Final Exam 
Consumer Behavior 
 

Raza Idrees 
2193086 
17th January, 2020 
 

   

 
 

Question 1: ​Describe a situation in which you acquired an 

attitude towards a new product through exposure to an 
advertisement for that product. Describe a situation in which you 
formed an attitude towards a product or brand on the basis of 
personal influence.  
Answer: 

For me it is difficult to develop an attitude towards a product on the basis of advertisements as I 

never pay attention towards them. One instance that I remember paying attention to an 
advertisement was during a Tarang tea whitener advertisement on the television. The 
advertisement was tasteless and tone deaf. They showed singing and dancing in vibrant outfits 
which had no Correlation with the product itself. This created a strong negative attitude towards 
the product. Even though I've never tasted the product itself. I dislike it just because of the 
horrible advert the brand created.  

Keeping on the theme of tea whitener. One of my aunts makes really tasty tea and I've always 
enjoyed the tea at her house even though I'm very particular about the taste of my tea. She uses 
Everyday tea whitener in her tea. So I started using the same because I was positively influenced 
by her choice and her high praise for the brand.  

Question 2: ​Think back to the time when you were selecting a 

university. Did you experience dissonance immediately after you 
made a decision? Why or why not? If you did experience 
dissonance, how did you resolve it? 
Answer: 

When I was selecting a university for my bachelors degree. I chose BeaconHouse National 
University (BNU) because I was tired of the academic system that awarded memory rather than 
understanding. I thought BNU would be different as it was a liberal arts institute famous for its 
fine arts and architecture department. 

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I didn't feel the dissonance immediately because the reality hadn't set in yet. But after spending a 
few months at BNU I realised that the reality was far from the fantasy that I had created and BNU 
was just the same as the institutes I had studied in all my life. At first I tried to ignore the 
dissonance created by this realisation but after a few more semesters I couldn't bear it anymore 
and dropped out of BNU. After dropping out I started pursuing fields that I was interested in so 
that this dissonance wouldn't affect me or my academic career anymore. 

Question 3: ​Why is an opinion leader a more credible source of 

product information than an advertisement for the same product? 
Are there any circumstances in which information from 
advertisements is likely to be more influential than word-of-mouth? 
Answer: 

With the growing number of products in the market it is hard to be informed about all of them. So 
people take the help of opinion leaders. These opinion leaders could be influencers, reviewers or 
any person with some knowledge about the product.  

In my personal experience, whenever I'm faced with a purchase decision I look at YouTube 
reviews from my favorite creators of the product in question and its competitors. This always 
helps me make an informed decision. Advertisements on the other hand are biased as they are 
created by the brand hence they leave out all the negative aspects. This is why I prefer opinion 
leaders as credible sources of information over advertisements created by a brand to promote 
their products.  

In certain circumstances when it comes to highly specialised products. It is better to refer to 
advertisements as a source of information as generally people will not or can not be well 
informed on certain specialised products. For example there aren't many opinion leaders well 
versed in the field of commercial grade HiFi audio systems or pacemakers. Hence adverts in this 
case with specified information are a more credible source then word of mouth.  

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Question 4:​ ​Collect ads for three different product categories 

that target families. Find another set of ads for different brands of 
the same items that don’t feature families. Prepare a report 
comparing the probable effectiveness of the two approaches. 
Which specific categories would most likely benefit from a family 
emphasis?   
Answer: 

Effective advertising reaches potential customers and informs them of a brand's products or 
services. Some products need family involvements as that is their targeted audience. Let's take 
the example of Carbonated drinks, Cooking oil and Restaurants.  

When Pepsi advertises its product in Pakistan they usually use families in their advertisement as it 
makes the assumption that Pepsi is a drink that can be consumed by anyone. While when the 
same company advertises Mountain dew they do not use families because that is not the 
intended audience for the drink.  

Cooking oils are usually targeted at families for example Dalda cooking oil adverts always include 
families. A recent advertisement of Dastak cooking oil didn't have families; it was targeted as a 
low fat option for women. 

Restaurants also usually cater to families as it brings more heads into the restaurant. Nadeem 
restaurant always has families in its adverts. While restaurants like Daily deli Co cater more 
towards the younger crowd.  

In my opinion if cooking oils, carbonated drinks and restaurants would include families in their 
adverts it would be more beneficial for them. While saying that if carbonated drinks like Mountain 
Dew was to be advertised to families it wouldn't be a successful campaign. As the product isn't 
targeted at them hence this highly dependent on the product being advertised.  

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Question 5: ​Looking back at the months of quarantine ( March to 

September) , how many purchases have you made online? Do you 
feel brands' online presence had any impact on your purchases? 
How do you think technology enriches the exchange between the 
marketer and its consumers? 
Answer: 

For me personally, I haven't made many online purchases during the quarantine. As I didn't have 
many things that I needed which couldn't wait till the end of quarantine.  

Of course they're were some things that I needed like I had to buy a phone during the quarantine 
and if Samsung didn't provide an online purchasing option on their website. I wouldn't have 
bought the phone from another website. As it costs a lot of money. So Samsungs presence 
online had a big impact on my decision to trust the online payment system. There were a lot of 
other stores that were providing the same service as Samsung but I didn't want to trust them as 
they could easily deceive me. If it was less money i would have ordered it from any random store 
as i wouldn't be as worried about getting deceived.  

In my opinion, technology has broken down barriers. Nowadays the consumers can get any 
product they want delivered to their doorstep in a matter of hours or days. Before these facilitates 
were available consumers had to make an effort of finding stores and even travelling to different 
countries to get a specific product but now most things are available for order on the Internet. 
This also has made things easier for marketers because now they don't have to find ways to 
catch the consumers eye they can advertise in places that are already in the consumers line of 
sight for example their phones. 

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