Week 09
Consumer Behavior · Davood Wadi, PhD
The sale is not the end of the relationship. What happens after the purchase decides whether the consumer returns.
Postpurchase behavior includes everything the consumer does after buying: using the product, judging it, talking about it, and eventually getting rid of it.
In this stage, the consumer decides whether the purchase was a good one.
That judgment shapes repeat purchases, reviews, recommendations, and complaints.
Keeping an existing customer usually costs less than winning a new one. For this reason, marketers study the postpurchase stage as closely as the purchase itself.
Customer satisfaction is the consumer's overall feeling about a product after purchase and use.
The expectancy disconfirmation model states that satisfaction depends on the gap between expectations and perceived performance (Oliver, 1980).
Positive disconfirmation occurs when performance exceeds expectations. The consumer is satisfied or delighted.
Confirmation occurs when performance matches expectations. The consumer is satisfied.
Negative disconfirmation occurs when performance falls below expectations. The consumer is dissatisfied.
Marketers who promise too much in advertising raise expectations and make negative disconfirmation more likely.
Each consumer has used a product and compared it with what they expected. Name the outcome the disconfirmation model predicts.
Performance exceeded her expectations, so she is satisfied or even delighted.
Performance matched his expectations, so he is satisfied.
Performance fell below the expectations the ad created, so the consumer is dissatisfied.
Performance exceeded what she expected from a budget phone.
Performance matched his expectations: confirmation, and he is satisfied.
The advertising raised her expectations, and performance fell below them.
Which concept does this case show?
Perceived quality is the consumer's judgment of how well the product performs its function.
Equity theory states that consumers judge whether an exchange was fair. They compare what they gave, such as money and effort, with what they received.
Attribution theory explains how consumers assign the cause of a product failure.
If a consumer blames the company for a failure that the company could have prevented, dissatisfaction is stronger.
If a consumer blames chance or their own misuse, dissatisfaction is weaker.
Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort a person feels when holding two conflicting beliefs (Festinger, 1957).
Postpurchase dissonance occurs when a consumer doubts a purchase decision after making it.
Buyer's regret is the feeling that another option would have been better.
Dissonance is most likely when the purchase is expensive, important, and hard to reverse.
Dissonance is also more likely when the rejected alternatives had attractive features that the chosen product lacks.
Which of these purchases is most likely to leave the buyer with postpurchase dissonance?
Consumers reduce dissonance on their own. They seek information that supports their choice, avoid information that favors the rejected options, or lower the importance of the missing features.
Marketers can help. A follow-up message thanks the customer and confirms the benefits of the product.
Guarantees, warranties, and easy return policies reduce the risk that the consumer feels after buying.
Advertising that shows satisfied owners reassures recent buyers as well as future ones.
Customer service that responds quickly to problems prevents doubt from turning into dissatisfaction.
Each card describes something that reduces doubt after a purchase. Is the consumer reducing the dissonance on their own, or is the marketer helping?
Tap a card, then tap the group it belongs to.
A dissatisfied consumer can respond in three ways (Singh, 1988).
A voice response means complaining directly to the seller and asking for a refund or repair.
A private response means switching brands and warning friends and family.
A third-party response means taking action through an outside party, such as a consumer agency, a court, or a public online review.
Most dissatisfied customers never complain to the firm. A complaint is therefore an opportunity to recover the customer.
Disposal is the final stage of consumption.
A consumer can keep a product, using it for its original purpose, finding a new use for it, or storing it.
A consumer can get rid of a product temporarily, by renting it out or lending it.
A consumer can get rid of a product permanently, by throwing it away, giving it away, trading it, or selling it.
Lateral cycling occurs when one consumer's used product passes to another consumer, through a garage sale, a thrift store, or a resale app.
Secondary markets for clothing, electronics, and furniture give products a second life and create new business models for brands.
What is each consumer doing with a product? Sort the cards into the three disposal options.
Tap a card, then tap the group it belongs to.
Writing an online review is one of the most visible postpurchase behaviors.
Consumers write reviews to help other shoppers, to express satisfaction or anger, to gain recognition, or to return a favor to the firm.
Social exchange theory helps explain the request to write a review. A request to help other shoppers reinforces a social exchange. A request to help the company reinforces a reciprocal exchange.
When a review request offered a financial incentive, asking customers to help the company worked less well than asking them to help other shoppers (Wadi et al., 2026a).
Incentives paid only for helpful reviews raised review writing and review length more among first-time reviewers than among experienced reviewers (Wadi et al., 2026b).
A message framed as a reciprocal exchange with the company led reviewers to write longer reviews, but fewer customers chose to write one (Wadi et al., 2026b).
Reviews now have two audiences. They inform human shoppers and the AI agents that read reviews on shoppers' behalf.
An online retailer wants more first-time reviewers to write a review, and it has a budget for rewards. Based on the studies on the slide, which review request fits that goal best?
Brand loyalty is a pattern of repeat purchase supported by a positive attitude toward the brand (Dick & Basu, 1994).
True loyalty combines frequent repeat purchase with a strong positive attitude.
Spurious loyalty is repeat purchase without a strong attitude. The consumer buys out of habit, convenience, or lack of alternatives.
Latent loyalty is a strong positive attitude without repeat purchase. The consumer likes the brand but rarely buys it, perhaps because of price or availability.
Satisfaction does not guarantee loyalty. Satisfied customers still switch when a competitor offers a better deal.
Loyalty programs reward repeat purchase, but they build true loyalty only when customers also value the brand.
Each consumer has a relationship with a brand. Name the type of loyalty, using repeat purchase and attitude.
Repeat purchase without a strong attitude, driven by convenience.
A strong positive attitude without repeat purchase, held back by price.
Frequent repeat purchase combined with a strong positive attitude.
Repeat purchase that comes from a lack of alternatives, not from attitude.
A strong attitude without repeat purchase, held back by availability.
He buys it again and again and holds a strong positive attitude toward it.
Which concept does this case show?
AI agents can now reorder routine products for the consumer, such as detergent, coffee, or pet food.
When an agent handles the repurchase, loyalty can take two forms.
Loyalty to the brand appears when the consumer names the brand in the instruction, for example "reorder my usual coffee."
Reliance on the agent appears when the consumer states only a goal, for example "buy coffee at the best price," and lets the agent choose the brand.
In the second case, the agent's choice depends on the goal it was given and the information it gathers (Wadi & Ma, 2026b). The consumer's past attachment to a brand may count for little unless the instruction mentions it.
Spurious loyalty based on habit is therefore at risk when repurchase is delegated. A brand is more secure when the consumer names it in the instruction or when it remains the best option under the consumer's criteria.
Brands that depend on delegated repurchase compete to be named in the consumer's instruction and to present clear product information to the agent.
Each card is an instruction a consumer gives an AI agent to reorder a routine product. Does the instruction show loyalty to the brand, or reliance on the agent?
Tap a card, then tap the group it belongs to.
Think of a product you were very satisfied or dissatisfied with. Did you write a review? What would have made you write one, and would the answer change if the firm had offered you a reward?