UNDERSTANDING PARTICIPANTS AS

CONSUMERS

Why Do We Participate?

• Personal Improvement– Better health, sense of accomplishment,

develop positive values, etc.

• Sport Appreciation– Enjoy the game and competition

• Social Facilitation– Spend time with others, feel like part of a

group

Adult Sport Participant Market:

General Observations• Majority of American adults do not

participate in many of the most common sports

• Numbers conflicting; Surgeon General’s Report (only 15% of adults say that they exercise regularly)

• Why?

Most Popular Sports

2628

31363638

474951

80

0 20 40 60 80

Basketball

Aerobic Ex

Billiards

Biking

Fishing

Bowling

Swimming

Ex w Equip

Camping

Walking

Millions ofPeopleParticipating atleast once a year

Participant Consumption Behavior

• Actions performed when searching for, participating in, and evaluating the sports activities that consumers believe will satisfy their needs and desires

• Attempts to understand participant consumption behavior focus on:– Why consumers participate in certain sports– What are the benefits– When, where, and how often they participate

Sports Participant Behavior a Subset of Consumer Behavior

(CB)• What is consumer behavior?• What does the "black box" view of

consumers imply?• Why are models of consumer

behavior important?• How can a model of consumer

behavior be constructed?• What are some examples of models

of consumer behavior?

Model of Buying Behavior

• Marketing factors and other stimuli are inputs into the “buyer’s black box”

• Stimuli are evaluated in light of the buyer’s decision process and characteristics

• Buyer responses influence choice of the product, brand, vendor, as well as the timing and amount of purchase

Stimulus-Response Model of Consumer Behavior

• Stimuli• 4P’s• Other

characteristics• economic• technological• political• cultural

•Buyer Response•Product choice•Brand choice•Dealer choice•Purchase timing•Purchase amount

•Buyer’s Black Box•Buyer characteristics•Buyer decision process

CB Models

Simplest CB models have 3 stages:1. Prepurchase

Need recognition, evaluation

2. ConsumptionPurchase, use or experience, disposal

3. Post-purchase

Model of Participant Consumption Behavior

Decision-Making Process

• Problem Recognition• Information Search• Alternative Evaluation• Participate• Post-Participation Evaluation

Types of Participation Decision Processes

• Degree of effort or problem solving required for participation/consumption decisions may vary based on familiarity and decision importance.– Habitual problem solving involves routinized or

straight rebuy: Requires nearly no effort– Limited problem solving involves evaluating

alternatives on a few attributes: Little information search

– Extensive problem solving involves evaluating alternatives on more attributes; Meaningful information search

Models of Sports Participants' Decision-Making Process

• Consumer as Risk Taker– Purchases involve risk– Affected by degrees of uncertainty and

the consequences

• Consumer as Rational Mathematician– Attributes, weights, and ratings– Compensatory (additive),

noncompensatory (multiplicative), lexicographic

Are Consumers Rational?

• Economists expect consumers will maximize their own utility, but from what do consumers obtain utility?– Examples:

Coffee mug and chocolate bar

Prospect Theory

Indicate your preference of the following option pairs:

I. 1a. 100% chance of getting $3000 or1b. 80% chance of getting $4000

2a. 25% chance of getting $3000 or2b. 20% chance of getting $4000

II. A. 50% chance of winning $1000 and50% of getting nothing or

B. 100% chance of getting $450

Internal (Psychological) Factors

• Personality• Motivation (for fulfillment of needs)• Perception• Learning• Beliefs and attitudes• Unique to each person

Personality & Self-Concept• Personality: unique psychological

characteristics that lead to relatively consistent and lasting responses to one’s environment

• Generally defined in terms of traits• Self-concept suggests that people’s

possessions contribute to and reflect their identities

• Useful for segmentation

Motives and Needs

• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs explains why people are driven by needs at particular times

• Hierarchy implies that lower level needs must be satisfied prior to higher level needs

• A motive (or drive) is a need that is sufficiently pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction

• Can vary across people and cultures

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Perception

• Process by which people select, organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world– Selective attention– Selective distortion– Selective retention

Learning

• Relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience

• Interplay of drives, stimuli, cues, responses, and reinforcement– Drives: Internal stimulus that calls for action– Stimuli: Objects that move drive to motive– Cues: Minor stimuli that affect response– Reinforcement: Feedback on action

• Strongly influenced by behavioral consequences (classical and operant conditioning)– Behaviors with satisfying results tend to be repeated– Behaviors with unsatisfying results tend to be

avoided

Beliefs and Attitudes

• Belief – Descriptive thought about a brand or

service– May be based on real knowledge, opinion,

or faith• Attitude

– Describes a person’s evaluations, feelings and tendencies toward an object or idea

– Difficult to change

Model of Attitude Formation

External (Sociological) Factors

• Derived from external environments

• Culture• Social class• Reference groups

Culture

• Culture is the most basic cause of a person's wants and behavior– Learned from family, church, school, peers,

and colleagues– Reflects basic values, perceptions, wants, and

behaviors– Cultural shifts create opportunities for new

products or may otherwise influence consumer behavior

– Affects socialization, including sports participation

Subcultures

• Groups of people with shared value systems based on common life experiences

• Examples of major subcultures in U.S.– Hispanic consumers– African-American consumers– Asian-American consumers– Mature consumers

Social Class

• Society’s relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members share similar values, interests, and behaviors

• Measured by a combination of occupation, income, education, wealth, and other variables

Reference Groups

• Groups:– People who influence the information,

attitudes, and behaviors of other group members

– Types:• Family• Membership• Reference (Opinion Leaders)• Aspirational

– Includes athlete role models

Model of Consumer Socialization

Situational Factors

• Temporary factors in a particular time or place

• Physical surroundings– Location, weather, facilities, etc.

• Social surroundings– e.g., Who is present?, crowds

• Time – constraints and availability• Reason for participation• Antecedent states

– Physiological (e.g., energy, aches and pains)– Psychological (e.g., moods)

Personal Factors

• Age and Life-Cycle Stage– People change things bought during

lifetimes

• Occupation– Influences purchase of clothing and

other goods

• Economic Situation– Some goods and services especially

income-sensitive

Personal Factors (cont.)

• Lifestyle– Pattern of living as expressed in

psychographics• Activities• Interests• Opinions