Abstract

POHL, Roberta H. B. F.; OLIVEIRA-CASTRO, Jorge M.; BERTOLDI, Lílian  and  LOURENZO, Ana Lúcia. Effects of utilitarian benefit levei on the duration of search behavior for products. Rev. Psicol., Organ. Trab. [online]. 2006, vol.6, n.1, pp. 233-264. ISSN 1984-6657.

According to the Behavioral Perspective Model (Foxall, 1990; 1997; 1998), consumer behavior occurs at the intersection ofthe consumer behavior setting and the individua!'s learning history, which signals aversive and reinforcing informational (e.g., status level) and utilitarian (e.g., value in use) consequences. This model was adopted in the present study with the purpose ofinvestigating the effects of the utilitarian level of products upon the duration of search behavior. Direct observation (Oliveira-Castro, 2003) and brand classification (Foxall, Oliveira-Castro e Schrezenmaier, 2004) methodologies were adopted. 1020 observations of buyers searching for two products (mayonnaise and sweet biscuits) in real situations were conducted. The instrument to classify utilitarian level was developed analogously to that used for informational levei (Pohl, 2004) and responded by 232 consumers. The questionnaire attempted to identify how much different attributes can increase the value ofthe products. The classification of attributes was based, in part, on the results from Anovas with the support of Post Hoc tests (Tukey). Results indicated longer search duration with higher levei of utilitarian benefits for one of the products, suggesting that this relation might be specific to different product categories

Keywords : behavior analyis; consumer behavior; search behavior; product attributes; marketing.

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