Lecture 3 - Consumer well-being, values and morality Flashcards
Why are advertising executives so untrusted?
A lot of companies release useless products that consumers do not actually need
Ex: The Nicer Dicer Plus: tool that helps you cut vegetables (you can cut them already on your own)
Research showing how consumers are pragmatic
Body lotion that said it contained recitine on the packaging
People had no clue what recitine was
If it is on the packaging then it must be good
They interpret the packaging is good
Hedonic treadmill
Ongoing process of seeing a product, buying it, being satisfied for a short time, adapt to the product, and wanting a new one
Trend: shift to consumer well-being
Global consumers believe wellness should be a core mission for brands
Consumers prefer personalized experiences that align with their values and needs
Consumers express willingness to pay more for enhanced experiences that provide comfort and pleasure, as well as personal growth.
Experiences vs things
Experience = spending money to acquire an experience
Things = spending money to acquire material possession
Hedonic well-being
What is subjectively pleasant
Pleasure: positive emotions
Comfort: relaxation, ease and painlessness
Eudaimonic well-being
What is truly, objectively and inherently good and right
Authenticity: clarifying one’s true self and values
Meaning: seeking what truly matters and what has value
Excellence: striving for high standards and quality in one’s ethics
Growth: gaining knowledge, insight and skill
Eduaimonia and hedonia are things you…
Want (orientation)
Do (behavior)
Feel (experience)
Can achieve (functioning)
… but they’re primarily defined as orientations (things you want)
Scale measuring eudaimonia and hedonic
Seeking relaxation?
Seeking to develop a skill?
Seeking to do what you believe in?
Parenting styles - authoritative
Parents with an authoritative style raise children with a sense of eudaimonia
Hedonia is not related to any parenting styles
Why do people need to know about hedonia and eudaimonia?
People need to meet their well-being needs
Their orientation depends on context
Loyalty
Consumer’s commitment to a brand
Repeated purchases
Positive word-of-mouth recommendations
Experimental things
Spending money with the primary intention of acquiring a life experience
Material purchases
Spending money with the primary intention of acquiring a material possession
Ambiguous nature of some purchases
It is not whether a purchase is material or experimental, instead it is the set of psychological processes that tend to be invoked by experiences and material goods that determine how much satisfaction they provide
Why are experiential purchases better?
- Experiential purchases enhance social relations more than material goods.
- Experiential purchases form a bigger part of a person’s identity
- Experiential purchases are evaluated more on their own terms and evoke fewer social comparisons than material purchases
Materialism
The chronic tendency to view monetary possessions as important sources fir of satisfaction in life
Low materialism
If experiences and things are positive, consumers derive happiness from that instead of material possessions
If experiences are negative they suffer more disappointing experiences from things
High materialism
No difference in happiness derived from positive experiences and things
They suffer more from disappointing possessions than experiences
Intrinsic motivation
Because of the interest and enjoyment in the task itself
Enjoyment
Purpose growth
Curiosity
Passion
Fun
Extrinsic motivation
Because of the outcome that will result in doing the task
Promotions
Pay raises
Bonuses
Benefits
Which orientations fulfil intrinsic needs?
Both eudaimonic and hedonic
Eudaimonic well-being
Based on self-determination theory - eudaimonic well-being is about experiences that allows u to satisfy the following needs:
Competence
Autonomy
Relatedness
Research on hedonic vs eudaimonic happiness
A person showed a joyful face (hedonic orientation), angry face and determined face (eudaimonic orientation)
Participants distinguished the joyful face as it is associated with hedonic happiness and is easier to recognize
Participants had a hard time distinguishing between the angry face and the determined face - when someone is experiencing eudaimonic happiness they might not look happy
Freedom from
Being away from the hectic and stressful everyday life, putting aside your thoughts
Calm and hedonic experiences
Freedom to
Being whatever you want to be, feeling confident, feeling balanced
Eudaimonic experiences relate to this omre
Mogilner and Bhattacharjee
Younger people tend to derive more happiness from extraordinary experiences than ordinary experiences
Difference disappears when people get older
Values and Morality
Consumers are willing to pay a minimum for products from a socially responsible company
More likely to buy from companies that advocate for issues they care about
75% of consumers refuse to purchase from companies that support contrary issues
Schwartz (2012) value dimensions
Vertical axis: promotion vs prevention (power and achievement)
Horizontal axis: self-focus vs social-focus
Value Quadrants
Openness to change
Self-transcendence
Conservation
Self-enhancement
Most important values
Benevolence, universalism and self-direction
Least important values
Power and stimulation
Opposing relationships between values
Self-transcendence vs self-enhancement: actions expressing self-transcendence reduce self-enhancement motives
Openness to change vs conservation: acting on openness to change reduces motivation for conservation
Brand values - ING
‘Love beats money’ campaign
The campaign illustrated family relations, but consumers do not associate ING with this
Inconsistency with ING actions, CEO got a 50% raise after the campaign
Misfit between self-enhancement reputation of ING and the self-transcendence-oriented campaign
Values in different sectors
Banks: expected to prioritize competence, achievement and power
Public services: expected to exhibit benevolence and act with good intentions
Conflicting values in advertising messages
Advertisements addressing promotion and prevention values may be less persuasive
Messages are harder to process when they are conflicting
Rolex: attempts to connect luxury (self-enhancement) with moral betterment (self-transcendence)
Citizen/consumer paradox
‘Citizen’ wants ethical, ‘consumer’ wants equality
People have inconsistent identities
How can ethical consumer behavior be stimulated?
People need to be confronted with ethical information and not wait for them to ask for it
Why do people not want to have ethical information?
Blissful ignorance: people avoid ethical information because they want to preserve their current behavior without feeling guilty
Cognitive dissonance: if you made a non-ethical choice, it gives you unease if you care about the environment
