Lecture 1: consumer

Question 1

define consumer behaviours

Answer 1

the activities people undertake when obtaining, consuming and disposing of products and services (Black, Miniard, & Engel, 2001)

Question 2

define consumer psychologists

Answer 2

• Consumer psychologists study consumer activities associated with the purchase, use and disposal of goods and services, including the consumer’s emotional, cognitive and behaviour responses that precede, determine or follow these activeities.(APA)

Question 3

what is role theory

Answer 3

Consumers as actors

Role Theory= not used by consumer psychs but helps us think of what consumers may be

Question 4

name and describe the factors in role theory

Answer 4

• Identity (multi identities, supermarkets identify branding around identities)
• Chooser (choosing products)
• Influencer (eg writing reviews or talking to others- instagram)
• Activist (works to change/improve things- eg recycling)
• Victims (eg horse meat in the UK chains meatinvestigation  but only an issue as the UK it is not socially acceptable to eat horses) (or supply consumers when earthquakes eg rana plaza disaster, under what conditions people supply goods)
• Status communicator

Question 5

in the ‘consumer world’ what factors are growing in influence

Answer 5

web/social media

Question 6

in the ‘consumer world’ what factors are decreasing in influence

Answer 6

tv/ newspapers

Question 7

name an early consumer psychologist

Answer 7

• Harry Hollingworth & Coca-Cola

Question 8

what happened in Harry Hollingworth & Coca-Cola study

Answer 8

o Coca-Cola taken to court for selling harmful drink - 1909
o Employed Hollingworth to conduct experiments on how caffiene affected behaviour
o Conducted rigorous experiments examining effects onsensory, motor and cognitive function finding no deleterious effects
 When started coca cola had small amounts of cocaine then removed this and put in caffeine
• Looked at effects of caffiene
o Later became a strong proponent of the AIDA model

Question 9

hwo did the industrial revoloution affect early consumer psychology

Answer 9

• Fertile crescent  3000BC making enough for self had a surplus so made it for others
  o Began to record transactions of trading
• Industrial revoloution
  o Working long hours in factories
  o Began to show things in glass cabinets to display
  o Creates desire
  o Department stores- 1734  Bennets
• Harlowgate 1st to think of the effects of consumers
  o Attitudes towards an advert = affective

Question 10

who was the first to think of the effects of consumers

Answer 10

harlowgate

Question 11

name some unconscious influencer on consumer psyhologiets

Answer 11

• Ernest Dichter
• Vance Packard
• James Vicary, Coca-Cola and popcorn (1957)

Question 12

what did ernest dichter find

Answer 12

o Applied Freudian psychoanalytical concepts
o Thought that consumers were led by their unconscious desires - seen as the father of motivational research
o First to use the term focus group - one focus group led to the invention of the Barbie Doll


Question 13

what is a focus group

Answer 13

 Focus Group = aims to gain opinions of products
• Questionable whether it is sunconcious
 FG= situated in environment that product exists in (PRO)

Question 14

what did vance packard suggest

Answer 14

o Exposed the new strategies advertisers were using, including subliminal advertising
o Despite this exposé, the advertising and consumer industry has continued to flourish ever since.
o Began to find that consumers’ behaviour was not always reliable

Question 15

how did vance Packard find that consumers’ behaviour was not always reliable

Answer 15

 Women waiting for an appointment were asked to wait in 1 of 2 waiting rooms:-
 traditional room, period furniture, oriental rugs, expensive wallpaper
 Swedish furniture, functional, modern, gentle tones
 Almost all waited in the modern room
 When asked which they preferred, 84% preferred the traditional room.
 Disparity between what people are saying and what they are doing
• Consumer psychologists nightmare

Question 16

describe vance packards study on women and detergent

Answer 16

o Women asked to test 3 types of detergent (it was the 1950s)
 Detergent the same, but the box design was varied
 Yellow box (strong visual impact), blue box, blue box with splashes of yellow
 Yellow was ‘too strong’; blue ‘left clothes dirty’; mixed box was felt to be a beautiful balance of colours and had a ‘fine’ and ‘wonderful’ effect in the wash
• Influence of colour= packaging has an influencing effect of how people thought it worked

Question 17

what did James Vicary 1957 study

Answer 17

coca cola and popcorn

Question 18

where did james Vicary conduct his study

Answer 18

in a movie theatre in New Jersey

Question 19

what happened in James Vicarys 1957 cocoa cola and popcorn study

Answer 19

o Conducted experiment at a movie theatre in New Jersey
o Showed messages in some frames of the film which appeared for a fraction of a second
 One three thousands of a second
 Subliminal  wouldn’t know products appeared
o “Hungry? Eat Popcorn” “Drink Coca-Cola”
o Resulted in a jump in theatre sales – 57.8% for popcorn and 18.1% for Coca-Cola
 During interval in cinema

Question 20

what happened when James vicarys study was challeneged

Answer 20

o When challenged, it transpired that the results had been falsified and the study may not have even taken place.
 Why have to hold onto raw data for 5 years

o Other researchers have not been able to replicate Vicary’s ‘findings’ but other modes of ‘product placement’ are commonly used ….
o Sublimanary advertising banned but product placement continues- write #ad

o Not allowed in british TV/film production (product placement)
 Has to occur seamlessly as part of the action eg texting on a blackberry
 Not completely subliminal but an unconscious nudge

Question 21

what is wright 2006 definition of market segmentation

Answer 21

o … the concept of segmentation … is at the very heart of marketing. Manufacturers and retailers have known almost instinctively from early times that in most cases they cannot sell the same product in the same way to every customer. This has become increasingly so as consumers become more sophisticated, wealthier and more aware of choice. Wright (2006)

Question 22

what is mass marketing - and give an example of this

Answer 22

o Mass marketing: production of something everyone will want – minimises costs, keeps prices low.

 Eg Volkswagen, car for the people sell to everyone?(rarely happens) due to market segmentation

Question 23

what are the different segmentation levels

Answer 23

mass marketing

mass segmentation

niche marketing / narrow segmentation

micro marketing/ narrow segmantation

Question 24

define mass segmentation and give examples

Answer 24

o Mass segmentation: market divided into large segments – a compromise position for the producer and the consumer

 Eg marketing along gender lines

Question 25

define Niche marketing/narrow segmentation and give examples

Answer 25

o Niche marketing/narrow segmentation: focussing on one sub-group within a larger segment

 Growing market eg locally sorced traditional beers bigger expectation

Question 26

define micro marketing / mass customisation and give examples

Answer 26

o	Micro-marketing/mass-customisation: 
 catering for individuals
 bespoke tailoring; 
creating individualised options for product customisation.
Fairly rare, idea of a tailor 

eg tailoring designer dresses for the individuals that no one else will have = larger prices

Question 27

name the key ways of segmentating the market

Answer 27

demograpgic and geographic

socio-economic

personal factors

values

Question 28

what is the driving element behind segmentatig a maret

Answer 28

Driving element= whether the product will make enough money to sustain the product in the segmenting market it is in

Question 29

explain how you would use demographic and geographc elements to segment a market

Answer 29

where people live, region, country, etc

Question 30

explain how you would use socio-economic elements to segment a market

Answer 30

social class, occupation, income, age, gender

Question 31

explain how you would use personal factors elements to segment a market

Answer 31

psychographics and lifestyle/ psychometrics
o This type of market research typically involves large scale questionnaires asking people about their activities, interests and opinions plus information about demographics.
o Basically the idea is to try and get a handle on consumer lifestyles – patterns of behaviour reflecting how a person, or a family, chooses to spend their time and … therefore their money.
o Like-minded people can be grouped together and it means that you can get an idea of (a) the target segment for your market and (b) how big it is likely to be.
o Psychographics – personality … but superseded by lifestyle AIO
o Lifestyle superseded by VALS
o Family life-cycle segmentation combines both demographics and VALS.
o National and cultural lifestyle differences – good example given by Wright (2006)
o Although many lifestyles around the world are becoming similar, there are still many differences. This might be because consumers are buying in markets in different stages of the lifecycle or it might be because of national cultural and regional differences. People will eat different food and at different times. This is the case even within what we might consider a relatively ‘local’ trading area – In France restaurants are closing at 10pm, in Spain they are just getting busy. Swedes do most of their family entertaining in the home while in Italy its not unusual for the whole family, including small children, to eat together in restaurants.
o The new socio-economic classes defined in a large survey commissioned by the BBC and carried out by Manchester University reveal that even class as a categorisers is chang

Question 32

explain how you would use value elements to segment a market

Answer 32

relates to the experiences and emotions of consumers in a general sense

Question 33

what is psychographic segmentation

Answer 33

is dividing your market based upon consumer personality traits, values, attitudes, interests and lifestyles.

Question 34

why should you segment a market

Answer 34

o If you have something to sell, you an work out which segment is likely to best for you to target with your product.
o You need to evaluate segment attractiveness
o Segments need to be big enough to make the cost of marketing feasible but have sufficient homogeneity to make it a good fit -> this group will value your product

Question 35

what are the implications of segmentating a market

Answer 35

o Segmentation – particularly in academic research – is based on ideal segmentation models and techniques which may not fit the reality
o Segmentation needs to reflect the dynamism of contemporary markets.

o Need to be ‘in tune’ with the right platforms
o Dynamic – can respond very quickly but markets can move and change much more quickly
o Highly targeted marketing – but need to ensure you are selling to a big enough group

Question 36

what is the ‘social media promise’

Answer 36

o Very detailed customer insights
o Self-defined segments – focus on groups by usage and common interest
o Dynamic – can respond very quickly
o Highly targeted marketing