Chapter 2 Flashcards
Four stages in the process by which consumers acquire, represent, and encode
advertising information:
- Preattentive analysis: A general, non-goal directed, “surveillance” of the
environment. - Focal attention: After noticing a stimulus, it may be brought into conscious
awareness where it is identified and categorized. - Comprehension: The process of forming inferences pertaining to the semantic
meaning of the stimulus. - Elaborative reasoning: The process by which the semantically represented
stimulus is related to previously stored consumer knowledge that allows for
simple or more complex inferences.
Preattentive analysis
A general, non-goal directed, “surveillance” of the
environment.
Focal attention
After noticing a stimulus, it may be brought into conscious
awareness where it is identified and categorized.
Comprehension
The process of forming inferences pertaining to the semantic
meaning of the stimulus.
Elaborative reasoning
The process by which the semantically represented
stimulus is related to previously stored consumer knowledge that allows for
simple or more complex inferences.
Involvement
The perceived relevance of an object or issue.
o Determines the allocation of resources needed for nonfocal and focal
attention
o Outcome-relevant involvement: The extent to which the acquisition and use of
a product or brand is deemed to have significant personal consequences for the
consumer.
Outcome-relevant involvement:
The extent to which the acquisition and use of
a product or brand is deemed to have significant personal consequences for the
consumer.
Preattentive analysis
Very often, consumers learn about products incidentally, when they are accidentally
and involuntarily exposed to advertising
Implicit memory: A nonconscious form of memory, which is most likely to result in
storage of information.
o Information processing that is fast, parallel, and effortless
Explicit memory: A person’s conscious recollection of facts or events and intentional
attempts to access that information.
o Recall or recognition tests
Implicit memory:
A nonconscious form of memory, which is most likely to result in
storage of information.
o Information processing that is fast, parallel, and effortless
Explicit memory
A person’s conscious recollection of facts or events and intentional
attempts to access that information.
o Recall or recognition tests
Feature analysis
Feature analysis implies that the memory trace produced through exposure to an
advertisement only contains information on the perceptual features such as contours,
brightness, and contrast of the ad rather than its meaning
- Feature-based memory will only have future consequences; product choice
would only be affected by an ad if the product on the shelf was perceptually
identical to the product as depicted in the ad
With feature analysis, participates should perform best under conditions where the
products were presented in exactly the same way in the catalogue as they had been
presented in the ads
Semantic analysis
Semantic analysis of an advertised products captures the meaning of the product:
what it is and what it does
- Can influence future choices, even if the product is perceptually different from
how it was presented in the ad - The only requirement is that both representations activate the same
conceptual representation of the product
Hemispheric lateralization:
Our brains hemispheres have evolved specialized
processing units for specific types of information
o Picture processing – right hemisphere
o Textual processing – left hemisphere
The location in the visual field, where information is placed, determines the
hemisphere where it is processed
o Pictorial ads are liked better when placed in the left visual field
o Textual ads are liked better when placed in the right visual field
Matching activation hypothesis
When one hemisphere is activated by the information
that accommodates the processing style of that particular hemisphere, the other
hemisphere is encouraged to elaborate on secondary material. Thus, greater activation
of one hemisphere will be matched by an increase of processing resources in the
opposing hemisphere.
o Hemispheric lateralization
Left – text
Right – pictures
o The things you see in your left visual field are processed by your right
hemisphere, and vice versa
o When you focus your attention on text (processed in left hemisphere), you
should place the picture on to the left of the text (so it can be processed by
right hemisphere)
o Even if brand names are not consciously attended to, if they are put in the
right place, they can e easily processed by the unused hemisphere (and
ultimately influence consumer attitudes and behavior)
When advertising is not consciously attended to, but happens to be placed in a
position where it can be easily processed by the mobilized but unused hemisphere,
the incidental exposure may result in
increased unconscious processing
Hedonic fluency
The subjective ease with which a stimulus can be perceived and
processed. This ease is experienced as a mildly positive emotion that is sometimes used
as information to evaluate a stimulus.
- Perceptual fluency: The ease with which the physical features such as modality
(visual, auditory, …), shape, or brightness can be processed. - Conceptual fluency: The ease with which the semantic meaning of an object
comes to the consumer’s minds and thus reflects the processing of meaning.
Perceptual fluency:
The ease with which the physical features such as modality
(visual, auditory, …), shape, or brightness can be processed.
Conceptual fluency:
The ease with which the semantic meaning of an object
comes to the consumer’s minds and thus reflects the processing of meaning.
Goal fluency;
two ads with the same goal lead to more positive evaluation of the
second ad; priming; positive affect is misattributed to the ad
Question-behavior effect
Simply measuring behavioral intentions increases the
likelihood of people actually performing that behavior.
- Asking about some behavior renders the attitude toward that behavior more
accessible - When that attitude is favorable, the behavior becomes more likely
Response fluency
Asking questions about behavior increases the hedonic fluency of
the response to the questions, making perceptions at the time when the behavior
might be performed more easily, positively affecting the likelihood of that behavior.
Short-term (working) memory
- Limited capacity → we are highly selective as to where we direct our focal
attention - Stimuli need special features that make them stand out and capture conscious
attention; the features can be part of the stimulus or reside in the consumer
Three classes of stimulus features attract involuntary consumer attention:
o Salience
o Vividness
o Novelty
Salience
The extent to which a stimulus is noticeably different from its environment.
o Context dependent
- Creating a salient ad has become important for advertisers given the increasing
advertising clutter - Humor
- Bandwagon effect: Advertisers copy elements form their competitors that they feel are
effective, thus reducing the likelihood of these ads reimaging effective. - Salience is created by contrast
- Changing the camera angle used to focus on the target product
- Figure-ground principle: Figural stimuli become focal whereas non-figural stimuli
become nonfocal. - Salience effects on judgement are at a maximum when processing motivation is low
and decrease with increasing processing motivation
o Low need for cognition individuals
Vividness
Vividness: Vivid stimuli are (a) emotionally interesting, (b) concrete and image-
provoking, and (c) proximate in a sensory temporal or spatial way.
Vividness can be a function of the characteristics of the perceiver, or of the advertising
stimulus itself
Most studies found that vividness has no traceable impact on persuasion
People who scored high on the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire had more
favorable product attitudes after exposure to vivid as opposed to pallid ads
For individuals low in the Vividness of Visual Imagery, vividness in advertising had no
impact on brand attitudes
For more “transformational” (experience of product use is more important than its
attributes) products, vividness increased attitudes regardless of this trait
When one has to list several points of information, it makes sense to select a medium
that accommodates that requirement, i.e. print
When the information is anecdotal and describes as a scenario, a more vivid medium
is more effective, i.e. face-to-face format
What is vivid in an ad depends not only on the personality of the perceiver, but also on
their goals at the time of processing
Novelty
Novelty: The extent to which information about the product is unfamiliar and
disconfirms existing consumer expectancies.
o Surprise response → mobilizes cogniFve resources that are used to resolve the
inconsistency between what was expected and what is actually encountered
o Extended causal reasoning, counterfactual thinking, and cognitive elaboration
Expectancy disconfirmation model: Consumers form expectancies about product
performance before buying a product. These expectancies are in large part shaped by
advertising. After buying the product, consumers compare the actual with the expected
level of performance.
o If performance exceeds expectation, consumers are surprised and satisfied
o However, expectations are often higher than the real deal, and consumer
satisfaction decreases, instead of increasing
Varying ad strategies to increase or maintain novelty
Categorization
Categorization: The process by which incoming information is classified, that is,
labelled as belonging to one or more categories based on a comparative assessment of
features of the category and the incoming information.
Product and brand line extensions
o Success of brand extensions depends largely on whether consumers categorize
the new product as congruent with the parent brand, or congruent with the
key associations the parent brand evokes
o Using what you known about the brand to judge the new model
Categorization processes become easier when the new product shares similarities
with existing products that use the same brand name
o Perceptual or conceptual fluency
Representativeness heuristic: The extent to which two stimuli are deemed to belong to
the same overall category based on shared similarities.
o Used to predict whether consumers categorize a new product as a true
innovation or perceive it as similar to existing products, in which case it runs
the risk of being seen as a copycat or a fad, at best
Moderate dissimilarity rather than extreme similarity or dissimilarity may actually
benefit a brand extension because people sometimes take pleasure in solving
moderate incongruities, at least when they have the motivation to do so
Typicality and the pioneering advantage
The extent to which a specific product is “prototypical” for a product category
influences liking for the product; more prototypical products are liked better
However, a prototypical product may be low in salience, and thus, not stand out
Pioneering advantage: Being first results in a series of strategic advantages in
comparison to following brands.
o The brand is novel and interesting
o The pioneering brand is able to set the attribute agenda and thus create a
strategic advantage
o Pioneers can make us of a direction-of-comparison effect; competitors are
compared to the pioneer, rather than vice versa
Pioneering advantage
Being first results in a series of strategic advantages in
comparison to following brands.
o The brand is novel and interesting
o The pioneering brand is able to set the attribute agenda and thus create a
strategic advantage
o Pioneers can make us of a direction-of-comparison effect; competitors are
compared to the pioneer, rather than vice versa
Assimilation and contrast
Assimilation: Objects are classified as more similar to the parent category than they
really are when the object and category are perceived as more congruent and contrast
implies a reverse phenomenon.
Assimilation occurs when information is made salient that can be included in the
parent category
Toaster experiment
o Informing participants about the superior toaster pulled down the ratings of
both inferior machines
o When the common brand membership of the two Logan toasters was made
salient, the inferior Logan was not downgraded
The perception of the parent category can also change when viewed in the context of
a new member
o Depends on the similarity of the new product to the parent category
o Similar or moderately dissimilar new products affect the perception of the
parent brand to a larger degree than very dissimilar new products, especially
when processing motivation is low
Increasing the cognitive accessibility of positive/negative category information
increased/decreased the evaluation of the category (assimilation)
Impression formation and impression correction
Brands can have personalities similar to people; the concept of brand personality is
comprised of five dimensions that can be measured using the brand personality scale
o Sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness
The setting functions as a qualifier for the impact of brand personality on inferred
consumer personality
Stimulus-based impression formation: Salient stimulus information guides the
impression formation process.
Memory-based consumer impression formation: Impressions based on negative initial
information are less amenable to correction than impressions based on positive initial
information. However, presenting new, or updating, information in either a non-
comparative or a comparative format influences the chances of correcting the initial
impression.
o Negativity effect: The higher diagnostic value of negative as opposed to
positive information.
o Comparative new information more effective when initial impressions were
positive
o Non-comparative new information more effective when initial impressions
were negative
Stimulus-based impression formation
Salient stimulus information guides the
impression formation process
Memory-based consumer impression formation
Impressions based on negative initial
information are less amenable to correction than impressions based on positive initial
information. However, presenting new, or updating, information in either a non-
comparative or a comparative format influences the chances of correcting the initial
impression.
o Negativity effect: The higher diagnostic value of negative as opposed to
positive information.
o Comparative new information more effective when initial impressions were
positive
o Non-comparative new information more effective when initial impressions
were negative
Negativity effect
The higher diagnostic value of negative as opposed to
positive information.
Comprehension
Comprehension: The process of forming inferences pertaining to the semantic
meaning of the stimulus.
Incoming information from advertising messages is related to previously stored
knowledge in memory
80% of all messages are initially miscomprehended in some way
Message comprehension is considered essential for achieving persuasion according to
some theories and should therefore be an important factor in advertising
effectiveness
Truth effect: People’s tendency to initially uncritically accept information, even when
certain elements are not fully comprehended.
Sleeper effect
Repetition increases familiarity for a claim itself, fostering the
perception that it is true, whereas it decreases memory for the original context of the
claim (i.e. the notification that the claim is false)
Miscomprehension and misleading advertising claims
Pragmatic inferences: Simple assumptions about statements that are literally true, but
figuratively false.
o “Brand X may be the best beer in the world”
Ad slogans sometimes omit comparison information, with consumers frequently
providing the missing information, without being fully aware that they are doing so,
often in the direction desired by the marketer
o “Brand X relieves pain longer!” (longer than what?)
Juxtaposition: An alternative means that facilitates certain (sometimes false)
inferences.
o “Be cool, buy brand X” (causal inference that buying X makes you cool is not
stated, but inferred)
Affirmation of the consequent
o Reverses cause and effect
o “If you can see it, you can make it: Brand X
Pragmatic inferences:
Simple assumptions about statements that are literally true, but
figuratively false.
o “Brand X may be the best beer in the world”
Juxtaposition
An alternative means that facilitates certain (sometimes false)
inferences.
o “Be cool, buy brand X” (causal inference that buying X makes you cool is not
stated, but inferred)
Elaborative reasoning
Elaborative consumer reasoning is facilitated when consumer involvement is high
rather than low
Elaborative reasoning: The process by which the semantically represented stimulus is
actively related to previously stored consumer knowledge that allows for simple or
more complex inferences.
Elaborative reasoning is about thinking, and thinking can vary along at least three
dimensions:
o The extent of thinking
o The valence of thinking
o The object of thinking (focus of this section)
Elaborative reasoning
The process by which the semantically represented stimulus is
actively related to previously stored consumer knowledge that allows for simple or
more complex inferences.
Elaborative reasoning is about thinking, and thinking can vary along at least three
dimensions:
o The extent of thinking
o The valence of thinking
o The object of thinking (focus of this section)
Self-schema and elaborative reasoning
Self-schema: A cognitive generalization about the self that is comprised of a more or
less comprehensive set of traits, values, and beliefs that exerts a powerful influence on
information processing.
Issue-relevant information in the ad is processed more extensively when it is
congruent with the self-schema, and persuasion is primarily a result of the quality of
the argumentation in the ad
Information processing with regard to the self increases the extent of elaborative
reasoning
A salient self-schema can bias information processing in line with the schema,
frequently in order to protect or enhance the self
Attitudes formed or changed as a result of self-schema-based processing are largely
resistant to correction
Elaborative reasoning can result in either increased or decreased persuasion as a
function of the quality of the argumentation in the ad the consumer is exposed to
Increased elaboration can have adverse effects on persuasion, particularly when the
object of elaboration is negative, irrelevant, or nondiagnostic information
Thinking too hard sometimes comes at a psychological cost and thus people tend to
avoid it
Self-schema:
A cognitive generalization about the self that is comprised of a more or
less comprehensive set of traits, values, and beliefs that exerts a powerful influence on
information processing.
Consumer meta-cognition
Meta-cognition: When people reflect on their own inner states and infer something
from that process.
Although meta-cognitive processes can sometimes operate automatically and
unconsciously, they can also be the product of more effortful processes, for instance
when consumers form meta-cognitive beliefs about marketers’ use of persuasion
tactics and motives
o Consumer skepticism, distrust, and resistance to persuasion
Ease of retrieval: A form of hedonic fluency. The apparent ease with which product-
and brand-related information can be retrieved from memory.
o Concluding that ease of retrieval equals validity of the information
o Easy to retrieve information may positively affect product attitudes
Meta-cognition is often influential in affecting consumer judgement, because
consumers appear to consider these inferences as diagnostic and trustworthy
Self-validation: The subjective confidence consumers have in their thoughts and
evaluations in response to persuasive messages. o Increasing consumer confidence in positive thoughts enhanced the
effectiveness of an advertisement, whereas increasing confidence in negative
thoughts had the opposite effect
o High credible sources resulted in more thought confidence than low credibility
sources
Meta-cognition
When people reflect on their own inner states and infer something
from that process.
Ease of retrieval
A form of hedonic fluency. The apparent ease with which product-
and brand-related information can be retrieved from memory.
o Concluding that ease of retrieval equals validity of the information
o Easy to retrieve information may positively affect product attitudes
Self-validation
The subjective confidence consumers have in their thoughts and
evaluations in response to persuasive messages.
o Increasing consumer confidence in positive thoughts enhanced the
effectiveness of an advertisement, whereas increasing confidence in negative
thoughts had the opposite effect
o High credible sources resulted in more thought confidence than low credibility
sources
