Customer Insights
INTRODUCTION TO CONSUMER BEHAVIOR:
Shopping addiction
with online shopping you have a dopamine kick (when its arriving) and many people are too
lazy to return goods, that they shopped online because the goods were cheaper than the effort
to return them (print label, go to post) → we are running out of place to put the trash
Definition: Consumer Behavior?
“The study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use, or
dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and desires.”
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= process
o the entire consumption process influences consumers before, during and
after the purchase - not a single moment of buying things
Definition: Consumer
= person who identifies a need or desire, makes a purchase, and then disposes of a product
during the 3 stages of the consumption process – prepurchase, purchase, post purchase
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consumers evaluate products by appearance, taste, texture, smell
Consumption communities
o conversations with others to transmit product information,
recommendations, warnings, .. → big influence on consumer decision
o online consumption communities became popular with the growth of the
internet
o pressure on group members to buy group-approved things (being in or out)
The Customer Journey
Customer Journey breaks customer experience in 3 stages: → all 3 stages need to be in a line
together to make a customer behave
Definition: Touchpoint = contact point; every time a customer comes in contact with your
brand (before, during or after purchase)
1. Brand owned touchpoints
= designed and managed by the firm & under the firm’s control
o Brand-owned media (e.g., advertising, websites, loyalty programs)
o Brand-controlled elements of the marketing mix (e.g., attributes of product,
packaging, service, price, convenience, sales force)
2. Partner owned touchpoints
= jointly designed, managed, or controlled by the firm and one or more of its
partners → company less control of these touchpoints
o partners: e.g. marketing agencies, distribution partners, communication channel
partners, loyalty program partners (e.g., Payback)
o customers reaction depends on these partners
3. Customer owned touchpoints
= not influenced or controlled by the firm or its partners
o Customer preferences and choices (e.g., payment method)
o Customer co-creation
o Social media (in 2015, more than 100 mio. product instruction videos were
watched in US)
o self-service technologies (e.g.McDonalds; ordering products by clicking on
screen) → McDonalds has no control how good people are at ordering; it
depends on customers skills and motivation → company has no control/ can’t
manage whether customer will succeed ordering sth or not
o e.g. online banking for parents, or grandparents would probably not succeed in
ordering at McDonalds machines
4. Social/External Touchpoints
o other customers, peer influences, third-party information sources (social media,
review sites), environments
Companies give customer everything they want: smokers get cigarettes, students who want to
drink get a drinking flat at parties etc.
→ Do we really want to smoke or has it been constructed by the cigarette company?
It is the question about the power of marketing and creating desire
Marketing Strategy and Consumer Behavior
1. Market Analysis
Company
= recognizing firms’ (marketing) abilities (strength/weaknesses), including NPD, channel,
advertising, service, research, consumer knowledge, …
Competitors
= knowledge of competitors’ capabilities and strategies
Conditions
= state of economy, physical environment, government regulations, technological
developments
Consumers
= knowledge of consumers’ needs and desires and anticipate their reactions
2. Market Segmentation (consumers are different)
1. Identify product-related need sets
2. group customers with similar need sets
3. describe each group
4. select attractive segments to target
o develop specialized messages + products for those groups
o build brand loyalty
o 80/20 rule = 20% of users account for 80% of sales
Find out who belong to your target group; which group can you satisfy with your offering:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------BUCH:
Distinction criteria:
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Demographics (age, gender, income, occupation, birth rate, distribution)
Other characteristics (e.g. differences in consumers’ personalities, tastes,..)
Knowledge of consumer characteristics plays important role in marketing
applications
Most important segments to distinct customers:
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Age
Gender
Family structure (marital status, children)
Social class and income (buying power)
Race and ethnicity (multicultural societies bring new opportunities to deliver
specialized products)
Geography
Lifestyles
Segmenting by Behavior: Relationship and Big Data
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Relationship Marketing: long term relationship between brand and consumer
Database marketing: tracks specific consumer’s buying habits and adapts offerings
Big Data: = collection and analysis of extremely large data sets, characterized by
volume and velocity
User generated content (UGC):
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Everyone can voice opinions on diverse internet platforms
the Web 2.0 is a social, interactive medium which is no longer a one-way
transmission from producers to customers
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3. Marketing Strategy
Product
= consumers buy need satisfaction, not a physical product
Price
=consumer cost: everything a consumer must surrender
in order to receive benefits of owning/using a product
Communication
With whom? What? Where? When? What effect?
Distribution
How? Where? When?
Service
= Auxiliary or peripheral activities that are performed to enhance the primary product
4. Consumer Decision Process
5. Outcomes
Firm outcomes
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Product/Brand position
Sales and profits
Customer satisfaction
Individual outcomes
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Need satisfaction
Injurious consumption (schädigender Verbrauch)
Society outcomes
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Economic (BIP increases)
Physical environment
Social welfare
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Marketing Impact on Consumers:
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Popular culture is both a product of and an inspiration for marketers
Marketers play significant role in our view of the world and how we live in it
Role Theory:
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Much consumer behavior resembles actions in a play
Marketers provide props to play the role
Brand / product relationships:
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Self-concept attachment → Product helps to establish user’s identity
Nostalgic attachment → Product serves as a link with a past self
Interdependence → product is part of user’s daily routine
Love → product elicits emotional bonds
Interdisciplinary Research Issues in Consumer Behavior:
Consumer researchers can be found in manufacturing, retail, marketing, governments,
nonprofit organizations, colleges, universities, laboratories conducting experiments,
interviews
Table illustrates how we can approach a “simple” topic (magazine usage) from a range of
perspectives
Micro consumer behavior topics → focus on individual consumer
Macro consumer behavior topics → focus on social: collective activities that occur among
larger groups of people, e.g. consumption patterns that members of a culture/subculture share
2 perspectives on consumer research:
1) POSITIVISM (modernism)
o emphasizes that human reason is supreme and there is a single, objective
truth that science can discover
o encourages to stress the function of objects, to celebrate technology and regard
the world as rational, ordered with clearly defined past, present and future
2) INTERPRETIVISM (postmodernism)
o Society emphasizes science and technology too much
o Ordered and rational view of behavior denies or ignores the complex social
and cultural world
o Too much emphasis on material well-being
o Stresses homogenous views of a culture dominated by (dead) white males
o Importance of symbolic, subjective experience
o Meaning is in the mind of a person → construct own meanings based on
unique experiences
o No right or wrong
o World is pastiche (or mixture of images and ideas)
o Rejects the value we assign to products
Consumer Culture Theory (CCT)
= refers to research that regards consumption from a social and cultural point of view rather
than more narrowly as an economic exchange
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Current Consumer Trends:
= values that drive consumers toward certain products and services and away from others
companies need time launching product or reposition existing one = crucial to track not just
where consumers are, but where they’re going → forecasting trends! (bleeding edge)
1. Consumptions of experiences
o experiential purchases provide greater happiness + satisfaction because they
allow us to connect with others
o buying tickets for your fav band; more social
2. Sustainability
o e.g. new packaging; always new developments with focus on more sustainability
3. Simplification
o minimalism; owning less; remove yourself from all possessions; focus more on
important things in life; less consumption; more high quality and less clothes
o more priority on experiences rather than acquiring things
4. Diversity and Multiculturalism
o Racial and ethnic divisions will blur as people are exposed to other groups in
person (e.g. at the workplace) and online = multiculti is normal
o Inter-marriage rate accelerate
o marketing wants to show that we all are from different regions and that’s who we
are → diverse families in ads
5. Anonymity
o Data hacking, cyberbullying, advertising tracking fuel a desire for privacy, data
protection and “the right to be forgotten”
o staying anonymous as a consumer during consumer activities
o we are all very present in the internet (soc.media), people are concerned about
their data/data hacking → here are some marketing activity which offer the
consumer the opportunity to feel secure and keep the privacy
6. Blurring of Gender Roles
o more people refuse to identify themselves as male or female or state their sex
o marketing is breaking gender roles
o e.g. more gender neutral models, genderless make up brands, toys in neutral
colors for children, men in ads for cosmetics
7. Social shopping
o product reviews and feedbacks gain importance in shopping decision
→ consulting reviews before buying
o comparing prices in store with online prices (buy the cheapest)
o e.g. IG Shopping
8.Sharing economy
o mobility; trend to renting/sharing cars/bikes… (e.g. drive now)
o consumers want avoid ownership & financial costs + responsibilities that come
with it → they would rather “rent” an experience than own a thing
9. Income inequality
o gap between rich and poor impacts consumption processes and demand (↑ covid)
10. Authenticity and Personalization
o higher demand for more individualized experiences rather than buying massmarket products and services → moving away from mass product
o consumer willing to pay more → when they know exactly where it comes from
o make a mass product more unique = personalize by adding name on sth (nike
shoes, LV bag, tricot)
11. Healthy and ethical living
o focus on wellness, fitness, sustainability
o awareness of health + environmental-friendly lifestyle
o (ethical friendly produced products) → connected to sustainability
12. Interconnection and internet of things
o growth of AI, consumers are more interested in AI
o interconnection is about AI (more emphasizes in advances in technology/ how
advances in technology influence consumer)
o more products with AI that try to improve consumers life e.g. smarthomes,
smartwatches
Consumer Trends (COVID)
Health Undefined
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eating less meat and if so using the better meat
Collective empowerment
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we increasingly live in an era of active citizens, where members of the public are
ready for change and not afraid to do sth about it
started with Greta Thunberg, Fridays for future, black lives matter etc.,
Priority shift
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shared economy (cars, bikes, ..)
vintage, second hand clothing
Coming together
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e.g.. lululemon has a big community where you can talk and go to yoga events
together etc. → during covid this helps many people: talk to others, don’t be alone, do
sports together
Sustainable spaces
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how can we give back a little bit to nature? how can we live in a more sustainable
place?
during covid: many people got aware of environmental issues (pandemics, pollution
etc.) and since everyone had much time, many people started gardening home/balcony
Digital Dilemmas
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people want to hang out with friends but when they hang out they are on the phones
the opportunity that we can communicate with everyone at the same time (via
phone etc.) leads to less community in real life!
-------------------------------------------Book Chapter 1-------------------------------------------------What does it mean to consume?
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We choose the brand that has an image/personality consistent with our needs
our allegiances help us define our place in modern society/form bonds with others
sharing similar preferences
we try a product because → want to learn more about experience + grow our
personality, e.g. more likely to try a new beer brand if low expertise with it x Choice
of product also links to broader identity, e.g. ethnic group or country
SCIENCE INSIGHT:-------How the Intention to Share Can Undermine Enjoyment:
Photo-Taking Goals and Evaluation of Experiences---------------------------------------Sharing experiences with others can benefit consumers in multiple ways, for example boost
their mood and enhance their sense of meaning
If you are at a dinner and take a pic of the meal to share it on social media with your friends,
does this affect the dining experience? → effects of taking photos for different audiences
Why focus on photo taking?
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Facebook: 350 million photos uploaded every day
Instagram: 1,074 photos uploaded every second
Theoretical Background:
Self-presentation concern:
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People are motivated to present themselves to others in a favorable light
Social situations induce a desire to control the way people appear to others (
Taking photos with the intention to share them with others activates a selfpresentational motive of communicating desired identities to others
o Taking photos with intention to share them with others increases selfpresentation concerns (an inherently negative state), thus undermining
enjoyment of the experience
o Self-presentation concerns decrease pleasurable immersion in the experience
itself, thus reducing enjoyment
H1: Relative to taking photos for the self, taking photos with the intention to share with others
will reduce enjoyment of an experience.
H2: Relative to taking photos for the self, taking photos with the intention to share with others
will increase self-presentational concern.
H3: Self-presentational concern will diminish enjoyment both directly and indirectly through
reduced engagement in the experience.
Study 1: Photo Taking at a Tourist Attraction
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IV = Photo taking goal (for myself/to share with others)
DV = Enjoyment of the experience, Recommendation intention
Result: when individuals take photos to share, they enjoy experience less than
when they take photos for themselves
Study 2: Fieldexperiment
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students were asked to create a Christmas holiday album either for themselves or to
share on Facebook
Enjoyment of the Christmas photo-taking experience
Result: when individuals take photos to share, they enjoy the experience less than
when they take photos for themselves
Study 3:
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participants experiencing a virtual Safari and taking photos were either told that their
primary goal is to take photos for themselves or to share them with others or to do
both
Result: enjoyment of the experience was lower in the group where people did pics
to share with others than in the group without the intention to share with others
Study 5:
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enjoyment is the same when you take pics with
intention to share with close friends and for
yourself
but enjoyment is lower when you want to share
them with social media (distant others)
→ more self-concerned about self-presentation
In every case people took photos but the difference was
WHO will see the photos
CASE STUDY: ALEXA
1.
Choose two of your favorite brands and devise an idea for an Alexa “skill”
that consumers could find useful. How would these skills help sell more of the
brands’ products and/or increase customer loyalty?
Brand: Massimo Dutti
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Measurements → How long is the pullover, how does it fit, how long are arms
Material
Which color fits my hair/skin etc. the most?
Remember sizes from previous order
Alexa could act as a reminder and tell you when your favorite brands/products that have less
capacity or are sold out, are available again → e.g. clothes that are sold out in your size;
cheapest train/bus/flight tickets
Brand: Nike
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As soon as your package from Nike arrives, Alexa could recommend you an
appropriate workout from nike app or ask you to participate in a nike event (a run)
Brand: Gillette
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Alex could remind you when it’s time again to buy new razor (hygienic reasons)
teach you HOW to razor
Alexa could recommend you other product like razor foam, after shave etc.
→ that’s how your brand loyalty is increasing
2.
How can brands remain relevant in the Age of Alexa? What strategies
should brand managers employ to continue to influence consumer purchase
decisions if consumers become more reliant on AI assistants?
I need a new pair of running shoes, which one do you recommend Alexa?
Understand algorithm: Amazon recommendations are based on algorithms → companies/
brands need to understand algorithm and improve their ranking to appear under the top
brands and be mentioned/ recommended by Alexa
Safety aspects: voice assistants in cars are useful → safety aspect → Alexa could be helpful
while you are driving and tell you where the next gas station, restaurant etc. is
Convenience: voice assistants can be useful at home while cooking because most of the time
your hands are dirty and you are not able to read recipe or unlock the phone
Time saving: Alexa could help to save time when you think about comparing products or if
you are running late
3.
What kind of products or brands will most likely be either negatively or
positively affected by an increased use of AI assistants?
Alexa does not show just the cheapest products but those that has the most value
Alexa and other AI tools= more efficient customer service because they can compare many
brands at the same time → easier to ask Alexa than to scan all reviews and recommendations
by yourself
but the more involvement decision requires the harder it is for Alexa to come up with the
right decision for you to satisfy your need ‼ (where should I go on a weekend trip, which car
should I buy, which location for wedding?)
brands/products that require high-involvement → negatively affected by increased use of AI
→ people need to think about consumption decision very long, because product is very
expensive or has a high risk (car, house, insurance) → Alexa can’t help, consumer must
decide by himself
low-involvement products (shampoo, food, furniture..) will profit from increasing use of AI
assistants; high-involvement products not
CONSUMER (WELL)BEING
value of the health and wellness market
increases:
Today’s consumer views wellness across 6 dimensions:
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Better health
o extends beyond medicine and supplements includes medical devises, remote
health care services, personal health trackers
Better fitness
o steadily increasing over time but now people struggle to maintain pre-covid
fitness level (since gyms were closed)
Better nutrition
o what consumers think of when they decide what to eat and what not
o consumers want food to help them accomplish their wellness goals in addition
to tasting good
Better appearance
o Primarily relates to wellness-oriented apparel (athleisure) and beauty products
(skincare) but also includes service-oriented offerings like nonsurgical
aesthetic procedures
o e.g. Lululemon managed that people wear yoga clothes on ANY occasion and
that their clothes can be combined with many outfits (chic, sporty, every day)
Better sleep
o goes beyond traditional sleep medication (baldrian)
o How we sleep where we sleep
o sleep tracker apps and other sleep enhancing products (lavender pillow spray)
has become important for people
Better mindfulness:
o has gained mainstream consumer acceptance → e.g. meditation-focused apps
o people eager on finding peace and health and try to connect with themselves
consumer in every country spend most money on products/services that promote better health
→ Health and wellness market = not market for medicine help (hospitals, docs etc.)!
Increasing Trend: YOGA
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very popular → affordable for everyone, only a mat, do it at home
companies that have nothing to do with sports or yoga use this trend to make money &
sell yoga accessories (mats, bottles, blocks,..)
the market is really fragmented → big player like adidas, under armour etc. started
selling yoga accessories → difficult for small companies that are specialized on yoga
and sell yoga stuff since years to survive
Illness (Burnout)
87% with passion for their job - 64% of them frequently stressed → 18% every day
77% burnout experience = A syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace
stress that has not been successfully managed
Reasons: lack of support, lack of recognition from leadership, unrealistic deadlines
consistently working long hours
Business Ethics and Consumer Rights
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Definition: Business Ethics:
= study of appropriate business policies and practices regarding potentially
controversial subjects including corporate governance, insider trading, discriminating
corruption and CSR
= rules of conduct that guide actions in the marketplace
o standards against which most people in a culture judge what is right and what
is wrong, good or bad
o each culture has its own set of values, beliefs, and customs, companies
around the world define ethical business behaviors quite differently
majority of consumers willing to pay more for products/ services from companies
that are committed to positive social and environmental impact
Unethical Marketing
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exaggerates or distorts the truth
targets and exploits vulnerable groups (children, addictive, old people (truth effect))
marketing that is shaming
using unrealistic or altered images (models, anti-wrinkles before/after)
using negative emotions like fear, anxiety or guilt
high pressure selling tactics
Examples:
= slogan is just
= very offending, shaming not true,
= discriminating, extreme
= sexistic, extreme
Manipulative Marketing:
= when product doesn’t fulfill what it promised in advertisement
Marketerspace (= a time when companies called the shots and decided what they wanted
their customers to know and do) is over
→ many people feel empowered choose how, when, or if they will interact with corporations
as they construct their own consumerspace
protect children:
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Children = most vulnerable group → need for protection
they see ads for alcohol, gambling, unrealistic body images, sugar Children should
somehow do their own experience but help them to understand ads and make clear that
some of them are not true and extreme, exaggerated
being exposed to ads is not the only problem→ bigger problem is that we don't talk
about consequences
not allowing kids to watch ads → they will see it somewhere else → curious and want
to try it out
prohibition/permission:
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people don’t like when their freedom is restricted → then they don’t care about what is
ethical or not anymore
e.g. US wanted to prohibit soft drinks in 1,5L bottles → huge discussion from parents
side to keep it → difficult when something is taken away or sth is forbidden
Manipulative Marketing:
Do Marketers Create Artificial Needs?
Allegation:
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Marketing system creates artificial needs— demand that can only be satisfied by
products
Marketing manipulates the masses by making promises products cannot meet
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Companies „creating“ problems, that are normal in nature (e.g. reduce stretch marks
with crème)
e.g. Beauty industry = creating needs in women by promoting unachievable image and then
offer solutions to be like that
→ if advertising had never told you what a problem was and what you could do about it,
you might never have perceived it as a problem.
Response:
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Needs are biological motives and are already there
Marketing recommends ways to satisfy these needs
Marketing helps to communicate the availability of products than can satisfy existing
needs, thereby reducing consumers’ search cost
→ creating awareness that needs exist, not to create needs
Consumer Rights and Product Satisfaction
3 possible courses of action dissatisfied consumers can take:
1. Voice response
= appeal directly to the seller for redress (e.g., refund)
2. Private response
= engage in negative word-of-mouth and boycott
= by expressing your dissatisfaction to friends and boycott the product or store where
you bought it
o e.g. via social media company will see your dissatisfaction + try to compensate
you to avoid more negative publicity
3. Third-party response
= include third-parties → they can take legal action against the merchant, register a
complaint with the Better Business Bureau, or write a letter to the newspaper
o e.g. flight right helps you to get money back
The more expensive the product, the more likely dissatisfied consumer take action
Consumers who are satisfied with a store in general
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more likely to complain when experiencing dissatisfaction
they take time to complain because they feel connected to store
if company resolves problem → customers feel even better about it than if they
hadn’t complained
Companies that score high in customer satisfaction → big competitive advantage
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when product doesn’t work as expected or is unsafe, marketers must immediately take
steps to reassure us → if not: losing a customer for life
Corrective advertising
= means that company must inform consumers that previous messages were wrong or
misleading
Consumerism
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Culture jamming is a strategy to disrupt efforts by the corporate world to dominate
our cultural landscape.
o e.g. Buy Nothing Day, TV Turnoff Week → example of anti-consumerism
1960s and 1970s = time of consumer activism as consumers began to organize to
demand better-quality products (+ to boycott companies that did not provide them)
Kennedy’s ”Declaration of Consumer Rights” (1962)
Consumers have the right to ..
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the satisfaction of basic need
be protected against hazardous products
have the facts needed to make an informed decision
chosse between a variety of products and services
be heard in making and excution of government policy
a fair settlement of justice claims
acquire the skills and knowledge to be an informed and responsible consumer
to live in a healthy and sustainable environment
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
= describes processes that encourage the organization to make a positive impact on the
various stakeholders in its community including consumers, employees, and the environment
many firms try to integrate CSR into their business models → since consumers interested in
choosing brands that support causes they find personally relevant
Transformative Consumer Research (TCR) or Participatory Action Research (PAR)
= means that some consumer researchers are organizing, not only to study but also to rectify
what they see as pressing social problems in the marketplace.
Adherents of TCR work with at-risk populations, such as children, disadvantaged,
disabled, or on such topics as materialism, consumption of dangerous products, and
compulsive consumption.
Social Marketing:
e.g. campaigns for vaccinations
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Social marketing strategies use techniques to encourage positive behaviors such as
increased literacy and to discourage negative activities such as drunk driving
 researchers create public policies to ensure that products are labeled
accurately
Cause marketing = popular strategy that aligns a company or brand with a cause to
generate business and societal benefits
 consumers buy product because of its association with a cause
Slacktivism = small and relatively meaningless expressions of support for important
causes such as liking a charity on FB that substitute for donations or volunteering
 this public behavior, when visible to others, may make the person less likely
to contribute beyond that
 in some circumstances, the need to make a positive impression on others is
satisfied by the public display (like on FB), so the person apply slacktivism
and does not bother to do anything else to support the cause
Data Privacy and Identity Theft
Identity theft
= occurs when someone steals your personal information and uses it without your permission
e.g. phishing scams (people receive fraudulent emails that ask them to supply account info)
Market Access
= for many consumers, the ability to have access to goods/services is limited because of
physical, mental, economic, or social barriers
1) Disabilities
o people have limited mobility and are unable to gain easy access to several
locations → they rely in internet to purchase
o bodily limitations or disfigurements may result in real or imagined
stigmatization, so self-concept and interpersonal relationships may be
problematic
o others have mental illnesses (anxiety in public places)
o e.g. in Muc you never see people in wheelchair; impossible for them to use
public transportation → limited access to market
2) Food Deserts
o = living more than a mile from a grocery store in an urban area or more than
10 miles away in a rural area
o healthy food options → hard to find/ unaffordable
o Limited access to healthy choices can lead to poor diets and higher levels of
obesity
o this food insecurity increases number of low- and moderate-income families
who struggle to purchase the diet they need to sustain a healthy and active life
3) Media Literacy
o = consumer’s ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate
information in a variety of forms (incl. print and nonprint messages)
o not everyone has the skills → illiterate
o rely heavily on visual cues (brand logos, store layout) to navigate in retail
settings → often make mistakes
o e.g. people with language problems (foreigners) or problems with
reading/understanding (uneducated) → limited access to market (filing out
documents from local government)
Green marketing
= development and promotion of environmentally friendly products
Despite consumers’ best intentions to “buy green,” there is a gap between saying and doing
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Price = green products for many not affordable
Greenwashing
o = when companies make false or exaggerated claims about how
environmentally friendly their products are
o consumers don’t believe most of green claims companies
Dark Consumer Behavior:
consumers’ desires, choices, and actions often result in negative consequences to individuals
and society in which they live e.g. harmful consumer behaviors (e.g. drinking or smoking)
Addictive Consumption
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= physiological or psychological dependency on products or services
companies profit from selling addictive products or from selling solutions for kicking
a bad habit
o sugary drinks, alcohol, cigarettes, looking good (capsules that make your skin
look bright)
o for every problem there is always a solution
consumers create this problem by themselves by e.g. eating many sugary products/
fast food
→ question: is it the company CREATING the need to lose weight or is the company
only offering a solution for your pre-existing need
Social Media Addiction
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companies motivate consumer + make it easier to use technical devices
→ better, smaller, faster
data hacking, cyber bullying, self-image concerns,.
→ other companies offer: how to identify cyber bullying, how do stop social
media/phone addiction
Compulsive Consumption
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Compulsive buying
= repetitive and often excessive shopping performed as an antidote to tension,
anxiety, depression, or boredom
irresistible urge to perform an irrational act
strong emotional component → close to addiction
o differs from impulsive buying behavior → for impulsive you need a stimuli or
trigger, impulsive is spontaneous, reliant on the environment
more women than men
compulsive buyers have low self-control and low self-esteem
Three common elements characterize many negative or destructive consumer behaviors:
1. The behavior is not done by choice.
2. The gratification derived from the behavior is short-lived.
3. The person experiences strong feelings of regret or guilt afterward.
Consumed Consumers
= are used or exploited, willingly or not, for commercial gain in the marketplace
e.g. prostitutes, organ/blood/hair donors, babies for sale
PERCEPTION
Definition: Sensation:
= immediate response of our sensory receptors to basic stimuli such as light, color, sound,
odor, and texture (e.g., hearing tune on radio)
→ Products and commercial messages often appeal to our senses, but because of the
profusion of these messages we don’t notice most of them
Definition: Perception:
= process by which people select, organize, and interpret these sensations
→ what we add to raw sensations to give them meaning
e.g., a song triggering the memory of first dance and remembering smell of the partner
= 3 stage process (exposure → attention → interpretation):
Sensory input is the starting point for memory and knowledge.
We can store inputs such as a brand name, logo, or advertising image in memory for some
period of time, ranging from moments to years, to be retrieved for later use
Sensory Marketing:
= Marketing that engages the consumers senses and affects their behaviors

Marketers’ messages = more effective when appealing to several senses
(e.g., chips ad with emphasizing smell and texture)
How do marketers use our sensory systems to create a competitive advantage?:
1. VISION
= Marketers rely heavily on visual elements in advertising, packaging etc.
Examples: color influences how we think, feel and behave
-
-
Red: stimulates appetite, seeing red sale
signs make us want to go in shop
(excitement), danger → our reaction time is
quicker with red than with other color
Blue: creates more relaxing feelings
Green: soothing, calming, balancing effect
Hue: the perceptual attribute corresponding to a
color’s dominant wavelength in the electromagnetic
visible spectrum, resulting in our perceptions of red,
green, blue, and so on
Value: the color’s level of darkness, with low
value tending toward black
Saturation: the color’s purity, sometimes described
as colorfulness relative to brightness
2. SOUND
sound symbolism:
= process by which the way a word sounds
influences our assumptions about what it
describes and attributes such as size
MinI = smartness, cuteness
HummeR = very strong
Bmw using audio watermark at the end of ads
3. SCENT
Odors stir emotions or create a calming feeling
People process fragrances in the limbic system and is one of the most ancient system human
brain has→ fragrances are connected to memory
Example:


cards with “rub and sniff” function
ads (coffee) that make people remember childhood coffee
4. TASTE
5 basic taste:
5. TOUCH
Consumers tend to want to touch objects.



Natural user interface → e.g. Touchscreens
Endowment effect
o = people tend to value a good more when they own it
o shoppers encourage people to try products, which encourages people to imagine
they own it
o sellers want higher price for item than buyers are willing to pay (eBay) because
sellers experience a loss of possessing an item/ self-threat
Branding
o Haptics used in branding
o haptic senses seem to moderate the relationship between product experience and
judgement confidence
o we are more sure about what we perceive when we can touch it
→ power of touch
The 3 Stages of Perception
Perception is a 3 stage process that translates raw stimuli into meaning.
raw stimuli/ sensory input → Exposure → Attention → Interpretation
Definition: EXPOSURE
= occurs when a stimulus comes within the range of someone’s sensory receptor


we may concentrate on some stimuli and ignore others
Stimuli might be above or under a sensory threshold
Psychophysics:
= focuses on how people integrate environment into their personal subjective world
Sensory Thresholds:
1. Absolute threshold
o = the minimum amount of intensity/stimulation that is needed for a person to
detect a difference between something and nothing (on a sensory channel)
o e.g. when stimulus is perceived by hearing, it must have certain volume to be
heard
2. Differential threshold
o the ability of a sensory system to detect changes in or differences between
two stimuli
o the intensity difference needed between two stimuli before people can perceive
that the stimuli are different (Just Noticeable Difference)
o e.g. changing brand logo
 Weber’s Law
= the stronger the initial stimulus, the greater the change must be for
the second stimulus to be perceived as different
 In general, we are more likely to notice stimuli that differ from others
around them
 Companies try to camouflage price increases by shrinking package size
3. Subliminal Perception:
o Stimulus below the level of consumer’s awareness/absolute threshold
 Subliminal = not sufficiently intense to be detected
o Marketers want to create messages above consumer’s thresholds, but a lot of
people believe in the existence of subliminal advertising
Discouraging factors:
-
Difficult to reach people with low and high thresholds:
o individual differences between people in threshold levels
if ad → undetectable for low threshold level person, it wouldn’t even be
subliminal or slightly noticeable for higher threshold level person
-
Advertisers lack control over consumers’ distance and position from a screen
Definition: Selective Exposure:
= consumers control their exposure to marketing stimuli:



avoid ads for offerings they do not use
avoid or mentally block out ads they have seen before
avoid stimuli they find distracting
→ consumer decides what he/she wants to see if exposure is annoying it can create negative
effects
Reasons to avoid stimuli:



too much information
not relevant (you already have your fav brand, men/child product)
familiarity
e.g. Whiskey Amazon:
Whiskey is Top 5 category for gifting in DE but Germans do not buy Whiskey on Amazon
Solution: awareness through appealing exposure
→ landing page: shoppable video
→ to simplify customer experience: product selector that make it easier for customers to find
the right Whiskey by answering a few questions on their preference and taste
audience strategy:


draw awareness + consideration with placements on amazon.de, fire TV etc. to help
existing and new customers to discover Diagos (Whiskey manufacturer) range
Display and Video ads to engage audiences on and off amazon
Definition: ATTENTION
= refers to the extent to which processing activity is devoted to a particular stimulus
= the amount of mental activity that a consumer devotes to a stimulus


Consumers often experience sensory overload
o exposed to far more information than can be processed
much of this bombardment comes from commercial sources, and competition for our
attention steadily increases
Limited capacity to process information → consumers are selective about what they pay
attention to:
Perceptual selection
= people attend to only a small portion of the stimuli to which they are exposed
Personal Selection Factors

Perceptual vigilance
= consumers are more likely to be aware of stimuli that relate to their current needs
e.g. if I am hungry I look more at food ads

Perceptual defense
= consumers tend to see what they want to see
—and don’t see what they don’t want to see
e.g. if a stimulus is a threat we don’t process it (smokers and anti-smoke campaigns)

Adaptation/Habituation
= degree to which consumers continue to notice a stimulus over time
= occurs when we no longer pay attention to a stimulus over time because is too
familiar
o the more familiar an stimulus gets, the more it’s attention getting ability
decreases
Several factors can lead to adaptation:
-
Intensity
less-intense stimuli (e.g. soft sounds) habituate because they have less sensory impact
-
Discrimination
— simple stimuli habituate because they do not require attention to detail
Exposure
—frequently encountered stimuli habituate as the rate of exposure increases
Relevance
—stimuli that are irrelevant/unimportant habituate because they fail to attract attention
Stimulus Selection Factors:
In addition to the receiver’s mind-set, characteristics of the stimulus itself play important
role to determine what we notice and what we ignore.
In general, we are more likely to notice stimuli that differ from others around them
(remember Weber’s Law).




Size (big) = size of the stimulus itself in contrast to the competition helps to determine
if it will command attention
Color (red) = color is a powerful way to draw attention to a product or to give it a
distinct identity
Position = stimuli that are in places where we’re more likely to look (competition
among suppliers to have their brands displayed at eye level in stores)
Novelty = intensifies our experiences
→ stimuli that appear in unexpected ways or places tend to grab our attention
Definition: INTERPRETATION
= refers to the meanings we assign to sensory stimuli

many of these meanings depend on our socialization within a society:
o even sensory perception is culturally specific

the meaning we assign to a stimulus depends on the schema, or set of beliefs, to
which we assign it
→ this leads us to compare stimulus to other similar ones we encountered in the past

Perceptual Relativity
o perception is always relative, every stimulus
is interpreted relatively to sth
o the same stimulus can be interpreted different
depending with what it is compared


1. Cognitive Interpretation
= process whereby stimuli are placed into existing categories of meaning
 2. Affective Interpretation
= the emotional or feeling response triggered by a stimulus
 Sadness
 Fear
 Anger
3. Semiotics
= the study of signs and symbols
o when we try to “make sense” of a marketing stimulus we interpret it in light of our
prior associations
o To help them understand how consumers interpret the meanings of symbols, some
marketers turn to semiotics, a discipline that studies the correspondence
between signs and symbols and their roles in how we assign meanings
o Semiotics is a key link to consumer behavior because consumers use products to
express their social identities
o e.g. emojis
From semiotic perspective:
every marketing message has 3 basic components: object, sign/symbol, interpretant



Object = product that is the focus of the message (e.g., Marlboro cigarettes)
Sign = the sensory image that represents the intended meanings of the object
(e.g., the Marlboro cowboy)
o signs relate to objects in one of 3 ways: they can resemble objects,
connect to them, or tie to them conventionally
o icon is a sign that resembles the product in some way
(e.g., Ford Mustang has a galloping horse on the hood)
o index is a sign that connects to a product because they share some
property (e.g., pine tree on some of Procter & Gamble’s Spic and Span
cleanser products conveys the shared property of fresh scent)
o symbol is a sign that relates to a product by either conventional or
agreed-on associations
Interpretant = the meaning we derive from the sign (e.g., rugged,
individualistic, American)
Hyperreality
Advertisers create new relationships between
objects and interpretants when they invent
connections between products and benefits,
e.g. when ad equates Marlboro cigarettes with
American frontier spirit
In a hyperreal environment, over time it’s no
longer possible to discern the true relationship
between the symbol and reality. The “artificial”
associations between product symbols and the
real world take on lives of their own.
Interpretational Biases:
Our brains tend to relate incoming sensations to others that are already in memory, based on
some fundamental organizational principles
Gestalt psychology
= school of thought based upon the notion that people interpret stimulus from a totality of
set of stimuli rather than any individual stimulus


Gestalt means whole, pattern or configuration (we scan environment for things we
already have in memory or we attach a memory meaning to that)
the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
Gestalt theory presents several perspectives that relate to the way our brains are organized:



Closure Principle:
= people perceive an incomplete picture as complete
Similarity Principle:
= consumers tend to group together objects that share similar characteristics
Figure-Ground Principle:
= one part of the stimulus will dominate while the other parts will recede in the
background
SCIENCE INSIGHT:------Humanizing Products with Handwritten Typefaces
Introduction:
Typefaces that appear handwritten are perceives as


friendly and personal
unprofessional and childish
Does it make sense to use handwritten typefaces in marketing?
Theory: Knowledge Activation Theory
Hypotheses:
Human presence: the perception that a product has been given a personal touch of humanity,
so that consumers feel the presence or involvement of a human being, even though no other
people are or need to be physically present.
Attachment: the cognitive and emotional connection of the brand or product with the self
→ activates knowledge of human beings
Study 1:
consumers sampling crispbread were asked whether they want to buy the product or not
→ the same product but one with “handwritten” and the other in machine written packaging
Result: 30% wanted to buy handwritten, 6% the machine written
Study 2:
consumers rating one of two products (handsoap in handwritten and machine written)
if you are attached to the product the effect should go away
.
.
.
.
LEARNING & MEMORY
How Do We Learn?:

(Intentional) Learning
= relatively permanent change in behavior caused by experience
o experience sth directly or learn while observing events that affect others
o ongoing process (updates occur according to feedback and stimuli)
o e.g. learning for an exam, ski course

Incidental Learning
= unintentional acquisition of knowledge
o e.g., recognizing brands we personally don’t use; baby learns to walk
Learning Theories
1. Behavioral Learning Theories




Learning takes place as the results of responses to external events
→ consumer respond to certain stimuli
consumer’s mind = ‘black box’
the only matter scientists observe is the things that go in/out of their minds
Classical vs. instrumental conditioning
2. Cognitive Learning Theories




Learning is the result of internal mental processing
consumer solve complex problems and learn abstract rules/constructs
People actively use information to master the world around them
Observational learning & analytical reasoning
Principles of Behavioral Learning Theories
1. Classical Conditioning:
= Classical conditioning occurs when a stimulus that elicits a response is paired with
another stimulus that initially does not elicit a response on its own
o over time, this second stimulus causes a similar response because we associate it with
the first one (e.g. Pavlov’s experiment– the bell as an unconditioned stimulus
becomes a conditioned stimulus CS)
o conditioning results in learning
you want to elicit a
response by a neutral
stimulus (bell) that
originally not elicit this
response (salivation):




Repeated exposures
= repetition → increase the strength of stimulus → response associations
Extinction
= occurs when the effect of prior conditioning diminishes (e.g., due to overexposure)
Stimulus generalization
= when we respond not only to the original conditioned stimulus, but also to other
similar stimuli with the same conditioned responses (halo effect)
Stimulus discrimination
= when we learn to respond only to the original conditioned stimulus, and not to
other similar stimuli
Strategies for classical conditioning:

Family branding
= products capitalize on the reputation of the brand
- consumers prefer brands that are familiar
(mere-exposure-effect)

Licensing
= companies often “rent” well-known names;
e.g., Ferrari on sunglasses/clothes

Product Line Extensions
e.g. Starbucks produces whiskey

Look-alike packaging
- dupe brands profit from popularity/ success of original brand by
designing similar packaging → consumer don’t perceive it as
negatively, they buy the look-alike when price sensitive
2. Instrumental conditioning
= occurs as the person learns to perform behaviors that lead to positive outcomes and
avoid those that result in negative outcomes



= the process of altering the probability of a behavior being emitted by changing the
consequences of the behavior
more related to our behavior → we learn of a result of a certain behavior we did
conditioning results in learning
Differs from classical conditioning:


Instrumental conditioning deals with behaviors that are under conscious control of
the individual
instrumental behaviors are emitted because of consequences that occur after the
behavior
Instrumental conditioning occurs in 3 ways:

Positive reinforcement
o where a reward is delivered following a response (behavior)
→ something desirable (+) being added to situation
→ adding a positive condition to strengthen behavior
o e.g. buy cereal box to get the cartoon character inside; getting hug from mum
after doing dishes

Negative reinforcement
o removing aversive stimuli to avoid negative outcome
→ something aversive (-) being taken away from situation
→ removal of negative condition to strengthen a behavior
o e.g. before going out for a day at beach, you slather on sunscreen (behavior) to
avoid getting sunburned (removal of the aversive stimulus)

Extinction
o not meeting expectation or lowering excitement
→ removal of positive condition to weaken behavior
o occurs when person no longer receives positive outcomes
o e.g. you taught dog to shake hands, over time trick less interesting & you stop
rewarding behavior and eventually stop asking dog to shake → response
becomes extinct and dog does no longer show the behavior

Punishment
o a response is followed by unpleasant events
→ adding a negative condition to weaken behavior
o e.g. child didn’t clean room, parents take away phone for rest of the day
Marketing tricks: markets can either apply positive or remove negative outcomes
frequency marketing is a popular technique that rewards regular purchasers with better
prizes the more they spend
2 marketing strategies that capitalize on instrumental conditioning:
Shaping



Instead of waiting for a subject to exhibit a desired
behavior, any behavior leading to the target behavior
is rewarded
the subject behavior is shaped, or molded, into the
desired form
e.g. sampling
Gamification

Gamification turns routine actions into experiences by adding gaming elements to
tasks that might otherwise be boring
e.g. Nissans website → easily build own Nissan with all details + control car in Nissan
app (battery status, climate on/off, route planner..)


Important elements: dynamic digital environment, multiple short-/long-term goals,
rapid & frequent feedback, rewards, friendly competition, manageable degree of
uncertainty
Endowed progress effect: “the closer we are to achieving our goals, the more
motivated we are to keep doing something”
Principles of Cognitive Learning Theories
The principal approaches stress the importance of internal mental processes → theory views
people as problem solvers
1. Observational Learning
= occurs when we watch the actions of others & note the reinforcements they receive for their
behaviors





attention → consumer focus on model’s behavior (= person we try to copy)
retention → consumer remember the observed behavior
production processes → consumer has the ability to perform this behavior
motivation → a situation arises wherein the behavior is useful to the consumer
observational learning → the consumer acquires and performs the behavior earlier
demonstrated by a model
Modeling
= process of imitating behavior of others
Marketing ads makes people imitate by showing models using the products
2. Analytical reasoning
= occurs when we engage in creative thinking to restructure and recombine existing
information to form new associations and concepts


we learn sth by combining pieces of information that have never been brought
together before
we form new associations by recombining existing information
Consumer Socialization
= process by which young people acquire the skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to their
functioning in the marketplace



process of consumer socialization begins with infants
little kids just observe and start making requests of products they want,
then make purchases with the help of parents and later buy things on their own
Different parents socialization styles:
Parents’ influence is direct & indirect, determine how much access to information kids have



Authoritarian - hostile, restrictive, don’t communicate well with children
Neglecting - detached from children, not much control
Indulgent - communicate well, inform children
Stages of Cognitive development:
-
Limited: children younger 6, don't employ storage and retrieval strategies
Cued : Children 6-12, employ this only when prompted
Strategic : Children 12+ employ these strategies spontaneously
Strength of Learning






Importance
= the more importance a certain event has the more/ better you learn for it
Message
Involvement
= the more you are involved in a message the better you learn (the more you find it
interesting the better you learn)
Mood
= good mood =helps to learn better
Reinforcement
= if you have positive results the better you learn
Repetition
= the more you repeat sth the better you remember it and learn it
Memory
= process of acquiring information and storing it over time so that it will be available when
we need it
(1) Sensory Memory
o = sensory inputs (perceived with 5 senses) are stored temporarily
→ encoding stage
o information is stored automatically & retained briefly: less than few seconds
o we see a stimulus but we are not consciously aware of it
o capacity: high
(2) Short-Term Memory
o if we pay enough attention, sensory information is stored in short term
memory (duration: 20 seconds) → passes attentional gate → storage stage
(3) Elaborative Rehearsal
o cognitive process of elaborative rehearsal allows information to move from
short-term to long-term memory
(4) Long-Term Memory
o if we are really interested in this information, it might come into our long term
memory, where it may stay permanently or for a certain long time
Memory Access:
Associative Networks
= every time an information comes in, it gets stored in an associative network that is like a
mind-map, containing many bits related of information
Spreading activation:
= the way we store a piece of information in memory depends
on the type of meaning we initially assign to it
-
process by which retrieving a concept/association
spreads to the retrieval of a related concept/association
shift back and forth between levels of meaning after a
marketing message activates our memory
product/brand can be stored on different levels:





Brand specific
= memory is stored in terms of claims the brand makes (it’s macho)
Ad-specific
= memory is stored in terms of the medium or content of the ad itself (a macholooking guy/sexy women uses the product).
Brand identification
= memory is stored in terms of the brand name (Axe)
Product category
= memory is stored in terms of how the product works or where it should be used
(makes me more attractive)
Evaluative reaction
= Memory is stored as positive or negative emotions (looks cool)
Levels of Knowledge
= code elements at different levels of abstraction and complexity, consumers learn scripts as a
guide to behavior (e.g steps when ordering online)
Brand Association Map
= associative network from the perspective of the brand




middle: brand that you are interested in → Nike
around middle: related concepts that are associated with Nike (some preferred, some
unpreferred) → e.g. running, nike air, price, just do it, motivation, money, spend
around these concepts: different brand attributes → comfortable, cool, better, fun,
expensive
competitors = who consumers see as the competitors of Nike
e.g. you see newspaper article about a boot found with dead refugees → under this article
appears an ad of a swim swear brand → you will never associate this brand positively
→ this went to you associative network
Forgetting
we can’t retrieve everything we have stored in memory
1. Decay



= structural changes that learning produces in the brain simply go away
memory strength decreases over time
if you don’t use the memory, you won’t retrieve it in a couple of months/ years
2. Interference


memory strength decreases over time because other memories compete with
existing memory
new information displace previous ones
decay and interference can be used to explain primacy (first) and recency (last) effects
– the things we encountered first or last in a sequence are often those most easily remembered
3. State-Dependent-Retrieval

we are better able to access information if our internal state is the same at the
time of recall as when we learned the information
4. von Restorff Effect



almost any technique that increases the novelty of a
stimulus also improves recall
novelty = surprising, unexpected
the more new, creative, unexpected a product/ad is, the more we
remember it
o we need time to process novelty
o therefore think deeper/more about it
→ which makes it easier to remember and recall it
Nostalgia
= describes the bittersweet emotion that arises when we view the past with both sadness and
longing, leading to spontaneous recovery
people enjoy recalling memories of the past
A stimulus is able to evoke a weakened response even years after we first perceived it
SCIENCE INSIGHT:----The allure of the hidden: How product unveiling confers value
unveiling = the removal of a (protective) cover of a concealed, stationary product
→ thereby the product gets revealed
Different package designs call for different ways of revealing the product


packaging that calls for unveiling enhances the perceived value of the product
compared to other forms of product revelation
the act of unveiling is associated with revealing a protected and thus pristine
object, which is consequently perceived to be valuable
Theory:
Grounded Associations and Shared Meanings
The act and rituals of veiling are associated with protecting the pristine nature of valuable
objects while unveiling is associated with the revelation of those valuable objects



veiling and unveiling have a very strong and cultural meaning that we learned
and have stored in our memory
we protect sth that is very valued by veiling it → unveiling is processed by
showing these valuable objects
e.g. head coverings for women: Men secluded their wives from the eyes of society;
protect people from other because you think they are valued; unveiling the bride in
front of altar
Consumer Contamination:



Physical contamination: consumers tend to evaluate products less favorably if
they have previously been touched by other consumers → we don’t want people to
touch the product we own
Visual contamination: happens by someone who is looking at your possession
→ e.g. at your bf in the sauna
consumer aim to avoid physical and visual contamination
Memory-Based Inferences


often rooted in learned associations or memory networks that are elicited by
situational cues in the consumption environment
e.g. you have 2 packages of milk: green and pink one → you associate green milk
package with healthier than the pink package
Hypothesis
(1) Packaging that entails (vs. does not entail) unveiling a product encourages beliefs about
the pristine nature of that product
(2) These pristine beliefs cause consumers to ascribe value to the product
Pilot Study 1:

unveiling enchances product value
Study 2:


what happens when the packaging is transparent and you have to unveil it?
when its not transparent = value was higher and pristine beliefs are higher
Study 3:

Does this unveiling still occurs when someone
A package designed to unveil an object must meet two key criteria: (a) the product must be
concealed within a protective package, connoting its pristine nature, and (b) should remain
stationary within the packaging when the cover is removed to reveal the product.
Contrasting unveiling with other forms of product revelation: unveiling has a favorable
influence on a product's perceived value and beliefs about the pristine nature of the product
mediate the unveiling effect.
Extends the notion of contagion to the visual domain.
CASE STUDY
1. What is the role of pictorial cues in this campaign in increasing the recall and
comprehension of the message?

Pictorial cues = historical events
= everybody should be familiar with and the familiar you are with sth, the easier it
is to recall/ to relate to the things that the campaign wants to say/transport




Consumer knows these events from a certain background but this campaign shows the
same historical events in a different background → interesting story; stays in mind!
Historical events brought together with nowadays phone usage = bringing together 2
things that you are familiar with but that you never met together in the same
context = that makes it easier for you to recall it in the future/ novelty / exciting
whole intention of the campaign is to convince or make people realize that using
mobile phones is a good thing (from their perspective)
imagery can improve information processing !
connecting images and with information → makes it easier to memorize and recall
2. Based on the information processing theories, what other methods could mobile
phone companies use to fight back against the negative publicity about the use of
phone?





they could show that phones connect people (distances, refugees, old friends), break
language barriers and can help you achieve your goals by doing online courses
showing scientific studies of the positive impact of phones,
 e.g. sig. decrease in feeling of fear of women walking home alone in the dark
when having a phone with you
Mobile phone can help you never stop learning: internet have unlimited sources of
data, podcasts, meeting smart people, new opportunities..
be careful = we get more stupid when overusing our mobile phones, we don’t think
much we just use google, we don’t walk and discover places we just ask maps etc.
with smartphone: very easy to access the internet from where ever we are
 back in the days using internet only at home
 now we over rely on our mobile phones
3. Do you think using popular apps like Instagram, Snap chat, and others helped in
creating more familiarity with the target audience and did it help to build brand
preference for Three?


Goal of the campaign was “mobile phones are good”
really good move to use apps because everyone knows them
 3 offer unlimited data usage → very clever to link prominent apps to their
brand (threephone)


If company can link information in consumers associate network which is prominent
and much liked by the targeted group → then company and the brand are not boring
anymore
target audience = a heavy data users
4. Think of other ads that have used historical events or stories to communicate
their message. Comment on the ad’s effectiveness in encouraging information
processing techniques.
 El corte ingles = recreated a very famous painting (old, historical) with fashion pieces
from the shop
Definition: MOTIVATION
= inner state of activation that provides energy to achieve a certain goal
- Motivation is the reason for behavior
Concept of motivation is close to concept of needs: when there is a gap between current
state and ideal state → motivation increases
1. Motivational Strength
The magnitude of tension a (hedonic, utilitarian) need creates is called drive, and determines
the urgency the consumer feels to reduce the need
Drive Theory

focuses on biological needs that create an unpleasant
state of arousal, which motivates us to reduce the
need and return to a balanced state (homeostasis)
o Homeostasis = balanced state within the
biological system

It is uncertain whether this type of need controls our
behavior but there is evidence pointing at it:
o Retail therapy: shopping can restore a sense of personal control
over one’s environment

Drive reducing behavior is repeated and the degree of motivation depends on
distance between present state and goal

Theory has difficulties trying to explain human facets:
o People often do things that increase a drive instead of decreasing it
(e.g. don’t eat even though very hungry because in few hours you will have
fancy dinner)
Expectancy Theory


here: drive = physical and cognitive process
expectations of achieving a desirable outcome motivate our behavior

Placebo effect:
= tendency of the brain to convince you that a fake treatment is real
o shows how important expectations are for our feelings, thoughts and
behaviors
o Placebo works even though we know it is placebo
2. Motivational Direction
Motivation differs not only in strength but also in direction:
Needs






basic goal
necessities
essential for survival
don’t change over time
Non-fulfillment can lead to adverse outcomes
Same across people
e.g. clothing, shelter,, medicine, food, education, social contact,…
Want






specific pathway to achieve this objective which depends on our personality,
cultural upbringing, and observations of others
desires
not essential for survival
change over time
Non-fulfilment may result in mental distress
differ between people
e.g. fancy suit, leather shoes, pool, television, ferrari,
Hedonic consumption
= multisensory, fantasy and emotional aspects of consumers interaction with products
as people’s incomes rise, they prefer additional experiences to additional possession
Motivational Conflict:
Different motives that we have can conflict with each other:
Approach-Approach Conflict (either.. or decision)


2 desirable needs that cannot be satisfied at the same time
e.g. going with friends to a dinner, or visiting yoga class / Burger or Burrito / your 2
fav bands playing a concert at the same day and the same time
Approach-Avoidance Conflict (contradictory options)


occurs when we desire a goal but at the same time wish to avoid
e.g. desire for ice cream, but wanting to lose weight; eating outside or save money,
having a desire for one goal but we want to avoid it at the same time
Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict


choice between 2 undesirable alternatives
e.g. spending money on repairing my old car vs. spending money on a new car
Solve conflicts:
1. Cognitive Dissonance:
= people have a need for order and consistency in their lives, and a state of dissonance
appears when beliefs and behavior conflict one another
2. Cognitive Dissonance Reduction: resolve conflict by choosing one alternative
3. Post Decision Dissonance:
= two alternatives both show good and bad qualities
By choosing one alternative, the bad qualities are accepted and the good qualities
of the other option are lost, which creates an unpleasant state
4. Rationalization to convince ourselves that we made a smart choice
Consumer Needs:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs




to understand personal growth
basic needs must be satisfied to a minimum level before other needs are activated
o fixed order of development
at each level the person seeks out different kinds of product benefits
last stage is difficult to achieve because most of us are satisfied with occasional
glimpse or peak experiences
It's not a short time perspective
lower needs don’t change – they remain, even if one has already reached higher needs
Critics:

Hierarchy is culturally-bound: applies mostly to Western cultures

people in other cultures might ask themselves the order of the levels the pyramid has

varies on the situational consumption and individual stage of life
e.g. people in war districts don’t care about safety: they want sleep, water and food
Consumer Needs
McGuire’s Psychological Motives
= classification system that organizes theories of motives into 16 categories
4 mains questions drive his approach:
1) Cognitive or affective mode of motivation
o Cognitive motives: focus on person’s need for being adaptively oriented
toward the environment and achieving a sense of meaning
o Affective motives: need to reach satisfying feeling states and to obtain
personal goals
2) Focused on preservation of the status quo or on growth
o preservation motives: emphasize the individual as striving to maintain
equilibrium
o growth motives: emphasize development
3) Behavior actively initiated or in response to the environment (passive)
4) Behavior helps achieve a new internal or external relationship to the environment
1. Cognitive Preservation Motives → environ. orientation, achieve sense of meaning; equilibrium
Internal
External
Active
Passive
Need for Consistency:
Need to Categorize:
means consumers are reluctant to accept
information that disagrees with
existing beliefs.
Market message related to attitude change
(using credible sources like expert to
change viewpoints)
Prices can help categorize products
(the higher price, the better quality is
presumed)
9,99$ or 19,95$ prices try to avoid being
categorized in the over 10$, … group
Need for Attribution:
Need for Objectification:
consumers need to determine who or
what causes what happen to them
Need to observable cues or symbols that
enable people to infer what they feel and
know.
That’s why they are reluctant to
sales ads and marketers tend to use a
credible spokesperson to counter this.
Clothing: used as a subtle meaning
of a desired image for consumers.
2. Cognitive Growth Motives → environ. orientation, achieve sense of meaning; development
Internal
External
Active
Passive
Need for Autonomy:
Theological Need:
can be rooted in culture
Americans value products that are
unique (limited edition; wide
variety; customization options)
we have images of desired outcomes to
which we compare our current situation.
That’s why people prefer mass media and
movie which match their view of the world
Need for Stimulation:
Utilitarian Need:
changes over time
people in rapidly changing
environment seek stability and
vice versa
other people have a need to
variety and being different
consumer = problem solver
they approach ads as a source of learning for
future decisions.
e.g. watching comedy show, people are both
entertained and learn clothing style or
lifestyle options, …
3. Affective Preservation Motives → reach satisfying feeling, obtain personal goals; equilibrium
Internal
Active
Passive
Need for Tension Reduction:
Need for Ego Defense:
recreating products and activity are
promoted as tension relief
consumer who feels insecure rely on wellknown brands for socially visible products
avoids to make socially incorrect purchase
need to reduce cognitive
dissonance
External
Need for Expression:
Need for Reinforcement:
express one’s identity to others
through purchase (symbolic
meaning of products)
Motivation to buy product linked to social
reward or recognition (clothes, artwork,)
4. Affective Growth Motives → reach satisfying feeling, obtain personal goals; development
Internal
External
Active
Passive
Need for Assertion:
Need for Identification:
many people are competitive,
need to power, accomplishment
and esteem.
e.g. Powerade ad
need to identify with others; in order to make
that happen we assume different roles
(student, fiancé, mum…)
marketers encourage consumers to assume
new roles (become a skateboarder)
Need for Affiliation:
Need for Modeling:
develop satisfying relationship
with others, to be in the company
of other people
e.g. participate in sports event
need for role models, that show us how to
behave or from which we can copy our
behavior
marketers use affiliation-based
themes such as “your kids will
love you for it”
e.g. seeing someone working out, motivated
to go to the gym as well
marketers use desirable type of individuals
(celebs) in campaigns
Discovering Purchase Motives:
2 types of Purchase Motives:
1) Manifested Motives
= freely admitted, consumer doesn’t mind to articulate them
2) Latent Motives
= either unknow to the customer or not freely admitted, consumer don’t want to
admit motives (shame)
why people drive
SUV → they
would say:
comfort/ more
space but in
reality: to be
superior on the
streets and show
off
Latent motives:



hard to determine
Strategy 1: Projective Technique
 ask consumers (e.g. in focus group setting) why they think a third person is
purchasing this brand to gain fuller understanding of brand
 e.g. Oreo used technique → result: participants regarded Oreo as
‘magical.’→ so “unlocking the Magic of Oreo” became a campaign
Strategy 2: Laddering/ Means-end / benefits chain
 product or brand is shown to a consumer, who names all benefits that
product might provide
 respondent might mention “fewer colds” as a benefit of taking a daily
vitamin. When asked the benefit of fewer colds, one respondent might
identify “more efficient at work” and “more energy.” and so on ….
Definition: Involvement
= persons perceived relevance of an object based on their inherent needs, values, and interests
 Involvement reflects our level of motivation to process information about a product
or service we believe will help us to solve a problem or reach a goal
Levels of Involvement
Inertia
= consumption at the low end of involvement, where we make decisions out of habit
because we lack the motivation to consider alternatives
We tend to find higher levels of involvement in product categories that demand a big
investment of money (like houses) or self-esteem (like clothing) and lower levels for
mundane categories like household cleaners or hardware. However, virtually anything can
qualify as highly involving to some people e.g. “tool guy” talking about his passion for
hammers.
Cult products such as Apple command fierce consumer loyalty, devotion, and maybe even
worship by consumers. They are willing to pay more for a brand if they feel a personal
connection to the company.
person factors, object or stimulus factors, situational factors
differentiation of alternatives, source of communication, content of communication
elicitation of counter arguments to ads, effectiveness of ad to induce purchase, relative importance to the product
class, perceived differences in product attributes, preference for a particular brand, influence of price in brand
choice, amount of information search, time spent deliberating alternatives, type of decision rule used in choice
Product Involvement
= consumer’s level of interest in a particular product
The more closely marketers can tie a brand to an individual, the higher the involvement they
will create
Perceived Risk:
the higher the perceived risk of a product, the higher the involvement
- higher risk for expensive, complicated
Increasing Product Involvement

Mass Customization
= describes the personalization of products and services for individual customers at a
mass-production price
= everyone can design/create custom made products (nike shoes, tricot)

DIY
= having the opportunity to create own product → involvement increases because
product reflects our unique preferences
o IKEA Effect: When we build the product ourselves, the value we attach to it
increases because our own labor is involved

Co-creation
= company works jointly with customers to create value
This approach is catching on in B2B environments, where organizations partner with
their biggest clients to envision new solutions to their problems
e.g. creating own skis out of raw material in a workshop

Gamification
= application of gaming principles to non-gaming contexts
This approach offers a way to dramatically increase involvement, especially for
activities that can benefit from motivation
Message Involvement
= media vehicles have several characteristics that influence our motivation to pay attention to
what they tell us, which is called "message involvement."
-
-
high-involvement medium
Print → reader actively processes information and (if desired) is able to pause and
reflect on it before turning the page
low-involvement medium
TV → passive viewer who exerts little
-
narrative transportation
some messages are so involving that they trigger a stage of narrative transportation,
where people become immersed in the storyline
Increasing Message Involvement
A marketer can boost a person’s motivation to process relevant information via one or more
of the following techniques

Prominent stimuli
= loud music and fast action, to capture attention

Celebrity Endorsers
= people process more information when it comes from someone they admire or at
least know about

Invent new media platforms to grab attention
= novelty attracts more attention → e.g. pringles puts ads on the chips

Provide Value that consumers appreciate
= creating involvement with a message
→ e.g. toilet paper brand offers restrooms at time square that many grateful consumers
use (interact with brand by using restrooms)
Situational Involvement
= describes engagement with a store, website, or a location where people consume a product
or service. Many retailers and event planners today focus on enhancing customers’
experiences in stores, dealerships, ..
Increasing Situational Involvement

Personalization
= retailers can personalize the messages shoppers receive at the time of purchase
e.g. Starbucks names

High-Tech
= exciting new technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and beacons
allow retailers to turn point of purchase and shopping experience into an adventure

Subscription Boxes
= creating situational involvement by surprising subscribers every time with new
content in box, on a regular basis (exotic food, personal care products,..)
the way we evaluate and choose products depends on our degree of involvement with the
product, the marketing message, or the purchase situation
SCIENCE INSIGHT:-------IKEA effect: When labor leads to love
Introduction:
The IKEA effect = even constructing a standardized bureau, a solitary task, can lead people to
overvalue their (often poorly constructed) creations
Theory:
Labor and Love


Although people rate their jobs as their least pleasurable activities, they also rate
them as their most re-warding → sth that we don’t necessarily like awards us a lot
Conditional on success: fundamental human need for affectance—an ability to
successfully produce desired out-comes in one's environment → even labor can
increase the valuation that we give to our products

Study 1A:
consumers either building an IKEA box or inspecting an assembled IKEA box
Measures: willingness to pay, liking
Result: people who had to build the box by themselves liked the box more and were willing
to pay more for the box → paradox
→ why would consumer pay more for sth that he did by himself, why don’t pay less and have
service?
Study 1B:
consumers either building origami and giving their reservation price (builders) or ‘only’
indicating how much they would pay for the origami pieces (non-builders) or indicating
how much they would pay for origami pieces built by experts (non-builders)
Result:
people who made origami by themselves
(builders) are willing to pay for the origami
as much as people who did not build the
origami (non-builders)
Endowment effect → thing that you possess
or build have a higher value for seller than
for buyer
Study 2:
Consumers (in pairs) build figures out of Lego, either based on a pre-assembled set,
themselves, or they built a set and then took it apart
Measures: Willingness to pay for their own sets and their partner’s sets
Result:
Study 3:
consumers instructed to either completely build an IKEA box or building an IKEA box but
not finishing the project
Measures: willingness to pay for their own box; extent to which they were a “diy” person
Result:
it doesn’t depend on how successful the
project is
labor can-–paradoxically—lead to love:
for company it can make sense to use customers as workers → this can cause that customers
love the products more because they are involved in design process of the company etc. →
feel valued/ important/ powerful and have connection to the product as if it their “baby”
Implications:



Likely underlying process: effort, sense of accomplishment
Consumer Involvement: companies actively involve consumers in the design,
marketing and testing of products
Motivation of employees: motivational benefits of assigning employees to tasks they
feel capable of completing
Case: Marie Kondo------------------------------------------------------------------------------1.) What role do you think Netflix and social media played in popularizing Marie
Kondo? Is popularity of show ‘Tidying up with Marie Kondo’ based on Marie
Kondo only or would any other personality achieve similar results?
Marie Kondo motivates you to change your behavior in a positive way and not in a warning
way
Marie Kondos a person = she is japanese and these people are usually organized, she is a
credible person bc she was interested in tidying up her room with 5 years, she has a
methodology, she is authentic, she is someone new, not known before, she comes from
another part of the world which where living a minimalistic lifestyle is common instead of in
a western countries
Role of Netflix = it leads people to watch more episodes, Netflix is such a really platform
with many users (really powerful)
Role of social media = everyone posted his/her success with cleaning or tidying up
The show got famous with Marie as a credible person and because of social media/ Netflix
2.) What do you think motivated Marie to tidy up as a child and as a grown up in the
light of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and other theories?
Why did she start to tidy up?





On the one hand she read magazines that her mum kept when she was a little girl
Need for social connection: Maybe she wanted to have a connection to her mum or
grandmother by helping them cleaning up  Need for Affiliation to her
grandmother/mother by sharing that passion with her
She wants to control her environment  there are soo many things that we can not
control but we can control our house and room and how it looks where I live  we
can control what we have
self-actualization  its her passion and hobby!
Safety  Control of the environment
Cleaning your own house increases your social interaction  when your house is dirty
you don’t want to invite people and then your social need suffers
3) How does Kondo’s proposition of keeping only the things that ‘spark joy’ relate with
the concepts of material accumulation and minimalism?
interesting to keep only things that spark joy
- we kind of lost the value of buying stuff
- it gives more value to the things that you purchase
- thinking more about consuming helps to reduce material accumulation
- i think we tend to get stressed when we have many options to choose from, and if we don’t
have that many options (minimalism) we are more calm and happy  related to paradox of
choice  the more variety you have the harder it is to decide
SELF -CONCEPT
The Self
everybody chooses who he/she is, but it’s not always your choice how you are
→ depends on how you have been raised (surroundings, friends, ..)
Independent Self-Concept
 Individualistic
 Egocentric
 Autonomous
 Self-reliant
 Self-contained
Interdependent Self-Concept
 Obedient
 Sociocentric
 Holistic
 Connected
 Relation-oriented
Western societies
Those who have interdependent self-concept
define themselves more dependent on the
social roles they have
The Self-Concept
Self-concept summarizes the beliefs a person holds about his own attributes and how he
evaluates the self on these qualities
Self-concept strongly influences consumer behavior
you are what you buy; you buy what you are:



Consumer will react to a good fit with own personality and brands personality
we buy things that fit to who we are
or what we want people to think who we are (status symbols, belonging)
e.g. the houses that we live in: center aspect of our life define us
The Extended Self
Extended Self = The Self + Possessions
Embodied cognition
= states of the body modify states of the mind
Wearable computing
e.g. apple watch
Self-Esteem
= refers to the positivity of a person’s self-concept. People with low self-esteem expect that
they will not perform very well, and they will try to avoid embarrassment, failure, and
rejection



the way we think about our bodies (+ the way our culture tells us we should think) is a
key component of self-esteem
pressure to look good on social media decreases our self-esteem
we compare us to unrealistic beauty ideals
 to which group do you want to belong? = group you compare yourself to
Social Comparison Theory (Festinger)
The Body as Product
= Body image refers to consumers’ subjective evaluations of their physical self

sometimes we don’t care how humans look like (e.g. our family, baby etc.)
Ideals of Beauty






Physical features (attractive face, good health and youth, balance/symmetry, feminine
curves/hourglass body shape, “strong” male features)
 people do beauty surgeries because they want to belong to a certain group
Clothing styles
 Communicate who you are or what you want others to think who you are
 people wear glasses without acuity to have a certain look (smart/successful)
Cosmetics
Hairstyles
Skin tone
Body type
→ ideals are changing with time
Body Decoration and Mutilation







Separate group members from non-members
Place the individual in the social organization
Place the person in a gender category
Enhance sex-role identification
Indicate desired social conduct
Indicate high status or rank
Provide a sense of security
SCIENCE INSIGHT:------Man versus machine: Resisting automation in identity-based
consumer behavior
Introduction
Many products are increasingly able to automate tasks that consumers previously had to
perform themselves.
e.g. driving, cooking (traditionally you are chopping everything, using different pans,..) but
now you can have a Thermomix, vacuum robots, ..
Theory
Identity and the Diagnosticity of Consumption



People are inherently motivated to construct their identities and use products to
confirm and express the identities they hold
Strong identifiers value the opportunity to engage in behaviors associated with
their target identity, because these behaviors act as signals to the self
In an identity domain, strong identifiers have an especially high need for
internal attribution, so they value the self-signaling utility of performing tasks
that are diagnostic of their identity
Resisting Automation


Automation often replaces skills that are instrumental to self- signaling an
identity
When automation replaces skill or effort, it removes opportunities for
internal attribution
→ Strong identifiers find products less appealing if they automate identity-relevant tasks,
because these strong identifiers have a higher need for internal attribution
Study 1: Driving
Participants asked how strongly do you identify with driving?
Measures: Strength of identification with driving; Type of transmission of owned car
Result: those who identified more strongly with driving own a car with a manual
transmission
Study 2: Biking
Dutch students asked to either write about the role of biking in their life (identity salient) or
about the role of flowers in their life (control) and responding to a bike ad featuring the
possibility of a special offer (rechargeable battery)
Measures: choice of additional feature
Result: people who identify with bikes chose the battery as a feature on a bike with a less
percentage than those who don’t identify with bikes → 78% of participants in the control
condition chose to include battery in bikes, whereas only 66% of participants in the identitysalient condition did so
→ having an e-bike takes the credit of love riding the bike away from you
Study 3: Baking
adults randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions in a 2 (strength of identification: strong
identification vs. control) x 2 (automated task: more vs. less skill required) betweenparticipants design
Manipulations: Identification prime: “Imagine you are amateur bread baker. Although your skills are not
professional, you are serious about baking and proud of yourself as a bread baker. You spend most of your free
time baking and you enjoy it.” Task manipulation: more vs. les input from user required in baking bread
Measures: Likelihood of borrowing the baking machine; Internal attribution
Result: those who have a strong identification with baking have a sig. less willingness to
borrow a baking machine, when task requires more skills → they want to master the challenge
by themselves → personal develop → they don’t want to be taken away their identity
→ when the task requires less skills, people with strong identification for baking have almost
the same willingness to borrow a baking machine as the control group
such products can replace certain skills → you can no longer take credits for a meal
cooked by baking machine  this does not promote your identity
People who strongly identify with a task have a higher need for internal intribution
Implications
automating tasks is not always appreciated by consumers
For theory

Automation may increase outcome utility of a product but decrease its selfsignaling utility, which is particularly relevant for identity-motivated
consumers
For Practice


Targeting: risk of targeting strong identifiers with product innovations that
involve the automation of identity-relevant tasks
Product innovation: which tasks are good candidates for being automated

Communication: automated products are not always preferable relative to
their non-automated counterparts
Case: L’Oreal
1. Discuss the success of L'Oréal's slogan ‘Because I am worth it’ over time and how it
has managed to connect with women. What is the role of cosmetics in the way women
look at themselves and define their self-concept and self-esteem?




slogan 50+ years old → still meets women’s conceptions of beauty and self-esteem
around the world
slogan changed advertising strategy of Loreal → it lets women speak for themselves
 women all over the world feel addressed
 Slogan communicates independence + recognition for women
 this might support the mindset of many women and affirms them
You are worth of feeling good, and you are worthy of using our products
Slogan adapts over time: we are worth it, you are worth it → in the end its about selfworth that women should feel
Role of cosmetics:



Loreal shows that using cosmetics is fine → beautiful to support aging with products
aging products should support you while aging  loreal wants to make the statement
that the aging process is normal, natural and beautiful
no shame in admitting that you get wrinkles or grey hair
2. Comment on the role of women celebrities in delivering L'Oréal's brand message?
How do you think the message of self-worth will be received by women, if L'Oréal did
not use celebrities in its marketing communication?


even famous people have the same struggles with aging as me
Loreal is an affordable brand ad if celebrities use it I want to use it too
3. Discuss the appeal of the Age Perfect advertising campaign for the older women.
Actress Helen Mirren insisted that her facial features including wrinkles and age spots
should not be air brushed or retouched. Do you think this strategy will work better than
glossier and air brushed campaigns?




for me an ad is more effective when the women is shown without make up , because I
know that of course she does not look like on the red carpet 24 Hours a day
but then why should I buy the products ? if I can wear no make up
who do you compare yourself with? That’s the effect of our self-esteem  whats the
group that you want to belong to = this is the group you compare yourself to
if you compare yourself with models you want to look different and might feel bad,
when you compare yourself with average people you might feel okay with yourself
PERSONALITY
Freudian Systems
Personality stems from a conflict between our desire to gratify our physical needs and the
necessity to function as a member in society

ID
o
o
o
o


= personality system
acting without thinking about consequences
do whatever YOU want
e.g. fly to NY, eat ice cream (without thinking that it’s unhealthy), gratifying
sexual needs (cheat on your bf without thinking you hurt him/over)
SUPEREGO:
o = counter way of the ID → opposite force
o = our consciousness
o might prevent us from ID-driven behavior
o being responsible member of society and do good for everyone
o e.g. use public transport instead SUV, don’t cheat, eat healthy (no ice-cream)
EGO
o = intermediator between the other 2 systems
o tries to balance out these 2 opposite forces
o finding a way to gratify your ID in a way that society accepts it
o happens every day
Some people are more towards ID side, some more on superego side
sometimes ID takes over (smoking), although superego says that’s not healthy/ no smoking
→ ego finds compromises between both (1 cigarette a day)
The Big Five Personality Traits
A set of five dimensions forms the basis of personality
→ 5 ways to measure the basis of an individual personality
1. Openness to experience


= degree to which a person is open to new ways of doing things
e.g. love to think up new ways of doing things
2. Conscientiousness/Diligence



= the level of organization and structure a person needs (Gewissenhaftigkeit)
people who are more conscientious might fall for Marie Condo principle
e.g. always being prepared
3. Extroversion

= how well a person tolerates stimulation from people

e.g. talk to a lot of different people at parties
4. Agreeableness


= the degree to which we defer to other people (unterordnen)
e.g. take time out for others
5. Neuroticism (emotional instability)


= how well a person copes with stress
e.g. get upset easily
Personality Traits and Consumer Behavior
→ consumers personality traits impact how we behave, how we respond to marketing
stimuli and which products we buy






Superstition
Romanticism
= affects consumers choice, e.g. movie choice
Need for Control
= there are people who need to be in control of anything,
e.g. having amazon echo at home perfectly satisfies their needs
Need for Uniqueness
= being different; people who wants to stand out of the market = more likely to
buy/wear customized things
Extroversion
= people who are extrovert → more happy after buying clothes than introverts
Agreeableness
= people who are more likely to agree, accept political regulations, follow social
distance rules etc. more than others
Brand Personality
A set of human characteristics that become associated with a brand and are a particular type
of image that some brands acquire
= associations of how consumers would describe a brand if it were a person
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brands have (several) personalities at the same time (to certain extent)
consumer can perceive a brand as: sincerity, excitement, competence,
sophistication, ruggedness
Examples:
no animal testing, fair working conditions, transparent, never heard sth bad about the brand
Brand Resonance
= the relationship a consumer has with the product/brand and how well they can relate to it
Birkenstock managed to be hip and are now sold in skater shops → before it was a brand for
mum, really comfortable shoes → they managed to get out of the role they had → transition
of the brand meaning
Harley-Davidson = the benchmark you evaluate other brands against → every brands
measures with them, it’s the best of the best
Lifestyle
Lifestyle defines a pattern of consumption that reflects a person’s choice of how to spend
their time and money
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marketers want to know the lifestyle that people want to follow next year
how to predict that?
company used searches of Pinterest to predict lifestyle in 2022:
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Retro Lifestyle: clothes (80s), tie floors
Wellbeing at home: since people spend much time at home, they want to feel good
there, luxury laundry room ideas, wall colors, financial investment tips
Taste for Travel: Norwegian/African cuisine searches increases, people choose to cook
foreign meals at homes since travel restrictions (pandemic)
Psychographics
= study of consumers based on their Activities, Interests, and Opinions (AIOs)
using demographics to determine target group is not enough
→ use psychographics that study your customers activities !
Activities, Interests and Opinion (AIO) Dimensions
SCIENCE INSIGHT:-----The visual asymmetry effect: An interplay of logo design and
brand personality on brand equity
Introduction
Strong brands offer major advantages in marketplace
Elements of strong brands: a distinctive, favorable brand personality and well-designed
logo
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choose different logos depending on your brand personality
brand logos have huge impact on success of brands
→ How does brand personality and logo design interact to affect brand equity?
The Visual Asymmetry Effect:
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Asymmetrical visual stimuli can be more arousing than symmetrical stimuli
higher levels of arousal = associated with higher excitement
higher levels of congruence among brand elements (= 2 elements fit together)
can lead to more favorable consumer responses
incongruent: black toilet paper
Hypotheses:
H1: (a) Compared with symmetrical logos, asymmetrical logos tend to be perceived as more
exciting. (b) This effect is mediated by arousal.
H2: (a) Compared with symmetrical logos, asymmetrical logos can positively affect
consumers’ evaluations of brands with an exciting personality. (b) This effect is mediated by
perceptions of logo–brand congruence.
H3: (a) Compared with symmetrical logos, asymmetrical logos can positively affect the
market’s financial valuations of brands with an exciting personality. (b) This effect is
mediated by consumers’ brand evaluations.
Study 1A: Asymmetry → Excitement
Result: Asymmetrical logo have better impact when brands want to create excitement
Study 1B: Asymmetry → Arousal → Excitement
Result: Asymmetrical logos were sig. more arousing than symmetrical ones and were
perceived as more exciting. Arousal mediates the effect of logo shape on excitement
Study 2b: Brand Evaluations
How much does the logo fit the type of brand that is presented?
Results:
-
exciting brand personalities should choose asymmetrical logo → brand evaluation
is higher when logo of exciting brand is asymmetrical instead of symmetrical
-
Asymmetrical logos tend to be more arousing and thus tend to be perceived as more
congruent with brands with an exciting personality
Asymmetrical logo fits an exciting brand more than a sincere brand
For sincere brand personality: doesn’t matter which logo
Implications:
For theory
-
Examines the joint effect of logo asymmetry and brand personality
Highlights the importance of considering congruence among brand elements that
are more sensory (e.g., logos) versus more cognitive (e.g., brand personality) in nature
For Practice
-
Design properties that are generally considered favorable for brands (e.g., visual
symmetry) may backfire when they are not congruent with brand personality
Implications likely extend to other visual brand elements, such as packaging,
advertisements, and webpage and app interface designs
visual design elements need to be carefully selected based on a brand’s existing brand
personality
We always tend to like symmetry more than asymmetry BUT for brand personality this might
not be the case
CASE STUDY: The Pure and Easy Food Lifestyle
1) Describe Jamie Oliver’s brand personality. With which kind of consumer
personalities or lifestyle and psychographic characteristics does this brand identity
resonate?
o energetic, passionate
o all TV shows before Jamie Oliver’s show were really posh + required many
ingredients, really long lasting, 5 course menu etc.
o Jamie show differs from other TV shows:
 down to earth, sincere, authentic, modern, approachable!
 easy and simple cooking, 1 knife
 to show people how they can cook fresh, healthy and FROM SCRATCH
within 30 minutes → contrast to all other TV shows
2) You have seen some examples of brand relationships that Jamie Oliver has entered
into. Can you think of other brands that would fit Jamie Oliver?
o LIDL: supermarket wants to change the image of a discounter → reinvent itself as
a moral, approachable supermarket for everybody with healthy products ,
bringing bio, organic products, banning all nestle products ..
o WMF: kitchen equipment
o Weber Grills/ Barbecue
o Tupperware
o cooking on social media accounts from soccer clubs
3) Jamie Oliver also received criticism for his work. How do you suggest Jamie should
address this criticism?
o putting chorizo into paella → ridiculous criticism → people got angry because
Jamie Oliver put chorizo into a cultural dish where it apparently not belongs
 he could apologize and argument that he wanted to create some new versions
of traditional dishes → reinvention
o high sugar recipe → incongruent to his brand personality (healthy)
 his prior ideas weren’t matching with his current actions
 his goals to stop obesity
 he could apologize and argument that is was a recipe for those who want to
have a cheat day and crave for sugary drinks; life is a balance
4) Jamie Oliver also ran his own chain of restaurants. Several had to close over the last
years due to financial difficulties. What impression do you think this makes on the
brand of Jamie Oliver?
 brand stands for selfmade/homemade food → encourage people to cook on their own.
 after a few restaurants closed, it did not change the idea he wants to spread that
everyone can easily prepare a healthy dish from scratch at home
 he starts as a person delivering healthy eating lifestyle → so his image is healthy
eating lifestyle advocator → not a restaurant owner
Classic example for once you get famous you lose track
→ putting your nose in an area that is not your competence and not what you stand for
PERSUASION
Attitudes
Components of Attitudes
attitudes have a cognitive, affective, and behavioral component
Multi-Attribute Model (Fishbein)
overall attitude of a consumer towards a brand
= evaluation of consumers beliefs
Example:
Attitude Formation
we form attitudes in several ways
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Consistency Principle
Self-Perception Theory
Balance Theory
The “Dilution Effect”
= broken items dilute our overall perceived value of an object/ offering
-
we take info and our mind averages this pieces of info
Persuasion
= Persuasion is the active attempt to change attitudes
Communication Elements
The Source
Source Credibility:
a communicator’s expertise, objectivity, or trustworthiness
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Disclaimers
Fake News
Sleeper Effect
Native Advertising
Knowledge Bias
Reporting Bias
Source Attractiveness:
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Attractiveness & likability play major role in determining whether communication
source evokes favorable affective reactions or not
attractive + likable models, celebrities in ads
Star Power:
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ads with celebrities
Spokescharacters:
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e.g. frosty flakes tiger,
The Message
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Pictures vs. Words
Structure of the Argument
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Repitition
Comparative Ads
o e.g. BK and McDonals ads competing against each other and comparing
Message Appeals:
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Emotional vs. Rational
Sex Appeals
o e.g. Pamela Anderson for Peta
Humor Appeals
o e.g. the best time to get braces is now (wearing masks due to covid)
Fear Appeals
o Ads that are serious making aware of a problem
o e.g. wear a helmet – yearly 12.000 die, families lose loved ones/need to care
for them forever
The Elaboration Likelihood Model
Two Routes to Persuasion → both are extremes
1. Central Route:
= persuasion works to change beliefs related to the product directly and then change
brand attitude, and purchase intention
2. Peripheral Route:
consumers like nonproduct information (people/actor in ad, pictures, scenery..) but they
are not interested in product itself
SCIENCE INSIGHT: Artificial Intelligence and persuasion: A construal-level account.
Abstract:
Although more individuals are relying on information provided by non-human agents such as
artificial intelligence and robots little research has examined how persuasion attempts made
by non-human agents might differ from persuasion attempts made by human agents. Drawing
on construal-level theory, we posited that individuals would perceive artificial agents at a low
level of construal because of the agents lack of autonomous goals and intentions, which
directs individuals' focus toward how these agents implement actions to serve humans rather
than why they do so.
Across studied, we showed that these construal-based differences affect compliance with
persuasive messages made by artificial agents. These messages are more appropriate and
effective when the message represents low-level as opposed to high-level construal features.
These effects were moderated by the extent to which an artificial agent could independently
learn from its environment, given that learning defies people's lay theories about artificial
agents.
Introduction
Artificial agents (AAs) have proven to be superior to humans in making financial
investments and diagnosing certain diseases (e.g., skin cancer). Yet, many people are still
averse to interactions with AAs.
Action Identification Theory
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High-construal action: emphasizes why an action is performed
Low-construal action: emphasizes how an action is performed
Construal-Level Theory:
Whether the actor is represented at a high level or a low level of construal depends on the
presence of superordinate goals associated with the actor’s action.
AA’s actions are not driven by their own autonomous goals or intentions.
Hypotheses
-
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People interpret AAs’ actions at a lower level construals as a default (i.e., focusing on
how rather than why) than the same action performed by humans
People perceive greater congruence and appropriateness when AAs persuasive
message supports low as opposed to high-construal attributes, leading to more
effective persuasion
Informing people that AAs have learning capabilities weakens low-construal beliefs
about AAs
Study 1b
students randomly assigned to one of four conditions (agent: human vs. AA x action
description: high construal vs. low construal) and rated the appropriateness of 17 statements
Example statements: “A person (vs. robot) is locking a door to secure the house (is locking a
door by putting a key in the lock).
Result:
People find the AA agent more appropriate
when it is doing low-construal tasks than
when it does tasks on a high-construal level
Human is rated more appropriate than the
AA in doing low and high construal tasks
Study 2
consumers randomly assigned to one of four conditions (agent: human vs. AA x message:
high construal vs. low construal) and indicated their intention to apply sunscreen
Manipulations:
Human agent: medical advice from a doctor
AA agent: medical advice from IBM Watson
High-construal: How to use sunscreen
Low-construal: Why to use sunscreen
Result:
people have a higher intention to use sunscreen
when they get advise from AA agent on a lowconstrual level (why to use it)
when getting advice from a human: people have
higher intention to use sunscreen when human gives
advice on the high-construal level (how to use it)
Study 3
students randomly assigned to one of four conditions (agent: learning AA vs. non-learning
AA x message: high construal vs. low construal) and indicated their intention to visit a gym
recommended by Alexa
Manipulations:
Learning AA: Alexa has “experiential learning capabilities”
Non-learning AA: Alexa has a “fixed intelligence”
High-construal: How to exercise
Low-construal: Why to exercise
Result:
people have the highest intention to visit the gym
when they get advice from a non-learning AA on a
low-construal level (why to exercise)
also: when getting advice from a learning AA, the
intention to go to gym is higher on a low-construal
level than on a high construal level
Study 4:
students randomly assigned to one of two conditions (agent: learning AA vs. non-learning AA
x message: high construal vs. low construal) and indicated their intention to visit a gym
recommended by the humanoid robot Baxter as well as the extent to which they believe that
Baxter can learn
Manipulations:
High-construal: How to exercise
Low-construal: Why to exercise
Result:
people have higher intention to visit the
gym recommend by robit Baxter when
robot’s message is on a low-strual level
AND people believe that the extent the
robot can learn is very low
Conclusion
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AAs are perceived as low-construal agents because of the fact that people hold a lay
theory that AAs do not have superordinate goals and cannot learn from their
experiences and don’t have consciousness like humans do
Individuals perceive greater appropriateness and are more persuaded when an AA’s
persuasive messages highlight low-construal as opposed to high-construal features
digital agents are perceived have no autonomous goals → this perception affects how
persuasive messages by digital agents are
People rely on AAs more in contexts that induce low construal: events or objects that are
temporally, socially, and spatially proximate and occurring with high probability (e.g., shortterm investments)
CONSUMING
The Consumption Situation:
1. Antecedent States
Situational Factors:
Usage Context:
Time Pressure:
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people define time differently (want to spend time alone: me time or with others)
planning orientation dimension (planner/spontaneous,..)
do one thing at one time vs. multitasking
Mood:
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consumers mood influences behavior
e.g. shopping for groceries when hungry (overbuy)
Shopping Orientation:
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= reason why people do shopping
to satisfy social needs
thrill of the hunt
peer pressure
for a status display (where to go shopping, you don’t even have to buy sth, just
running around in certain area with expensive bag)
Situational Factors and Usage Situation
depending on situation (warm, cold..) and usage (beach, skiing, sunlamp) people might
change their buying behavior /buy different products:
Example: Sunscreen
Time Poverty
= chronic feeling of having too many things to do and not enough time to do them
Drivers that make people feel that they have too many things to do:
gaps in CV are the time
where you have time for
yourself, for doing things
that are fun, for building
your personality
Consequences (of time poverty)
Time poverty increases…
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Frequency of buying pre-prepared and take-away foods
o people don’t have time to cook at home
use of medication to cope with demands and avoid visit doctors (closed at 6pm)
Depression
Emotional exhaustion
Negative mood
Work-vs-family conflict
Trouble concentrating at work
Physical inactivity
Time poverty decreases..
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Job satisfaction
life satisfaction
Self-assessed mental health
The goal should be a happy life → try to take a step back and ask yourself how you can get
time-rich
2. Retail environment
Environmental factors that are known to impact how we respond and behave in a retail
environment → how we perceive a service transaction?
Signs, Symbols and Artefacts = communication tools that educate consumers
We tend to perceive sth in a holistic way
On the cognitive site: they can affect our beliefs
e.g. you can feel pain when retail environment is noisy or you feel comfort when sitting area
in docs waiting room is comfy → physiological responses
Point-of-Purchase Stimuli
Impulse Buying at IKEA:
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most people do unplanned purchases at IKEA
seeing sth awakens the need to buy it
Architecture in shops constructed to make people buy more → Gruen Effect
o different layouts: Ikeas layout forces customers to discover more grounds, so
they are exposed to more products
shops try to build excitement
→ marketers and designers try to ‘trick’ us making unplanned purchases
3. Postpurchase Behavior
Consumers satisfaction
Postpurchase dissonance
= occurs when a consumer has doubts or anxiety regarding the reasonableness/wisdom of a
purchase made and is a function of the following:
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the degree of commitment or irrevocability of the decision
the importance of the decision to the consumer
o the more important a product, the more consumer is likely to experience
postpurchase dissonance
the difficulty of choosing among alternatives
o the more difficult it is to select among alternatives, the more likely consumer
experiences postpurchase dissonace
o asking yourself why didn’t I choose the other ones
the individual’s tendency to experience anxiety
Postpurchase Dissonance Reduction (resolve it)
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increase desirability of the brand purchased
decrease desirability of rejected alternatives
decrease importance of the purchase decision
reverse purchase decision (return before use)
Product Disposition:
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Recycle
Sell it (to end user, middleman)
Trade in
Throw away
Give it away to be used (fam, friend) / to be sold
Loan
Recycling:
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recycling might not be the best way to go to solve the waste problem
when people recycle they have an excuse for overbuying
saving the waste problem by creating less waste
people don’t act in being sustainable because they don’t care or/and they don’t see any
results
consumers don’t see the immediate impact they have → lowers motivation to recycle
SCIENCE INSIGHT:---- From waste to taste: How “ugly” labels can increase purchase
of unattractive produce
Consumers expect fruits and vegs they purchase to look good
-
U.S. retailers throw away $15.4 billion of edible produce each year
farmers discard up to 30% of their crops due to cosmetic imperfections
How can we make people choose “ugly” produce?:
Ugliness Penalty: consumers associate beautiful produce with tastiness/ healthiness
The Corrective Effect of “Ugly” Labeling
-
“Awareness of influence” triggers validity-driven corrections of attitudes
emphasizing unattractiveness of the produce via “ugly” labeling makes people
aware that that there is nothing “wrong” with the produce
Result:
People more likely to buy unattractive produce (and to reduce food waste) when it’s labelled
as “ugly” than when it’s not labelled as ugly
→ “ugly” labelling corrects for biased, negative expectations of ugly produce because it
directly points out the aesthetic flaw as their source → no difference in taste, not unhealthy
Conclusion:
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Clear guidance to managers on whether and how to label unattractive produce, and
which price discount will maximize sales.
“Ugly” labeling may also further increase the effectiveness of more labor-intensive
and costly interventions that rely on educating consumers about the environmental
consequences of food waste.
“Ugly” labeling may also overcome retailers’ reluctance to sell unattractive
produce, whether it is because they fear a lack of consumer interest or they are
concerned that steep price discounts would hurt their bottom line.
CASE STUDY: Plastic Bottles
1. How do Coca Cola, Pepsi, Unilever, and J&J benefit from their various strategies
with regards to plastic disposal? How do you feel knowing what they are doing?
Strategies: to encourage consumers to recycle their bottles
-
Recycle machines in public places (consumer can recycle whenever he wants)
School Recycling Programs
o encourage kids to collect plastic and on the same way educate them
providing income for people who collect recyclable items
Rewards:
-
various other items = more trash → people don’t need sustainable produced items,
they will discard them
deposit = good incentive, long-term idea
o deposit is more efficient than reward
-
o companies do not have to burden the extra cost of the reward and the
customers have very strong incentives to recycle the bottle
o there should be a “Pfand” etiquette on each plastic bottle
discount voucher
loyalty points for store that does reward programs because everyone goes grocery
shopping and can use these discounts
Problem:
-
not enough education (e.g. India) → people don’t know how serious the problem is
there are still people refusing that climate change exists → even highly educated once
for some it’s exhausting to divide the trash
SOCIAL CLASS
Income Inequality:
-
income is distributed extremely unequally across the globe
people don’t realize the consequences and seem ok with it because they life in their
social class and never get out of it
Social Stratification
= Processes in a social system by which scarce and valuable resources are distributed
unequally to status positions that become more or less permanently ranked in terms of the
share of valuable resources each receives (a creation of artificial divisions) → hierarchy
Societal Rank/Social Class/ Social Standing:
= one’s position relative to others on one or more dimensions valued by society
we group consumers into social classes that say a lot about where they stand in society
Social class = good predictor for purchase of symbolic products
Status Symbols
= individuals want to make a statement about where they want to be in society
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Invidious consumption
= purchase to inspire envy in others
Conspicious comsumption
= purchase to visibly show your wealth
Leisure class
= avoiding evidence that you have to work
Trophy wives
= decorative role, status symbol for rich men
Cougars
= older women seeking young men as arm candy
Brand prominence
= varies, sometimes not displayed → those who know, recognize subtle cues
→ logos everywhere
Status signaling:
Patrician, Parvenu, Proletarian, Poseur
Upward Pull
SCIENCE INSIGHT:---- Inequality in socially permissible consumption
Permissible consumption
= interpersonal judgements about what is acceptable (or not) for others to consume
Lower-income individuals are frequently criticized for their consumption decisions
→ their decisions are subject to more negative evaluations
→ the same consumption decisions may be considered less permissible for a lower-income
person than for higher/unknown income person
→ the same items are often perceived as less necessary for lower- (vs. higher-) income people
Link between permissibility and perceived necessity:
a purchase decision will be considered permissible (or not) to the extent that it is perceived as
necessary (or not)
-
Lower-income people are socially permitted to consume less because they are
presumed to need less
for lower-income people, fewer items are perceived as necessary
lower-income people face harsher interpersonal judgments for deviating from
“necessary” purchases → but there are fewer items that fit in the necessary category
Consequence:
-
People appear more comfortable directing (and limiting) the decisions of the poor
People prefer to allocate strictly “necessary” items to lower-income people, even if
such items are objectively and subjectively less valuable
this results in an imbalanced and inefficient provision of resources to the poor