Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e- Behavior Dimensions of
the Consumer Market
Text © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002156 Chapter 6
In the last chapter, we discussed basic data on population, income, and consumer
spending patterns. This information can help marketers predict basic trendsin con-
sumer spending patterns. For example, the average person in the U.S. or Canada
consumes 5 times more than a Mexican person, 10 times more than a Chinese per-
son, and 30 times more than a person from India. Unfortunately, when many firms
sell similar products, demographic analysis isn’t much help in predicting which specific
products and brands consumers will purchase—and why. Our Go-Gurt example shows
that many other variables can influence consumers and their buying behavior.the package and interest in the
product, the ads conveyed the
idea that it was OK to play
with your food. For example,
in one spot, a young skate-
boarder holding a Go-Gurt
blasts past another kid who
looks bored eating from a car-
ton of yogurt as the announcer
asks, “Why eat yogurt like this
when you can eat with your
hands, not a spoon? Go-Gurt
comes in a totally cool
squeeze tube you can
squeeze and slurp, grab and
glurp.” The Go-Gurt slurping
skateboarder tells the other
boy, “Hey, lose the spoon.”To follow up on the aware-
ness and interest generated by
the ads, a heavy sampling pro-
gram played a crucial role in
building product trial. No, thesamples were not distributed
at the grocery store. Kids on
skateboards and scooterspassed out samples from
backpacks at festivals, theme
parks, soccer games, and
local parks.
Go-Gurt has been such asuccess that Yoplait has
decided to give adult yogurt
eaters something else to think
about when they visit the
yogurt aisle—four flavors of acomparable yogurt in a tube,
Yoplait Expresse.^1Consumer Behavior—Why Do They Buy What They Buy?
Economic needs affect many
buying decisions, but for some
purchases the behavioral
influences on a consumer are
more important.