Consumer Behavior
the dynamic interaction of affect and cognition, behavior, and the environment by which human beings conduct the exchange aspects of their lives
Basic Consumption Process
need-->want-->exchange-->cost+benefits-->evaluation-->perceived value
Phenomena
aspects of the real world we are trying to understand
Disciplines
tools that researchers and practitioners use to help them better understand phenomena
Concept
bear meaning--> vital to the development of scientific knowledge
an abstract idea or mental symbol and is typically associated with a corresponding representation in language or with another symbol (can be concrete or abstract)
Definitive concept
concept that only has one meaning
Sensitizing concept
point in a particular direction but make an individual "sensitive" to an open-ended set of concerns or issues
Decontextualized concept
-holds up across contexts
-abstract
-theory
-thinking
-about the world
Long Decay
a concept that will stick with you and always pop up in your mind
Contextualized
-placed in a context
-concrete
-practice
-interacting/doing
-in the world
Short Decay
prompt a quick burst of recognition and then just as quickly fade in the mind
Research tradition
disciplines"
a particular perspective on how we should asses reality
---- consists of
theory
method
aim
Theory
explanation which may solve the problem
Method
ways of evaluating or testing explanations
Aim
problem researcher has chosen to solve
Cognitive tradition
environment (info source)-->cognition-->behavior
Voluntarism
gather information, process it, and then act on it
"when we perform a behavior it impacts the environment
Behavioral tradition
environment-->cognition-->behavior
determinism
the choice is already made for us, we just react to our environment. when the environment changes, behavior changes
Cultural tradition
cognition-->behavior-->environment
dialectical
reality is subjective, there is no such thing as truth
Positivist-modernism
single truth
rational world
quantifiable
Interpretivist
symbolic, subjective experiences
socially constructed truth
qualitative
Qualitative (interpretivist)
discovering new ideas, observation+interpretation
small in depth samples
Quantitative (post modernism)
confirmation, measure+test hypotheses, let data speak, statistical evidence
Reciprocal causation
the pattern of mutual or bi-directional causality between factors that occur over time
Sense making
human cognitive systems are designed to interpret abstract symbols
Cognitive processing model
environment--> interpretation process-->attention comprehension-->new knowledge meanings and beliefs-->integration process (attitudes/intentions decision making) --> behavior
attention is the most important element
Involvement
-enduring: values + identity
-situational: immediate social context causes involvement
the higher the level, the more time you spend on a decision and the more accustomed you are in information processing
Semiotics
the study of signs and symbols--> how meaning is constructed and understood
Signifier
a linguistic unit or pattern
Signified
the concept that is represented by a signifier
Code
ensemble of signifiers
Semiotic field
when code is combined with a cultural context then we have this
Referent
the real world object that we use when saying the signifier
Memory-- types of knowledge
general- the knowledge the consumer has about their environments and behaviors
(how the consumer interprets relevant information
-episodic: specific events or episodes
-semantic: culture we are living in
Procedural knowledge
knowledge the consumer have about how to do things
Structures of knowledge
associative networks: organize and link many types of knowledge together
nodes: bits of information thought that can be activated
links: how we connect meanings
Schema
contain episodic and general knowledge organized together with links
Scripts
organized networks of procedural knowledge that consumers engage in over and over again
Building brand identity
when a brand is placed in a semiotic field and over time they become associated with the code that defined this field
Marketing
a process that tries to influence the spreading of activation
Capacity limits
consumer cognitive systems are restricted in the number of meanings that can be activated and processed at the same time
Automatic processes
some actions become so familiar to us that we go through the motions almost without thinking about it
Cognitive
rational beliefs about product attribute and functional consequences
Denotation
direct literal meaning (this will be similar across all demographic groups)
"use value
Emotional
understanding product symbolism
how does the product make you feel
Connotation
indirect or symbolic cultural meanings (will vary across demographic groups)
"sign value
Exchange value
use value + sign value
Accretion
with additional experience, consumers add new meanings and beliefs to the knowledge structure
Tuning
sets of related meanings are combined to create larger, more abstract meanings
Restructuring
imposing new knowledge structures
Marketer's effect on learning
present simple informational claims about their products--> hope that consumers will accurately interpret the information and add this knowledge to their knowledge structure
Exposure
consumers see information in the environment and in their own behaviors
we see 3000-5000 messages a day
Factors affecting attention
memory, context, marketing stimuli
Factors affecting exposure
attention+ability to comprehend+motivation to comprehend+comprehension
intentional or purposive exposure
actively searching for information
-recall for high involvement consumption consumers who go out and seek information
accidental or random exposure
-the result of passive learning
-most exposure is random or semi-random events that occur as we move through our environments and "accidentally" come into contact with information
Marketing implications
facilitate intentional exposure
maximize accidental exposure
Attention
selecting info from a large scale and ignoring other information
(conscious, alert, aroused)
Preconscious attention
automatic processes, familiar concepts, low to moderate involvement
Focal attention
controlled processes, novel concepts without well learned memory representations
high importance/involvement
Memory
activated needs, goals, and values
Context
the social context
we may be more receptive to information depending on the current situation that we are in
Marketing strategies
strategies are designed to elicit attention processes from a target audience
Comprehension
the interpretation process by which consumers understand/make sense of their own behavior
(varies due to consumer's motivation and ability)
Ability to comprehend
meanings that are activated from memory largely determine the meanings that can be produced by comprehension process
(what you know now will determine what you learn in the future)
Motivation to comprehend
degree felt involvement determined the level of motivation
Factors influencing comprehension
time pressure, consumer affective states, distractions, the environment
Automatic processing
simple exposure to the stimulus automatically activated its meaning representation from memory
Controlled processing
when exposed to new, unfamiliar information, consumers must consciously try to interpret the meaning of the information
(reasoning, thinking, and the use of internalized knowledge structures)
Depth of comprehension
determined by ability and motivation
Shallow comprehension
processes product meaning at concrete levels which represent the physical (tangible) characteristics of the stimulus
-produces attribute or functional characteristics of the stimulus
Deep comprehension
process produces more abstract, subjective & self-relevant meanings that represent intangible (symbolic) aspects of the stimulus
(produces value or psychosocial consequence meanings)
Elaboration process
level of elaboration"= degree of complexity of the hierarchical associative network of knowledge structure
-requires more cognitive capacity+effort (controlled thinking)
-produces a greater number of meaning concepts organized in more complex knowledge s
Attitude
a person's overall evaluation of a concept.
overall evaluation is formed through the integration process.
someone's feeling toward
-an object or a place
-a behavior
-an event
-a person
can be positive, negative, neutral or ambivalent
Implicit attitude
attitude resulting from very short response time to stimuli
Explicit attitudes
attitude resulting from information processing, a "reasoned" feeling
Levels of Attitude Concepts
-product class
-product form
-brand
-moddel
-brand/model general situation
-brand/model specific situation
Brand equity
-involves a strong, positive brand attitude
-based on favorable meanings and beliefs
-accessible in memory
-creates a strong, favorable consumer-brand relationship
Attitude tracking studies
marketers can use measures of consumers' attitudes to indicate success of marketing strategies
Key proposition
overall attitude is a function of two factors
-strengths of the salient beliefs associated with the object
-evaluation of those beliefs
Salient beliefs
-activated beliefs
-many factors influence which beliefs about an object will be activated in a situation and thus become salient determinants of Attitude formation
-vary over time or situations for some products
-salient groups: family, co-workers, peers
Belief strength
-perceived probability of association between an object and its relative attributes
-affected by past consumer experiences
-number of salient beliefs about an attitude object unlikely to exceed seven to nine
Belief Evaluation
-reflects how favorably the consumer perceives that attribute
-not necessarily fixed over time or constant across different situations
Attitude-chage strategies
-adding a new salient belief about the attitude object
-changing the strength of already salient beliefs
-changing the evaluative aspect of an existing, strongly held belief
-making an existing favorable belief more salient
Marketing implications (attitudes toward behavior)
-situational context has powerful influences on consumers' behavioral intentions
-developing effective strategies (determine weather the A or SN component has the major influence on behavioral intentions)
-measures of consumers' intentions may not be perf
Theory of planned behavior
-what if the consumer evaluated the consequences of exercise as positive; and they, and they believed the relevant theories wanted them to exercise
Perceived behavioral control
people's ability to perform a given behavior
-it is assumed that perceived behavioral control is determined by the total set of accessible control beliefs, i.e, beliefs about the presence of factors that may facilitate or impede performance of the behavio