Persuasion and Consumer Behaviour Flashcards
What is the term used to describe any form of non-personal paid communication aimed to inform and/or persuade target audiences about a product, service or idea?
Advertising
What makes someone a rational decision-maker?
When a person engages in analysis before buying/getting/doing something
“Will this benefit me?”
Consumers are thought to engage in cost-effective analysis. What does this mean?
When we weigh up the positives and negatives of some sort of product or service before making a final purchasing decision
What is the term used to describe the way an item or product is framed/portrayed affects evaluations of that item?
Framing
Who proposed that people have a more positive reaction to meat if described as being 75% fat free vs 25% fat?
Levin & Gaeth (1988)
People have a more positive reaction to meat if it is described as being:
a. 75% fat free
b. 25% fat?
a. 75% fat free
What does product framing tell us about how we make purchasing decisions?
Our realities are constructed and influenced heavily by outside factors
What is this an example of?
Participants drank 5 different wines of varying prices. Two of the wines were presented twice (once with a high price and once with a low price)
Participants rated the wine as significantly more enjoyable when the price was high rather than low – even though it was the same wine
Neurological data revealed that when tasting the expensive wine, participants’ had more activation of the medial orbitofrontal cortex than when tasting the cheaper wine
Price-quality heuristic
Who proposed the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Dual Process Model of Persuasion)?
Petty and Cacioppo
What does the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Dual Process Model of Persuasion) suggest?
How likely will people think about a message systematically
According to the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Dual Process Model of Persuasion), how many routes are there to persuasion?
2
According to the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Dual Process Model of Persuasion), what are the 2 routes to persuasion?
1) Central route
2) Peripheral route
When people are being persuaded and are processing it using the Elaboration Likelihood Model, what goes on in the central route?
The Central Route involves carefully attending to an argument/carefully thinking about a message in an advert and systematically scrutinizing the information contained in that advert
When people are being persuaded and are processing it using the Elaboration Likelihood Model, what goes on in the peripheral route?
The Peripheral Route involves following the expertise of the salesman
This can be influenced by the salesman’s preference for the colour of the item or due to celebrity endorsement
What part of the Elaboration Likelihood Model involves carefully attending to an argument or carefully thinking about a message in an advert and systematically scrutinizing the information contained in that advert?
Central Route
When a consumer is highly motivated and is high in ability, what part of the ELM do they use?
The Central Route
A customer intends to buy a new computer.
They carefully check and scrutinise the speed, memory capacity, operating system, number of USB ports and quality of graphics.
What ELM route are they using?
The Central Route
A customer intends to buy a new computer.
They ask the salesman for recommendations and the salesman recommends the blue laptop due to its attractive and trending colour.
What ELM route are they using?
Peripheral route
When a customer does not have a specific idea in mind of what they’re like to buy and often ask a salesperson for recommendations, what part of the ELM do they use?
Peripheral route
Naturally, we follow the peripheral route rather than the central route. Why is this?
- We can be cognitively lazy (lazy to think about the different elements of an item)
- We may be time-pressured to make a decision
- The product is trivial (not that expensive/valuable; there’s no harm in just buying it)
- Low motivation or ability to analyse the product’s features
What are the 4 types of cues that tend to influence behaviour via the peripheral route?
1) Social Proof/Bandwagon Effect
2) Mere Exposure
3) Credibility/celebrity
4) Perceived Scarcity
Cialdini (2001) asked music students to ‘busk’ in the street
In one condition, the guitar case was empty
In the second condition, the guitar case had been purposefully filled with money
Cialdini waited to see how much money the busker made in the different conditions
Who do you think will receive more money from busking and why?
Condition 2 (with money purposefully added to the guitar case
This happens because people feel the social pressure to give money; they see so many other people have given money and feel obliged to do the same
Why do we follow the behaviours of others?
Being part of a group/following the behaviours of others helps reduce risk and is (normally) beneficial for survival (Forsyth, 2018).
Who tested the effectiveness of the bandwagon effect?
Jeong and Kwon (2012)
A study by Jeong and Kwon (2012) made a mock-up of an online shopping page selling USB drives
Participants were shown this online shopping page but were put in 2 different conditions
Condition 1 = Positive Social Norm condition (‘94% of consumers bought this product after viewing this site’)
Condition 2 = Participants were not exposed to any positive social norm claim
Participants were then told to rate their purchase INTENTION: How likely are you to buy the product? (7-point scale)?
Which group is expected to rate their intention for buying the product higher than the other group?
Group under condition 1 = Positive Social Norm condition (‘94% of consumers bought this product after viewing this site’)
Because they saw that a majority gave good reviews and feel obligated to agree with the social norm
A study by Jeong and Kwon (2012) made a mock-up of an online shopping page selling USB drives
Participants were shown this online shopping page but were put in 2 different conditions
Condition 1 = Positive Social Norm condition (‘94% of consumers bought this product after viewing this site’)
Condition 2 = Participants were not exposed to any positive social norm claim
Participants were then told to rate their purchase INTENTION: How likely are you to buy the product? (7-point scale)?
What are the limitations to this study?
The study only measures peoples’ intentions of buying and not their actual review of the product after purchasing and seeing the review ratings
Behaviour differs from intention; people may say they’ll likely buy it but they may not necessarily act on it
The more you encounter a particular stimulus, the more you’ll like it
What is the term used to describe this effect?
The Mere-Exposure effect
Maya hears a song on the radio for the first time and dislikes it
But as the radio company plays it over and over again, she slowly starts to like it
And after repeated exposures, she come to love the song
What effect is this?
Mere-exposure effect
Who proposed a study investigating the mere-exposure effect using Chinese characters?
Zajonc (1986)
Describe Zajonc’s study investigating the mere-exposure effect using Chinese characters
1) Participants were shown 12 Chinese characters
2) Participants were shown the characters at different levels of frequency (25 times, 10 times, 2 times, 1 time or not at all)
3) Participants were told to rate how much they like the characters
4) The more times the characters had been presented, the more the Ps prefer them
Josie was shown 2 words that were 2 words from the “Kazakh language”
Word 1 = tzikagt
Word 2 = solmin
Josie was told that one word has a positive meaning (loving) and one has a negative meaning (disgusting)
Which word is she most likely to guess positively and why?
Word 2 = solmin (more positive)
Because solmin is easier to pronounce, as an English speaker (to an English speaker, pronouncing solmin is more familiar)
People prefer words or link words with positive connotations if they are familiar and easy to pronounce
How can we explain the mere exposure effect?
Perceptual fluency
Who proposed the idea of perceptual fluency?
Winkielmann and Cacioppo
People are intrinsically cognitively lazy and therefore, prefer stimuli that are easy to encode and process
What is the term used to describe this?
Perceptual fluency
Objects (songs, faces, things) are easier to process if they are (……….) and this causes a positive sensation that is then misattributed as liking
a. More different
b. More familiar
c. None of the above
b. More familiar
Simple repetition of images of certain brands results in….?
Unconsciously affect preferences for a specific brand (Shapiro, Machinnis & Heckler 1997)
Why does repetition of something make us “like” or prefer something more?
The more you see it, the more familiar it is to you
Simple repetition of images is enough to generate a ‘memory trace’ in the consumer’s mind
Product placement is an example of…?
Mere Exposure effect
In-game advertising is an example of….?
Mere Exposure effect
Who conducted a study investigating mere exposure effect in a sports video game (product endorsement)
Kim and Leng
What did Kim and Leng discover in the study investigating mere exposure effect in a sports video game?
Those who played the sports video game longer (84 minutes compared to 36 mins and 12 mins) were better able to correctly identify the ads that had been in the game
Why?
The longer participants played the game, the more they would encounter the adverts and, in line with the mere exposure effect, the more they will like them
What did Kim and Leng discover in the study investigating the mere exposure effect in a sports video game ON THE LIKELINESS OF PURCHASING PRODUCTS FROM THE BRAND?
Participants who played the sports video game the longest were more likely to have more positive attitudes and were more likely to say that they wanted to purchase the product
What were the limitations of Kim and Leng’s study investigating the mere exposure effect in a sports video game?
1) They did not look at how long the mere exposure effect lasted (as their testing phase was immediately after playing the video game)
2) They measured Ps intentions of buying (did not consider that intentions differ from actual behaviour)
What peripheral cue is this?
Amy is a fan of Seventeen and buys a white iPhone 12 because all the members of 17 have that particular phone in that particular colour
Source credibility/celebrity
What peripheral cue is this?
When we refer to people we respect, like or have higher authority than us for decision-making (particularly in purchasing decision-making)
Source credibility/celebrity
There are 2 types of credible sources. List them both
1) Authorative
2) Likable
Celebrities, idols and public figures are examples of what type of credible source?
Likeable credible source
People with titles, your boss at work, and health professionals are examples of what type of credible source?
Authoritative credible source
This toothpaste is used and recommended by 9/10 dentists
What type of credible source is this?
Authoritative credible source
An advert shows Blackpink posing with a coca-cola bottle in their hand
What type of credible source is this?
Likeable credible source
What type of peripheral cue is this?
The signed lavender version of Taylor Swift’s midnights album only has 100 copies and is only available for a limited time
Scarcity
What type of peripheral cue is this?
When people buy products because they are limited in quantity or only have a limited period of sale
Scarcity
Who conducted a study investigating the effect of scarcity on consumer behaviour?
Worschel, Lee, and Adewole (1975)
What happened in Worschel et al.’s study investigating the effect of scarcity on consumer behaviour?
1) Presented 2 groups of Ps with a jar of cookies:
- In one jar, there were 10 cookies
- In the other jar there were only 2 cookies
2) Ps rated how much they wanted a cookie and how good the cookie tasted. Though identical, participants valued cookies in the near-empty jar more highly (only if they thought others had taken them)
How can we signal scarcity?
- Quantitative appeals (e.g. there’s only 100 copies being sold; limited edition)
- Limited supply (e.g. there’s only 100 copies left)
- Time constraints (e.g. there’s only 1 week left to buy this item)
What are the 4 factors affecting the strength of the relationship between scarcity and purchase intention/behaviour?
- Anticipatory regret (Swain, Hanna, and Abendroth, 2006)
- Need for uniqueness (Tafarodi et al. 2004)
- Increased arousal (Nichols, 2012)
- Impaired cognition leading to heuristics (Cialdini, 2008)
