COMM 320 Exam 3 Maryann Valentine Consumer Behavior all decisions and activities which define human consumption consumers as systematic decision makers process information and seek to maximize benefits from purchases are deliberate Consumers are social beings cultural and social memberships defines the purchase they are meaning makers in their consumption two perspectives psychological and sociological Consumer decision making process Stage1 need state when desired state differs from actual state accompanied by discomfort induces motivation to close the gab at this stage the role of advertising is to activate needs and present products and services as solutions to reducing the gap much advertising is aspirational advertising bridges the functional or emotional benefits of the product with the desired need Stage 2 information search and alternative evaluation internal and external search INTERNAL past experience knowledge EXTERNAL others info seeking elsewhere Stage 3 purchase committing to the brand and choose a source of supply where to buy it Stage 4 post purchase use and evaluation customer satisfaction ads play important roles in customer satisfaction because they create expectations for the brand performance and make consumer feel good about buying the product lots of purchases made from habit and that s good because we don t have to spend effort to come up with a solution Decision making important factors Cognitive dissonance you regret the rejected alternatives state of psychological tensions consisting in feelings of doubt and concern after a purchase is made it is typically caused by regret about the rejected alternatives DISSONANCE IS HIGHER WHEN purchase price is high there are many close alternatives the item is intangible the purchase is very important the item purchased lasts a long time 2 important factors for decision making Involvement with the purchase the relevance and importance of a purchase varies with product category smartphone vs chewing gum varies from individual to individual JEANS for example And influences how consumers make the purchase decision Experience more experience is a more astute customer BEING HAPPY ONCE YOU MAKE A PURCHASE IS THE importance not even about buying the product 60 something who are happy will buy the brand again power of negative one negative experience can off set lots of negative feelings for the brand etc 4 Modes of Consumer decision making Low experience High Experience High involvement Extended problem solving EX buying your first house Brand Loyalty EX Buying your 8th car from Honda Low involvement Limited problem solving EX buying your family a bag of lollipops EX type of pastas you enjoy eating Low experience high involvement EX choose a college family doctor travel package computer house etc DELIBERATE SYTEMATIC think about all the options CAREFUL SEARCH spend lots of time thinking about it but you haven t really had any experience doing it takes into account all of the alternatives to reduce risk Low experience low involvement less systematic search ends at first acceptable solution common products matches dish soap plastic cutlery socks lollipops High experience high involvement EX computers cars online retailers amazon search engines Conscious commitment to find same brand each time purchase is made brand names help us minimize risk and cost BRAND LOYALTY High experience low involvement Risk is small and you just waste a couple of dollars if you don t like it LOW INVOLVEMENT are not important purchases you can act out of habit same brand or you can seek variety Key psychological issues in advertising Attitude Overall evaluation of an object person or issue has two components sources or dimensions 1 Cognitive what you think about something 2 Affective emotional how you feel about it How you think and feel about something is what forms the attitude On a continuum like to dislike positive negative Brand Attitude summary evaluations that reflect how consumers think or feel about brands Beliefs knowledge and feelings consumers have about a brand EX Cadillac s are expensive clumsy to drive large gas guzzlers all beliefs you have to try to consider all beliefs about the product BUT impossible to study all peoples beliefs and research shows NOT all of their beliefs matter ONLY beliefs that matter are salient beliefs 4 most salient beliefs most beliefs when they choose something are the ones you listen to and the other beliefs as well but not as much Salient beliefs small number of key beliefs five to nine typically forms the critical determinants of an attitude Consumer psychology Behavior and decision making Multi attribute models MAAMS in computing attitude score beliefs attributes scores are weighted according to their importance Evaluative criteria attributes consumers use to compare brands Importance Weights priority assigned to attributes MAAM beliefs are not equally important multi attribute attitude models LOOK this up in textbook for EXAM Every belief is about an attribute Importance in percentages how much does each of the following attributes influence your decisions BRANDS are also compared in MAAM analysis If you have a perception score that s very low people believe they are not durable BUT IN ACTUALITY Cadillac s for example are durable Strategies for attitude change Is it perception Change belief Is it product reality Change salience o belief or promote new decision criterion Clicker question WHICH IS TRUE By knowing the persons beliefs you can predict their attitude YOU MUST KNOW SOMEONES BELIEFS TO PREDICT ATTITUDE on exam considered easy question Barriers to ad effectiveness Advertising clutter large volume of ads causes overload working against the advertising process Selective attention most ads are ignored because they do not fit consumers need state and this helps simplify decision making Total ad spending Carmakers ad spending GM Chevy Malibu Cognitive responses thoughts that occur to consumer at moment when beliefs are challenged by persuasive communication if positive favorable change if negative strengthen previous attitude Cognitive consistency strongly held beliefs to make efficient decisions resist change Key Psychological processes how people mentally process ads information the Elaboration likelihood model The way we process information defines the routes to attitude change Two types of information processing 1 Central route full attention is devoted to the message people read everything