Consumer Behaviour Y2 Key Revision

Consumer Behaviour defintion:

Consumer Behaviour: “The study of processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use or dispose of products, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy needs and desires - (Solomon, 2020, p.22)

Key 3 process issues of consumer behaviour:

Process issues of consumer behaviour

• Prepurchase issues: e.g. decision, information, changing consumer attitudes

• Purchase issues: utility, process, experience, reputation vs situational factors

• Post-purchase issues: pleasure, utility, env. consequences vs repurchase, reputation, satisfaction

Marketing definition and process:

Marketing: Management process of identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably - (Chartered Institute of Marketing, 2009)

“The basic function of marketing is to attract and retain customers at a profit” - (Peter Ducker, 1954)

Customer perceived value formula and value:

Customer Perceived value = Perceived benefits - Perceived sacrifices

• product benefits, service, psychological vs sacrifices like monetary cost, time cost, energy cost and negative consumption

Value: consumer’s overall assessment of utility of a product/service based on perceptions of what is received and what is given

Definition of value:

Value: consumer’s overall assessment of utility of a product/service based on perceptions of what is received and what is given

Utilitarian vs Hedonic Value:

Utilitarian value: Gratification derived because something helps a consumer solve a problem or accomplish a task, with rational intentions behind a purchase

• provide a means to an end, objective and binary

Hedonic value: Value derived from immediate gratification, mainly with experience and emotions associated with consumption

• emotional and subjective, not mutually exclusive with Utilitarian, not a means to an end

Consumption definition + needs vs wants:

Consumption: process by which consumers use and transform goods, services or ideas into value, involving interaction between marketer and consumer

• based on image and personality; products can establish identity

Need: something a person must have to achieve and live vs Want: specific manifestation of a need that personal and cultural factors determine

Consumer Value Framework:

Internal Influences:

• Consumer Psychology: information, perception, intuition, attitudes

• Consumer Personality: values, lifestyle, motivation and identity

Consumption Process: needs, wants, exchange, C&B, reactions

Utilitarian vs Hedonic Value

Relationship quality: switching, share, commitment, retention

External Influences:

• Social Environment: class, media, values, family, culture, celebrities

• Situational influences: Environment, timing, conditions like physical and economic

Study with survey for happiness and meaningfulness:

“Happiness was linked to being a taker rather than a giver, whereas meaningfulness went with being a giver rather than a taker” (Solomon, 2020, p.29)

• Happiness - linked to satisfying wants and needs

• Meaningfulness - linked to expression and positive impact, potentially derived from wants and needs

• based on a survey asking about happy and meaningful lives

Consumer Culture Theory (CCT):

“Research that regards consumption from a social and cultural POV rather than more narrowly as an economic exchange” (Solomon, 2020, p.40)

Popular culture quote:

“Popular culture is both a product of and an inspiration for marketers” (Solomon, 2020, p.29)

Paradox of Choice:

Paradox of Choice: Too much choice can be demotivating (paralysing effect) and can decrease the likelihood of purchase (Lyengar & Lepper, 2000)

5 steps in consumer decision making:

• Problem recognition

• Information search

• Alternative evaluation

• Product choice

• Outcomes

Step 1 of Consumer Decision Making - Problem Recognition:

Step 1 - Problem Recognition (example, wanting a new TV)

Occurs when we experience a significant difference between our current state of affairs and some state we desire (Solomon, 2020, p.342)

• caused by opportunity recognition (ideal high actual normal)

• caused by need recognition (ideal normal actual low)

“A study in Finland showed that when one of a person’s 10 nearest neighbours bought a car, the odds that the person would buy a car of the same make during the next week and a half jumped 86%” (Leonhardt, 2005)

Step 2 of Consumer Decision Making - Information Search:

• Process by which we survey the environment for appropriate data to make a reasonable decision

• Ongoing, prepurchase, internal ( knowledge retrieval) , external search

• Factors influencing information search effort:

  • personal, perceived risk, situational factors, attitude, time

Step 3 of Consumer Decision Making - Evaluate Alternative:

Step 3 - Evaluate Alternative

• known vs unknown, acceptable vs unacceptable, indifferent vs overlooked —> purchase

Step 4 and 5 of Consumer Decision Making - Product choice and purchase evaluation:

• Consumer decision made, but choice does not necessarily mean choosing a particular alternative

• Potential choice delay until future date, or forgo purchase

Step 5 - Purchase Evaluation

• Occurs when we experience the product or service we selected and decided whether it meets our expectations (Solomon, 2020, p.345) —> Satisfaction level

Product categorisation:

• Consumers acknowledge information and place it into familiar category

• Knowledge structure, guiding expectations and attitudes to the new product

3 Levels of product categories:

Levels of product categories:

• Superordinate category - abstract concepts e.g. dessert

• Basic level category - useful, item commonalities, considering alternatives e.g. fattening vs non-fattening dessert

• Subordinate level - specific, detailed, meaningful evaluations e.g. ice cream, pie, cake

Marketing implications of product categorisation:

Marketing implications:

• Positioning product to target consumers

• Identify competitors and substitutes

• Create an Exemplar product

• Store location and environment

Compensatory Rule:

Compensatory Rule: Allows a product to make up for its shortcomings in one dimension by excelling in another dimension

• Simple additive —> option with most positive attributes

• Weighted additive —> relative importance considered via weighting

Non-Compensatory Rule of produce choice:

Non-Compensatory Rule: If an option doesn’t suit on one dimension, we reject it and move on

Conjunctive rule of product choice:

Conjunctive rule: sets a minimum cut-off point for various features and rejects any features failing to meet this cut-off point

Lexicographic rule of product choice:

Selecting the product/brand they believe performs best on the most important attribute

Eliminations-by-aspects rule (EBA) of product choice:

Eliminations-by-aspects rule (EBA): Set cut-off points, begin with most important attributes and eliminate subpars and move on to subsequent evaluations

Mental accounting bias:

framing a problem in terms of gains/losses e.g. £50 bonus vs £50 loss

• loss aversion

• Sunk-cost fallacy

Loss aversion:

Loss aversion: emphasising losses more than gains

Sunk-cost fallacy bias:

Sunk-cost fallacy: reluctant to waste something we paid for e.g. finishing a bad movie you paid for

Priming decision-making bias:

Environmental cues that influence us e.g. classical music influences expensive purchases in stores

Default bias in decision making:

Default bias: tendency to comply with requirement rather than make effort not to comply e.g. pension enrolling because opting out requires effort

Changes to decision making in consumer behaviour:

• online information search

• Research online, purchase offline

• Moments of Truth

Changes to Decision Making - Online information search:

• With age comes reduced cognitive online capabilities ; diminishing working memory capacity

• Products bought online induce more extensive information processing than printed advert products (Schlosser, 2003)

• Consumers also requested more information when online

• Search engine optimisation: Procedures companies use to design the content of websites to maximise the likelihood that their content will show up when someone searches for a relevant term (Solomon, 2020, p348)

Changes to Decision Making - Research online, purchase offline (ROPO):

• Websites have strong search attribute advantage

  • Cross-channel synergy - online searching enhance in-person purchasing experience

• Shops have strong purchase attribute advantage, whilst websites are unable to retain customers during the decision making process

• (Verhoef, Neslin & Vroomen, 2007)

Consumer behaviour and process - Moment of Truth:

• Moments that present an opportunity to delight the customer

  • e.g. finally finding a product on a website, being offered a bargain

• First moment of Truth (shelf) : shoppers making up their minds in 3-7 seconds (Proceter and Gamble)

• Second moment of Truth (experience ): consumer’s actual experience using the product, which shapes satisfaction and repeat purchase

• Zero moment of Truth: All research consumer do online before purchased

Self concept and identity definitions:

Self-concept: Summarises the belief a person holds about their own attributes and how they evaluate the self on these qualities

Identity: Any category level with which a consumer self-associates that is amenable to a picture of what a person looks like, thinks, feels and does

Ideal vs Actual vs Avoidance self:

Ideal self: A person’s conception of they would like to be

Actual self: Refers to our more realistic appraisal of the qualities we do and don’t have.

• People buy products that align with either who they are or who they aspire to be (Sirgy, 1985)

Avoidance self: Type of person we do not want to be; consumers avoid buying products associated with an avoidance self.

Extended self facets:

• Self extends beyond the body and mind to include external objects, symbols and experiences

  • Objects and symbolic possessions: items, heirlooms and artefacts

  • Functional possessions: tools and devices that enhance capability

  • Symbolic possessions: family mementos and art reinforce meaning

Personality traits:

Personality traits: temporally and situationally invariant personal characteristics that distinguish individuals and lead to consistencies in behaviour (Baumgartner, 2002, P.286)

Big Five OCEAN model + examples:

• Extraversion: social, expressive

• Agreeableness: cooperation and trust

  • Use fewer swear words and expressive positive social media posts

• Conscientiousness: organisation and detail-oriented

  • post less and engage less on social media

• Neuroticism: emotional instability and stress

  • passive use of social media —> use negative words in posts

• Openness to experience: creativity and adventurous

  • larger social media networks

Use of Big 5 OCEAN model in social media:

Big Five Dimensions can be predicted from consumer’s digital footprints e.g. on social media —> enhance and personalise consumer experience e.g. online ads and recommendation agents

• Exploitation: e.g. political propaganda and ethical exploitation

Aaker’s Brand Personality (Aaker, 1997):

“Brand Personality is the set of human characteristics associated with a brand” (Aaker, 1997)

• Competence —> responsible, reliable and dependable e.g. Maytag

• Excitement —> daring and spirited e.g. monster energy

• Ruggedness —> tough and strong e.g. ford trucks

• Sincerity —> honest and genuine e.g. wrangler jeans

• Sophistication —> glamorous and charming —> e.g. Cartier jewellery

Sirgy’s theory (Sirgy, 1982):

Meta analysis show that “value-expressive brands” success stems from self-congruity between their brand personalities and targeted consumer’s self-concepts (Aguirre-Rodriguez et al., 2012)

• Consumers prefer brands whose personality matches their actual or ideal self

• e.g. correlating creativity with Apple or Meta

• Self congruity is about the extent to which consumers identify with the brand

Bourdieu’s Habitus (Bourideu, 2016):

• Habitus: set of instincts you don’t experience as choices such as tastes and dispositions; taste functions act as a key individual-difference variable

  • e.g. working-class preference for utility, or a bourgeois orientation toward luxury

• Luxury brand consumption is often about negative reference groups + positive ones

  • e.g. “I hate Walmart” = “I’m not the Walmart type shopper” (distaste for social identity rather than the store itself)

• Individual differences are social patterned dispositions, shaped by class position, education and life trajectory

Personal background aspects impacting identity and behaviour:

• Age: senior citizens have greater difficulty discerning misleading and non-misleading advertising claims (Gaeth and Heath, 1987)

• Gender: sustainable consumption is stereotypically more feminine; fragile masculinity when threatened (Brough et al., 2016)

• Body type: Stigmatisation of body weight, exacerbated by beauty norms and fashion systems, contribute to underserving of larger-sized women in fashion markets (Scaraboto and Fischer, 2013)

• Race: Non white US loan seekers are treated more poorly by loan officers, in which they perceive a subordinated position that limits their ability to pursue goals —> diminished self-esteem and financial prospects harmed (Bone et al., 2014)

• Status: demand for utilitarian “green” products is highest among middle class (Yan et al., 2021)

Sensation, stimuli and examples:

Sensation: The immediate response of our sensory receptors to basic stimulus (light, colour, sound, smell, texture) Consumers use sensations to interpret the surrounding world

• Touch and haptics:

  • Haptic feedback, utilitarian functions, social presence, contamination effects

• Vision:

  • product’s sensory qualities help it to stand out e.g. trademarked colours

  • Visual perception biases affect judgement of product sizes and of consumption

  • Attitude ambivalence (simultaneously desiring a food and perceiving it as unhealthy) enhances visual sensitivity to increasing portion sizes (Cornilet et al., 2014)

• Smell:

  • pleasant scents like Cinnabon places improve product and store evaluation

• Sound:

  • French wine outsold German wine when French music was played (vice versa)

  • Food sound during consumption impacts quality e.g. crackers, celery

• Price and taste:

  • increased price —> flavour pleasantness increases in terms of wine

Perception and three stages names:

Perception: The process by which people select, organise and interpret sensations; what we add to raw sensations to give them meaning

Sensory stimuli —> sensory receptors —> Exposure —> Attention —> Interpretation

Stage 1 of Perception: Exposure

“Exposure occurs when a stimulus comes within the range of someone’s sensory receptors” (Solomon, 2020)

Exposure stage of perception: Absolute threshold, Differential Threshold and Just Noticeable differences + impacts:

• Absolute threshold:

  • minimum intensity to detect a stimulus e.g. loudness of advert

    “A highway billboard might have the most entertaining copy, but the genius is wasted if the print is too small for passing motorists to see it” (Solomon, 2020)

• Differential Threshold (JND - just noticeable differences)

  • smallest change you can detect between two stimuli

• JDN impacts:

  • Price increases:

    • shrinkflation works. 454 —> 420g pasts goes unnoticed

  • Gradual changes:

    • Netflix raises price $1/month at a time, instead of $5, less outrage

  • Quality improvements:

    • new formula? customers might not notice unless informed

  • Marketer’s Dilemma:

    • little changes may be unnoticed vs major changes will be noticed

Weber’s Law, as part of Perception:

Weber’s Law: The smallest noticeable change in a stimulus is a constant proportion of the original stimulus intensity

• Sound: Increasing volume from 10 → 12 feels noticeable

  • Increasing from 80 → 82 often doesn’t—you’d need a bigger jump.

• Price (economics/marketing):

  • A £0.50 increase on a £2 coffee is obvious

  • A £0.50 increase on a £500 phone is hardly noticed.

“Weber’s Law is a challenge to green marketers to try to reduce the size of their packages / products when they provide concentrated and more earth-friendly versions of their products” (Solomon, 2020)

• e.g. makers of laundry detergent brands have to convince their customers to pay the same price for about half the detergent

Stage 2 of Perception: Attention + marketing strategies and modern challenges:

• Attention: the extent in which processing activity is devoted to a particular stimulus

• Modern challenge:

  • sensory overload, selective attention, ad overdose

• Marketing strategies:

  • Perceptual vigilance: consumers are more likely to be aware of stimuli that relate to their current needs e.g. pregnancy x strollers or illness + lemsip

  • Perceptual defence: consumers may not process or distort the meaning of a threatening stimulus e.g. smokers ignoring lung cancer warnings

  • Adaptation: degree to which consumers continue to notice a stimulus overtime e.g. repeated adverts become invisible like Beta365 or Mcdonald’s

Stage 3 of Perception: Interpretation + Semiotics:

• What we assign to a stimulus depends on the schema to which we assign it

Semiotics: the study of how signs and symbols communicate meaning

• Signs: conveying meaning via visuals (logo) , verbals (name) , auditory (jingle) or physical

• Influencing factors:

  • Prior associations e.g. red = danger / blood

  • Cultural background e.g. green = environment

  • Brand reputation e.g. nike swoosh = athletic excellence

  • Social context, personal beliefs and values

Semiotic Triangle:

• Object = actual product e.g. Nike Shoes

• Sign = sensory symbol e.g. swoosh logo

• Interpretant = meaning you create e.g. athletic excellence, motivation

Interpretational Biases of Perception: (Solomon, 2020):

Interpretational Biases (Solomon, 2020)

• Closure principle: people tend to perceive an incomplete picture as complete; we fill in the blanks based on our prior experience

  • Marketers encourage audience participation, increasing chance people will attend to the message e.g. words or letters missing

• Figure-ground principle: One part of the stimulus will dominate and other parts recede into the background

  • eyes go straight to the dominant central object in a photo, so marketers make a stimulus the focal point of the message e.g. a person standing out from a group

Motivation ((Schiffman & Wisenblit, 2019)

Motivation: The driving force within individuals that drives them to act, being goal-orientated and aiming to satisfy a specific need (Schiffman & Wisenblit, 2019)

• Marketers try to create products and services to help the consumer reduce this tensions (tension need —> consumer urgency to reduce it)

Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs (Maslow, 1943)

How can organisations meet needs?

Physiol —> Money and conditions

Safety —> Practices and health, pensions

Social —> cohesion

Esteem —> responsibility and reward structures

Self Act. —> Creativity / Challenges?

Critical Evaluation

Popular in practice, however:

• Down the heirarchy?, Time span? Do people share common needs? unclear connection between activities?

Behavioural Activation System (BAS) (Carver and White, 1994)

• Initiate Behaviour toward goals and sensitive to reward

• Positive feelings such as hope and happiness

• High BAS Sensitivity —> higher P of impulsive purchase

• e.g. jump on pre-orders of PS6, crypto

Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS) (Carver and White, 1994):

Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS) (Carver and White, 1994)

• Inhibits behaviour that may lead to negative outcomes or punishment

• Negative feelings such as sadness and anxiety (ANXIETYYY)

• High BIS Sensitivity —> proneness to activity

• e.g. stick with long-trusted brands like Waitrose Essentials

BIS/BAS helps explain risk-taking, impulsiveness and avoidance behaviour

Regulatory Focus Theory (Higgins, 2020), Promotion Orientation and Prevention Orientation:

• Two coexisting regulatory systems that serve important yet different survival needs

• Higgins higher-level motivation strategies

Promotion orientation:

• growth, advancement, striving towards aspirations, presence and absence of positive outcomes (gains vs non-gains)

• Consumers with strong promotion prefer products that offer an opportunity to grow and approach gains e.g. high-status or comfortable products

Prevention Orientation:

• security, safety; presence and absence of negative outcomes (non-losses or losses)

• Consumers with strong prevention prefer products that offer an opportunity to defend against threats and avoid losses e.g. reliable and safe products

Example of Regulatory Focus Theory (Solomon, 2020):

Consider the following two toothpaste brands:

• White-Bright: White-Bright gives you an appealing white smile.

• Drill-Not: Drill-Not is the leader in preventing tooth decay.

White-Bright appeals fit more with a promotion focus and achieving the ideal of a sexy, white smile

Drill-Not fits better with a prevention focus and trying to avoid the pain, discomfort, and inconvenience of tooth decay and related diseases

3 types of Consumption Motives:

Types of Consumption Motives

• Utilitarian motives: efficiency, usefulness e.g. Lidl+ personalised savings

• Hedonic motives: entertainment e.g. Taylor Swift Eras Tour spending surge

• Symbolic motives: self-expression e.g. Stanley Cups, Starbucks Cups

Self-Determination Theory and Motivation (Deci and Ryan, 2000):

• Customer’s preference for different product features depend on their motivation

  • Intrinsic Motivation: doing something because it is inherently enjoyable or interesting

  • Extrinsic Motivation: doing something because it leads to a desired outcome

• “Crowding out” effects: Extrinsic incentives may crowd out the intrinsic motivation for good deeds.

  • For example, monetary incentives for blood donations can lead to a reduction of the willingness to donate.

    • reduced internal motivation, finance vs good deed,

Emotions and Moods:

“A mental state of readiness that….

• arises from cognitive appraisals of events or thoughts

• often expressed physically (e.g. posture, gesture)

• accompanied by physiological processes

Moods: Involve temporary positive or negative affective states accompanied by moderate level of arousal

• tend to diffuse, isolated from events, contagious

Types of emotional influence and anticipation:

• Emotions inform consumer decision-making

  • Anticipated emotions:

    • For example, consumers may anticipate feeling regret for choosing the wrong option or wrong time to make a purchase (Simonson, 1992).

  • Anticipatory emotions:

    • For example, waiting for a vacation increases feelings of happiness compared to people not going on vacation (Gilbert & Abdullah, 2002).

Definition of Attitude (Cacipoop and Bernston, 1994):

Attitude: General and enduring favourable or unfavorable feelings about, evaluative categorisations of, and action predispositions towards stimuli (Cacioppo and Bernston, 1994)

• Persuasion is an active attempt to change attitudes, which is the goal of marketing communication

ABC model of attitudes:

ABC model of attitudes

• Affect: consumer feeling or emotion about something e.g. “I like Snapchat”

• Behaviour: actions a consumer takes toward an attitude object e.g. “ I always look at Snapchats my friends send me”

• Cognition: consumer thinking or belief about the attitude object e.g. “sending snapchat videos is a good way for me to stay connected”

Attitude strength and dimensions:

Attitude strength and dimensions:

• Strength: durable, persist overtime, withstand persuasion, influence information processing

• Dimensions of attitude strength: attitude extremity, attitude-related knowledge, beliefs about attitude object, attitude certainty, elaboration of attitude, ambivalence of attitude (-+)

Source characteristics (origin of communication) and Halo effect:

• Source characteristics (origin of communication):

  • Credibility: how much we believe the communicator, highly dependent on risk / product e.g. experts excel when we want to change attitudes towards high performance risk utilitarian products such as medicine or cars

  • Attractiveness: how much we like the communication in terms of appearance, personality, status or similarity; needs of recipient should be matched to potential rewards

    • Halo effect: Persons of high rank on one dimension are assumed to excel on others

      • e.g. attractive models are often thought to possess desirable quantities e.g. intelligence and happiness (not always the case)

Message effects and characteristics:

• Message effects: how the appeal and construction of a message affects persuasiveness including framing, emotional appeal and arguments

  • Characteristics: humour, fear and rationality used to appeal and persuade customers

  • dependent on marketer’s objectives, product nature and target market

Cialdini’s Influence: Six principles can help frame messages that affect behaviour after a request is made (Cialdini, 2011) RSACLC:

• Reciprocity: We are more likely to give if first we receive

• Scarcity: Creating scarce signals increases perceived value e.g. Prime

• Authority: We believe an authoritative source > less authoritative

• Consistency: People try not to contradict themselves in terms of what they say and do about an issue, prevalent in politics but also in marketer values and adverts

• Linking: We agree with those we like or admire e.g. those with similar ethnicities or Spurs fans

• Consensus: We consider what others do before what we decide to do e.g. fast food purchases

Message transmission via 3 mediums:

• In store screens / point-of-sale displays: impulse purchases and influencing behaviour at moment of decision

  • Digital signage at the point of sale increases the likelihood of purchasing featured products (Herhausen et al. (2025)

• Social media ads: Broad reach, demographic targeting and user engagement

  • Instagram or TikTok campaigns using videos and polls to shape attitudes towards lifestyle and healthcare brands

• Mobile apps / push notifications: personalised communication, loyalty programs and driving repeat behaviour

  • Personalised push notifications significantly increase user engagement with mobile applications, validating the effectiveness of this channel for sustained interaction (Kim et al. 2025).

The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of Persuasion

• High involvement → Central route: Consumers carefully evaluate the arguments and information in the message. This creates strong, lasting attitudes that influence behaviour.

• Low involvement → Peripheral route: Consumers rely on simple cues (e.g., attractiveness of the source, packaging, visuals, endorsements) rather than analysing the arguments.

• Higher product relevance —> higher consumer processing; less relevant requires cues and presentation

Attitude-Behaviour Gap (Mintel, 2023):

• People’s stated attitudes often don’t match their actual behaviour

  • e.g. high rates of supporting sustainability, but fewer actually purchase

  • 4/10 Americans prioritise sustainable living, despite concerns of climate change

• Positive ideas =! real purchasing decisions (not always)

Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger, 1957):

• When a person is confronted with inconsistencies among thoughts of behaviour, they will take action to resolve uncomfortable dissonance via coping and justification mechanisms such as:

  • Minimising personal responsibility (comparing action to governments / corporations)

  • Questioning effectiveness (Is climate change exaggerated?)

  • Behaviour reframing (I recycle and buy organically, so flying occasionally doesnt really matter)

• Many individuals are environmentally conscious yet routinely engage in behaviors that contradict those beliefs

Framing, Priming and Nudging:

Framing: How we pose the question to people or what we ask them to do e.g. loss aversion

Priming: Environmental cues increase a certain reaction, while we are unaware of influences

• For instance, people follow what others like them are doing

  • “Most customers choose this option” before promoting a product / The French music increased purchase of French wine.

Nudging: A deliberate change by an organisation that intends to modify behaviour, often exploiting cognitive biases

• e.g. placing healthier foods at eye-level to encourage better eating choices

Consumer habit creation process (CRR) (Duhigg, C., 2013):

• Stage 1 Cue: A trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use

• Stage 2 Routine: Physical, mental or emotional action as a result

• Stage 3 Reward: Helps brain figure out if particular loop is worth remembering

This loop becomes automatic, and the brain stops fully participating in decision-making

• e.g. gaming, shopping, cooking

Zuboff’s Surviellance Capitalism (Zuboff, 2023) discussing tracking, regulatory limits and Instrumentalitarian power:

• Surveillance capitalism: Companies collect and commodify human behaviour as raw material. Cognitive biases are leveraged to predict, nudge, and manipulate behaviour, often eroding privacy and autonomy (Zuboff, 2023).

• Continuous tracking: Everyday actions are monitored to generate predictive data using facial recognition and illustrating commodification of behaviour

• Instrumentalitarian power: Companies undermine autonomy and informed consent, turning “nudges” into coercive manipulations.

• Regulatory limits: Clearview AI (2023) collected biometric data from social media images to build profiles that could shape decisions without consent (Reuters, 2023), highlighting unchecked surveillance and legislation dodging

Pokemon GO Footfall, linking to surveillance capitalism (+ Eval):

• Collected and used player behaviour data; lures are in-game items that attract Pokémon to PokéStops, which players are drawn to, creating predictable movement patterns

  • Businesses could pay to place lures, increasing footfall in specific locations

  • Restaurants associated enjoyed a higher level of consumer engagement and positive perception (Pamuru et al., 2025)

    • Ethical issues, limiting user’s agency, privacy rights, surveillance capitalism

Utilitarian shopping value, personal shopping value and hedonic shopping value:

Utilitarian shopping value: Worth obtained when shopping task or job completed successfully e.g. this is useful

Hedonic shopping value: worth of a shopping activity when time spent doing the activity is personally gratifying e.g. this is fun or rewarding

Personal shopping value: Overall subject worth of a shopping activity considering all associated costs and benefits (Babin, Barry J., 2017)

Antecedent conditions and its economic resources:

Situational characteristics that a consumer brings to a particular information or consumption environment

• Shapes value in a situation by framing events

  • Economic resources like buying power, 3-P payments and consumer budgeting, mood, security and emotion

    • Consumer Budgeting: Mental budgeting is a memory accounting for recent spending a consumer who overspends in one category will compensate through under-consumption in another category.

    • Mood: can impact spending and satisfaction; happy —> hedonic goods and sad —> necessities

Aspects of a consumer environment:

• Physical elements: pricing signals, visual aids and aesthetics

• Atmospherics: feelings created by aura of physical attributes that comprise of the physical environment

  • comprised of functional and affective quality

• Smells: e.g. supermarkets place fresh bread near the entrance to trigger hunger and warmth association

• Music: e.g. slow tempo increases shopping time; luxury associated with classical (wine experiment classical vs chart music)

• Colour: e.g. blue environments increase perception of quality whilst warm colours with soft lighting create comfort

• Lighting: soft warm —> premium and hedonics; harsh lighting —> low prices, discomfort and utilitarian goals (Aldi)

Congruity: how consistent the elements of an environment are with one another (Babin, Barry J., 2017)

Qualities of an Environment:

• Functional Quality: low prices, selection, convenience, location, payment

• Affective Quality: treatment, colours, lights, music, odours, other shoppers

  • Social settings: shopper and product density, social comparison and mental comparison, crowding optimality

Merchandising:

Deliberate placement of products and fixtures to maximise purchase likelihood

• Eye-level shelf placement for high-margin products in supermarkets

• IKEA’s forced path layout with hidden shortcuts

• Impulse products at checkout to exploit low resistance moments at the end of a shop such as gum or chocolate

Poor merchandising, including disorganisation, laziness and low effort, can increase the sense of crowding in a store environment, as well as reducing the sense of quality and professionalism (Babin, Barry J., 2017)

Temporal factors, time pressure and discretionary time:

• Temporal factors: Situational, time-related factors that affect consumer’s thoughts, feelings and value perception

  • time pressure (Aldi), time of year (seasonal), time of day (5-Hour energy product dependent on circadian cycle)

  • Each time form represents valuable resource

• Time pressure: represents an urgency to act based on some real or self-imposed deadline

  • Consumers process less information when time is scarce

  • Fear of missing out may create urgency e.g. ads with countdown timers and limited stock

  • Price-quality heuristic (more expensive = better) —> poor judgements about prices

• Discretionary time: time not obligated toward some compulsory or time-consuming activity

  • Consumers feel a lack of spare time can be made up through convenient, personalised services such as Deliveroo —> increased hedonic value and instant gratification (vice versa e.g. cooking on free weekend)

K-shaped economy linking value perception and income:

• Higher income households continue spending on restaurants, travel and experiences; discretionary purchases retained

• Lower income households face rising costs and social shifts; the same restaurant lunch shifts from treat to anxiety

• Same economy and same products but value perception varies between affluence levels

• Primark record revenues during cost of living crisis as value perception increases although price is low, having previously avoided discount retailers

• Premium brands double down on luxury positioning, targeting value perception among high K consumers

4 types of shopping activities (AEEI):

• Acquisitional Shopping: activities oriented towards a specific intended purchase e.g. food or device

• Epistemic Shopping: activities oriented towards acquiring knowledge about products e.g. online research, website exploration

• Experiential Shopping: recreationally oriented activities designed to provide interest, excitement or some other desired feeling e.g. games console or board game

• Impulsive Shopping: Spontaneous activities characterised by a diminished regard for consequences and desire for immediate self-fulfilment e.g. meal deals, gum or vapes

  • usually associated with hedonic shopping value

  • Not synonymous with unplanned purchasing behaviour

Definitions of Ethics and Business Ethics

Ethics: Standards or Moral codes of conduct to which a person, group or organisation holds

Business Ethics: Rules of conduct that guide actions in the marketplace

Consumer Protection Legislation:

• Legislation attempts to even the relationship between individual consumers and large corporations

• Describes power and importance of consumers

• Ensures protection, credibility, decency and protection of vulnerable communities

• Recognition by producers of the importance of consumer satisfaction

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) - codes and violations:

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) - codes

• Legal, honest, decent and truthful

• Respectful to competition and must not cause offence

• Responsible to society and should not bring advertising into disrepute

• TV, magazine, radio, teleshopping, mail, online advertising, leaflets, posters, commercials

• Sponsorship, packaging, calls, public notices, political adverts, press releases

Violators of ASA:

• Ryanair (2020) Claimed to be “Europe’s lowest emissions airline” —> ruled misleading due to lack of sufficient comparative evidence.

• KFC (2018) Ad implied meals were healthier than they actually were —> misleading nutritional impression.

Misleading Advertising and Green marketing:

Misleading Advertising:

• Must be obviously identifiable, materially accurate, minimal omissions and consist of documentary evidence to support claims that are expected to be proven

Green Marketing and Greenwashing

• Green marketing describes a strategy that involves the development and promotion of environmentally friendly products and stressing this attribute when the manufacturer communicates with customers

Consumer Misbehaviour and issues of Materialism:

Consumer Misbehaviour

• Definition: behaviours that are some way unethical and that potentially harm the self or others

Materialism

• “The importance a consumer attaches to worldly possessions” (Belk, 1984)

Highly materialistic people:

• Tend to be less happy and exhibit fear of death

• Tend to use their relationships with possessions to compensate for loneliness and a lack of affiliation with social networks (Lastovicka & Sirianni, 2014)

• Form strong connection to brands via self-identity

Compulsive Consumption and Consumed Consumers:

Compulsive Consumption: Repetitive and excessive shopping performed to relive tensions, anxiety or boredom

• Behaviour is not done by choice

• Gratification of behaviour is short-lived

• Experiences strong feelings of regret and guilt

“In the U.S. between 5.9% - 10% of consumers are estimated to exhibit compulsive shopping behaviou**r” (e.g. Faber & O’ Guinn, 1992; Trachtenberg, 1988)**

“Approximately half a million people in the UK suffer from compulsive buying behaviour*”* (Black, 1996)**

Consumed Consumers: Consumers that are used or exploited for commercial gain in the marketplace e.g. prostitutes and donors

• Theft and fraud: shrinkage and countering, financial fraud, Wardrobers, counterfeit goods

Definition of CSR (Jobber & Ellis-Chadwick 2013. p196):

Corporate Social Responsibility: The ethical principle that an organisation should be accountable for how its behaviour might affect society and the environment’ (Jobber & Ellis-Chadwick 2013. p196)

Three themes of Sustainable Consumption + Stats:

Three themes of Sustainable Consumption

• Dominant set of messages were concerned with encouraging customers to consume rather than restrain from consumption

  • All of the top ten food retailers used sales promotions extensively

• Sustainable consumption theme are limited and less prominent messages

• Lack of messages and information were available at sale point

91% of millennials would switch brands for one which champions a cause and 64% of global consumers say they choose brands because of their stand on social issues

Social Marketing and CDC’s 5 key stages:

Social Marketing

Social Marketing: process that applies marketing principles and techniques to create, communicate, and deliver value in order to influence target audience behaviours that benefit society” (Kotler and Lee ,2008)

5 aspects (CDC)

• Behavioural change

  • accept new behaviour, reject potential behaviour, modify or abandon behaviour

• Voluntary basis

  • achieve a level of understanding to discover motivation and personal benefits

• Marketing principles

  • consumer orientation, appealing to motivations; planning and DM

• Identifies and influences target audience

  • appealing to diverse populations, determining values of each audience, priority segments established

• Benefits audience

  • Improvement of health, QoL and societal benefits

  • Product = benefits / change

  • Price = cost of stopping unhealthy behaviour

  • Place - opportunities and access to products

  • Promotion = Communicating via right channels