Urban consumer behavior

Author: Hu Weiping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: This book draws beneficial conclusions from literature reviews, theoretical construction, and empirical analysis, further deepening and developing theories of omnichannel marketing and consumer behavior. It validates the hierarchical nature of values, proposes the concept of value-based marketing, and aims to promote value-centric marketing research. In terms of management recommendations for enterprises, the author suggests identifying corporate value opportunities by understanding customer values and outlines pathways to explore customer values. The author believes this theoretical model can serve as a tool for market segmentation. The book presents original and unique thinking, rigorous logic, and thorough analysis, offering strategies and suggestions for enterprises on how to establish value-based organizations and create products and services that align with the values of different consumer groups.
This book examines urban Chinese consumer behavior from the perspective of values, proposing a two-dimensional value-based model for urban Chinese consumer groups based on consumer behavior theory, collective memory theory, value hierarchy theory, and steady-state theory. The development of this idea follows this line of reasoning: First, using control theory's steady-state theory and the research findings of other scholars, it explains the guiding role of values in human purposeful behavior—that is, people with different values exhibit different behaviors, and differences in consumer values lead to differences in consumption behavior. Second, it proposes a new dimension for classifying values, namely, categorizing values based on their temporal and spatial dimensions. From a temporal perspective, people of different eras hold different social values. Based on collective memory theory, the book categorizes urban Chinese consumers into different generations (the Traditional Generation, the Cultural Revolution Generation, the Transition Generation, and the China E-Generation). From a spatial perspective, people's values are hierarchical. Based on value hierarchy theory, the book divides the mainstream urban consumer group in China into three value levels (self-actualizing, self-esteem-oriented, and content) based on the amount of resources consumers possess. Finally, it categorizes urban Chinese consumers into different groups using the four generations (based on temporal values) as the horizontal axis and the three value levels (based on spatial values) as the vertical axis, thereby establishing a two-dimensional value-based model for urban Chinese consumer groups. This model is based on a series of related assumptions.