consumer behavior

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Chapter 2

Perception

By Michael R. Solomon

Consumer BehaviorBuying, Having, and Being

Sixth Edition

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Sensation and Perception

• Sensation:– The immediate response of our sensory receptors (eyes,

ears, nose, mouth, fingers) to basic stimuli such as light, color, sound, odors, and textures

• Perception:– The process by which sensations are selected, organized,

and interpreted

• The Study of Perception:– Focuses on what we add to raw sensations to give them

meaning

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An Overview of the Perception Process

Figure 2.1

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Sensory Systems

• External stimuli, or sensory inputs, can be received on a number of different channels.

• Inputs picked up by our five senses are the raw data that begin the perceptual process.

• Hedonic Consumption:– The multisensory, fantasy, and emotional aspects

of consumers’ interactions with products

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Sensory Systems - Vision

• Marketers rely heavily on visual elements in advertising, store design, and packaging.

• Meanings are communicated on the visual channel through a product’s color, size, and styling.

• Colors may influence our emotions more directly.– Arousal and stimulated appetite (e.g. red)– Relaxation (e.g. blue)

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Sensory Perceptions - Vision

• Some reactions to color come from learned associations.– (e.g. Black is associated with mourning in the

United States, whereas white is associated with mourning in Japan.)

• Some reactions to color are due to biological and cultural differences.– (e.g. Women tend to be drawn to brighter tones

and are more sensitive to subtle shadings and patterns)

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Perceptions of Color

This ad campaign by

the San Francisco

Ballet uses color

perceptions to get urban

sophisticates to add

classical dance to their

packed entertainment

itineraries.

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Sensory Perceptions - Vision

• Color plays a dominant role in Web page design.

• Saturated colors (green, yellow, orange, and cyan) are considered the best to capture attention.– Don’t overdo it. Extensive use of saturated colors can

overwhelm people and cause visual fatigue.

• Trade Dress:– Colors that are strongly associated with a corporation, for

which the company may have exclusive rights for their use. • (e.g. Kodak’s use of yellow, black, and red)

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Sensory Perceptions - Smell

• Odors can stir emotions or create a calming feeling.

• Some responses to scents result from early associations that call up good or bad feelings.

• Marketers are finding ways to use smell:– Scented clothes

– Scented stores

– Scented cars and planes

– Scented household products

– Scented advertisements

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Sensory Perceptions - Sound

• Advertising jingles create brand awareness.• Background music creates desired moods.• Sound affects people’s feelings and

behaviors.• Muzak uses a system it calls “stimulus

progression” to increase the normally slower tempo of workers during midmorning and midafternoon time slots.

• Sound engineering:– Top-end automakers are using focus groups of consumers

to help designers choose appropriate sounds to elicit the proper response.

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Sensory Perceptions - Touch

• Relatively little research has been done on the effects of tactile stimulation on the consumer, but common observation tells us that this sensory channel is important.

• People associate textures of fabrics and other surfaces with product quality.

• Perceived richness or quality of the material in clothing is linked to its “feel,” whether rough or smooth.

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Sensory Perceptions - Taste

• Taste receptors contribute to our experience of many products.

• Specialized companies called “flavor houses” are constantly developing new concoctions to please the changing palates of consumers.

• Changes in culture also determine the tastes we find desirable.

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Exposure

• Exposure:

– Occurs when a stimulus comes within the range of someone’s sensory receptors

• Consumers concentrate on some stimuli, are unaware of others, and even go out of their way to ignore some messages.

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Sensory Thresholds

• Psychophysics:– The science that focuses on how the physical environment

is integrated into our personal subjective world.• Absolute Threshold:

– The minimum amount of stimulation that can be detected on a given sensory channel.

• Differential Threshold:– The ability of a sensory system to detect changes or

differences between two stimuli. The minimum difference that can be detected between two stimuli is known as the j.n.d. (just noticeable difference).

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Weber’s Law

• The amount of change that is necessary to be noticed is systematically related to the intensity of the original stimulus

• The stronger the initial stimulus, the greater a change must be for it to be noticed.

• Mathematically:

– K = A constant (varies across senses)– Δi = The minimal change in the intensity required to produce j.n.d.– I = the intensity of the stimulus where the change occurs

I

iK

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Subliminal Perception

• Subliminal perception:– Occurs when the stimulus is below the level of the

consumer’s awareness.

• Subliminal techniques:– Embeds: Tiny figures that are inserted into magazine:

advertising by using high-speed photography or airbrushing.

• Does subliminal perception work?– There is little evidence that subliminal stimuli can bring

about desired behavioral changes.

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Attention

• Attention:– The extent to which processing activity is devoted

to a particular stimulus.

• Attention economy:– The Internet has transformed the focus of

marketers from attracting dollars to attracting eyeballs.

• Perceptual selection:– People attend to only a small portion of the stimuli

to which they are exposed.

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Personal Selection Factors

• Experience:– The result of acquiring and processing stimulation over

time

• Perceptual vigilance:– Consumers are aware of stimuli that relate to their current

needs

• Perceptual defense:– People see what they want to see - and don’t see what they

don’t want to see

• Adaptation:– The degree to which consumers continue to notice a

stimulus over time

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Factors that Lead to Adaptation

• Intensity: Less-intense stimuli habituate because they have less sensory impact.

• Duration: Stimuli that require relatively lengthy exposure in order to be processed tend to habituate because they require a long attention span.

• Discrimination: Simple stimuli tend to habituate because they do not require attention to detail.

• Exposure: Frequently encountered stimuli tend to habituate as the rate of exposure increases.

• Relevance: Stimuli that are irrelevant or unimportant will habituate because they fail to attract attention.

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Stimulus Selection Factors

• Size:– The size of the stimulus itself in contrast to the competition

helps to determine if it will command attention.

• Color:– Color is a powerful way to draw attention to a product.

• Position:– Stimuli that are present in places we’re more likely to look

stand a better chance of being noticed.

• Novelty:– Stimuli that appear in unexpected ways or places tend to

grab our attention.

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3-21 04/07/23Copyright © 2011 Pearson

Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Chapter 3

Learning and Memory

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, 9eMichael R. Solomon

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The Learning Process• Learning: a relatively

permanent change in behavior caused by experience

• Incidental learning: casual, unintentional acquisition of knowledge

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Behavioral Learning Theories

• Behavioral learning theories: assume that learning takes place as the result of responses to external events.

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Types of Behavioral Learning Theories

Classical conditioning: a stimulus that elicits a response is paired with another stimulus that initially does not elicit a response on its own. Instrumental conditioning

(also, operant conditioning): the individual learns to perform behaviors that produce positive outcomes and to avoid those that yield negative outcomes.

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Classical Conditioning• Ivan Pavlov rang bell and

put meat powder into dogs’ mouths; repeated until dogs salivated when the bell rang

• Meat powder = UCS (natural reaction is drooling)

• Bell = CS (dogs learned to drool when bell rang)

• Drooling = CR

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Marketing Applications of Repetition

• Repetition increases learning

• More exposures = increased brand awareness

• When exposure decreases, extinction occurs

• However, too MUCH exposure leads to advertising wear out• Example: Izod crocodile on clothes

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Marketing Applications of Stimulus Generalization

• Stimulus generalization: tendency for stimuli similar to a conditioned stimulus to evoke similar, unconditioned responses.– Family branding– Product line extensions– Licensing– Look-alike packaging

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Instrumental Conditioning

• Behaviors = positive outcomes or negative outcomes

• Instrumental conditions occurs in one of these ways:– Positive reinforcement– Negative reinforcement– Punishment– Extinction

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Figure 3.2 Instrumental Conditioning

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Role of Memory in Learning

• Memory: acquiring information and storing it over time so that it will be available when needed.

• Information-processing approach; Figure 3.4– Mind = computer and data = input/output

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How Information Gets Encoded

• Encode: mentally program meaning

• Types of meaning:– Sensory meaning, such as the literal color or shape

of a package– Semantic meaning: symbolic associations

• Episodic memories: relate to events that are personally relevant

• Narrative: memories store information we acquire in story form

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What Makes Us Forget?• Appropriate factors/cues

for retrieval:– State-dependent retrieval/

mood congruence effect– Familiarity– Salience/von Restorff effect– Visual memory versus verbal

memory

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Chapter 4

Motivation and Values



Sixth Edition

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The Motivation Process

• Motivation:– The processes that lead people to behave as they

do. It occurs when a need arises that a consumer wishes to satisfy.

• Utilitarian need: Provides a functional or practical benefit

• Hedonic need: An experiential need involving emotional responses or fantasies

• Goal:– The end state that is desired by the consumer.

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The Motivation Process

• Drive:– The degree of arousal present due to a discrepancy between

the consumer’s present state and some ideal state

• Want:– A manifestation of a need created by personal and cultural

factors.

• Motivation can be described in terms of:– Strength: The pull it exerts on the consumer

– Direction: The particular way the consumer attempts to reduce motivational tension

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Motivational Strength

• Biological vs. Learned Needs:– Instinct: Innate patterns of behavior universal in a species– Tautology: Circular explanation (e.g. instinct is inferred

from the behavior it is supposed to explain)

• Drive Theory:– Biological needs produce unpleasant states of arousal. We

are motivated to reduce tension caused by this arousal.– Homeostasis: A balanced state of arousal

• Expectancy Theory:– Behavior is pulled by expectations of achieving desirable

outcomes – positive incentives – rather than pushed from within

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Motivational Direction

• Needs Versus Wants:– Want: The particular form of consumption used to satisfy

a need.

• Types of Needs– Biogenic needs: Needs necessary to maintain life– Psychogenic needs: Culture-related needs (e.g. need for

status, power, affiliation, etc.)– Utilitarian needs: Implies that consumers will emphasize

the objective, tangible aspects of products– Hedonic needs: Subjective and experiential needs (e.g.

excitement, self-confidence, fantasy, etc.)

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Motivational Conflicts• Approach-Approach Conflict:

– A person must choose between two desirable alternatives.– Theory of Cognitive Dissonance: A state of tension occurs

when beliefs or behaviors conflict with one another.• Cognitive Dissonance Reduction: Process by which

people are motivated to reduce tension between beliefs or behaviors.

• Approach-Avoidance Conflict:– Exists when consumers desire a goal but wish to avoid it at

the same time.

• Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict:– Consumers face a choice between two undesirable

alternatives.

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Three Types of Motivational Conflicts

Figure 4.1

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Solutions to Approach-Avoidance Conflict

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Classifying Consumer Needs (cont.)

• Specific Needs and Buying Behavior:– Need for achievement: To attain personal accomplishment– Need for affiliation: To be in the company of others– Need for power: To control one’s environment– Need for uniqueness: To assert one’s individual identity

• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:– A hierarchy of biogenic and psychogenic needs that

specifies certain levels of motives.

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Figure 4.2

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Consumer Involvement

• Involvement:– A person’s perceived relevance of the object based

on his/her inherent needs, values, and interests.• Object: A product or brand

• Levels of Involvement: Inertia to Passion– Type of information processing depends on the

consumer’s level of involvement• Simple processing: Only the basic features of the

message are considered• Elaboration: Incoming information is linked to

preexisting knowledge

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Conceptualizing Involvement

Figure 4.3

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Consumer Involvement (cont.)

• Involvement as a Continuum:– Ranges from disinterest to obsession

• Inertia (Low involvement consumption):– Consumer lacks the motivation to consider alternatives

• Flow State (High involvement consumption):– Consumer is truly involved with the product, ad or web site

• Cult Products:– Command fierce consumer loyalty and perhaps worship by

consumers who are highly involved in the product

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The Many Faces of Involvement

• Product Involvement:– Related to a consumer’s level of interest in a

particular product

• Message-Response Involvement:– (a.k.a. advertising involvement) Refers to a

consumer’s interest in processing marketing communications

• Purchase Situation Involvement:– Refers to the differences that may occur when

buying the same product for different contexts

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Strategies to Increase Involvement

• Appeal to hedonic needs– e.g. using sensory appeals to generate attention

• Use novel stimuli– e.g. unusual cinematography, sudden silences, etc.

• Use prominent stimuli– e.g. larger ads, more color

• Include celebrity endorsers• Build a bond with consumers

– Maintain an ongoing relationship with consumers

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Attitudes and Attitude Change



Sixth Edition

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The Power of Attitudes

• Attitude:– A lasting, general evaluation of people (including

oneself), objects, advertisements, or issues– Anything toward which one has an attitude is

called an object (Ao).

– Attitudes are lasting because they tend to endure over time.

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The Functions of Attitudes

• Functional Theory of Attitudes:– Attitudes exist because they serve some function

for the person (i.e., they are determined by a person’s motives)

• Katz’s Attitude Functions– Utilitarian function (Drink coke for the taste of it)– Value-expressive function (Nike: Just Do It)– Ego-defensive function (Right Guard Deodorant)– Knowledge function (Advil and Vioxx)

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The ABC Model of Attitudes

• Affect:– The way a consumer feels about an attitude object

• Behavior:– Involves the person’s intentions to do something

with regard to an attitude object

• Cognition:– The beliefs a consumer has about an attitude object

• Hierarchy of Effects:– A fixed sequence of steps that occur en route to an

attitude

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Three Hierarchies of Effects

Figure 7.1

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Attitude Hierarchies

• The Standard Learning Hierarchy:– Consumer approaches a product decision as a

problem-solving process

• The Low-Involvement Hierarchy:– Consumer does not have strong initial preference– Consumer acts on limited knowledge– Consumer forms an evaluation only after product trial

• The Experiential Hierarchy:– Consumers act on the basis of their emotional

reactions

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Product Attitudes Don’t Tell the Whole Story

• Attitude Toward the Advertisement (Aad):– A predisposition to respond in a favorable or unfavorable

manner to a particular advertising stimulus during a particular exposure occasion

• Ads Have Feelings Too:– Three emotional dimensions:

• Pleasure, arousal, and intimidation

– Specific types of feelings that can be generated by an ad• Upbeat feelings: Amused, delighted, playful

• Warm feelings: Affectionate, contemplative, hopeful

• Negative feelings: Critical, defiant, offended

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Forming Attitudes

• Not All Attitudes are Created Equal:– Levels of Commitment to an Attitude: The degree of

commitment is related to the level of involvement with an attitude object

• Compliance (Pepsi at the exchange)

• Identification (Clothing, jewelry, shoes, music)

• Internalization (Apple Mac User’s, Newton’s)

– The Consistency Principle:• Principle of Cognitive Consistency: Consumers value

harmony among their thoughts, feelings or behaviors to be consistent with other experiences

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Changing AttitudesThrough Communication

• Persuasion:– An active attempt to change attitudes– Basic psychological principles that influence

people to change their minds or comply with a request:

•Reciprocity

•Scarcity

•Authority

•Consistency

•Liking

•Consensus

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Decisions, Decisions: Tactical Communications Options

• Who will be the source of the message?– Man, woman, child, celebrity, athlete?

• How should message be constructed?– Emphasize negative consequences?– Direct comparison with competition?– Present a fantasy?

• What media will transmit the message?– Print ad, television, door-to-door, Web site?

• What are the characteristics of the target market?– Young, old, frustrated, status-oriented?

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The Traditional Communications Model

Figure 8.1

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An Updated Communications Model

Figure 8.2

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The Source

• Source effects: A message will have different effects if communicated by a different source.

• Two important source characteristics:– Credibility and Attractiveness

• Source credibility: A source’s perceived expertise, objectivity, or trustworthiness.

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The Source (cont.)

• Building Credibility: Credibility can be enhanced if the source’s qualifications are relevant to the product.

• Hype versus Buzz: The Corporate Paradox– Corporate Paradox: The more involved a company appears

to be in the dissemination of news about its products, the less credible it becomes.

• Buzz: Word of mouth, viewed as authentic

• Hype: Corporate propaganda, viewed as inauthentic

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Sending the Message

• Repetition:– Mere Exposure: People tend to like things that are

more familiar to them, even if they are not keen on them initially.

– Habituation: Consumer no longer pays attention to the stimulus because of boredom or fatigue

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Constructing the Argument

• One- Versus Two-Sided Arguments:– Supportive argument: Presents only positive

arguments – Two-sided message: Presents positive and negative

info

• Comparative Advertising:– A strategy in which a message compares two or

more recognized brands and compares them on the basis of attributes.

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Types of Message Appeals• Emotional Versus Rational Appeals:

– Choice depends on the nature of the product and the type of relationship that consumers have with it

– Recall of ad content tends to be better for “thinking” rather than “feeling” ads

• Sexual Appeals:– Sex draws attention to the ad but may be counterproductive

unless the product itself is related to sex

• Humorous Appeals:– Distraction: Humorous ads inhibit the consumer from

counterarguing (thinking of reasons not to agree with the message), increasing the likelihood of message acceptance

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The Source vs. The Message:Sell the Steak or the Sizzle?

• Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM): – Assumes that once a customer receives a message, he or

she begins to process it.

• The Central Route to Persuasion:– The processing route taken under conditions of high

involvement– Cognitive Responses

• The Peripheral Route to Persuasion– The processing route taken under conditions of low

involvement– Peripheral Cues

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The ELM Model

Figure 8.5

consumer behavior

Documents

processing

marketing

web site

sensory channel

beingsixth

sensory perceptions

attitude object

maslows hierarchy