Lecture Notes Consumer Behavior Textbook

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Lecture notes, Consumer Behavior textbook
Consumer Behaviour (University of Manitoba)
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Chapter 1 – An Introduction to Consumer Behavior

← What is Consumer Behaviour?:
 Consumer behavior: the study of the processes involved when individuals or groups
select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to
satisfy needs and desires
← Consumer Behaviour is a Process:
 In early stages of development, consumer behavior was referred to as “buyer
behavior” – reflecting an emphasis on the interaction between consumers and
producers at the time of purchase
 Consumer behavior is more than just a purchase, it is an ongoing process
 Exchange: two of more organizations or people give and receive something of value
o Integral part of marketing
 It involves the issues that influence the consumer before, during, and after a
purchase
← Consumers’ Impact on Marketing Strategy:
 Understanding consumer behavior is good business
 Firms exist to satisfy consumers’ needs better than their competitors
 Consumer response is the ultimate test of whether a marketing strategy will succeed
 Knowledge about consumers is incorporated into virtually every facet of a successful
marketing plan
 Understanding consumers can help the marketer identify threats to a brand and
opportunities for it
 The purpose of understanding consumer behavior is to predict the future
← Segmenting Consumers:
 Marketing segmentation: identifies groups of consumers who are similar to one
another in one or more ways and then devises marketing strategies that appeal to
one or more groups
 Building loyalty to a brand is a very smart marketing strategy, so sometimes
companies define market segments by indentifying their more faithful customers or
heavy users
 Demographics: statistics that measure observable aspects of a population, such as
birth rate, age, income, etc
 Statistics Canada is a major source of demographic data on families
 Changes and trends revealed in demographic studies are of great interest to
marketers, because the data can be used to locate and predict the sizes of markets
for many products

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 Psychographics: differences in consumers’ personalities, attitudes, values, and

lifestyles
← Demographics:
← 1. Age:
 Consumers of different age groups obviously have different needs and wants
 Marketers initially develop a product to attract one age group and then try to
broaden its appeal later on
 Ex: red bull started for bars, nightclubs, gym, young people, and now adapting for
commuters, cab drivers, car-rental agencies to stay alert on the road
← 2. Gender:
 Many products are targeted at either men or women
 Differentiating by gender starts at a very early age
 Ex: diapers – pink for girls, blue for boys
← 3. Family Structure and Life Stage:
 A person’s family structure and marital status is an important demographic variable,
because it have such a big effect on a consumers’ spending priorities
 Ex: young singles and newlyweds go to gyms, bars, concerts, movies, etc
 Ex: families with children buy health foods and fruit juices
 Ex: single parents with older children buy more junk food
 Ex: older couples and dual-career couples use home maintenance
← 4. Social Class and Income:
 People grouped within the same social class are approximately equal in terms of
their incomes and social standing in the community
 Working in roughly similar occupations, similar tastes in music, clothing, art, etc
 Share many ideas and values regarding the way life should be lived
 The distribution of wealth is of great interest to marketers because it determines
which groups have the greatest buying power and market potential
← 5. Ethnicity:
 Canada and multiculturalism go hand in hand
 Immigrants from all over the globe
 Highest per capita rate of immigration in the world
 Diverse in out languages and in the cultural consumption that stems from out
different ethnicities
 Ex: everyone eats sushi all over world
 Ex: Vancouver: English is now a minority language (trilingual labeling of some
products)

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← 6. Geography:
 The climate changes drastically from region to region in Canada, which makes
segmenting some products by region obvious
 Within region, there are some different cultural pockets and hence differences in
food tastes
 Ex: New Brunswick highest consumption of white bread, Alberta leads in bubblegum
sales, cornflakes sales highest in prairies, etc
← Lifestyles: Beyond Demographics:
 Consumers also have very different lifestyles, even if they share other characteristics
such as gender or age
 Factors that determine which products will push our buttons, or even those that will
make us feel better:
o The way we feel about ourselves
o The things we value
o Out attitudes to things and others around us
o The things we like to do in our spare time
← Relationship Marketing: Building Bonds with Consumers:
 Key to success is building relationships that will last a lifetime between brands and
customers (a bond)
 Regular interaction with customers
 Giving them a reason to maintain a relationship with the company
 Relationship marketing: making an effort to interact with customers on a regular
basis, giving them reasons to maintain a bond with the company over time
 Marketers significantly influence lifestyles and consumption habits: combinations of
Integrated Marketing Communications, rewards, and social media create strong
loyalty
← Marketing’s Impact on Consumers:
 We all live in a world that the actions of marketers and the media significantly
influence
 Surrounded by marketing stimuli in the form of advertisements, stores and products
competing for our attention and our dollars
 “At the mercy” of marketers, since we rely on them to sell us products that are safe
and that perform as promised, to tell s the truth about what they are selling, and to
price and distribute these products fairly
← Marketing and Culture:

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 Popular culture: the music, movies, sports, books, celebrities, and other forms of
entertainment consumed by the mass market
o Both a product and an inspiration/influence to marketers
 Many people do not seem to realize how much their views of the world around
them are affected by marketers
o Ex: Mythical creatures such as Pillsbury dough boy which is a “Spokes
character”
 Consumers-generated content: consumers themselves voice their opinions about
products, brands, and companies on blogs, podcasts, and social networking sites,
and even film their own commercials that thousands view on sites
o Also an important part of marketing’s influence on culture
o Ex: Doritos super bowl commercial, Rebecca Black’s song “Friday”
← The Meaning of Consumption:
 People often buy products not for what they do but for what they mean
 The roles of products play in our lives go well beyond the tasks they perform
 A person will choose the brand that has an image consistent with his or her
underlying needs
 Help us to form bonds with others who share similar preferences
← The Global Consumer:
 The majority of people on Earth live in urban centers
 One by-product of sophisticated marketing strategies is the movement toward a
global consumer culture, in which people around the world are united by their
common develop to brand-name consumer goods, movie stars, and celebrities
 We owe much of this interconnectedness to developments in technology that allow
us to link with companies – and with each other – regardless of our physical location
 U-commerce: the use of ubiquitous networks, whether in the form of wearable
computers or customized advertisements beams to us on our cell phones
 RFID tags: plastic tag containing a computer chip and a tiny antenna that lets the
chip communicate with a network (many products already have these)
o Ex: in grocery stores it will tell them when to restock and when items are
expired
 Rise of global marketing means that even smaller companies are looking to expand
overseas – and this increases the pressure to understand how customers in other
counties are the same as or different from the customers in the host country
← Virtual Consumption:

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 Electronic marketing increases convenience by breaking down many of the barriers

caused by time and location
o Ex: 24/7 shopping without leaving home
 B2C commerce: businesses selling to consumers
 C2C commerce: consumer-to-consumer activity
 The web also provides an easy way to consumers around the world to exchange
information about their experiences
 Digital native: students that have grown up “wired” in a highly networked, always-
on world where digital technology had always existed
 Horizontal revolution: information flows across people
o Characterized in part by the prevalence of social media
 Social media: the online means of communication, conveyance, collaboration, and
cultivation among interconnected and interdependent networks of people,
communities, and organizations enhanced by technological capabilities and mobility
 Synchronous interactions: ones that occur in real time (ex: texting back and forth)
 Asynchronous interactions: ones that don’t require all participants to respond
immediately (ex: you text a friend and get an answer the next day)
 Culture of participation: a belief in democracy
o The ability to freely interact with other people, companies, and organizations
o Open access to venues that allows users to share content from simple
comments to reviews, ratings, photos, stories, etc
o Power to build on the content of others from ones own unique point of view
← Marketing Ethics and Public Policy:
 In business, conflicts often arise between the goal of succeeding in the marketplace
and the desire to conduct business honestly and to maximize the well-being of
consumers by providing them with safe and effective products and services
← Business Ethics:
 Business ethics: rules of conduct that guide actions in the marketplace – the
standards against which most people in the marketplace judge what is right, wrong,
good, or bad
 Ethical business is good business
 Consumers think better of products made by firms they feel are behaving ethically
 Notions of right and wrong do differ across people, organizations, and cultures
 Because every culture has its own set of values, beliefs, and customers, ethical
business behaviors are defined quite differently around the world

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 Various cultures and organizations may conduct themselves differently in certain

situations
 These cultural differences certainly influence whether business practices such as
bribery are acceptable
 Giving “gifts” in exchange for getting business from suppliers or customers is
common and acceptable in many counties, even though this practice may be
frowned upon in Canada
← Prescribing Ethical Standards of Conduct:
 Professional organizations often devise a code of ethics for their members
 Prescribed code of ethics guidelines:
o Disclosure of substantial risks with a product
o Identifying added features that will increase the cost
o Avoiding false or misleading advertising
o Avoiding selling or fundraising under the guise of market research
 Intentionally or not, some marketers do violate their bond of trust with consumers
 In some cases these actions are actually illegal
 Industry is increasingly coming to realize that ethical behavior is good business in the
long run, since consumer trust and satisfaction translates into years of loyalty
 Sometimes consumers’ buying behavior is not consistent with their positive attitudes
about ethical products
 Ex: Are you willing pay more for fair trade coffee that helps various cultures?
← Needs and Wants: Do Marketers Manipulate Consumers?:
 One the most common criticisms of marketing is that marketing techniques
(especially advertising) are responsible for convincing consumers that they “need”
many material things and that they will be unhappy and somehow inferior people if
they do not have these “necessities”
← Do Marketers Create Artificial Needs?:
 A need is a basic biological motive, while a want represents one way society has
taught us to satisfy that needs
 The need is already there – marketers simply recommend ways to satisfy it
 A basic objective of advertising is to create awareness that these needs exist, rather
than to create the needs
← Are Advertising and Marketing Necessary?:
 Do marketers give people what they want or, do they tell people what they should
want?
 Critics suggest we buy things we do not need, just because we can

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 On the other hand, products are designed to meet existing needs, and advertising
merely helps to communicate the products’ availability
 Advertising is an important source of consumer information
 Consumers are willing to pay for advertising because the information it provides
reduces search time
← Welcome to Consumer Space:
 Marketer space: companies called the shots and decided what they wanted their
customers to know and do (dead and gone)
 Many people now feel empowered to choose how, when, or if they will interact with
corporations as they construct their own consumer space (and make consumer
decisions)
 People still “need” companies – but in new ways and on their own terms
 In today’s consumer space, we have the potential to shape out own marketing
destinies
← Public Policy and Consumerism:
 The welfare of the consumer is protected by many laws at the deferral, provincial,
and municipal levels
 The main thrust of regulation is to protect the consumer from unfair business
practices and to protect eh broad interests of society
 Consumer behavior can play an important role in improving our lives as consumers
 Consumers depend on governments to regulate and police safety and environmental
standards
 Protecting consumers is more problematic this century as the majority of
manufacturing has moved offshore
 Ex: lead in paint on baby toys
← Consumer Activism and Its Impact on Marketing:
 Adbusters is a not-for-profit organization that advocated for “the new social activist
movement of the information age”
 Adbusters sponsors numerous initiatives intended to discourage rampant
commercialism
 Adbusters’ initiatives such as “buy nothing day” and “Turn off TV week”
 Culture jamming: aims to disrupt efforts by the corporate world ot dominate out
cultural landscape
 Corporate social responsibility (CSR): voluntarily choose to protect or enhance their
positive social and environmental impacts as they go about their business activities

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 This is often driven by consumer demand, as companies attempt to differentiate

themselves in the marketplace
 Corporate giving: marketers donate their own money to good causes
 Cause-related marketing: others promise donations to charity as purchase
incentives
 Green marketing: approach in which they offer products in ways that are less
harmful to the environment
 Social marketing: the promotion of causes and ideas (social products), such as
energy conservation, charities, and population control
o Ex: The United Way
 Techniques to encourage positive behaviors such as increasing literacy and
discouraging dangerous activities such as drunk drivers
 Consumer researchers are studying and rectifying what they see as pressing social
problems in the marketplace
 Transformative consumer research (TCR): helping people or bringing about social
change
← The Dark Side of Consumer Behavior:
 Sometimes consumers’ are their worst enemies
 Consumers’ desires, choices, and actions often result in negative consequences to
the individual or the society in which he or she lives
← Addictive Consumption:
 Consumer addition: a physiological or psychological dependency on products or
services
o Ex: alcohol, drugs, cigarettes
 Many companies profit from selling addictive products or by selling solutions to
addiction
 Any product or service can be seen a relieving some problem or satisfying some
need to the point the reliance on it because extreme
 Addiction to technology – “Crackberry”
← Compulsive Consumption:
 The expression “born to shop” is quite literal
 These consumers shop because they feel compelled to do so rather than because
hopping is a pleasurable or functional task
 Compulsive consumption: repetitive shopping, often excessive, done as an antidote
to tension, anxiety, depression, or boredom
o Ex: gambling

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 Compulsive consumption is distinctly different from impulse buying

 The impulse to buy a specific item is temporary, and it centers on a specific product
at a particular moment
 In contrast, compulsive buying is an enduring behavior that center on the process of
buying, not the purchase themselves
 negative or destructive consumer behavior can be characterized by the following
three common elements:
o 1. The behavior is not engaged in by choice
o 2. The gratification derived from the behavior is short-lived
o 3. The person experiences strong feelings of regret or guilt afterwards
← Illegal Activities:
← Consumer Theft:
 Shrinkage: the industry term for inventory and cash losses from shoplifting and
employee theft
 This is a massive problem for businesses, and the cost is passed on to consumers in
the form of higher prices
 Fraudulent abuse of exchange policies in retail
 Unethical activities include lying and taking credit for someone else’s work
← Anti-consumption:
 Anti-consumption: rebelling against the idea of consumption itself
 Product tampering, graffiti and political protests where property is destroyed
← How Do We Find Out About Consumers? – The Role of Consumer Research:
 Marketers often wish to find out about consumers’ attitudes, opinions, behaviors,
and preferences because by understating the consumer, the marketer is best able to
appeal to relevant needs
 Marketers often engage in various forms of consumer (marketing) research
 Two ways this can be done are by collecting:
o 1. Primary data
o 2. Secondary data
 Primary research: data is collected by the researcher specifically for the research
question at hand
 Secondary research: researcher uses data collected by another entity to answer a
new research question
← Primary Research:
← Survey Research:

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 Survey: a method of data collection in which the respondents self-report answers to

a set of questions posed by the researcher
 Most common forms: written surveys, online surveys, and phone surveys
 Pro: data from a lot of people within a relatively short period of time
 Con: doesn’t allow consumers to provide as rich an detailed responses
← Focus Groups:
 Focus groups: small group sessions with approximately 6-12 consumer participants
 Moderator who leads a group discussion involving a product, concept, or marketing
message
 Often used when a new idea of product is being tested, or the researchers want to
generate new ideas for what strategic direction to take next
 Pro: elicit more rich, detailed, and narrative feedback from consumers
 Con: social influence can play a role, dampening the expression of consumers’ true
individual attitudes
← Interviews:
 Interviews: in-depth, direct contact with consumers
 One-on-one interaction with an interviewer and respondent
 Pro: rich, in-depth data, minimize any impacts of group factors influencing consumer
responding
 Con: takes longer and more expensive
← Observational Research:
 Observational research: directly observed, in either a natural context or a controlled
setting
 Pro: directly tracking and measuring real behaviors, truthful
 Two types of observational research:
o 1. Ethnographic research: researchers observe and record how consumers
behave in real-world contexts, often to understand the meanings consumers
subscribe to different consumption experiences
o 2. Centered in technological forms of behavioral observation
 Scanner technology and clickstream data gathering
← Qualitative Research:
 Storytelling: consumers are asked to tell researchers about their experience with
the product
 Role-playing: consumers are asked to put themselves in a particular role and act out
how they would respond to a particular marketing stimulus
 Photos/pictures: a way to represent their consumption experiences

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 Diary: tracks responses and behaviors over a period of time

 Pros: more subjective, experiential, and narrative
 Cons: consumers will have trouble in providing accurate, unbiased responses
 Projective techniques: presentation of an ambiguous, unstructured object, activity,
or person that a respondent is asked to interpret or explain
o Used when they believe consumers will have trouble providing accurate,
unbiased responses
 Such techniques are used when the marketer wants consumers’ subjective reactions
to things like brand names, colours, and advertising images
← Experimental Research:
 Experiments: used when the researcher wants to make cause-and-effect claims
 Random assignment: puts participants into groups or experimental conditions
 Each person has an equal chance of ending up in any of the experimental conditions
 If random assignment to conditions is done properly, each group should not differ
on important factors before the experimental treatment is given
 The researcher then holds everything constant across the different experimental
conditions
 The only difference is the key manipulation of the causal factor the researcher wants
to examine
 Independent variable: the variable that the researcher manipulates
 Dependant variable: the variable that the researcher measures
←

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Chapter 9 – Individual Decision Making
←
← Consumers as Problem Solvers:
 A consumer purchase may be a response to a perceived problem
 These situations are encountered by consumers virtually everyday of their lives: they
realize that they want to make a purchase and go through a series of steps to do so
 Steps:
o 1. Problem recognition
o 2. Information search
o 3. Evaluation of alternatives
o 4. Product choice
 FIGURE 9-1: Stages in Consumer Decision Making
 Because some purchase decisions are more important than others, the amount of
effort we put into each differs
 Automatic vs. complicated decisions
 The intensive decision-making process gets even more complicated in today’s
environment where we have so many options to choose from
 We can think of this profusion of options as consumer hyperchoice
 Consumer hyperchoice: a condition where the large number of available options
forces us to make repeated choices that many drain psychological energy while
decreasing our abilities to make smart decisions

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 Having extensive options available has also been suggested to have negative
psychological consequences for individual consumers
 Consumers who are characterized by a desire to look at all of the options in a way
that allows for the best possible choice (maximizers) are more anxious and
depressed than their satisficing counterparts
← Perspectives on Decision Making:
 Traditionally, consumer researchers have approached decision makers from a
rational perspective
 Rational perspective: people calmly and carefully integrate as much information as
possible with what they already know about a product, painstakingly weigh the
pluses and minuses of each alternative, and arrive at a satisfactory decision
 Rational = maximize utility, happiness, satisfaction
 “Think at the margin” – the additional benefits exceed additional costs
o Marginal benefit > marginal cost
 Sometimes we buy things irrationally
o Impulse buy
 Economics of information: collect just as much data as we need to make an
informed decision
 Well put ourselves out to collect as much information as we can, so long as the
process of gathering isn’t time consuming
← Stages in Consumer Decision Making:
 Although these decision making steps are followed by consumers for some
purchases, this process is not an accurate portrayal of many purchase decisions
 Consumers simply do not go through this elaborate sequence for every decision
 Purchase momentum: occurs when these initial impulses actually increase the
likelihood that we will buy even more (instead of less as our needs are satisfied),
almost as if we get “revved up” and plunge into a spending spree
o Purchase momentum: occurs when consumers buy beyond needs
o Irrational
 Rational system of cognition that processes information analytically and sequentially
using rules of logic, while others rely on an experiential system of cognition that
processes information more holistically and in parallel
 Decision makers actually possess a repertoire of strategies
 A consumer evaluates the effort required to make a particular choice, and then he or
she chooses a strategy best suited to the level of effort required
 This sequence of events is known as constructive processing

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 Some decisions are made under conditions of low involvement

 In many of these situations, the consumer’s decision is a learned response to
environmental cues
 Behavioural influence perspective: concentrating on these types of decisions and
under these circumstances managers must concentrate on assessing the
characteristics of the environment that influence members of a target market
o Consumers buy based on environmental cues, such as a sale
 In other cases consumers are highly involved in a decision, but this involvement
might not lend itself to the rational approach
 Experiential perspective: stresses the gestalt, or totality, or the product or the
service
o Consumers buy based on totality of product’s appeal
 Marketers focus on measuring consumers’ affective responses to products or
services and develop offerings that elicit appropriate subjective reactions
← Types of Consumer Decisions:
 Continuum – anchored at one end by habitual decision making and at the other by
extended problem solving
 Many decisions fall somewhere in the middle and are characterized by limited
problem solving
← Extended problem solving:
 Consumer feels that eventual decision carries a fair degree of risk
 Usually for expensive products and high risk products
 Risk can be due to financial expense or social risk (what people are going to think of
you)
 Eventual purchase decision is perceived as a risk
 Consumer collects extensive information
 Internal and external search
 Careful evaluation of brand attributes (one at a time)
← Limited problem solving:
 Buyers not as motivated to search for information or to evaluate rigorously
 Buyers use simple decision rules to choose
 Straightforward choices
 Simple decision rules to choose among alternatives
 Cognitive shortcuts (ex: “I buy the brand leader”, etc)
← Habitual decision making:
 Choices made with little to no conscious effort, routine

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 Automaticity: choices made with little/no conscious effort

 Efficient decisions: minimal time/energy
 Repetitive behavior allows consumers to minimize the time and energy spend on
routine purchase decisions
 Challenge for marketers - consumers must be convinced to “unfreeze” their former
habit and replace it with new one
 FIGURE 9-2: A Continuum of Buying Decision Behavior
← Problem Recognition:
 Problem recognition: when we experience a significant difference between our
current state of affairs and some state we desire
 Occurs when consumer sees a difference between current state and ideal state
 Problems arise in one of two ways:
o 1. Actual state-need recognition
 A person’s actual state can decrease if he or she runs out of a product
or buys a product that doesn’t adequately satisfy their needs, or if he
or she has a new need or desire
 Actual state moves downward
 Ex: run out of gas, holes in shoes, etc
o 2. Ideal state-opportunity recognition
 Occurs when we’re exposed to different or better-quality products, or
a particularly compelling price
 This happens because our circumstances change
 As our frame of reference shifts, we make purchases to adapt to the
new environment
 Ideal state moves upward and is lifts from actual
 FIGURE 9-3: Problem Recognition: Shifts in Actual or Ideal States
← Information Search:

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 Once a problem has been recognized, consumers need adequate information to

resolve it
 Information search: the process in which the consumer surveys his or her
environment for appropriate data to make a reasonable decision
← Types of Information Search:
 A consumer may explicitly search the marketplace for specific information after a
need has been recognized (a process called prepurchase search)
 On the other hand, many consumers, enjoy hunting for information and keeping
track of developments just for the fun of it (i.e. browsing) or because they like to
maintain current information for future use (they engage in ongoing search)
← Internal Versus External Search:
 Internal search
o Scanning memory to assemble product alternative information
 External search
o Obtaining information from ads, retailers, catalogs, friends, family, people-
watching, Consumer Reports, environment, etc.
o External searches are surprisingly low
o Low income shoppers search less
← Deliberate Versus “Accidental” Search:
 Our existing knowledge of a product may be the result of directed learning, wherein
on a previous occasion we had already searched for relevant information or
experienced some of the alternatives
 Even though a product might not be of interest, exposure to advertising, packaging,
and sales promotion activities might result in incidental learning
 In some cases we may be such an expert about a particular product category that no
additional search is undertaken
 Frequently, however, out own existing state of knowledge is not satisfactory to
make an adequate decision and we must go outside ourselves for more information
 Obtaining information from ads, retailers, catalogs, friends, family, people-watching,
Consumer Reports, environment, etc.
 Prepurchase vs. Ongoing Decision:
Prepurchase Search Ongoing Search
Determinants Involvement with purchase Involvement with product
Motives Making better purchase decisions Building a bank of information for future use
Outcomes Better purchase decisions Increased impulse buying

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← Online Search:
 When we search online for product information, were a perfect target for
advertisers because we declare our desire to make a purchase
 Many of us shop without leaving home via Yahoo, Google and other internet sites
 “New info shopper”: individuals who automatically go to the internet first
 social media platforms pay a major role in the search process to get other people’s
opinions
 People more often search for products, rather than brands
o Failure on the part of marketers
← Do Consumers Always Search Rationally?:
 We don’t necessarily engage in a rational search process where we carefully identify
and evaluate every alternative before we choose the one we want
 Maximizing: a decision strategy that seeks to deliver the best possible result
o High involvement consumers
 Satisficing: a decision strategy that simply tries to yield an adequate solution – often
as a way to reduce the costs of the decision making process
o Low involvement consumer
o Especially prevalent for decisions about durable goods even when these
products represent significant investments
 Bounded rationality: since we rarely have the resources (especially the time) to
weigh every possible factor into a decision, we will often happily settle for a solution
that is just good enough
 The tendency to avoid external search is less prevalent when consumers consider
the purchase of symbolic items (ex: clothing)
o Most of it involves seeking the opinions of peers
 Consumers are often observed to engage in brand switching, even if their current
brands satisfy their needs
o People just like to try new things
 Variety seeking: the priority is to vary one’s product experiences perhaps as a form
of stimulation to reduce boredom
o Desire to choose new alternatives over more familiar ones
 Variety seeking is especially likely to occur when people are in a good mood or when
there is relatively little stimulation elsewhere in their environment
 Sensory-specific satiety: pleasantness of food just eaten drops wile the pleasantness
of uneaten foods remains unchanged
o So even though we have favourites, we still like to sample other possibilities

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o The idea of diminishing returns – with each additional consumption, we lose

happiness with the product
← Mental Accounting: Biases in the Decision Making Process:
 Mental accounting: framing a problem in terms of gains/losses influences our
decisions
 Sunk-cost fallacy: reluctant to waste something we have paid for
 Loss aversion: people put much more emphasis on loss than they do on gain
 Prospect theory: a descriptive model of choice, finds that utility is a function of gains
and losses, and risk differs when consumer faces options involving gains versus
those involving losses
← How Much Search Occurs?:
 Search activity is greater when:
o Purchase is important
o There is a need to learn more about purchase
o Relevant info is easily obtained/utilized
o One is younger, is better-educated, and enjoys shopping/fact-finding
o One is female (compared to male)
o One places greater value on own style/image
← Amount of Information Available:
 More information is not always better for the consumer
 We know that consumers have limited capacity in their short-term memory and
adjust to their environment by making it more manageable
 Therefore, when in choice environments with more information than we can easily
process, we truncate the environment to deal efficiently with a subset of it
← The Consumer’s Prior Expertise:
 Moderately knowledgeable consumers tend to search more than product experts
and novices
 There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between knowledge and external search
effort
 FIGURE 9-4: The Relationship between Amount of Information Search and Product
Knowledge

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 Moderately knowledgeable customers are usually the most happy with their
decisions
o “Ignorance is bliss” – experts are picky (blissful ignorance effect)
 Experts
o Selective search: efforts are more focused and efficient
o Quick search because they know what they want
 Novices
o Rely on others’ opinions, “nonfunctional” attributes, and “top down”
processing
o Quick search because they don’t know anything about what they want
Perceived Risk:
 Perceived risk: belief that product has negative or uncertain consequences
 Risk can be a factor when products are expensive, complex, or hard-to-understand
 Risks can be objective (physical danger) and subjective (social embarrassment)
 Product choice is visible to others and run the risk of embarrassment if we make the
wrong choice
 Consumers with greater “risk capital” are less affected by perceived risks associated
with the products
 FIGURE 9-5: Five Types of Perceived Risk
← Evaluation of Alternatives:
 Choosing from many available alternatives is much of the effort that goes into a
purchasing decision
← Identifying Alternatives:
 Extended problem solving: carefully evaluate several brands
o More extended processing occurs in situations where negative emotions are
aroused by conflicts among the choices available
o This is most likely to occur where difficult trade-offs are involved
 Habitual decision: may not consider any alternatives to his or her normal brand

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 Evoked set: the alternatives actively considered during a consumer’s choice process
 The evoked set comprises those products already in memory (the retrieval set) plus
those prominent in the retail environment
 Inept set: options you know about but do not think are good options because you
are not looking for them
o Very hard to get off this list. Why product launches, brand extensions are
important
o Like first impression when you meet someone
o Ex: Windows Mobile
 Microsoft has always struggled to get into mobile game (started in
1996, boomed in 2005 and sizzled out in 2010)
 Rogers started providing it twice and both were colossal failures
 Couldn’t unfreeze behaviour and get off the inept set list (people still
won’t touch Microsoft mobile)
 Inert set: options you don’t know about and do not come to mind at all
 Consumers often consider a surprisingly small number of alternatives in their evoked
set
 A marketer who finds that her or his brand is not in the evoked set of many
consumers in the target market has cause to worry
 A new brand is more likely to be added to the evoked set than is an existing brand
that was previously considered but passed over
 FIGURE 9-6: Identifying Alternatives: Getting in the Game
← How Do We Put Products into Categories:

 The category we assign to a product is important, because it influences what we
compare it to and how we use it
 The category in which a consumer places a product determines the other products
he or she will compare it to, the way we classify a brand in our minds places a big
role in how we evaluate it
 When faced with a new product, we refer to existing product category knowledge to
form new knowledge

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 These classifications derive from different product attributes, including appearance,

price, or previously learned connections
 We evaluate products in terms of what we already know about a similar product
 Evoked-set products usually share similar features
 This process of categorizing products can either help or hurt a product depending on
what people compare it to
 It is important to understand how this knowledge is represented in consumers’
“cognitive structure” – their body of factual knowledge (i.e. beliefs) about products
and the way it is organized in their minds
 One reason cognitive structure is important is that marketers want to ensure that
their products are correctly grouped
← Levels of Categorization:
 Not only do people group things into categories, but these groupings also occur at
different levels of specificity
 Typically, a product is represented in a cognitive structure at one of three levels
 The middle level, known as a basic-level category, is a typically the most useful in
classifying products, since items grouped together at this level tend to have a lot in
common with each other but still permit a range of alternatives to be considered
 The first level, the broader superordinate category, is more abstract, while the third
more specific subordinate category, often includes individual brands
 Not all items fit equally well into a category
← Strategic Implications of Product Categorization:
 The way a product is grouped with others has very important ramifications for
determining both its competitors and what criteria will be used to make this choice
 Product Positioning:
o Positioning strategy: marketer’s ability to convince the consumer that his or
her product should be considered within a given category
o Ex: Tropicana + Omega 3
 Identifying Competitors:
o Many different product forms can compete for membership on
superordinate level of categorization
o Products and services that, on the surface, are quite different actually
compete with each other at a broad level, often for consumers’ discretionary
dollars

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o Consumers are often faced with choices between non-comparable

categories, in which a number of attributes exist that cannot be directly
related to one another
o The comparison process is easier when consumers can derive an overlapping
category that encompasses both items and then rate each alternative in
terms of that superordinate category
 Exemplar Products:
o If a product is a really good example of a category, it is more familiar to
consumers and, as a result, is more easily recognized and recalled
o Judgments about category attributes tend to be disproportionately
influenced by the characteristics of category exemplars
o In a sense, brands that are strongly associated with a category get to “call the
shots” by defining the criteria that should be used to evaluate all category
members
o But “moderately unusual” products stimulate more information processing
and positive evaluations
 Locating Products:
o Product categorization can also affect consumers’ expectations regarding the
places they can locate a desired product
o If products do not clearly fit into categories, consumers’ ability to find them
or make sense of them may be affected (ex: frozen dog food)
← Product Choice: Selecting Among Alternatives:
 The decision rules that guide choice can range from very simple and quick strategies
to complicated processes requiring a lot of attention and cognitive processing
 Future creep: company’s overwhelm us with more and more features (spiral of
complexity)
 Often assume the more features the better
 Positive benefits of additional features: consumers preferences are displayed to
others behavior
 Con: the anticipation of having to actually use the complicated product in front of
others enhances the attractiveness of a simpler, feature-poor product
← Evaluative Criteria:
 Evaluative criteria: dimensions used to judge the merits of competing options
 Number of criteria ranging form very functional attributes to experiential ones
 Criteria on which products differ carry more weight in the decision process

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 Determinant attributes: specific attributes that are actually used to differentiate

among choices
 Marketers can play a role in educating consumers about which criteria should be
used as determinant attributes
 Marketers even may invent determinant attributes
o Ex: Pepsi’s freshness date stamps on cans
 The decision about which attributes to use is the result of procedural learning, in
which a person undergoes a series of cognitive steps before making a choice
 These steps include identifying important attributes, remembering whether
competing brands differ on those attributes, etc
 In order for a marketer to recommend a new decision criterion effectively, their
communication should convey three pieces of information:
o 1. It should point of that there are significant differences among brands on
the attribute
o 2. It should supply the consumer with a decision-making rule, such as, “If
(deciding among competing brands), then (use the attribute as a criterion)”
o 3. It should convey a rule that can be easily integrated with the way the
person has made this decision in the past. Otherwise the recommendation is
likely to be ignored because it requires too much mental work
← Neuromarketing: How Your Brain Reacts to Alternatives:
 Neuromarketing: uses functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI, a brain-
scanning device that tracks blood flow as we perform mental tasks
 Marketers measure consumers’ reactions to movie trailers, choices about
automobiles, the appeal of a pretty face, and loyalty to specific brands
← Cybermediaries:
 Cybermediaries: an intermediary that helps to filter and organize online market
information so that customers can identify and evaluate alternatives more efficiently
 Cybermediaries take different forms:
o Directories and portals are general services that tie together a large variety
of different sites (ex: Yahoo)
o Website evaluators reduce the risk to consumers by reviewing sites and
recommending the best ones
o Forums, fan clubs, and user groups offer product-related discussions to help
customers sift through options

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o Intelligent agents are sophisticated software products that use collaborative

filtering technologies to learn from past user behavior to recommend new
purchases
 The long tail: idea is that we no loner need to rely solely on big hits to find profits
o Companies can also make money if they sell small amounts of items that only
a few people want if they sell enough different items
 Electronic recommendation agent: a software tool that tries to understand a human
decision maker’s multi-attribute preferences for a product category by asking the
user to communicate their preferences
 Brand advocates: people who supply customer reviews
← Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts:
 To simplify decisions, consumers often employ decision rules that allow them to use
some dimensions as substitutes for others
 Heuristics: mental rules-of-thumb that lead to a speedy decision
o Especially where limited problem solving occurs prior to making a choice
 Ex: Higher price = higher quality, buying the same brand your mother bought
 Can lead to bad decisions due to flawed assumptions (especially with unusually
named brands)
← Relying on a Product Signal:
 One frequently used shortcut is the tendency to infer hidden dimensions of products
from observable attributes
 Product signal: the aspect of the product that is visible acts as a product signal for
some underlying quality
 When product information is incomplete, judgments are often derived from beliefs
about covariation, or associations among events
 Other signals or attributes believed to coexist with good or bad products are well-
known brand names, country of origin, price, and the retail outlets that carry the
product
 Consumers tend to be poor estimators of covariation
 They tend to see what they are looking for
← Market Beliefs:
 Market beliefs: consumers often form specific market beliefs about relationships in
the marketplace
 These beliefs then become the shortcuts – whether or not they are accurate – that
guide their decisions
o About companies, products, and stores

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 Price-quality relationship: we tend to get what we pay for

 Other common marketing beliefs
o All brands are basically the same
o Larger stores offer better prices than smaller stores
o Items tied to “giveaways” are not a good value
← Country of Origin as Heuristic:
 A product’s “address” matters
 A product’s country of origin in some cases is an important piece of information in
the decision making process
 Country of origin effects can function as a stereotype
 Stereotype: a knowledge structure based on inferences across products
 Though stereotypes are often biased or inaccurate, they do play a constructive role
in simplifying complex choice situations
 Country-of-origin effects stimulate consumer interest in the product
 The country of origin acts as a product attributes that combines with other
attributes to influence evolutions
 When other information is available, experts tend to ignore country of origin
information whereas novices continue to rely on I t
 However, when other information is unavailable or ambiguous, both experts and
novices will rely on this attribute to make a decision
 Ethnocentrism: tendency to prefer products or people of one’s own
country/cultures products more favorably than do people who live elsewhere
 People often feel they negatively effect their own domestic economy if they buy
from other countries
 “Industrialized countries make better products than developing countries.”
← Choosing Familiar Brand Names – Loyalty or Habit?:
 Zipf’s Law: our tendency to prefer a number one brand to the competition
 Brands that dominate the market are sometimes 50% more profitable than their
nearest competitors
← Inertia: Fickle Customer:
 Consumer inertia: tendency to buy a brand out of habit merely because it requires
less effort
 A competitor who is trying to change a buying pattern based on inertia often can do
so very easily, because little resistance to brand switching will be encountered if
some reason to switch is apparent
 Little to no underlying commitment to the product

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 Brand switching can frequently occur (cheaper price, original brand out-of-stock,
point-of-purchase displays)
← Brand Loyalty:
 Brand loyalty: a form of repeat-purchasing behavior reflecting a conscious decision
to continue buying the same brand
 Refers to a pattern of purchases over time where actual decision making occurs
 For brand loyalty to exist, a pattern of repeat purchasing must be accompanied by
an underlying positive attitude toward the brand
 Purchase decisions based on brand loyalty also become habitual over time, but the
underlying commitment to the brand is much stronger
 Brand parity: refers to consumers’ beliefs that there are no significant differences
among brands
 We are often less picky about where we buy our favourite brands
← Decision Rules:
 Consumers consider sets of product attributes by using different rules, depending on
the complexity of the decision and its important to them
 Some cases these rules are quite simple: people simply rely on a “shortcut” to make
a choice
 In other cases, more effort and thought are put into carefully weighing alternatives
before coming to a decision
 Differentiate among decision rules by dividing them into compensatory versus non-
compensatory
 Compensatory rules imply that one good attribute can “compensate” for other
poorer attributes
 Non-compensatory rules are where some poor attributes may eliminate the choice
despite its strength on other attributes
← Non-compensatory Decision Rules:
 Simple decision rules
 Product with a low standing on one attribute cannot make up for this position by
being better on another attribute
 People simply eliminate all options that do not meet some basic standards
 When people are less familiar with a product category or not very motivated to
process complex information, they tend to use simple, non-compensatory rules
 Lexicographic rule:
o The brand that is the best on the most important attribute is selected

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o If two of more brands are seen as being equally good on that attribute, the
consumer then compares them using the second most important attribute
o Processing by attribute
 Elimination-by-aspects rule:
o Brands are evaluated on the most important attribute
o Specific cut-offs are imposed
o Processing by attribute
 Conjunctive rule:
o Processing by brand
o Cut-offs are established for each attribute
o A brand is chosen if it meets all the cut-offs, while failure to meet any one
cut-off means refection
o If none of the brands meets all the cut-offs, the choice may be delayed the
decision rule may be changed, or the cut-odds themselves may be modified
o Note that this rule rates negative data more heavily
 Disjunctive Rule:
o The consumer develops acceptable standards for each attribute
o Usually the standards are higher than the shopper’s minimum cut-offs for
attributes
o If a choice alternative exceeds the standard for any attribute, it is accepted
← Compensatory Decision Rules:
 Give a product a change to make up for its shortcomings
 More involved in the purchase and thus are willing to exert the effort to consider the
entire picture in a more exacting way
 The willingness to let good and bad product qualities balance out can result in quite
different choices
 Simple additive rule:
o The consumer merely chooses the alternative with the largest number of
positive attributes
o Most likely to occur when their ability or motivation to process information is
limited
o Drawback: some of these attributes may not be very meaningful and
important
 Weighted additive rule:
o More complex rule

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o The consumer also takes into account the relative importance of positively
rated attributes, essentially multiplying brand ratings by importance weights
←
←
←
←
←

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Chapter 10 – Buying and Disposing

← Introduction:
 Relationship marketing: building strong customer service experiences with loyal
customers in ways that foster a continued relationship over time
 FIGURE 10.1 – Issues Related to Purchase and Postpurchase Activities
 A consumer’s choices are affected by many personal factors… and the sale doesn’t
end at the purchase
← ANTECEDENT STATES:
← Situational Effects on Consumer Behaviour:
 A consumption situation is defined by contextual factors over and above
characteristics of the person and the product
 Situational effects can be behavioural or perceptual
o Behavioural: based on what were doing at a particular time
o Perceptual: based on how we feel at a particular time
 People tailor their purchases to specific occasions
 The way they feel at a specific point in time affects what they feel like buying or
doing
 Smart marketers understand these patterns and tailor their efforts to coincide with
situations where people are most prone to buy
 Ex: bookstores promote in June – “beach books”
 The role a person plays at any time is partly determined by his or her situational self-
image, according to which he or she basically answers the question, “who am I right
now?”
 By systematically identifying important usage situations, marketers can develop
market segmentation strategies to position products that will meet the specific
needs arising from these situations
← Physical and Social Surroundings:
 Important cues include the person’s physical surroundings as well as the number
and type of other consumers also present in that situation
 Dimensions of the physical environment, such as décor, smells, and temperature,
can significantly influence consumption
 Many of a consumer’s purchase decisions are significantly affected by current
groups or social settings

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 The presence or absence of other patrons (co-consumers) is in a setting can function

as a product attribute
 The mere presence of another consumer is a retail context can lead people to opt
for a more expensive brand
 If another consumer touches a product in the retail context, this can lead consumers
to negatively evaluate the product, an effect referred to as consumer contamination
 Although the presence of other people creates a state of arousal, the consumer’s
actual experience depends on his or her interpretation of this arousal
 It is important to distinguish between density and crowding for this reason
 Density: the actual number of people occupying a space
 Crowding: psychological state exists only is a negative affective state occurs as a
result of this density
 Perceptions of crowding in a retail context causes more variety seeking among
consumers
 The type of consumers who patronize a store or service can serve as an attribute

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← Temporal Factors:
 Time is one of consumers’ most limiting resources
 “Time is money”
 Our perceptive on time can affect many stages of decision making and consumption
 More careful information search and deliberation occurs when we have the luxury of
taking our time
← Economic Time:
 Time is an economic variable
 It is a resource that must be divided among activities
 Times style: consumers try to maximize satisfaction by allocating time to the
appropriate combination of tasks
 People’s allocation decisions differ
 An individual’s priorities determine his or her timestyle
 Time poverty: more pressed for time than ever before
 Marketing high tech innovations allow us to save time
 However, due more to perception than to fact (people may just have more options
for spending their time and feel pressured by the weight of all these choices)
o Opportunity cost (trade off of which options we choose)
 People in different countries also “spend” time differently
 With the increase in time poverty, rise in polychronic activity (multitasking), wherein
consumers do more than one thing at a time
o Ex: eating
← Psychological Time:
 “Time flies when you're having fun”
 Our experience of time is subjective and is influenced by out immediate priorities
and needs
 More likely to be in a consuming mood at certain times than others
 Time categories - marketing messages:
o Flow time: become so absorbed in an activity we notice nothing else. Not a
good time to be hitting people with ads
o Occasion time: special moments when something monumental occurs. Ads
clearly relevant to the situation will be given our undivided attention
o Deadline time: any time when were working against the clock is the worst
time to try to catch our attention
o Leisure time: during downtime, we are more likely to notice ads and perhaps
try new things

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o Time to kill: when were waiting for something to happen, more receptive to
commercial messages, even for products we don’t normally use
 Our experience of time is largely a result of our culture, because different societies
have varying perspectives on this experience
 Western consumers – time is a neatly compartmentalized thing
 Linear separable time: events proceed in an orderly sequence and different times
are well defined
 “There’s a time and place for everything”
 Clear sense of past, present, and future
 The psychological dimension of time, or how it is experienced, is an important factor
is queuing theory
 Queuing theory: the mathematical study of waiting lines
o Waiting for product = good quality
o Too much waiting = negative feelings
o Marketers use “tricks” to minimize psychological waiting time
 Ex: mirrors
 Around elevators, self-checkout
← Antecedent States: If It Feels Good, Buy It:
 Antecedent states: a person’s mood or physiological condition at the time of
purchase can have a big impact on what is bought and can also affect how products
are evaluated
 Ex: people spend more in the grocery store if they have not eaten for a while,
because food is a priority at the time
 A consumer’s mood can have a big impact on purchase decisions
 Two dimensions determine whether a shopper will react positively or negatively to a
store environment
o 1. Pleasure
o 2. Arousal
 Different combinations of pleasure and arousal levels result in a variety of emotional
states
 FIGURE 10-2: Dimensions of Emotional States

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 Mood congruency refers to the notion that a mood state (either positive or
negative) biases judgments of products and services in that direction
 Consumers like things better when they are in a good mood
 Music and TV programming can affect mood, which has important consequences for
commercials
 When in positive moods, consumers process ads with less elaboration
 They pay less attention to specifics of the messages and rely more on heuristic
processing
← Shopping: A Job or an Adventure?:
 Shopping is a way to acquire needed products and services, but social motives for
shopping as also important
 Shopping is an activity that can be performed for either:
o 1. Utilitarian (functional or tangible)
o 2. Hedonic (pleasurable or intangible) – emotional reasons
 Women “shop to love” and men “shop to win”
← Reasons for Shopping:
 Vary by product category, store type, and culture
 Hedonic shopping motives can include:
o Social experiences
o Sharing of common interests
o Interpersonal attraction
o Instant status
o The thrill of the chase
 Consumers can be segmented in terms of their shopping orientation
 Shopping orientation: general attitudes about shopping
 These orientations may vary depending on the particular product categories and
store types considered
 Several shopping types have been identified:
o Economic consumer: a rational, goal-oriented shopper who is primarily
interested in maximizing the value of his or her money – utilitarian
o Personalized consumer: a shopper who tends to form strong attachments to
store personnel
o Ethical consumer: a shopper who likes to help out the underdog and will
support locally owned stores against big chains
o Apathetic consumer: a shopper who does not like to shop and sees it as a
necessary but unpleasant chore

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o Recreational shopper: a shopper who views shopping as a fun social activity

← PURCHASE ENVIRONMENT:
← E-Commerce: Clicks Versus Bricks:
 Experience of acquiring the good may be quite different offline from online
 This aspect of the transaction can provide added value over and above the good or
service you buy
 The growth of online commerce, can reach customers around the world
 Competition now comes not only from the store across the street, but also from
thousands of websites spanning the globe
 Some e-tailers take advantage of technology to provide extra value to their
customers that their landlocked rivals cant
 E-commerce does have its limitations:
o Security
o Actual shopping experience
← Retailing as Theatre:
 Competition for customers is becoming intense as non-store alternatives multiply
 Malls have tried to gain the loyalty of shoppers by appealing to their social motives,
as well as by providing access to desired goods – “more than a store”
o Ex: Mall of America
 Retail theming: the quest to entertain means that many stores are going all out to
create imaginative environments that transport shoppers to fantasy worlds or
provide other kinds of stimulation
 Innovative merchants today use four basic kinds of themes:
o Landscape themes: images of nature, the earth, animals, and the physical
body
o Market space themes: human-made places
o Cyberspace themes: images of information and communications technology
 “Being” space: this environment resembles a commercial living room where
consumers can go to relax, be entertained, hangout with friends, escape the
everyday, or even learn
o Ex: Starbucks – a place to be
 Minipreneurs: one person business offering work-centered being spaces
← Store Image:
 Stores might be thought of as having “personalities”
 Store image: personality of the store
 Location, merchandise suitability, knowledge/congeniality of sales staff

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 Store image can be a crucial part of the shipping experience for all kinds of products
and services
 The features of a store profile typically work together to create an overall
impression
 Consumers evaluate stores in terms of both their specific attributes and a global
evaluate, or gestalt (overall impression is what matters)
 Some stores are likely to be consistently in consumers’ evoked sets, while others will
never be considered
← Atmospherics:
 Careful store design increases the amount of space the shopper covers and
stimulating displays keep them in the aisles longer
 Because a store’s image is now recognized to be a very important aspect of the
retailing mix, attention is increasingly paid to atmospherics
 Atmospherics: conscious designing of space and dimensions to evoke certain effects
in buyers
 Colours/lighting, scents, and sounds/music affects time spent in store as well as
spending habits
← In-Store Decision Making:
 Despite all their efforts to “pre-sell” consumers through advertising, marketers are
increasingly recognizing the significant degree to which many purchases are
influenced by the store environment
 Marketers are scrambling to engineer purchasing environments to increase the
likelihood that their products will be available to consumers at the exact time they
make a decision
← Spontaneous Shopping:
 When a shopper is prompted to buy something while in the store, one of two
different processes may be at work
 Unplanned buying: occurs when a person is unfamiliar with a store’s layout is under
time pressure or reminded to buy something when they see it on the shelf
 Impulse buying: occurs when the person experiences a sudden, irresistible urge to
buy that cannot be resisted
 Shoppers can be categorized in terms of how much advance planning they do
 Planners tend to know what products and specific brands they will buy beforehand
 Partial planners know they need certain products but do not decide on specific
brands until they are in the store
 Impulse purchasers do not advance planning whatsoever

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← Point-of-Purchase Stimuli:
 Point-of-purchase (POP) stimuli: product display or demonstration that draws
attention
o A coupon-dispensing machine, or even someone giving out free samples
← The Salesperson:
 One of the most important in-store factors is the salesperson, who attempts to
influence the buying behaviour of the customer
 Exchange theory: stresses that every interaction involves an exchange of value; each
participant gives something to the other and hopes to receive something in return
 Commercial friendships: service personnel and customers to form fairly warm
personal relationships
 Relationships and a sense of connection to a salesperson can be established
relatively quickly
 A buyer/seller situation is like many other dyadic encounters
 It is a relationship where some agreement must be reached about the role of each
participant – a process of identity negotiation occurs
← Has IT Destroyed Customer Service?:
 Many times customer service systems fail
 Examples:
o Call centers use activated response systems that do not satisfy the customer
o A custom-made guitar was destroyed on an airplane and no compensation
offered until the Canadian musician posted a video song on You Tube
← POST-PURCHASE PROCESSES:
← Post Purchase Satisfaction:
 Consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction (CS/D): is determined by the overall feelings
or attitude, a person has about a product after it has been purchased
 Marketers constantly on lookout for sources of consumer dissatisfaction
 Consumers are engaged in a constant process of evaluating the things they buy as
these products are integrated into their daily consumption activities
 Companies that score high in customer satisfaction often have a big competitive
advantage
← Perceptions of Product Quality:
 The want quality and value
 Claims of product quality have become strategically crucial to maintaining a
competitive advantage

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 Brand name, price and even their own estimates of how much money has been put
into a new product’s advertising campaign
 These cues and others, such as product warranties and follow-up letters from the
company, are often used by consumers to relieve perceived risk and assure
themselves that they have made smart purchase decisions
 Although everyone wants quality, it is not clear exactly what quality means
 Marketers appear to use the word quality as a catchall for “good”
 Satisfaction or dissatisfaction is more than a reaction to the actual performance
quality of a product or a service; it is influenced by prior expectations regarding the
level of quality
 Expectancy disconfirmation model: consumers form beliefs about product
performance based on prior experience with the product and/or on communications
about the product that imply a certain level of quality
 Managing expectations: customer dissatisfaction is usually due to expectations that
exceed the company’s ability to deliver
o Don’t promise what you can’t deliver
 A firm can also underpromise
o Increase satisfaction with the final outcome
 Ex: telling you the wait is 15 minutes when it is really 10 minutes
 When a product doesn’t work as we expect or turned out to be unsafe, it’s the
understatement to say were not satisfied
 FIGURE 10-3: Managing Quality Expectations
o You can either accommodate the customers needs, alter their needs, or
abandon the customer because their needs are too high
← Acting on Dissatisfaction:
 A consumer as three different courses of action available (more than one can be
taken):
o Voice response: appeal directly to the retailer for redress (ex: refund)
o Private response: express dissatisfaction about the store or product to
friends and/or can boycott the store – negative word or moth can be very
damaging to a store’s reputation (social media enhances this)
o Third-party response: take legal action against the merchant

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 A number of factors influence which response route is eventually taken

o Action is more likely for expensive products
o Consumers who are usually satisfied with a store are more likely to complain
when the have a bad experience; they take the time to complain because
they feel connected to the store
o Older people are more likely to complain and believe the store will fix it
 Marketers should actually encourage consumers to complain to them – people are
more likely to spread the word to their friends about unresolved negative
experiences than they are to boast about positive occurrences
← The Real Value of Happy Customers:
 Customers are willing to pay more for products if they experience great customer
service
 And when they find good customer service, others will know about it, just as when
we experience bad customer service
 Good service travels fast via social networks
← Total Quality Management: Going to the Gemba:
 Its crucial to understand how people actually interact with their environments to
indentify potential problems
 Typically are done in focus groups
 Total quality management (TQM): a complex set of management and engineering
procedures aimed at reducing errors and increasing quality
 “Go to the gemba”
 Gemba: the one true source of information
← The Evolution of Product Ownership:
 One emerging consumer trend involves the movement away from the purchase and
ownership of tangible goods and toward other models that allow for temporary
ownership, shared ownership, or even experiences of products
 Such a trend allows the consumer to enjoy the benefits o the product when needed,
but to not have to worry about other concerns such as paying a high price,
maintaining and storing the product, or disposing of the product
o Ex: car co-ops
 This growing trend has led to the naming of a new type of consumer – the
transumer – who opts for temporary ownership or experiences of products, rather
than permanently acquiring goods
 Trend is driven by desire to remain current, fashion-conscious, and more
environmentally sustainable

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← Product Disposal:
 Because people often form strong attachments to products, the decision to dispose
of something may be a painful one
 Ease of product disposal is now a key product attribute to consumers
 Possessions = identity anchors
 Consumers often have to dispose of things because the things have fulfilled their
designated functions, or possibly because they no longer fit with consumers’ views
of themselves
← Disposal Options:
 When a consumer decides that a product is no longer of use, several choices are
available
 The person can:
o 1. Keep the item (convert, store)
o 2. Temporarily dispose of it (rent, lend)
o 3. Permanently dispose of it (sell, trade, giveaway, garbage)
 Reasons for product replacement:
o A desire for new features
o A change in the person’s environment
o A change in the person’s role or self-image
 Public policy implications of product disposal:
o Recycling is a priority in many countries
o Means-end chain analysis study of lower-order goals linked to abstract
terminal values when consumers recycle
o Perceived effort involved in recycling as predictor
 Our throwaway society creates problems for the environment and also results in a
great deal of unfortunate waste
 Companies continue to search for ways to use resources more efficiently, often at
the prompting of activist consumer groups
 Social marketers will find it easier to design advertising copy and other messages
that tap into the underlying values that will motivate people to increase
environmentally responsible behavior
 FIGURE 10-5: Consumers’ Disposal Options
← Lateral Cycling: Junk Versus “Junque”:
 Lateral cycling: already purchased objects are sold to others or exchanged
 Many purchases are second-hand rather than new

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 Flea marketers, garage sales, craigslist, bartering for services, hand-me-downs, black
market, all represent important alternative marketing systems that operate in
addition to the formal marketplace
 These outlets provide consumers with opportunities to buy and sell items related to
popular cultural events and people to which they have long-term attachments
 Divestment rituals: they take steps to gradually distance themselves from things
they treasure so that they can sell them or give them away
 Rituals:
o Iconic transfer ritual: taking pictures and videos of objects before selling
them
o Transition-place ritual: putting items in an out-of-the way location before
disposing of them
o Ritual cleansing: washing, ironing, and/or meticulously wrapping the item
 The internet has revolutionized the lateral cycling process (millions of people go to
eBay/Kijiji to buy and sell their “treasures”)
 Re-stores across Canada (Habitat for Humanity, Value Village)

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Chapter 2 – Perception
← Introduction:
 Sensation: immediate response of our sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose, mouth,
fingers, etc) to basic stimuli (light, colour, sound, odour, texture, etc)
 Perception: the process by which sensations are selected, organized, and
interpreted
 Most marketers world agree that, oftentimes, perception can be more influential
than sensation in determining consumer preferences
← Sensory Systems:
 People undergo stages of information processing in which stimuli are input and
stored
 Consumers do not passively process what ever information happens to be present
 External stimuli, or sensory inputs, can be received on a number of channels
 The inputs picked up by our five senses constitute the raw data that generate many
types of responses
 FIGURE 2-1: An Overview of the Perceptual Process
← Sensory Marketing: Harnessing Perception for a Competitive Advantage:

 Sensory marketing: companies pay extra attention to the impact of sensation on our
product experiences
 Companies recognize that our sense help us decide which products appeal to us and
which ones stand out from a host of similar offerings in the marketplace
← Sight:
 Marketers rely heavily on visual elements in advertising, store design, and packaging
 Meanings are communicated on the visual channel through a product’s colouring,
size, styling, brightness, and distinctiveness from competitor’s products
← How Perception Can Be Coloured:
 Colours influence our emotions directly
 Colours are rich in symbolic value and cultural meanings
 Powerful cultural meanings make colour a central aspect of many marketing
strategies
 Some reactions to colour come from learned associations

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 Perceptions of a colour depend on both its physical wavelength and how the mind
responds to that stimulus
 Some reactions to colour are due to biological differences
 Age also influences out response to colour
 The choice of colour is frequently a key issue in package design
 Trade-dress: when some colour combinations come to be associated so strongly
with a corporation that they become known as the company’s (the company may
even be granted exclusive use of these colours
o Ex: tiffany’s blue
 As a rule, however, trade-dress protection is granted only when consumers might be
confused about what they are buying because of similar colouration of a
competitor’s packages
 Older people see colours in a dull cast and therefore prefer white and other bright
tones
← How Your Eyes Make You Eat More:
 Container size can influence the amount we consume
 These visual illusions also influence how much we pour and drink
 Ex: popcorn study
 Visual cues in packaging can also impact consumption I other ways
o Ex: smaller snack packs, 100 calorie snacks
 Our eyes continue to trick us even when it comes to variety
 When we see an assortment of foods, this abundance suggests its appropriate to eat
more
 When it comes to how much we eat and drink, our eyes have more to say than our
stomachs
← Smell:
 Odours can stir emotions to create a calming feeling
 They can evoke memories or relieve stress
 Some of our responses to scents result from early associates that call up good or bad
feelings, which explains why businesses are exploring connections between smell,
memory, and mood
 It has been suggested that ambient scent can influence not only mood, but
consumer cognitions as well
 Researchers have found pleasant scents can increase recall of brand names,
particularly when the scent is combined with a visual image
 Consumers’ reactions to odours depend on their cultural background

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 Many MNC’s adjust the scents of their products from country to country
 We process fragrance curs in the limbic system, the most primitive part of the brain
and the place where we experience immediate emotions
 Researchers have found that the sense of smell can also lead to different behavioral
reactions to stimuli
 Marketers are coming up with ingenious ways to exploit these connections
 Scent marketing
 There is also evidence that certain smells may be more effective when targeted
toward one of the sexes
← Hearing:
 Many aspects of sounds may affect people’s feelings and behaviours
 Stores and restaurants often play certain kinds of music to create a certain mood
 By composing brand names into individual sounds called phonemes, one study
showed how even these cues affect consumer evaluations and convey unique
meanings about inherent properties of the product
 Individual sounds called phonemes might be more or less preferred by customers
o Ex: an i- sound would be lighter than an a-sound)
 Other research shows that brand names with repetition in their phonetic structure
produce positive affect when spoken aloud, leading to increased preference for the
brand
o Ex: Bebe, Lululemon, M&M’s, etc
 “Functional music” – used to relax or stimulate customers
 as people age, many develop aging ear, which is a loss of the ability to hear higher
frequency sounds
o Ex: mosquito (parents can’t hear it)
o Originally used to keep youth away from lingering around stores
← Touch:
 Common observation tells us that tactile stimulation is an important sensory channel
 Moods and relaxed or stimulated on the basis of sensations of the skin
 Touch has even been shown to be a factor in sales recognition
o Ex: higher tips for touching customer
 Haptic senses: touch is the most basic of senses; we learn this before vision and
smell
 Haptic (touch) senses appear to moderate the relationship between product
experience and judgment confidence, confirming the commonsense notion that
were more sure about what we perceive when we can touch it

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 This is a major problem for those who sell products online

 One recent study found that product judgments by individuals who do not normally
posses a compulsion to touch products (low autotelics) are influenced by the “feel”
of a package, while those who do have a compulsion to touch items (high autotelics)
do not rely on this cur for infer a product’s quality
o Touching an item forms a relationship with the product
 Other research finds that aspects of touch inherent in the retail setting itself might
influence consumer evaluations
 Kansei engineering: a philosophy that translates customers’ feelings into design
elements
← Taste:
 Our taste receptors contribute to our experience of many products, and people form
strong preferences for certain flavours
 Specialized companies called “flavour houses” keep busy trying to develop new
tastes to please the changing palates of consumers
 Sophisticated electronic tongue for tasting
 Colour is also important for taste
o Physical appearance of the product makes it more appealing
 Changes in culture also determine the tastes we find desirable
 Marketers have also discovered various ways to influence consumers’ perceptions of
the taste of the product itself
 Other work finds that advertisements that refer to more than one of the senses
(“stimulate your sense”), lead to the more positive taste perceptions that
advertisements simply referring to taste alone (“long lasting flavour”)
← Exposure:
 Exposure: the process by which the consumer comes into contact with the stimulus
and has the potential to notice it
 We are capable of noticing stimuli that we are exposed to for even a very short time
– if we choose to do so
← Sensory Thresholds:
 Some stimuli people simply are not capable of perceiving
o Ex: dog whistle
 Some people are better able to pick up sensory information that others
 Psychophysics: the science that focuses on how the physical environment is
integrated with our personal, subjective world, i.e. how we perceive stimuli
← Absolute Threshold:

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 When we define the lowest intensity of a stimulus that can be registered on a

sensory channel, we speak of a threshold for that receptor
 Absolute threshold: the minimum amount of stimulation that can be detected on a
sensory channel
← The Differential Threshold:
 Differential threshold: ability of a sensory system to detect changes, or differences
between 2 stimuli
o Ex: Campbell’s changes labels discreetly over time so consumers always
recognize their product
 JND (just noticeable difference): the minimum change in a stimulus that can be
detected
 A consumer’s ability to detect a difference between two stimuli is relative
 It is the relative difference between the decibel level of the conversation and its
surroundings, rather than the loudness of the conversation itself, that determines
whether the stimulus will register
 Amount of change necessary to be noticed is systematically related to the original
intensity of the stimulus
 Weber’s law: the stronger the initial stimulus, the greater the change must be for it
to be noticed
 K = delta I / I
o K = constant increase or decrease necessary for the stimulus to be noticed
o Delta I = the minimal change in intensity of the stimulus required to be JND
o I = the intensity of the stimulus before the change occurs
 The main point of Weber’s law is that it is the ratios, not he absolute differences that
are important in describing the least perceptible differences in sensory
discrimination
 The differential threshold varies not only with consumers’ sensitivity and type of
stimuli, but also with the absolute intensity of the stimuli being compared
 Manufacturers are brand managers endeavor to determine the relevant JUD for
their products for two reasons:
o 1. Reductions (product size, price, packaging) are not readily discernible to
the public
o 2. Product improvements are perceived by the public
 Weber’s law is a challenge to green marketers who try to reduce the sizes of
packages when they produce concentrated versions of their products
← Subliminal Perception;

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 Subliminal perception: the perception of stimuli below the level of consumer

consciousness
 No proof that it has any effect on consumer behavior
← Attention:
 Attention: the extent to which processing activity is devoted to a particular stimulus
 This allocation can vary depending on the characteristics of both the stimulus and
the recipient
 Consumers are often in a state of sensory overload – they are exposed to far more
information than they are able to willing to process
o Comes from commercial sources
 Competition for our attention is increasing
 Younger people ability to multitask or process information from more than one
medium at a time
 Marketing researchers are struggling to understand this new condition, trying to
figure out how to reach people doing many things at once
 Marketers are constantly searching for ways to break through the clutter and grab
people’s attention
o Ex: Coca Cola and Volkswagen commercials
 Marketers are also using techniques such as guerilla marketing to get noticed
 This involves using communications that are excepted and unconventional in ways
that target consumers in excepted places
 Perceptual selectivity: people attend to only a small portion of the stimuli to which
they are exposed
 Consumers practice a form of psychological economy, picking and choosing among
stimuli to avoid being overwhelmed
← People Receive and Interpret Messages Differently:
← Personal Selection Factors:

 Experience, which is the result of acquiring stimulation, is one factor that determines
how much exposure to a particular stimulus a person accepts
 Perceptual filters - based on past experiences influence what they decide to process

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 Perceptual vigilance - aware of stimuli that relate to their current needs (needs may
be conscious or unconscious)
 Perceptual defence - see what you want to see and ignore what you don’t want to
see
 Adaptation: the degree to which consumers continue to notice a stimulus over time
 The process of adaptation occurs when consumers no longer pay attention to a
stimulus because it is so familiar
o Ex: adapt to over played music and no longer notice it
 Consumer can become “habituated” and require increasingly stronger “doses” of a
stimulus for it to continue to be noticed
 Several factors can lead to adaptation:
o Intensity – consumers become habituated to less-intense stimuli because
they have less of a sensory impact
 Less intense = higher adaptation
o Duration – stimuli that require relatively lengthy exposure to by processed
tend to be habituated to because they require a long attention span
 Longer exposed = higher adaptation
o Discrimination – simple stimuli tend to be habituated to because they do not
require attention to detail
 Simple = higher adaptation
o Exposure – people tend to habituate to frequently encountered stimuli as the
rate of exposure increases
 More exposure = higher adaptation
o Relevance – people tend to habituate to stimuli that are irrelevant or
unimportant because they fail to attract attention
 Less relevant = higher adaptation
 Repetition is necessary (exposure) MB>MC, but as it becomes excessive MC>MB
← Stimulus Selection Factors:
 Stimulus selection: we are more likely to notice stimuli that differ from others
around them
 Marketers need to know these factors to command the attention of consumers
 Stimuli that differ from others around them are more likely to be noticed
 This contrast can be created in several ways:
o Size – the size of a stimulus itself in contrast to the competition helps to
determine whether it will command attention

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o Colour – is a powerful way to draw attention to a product or to give it a

distinct identity
o Position – stimuli that are in places where were more likely to look stand a
better chance of being notices (products displayed at eye level in stores)
o Novelty – communications that use novel stimuli or appear in excepted
places tend to grab our attention
 Ex: guerilla marketing
← Interpretation:
 Interpretation: the meanings that people assign to sensory stimuli
 Just as people differ in terms of the stimuli they perceive, the eventual assignment
of meanings to these stimuli varies as well
 Consumers assign meaning to stimuli based on schema
 Schema: set of beliefs to which the stimulus is assigned
 A schema provides a cognitive framework that helps organize and interpret
information that surrounds a particular stimulus, such as a brand
 A brand name can communication expectations about product attributes that can
colour consumers’ perceptions of product performance by activating a relevant
schema
 Identifying and evoking the correct schema is crucial to many marketing decisions,
because this determines what criteria will be used to evaluate the product, package,
or message
 The effective positioning of products can often create more positive associations for
consumers
← Stimulus Organization:
 People do not perceive a single stimulus in isolation; they tend to view it in terms of
relationships with other events, sensations, or images
 Our brains tend to relate incoming sensations to others already in memory on the
basis of some fundamental organizational principle
 These principles derive from work in gestalt psychology
 Gestalt psychology: a school of thought maintaining that people derive meaning
from the totality of a set of stimuli rather than from any individual stimulus
o The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
 Gestalt explains how stimuli are organized
o Principle of closure: people perceive an incomplete picture as complete
 Fill in the blanks on the basis of prior experience

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o Principle of similarity: consumers group together objects that share similar

characteristics
 They group like items into sets to form an integrated whole
o Principle of figure ground: one part of the stimulus will dominate (the
figure), while other parts recede into the background
 Ex: picture with a dominant figure as the focus
← The Eye of the Beholder: Interpretation Biases:
 The stimuli we perceive are often ambiguous; its up to us to determine the meaning
based on our past experiences, expectations, and needs
 Consumers tend to product their own desires or assumptions onto products and
advertisements
 Our assumptions influence our experience
← Perceptual Positioning:
 A product stimulus is often interpreted in light of what we already know about a
product category and the characteristics of existing brands
 Perceptions of a brand comprise both its functional attributes (price, features, etc)
and its symbolic attributes (self-image, etc)
 Our evaluation of a product is typically the result of what it means rather that what
it does
 This meaning, as perceived by consumers, constitutes the products market position
– and it may have more to do with our expectations of product performance as
communicated by its colour, packaging, or styling than with the product itself
 Position strategy: the way the marketer wants the brand to be viewed in the eyes of
the consumer
o A fundamental part of a company’s marketing efforts as it uses elements of
the marketing mix to influence the consumer’s interpretation of the brand’s
meaning
 Brands go to great lengthy to position themselves different from competitors on
attributes consumers care about
 One issue for marketers s how to reposition their brand in a way that updates the
brand’s image for an evolving market
o Ex: Volvo – endorsed Jeremy Lin (youthful brand image, Chinese market)
← Positioning Dimensions:
 There are many dimensions that can be used to establish a brand’s position in the
marketplace
 These include the following:

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o Price leadership
o Attributes
o Product class
o Occasions
o Users
o Design

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Chapter 3 – Learning and Memory

← The Learning Process:
 The development of vivid memories is relevant to the study of how brand attitudes
are formed
 Learning: a relatively permanent change in behavior that is caused by experience
 Experience does not have to affect the learner directly – can learn vicariously by
observing events that affect others
 Also learn even when we are not trying
 Unintentional acquisition of knowledge is known as incidental learning
 Learning is an ongoing process
 Theories to explain the learning process range from those focusing on simple
stimulus-response connections (behavioral theories) to perspectives that regard
consumers as complex problem solvers who learn abstract rules and concepts by
observing others (cognitive theories)
← Behavioural Learning Theories:
 Behavioural learning theories: assume that learning takes place as the result of
responses to external events, as opposed to internal thought processes
 Mind as a “black box” that cannot be directly investigated and emphasize the
observable aspects of behavior
 These observable aspects consist of things that go into the box (the stimuli or events
perceived from the outside world) and things that come out of the box (the
responses or reactions to these stimuli)
 This view is represented by two major approaches to behavior learning:
o 1. Classical conditioning
o 2. Instrumental conditioning (operant conditioning)
 Consumers respond to brand names, scents, jingles, and other marketing stimuli on
the basis of the learned associations or connections they have formed over time
← Classical Conditioning:
 Classical conditioning: occurs when a stimulus that elicits a response is paired with
another stimulus that initially does not elicit a response on its own
 Over time this second stimulus causes a similar response because it is associated
with the first stimulus
 Ivan Pavlov
 FIGURE 3-1: Diagram of the Classical Conditioning Process:

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 Pavlov induced classically conditioned learning by pairing a neutral stimulus (a bell)

with a stimulus known to cause a salivation response in dogs (he squirted dried meat
powder into their mouths)
 The powder was an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) - naturally capable of causing the
response
 Over time, the bell become a conditioned stimulus (CS) - did not initially cause
salivation, but the dogs learned to associate the bell with the meat powder and
began to salivate at the sound of the bell only
 The drooling, caused by a sound now linked to feeding time, was a conditioned
response (CR)
 Pavlov applied primarily to responses controlled by the autonomic and nervous
systems
 Focuses on visual and olfactory curs that induce physiological responses such as
hunger, thirst, or sexual arousal
 When these curs are consistently paired with conditioned stimuli, such as brand
names, consumers may learn to feel hungry, thirsty, or aroused when later exposed
to the brand cues

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 Classical conditioning effects can also emerge when a product that is originally
neutral (ex: a conditioned stimulus) is paired over time with a product that produces
an emotion-inducing responses (i.e. an unconditioned stimulus)
← Associative Learning:
 Associative learning: a form of classical conditioning, in which consumers learn
associations between stimuli in a rather simple fashion without more complex
processes such as memory or cognition taking place
 Can occur for more complex reactions to stimuli as well
 Repetition:
o Associative learning effects are more likely to occur after a conditioned
stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus have been paired a number of times
o Repeated exposures increase the strength of stimulus-response associations
and prevent the decay of these associations in memory
o Many classic advertising campaigns consist of product slogans that have been
repeated so many times they are etched in consumers’ minds
o Associative learning will not occur or will take longer if the paired stimuli are
only occasionally presented with one another
o One result of this lack of association may be extinction
o Extinction: happens when the effect of prior conditioning are reduced and
finally disappear
o This can occur when a product is overexposed or forms new associations
such that the brand is not longer consistently paired with the original
stimulus
 Stimulus Generalization:
o Stimulus generalization: refers to the tendency of stimuli similar to a CS to
evoke similar conditioned responses
o People react to other similar stimuli in much the same way as they respond
to an original stimulus
o “Piggybacking” strategy
 Stimulus Discrimination:
o Stimulus discrimination: occurs when a stimulus similar to a CS is not
followed by a UCS
o In these situations reactions are weakened and will soon disappear
o Part of the learning process involves learning to respond to some stimuli but
not to other similar stimuli
o Masked branding: deliberately hides a product’s true origin

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← Marketing Associations of Conditioning:

 Many marketing strategies focus on the establishment of associations between
stimuli and responses
 These conditioned associations are crucial to many marketing strategies that rely on
the creation and perpetuation of positive brand equity
 Brand equity: a brand has strong positive associations in a consumer’s memory and
commands a lot of loyalty as a result
← Repetition:
 More than three exposures is a waste
 Marketers attempting to condition a particular association must ensure that the
consumers they have targeted will be exposed to the stimulus a sufficient number of
times to make it “stick”
 Advertising wear out: consumers can become to used to hearing or seeing a
marketing stimulus that they no longer pay attention to it
 Ex: Got Milk ads – so they switch out different celebrities periodically so we don’t
become bored
← Conditioning Product Associations:
 Advertisements often pair a product with a positive stimulus to create a desirable
association
 Order in which the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus are
presented can affect the likelihood that learning will occur
 Generally, the unconditioned stimulus should be presented prior to the conditioned
stimulus
 Ex: it is more effective to play a jingle (UCS) and then follow this with the
presentation of a soft drink (CS)
 The technique of backward conditioning, such as showing a soft drink (the CS) and
then playing a jingle (the UCS) is generally not effective
 Product associations can also be extinguished
 A classical conditioning strategy may not be as effective for products that are
frequently encountered, since there is not guarantee they will be consistently
accompanied by the CS
← Applications of Stimulus Generalization:
 The process of stimulus generalization is often central to branding and packaging
decisions that attempt to capitalize on consumers; positive associations with an
existing brand or company name
 Strategies based on stimulus generalization include the following:

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o 1. Family branding – a variety of products capitalize on the reputation of a

company name
 Ex: Google, Campbell
o 2. Product-line extensions – related products are added to an established
brand
 Ex: Dole, Mr. Clean, Oreo
o 3. Licensing – well-known names are “rented” by others
 Ex: Maxim magazine
o 4. Look-alike packaging – distinctive packaging designs create strong
associations with a particular brand
 Companies with a well-established brand image try to encourage stimulus
discrimination when they promote the unique attributes of their brand
o Ex: Louis Vuitton
← Instrumental Conditioning:
 Instrumental conditioning: also known as operant conditioning, occurs as the
individual learns to perform behaviours that produce positive outcomes and to avoid
behaviors that yield negative outcomes
 B.F. Skinner
 Systematically rewarding them for desired behaviours
 Under classical conditioning, people respond involuntarily and fairly simply, often on
the basis of very automatic responses
 Under instrumental conditioning, people perform more complex behaviours and
associate these behaviors with either rewards or punishments
 Shaping: the desired behaviour may be learned over a period of time, as
intermediate actions are rewarded
 Shaping occurs when consumers are rewarded for successive steps taken toward the
desired response
o Ex: samples, coupons, reward programs

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 Also, classical conditioning involves the close pairing of two stimuli

 Instrumental learning occurs as a result of a reward received following the desired
behavior and takes place over a period in which a variety of other behaviors are
attempted and abandoned because they are not reinforced
 Instrumental learning occurs in one of three ways:
o 1. When the environment provides positive reinforcement in the form of a
reward
 Positive reinforcement: reward is given, then the response is
strengthened and appropriate behavior is learned
 Ex: getting a compliment wearing a certain brand makes you want to
wear and buy more of that brand
o 2. Negative reinforcement also strengthens responses so that appropriate
behavior is learned
 Negative reinforcement: removes something negative in a way that
increases a desired response
 Ex: retailer offers to pay the tax for the customer
o 3. Punishment: occurs when a response is followed by an unpleasant event
 Ex: heel of your shoe rip off after buying a cheap pair
 We learn to not repeat these behaviours
 In terms of positive and negative reinforcement, when a positive outcome is no
longer received, extinction o the behaviour is likely to occur and the learned
stimulus-response connection will not be maintained
 Either positive or negative reinforcement strengths the future link between a
response and an outcome because of the pleasant experience
 This tie is weakened under conditions of both punishment and extinction because of
the unpleasant experience

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Four Types of Learning Schedules:

 An important factor in operant conditioning is the set of rules by which appropriate
reinforcements are given for a behavior
 The issue of what is the most effective reinforcement schedule to use is important to
marketers, because it relates to the amount of effort and resources they must
devote to rewarding consumers to condition desired behaviours
 Two general ways in which consumers are reinforced for desired behaviors include:
o 1. Ratio schedules – reinforce the learner based on the number of responses
that have been completed
 Ex: free gift after ten purchases
o 2. Interval schedules – reinforce the learner after a certain amount of time
passes since the appropriate response
 Ex: rewarded once a year by your band for being a values customer
 FIGURE 3-2: Four Types of Learning Outcomes:
 Fixed-ratio reinforcement:
o Reinforcement occurs only after a fixed number of responses
o Ex: 15th purchase for free
 Variable-ratio reinforcement:
o The behavior of a person is reinforced after a certain number of responses,
but he or she does not know how many responses are required
o People in such situations tend to respond at very high and steady rates, and
this type of behaviour is very difficult to extinguish
o Ex: roll up the rim to win
 Fixed-interval reinforcement:
o After a specified time period ahs passed, the first response that is made
brings the reward

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o Under such conditions, people tend to respond slowly right after being
reinforced, but their responses speed up as the time for the next
reinforcement looms
o Ex: last day of its seasonal sale and not reappear until the next sale
 Variable-interval reinforcement:
o The time that must pass before reinforcement is delivered varies around
some average
o Since the person does not know exactly when to expect the reinforcement,
responses must be performed at a consistent rate
o Ex: loyalty club member
← Application of Instrumental Conditioning Principles:
 Principles of instrumental conditioning are at work when a consumer is rewarded or
punished for a purchase decision
 Marketers often use shaping by gradually reinforcing consumers for taking
appropriate actions
← Reinforcement of Consumption:
 Marketers use many ways to reinforce the behaviour of consumers, ranging from a
simple “thank you” after a purchase, to substantial rebates and follow-up phone
calls
← Frequency Marketing:
 Frequency marketing: reinforces the behavior of regular purchasers by fiving them
prizes with values that increase along with the amount purchased
 This operant learning strategy was pioneered by the airline industry with frequent
flyer programs
 Frequent buyer programs are not just about consumers earning free trip sand
merchandise
 Retailers can use related databases to refine everything from their merchandise mix
tot heir marketing strategy on the basis of their detailed knowledge of consumes
and their purchases
← Cognitive Learning Theory:
 Cognitive learning theory: stresses the importance of internal mental processes
 This perspective views people as problems solvers who actively use information
form the world around them to master their environment
← Is Learning Conscious or Not?:
 Expectations are created that a stimulus will be follows by a response (the formation
of expectations requires mental activity)

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 Conditioning occurs because individuals develop conscious hypotheses and then act
on them
 Some evidence for the existence of unconscious procedural knowledge
 People apparently do process at least some information in an automatic, passive
way, which is a condition that has been termed mindlessness
 When we respond to the stimulus in terms of existing categories rather then taking
the trouble to formulate different ones
 Out reactions are activated by a trigger feature – some stimulus that curs us toward
a particular pattern
 Many modern theorists are beginning to regard some instances of conditioning as
cognitive processes, especially where expectations are formed about the links
between stimuli and responses
 Indeed, studies using masking effects, wherein it is difficult for subjects to
consciously learn CS/UCS associations, show substantial reductions in conditioning
← Observational Learning:
 Observational learning: occurs when people watch the actions of others and note
the reinforcements they receive or their behaviours; learning occurs as a result of
vicarious, rather than direct experience
 While behavioral learning theories propose that individuals must directly experience
the stimuli that influence their behaviors, cognitive learning theories can account for
vicarious learning effects
 This type of learning is a complex cognitive process; people store these observations
in memory as they accumulate knowledge, perhaps using this information as a later
print to guide their own behaviours
 This process of imitating the behaviour of others is called modeling
 The modeling process is a powerful form of learning, and peoples tendencies to
imitate others’ behaviors can have negative effects
o Ex: TV shows/movies teaching children violence, Bobo Doll
 For observational learning in the form of modeling to occur, four conditions must be
met:
o 1. The consumer’s attention must be directed toward the appropriate model
whom, for reasons of attractiveness, competence, status, or similarity, it is
desirable to emulate
o 2. The consumer must remember what the model says or does
o 3. The consumer must convert this information into actions
o 4. The consumer must be motivated to perform these actions

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 FIGURE 3-3: Components of Observational Learning
← Applications of Cognitive Learning Principles:

 Consumers’ ability to learn vicariously by observing how the behavior of others is
reinforced makes the lives of marketers much easier
 Can show what happens to models who use to do not use their products, in the
knowledge the consumers will often be motivated to imitate these actions at a later
time
 Consumers’ evaluations of the people they model go beyond simple stimulus-
response connections
 The degree to which a model will be emulated depends on his or her social
attractiveness
 Attractiveness can be based upon several components, including physical
appearance, expertise, or similarity to the evaluator
← The Role of Memory in Learning:
 Memory: involves a process of acquiring information and storing it over time so that
it will be available when needed
 Data are input, processed, and output for later use in revised form
 Encoding stage: information is entered in a way the system will recognize
 Storage stage: this knowledge is integrated with what is already in memory and
“warehoused” unit needed
 Retrieval: the mind accesses the desired information
 FIGURE 3-4: The Memory Process
 Many of out experiences are locked inside out heads and may surface years later if
prompted by the right cues
 Marketers rely on consumers to retain information they have learned about
products and services, trusting that they will later apply it when they decide to buy
 During the consumer decision-making process, this internal memory is combined
with external memory – which includes all of the product details on packages, in
shopping lists, and through other marketing stimuli – to permit brand alternatives to
be identified and evaluated

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 Research supports the idea that marketers can distort a consumer’s recall of a
product experience
 What we think we “know” about products can be influenced by advertising
messages to which we are exposed after using the products
 This post-experience advertising is more likely to alter actual memories when it is
very similar to or activates memories about the actual experience
← Encoding of Information for Later Retrieval:
 The way information is encoded helps to determine how it will be represented in
memory
 Encoding involves linking new information to existing knowledge in order to make
the new information more meaningful
 Incoming data that are associated with other information already in memory stand a
better chance of being retained
 Memory for brand names may interact with one’s involvement in the product class
← Types of Meaning:
 A consumer may process a stimulus simply in terms of its sensory meaning, such as
colour and shape
 In many cases, meanings are encoded at a more abstract level
 Semantic meaning refers to symbolic associations (ex: idea that rich people drink
champagne)
← Personal Relevance:
 Episodic memories are memories for events that are personally relevant
 As a result, a person’s motivation to retain these memories will likely be strong
 Often an important and compelling episodic event will lead to memories that are
quire vivid and unique, and are sometimes called flashbulb memories
 One method of conveying product information is through a narrative or a story
 Narratives persuade people to construct a mental representation of the information
they are viewing
← Memory Systems:
 According to the information processing perspective, there are three distinct
memory systems:
o 1. Sensory memory
o 2. Short-term memory (STM)
o 3. Long-term memory (LTM)
 Each plays a role in processing information
 Sensory memory: permits storage of the information we receive from our senses

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o This storage is very temporary; it lasts a couple of seconds at most

o If the information is retained for further processing, it passes through an
attentional gate and is transferred to short-term memory
 Short-term memory: also stores information for a limited period of time, and its
capacity is limited
o Working memory – holds the information we are currently processing
o Verbal input may be stored acoustically (in terms of how it sounds) or
semantically (in terms of its meaning)
o Chunking: the information is stored by combining small pieces into larger
ones
o A chunk is a configuration that is familiar to the person and can be
manipulated as a unit
 Ex: brand name
o Three to four chunks is the optimum size for efficient retrieval
 Long-term memory: the system that allows us to retain information for a long
period of time
o Elaborative rehearsal: required for information to enter into long-term
memory form short-term memory
o This process involves thinking about the meaning of a stimulus and relating it
to other information already in memory
← Storing Information in Memory:
 Relationships among the types of memory are a source of some controversy
 Multiple-store assumes that STM and LTM are separate systems vs. emphasizing the
interdependence of the systems
 These approaches are called activation models of memory
 Activation models of memory: the more effort it takes to process information (so-
called deep processing), the more likely it is that information will be placed in long-
term memory
← Associative Network Models:
 Associative network models propose that an incoming piece of information is stored
in an associative network containing many bits of related information organized
according to some set of relationships
 Associative network models assume that it is the associations that form in
consumers’ minds that lead to learning about brands and products

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o Ex: the more times a brand name (Volvo) becomes associated with a trait or
benefit (safety) in memory, the stronger the link between the brand and the
benefit become
 Knowledge structures: storage units that can be thought of as complex spider webs
filled with pieces of data
 Information is placed into nodes, which are connected by associative links within
these structures
 Pieces of information seen as similar or associated in some ways are chunked
together under some more abstract category
 New, incoming information is interpreted to be consistent with the structure already
in place
 According to the hierarchical processing model, a message is processed in a bottom-
up fashion: processing begins at a very basic level and is subject to increasingly
complex processing operations that require greater cognitive capacity
 If processing at one level fails to evoke the next level, processing of the message is
terminated and capacity is allocated to other tasks
 Links form between nodes as an associative network is developed
 The consumer would recall only those brands contained in the appropriate category
o Evoked set
 The task of a new entrant that wants to position itself as a category member it to
provide curs that facilitate its placement in the appropriate category
← Spreading Activation:
 A meaning can be activated indirectly; energy spreads across nodes of varying levels
of abstraction
 As one node is activated, other nodes associated with it also begin to be triggered
 Meaning thus spreads across the network, bringing up concepts including competing
brands and relevant attributes that are used to form attitudes toward the brand
 Spreading activation: allows consumers to shift back and forth between levels of
meaning
 Memory trace could be stored in one or more of the following ways:
o 1. Brand-specific
o 2. Ad-specific
o 3. Brand identification
o 4. Product category
o 5. Evaluative reactions
 Levels of Knowledge:

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o Knowledge is coded at different levels of abstraction and complexity

o Meaning concepts are individual nodes
o These may be combined into a larger unit, called a proposition (also known
as a belief)
o A proposition links two nodes together to form a more complex meaning,
which can sere as a single chunk of information
o Propositions are integrated to produce a complex unit known as a schema
o Schema: a cognitive framework that is developed through experience
o Information consistent with an existing schema is encoded more readily
o One type of schema that is relevant to consumer behavior is a script
o Script: a sequence of procedures that is expected by an individual
 Consumers learn to expect a certain sequence of events and may
become uncomfortable if the service departs from the script
 Ex: routine of a dentist appointment
← Analogical Learning:
 Analogical learning: consumers can learn about new products and features by
drawing an analogy (similarities) between the new product and an existing product
 Base: the existing product (original source of knowledge)
 Target: new product (what the existing knowledge will be transferred to)
 Analogical learning can take one or two forms:
o 1. Attributes – identifiable features or properties of the product
o 2. Relations – how the product relates to a desired outcome
 What types of analogies are most effect may depend on the target market
 Tend to think about products more in term of attributes
← Retrieving Information for Purchase Decisions:
 Retrieval is the process of accessing information from long-term memory
 Most of the information entered into long-term memory does not go away, it may
be difficult to impossible to retrieve unless the appropriate cues are present
← Factors in Influencing Retrieval:
 Some differences in retrieval ability are physiological
 Other factors are situation, relating to the environment in which the message is
delivered by comparing energy production to a natural process
 Pioneering brand is more easily retrieved from memory than follower brands
because the product’s introduction is likely to be distinctive and, for the time being,
no competitors diver the consumer’s attention
 The viewing environment of a marketing message can also affect recall

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 Post-experience advertising effects underscores how powerful marketing

communications can be in shaping out daily experiences
 Believe that what we saw in advertising actually was out own experience with
products
 Appropriate factors/cues for retrieval:
o State-dependent retrieval/mood congruence effect
o Familiarity and Recall:
 As a general rule, prior familiarity with an item enhances its recall
 Evidence indicates that extreme familiarity can result in inferior
learning and recall
 When consumers are highly familiar with a brand or an
advertisement, they may attend to fewer attributes because they do
not believe that any additional effort will yield a gain in knowledge
o Salience and Recall:
 Salience: a brands prominence or level of activation in memory
 Stimuli that stand out in contrast to their environment are more likely
to command attention, which in turn increases the likelihood that
they will be recalled
 Almost any technique that increase the novelty of a stimulus also
improves recall (also known as the von Restorff effect)
 Von Restorff effect: explains why unusual advertising or distinctive
packaging tends to facilitate brand recall
 Introducing a surprise element into an ad can be particularly effective
in aiding recall even if the stimulus is not relevant to the factual
information being presented
 Mystery ads – the brand is not identified until the end of the ad (more
effective at building associations in memory between the product
category and that brand – especially in the case of relatively unknown
brands)
 We recall mixed emotions (those with positive and negative
components) differently than unipolar emotions (those that are
either wholly positive or wholly negative)
 The latter become even more polarized over time, so that we recall
good things as even better than they were and bad things as even
worse
o Pictorial (visual) Vs. Verbal Cues:

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 The available data indicate that information presented in picture form

is more likely to be recognized later
 To grab a consumers attention
 Although pictorial ads may enhance recall, they do not necessarily
improve comprehension
← Factors Influencing Forgetting:
 Forgetting is obviously a problem for marketers
 Early memory theorists assumed that memories fade because of the simple passage
of time
 In a process of decay, the structural changes in the brain produced by learning
simply go away
 Forgetting also occurs because of inference
 Inference: as additional information is learned, it displaces earlier information
 Stimulus-response associations will be forgotten if consumers subsequently learn
new responses to the same or similar stimuli in a process known as retroactive
interference
 On the other hand, prior learning can interfere with new learning, a process called
proactive interference
 Since pieces of information are stored in memory as nodes that are connected to
one another by links, a meaning concept that is connected by a larger number of
links is more likely to be retrieved
 But, as new responses are learned, a stimulus loses its effectiveness in retrieving the
old response
 Consumers tend to organize attribute information by brand
 Additional attribute information regarding a brand or similar brands may limit a
persons ability to recall old brand information
 Recall may also be inhibited if the brand name comprises frequently used words
← Products as Memory Markers:
 Products and ads can themselves serve as powerful retrieval cues
 Possessions most valued by customers are furniture, visual art, and photos
 Attachment is the ability of these things to call forth memories of the past
 Our possessions often have mnemonic qualities that serve as a form of external
memory by prompting consumers to retrieve episodic memories
← The Marketing Power of Nostalgia:
 Nostalgia: a bittersweet emotion, in which the past is viewed with both sadness and
longing

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 “The good old days”

 A stimulus can sometimes evoke a weakened response much later, an effect known
as spontaneous recovery
 This reestablished connection may explain consumers’ powerful nostalgic reactions
to songs, pictures, or brands they have not been exposed to in many years
 Retro brand: an updated version of a brand form a prior historical period
 These products trigger nostalgia, and researchers find that hey often inspire
consumers to think back to an era where (at least in our memories) life was more
stable, simple, or even utopian
 Consumer preferences for nostalgic brands are related to a need to belong and that
consumption of nostalgic products can resolve belongingness needs
 Food can do the same thing – favourite recipes stimulate memories of the past
← Memory and Aesthetic Preferences:
 We like ads and products that remind us of our past; prior experiences also
determine what we like now
 Nostalgia index - peoples tastes in such products are influenced by what was popular
during certain critical periods of their youth (~16-30)
← Measuring Memory for Marketing Stimuli:
 Advertisers naturally concerned about whether people will actually remember these
messages at a later point in time
 We may be more likely to remember companies that we don’t like – perhaps
because of the strong negative emotions they evoke
 Recognition – have you seen this before?
 Recall – what advertisements did you see? (very low, models help)
← Recognition Versus Recall:
 One indicator of good advertising is the impression it makes on consumers
 Two basic measure of impact are recognition and recall
 Under some conditions these two memory measures tend to yield the same results,
especially when the researchers try to keep the viewer’s interest in the ads constant
 Recognition scores tend to be more reliable and do not decay over time the way
recall scores do
 Recognition is a simpler process and more retrieval cues are available to the
consumer
 Problems with memory measures:
o Response biases – “yes”, also pleasers (tell them what they want to hear)
o Memory lapses

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Polarization – changing what actually happened in the past in a story


when telling in the future, changing what the truth of the story was
 A good day is an amazing day
 A bad day is the worst day
 Averaging when our memory is faulty
o Memory for facts vs. feelings
 Facts are easier to measure
 Feelings are harder to measure – how you actually feel about a brand
(better to measure feelings than facts)

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Chapter 4 – Motivation and Affect

← Introduction:
← The Motivation Process:
 Motivation: refers to the processes that cause people to behave as they do
 It occurs when a need is aroused that the consumer wishes to satisfy
 Once a need has been activated, a state of tension exists that drives the consumer to
attempt to reduce or eliminate the need
 The need may be utilitarian or hedonic
 Goal: the consumers desired end state
 Marketers try to create products and services that will provide the desired benefits
and permit the consumers to reduce this tension
 Discrepancy exists between the consumer’s present state and some ideal state
 Drive: this degree of arousal
 Personal and cultural factors combine to create a want, which is one manifestation
of a need
 Once the goal is attained, tension is reduced and the motivation recedes
 Motivation can be described in terms of its strength, or the pull it exerts on the
consumers, and its direction, or the particular way the consumer attempts to reduce
the motivational tension
← Motivational Strength:
 The degree to which a person is willing to expend energy to reach one goal as
opposed to another reflects his or her underlying motivation to attain that goal
 Theories - people have some finite amount of energy that must be directed toward
certain goals
 Two basic theoretical categories that account for motivational strength are drive
theories and expectancy theories
← Drive Theory:
 Drive theory focuses on biological needs that produce unpleasant states of arousal
(ex: stomach grumbling during a morning class)
 In marketing, tension refers to the unpleasant state that exists if a person’s
consumption needs are not fulfilled
 Homeostasis: goal-oriented behavior that attempts to reduce or eliminate this
unpleasant state and return to a balanced one
 Those behaviors that are successful in reducing the drive by eliminating the
underlying need are strengthened and tend to be repeated
 A person’s degree of motivation, then, depends on the distance between his or her
present state and the goal

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 Drive theory runs into difficulties

 People often do things that increase a drive state rather than decrease it
 Ex: delay gratification
← Expectancy Theory:
 Explanations of motivation focuses also on cognitive factors
 Expectancy theory: suggests that behavior is largely pulled by expectations of
achieving desirable outcomes – positive incentives – rather than pushed from within
 Positive incentives: money, social status, etc

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← Motivational Direction:
 Motives have direction as well as strength
 They are goal-oriented in that specific objectives are desired to satisfy a need
 Most goals can be reached by a number of routes, and the objective of marketers is
to convince consumers that the alternative they offer provides the best chance to
attain the goal
← Needs Versus Wants:
 The specific way a need is satisfied depends on the individual’s unique history and
learning experiences and his or her cultural environment
 Want: the particular form of consumption used to satisfy a need
← Types of Needs:
 Biogenic needs: a need people are born with for certain elements necessary to
maintain life
o Food, water, air, shelter
 Psychogenic needs are acquired in the process of becoming a member of a culture
o Need for status, power, affiliation
o Their effect on behavior will vary in different environments
 Consumers can also be motivated to satisfy either utilitarian or hedonic needs
 Utilitarian needs: consumers emphasize the objective, tangible attributes of
products (functionality)
 Hedonic needs: subjective and experiential, leading consumers to rely on a product
because it meets their needs for excitement, self-confidence, or fantasy, perhaps to
escape the routine aspects of life
 Consumers may be motivated to purchase a product because it provides both types
of benefits
← Motivational Conflicts:
 A goal has valence, which means that it can be positive or negative
 A positively valued goal is one toward which consumers direct their behavior
 They are motivated to approach the goal and will seek out products that will be
instrumental in attaining it
 Sometimes consumers are motivated to avoid a negative outcome
 They will structure their purchases or consumption activities to reduce the chances
of attaining this end result
 Because a purchase decision may involve more than one source or motivation,
consumers often find themselves in situations in which different motives conflict
with one another

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← Approach-Approach Conflict:
 A person must choose between two desirable alternatives
 Theory of cognitive dissonance: people have a need for consistency in their lives
and that a state or tension is created when beliefs or behaviors conflict with one
another
 Post-decision dissonance can arise when the consumer must make a choice between
two products, both of which possess good and bad qualities
 By choosing one product and not the other, the person gets the bad qualities of the
chosen product and loses out on the good qualities of the unchosen one
 Marketers often attempt to reduce approach-approach conflicts by highlighting the
superiority of their brand
 Ex: Mac vs. PC
← Approach-Avoidance Conflict:
 Many of the products and services we desire have negative consequences attached
to them as well as positive consequences
 When we desire a goal but wish to avoid it at the same time
 Ex: fake furs, diet foods
 Many marketers try to overcome guilt by convincing consumers that they are
deserving of luxuries
← Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict:
 Choice between two undesirable alternatives
 Marketers frequently address this conflict through messages that stress the
unforeseen benefits of choosing one option
← Classifying Consumer Needs:
 Henry Murray, delineates a set of psychogenic needs that (sometimes in
combination) result in specific behaviors
 Murray’s need structure serves as the basis for a number of widely used personality
tests, such as the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and the Edwards Personal
Preference Schedule (EPPS)
 In the TAT, test subjects are shown four to six ambiguous pictures and asked to write
answers to four directing questions about the pictures
o 1. What is happening?

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o 2. What has led to this situation?

o 3. What is being thought?
o 4. What will happen?
 Each answer is then content-analyzed for references to certain needs
 The theory behind the test is that people will freely product their own subconscious
needs onto the ambiguous picture
 Murray believed that everyone has the same basic set of needs but that individuals
differ in how they prioritize them
← Specific Needs and Buying Behavior:
 Other motivational approaches have focused on specific needs and their
ramifications for behavior
 Individuals with a high need for achievement strongly value personal
accomplishment
 Some other important needs that are relevant to consumer behavior include the
following:
o Need for affiliation (to be in the company of other people)
 Ex: alcohol brand ads
o Need for power (to control one’s environment)
Want to feel in control
Ex: hotels, reports – everything is right there for you and your in
control
o Need for uniqueness (to assert one’s individual identity)
 Ex: Tylenol commercial
← Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
 Abraham Maslow
 Originally developed to understand personal growth and the attainment of “peak
experiences”
 Maslow formulated a hierarchy of biogenic and psychogenic needs in which levels of
motives are specified
 A hierarchical approach implies that the order of development is fixed – that is, a
certain level must be attained before the next, higher one is activated
 Adopted by marketers because it (indirectly) specifies certain types of product
benefits that people might be looking for, depending on the different stages in their
development and/or their environmental conditions
 Ideally, an individual progresses up the hierarchy until his or her dominant
motivation is a focus on “ultimate” goals

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 Most people spend most of their lives trying to fill their ego needs and never move
on to the fifth level of self-actualization
 Maslow’s need hierarchy predicts that higher-order needs become the driving force
behind human behavior as the consumer’s lower-level needs are satisfied
 The theory says, in effect, that satisfaction does not motivate behavior;
dissatisfaction does
 It is important to note that low needs are never totally satisfied but are ongoing
 We do not need to satisfy one need totally before the next level of need motivates
out behavior
 Sometimes certain behaviors satisfy two needs at once
o Ex: Mercedes (need for safety and prestige)
 Criticism of Maslow:
o No measurement tool
o Particular to Western culture
 The point is that this hierarchy is widely applied in marketing because it remind us
that consumers may have different need priorities at different times and stages of
their lives
← Motivation and Goal Fulfillment:

 People often set goals that are related to consumption
o Ex: lose weight, consume less energy
 Consumers are more likely to achieve such goals when they set goals that are
SMART
o Specific – easier to achieve a clearly specified goal than a more general one
o Measurable – concrete criteria by which goal attainment can be assessed
o Attainable – somewhat challenging, but attainable and realistic
o Relevant – something important to the goal setter
o Time-bound – goal should have a targeted time point for completion
 Ex: Nike – helped consumers to set and track goal sin ways that are very specific and
measurable

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 Goal progress does not have to be real, and can simply be perceived to have strong
effects on behavior
 Puzzled consumer researchers whether the motivation to attain goals is always
conscious, or if sometimes this can occur below the threshold of awareness
 The motive to attain a goal can be activated in consumption contexts without the
consumer even being aware of it
← Consumer Involvement:
 A consumer’s motivation to attain a goal influences his or her desire to expend the
effort necessary to attain the products or services believed to be instrumental in
satisfying that objective
 Involvement: a person’s perceived relevance of the object based on their inherent
needs, values and interests
 The word “object” is used in the generic sense and refers to a product (or brand), an
advertisement, or a purchase situation
 Consumers can find involvement in all these “objects”
 Involvement can be viewed as the motivation to process information and can be
triggered by person, object and/or situation
 If link between consumers goals and product information, then consumer will be
motivated to process information
 Can be cognitive or emotional
o Ex: cognitive: pharmaceuticals – utilitarian/functional reasons
o Ex: emotional: buying a trip – hedonic/emotional reasons
← Levels of Involvement: From Inertia to Passion:
 The type of information processing that will occur thus depends upon the
consumer’s level of involvement
 It can range from simple processing, in which only the basic features of a message
are considered, all the way to elaboration, in which the incoming information is
linked to preexisting knowledge systems
 Continuum ranging from absolute lack of interest in a marketing stimulus at one end
to obsession at the other
 Inertia: consumption at the low end of involvement – where decisions are made out
of habit because the consumer lacks the motivation to consider alternatives
o Make decisions out of habit (lack of motivation to be involved)
 At the high end of involvement we can expect to find the type of passionate
intensity reserved for people and objects that carry great meaning to the individual
 Flow state: when consumers are truly involved with a product, an ad, or a website

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 Type of involvement:
o Emotionally or affectively involved with an object
o Rationally or cognitively involved with a product or purchase situation
 FIGURE 4-5
← The Many Faces of Involvement:
 Cognitive
 Emotional
 Involvement overlaps and means different things to different people
 Three broad types of involvement – that relate to the product, to the message, and
to the situation
← Product Involvement:
 Product involvement is related to a consumer’s level of interest in a particular
product
 Many sales promotions are designed to increase this type of involvement
 Most powerful way to enhance product involvement is to invite consumers to play a
role in designing or personalizing what they buy
 Mass customization: customization and personalization of products and services for
individual customers at a mass production price
o Enhances product involvement
 Ex: Nike ID, M&M’s, Dell computers, etc
← Message-Response Involvement:
 Marketers are experimenting to increase consumers’ involvement with different
message formats
 Spectacles or performances, in which the message is itself a form of entertainment
 Interactive mobile marketing: consumers participate in real-time promotional
campaigns via their cell phones
 Vigilante/guerilla marketing: freelancers and fans film their own commercials for
favorite products
 Consumers interest in processing marketing communications
← Purchase Situation Involvement:
 Differences that may occur when buying the same object for different contexts
 Ex: when you want to impress someone, you might try to buy a brand or product
with a certain image that you think reflects good taste
 Increasing purchase situation involvement by appealing to hedonic shoppers whoa
re looking to be entertained or otherwise engaged in addition to simply “buying
stuff”

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← Segmenting by Involvement Levels:

 A measurement approach that segments involvement by levels allows consumer
researchers to capture the diversity of the involvement construct, and it also allows
for involvement to be used as a basis for market segmentation
 The company could then adapt its strategy to account for the motivation of different
segments to process information about the product
← Strategies to Increase Involvement:
 By being aware of some basic factors that increase or decrease attention, they can
take steps to increase the likelihood that product information will get through
 The marketer can enhance the consumer’s motivation to process relevant
information fairly easily by using one or more of the following techniques
o Appeal to consumers’ hedonic needs (emotional)
o Use novel stimuli
o Use prominent stimuli
o Include celebrity endorsers to generate higher interest in commercials
o Build a bond with consumers by maintaining and ongoing relationship with
them
o Segmentation by involvement
 Ex: Harley Davidson – high involvement decisions, enthusiasts, best
bike, etc)
 The best way to boost consumer’s involvement with the marketing messages they
see and hear is to let them make the messages
 Consumer generated content in which consumers produce their own commercials
for favorite products is now a common marketing tactic
 This practice creates a high degree of message-response involvement (also called
advertising involvement), which refers to the consumer’s interest in processing
marketing communications
← Affect:
← Types of Affective Responses:
 Affect: refers to the experience of emotionally-laden states, which can range from
evaluations, to moods, to full-blown emotions
 Evaluations: involves valenced (positive or negative) reactions to events that
objects, that are not accompanied by high levels of arousal
 Moods: temporary positive or negative affective states accompanied by moderate
levels of arousal

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 Moods tend to be diffuse and are not necessarily linked to a particular affect-
arousing event
 Emotions: happiness, anger, fear, etc, in contract to moods tend to be more intense
and are often related to a specific triggering event
 Marketers use affective states in many ways:
o Positive moods and emotions are often highlighted as a product benefit (ex:
Viagra)
o Fragrances, alcohol, tobacco, and caffeinated beverages are consumed for
their mood-altering qualities
o Negative state relief: helping others as a means of resolving ones own
negative moods
o Sometimes utilized by activating a negative mood on the part of the
consumer showing a picture of a child starving in Africa, and giving the ability
to donate and help the cause
o Purchasing and consuming mood-enhancing products, such as chocolate
 Mood congruency: our judgments are often consistent with our existing mood
states (ex: consumers judge the very same products more positively when in a
positive as opposed to a negative mood)
 Moods are most likely to be influential when they are considered relevant to the
particular purchase decision
← How Social Media Taps into Our Emotions:
 Social media platforms can play on affect
 Common for people to express their moods and also their emotional reactions to
products that these posts can be a treasure trove for marketers who want to learn
more about how their offerings make people feel
 Sentiment analysis/opinion mining: a process that scours the social media universe
to collect and analyze the words people use when they describe a specific product or
company
 Word-phrase dictionary: from sentiment analysis, researchers will create a word-
phrase dictionary/library to code the data
← Discrete Emotions:
 Consumer researchers have begun investigating the important of specific emotions
in the consumption environment
 Examination of specific emotional reactions during consumption episodes can
provide additional insight
← Happiness:

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 Happiness: a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions

 How we spent our money can influence happiness
 Increased levels of happiness when they spend money on others, as opposed to
themselves
 As well, happiness when we spend money on experiences (ex: trips)
 One possibility is that the key to happiness does not involve money at all, it involves
time
 Think about time motivates them to spend more time with family and friends, and
less time working
 Thinking about money, induces people to socialize less and work more
 Secret to happiness might be fostering social connections with the people who are
important to us
 What makes us happy can also vary throughout the lifespan
 Meaning of happiness is not fixed and it can shift as people get older
Envy:
 Envy: a negative emotion associated with the desire to reduce the gap between
oneself and someone who is superior on some dimension
 Two distinct types:
o 1. Benign envy occurs when the individual believes that the superior other
deserves his or her status
 When consumers experience begin envy over a product, they are
willing to pay more for it
o 2. Malicious envy occurs when the consumer believes that the superior other
does not deserve his or her status
 Consumers do not desire the focal product, but are instead willing to
pay more for a different product in the same category
 Feelings of malicious envy shown to produce negative attitudes and
actions toward the envied other
← Guilt:
 Guilt: an individual’s unpleasant emotional state associated with possible objections
to his or her actions, inaction, circumstances, or intentions
 Often activated in contexts where marketers want consumers to engage in prosocial
behaviors, such as charitable giving
 Extreme guilt appeals can sometimes backfire, and it can be more effective to
activate guilt more subtly

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o Fear operates similar to guilt and very effective in motivating behavior, but
too much backfires and works the other way
 Consumers guilt can be activated in retail settings too
← Embarrassment:
 Embarrassment: a social emotion driven by a concern for what others are thinking
about us
 It typically occurs when unwanted events communicate undesired information
about oneself to others
 Embarrassment in the consumer context most often arises when socially sensitive
products are purchased
o Ex: condoms, adult diapers, tampons, hair-lice shampoo, and pornography
o Typically embarrassment goes away over time when purchasing these
products
 Purchase of these items involves exposure of personal information to a social
audience
 Embarrassment can also arise between consumers when a social custom or norm is
violated
o Ex: rejection of credit card on dinner date

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Chapter 5 – The Self

← Perspectives on the Self:
 Many products are bought because people are trying to highlight or downplay some
aspect of the self
← Does the Self Exist:
 This concept is a relatively new way of regarding people and their relationships with
society
 The idea that very human life if unique rather than a part of a group developed only
in later medieval times
 The notion that the self is an object to be pampered is even more recent
 The emphasis on the unique nature of the self is much greater in Western societies
 Many Eastern cultures instead stress the importance of a collective self, in which the
person’s identity is derived in large measure from his or her social group
 The self as divided into an inner, private self, and an outer, public self
 Western culture tends to subscribe to an independent interpretation of the self,
which emphasizes the inherent separateness of each individual
 Non-western cultures tend to focus on an interdependent self, whereby a person’s
identity is largely defined by the relationships he or she has with others
← Self Concept:
 Self-concept: the beliefs a person holds about his or her own attributes and how he
or she evaluates these qualities
 Parts of the self are evaluated more positively than others
 The self-concept is a very complex structure
 Attributes of self-concept can be described along such dimensions as their context
(facial attractiveness versus mental aptitude), positively or negatively (self-esteem),
intensity, stability over time, and accuracy (the degree to which one’s self-
assessment corresponds to reality)
 While the self-concept can be somewhat stable over time and situations, situational
factors can influence how we feel about ourselves
 Stereotype treat refers to the anxiety the consumers feel when they fear they might
act in a way that confirms the group stereotype
o Ex: women are not as good as men at math
 Such threats can occur in retail contexts too
o Ex: female needs to take her can to a mechanic
← Self-Esteem:
 Self-esteem refers to the positivity of your attitude toward yourself (self-concept)
 Self-esteem is often related to acceptance by others

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 High self-esteem: think they will be successful and will take risks
 Low self-esteem: think they will not perform well
 Marketing communications can influence a consumer’s level of self-esteem
 Exposure to ads can trigger a process of social comparison, wherein the person tries
to evaluate his or her self by comparing it with other people’s selves and those of
media images
 This form of comparison appears to be a basic human motive
 Many marketers have tapped into this need by supplying idealized images of happy,
attractive people who just happen to be using their products
o Often celebrities
← Real and Ideal Selves:
 When a consumer compares some aspect of him- or herself to an ideal, this
judgment influences self-esteem
 Ideal self: a person’s conception of how he or she would like to be
 Actual self: our more realistic appraisal of the qualities we do and do not have
 If we appear close to our ideal self, self-esteem is generally high
 If we appear far from our ideal self, self-esteem is generally low
 Products can:
o Help us reach ideal self (ex: products being endorsed by celebrities)
o Be consistent with actual self (ex: appliances)
 Impression management: we work hard to “manage” what others think of us – we
strategically choose clothing and other products that will represent us to others in a
good light
 The ideal self is partly moulded by elements of the consumer’s culture, such as
heroes or people depicted in advertising, that serve as models of achievement or
appearance
← Multiple Selves:
 Each consumer is really a number of different people
 We have as many selves as we have different social roles
 Each of us plays many roles, and each role has its own script, props and costumes
 The self might be thought of as having different components of role identities, with
only some of these being active at any given time
 Some identities are more central to the self than others, but others may be
dominant in specific situations
 Marketers may want to take steps to ensure that appropriate role identify is active
before pitching products needed to play that particular role

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 Place advertising messages in contexts

o Ex: fitness and energy products at a marathon
 If one of the aspects of the consumer’s identity gets temporarily viewed in a
negative light, this can have interesting implications for consumer behavior
← Virtual Identity:
 Physical and digital reality
 Today these fictional depictions come to life as real-time, interactive virtual worlds
that allow people to assume virtual identities in cyberspace
 Computer mediated environments: the Sims online, Webkinz, etc
 On these sites people assume visual identities, or avatars, that range from realistic
versions f themselves to tricked-out versions with exaggerated physical
characteristics
 Researchers are investigating how these online selves will influence consumer
behavior and how the identities we choose in CMEs relate to our real life identities
 Already we know that when people take on avatar forms, they tend to interact with
other avatars much as their real selves interact with other real life people
← Symbolic Interactionism:
 Sociological tradition
 Symbolic interactionism: stresses that relationships with other people play a large
part in forming the self
 This perspective maintains that people exist in a symbolic environment, and that the
meaning attached to any situation or object is determined by the interpretation of
the symbols
 As members of society we learn to agree on shared meanings
o Ex: red light means stop
 Our possessions play a key role as we evaluate ourselves and decide “who we are”
 The meanings of consumers themselves are defined by social consensus
 The consumer interprets his or her own identity, and this assessment is continuously
evolving as he or she encounters new situations and people
 In symbolic interactionist terms, we negotiate these meanings over time
 We tend to pattern our behavior on the perceived expectations of others in a form
of self-fulfilling prophecy
 By acting the way we assume others expect us to act, we often wind up confirming
these perceptions
← The Looking-Glass Self:
 Looking-glass self: the process of imagining the reactions of others toward us

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 A process of reflexive evolution occurs when an individual attempts to define the

self, and it operates as a sort of psychological sonar – we take readings of our own
identity by bouncing signals off others and trying to project the impression they have
of us
 The looking-glass image we receive will differ depending on whose views we are
considering
← Self-Consciousness:
 Painfully aware of themselves
 Consumers sometimes behavior with little self-consciousness
 Self-monitoring
o High = concerns about the image they are projecting in public
o Low = not managing an impression and less likely to brand conscious
 Some people seem to be more sensitive to the image they communicate to others,
although we all know people who act as if they’re oblivious to the impression they
are making
 A heightened concern about the nature of one’s public “image” also results in a
more concern about the social appropriateness of products and consumption
activities
 Several measures have been decided to quantify this tendency:
o High public self-consciousness = high concern for clothing and cosmetics
o High self-monitoring = more aware of how they are in social settings and
product choices are based on how others perceive them
← Consumption and Self-Concept:
 Consumption of products an services contributes to the definition of the self
 Consumers learn the different roles are accompanied by constellations of products
and activities that help to define these roles
 Some “props” are so important to the roles we play that they can be viewed as a
part of the extended self
← Products that Shape the Self: You Are What You Consume:
 People use an individual’s consumption behaviors to help them make judgments
about who that person is
 We make inferences about personality based on a persons’ choice of leisure
activities, food preferences, cars, home decorating choices, etc
 Just as a consumer’s use of products influences others’ perceptions, the same
products can help to determine his or her own self-concept and social identity

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 A consumer exhibits attachment to an object to the extent that it is used by that

person to maintain his or her self-concept
 Objects can act as a sort of security blanket by reinforcing our identities, especially in
unfamiliar situations
 Using consumption information to define the self is especially important when an
identity is yet to be adequately formed, as occurs when a consumer plays a new or
unfamiliar role
 Symbolic self-completion theory: predicts that people who have an incomplete self-
definition tend to complete this identity by acquiring and displaying symbols
associated with it
 During awkward stages, marketers create gender separate products for teenagers
for them complete their self identity
 The contribution of possessions to self-identity is perhaps more apparent when
these treasured objects are lost or stolen
 The dramatic impact of the loss of possessions is highlighted by studying post-
disaster conditions in which consumers may literally have lost everything during a
natural disaster
 Some people are reluctant to undergo the process of recreating their identities by
acquiring new possessions
← Self/Product Congruence:
 Consumers demonstrate consistency between their values and attitudes and the
things they buy
 Self-image congruence models: predict that products will be chosen when their
attributes match some aspect of the self
 These models assume a process of cognitive matching between these attributes and
the consumer’s self-image
 The ideal self appears to be more relevant as a comparison standard for highly
expressive social products like perfume
 In contrast, the actual self is more relevant for everyday, function products
 These standards are also likely to vary by usage situation
 Research tends to support he idea of congruence between product usage and self-
image
 Some specific attributes that have been found to be useful in describing some of the
matches between consumers and products include rugged, delicate, excitable/calm,
rational/emotional, and formal/informal
 Problems:

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o 1. We cannot assume that consumers will always buy products who

characteristics match their own
 It is not certain that consumers really see aspects of themselves in
down-to-earth, functional products, that don’t have very complex or
humanlike images
o 2. Do people buy products because they are seen as similar to the self, or do
they assume that these products must be similar because they have bought
them?
 The similarity between a person’s self-image and the images of
products purchased does tend to increase with ownership, so this
explanation cannot be ruled out
← The Extended Self:
 Many of the props and settings consumers use to define their social roles in a sense
become a part of their selves
 Extended self: those external objects that we consider a part of us
 Many people do cherish possessions as if they were a part of them
o Ex: shoes, phones
 These experiences were similar to those that occur in such well-known fairy tales as
stories (ex: Wizard of Oz, Cinderella, etc)
 Object wee more likely to be considered a part of the extended self if “psychic
energy” was invested in them by expending effort to obtain them or because they
were personalized and kept for a long time
 Consumers define themselves by referring to four levels of the extended self
o These range from very personal objects to p[laces and things that allow
people to feel as if they are rooted in their environments
 1. Individual level: consumers include many of their personal
possessions in self definition
 Ex: jewelry, cars, clothing, etc
 2. Family level: includes a consumers residence and furnishings in it
 The house can be thought of as a symbolic body for the family,
and is often a central aspect of identity
 3. Community level: consumers describe themselves in terms of the
neighborhood or town where they come from
 Sense of self belonging is important
 4. Group level: our attachments to certain social groups can also be
considered a part of self

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 Ex: landmarks, monuments, or sports teams

← Gender Roles:
 Gender identity is a very important component of a consumer’s self-concept
 People often conform to their culture’s expectations about what those of their
gender should do
 These guidelines change over time, and differ radically across societies
 Ex: food preferences of men and women
o Women eat fruit
o Men eat meat
o Also quantities of food men vs. women eat
← Gender Differences in Socialization:
 Different across cultures
 In many societies males are controlled by agentic goals
 Agentic goals: stress self-assertion and mastery
 Females are taught to value communal goals
 Communal goals: affiliation and the fostering of harmonious relations
 Every society creates a set of expectations regarding the behaviors appropriate for
men and women and firms ways to communicate these priorities
 Research indicates that our brains are “wired” to react differently to males and
females – which may help to explain why men tend to objectify women
← Gender Versus Sexual Identity:
 Gender-role identity is a state of mind as well as body
 A person’s biological gender (male or female), does not totally determine whether
he or she will exhibit sex-typed traits
 Sex-typed traits: characteristics stereotypically associated with one gender or the
other
 A consumer’s subjective feelings about his or her sexuality are crucial as well
 Masculinity and femininity are not biological characteristics
 Each society determines what “real” men and women should and should not do
← Sex-Typed Products:
 Many products are sex-typed
 They take on masculine or feminine attributes, and consumers often associate them
with one gender or another
 The sex-typing of products is often created or perpetuated by marketers
 Ex: Huggies in pink and blue, girl and boy bicycles
 Ex: Jack Daniels Whiskey – masculine

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 Ex: Pink princess telephones – feminine

 Ex: Cigarettes can have both appeals
← Androgyny:
 Masculinity and femininity are not opposite ends of the same dimension
 Androgyny: refers to the possession of both masculine and feminine traits
 Mixture of characteristics allows them to function well in a variety of social
situations
 The “normality” of sex-typed behaviors varies across cultures
 Differences in gender-role orientation can influence responses to marketing stimuli,
as least under some circumstances
 Females more detail oriented
 Men consider overall themes
 Sex-typed people in general are more concerned with ensuring that their behavior is
consistent with their culture’s definition of gender-appropriateness
← Gender-Bending Products:
 Smart marketers try to think about new markets for their products
 Some companies that sell exclusively to one gender, therefore, may decide to test
the waters with the other sex hen they promote gender-bending products
 Gender-bending products: traditionally sex-typed items adapted to the opposite
gender
 Ex: Rubbermaid introduced a line of grooming tools for men
 When product hit the end of the product life cycle, it is common they expand into
the other gender to stay in business
o Ex: Harley Davidson
← Female Roles:
 Women can have a successful career and still be happily married
 Today the evolution of a new managerial class of women has forced marketers to
change their traditional assumptions about women as they target this growing
market
 Announcing the death of traditional role stereotypes is premature though
o Ex: Saudi Arabia
 To further complicate matters, sex roles constantly evolve – in a complex society
such as ours we often encounter contradictory messages about “appropriate”
behavior and we may find ourselves putting on a very different face as we jump from
situation to situation
← Male Roles:

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 Although the traditional conception of the ideal male as a tough, aggressive,

muscular man who enjoys “manly” sports and activities is not dead, society’s
definition of the male role is evolving
 Like women, men receive mixed messages about how they are supposed to behave
and feel
 Metro-sexual: a straight urban male who exhibits strong interests and knowledge
regarding product categories such as fashion, home design, gourmet cooking, and
personal care that run counter to the traditional male sex role
o Ex: David Beckham
 Our cultural definition of masculinity is evolving as men try to redefine sex roles
while they stay in a “safety zone” of acceptable behaviors bounded by danger zones
of sloppiness at one extreme and effeminate behavior at the other
 Some cultural observers report the emergence of “retrosexuals” – men who want to
emphasize their old-school masculinity by getting plastic surgery to create a more
rugged look and includes hairier chests and beards, squarer chins, and more angular
jaw lines
← Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Consumers:
 Homosexuals are twice as likely as heterosexuals to have attended graduate school,
are more concerned about physical fitness and self-improvement, experience more
stress in their daily lives, and are much more likely to be self-employed
← Body Image:
 A person’s physical appearance is a large part of his or her self-concept
 Body image: refers to a consumer’s subjective evaluation of his or her physical self
 This image is not necessarily accurate
 It is no uncommon to find marketing strategies that exploit consumers’ tendencies
to distort their body images by preying on insecurities about appearance, thereby
creating a gap between the real and ideal physical self, and consequently, the desire
to purchase products and services to narrow that gap
← Body Cathexis:
 Body cathexis: a person’s feelings about his or her body
 Cathexis refers to the emotional significance of some object or idea to a person, and
some parts of the body are more central to self-concept than others
 Strong body cathexis = frequent purchases of “preening” products
← Ideals of Beauty:
 Physical characteristics do not define true beauty

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 A person’s satisfaction with the physical image he or she presents to others is

affected by how closely that image corresponds to the image valued by his or her
culture
 Ideal of beauty: a particular model, or exemplar, of appearance
 “What is beautiful is good” stereotype
 Favorable physical features: attractive faces, good health and youth,
balance/symmetry, feminine curves/hourglass body shape
← Is Beauty Universal:
 This bias affects both men and women
 Virtually every culture displays this beauty bias, even though the standards by which
people judge that is “hot and what is not” may differ
 Preferences of some physical features over others are “wired in” genetically and that
these reactions tend to be the same among people around the world
 People appear to favour features with good health and youth, attributes linked to
reproductive ability and strength
 These characteristics include, large eyes, high cheekbones, and a narrow jaw
 Another cue apparently used across ethnic and racial groups to signal sexual
desirability is whether the person’s features are balanced
 Advertising and other forms of mass media play a significant role in determining
which forms of beauty are considered desirable at any point in time
 Consumers compare themselves to some standard (often advocated by fashion
media) and are typically dissatisfied with their appearance
← The Western Ideal of Beauty:
 Beauty is about more than aesthetics
 We use cues such as skin colour and eye shape the make inferences about a
person’s status, sophistication, and social desirability
 People in less powerful cultures tend to adopt the standards of beauty prevalent in
dominant cultures
 As media images of glamorous Caucasian celebrities proliferate around the globe,
women who buy into the Western ideal of beauty – big round eyes, tiny waists, large
breasts, blond hair, blue eyes – literally go under the knife the achieve these
attributes
o Ex: Asian women bleaching their skin to be lighter toned
← Ideals of Beauty Over Time:
 Periods of history tend to be characterized by a specific “look” or ideal beauty

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 The ideal body type of Western women has changed radically over time, and these
changes have resulted in a realignment of sexual dimorphic markers – those aspects
of the body the distinguish between the sexes
 Women have become more athletic, more in the business world, and more inclined
to put themselves through fitness regimes their body have changed and we reflect
that as well
 Trend toward increasing thinness seems to have stabilized and actually may have
begin to reverse
← Is the Ideal Getting Real?:
 Dove’s real beauty commercial with imperfect bodies in their underwear (no size 0)
 Appearance norms are strongly rooted in culture
← Male Ideals of Beauty:
 Ideals of beauty for men in terms of facial features, muscular, and facial hair
 Menswear designers and fashion magazines are starting to choose male models who
look more the regular guys as they try to broaden the industry’s appeal to the mass
market
 “Chiseled without looking too pretty”
← Working on the Body:
 Because many consumers are motivated to match up to some ideal of appearance,
they often go to great lengths to change aspects of their physical selves
← Hair and the Self:
 Our hair forms the basis for the presentation of self-image and how it can be used as
a tool to transform or change one’s image
 Haircuts are a regular part of the consumption process
 The preference for long or short hair is reflective of the social situation
 With changes in age, lifestyle, careers, and even partners comes an inevitable
change in colour and style of hair
← Fattism:
 The pressure to be slim is continually reinforced, both by advertising and by peers
 North Americans in particular are preoccupied with how much their weigh
 Ex: Barbie
 The desire to be thin has had a big impact on consumers’ lifestyles and eating habits
← Body Image Distortions:
 Although many people perceive a strong link between self-esteem and appearance,
some consumers unfortunately exaggerate this connection even more and make
great scarifies to attain what they consider to be a desirable body image

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 Most major distortions of body image occur in females

 A distorted body image has been linked to the rise of eating disorders
 People with anorexia always see themselves as far and virtually starve themselves in
the quest for thinness
 This condition often results in bulimia, which involves two stages
o Binge eating where more the 5000 calories may be consumed at one time
o Induced vomiting, abuse of laxatives, fasting, and/or overly strenuous
exercise – a purging process that reasserts a sense of control
 Most eating disorders are found in white, upper-middle class, teenaged and
university girls
 Enforced by brothers or fathers whoa re hypercritical of their weight, and also
associates with a history of sexual abuse
 Eating disorders have also been documented in men
 Common among male athletes and models
 Most men with distorted body images consider themselves too thin rather than too
heavy – society has taught them that they must be muscular to be masculine
 Results in steroids, especially in major sports
← Cosmetic Surgery:
 Commonplace and accepted among many segments of consumers
← Body Decoration and Mutilation:
 The body is adorned or altered in some way in every culture
 Decorating the self serves a number of purposes:
o 1. To separate group members form non-members
o 2. To place the individual in the social organizations – ex: puberty rites
wherein a boy symbolically becomes a man
o 3. To place the person in a gender category – ex: lipstick to enhance
femininity
o 4. To enhance gender-role identification – ex: higher heels
o 5. To provide a sense of security – ex: consumers wear lucky products to
protect them from the “evil eye”
o 6. To indicate desired social conduct – ex: gay men wearing one earring
o 7. To indicate high status or rank – ex: wearing glasses without lenses
without eye problems to enhance their perceived status
← Tattoos:
 Tattoos – both temporary and permanent – are a poplar form of body adornment

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 This body are can be used to communicate aspects of the self to onlookers and may
serve some of the same functions that other kinds of body painting do in primitive
cultures
 Deep roots in folk art
 A tattoo may be viewed as a fairly risk-free way of expressing an adventurous side of
the self
 One recent trend is for middle-aged women to get one to commemorate a
milestone
 So now these skin designs are more of a fashion statement than a declaration of
rebellion
← Body Piercing:
 Decorating the body with various kinds of metallic inserts has evolved from a
practice associated with some fringe groups and natives in developing counties to
become a popular fashion statement
 Piercing can and is being done on any parts of the body
 This popularity is not pleasing to hardcore piercing fans, who view the practice as a
sensual consciousness-raising ritual and are concerned that people now do it simply
because it’s trendy

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Chapter 6 – Personality, Lifestyles and Values

← Four Temperaments:
 Sanguine
o Pleasure seeking, sociable, comfortable being center of attention
 Choleric
o Hard to get along with, leader-like, ambitious aggressive
 Melancholic
o Analytical, downers, sad
 Phlegmatic
o Happily relaxed, thoughtful
← Personality:
 Personality: refers to a person’s unique psychological makeup and how it
consistently influences the way they respond to the environment
 People do not exhibit a consistent personality across different situations; they argue
that this is merely a convenient way to think about other people
 A person’s underlying characteristics are but one part of the puzzle and that
situational factors often play a large role in determining behavior
 Some aspects of personality tend to be relatively stable over time and across a
variety of situations
 Psychological theorists perspectives are qualitative and largely based on analysts’
interpretations of patients’ accounts of dreams, traumatic experiences, and
encounters with others
← Freudian Theory:
 Sigmund Freud developed the idea that much of human behavior stems from a
fundamental conflict between a persons desire to gratify their physical needs and
the necessity to function as a responsible member of society
 This struggle is carried out in the mind among three symbolic self systems
← Freudian Systems:
 Personality = conflict between gratification and responsibility
 Id: the component of the self entirely oriented toward immediate gratification
o Party animal of the mind
o The id operates according to the pleasure principle
o Pleasure principle: behavior is guided by the primary desire to maximize
pleasure and avoid pain
o The id is selfish and illogical
o Often sexually drive, something biologically driven
o Ex: devil

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 Superego: the counterweight to the id

o This system is essentially the persons conscience
o It internalizes society’s rules and works to prevent the id from seeking selfish
gratification

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o “Wait, don’t be so impulsive”

o Ex: angel
 Ego: the system that mediates between the id and the super ego
o A referee in the fight between temptation and virtue - mediates between id
and superego
o Usually in a state of anxiety trying to balance the id and superego
o The ego tries to balance these two opposing forces according to the reality
principle
o It finds ways to gratify the id that will be acceptable to the outside world
o These conflicts occur on an unconscious level, so the person is not
necessarily aware of the underlying reasons for behavior
 Some of Freud’s ideas have also been adapted by consumers researchers
o 1. Potential importance of unconscious motives underlying purchases
 Implication is that consumers cannot necessarily tell us their true
motivations for choosing a product, even if we can devise a sensitive
way to ask them directly
o 2. Possibility that the ego relies on the symbolism in products to compromise
between the demands of the id and the prohibitions of the superego
 The person channels their unacceptable desires into acceptable
outlets by using products and signify these underlying desires
 This is the connection between product symbolism and motions: the
product stand for, or represents, a consumers true goal, one that is
socially unacceptable or unattainable; by acquiring the product, the
person is able to experience vicariously the forbidden fruit
← Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar:
 Symbolism in products to compromise id and superego
 Most Freudian applications in marketing are related to the ways in which products
might channel unconscious urges, such as those involving sexuality and aggression
 Ex: sports car is a substitute for sexual gratification for many men
 Others focus on male-oriented symbolism – the so called phallic symbol – that
appeals to women
 Many pop applications of Freud’s ideas revolve around the use of objects the
resemble sex organs
 Ex: Phallic symbols like cigars
 This focus stems from Freud’s analysis of dreams, which were often interpreted as
communicating repressed desires through symbols

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Motivational Research:
 Motivational research: attempts more deeply understand products and
advertisements
 This approach is largely based on psychoanalytic (Freudian) interpretations, with a
heavy emphasis on unconscious motives
 A basic assumption is that socially unacceptable needs are channeled into
acceptable outlets
 Motivational research relies on in-depth interviews with individual consumers
 This techniques uses relatively few consumers but probes deeply into each person’s
purchase motivations
 This technique was pioneered by Ernest Dichter (a psychoanalyst)
 Motivational research is attacked for two reasons:
o 1. Social critics have attacked this school of thought for giving advertisers the
power to manipulate consumers
o 2. Many consumers researchers feel the research has lacked sufficient
rigorous and validity, since interpretations are subjective and indirect
 Some researchers are dubious as to the degree to which these results can be
generalized to a large market
 Interpretations usually carried strong sexual overtones
 This emphasis tends to overlook other plausible causes for behavior
 Motivational research has great appeal to at least some marketers for several
reasons:
o 1. Cost efficiency: less expensive – interviewing and data processing costs are
relatively minimal
o 2. Providing insights: help to develop marketing communications – these
insights can be valuable when used in an exploratory way
o 3. Intuitive sense: some of the findings seem intuitively plausible after the
fact
 Motivational research continues to be a useful diagnostic tool
 Validity is enhanced when used in conjunction with the other search techniques
available to the consumers researcher
← Non-Freudian Theories of Personality:
 Freud’s work had a huge influence on subsequent theories of personalities
 Many of his co-workers and students felt that an individual’s personality was more
influenced by how they handled relationships with others

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 These theorists are often called neo-Freudian (meaning following from or being
influence by Freud)
 Karen Horney:
o Neo-Freudian psychoanalyst
o People can be described as moving toward others (compliant), away from
others (detached), or against others (aggressive)
o These three types prefer different kinds of products
o Ex: compliant people are more likely to gravitate toward name-brand
products
o Other neo-Freudians include:
 Alfred Adler: who proposed that many actions are motivated by
peoples desire to overcome feelings of inferiority relative to others
 Harry Stack Sullivan: who focused on how personality evolves to
reduce anxiety in social relationships
 Schopenhauer: believed behavior motivated to being normal
 Don’t want to be an outlier
 Carl Jung:
o Disciple of Freud
o Unable to accept Freud’s emphasis on sexual aspects of personality
o Developed his own method of psychotherapy, known as analytical
psychology
o This approach emphasized both the individuals development as a creative
person (their future) and their individual and racial history (their past) in the
formation of personality
o Jung believed that people are shaped by the cumulative experiences of past
generations
o A central part of his perspective was an emphasis on what Jung called the
collective unconscious, which is a storehouse of memories inherited from our
ancestral past
o These shared memories create archetypes, or universally shared ideas and
behavior patterns
o Archetypes involve themes such as birth, death, or the devil, that appear
frequently in myths, stories, and dreams
o Advertising messages often do invoke archetypes to link products with
underlying meanings
o Some brands have personalities that are quite similar to human personalities

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o Accurately and adequately measuring those personalities has been

problematic
← Trait Theories:
 One approach to personality is to focus on the quantitative measurement of specific
traits
 Traits: identifiable characteristics that define a person
 Some specific traits that are relevant to consumer behavior include:
o Innovativeness
o Public self-consciousness
o Need for cognition
 One way marketers try to use personality variables is to link product benefits with
consumer personality type
← Are You An Innie Or An Outie?:

 Perhaps the trait dimension most relevant to consumer behavior is the extent to
which a person is motivated to consume in order to please others or to fit in, versus
the extent to which a person consumers to express a unique sense of self without
much concern about being accepted by a group
 David Riesman first termed the inner-directed and outer-directed
 Some cultures tend to stress individualism while others reward those who try to fit
in
 Power of conformity (the impact of shaping ones behavior to meet the expectations
of a group)
 Each of us to some extent is a conformist by definition, because as members of
society we follow certain rules
o Ex: agree to stop at red lights
 One personality trait we can measure is the need for uniqueness
 Idiocentrics: individualist orientation
 Allocentrics: group orientation
 Some difference between these two personality types are:

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← What Traits Are Useful?:

 The notion that consumers buy products that are extensions of their personalities
makes intuitive sense
 This idea is endorsed by many marketing managers, who try to create brand
personalities that will appeal to particular types of consumers
 One domain in which using personality measure has proven very successful is dating
services
o Uses a combination of different measures of personality to help match
consumers on core traits and values
 Personality traits often interact with situational factors to predict how consumers
will behave
 Consumers high on the trait of public self-consciousness are more likely to make
choices that allow them to present a positive view of the self to others
o Avoid products with negative associations
 Need for uniqueness has also been shown to drive product choice when the specific
consumption context motivates the relevance of this personality trait
o More likely to desire unique, counter-normative, or unconventional options
when a consumption situation activates this need
 Need for cognition can be achieved when the consumption situation provides the
opportunity to effortful cognitive activity – or in other words, thinking
 Consumers high in need for cognition enjoy thinking extensively about things like
products and their attributes
 Those low in need for cognition are more likely to take short-cuts or rely on their
feelings when making decisions, as opposed to thinking carefully
← Brand Personality:
 Brand personality: the set of traits people attribute to a product as if it were a
person
 Many of the most recognizable figures in popular culture are spokes characters for
long standing brands

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o Ex: Tony the Tiger, Geico Gecko, Jolly Green Giant

 Like real people, these characters sometimes need a “makeover” to keep them fresh
and young looking
 Our feelings about a brand’s personality are an important part of brand equity
 Brand equity: refers to the extent to which consumers hold strong, favourable, and
unique associations with a brand in memory – and the extent to which they are
willing to pay more for the branded version of a product than for a non-branded
(generic) version
 Name recognition has become so valuable that some companies are completely
outsourcing production to focus on nurturing the brand
o Ex: Nike
 Some personality dimensions that can be used to compare and contrast the
perceived characteristics of brands in various product categories include:
o Sincerity : down-to-earth, honest wholesome, cheerful
 Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, Hallmark, Coke
o Excitement: daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date
 Disney land, Pepsi
o Competence: reliable, intelligent, successful
 Ex: IBM, Wall Street Journal, Globe and Mail
o Sophisticated: aspirations, upper-class, charming
 Ex: Grey Goose, Volvo, Rolex, Mercedes, Channel, BMW
o Ruggedness: outdoorsy, tough
 Ex: Ford, Jeep, GMC, Nike, Marlboro
 Brand Behaviors and Personality Trait Inferences:
 The marketing activities undertaken on behalf of the product can also influence
inferences about its “personality”
 Consumers appear to have little trouble assigning personality qualities to all sorts of
inanimate products, from personal-care products to more mundane, functional ones
 The creation of communication of a distinctive brand personality is one of the
primary ways marketers can make a product stand out from the competition and
inspire years of loyalty to it

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 This process can be understood in terms of animism

 Animism: the practice found in many cultures whereby inanimate objects are given
qualities that make them somehow alive
 Two types of animism can be identified to describe the extent to which human
qualities are attributed to a product:
o Level 1:
 Highest order of animism
 The object is associated with a human individual - spokesperson
 Allows the consumer to feel that the spirit of the celebrity or
endorser is available through the brand
 A brand might be strongly associated with a loved one, alive or
deceased (ex: my grandmother always served Kraft jam)
o Level 2:
 Objects are anthropomorphized – given human characteristics
 A cartoon character or mythical creation might be treated as if it were
a person, and even assumed to have human feelings
 Ex: Jolly Green Giant, Michelin Man
← Personality of Positioning:
 Brand’s positioning strategy is a statement about what that brand wants to be in the
eyes of its consumers – especially relative to the competition
 Marketers are used to thinking in these terms, routinely describing their brands and
the competition as if they were people
 A brand personality is also a statement about how the brand is positioned
 Understanding this concept is crucial to the success of a marketing strategy –
especially if consumers don’t see the brand the way it makers intend them to, which
means the makers have to try to reposition the product
o Ex: Volvo known as safe but repositioning as sexy too
← Lifestyles and Psychographics:
← Lifestyles: Who We Are, What We Do:
 In traditional societies, consumption options are largely dictated by class, caste,
village, or family
 In a modern consumer society, people are more free to select the set of products,
services, and activities that defines them, and in turn, to create a social identity that
can be communicated to others

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 A person’s choice of goods and services indeed makes a statement about who that
person is and about the types of people with whom that person desires to identify –
and even about those they wish to avoid
 Lifestyle: refers to a pattern of consumption reflecting a person’s choices of how he
or she spends time and money
 In an economic sense, a person’s lifestyle represents that they have elected to
allocate income both to different products and services and to specific alternatives
within these categories
 Other somewhat similar distinctions have been made to describe consumers in
terms of their broad patterns of consumption
o Social class, advanced technology, information intensive goods as
entertainment and education
 A lifestyle marketing perspective recognizes that people sort themselves into group
son the basis of the things they like to do, how they like to spend their leisure time,
and how they choose to spend their disposable income
← Lifestyles As Group Identities:
 Lifestyle is more than the allocation of discretionary income
 It is a statement about who we are in society and who we are not
 Group identities jell around forms of expressive symbolism
 The self definitions of group members are derived from the common symbol system
to which the group is dedicated
 Terms: lifestyle, taste public, consumer group, symbolic community, status culture
 Patterns of consumption based on lifestyles often comprise many ingredients that
are shared by others in similar social and economic circumstances
 Each person also provides a unique “twist” to this pattern that allows them to inject
some individuality into a chosen lifestyle
 Lifestyles are not set in stone – people’s tastes and preferences evolve
 It is vital for marketers to continuously monitor the social and scope to try to
anticipate where these changes will lead
 Important lifestyle changes are known as trends
Products Are The Building Blocks of Lifestyles:
 Lululemon athletics known for comfortable clothing, but more importantly the
company wants to play an integral role in creating consumer lifestyles around their
products (“Lululemon Lifestlye”)
 Marketers encourage a sense of community among product users
 We often choose a product precisely because we associate it with a certain lifestyle

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 Lifestyle marketing strategies attempt to position a product by fitting it into an

existing pattern of consumption and thus create a brand personality that is relevant
to a variety of products and situations
 Because a goal of lifestyle marketing is to allow consumers to pursue their chosen
ways to enjoying their lives and expressing their social identities, a key aspect of this
strategy is to focus on product usage in desirable social settings
 People, products and settings are combined to express a certain consumption style
 FIGURE 6-2: Linking Products to Lifestyles
 The adoption of a lifestyle marketing perspective implies that we must look at
patterns of behavior to understand consumers
 We can get a clearer picture of how people use products to define lifestyles by
examining how they make choices in a variety of product categories
 The meaning is in the relations between all the goods
 Many products and services do seem to “go together”, usually because they tend to
be selected by the same types of people
 In many cases, products do not seem to “make sense” if unaccompanied by
companion products (ex: suit and tie) or are incongruous in the presence of others
(ex: antique chair in a high-tech office)
 An important part of lifestyle marketing is to identify the set or products and
services that seems to be linked in consumers’ minds to a specific lifestyle
 Product complementarity: occurs when the symbolic meanings of different products
are related to each other
 These sets of products, called consumption constellations, are used by consumers to
define, communicate and perform social roles
← Psychographics:
 Marketers often find it useful to develop products that appeal to different lifestyle
groups
 Consumers can share demographic characteristics and still be very different people
 Marketers need a way to “breathe life” into demographic data to really identify,
understand, and target consumer segments that will share a set of preferences for
their products and services
 When personality variables are combined with knowledge of lifestyle preferences,
marketers have a powerful lens through which to view consumer segments

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 Psychographics: the use of psychological, sociological, ad anthropological factors to

determine how the market is segmented by the propensity of groups within the
market and their reasons to make a particular decision about a product, person,
ideology, or otherwise hold an attitude or use a medium
 Psychographics can help marketers fine-tune their offerings to meet the needs of
different segments
← Conducting a Psychographic Analysis:
 The technique is more effective when the variables included are more closely related
to actual consumer behaviors
 Psychographic studies can take several forms:
o A lifestyle profile that looks for items that differentiate between users and
non-users of a product
o A product-specific profile that identifies a target group and then profiles
these consumers on product-relevant dimensions
o A general lifestyle segmentation, in which the respondents in a large sample
are placed into homogenous groups based on similarities in their overall
preferences
o A product-specific segmentation, in which questions used in a general
approach are tailored to a product category – this allows the researcher to
discriminate more finely between users of competing brands
← AIOs:
 Most contemporary psychographic research attempts to group consumers according
to some combination of three categories of variables
 AIOs: the three categories of variables consumers are grouped into – activities,
interests, and opinions
 Using data from large samples, marketers create profiles of customers who
resemble one another in their activities and patterns of product usage
 To group consumers into common AIO categories, researchers give respondents a
long list of statements and ask them to indicate how much they agree with each one
 Lifestyle is thus “boiled down” by discovering how people spend their time, what
they find interesting and important, and how they view themselves and the world
around them, as well as by discovering demographic information
 The first step in conducting a psychographic analysis is to determine which lifestyle
segments are producing the bulk of customers for a particular product
 Researchers attempt to determine who uses the brand and try to isolate heavy,
moderate, and light users

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 They also look for patterns of usage and attitudes toward the product
 Marketers primarily target these heavy users
 Heavy users may have quite different reasons for using the product – they can be
further sub-divided in terms of the benefits they derive from using the product or
service
 80% of profit from 20% of customers
 Want to figure out who their loyal customers are (psychographics)
 Lifestyle Dimensions:
o All four areas give us a good idea of who someone is and the types of
products they might want to buy
← Uses of Psychographic Segmentation:
 Psychographic segmentation can be applied in a variety of ways:
o To define the target market: this information allows the marketer to go
beyond simple demographic or product-usage descriptions
o To create a new view of the market: sometimes the marketer creates a
strategy with a “typical” customer in mind. This stereotype may not be
correct because the actual customer may not match these assumptions
o To position the product: psychographic information can allow the marketer to
emphasize features o the product that fit in with a person’s lifestyle
o To better communicate product attributes: psychographic information can
offer very useful input to the advertising creative person who must
communicate something about the product
o To develop overall strategy: understanding how a product fits, or does not fit,
into consumers’ lifestyles allows the marketers to identify new product
opportunities, chart media strategies, and create environments most
consistent and harmonious with these consumption patterns
o To market social and political issues: psychographic segmentation can be an
important tool in political campaigns, and it can also be employed to find
commonalities among types of consumers who engage in destructive
behaviors
← Psychographic Segmentation Typologies:

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 Many research companies and advertising agencies have developed their own
segmentation typologies that divide people into segments
 Respondents answer a battery of questions that allow the researchers to cluster
them into a set of distinct lifestyle groups
 These systems are usually sold to companies that want to learn more about their
customers and potential customers
 Many of these typologies are fairly similar to one another in that a typical typology
breaks up the population into roughly five to eight segments
← VALS:
 VALS (values and lifestyles): the most well-known and widely used segmentation
system
 VALS divides people into eight groups, according to both psychological
characteristics and resources, which include such factors as income, education,
energy levels, and eagerness to buy
 Groups are arranged vertically by resources and horizontally by self-orientation
 FIGURE 6-3: VALS Segmentation System
 The top group is called innovators, who are successful consumers with many
resources
o This group is concerned with social issues and is open to change
 The next three groups also have sufficient resources, but differ in their outlooks on
life:
o Thinkers: satisfied, reflective, and comfortable. They tend to be practical and
value functionality
o Achievers: career-oriented and prefer predictability over risk or self-discovery
o Experiencers: impulsive and young and enjoy offbeat or risky experiences
 The next three groups have fewer resources:
o Believers: strong principles and favour proven brands
o Strivers: like achievers but with fewer resources. They are very concerned
about the approval of others

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o Makers: action-oriented and tend to focus their energies on self-sufficiency.

They will often be found working on their cars, canning their own vegetables,
or building their own houses
 Finally comes the group with the fewest resources
o Survivors: are at the bottom of the ladder. They are most concerned with
meeting the needs of the moment
 The VALS systems has been a useful way to understand consumers
← Geodemography:
 Geodemography: refers to analytical techniques that combine data on consumer
expenditures and other socioeconomic factors with geographic information about
the areas in which people live to identify consumers who share common
consumption patterns
 “Birds of a feather flock together”
 People with similar needs and tastes tend to live near one another – so it should be
possible to locate pockets of like-minded people who can then be reached more
economically by direct mail and other methods
o Ex: Wolseley
 Single-source data: information about a persons actual purchasing history is
combined with geodemographic data
← Values:
 Value: a belief that some condition is preferable to its opposite
 A person’s set of values play a very important role in their consumption activities,
since many product and services are purchased because they will help attain a value-
related goal
 Values often underlie and individual’s lifestyle and psychographic profile
 Values are central to what makes a consumer distinct in their consumption and in
society
 Two people can believe in the same behavior (ex: vegetarianism), but their
underlying belief systems might be different (ex: animal activism versus health
concerns)
 The extent to which people share a belief system is a function of individual, social,
and culture forces
 Advocates of a given belief system often seek out others with similar beliefs, so that
social networks overlap and, as a result, believers tend to be exposed to information
that supports their beliefs (ex: tree huggers rarely hang out with loggers)
← Core Values:

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 Different cultures emphasize varying belief systems

 Ex: the definition of what it means to be female, feminine, or appealing – and what
is considered appropriate to see in print on these matter – varies cross-culturally
 Every culture has a set of values that it imparts to its members
 People in one culture might feel that being a unique individual is preferable to
subordinating one’s identity to the group, while those in another culture might
emphasize the virtues of group membership
 Ex: older people – some see as fragile and weak and some see are powerful and
knowledgeable
 A culture’s values change over time
 These differences in values often explain why marketing efforts that are a big hit in
one country can flop in another
 Some values are universal
 Who does not desire health, wisdom, or world peace?
 What sets cultures apart is the relative importance, or ranking, of these universal
values
 Value system: set of rankings of the universal values in a culture
 Every culture is characterized by its members’ endorsement of a value system
 These end states may not be equally endorsed by everyone, and in some cases
values may even seem to contradict one another
 Usually possible to identify a general set of core values that uniquely define a culture
 These beliefs are taught to us by socialization agents, including parents, friends and
teachers
 The process of learning the beliefs and behaviors endorsed by one’s own culture is
called enculturation
 Acculturation: the process of learning the value system and behaviors of another
culture
 Core values such as equality, youthfulness, achievement, and activities have been
claimed to characterize most Western culture, but even these basic beliefs are
subject to change
← How Values Link To Consumer Behavior:
 Values have not been widely applied to direct examinations of consumer behavior
 One reason is that such broad-based concepts as freedom, security, or inner
harmony are more likely to affect general purchasing patterns than to differentiate
among brands within a product category

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 Convenient to distinguish among such broad-based cultural values (security or

happiness), consumption-specific values (convenient shopping or prompt service),
and product-specific values (ease of use or durability)
← Ways to Classify Values:
 Milton Rokeach
 Terminal values: desired end sates, that apply (to various degrees) to many different
cultures
 The Rokeach Value Survey, a scale used to measure these values, also includes a set
of instrumental values, which comprise actions needed to achieve these terminal
values
 The Rokeach Value Survey has not been widely used by marketing researchers
 As an alternative, the List of Values (LOV) Scale was developed to isolate values with
more direct marketing applications
 This instrument identifies nine consumer segments on the basis of the values they
endorse and relates each to differences in consumption behaviors
 These segments include consumers who give priority to such values as a sense of
belonging, excitement, warm relationship with others, and security
← Conscientious Consumerism: A New Core Value?:
 Are consumers finally going green?
 Conscientious consumerism: the consumer’s focus on personal health in merging
with a growing interest in global health
o Potentially a new core value
 Its important to note that attitudes don’t always predict behavior especially for
pocketbook issues
 When people have less money to spend they might not purchase environmentally
friendly or healthy products I they have to pay a premium for them
 Still, its clear the values are shifting
 LOHAS: a new segment of consumers – an acronym for “lifestyles of health and
sustainability”
 “Lohasians” (others refer to this segment as cultural creatives) represent a great
market for products such as organic foods, energy efficient appliances, and hybrid
cars, as well as alternative medicine, yoga tapes, and ecotourism
 Conscientious consumerism is now spreading to the mass market
 Numerous companies are responding to these desires as they develop “green”
formulations or partner with other organizations to promote environmentally
friendly behavior

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 Ethical behavior aside for a moment, is there a financial reward waiting for those
companies that pay closer attention to what goes into their products and who
makes them?
o Yes
← Materialism: “He Who Dies with the Most Toys Wins”
 Although most people don’t literally worship material goods, “things” do play a
central role in many peoples lives and can influence their value systems
 Materialism: refers to the importance people attach to worldly possessions
 Today, many consumers now energetically seek “the good life” which abounds to
material comforts
 Materialistic values tend to emphasize the well-being of the individual versus the
group, which may conflict with family or religious values
 Materialistic people are often individualistic and not collective
 Focus on themselves and not their community and those around them (less group
oriented)
 The more collective we are, the happier we generally are
 People with highly material values tend to be less happy
←

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Chapter 11 – Group Influence and Opinion

Leadership
← Reference Groups:
 Our desire to “fit in” or to identify with desirable individuals or groups is the primary
motivation for many of our purchases and activities
 The members of a group whose acceptance we covet
 Reference group: actual or imaginary individual/group conceived of having
significant relevance upon an individuals evaluations, aspirations, or behavior
 Reference groups influence consumers in three ways:
o 1. Informational: prior users of product, expert behavior, endorsements
o 2. Utilitarian: satisfy/please peer group, “me too”, colleagues, family
o 3. Value expressive
← Types of Reference Group:
 Reference group – any external influence that provides social cues
 The reference may be a cultural figure and have an impact on many people, or it
may be a person or group whose influence is confined to the consumer’s immediate
environment
 Some people influence us simply because we feel similar to them
 One reason we feel a bond with fellow brand users is that we feel attracted to
people similar to ourselves
 Some groups and individuals exert a greater influence than others and for a broader
range of consumption decisions
 Normative influence
o The reference group helps to set and enforce fundamental standards of
conduct or values
o Parents, close friends, mentors
o Broader range of consumption choices
o Ex: personal hygiene, level of education, sense of self
 Comparative influence
o Decisions about specific brands or activities are affected
o Groups, clubs
o Ex: business clubs, athletic membership, weight watchers, AA
← Formal Versus Information Groups:
 A reference group can take the form of a large, formal organization that has a
recognized structure, complete with a character, regular meeting times, and officers
 Or is can be small and information, such as a group of friends or students

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 Marketers tend to be more successful at influencing formal than informal groups

because they are more easily identifiable and accessible
 As a rule it is small, informal groups that exert a more powerful influence on
individual consumers
 These groups tend to be more involved in individuals day-to-day lives and to be
more important to them, because the groups are high in normative influence
 Larger, formal groups tend to be more product- or activity-specific and thus are high
in comparative influence

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← Brand Communities:
 Brand communities: a set of consumers who share a set of social relationships
based upon usage or interest in a product
 Members typically don’t live near each other and meet only for brief periods at
organized events called brandfests
 These events help owners “bond” with fellow enthusiasts and strengthen their
identification with the product as well as with others who share their passion
 Brand communities can also form when consumes come together for a particular
activity around a brand (ex: running through a Running Room clinic), or when
consumers commiserate about a brand or activity online (ex: yoga on Lululemon’s
interactive blog site)
 Those who participate in brand communities feel more positive about the products
which enhances brand loyalty
 Community members become emotionally involved in the company’s welfare, and
they often serve as brand missionaries by carrying its marketing message to others
 Ex: Mac computer users in the 1990’s
o Poor utilitarian product, but heavy brand loyalty
o Need for uniqueness, corky
o 16% of the market is point of social acceptance
← Membership vs. Aspirational Reference Groups:
 Although some reference groups consist of people the consumer actually knows,
others comprise people the consumer can either identify with or admire
 Aspirational reference groups: comprise idealized figures, such as successful
business people, athletes, or performers
 Since people tend to compare themselves with others who are similar, they are also
often swayed by knowing how people like them conduct their lives
 For this reason many promotional strategies include “ordinary” people whose
consumption activities provide informational social influence
 The likelihood that people will become part of a consumer’s identified reference
group is affected by several factors:
o Propinquity (physical nearness)
As physical distance between people decreases and opportunities for
interaction increase, relationships are more likely to form
o Mere exposure:
 We come to like people or things simple as a result of seeing them
more often, which is know as the mere exposure effect

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 Greater frequency or contact, even if unintentional, may help to

determine a person’s set of local referents
o Group cohesiveness
 The degree to which members of a group are attracted to each other
and value their group membership is called cohesiveness
 As the value of the group to the individual increases, so too does the
likelihood that the group with guide consumption decisions
 Smaller groups tend to be more cohesive
 Groups often try to restrict membership to select few, which
increases the value of membership to those who are admitted
← Positive vs. Negative Reference Groups:
 Consumers model their behavior to be consistent with what they think the group
expects of them
 A consumer may try to distance him- or herself from other people or groups that
function as dissociative reference groups
 Dissociative reference groups: groups (or group members) the consumer wants to
avoid association with
 Ex: study the dress or mannerisms of a disliked group and scrupulously avoid buying
anything that might identify him or her with that group
← Anti-brand Communities:
 The web encourages the rise of this new kind of avoidance group
 Anti-brand communities: coalesce (unite) around a celebrity, store, or brand – but
in this case they’re united by their disdain for it
 Ex: The Rachel Ray Sucks community on Facebook
 These communities tend to attract social Idealists who advocate non-materialistic
lifestyles
 Many oppose Walmart, Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Hummers
 Ex: hamburger example – our social cost is higher than our private cost – too many
hamburgers produced at too low of a price
← When Reference Groups are Important:
 Reference group influences are not equally powerful for all types of products and
consumption activities
 The purchase of products that are not very complex, that are low in perceived risk,
and that can be tried prior to purchase are less susceptible to personal influence
 The specific impact of reference groups may vary

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 At times they might determine the use of certain products rather than others (ex:
eating junk food or health food), while at other times they might have specific
effects on brand decisions within a product category (ex: Molson or Keiths)
 Two dimensions that influence the degree to which reference groups are important
are whether the purchase is to be consumed publically or privately and whether it is
a luxury or a necessity
 As a rule, reference-group effects are more robust for purchases that are:
o 1. Luxuries rather than necessities – since products purchased with
discretionary income are subject to individual tastes and preferences and
necessities do not offer this range of choice
o 2. Items that are socially conspicuous or visible to others – since consumers
are not swayed as much by the opinions of others if their purchases will
never be observed by anyone but themselves
 FIGURE 11-1:
o Public necessities:
 Weak for product and strong for brand
 Ex: watch, automobiles, man’s suit
o Public luxuries:
 Strong for product and strong for brand
 Ex: golf clubs, snow skis, sailboat
o Private necessities:
 Weak for product and weak for brand
 Ex: mattress, floor lamp, fridge
o Private luxuries:
 Strong for product and weak for brand
 Ex: TV, video game, trash
← The Power of Reference Groups:
 Social power: capacity to alter the actions of others
 Types of social power (power bases):
o Referent power:
 If a person admires the qualities of an individual or a group, he or she
will try to imitate those qualities by copying the referent’s behaviors
as a guide to forming consumption preferences
 Referent power is important to many marketing strategies because
consumers voluntarily change behaviors to please or identify with a
referent

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 Ex: DJ’s
o Legitimate power:
Sometimes people are granted power by virtue of social agreements,
such as that given to police officers and politicians
 The legitimate power conferred by a uniform is recognized in many
consumer contexts
 This form of power may be “borrowed” by marketers to influence
consumers
 Ex: white coats
 Milgrim and standard prison experiments (around WWII)
o Reward power:
 When a person or group has the means to provide positive
reinforcement
 Positive reinforcement – a stimulus that increase a behavior or
response – that entity will have power over a consumer to the extent
that this reinforcement is valued or desired
 The reward be may tangible or intangible
 Ex: boss giving promotion, professor giving higher grade
o Information power:
 A person can have information power simply because he or she
knows something others would like to know
 People with information power are able to influence consumer
opinion by virtue of their (assumed) access to the “truth”
 Ex: someone works at U of M and you want to get into a specific class
and they have the information about when spots will open up
o Expert power:
 Expert power is derived from possessing a specific knowledge or skill
 Consumers are often influenced by experts whoa re assumed to be
able to evaluate product in an objective, informed way
 Ex: doctor, lawyer, accountant
o Coercive power:
 Effective in the short term, but does not produce permanent
attitudinal or behavioral changes
 Surveillance of some sort is usually required to make people do
something they do not wish to do
 Coercive power is rarely employed in marketing situations

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 Ex: fear appeals, intimidation in personal selling, negative

consequences
← Conformity:
 Conformity: refers to a change in beliefs or actions as a reaction to real or imagined
group pressure
 In order for a society to function, its members develop norms
 Norms: informal rules that govern behavior
 Although norms change slowly over time, there is general agreement within a
society about which ones should be obeyed, and we adjust our way of thinking to
conform to these norms
 We conform to rules that include gift giving, gender roles, and personal hygiene
← Factors Influencing the Likelihood of Conformity:
 Conformity is not an automatic process
 Many factors contribute to the likelihood that consumers will pattern their behavior
after others
 Factors that affect the likelihood of conformity are the following:
o Cultural pressures
 Different cultures encourage conformity to a greater or lesser degree
 Ex: Korea and Japan are very collective – intellectual property
 In North America we would keep it a secret and benefit from it
 In Korea and Japan they would want a collective gain and would want
to share the information
o Fear of deviance
The individual may have reason to believe that the group will apply

sanctions to punish behavior that differs from the group’s
 If I am different, what is going to happen to me?
o Commitment
The more a person is dedicated to a group and values membership in
it, the more motivated her or she will be to follow the dictates of the
group
 The smaller the group, the stronger the ties
 Ex: cults have intense conformity
 Principle of least interest: the person or group that is least committed
to staying in a relationship has the most power, because that part
wont be susceptible to threatened rejection
o Group unanimity, size, expertise

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As groups gain power, compliance increases

It is often harder to resist the demands of a large number of people
than those of just a few, that this difficulty is compounded when the
group members are perceived as knowing what they are talking about
o Susceptibility to interpersonal influence
 This trait refers to an individual’s need to identify with or to enhance
his or her image in the opinion of significant others
 Consumers whoa re low on this trait have been called role-relaxed
← Social Comparison:
 Social comparison theory: suggests that the consumers will often compare
themselves to others in ways that increase the stability of one’ self-evaluation,
especially when objective evidence is unavailable
 Ex: tastes in music and art
 Although people often like to compare their judgments and actions with those of
others, they tend to be selective about precisely whom they will use as benchmarks
 People tend to choose a co-oriented peer, or a person of equivalent standing, when
undergoing social comparison
 We often compare to people who are most like us
← Tactical Requests:
 The way a request for compliance is phrased or structured can make a difference
 Foot-in-the-door technique is when the consumer is first asked a small request and
then is hit up for something bigger
 Low-ball technique is when a person is asked for a small favour and is informed,
after agreeing to it, that it will be more costly than they first anticipated
 Door-in-the-face technique is when a person is first asked to do something extreme
and then is asked a smaller, more reasonable request – people tend to go along with
the smaller request, possibly because they feel guilty about denying the larger one
← Group Effects on Consumer Behavior:
 People in larger groups or those in situation wherein they are unlikely to be
identified tend to focus less attention on themselves, so normal restraints on
behavior are reduced
 Deindividuation: individual identities get submerged within a group
 There is some evidence that decision made by groups differ from those that would
be made by each individual

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 Risky shift: group members show a greater willingness to consider riskier

alternatives following group discussion than they would is each members made his
or her own decision with no discussion
 Explanations:
o As more people are involved in a decision, each individual is less accountable
for the outcome – diffusion of responsibility
o Value hypothesis – riskiness is a culturally valued characteristic and social
pressures operate on individuals to conform to attributes valued by society
o A more general effect appears to e that group discussion tends to increase
decision polarization
 Decision polarization: whichever direction the group members were
leaning toward before discussion began – toward a risky choice or a
conservative one – becomes even more extreme after discussion
 More conservative group decisions for high-risk products
 Even shopping behavior changes when people do it in groups
 Social loafing: refers to the fact that people do not devote as much effort to a task
when their contribution is part of a larger group effect (ex: groups tend to tip less
per person than those who eat alone)
 Home shopping parties: such as Tupperware and Botox parties, that capitalize on
group pressures to boost sales
o Homogeneous group – serves as a valuable benchmark
o Pressures to conform may be particularly intense and may escalate as more
and more group members begin to “cave in” (a process called the
bandwagon effect)
o Deindividuation or the risky shift may be activated
 As consumers get caught up in the group, they may find themselves
willing to try new products the would not normally consider
 Ex: Botox party
 One way groups can influence decisions is via the roles they play within the group
itself
 When collective buying decisions are made, the group must select an option that
serves everyone’s needs
 Depending on the decisions, the choice may include some or all of the group
members, and different group members play important roles in what can be a
complicated process
 These roles include the following:

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o Initiator: the person who brings up the idea of identifies a need

o Gatekeeper: the person who conducts the information search and controls
the flow of information available to the group
o Influencer: the person who tries to sway the outcome of the decision; some
people may be more motivated than others to get involved, and participants
also posses different amounts of power to get their point across
o Buyer: the person who actually makes the purchase; the buyer may or may
not actually use the product
o User: the person who actually consumes the product or services
← Resisting Conformity:
 Many people pride themselves on their independence, unique style, or ability to
resist the best efforts of salespeople and advertisers to sell products to them
 Individuality should be encouraged by the marketing system
 It is important to distinguish between independence and anti-conformity
 Anti-conformity: defiance of the group s the actual object of behavior
 Some people will go out of their way not to buy whatever happens to be in at the
moment
 Truly independent people are oblivious to what is expected
 People have a deep-seated need to preserve freedom of choice
 When they are threatened with a loss of this freedom, they try to overcome this loss
 Reactance: this negative emotional state
 Ex: censor books, TV shows, rap music because some people find the content
objectionable may result in an increased desire for these products by the public
Opinion Leadership:
 Although consumers get information from personal sources, they do not tend to ask
just anyone for advice about purchases
← The Nature of Opinion Leadership:
 Everyone knows people who are knowledgeable about products and whose advice is
taken seriously by others
 Opinion leaders: person who is frequently able to influence others’ attitudes or
behaviors
 Researchers aim to identify the profile of a representative opinion leader and then
generalize these insights to a larger market
 Opinion leaders are valuable information sources for a number of reasons:
o 1. They are technically competent and thus are convincing because they
possess expert power

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o 2. They have prescreened, evaluated, and synthesized product information in

an unbiased way, so they possess knowledge power
 Do not actually represent the interest of one company
o 3. They rend to be socially active and highly interconnected in their
communities
 Opinion leaders often have legitimate power by virtue of their social
standing
o 4. The tend to be similar to the consumer in terms of their values and beliefs,
so they possess referent power
 Are more convincing to the extent that they are homophilous rather
than heterophilous
 Homophily refers to the degree to which two individuals are similar in
terms of education, social status, and beliefs
 Effective opinion leaders tend to be slightly higher than those they
influence in terms of status and educational attainment, but not so
high as to be in a different social class
o 5. Opinion leaders often are among the first to buy new products, so they
absorb much of the risk
← The Extent of an Opinion Leader’s Influence:
 Generalized opinion leader – somebody whose recommendations are sought for all
types of purchases
 Very few people are capable of being expert in a number of fields
 Monomorphic – or experts in a limited field
 Polymorphic – or experts in several fields
 Even the opinion leaders who are polymorphic tend to concentrate on one broad
domain
 Although opinion leaders do exist for multiple product categories, expertise tends to
overlap across similar categories
 It is rare to find a generalized opinion leader
← Types of Opinion Leaders:
 The opinion leader absorbs information from the mass media and in turn transmits
these data to opinion receivers
 Opinion leaders may or may not be purchasers of the products they recommend
 Early purchasers are known as innovators
 Opinion leaders who are also early purchasers have been called innovative
communicators

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 Two-step flow model of influence: the original framework that proposes that a
small group of influencers are responsible for dissemination of information, since
they can modify the opinions of a large number of others people
 Found that the influence is driven less by influentials and more by the interaction
among those who are easily influenced; they communicate the information
vigorously to one another and they also participate in a two-way dialogue with the
opinion leader as port of an influence network
 These conversations create cascades of information, which occurs when a piece of
information triggers a sequence of interactions
 Consumers who are expert in a product category may not actively communicate
with others, while other consumers may have a more general interest in being
involved in product discussions
 Market maven: a consumer category that has been proposed to describe people
who are actively involved in transmitting marketplace information of all types
o Not necessarily interested in certain products
o May not necessarily be early purchasers of products
o They come closer to the function of a generalized opinion leader, because
they tend to have a solid overall knowledge of how and where to procure
products
 Surrogate consumer: a class of marketing intermediaries that is an active player in
many categories
o A person who is hired to provide input into purchase decisions
o Unlike the opinion leader or market maven, the surrogate is usually
compensated for this involvement
o Ex: interior decorators, stockbrokers, professional shoppers, college
consultants
o Surrogates’ recommendations can be enormously influential
o The consumer in essence relinquishes control over several or all decision
making functions, such as information search, evaluation of alternatives, or
the actual purchase
Identifying Opinion Leaders:
 Many ads are intended to reach these influentials rather than the average
consumer, especially if the ads contain a lot of technical information
 Since most opinion leaders are everyday consumers and are not formally included in
marketing efforts, they are harder to find

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 Most opinion leaders tend to operate at the local level and may influence five to ten
consumers rather than an entire market segment
 Because of the difficulties involved in identifying specific opinion leaders in a large
market, most attempts to do so instead focus on exploratory studies in which the
characteristics of representative opinion leaders can be identified and then
generalized to the larger market
 This knowledge helps marketers target their product-related information to
appropriate settings and media
← The Self-Designating Method:
 The most commonly used technique to identify opinion leaders is simply to ask
individual consumers whether they consider themselves to be opinion leaders
 This is called the self-designating method
 Some people have a tendency to inflate their own importance and influence, while
others who really are influential might not admit to this quality
 An alternative to self-designation is to select certain group members (key
informants) who are then asked to indentify opinion leaders
 The success of this approach hinges on locating those who have accurate knowledge
of the group and on minimizing their response biases
 Not as reliable as a more systematic analysis
 It does have the advantage of being easy to administer to a large group of potential
opinion leaders
← Sociometry:
 Sociometric methods: trace communication patterns among group members, allow
researchers to systematically map out interactions that take place among group
members
 Most precise, very hard and expensive
 Involves very close study of interaction patterns in small groups
 Best applied in closed, self-contained social settings, such as hospitals, prisons, and
army bases, in which members are largely isolated from other social networks
 Social contagion effect: when our best friends get fat, this alters our perception of
normal body weight so we aren’t as concerned when we put on a few pounds as
well
 Many professionals and services marketers depend primarily on word of mouth to
generate business
 Ex: LinkedIn

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 Sociometric analyses can be used to better understand referral behavior and to

locate strengths and weaknesses in terms of how ones reputation is communicated
through a community
 Network analysis focuses on communication in social systems
 It considers the relations among people in a referral network and measures the tie
strength among them
 Tie strength refers to the nature of the bond between people
 It can range from strong primary (ex: spouse), to weak secondary (ex: an
acquaintance you rarely see)
 A strong tie relationship may be thought of as a primary reference group, in which
interactions are frequent and important to the individual
 Although strong ties are important, weak ties can perform a bridging function
 This type of connection allows a consumer access between subgroups
o Regular group of friends – primary reference group (strong ties)
o A group you interact with less (tennis group) – gain access to their valuable
expertise through this bridging function
 This referral process demonstrates the strength of weak ties
Word-Of-Mouth Communication:
 Word of mouth communication (WOM): product information transmitted by
individuals to individuals
 WOM tends to be more reliable and trustworthy than recommendations we get
through more formal marketing channels
 WOM is often backed up by social pressure to conform with these recommendations
 WOM is far more powerful
 Its estimated to influence two-thirds of al consumer-goods sales
 Marketers are more aggressive about trying to promote and control it
 Ex: Facebook “Like” button
← Factors Encouraging WOM:
 WOM is especially powerful when the consumer is relatively unfamiliar with the
product category
 Ex: new products and technologically complex products
 Product-related conversations can be motivated by a number of factors:
o A person might be highly involved with a type of product or activity and take
pleasure in talking about it

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o A person might be knowledgeable about a product and use conversations as

a way to let others know it – WOM communication sometimes enhances the
ego of the individual who wants to impress others with their expertise
o A person might initiate such a discussion out of a genuine concern for
someone else
← Negative WOM:
 Negative word of mouth: weighted more heavily by consumers than are positive
comments
 Negative WOM has been shown to reduce the credibility of a firm’s advertising and
to influence consumers’ attitudes toward a product as well as their intention to buy
it
 Consumers can now spread negative WOM to a large number of other consumers
very quickly (especially online)
← Buzz Building:
 Buzz marketing: refers to activities undertaken by marketers to encourage
consumers to spread WOM about the brand
 As marketers increasingly recognize the power of WOM to make or break a new
product, they are coming up with new ways toe get consumers to help them sell
 Brand influencers: influencers campaigns give product details that are too complex
to explain over a radio or TV ad
o Ex: Procter and Gamble
← Crowd Power:
 One way marketers are building buzz is by using social influence to impact the
creation of the product itself
 Wisdom of crowds: perceptive that argues that under the right circumstances
groups are smarter than the smartest people in them
 Large numbers of (non-expert) consumers can predict successful products
 Social networking sites have the power to let their members dictate purchase
decisions
← Guerrilla Marketing:
 Another way of building buzz
 Guerrilla marketing: promotional strategies that use unconventional locations and
intensive word of mouth campaigns to push products
 Street marketing tactics
 Relatively affordable
 Excellent job of getting the consumer’s attention

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← Viral Marketing:
 Viral marketing: the strategy of getting customers to sell a product on behalf of the
company that creates it
 Particularly well suited to the Web, since emails and messaging circulate so easily
 Viral marketing is their main source of information about new sites
Social Media and Consumer Behavior:
 Social media revolution that has changed how consumers interact with each other in
the marketplace
 Social media is first and foremost about community: the collective participation of
members who together build and maintain a site
 Companies are working to adapt their strategies to new communications platforms
as varied as a social networking site, social shopping site, virtual world
 Basic characteristics:
o They improve as the number of users increase
o The currency is eyeballs
o They are free and in perpetual beta
o They categorize entries according to a folksonomy rather than a taxonomy
 In some ways, online communities are not much different from those we find in our
physical environment
 Community: a unified body of individuals, unified by interests, location, occupation,
common history, or political and economic concerns
 Online community as a cyberspace where people connect online with kindred
spirits, engage in supportive and sociable relationships with them, and imbue their
activity online with meaning, belonging, and identity
← Social Networks:
 Social network: a set of socially relevant nodes connected by one or more relations
 Nodes: members of the network
 Members (whom we also refer to as network units) are connected by their relations
(or ties) with each other
 Relationships are based on various affiliations such as kinship, friendship and
affective ties, shared experiences, and shared hobbies and interests
 Social graphs: another name for social networks – though this terms may also refer
to a diagram of the interconnections of units in a network
 Nodes in a network experience interactions these are behavior-based ties such as
talking with each other, attending an event together or working together

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 Interactions are participative in nature – they are shared activities among members
in the network
 Flows: occur between nodes
 Flows are exchanges of resources
 Information, or influence among members of the network
 In social media these flows of communication go in many directions at any point in
time and often on multiple platforms – a condition called media multiplexity
 Flows are not simply two-way or three-way; they might be sent toward an entire
community, a list or group within a network, or several individuals independently
 Flows of communication also occur outside the community platform
 For marketers, flows are especially important, because they are the actionable
components of any social network system in terms of the sharing of information,
delivery of promotional materials, and sources of social influence
 Social objet theory: suggests that social networks will be more powerful
communities if there is a way to activate relationship among people and objects
 All relationships have social objects embedded in the relationship
 Object sociality: the extent to which an object ca be shred in social media, is clearly
related to an audiences unique interests – but virtue of tying the site relationship to
a specific object
 Social networking sites oriented around object sociality are likely to be passion-
centric
 Those who join probably not only share an interest but also are obsessed with it
← Virtual Communities:
 Virtual community of consumption: a collection of people who interact online to
share their enthusiasm for and knowledge about a specific consumption activity
 These groups form around common love for a product
 Members remain anonymous because they interact with each other only in
cyberspace
 Lurkers: are surfers who like to watch but don’t participate
← Characteristics of Online Communities:
 All communities, whether they are online or in the physical world, share important
characteristics: participants experience a feeling of membership, a sense of
proximity to one another, and in more cases some interest in the communities
activism
 Communities help members meet their needs for affiliation, resource acquisition,
entertainment, and information

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 In today’s online environment, all that has changed, as interactive platforms enable
online communities to exhibit these basic characteristics:
o Conversations
o Presence
 Presence: the effect that people experience when they interact with a
computer-mediated or computer-generated environment
o Collective interest
o Democracy
 Media democratization: means that the members of social
communities, not traditional media publishers like magazines or
newspapers companies, control the creation, delivery and popularity
of content
o Standards of behavior
o Level of participation

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Chapter 12 – Income, Social Class and Family

Structure
← Its Not Just Money:
 The specific products and services we buy are often intended to make sure other
people know what our social standing is – or what we would like it to be
 Products are frequently bought and displayed as markers of social class
 They are valued as status symbols
← Income Patterns:
 Canadian’s standard of living is relatively high by international standards and
continues to improve
 Upward income shifts in Canada over time are likely linked to two key factors:
o A shift in women’s roles
o Increase in educational attainment
← Women’s Work:
 One reason for increases in income over time in Canada is that there has been a
larger proportion of people of working age participating in the labour force
 Many of their jobs are in high-paying occupations which used to be dominated by
men
 Mothers with preschool children are the fastest growing segment of working people
← Yes, It Pays to Go to School:
 Another factor that determines who gets a bigger piece of the pie is education
 Employment prospects increase with educational attainment
 Graduates from university programs earned 70% more on average than did those
who only graduated from high school or trade/vocational programs
← To Spend or Not to Spend: That Is the Question:
 Consumer demand for goods and services depends on both the ability to buy and
the willingness to buy
 Discretionary income: the money available to a household over and above that
required for a comfortable standard of living
 Discretionary income increases as overall income goes up and as debt and tax
burdens are relieved
 As the population ages and income levels rise, the typical household changes the
way it spends its money
 Larger share of the budget is spent on shelter and transportation and less on food
and apparel
 Households are spending more now on entertainment, reading, and education than
in the past

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← Individual Attitudes Toward Money:

 There are two types of frugal customers:
o 1. Spendthrifts: spend cautiously because they enjoy saving money
o 2. Tightwads: spending money is an unpleasant experience
 Tightwads outnumber spendthrifts
 Men are more likely than women to be tightwads, as are older people and those
with more education
 Frugality is driven by a pleasure of saving, as compared with tightwaddism, which is
driven by a pain of paying
 Not everyone suffers in a recession – and consumers don’t uniformly cut back on
their spending
 Many of them just reallocate their priorities and perhaps buy less on credit
 Debt, which in the past used to be associated with indulgent shopping behavior, has
become a “normal” feature of society
 Many companies are incorporating consumer attitudes toward money into their
retailing practices in a practical way
 Shopper groups:
o 1. Brand aspirationals: people with low incomes who are obsessed with
brand names
o 2. Value-price shoppers: those who like low prices and cannot afford much
more
o 3. Price-sensitive affluents: wealthier shoppers who love deals
 Money has many complex psychological meanings; it can be equated with success or
failure, social acceptability, security, love, freedom and sex appeal
 Those with more money generally report higher levels of happiness than those with
less money
 It is not money per se or the buying power that money supports that Canadians
value, but the freedom (i.e. personal autonomy) that money affords
← Consumer Confidence:
 Behavioural economics (economic psychology): concerned with the “human” side
of economic decisions
 George Katona: discipline studies how consumers’ motives and their expectations
about the future affect their current spending, and how these individual decisions
add up to affect a society’s economic well-being
 Consumers’ beliefs about what the future holds are an indicator of consumer
confidence

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 Consumer confidence: reflects the extent to which people are optimistic or

pessimistic about the future heath of the economy and how they predict they’ll fare
down the road
 These beliefs influence how much money consumers will pump into the economy
when making discretionary purchases
 Many businesses take forecasts about anticipated spending very seriously, and
periodic surveys attempt to take the pulse of the Canadian consumer
 When people are pessimistic about their prospects and about the state of the
economy, they tend to cut back their spending and take on less debt
 When they are optimistic about the future, they tend to reduce the amount they
save, take on more debt, and buy discretionary items
 Savings rate: influenced by:
o 1. Consumers’ pessimism or optimism about their personal circumstances
o 2. National and world events
o 3. Cultural differences in attitudes toward saving
 One factor that appears to dampen consumer confidence is increasing gas prices
 Age bracket called the young and affluent who are described as savvy, well off, and
trendsetting
Social Class:
 Social class: a consumer’s standing in society
o Determined by a complex set of variables that include income, family
background, education, and occupation
 The place a person occupies in the social structure is an important determinant not
just of how much money is spent but also how it is spent
 Old money: people who have had money for a long time and don’t need to prove
they’ve got it
 New money: consumers who are relative newcomers to affluence might allocate the
same amount of money very differently
← Picking a Pecking Order:
 Ranked in terms of their relative standing in society
 This standing determines their access to resources such as education, housing, and
consumer goods
 People try to improve their ranking by moving up in the social order
 Karl Marx:
o Position in a social was determined by a person’s relationship to the means
of production

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o The “haves” control resource and use the labour of others to preserve their
privileged positions
o The “have nots” depend on their own labour for survival, so these people
have the most to gain by changing the system
 Max Weber:
o Rankings people develop are not one dimensional
o Some rankings involve prestige or social honour (status groups)
o Some focus on power (or party)
o Some revolve around wealth and property (class)
 We use the term social class more generally to describe the overall rank of people in
society
 People who belong to the same social class have approximately equal social standing
in the community
 “Birds of a feather do flock together”
 Homogamy (assortative mating): tend to marry people similar in social class to
ourselves
 Social class is as much a state of being as it is of having
 Class is also a matter of what you do with your money and how you define your role
in society
 In virtually every context, some people rank higher than others
 Patterns of social arrangements evolve whereby some members get more resources
than others by virtue of their relative standing, power, or control in the group
 Social stratification: refers to this creation of artificial divisions
o “Those processes in a social system by which scarce and valuable resources
are distributed unequally to status positions that become more or less
permanently ranked in terms of the share of valuable resources each
receives”
 in real like and online as the reputation economy takes shape, this term refers to the
“currency” people earn when they post comments online and others recommend
their comments
← Achieved Versus Ascribed Status:
 Hard work or diligent study = achieved status
 Good fortune that one is born into = ascribed status
 Allocations are rarely equal within a social group
 Most groups exhibit a structure or social hierarchy
 Social hierarchy: some members are somehow better off than others

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 They may have more authority or power, or other members simple like or respect
them
← Social Mobility:
 To what degree do people tend to change their social classes?
 Social mobility: refers to the “passage of individuals from one social class to
another”
 Horizontal mobility occurs when a person moves from one position to another that
is roughly equivalent in social status
o Ex: nurse becomes an elementary social teacher
 Downward mobility is movement none of use want, but unfortunately we observe
this pattern when displaced workers are forced to go on social assistance or people
join the ranks of the homeless
 Upward mobility
o The middle and upper classes reproduce less than the lower classes – known
as differential fertility
o The middle and upper classes tend to restrict family size to below
replacement level (i.e. often only having one child)
o Therefore, positions of higher status over time must be filled by those of
lower status
 People do improve their positions over time, but these increases are not usually
dramatic enough to catapult them from one social class to another
← Class Structure in Canada:
 Canada does not have a rigid, objectively defined class system
 Canadians tend to maintain a somewhat stable class structure in terms of income
distribution
 Unlike some other countries, however, what does change are the groups (ethnic and
religious) that occupy different positions within this structure at different times
← Class Structure Around the World:
 Every society has some type of hierarchical class structure, which determines
people’s access to products and services
 China:
o Economic boom is rapidly creating a huge middle class
o Costs are low
o Annual income below the North American poverty line can enjoy middle-
class comforts
o Love of branded goods

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o Asians tend to be highly sensitive to cues that communicate social standing,

and well-known brand names help to manage this impression
o Ex: Nike – China’s coolest brand
 Japan:
o Highly brand conscious society in which upscale designer labels are
increasingly popular
 Middle East:
o Few Arab women work
o This makes a search for the latest in Western luxury brands a major leisure
activity for those with money
o Fashion retailers must take cultural and religious considerations into account
 The UK:
o England is an extremely class conscious country
o Inherited position and family background predetermined consumption
patterns
o The supremacy of inherited wealth appears to be fading in Britain’s
traditionally aristocratic society
o Recession puts a new emphasis on frugality that has altered people priorities
o Some big marketers have set their sights on a more lower class group the
British call chavs – young lower class men and women who mix track suits
with flashy brands and big brand names
o They spend a lot of their disposable income on fashion, food, and gadgets
 India:
o Economy is booming despite the global recession
o Many higher end global brands are prized by affluent consumers – even
though nearly half of India’s population lives on less than $1.25 a day
← Blurring Social Class Lines:
 Its getting more difficult to clearly link certain brands or stores with a specific class
 Marketplace changes make it more difficult for the casual observer to accurately
place a consumer in a certain class merely on the basis of the products they buy
 A lot of “affordable luxuries” are mow within reach of many consumers who could
not have managed to acquire them in the past
 Profound changes in global income distribution are driving this shift
 Luxury brands are slashing prices to attract more customers, while mass-market
brands are moving upscale

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 Traditionally, it was common to find a huge gulf between the rich and the poor – you
were either one or the other
 Today, rising incomes in many economically developing countries, coupled with
decreasing prices for quality consumers goods and services level the playing field
 More and more consumers around the globe are participating in the global economy
 The biggest emerging markets go by the acronym BRIC: Brazil, Russia, India, China
 Mass class: this segment comprises the hundreds of millions of global consumers
who now enjoy a level of purchasing power that enables them to afford high quality
products – except for big ticket items such as university educations, housing and
luxury cars
← Components of Social Class:
 Two major pieces of information to consider when thinking about a person’s social
class are:
o 1. Occupation
o 2. Income
o 3. Educational attainment (related strongly to income and occupation)
← Occupational Prestige:
 In a system in which we define people to a great extent by what they do for a living,
occupational prestige is one way we evaluate their “worth”
 Occupational prestige refers to the notion that some occupations are more
respected and held in higher regard than others
 Hierarchies of occupational prestige tend to be quite stable over time and across
cultures
 Because a persons occupation tends to be linked strongly to his or her use of leisure
time, allocation of family resources, aesthetic preferences, and political orientation,
many social scientists consider it the single best indicator of social class
← Income:
 The distribution of wealth is of great interest to social scientists and marketers,
because it determines which group have the greatest buying power and market
potential
 Wealth is not distributed evenly across the classes
 Income per se is often not a very good indicator of social class because the way we
spend money is more telling than how much we spend
 Still, people need money to obtain goods and services to express their taste, so
obviously income is still important

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 Canadian consumers are getting both wealthier and older, and these changes will
continue to influence consumption preferences
← How Income Relates to Social Class:
 The two are by no means synonymous, which is why many people with a lot of
money try to buy their way into a higher social class
 So which is a better predictor of consumer behavior?
 The answer depends partly on the type of product we sell: do people buy it largely
for its functional value or for its symbolic value?
o Social class is a better predictor of purchases that have symbolic aspects but
low to moderate prices (ex: cosmetics and liquor)
o Income is a better predictor of major expenditures that do not have status of
symbolic pickup truck aspects (ex: major appliances)
o Both social class and income data are needed to predict purchases of
expensive, symbolic products (ex: cars and homes)
← How Social Class Affects Purchase Decisions:
← Class Differences in Worldview:
 Worldview is one way to differentiate among social classes
 The world of the working class (i.e. the lower-middle class) is more intimate and
constricted
 Among the working class, immediate needs tend to dictate buying behavior,
whereas the higher classes focus more on long-term goals
 Working class consumers depend heavily on relatives for emotional support and
tend to orient themselves in terms of the local community rather than the world at
large
 They are more likely to be conservative and family-oriented
 Maintaining the appearance of ones home and property is a priority, regardless of
the size of the house
 Potent actors: those who believe they has the ability to take actions that affect their
world
 Impotent reactors: those who feel they are at the mercy of their economic situations
 Although they would like to have more in the way of material goods, working class
people do not necessarily envy those who rank above them in social standing
 They may not view the maintenance of a high-status lifestyle as worth the effort
 Many well-off consumers seem to be stressed or unhappy despite or even because
of their wealth, a condition some call affluenza
 Many marketers try to target affluent, upscale markets

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 It is a mistake to assume that we should put everyone with a high income into the
same market segment
 Social class involves more than absolute income
 It is also a way of life, and factors including where they got their money, how they
got it, and how long they have had it significantly affect affluent consumers’
interests and spending priorities
 SRI Consulting Business Intelligence, now called Strategic Business Insights divides
consumers into three groups on the basis of their attitudes toward luxury:
o 1. Luxury is functional:
These consumers buy things that will last and have enduring value
They conduct extensive pre-purchase research and make logical
decisions rather than emotional or impulsive choices
o 2. Luxury is a reward:
These consumers tend to be younger than the first group but older
than the third group
 They often use luxury goods to say, “I’ve made it”
 The desire to be successful and to demonstrate their success to
others motivates these consumers to purchase conspicuous luxury
items
o 3. Luxury is indulgence:
 This group is the smallest of the three and tends to include younger
consumers and slightly more males than the other two groups
 To these consumers, the purpose of owning luxury items is to be
extremely lavish and self-indulgent
 This group is willing to pay a premium for goods that express its
individuality and make others take notice
 These consumers have a more emotional approach to luxury
spending and are more likely than the other two groups to make
impulse purchases
 People who have had money for a long time use their fortunes a lot differently
 “Old money” families live primarily on inherited funds
 Mere wealth is not sufficient to achieve social prominence in these circles
 You also need to demonstrates a family history of public service and philanthropy
and tangible markers than enable you to achieve a kind of immortality
 Old money consumers distinguish themselves in terms of ancestry and lineage
rather than wealth and they are secure in their status

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 In a sense, they have been trained their whole lives to be rich

 In contrast to people with old money, today there are many people – including high
profile billionaires – who are “the working wealthy”
 The new label nouveaux riches describes consumers who recently achieved their
wealth and who don’t have the benefit of years of training to learn how to spend it
 Pity the poor nouveaux riches – many suffer from status anxiety
 They monitor the cultural environment to ensure that they are doing the “right”
thing, wearing the “right” clothes, being seen at the “right” places, etc
 Their flamboyant consumption can thus be viewed as a form of symbolic self
completion, because they believe they have “class” to make up for an internal lack
of assurance about the “correct” way to behave
← What Do You Use That Fork For? Taste Cultures, Codes, and Cultural Capital:
 Taste culture: differentiates people in terms of their aesthetic and intellectual
preferences
 This concept helps to illuminate the important yet sometime subtle distinctions in
consumption choices among the social classes
 Differences in consumption patterns between the upper and upper-middle classes
and between the middle and working classes are disappearing
 Strong differences still emerge in terms of how consumers spend their discretionary
income and leisure time
Online Social Capital:
 Typically, a community is healthier and more desirable when it is able to offer a lot
of social capital as an inducement for people to join
 True in the online world as well
 Online gated communities: selectively allow access to some people may offer a high
degree of social capital to the lucky few who pass the test
 We often associate status symbols with luxury products, but the reality is that
consumers are very good at latching onto all sorts of things that enable them to
proclaim their place in a pecking order
Status Symbols:
 We all tend to evaluate ourselves, our professional accomplishments, our
appearance and our material well-being relative to others
 Loyalty program is at least in part based on our level in the hierarchy relative to
other members
 A major motivation to buy and display what we buy is not to enjoy these items, but
rather to let others know that we can afford them

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 In other words, these products function as status symbols

 “He who dies with the most toys wins”
 Status seeking is a significant sources of the motivation to procure appropriate
products and services that we hope will let others know we’ve “made it”
 How do people who bought the real thing react when they see imitations?
 Three coping strategies:
o Flight: they stop using the brand because they don’t want to be mislabeled as
a lesser-status person who buys fake brands
o Reclamation: they go out of their way to emphasize their long relationship
with the brand but express concern that its image will be tarnished
o Abranding: they disguise their luxury items in the belief that truly high-status
people do not need to display expensive logos- while those who do betray
their lower status
 The particular products that count as status symbols vary, of course, across cultures
and locales
 In the world of status symbols, anything goes as long as others don’t have it
 Thorstein Veblen: motivation to consume for the sake of consumers
 Invidious distinction: to inspire envy in others through the display of wealth or
power
 Conspicuous consumption: to refer to peoples desire to provide prominent, visible
evidence of their ability to afford luxury goods
 This phenomenon of conspicuous consumption was most evident among what he
termed the leisure class, people for whom productive work is taboo
 In Marxist terms, such an attitude reflects a desire to link oneself to ownership or
control of the means of production rather than to the production itself
 Those who control these resources, therefore, avoid any evidence that they actually
have to work for a living, as the term the “idle” rich suggests
 Consumers engage in conspicuous consumption as a way to display status markers,
yet the prominence of these markers varies from products with large recognizable
emblems to those with no logo at all
 Those “in the know” often can recognize a subtle status marker when another
member of their elite group displays it, such as the distinctive design of a bag or
watch - these are “quiet signals”
 In contrast, some people may feel the need to almost hit others over the head with
their bling – they use “loud signals”

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 Brand prominence: they assign consumers to one of the four consumption groups
(patricians, parvenus, poseurs, and proletarians) based on their wealth and need for
status
 Brand prominence is valued differently by different classes of people
 FIGURE 12-1: Status Signal Preferences
 Our desire to convince others that we have a surplus of resources creates the need
for us to exhibit the evidence that we do
 We may prioritize consumption activities that use up as many resources as possible
in non-constructive pursuits
 This conspicuous waste, in turn, shows others that we have assets to spare
 As the competition to accumulate status symbols escalates, sometimes the best
tactic is to switch greats and go in reverse
 Deliberately avoid status symbols – seek status by mocking it
 Parody display: frayed edges on denim clothing, unbuttoned cuffs on shifts, and
wines with irrelevant labels
 Thus, “true” status is shown by the adoption of product symbolism that is
deliberately irrelevant of unfashionable
← How Do We Measure Social Class?:
 Social class is a complex concept that depends on a number of factors
 Early measures included the Index of Status Characteristics and the Index of Social
Position developed by August Hollingshead
 Combined individual characteristics to arrive at a label of class standing
 Blishen’s Socioeconomic Index for Occupations in Canada may be used when
occupation is the most appropriate variable to use to collect information on
socioeconomic status
 An alternative is to adapt Coleman’s approach which explicitly includes four
variables: education, occupational prestige, area of residence, and family income
← Problems with Measures of Social Class:
 Market researchers were among the first to propose that we can distinguish people
form different social classes from one another
 Some of these class distinctions still exist but others, including brand preferences,
have changed
 Unfortunately, many of these measures badly dated and are not as valid today
 One reason is that most social scientists designed measures of social class with the
traditional nuclear family in mind

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 One problem with assigning people to a social class is that they may not be equal in
their standing with respect to all o the relevant dimensions
 A person might come form a low-status ethnic group but have a high-status job,
whereas another may live in a fancy part of town but not have finished high school
 Status crystallization: assess the impact of social class inconsistency
 The logic is that when these indicators are not consistent, stress occurs because the
rewards from who exhibit such inconsistencies tend to be more receptive to social
change than those whose identities are roots more firmly
 A related problem occurs when a persons social-class standing creates expetions
that cant be met
 Some people find themselves in the not unhappy position of making more money
than we expect of those in their social class
 This means they are over-privileged, a condition we define as having an income at
least 25-30 percent greater than the median for ones class
 In contrast, under-privileged consumers, who earn at least 15 percent less than the
median of their social class, must often allocate a big chunk of their income toward
maintaining the impression that they occupy a certain status
← Problems with Social Class Segmentation: A Summary:
 Social class remains an important way to categorize consumers
 Many marketing strategies do target different social classes
 Marketers fail to use social class information as effectively as they could because of
the following reasons:
o They ignore status inconsistency
o They ignore intergenerational mobility
o They ignore subjective social class (i.e. the class with which a consumer
identifies rather than the one to which he or she actually belongs)
o They ignore consumers’ aspirations to change their class standing
o They ignore the social status of working wives
← Family Structure:
← Household Structure:
 “The death of the family unit”
 Traditional family structure has declined
 Many other types of families are growing in number rapidly
 Ex: common law
 People are putting even greater emphasis on the roles of siblings, close friends, and
other relatives in providing companionship and social support

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 Some are even joining “intentional families”, groups of unrelated persons who meet
regularly for meals and spend holidays together
 Household living arrangements: refers to “whether or not the person lives with
another person or persons and, if so, whether or not he or she is related to that
person or persons
 Census family: defined as “a married couple and the children, if any, of either or
both spouses; a couple living common law and the children, if any, of either or both
partners; or, a line parent of any marital status with at least one child living in the
same dwelling…a couple may be of opposite or same sex…grandchildren living with
their grandparent(s) but with no parents present also constitute a census family
 Extended family: once the most common family unit
o It consists of three generations living together and often includes
grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins
 Nuclear family: a mother and a father and one or more children – became the
model family unit over time
 Demographic data show that this image of the family is not longer a realistic picture
 The way we think about family is evolving
 These changes in consumers’ family structure often represent opportunities for
marketers as purchasing patterns change and people make new choices about
products and brands
 The trend of taking time off from work to raise small children is concentrated among
the best-educated and highest achieving women
 Staying at home appeals to those who have the luxury to do so
← Family Age:
 Trends is that people are waiting longer to get married
 Couples generally marry later and many have already acquired basic household
items, there is a movement toward giving non-traditional items as wedding gifts,
such as home electronics and computers
 Depending on where the family is in its life stage, differing goods and services will be
particularly appealing
 Understanding the family life stage helps marketers understand how to position
products
← Family Size:
 Family size is dependent on factors such as educational level, the availability of birth
control, and religion

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 Total fertility rate (TFR): the average number of children that would be born per
woman if all women lived to the end of their childbearing years and bore children
according to a given fertility rate at each age
 Marketers keep a close eye on the populations birth rate to gauge how the pattern
of births will affect demand for products in the future
 Worldwide, surveys show that almost all women want smaller families today
 Although populations are booming in some developing parts of the world,
industrialized countries face future crises because there will be relatively fewer
young people to support their elders
 For population levels to remain constant, the total fertility rate needs to be 2.1, so
that the two children can replace their parents
 Some countries are considering a variety of measures to encourage people to have
more children
← Non-Traditional Household and Family Structures:
 Statistics Canada, as mentioned earlier, considers any occupied dwelling as a
household, regardless of the relationships among people living there
 One person households provide opportunities for new products to be developed
← Who’s Living at Home?:
 Although traditional families are shrinking, in other cases the traditional extended
family is very much a reality
 Many adults care for their own parents as well as for their children
 Some label middle-aged people the sandwich generation, because they must attend
to those above and below them in age
 Adults are surprised to find that their children are living with them longer or are
moving back in
 Demographers call the returnees boomerang kids
 Canadian young men are far more likely than young women to live with their
parents
 This could be because women tend to form unions at younger ages than men and,
therefore, leave home at an earlier age to establish their own households
 If this trend continues, it will affect a variety of markets, because boomerang kids
spend less on hosing and staples and more on discretionary purchase such as
entertainment
← The Family Life Cycle:

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 Many factors affect what a family spends, including the number of people in the
family, their ages, and whether one, two, or more adults are employed outside the
home
 Two especially important factors that determine how a couple spends time and
money are (1) whether they have children and (2) whether the woman works
outside the home
 Because they recognize that family needs and expenditures change over time,
marketers apply the family life cycle (FLC) concept to segment households
 The FLC combines trends in income and family composition wit the changes these
demands place upon this income
 As we age, our preferences and needs for products and activities tend to change
 In addition, many purchases that must be made at an early age do not have to be
repeated very often
o Ex: accumulate durable goods and replace them only when necessary
 A life cycle approach to the study of the family assumes that pivotal events alter role
relationships and trigger new stages of life that alter our priorities
 These events include couples moving in together, the birth of a first child, and
departure of the last child form the house, the death of a spouse, retirement of the
principal wage earner, and divorce
 As people move through these life stages we observe significant changes in
expenditures in leisure, food, durables, and services, even after the figures have
been adjusted to reflect changes in income
← Family Life Cycle Effects On Buying:
 Its particularly useful to get a handle on longitudinal changes in priorities when we
want to predict demand for specific product categories over time
 Researchers have proposed a number of models to describe family life cycle stages,
but their usefulness has been limited because, in many cases, they have failed to
take into account important social trends, such as the changing role of women, the
acceleration of alternative lifestyles, childfree and delayed child marriages, and
single parent households
 We need to focus on four variables to describe these changes adequately:
o 1. Age
o 2. Marital status
o 3. Presence or absence of children in the home
o 4. Children’s ages

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 In addition, our definition of marital status must be relaxed to include any couple
living together in a long-term relationship
 When we update our outlook, we identify a set of categories that include many
more types of family situations
 Consumers classified into these categories show marked differences in consumption
patterns

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Chapter 7 - Attitudes
← The Power of Attitudes:
 The term attitude is widely used in popular culture
 Attitude: a lasting, general evaluation of people (including oneself), objects, or
issues
 Attitude object (Ao): anything toward which a person has an attitude, whether
tangible or intangible
 An attitude is lasing because it tends to endure over time
 It is general because it applies to more than a momentary event
 Consumers have attitudes toward very product-specific behaviors as well as toward
more general consumption-related behaviors
← The Functions of Attitudes:
 Functional theory of attitudes: initially developed by psychologist Daniel Katz to
explain how attitudes facilitate social behaviors
 Attitudes exist because they serve some function for the person - they are
determined by a person’s motives
 Consumers who expect that they will need to deal with similar information at a
future time will be more likely to start forming attitudes in anticipation of this event
 Two people can each have the same attitude toward some object for very different
reasons
 The following at attitude functions identified by Katz:
o Utilitarian function:
Related to the basic principles of reward and punishment
We develop some of our attitudes toward products simply on the
basis of whether these products provide pleasure or pain
 Ads that stress straightforward product benefits appeal to the
utilitarian function
o Value-expressive function:
Attitudes that perform a value-expressive function express the
consumer’s central values to self-concept
 A person forms a product attitude not because of its objective
benefits, but because of what the product says about them as a
person
o Ego-defensive function:
Attitudes that are formed to protect the person, either from external

threats or internal feelings, perform an ego-defensive function
o Knowledge function:

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 Some attitudes are formed as the result of a need for order,

structure, or meaning
 This need is often present when a person is in an ambiguous situation
or is confronted with a new product
 An attitude can serve more than one function, but in many cases a particular one will
be dominant
 By identifying the dominant function a product serves for consumers (what benefits
it provides), marketers can emphasize these benefits in their communications and
packaging
 Ads relevant to the function prompt more favorable thoughts about what is being
marketed and can result in a heightened preference for both the ad and the product
 The importance of an attitude object may differ quite a bit for different people
 Understanding the attitude’s importance to an individual and to others who share
similar characteristics can be useful to marketers who are trying to devise strategies
that will appeal to different customer segments

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← The ABC Model of Attitudes:

 Attitude has three components: affect, behavior, and cognition
 Affect: refers to the way a consumer feels about an attitude object
 Behavior/conation: involves the person’s intentions to do something with regard to
an attitude object
 Cognition: refers to the beliefs a consumer has about an attitude object
 These three components of an attitude can be remembered as the ABC model of
attitudes
 This model emphasizes the interrelationships among knowing, feeling, and doing
 Consumers’ attitudes toward a product cannot be determined simply be identifying
their beliefs about it

← Hierarchies of Effects:
 Although all three components of an attitude are important, their relative
importance will vary according to a consumer’s level of motivation with regard to
the attitude object
 Hierarchy of effects: explains the relative impact of the three components
 Each hierarchy specifies that a fixed sequence of steps occurs en route to an attitude
 FIGURE 7-1: Three Hierarchies of Effects
← The High-Involvement Hierarchy:

 When highly involved, a consumer approaches a product decision as a problem-
solving process
 Steps:
o 1. He or she forms beliefs about a product by accumulating knowledge
(beliefs) regarding relevant attributes

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o 2. The consumer then evaluates these beliefs and form a feeling about the
product (affect)
o 3. On the basis of this evolution, the consumer engages in a relevant
behavior, such as buying the product
 This careful choice process often results in a type of brand loyalty
 The consumer “bonds” with the product over time and is not easily persuaded to
experiment with other brands
 The standard learning hierarchy assumes that a consumer is highly involved in
making a purchase decision
 The person is motivated to seek out a lot of information, carefully weigh
alternatives, and come to a thoughtful decision
← The Low-Involvement Hierarchy:
 The consumer has collected only a minimal amount of information before acting and
has an emotional response only after consuming the product
 This is typical of a consumer who forms an attitude via low-involvement hierarchy of
effects
 In this sequence, the consumer initially does not have a strong preference for one
brand over another – he or she instead acts on the basis of limited knowledge and
then forms an evaluation only after the fact
 The attitude is likely to come about through behavioral learning in which the
consumer’s choice is reinforced by good or bad experiences with the product after
purchase
 Consumers simply don’t care enough about many decisions
 Concern about influencing beliefs and carefully communicating information about
product attributes may be largely wasted
 They are more likely to respond to simply stimulus-response connections when
making purchase decisions
 Consumers are not motivated to process a lot of complex brand-related information
 Instead, they will be swayed by principles of behavioral learning, such as the simple
responses caused by conditioned brand names, point-of-purchase displays, etc
 This results in what we might call the involvement paradox: the less important the
product to consumers, the more important many of the marketing stimuli that have
to be devised to market it
← Zajonc’s Model of Hedonic Consumption:
 Significance of emotional response as a central aspect of an attitude

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 Experiential hierarchy of effects – consumers act on the basis of their emotional

reactions
 This perspective highlights the idea that attitudes can be strongly influenced by
product attributes irrelevant to the actual product quality, such as package design
and colour, and by consumers’ reactions toward accompanying stimuli, such as
advertising and brand name
 Even the emotions expressed by the communicator have an impact
 Emotional contagion – messages delivered by happy people enhance our attitude
toward the product
 One important debate about the experiential hierarchy concerns the independence
of cognition and affect
 On the one hand, the cognitive-affective model argues that an affective judgment is
but the last step in a serious of cognitive processes
 Earlier steps include the sensory registration of stimuli and the retrieval of
meaningful information form memory to categorize these stimuli
 On the other hand, the independence hypothesis takes the position that affect and
cognition involve two separate, partially independent systems – affective responses
do not always require prior cognition
 The independence hypothesis does not eliminate the role of cognition in experience
– it simply balances this traditional, rational emphasis on calculated decision making
by paying more attention to the impact of aesthetic, subjective experience
 This type of holistic processing is more likely to occur when the product is perceived
as primarily expressive or when it delivers sensory pleasure rather than utilitarian
benefits
← Product Attitudes Don’t Tell the Whole Story:
 In decision-making situations, people form attitudes toward objects other than the
product itself that can influence their ultimate selections
 One additional factor to consider is attitudes toward the act of buying in general
← Attitude Toward the Advertisement:
 Consumers’ reactions to a product are influenced by their evaluations of its
advertising
 Our evaluation of a product can be determined solely by our appraisal of how it is
depicted in marketing communications - we don’t hesitate to form attitudes toward
products we’ve never even seen in person, much less used

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 Attitude toward the advertisement (Aad): a predisposition to respond in a favorable

or unfavorable manner to a particular advertising stimulus during a particular
exposure occasion
 Determinants of Aad include the viewer’s attitude toward the advertiser, evaluations
of the ad execution itself, the mood evoked by the ad, and the degree to which the
ad affects viewer’s arousal levels
 A viewer’s feelings about the context in which an ad appears can also influence
brand attitudes
 The effects demonstrated by Aad emphasize the importance of an ad’s entertainment
value in the purchase process
← Ads Have Feelings Too:
 The feelings generated by advertising have the capacity to directly affect brand
attitudes
 Commercials can evoke a wide range of emotional responses
 These feelings can be influenced both by the way the ad is done (the specific
advertising execution) and by the consumer’s reactions to the advertiser’s motives
 At least three emotional dimensions have been identified in commercials: pleasure,
arousal, and intimidation
 Specific types of feelings that can be generated by an ad include the following:
o Upbeat feelings: amused, delighted, playful
o Warm feelings: affectionate, contemplative, hopeful
o Negative feelings: critical, defiant, offended
← Forming Attitudes:
 An attitude can form in several different ways, depending on the particular hierarchy
of effects in operation
 It can occur because of classical conditioning, where an attitude object (McDonald’s
name), is repeatedly paired with a catchy jingle (“I’m lovin it”)
o Repeated often
 Or it can be formed through instrumental conditioning, in which consumption of the
attitude object is reinforced (ex: Pepsi quenches ones thirst)
o Reinforcement, modeling
 Or the learning of an attitude can be the outcome of a very complex cognitive
process
o Cognitive learning
← Not All Attitudes Are Created Equally:

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 It is important to distinguish among types of attitudes, since not all are formed the
same way
 Highly brand-loyal consumer has an enduring, deeply held positive attitude toward
an attitude object, and this involvement will be difficult to weaken
 Less brand-loyal may have a mildly positive attitude toward a product but be quite
willing to abandon it when something better comes along
← Levels of Commitment to an Attitude:
 Consumers vary in their commitment to an attitude
 The degree of commitment is related to their level of involvement with the attitude
object as follows:
o Compliance:
 The lowest level of involvement
 An attitude is formed because it helps gain rewards or avoid
punishments from others
 Ex: friends at a bar, and one orders a martini, so the other one does
 Very superficial – likely to change when the person’s behavior is no
longer monitored by others or when another option becomes
available
o Identification:
 A process of identification occurs when attitudes are formed so that
the consumer will then feel similar to another person or group
 Conform to another person or group
 Mid-level
 Ex: want to feel similar to a celebrity
 Advertising that depicts the social consequences of choosing some
products over others is relying on the tendency of consumers to
imitate the behavior of desirable models
o Internalization:
 At a high level of involvement, deep-seated attitudes are internalized
and become part of the person’s value system
 These attitudes are very difficult to change, because they are so
important to the individual
← The Consistency Principle:
 Principle of cognitive consistency: consumers value harmony among their thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors, and they are motivated to maintain uniformity among these
elements

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 If necessary, consumers will change their thoughts, feelings, or behaviors to make

them consistent with other experiences
 The consistency principle is an important reminder that attitudes are not formed in a
vacuum
 Significant determinant of the way an attitude object will be evaluated is how it fits
in with other, related attitudes already held by the consumer
← Cognitive Dissonance and Harmony Among Attitudes:
 Theory of cognitive dissonance: when a person is confronted with inconsistencies
among their own attitudes or behaviors, they will take some action to resolve this
unpleasant psychological state or “dissonance”
 Ex: smoking (either beautiful, or gross and killing people) – 2 sides to the ad
 The theory proposes that people are motivated to reduce the negative feelings
caused by dissonance by making things fit with one another
 This can be done by changing the attitude or modifying behavior
 The theory has important ramifications for attitudes, since people are often
confronted by situations in which there is some conflict between their attitudes and
behaviors
 A cognitive element can be something people believe about themselves, behaviors
they perform, or observations about their surroundings
 The magnitude of dissonance depends on both the importance and the number of
dissonant elements
 In other words, the pressure to reduce dissonance is more likely to be observed in
high-involvement situations in which the dissonant elements are more important to
the individual
 Dissonance reduction can occur by eliminating, adding, or changing elements
 Dissonance theory can help to explain why evaluations of a product tend to increase
after it has been purchased
 Post purchase dissonance can occur in situations where the consumer has a choice
between more than one favorable alternative
 The alternative one gives up is the forgone option
 Consumers is motivated to resolve this by reconfirming that they made the right
purchase after all, focusing on desirable qualities of the chosen option and actually
liking it more after it has been selected
 One implication of this phenomenon is that consumers actively seek support for
their purchase decisions, so marketers should supply them with additional
reinforcement to build positive brand attitudes

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← Self-Perception Theory:
 Self-perception theory: provides an alternative explanation of dissonance effects
 It assumes that people use observations of their own behavior to determine what
their attitudes are, just as we assume that we know the attitudes of others by
watching what they do
 The theory states that we maintain consistency by inferring that we must have a
positive attitude toward an object if we have bought or consumed it (assuming that
we freely made this choice)
 Low-involvement hierarchy (after the fact): involves situations in which behaviors
are initially performed in the absence of a strong internal attitude
o After the fact, the cognitive and affective components of attitude fall into line
o Thus, buying a product out of habit may result in a positive attitude toward it
after the fact – namely, why would I buy it is I didn’t like it?
 Foot-in-the-door technique: based on the observation that a consumer is more
likely to comply with a request if he or she has first agreed to comply with a smaller
request
o Name for this technique comes form the practice of door-to-door selling
o Plant his or her foot in the door so that the prospect could not slam it shut
o By agreeing to do so, the customer has established a willingness to listen to
the salesperson
o Such factors as the time lag between the first and second request, the
similarity between the two requests and whether the same person makes
both request have been found to influence the effectiveness of this
technique
 Low-ball technique: a person is asked for a small favour and is informed after
agreeing to it that it will be very costly
 Door-in-the-face technique: a person is first asked to do something extreme and the
is asked to do something smaller
 In the latter case, people tend to go along with the smaller request, possibly because
they feel guilty about denying the larger one
← Social Judgment Theory:
 Social judgment theory: assumes that people assimilate new information about
attitude objects in light of what they already know or feel
 This initial attitude acts as a frame of reference, and new information is categorized
in terms of this existing standard

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 One important aspect of the theory is the notion that people differ in terms of the
information they will find acceptable or unacceptable
 Latitudes of acceptance and rejection: formed around an attitude standard
o Assimilation and contrast effects
o Brand preference
 Ideas that fall within a latitude will be favorably received, while those falling outside
this zone will not
 Assimilation effect: messages that fall within the latitude of acceptance tend to be
seen as more consistent with our own position that they actually are
 Contrast effect: messages falling in the latitude of rejection tend to be seen as even
father from our own position than they actually are
 As a person becomes more involved with an attitude object, his or her latitude of
acceptance gets smaller – in other words, the consumer accepts fewer ideas that are
removed from his or her own position and tends to oppose even mildly divergent
positions
 This tendency is evident in ads that appeal to discriminating buyers, which claim that
knowledgeable people will reject anything but the very best
 One the other hand, relatively uninvolved consumers will consider a wider range of
alternatives
 They are less likely to be brand loyal and more likely to switch brands
← Balance Theory:
 Balance theory: considers relations among elements a person might perceive as
belonging together
 This perspective involves relations among three elements, so the resulting attitude
structures are called triads
 Each triad contains (1) a person (2) their perception of attitude object and (3) their
perception of other person or object
 These perceptions can be either positive or negative
 People alter these perceptions to make relations among them consistent
 The theory specifies that people desire relations among elements in a triad to be
harmonious, or balanced
 If they are not, a state of tension will result until somehow perceptions are changed
and balance is restored
 Elements can be perceived as going together in one of two ways:
o Unit relation - one element is seen as somehow belonging to or being a part
of the other (something like a belief)

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o Sentiment relation – the two elements are linked because one has expressed
a preference (or dislike) for the other
 Ex: Girl liking boy. Boy getting a tattoo. Girl doesn’t like tattoos. Girl doesn’t like boy
anymore, or has to change to like tattoos
 The theory does not specify which of these routes will be taken
 It does predict that one or more of their perceptions will probably change to achieve
balance
← Basking in Reflected Glory:
 Consumers often like to publicize their connections with successful people or
organizations to enhance their own standing
 Ex: Budweiser connecting to Winnipeg Jets
← Marketing Applications of Balance Theory:
 Balance theory reminds us that when perceptions are balanced, attitudes are likely
to be stable
 On the other hand, when inconsistencies are observed, we are more likely to
observe changes in attitudes
 Balance theory also helps to explain why consumers like to be associated with
positively valued objects
 Forming a unit relation with a popular product may improve ones changes of being
included as a positive sentiment relation in other peoples triads
 Balance theory is useful in accounting for the widespread use of celebrities to
endorse products
 In cases where a triad is not fully formed, the marketer can create a positive
sentiment relation between the consumer and the product by depicting a positive
unit relation between the product and a well-known personality
 This balancing act is at the heart of celebrity endorsements, in which it is hoped that
the start’s popularity will transfer to the products
 This creation of a unit relation between product and star can backfire if the publics
opinion of the celebrity endorser shifts from positive to negative (ex: Tiger Woods)
 The strategy can also cause trouble if the star-product unit relation is questioned, as
when the celebrity gets caught using a competitor’s brand
← Attitude Models:
 Attitude assessment can be complex
 A consumer’s overall evaluation of a product sometimes accounts for most of his or
her attitude toward it

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 When market researchers want to assess attitudes, it can often be sufficient for
them simply to ask consumers questions
 Problems:
o Product or services may comprise many attributes, or qualities, some of
which may be more important than others to particular people
o Peoples decisions to act on their attitudes are affected by other factors
 For these reasons, attitude models have been developed that try to specify the
different elements that might work together to influence peoples evaluations of
attitude objects
← Multi-Attribute Attitude Models:
 Beliefs about specific brand attributes can be pivotal for a product
o Ex: Listerine
 Multi-attribute attitude models: popular among marketing researchers which
assumes that a consumers attitude (evaluation) of an attitude object (Ao) will depend
on the beliefs he or she has about several or many attributes of the object
 The use of a multi-attribute model implies that an attitude toward a product or
brand can be predicted by identifying these specific beliefs and combining them to
derive a measure of the consumers overall attitude
 Basic multi-attribute models specify three elements:
o 1. Attributes are characteristics of the Ao
 Most models assume that the relevant characteristics can be
identified – the researcher can include those attributes that
consumers take into consideration when evaluating the Ao
 Ex: scholarly reputation
o 2. Beliefs are cognitions about the specific Ao (usually relative to others
similar to it)
 A belief measure assesses the extent to which the consumer
perceives that a brand possesses a particular attribute
 Ex: university or college is strong academically
o 3. Importance weights reflect the relative priority of an attribute to the
consumer
 Although an Ao can be considered on the basis of a number of
attributes, some are likely to be more important then others (i.e. they
will be given greater weight)
 These weights are likely to differ across consumers
 Ex: stresses research over athletics

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← The Fishbein Model:

 The most influential multi-attribute model
 The mode measures three components of attitude
o 1. Salient beliefs people have about an Ao (those beliefs about the object that
are considered during evaluation)
o 2. Object-attribute linkages, or the probability that a particular object has an
important attribute
o 3. Evaluation of each of the important attributes
 Assumptions:
o We have been able to specify adequately all the relevant attributes
o He or she will got through the process (formally or informally) of identifying a
set of relevant attributes, weighing them and summing them
 Although this particular decision is likely to be highly involving, it is still possible that
the attitude will instead be formed by an overall affective response (a process known
as affect-referral)
 By combining these three elements, a consumers overall attitude toward an object
can be computed
 Formula = Aijk = SBijkIik
o i = attribute
o j = brand
o k = consumer
o I = the importance weight given attribute I by consumer k
o B = consumer k’s belief regarding the extent to which brand j possesses
attribute i
o A = a particular consumer k’s attitude score for brand j
 The overall attitude score (A) is obtained by multiplying a consumers rating of each
attribute for all of the brands considered by the importance rating for that attribute
← Strategic Applications of the Multi-Attribute Model:
 Capitalize on Relative Advantage:
o If ones brand is viewed as being superior on a particular attribute, consumers
need to be convinced that this particular attribute is an important one
 Strengthen Perceived Product-Attribute Links:
o A marketer may discover that consumers do not equate his or her brand with
a certain attribute
o This problem is commonly addressed by campaigns that stress the products
qualities or consumers

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 Add a New Attribute:

o Product marketers frequently try to create a position distinct from those of
their competitors by adding a product feature
 Influence Competitors’ Ratings:
o Try to decrease the positivity of competitors
o This type of action is the rationale for a strategy of comparative advertising
← Using Attitudes to Predict Behavior:
 Multi-attribute models – major problem:
o Knowledge of a persons attitude is not a very good predictor of behavior
o Very low correlation between a persons reported attitude toward something
and his or her actual behavior toward it
← The Extended Fishbein Model:
 The original Fishbein model, which focused on measuring a consumers attitude
toward a product, has been extended in several ways to improve its predictive
ability
 An improve version is called the theory of reasoned action
 Theory of reasoned action: this model contains several important additions to the
original, and although the model is still not perfect, its ability to predict relevant
behavior is better
← Intentions Versus Behavior:
 Attitudes have both direction and strength
 A person may like or dislike an attitude object with varying degrees of confidence or
conviction
 Distinguish between firmly held attitudes and those that are more superficial
 An attitude help with greater conviction makes it more likely that it will be acted
upon
 Research consistently finds that consumer attitudes don’t always lead to the
congruent behavior
 One challenge for marketers, then, is ensuring that consumer attitudes translate into
relevant consumer behaviors
 Many factors might interfere with actual behavior, even if the consumer has sincere
intentions
 That in some instances past purchase behavior has been found to be a better
predictor of future behavior than a consumers behavioral intention
 The theory of reasoned action aims to measure behavioral intentions, recognizing
that certain uncontrollable factors inhibit prediction of actual behavior

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← Social Pressure:
 The theory acknowledges that power of other people in influencing behavior
 What we think others would like us to do may be more crucial than our own
individual preferences
 Public attitudes and purchase decisions vs. in private
 Subjective norm (SN): a new element was added to include the effect of what we
believe other people think we should do
 The value of SN is arrived at by including two other factors:
o 1. Intensity of a normative belief (NB) that others think an action should be
taken or not taken
o 2. Motivation to comply (MC) with that belief (i.e. the degree to which the
consumer takes others’ anticipated reactions into account when evaluating a
course of action or a purchase)
← Attitude Toward Buying:
 Attitude toward the act of buying (Aact): focuses on the perceived consequences of a
purchase
 Knowing how someone feels about buying or using an object turns out to be more
valid than merely knowing the consumers evaluation of the object itself
 Ex: condoms – person might have a positive Ao toward condoms, Aact might be
negative
← Obstacles to Predicting Behavior in the Theory of Reasoned Action:
 Despite improvements to the Fishbein model, problems arise when it is misapplied
 Other obstacles to predicting behavior are as follows:
o The model was developed to deal with actual behavior, not with the
outcomes of behaviors that are instead assessed in some studies
o Some outcomes are beyond the consumers control, such as when the
purchase required the cooperation of other people
o The basic assumption that behavior is intentional may be invalid in a variety
of cases, including those involving impulsive act, sudden changes in ones
situation, novelty seeking, or even simple repeat buying
o Measures of attitude often do not really correspond to the behavior they are
supposed to predict, either in terms of the Aact, or when the act will occurs
 One common problem is a difference in the level of abstraction
employed
o A similar problem relates to the time frame of the attitude measure

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In general, the longer the time between the attitude measurement
and the behavior it is supposed to assess, the weaker the relationship
will be
o Attitudes formed by direct, personal experience with an A o are stronger and
more predictive of behavior than those formed indirectly, such as through
advertising
 According to the attitude accessibility perspective, behavior is a
function of the person immediate perceptions of the Ao in the context
of the situation in which it is encountered
 An attitude will guide the evaluation of the object, but only if it is
activated from memory when the object is observed
 The theory of reasoned action has been applied primarily in Western settings
 Certain assumptions inherent in the model may not necessarily apply to consumers
from other cultures
 Several of the following cultural roadblocks diminish the universality of the theory of
reasoned action:
o The model was developed to predict the performance of any voluntary act
Across cultures, many consumer activities are not necessarily
voluntary
o The relative impact of subjective norms may vary across cultures
o The model measures behavioral intentions and thus presupposes that
consumers are actively thinking ahead and planning future behaviors
 The intention concept assumes that consumers have a linear time
sense (past, present, future)
 This perspective on time is not held in all cultures
Types of Normative Influence:
 Norms are best divided into two categories (Robert Cialdini)
o 1. Descriptive norms: norms that convey information regarding what other
people commonly do
o 2. Injunctive norms: norms that convey information regarding what is
commonly approved and disapproved of by others
 Both types of norms can be powerful influencers on consumers attitudes and
behavior
 Communicating that others are engaging in a particular activity can increase
compliance with that behavior
o Ex: not littering, reducing energy consumption, voting

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 Give consumers feedback on how they are performing relative to the descriptive
norm
o Ex: hotel towels – traditional message vs. descriptive norm message
 It seems that curs that connect the descriptive norm to the immediate setting (such
as the specific hotel room the guest is staying in) enhances the impact of the
descriptive norm

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Chapter 8 – Attitude Change and Interactive

Communications
← Changing Attitudes Through Communication:
 Consumers are constantly bombarded by messages inducing us to change our
attitudes (graphic pictures, peers, celebrity spokespeople, etc)
 Communications flow both ways – the consumer may seek out information sources
to lean more about these options
 Persuasion: refers to an active attempt to change attitudes
 Persuasion is the central goal of many marketing communications
 Basic psychological principles that influence people to change their minds or comply
with a request
o Reciprocity: people are more likely to give if they receive something first
 Ex: free samples, discounts
o Scarcity: items become more attractive when they are less available
 Ex: value limited edition items
o Authority: we tend to believe in authoritative source much more readily
o Consistency: people try not to contradict themselves in terms of what they
say and do about an issue
o Consensus: we often take into account what others are doing before we
decide what to do
 The desire to fit in with what others are doing influences our actions
← Decisions, Decisions: Tactical Communications Options:
 To craft persuasive messages a number of questions must be answered
 What determines effectiveness of the ad:
o Who will be the source of the message?
o How should the message be constructed?
 What sort of appeal?
 Ex: humorous, informative, emotional, fear driven, sex, etc
o What media will transmit message?
Print, TV, radio, billboard, etc
The media chosen usually corresponds to the type of appeal
 Ex: TV for emotion
o What target market characteristics will influence the ad’s acceptance?
← The Elements of Communication:
 Marketers and advertisers have traditionally tried to understand how marketing
messages change consumers’ attitudes by thinking in terms of the communications
model

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 Communications model: specifies that a number of elements are necessary for

communication to be achieved
 In this model, a source must choose and encode a message (i.e. initiate the transfer
of meaning by choosing appropriate symbolic images that represent this meaning)

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 There are many ways to say something and the structure of the message has a big
effect on how it is perceived
 The message must be transmitted via a medium, which might be TV, social media,
magazines, billboards, etc
 The message is then decoded by one or more receivers, who interpret the symbols in
the light of their own experiences
 Finally, feedback must be received by the source, who uses the reactions of the
receivers to modify aspects of the message
 FIGURE 8-1: The Traditional Communications Model
← An Updated View: Interactive Communications:

 Permission marketing: based on the idea that a marketer will be much more
successful trying to persuade consumers who have opted into their messages
o Scientific approach – gets rid of wasted reach
 Consumers who “opt out” of listening to the message probably weren’t good
prospects in the first place
 Wasted reach is the money spent on marketing to consumers when consumers are
never going to buy
 Those who say they are interested in learning more are likely to be receptive to
marketing communications they have already chosen to see or hear
 We have a voice in deciding which messages we choose to see and when - and we
are exercising that option more and more
 The traditional model was developed to understand mass communications, in which
information is transferred from a produce (source) to many consumers (receivers) at
once
 This perspective essentially views advertising as the process of transferring
information to the buyer before the sale
 A message is seem as perishable; it is repeated (frequently) for a fairly short period
of time, and then it “vanishes” as a new campaign eventually takes its place
 This classical model was strongly influenced by a group of theorists known as the
Frankfurt School, which dominated mass communications research for most of the
20th century

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 In this view the media exert direct and powerful effect of individuals, and the effects
often are used by those in power to brainwash and exploit them
 Receiver is basically a passive being who is simply the receptacle for many messages
and is often persuaded to act on the basis of the information they are “fed”
← Uses and Gratifications:
 Uses and gratifications theory: argue that consumers are an active, goal-directed
audience that draws on mass media as a resource to satisfy needs
 The uses and gratifications approach emphasizes that media compete with other
sources to satisfy needs and that these needs include diversion and entertainment,
and information
 This also means that the line between marketing information and entertainment is
continuing to blur
 Media play both positive and negative role
o Positive role: recipients are making use of the information in a number of
ways
o Negative role: undermine self-esteem as consumers use the media to
establish unrealistic standards for behavior, attitudes, and appearance
← Consumer Interactivity:
 Consumers who are highly involved with a product and who want to share their
opinions with manufacturers are an invaluable (and often free) form of input that
can shape marketing decisions in important ways
 When the consumers interacts with the marketer to influence the product, service,
or outcome that is created, this is called customer co-creation
o Ex: Dell computers, NikeID
 Giving the customer a voice in how the product is offered often leads to not only
more innovative solutions but also greater consumer engagement
← Who’s in Charge of the Remote?:
 Exciting technological and social developments certainly are forcing us to rethink the
picture of the passive consumer, as people are increasingly playing a proactive role
in communications
 They are to a greater extent becoming partners – rather than couch potatoes – in
the communications process
 Their input is helping to shape the messages they and others like them receive
 FIGURE 8-2: The Interactive Communications Model

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 One of the early signs of this communications revolution was the handheld remote
control device
 Since then, DVR, pay-per-view, PVR, etc
← New Message Formats:
 An array of new ways to transmit information in both text and picture form offers
marketers exciting alternatives to traditional advertising on TV, billboards,
magazines, etc
 Mobile commerce is now commonplace – marketing via smart phones and tablets
 Social media: set of technologies that enable users to create content and share it
with a large number of others
 Social media platforms include: blogs, video blogs (vlogging), podcasting, virtual
worlds, micro blogs, social networks, widgets, etc
 Economies: Industrial  Experience  Knowledge-Based
o Industrial: based on function
o Experience: lifestyle branding (far beyond function), media management,
brand management
o Knowledge-based: can try and be true to your brand promise, but marketers
are no longer in control of their brands – consumers are in control
 Degree of cynicism because consumers are still not satisfied even
though they are in control
 Problem: marketers can no longer control the image of firm/brand on social media
o Makes marketing more difficult for marketers
o Marketers need to react, facilitate positive discussion, and adapt
(knowledge-based era)
← Levels of Interactive Response:
 A key to understanding the dynamics of interactive marketing communications is to
consider exactly what is meant by a response
 The early perspective on communications regarded feedback primarily in terms of
behavior

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 However, a variety of others responses are possible, including building awareness of

the brand, informing us about product features, reminding us to buy a new package
when we’ve run out, and building a long term relationship
 Two basic types of feedback:
o 1. First-order response
A product offer that directly yields a transaction
In addition to providing revenue, sales data are a valuable source of
feedback that allows marketers to gauge the effectiveness of their
communications efforts
o 2. Second-order response
 Consumer feedback in response to a marketing message that is not in
the form of a transaction
 A marketing communication does not have to immediately result in a
purchase to be an important component of interactive marketing
 The Role of Persuasion Knowledge:
o Persuasion knowledge model (PKM): suggests that consumers develop
knowledge about persuasion and use this knowledge to “cope” with or deal
with persuasive attempts
o This model views the exchange between the consumer and the persuasion
agent as a two-way interaction, in which both the consumers and the agent
have their own goals
o The model also suggests that the target has three types of knowledge:
1. Topic knowledge (specific knowledge related to the issue at hand)
2. Agent knowledge (knowledge about the source of the persuasion)
3. Persuasion knowledge (knowledge about the persuasive tactic and
techniques being used)
o Persuasion knowledge refers to consumers’ theories about persuasion
o Consumers’ persuasion knowledge is understood to “hover in readiness” to
help them form attitudes about the influence agent or the product
o The theory suggests that consumers use their knowledge about such
persuasive attempts to get the best outcome for themselves
← The Source:
 Source effects: same words uttered by different people can have very different
meanings
 The source of a message can have a big impact on the likelihood the message will be
accepted

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 The choice of a source to maximize attitude change can tap into several dimensions
 The source can be chosen because they are an expert, attractive, famous, or similar
(a typical consumer who is both likeable and trustworthy)
 Two important source characteristics are:
o 1. Source credibility
o 2. Source attractiveness
 How do marketing specialists decide whether to stress either credibility or
attractiveness when choosing a message source?
 There should be a match between the needs of the recipient and the potential
rewards offered by the source
o When this match occurs, the recipient is more motivated to process the
message
o People who tend to be sensitive about social acceptance and the opinions of
others are more persuaded by an attractive source, whereas those who are
more internally oriented are swayed by a credible, expert source
 The choice may also depend on the type of product
o A positive source can help to reduce risk and increase message acceptance,
but particular types of sources are more effective at reducing different kinds
of risk
o Experts are effect at changing attitudes toward utilitarian products that have
high performance risk
 Ex: vacuums
o Celebrities are more effect when they focus on products that have high social
risk
 Ex: jewelry and perfume
o Typical consumers who are appealing sources because of their similarity to
the recipient, tend to be most effective when providing real-life
endorsements for every products that are low risk
 Ex: cookies, tide, etc
← Source Credibility:
 Source credibility: refers to a communicator’s expertise, objectivity, or
trustworthiness
o Credibility is maintain based on the source being an expert and trustworthy
o Usually for products with performance risk
 This dimension relates to consumers’ beliefs that this person is competent and will
prove the necessary information we need when we evaluate competing products

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 Sincerity is particularly important when a company tries to publicize its corporate

social responsibly (CSR) activities that benefit the community in some way
 A credible source is particularly persuasive when the consumer has yet to learn
much about a product or form an opinion of it
 Celebrities increase awareness of a firm’s advertising and can enhance both
company image and brand attitudes
 A celebrity endorsement strategy can be an effective way to differentiate among
similar products
 This is especially important when consumers do not perceive many actual
differences among competitors, as often occurs when brands are in the mature
stage of the product life cycle
 The early evidence indicates that celebrities exert the same impact on messages we
receive form social media platforms
 The Sleeper Effect
o Although in general more positive sources tend to increase attitude change,
there are exceptions to this rule
o In some instances, the differences in attitude change between positive
sources and less positive sources become erased over time
o After a while, people appear to “forget” about the negative sources and
change their attitudes anyway
← Building Credibility:
 Credibility can be enhanced if the source’s qualifications are perceived as relevant to
the product being endorsed
 This link can overcome other objectives people might have to the endorser or the
product
 Ex: LeBron James uses Nike basketball shoes
 Ex: person with tons of hair, is credible for head and shoulders
← Source Biases:
 A consumer’s beliefs about a products attributes can be weakened if the source is
perceived to be the victim of bias in presenting information
 Knowledge bias implies that a source’s knowledge about a topic is not accurate
 Reporting bias occurs when a source has the required knowledge but their
willingness to convey it accurately is compromised
 Its not always clear that a person has been paid to say they love a product
← Hype versus Buzz: The Corporate Paradox:

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 Corporate paradox: the more involved a company appears to be in the

dissemination of news about its product, the less credible it becomes
 Consumer word of mouth is the most convincing kind of message
 Buzz: word of mouth viewed as authentic and generated by customers
 Hype: word of mouth dismissed as inauthentic – propaganda planned by a company
 Buzz building has become the new mantra at many companies that recognize the
power of underground word of mouth
 TABLE 8-1: Hype vs. Buzz
Hype Buzz
Advertising Word-of-mouth
Overt Covert
Corporate Grass-roots
Fake Authentic
Skepticism Credibility

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Source Attractiveness:
 Source attractiveness: refers to the source’s perceived social value
o Attractiveness from a source is dependent on similarly, familiarity, and
likeability (beauty)
o Usually products with high social risk
 Impression management
 This quality can emanate from the person’s physical appearance, personality, or
social status, or from their similarity to the receiver (we like to listen to people who
are like us)
 A compelling source has great value, and endorsement deals are constantly in the
works
 Even dead sources can be attractive
← What is Beautiful is Good:
 Our society puts a very high premium on physical attractiveness, and we tend to
assume that people who are good looking are smarter, cooler, and happier
 Halo effect: occurs when individuals whoa re rated highly on one dimension are
assumed to excel on others as well
 The effect can be explained in terms of the consistency principle which states that
people are more comfortable when all of their judgments about a person go
together
 This notion has been called the “what is beautiful is good” stereotype
 A physically attractive source tends to facilitate attitude change
 How?
o One explanation is that physical attractiveness functions as a cue that
facilitates or modifies information processing by directing consumers’
attention to relevant marketing stimuli
o Consumers pay more attention to ads, though not necessarily to the ad copy,
that contain attractive models
 An ad with a beautiful person mat stand a better chance of getting
noticed but not necessarily of being read
 Beauty can also function as a source of information
 Social adaption perspective assumes that information seen to be instrumental in
forming an attitude will be more heavily weighted by the perceiver
 We filer out irrelevant information to minimize cognitive effort
 Under the right circumstances an endorsers level of attractiveness constitutes a
source of information instrumental to eh attitude change process

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 An attractive spokesperson is more likely to be an effective source when the product

is relevant to attractiveness
o Ex: perfume or cologne
← Star Power: Celebrities as Communications Sources:
 These messages are more effective when there’s a logical connection between the
star and the product
 Star power works because celebrities embody cultural meanings; they symbolize
important categories, such as status and social class
 Ideally, the advertiser decides what meanings the product should convey and then
chooses a celebrity who has come to evoke a similar meaning
 Celebrities as communications sources:
o Famous faces capture attention and are processed more efficiently by the
brain
o Enhance company image and brand attitudes
 The producer’s meaning thus moves from the manufacturer to the consumer, using
the star as a vehicle
 For celebrity campaigns to be effective, the endorser must have a clear and popular
image
 Match-up hypothesis: the celebrity’s image and that of the product he or she
endorses should be similar
 When celebrities don’t behave this can create negative associations with the brand
 The effectiveness of celebrities as communications sources often depends on their
perceived credibility
 The lack of credibility is aggravated by instances in which celebrities have endorsed
products that they do not really believe in or in some cases do not use
 Sometimes celebrities don’t behave in ways sponsors approve of (ex: tiger woods)
o The balance theory of attitude helps to predict this downfall, as these
companies did not want the negative image of a sexually promiscuous
individual associated with their brand
← Non-Human Endorsers:
 Some marketers seek alternatives, including cartoon characters and mascots
 One example of non-human endorsers are avatars
 Avatars originated in computer games (ex: the sims), but now they are starting to
appear in online advertising and on e-commerce sites as a mechanism for enhancing
the online experience
 Ex: rock band, drink makers

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 One advantage of virtual avatars compared to human models is that its possible to
change them in real time to suit the needs of the target audience or individual
consumer
 Using avatars is likely to be more cost-effective than hiring a real person
 They have the ability to handle multiple customers at any one time, they are not
geographically limited, and they are operational 24/7, freeing up company
employees and sales personnel to perform other activities
← The Message:
 Most important feature was whether the communication contained a brand-
differentiating message
o Did the communication stress a unique attribute or benefit for the product?
Positive Effects Negative Effects
Showing convenience of use Extensive information on components,
ingredients, nutrition
Showing new product/improved features Outdoor setting (message gets lost)
Demonstration Large number of onscreen characters
Indirect comparison to other products Graphic displays

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 The characteristics of the commercial message itself help to determine the impact of
that message on attitudes
 These variables may include how the message is said as well as what is actually said
 Some of the issues facing marketers include the following:
o Should the message be conveyed in words or pictures?
o How concrete or vivid should the arguments and imagery be?
o How often should the message be repeated?
o Should both sides of an argument be presented?
o Should a conclusion be drawn, or should this be left up to the
listener/viewer?
o Is it effective to explicitly compare a product with that of competitors?
o Should a blatant sexual appeal be used?
o Should the ad be funny?
o Should negative emotions, such as fear, ever be aroused?
Sending the Message:
 “One picture is worth 1000 words”
 Advertisers often put great emphasis on vivid and creative illustrations or
photography
 On the other hand, a picture is not always as effective as communicating factual
information
 Ads that contain the same information, presented in either visual or verbal form,
have been found to elicit different reactions
 The verbal versions affects ratings on the utilitarian aspects of a product, while the
visual version affects aesthetic evaluations (emotions)
 Verbal elements are more effective when reinforced by an accompanying picture,
especially if the illustration is framed (i.e. the message in the picture is strongly
related to the copy)
 Because it requires more effort to process, a verbal message is most appropriate for
high-involvement situations (ex: print contexts)
 Because verbal material decays more rapidly in memory, more frequent exposures
are needed to obtain the desired effect
 Visual images allow the receiver to chunk information at the time of encoding
 Chunking results in a stronger memory trace, which aids retrieval over time
 Visual elements may affect brand attitudes in one of two ways:
o 1. The consumer may form inferences about the brand and change their
beliefs because of an illustrations imagery

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o 2. Brand attitudes may be affected more directly

 A strong positive or negative reaction elicited by the visual elements
will influence the consumer’s attitude toward the ad (Aad)
 FIGURE 8-3: Effects of Visual and Verbal Components of Advertisements on Brand
Attitudes
← Vividness:
 Both pictures and words can differ in vividness
 Powerful descriptions or graphics command attention and are more strongly
embedded in memory because they tend to activate mental imagery, while abstract
stimuli inhibit the process
 Negative information presented in a vivid manner may result in more negative
evaluations at a later time
 The concrete discussion of a product attribute in an ad copy also influences the
importance o that attribute, because more attention is drawn to it
Repetition/ Frequency:
 Repetition can be a two-edged sword for marketers
 Multiple exposures to a stimulus are usually required for leaning (especially
conditioning) to occur
 Mere-exposure effect: people tend to like things that are more familiar to them,
even if they were not that keen on them initially
 Positive effects for advertising repetition are found even in mature product
categories; repeating product information has been shown to boost consumers’
awareness of the brand even thought nothing new has been said
 On the other hand, too much repetition creates habituation, wherein the consumer
no longer pays attention to the stimulus because of fatigue or boredom
 Excessive exposure can case advertising wear out, which can result in negative
reactions to an ad after seeing it too much
 The fine line between familiarity and boredom has been explained by the two-factor
theory
 Two factor theory: proposes that two separate psychological processes are
operating when a person is repeatedly exposed to an ad
 The positive side of repetition is that it increases familiarity and thus reduces
uncertainty about the product
 The negative side is that over time, boredom increases with each exposure
 At some point the amounts of boredom incurred begins to exceed the amount of
uncertainty reduced, resulting in wear out

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 Advertisers can overcome this problem by:

o Limiting the amount of exposure per repetition (ex: using 15 second spots)
o Maintain familiarity but alleviate boredom by slightly varying the execution
of ads over time through campaigns that revolve around a common theme
(for which each spot may be different)
← Constructing the Argument:
 Many marketing messages are similar to debates or trials, in which someone
presents arguments an tries to convince the receiver to shift their opinion
 The way the argument is presented can thus be very important
← One Versus Two-Sided Arguments:
 Most messages merely present one or more positive attributes about the product or
reasons to buy it
 One-sided: supportive arguments
 Two-sided message: both positive and negative information is presented
o Two-sided ads can be quite effective
 Under the right circumstances, the use of refutational arguments, in which a
negative issue is raised and then dismissed, can be quite effective
o This approach can increase source credibility by reducing reporting bias
 Also, people who are skeptical about the product may be more receptive to a
balanced argument as opposed to a “whitewash”
 In the typical refutational strategy, relatively minor attributes are discussed that may
present a problem or fall short when a product is compared with competitors
 These drawback are then refuted by emphasizing positive, important attributes
 A two-sided strategy appears to be more effective when the audience is well
educated
 It is also best used when receivers are not already loyal to the product
 Ex: Buckley’s medicine – tastes bad, BUT works
← Drawing Conclusions:

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 A related issue is whether the argument should draw conclusions or whether the
points should merely be presented, permitting the consumers to arrive at their own
conclusion
 Consumers who make their own inferences will form stronger, more accessible
attitudes
 On the other hand, leaving the conclusion ambiguous increases the chance that the
desired attitude will not be formed
 The response to this issue depends on the consumers’ motivation to process the ad
and the complexity of the arguments
 If the message is personally relevant, people will pay attention to it and
spontaneously form inferences
 However, if the arguments are hard to follow or consumers’ motivation to follow
them is lacking, it is safer for the ad to state the conclusions to be drawn
← Comparative Advertising:
 Comparative advertising: refers to a strategy wherein a message identified two or
more specifically named or recognizably presented brands and compares them in
terms of one or more specific attributes
 This strategy has yielded mixed results
 In some cultures (ex: Asia), comparative advertising is rare, because people find such
a confrontational approach offensive
 Comparative ads do appear to be effective in the case of new products
 Comparative ads are credible only if they don’t reach too far by comparing a brand
to a competitors that is obviously superior
 An ad for a new product should not:
o Merely say it is better than a leading brand
o Compare itself to a superior competitor
← Types of Message Appeals:
 The way something is said can be as significant as what is said
 The same idea can be encoded in many different ways
← Emotional Versus Rational Appeals:
 Which is better?
 The answer depends on the nature of the product and the type of relationship
consumers have with it
 Many companies turned to this strategy after realizing that consumers do not find
many differences among brands, especially those in well-established mature
categories

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 Thought recall of ad contents tends to be better for “thinking” ads than for “feeling”
ads, conventional measures of advertising effectives (such as day-to-day recall) may
not be adequate to assess cumulative effects of emotional ads
 These open-ended measures are oriented toward cognitive responses, and feeling
ads may be penalized because the reactions are not as easy to articulate
← Sex-Appeals:
 Under the assumption that “sex sells”, many campaigns feature heavy doses of
erotic suggestions that range from subtle hints to blatant displays of skin
 Research has also shown the importance of product fit with sex-appeals
 Sexual imagery paired with products that have little to do with sex has been shown
to produce negative reactions from both genders
← Humorous Appeals:
 The use of humor can be tricky, particularly since what is funny to one person may
be offensive to incomprehensible to another
 Specific cultures have different sense of humor and also use funny material in
diverse ways
 Does Humor Work?
o Humorous advertisements do get attention
o The verdict is mixed as to whether humor affects recall or product attitudes
in a significant way
o For an advertisement to be funny, it needs to simultaneously violate
expectations and be benign (i.e. not overly offensive)
o Humor is more likely to be effective when the brand is clearly identified and
the funny material does not “swamp” the message
o Subtle humor is usually better, as it is humor that does not make dun of the
potential consumer
o Humor should also be appropriate to eh product’s image
o Humorous messages can temper ads for threatening situations
 Ex: disease or other avoidance situations
 When the message for these negative scenarios was couched in
humor, the advertisements were better received
Fear Appeals:
 Fear appeals: highlight the negative consequences that can occur if the consumers
fails to change a behavior or attitude
 The arousal of fear is a common tactic for public-policy issues (ex: driving safe and
smoking)

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 The tactic can also be applied to social-risk issues by appealing to people’s anxieties
about their careers or love lives
 Does Fear Work?
o Fear appeals are usually most effective when only a moderate amount of fear
is induced
o The relationship between fear and attitude change is non-monotonic
o This means that increasing levels of fear does not result in increased change
o The relationship instead resembles and inverted U-shaped curve
o If the treat is too great, the audience tends to deny that it exists as a way of
rationalizing the danger
o Fear appeals appear to be most effective when the consumers is already
afraid of the problem discussed in the ad
o The treats should not be excessive, and the solution to the problem should
be presented
o Fear appeals also work better when source credibility is high
o Greater fear does result in greater persuasion – but not all threats are
equally effective because different people will respond differently to the
same threat
o The strongest threats are not always the most persuasive, because they may
not have the desired impact on the perceiver
o More precise measures of actual fear responses are needed before definitive
conclusions can be drawn about the impact of fear appeals on consumption
decisions
← The Message as Art Form:
 Marketers may be thought of as storytellers
 These communications take the form of stories because the product benefits they
describe are intangible and must be given tangible meanings by being expressed in a
form that is concrete and visible
 Advertising creatives rely on various literary devices to communicate these
meanings
 Many ads take the form of an allegory, wherein a strong is told about an abstract
trait or concept that has been personified as a person, animal, or vegetable
 Metaphor: involves the use of an explicit comparison, such as A is B
 Metaphors allow the marketer to activate meaningful images and apply them to
everyday events
 Resonance is another type of literary device that is frequently used in advertising

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 Resonance: a form of presentation that combines a play on words with a relevant

picture
 Resonance uses an element that has a double meaning, such as a pun, in which
there is similarity in the sound of a word but a difference in meaning
← Forms of Story Presentation:
 The way the audience is addressed can make a difference
 One important distinction is between a drama and a lecture
 A lecture is like a speech in which the source speaks directly to the audience
members in an attempt to inform them about a product or to persuade them to buy
it
 Cognitive responses, such as counterargumentation, will occur
 This appeal will be accepted to the extent that it overcomes the consumer’s
objections and is congruent with their beliefs
 A drama is similar to a play or movie
 While an argument holds the viewer at arm’s length, a drama draws the viewer into
the action
 The characters address the audience only indirectly they interact with each other
about a product or service in an imaginary setting
 Dramas attempt to be experiential – to involve the audience emotionally
 In transformational advertising, the consumer associates the experience of product
usage with some subjective sensation
The Source Versus the Message:
 Two major components of the communications model – the source and the message
– have be reviewed
 Should marketers worry more about what is said or about how it is said and who
says it?
 The answer is that it depends
 Variations in a consumers level of involvement result in the activation of very
different cognitive processes when a message is received
 Research indicates that this level of involvement will determine which aspect of a
communication are processed
← The Elaboration Likelihood Model:
 Elaboration likelihood model (ELM): assumes that once a consumer receives a
message, they begin to process it
 Depending on the personal relevance of the information, one of two routes to
persuasion will be followed

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 High involvement - the consumer takes the central route to persuasion

 Low involvement – the consumer takes the peripheral route to persuasion
 FIGURE 8-7: The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion:
← The Central Route to Persuasion:

 When the consumer finds the information in a persuasive message to be relevant or
somehow interesting, they will carefully attend to the message content
 The person is likely to think actively about the arguments presented and generate
cognitive responses to these arguments
 If a person generates counterarguments in response to a message, it is less likely
that they will yield to the message, while the generation of further supporting
arguments increases the probability of compliance
 The central rout to persuasion is likely to involve the traditional hierarchy of effects
 Beliefs are carefully formed and evaluated, and strong attitudes that are then
formed will be likely to guide behavior
 The implication is that message factors will be important in determining attitude
change
 Prior knowledge about a topic may result in more thoughts about the message and
will also increase the number of counterarguments
← The Peripheral Route to Persuasion:
 The peripheral route is taken when the person is not motivated to think about the
arguments presented
 The consumer is likely to use other cues in deciding on the suitability of the message
 Sources of information extraneous to the actual message content are called
peripheral cues because they surround the actual message
 The peripheral route to persuasion highlights the paradox of low involvement
 When consumers do not care about a product, the stimuli associated with it increase
in importance
 The implication here is that low involvement products may be purchased chiefly
because the marketer has done a good job designing a “sexy” package, choosing a
popular spokesperson, or creating a pleasant shopping environment

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← Support for the ELM Model:

 Three independent variables crucial to the ELM were manipulated:
o 1. Message-processing involvement
o 2. Argument strength
o 3. Source credibility
 Consistently with the ELM model, high involvement subjects had more thoughts
related to the ad messages than did low involvement subjects, who devoted more
cognitive activity to eh sources used in the ad
 The attitudes of high involvement subjects were more likely to be swayed by
powerful arguments, while the attitudes of low involvement subjects were more
likely to be influenced by the ad version using attractive sources
 The relative effectiveness of a strong message and a favorable source depends on
consumers’’ level of involvement with the product being advertised
 High involvement customers look for strong, rational arguments
 Low involvement customers are more affected by the colours and images used in
packaging, or endorsements by famous people
 The same communications variable can be both a central and a peripheral cue,
depending on its relation to the attitude object

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Lecture notes, Consumer Behavior textbook

Consumer Behaviour (University of Manitoba)

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Chapter 1 – An Introduction to Consumer Behavior

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 Psychographics: differences in consumers’ personalities, attitudes, values, and

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 Electronic marketing increases convenience by breaking down many of the barriers

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 Various cultures and organizations may conduct themselves differently in certain

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 This is often driven by consumer demand, as companies attempt to differentiate

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 Compulsive consumption is distinctly different from impulse buying

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 Survey: a method of data collection in which the respondents self-report answers to

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 Diary: tracks responses and behaviors over a period of time

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Chapter 9 – Individual Decision Making

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 Some decisions are made under conditions of low involvement

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 Automaticity: choices made with little/no conscious effort

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 Once a problem has been recognized, consumers need adequate information to

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o The idea of diminishing returns – with each additional consumption, we lose

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← How Do We Put Products into Categories:

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 These classifications derive from different product attributes, including appearance,

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o Consumers are often faced with choices between non-comparable

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 Determinant attributes: specific attributes that are actually used to differentiate

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o Intelligent agents are sophisticated software products that use collaborative

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 Price-quality relationship: we tend to get what we pay for

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Chapter 10 – Buying and Disposing

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 The presence or absence of other patrons (co-consumers) is in a setting can function

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o Recreational shopper: a shopper who views shopping as a fun social activity

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