Consumer behavior Flashcards
What are nonconscious processes?
Psychological processes we are not consciously aware of that impact our perceptions and behavior. Triggered by stimuli in the environment
What are the 3 stages of the perceptual process? Understand what happens in each stage and the differences between stages.
Exposure: Refers to the process of bringing some stimulus within the proximity of a consumer so that it can be sensed by one of the five human sense
Attention: Is the purposeful allocation of information processing capacity toward developing an understanding
Comprehension: Occurs when the consumer attempts to understand meaning from what they heard
What is the mere exposure effect?
People tend to develop a liking for things they are familiar with. Exposure increases liking
How does the “octagon” experiment illustrate the mere exposure effect?
People tend to develop a preferences for which ever octagon they saw FIRST because they have been exposed to it repeatedly
What is the absolute threshold?
Smallest level of stimulus that a person is able to detect 50% of the time
What is the key difference between nonconscious processes and subliminal influences?
Nonconscious processes are driven by stimuli ABOVE the absolute threshold hold and subliminal influences are driven by stimuli BELOW the absolute threshold
What is change blindness? Be able to identify an example of change blindness.
Failure to notice an obvious change, the door study. A person asking for directions from a stranger, halfway through the convo workers carrying a door pass between them and the person asking for directions is swapped
What elements of stimuli tend to capture consumer attention?
Surprising, contrast, movement, intensity
What is the Just Noticeable Difference (JND)?
Smallest incremental difference between two stimuli that a person can detect half the time
Understand the difference between absolute threshold and just noticeable difference.
Absolute threshold is smallest level of stimulus and JND is the smallest incremental difference between two stimuli
What is Weber’s Law?
The just noticeable difference is proportional to the intensity of the original stimulus
Understand how to calculate the constant of proportionality and apply this to a basic marketing scenario
To find the JND we rely on proportional change
Change in I/I=k
i= stimulus
change in i=smallest change in stimulus a consumer can detect
k=constant of proportionality
Chip change (doritos)
When do marketers want to keep changes above the JND? When do they want to keep changes below the JND?
Above JND: product improvements and quality upgrades.
Below JND: Price increases
What is brand personality?
Human characteristics or traits that consumers attribute to a brand
What three main categories of characteristics influence consumer comprehension? (characteristics of product/message, characteristics of the consumer, characteristics of the environment). Be able to categorize a given example.
Product message: a clear and concise product label that benefits without too much that aids comprehension
Consumer: a smart phone person will understand the new smartphone compared to someone who doesn’t know
Environment: a brightly lit store with clear product display and minimal noise will improve a shoppers experiences
What is anthropomorphism? How does it influence consumers?
Design that gives humanlike characteristics to inanimate objects
Creates a strong emotional attachment
What are the five key characteristics of a message source that can influence credibility of a message?
Likeability
Attractiveness
Trustworthiness
Expertise
Congruence
How do expectations influence consumer perception?
Perceptions are influences by both prior experience and expectations
How do consumer perceptions of a parent brand influence the expectations they have for any category extension introduced by that parent brand?
They apply the quality and reputations of the parent brand to the new product, they have high expectations
We watched a video that showed how consumers experienced a wine as tasting better when it had a higher price tag. A similar study involved trialing fries out of plain or McDonald’s bags. What did these studies illustrate?
Power of expectations, contrast effect
Why did Kraft Mac & Cheese secretly drop artificial flavors instead of widely promoting the change at the launch of the reformulation?
To avoid consumer backlash. People hear change and jump to conclusions that it tastes different/bad
What is a contrast effect? Be able to identify an example
Evaluation of a target stimulus has negative correlations between judgment and contextual stimuli
EX:Difference between two wines. If the first wine is cheap and low quality the second, moderately priced wine, seems much better by comparison than it would have if tasted on its own
What is the compromise effect? Be able to identify an example
Consumers are more likely to choose a middle option in a choice set
EX: Tips, donations, test choices, subscriptions
What is the attraction effect? Be able to identify an example
Adding an option (decoy) that is inferior to an alternative in the choice set increases the share of the relatively superior alternative
EX: Food choices because of price; popcorn
What is a context effect?
The perception of an object changes when the context changes (surrounding factors), without any physical change to the object itself. Contrast, compromise, and attraction are ALL context effects
What is a framing effect?
When consumer choice is influenced by how information is presented, either as positive or negative without changing the information itself
What is a default option?
Predetermined outcome a person gets under the status quo
What is the status quo bias? Be able to identify an example
Human preference for the current state of affairs which results in the tendency to do nothing, avoid change and/or be resistant to change
EX: switch software in an office setting but the employees use the old software because that is what they are used to
What is the endowment effect? Be able to identify an example
Circumstance in which an individual places a higher value of an object they already own than the value they would place on that same object if they did not own it
EX: There are 2 people, one is given a coffee mug and another isn’t. The person given the mug valued it at $10. The other person only values the mug at $5. It is based on ownership
What is choice architecture?
Influencing a decsion by how it is presented
What is a “nudge”? Be able to identify the nudge in a given example
Features of the choice architecture that influence the decision people make without changing objective payoffs
EX: Green footprints placed on the ground that leads to trash can, reduces littering
Reading: Behavioral Economics from Nuts to Nudges – understand key premise of what behavioral economics studies and what it states about human behavior in relation to standard economic theory.
Humans do not always act in rational predictable ways, influenced by bias, heuistics, and framing effects. Real-world decisions are influenced by factors like emotions, habits, and social norms
What is the associative network?
Linking all knowledge within memory
What are the benefits of repetition in marketing?
Memory, mere exposure effect, truth effect
What is the truth effect?
Exposure to repeated claims leads to increased belief in those claims
What is dual coding?
Process in which two (or more) different sensory “traces” are available to remember something
What is meaningful encoding?
Connecting new information with pre-existing knowledge
We discussed the concept of triggers and how they relate to meaningful encoding. Be able to identify a trigger in an example
Mcdonalds- Don’t make your heart’s life harder compared to don’t make your brain’s life harder
What is nostalgia marketing? Be able to identify an example
Associates a product or brand with a consumers’ memories to create a positive, emotional feeling
Reading: Dead or Alive? Bringing Brands Back to Life; Don’t Look Now but Brim is Back – understand key takeaways from readings.
Brand revitalization. Nostalgia, update branding, relevance, leverage, word-of-mouth, etc
How does the act of reviving “dead” brands relate to the associative network?
Posits that memory is organized in a network of associations
When is a need identified in relation to actual and ideal states?
Occurs during the evaluation of a consumer’s current situations versus the desired situations
What are common ways that organizations create needs (ie. decrease actual state or raise ideal state?). Be able to identify in an example whether the actual state is being decreased or ideal state being raised
Organizations create needs by either decreasing the actual state through awareness of problems and consequences or by raising the ideal state though aspirational marketing and innovation
What is the purpose of creating a consumer benefit ladder (mean-end chain analysis)?
Personal values drive much of one’s behavior
Reading: The Elements of Value – understand key takeaways from reading.
30 elements in 4 categories. A comprehensive understanding of customer value. If companies leverage this they can better align their offering with consumer needs
