Episode 4

Why do consumers behave that way?

Transcript

Rick Sindt: Welcome to Q talks today, we are joined by Robert Arias, assistant professor of marketing at the Quinlan School of Business, who holds a B.S. in Marketing from DePaul University and a Ph.D. in Business Administration with a Marketing concentration from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. And we are going to talk about consumer behaviors. Thank you for joining us today, Robert. 

Robert Arias: Sure. Pleasure to be here. 

Rick Sindt: Great. So let's set the stage by defining some of the terms we will be talking about today. So you, I, and the audience all have the same starting point. In your field, how do you define consumer behavior? 

Robert Arias: Consumer behavior is the study of how people or groups acquire, use, and dispose of products and products could include services, experiences and so on. So it's not just about the purchase, but it's also about how people use these things or consume and also how people dispose of things. So when you think of the practice of recycling or something like that, right? That they're very, very important consumer behavior that has garnered more and more attention in recent decades, right? 

Rick Sindt: Before we talked, we came up with a list of terms we think people should know. And one of the lists on the terms of materialism. When you think about consumer behavior, how is materialism defined? 

Robert Arias: Yeah, just simply the importance of acquiring material goods as opposed to maybe experiences, right? So when you could think of the spectrum of material and experiential, and so this is the importance of the material side. 

Rick Sindt: That makes a lot of sense. We also talked about conspicuous consumption and inconspicuous consumption. Would you mind defining those terms for us by maybe comparing and contrasting them and giving some examples for the listeners? 

Robert Arias: Sure. So conspicuous consumption is the concept that came from the late 1890s and it essentially captures this idea where people are acquiring things in order to increase their social status and which is different than luxury consumption, right? So you can imagine a lot of luxury consumption may be with the intention to increase their social status. But if you have a luxury toothbrush, maybe not everybody will see this toothbrush, right? And so you love high-quality dental care, but you're not doing it with the intention to climb the ranks of the social stratosphere. So I always like to make that distinction first. Conspicuous versus luxury consumption, there is a difference there in conspicuous consumption. I am not as well versed in that, but it's essentially a preference for not standing out as much. So maybe there's more of an increase to desire subtlety. So trying not to distinguish yourself from the group or trying to maybe just go unnoticed. 

Rick Sindt: Yeah. And inconspicuous consumption can still consist of kind of luxury goods. It's more about if people see it rather than what it is? 

Robert Arias: That is more for conspicuous consumption. For conspicuous consumption, you're hoping that people see this thing and that people think more highly of you because of that. 

Rick Sindt: Gotcha. All right. The final definition we wanted to provide today is what you describe as protective consumer behavior. So how is that defined and what are some examples of protective consumer behavior? 

Robert Arias: Protective consumer behavior? So this is is a concept that I'm working on, and at least to my knowledge, I've seen it alluded to in our discipline of marketing, but I haven't really seen it explained in great depth. But I define this as the practice of consuming products, goods, experiences and services with the intention of protecting possessions or people. So as you could probably imagine, big-box retailers will spend millions and millions of dollars to protect from things like shoplifting and theft. But on the flip side, you could also imagine individual consumers do similar things, right? So people consume in very specific ways to protect themselves and to protect others and to protect their possessions. And so some examples that, even in our own city, would be–to give you one example: something I just noticed and this is very anecdotal evidence here. But you drive around in different neighborhoods and sometimes you'll see the curtains wide open and you could see a very nice apartment with a nice big TV and a beautiful couch and so on. Other times you drive through neighborhoods and all of the curtains are shut. And so just the simple way that a consumer might use or quote-unquote consume their curtains could be a way of trying to protect themselves or to protect from a break-in and so on. 

Rick Sindt: Right, so the premise being they want to protect what they own by hiding it so that people can't see all the nice things inside. And so there's no motivation to get inside. 

Robert Arias: Yeah, hiding would be one strategy of, you know, of this protective consumption, although I'm still trying to develop this project so that I can uncover some other ideas there and other consumer tactics that they might use to protect their possessions and themselves. 

Rick Sindt: So in your research, and I know you said you are still working to define it more and find more examples, but what have you found around different ways that consumers act in different areas? 

Robert Arias: I have I've collected data from refugees living in Uganda, and I asked them about different ways that they may try to go about protecting themselves or protecting their products. And so some things that I've heard are: women, when they're on their way to the market, they may wear shorts under their dresses and so they keep their money in the shorts. That way, they don't have to hold a purse, right? Or another man, he mentioned how he keeps the radio on at night to prevent from break-ins, hoping that that deters any potential burglars. Right? And so another concept that gets at is how do you perceive threats, right? And so if you believe that there's an underlying pervasive threat at all times, that's going to change the way you consume things as opposed to not being concerned about this pervasive threat. And you only feel threatened when you actually either are in a dangerous situation or maybe you know you're out and about and you suspect somebody might be dangerous, but you don't have this pervasive perception that that threat is right around the corner at all times. And so I think this is another concept that I need to... That I'm going to dig into more and develop: how do consumers perceive what is threatening and what is not threatening? 

Rick Sindt: Thank you. And that's a very nice segue into my next question for you, which is: what are some of the known psychological motivations for some of the behaviors we've defined earlier? So you just touch on some protective consumer behaviors? But are there also known psychological motivations for conspicuous consumption, inconspicuous consumption, or anything we have already talked about? 

Robert Arias: Yeah, yeah. So with conspicuous consumption, there's this there's some research by a professor named Derrick Rucker, who's actually here in Chicago at Northwestern, and he and his colleagues find that when people are in a psychological state of powerlessness, they are more likely to drive or purchase things with the intention to increase their status. And so that, so the psychological motivation there would be this feeling of powerlessness and power being defined as the ability to control resources, both your own resources and other resources. So if you feel powerless, you may go for that Gucci bag or you may go for that Louis Vuitton, right? And you'll be more likely to desire these things and do things to acquire them. Regarding materialism, this is a very relevant one right now, there's this concept called mortality salience. And so what that essentially means is that when you're more, when your own mortality or the or the idea that your life is finite. So when this is brought to the forefront of your mind, when you're very when you're made very aware that life is finite, then you'll be more likely to be materialistic. And so some of the thinking there is that when you... When you ponder about how your life is so finite, you might try to live on forever through objects right through material objects, and so that is especially relevant right now, as you might assume with the issue of COVID going on with the pandemic, right? So all the time, in the news, we're seeing things about disease and death and so that brings this concept of mortality salience at the very forefront of your mind. 

Robert Arias: And actually, sure enough, some of my students have done a little research, and what they found, at least, was that durable goods are increasing in sales during COVID. So I'm not sure that you could attribute it to this mortality salience or not, but it's something that's related. And finally, when it comes to protective consumption, what I suspect is happening is that the reason why people would engage in protective consumption is because of distrust. And so trust, you can break down into two different dimensions. One is in terms of benevolence. So do you believe someone has their best, has the best in mind for you? Do they want the best for you or are they out to get you, right? In a negative way. And then the other dimension would be competence. So maybe they're a great person and they want the best for you. But when that mechanic says they're going to have your car back by Wednesday then and it Wednesday comes round, nothing happens and it ends up being next week. It's not that the mechanic had negative intentions, but instead, maybe the mechanic simply couldn't get it done in time, and so they were incompetent. And so there are these two dimensions of trust that may influence consumers to protect their things a little bit more closely, right? A little bit more carefully. So, when you don't trust the people around you, maybe you're going to lock up your things or hide your valued possessions. 

Rick Sindt: I'd like to move back to something you said about materialism that intrigued me when you first started talking about materialism and mortality salience. My brain was like, "This makes sense to me" because if I'm going to be here for a little bit of time and that feels very relevant to me right now, I'm going to want to have things that I enjoy. I'm going to want to buy the Mercedes over the Camry. I'm going to want to have a nice jacket that keeps me warm. But then you said the phrase "to live on through your material possessions," and I was wondering if you could expound upon that more because that flipped the thinking in my head. And now I'm trying to figure out exactly what you meant. 

Robert Arias: Yeah, I'll attempt to answer this. I'm not sure if it'll be sufficient or not, but to expand on the idea of living forever through materials. A couple of things. One, is this very accepted idea that... Let me backtrack here. So, first, I would need to have someone fact-check this, but I believe it was William James who was considered to be the father of American psychology, who said, "We are what we have." And relatedly, I believe it was in the 80s a very leading scholar in our field of consumer behavior, Russell Belk, introduced this concept of possessions as extended self. And so our possessions are extensions of ourselves, of ourselves. And so if you. Adopt this theory, or if you apply this theory rather, then when that special, you know, necklace or that or, you know, maybe your grandfather's watch, you know, all of these possessions, especially when you think of special possessions, you know, these are extensions of ourselves. These help us craft our identity and define who we are, right? So, if you internalize that, then then it makes sense that buying material objects, the selection of objects that coincide with your identity, will help you live on in a way that you can't, right? So you might not physically or biologically, be able to be here, but you'll be able to acquire things that reflect your identity beyond your existence here. 

Rick Sindt: Thank you for that. That helped a lot. Moving back to the examples you gave of consumer protective behavior, specifically how people use their curtains. Some of what you're describing to me sounds like a physical manifestation of code-switching in speech. And I'm wondering if you think that is an apt comparison? 

Robert Arias: Yeah. Before I addressed that, I was going to ask you if you could maybe elaborate a little bit on code-switching and speech? 

Rick Sindt: When I think about code-switching. Code-switching is defined in linguistics as language alternation, which occurs when a speaker alternates between two different languages or language varieties in the context of perhaps a single conversation or different situations. Some examples I can think of are, say, I'm meeting with a Black coworker and we are in the office, and because this is a very professional setting, I find them speaking in a way that is deemed, quote-unquote "professional" by larger society. And then later in the day, we go out for lunch to a restaurant nearby. And if we interact with someone who also happens to be Black, I watch my Black colleagues switch their language into a vernacular that feels more culturally appropriate to them with the person they are talking to. Another example I can think of is when I go to the grocery store. I live on the southwest side of Chicago, and when the cashier is checking out someone who they perceive to be able to speak Spanish, they automatically interact with them in Spanish. But when I approached the register and they perceive me as a white person, they automatically speak to me in English, even though it's possible that I, too, am fluent in Spanish. And so those are examples of code-switching one between vernacular and the other between languages. 

Robert Arias: I see. So you know, I'm not a linguist, but I, at least from what you shared, I could imagine protective consumption being related in the sense of instead of a verbal or linguistic alternation into more of a behavioral alternation from the way that you consume, right? And so if you find yourself, if you find the context to change around you, the social context, then you might alter the way that you consume. And this could be, you know, for good reason or maybe it's for, you know, not so good reasons you could think of somebody clutching their purse when they perceive someone to be dangerous, right? And obviously that perception there's, you know, there's a lot that goes into that part of it. But just the act of holding one of your valuables a little bit more tightly or trying to protect something that's on your person, you know, that could change, right? And so you you talked about code-switching that could change depending on the situation that you find yourself in. So, you know, maybe you're out somewhere and you're you feel completely fine and you're, you leave things... You're not so concerned about your possessions, but then something happens. Maybe a fight breaks out or something happens where it kind of activates this mindset that you need to protect yourself or you protect your things and and you and therefore you use the resource that you have available to you, such as your own possessions, and you take it upon yourself to protect yourself and to protect your things. So I think it could be. I think it could be a physical manifestation of code-switching. There are cases, though, where I think it's not code-switching, but it's just it just is protective consumption that is. 

Rick Sindt: My final question for you. And this is because I know, for our listeners at home, that you are very passionate about access to education. I'm wondering if you think these behaviors impact the vocational and post-secondary educational choices of individuals from different socioeconomic backgrounds? 

Robert Arias: Yeah. So based on my research, I can't say that I could speak to that. Based on my intuition and my own background and just anecdotal observations, I think I could speak to that. And so is that all right? 

Rick Sindt: Absolutely. 

Robert Arias: I'm not entirely sure about the educational choices of individuals, but I could speak to choices made throughout the educational experience. And so that's a little bit different. It might not be very related to the majors that one may choose and so on. But I can imagine that... I'll speak, I'll speak a little more freely, and I hope that it gets edited but appropriately. But I can't speak specifically to the educational choices that an individual might make, but I can speak to maybe the choices one may make throughout their educational experience. So there's a distinction, right? Between what am I going to do for my major and what's the safest way for me to get to school? Right? So the difference between an educational choice and a choice that you make throughout your educational experience and from my research, I could speak to this, you know, and maybe just common knowledge or statistics, you know. Unfortunately, it is generally found to be true where if you have resource scarcity, you have people who are going to do illegal things to fight for resources, right? Or try to garner their own resources. And so with this, to put it in a more applied context in low-income neighborhoods, you know, you might have to be more concerned about things like theft, and you might have to be more concerned about protecting your possessions. 

Robert Arias: And so, you know, the way I see this manifesting or materializing is it could be in a variety of ways. So, maybe the student who needs to take the bus and the train to get to school is going to be a little bit less likely to carry that thousand dollar laptop that they bought, right? And so they're not going to be able to enjoy the privileges of efficient note-taking or, you know, being able to participate in class when, you know, the professor asks people to research something or look something up online, they might be left out of that experience because that thousand dollar laptop is a huge asset for their family, right? And there's no cushion to fall back on if they lose that laptop. Then there's no getting another one, right? So, in order to protect it, you keep it stored away at home and you don't bring it out into the world where you put it at risk of being lost or stolen and so on. So, you know, that's just one example of how this might play out in an educational context. And you know, the way a student consumes their laptop or maybe their tablet or other valuable possessions, you know, could influence their educational experience and success perhaps. 

Rick Sindt: Yeah, Thank you I think that was a very nice example. Before we go, is there anything else you would like to.. any wisdom you'd like to impart to our audience? 

Robert Arias: I'm not sure about wisdom, but I would like to expand on one point. So we talked about how there are two dimensions of trust, right? Benevolence and competence. And most of my research is focused on the concern about benevolence, right? If somebody's benevolent or not or you know? Or are they a threat and you have to be concerned about this, these bad intentions, right? But on the other side, I do want to at least mention this anecdotal observation of competence and the threat of someone being incompetent. So we talked about the mechanic who may not get your car back to you in time, not because they have bad intentions or they're out to get you, but just because they're an incompetent mechanic. And so I just want to bring up this point because I think it's important that, you know, it's not all about, you know, is somebody's out to get me? But sometimes it's just you can't trust someone to do the right thing. And we're not talking about from a moral standpoint, but simply from a competence standpoint. And so the observation I would like to share is I was at a conference a few years ago and conferences are made up of a lot of professors and doctoral students and we all get along. We all see each other at the same conferences that we're all friendly. But I see this one, I see this one professor put his conference bag behind a chair and we all get the same conference bag with the same merch and the same documents and so on, right? Same booklets. But he put his behind this specific chair, and I don't think it's because he thought someone is out to steal his conference bag, even though we all have the same stuff in it. But I think it's because he's concerned that people will mistake their bag for somebody else's, right? And so it's again, you know, it's just not trusting your environment, not in the way where you think they're out to get you, but not trusting them in the sense of competence. Somebody may be incompetent and just make this innocent mistake of taking your bag. And so it's just a point I like to bring up, just so we're not so entrenched in this, you know, the world is out to get you perspective. But also to balance that with sometimes things just don't work out the way you want it to be, not because of bad people, but maybe just because of simple, innocent mistakes, right? And so I just wanted to bring that to light on that competence side of things. 

Rick Sindt: Thank you for that story. I think that was a very enlightening point to drive home and a very good example. I appreciate you taking the time to come on the podcast today. It was very nice to have you as our guest and I look forward to speaking with you again. 

Robert Arias: Thanks, Rick. I look forward to it as well. Thanks for having me. 

Rick Sindt: Thank you for listening today and now for a brief fact check: While it could not find the exact quote by William James that Robert Arias mentioned, he did come up with the idea of the material self. According to William James, the material self pertains to the objects, places, or even people which we have labeled as "ours" or "mine." And as such, these possessions are then viewed as an extension of our individual identities. This notion seems to be drawn on by Chuck Palahniuk, who writes–similar to what Arias quotes–"the things you own end up owning you" in his 1996 novel Fight Club. Russell Belk did publish the paper, titled "Possessions and the Extended Self" in the September 1988 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, where he argued the constructed sense of self is linked to consumer behavior rather than buyer behavior and that our possessions are a major contributor to and reflection of our identities. That's all for the fact check. Thank you again for joining us.