(1) consumer behavior - concept, approaches, and

characteristics
consumer behavior concept and characteristics
CB concept:
●​ the complex process of making the decision
●​ all the activities that individuals or groups develop when they select, purchase,
use, and dispose of products/services/ideas/experiences to satisfy needs
and/or desires
CB characteristics:
●​ consists of several activities:

●​ complex, multidimensional
●​ differs depending on the time → the decision-making process is situational
●​ it’s a motivated behavior
●​ affects the whole psychological system of an individual (cognitive, affective,
behavioral)
●​ involves different roles:
○​ initiator of the purchase (e.g. a friend suggests that we need vacations as
we look tired, which can be a trigger)
○​ informer (e.g. either the friend or us or a website that tells us the info
about the trip (price, destination))
○​ influencer (e.g. 'let’s go somewhere else', 'no you shouldn’t go', a political
barrier)
○​ decider
○​ buyer (e.g. 'i’m booking the trip')
○​ payer (e.g. 'but paying with my parent’s card')
○​ user (e.g. sb else goes on the trip bc i got sick)
●​ varies depending on the type of product and its life cycle:
 ○​ tangibility (tangible, intangible)
○​ duration (durable, non-durable)
○​ type of purchase (convenience, shopping, specialty, unsought)
analyzing a consumer within the marketing discipline
marketing orientations/concepts in the company:
●​ production, product, selling, societal marketing
●​ marketing concept:
○​ research on CB
○​ analysis of the factors affecting buyers
○​ market segmentation
○​ product positioning
○​ offers, prices, distribution channels, advertising
○​ what are the customer’s motivations and intentions?
marketing versions:
●​ 1.0 → production (important for the product to exist)
●​ 2.0 → product (availability, design)
●​ 3.0 → customers (market research, importance of target market)
●​ 4.0 → digital
●​ 5.0 → advanced technologies (especially AI)
●​ 6.0 → metamarketing (nowadays)
why does the consumer need to be studied?
●​ the essence of the marketing concept and marketing management

strategic marketing:
●​ analysis of the needs of the consumer base → information → development of
the profitable product → production phase
●​ aimed at specific buyers who differentiate themselves from the competition
operational marketing:
●​ marketing mix strategies
●​ 4P (product, price, promotion, placement)
○​ offer strategies (product, price)
○​ strategies to market (placement, promotion)
 ●​ aiming at the selected markets in the short and medium-term
consumer and marketing strategy:
●​ market segmentation
○​ market is made up of groups of customers with similar needs or sought
benefits
○​ what do the customers want?
■​ their choices rely on the benefits or services expected from the
product (not the product itself)
■​ each product is a set of attributes/characteristics
■​ different products can meet the same need
■​ the same product can meet different needs
●​ marketing mix:
○​ market research to design the product and price strategies, distribution
channel (place strategy), and communication (promotion strategy)
approaches when analyzing the consumer behavior
●​ interdisciplinary research issue

●​ economic approach → utility maximization, budget constraint, demand, buying

power
●​ psychological approach → need’s satisfaction, motivation, attitude and beliefs,
decision-making, emotions
●​ sociological approach → cultural norms, class and status, social influence
 (2) consumer decision process
stages in consumer decision-making

problem recognition
●​ customer decisions are choices they make in the marketplace as buyers,
payers, and users
○​ what, when, from whom, and whether to purchase + how to pay for it
types of consumer decisions:
●​ simple decisions when the product is: low-cost, frequently purchased, familiar
(brand), when we have little time to decide → no research needed, no emotions
attached (low involvement), routine response
●​ elaborate decisions when the product is: expensive, infrequently purchased,
unfamiliar, when we have time to decide → research, high involvement,
extensive thought process
problem recognition:
●​ customer problem - any state of deprivation, discomfort, or wanting
(psychological, physical) felt by a person
●​ problem recognition - customer’s realization that they need to buy sth to get
back to the state of comfort
○​ internal stimulus - consumer realizes the problem themselves (e.g. ‘i have
to cut my hair’)
○​ external stimulus - sb else makes us realize the problem (e.g. ‘you should
cut your hair’)

●​ e.g. car runs out of gas: actual state → bad state

●​ e.g. wanting to buy a new phone: actual state → ideal state
information search
●​ seeking the best option
 ●​ information search - the process of surveying the environment for
appropriate data to make a reasonable decision
types of information search:
●​ internal vs external search:
○​ internal → own knowledge
○​ external → asking a friend, internet
●​ prepurchase vs ongoing search:
○​ prepurchase → high involvement in the purchase, goes on until we find
the product that we want to buy
○​ ongoing → high involvement in the product, doesn’t end with the
purchase

●​ deliberate vs accidental search:

○​ deliberate → purposeful search
○​ accidental → didn’t mean to do it, but found out anyway
determinants of the amount of search:
●​ familiarity and expertise:
○​ newbies vs experts → those in the middle search the most, experts don't
need the research and newbies don’t know where to start
 ●​ time pressure:
○​ the more time we have to learn about the purchase → the more research
we do
○​ cybermediaries → comparison of the products
■​ e.g. Trivago (we don’t have to go one by one, we have all the info at
once → timesaving solution)
○​ intelligent agents → search history and alternatives, ads of the products
you’ve been searching for
●​ involvement:
○​ the more involvement, demand, and importance of the purchase → the
more search
evaluation of the alternatives
●​ it’s unlikely there’s one product that satisfies us so we have to choose one
which alternative do we consider?

●​ awareness set → i’m aware of the brand, but don’t recall it for some reason
●​ evoked set → set of brands i can easily recall
●​ consideration set → brands we decide on taking into consideration while
making the purchase decision
awareness evaluation process: (ensuring the brand is in the evoked set)
●​ top of the mind → when asked about a given product category, the consumer
says the brand name without hesitation
●​ recall → consumer needs a bit more time or a leading question to remember
the brand name (spontaneous - remember)
●​ recognition → ‘which of the brands do you recognize?’ (suggested)
which source of information do we use?
alternative evaluation: (in the consideration set)

e.g. attributes from the most to least important, brand scores from low to high (1-5)

non-compensatory:
●​ lexicographic - hierarchy, the most important attribute and the highest score
 ○​ Adidas scores the lowest in the most important criteria (design) → it’s out
of consideration
○​ then in the second most important criteria, Nike scores better than Puma
→ we should probably buy Nike shoes
○​ draw: we look for further criteria until we select just one
●​ elimination by aspects - hierarchy, the most important attribute, and the
highest score taking into consideration if the cutoffs are met
○​ imposed cutoffs (e.g. ‘i won’t accept anything that scores less than 5 in
design, 4 in quality, etc.’) → Adidas dropped, then Puma, and finally Nike
wins
○​ draw: reconsider the brands or cutoffs (lower/heighten the guidelines)
●​ conjunctive - no hierarchy of the attributes, but whether or not all of the
cutoffs are met
○​ most demanding consumer
○​ no brand: reconsider brands or cutoffs
○​ draw: add another attribute
compensatory:
●​ simple additive - no hierarchy of the attributes, but select the brand that has
the best outcome (meets the most cutoffs)
○​ count the cutoffs the brand meets and the ones it doesn’t and choose
the best one
○​ draw: reconsider the cutoffs or brands
●​ weighted additive - hierarchy, we multiply 2x2 and sum up all of the multiplied
scores of one brand, and then choose which one scores the highest
○​ the most important factor = the highest weight ​
(e.g. 1st most important = 5, 2nd = 4, 5th = 1)
○​ multiplying 2x2 → e.g. Adidas scored 4 in 1st attribute → 4x5=20
○​ draw: reassess the scores (too harsh, too soft) or add another attribute
purchasing process - (not) buying decision
determinants of the deviation from the choice:
●​ situational effects on CB at the time of purchase:
○​ physical surroundings (e.g. smell, atmosphere)
○​ social surroundings (e.g. friend already has a dress so we don’t want it
anymore)
○​ time experience (e.g. queue in the store)
○​ emotional state (e.g. not as excited as we used to be)
●​ the shopping experience:
○​ store image, atmosphere, salesperson perception
 post-purchase experience (outcomes)
●​ decision confirmation:
○​ cognitive dissonance - a post-purchase doubt about the wisdom of the
buyer’s choice
●​ consumption and experience evaluation: (satisfaction/dissatisfaction)

●​ future response - exit, voice, loyalty

●​ disposal:
○​ recycle, giveaway, sell, reuse for another purpose

(3) social groups and family

concept, typology, and characteristics of a social group
group:
●​ a collection of people in which the members:
○​ define themselves as the group
○​ share certain norms, beliefs, and values that direct the activities
○​ develop some kind of coordinated behavior
○​ are conscious of being a group
○​ interact with and influence each other
○​ knows the boundaries
group typology - level of belonging:
●​ normative influence → we take the group’s beliefs as a reference (we belong
to the group)
●​ comparative influence → we compare the group’s behavior to our own (we
don’t need to belong to that group)
 ●​ primary → family, friends, depends on the closeness of the relationship (e.g.
neighbors)
●​ secondary → classmates
●​ formal → coworkers, classmates
●​ informal → family, friends
●​ aspirational → high level of attraction, you want to become a member of a
group (e.g. course you couldn’t enroll to)
●​ dissociative → low level of attraction, the group you don’t want to become a
member of (e.g. AA, disabled people)
functions of the group:
●​ integration, normativity, socialization, source of role models
●​ construct of identities
○​ social identity - set of behavioral/personal characteristics by which an
individual is recognizable as a member of a group (sociological
perspective)
○​ self-concept - an individual’s perception of ‘self’ (psychological
perspective)
■​ actual (real state)
■​ ideal (how i’d like to perceive myself)
■​ social (how others perceive me)
■​ ideal-social (how i’d like others to perceive me)
the importance of the reference group
●​ reference group - a real or imagined group that has a major impact on how a
person thinks, what they want to achieve, or how they act
 ●​ any external influence that provides social cues
types of influences:
●​ informational:
○​ person seeks information about various brands from a group of
professionals or trusted experts
○​ e.g. seeking help (and information) from real estate agents
●​ utilitarian:
○​ person's choice to purchase a specific brand is affected by what their
family, friends, or coworkers prefer
●​ value-expressive:
○​ person believes that the purchase or using a certain brand will enhance
the image others have of them
○​ e.g. we buy sth bc we want to be perceived in a certain way
why are reference groups so persuasive?
●​ social power - the capacity to alter the actions of others
○​ referent power - influence through admiration or identification
○​ information power - influence through access to valuable information
■​ e.g. if i come to the lecture, i know more than people who didn’t
come
○​ legitimate power - influence through authority or recognized rights
■​ e.g. instructions from the police, firemen
○​ expert power - influence through specialized knowledge or expertise
■​ every expert power is information power (but not the other way
around)
■​ e.g. electronic store worker convinces you to buy one thing instead
of the other bc he’s an expert
○​ reward power - influence through the ability to provide rewards
■​ e.g. if you come to the lecture, you’d get 2 extra points on the
exam
○​ coercive power - influence through the ability to impose penalties or
consequences
■​ e.g. intimidating peer pressure
types of reference groups:
●​ brand communities vs consumer tribes:
○​ brand community - a group of consumers who connect over their
shared interest in a particular brand
 ○​ consumer tribe - a group of people who bond over a common lifestyle
and feel a sense of belonging because they are passionate about the
same activity or product (e.g. vintage cars, shopping for plants)
●​ membership vs aspirational reference groups:
○​ membership - people who the consumer knows (ads: ordinary people -
testimonials)
○​ aspirational reference groups - people who the consumer doesn’t
know but admire (ads: celebrities as spokespeople)
●​ positive vs negative reference groups: (impact on our buying decisions)
○​ avoidance groups - people who want to stay away from others, they
tend to avoid buying anything that would link them to those groups
○​ anti-brand communities - groups of people who come together
because of a celebrity, store, or brand they dislike
●​ reference groups for consumers that enjoy participation:
○​ deindividuation - lost sense of identity within a group – we do what
others do
○​ social loafing - groups are less effective than if each person just did their
part individually (less effort put into group achievement of the goal)
○​ risky shift - groups are more open to taking risks compared to when
individuals make decisions on their own
conformity:
●​ change in beliefs or actions as a reaction to real or imagined group pressure
●​ justification for the influence of the group
other aspects of the groups
●​ marketeers are no longer the only source of information and they have to deal
with powerful consumers (online reviews, influences, WOM, etc.)
●​ not all influencers have knowledge or are experts, they just pay what the
company is paying them to say
opinion leaders:
●​ certain people are especially likely to influence others’ product choices,
attitudes, and behaviors
●​ characteristics of an opinion leader:
○​ experts with knowledge
○​ legitimate power
○​ socially active
○​ similar to the consumer
word-of-mouth (WOM) communication:
 ●​ things other consumers tell us about products (good and bad) often are more
influential than the advertising
●​ characteristics of WOM:
○​ more reliable form of marketing
○​ social pressure to conform
○​ influences ⅔ of all sales
○​ powerful when we’re unfamiliar with the product category
○​ negative WOM is powerful
communities and social networks:
●​ SM is changing the way companies and consumers interact
●​ online community- a virtual space where people connect, build relationships,
and find a sense of meaning, belonging, and identity
●​ characteristics of online communities:
○​ conversation, participation
○​ collective interest
○​ behavioral standards
○​ democracy, crowd power
family - buying habits and decisions
importance of family:
●​ many products are consumed by the family
●​ its members influence each other in the purchase and consumption decisions
(and such aspects are learned within the family)
●​ sometimes consumer priorities do not depend on individual decisions but the
family ones
family life cycle:
●​ factors determining how couples spend factors: children, if both of them work
→ family needs and expenditures
 ●​ extended family - 3 generations living together
●​ nuclear family - mother + father + children
●​ household - any occupied housing unit, regardless of the relationship
●​ family size → depends on educational level, availability of birth control, and
religion
●​ family composition:
○​ sandwich generation - adults in their 40s-60s caring for both aging
parents and their children
○​ boomerang kids - young adults returning to live with parents due to
financial or personal challenges
○​ nonhuman family members - pets treated as family
family decision-making:
●​ consensual vs accommodative purchase decisions → conflicts
●​ autonomic vs syncretic decision (one family member vs both partners)
children as decision-makers:
●​ consumer socialization - the process by which young people acquire skills,
knowledge, and attitudes relevant to their functioning in the marketplace
●​ importance of children in the family:
○​ primary market → kids spend their own money
○​ influence market → parents buy what their kids tell them to buy
(parental yielding)
○​ future market → kids grow up and purchase items

(4) social strata

concept and characteristics of social strata
●​ social stratification - the process of power, authority, and prestige distribution
among the members of society
●​ social strata include social class
social strata - social class:
●​ status - the position an individual holds within the society, and how it is
perceived by the other members of society
●​ social class determines spending habits
characteristics of social strata:
●​ dynamic and open systems
●​ social mobility:
○​ horizontal → e.g. change of work within the same class
○​ vertical (upward or downward) → one person doesn't have to stay in the
same social class forever
 ●​ homogeneous behaviors
●​ there is an awareness of the group
●​ hierarchical positions
●​ antagonistic relationships between members of different social classes
what determines the social status of an individual?
●​ income → purchasing power, lifestyle
○​ not always high income = high class
●​ heritage → lifestyle
●​ occupation → social prestige (a way to assess the ‘value’ of an individual)
●​ training → social ascent
measuring methods
reputational:
●​ the individual is asked to indicate the social strata they think their
acquaintances belong to
subjective:
●​ the individual has to self-position themselves in a social class
objective:
●​ individuals are classified according to certain variables
●​ simple indexes (single-item)
○​ one variable → e.g. income, salary, occupation, profession, education,
possessions
○​ ESeC - the European Socioeconomic Classification
●​ composite indexes (multi-item)
○​ multiple variables
○​ Hollingshead Index of Social Position (ISP) → occupation, education
 ○​ Warner Index of Status Characteristics (ISC) → occupation, income
source, type of housing, dwelling area

the influence of social class on consumer behavior

aspects of CB influenced by social strata:
●​ qualitative and quantitative dimensions of consumption
●​ frequency and place of purchase
●​ sources of information
●​ price sensitivity
●​ motives and needs
●​ personality and attitudes
 (5) the environment of the demand, culture, and subculture
the influence of the environment on consumer behavior
●​ consumer lives with/in an environment
●​ demographics and economics have their greatest impact on the macro level of
the groups of consumers
●​ crucial to the definition of target, segmentation of markets, and analysis of
demand
●​ impact sequence: environment → CB → definition of marketing strategy
economical environment:
●​ disposable income, total personal income, consumption and savings
●​ private consumption expenditure (e.g. food, clothing, housing, leisure)
demographic environment:
●​ population, age groups
●​ changes in population
●​ educational increments
●​ structural changes in the family
culture - concept, dimensions, characteristics
culture:
●​ collection of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, roles,
relations, concepts of the universe, and material possessions acquired by a group of
people in the course of generations
●​ collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one
group or category of people from another
●​ cultural productions → values, norms, customs, language, behaviors, myths,
rituals, trends
characteristics of culture:
●​ global and social (shared and learned) phenomenon
●​ adaptive process (evolving)
●​ generates satisfaction
dimensions of national culture - Hofestede’s cultural framework:
●​ power distance - the extent to which ordinary members of a society accept
that power is distributed unequally
●​ individualism vs collectivism - people looking after themselves and their
immediate family only vs. people belonging to in-groups that look after them in
exchange for loyalty
●​ masculinity vs femininity - a society where the roles of each gender and
values are different (motivation towards achievement and success)
 ●​ uncertainty avoidance - the extent to which members of a culture feel
threatened by uncertainty and ambiguity and, accordingly, try to avoid these
situations
●​ long vs short-term orientation - the extent to which a society considers time
and the importance of the past, present, and the future
●​ indulgence vs restraint - the extent to which people try to control their desires
and impulses, based on the way they were raised
high vs low context cultures - Hall’s cultural framework:
●​ high-context cultures:
○​ assign meaning to many of the stimuli surrounding an explicit message
○​ verbal messages have little meaning without the surrounding context
○​ e.g. Latin American, African, Arab, Chinese, Japanese, French, Italian,
Spanish, Slavic
●​ low-context cultures:
○​ exclude the context stimuli and focus more intensely on the objective
(word, sentence, physical gesture)
○​ the message itself means everything
○​ e.g. Australian, Dutch, English, German, Finnish, North American
subculture and microculture
subculture:
●​ a group whose members share beliefs and common experiences that set them
apart from other members of a culture
●​ depends on: age, race, ethnicity, religion, place of residence
age - generational cohorts:

●​ similar behaviors between parents and children: BB - Y, X - Z

microculture:
●​ specialized subgroups within an organization, marked with their languages,
ethos, and rule expectations
●​ depends on: the smallest units of the organization
 ●​ short-lived, voluntarily chosen
●​ a person can belong to several different microcultures

(6) personality and lifestyles

concepts and theories of personality
●​ impact on the consumer: socioeconomic, geographic, demographic, and
cultural variables
●​ psychographics - the study of consumer lifestyles, interests, values, attitudes,
and personality traits to understand behavior beyond demographics ​
(helps in the process of segmentation, targeting, identifying the opportunities,
positioning, and communication)
personality:
●​ psychological characteristics unique to a human being that influence how the
individual responds to its environment
●​ represents a stable pattern in the way of thinking, feeling, and acting
psychoanalytic theory:
●​ conflict between the desire for pleasure and the need to function responsibly
●​ ID - instinctual desires; unconscious, impulsive, childlike (pleasure-driven)
●​ superego - the opposite of ID, moral conscience
●​ ego - balance between ID and reality; rational self
trait theory:
●​ identifiable characteristics that define a person and distinguish that person
from others
●​ e.g. extroversion, innovativeness, materialism, self-consciousness
●​ personality traits - 16 personality factors questionnaire:

lifestyle:
●​ system of rules of behavior developed by individuals to meet their goals in life
 ●​ pattern of consumption that reflects a person’s choices of how to spend her
time and money
how to analyze the lifestyle of a consumer?
●​ approach focused on values → VALS analysis:
○​ need-driven → limited resources, driven by need, not resources
■​ survivor → extreme poverty, lack of education, elderly people,
restricted opportunities for moving upward
■​ sustainer → struggling to make ends meet, many work in black
market
○​ outer-directed → response to signals coming from others
■​ belonger → conservative, conventional, emotional, conforming,
middle-class
■​ emulator → ambitious, upwardly mobile, status-conscious,
competitive; strive to reach the top of the system, wanting to
imitate the lifestyle of the achiever
■​ achiever → leaders in the business, professions, and government;
capable, independent efficient, hard-working, success-oriented,
materialistic, comfort-loving
○​ inner-directed → inner values
■​ i-am-me → young, individualistic, narcissistic, dramatic, impulsive
■​ experiential → hands-on experience, active participation,
attracted to exotic and strange, creative people
■​ societally conscious → sense of societal responsibility, activism,
passionate, conscious about the world, attracted to simple living
and nature
○​ combined outer-inner → best of both worlds
■​ integrated lifestyle → fully mature in a psychological sense,
self-expressive, self-assured, self-actualizing, self-expressive
●​ approach focused on activities, interests, and opinions - AIO questionnaire:
 (7) motivation and perception
motivation - the need-motive-want process
●​ motivation - a process that encourages a person to behave in a certain way,
arises when the consumer has a need that they want to satisfy
○​ utilitarian needs → basic needs (bottom pyramid line) → stronger than
hedonic
○​ hedonic needs → fun satisfaction
●​ need (goal) → motive (drive) → want (desire) → behavior → satisfaction
types of motivational conflicts:
●​ approach-approach conflict:
○​ a person chooses between two desirable alternatives
○​ solution: both benefits, discount
○​ e.g. you’re thirsty → choice between Pepsi and Coke → company puts
both products on sale
●​ approach-avoidance conflict:
○​ a person desires a goal but wishes to avoid it at the same time
○​ solution: overcoming the guilt - ‘you deserve it’
○​ e.g. sb wants to buy a fur coat → ethical issues, they want it and don’t
want it at the same time → company helps overcome the guilt
●​ avoidance-avoidance conflict:
○​ a person faces a choice with two undesirable alternatives
○​ solution: stressing the unexpected benefits of choosing one option
 ○​ e.g. computer breaks down → gotta buy new or repair it → it costs a lot,
so both options suck → company stresses the benefits ‘if you buy a new
one, you have 1 year of Netflix free’
main mechanisms of defense:
●​ forget → e.g. going on a trip, but it’s too expensive
●​ attribute to others → e.g. wanting a certain dress, but maybe a friend who’s
shopping with me wants it more
●​ rationalization → e.g. maybe it’s not a good fit for me
focus group - qualitative research:
●​ a group of respondents are asked about their motives, perceptions, opinions,
beliefs, and attitudes towards something
consumption motives: (Ernest Dichter)
●​ importance of symbolism of the products to explain the consumption motives
●​ power masculinity → car, airplanes, everything electrical, heavy shoes, toy
guns
●​ security → ice cream (stereotypical comfort food), childhood memories,
security cameras
●​ eroticism → gloves, sweets
●​ moral purity → white products - even bread, sugar, flowers + cleaning
products
●​ social acceptance → coffee, beauty products
●​ individuality → perfume
●​ status → carpets, scotch → traditionally, cars, watches
●​ feminity → dolls, cookies, silk
●​ rewards → chocolate, cigarettes
●​ mastery over environment → kitchen appliances, airplanes, boats
●​ desalination → home decorations (makes you feel connected)
●​ magic mystery → soup (healing power), paint (change the mood of the room)
theories of motivation
behaviorist → ‘black box’:
●​ input (environment) → black box → output (behaviour)
drive reduction → primary and secondary drives:
●​ primary: thirst, hunger
●​ secondary: learned by conditioning, e.g. money
expectancy → values:
●​ what happens in the minds of individuals
●​ the selection of a behavior is determined by a desired ability of the outcome of
the behavior (what we expect)
values:
●​ a belief that some condition is preferable to its opposite
●​ consumers are motivated by the purchase of products and services that fit their
values

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs → different needs with different importance

○​ companies have to identify the level at which their clients are

○​ problems/limitations:
■​ the order of the needs is fixed
■​ the hierarchy depends on the type of culture
■​ a product can meet different needs
 level of consumer involvement

●​ purchase decisions → buying the same product but in a different context

○​ e.g. buying a wedding gift for a best friend vs for a work acquaintance
●​ advertisement - message response involvement → refers to a person’s
interest in different marketing communications
●​ inertia → low involvement
●​ passion → high involvement
●​ stable perseverance → equally involved, opposite of situational
●​ situational perseverance → e.g. the closer the exam, the higher the involvement
the role of psychographics in consumer behavior and marketing
marketing applications - self-concept:
●​ novel stimuli - unusual cinematography, sudden silences, unexpected
movements
●​ prominent stimuli – loud music, fast action
●​ celebrity endorsers and testimonials (regular people who had experience with
the product)
the perceptual process
●​ a 3-degree process that translates raw stimuli into the meaning

●​ characteristics: individual and subjective act, selection, organization, dependent

on internal (personality, motivation, experience, learning) and external (culture,
environment, marketing stimuli) factors
 ●​ sensory stimuli → sensory receptors → exposure → attention →
interpretation (perceptual process)
exposure:
●​ when a stimulus comes within the range of someone’s sensory receptors
●​ we don’t perceive all of the stimuli
●​ absolute threshold - a minimum amount of stimulation a person can detect
on a given sensory channel
●​ differential threshold - the ability of a sensory system to detect changes in or
differences between two or more stimuli
●​ subliminal perception - stimuli below the level of consumer’s awareness →
they are too weak or too brief to be consciously seen or heard (might be
perceived by one or more receptor cells)
attention:
●​ extent to which processing activity is devoted to a particular stimulus
●​ it’s selective
●​ personal selection factors - voluntary attention:
○​ perceptual vigilance → measurements that fit our needs (e.g. diet,
attention for low-fat products)
○​ perceptual defense → avoiding stimuli that we don’t want to see (e.g.
anti-smoker signs)
○​ perceptual adaptation → so used to one stimuli that we don’t even
notice it after a certain time
●​ stimulus selection factors - involuntary factors:
○​ size, color, position, novelty, movement, humor, silence
interpretation:
●​ meanings we assign to sensory stimuli
●​ mental schema → stimuli organization - Gestalt principles:
○​ figure-ground - differentiating a main object (figure) from its background
○​ proximity - grouping elements that are close to each other
○​ closure - filling in gaps to perceive a complete, whole object
 (8) learning and memory
concept of learning
●​ learning - a relatively permanent change in behavior caused by experience
●​ an ongoing process
●​ intentional or not (incidental learning → e.g. we go out and learn new words
from colleagues)
behavioral theories of learning
●​ focus on stimulus-response connections → e.g. black-box
classical conditioning:
●​ stimulus that gets a response is paired with another stimulus that doesn’t
cause a reaction by itself
●​ components of conditioning: unconditioned stimulus (natural trigger),
conditioned stimulus (no effect on its own), conditioned response
●​ e.g. Pavlov’s dog experiment → unconditioned (food), conditioned (bell),
response (saliva)
●​ e.g. CocaCola’s ad → conditioned stimulus - Coke, response - being thirsty
●​ conditioning effects:
○​ repetition → extinction:
■​ conditioned and unconditioned stimuli need to be paired
repeatedly
■​ 3 times rule → 1st time we see the ad is for awareness, 2nd time
is to provide information, 3rd time is for stressing the benefits
(more than 3 times is too tiring)
○​ stimulus generalization → halo effect:
■​ e.g. not only bell ring, but phone ring as well
■​ halo effect - outcome in one area is affected bc of the actions in
another area (e.g. favorable opinion bc of the experience with
other products)

○​ stimulus discrimination:
■​ ability to distinguish between similar stimuli and respond
differently to them
instrumental conditioning:
●​ an individual learns to perform behaviors that produce positive outcomes and
to avoid those that yield negative outcomes
●​ positive and negative reinforcement → increased behavior
○​ e.g. teacher rewards a student for completing homework on time
○​ e.g. driver fastens their seatbelt to stop the annoying beeping sound in
the car (more likely to buckle up in the future)

●​ punishment → decreased behavior

cognitive theories of learning
●​ focus on consumers as problem-solvers and stressing the importance of
internal mental processes
observational learning:
●​ learning about products by observing others’ behavior
●​ e.g. dance classes

cognitive learning:
●​ learning comes from memory and the organization of information
●​ e.g. problem-solving, learning for the exam (revising, analyzing the notes)
●​ people process some information in an automatic, passive way
 memory - process and systems
●​ memory - the process of acquiring information and storing it over time so it will
be available when we need it
●​ memories are stored based on associative networks

three memory systems:

how are memories retrieved when we decide what to buy?

●​ retrieval - a process whereby we recover information from long-term memory
●​ products help us to retrieve memories from our past
●​ marketers may resurrect popular characters to evoke fond memories of the
past (nostalgia, retro brand)
what makes us forget?
●​ time (decay)
●​ interference:
○​ proactive - prior learning can interfere with new learning
○​ retroactive - newly acquired information causes us to have trouble
remembering old information
problems with memory - response biases:
●​ memory lapses
○​ omitting
○​ averaging (tendency to generalize)
○​ telescoping:
 ■​ backward telescoping - thinking of recent events as happening
longer ago than they did
■​ forward telescoping - remembering older events as happening
more recently than they did
●​ the illusion of truth effect (remembering sth false as true)

(9) attitudes and persuasion

attitudes - concept and characteristics
●​ lasting, general evaluation of people, objects, advertisements, or issues
●​ characteristics of the attitudes:
○​ of a certain direction and intensity
○​ learned and developed through time
●​ attitude object - anything (person, product, idea) toward which someone can
form an attitude
nature and formation of attitudes
components of an attitude:

hierarchy of effects:
how are attitudes formed?
●​ classical and instrumental conditioning
●​ complex cognitive process
●​ theory of cognitive dissonance:
○​ when we are confronted with inconsistencies among attitudes or
behaviors, we will take some action to resolve this dissonance
○​ changing the attitude/behavior to restore the consistency
○​ principle of cognitive consistency → individuals strive for harmony
between their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors; inconsistencies →
changing attitudes or behavior
●​ self-perception theory:
○​ we maintain consistency by thinking that we should have a positive
feeling about something if we have bought or used it
○​ we observe our behavior to determine our attitudes
○​ e.g. i maintain a positive attitude towards a subject in uni → i’m always in
class? ok i think i like the course
●​ social judgment theory: (self-persuasion theory)
○​ we assimilate new information about attitude objects in light of what we
already know or feel
○​ acceptance zone → acceptable attitude
○​ rejection zone → unacceptable attitude
○​ non-commitment zone → attitudes neither acceptable nor rejectable
●​ balance theory:
○​ how we perceive relations among different attitude objects and how we
alter our attitudes so that these remain consistent
○​ a balance between triads:
■​ person + their perceptions
■​ person + attitude object
■​ some other person/object
measuring attitudes
●​ attitude models identify specific components and combine them to predict a
consumer’s overall attitude toward a product or brand
Fishbein attitude model:
●​ multi-attribute model
●​ salient beliefs (important beliefs about the evaluated object)
●​ object-attribute linkages (probability that the object has an important attribute)
●​ evaluation (of each of the important attributes)
●​ marketing applications of the multi-attribute model:
○​ capitalize on relative advantage (importance of the attribute)
○​ strengthen perceived linkages (little-known facts)
○​ add a new attribute (distinguish yourself from competitors)
○​ influence competitor’s ratings (comparative advertising strategy)
persuasion and attitude change
●​ active attempt to change the attitude
●​ basic psychological principles that influence people to change their minds:
○​ authority → easily persuaded by sb with authority
○​ scarcity → items are more desirable by consumers when they’re limited
(e.g. special limited offers, one-time possibility)
○​ reciprocity → we’re more likely to give sth if we first receive sth
 ○​ consistency → we’re more likely to do sth if we showed a specific
attitude beforehand
○​ liking → we tend to agree with those who we like
○​ consensus → we consider what others do before we decide what we’re
supposed to do (e.g. we donate money if we see others do it)
considerations for marketers:
●​ the source → credibility, competence, sincerity
●​ the message → pictures vs words (visual vs verbal communication), message
frequency, type of message (emotional vs rational, humorous, fear, and sex
appeals)
 (10) organizational buyer behavior
organizational buying vs consumer buying:
●​ more people involved (buying in volume vs individuals, families)
●​ precise specifications (e.g. tech or quality standards)
●​ impulse buying is rare (structured, planned)
●​ decisions are often risky (impact on business operations)
●​ money volume is substantial (large budget and transactions)
●​ emphasis on selling (B2B)
organizational buyer decision process: