Chapter Overview

This chapter explores a number of behaviors related to acquisition of goods and services. Acquisition is a general consumer behavior concept. Marketers tend to focus their attention on impersonal marketplace exchanges that we call purchase behavior. Purchase is the outcome of an array of other behaviors, and is often only an incidental part of these behaviors. Acquisition may involve goods and services, but it may not involve money; this leads to a discussion of countertrade. In gift-giving behaviors, goods or services obtained are de-emphasized in favor of the relational meanings or feelings they evoke.

To provide a framework for understanding these diverse consumer acquisition behaviors, we outline Homan's exchange model, which contains five complementary perspectives. First, we discuss purchase behavior. We discuss some of the types of decisions consumers must make, and review some basic models of purchase decisions. We also spend some time discussing impulse purchases that conform poorly to standard decision-making models of purchase behavior. The basic models of purchase behavior employed in consumer research include the utilitarian, decision-making, behavioral influence, hedonic, and meaning transfer practices.

We review countertrade, indentifying the four main types of countertrade and their significance for business-to-business acquisition behaviors and position countertrade on Homan's exchange continuum. We also offer a brief glimpse of an interesting trend towards consumer-initiated barter systems.

The final section of the chapter discusses gift-giving. We position gift-giving on Homan's exchange continuum and identify the cultural roots of gift giving. We discuss two types of gifts, interpersonal gifts and self-gifts. We indicate how structural and emergent occasions may provoke gift-giving. We discuss how managers may influence gift giving purchases and design retail environments to encourage gift purchases.