Consumer psychology

Question 1

Cognitive
What is schema and consumer behaviour?

Answer 1

Advertisers don’t want adverts to be predictable so challenge schema - schema incongruity (e.g. wacky)

Question 2

Cognitive
What is cognitive priming and consumer behaviour?

Answer 2

Direct Attribute priming - prime features of product itself (speed/price of phone etc) , associate product with desirable features and recall it later
Indirect Attribute priming - prime features linked to product, i.e. context (Yi 1990), e.g. invented brands associated with wholesome attributes (health, countryside)

Question 3

Cognitive
What are cognitive biases and consumer behaviour?

Answer 3

Conformation bias - look for evidence we made right choice, self-fulfilling (‘it’s the best because I bought it’)
Brand loyalty - repeat customers recall good things about the brand, bad things about competitors, so highlight the good things
Authority bias - we give more credibility to authority figure (e.g. expert endorsing product)

Question 4

Evaluate cognitive approach and the consumer behaviour application.

Answer 4

Research support - Background music affected experience of tasting wine in direction of music in direction of music characteristics
Problems of replication - Studies are hard to replicate so not scientific and lead to inconsistent findings
Ethical issues - Priming occur without awareness, some adverts take advantage, possibly deception

Question 5

Social
What is conformity to social norms?

Answer 5

Adverts suggest a product helps us to be like others

Question 6

Social
What is Normative Social Influence and consumer behaviour?

Answer 6

We conform to norms for acceptance (Deutsch and Gerald 1955), leads to compliance, buy products or change behaviour to ‘fit in’ and avoid rejection

Question 7

Social
What is the Bandwagon effect?

Answer 7

We do something because others are (herd mentality), product bought by enough people means others join in (influences), adverts create illusion a product is already popular

Question 8

Social
What is social proof?

Answer 8

Type of ISI, we are influenced by information that suggests other people are buying something (e.g. ratings), social proof of what others are doing (Cialdini 1984)

Question 9

Evaluate social approach and the consumer behaviour application.

Answer 9

Practical application - Signs (social proof) next to lift saying other people use stairs = significant reduction in lift use (Burger and Shelton 2011)
Research support - Students willing to display bigger logo of luxury product if it was associated with celebrity (Niesiobedzka 2018)
Cultural differences in social proof - Social proof more influential in a collectivist culture (Poland) than individualists (USA) (Cialdini et al 1999)

Question 10

Social learning
What is Classical conditioning?

Answer 10

Emotional associations - associate product/ brand with positive feelings to change behaviour (buy, switch) or more positive attitudes
Repetition - longer-term campaigns repeat pairing of UCS and CS to avoid extinction CR

Question 11

Social learning
What is operant conditioning?

Answer 11

Positive reinforcement - Good experience of product is rewarding, so probably buy again
BOGOF and loyalty points - feeling of getting a bargain is reinforcing, so loyal to store/brand

Question 12

Social learning
What is Social learning theory?

Answer 12

Modelling and imitation - Adverts showing (modelling) a product being used
Vicarious reinforcement - observing someone enjoying using product
Use of celebrities in advertising - powerful models, imitation likely through identification

Question 13

Evaluate Social learning approach and consumer application

Answer 13

Research support - Positive attitudes toward fictitious brand when associated with positive images (Stuart et al 1987). Attitudes also more positive when brand endorsed by celebrity (Knoll and Matthes 2017)
Ignores key factors - Cognitive factors are ignored but must be involved in how we feel about products - we often make rational decisions (e.g. comparison website)
Real-world effects are unclear - Most research lab-based, but real-world effects of conditioning not long-term and weaker (Schachtman et al 2011)

Question 14

Biological
What is neuromarketing?

Answer 14

Using Study of brain to market products, advertising

Uses technology for insights into responses, motivation and decisions, e.g. brain activity associated with a product

Question 15

Biological
What is Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)?

Answer 15

Measures brain activity (blood oxygenation)

Watch advert while fMRI builds 3D map of most active areas, which area is the ‘buy button’?

Question 16

Biological
What is facial coding?

Answer 16

Facial expressions correlated with advert, facial action coding system (FACS) categorieses micro expressions (Ekman and Friesen 1978)

Question 17

Biological
What is eye-tracking?

Question 18

Evaluate the biological approach and consumer behaviour application.