midterm Flashcards
What is consumer behaviour
study of decisions (low and high effort), study of satisfaction, study if branding
Consumer decisions are important: managers, consumers, society
Decisions translate into sales, market shares and profits
how to maximize and measure cust satisfaction
How to maximize cust satisfaction:
Exceed expectations
Satisfaction with process of buying vs product
Minimize dissatisfaction
How to measure customer satisfaction:
Survey data (qs measuring cust sat and drivers of dat)
Sales data (sales records of customers, clv)
Problem recognition, how to increase gap (3)
Gap between actual state (is) vs ideal states (should)
Moves consumers from passive –non decision– state to active –decision– state
INC GAP = Increases motivation to act (ie make a decision) how to inc gap??
1. Point out low actual state
2. Provide high ideal state (must be authentic, super key, culturally relevant)
3. Contrast low actual vs high ideal states
Brand authenticity & sources of authenticity
brand faithful to itself, true to consumers, motivated by responsibility
Sources of authenticity: Realistic ideal points in retailing / advertising, Transparent & fair manufacturing process, Original designs/handmade products, Firm’s origin story with founders, Firm’s behavior consistent with its values/mission statement
Search (2)
- Internal (ie memory) search…… memory → brand names, brand attributes
- Top of mind brands/attributes - External search (google search, amazon search, ecommerce sites, review websites, product websites, consumer reports magazine, talking to friends) paid ads, organic search
-Paid ads
-Make a list of keywords relevant to your offering
-Specify where your ad will appear (Google search website or affiliate websites)
-Bid on your keywords (i.e., maximum price/click)
Google will accept or offer a higher price for your keywords
-Set a total advertising budget for a time period
**Online retailers/streaming services have advantages on external search (can recommend / sell products to consumers, can get consumer data for targeted product offers / developing new products)
High effort decisions, come from (3)
=more time and energy
Comes from 1)high motivate 2) high ability/more knowledge about product features 3) high opportunity/more time to think
decisions can be either….
cognitive or affective
Brand attribute matrix
Table of brand and attributes that you collect as a first step towards choice of high effort products (ex. In video slides) can be provided in advertising
Through external search
Through internal search
Cognitive-TORA
Compensatory (Assumes that bad performance on one attribute can be compensated by a good performance on another attribute)
How do consumers choose one brand for high effort? One method is TORA or theory of reasoned action (formula in slides)
Consumers form attitudes using mental process represented by this formula, more positive attitude is more likely is choice → Approximates our thinking
Decision making apps use TORA
Useful tool for individual consumer decision making, managers, social marketers
4 steps of TORA
- People list attributes
- People think about performance and importance of each attribute (scale in head)
- People combine performance/importance of each attribute (weighted utility of that attribute)
- People add utility (value) from all attributes ( add up tp get total utility of product as a whole)
Cognitive-Non compensatory, explain and explain 2 kinds
But Consumers Often Have Minimum Cut-offs,i.e.,Non- Compensatory
Minimum cutoffs for attributes
- Conjunctive = high cutoffs on all attributes (chosen alt is the only surviving alt)
- Disjunctive = variation in attribute importance, different cutoffs for attributes (chosen alt has greatest number of acceptable features)
Cutoffs in Choice Are More Important When…
When there are many brands and attributes, because using cutoffs simplifies choice in these situations
When attribute is very important to consumers (e.g., fuel economy, CO2 emissions…)
=> Firms should provide numerical choice cutoffs to consumers that favor their brand (ex. Battery life, time saved)
=> Firms should price products below maximum price cutoff (i.e., maximum willingness to pay) ………..does not work for luxury products where consumers cant use price cutoff easy bc price not given
Which (compensatory or non compensatory) is consumer likely to use??
if brand attribute matrix has more brands and attributes then use non compensatory
BC cutoffs reduce brands in consideration set → reduce info, reduce effort
Compensatory on surviving brands
Marketers should be cutoffs to consumers
affective decision making (2 types)
- Emotions at point of sale
- Especially important for hedonic products (iphone, xbox), product trial and sampling creates positive emotions
- Can create feelings with new car smell, test drive experience, upbeat music, VR - Affective forecasting: we make predictions about how we are likely to feel in the future (consumers overestimate future regret) (pay more at auctions than at regular sale is effect of affective forecasting???)
How can firms use TORA
Can do consumer survey for large number of people, calc average attitude towards a brand and competing brands→ find out what attributes the managers should focus on to improve attitude towards their brand
Trade offs! Focus on important attributes and attributes brand is doing bad on
Diagnostic tool in slides (if important and brand poorly then 1) add new attributes 2) change beliefs 3) compare with comp)
TORA strengths
Ensures we dont miss important attributes relevant to decision making (important for high effort decisions)
Ensures rational n long term analysis of info
Allows objective ie numerical comparisons between brands/choice options
TORA weaknesses
Incomplete set of attributes can bias results (e.g., insurance cost )
Does not permit cutoffs on attributes (e.g., families want the safest car, i.e., will not compromise on safety for price)
Does not measure feelings towards the brands (e.g., people fall in love with Mini Cooper, Mustang, Audi TT.
- Feelings arise first (before thoughts) and feelings (influence/bias) subsequent thoughts
advertising
Both affective and cognitive appeals
Advertising needs to first create positive feelings → feelings are experienced automatically by people (feelings come first) → Feelings influence subsequent thinking through confirmation bias (sometimes called “motivated reasoning” or “halo effect”)
Five senses (vidual, audio, smell = marketer has more control) (taste, touch = marketer has less control)
Smell effects mood, memory, and brand
language and decision making
Language Should Avoid Negative Feelings & Create Positive Feelings
The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish speaking countries because Nova means “no go” in Spanish
When Pepsi started marketing its products in China, they translated their slogan, “Pepsi Brings You Back to Life” too literally. The slogan in Chinese read: “Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave.”
Low effort decision making (def and 3 ways to them)
Low effort decision making (low motivation/ability/op)
- Cognitive and affective heuristics
- Simple feelings
- Position/advertise the brand - Choice heuristics
- If x (on sales, coupon, like, remember, works well) then y (buy now)
- Types: cognitive (performance, price) affective (liking, familiarity) - Single attribute
- Ex. all bran = high fibre → single important attribute
Judgments
estimates we make → important bc judgements influence decisions
name 4 judgment heuristics
availability, framing, anchoring, decoy
Availability
Vivid (easy recalled): information more important/true than less vivid information for risk/probability judgments[
- Lower availability - lower perceived risk
Vivid events = higher perceived probability (ex. Plane crash inc sales of insurance) → this is for probability judgements
For other judgments (time, money, quantity, liking)
- Immigration lineups (for cust satisfaction, this heuristics says one line is better bc movement is vivid)
- Cash vs card spending → credit card = availability = difficult to visualize loss = more spending
- Get in short and wide glass, drink looks less
Easily remembered info has ring of truth
- Ex. store brand, has same packaging as branded one, dependable association
- Ex. why diff colours matter (fresh association = green)
2 versions of availability
IMPORTANT vs TRUE
framing
Negative repels more than positive attracts
- Weight negative > positive (there are some exceptions like fatty=tasty)
- Ex. gun control → losses loom larger than gains → opponents emphasize losing guns while proponents emphasize gun safety
- Ex. carbon taxes → opponents say higher taxes, proponents sat cleaner environment
- Opponents have advantage bc ppl DONT want loss!!
Anchoring
We use anchors (reference points) when making judgements
Price
- Originally price was this, now this!
- High credit card limit → anchoring, many credit cars → anchoring
- Anchoring in wages (u should start with a high #)
Surveys (answers to previous questions influence subsequent answers)
- Pop of turkey study (first # changes estimation a lot)
Life (lottery winners vs paraplegics)
Anchoring and framing = besties (39.99$ for the 1st 4 months)
Decoy
Adding a decoy favors the middle option → middle option = best of both worlds
Class
Gas types
Upsell
Judgment bias
DEF: gap between rational and actual judgment (ex. Availability heuristic)
Availability heuristics
Can lead to bias in probability judgments
- Bias = gap between actual probability and perceived probability
- Actual prob of being shot in toronto, perceived probability of it
- Higher perceived probability → increased sales of safety products
ex. Subjective bias in judgements of break-in risk VS probability of break-in
Reinforced by availability in media!!!! Influences
name the biases (6)
distance bias, coherence bias, peak end bias, confirmation bias, sunk cost, overconfidence
Distance bias
People think abstractly for things that are distant in time/space, but concretely for things that are close in time/space (i.e., pay more attention to details of close things)
Research finding: people underestimate the time it takes to finish tasks in the distant future (e.g., after 1 month) than in the near future (e.g., after 1 day)…because they overlook task details for events in the distant future → time
Common in todays hybrid world, emerges in meetings when folks in the room fail to gather input from their remote colleagues → space
distance bias implications
- Front load your work for long-term projects (distant in time)
- When booking a holiday months in advance, think carefully about specifics such as insurance, ongoing projects, time off from work etc.(distant in time)
- Airlines should advertise distant destinations using statements related to “why you should go” but close destinations using statements related to “easy to go” (distant in space)
- Try to attend hybrid meetings in person (distant in space)
- Global warming (distant) need to suggest immediate steps to take
Coherence bias
“Events often happen randomly but people don’t like randomness and instead seek patterns, coherence, cause-and-effect. Coherence makes people feel more in control of their lives (e.g., lucky lottery numbers, lucky haircuts, lucky t-shirts..)”
- People see order in randomness
News items: lottery winners attribute win lucky #s, lucky hairstyles, divine intervention
Research finding: Basketball fans often say that a player has a “hot hand” during free throws ((i.e., higher chance of third basket success if first two throws enter basket) ……but analysis of NBA free throws shows no correlation between success of first/second/third throws
coherence bias implications
- Don’t buy a stock just because it is increasing in price
- Don’t think there is any pattern in quiz answers
- Health supplements can suggest that they improve health (since people are predisposed to see an effect from taking supplement
peak end bias
People prefer experiences that get better over time and end on a high
Research finding: people prefer a job with a salary that increases over time compared to one whose salary decreases over time, even though the total amount earned is the same for both
peak end bias implications
- Plan your holiday such that the last days are the best
- Restaurants should offer multi-course meals accordingly
- Music festivals should schedule acts accordingly (each day as well as across days)
confirmation bias
We focus on later information that confirms our initial expectations
- Ex.good first impression carries a lot of weight (expectation dominates what ppl think of you)
- Ex. gap b between objective quality and perceived quality
Confirmation in language: Few letters in a word can form our expectation of the word => our mind then confirms this expectation (i.e, fills in blanks)
Confirmation bias in perception : our mind confirms expectation of what we will see
Confirmation bias in society : We expect to see certain traits in social groups => our mind will seek to confirm these expectations
Ex. home → attractive first appearance, neutral to visualize you living their, bathroom rlly nice to differentiate (sellers will remember it, availability heuristics)
sunk cost
Tendency for people to escalate commitment to a course of action to which they have already made substantial commitments
Time
Money
Effort
Ex. casino, sports (draft), acquisition of firm thats doing badly (rarely sell)
Rationally……….we should consider the future marginal costs and benefits of actions going forward
In practice………….we consider past costs even if they can never be recovered, we lose sight of future marginal costs and benefits
“Throw good money after bad”
Overconfidence bias, what is the REASON
We are more confident in our own abilities than is warranted by the facts
- Ppl are quick to start because of overconfidence bias, but gap between confidence and performance can lead to dropping out
What Is The Reason For This Bias?
- We are motivated to get the best for ourselves
- This motivation biases our confidence in ourselves
Is This Bias Always Bad?
- Gives us confidence to initiate tasks
- Can also set us up for disappointment in tasks
Reducing biases
(3)
Knowledge
- Knowledge of heuristics & biases→ To use this knowledge in daily life, we need high motivation and high opportunity during decision-making
Review
- Review your past decisions and note examples of bias w Availability heuristic => examples are vivid, and will help you avoid bias in the future
Feedback
- Get feedback about your decisions from others
You may be using heuristics & biases so often that you fail to notice them
Difficult to see your own flaws without a mirror
KAFEH for reducing bias
knowledge of heuristics and biases
application of knowledge (use in daily life need high op during decision making)
feedback (from others)
examples (are most memorable, look at ur past)
habit (establish good habits of decision making – repeat/reinforce)
Be careful about biases in judgment and decision making when…
You are in low effort sits (low MAO - motivation, ability, opportunity)
For more automatic heuristics (anchoring, confirmation)
Status quo bias
We have a general preference to stick with what we already have/do
Ex. sitting in same seat all sem, eating similar food every week, order same drink at the bar, keeping “default option”
FOBO bias
Fear of better options - FOBO or FOMO
the fear that the option we are currently considering buying may not be the best one out there
Are you prone to FOBO? → satisficer-maximizer scale (the more you are a maximizer the more prone to FOBO)
Customer satisfaction def and leads to..
cust sat = attitudes (like/dislike) based on actual experience
ˆmeasure with surveys
Customer satisfaction leads to repeat purchase = more profitable for firms!
Lack of competition and price reduction also contribute to repeat purchase
But managers want to get it through customer sat
satisfaction is driven by 3 factors DEP
- Performance: of brand on attributes (ex attributes/features for airlines → on time, price, upgrades, ect)
- Expectations : of customers about attributes, customers have expectations about attributes
- High expectations are good as long as performance is close to expectations!
- Disconfirmation : when performance is far from expectations thats where disconfirmation comes in → has the biggest effect on satisfaction