Why do we do what we do or act the way?
we act let’s start with an example say
you want to buy a new smartphone what
exactly influences this decision you may
start reading about available phones out
there and form an opinion about which
one is best for you you may talk to
friends and see what they think about
the phones currently on the market you
may go to a store and test a few or get
some advice from a sales guy you may
even do all of this and with everything
that’s available to you at some stage
you make a decision in buying one a good
theory that explains and predicts how
such behaviors form is called the theory
of planned behavior it’s built out of a
number of constructs the first one is
the attitude towards the act or behavior
that’s an individual’s belief of a
certain behavior or act makes a positive
or negative contribution to that
person’s life then the smartphone
example it means that you either believe
that buying a certain phone makes sense
for you or not or which phone makes the
most sense for you a second construct is
called subjective norm this construct
focuses on everything around the
individual in other words his or her
social network cultural norms group
beliefs and so on back to the smartphone
example you will already have an opinion
or former believed as to what others
think about you having that phone or not
having it and that believe again
influences your decision a third
construct is called perceived
behavioural control and what this
construct actually expresses is a
person’s belief on how easy or hard it
is to display certain behavior or act in
a certain way again in the smartphone
case you might pick up a few of them in
a store and form an opinion on how easy
or hard it is for you to handle each one
what the theory now actually predicts is
that a positive attitude towards the act
or behavior favorable social norms and a
high level of perceived behavioral
control are the best predictors for
forming a behavioral intention and in
turn lead to a displayed behavior or act
in other words it predicts that if you
think a certain smartphone is a good
idea and you believe everyone else
thinks it’s a good idea
and you believe you can actually handle
it you’ll get that phone if one of those
constructs is unfavorable so if you
think it doesn’t make much sense for you
to get a particular phone or you think
others don’t think it’s a good idea or
you’re going to be right out of your
comfort zone handling it you’re much
less likely to get that particular phone
and the likelihood decreases if two or
even three out of these constructs are
unfavorable plant behavior is up to
today one of the best predictors and
theories used in marketing if we look
into the tech world we’re seeing
examples everywhere information is
abundant for us to form our opinions and
infomercials everywhere we see ratings
reviews and discussions about every
product and service out there and we’re
being told that people who buy what we
are about to buy are also buying this
other thing and finally we’re prompted
everywhere to test almost every web
platform or service out there before we
subscribe to see if we can actually
handle it and also if it makes sense for
us all of this in combination
contributes to us making a decision and
modern marketing needs to master all
these avenues to successfully place a
service or product to digital natives
spending their time on the Internet
you