Consumer Behavior Chapter 3

Absolute Threshold

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

Adaptation

the process that occurs when a sensation becomes so familiar that it no longer commands attention.

Aesthetic Bias

product designs that are deemed more attractive lead people to think the product will also be more useful.

Antifragility

the ability to grow when faced with stressors.

Attention

the assignment of processing activity to selected stimuli.

Audio Mining Technology

a method that automatically analyzes the content of auditory speech.

Augmented Reality (AR)

(AR) technology applications that layer digital information over a physical space to add additional information for users.

Brain Drain

a deficit of cognitive resources.

Closure Principle

the Gestalt principle that describes a person’s tendency to supply missing information to perceive a holistic image.

Color Forecasts

predictions that manufacturers and retailers buy so they can be sure they stock up on the next hot hue.

Color Palette

a set of colors that represent a brand personality.

Congruence

fit between two or more elements, for instance audio and visual

Contamination Effect

people like a product less, and are less likely to buy it if another person has touched it previously.

Contestations

consumers questioning and modifying what the product or service symbolizes.

Contrast

stimuli that differ from others around them.

Cross-Modal Effect

the phenomenon whereby two different sensory systems influence one another.

Differential Threshold

the ability of a sensory system to detect changes or differences among stimuli.

Endowment effect

the effect that merely touching a product encourages us to imagine we own it.

Exposure

an initial stage of perception during which some sensations come within range of consumers’ sensory receptors.

Extended Reality

the collection of all current and future ways to extend reality by either merging the virtual and real worlds or by creating a fully immersive experience.

Eyeball economy

the argument that in today’s media environment, marketers compete for consumers’ attention rather than their money.

Figure Ground Principle

the Gestalt principle, whereby one part of a stimulus configuration dominates a situation, whereas other aspects recede into the background.

Gastrophysics

the science of eating that considers how physics, chemistry, and psychology influence how people experience what they put in their mouths.

Gestalt

meaning derived from the totality of a set of stimuli, rather than from any individual stimulus.

Haptic

touch-related sensations.

Haptic effect

the impact on our beliefs and attitudes triggered by touching an object.

Hedonic Escalation

the increased liking of each additional bite of a palatable food.

Icon

a sign that resembles the product in some way.

Illuminance

the amount of light perceived on an object; for instance, brighter lighting tends to make people more alert, which in turn encourages healthier food choices.

Index

a sign that is connected to a product because they share some property.

Inferences

determinations about an object based on information available, such as sensory insights.

Interpretant

the meaning derived from a sign or symbol.

Joint vs. Separate Presentation

refers to whether products are presented as a group or independently of one another.

Just Noticeable Difference (j.n.d)

the minimum difference between two stimuli that can be detected by a perceiver.

Location

positioning, orientation, spacing, and movement of an object in relation to other objects within an area.

Materiality

the visual texture and reactance of the exterior surface of an object.

Mental Stimulation

ability to imagine an event in our mind.

Metacognitive inference

when consumers perceive themselves to be relatively distracted by a background advertisement, they infer that the advertised brand must be interesting.

Multiscreening

using another media screen while watching television.

Multitasking

processing information from more than one medium at a time.

Natural user interface

a philosophy of computer design that incorporates habitual human movements.

Need for touch (NFT)

(NFT) a relative stable preference for touching products.

Object

in semiotic terms, the product that is the focus of a message.

Olfactory Cues

sensory stimuli related to the sense of smell.

Perception

the process by which stimuli are selected, organized, and interpreted.

Perceptual selection

process by which people attend to only a small portion of the stimuli to which they are exposed.

Pitch-size effect

the idea that pitch helps consumers make inferences about the size of a product: lower pitch in voice or music leads consumers to infer a larger product size.

Positioning Strategy

an organization’s use of elements in the marketing mix to influence the consumer’s interpretation of a product’s meaning vis-à-vis competitors.

Pre-attentive processing

the processing of information and development of positive brand responses that occur nonconsciously.

Processing fluency

a feeling of ease in processing information that comes from familiarity and experience.

Psychological Ownership

consumers feel a greater level of attachment to a product after touching it, thus boosting what they are willing to pay for it.

Psychophysics

the science that focuses on how the physical environment is integrated into the consumer’s subjective experience.

Relational Processing

processing a stimulus, in relation to the relationships it has with other events, sensations, or images in memory.

Rich Media

elements of an online ad that employ movement to gain attention.

Schema

an organized collection of beliefs and feelings represented in a cognitive category.

Semiotics

a field of study that examines the correspondence between signs and symbols and the meaning or meanings they convey.

Sensation

the immediate response of sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, fingers) to such basic stimuli as light, color, sound, odors, and textures.

Sensorialization

the process of stimulating human senses in digital environments to create experiences that resemble the real-world.

Sensory Marketing

marketing strategies that focus on the impact of sensations on people’s product experiences.

Sensory Overload

a condition where consumers are exposed to far more information than they can process.

Sensory Threshold

the point at which a stimulus is strong enough to make a conscious impact on a person’s awareness.

Shape

perceived space occupied by an object in the perceptual field based on the object’s outer boundaries.

Shrinkflation

a continuous cycle, where at some point the smallest package offered becomes so small that perhaps it is phased out and replaced by the medium-size package, which has been shrunk.

Sign

the sensory imagery that represents the intended meanings of the object.

Similarity Principle

a view that consumers tend to group together objects that share similar physical characteristics.

Sound Symbolism

the process by which, the sound of a word influences people’s assumptions about what it describes and its such as size.

Subliminal Perception

the processing of stimuli presented below the level of the consumer’s awareness.

Surface Color

when consumers perceive a product to be larger when it is presented in a highly saturated color to a greater extent than a paler hue, and are even willing to pay more for the saturated version, even though both sizes are in fact the same.

Symbol

a sign that is related to a product through either conventional or agreed-on associations.

Vestibular System

the “sixth sensory system” that is responsible for balance and posture. Vicarious haptic effect, 00.

Vicarious Haptic Effect

the impact that imagining touching an object increases our sense of ownership of the object.

Virtual Reality (VR)

provides a totally immersive experience that transports the user into an entirely separate three-dimensional environment.

Weber’s Law

the principle that the stronger the initial stimulus, the greater its change must be for it to be noticed.