Consumer Behavior

Consumer Behavior Overview

  • Course: MKTG 3085-003
  • Instructor: Dr. Robert Schuette

Class 6 Goals

  • Reading Assignment: Chapter 6 (pages 162-172, subset of the chapter)
  • Learning Objectives:
    • Given a judgment error, identify the memory imperfection.
    • Utilize the Mere Exposure Effect to aid in campaign planning.
    • Describe how to set up a mindset priming situation.
  • Inspiration Quotes:
    • Michael Palin: "I think that all right thinking people in this country are sick and tired of being told that ordinary decent people in this country are fed up with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not. And I’m sick and tired of being told that I am."
    • Dwight Schrute: "I'm not only hoping to find the culprit who committed this heinous crime, I am praying to find this heinous culprit. And I will pray to Thor himself, if that's what it takes."
    • Michael Scott: "I have flaws. What are they? I sing in the shower. Sometimes I spend too much time volunteering. Occasionally, I’ll hit someone with my car."

Reminders

  • First research experiment or first paper discussion seminar due: Friday, March 6th.
  • Test 2 scheduled: Monday, March 9th (2 weeks from now).

Assignment 3: Associative Network

  • Due Date: 11 PM, Friday, February 27th.
  • Late Penalty: 10% lost for each day late.
  • Task Instructions:
    1. Choose 2 brands or stores you have shopped at - one frequent, one rare.
    2. Briefly name and describe the brands or stores.
    3. Create an "associative network" diagram for each brand/store:
    • Include nodes and connections likely to exist in your mind, with 5 to 10 nodes for each.
    • Example: If the brand were "Jimmy's Frozen Fishbites", potential nodes might be "salmon", "frozen food", "cod", "fried food", and "low-priced".
    1. Analyze diagrams:
    • Discuss what the diagrams reveal about you as a consumer.
    • Examine how marketing messages from the two brands or stores might impact you differently.

Presentation Topic Description

  • Due Date: 11 PM, Tuesday, March 31st.
  • Late Penalty: 10% lost for each day late.
  • Presentation Dates: Either Monday, April 13th or April 20th, 2026.
  • Instructions:
    • Write a paragraph describing your presentation topic with at least 5 complete sentences.
    • Presentation to be approximately 4 minutes long.
    • Common presentation types:
    • Conduct a consumer behavior experiment with friends - detailing independent and dependent variables, and expected outcomes. (No alcohol involved).
    • Discuss consumer interactions with a specific brand or category, focusing on consumer behaviors rather than historical context.

Types of Forgetting in Long-Term Memory (LTM)

  • Key Points:
    • Original information not maintained: Some information fails to be retained due to various factors.
    • New information not successfully stored: New experiences may interfere with past memories.
    • Interference: New knowledge may override existing information, or the reverse may occur, leading to forgetting.

Memory Imperfections

1. Transience

  • Defined as forgetting over time.
  • Key Insight: Recently processed information is easier to retrieve than dated information, necessitating the retention of effective marketing messages.

2. Absent-Mindedness

  • Caused by shallow or superficial processing during encoding and retrieval.
  • Details:
    • Encoding: Involves attention, comprehension, and transferring information from Short-Term Memory (STM) to Long-Term Memory (LTM).
    • Retrieval: Involves transferring information from LTM to STM for use.
  • Depth of Processing:
    • Simple questions (e.g., "Is TIDE a brand?") lead to less retention compared to deeper questions (e.g., "What makes TIDE different from other brands?").
    • Answering deeper questions results in better memory retention.

3. Blocking

  • Retrieval failure due to interference from similar information.
  • Examples:
    • Tip-of-the-tongue effect: Difficulty retrieving a name or concept that feels familiar.
    • Ugly sisters effect: Incorrect answers prevent access to the correct memory (e.g., Cinderella being blocked by her stepsisters).

4. Misattribution

  • Types of confusion regarding memory:
    • A. Source confusion: Remembering information but forgetting where it came from; questioning its credibility.
    • B. Feelings of familiarity: Confusing familiarity with other feelings such as fame or confidence.
    • Mere Exposure Effect (Zajonc, 1968): Repeated exposure to a neutral stimulus increases liking.
    • Independent Variable (I.V.): Presentation frequency of unknown Turkish words.
    • Dependent Variable (D.V.): Ratings of expected "goodness" of the words (scale of 1-5).
    • Result: Words presented repeatedly were rated more positively, with maximum effect observed after 10-20 repeated exposures.

5. Suggestibility

  • Misleading information can alter memory.
  • Loftus and Palmer (1974):
    • Subjects observed the same film of a car collision.
    • Independent Variable (I.V.): Different verbs in questions (e.g., "smashed" vs. "bumped" vs. "contacted").
    • Dependent Variable (D.V.): Speed estimates of car collisions given by subjects.
    • Results: Different verbs resulted in different speed estimations, i.e., "smashed" led to higher speed estimates than "bumped" or "contacted".

Memory Imperfections (Continued)

  • Types of biases and persistence:
    • Bias: Influences of one’s current knowledge on memory recall (greater detail in reading material).
    • Persistence: Involves difficulties in forgetting certain stimuli, such as catchy advertising jingles.

Minimal Thought in Consumer Behavior

  • Consumers often make decisions based on attitudes that require minimal cognitive effort.
  • Impulse Purchases: Generally happen with little or no deliberate thought.

Priming

  • Meyer & Schvaneveldt (1971) Study:
    • Procedure: Subjects view pairs of items (e.g., fleag-blurm, dog-hat, bread-butter).
    • Independent Variables: Types of item pairs (nonwords, unrelated words, related words).
    • Dependent Variable: Speed to press buttons when discerning if items are words.
    • Results: Faster responses for related words compared to unrelated words.
    • Priming Effect: Prior information enhances memory retrieval, which affects conceptual interpretations and judgments.

Schemas and Priming

  • Schemas: Cognitive frameworks that help organize and interpret information.
    • Generally helpful but may lead to biased processing.
    • Influences on Consumer Decisions:
    • Personal habits (targeting effectiveness).
    • Situational cues (contextual factors).
    • Recent information (immediate recall).
  • Recall of Kamins, Marks & Skinner study: Viewers of happy shows rated happy ads more favorably than sad ads, and vice versa.

Further Learning on Priming

  • Suggested videos on schemas and priming (accessible via YouTube links provided).
  • Higgins et al. “Donald” study and Bargh et al. “Elderly” study: Utilized to illustrate how schemas and priming occur mainly sub-consciously.

Priming: Assimilation / Contrast Study

  • Herr (1989) Study:
    • Subjects circle car names and subsequently judge a target car based on initial primes.
    • Independent Variables: 1. Type of cars circled 2. Target car brand visibility.
    • Dependent Variable: Participants’ estimates of the “expensiveness” of the target car (scale of 1 to 7).
    • Findings:
    • Participants exposed to expensive car primes rated unambiguous named cars lower compared to those exposed to cheap primes (contrast effect).
    • Ambiguous unnamed cars were rated higher by participants primed with expensive cars (assimilation effect).

Influences of Priming

  • Behavioral Priming: Other’s actions can affect individuals’ behavior.
  • Example: A two-person study (Johnston) showed that subject B, not telling them to eat a certain amount of ice cream, consumed more based on what Subject A was instructed to eat (lot vs. a little).
  • Procedural Priming: Referenced in the reading material.

Mindset Priming

  • Cognitive processes used in earlier tasks often carry into subsequent tasks.
  • Example: Participants who previously purchased a low-priced pen were more likely to choose a medium-priced pen later compared to those who were not offered the pen at all (demonstrated consistency in behavior).

Power of Momentary Mindsets

  • Xu and Wyer (2008) Study:
    • Initial task differed among groups (preference choice, attribute selection, control).
    • Dependent Variable: Willingness to buy a product during a subsequent task.
    • Findings:
    • Engaging in initial preference selection directed participants away from the just “not” option, demonstrating the influence of mindset on decision-making.

Cognitive Neuroscience Insights

  • Cognitive Neuroscience: Study of brain influence on thinking and behavior, especially concerning advertising effectiveness.
  • Visual Field Studies: Ad effectiveness increases when verbal information is displayed on one side of the screen, while images are on the opposite side.

More Findings in Cognitive Neuroscience

  • Plassman et al. (2008): Study of brain pleasure centers via MRI as participants sampled wines.
    • Without price, wines were rated equally pleasant.
    • When fake prices were mentioned, participants rated $90 wines higher than $45, and $45 wines higher than $10/$5 wines.
    • This shows how expectations influence sensory experiences and assessments.