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Chapter 2
Perception
By Michael R. Solomon
Consumer BehaviorBuying, Having, and Being
Sixth Edition
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Sensation and Perception
• Sensation:– The immediate response of our sensory receptors (eyes,
ears, nose, mouth, fingers) to basic stimuli such as light, color, sound, odors, and textures
• Perception:– The process by which sensations are selected, organized,
and interpreted
• The Study of Perception:– Focuses on what we add to raw sensations to give them
meaning
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An Overview of the Perception Process
Figure 2.1
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Sensory Systems
• External stimuli, or sensory inputs, can be received on a number of different channels.
• Inputs picked up by our five senses are the raw data that begin the perceptual process.
• Hedonic Consumption:– The multisensory, fantasy, and emotional aspects
of consumers’ interactions with products
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Sensory Systems - Vision
• Marketers rely heavily on visual elements in advertising, store design, and packaging.
• Meanings are communicated on the visual channel through a product’s color, size, and styling.
• Colors may influence our emotions more directly.– Arousal and stimulated appetite (e.g. red)– Relaxation (e.g. blue)
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Sensory Perceptions - Vision
• Some reactions to color come from learned associations.– (e.g. Black is associated with mourning in the
United States, whereas white is associated with mourning in Japan.)
• Some reactions to color are due to biological and cultural differences.– (e.g. Women tend to be drawn to brighter tones
and are more sensitive to subtle shadings and patterns)
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Perceptions of Color
This ad campaign by
the San Francisco
Ballet uses color
perceptions to get urban
sophisticates to add
classical dance to their
packed entertainment
itineraries.
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Sensory Perceptions - Vision
• Color plays a dominant role in Web page design.
• Saturated colors (green, yellow, orange, and cyan) are considered the best to capture attention.– Don’t overdo it. Extensive use of saturated colors can
overwhelm people and cause visual fatigue.
• Trade Dress:– Colors that are strongly associated with a corporation, for
which the company may have exclusive rights for their use. • (e.g. Kodak’s use of yellow, black, and red)
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Sensory Perceptions - Smell
• Odors can stir emotions or create a calming feeling.
• Some responses to scents result from early associations that call up good or bad feelings.
• Marketers are finding ways to use smell:– Scented clothes
– Scented stores
– Scented cars and planes
– Scented household products
– Scented advertisements
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Sensory Perceptions - Sound
• Advertising jingles create brand awareness.• Background music creates desired moods.• Sound affects people’s feelings and
behaviors.• Muzak uses a system it calls “stimulus
progression” to increase the normally slower tempo of workers during midmorning and midafternoon time slots.
• Sound engineering:– Top-end automakers are using focus groups of consumers
to help designers choose appropriate sounds to elicit the proper response.
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Sensory Perceptions - Touch
• Relatively little research has been done on the effects of tactile stimulation on the consumer, but common observation tells us that this sensory channel is important.
• People associate textures of fabrics and other surfaces with product quality.
• Perceived richness or quality of the material in clothing is linked to its “feel,” whether rough or smooth.
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Sensory Perceptions - Taste
• Taste receptors contribute to our experience of many products.
• Specialized companies called “flavor houses” are constantly developing new concoctions to please the changing palates of consumers.
• Changes in culture also determine the tastes we find desirable.
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Exposure
• Exposure:
– Occurs when a stimulus comes within the range of someone’s sensory receptors
• Consumers concentrate on some stimuli, are unaware of others, and even go out of their way to ignore some messages.
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Sensory Thresholds
• Psychophysics:– The science that focuses on how the physical environment
is integrated into our personal subjective world.• Absolute Threshold:
– The minimum amount of stimulation that can be detected on a given sensory channel.
• Differential Threshold:– The ability of a sensory system to detect changes or
differences between two stimuli. The minimum difference that can be detected between two stimuli is known as the j.n.d. (just noticeable difference).
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Weber’s Law
• The amount of change that is necessary to be noticed is systematically related to the intensity of the original stimulus
• The stronger the initial stimulus, the greater a change must be for it to be noticed.
• Mathematically:
– K = A constant (varies across senses)– Δi = The minimal change in the intensity required to produce j.n.d.– I = the intensity of the stimulus where the change occurs
I
iK
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Subliminal Perception
• Subliminal perception:– Occurs when the stimulus is below the level of the
consumer’s awareness.
• Subliminal techniques:– Embeds: Tiny figures that are inserted into magazine:
advertising by using high-speed photography or airbrushing.
• Does subliminal perception work?– There is little evidence that subliminal stimuli can bring
about desired behavioral changes.
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Attention
• Attention:– The extent to which processing activity is devoted
to a particular stimulus.
• Attention economy:– The Internet has transformed the focus of
marketers from attracting dollars to attracting eyeballs.
• Perceptual selection:– People attend to only a small portion of the stimuli
to which they are exposed.
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Personal Selection Factors
• Experience:– The result of acquiring and processing stimulation over
time
• Perceptual vigilance:– Consumers are aware of stimuli that relate to their current
needs
• Perceptual defense:– People see what they want to see - and don’t see what they
don’t want to see
• Adaptation:– The degree to which consumers continue to notice a
stimulus over time
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Factors that Lead to Adaptation
• Intensity: Less-intense stimuli habituate because they have less sensory impact.
• Duration: Stimuli that require relatively lengthy exposure in order to be processed tend to habituate because they require a long attention span.
• Discrimination: Simple stimuli tend to habituate because they do not require attention to detail.
• Exposure: Frequently encountered stimuli tend to habituate as the rate of exposure increases.
• Relevance: Stimuli that are irrelevant or unimportant will habituate because they fail to attract attention.
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Stimulus Selection Factors
• Size:– The size of the stimulus itself in contrast to the competition
helps to determine if it will command attention.
• Color:– Color is a powerful way to draw attention to a product.
• Position:– Stimuli that are present in places we’re more likely to look
stand a better chance of being noticed.
• Novelty:– Stimuli that appear in unexpected ways or places tend to
grab our attention.
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Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Chapter 3
Learning and Memory
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, 9eMichael R. Solomon
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Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
The Learning Process• Learning: a relatively
permanent change in behavior caused by experience
• Incidental learning: casual, unintentional acquisition of knowledge
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Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Behavioral Learning Theories
• Behavioral learning theories: assume that learning takes place as the result of responses to external events.
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Types of Behavioral Learning Theories
Classical conditioning: a stimulus that elicits a response is paired with another stimulus that initially does not elicit a response on its own. Instrumental conditioning
(also, operant conditioning): the individual learns to perform behaviors that produce positive outcomes and to avoid those that yield negative outcomes.
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Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Classical Conditioning• Ivan Pavlov rang bell and
put meat powder into dogs’ mouths; repeated until dogs salivated when the bell rang
• Meat powder = UCS (natural reaction is drooling)
• Bell = CS (dogs learned to drool when bell rang)
• Drooling = CR
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Marketing Applications of Repetition
• Repetition increases learning
• More exposures = increased brand awareness
• When exposure decreases, extinction occurs
• However, too MUCH exposure leads to advertising wear out• Example: Izod crocodile on clothes
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Marketing Applications of Stimulus Generalization
• Stimulus generalization: tendency for stimuli similar to a conditioned stimulus to evoke similar, unconditioned responses.– Family branding– Product line extensions– Licensing– Look-alike packaging
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Instrumental Conditioning
• Behaviors = positive outcomes or negative outcomes
• Instrumental conditions occurs in one of these ways:– Positive reinforcement– Negative reinforcement– Punishment– Extinction
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Figure 3.2 Instrumental Conditioning
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Role of Memory in Learning
• Memory: acquiring information and storing it over time so that it will be available when needed.
• Information-processing approach; Figure 3.4– Mind = computer and data = input/output
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How Information Gets Encoded
• Encode: mentally program meaning
• Types of meaning:– Sensory meaning, such as the literal color or shape
of a package– Semantic meaning: symbolic associations
• Episodic memories: relate to events that are personally relevant
• Narrative: memories store information we acquire in story form
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What Makes Us Forget?• Appropriate factors/cues
for retrieval:– State-dependent retrieval/
mood congruence effect– Familiarity– Salience/von Restorff effect– Visual memory versus verbal
memory
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Chapter 4
Motivation and Values
By Michael R. Solomon
Consumer BehaviorBuying, Having, and Being
Sixth Edition
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The Motivation Process
• Motivation:– The processes that lead people to behave as they
do. It occurs when a need arises that a consumer wishes to satisfy.
• Utilitarian need: Provides a functional or practical benefit
• Hedonic need: An experiential need involving emotional responses or fantasies
• Goal:– The end state that is desired by the consumer.
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The Motivation Process
• Drive:– The degree of arousal present due to a discrepancy between
the consumer’s present state and some ideal state
• Want:– A manifestation of a need created by personal and cultural
factors.
• Motivation can be described in terms of:– Strength: The pull it exerts on the consumer
– Direction: The particular way the consumer attempts to reduce motivational tension
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Motivational Strength
• Biological vs. Learned Needs:– Instinct: Innate patterns of behavior universal in a species– Tautology: Circular explanation (e.g. instinct is inferred
from the behavior it is supposed to explain)
• Drive Theory:– Biological needs produce unpleasant states of arousal. We
are motivated to reduce tension caused by this arousal.– Homeostasis: A balanced state of arousal
• Expectancy Theory:– Behavior is pulled by expectations of achieving desirable
outcomes – positive incentives – rather than pushed from within
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Motivational Direction
• Needs Versus Wants:– Want: The particular form of consumption used to satisfy
a need.
• Types of Needs– Biogenic needs: Needs necessary to maintain life– Psychogenic needs: Culture-related needs (e.g. need for
status, power, affiliation, etc.)– Utilitarian needs: Implies that consumers will emphasize
the objective, tangible aspects of products– Hedonic needs: Subjective and experiential needs (e.g.
excitement, self-confidence, fantasy, etc.)
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Motivational Conflicts• Approach-Approach Conflict:
– A person must choose between two desirable alternatives.– Theory of Cognitive Dissonance: A state of tension occurs
when beliefs or behaviors conflict with one another.• Cognitive Dissonance Reduction: Process by which
people are motivated to reduce tension between beliefs or behaviors.
• Approach-Avoidance Conflict:– Exists when consumers desire a goal but wish to avoid it at
the same time.
• Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict:– Consumers face a choice between two undesirable
alternatives.
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Three Types of Motivational Conflicts
Figure 4.1
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Solutions to Approach-Avoidance Conflict
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Classifying Consumer Needs (cont.)
• Specific Needs and Buying Behavior:– Need for achievement: To attain personal accomplishment– Need for affiliation: To be in the company of others– Need for power: To control one’s environment– Need for uniqueness: To assert one’s individual identity
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:– A hierarchy of biogenic and psychogenic needs that
specifies certain levels of motives.
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Figure 4.2
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Consumer Involvement
• Involvement:– A person’s perceived relevance of the object based
on his/her inherent needs, values, and interests.• Object: A product or brand
• Levels of Involvement: Inertia to Passion– Type of information processing depends on the
consumer’s level of involvement• Simple processing: Only the basic features of the
message are considered• Elaboration: Incoming information is linked to
preexisting knowledge
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Conceptualizing Involvement
Figure 4.3
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Consumer Involvement (cont.)
• Involvement as a Continuum:– Ranges from disinterest to obsession
• Inertia (Low involvement consumption):– Consumer lacks the motivation to consider alternatives
• Flow State (High involvement consumption):– Consumer is truly involved with the product, ad or web site
• Cult Products:– Command fierce consumer loyalty and perhaps worship by
consumers who are highly involved in the product
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The Many Faces of Involvement
• Product Involvement:– Related to a consumer’s level of interest in a
particular product
• Message-Response Involvement:– (a.k.a. advertising involvement) Refers to a
consumer’s interest in processing marketing communications
• Purchase Situation Involvement:– Refers to the differences that may occur when
buying the same product for different contexts
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Strategies to Increase Involvement
• Appeal to hedonic needs– e.g. using sensory appeals to generate attention
• Use novel stimuli– e.g. unusual cinematography, sudden silences, etc.
• Use prominent stimuli– e.g. larger ads, more color
• Include celebrity endorsers• Build a bond with consumers
– Maintain an ongoing relationship with consumers
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Attitudes and Attitude Change
By Michael R. Solomon
Consumer BehaviorBuying, Having, and Being
Sixth Edition
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The Power of Attitudes
• Attitude:– A lasting, general evaluation of people (including
oneself), objects, advertisements, or issues– Anything toward which one has an attitude is
called an object (Ao).
– Attitudes are lasting because they tend to endure over time.
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The Functions of Attitudes
• Functional Theory of Attitudes:– Attitudes exist because they serve some function
for the person (i.e., they are determined by a person’s motives)
• Katz’s Attitude Functions– Utilitarian function (Drink coke for the taste of it)– Value-expressive function (Nike: Just Do It)– Ego-defensive function (Right Guard Deodorant)– Knowledge function (Advil and Vioxx)
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The ABC Model of Attitudes
• Affect:– The way a consumer feels about an attitude object
• Behavior:– Involves the person’s intentions to do something
with regard to an attitude object
• Cognition:– The beliefs a consumer has about an attitude object
• Hierarchy of Effects:– A fixed sequence of steps that occur en route to an
attitude
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Three Hierarchies of Effects
Figure 7.1
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Attitude Hierarchies
• The Standard Learning Hierarchy:– Consumer approaches a product decision as a
problem-solving process
• The Low-Involvement Hierarchy:– Consumer does not have strong initial preference– Consumer acts on limited knowledge– Consumer forms an evaluation only after product trial
• The Experiential Hierarchy:– Consumers act on the basis of their emotional
reactions
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Product Attitudes Don’t Tell the Whole Story
• Attitude Toward the Advertisement (Aad):– A predisposition to respond in a favorable or unfavorable
manner to a particular advertising stimulus during a particular exposure occasion
• Ads Have Feelings Too:– Three emotional dimensions:
• Pleasure, arousal, and intimidation
– Specific types of feelings that can be generated by an ad• Upbeat feelings: Amused, delighted, playful
• Warm feelings: Affectionate, contemplative, hopeful
• Negative feelings: Critical, defiant, offended
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Forming Attitudes
• Not All Attitudes are Created Equal:– Levels of Commitment to an Attitude: The degree of
commitment is related to the level of involvement with an attitude object
• Compliance (Pepsi at the exchange)
• Identification (Clothing, jewelry, shoes, music)
• Internalization (Apple Mac User’s, Newton’s)
– The Consistency Principle:• Principle of Cognitive Consistency: Consumers value
harmony among their thoughts, feelings or behaviors to be consistent with other experiences
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Changing AttitudesThrough Communication
• Persuasion:– An active attempt to change attitudes– Basic psychological principles that influence
people to change their minds or comply with a request:
•Reciprocity
•Scarcity
•Authority
•Consistency
•Liking
•Consensus
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Decisions, Decisions: Tactical Communications Options
• Who will be the source of the message?– Man, woman, child, celebrity, athlete?
• How should message be constructed?– Emphasize negative consequences?– Direct comparison with competition?– Present a fantasy?
• What media will transmit the message?– Print ad, television, door-to-door, Web site?
• What are the characteristics of the target market?– Young, old, frustrated, status-oriented?
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The Traditional Communications Model
Figure 8.1
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An Updated Communications Model
Figure 8.2
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The Source
• Source effects: A message will have different effects if communicated by a different source.
• Two important source characteristics:– Credibility and Attractiveness
• Source credibility: A source’s perceived expertise, objectivity, or trustworthiness.
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The Source (cont.)
• Building Credibility: Credibility can be enhanced if the source’s qualifications are relevant to the product.
• Hype versus Buzz: The Corporate Paradox– Corporate Paradox: The more involved a company appears
to be in the dissemination of news about its products, the less credible it becomes.
• Buzz: Word of mouth, viewed as authentic
• Hype: Corporate propaganda, viewed as inauthentic
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Sending the Message
• Repetition:– Mere Exposure: People tend to like things that are
more familiar to them, even if they are not keen on them initially.
– Habituation: Consumer no longer pays attention to the stimulus because of boredom or fatigue
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Constructing the Argument
• One- Versus Two-Sided Arguments:– Supportive argument: Presents only positive
arguments – Two-sided message: Presents positive and negative
info
• Comparative Advertising:– A strategy in which a message compares two or
more recognized brands and compares them on the basis of attributes.
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Types of Message Appeals• Emotional Versus Rational Appeals:
– Choice depends on the nature of the product and the type of relationship that consumers have with it
– Recall of ad content tends to be better for “thinking” rather than “feeling” ads
• Sexual Appeals:– Sex draws attention to the ad but may be counterproductive
unless the product itself is related to sex
• Humorous Appeals:– Distraction: Humorous ads inhibit the consumer from
counterarguing (thinking of reasons not to agree with the message), increasing the likelihood of message acceptance
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The Source vs. The Message:Sell the Steak or the Sizzle?
• Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM): – Assumes that once a customer receives a message, he or
she begins to process it.
• The Central Route to Persuasion:– The processing route taken under conditions of high
involvement– Cognitive Responses
• The Peripheral Route to Persuasion– The processing route taken under conditions of low
involvement– Peripheral Cues
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The ELM Model
Figure 8.5
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