Cognitive approach: Consumer behaviour Flashcards
what are the 3 cognitive explanations of consumer behaviour?
schema, cognitive priming and cognitive biases in information processing
SCHEMA: consumer behaviour
schemas help us to make sense of the world by making it more predictable, and this is true of commercial brands and products. However, predictability is the enemy of advertising and if an advert confirms our schema, we are less likely to recall it. therefore, to be memorable, advertisements need to challenge our schema. this is called ‘schema incongruity’ - it is a deliberate conflict between our schemas and an adverts content. for example, advertising an everyday product in a wacky way
COGNITIVE PRIMING: consumer behaviour
in advertising, the key form of priming is the context of an advert., like any prime, context activate schemas in the minds of viewers, making a product more accessible. repetition is often used as a form of priming as this makes the produce more accessible
therefore, a key purpose of an advert is to prime a product or brand
there are 2 different ways that priming is used in advertising:
1) DIRECT ATTRIBUTE PRIMING- priming features (attributes) of a product or brand itself
2) INDIRECT ATTRIBUTE PRIMING- associating a product with a broader context eg ‘natural’, ‘luxury’ so the consumer recalls the product when they think of the context
what are the 2 ways of priming using in advertising?
direct attribute priming and indirect attribute priming
what is an example of direct attribute priming?
when adverts highlight the desirable features of a product eg, phone size. so that the customer recalls that product/brand when they think about those features/attributes
what is an example of indirect attribute priming?
if the advert associated a bubble bath with the context ‘luxury’, then when the consumer thought of the context ‘luxury’ they would think back to that brands bubble bath
COGNITIVE BIASES IN INFORMATION PROCESSING: consumer behaviour
cognitive biases are errors in information processing which seem rational but are not. they can lead us to make purchases without fully assessing the suitability of the product. there are 3 types
what are the 3 types of cognitive biases in information processing?
confirmation bias, brand loyalty, authority bias
confirmation bias
consumers prefer to hear information that confirms what they already believe.
brand loyalty
if you have a good experience with a produce, you will be very receptive to its advertising and you may even discredit or filter out competitive brands
authority bias
when we take the opinion of someone perceived to be an expert on a given product as fact without any critical analysis. eg, toothpaste adverts often use dentists to explain the benefits of the product
name 1 strength of cognitive primings explanation of consumer behaviour
there is research to support
one strength is that there is research to support the assumption that priming affects consumer behaviour. eg, North asked 4 groups of people to taste and describe wine whilst music was played in the background., each groups music had different characteristics, such as ‘powerful and heavy’ or ‘zingy and refreshing’. they found that the participants descriptions of the wine tended to match the characteristics of their background music, even though they had all tasted the same wine. this suggests that the music (the prime) influenced participants response to the wine
name 1 limitation of the cognitive approach’s explanation to consumer behaviour
problems of replication
one limitation of research into the influence of cognitive priming and cognitive biases on consumer behaviour is a lack of replication. this is a problem because replication is a key feature of science. researchers should be able to repeat a study and if the same results are produced it suggests the results are reliable. the lack of replication in this area questions the claims that these cognitive factors influence consumer behaviour
name 1 limitation of the cognitive approach’s explanation to consumer behaviour
incomplete explanation
one limitation of cognitive explanations for consumer behaviour is that they do not consider alternative explanations. for example, the learning approach assumes that consumer behaviour is influenced by social learning processes such as observation of others and if they get rewarded then you are likely to copy their behaviour, so if they like a product and it brings them goof things, then you are also likely to purchase that product. therefore, cognitive explanations of consumer behaviour are incomplete
