Introduction

Beginning at the left side of the model, notice that a box labelled "stimulus situation" is shown to influence the consumer. The stimulus situation is the complex of conditions that collectively act as a stimulus to elicit responses from the consumer. This suggests that consumer behavior is not typically thought of as being elicited by a single stimulus. Rather, consumer behavior is considered to be the consequence of patterns or constellations of stimuli . For example, when the consumer purchases a can of "Loca-cola" brand beverage, that consumer behavior was not merely the result of the cost of the product. Instead , we would have to consider the cost of the product , the characteristics of the advertisement of the product , the packaging of the product , the individual 's past experiences with the product , the placement of the product on the shelf, and so on.