another industry insider, "For a lot of people, it's not that they want a motorcycle; it's that they want a Harley—the brand is that strong."
Each year, in early March, more than 350,000 Harley bikers rumble through the streets of Daytona Beach, Florida, to attend the Daytona Bike Week celebration. Bikers from across the U.S. lounge on their low-slung Harleys, swap biker tales, and sport T-shirts proclaiming "I'd rather push a Harley than drive a Honda."
Riding such intense emotions, Harley-Davidson has rumbled its way to the top of the heavyweight motorcycle market. Harley's "Hog" motorcycles, as they have come to be called, capture almost 50 percent of the heavyweight segment. For several years running, sales have outstripped supply, with customer waiting lists of up to two years for popular models and street prices running well above suggested list prices. During the past 10 years, annual revenues and earnings have grown at better than 14 percent and 23 percent, respectively. By 2007, Harley-Davidson had experienced 21 straight years of record sales and income, and its stock was at a record high.
Harley-Davidson's marketers spend a great deal of time thinking about customers and their buying behavior. They want to know who their customers are, what they think and how they feel, and why they buy a Harley Fat Boy Softail rather than a Yamaha or a Kawasaki or a big Honda motorcycle. What is it that makes Harley buyers so fiercely loyal? These are difficult questions; even Harley owners themselves don't know exactly what motivates their buying. But Harley management puts top priority on understanding customers and what makes them tick.
Who rides a Harley? You might be surprised. Motorcycles are attracting a new breed of riders—older, more affluent, and better educated. "While the outlaw bad-boy biker image is what we might typically associate with Harley riders," says an analyst, "they're just as likely to be CEOs and investment bankers." "You take off the leathers and the helmet and you'll never know who you'll find," says one hard-core Harley enthusiast, himself a former media producer. The average Harley customer is a 47-year-old male with a median income of $82,000. More than 12 percent of Harley purchases today are made by women.
Harley-Davidson makes good bikes, and to keep up with its shifting market, the
Few brands engender such intense loyalty as that found in the hearts of Harley-Davidson owners. "You don't see people tattooing Yamaha on their bodies."


company has upgraded its showrooms and sales approaches. But Harley customers are buying a lot more than just a quality bike and a smooth sales pitch. To a Harley owner, whether it's the guy who sweeps the floors of the factory or the CEO at that factory, it's about something much deeper. To the hardcore Harley fan, it's all about independence, freedom, and power.
"It's much more than a machine," says the analyst. "It is part of their own self-expression and lifestyle." Another analyst suggests that owning a Harley makes you "the toughest, baddest guy on the block. Never mind that [you're] a dentist or an accountant. You [feel] wicked astride all that power." Your Harley renews your spirits and announces your independence.
One Harley owner sums it up this way on the Harley Owners Group Web site: "I believe in the itch that can only be scratched a on motorcycle. I believe in riding alone, with my wife, with a group. I believe in high mountain passes, tunnels of trees, lonely two-lane roads. I believe in family, friends, and God. I believe my Harley-Davidson can get me to all these places." Adds another, "Four wheels move the body . . . two wheels move the soul." The classic look, the throaty sound, the very idea of a Harley—all contribute to its mystique. Owning this "American legend" makes you a part of something bigger, a member of the Harley-Davidson family.
Such strong emotions and motivations are captured in a classic Harley-Davidson advertisement. The ad shows a close-up of an arm, the bicep adorned with a Harley-Davidson tattoo. The headline asks, "When was the last time you felt this strongly about anything?" The ad copy outlines the problem and suggests a solution: "Wake up in the morning and life picks up where it left off What once seemed exciting has now become part of the numbing routine. It all begins to feel the same. Except when you've got a Harley-Davidson. Something strikes a nerve. The heartfelt thunder rises up, refusing to become part of the background. Suddenly things are different. Clearer. More real. As
Harley-Davidson's marketers put top priority on understanding customers and what makes them tick. Harley customers are buying a lot more than just a quality bike and a smooth sales pitch: "Things are different on a Harley."
they should have been all along. Riding a Harley changes you from within. The effect is permanent. Maybe it's time you started feeling this strongly. Things are different on a Harley."1
To the hard-core Harley fan, it's all about independence, freedom, and power. Says one Harley owner, "Four wheels move the body ... two wheels move the soul."
Consumer buyer behavior
The buying behavior of final consumers-individuals and households that buy goods and services for personal consumption.
Consumer market
All the individuals and households who buy or acquire goods and services for personal consumption.
The Harley-Davidson example shows that many different factors affect consumer buying behavior. Buying behavior is never simple, yet understanding it is the essential task of marketing management. Consumer buyer behavior refers to the buying behavior of final consumers—individuals and households that buy goods and services for personal consumption. All of these final consumers combine to make up the consumer market. The world consumer market consists of more than 6.6 billion people who annually consume an estimated $65 trillion worth of goods and services.2
Consumers around the world vary tremendously in age, income, education level, and tastes. They also buy an incredible variety of goods and services. How these diverse consumers relate with each other and with other elements of the world around them impacts their choices among various products, services, and companies. Here we examine the fascinating array of factors that affect consumer behavior.
Objective Outline
Define the consumer market and construct a simple model of consumer buyer behavior.
Model of Consumer Behavior 160
Name the four major factors that influence consumer buyer
Continue reading here: The Fastest-growing U.s. Population Subsegment Now Number Nearly 50 Million
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