L6 - Introduction to Consumer Psychology & Psychology of Brand 1

Question 1

Define consumer psychology

Answer 1

“The study of human responses to product and service related information and experiences”

Question 2

What sorts of questions do consumer psychologists study, and how do they study them?

Answer 2

To learn about what makes consumers tick
o Describe, predict, influence, and/or explain consumer responses

But also social marketing, for example:
o How consumption affects the environment
o The impact of consumption on children

Study them:

• In the lab: track eye movements as research participants view a series of soft drink cans
• At the Department of Health: examine how consumers respond to a quit smoking campaign
• At a tech company: assess consumer responses to product features to help developers determine the optimal combination
• At a uni: develop a theoretical model of financial decisions made by families
• At an ad agency: analyse the effects of different advertisements on donations to charity

Question 3

Define brand

Answer 3

“A type of product manufactured by a particular company under a particular name: a name brand of soap power”

A “name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers”

A brand is a category
o Products are elements of the category
o E.g. Apple has phones, watches, tablets, laptops

Question 4

Describe the conceptualisation of brands as categories

Answer 4

Informational value: heuristics for consumers that reduces risk

Categorisation allows consumers to go beyond the given information
 Brand labels provide a powerful basis for inferences

Question 5

Describes the effects of brand labels on judgements and preferences

E.g. Peanut Butter Study and Coke vs. Pepsi fMRI Study

Answer 5

Peanut butter study - presented participants with three brands of peanut butter

Manipulated familiarity of brand:
o One was a known brand, two were unknown brands

Manipulated quality:
o High or low quality

Thus:
o High or low quality peanut butter was placed in the jar of the known brand or one of the unknown brands

Participants selected a brand and tasted the peanut butter (5 trials)

Results:
o Strong tendency to select the jar of the known brand, even when it contained an inferior quality peanut butter
o People are making inferences about the quality of the peanut butter depending on whether the brand is familiar to them or not
o Quality does not matter as much as the brand

Coke vs. Pepsi fMRI study

Unlabelled:
 No difference in reported taste
 Preference correlated with ventromedial PFC activity

Labelled:
 Significant preference for sample labelled Coke
 Preference correlated with dorsolateral PFC and hippocampal activity
 You are tasting the brand
 Brand labels do them seem to have powerful effects; brands are likely categories and we make inferences about them

Question 6

How many brands is it estimated that we are exposed to every day?

How many of these are we aware of?

Answer 6

2013 research found that we are exposed to around 5000 brands each day, however we are only aware of about 1-2% of these