Consumer Behavior
Buying, Having, and Being
Fourteenth Edition
Michael R. Solomon
Saint Joseph’s University
Cristel Antonia Russell
Pepperdine University
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023900941
ScoutAutomatedPrintCode
ISBN-10:
0-13-786509-0
ISBN-13:978-0-13-786509-3
To Gail, as always.
M.S.
To Michael, thank you for the honor and opportunity.
C.A.R.
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BRIEF CONTENTS
Section
1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Section
2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Section
3
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Section
4
Foundations of Consumer Behavior
3
Buying, Having, and Being: An Introduction to Consumer Behavior
Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet 26
Making Sense of the World
59
Perceiving and Making Meaning 60
Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
Motivation 125
89
4
Buying and Having: Choosing and Using Products 153
Attitudes and How to Change Them 154
Deciding 193
Buying, Using, and Disposing 221
eing: Using Products to Create and Communicate
B
Identity 251
Chapter 9 Identity and the Self 252
Chapter 10 Personality, Values, and Lifestyles 285
Chapter 11 Social and Cultural Identity 320
Section
5
Belonging
357
Chapter 12 How Groups Define Us 358
Chapter 13 Social Class and Status 395
Chapter 14 Culture 421
Appendix A: Data Cases 455
Appendix B: Careers in Consumer Research 468
Appendix C: Consumer Research Methods 471
Appendix D: Sources of Secondary Data 477
Glossary 481
Indexes 502
v
CONTENTS
Section 1 Foundations of
Consumer Behavior 3
1
Buying, Having, and Being:
An Introduction to Consumer
Behavior 4
Consumer Behavior: People in the Marketplace 5
What Is Consumer Behavior? 5
A Branded World 7
Understanding Consumers Is Good Business 8
Consumers, Society, and Technology: A Moving Target 9
Social Media: The Horizontal Revolution 9
Artificial Intelligence and The Metaverse 10
“Big Data” and Data Analytics 10
Welcome to the Metaverse! 11
Globalization of Brands and Cultural Practices 12
Proactive Consumers and User-Generated Content 12
Consumer Trends: Keeping Up with the Culture That Won’t
Stand Still 13
PESTLE: The Economic Environment 30
Disabled Consumers 30
Consumed Consumers 31
PESTLE: The Social Environment 32
PESTLE: The Technological Environment 34
Data Privacy 34
Data Accuracy 35
Identity Theft 36
Pushing the Envelope 37
Technology Addictions 37
PESTLE: The Legal Environment 40
Governmental Regulations and Agencies 40
Consumers Behaving Badly 41
PESTLE: The Natural Environment 44
The SHIFT: Changing Consumer Behavior for the Better 47
The “Tree-Huggers” 47
Chapter Summary 48 • Key Terms 49
Review 50 • Consumer Behavior Challenge 50
Case Study Face It – Facial Recognition Is Coming to a
Walgreens Near You 52
Notes 54
Consumption: From Problem to Solution? 15
What Do We Need—Really? 15
Toward Responsible Consumption and Responsible
Business 15
Multiple Perspectives on the Study of Consumer
Behavior 17
What Disciplines Study Consumer Behavior? 17
Where Do We Find Consumer Researchers? 20
The Philosophy of This Book 20
Chapter Summary 20 • Key Terms 21
Review 22 • Consumer Behavior Challenge 22
Case Study Alexa—What Is Consumer Behavior? 23
Notes 24
2
Consumer Ethics, the
Marketplace, and the
Planet 26
Section 2 Making Sense of
the World 59
3
Perceiving and Making
Meaning 60
Sensation 60
Sensory Marketing 62
Augmented and Virtual Reality: Welcome to the
Metaverse 68
The Stages of Perception 69
Stage 1: Exposure 70
Stage 2: Attention 73
Stage 3: Interpretation 76
What Is the “Right” Thing? 27
Semiotics: The Meaning of Meaning 79
PESTLE: The Political Environment 28
Who Owns Brand Meanings? 80
Consumer Activism 28
Corporate Activism 29
Slacktivism 30
vi
Marketers Position Brands 80
But Ultimately Brand Meanings Live in Consumers’
Minds 81
Contents
Chapter Summary 81 • Key Terms 82
Review 83 • Consumer Behavior Challenge 83
Case Study The Metaverse Is Marketing’s Brave
New World 84
Notes 85
4
Consumer Needs 129
Utilitarian and Hedonic Needs 129
How Can We Understand Needs? 130
How “Needy” Are You? Individual Differences in
Motivation 132
Setting and Reaching Goals 133
Learning, Remembering, and
Knowing 89
How Do We Learn? 89
Behavioral Learning Theories 90
Classical Conditioning 90
Marketing Applications of Classical Conditioning
Principles 92
Instrumental Conditioning 95
Marketing Applications of Instrumental Conditioning
Principles 97
Cognitive Learning Theory 98
Observational Learning 98
How Kids Develop Cognitive Skills 99
Marketing Applications of Cognitive Learning
Principles 101
Remembering 101
How Our Brains Encode Information 102
What Makes Us Forget? 104
What Helps Us To Remember? 105
How Do We Measure Consumers’ Memories for Marketing
Messages? 108
Problems with Memory Measures 109
Memory Lapses, Biases, and False Memories 109
Marketing Applications of Consumers’ Memories 109
How Do We Organize What We Know? 110
Levels of Knowledge 112
How Do We Put Products into Categories? 112
“If They Own This, They Must Own That”: Consumption
Constellations 113
Marketing Applications of Consumers’ Knowledge
Structures 114
Chapter Summary 116 • Key Terms 116
Review 117 • Consumer Behavior Challenge 118
Case Study Kidfluence and Kidfluencers – Marketing to
Children Responsibly 119
Notes 121
5
vii
Motivation 125
The Motivation Process: Why Ask Why? 126
Push or Pull? Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Motivation 126
Motivational Drive 127
Self-Regulation 128
Goal Conflicts 133
Goal Framing Affects Goal Completion 135
Consumer Involvement 137
Types of Involvement 139
Chapter Summary 144 • Key Terms 144
Review 145 • Consumer Behavior Challenge 145
Case Study Game On! Using Gamification to Engage
with Consumers 146
Notes 148
Section 3 Buying and Having:
Choosing and Using Products 153
6
Attitudes and How to Change
Them 154
The Power of Attitudes 155
Attitudes (Generally) Guide our Behavior 155
Attitudes, Fast and Slow: Cognitive and Affective
Components 156
“I Know It”: Cognitive Focus 157
“I Feel It”: Affective Focus 159
Oops! Attitudes Aren’t as Simple as We Thought 160
How Do We Form Attitudes? 162
Commitment 162
The Consistency Principle 163
Balance Theory 164
Persuasion: How Do Marketers Change Attitudes? 165
Sell the Steak or the Sizzle?: The Elaboration Likelihood
Model 166
Persuasion Knowledge: Talking Back to Marketers 168
Crafting Persuasive Communications Strategies 169
Decisions, Decisions: Tactical Communications
Options 170
The Source 171
The Message 175
The Medium 181
Chapter Summary 182 • Key Terms 183
Review 184 • Consumer Behavior Challenge 184
Case Study Anti-Smoking Advertising—Can You Be
Scared into Quitting? 187
Notes 188
viii
Contents
7
Deciding 193
Fast or Slow Thinking? 194
Rational (Slow) Decision Making 195
Section 4 Being: Using Products
to Create and Communicate
Identity 251
Steps in the Rational Decision-Making Process 195
Fast Thinking and Rules of Thumb 204
Behavioral Biases 204
Heuristics and Mental Accounting: Take the Shortcut 205
The Unseen Power of Context Effects: Framing, Priming,
and Nudging 206
Framing 207
Priming 207
Nudging 209
Online Decision Making 210
Search Engine Optimization 210
The Power of Customer Reviews 211
Cybermediaries 212
Chapter Summary 213 • Key Terms 214
Review 214 • Consumer Behavior Challenge 214
Case Study P&G and the Moments of Truth – Just How
Many Moments Are There? 217
Notes 218
8
Buying, Using, and
Disposing 221
The Shopping Experience 222
Shop ’Til You Drop? 222
In-Store Decision Making 227
Are You Satisfied? 229
E-Commerce and the Digital World 230
From Bricks to Clicks 231
Shopping Apps and In-Store Tech 231
Digital Currencies 232
Online Commerce: Raising the Bar 233
Liquid Consumption 233
New Ways to Have and Use: Ownership and the Sharing
Economy 235
The Thrill of Thrifting 236
The Climate Crisis 236
Product Disposal 236
Recycling and the Underground Economy 237
The Dark Side of Buying and Using 239
Addictive and Compulsive Behavior 239
Chapter Summary 241 • Key Terms 242
Review 242 • Consumer Behavior Challenge 243
Case Study RH — Revolutionizing Physical Retailing 245
Notes 246
9
Identity and the Self 252
The Self 252
The Self-Concept and Self-Esteem 253
The Self and Others 253
The Malleable Self 255
We Consume to Express Our Identities 258
The Extended Self 258
New Ways to Express Identity 260
Compensatory Consumption 260
Anti-Consumption as Self-Defining 260
Embodied Cognition 261
Our Digital Selves 261
Gender and Consumer Behavior 263
Gender Socialization and Gender Roles 263
Gender Differences in Consumer Behavior 263
Toward Greater Gender Fluidity 265
The Quest for Gender Justice and Equality 266
The Body 267
Ideals of Beauty and Stereotypes 267
Body Positivity: Enter the Fatshionistas 271
Body Decoration and Mutilation 272
The Mechanized Body 274
The Quantified Self 275
Chapter Summary 276 • Key Terms 276
Review 277 • Consumer Behavior Challenge 277
Case Study Retailer Torrid: Empowering Women of
all Sizes 279
Notes 280
Personality, Values, and
10 Lifestyles 285
Personality 285
How Can We Measure Personality? 286
Trait Theory 289
Values 292
Belief Systems 292
Values Related to Things 293
Values Related to Money 295
Values Related to Time 295
How Can We Understand Values? 297
The Means–End Chain Model 297
Syndicated Surveys 298
Contents
Lifestyles and Consumer Identity 298
From What to Why: Psychographics 301
The Roles Brands Play in Our Lives 305
The Brand Personality 305
How Do We Get to “Know” a Brand? 306
The Meaning Transfer Model 307
Brand Resonance 307
Archetypes (Again) 307
Spokescharacters 308
Congruence between Consumer and Brand 310
Lifestyle Brands and Lifestyle Brand Constellations 310
Selling Authenticity 312
Brand Storytelling 312
Chapter Summary 313 • Key Terms 314
Review 314 • Consumer Behavior Challenge 315
Case Study Beyoncé’s Beyhive—Honeybees and Killer
Bees in Love with their Queen 315
Notes 317
Chapter Summary 344 • Key Terms 345
Review 346 • Consumer Behavior Challenge 346
Case Study Hyundai’s OKAY Campaign: Driving Toward
Diverse Markets 350
Notes 351
Section 5 Belonging 357
12 How Groups Define Us 358
Sources of Group Influences 359
Reference Groups 359
Social Norms: How Groups Change Our Behavior 361
Differences in Susceptibility to Influence 364
Word of Mouth 364
11
Social and Cultural
Identity 320
The Dynamics of Social Identity 321
Facets of Social and Cultural Identity 321
The Dynamics of Identity 321
Salient Identity Cues 322
Threats to Social Identity 322
Intersectionality 324
The Family 324
The Meaning of Family 324
Going Nuclear? The Structure of Households Evolves 324
The Family Life Cycle 326
Parenting and Consumer Behavior 327
Age and Generations 329
Teenagers 329
“Tweens” 330
Consumers Aging Gracefully: Retirement and
Beyond 331
Age Cohorts 332
Ethnic and Racial Identities 336
Ethnic and Racial Identity 336
Ethnic and Racial Diversity in the U.S. 337
Showing Respect: Ethnic and Racial Symbols 339
Religious and Political Identity 340
Religion and Consumption 340
Marketing to Muslims 341
Political Identity 341
Community (Geographic and Place-Based
Subcultures) 342
Geodiversity 342
Viral Marketing and Buzz Building 365
Negative WOM 365
Buzz Gone Bad 367
Information Flows in Social Networks: Who Knows
Whom? 367
Who Influences Us: Opinion Leaders and Social Media
Influencers 370
Who Influences Us: Collective Decision Making 375
The Collective Decision Making Process 375
The Intimate Corporation: Collective Decision Making in
Households 376
Collective Decision Making in Organizations 378
Who Influences Us: Consumer Communities 380
Consumer Collectives 380
A Culture of Participation 380
Brand Communities 381
Support Groups 383
Gaming Communities 384
Chapter Summary 384 • Key Terms 385
Review 386 • Consumer Behavior Challenge 387
Case Study Lush is Trying to Find an Authentic Voice
Online 389
Notes 390
13 Social Class and Status 395
What Is Social Class? 395
Social Class Provides a Set of Resources 396
Social Distinction, Taste, and Habitus 398
Online Capital 398
ix
x
Contents
“Is That a Yoga Mat?” Taste Cultures and Codes 399
How Do We Measure Social Class? 400
Social Class Structures 401
Social Stratification 401
Social Mobility 402
Some Key Factors That Influence Consumer Behavior within
and across Social Classes 404
Social Status and Consumption 406
To Whom Do We Compare Ourselves? 406
Status Symbols 407
The Meaning of “Luxury” 410
The Diffusion of Innovations 437
How Do We Decide to Adopt an Innovation? 437
What Determines Whether an Innovation Will Diffuse? 440
The Diffusion of Consumption Practices 441
The Fashion System 442
Consumers as Sources of Innovations 444
Chapter Summary 445 • Key Terms 445
Review 446 • Consumer Behavior Challenge 446
Case Study Twist, Lick, and Dunk! Does It Make Oreos
Taste Better? 448
Notes 450
Social Inequality, Poverty, and Social Justice 411
The Bottom of the Pyramid: Low-Income Consumers 411
The Role of Consumption in Social Justice: Walk the
Walk 412
Social Responsibility 413
Chapter Summary 413 • Key Terms 414
Review 414 • Consumer Behavior Challenge 415
Case Study Are Dollar Stores Really Cheaper? 416
Notes 417
14 Culture 421
Appendices
A
Consumption Rituals 428
Rituals and Community 428
Ritual Artifacts and Scripts 429
Products Are Vessels of Cultural Meanings 434
Sacred and Profane Products 434
Global Consumer Culture 436
455
Case 1: Analyzing the Athletic Shoe Market 455
Case 2: Evolving Trends in Fitness and French Fries 458
Case 3: Cats, Kibble, and Commercials 460
Case 4: Going Global with Juice 464
Careers in Consumer
B Research
Cultural Systems 421
Dimensions of Culture 423
How We Learn about Our Culture 423
Cultural Meaning Creation and Movement 425
Myths 426
Data Cases
468
C
Consumer Research
Methods 471
D
Sources of Secondary Data
Glossary 481
Indexes 502
477
PREFACE
Professors often refer to the Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being textbook as “a classic.”
But even classics can benefit from a good overhaul! The 14th edition of this textbook did not just get a paint job and new window coverings; it got a major upgrade,
from top to bottom, from front to end. Virtually every chapter has been reworked to
its core: stretched, twisted, flexed, and altogether pepped up.
How and where did this classic textbook get this infusion of new energy? A new
coauthor.
Welcome to the Solomon and Russell edition.
Cristel Russell is an award-winning consumer researcher. With over 80 peerreviewed publications—including many in the most prestigious journals, such as the
Journal of Consumer Research—and 250 presentations at both academic and practitioners’ conferences, Cristel knows how to conduct and explain research. She loves
to approach questions from multiple perspectives and approaches, and she conducts
all kinds of consumer research studies, from experiments to surveys to qualitative
interviews. Cristel also knows how to vet good research: She serves as associate
editor and is on the boards of several of the field’s premier journals. She is also an
experienced teacher of this topic, having taught consumer behavior courses on four
continents and across a variety of class sizes, modalities, and programs.
The Solomon-Russell collaboration is harmonious: The soul is intact, and you will
find the same conversational tone and humor that earned Michael Solomon’s book so
many accolades. But the body is strengthened and revitalized: Cristel kickstarted a thorough revision from every angle and every direction. As a result, the content is a crisp,
fresh, and organized structure of the latest, hottest, but also most complex facets of
consumer behavior. We did not shy away from any of the important sociocultural issues
that have shaped the consumers’ world over the past few years. We also continue the
book’s long tradition of embracing multiple perspectives and approaches, which have
also been central to both Michael’s and Cristel’s own academic research portfolios.
The five key elements (Figure FM.1) that make this book different from other
consumer behavior texts, as well as different from the previous edition of this textbook are: flow, focus, intentionality, freshness, and attention to practice.
What’s New and Notable in This Edition
1. The textbook has a new flow. As you’ll see in Figure 1.1, the textbook still
contains 14 chapters, but the flow of chapters is different. Section 1 centers
students on the core perspectives and issues that inform consumer behavior.
Chapter 1 sets the intention for the textbook and the course, and Chapter 2
orients the reader to all the ethical facets and issues that shape our consumption environment. Section 2 includes three chapters on sensing and knowing.
Section 3 tackles the processes of persuasion, decision making, choosing, and
using. Section 4 addresses being through the many facets of personality and
identity. Finally, Section 5 taps into belonging by discussing the social, class,
and cultural elements that shape consumer behavior.
2. The book is unapologetically consumption focused. This edition is not about
what marketers can or may do to consumers; it is squarely about consumers.
xi
xii
Preface
Flow
Attention to
Practice
Focus
CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR
Freshness
Intentionality
Figure FM.1 Five Elements
Of course, we recognize the many managerial implications of consumer behavior (if you don’t have customers, you don’t have a business!), but the focus of
every chapter is on understanding consumers and how these actions affect them.
3. Throughout the book, you will notice an intentional focus on the crucial
issues that affect us today: climate change and its implications in terms of
consumption choices and societal concerns such as diversity, social justice, etc.
We hope you will also note our determination to ramp up our focus upon
inclusion and representation. We teach the stuff: It’s easy to fall back on
examples that are most familiar to us. But it’s undeniably true that many of our
students over the years primarily see people in marketing communications who
don’t look like them. We thoroughly scrubbed the entire textbook, case selection, and examples, as well as visuals, to ensure diversity and broader representation that more realistically reflects today’s complex cultural environment.
4. Freshness: Out with the old, in with the new. The new authorship collaboration was the perfect opportunity for a major cleanup to incorporate fresh ideas.
While we continue to pay homage to the classic studies that continue to inform
our understanding of consumers today, we made a dedicated, exhaustive effort
to update every chapter. The result is easy to see. The majority of references
in each chapter are from the past five years. There is a slew of new easy-toprocess tables and figures to organize the content in visually accessible ways.
Even the appendices have gotten a full revamp. As has always been the case
with this textbook, topics and examples are chosen carefully so as to engage
the “typical” student who regards anything that happened before, say, 2021, as
ancient history.
Preface
xiii
5. Continued attention to practice. We are both published academic researchers. But
we also know academics must talk the talk of practitioners. As regular contributors
to Forbes (Michael) and Psychology Today (Cristel) and because of our work with a
multitude of real marketers, we are always attuned to what’s happening in consumers’ worlds. We explain to thousands of readers why and how changes in technology or sociopolitical events affect consumers’ behavior. This attention to practice
is also reflected in the book’s integration of industry data. Thus, you’ll find a large
number of studies that companies and survey firms have conducted to support the
academic data. This edition also includes updated end-of-section assignments with
data provided by GfK, one of the world’s largest marketing research firms. These
allow students to “get their hands dirty” by actually working with real information
that they can manipulate and use to do a deep dive into real-world problems.
The book marries a strong theoretical and empirical foundation with the
practical applications of these insights to the everyday practice of marketing.
Thoughtful discussion and application questions at the end of each chapter also
encourage students to integrate what they have learned with what is going on
around them in the real world.
6. More visuals, organizing frameworks, and synthesis tables. Across the book,
you will see many new figures to provide visual roadmaps for the reader. You
will also see added tables that offer lots of information but in a more efficient
and effective fashion.
7. Every chapter features new call-out “Buying, Having, Being” boxes to illustrate the content with current issues that affect consumer well-being, business
practice, or the world as we know it.
Chapter-by-Chapter Updates
Chapter 1 Buying, ­Having,
and Being: An Introduction
to Consumer Behavior
The chapter sets the tone for the book with a new vignette related to the textbook cover, a
renewed focus on consumers and the types of research methods and approaches that inform
our understanding of consumer behavior, as well as a new table illustrating research questions about the metaverse from these different perspectives.
Notable new key terms: artificial intelligence (AI), brand, consumer centricity, consumption,
content points, cultural distinctiveness, horizontal revolution, identity, metaverse, paradigms,
transmedia storytelling
Chapter 2 Consumer
­Ethics, the Marketplace,
and the Planet
The chapter was entirely reorganized around the elements of the PESTLE framework.
A new table was introduced to present the elements of PESTLE. Six new call-out boxes
were created to set the tone of the book: Topics of those boxes range from hunger among
college students to the growing use of facial recognition in business practice as well as
ethical concerns, like greenwashing and wokewashing.
Notable new key terms: algorithm bias, artificial intelligence, brand purpose, cancel ­culture, circular economy, conscious consumerism, consumer activism, corporate
­sociopolitical activism (CSA), corporate social irresponsibility (CSI), data breach, data
privacy, eco-wakening, fast fashion, financial literacy, food insecurity, genetic data, infodemic, prosocial behaviors, social justice, wokewashing
Chapter 3 Perceiving and
Making Meaning
The chapter was updated to incorporate all the latest insights about visual perception and
semiotics, along with new illustrations and a synthesis table. In addition, a new section
about consumers’ active role in shaping brand perceptions and meanings was included.
Notable new key terms: brand antifragility, contamination, contestations, cross-modal
effect, hedonic escalation, inference, materiality, metacognitive inference, multiscreening,
pre-attentive processing, psychological ownership, relational processing
xiv
Preface
Chapter 4 Learning,
Remembering, and
Knowing
The chapter’s new title reflects the addition of a new objective and section on knowledge.
This section gathers some of the content previously dispersed in other sections (like semantic
network) and incorporates new content related to knowledge and expertise. We streamlined
the content of some formerly dense sections (e.g., memory) and included more recent studies in the context of social media, gaming, and advergaming studies. We incorporated more
examples from social media, digital media, and new forms of marketing communications
(product placements, sponsorships, etc.) in both text and visuals and relied more heavily on
illustrative examples from public health campaigns. Finally, we integrated mindfulness into
this chapter. The figures in the chapter are new and updated.
Notable new key terms: advertising weariness, category exemplars, consumption constellations
elaboration, evaluative conditioning, expertise, false memory, hybrid products, knowledge,
knowledge structure, memory efficacy, memory markers, memory preservation, mindfulness,
motivated forgetting, nodes, product placement, semantic network, sonic branding, stimulus
generalization, theory of mind, willfully ignorant memory
Chapter 5 Motivation
The chapter was reorganized around a new model linking motivation to goals and accompanied by a new figure (5.1). We’ve added new coverage of motivation as intrinsic or
extrinsic and goal setting to the chapter. We also updated Maslow’s pyramid to reflect
the latest version with six levels, including self-transcendence. Affect-related content was
removed and relocated to later chapters.
Notable new key terms: achievement motivation, autonomy, biohacking, body positive,
competence, conscientiousness, external incentives, extrinsic motivation, frame, grit,
implemental mindset, intrinsic motivation, metamotivation, mere urgency effect, mortality
salience, nonconscious goals, outcome-oriented mindset, prevention vs. promotion motivation, quantified self movement, self-determination theory, self-regulation, terror management theory
Chapter 6 Attitudes and
How to Change Them
The chapter about attitude/persuasion received a major overhaul. It’s now organized around
a new figure (6.1), which connects persuasion processes to attitude and in turn to behavior.
A new section on crafting persuasive strategies involves decisions about the source, the
message, and the medium. Updated sections on the structure of attitudes include discussions of ambivalence and implicit versus explicit attitudes. We also updated persuasion
models to include new sections on narrative persuasion and persuasion knowledge. We
revised and updated the ELM figure and created a new table summarizing emotional and
rational appeals in advertising. Ten new boxes were added to reflect current debates about
persuasion, such as the narrative power of online reviews or the “fear of God” effect.
Notable new key terms: advertainment, affect, ambivalence, central vs. peripheral route,
counterargument, covert advertising, disclosures, emotions, explicit vs. implicit attitudes, fast vs. slow persuasion, halo effect, mental imagery, mood congruency, narrative
­persuasion, narrative transportation, narrativity, neuromarketing, persuasion knowledge
model, social desirability bias, sponsored content, supportive arguments, two-sided messages, valence
Chapter 7 Deciding
The chapter was reorganized to begin with a discussion of fast and slow thinking. This new
coverage of two systems that underpin how consumers make decisions (slow and fast) also
includes an entirely new set of research on system 1 and system 2. A new table provides a
simple review of decision-making heuristics.
Notable new key terms: behavioral biases, binary bias, choice overload, digital selling
assistants, drunk shopping, fast thinking, homo economicus, homo ludens, maximization,
opportunity costs, paradox of choice, slow thinking, standard economic model, temporal
framing, utility
Preface
Chapter 8 Buying, Using,
and Disposing
xv
This chapter on owning, using, and disposing includes new coverage of the virtualization
of our lives and the impact of the sharing economy on owning. In recognition of some of
the consumption-related issues the world faces, the chapter also addresses how the climate change crisis makes us think differently about buying, using, and disposing, and it
addresses the dark side of buying and using in a thorough and up-to-date review of maladaptive consumer behaviors.
Notable new key terms: Bitcoin, blockchain, cart abandonment rate, contamination,
customer journey methodology, dark design, hedonic vs. utilitarian, hoarding, identity
negotiation, liquid consumption, mental computation strategies, moral disgust, NFTs (nonfungible tokens), recommerce, secondary market, squander sequence, thrifting, unboxing
Chapter 9 Identity and
the Self
Chapter 9 begins the new section on being. We crafted an entirely revamped chapter to
discuss identity and the self in all of its complexities. The chapter is organized around the
self-concept, consumption as an expression of our identity, gender identity, and our bodies
as an important component of our identities. Figure 9.1 has a new look with levels of the
extended self represented as four layers around the individual in the innermost circle.
Notable new key terms: anti-consumption, bigorexia, FOMO (fear of missing out), genetic
data, independent vs. interdependent self, LGBTQ+, patriarchal masculinity, role identities, self-concept clarity, self-construal, self-enhancement, self-image-consistent product
perceptions
Chapter 10 Personality,
Values, and Lifestyles
Chapter 10 discusses personality, values, and lifestyles, and now also includes coverage of
brands. The personality section is wholly revamped with a briefer section on psychiatric perspectives and deeper insights into trait theory, including a new table with a description of the
Big Five Inventory of personality dimensions and consumer behavior examples. The values
section is organized around three themes of things, time, and money as represented in a new
figure (10.2). The branding section includes a new discussion of brand narratives.
Notable new key terms: agreeableness, authenticity, backstory, brand narrative, Big Five
Inventory, cultivation theory, deceleration, dichotomous thinking, entity vs. incremental theorists, extroversion, fresh start mindset, identity-based motivation, JOMO (Joy
of ­Missing Out), lifestyle brand, meaning transfer process, need for touch, neuroticism,
openness to experience, psychological time, religiosity, saving orientation, self-congruity,
spending orientation, timestyle, trait reactance
Chapter 11 Social and
­Cultural Identity
This whole new chapter delves into social identity. As a counterpart to Chapter 9, this
chapter addresses the larger social and cultural environments that affect our identity. The
chapter is organized per a new figure with six key facets of identity that shape who we are
and how we express ourselves with the consumption choices we make: our family, our age
groups and generations, our race/ethnicity, our religion and politics, and where we live.
Notable new key terms: affiliation, age cohort, autonomy, baby boomer, boomerang
kids, consumer identity renaissance, consumption practices, cosmopolitanism, cultural
­distinctiveness, cultural mindsets, diversity seeking, emotion profile, ethnic identification, extended family, family identity, family life cycle (FLC), household, identity
­mindsets, identity synergy, ingroup bias, life course model, material parenting, mature
market, normative respectability, nuclear family, political orientation, PRIZM, racial
stigma, respectability, social identity, social identity priming, social identity threat, subculture, tweens, urban identification
xvi
Preface
Chapter 12 How Groups
Define Us
This chapter on social influences and collectives has been entirely restructured and
revamped. The first part of the chapter focuses on reference groups and now incorporates
the role of social norms and the latest research on associative and dissociative groups
and norms. A new section on collective influences picks up on decision making from
­Chapter 9 to tackle the roles and processes within collectives, such as a family (the section on family was updated and expanded) and an organization (the section on B2B was
updated and streamlined). Also, the latest research on consumer collectives is synthesized
and organized in a new section.
Notable new key terms: activism, associative vs. dissociative norms, associative vs. dissociative reference group, consensus language, consumer collectives, counterspace, customer relationship management (CRM), influencer marketing, mere virtual p­ resence,
movements, negativity spiral, paradoxical social dynamics, perceived typicality, social
default, social empowerment, social media firestorms, susceptibility to personal influence, ties, user-generated social media, virtual support communities, word of mouse
Chapter 13 Social Class
and Status
Chapter 13 on social class and status is completely new and restructured. The first part of
the chapter offers a completely overhauled perspective on taste, social class, and social
class structures in accordance with sociological perspectives. We provide a new figure
(13.1) to explain social class as a set of resources. The next part of the chapter tackles more
psychological research on social status and ways in which consumers signal their status.
Finally, we include a discussion of social justice efforts to combat inequality.
Notable new key terms: aspirational class, class consciousness, digital divide, d­ ownward vs.
upward comparison, downward vs. upward mobility, embodied cultural capital, ­economic
capital, evolutionary perspective, health disparities, hedonic treadmill, maturity, optimal
distinctiveness theory, power distance belief, proxies, purpose-driven consumers, reverse
signaling, social change, social distinction, social status, socioeconomic status, status pivoting, status seeking, status threat, subjective socioeconomic status, symbolic capital, taste
regime, virtue signaling
Chapter 14 Culture
Chapter 14 has been updated, both in terms of academic literature and in terms of organizing figures and streamlining (e.g., the section on fashion was trimmed to the most essential
elements). New sections on myth, new boxes (including one on the tightness–looseness
of social norms), and a broader section on cultural meaning are included in the chapter.
In this section, the cultural meaning transfer model is updated to account for the feedback
loop (Figure 14.1). The final section on diffusion features a new organizing figure (14.4),
which illustrates the ingredients for a successful innovation. The chapter concludes with an
acknowledgement of the increasingly active role of consumers (co-creation, crowdsourcing) in consumption as well as product development.
New key terms: acculturation, adoption rates, country-of-origin (COO), crowdsourcing,
cultural appropriation, enculturation, ethnocentrism, extraordinary beliefs, individualism, indulgence vs. restraint, long-term orientation, masculinity, power distance, practice
­diffusion, practices, tightness–looseness (strength of social norms), uncertainty avoidance,
value co-creation, wisdom of crowds
Appendix A: Data Cases
Appendix B: Careers in
Consumer Research
Appendix C: Consumer
Research Methods
Appendix D: Sources of
Secondary Data
Appendices have been updated and expanded: Appendix A contains three updated data
cases. Appendix B now has a list of typical job descriptions to help students evaluate different career options. Appendix C is a more detailed primer on all the different research
methods for studying consumers. Appendix D was ­completely revamped and recognized
with an enhanced list of secondary data sources.
Preface
Solving Learning and Teaching Challenges
The book continues to offer a wide variety of teaching aids that help students to
understand the chapter contents—and also to appreciate how these issues relate to
decisions both marketers and consumers make in the real world. These special features include new boxes we call “Buying, Having, and Being” that offer vivid reallife examples of chapter content. The cases at the end of chapters feature well-known
brands and companies, such as Amazon, Hyundai, and even the singer Beyoncé;
they give students an opportunity to see key consumer behavior concepts at work in
real-life settings. End-of-chapter sections we call “Discuss and Apply” provide many
provocative questions and project ideas to further engage your class. We also provide
updated data exercises in Appendix A, in partnership with the global research firm
GfK, that encourage your students to “get their hands dirty” by working with real
consumer data to make course concepts come alive.
Developing Employability Skills
This book will help your students to better understand how consumers decide among
product options, and in particular, they will appreciate the many subtle forces at
work on each of us as decision makers. But in the process, they will also become
better marketers because they will see the “big picture” of how a consumer scenario
relates to larger forces in our lives—and also how their actions as marketers have the
potential either to improve lives or, in situations where marketing decisions or executions go bad, to diminish quality of life.
We also provide updated Career Appendices that elaborate on the types of jobs
available to consumer behavior specialists and how they can play this role in different ways within an organization. Also, we encourage you to check out the resources
in the MyLab course that reinforce the book’s content—especially the mini-­
simulations that give students opportunities to practice decision making and see the
outcome of their decisions in real-life scenarios.
MyLab Marketing for Consumer
Behavior 14e
MyLab Marketing lets instructors create a course that best fits the unique needs of
their students and their curriculum. Each MyLab course has a foundation of interactive course-specific content—created by authors who are experts in their field—that
can be tailored and assigned as needed. Digital tools activate learning, to more fully
engage student learners and help them prepare for class. Videos and podcasts, interactive images and figures, Dynamic Study Modules, Mini-Simulations, cases, short
quizzes and more enhance students’ understanding of core topics as they progress
through the course. MyLab Marketing also provides data that allows instructors to
see how their students are doing in the course, as they go, so they can decide what to
teach and how best to teach it.
xvii
xviii
Preface
For this Fourteenth Edition, MyLab Marketing includes:
• An enhanced, dynamic eTextbook that features interactive photos and
figures, short focus questions, and current event features.
• New and updated Video Assignments and Podcast Assignments help
students connect key course concepts to real-world events.
• Mini-Simulations and Team Mini-Simulations put students in the role
•
•
of professional marketers and give them the opportunity to apply course
concepts and develop decision-making skills through real-world business
challenges.
New and updated Student Edition Case Study Assignments include
auto-graded multiple-choice assessments for each of the end of chapter
Case Studies included in the 14th Edition.
Additional Case Study Library assignments are included at the end of
select chapters, including both text and video cases that challenge students
to apply critical thinking to current business examples.
• New and updated Warm Ups, Study Plan questions, and Chapter Quizzes
check students’ understanding of key chapter concepts.
• Updated Dynamic Study Modules use the latest developments in cognitive
science to help students study by adapting to their performance in real time.
• New and updated Marketing Metrics Assignments are auto-graded, algorithmic
assignments that let students practice their analytic skills and improve their
understanding of the quantitative aspects of marketing.
Visit www.pearson.com/mylab/marketing to learn more about MyLab Marketing
Preface
Instructor Teaching Resources
This edition’s program comes with the following teaching resources.
Supplements available
to instructors at
https://www.pearson.com/
Features of the Supplement
Instructor’s Manual
• Chapter-by-chapter summaries
• Examples and activities not in the main book
• Teaching outlines
• Teaching tips
• Solutions to all questions and problems in the book
Test Bank
4,000 multiple-choice, true/false, short-answer, and graphing questions with these annotations:
• Difficulty level (1 for straight recall, 2 for some analysis,
3 for complex analysis)
• Type (multiple-choice, true/false, short-answer, essay)
• Topic (the term or concept the question supports)
• Learning outcome
• AACSB learning standard (written and oral
communication; ethical understanding and reasoning;
analytical thinking; integration of real-world business
experiences; interpersonal relations and teamwork;
diverse and multicultural work; reflective thinking;
application of knowledge)
Computerized TestGen
TestGen allows instructors to:
• Customize, save, and generate classroom tests.
• Edit, add, or delete questions from the Test Item Files.
• Analyze test results.
• Organize a database of tests and student results.
PowerPoints
Slides include all the graphs, tables, and equations in the
textbook.
PowerPoints meet accessibility standards for students with
disabilities. Features include, but are not limited to:
• Keyboard and Screen Reader access
• Alternative text for images
• High color contrast between background and foreground
colors
Acknowledgements
Thanks for the tremendous support we received from our Pearson team, including (in
alphabetical order) Nayke Heine, Yasmita Hota, and Lynn Huddon, as well as production team members Meghan DeMaio and Carie Keller. George Allen at Asbury
University and Deirdre Guion Peoples wrote some amazing new cases, and Meghan
Pierce at La Salle University made thoughtful updates to the Data Case Assignments
in Appendix A. A special thanks to Matthew Farmer at Utah Valley University, who
helped us identify and synthesize the current research literature.
Michael R. Solomon
Cristel Antonia Russell
xix
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Michael R. Solomon
xx
Michael R. Solomon, PhD, is the Dirk Warren ’50 Sesquicentennial Chair and Professor of Marketing in the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph’s University in
Philadelphia. Before joining the Saint Joseph’s faculty in the fall of 2006, he was
the Human Sciences Professor of Consumer Behavior at Auburn University. Prior
to that, he was chair of the Department of Marketing in the School of Business at
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Professor Solomon began his
academic career in the Graduate School of Business Administration at New York
University (NYU), where he also served as Associate Director of NYU’s Institute of
Retail Management. He earned his BA degrees in psychology and sociology magna
cum laude at Brandeis University and a PhD in social psychology at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1996 he was awarded the Fulbright/FLAD Chair
in Market Globalization by the U.S. Fulbright Commission and the Government
of Portugal, and he served as Distinguished Lecturer in Marketing at the Technical
­University of Lisbon. He held an appointment as Professor of Consumer Behaviour
at the University of Manchester (United Kingdom) from 2007 to 2013.
Professor Solomon’s primary research interests include consumer behavior and
lifestyle issues; branding strategy; the symbolic aspects of products; the psychology
of fashion, decoration, and image; services marketing; marketing in virtual worlds;
and the development of visually oriented online research methodologies. He has
published numerous articles on these and related topics in academic journals, and he
has delivered invited lectures on these subjects in Europe, Australia, Asia, and Latin
America. His research has been funded by the American Academy of ­Advertising,
the American Marketing Association, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the
­International Council of Shopping Centers, and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
He currently sits on the editorial or advisory boards of the Journal of Consumer
Behaviour, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Critical Studies in Fashion
and Beauty, and Journal for Advancement of Marketing Education, and he served an
­ cience.
elected six-year term on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Marketing S
In a 2022 ranking of contributions of top scientists in Business and M
­ anagement since
2014 by Research.com, he is #466 in the U.S. and #1,032 in the world.
Professor Solomon is a frequent contributor to mass media. His feature articles
have appeared in such magazines as Psychology Today, Gentleman’s Quarterly, and
Savvy. He has been quoted in numerous national magazines and newspapers, including Advertising Age, Adweek, Allure, Elle, Glamour, Mademoiselle, Mirabella,
Newsweek, the New York Times, Self, Time, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal.
He frequently appears on television and speaks on radio to comment on consumer
behavior issues, including appearances on The Today Show, Good Morning America,
Inside Edition, Newsweek on Air, the Entrepreneur Sales and Marketing Show,
CNBC, Channel One, the Wall Street Journal Radio Network, the WOR Radio Network, and National Public Radio. He consults to numerous companies on consumer
behavior and marketing strategy issues, and he often speaks to business groups
throughout the United States and overseas. He recently directed Nielsen’s revamp
of its global brands model that assesses clients’ brand equity around the world. In
addition to this text, Professor Solomon is coauthor of the widely used textbook
Marketing: Real People, Real Choices. His recent trade book, The New Chameleons:
How to Engage with Consumers Who Defy Categorization, won the NYC Big Book
Award for Marketing/Sales in 2022. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife Gail.
About the Authors
Cristel Antonia Russell, PhD, is Professor of Marketing at Pepperdine Graziadio
Business School at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. She was previously professor at American University in Washington, DC, at the University of Auckland in
New Zealand, and at San Diego State University in California. She has also held
visiting positions at universities including Université de Lyon, Paris Sorbonne, and
Paris Dauphine, and she is currently affiliate faculty at Audencia Business School
in Nantes, France. She has taught Consumer Behavior around the globe, from HEC
Paris to Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Cristel grew up in Europe, born to a Spanish father and a French mother. She
completed her undergraduate international business degree at ESSCA, a French
business school where the final year consisted of a study abroad, which she completed at Southern Illinois University, where she also completed an MBA. Cristel
went on to the University of Arizona in Tucson to complete a PhD in marketing.
Cristel is an experienced consumer researcher. As of 2023, she has published
over 80 articles in academic journals from premier business outlets, such as the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
(JAMS), as well as interdisciplinary health and policy journals, such as Addiction and
Psychological Services. Her journal articles are widely cited, and she ranks amongst
the world’s most prolific consumer researchers.
Cristel’s research spans many facets of consumer behavior and draws on multiple
methodological approaches. She uses experiments with eye-tracking and biometric
measures to study the psychological processes of attention, memory, and persuasion
in the context of advertising messages and those embedded in entertainment, such as
product placements. She researches the social influences of celebrities and of traditional and social media on young audiences with a variety of approaches, including
field studies and large national surveys. She uses in-depth interviews and other qualitative techniques to explain, among many things, how consumers engage with brands,
how they relate to new technologies, or why they rewatch movies or reread books.
Cristel’s research on the influence of marketing on youth has received funding
from the United States’ National Institutes of Health and France’s Institut National
du Cancer. She also collaborates with military research institutes to study problematic consumption amongst soldiers and veterans. Her interdisciplinary research with
a focus on implementable policy solutions earned her a Marie Curie Fellowship from
the European Union for a project on media literacy for at-risk youth.
Cristel serves on many scientific and journal boards. She is currently Area Editor for the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS) and Senior Associate Editor for the Journal of Advertising, and she is on the editorial review board
of the Journal of Consumer Research. She also chairs the social sciences panel of
Belgium’s research foundation (the FWO). After 10 years as the executive secretary
of the Consumer Culture Theory Consortium, she was elected to its board.
Cristel’s research is often featured in prominent media outlets, such as the Wall
Street Journal and The Atlantic, and she has an active blog on Psychology Today
called The Savvy Consumer.
In addition to her professor “day job,” Cristel is a passionate fitness instructor, teaching a variety of group fitness classes from strength training to step, aerobics, and cardio
kickboxing and . . . you might have guessed . . . yoga. In fact, in addition to presenting
research at academic conferences, she also serves as their wellness coordinator. So now
you know why there are a lot of references to health and wellness in this 14th edition!
Cristel A. Russell
xxi
Section
1
Foundations of Consumer
Behavior
This introductory section provides an overview of the field of consumer behavior (CB). In Chapter 1,
we look at how consumers influence the market and at how marketers influence us. We describe
the discipline of consumer behavior and some of the different approaches to understanding
what makes consumers tick. In Chapter 2, we look at the broad issue of well-being and both
the positive and negative ways the products we use affect us, and we discuss the many ethical,
social, and cultural issues that marketers must confront.
Chapters Ahead
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Buying, Having, and Being:
An Introduction to Consumer
Behavior
Consumer Ethics, the
Marketplace, and the Planet
3
1
Buying, Having, and
Being: An Introduction to
Consumer Behavior
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES When you finish reading this chapter, you should be able to:
1-1 Summarize how the consumption of goods,
services, experiences, and ideas is a major part of
our lives.
1-2 Identify and discuss the technological and
sociocultural trends that require constant
monitoring to understand consumer behavior.
1-3 Explain how consumption both contributes to the
world’s problems and provides solutions.
1-4 Describe the many disciplines and perspectives
that inform our understanding of consumer
behavior.
“D
Source: Fizkes/Shutterstock
4
ownward dog? Why in the world would I ever want to
do something stupid like that?” Gail is thumbing through
some Instagram posts on her smartphone as she waits
for her accounting professor to show up to class. Her roommates have
been on this yoga kick for months now, and they don’t show any signs of
stopping. They keep telling her it’s great for stress reduction—especially
with midterms coming up. Gail’s been meaning to do something about
that (other than “stress eating” which she’s very good at). But it’s been
hard to motivate herself to try a class. She’s basically an introvert, and
she doesn’t relish the idea of other people watching her while she
struggles into awkward body poses. But on the other hand, yoga seems
to be what anyone who’s anyone is taking up and Gail doesn’t want
to seem “uncool” to her friends and classmates. And you get to wear
some fashionable athleisure outfits (preferably not produced with child
labor!). That settles it—Gail resolves to make time before her awesome
consumer behavior class to stop by Lululemon and check out those
leggings everyone is buying. If she’s going to make a spectacle of herself contorting on
the floor, at least she’ll do it in style. Still, she draws the line at the salamba shirshasana,
or yoga headstand. A fashionista has her limits, after all.
Chapter 1 • Buying, Having, and Being: An Introduction to Consumer Behavior
OBJECTIVE 1-1
Summarize how
the consumption
of goods, services,
experiences, and
ideas is a major
part of our lives.
Consumer Behavior:
People in the Marketplace
This book is about people like Gail—and you. It concerns
the products and services we buy and use and the ways these
fit into our lives. This introductory chapter describes some
important aspects of the field of consumer behavior and
some reasons why it’s essential to understand how people interact with the marketing
system. For now, though, let’s return to one “typical” consumer: Gail, the business
major. The preceding vignette allows us to highlight some aspects of consumer
behavior that we will cover in the rest of the book.
Gail is a consumer like the rest of us. The information around her, both in the real
world and online, contributes to her perceptions of the world. The sensory inputs from
looking, hearing, smelling, and maybe touching help her make sense of what’s going
on around her. As intriguing as that yoga class seemed, she must reconcile her needs
for interaction and belongingness with her introvert self. These feelings and thoughts
will ultimately guide her decisions and behaviors. Some of her decisions will be well
thought out, while others may be more impulsive and even self-destructive.
Her identity, both self (who she is as a person) and social (the groups that help
to define her), is a collection of her motivations, life circumstances, and choices. Of
course, Gail’s sociocultural environment has a huge impact—the priorities of the
society in which she lives, her ethnicity, her self-definition in terms of gender, her online
activities, and other factors help to drive what is important to her. Not surprisingly,
many of these factors relate directly to Gail’s knowledge of brands and which ones
“speak” to her. Our allegiances to sneakers, musicians, and even soft drinks help us
define our place in modern society, and these choices also help each of us to form
bonds with others who share similar preferences. So, it’s on to downward dog after all.
What Is Consumer Behavior?
The field of consumer behavior covers a lot of ground: It
is 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 and to define
and express their identities. Consumers take many forms,
ranging from a 10-year-old child who begs their parent for a
smartphone to an executive in a large corporation who helps
to decide on a multimillion-dollar computer system. The
items we consume include anything from canned peas to a
massage, democracy, Juicy jeans, a virtual reality experience,
K-pop music, or a celebrity like Taylor Swift. The needs and
desires we satisfy range from hunger and thirst to love, status,
and even spiritual fulfillment.
Our consumption choices, the brands we use, the
activities in which we engage, and the groups to which we
belong are all expressions of our unique identity. Also, as
we’ll see throughout this text, people get passionate about
a broad range of products. Whether it’s vintage Air Jordans,
that perfect yoga mat, or the latest computer tablet, there’s no
shortage of brand fans who will do whatever it takes to find
and buy what they crave.
The expanded view of consumer behavior embraces much more
than the study of what and why we buy; it also focuses on how
consumers use products and services. In this case, a hotel in
Dubai promotes responsible behavior.
Source: Courtesy of Marco Polo Hotel/Dubai; Brandcom Agency.
5
6
Section 1
• Foundations of Consumer Behavior
Consumption Is a Process
Consumer behavior is dynamic: It is an ongoing process that extends much beyond
the moment a consumer hands over money or a credit card and in turn receives
some good or service. Consumption refers to all facets of the consumer behavior
process, which include how we observe and make sense of the world around us, how
we choose and purchase things, and how we communicate our identity and sense of
self in society. Figure 1.1 illustrates all the facets of consumer behavior that we will
address in this book.
What Does It Mean to Consume?
People buy products not for what they do, but for what they mean.1 This principle,
one of the most fundamental premises of the modern field of consumer behavior,
does not imply that a product’s basic function is unimportant but rather that the roles
products (and services) play in our lives extend well beyond the tasks they perform.
All things being equal, we choose the brand that has an image (or even a personality!)
consistent with our underlying needs and desires and aligned with our identity. The
deeper meanings of consumption may help it to stand out from other similar goods
and services.
Our consumption choices help us define our identity. Identity is a multilayered
concept that involves our personal self and our social self. As we will see, many factors
like our age, gender, and ethnic and racial background affect our sense of self. Where
we live, how we grew up, and what social media we use all shape our individual
identities. Plus, the way we feel about ourselves, the things we value, the things we
like to do in our spare time—all these factors help to determine which products will
push our buttons and even those that will make us feel better.
SECTIONS
CHAPTERS
1 Buying, Having, and Being: An Introduction
1
Foundations of
Consumer Behavior
2
Making Sense
of the World
3
Buying and Having:
Choosing and
Using Products
6 Attitudes and How to Change Them
4
Being: Using Products
to Create and
Communicate Identity
9 Identity and the Self
5
to Consumer Behavior
2 Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet
3 Perceiving and Making Meaning
4 Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
5 Motivation
7 Deciding
8 Buying, Using, and Disposing
10 Personality, Values, and Lifestyles
11 Social and Cultural Identity
12 How Groups Define Us
Belonging
Figure 1.1 The Plan of the Book
13 Social Class and Status
14 Culture
Chapter 1 • Buying, Having, and Being: An Introduction to Consumer Behavior
7
A Branded World
Every day Gail encounters information about many
competing products and services. Some of these don’t capture
her attention at all, whereas others are just a turnoff because
they don’t relate to “looks,” people, or ideas with which she
identifies. But others are very important to her because they
help her to express a part of who she is—a sociable college
student, responsible steward of the environment, fashionista,
or whatever else matters to her.
A brand enables consumers to identify a particular
company, product, or individual. It uses identifying markers
to tell potential buyers not only what it does but also what
it means and perhaps even the cultural values it stands for.2
For example, Nike makes shoes and other athletic equipment,
People often purchase a product because they like its image or
but the brand’s role in our culture goes much farther than
because they feel its “personality” somehow corresponds to their
that. The famous “swoosh” logo is everywhere, and legions
own. Conversely, they may avoid a brand that clashes with their
identity or beliefs. For example, many Nike supporters decided
of “sneakerheads” pay impressive sums to collect vintage
to boycott the brand after the Kaepernick incident, while other
Nike shoes. The Nike brand also links to controversial social
consumers deliberately switched to Nike to show their support.
issues, such as child labor (the company’s supply chain has
Source: Eric Risberg/AP Images
reportedly used child labor in the past) and the Black Lives
Matter movement (the company took an early and vocal stand
on behalf of the former quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who
was fired for showing his support for the cause on the football field).3
Whether it’s the Super Bowl, Christmas shopping, national health care, newspaper
recycling, CBD oil, body piercing, vaping, tweeting, or online video games, marketers
play a significant role in our view of the world and how we live in it. And we
increasingly live in a branded world, where advertisers promote events and places of
all kinds.
This cultural impact is hard to overlook, although many people do not seem
to realize how much marketers influence their preferences for movie and musical
heroes; the latest fashions in clothing, food, and decorating
choices; and even the physical features that they find
attractive or ugly in people. For example, consider the
product icons that companies use to create an identity for
their products. Many imaginary creatures and personalities,
from the Pillsbury Doughboy to the Jolly Green Giant, at
one time or another were central figures in popular culture.
In fact, it is likely that more consumers could recognize
such characters than could identify past presidents,
business leaders, or artists. Although these figures never
really existed, many of us feel as if we “know” them,
and they certainly are effective spokescharacters for the
products they represent.
In addition to visual cues like the famous Nike
Swoosh, the taste, texture, or smell of an item influences
Consumers form strong loyalties with their favorite brands or
our evaluations of it. Similarly, a good website helps
stores. If necessary, many are willing to camp out for a new
people to feel, taste, and smell with their eyes. We may
product introduction, much like they would for scarce tickets at a
be swayed by the shape and color of a package on the
big concert.
store shelf, as well as by more subtle factors, such as the
Source: Jeffrey Blackler/Alamy Stock Photo.
8
Section 1
• Foundations of Consumer Behavior
symbolism in a brand name, the imagery an ad uses, or even in the choice of a
cover model for a magazine. These judgments are affected by—and often reflect—
how a society feels people should define themselves at that point in time. Many
product meanings lurk below the surface of packaging and advertising; we’ll
discuss some of the methods marketers and social scientists use to discover or
apply these meanings.
Like Gail, we shape our opinions and desires based on a mix of voices from around
the world, which is becoming a much smaller place because of rapid advancements
in communications and transportation systems. In today’s global culture, consumers
often prize products and services that “transport” them to different places and allow
them to experience the diversity of other cultures—even if only to watch others brush
their teeth on YouTube.
Understanding Consumers Is Good Business
The bottom line for managers, advertisers, and other marketing professionals:
Understanding consumer behavior is good business. The basic marketing concept that
you (hopefully) remember from your basic marketing class states that organizations
exist to satisfy needs. Marketers can satisfy these needs only to the extent that they
understand the people or organizations that will use the products and services they
sell. Voila! That’s why we study consumer behavior.
Successful companies understand that needs are a moving target. No
organization—no matter how renowned for its marketing prowess—can afford to
rest on its laurels. Everyone needs to keep innovating to stay ahead of changing
customers and the marketplace. BMW is a great example. No one (not even rivals
like Audi or Mercedes-Benz) would argue that the German automaker knows how
to make a good car (although they may not agree with the company’s claim to be
“the ultimate driving machine”). Still, BMW’s engineers and designers know they
must understand how drivers’ needs will change in the future—even those loyal
owners who love the cars they own today. The company is highly sensitive to such
key trends as:
• A desire for environmentally friendly products
• Increasingly congested roadways and the movement by
•
BMW anticipates changes in consumer behavior as it develops
electric car models like the i8 that satisfy dual desires for style and
environmental responsibility.
Source: Ritu Manoj Jethani/Shutterstock
some cities, such as London and New York, to impose
fees on vehicles in central areas
New business models that encourage consumers to rent
products only while they need them rather than buying
them outright
BMW’s response: The company committed more than
$1 billion to develop electric BMWi models, such as its new
i3 commuter car and i8 sports car. These futuristic-looking
vehicles are largely made from lightweight carbon fiber to
maximize the distance they can go between battery charges,
and 25 percent of the interior plastic comes from recycled
or renewable raw materials. In addition, BMW partnered
with the Daimler AG group (Mercedes, etc.) to offer the
Share Now carsharing service that boasts over four million
members worldwide.4
That’s forward thinking.
Chapter 1 • Buying, Having, and Being: An Introduction to Consumer Behavior
OBJECTIVE 1-2
Identify and discuss
the technological
and sociocultural
trends that require
constant monitoring
to understand
consumer behavior.
Consumers, Society, and
Technology: A Moving Target
Today many of us take for granted things that our
grandparents only dreamed about. We instantly access
people, places, and products with the click of a link. Many
consumers travel to remote countries in a day rather than the
weeks or months our ancestors needed if they ever left their
places of birth at all.
Most of us now live in urban centers that bustle with people from many countries
and that offer exotic foods from around the world. The United Nations defines a
megacity as a metropolitan area with a total population of more than 10 million
people. By 2011, there were already 20 such areas in the world. Researchers estimate
that by 2030 three out of five people will live in cities.5
This concentration in urban centers, combined with population growth in
developing countries and increasing demands for modernization by billions of people
in booming economies such as China, India, and Brazil, is both a blessing and a
curse. Quality of life for many everyday citizens is better than even that of the elite
who lived several centuries ago (even kings bathed only once a month). On the other
hand, millions live in squalor, children around the world go to bed hungry, and we
all feel the effects unbridled growth contribute to pollution of our air, soil, and water.
As we’ll see later in the text, all these issues relate directly to our understanding of
consumer behavior—and to the impact companies and customers have on our future
and the world that we will leave to our children.
Social Media: The Horizontal Revolution
Word of mouth has always been a major force, but the explosion of social media takes
“word of mouse” to a whole new level because it has created a horizontal revolution:
Communications no longer just flow top-down from companies and established media
to passive recipients (consumers). Today, they also flow across regular users (hence
the word horizontal above, in case you were wondering).
Social media refers to the online means of communication, conveyance,
collaboration, and cultivation among interconnected and interdependent networks of
people, communities, and organizations enhanced by technological capabilities and
mobility. Every day the influence of social media expands as more people join online
communities. These include platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook
(for older folks?), and LinkedIn (for professional networking). The odds are good
(really good) that you use one or more of these platforms on a regular basis. After all,
about 81 percent of the total population of the U.S. (about 270 million of us) currently
are active on social media.6 OK, you have our permission to take a 30-second break
so you can check your social for updates . . .
It’s fair to say that 24/7 access to smartphones and other social media devices
has kindled a fascination among many of us with documenting exactly what we’re
doing and sharing the exciting news with others. A meal in a nice restaurant doesn’t
get touched until the diner posts a photo of it on Instagram. We may not learn that
the person we’re dating has broken up with us until we see they have changed their
relationship status on Facebook. Today some of us wear tiny cameras that allow us to
create a lifelog of every event we experience throughout the day.7
There’s little doubt that the digital revolution is one of the most significant
influences on consumer behavior, and the impact of the internet will continue to
9
10
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
expand as more and more people around the world log in. Many of us are avid surfers,
and it’s hard to imagine a time when texting, tweeting, TikToking, or pinning favorite
items on Pinterest weren’t a regular part of daily life.
Artificial Intelligence and The Metaverse
But our lives are about to change even more: We’re entering
a new era of the Internet of Things (IoT). This term refers
to the growing network of interconnected devices embedded
in objects that speak to one another. Analysts estimate that
there are 14.4 billion connected devices out there now,
with 27 billion expected by 2025.8 You can see the impact
of the IoT all around you, from the advent of autonomous
vehicles (self-driving cars) to the “smart home” products
that can automatically adjust your thermostat, control your
windows, and even turn on your oven before you get home.9
Automation creates new ways for consumers to live their
lives, from how they connect with other people to how they
express themselves and expand their minds.10
We are also witnessing a revolution in M2M (machineBe on the lookout for service robots that perform many functions
to-machine communication) that will profoundly change
humans normally carry out—such as waiting on customers.
our lives. Self-driving cars are just the tip of the iceberg.11
Source: Pack-Shot/Shutterstock
Artificial intelligence (AI) applications that get better over
time via machine learning already interact with us in the form of voice recognition
software in digital assistants like Siri and Alexa; in systems that process insurance
Buying, Having, Being
claims, trade stocks, and diagnose exotic illnesses; as well as in marketing applications
that help advertisers to improve the precision of their ad placements, help businesses
The Digital Native
increase the speed with which they can deliver goods to their customers, and even
If you’re a typical student, you
help salespeople to predict which responses to consumers’ queries are more likely to
probably can’t recall a time when
result in a purchase.12
the internet was just a static, oneway platform that transmitted text
and a few sketchy images. And
believe it or not, in the last century,
even that crude technique didn’t
exist. You may have read about this
in a history class: People actually
handwrote letters to each other
and waited for printed magazines
to arrive in their mailboxes to learn
about current events! The term
digital native originated in a 2001
article to explain a new type of
student who was starting to turn
up on campus. These people grew
up “wired” in a highly networked,
always-on world where digital
technology had always existed.13
Fast forward to today, where
87 percent of American teens own
an iPhone and non-school related
screen time jumped from 3.8 hours
per day before the pandemic to
7.7 hours today.
Are you a digital native?
“Big Data” and Data Analytics
Walmart stores massive amounts of information on the 100 million people who visit
its stores each week, and the company uses these data to fine-tune its offerings. For
example, when the company analyzed how shoppers’ buying patterns react when
forecasters predict a major hurricane, it discovered that people do a lot more than
simply stock up on flashlights. Sales of strawberry Pop-Tarts increased by about
700 percent, and the top-selling product of all was . . . beer. Based on these insights,
Walmart loads its trucks with toaster pastries and six-packs to stock local stores when
a big storm is approaching.14
At this very moment (and every moment thereafter until we croak), we are all
generating massive amounts of information that hold tremendous value for marketers.
You may not see it, but we are practically buried by data that come from many
sources—sensors that collect climate information, the comments you and your friends
make on your favorite social media sites, the credit card transactions we authorize, and
even the GPS signals in our smartphones that let organizations know where most of
us are pretty much anytime day or night. This incredible amount of information has
created a new field that causes tremendous excitement among marketing analysts (and
other math geeks). The collection and analysis of extremely large datasets is called Big
Data, and you’ll be hearing a lot more about it in the next few years. Hint: If you have
aptitude or interest in quantitative topics, this will be a desirable career path for you.
Chapter 1 • Buying, Having, and Being: An Introduction to Consumer Behavior
11
In addition to the huge volume of information marketers now must play with, its
velocity (speed) also enables companies to make decisions in real time that used to take
months or years. For example, one group of researchers used the GPS phone signals
that were coming from Macy’s parking lots on Black Friday to estimate whether the
department store was going to meet or exceed its sales projections for the biggest
shopping day of the year—before the stores even reported their sales. This kind of
intelligence allows financial analysts and marketing managers to move quickly as they
buy and sell stocks or make merchandising decisions.
It’s safe to say this data explosion is profoundly changing the way we think about
consumer behavior. Companies, nonprofits, political parties, and even governments sift
through massive quantities of information that enable them to make precise predictions
about what products we will buy, what charities we will donate to, what candidates we
will vote for, and what levers they need to push to make this even more likely to happen.
Walmart alone collects more than 2.5 petabytes of data every hour from its customer
transactions (the equivalent of about 20 million filing cabinets’ worth of text).15
Welcome to the Metaverse!
It’s hard to ignore all the talk about the Metaverse over the past few years—especially
since Facebook rebranded itself as Meta, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the
company’s goal to “help bring the metaverse to life.”
There’s been a lot of hype, but what exactly is the metaverse? Most definitions
center on these elements:16
• It exists in the physical world, but it also involves immersive environments, often
•
•
•
(but not always) using virtual- or augmented-reality technology. Inhabitants of a
“virtual world” often create a unique identity in the form of an avatar, and this
character may not be at all like the person’s IRL (in-real-life) identity.
It’s “always on” and operates in real time.
It’s built on a virtual economy—most likely based upon cryptocurrency and digital goods and assets, including nonfungible tokens (NFTs), which are digital
assets with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from
one another. Unlike cryptocurrencies (fungible tokens), each NFT is completely
unique and only one person can own it. This makes these assets very attractive to
people who buy and sell artwork, sports memorabilia, and other physical objects
that otherwise have the potential to be duplicated.17
It allows people to possess virtual identities that don’t necessarily correspond to
who they are IRL. They can interact with peers, create content, and at times build
their own (virtual) worlds.
To pay homage to its founder’s 200th
birthday, Louis Vuitton released a
mobile game on the Roblox platform.
It follows a game character through
six worlds as it collects 200 candles.
Of course, you start by adorning your
character in Louis Vuitton threads. To
add to the excitement, the designers
placed 30 NFTs created by the artist
Beeple for players to find.18 If you
think that name is weird, for what
it’s worth, Mike Winkelmann (the
artist’s real name) earned notoriety
(and perhaps envy) when he sold an
NFT of a JPG file composed of 5,000
individual images for the highest price
recorded—$69.3 million (yes, million).
That’s more than masterpieces by
many famous artists.19
Source: Supamotion/Shutterstock
12
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
Globalization of Brands and Cultural Practices
We live in a hyperconnected and increasingly global world: Especially as the pandemic
subsided, many of us compensated by traveling even more than before. Worldwide
destinations welcomed about 117 million visitors in 2022, up from a paltry 41 million
the year before when most of us stayed home.20
More people than ever before are leaving the familiarity of their home culture to
live, even if for a short period, in a different cultural environment. In this world of
increasing global mobility, two countervailing forces drive consumer behavior: The
desire to belong and the drive for cultural distinctiveness, or the feeling of being
different and separated from the surrounding cultural environment.21 On the one end,
consumers have a natural in-group bias: They prefer culturally related brands that
meet their desire to connect with “home” and their home culture. But on the other
end, consumers can feel a sense of cultural distinctiveness that drives them to seek
out brands that represent other cultural groups.
Global brands that are sold across many countries and cultures benefit from little
variation across countries because economies of scale make it cheaper and easier to use
the same message in multiple markets. Some large corporations, such as Coca-Cola,
have successfully crafted a single, international global image for their flagship brands.
Still, even the soft-drink giant must make minor modifications to the way it presents
itself in each culture. Although Coke commercials are largely standardized, the company
permits local agencies to edit them so they highlight close-ups of local faces.22
Proactive Consumers and User-Generated Content
Probably the biggest phenomenon of the 20th century is the degree to which consumers
want organizations to market with them rather than market to them. Today many of
us want to be a lot more proactive—instead of sitting idly in front of the TV waiting
for marketers to tell them what they want, a lot of people are creating their own ads
and submitting new product ideas, reviews, and other suggestions to the companies
that matter to them.
UGC Rules!
This helps to explain the explosion of user-generated content (UGC), where everyone
can voice their opinions about products, brands, and companies on blogs, podcasts,
and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. We can even film our own
commercials that thousands view on sites like YouTube. This important trend helps to
define the era of Web 2.0: The rebirth of the internet from its original roots as a form
of one-way transmission from producers to consumers to a social, interactive medium.
What drives this desire by everyday consumers to be directors, writers, and actors
(even in bad TikTok videos)? Obviously, technology is one reason—today we have
the tools to easily create videos, photos, and sound clips that look “professional.” But
another important factor speaks to the gap between the content that customers want to
see from organizations and the content that they’re getting. A recent survey found that
while almost all marketers (92 percent) believe the content they create resonates with
their customers, half of consumers believe that most companies do not create content
that resonates with them. While marketers believe their content is about twice as
authentic as user-generated content, consumers overwhelmingly believe the opposite.23
Consumer Creation in the Transmedia Environment
Another important development in the consumer ecosystem is the shift from traditional
media to the more integrated system called transmedia. Transmedia refers to the web
Chapter 1 • Buying, Having, and Being: An Introduction to Consumer Behavior
of media from traditional media platforms, like magazines and
television, to more novel and emergent ones, like digital media,
videogames, and the metaverse.
Transmedia challenges traditional views of popular
culture—the music, movies, sports, books, celebrities, and
other forms of entertainment that the mass market produces and
consumes—because we can access these forms of entertainment
in so many ways and in so many forms.
Marketing messages are communicated synchronously
through transmedia in the form of transmedia storytelling,
which refers to telling a story across multiple platforms and
formats. In turn, consumers access brand and marketing messages
synchronously across transmedia, and this variety of contact
points allows them to engage with content in a such a variety of
ways that it amounts to a make-your-own-journey.24
Consumer Trends: Keeping Up with the
Culture That Won’t Stand Still
Understanding consumer behavior means staying on top of
consumer trends. This term does not just refer to specific brands
or styles that may be in vogue today but also to underlying values
that drive consumers toward certain products and services and
away from others. As we’ll see, these values evolve over time. For
example, some analysts argue that our focus on acquiring physical
objects is shifting toward the consumption of experiences instead.
This consumer trend is consistent with research that shows
experiential purchases provide greater happiness and satisfaction
The Matrix was the first transmedia brand, with the
because they allow us to connect with others in an increasingly
simultaneous release of the film, a game, and a website.
impersonal society.
Source: © Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection
Why is it so important to understand consumer trends? Very
simply, a brand that aligns with a dominant value stands a much
better chance of success. Because companies often need substantial lead time to
launch a new product or reposition an existing one, it’s crucial to track not just where
consumers are but where they’re going. That way you can be there to greet them when
they arrive.
Consumer trend forecasting is big business, and many organizations devote huge
resources to monitoring the “bleeding edge” of consumer behavior. Companies like
Mintel, Euromonitor, and GfK publish consumer trend reports that alert clients to what
the companies view as basic changes in customers’ priorities.
It can seem at times that there are as many consumer trends as there are trend
watchers, and sometimes their predictions create a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
For example, Pantone publishes an influential color forecasting report that many
manufacturers use to guide their choices of future color palettes for cars, clothing,
house paints, and other products. Since so many companies heed these predictions,
perhaps it’s not too surprising to find the very hues Pantone predicted on store shelves
(Very Peri, a shade of blue with red and violet undertones, was the Color of the Year
for 2022).
It’s an amazing time to study consumer behavior. In so many ways, our basic
assumptions about how companies and people relate to one another are being disrupted.
Throughout this text, we’re going to learn about the “bleeding edge” of consumer
behavior; the many ways that these relationships change on an almost daily basis.
13
14
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
These are some of the important consumer trends that we believe will impact marketing
strategies in the near future:
• Sharing economy: A continued blurring of the boundary between producers and
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
consumers, as everyday people take on the roles of hoteliers, taxi drivers, and even
advertising agencies. We will see a de-emphasis on the value of owning products
such as automobiles and power tools as opposed to leasing them on an as-needed
basis.
Authenticity and personalization: An aversion to corporate “hype,” as consumers
place a premium on knowing the lineage of the companies they patronize.
Consumers also will demand more individualized experiences rather than buying
mass-market products and services. There will be an increase in “artisanal”
products and continuing growth of the “maker movement,” augmented by wider
availability of 3D-printing technologies. Shoppers are willing to pay more for an
item when they know exactly where it comes from, and they are assured that “real
people” have thoughtfully selected the things from which they choose.
Blurring of gender identity and gender roles: The continuing movement away from
“gender binarism” as gender identity becomes more fluid and more people do not
identify themselves as male or female.
Diversity and multiculturalism: Racial and ethnic divisions will blur as people
are exposed to other groups both in person (e.g., at the workplace) and online.
Intermarriage rates continue to accelerate; a growing number of countries
(including the United States) no longer adhere to strict categories when they ask
citizens to identify racial and ethnic identity.25
Social shopping: The traditional lone decision maker will become harder to find,
as ready access to product reviews and others’ immediate feedback on potential
purchases turns many buying situations into committee decisions. Large numbers
of people already say they almost always consult online reviews before they buy
something new. We will see continued growth of video as the go-to medium for
posting and sharing.
Income inequality: The gap between rich and poor will continue to grow in the
United States, which will exacerbate pressure toward a dual society of haves (in
gated communities) and have-nots.
Healthy and ethical living: A continued focus on wellness, physical fitness, and
environmental sustainability. This priority is likely to divide along social class
lines, as growing economic inequality makes it difficult for less affluent consumers
to afford healthy and sustainable products.
Simplification: A movement away from hyperchoice and toward decluttering one’s
life and possessions. There will be more priority on experiences rather than acquiring things.
Interconnection and the Internet of Things: The rapid growth of AI will facilitate
the popularity of products such as wearable computers that monitor physical
activity and offer many other functions. We will see growth in the consumer trend
of smart homes.
Anonymity: Data hacking, cyberbullying, and advertising tracking will fuel
a desire for “the right to be forgotten.” Consumers will flock to platforms like
Snapchat that don’t retain posts or that allow users to create alternative identities.
There will be greater emphasis on regulating online businesses as public utilities
and on forcing advertisers to reveal when they have paid for online advertising.
Consumer trends are a moving target. Keep ahead to keep up!
Chapter 1 • Buying, Having, and Being: An Introduction to Consumer Behavior
OBJECTIVE 1-3
Explain how
consumption both
contributes to the
world’s problems
and provides
solutions.
Consumption: From Problem
to Solution?
As we’ll see in the next chapter, a number of critics argue that
consumption is the source of many of the world’s problems:
Growing mental and physical health problems, climate
change, addiction, and other issues that threaten our quality
of life as individuals and as a society. They claim that modern marketing practices make
these problems worse because they create unhealthy needs that people then try to satisfy.
What Do We Need—Really?
One large survey explored some profound questions: How can we predict whether
someone will be happy? How does that feeling relate to living a meaningful life?
The researchers concluded that happiness is linked to satisfying wants and needs,
whereas meaningfulness relates to activities that express oneself and impact others in
a positive way. Not surprisingly, people whose needs were satisfied were happier, but
the findings went beyond that connection:
• Happiness was linked to being a taker rather than a giver, whereas meaningfulness
went with being a giver rather than a taker.
• Happy people are more likely to think in the present rather than dwelling on the
past or contemplating the future.
• Respondents who reported higher levels of worry, stress, and anxiety were less
•
happy but had more meaningful lives. They spend a lot of time thinking about past
struggles and imagining what will happen in the future. They are likely to agree
that taking care of children and buying gifts for others reflect who they are.
The researchers concluded that “happiness without meaning characterizes a
relatively shallow, self-absorbed or even selfish life, in which things go well, needs
and desires are easily satisfied, and difficult or taxing entanglements are avoided.”26
The distinction between a “happy” and a “meaningful” life brings up an important
question: What is the difference between needing something and wanting it? The
answer to this deceptively simple question explains a lot of consumer behavior!
A need is something a person must have to live or to achieve a goal. A want is a
specific manifestation of a need that personal and cultural factors determine. For
example, hunger is a basic need that all of us must satisfy; a lack of food creates a
tension state that a person is motivated to reduce. But the way they choose to do that
can take a lot of forms: One person’s “dream meal” might include a cheeseburger,
fries, and double-fudge Oreo cookies, whereas another might go for sushi followed
by vegan and gluten-free chocolate cake balls.
Toward Responsible Consumption and
Responsible Business
No doubt there’s some truth to these criticisms of consumption’s effects on society.
But it’s just as easy to argue that consumption can also be the source of solutions
to a better world. A greener planet will require that consumers make better, more
environmentally sound choices. Solving the housing crisis will likely involve creative
solutions to home ownership and a greater variety of housing options.
15
16
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
Patagonia has long been recognized for
its’ responsible marketing practices. In
one well-known campaign, the company
actually urged customers to purchase
used garments rather than buying a new
one – even if it’s made by them.
Source: © 2011 Patagonia, Inc
Chapter 1 • Buying, Having, and Being: An Introduction to Consumer Behavior
For businesses also, responsible marketing is about merging consumer
centricity, a focus on meeting consumers’ needs, with making a positive impact on
our communities—both in the small sense (local communities) and in the broad sense
(our planet).
OBJECTIVE 1-4
Describe how many
disciplines and
perspectives inform
our understanding
of consumer
behavior.
Multiple Perspectives on the
Study of Consumer Behavior
By now it should be clear that the field of consumer behavior
encompasses many things, from the simple purchase of a
carton of milk to the selection of a complex, networked
computer system; from the decision to donate money
to a charity to devious plans to rip off a company. And it should be evident that
the environment in which consumers live is everchanging. There’s an awful lot
to understand, and many ways to go about it. Given the complexity of consumer
behavior and the many forms and facets of consumption, it is clear we need multiple
perspectives to fully understand it (or at least, to come close!).
What Disciplines Study Consumer Behavior?
Many different perspectives shape the field of consumer research. Indeed, it
is hard to think of a field that is more interdisciplinary. You can find people with
training in a wide range of disciplines—from neuroscience to anthropology—doing
consumer research. Universities, manufacturers, museums, advertising agencies, and
governments employ consumer researchers. Consumer researchers have formed many
academic groups, such as the Association for Consumer Research, the Society for
Consumer Psychology, and the Consumer Culture Theory movement.
To gain an idea of the diversity of interests of people who do consumer research,
consider the list of professional associations that sponsor the field’s major journal, the
Journal of Consumer Research: The American Association of Family and Consumer
Sciences, the American Statistical Association, the Association for Consumer Research,
the Society for Consumer Psychology, the International Communication Association,
the American Sociological Association, the Institute of Management Sciences, the
American Anthropological Association, the American Marketing Association, the
Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the American Association for Public
Opinion Research, and the American Economic Association. That’s a mixed bag to
be sure.
Clearly there are a lot of researchers from diverse backgrounds who are into the
study of consumer behavior. So, which is the “correct” discipline to explore these
issues? You might remember a children’s story about the blind men and the elephant.
The gist of the story is that each man touched a different part of the animal and, as
a result, the descriptions each man gave of the elephant were quite different. This
analogy applies to consumer research as well. Depending on the training and interests
of the researchers studying it, they will approach the same consumer phenomenon
in different ways and at different levels. Table 1.1 illustrates how we can approach a
complex and emerging topic such as the metaverse from a range of perspectives. We’ll
take a closer look at some of the diverse methods researchers use to study consumer
behavior in Appendix C.
17
18
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
TABLE 1.1 Interdisciplinary Research Issues in Consumer Behavior
Disciplinary Focus
Metaverse Potential Research Issues
Cognitive
psychology
(perception, learning,
and memory
processes)
How do consumers process brands they encounter in the metaverse? How do they
recognize and interpret the brand based upon the modality (audio or visual) that
carries the information? What makes a brand impression in the metaverse more
likely to stick over time?
Clinical psychology
How do metaverse experiences affect consumers’ mental health? For example, does
constant exposure to photos of “perfect” people diminish a viewer’s self-esteem?
Behavioral
economics
Do consumers respond to monetary incentives and spend their money differently in a
virtual world than in the physical world?
Social psychology
Are consumers more likely to follow others’ brand recommendations when they
occur in a virtual world instead of the physical world?
Sociology
How do avatar brand communities form and develop inside the metaverse?
Semiotics & literary
criticism
How does the metaverse environment shape the meanings of the brands that
consumers encounter in that space?
Computer Science
How would consumers interact with computer interfaces that allow them to control
applications with their eyes?
Anthropology
How do people observe cultural myths and rituals while in avatar form in the
metaverse?
Figure 1.2 provides a glimpse of some of the core disciplines that inform our
understanding of consumer behavior. Disciplines listed in the top half of the figure
represent a focus on the individual consumer (micro issues), and those in the lower half
of the figure are more interested in the collective activities that occur among larger groups
of people (macro issues).
A Micro Focus
On the micro side, we find researchers who understand the
brain and its inherent processes. Researchers identify how
we process information or how messages of different types
change our opinions and behaviors. Foundations for these
perspectives come from the following disciplines:
• Cognitive psychology: This discipline focuses on the
•
Marketing ethnographers spend time with real consumers to
inform their clients about what people need or want based upon
observations in natural settings.
Source: Master1305/Shutterstock.
•
study of internal mental processes—that is, what happens inside your brain, including perception, memory,
attention, language, problem-solving, and learning.27
Neuroscience: This discipline focuses more deeply
inside the brain and nervous system. Neuroscientists
use tools like brain scanning, which measures neural
activity, and physiological tracking, which measures eye
movement.28
Judgment and decision making (JDM): As its name
signals, this discipline studies all the complexities of
human judgments and decisions.29
Chapter 1 • Buying, Having, and Being: An Introduction to Consumer Behavior
Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Judgment and Decision-Making
Behavioral Economics
Social Psychology
Buying, Having, and Being
SECTION 1
SECTION 2
SECTION 3
SECTION 4
SECTION 5
Foundations of
Consumer Behavior
Making Sense
of the World
Buying and Having: Choosing
and Using Products
Being: Using Products
to Create and
Communicate Identity
Belonging
Sociology
Anthropology
History
Semiotics, Literary Theory
Computer Science
Figure 1.2 The Core Disciplines That Inform Research on Consumer Behavior
classical and
• Behavioral economics: A branch of economics that extends from
neoclassical economics and integrates insights from psychology.30
• Social psychology: This branch of psychology focuses31 (not surprisingly!) on the
social factors that affect individual or group behavior.
A Macro Focus
On the macro side, we find researchers who regard consumption from a social and
cultural point of view, drawing on sociology and anthropology. Researchers embrace
a variety of topics that range from how the media shapes our conceptions of our
bodies or how disadvantaged people cope with poverty to how Harley-Davidson riders
participate in an active community of bike lovers.32
• Sociology: This discipline focuses on the study of group33 behavior, including the
structures and institutions that govern human behavior.
• Anthropology: This discipline comparatively examines culture, society, and34
human difference from the perspective of the individual embedded in a collective.
A Diverse Focus
A wide array of other disciplines also inform consumer research, such as:
• Semiotics and literary criticism: The humanities can provide rich insights into
•
•
the meanings inherent in text. Semiotics, the study of meanings and symbols, and
literary criticism, the systematic and organized analysis and evaluation of texts,
offer tools to deconstruct and extract the meanings inside ads, social media posts,
and even entire marketing campaigns.35
Computer science: The increasing role of technology in our lives brings the
need to integrate knowledge from computer science, the study of computers and
computational systems, to understand consumer behavior.36
History: The discipline of history studies the past and critically examines these
source materials to assess consumption trends over time and the factors that shape
them.37 For instance, consumer researchers critically analyze historical records
to understand how markets change and how cultural trends and practices evolve
over time.
19
20
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
Where Do We Find Consumer Researchers?
Where do we find consumer researchers? Just about anywhere we find consumers.
Consumer researchers work for manufacturers, retailers, marketing research firms,
governments, and nonprofit organizations—and of course colleges and universities.
You’ll find them in laboratories, running sophisticated experiments that involve
advanced neural imaging machinery, or in malls, interviewing shoppers. They may
conduct focus groups or run large-scale polling operations. For example, when an
advertising agency began to work on a new campaign for retailer JCPenney, it sent
staffers to hang out with more than 50 women for several days. They wanted to
really understand the respondents’ lives, so they helped them to clean their houses,
carpool, cook dinner, and shop. As one of the account executives observed, “If
you want to understand how a lion hunts, you don’t go to the zoo—you go to the
jungle.”38
The Philosophy of This Book
This textbook embraces the multidisciplinary nature of the study of consumer behavior.
Understanding complex real-world consumption phenomena requires a plurality of
methods and theoretical approaches.39
So, in each chapter, we weave in insights from multiple paradigms, which
refer to ways of thinking about and studying a phenomenon. For instance, when
explaining the processes of attitude change (Chapter 6), we review classic
persuasion models from social psychology but also incorporate the sociocultural
and narrative (storytelling) processes at play. When we cover the role of social class
in consumption (Chapter 13), we review the “pure” sociological perspective on class,
which adopts a societal lens and analyzes the symbolic systems that shape class and
status groups but also weaves in developments from social psychology on status
signaling, which takes a psychological approach to how individuals process and
respond to status cues.
Multiple flavors? Yes, and you’ll taste them all in this course!
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Now that you have finished reading this chapter, you should
be able to:
1. Summarize how the consumption of goods, services, experiences, and ideas is a major part of
our lives.
Consumer behavior is 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 and to define and express their
identities. The items we consume include anything from
canned peas to a massage, democracy, Juicy jeans, a virtual
reality experience, K-pop music, or a celebrity like Taylor
Swift. The needs and desires we satisfy range from hunger
and thirst to love, status, and even spiritual fulfillment.
Consumption refers to all facets of the consumer behavior
process, which includes how we observe and make sense
of the world around us, how we choose and purchase
things, and how we use consumption to communicate our
identity and our sense of self in society.
One of the fundamental premises of the modern
field of consumer behavior is that people buy
products not for what they do but for what they mean.
This principle does not imply that a product’s basic
function is unimportant but rather that the roles
products (and services) play in our lives extend well
beyond the tasks they perform. Our consumption
choices help us define our identity. Identity is a
multilayered concept that involves our personal self
and our social self.
Chapter 1 • Buying, Having, and Being: An Introduction to Consumer Behavior
2. Identify and discuss the technological and sociocultural trends that require constant monitoring
to understand consumer behavior.
There’s little doubt that the digital revolution is
one of the most significant influences on consumer
behavior, and the impact of the internet will continue
to expand as more and more people around the world
log in. Communications no longer just flow top-down
from companies and established media to passive
recipients (consumers). Today, they also flow across
regular users. Social media refers to the online means
of communication, conveyance, collaboration, and
cultivation among interconnected and interdependent
networks of people, communities, and organizations
enhanced by technological capabilities and mobility.
Every day the influence of social media expands
as more people join online communities. As part
of our online activity, we are all generating massive
amounts of information that hold tremendous value
for marketers, especially as our devices increasingly
connect to one another as part of the Internet of
Things (IoT). The collection and analysis of extremely
large datasets is called Big Data. This data explosion
is profoundly changing the way we think about
consumer behavior. Companies, nonprofits, political
parties, and even governments sift through massive
quantities of information that enable them to make
precise predictions about what products we will buy,
what charities we will donate to, what candidates we
will vote for, and what levers they need to push to
make this even more likely to happen. The metaverse
describes an environment we will very possibly inhabit
in the near future, where activities in the physical and
digital worlds are integrated into an immersive user
experience. Increasingly the content we encounter is
from brands that have become a part of global culture.
Understanding consumer behavior means staying
on top of consumer trends. Important trends include
the sharing economy, diversity and multiculturalism,
authenticity, and sustainability.
3. Explain how consumption both contributes to
the world’s problems and provides solutions.
Many critics argue that consumption is the source of
many of the world’s problems: Growing mental and
physical health problems, climate change, addiction, and
other issues that threaten our quality of life as individuals and as a society. They claim that modern marketing
practices make these problems worse because they create unhealthy needs that people then try to satisfy. It’s
just as easy to argue that consumption can also be the
source of solutions to a better world. A greener planet
will require that consumers make better, more environmentally sound choices. Solving the housing crisis will
likely involve creative solutions to home ownership and
a greater variety of housing options.
For businesses also, responsible marketing is about
merging consumer centricity, a focus on meeting consumers’ needs, with making a positive impact on our
communities—both in the small sense (local communities) and in the broad sense (our planet).
4. Describe how many disciplines and perspectives
inform our understanding of consumer behavior.
Many different perspectives shape the field of
consumer research. You can find people with training
in a wide range of disciplines—from neuroscience to
anthropology—doing consumer research. Universities,
manufacturers, museums, advertising agencies, and
governments employ consumer researchers.
KEY TERMS
Artificial intelligence (AI), 10
Autonomous vehicles, 10
Big Data, 10
Brand, 7
Consumer behavior, 5
Consumer centricity, 17
Consumer trends, 13
Consumption, 6
Contact points, 13
Cultural distinctiveness, 12
Digital native, 10
21
Horizontal revolution, 9
Identity, 6
In-group bias, 12
Internet of Things, (IoT), 10
Lifelog, 9
M2M (machine-to-machine
communication), 10
Machine learning, 10
Megacity, 9
Metaverse, 11
Need, 15
Nonfungible tokens (NFTs), 11
Paradigms, 20
Popular culture, 13
Responsible marketing, 17
Social media, 9
Transmedia, 12
Transmedia storytelling, 13
User-generated content (UGC), 12
Want, 15
Web 2.0, 12
22
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
REVIEW
1-1 Provide a definition of consumer behavior.
1-2 What is Big Data?
1-3 What is popular culture, and how does this concept
relate to marketing and consumer behavior?
1-5 This chapter states “people often buy products not for
what they do but for what they mean.” Explain the
meaning of this statement and provide an example.
1-4 Name two different disciplines that study consumer
behavior. How would their approaches to the same
issue differ?
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHALLENGE
DISCUSS
1-6 As consumers increasingly interact with one another
in digital form, what are the ramifications for realworld human relationships?
1-7 What aspects of consumer behavior would interest
a financial planner? A university administrator?
A graphic arts designer? A social worker in a
government agency? A nursing instructor?
1-8 Critics of targeted marketing strategies argue that
this practice is discriminatory and unfair, especially
if such a strategy encourages a group of people to buy
a product that may be injurious to them or that they
cannot afford. For example, community leaders in
largely minority neighborhoods have staged protests
against billboards promoting beer or cigarettes in
these areas. However, the Association of National
Advertisers argues that banning targeted marketing
constitutes censorship and thus is a violation of the
First Amendment. What are your views regarding this
issue?
1-9 The chapter discussed a study that compared and
contrasted people who lead “happy” lives versus
those who lead “meaningful” lives. How does this
distinction relate to the way you decide to spend your
time and money? How does it relate to consumer
behavior more generally?40
1-10 A book bemoans the new wave of consumergenerated content, labeling it “the cult of the amateur.”
It compares the social networking phenomenon
to the old story about the monkeys: If you put an
infinite number of monkeys in a room with an
infinite number of typewriters, eventually they will
(by hitting keys randomly) reproduce all the major
works of literature. In other words, most of the usergenerated content is at about the same level, and the
future of professionally produced, quality work is in
doubt.41 Do you agree or disagree with this assertion?
1-11 A few years ago, a publicity campaign for a late-night
cartoon show backfired when it aroused fears of a
terrorist attack and temporarily shut down the city of
Boston. The effort consisted of one-foot-tall blinking
electronic signs with hanging wires and batteries that
marketers used to promote the Cartoon Network TV
show Aqua Teen Hunger Force (a surreal series about a
talking milkshake, a box of fries, and a meatball). The
signs were placed on bridges and in other high-profile
spots in several U.S. cities. Most depicted a boxy,
cartoon character giving passersby the finger. The
bomb squads and other police personnel required to
investigate the mysterious boxes cost the city of Boston
more than $500,000—and a lot of frayed nerves.42 Is
there a line between attention-getting publicity stunts
and activities that should be illegal or forbidden?
1-12 List the three stages in the consumption process.
Describe the issues that you considered in each
of these stages when you made a recent important
purchase.
1-13 This chapter states that people play different roles
and that their consumption behaviors may differ
depending on the particular role they are playing.
State whether you agree or disagree with this
statement, giving examples from your personal life.
Try to construct a “stage set” for a role you play,
specifying the props, costumes, and script that you
use to play a role (e.g., job interviewee, conscientious
student, party animal).
Chapter 1 • Buying, Having, and Being: An Introduction to Consumer Behavior
23
APPLY
1-14 Talk to car owners and probe to see what (if any)
relationships they have with their vehicles. Do these
feelings correspond to the types of consumer/product
attachments we discussed in this chapter? How are
these relationships acted on? (Hint: See whether
any of the respondents give their cars a nickname or
whether they “decorate” them with personal items.)
To give you some additional insight, check out a
YouTube video titled I Love My Car! that originally
aired on the TV show My Strange Addiction.
1-15 The specific way we choose to satisfy a need depends
on our unique history, learning experiences, and
cultural environment. For example, two classmates
CASE STUDY
may feel their stomachs rumble during a lunchtime
lecture. If neither person has eaten since the night
before, the strength of their needs (hunger) would
be about the same. However, the ways each person
goes about satisfying this need might be quite
different. Conduct this exercise with classmates: “As
you probably know, a prisoner who is sentenced to
die traditionally gets to choose their ‘last meal.’ If
you had to do this (let’s hope not), describe your
last meal in detail.” Compare the responses you
get, especially among people from different ethnic
or cultural backgrounds. What similarities and
differences emerge?
Alexa—What Is Consumer Behavior?
Amazon’s Echo is the market leader in smart speakers, with
a nearly 72 percent market share.43 Powered by the Alexa
digital assistant software, customers use the Echo to listen
to music, as an alarm clock, as a tool for getting answers
to questions, and even as a source of jokes to brighten their
day. Alexa and competitive products are also becoming a
major factor in consumer decision making that may radically
change the relationship between brands and their customers.
First released to the general public in 2015, the Echo is
a small desktop speaker that users place in their bedroom,
living room, or kitchen—sometimes all three. Users interact
with it by calling out “Alexa” followed by a question or
command. Through its basic functionality, the unit responds
to commands to play music, report the weather, or to read
your appointments for the day.44 A wider array of capabilities
is provided through the installation of “skills”—third party
apps that use Alexa to accomplish tasks. Amazon says there
are more than 30,000 of these and that four out of five
registered customers have used at least one.45 Need to find
a breed of dog that behaves in apartments? Purina can help
with their Ask Purina skill. Tide Stain Remover will help
you remove that spot on your favorite shirt. And you can just
shout out to Campbell’s Kitchen skill and a helpful assistant
will read you a recipe while you cook!46
While it operates primarily on the Amazon Echo,
Alexa can run on a variety of devices, including in
selected automobiles. Alexa fits into a broader category of
technology known as AI (artificial intelligence) assistants.
This category includes tools such as Apple’s Siri, Microsoft
Cortana, and Google Assistant, the latter of which is
available on 400 million devices.47 In one way, Alexa and
her humanoid friends simply provide another way to access
the internet—by voice instead of keystrokes. However, the
embedded AI capabilities combined with the human touch of
voice command / voice response are significant differences
that are changing the game for brand marketing—and not
necessarily in positive ways.
AI assistants offer consumers savings in time by
automatically ordering routine items and by evaluating the
many options for nonroutine purchases, making logical choices
based on algorithms or customer-defined criteria. For example,
shopping for shoes can be fun, but choosing the perfect electric
toothbrush can be painful. The AI assistant can do the heavy
lifting for you, sorting through reviews and ratings and picking
out the toothbrush that best fits your needs at a price you can
afford. Through its understanding of your needs, its access to
the full spectrum of product options, and its algorithms, your
trusty AI assistant provides the trifecta of shopping pleasure:
convenience, lower costs, and risk reduction.
The rise of AI assistants as a dominant channel has
important implications for brand management. We often buy
the same brand repeatedly to lower the risk of a bad decision.
If consumers start to trust Alexa with product choices, brands
lose an important benefit. Loyalty can be very fleeting and
more dependent upon being in sync with the algorithms
of the AI assistant than with the positioning in the mind
of the customer. Brand loyalty–building activities, such as
understanding/filling needs, assuring quality, and focusing on
customer interests, may be better performed by AI.
Customer satisfaction becomes a more sophisticated
proposition in a world dominated by AI assistants. Much of
marketing research is focused on understanding the levels
and dimensions of satisfaction; what if AI platforms could do
a better job of assessing—and projecting—satisfaction than
24
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
the consumers themselves? Smart assistants could be able
to anticipate, for example, how much room in a car an auto
shopper would sacrifice for improved fuel efficiency.
In the age of AI, promotion will likely be directed more
to “push” activities (focused on the distribution channel) than
“pull” activities (focused on the consumer). This is not so
different from convincing retailers to put products on their
shelves. Except now that “shelf” is digitally embedded in the
algorithm of an AI assistant. In this environment, the power
of the AI assistants increases significantly, most notably for
Amazon, which now has a long list of its own “private label”
brands.48 This could also radically change the amount of
promotion devoted to advertising, particularly of the imageoriented variety. Alexa may not care whether she purchases
the same shampoo as all the cool AI assistants buy.
The personal touch that the ability to interact with a
human and humanlike voice provides is another important
aspect of the use of AI assistants. The movie Her explored
the connection that could exist with a computer-generated
voice-only being.49 Although that was a fictional account,
research has found that that some AI assistant users are passionate about their devices, with over 30 percent reporting
that Alexa or Google Assistant is “like a friend to me.”50
Could that feeling affect your trust in the recommendations
of the AI assistant?
So, does Alexa know consumer behavior, and, even more
important, will she and her AI friends drive it? AI assistants
are still in an early stage of adoption. Although hundreds of
millions of consumers could use AI via Google, only one in
five U.S. consumers has access to a smart speaker and just
over 2 percent make a purchase daily. The majority of Alexa
users have never used any of the 30,000 skills available.51
As use of AI assistants grows, the “Age of Alexa” will likely
involve hits and misses for brand marketers who must determine the optimal strategy for taking advantage of this new
technology.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
CS 1-1 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?
CS 1-2 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?
CS 1-3 What kinds of products or brands will most likely
be either negatively or positively affected by an
increased use of AI assistants? Explain your answer.
NOTES
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.com/terms/b/brand.asp, accessed August 6, 2022.
3. Julie Creswell, Kevin Draper, and Sapna Maheshwari, “Nike Nearly Dropped
Colin Kaepernick before Embracing Him,” New York Times, March 26, 2018,
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4. “Car2go and DriveNow Join Forces for New Car-Sharing Firm,” AirQualityNews,
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6. “US Social Media Statistics 2022,” The Global Statistics, https://www
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7. Bianca Bosker, “Nice to Meet You. I’ve Already Taken Your Picture,”
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12. Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, “The Business of Artificial
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Chapter 1 • Buying, Having, and Being: An Introduction to Consumer Behavior
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25
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Rhonda Hadi and Ana Valenzuela, “Good Vibrations: Consumer Responses to
Technology-Mediated Haptic Feedback,” Journal of Consumer Research 47,
no. 2 (2020): 256–71, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucz039.
Terrence Witkowski (2018), A History of American Consumption Threads of
Meaning, Gender, and Resistance, Routledge; Mikkel Nøjgaard (2022), “The
Value-Translation Model of Consumer Activism: How Consumer Watchdog
Organizations Change Markets,” Journal of Consumer Research, ucac025,
https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucac025.
Suzanne Vranica, “Ad Houses Will Need to Be More Nimble, Clients Are
Demanding More and Better Use of Consumer Data, Web,” Wall Street
Journal, January 2, 2008: B3.
Hans Baumgartner, Simon J. Blanchard, and David Sprott, “The Critical
Role of Methodological Pluralism for Policy-Relevant Empirical Marketing
Research,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 41, no. 3 (2022): 203–05.
Roy F. Baumeister, Kathleen D. Vohs, Jennifer L. Aaker, and Emily N.
Garbinsky, “Some Key Differences between a Happy Life and a Meaningful
Life,” Journal of Positive Psychology 8 (2013): 505–16.
Andrew Keen, The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our
Culture (New York: Currency, 2007).
“Boston Officials Livid Over Ad Stunt,” New York Times, February 1, 2007,
www.newyorktimes.com.
Greg Sterling, “Survey: Amazon Echo Owners Spend $400 per Year More Than
Prime Subscribers on Amazon,” Marketing Land, January 3, 2018, https://
marketingland.com/survey-amazon-echo-owners-spend-400-per-year-primesubscribers-amazon-231351.
David Nield, “20 Helpful Amazon Echo Voice Commands for You to Try,”
Popular Science, April 4, 2017, https://www.popsci.com/20-amazon-echovoice-commands/.
Daisuke Wakabayashi and Nick Wingfield, “Alexa, We’re Still Trying to Figure
Out What to Do with You,” New York Times, January 15, 2018, https://www
.nytimes.com/2018/01/15/technology/virtual-assistants-alexa.html.
“Alexa Marketing Stack,” Alexa, https://try.alexa.com/marketing-stack/; Ricki
Harris, “Alexa Wants to Talk to Your Kids,” Wired, December 16, 2017, https://
www.wired.com/story/future-amazon-alexa-advertising-2018/.
Niraj Dawar, “Marketing in the Age of Alexa,” Harvard Business Review, May
2018, https://hbr.org/2018/05/marketing-in-the-age-of-alexa.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Tara Johnson, “Amazon’s Private Label Brands | The Complete List,” CPC
Strategy, July 5, 2017, https://tinuiti.com/blog/amazon/amazons-privatelabel-brands/.
2
Consumer Ethics, the
Marketplace, and the Planet
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES When you finish reading this chapter, you should be able to:
2-1 Define business ethics and identify the elements
that comprise the PESTLE framework.
2-5 Describe the technological changes that are
creating new challenges for consumer protection.
2-2 Summarize how the political environment affects
consumer decision making.
2-6 Explain how the legal environment influences
consumer behavior.
2-3 Discuss how the economic landscape affects
consumers’ access to the marketplace.
2-7 Describe how consumer behavior directly impacts
the environment.
2-4 Explain the ways marketers respond to social
issues to shape consumer behavior.
I
Source: Ground Picture/Shutterstock.
26
f there’s one silver lining from the pandemic for Abriella, it’s learning
how much more comfortable it feels to wear “soft” clothing made for
lounging around the house. But she managed to wear out her sweats
during the lockdown, so it’s time to splurge on a new, comfy sweatshirt.
Abriella’s also a new convert to online shopping, so she starts to surf
the web for options. Oops, a Google search for “women’s sweatshirts”
yields about 2.6 million links, so that strategy isn’t going to work too
well. During a Zoom call, her colleague Jayden mentions that Patagonia
is doing some amazing things to “give back” to the planet. Jayden can’t
stop talking about the company’s self-imposed Earth tax it calls 1% for
the Planet. This money provides support to environmental nonprofits
that work to improve our air, land, and water. And, Patagonia even
encourages less consumption by selling used items in its WornWear
­p rogram. 1 This ­initiative really resonates with Abriella because she believes that
every c
­ onsumer’s choices have ramifications for the rest of us. She happily places an
online order for a Women’s Re-Tool Snap-T® Pullover (at about 12 the price of a new
­garment). She’s actually looking forward to her next Zoom call with Jayden (unlike
most ­videochats!) to let him know that she’s doing her part to save the planet—and
still stay comfortable.
Chapter 2 • Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet
OBJECTIVE 2-1
Define business
ethics and identify
the elements that
comprise the
PESTLE framework.
27
What Is the “Right” Thing?
Regardless of whether they do it intentionally, some marketers do violate their bonds of trust with consumers. In some
cases, these actions are illegal, as when a manufacturer deliberately mislabels the contents of a package. Or a retailer may
adopt a “bait-and-switch” selling strategy that lures consumers into the store when it
offers inexpensive products with the sole intent to get them to switch to higher-priced
goods.
In other cases, marketing practices have detrimental effects on society even
though they are not explicitly illegal. Some companies erect billboards advertising
alcohol and tobacco products in low-income neighborhoods; others sponsor commercials that objectify women as they pander to male viewers.
Business ethics are rules of conduct that guide actions in the marketplace; these
are the standards against which most people in a culture judge what is right and what is
wrong, good or bad. These universal values include honesty, trustworthiness, fairness,
respect, justice, integrity, concern for others, accountability, and loyalty.
Companies that score high in customer satisfaction often
benefit from a big competitive advantage—especially when so
many firms skimp on the attention they pay to customers. A
five-year study of customer satisfaction in the Canadian banking industry provides typical results: Banks that provided better
service commanded a larger “share of wallet” than did others
(i.e., their customers entrusted them with a larger proportion of
their money).2
It’s hard to divorce consumer behavior from most of what
goes on around us. The consumption choices we make are central to many of the big issues we read about and debate every
day. These range from human rights and humane working conditions to the safety of what we eat, the future of our environment,
and our relationships with governments, corporations, and other
organizations.
But consumer behavior can also be the solution to many of
Consumers increasingly are concerned about the impact of
the crises we face. This chapter is organized around the widely
marketing activities on important issues like social justice.
used PESTLE framework (see Table 2.1). We’ll consider the
Source: Janine Wiedel Photolibrary/Alamy Stock Photo.
TABLE 2.1 The PESTLE Framework
Factors
explored:
P
E
S
T
L
E
Political
Economic
Social
Technological
Legal
Environmental
Consumer
activism and
slacktivism
Market access
and literacy
Social justice and
cancel culture
Data privacy
Governmental
regulations and
agencies
Conscious
consumerism
Culture jamming
Human trafficking and “red
markets”
Social marketing
Corporate sociopolitical activism
Transformative consumer
research
Data accuracy and
algorithm bias
Data security
Social media
addiction
Cyberbullying
Corrective
advertising
Consumer
theft and
counterfeiting
Brand purpose
Circular economy
and fast fashion
Green marketing
Prosocial
behavior
28
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
crucial relationships between consumer behavior and the complex world in which we
live by examining Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental
issues.3 We’ll also consider the repercussions of consumers’ choices on businesses.
OBJECTIVE 2-2
Summarize how
the political
environment affects
consumer decision
making.
PESTLE: The Political
Environment
In the politically charged environment we inhabit, consumers make choices based on their beliefs and values—and they
vote with their wallets. Through their brand and product choices, consumers make
statements to companies about the types of products they want and how, when, and
where (or even if) they want to learn about those products. A growing number of
consumers wants to know more about the companies they buy from—are the c­ ontents
accurately labelled? Does the manufacturer treat its workers
humanely? Will the product damage the environment?
In one typical study, the researchers gave subjects a description of a coffee company that either used or did not use fair trade
principles to buy its beans. They found that participants were
willing to pay an additional $1.40 for a pound of coffee if it was
ethically sourced and were negative about the company if it did
not adhere to these principles. The study obtained similar results
for shirts that were made with organic cotton.4 What is especially
encouraging is that younger consumers express this preference
even more strongly: About three-quarters of them feel this way,
and 81 percent of them expect their favorite companies to declare
publicly what they are doing to make the world a better place.5
Note: Every budding consumer researcher needs to remember the
maxim “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” In other
words, when study respondents say they would do something
under certain conditions, that’s not a guarantee that they’ll follow
through. But, it’s a start.
Consumer Activism
Movies and ads that lampoon advertising messages, are
examples of culture jamming, which is a strategy to disrupt efforts by the corporate world to dominate our cultural
landscape. The movement believes that culture jamming will
change the way information flows; the way institutions wield
power; the way TV stations are run; and the way the food,
fashion, automobile, sports, music, and culture industries set
their agendas.7
Source: Everett Collection, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo.
Consumer activism, where consumers band together to attack
what they view as unsafe or otherwise harmful, is not new. In
the U.S., the publication of books such as Rachel Carson’s Silent
Spring (1962), which attacked the irresponsible use of pesticides,
and Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed (1965), which exposed
safety defects in General Motors’ Corvair automobile, have
encouraged activists to work for change.
Many people have a vigorous interest in consumer-related
issues, ranging from environmental concerns—such as global
warming and climate change, toxic waste, and so on—to addiction or excessive violence and sex on television and in the ­lyrics
of popular rock and rap songs. These concerns remain today
as movements like Black Lives Matter and NinetyToZero (an
organization of top executives and academics founded in 2021
to reduce the 90 percent racial wealth gap between white and
black Americans) heighten consumers’ awareness of inequities
in our society.6
Chapter 2 • Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet
29
Consumers get creative when they
want to vent their feelings about companies they don’t like.
Source: Michael Matthews/Alamy Stock Photo.
Corporate Activism
In the “old days” of marketing (like a decade ago), it was quite rare for a company
to get out front on an inflammatory issue, for fear this would turn off a lot of loyal
customers. For every activist marketer like Ben & Jerry’s or Patagonia, there were
thousands of companies that worked really hard to stay out of the conversation.
Fast forward to today: The explosion of social activism we’ve encountered both in
the U.S.A. and in many other parts of the world over the past few years has encouraged
some companies to engage in corporate sociopolitical activism (CSA), where they
deliberately take a stand on a controversial issue. This reversal comes at a time when
many company stakeholders, including customers, expect companies to take stands on
sociopolitical issues, like LGBTQIA2S + rights, voting rights, or R
­ ussia’s invasion
of Ukraine in 2022.8 Delta Airlines cut ties with the National Rifle Association after a
deadly school shooting. Nike stood alongside football player Colin Kaepernick when
he took a knee during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and in support
of Black Lives Matter.
The organization Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP), which monitors these activities, reported that during the peak of the pandemic in 2020, funding
from companies “investing in society” increased by 41 percent. And ironically (despite
the evident lack of trust in marketers), business is now the most trusted institution in
America, as customers increasingly look to the private sector to help with deep-seated social issues.9
But does social activism impact the (financial)
bottom line? When Nike took a public stand on NFL
players’ rights to kneel during the national anthem,
some analysts predicted that more conservative customers would abandon the company in droves amid
calls for a boycott—but as it turns out, Nike’s revenues actually increased by 10 percent for the year!
As a business professor commented, “The demo
that is willing to spend $200 on Nike sneakers is not
the demo that’s going to boycott them because of
Kaepernick.”10
Nonetheless, the jury is still out on how consumers will treat companies that take a controversial
stand on a social issue. A recent analysis of the stock
market performance of companies that engaged in
CSA found that this type of activity is a double-edged
Nike took a very controversial stand to support Colin K
­ aepernick’s efforts
sword.11 Investors tended to react negatively to CSA
for racial justice.
efforts that deviate from the value of key stakeholders
Source: © Richard B. Levine/Alamy Stock Photo.
30
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
but positively to those efforts that align with them. So, it looks like one unintended
consequence of CSA may be that it also contributes to the polarization in our society
by turning people on and off to a cause depending upon their prior political beliefs.
Slacktivism
When an organization wants to encourage people to contribute to its cause in some
way, it seems like a good idea to provide an initial token display of support, such as a
T-shirt people can wear, a petition they can sign, or a Facebook group they can join.
Makes sense, right? Not necessarily. Some critics are worried about the phenomenon they term slacktivism: small and relatively meaningless expressions of support
for important causes, such as liking a charity on Facebook rather than making a donation or volunteering. One study found that if the initial display is visible to others,
this public behavior can actually reduce the likelihood that the person will contribute
beyond that. Under some circumstances, the need to make a positive impression on
others is satisfied by the public display, so the person exhibits slacktivism and doesn’t
bother to do anything else to support the cause.12
OBJECTIVE 2-3
Discuss how
the economic
landscape affects
consumers’ access
to the marketplace.
PESTLE: The Economic
Environment
Many of us take for granted that we are free to shop anywhere we want or that we can easily learn about our purchase
options—everything we need is just a click of a mouse away,
right? In reality, however, large numbers of people can’t make this claim. For
one reason or another, their market access (i.e., their ability to find and purchase goods and services) is limited because of physical, mental, economic, or
social barriers.
A well-functioning, equitable society requires that everyone has equal access to
products, services, and information in the marketplace. Yet we frequently see cases
where individuals or groups face either perceived or real barriers to certain market
offerings. The lack of access has many detrimental psychological consequences for
those who experience it. A study found that people who are repeatedly denied access
to a market offering (securing a mortgage or a rental lease agreement) feel more
powerless and, as a result, are more likely to disengage from the market and to choose
harmful market options (e.g., high-interest-rate loans).13 Thus, market access denial is
a vicious cycle, and strategies are required to break this harmful pattern.
Disabled Consumers
As the number of people using
wheelchairs increases, the market
for ­adaptive clothing that provides
a broader range of apparel options
grows as well.
Source: Photo courtesy of Smart Adaptive Clothing.
The World Health Organization estimates that more than 10 million adult Americans live with a disability, and it puts the number of disabled people globally at
over one billion! These numbers continue to grow as populations age and we see
a surge in chronic health conditions.14
About 11 million American adults have a condition that makes it difficult for them
to leave home to shop, so they rely almost exclusively on catalogs and the internet to
purchase products. The many people who have limited mobility may also be unable to
gain easy access to entertainment venues, educational institutions, and other locations.
In addition, bodily limitations or disfigurements may result in real or imagined stigmatization, so self-concept and interpersonal relationships may prove challenging.15
Chapter 2 • Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet
31
People with disabilities in the U.S. alone control approximately $645 billion
in disposable income (yes, billion). 16 However, most companies pay remarkably little attention to the unique needs of this vast group. People who rely on
wheelchairs for mobility often encounter barriers when they try to enter stores,
move around the aisles, or enter dressing rooms that are too narrow to accommodate a chair. Others have mental illnesses, such as excessive anxiety in public
places. These issues touch many of us; for example, 15 ­percent of Vietnam and
1991 Gulf War veterans have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD), and 20 percent of veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq have
received care at a Veterans Affairs (VA) facility for the disorder since their return
home. Large numbers of children also encounter difficulties with market access,
whether offline or online.
Consumed Consumers
Consumed consumers are people who are used or exploited, willingly or not, for
commercial gain in the marketplace. Here are some examples:
Buying, Having, Being
• Human trafficking and forced labor – The U.S. government estimates that
Hungry College Students
•
•
25 ­million people are subjected to human trafficking and forced labor. These illegal
activities that use people against their will generate about $150 billion annually.17
Organ, blood, and hair donors – There is a lively global red market for body
parts—by one estimate, the annual value of organ trafficking globally ranges from
$840 million to upward of $1.7 billion.18
Babies for sale – Several thousand surrogate mothers have been paid to be medically impregnated and carry babies to term for infertile couples. A fertile woman
between the ages of 18 and 25 can “donate” one egg every three months and rake
in $7,000 each time. Over eight years, that’s 32 eggs for a total of $224,000.19
In one case in Germany, police arrested a couple when they tried to auction their
eight-month-old son on eBay. The parents claimed that the offer, which read
“Baby—collection only. Offer my nearly new baby for sale because it cries too
much. Male, 70 cm long,” was just a joke.20
Food Deserts
Is the classmate who sits next to
you going hungry? Very possibly.
Believe it or not, 38 percent of college students in the U.S. identify as
food insecure, and fully 56 percent
of first-generation students have
this problem. Minority students are
especially hard hit: Black students
are twice as likely to be food insecure.24 These students lack access
to a steady supply of healthy food
(and that doesn’t count all the “junk
food” some students Hoover up to
counter those late-night munchies).
More than 700 colleges in the U.S.
run food pantries for food insecure
students. And it gets worse:
14 percent of students at four-year
colleges are homeless!25
No, it has more to do with sandwiches than with sand: The Department of Agriculture defines a food desert as a census tract where 33 percent of the population or
500 ­people, whichever is less, live more than a mile from a grocery store in an urban area or more than 10 miles away in a rural
area. Limited access to healthy choices can lead to poor diets
and higher levels of obesity and other diet-related disease, but
healthy food options in these communities are hard to find or
are unaffordable. Researchers estimate that in the United States
about 23.5 million people live in food deserts.21
Times were tough for a lot of people before the pandemic hit—44 percent of Americans reported that they live
paycheck to paycheck. But the virus made things even worse,
so now that number has risen to 63 percent. For some, this
means making a difficult choice. The organization Feeding
America reports that 31 percent of us must choose between
paying for food versus education.22 Many people experience
food insecurity, where they have limited access to a healthy
Food insecurity is a problem for many college students.
diet on a daily basis.23
Source: Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald/Getty Images.
32
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
Literacy
Buying, Having, Being
Consumer Researchers
Who Talk the Talk AND
Walk the Walk
Is it enough to document a consumer issue, or should researchers try to improve the problem as
well? Some consumer researchers
are organizing not only to study
but also to rectify what they see
as pressing social problems in
the marketplace. This perspective is called participatory action
research (PAR), or ­transformative
consumer research (TCR). It
promotes research projects that
include the goal of helping people
or bringing about social change.
Scientists who subscribe to this
perspective view consumers as
collaborators who work with them
to realize change rather than as a
“phenomenon” on which to conduct
research. Adherents of TCR work
with at-risk populations—such as
children, the disadvantaged, or the
disabled—or address such topics
as materialism, consumption of dangerous products, and compulsive
consumption.31
As the emerging TCR perspective shows, the field of consumer
behavior can help to improve
our lives as consumers. Social
­marketing strategies use the
techniques that marketers normally
employ to sell beer or detergent
instead to encourage positive
behaviors, such as increased literacy, and to discourage negative
activities, such as drunk driving.32
Many researchers help to evaluate
or create public policies to ensure
that products are labeled accurately, to certify that people can
comprehend important information
in advertising messages, or to prevent children from being exploited
by program-length toy commercials that masquerade as television
shows.
The Latin phrase caveat emptor (“let the buyer beware”) implies that it’s the consumer’s responsibility to decide whether marketing messages are accurate. But that’s a tall
order, especially in today’s complicated media environment. Media literacy describes
the extent to which a consumer can critically evaluate the messages they receive from
the web, TV, and every other communications source that tries to persuade us.26 It’s
our job to critically evaluate this information—but not everyone has the skills to do
that. This task is even more difficult in the age of Google, where many of us assume
that whatever comes up in a Google search or on Wikipedia is completely true and
accurate. (Hint: Not by a long shot.)
And that’s also true for financial literacy: the degree to which a person understands key financial concepts and possesses the ability and confidence to manage
personal finances through appropriate short-term decision making and sound longrange financial planning, while staying mindful of life events and changing economic
conditions.27 That’s a big challenge for many of us, and the pandemic’s disruptive
effect on the economy hasn’t made the task any easier.
Unfortunately, some of us have an even bigger problem with written information
about what we buy: We can’t read it in the first place. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that about one in seven U.S. adults is functionally illiterate.28 This
term describes a person whose reading skills are not adequate to carry out everyday
tasks, such as reading the newspaper or the instructions on a pill bottle. Almost half of
the United States population read below a sixth-grade level. This limitation impedes
market access for a couple of reasons: First, illiterate or “low-literate” consumers
are at a disadvantage because they encounter difficulty in learning about the best
purchase options. Second, they may experience feelings of shame or embarrassment
that make them avoid market situations where they will be forced to reveal their illiteracy.29 For example, some of these people (whom researchers term social isolates)
may cope with the stigma of illiteracy by choosing not to eat at a restaurant with an
unfamiliar menu or by not purchasing a product with a label they can’t fully read.
Low-literate consumers rely heavily on visual cues, including brand logos and
store layouts, to navigate retail settings, but they often make mistakes when they select
similarly packaged products (for example, brand line extensions). They also encounter
problems with numeracy (understanding numbers); many low-literate people have difficulty knowing, for example, whether they have enough money to purchase the items
in their cart, and unethical merchants may cheat them out of the correct amount of
change. Not surprisingly, these challenges create an emotional burden for low-literate
consumers, who experience stress, anxiety, fear, shame, and other negative emotions
before, during, and after they shop.30
OBJECTIVE 2-4
Explain the ways
marketers respond
to social issues to
shape consumer
behavior.
PESTLE: The Social
Environment
The 2020s have seen a proliferation of social causes that
affect the marketplace in fundamental ways. In response
to social justice movements, such as Black Lives Matter,
companies are taking a close look at what their brands and marketing communications look like. In 2020, the Uncle Ben’s and Aunt Jemima brands, whose
imagery was rooted in racial stereotypes of black people, retired their long-time
Chapter 2 • Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet
33
mascots and changed their names to Ben’s Original and Pearl
Milling Company (the name of the company that first produced
the pancake mix).33 Cancel culture refers to the phenomenon of
the public calling out companies for missteps and recommending that consumers boycott the guilty brands.
It’s clear that many consumers today are especially interested in
choosing brands that support causes they find personally relevant.
These causes include medical cures and disease prevention, social
change, faith-based initiatives, and animal and child welfare.34 A
brand’s philanthropic activities can influence shopper behavior and
ultimately purchase decisions.
Consumer research convincingly shows that, when all other
things are equal, people are likely to choose a brand that gives
back to the community. Cause marketing is a popular strategy
that aligns a company or brand with a cause to generate business and societal benefits. Indeed, one survey reported that three
out of five consumers bought a product or service in the previous year because of its association with a cause. An executive
observed, “As a whole, Americans do have a heightened sensitivity to how they can help make a difference.”35
Many firms today try to integrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) into their business models. CSR describes processes that
encourage the organization to make a positive impact on the various
stakeholders in its community, including consumers, employees,
The negative racial stereotype of Uncle Ben was recently
and the environment.
retired as the brand was renamed Ben’s Original.
When a company does a good thing (even when that good thing
Source: Rosamar/Shuterstock.
is unrelated to their core business), their reputation improves, their
consumers’ goodwill also increases, and in turn so do consumers’
evaluations of the company’s product through what researchers have
called a benevolent halo effect.36 But beware: This effect vanishes
when consumers sense that good behavior is motivated by self-interest rather than a genuine desire to give back.
That’s why it’s really crucial to demonstrate good faith.
Researchers have found that consumers especially appreciate
companies’ CSR efforts in response to natural disasters (like
avalanches or hurricanes), which are less controllable than
human-caused calamities. This consumer appreciation is even
greater when companies make in-kind donations, like food or
clothing, rather than monetary ones.37 In-kind donations show
that companies genuinely care and are not just trying to benefit
from the cause.
The shoe company TOMS is well-known for its promise to
New research shows that consumers also increasingly hold
give a child in need a pair of shoes for every pair it sells.
Source: Ccpixx photography/Shutterstock.
companies accountable for their corporate social irresponsibility (CSI).38 Analyzing over 1,000 CSI events reported in 77
leading media outlets in the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France over a seven-year period, researchers found clear evidence
that the damage, in terms of how much a company’s shares dropped in the U.S.
stock market, was especially high when a CSI event is widely covered in the news
media. Some factors further accentuated the damage, like when an irresponsible
event happened domestically but was caused by a foreign brand.
34
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
OBJECTIVE 2-5
Describe the
technological
changes that
are creating
new challenges
for consumer
protection.
PEST LE: The Technological
Environment
New technologies disrupt our lives—for better and for
worse. We seem to live on Zoom and social media platforms
like TikTok. When we contact a company with a question or
a problem, it’s quite possible we’ll deal with a non-human
on the other end. Virtual reality and other elements of “the
Metaverse” (see Ch. 1) transform our very definition of reality.
As humans and robots start to coexist (Saudi Arabia actually
granted citizenship to a robot named Sophia a few years ago),
some people eagerly look forward to a better world made easier
by automation, while others bemoan what we’re giving up (like
our privacy) as tech solutions continue to evolve.39
Data Privacy
Do you love the convenience of clicking a link and instantly
accessing a website to shop for the merch you love? How about
when you “mysteriously” get a pop-up ad on your phone soon
thereafter for the exact same item? It’s timely, relevant . . . and
perhaps a bit disturbing. We love our technology (when it
Saudi Arabia awarded citizenship to Sophia, a (Japanese-made)
works!), but many of us are leery about data privacy; that is,
robot.
Source: Anton Gvozdikov/Shutterstock.
we’re wary of opening the door to our private lives so that big
tech companies can enter at will.
One of the biggest ethical issues many marketers face today relates to how much
they can—or should—know about their customers. Virtually anyone who surfs the
internet or who carries a cell phone (especially a smartphone with GPS capability)
shares reams of personal information with all sorts of companies (whether they know
it or not). The pandemic gave companies even greater access to online data because
so much more of our activities shifted to the online world: work, school, socialization,
conferences, workshops, church. From Zoom recordings to Slack chats to studentteacher interactions, data about these daily activities and communications are up for
grabs, unless consumers are careful.40 These connections may come back to bite
marketers—in one recent survey, more than half of respondents said they found personalized ads to be “creepy.” 41
Governments are trying to come to the rescue and implement data protection
policies. For instance, the European Union instituted the General Data Protection
Regulation, which requires websites to provide visible notice regarding private information they collect through cookies and to give consumers the choice to disagree to
such tracking. While these policies are good in theory, there always seem to be ways
to bypass regulations as these notices often have very little visibility. Indeed, a recent
study that analyzed 360 randomly selected websites found that over a third of them
do not even have a cookie notice—even though they use cookies—and that those
websites that do have notices do not display them clearly or visibly enough to make
a difference.42 So these notice requirements may not be enough to give consumers a
sense of power over their personal data.
In fairness, most platforms disclose most or all of what they intend to do with
your data, but how many of us actually read “the fine print” that’s often conveniently
tucked away in an obscure section of the user agreement? We can run, but it’s getting
harder and harder to hide: A professor demonstrated just how easy it is to find people
Chapter 2 • Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet
online if you know what you’re doing. In one study, he showed that it was possible to
deduce portions of a person’s Social Security number from nothing but a photograph
posted online.43
A recent study of how consumers view technology revealed the paradox that
technology is empowering but also creates vulnerabilities.44 In that study, consumers
created collages to represent how they live with technology. The collages revealed that
technology has permeated all facets of consumer journeys and created both dreams
and nightmares in that realm. On the one hand, consumers love the convenience of
tech tools like geo-localization, and they appreciate customized promotional offers
delivered directly to their phones at exactly the right time. On the other hand, once
consumers realize that this enchanting world is only possible because of deceptive
and invasive practices that create material and psychological dependence, they begin
to view this empowerment as a latent vulnerability.45
Recently, researchers conducted a comprehensive review on how consumers try
to reduce this vulnerability.46 Not surprisingly, they find that consumers care a great
deal about online privacy, but perhaps more surprisingly, the review also shows that
consumers take many actions to protect it: They may remove or mask their digital
footprints, or take steps to prevent access to their social media profiles. Yet, individual
actions alone are not sufficient, and more coordinated policy interventions are necessary to regulate how firms collect private online data and what they do with it.
Data Accuracy
Especially in the wake of the tumultuous 2020 presidential election and the pandemic,
the failure of social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, to police “fake
news” content prompted many to reconsider how “free” information should be. The
internet’s reach makes it incredibly easy to spread rumors, false “facts,” and even
conspiracy theories:
• Microsoft founder Bill Gates is using the COVID-19 vaccine to implant microchips in everyone so he can track their movements.
35
Buying, Having, Being
Your Face Here
Other technologies also threaten our
privacy even while they make marketing efforts more efficient. Facebook introduced a “Tag Suggestions”
feature that uses facial recognition
to identify a user’s friends in photos
they upload and automatically suggests nametags for them. Other programs, like Picasa, also incorporate
facial recognition technology. This
handy little tool removes the need to
keep typing the same friends’ names
into photo albums.
But is there a dark side to this
capability? Because facial recognition analyzes and stores people’s
unique facial measurements, it may
come with some serious privacy
risks. For example, in the near
future, it will be possible for marketers to identify people as they
walk down the street—and link
their faces to relevant information,
such as credit scores and medical
records. Some firms already offer
smart billboards that detect the
gender and age of a passerby and
show that person relevant ad messages. For now, these boards don’t
analyze emotions or other personal
characteristics, but what if they
could detect a feeling like sadness
and offer the person a message
about antidepressants?47 What is
the tradeoff between meeting needs
quickly versus sharing your most
intimate information with marketers?
A collage that a research participant
made shows how pervasive technology
is in a customer journey: notifications,
phone calls, and promotions popping
up at any time of the day can turn what
otherwise would seem dreamy into a
nightmare.48
Source: CélineDel Bucchia et.al (2021),
“Empowerment as Latent Vulnerability in TechnoMediated Consumption Journeys,” Journal of
Business Research, 124 (January), 629–651.
36
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
sacrificing children (as
• Democrats and Hollywood celebrities are ritually
49
“exposed” by the shadowy QAnon movement).
• Advertisers embed “hidden” messages in ads to manipulate people into buying
things (more on this in the next chapter!).
Although these allegations and many others have virtually ZERO evidence to support them, the theories persist. Indeed, in 2021 Amazon was forced to remove a slew
of QAnon merchandise promoting the movement from its Marketplace.
So, how do we know what’s “true” anymore? This is a huge problem: in fact,
when it comes to medical issues, the World Health Organization now calls this glut of
false information an infodemic that causes confusion and unhealthy risk-taking.50 The
issue is more complicated than it seems because a message may contain a mixture of
accurate and erroneous information that makes it difficult to separate fact from fiction.
That means we’re all obligated to do our homework by referring to multiple sources
and perhaps verifying a story on websites like FactCheck.org and Snopes.com.
Even so, because it’s so easy to post “fake news” and make it look credible,
perhaps we need to take almost everything we read with a grain of salt. This issue
underscores a huge problem that marketers face today: trust. The avalanche of false
information “poisons the well” for the large majority of organizations that try to
be accurate. According to one survey, only 3 percent of consumers consider salespeople to be trustworthy, while another found that only 4 percent of them trust ads.51
Table 2.2 summarizes the different forms that “misinformation” may take.
Identity Theft
Identity theft occurs when someone steals your personal information and uses it
without your permission. They may charge items on a credit card or perhaps access
medical services via your health benefits. Identity theft is the most common consumer
complaint, according to the Federal Trade Commission. In many cases, criminals
TABLE 2.2 Poisoning the Well: Types of Misinformation
Satire or Parody
Misleading Content
Imposter Content
Fabricated Content
No intention to cause
harm but has
potential to fool
Misleading use of
information to frame an
issue or individual
When genuine sources
are impersonated
New content is 100%
false, designed to
device and do harm
False Connection
False Context
Manipulated Content
When headlines, visuals
or captions don’t
support the content
When genuine content
is shared with false
contextual information
When genuine
information or imagery is
manipulated to deceive
Claire Wardle, “Fake News. It’s Complicated,” First Draft, February 16, 2017, https://firstdraftnews.org/articles/fake-news-complicated/, accessed February 21, 2022.
Chapter 2 • Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet
get access to sensitive information in data breaches, where they
hack into an organization’s computers. There have been more
than 12,000 of these digital invasions since 2005, including highprofile ones at major companies such as Equifax, Yahoo!, Target,
Sony Pictures, and even NASA. In 2020 alone, consumers around
the world lost about $56 billion to scammers.52 And, as any victim
knows, the financial aspects are not the only pain points because
cancelling credit cards or otherwise correcting the situation can
result in huge hassles.53
Identity thieves get more sophisticated every day. They
used to be content with stealing wallets and “dumpster diving” to obtain account numbers. Today, we increasingly fall
prey to high-tech phishing scams in which people receive
Identity theft is a huge problem for consumers today.
fraudulent emails that ask them to supply account informaSource: Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock.
tion. In addition, millions of computers are hijacked without
any trace by botnets, or a set of computers penetrated by malicious software
known as malware that allows an external agent to control their actions.
Locational privacy is a related issue. Every one of us who walks around with
a phone transmits their approximate location, and those of us with GPS-enabled
phones leave nothing to chance. In addition, many cars now have GPS devices that
can share their location with a centralized service. We can purchase GPS trackers
to “chip” our kids, aged relatives, or wayward pets. Some insurance companies
offer steep discounts to drivers who use GPS tracking technology. The companies
provide a small tracker in the car that reports driving habits and, in some cases, even
whether the driver is cruising through unsafe neighborhoods. Other services allow
anxious parents to track a teenager’s driving and provide a “report card” on use of
the family car.54
Pushing the Envelope
Artificial intelligence is also creating new opportunities and challenges for consumers and consumer protection. This term describes computer systems like ChatGPT that
are able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision making, language translation and perhaps term
paper writing by students. While AI may be more effective at augmenting rather than
replacing humans in sales transactions or customer service interfaces, the automation
of tasks and exchanges based on consumer data also opens up new issues related to
privacy, bias, and ethics.55
It turns out that even “impartial” computers can make inaccurate decisions if
the input they receive is flawed in some way. Analysts call this algorithm bias. For
example, facial recognition programs are best at detecting white faces, and AI-based
conversational chatbots can introduce a racist or sexist conversation in the system if
they mimic “natural” dialogues people have in the physical world.56
Genetic data is the latest frontier in private data potentially mineable for marketing purposes. Fuelled by advances in molecular genetics (and heavy direct-toconsumer marketing!), the genetic testing industry has exploded. As of 2020, more
than 30 million people have taken a personalized DNA test. These massive privately
owned genetic databases prompt researchers and firms alike to question whether
and how such data should be used to gain insights into consumers and consumer
behavior.57 Are there inherited personality traits that make us more or less likely
to buy stuff?
37
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Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
Technology Addictions
Though we usually equate substance abuse with addiction to alcohol, drugs, or nicotine, it seems we can become dependent on almost anything—there is even a Chapstick Addicts support group with 250 active members!58 Consumer addiction is a
physiological or psychological dependency on products or services. Many companies
profit from selling addictive products or from selling solutions for kicking a bad
habit.59 Online gambling is the latest frontier and the most controversial one: Not
only is the currency consumers use to gamble intangible (you cannot touch it), but the
gambling options come so fast that gamblers quickly lose control.60
A Chinese man got so upset about the amount of time his adult son spent
playing video games that he took a novel approach: He hired “digital hit men”
in the form of other gamers to kill off all of his son’s characters in the games.61
How is that for “tough love”? Psychologists compare social media addiction to
chemical dependency, to the point of inducing symptoms of withdrawal when users
are deprived of their fix. As one noted, “Everyone is a potential addict—they’re
just waiting for their drug of choice to come along, whether heroin, running, junk
food, or social media.”62 In 2018, the World Health Organization classified “gaming
­disorder” as an official disease.63
Entrepreneurs are looking at novel ways to “detox” smartphone users. One
designer created a series of “substitute phones” that help people put down the real
thing.64 They allow people to mimic real actions—like swiping, zooming, and
scrolling—to wean users from smartphones. Maybe more of us need this kind of
“intervention”—a Gallup survey reported that 41 percent of American smartphone
owners check their phone every few minutes.
Another survey found that 71 percent of Americans aged 18 and over sleep with
their phones.65 Oops, time for a fix? Indeed, a survey reported one in three smartphone
owners would rather give up sex than their phones!66 And, as many of us realize, this
fixation grows by the “enablers” around us as they exhibit the same behavior. Indeed,
one study documented that college students are much more likely to pull out their
phones when someone with whom they were sitting has just done so.67
Other problems arise when people become overly involved in playing online
games or posting on social network sites:
• In the United Kingdom, a 33-year-old widowed mother let her two dogs starve
•
•
to death and neglected her three kids after becoming hooked on the online game
Small World. A judge banned her from going on the internet. The woman slept only
two hours a night as she played the virtual reality game (in which dwarves and
giants battle to conquer the world) almost nonstop for six months. Her ­children—
aged 9, 10, and 13—had no hot food and “drank” cold baked beans from tins.
When the family’s two dogs died from neglect, she left their bodies rotting in the
dining room for two months.68
A U.S. woman pled guilty to a charge of second-degree murder in the death of her
three-month-old son. The 22-year-old mother lost her temper when her child began
crying while she was playing FarmVille on Facebook; she shook the baby until he died.
Cyberbullying refers to the “willful and repeated harm inf licted through
the use of computer, cell phones, and other electronic devices.”69 One study
reported that one in five middle school students in the United States were
subject to cyberbullying. As one seventh-grade girl observed, “It’s easier
to fight online, because you feel more brave and in control. On Facebook,
you can be as mean as you want.”70 The pandemic forced us to spend even
more time online, and not surprisingly this transformation just accelerated
Chapter 2 • Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet
A government website focuses on the problem of cyberbullying.
Source: StopBullying.gov, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
the frequency of these attacks. One large survey reported that almost 1 2 of
U.S. internet users experienced some kind of online harassment since 2020,
while over 20 percent of children have been bullied online.71 The problem has
gotten so bad that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services even
has a website to combat it: stopbullying.gov.72
A French organization combats the
sexual abuse of children by online
predators.
Source: Courtesy of Innocence en Danger.
39
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Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
OBJECTIVE 2-6
Explain how the
legal environment
influences
consumer behavior.
PESTLE: The Legal
Environment
Concern for the welfare of consumers has been an issue since at least
the beginning of the 20th century.After Upton S
­ inclair’s 1906 book
The ­Jungle exposed the awful conditions in the Chicago ­meatpacking industry, Congress
was prompted to pass important pieces of legislation—the Pure Food and Drug Act in
1906 and the Federal Meat Inspection Act a year later—to protect consumers. In recent
years, we’ve seen the U.S. government pump over $1 trillion into aid for individuals and
­businesses who were impacted by COVID.73
More than a century later, activists continue to voice concerns about a range of
issues, such as child labor, exploitative advertising, and genetically engineered food.74
President John F. Kennedy issued the “Declaration of Consumer Rights” in 1962.
These include the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to redress, and the
right to choice. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of consumer activism as consumers
began to organize to demand better-quality products (and to boycott companies that
did not provide them).
Governmental Regulations and Agencies
Partly due to consumers’ efforts, the U.S. government established many federal agencies to oversee consumer-related activities. These include the Department of Agriculture, the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Securities
and Exchange Commission, and the EPA. A summary of some important consumer
legislation enacted since that time appears in Table 2.3. You can find other information
about consumer-related issues at consumerreports.org and cpsc.gov (the Consumer
Product Safety Commission).
Table 2.4 lists major U.S. regulatory agencies and what they do. One of the most
important ones for consumers is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); it polices
advertising claims as well as the contents of edible products and pharmaceuticals. For
example, as part of an FDA crackdown on consumer drug advertising, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals launched a $20 million corrective advertising campaign for
Yaz, the most popular birth control pill in the United States. This term means that the
company must inform consumers that previous messages were wrong or misleading.
The TV commercials, which ran during prime-time shows such as Grey’s Anatomy
and on cable networks, warned that nobody should take Yaz hoping that it will also
cure pimples or premenstrual syndrome. Bayer was required to run these ads to correct
previous messages after regulators decided the earlier ads overstated the drug’s ability
to improve women’s moods and clear up acne.75
Advertisers, retailers, and manufacturers typically try to police themselves to
ensure that their messages and products are not harmful or inaccurate. In addition to
good intentions, they have a practical reason to do so: They don’t want governments
to do it for them. Indeed, sometimes these efforts even seem to go a bit over the top.
Consider, for example, a ruling by the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the
Council of Better Business Bureaus, which is one of these industry watchdogs. Acting
on a complaint by rival Kimberly-Clark, P&G must add little flecks of cartoon toilet
paper to the backsides of its Charmin cartoon bears in future ads for its toilet paper.
Although P&G supported its claim that Charmin leaves “fewer pieces behind” than
the Cottonelle brand (and showed the results of its test on the brand’s website), the
NAD decided that the test “did not accurately reflect the results consumers normally
see and experience.”76
Chapter 2 • Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet
The popular contraceptive drug Yaz was required to run corrective advertising to address exaggerated or inaccurate claims.
Source: Correctiveadvertising.blogspot.com/2009/11/.
Consumers Behaving Badly
A few years ago, a crowd assembled for a big holiday sale at a Walmart store in New
York. When the doors opened, the crowd trampled a temporary worker to death as
people rushed to grab discounted merchandise off the store shelves. A lawsuit filed
on behalf of the man’s survivors claimed that in addition to providing inadequate
security, the retailer “engaged in specific marketing and advertising techniques to specifically attract a large crowd and create an environment of frenzy and mayhem.”78 In
subsequent years, there have been additional incidents of trampling and even gunfire,
as people frantically jockey for position to scoop up the big sales. Just how far will
consumers go to secure a bargain?
Despite the best efforts of researchers, government regulators, and concerned
industry people, sometimes we are our own worst enemies. We think of individuals
as rational decision makers, who calmly do their best to obtain products and services
that will maximize the health and well-being of themselves, their families, and their
society. In reality, however, consumers’ desires, choices, and actions often result in
negative consequences to individuals and the society in which they live.
Some of these actions are relatively benign, but others have more onerous consequences. Harmful consumer behaviors, such as excessive drinking or cigarette
smoking, stem from social pressures. The cultural value many of us place on money
encourages activities such as shoplifting and insurance fraud. Exposure to unattainable
41
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Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
TABLE 2.3 Sample of Federal Legislation to Enhance Consumers’ Welfare
Year
Act
Purpose
1953
Flammable Fabrics Act
Prohibits the transportation of flammable fabrics across state lines.
1958
National Traffic and Safety Act
Creates safety standards for cars and tires.
1958
Automobile Information Disclosure Act
Requires automobile manufacturers to post suggested retail prices on new cars.
1966
Fair Packaging and Labeling Act
Regulates packaging and labeling of consumer products. (Manufacturers must provide information about package contents and origin.)
1966
Child Protection Act
Prohibits sale of dangerous toys and other items.
1967
Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act
Requires cigarette packages to carry a warning label from the Surgeon General.
1968
Truth-in-Lending Act
Requires lenders to divulge the true costs of a credit transaction.
1969
National Environmental Policy Act
Established a national environmental policy and created the Council on Environmental
Quality to monitor the effects of products on the environment.
1972
Consumer Products Safety Act
Established the Consumer Product Safety Commission to identify unsafe products,
establish safety standards, recall defective products, and ban dangerous products.
1975
Consumer Goods Pricing Act
Bans the use of price maintenance agreements among manufacturers and resellers.
1975
Magnuson-Moss Warranty-Improvement Act
Creates disclosure standards for consumer product warranties and allows the Federal
Trade Commission to set policy regarding unfair or deceptive practices.
1990
The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act
Reaffirms the legal basis for the Food and Drug Administration’s new rules on food
labeling and established a timetable for the implementation of those rules.
1998
Internet Tax Freedom Act
Established a moratorium on special taxation of the internet, including taxation of
access fees paid to America Online and other internet service providers.
2010
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer
Protection Act
Prompted by the recession that began in 2008, intends to promote the financial
stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the
financial system, to end “too big to fail,” to protect the American taxpayer by ending
bailouts, and to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices.
2016
Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016
Passed in response to a number of incidents where companies tried to stifle negative
online user reviews by including a “gag clause” in a contract that threatens legal action
or monetary damages when customers say bad things about the company. The bill
allows the FCC and individual states to take action against companies that try this tactic.
2021
Consumer Protection and Recovery Act
This legislation authorizes the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to expand its protection of consumers from fraud in the marketplace by empowering the Federal Trade
Commission to seek legal and monetary relief for victims.77
ideals of beauty and success creates dissatisfaction with our bodies or our achievements. We will touch on many of these issues later in this text, but for now, let’s review
some dimensions of the “dark side” of consumer behavior.
Consumer Theft and Fraud
Who among us has never received an email offering us fabulous riches if we help
to recover a lost fortune from a Nigerian bank account? Of course, the only money
changing hands will be yours, if you fall for the pitch from a so-called advance-fee
fraud artist. These con artists have successfully scammed many victims out of hundreds of millions of dollars. However, a small but intrepid group of “counterscammers” sometimes give these crooks a taste of their own medicine by pretending to fall
for a scam and humiliating the perpetrator. One common strategy is to trick the con
artist into posing for pictures while holding a self-mocking sign and then posting these
photos on internet sites. Both online and offline, fraud is rampant.
Chapter 2 • Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet
43
TABLE 2.4 U.S. Regulatory Agencies and Responsibilities
Regulatory agency
Responsibilities
Consumer Product Safety
Commission (CPSC)
Protects the public from potentially hazardous products. Through regulation and testing programs, the CPSC helps
firms make sure their products won’t harm customers.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA)
Develops and enforces regulations aimed at protecting the environment. Such regulations have a major impact on the
materials and processes that manufacturers use in their products and thus on the ability of companies to develop products.
Federal Communications
Commission (FCC)
Regulates telephone, radio, and television. FCC regulations directly affect the marketing activities of companies in the communications industries, and they have an indirect effect on all firms that use broadcast media for marketing communications.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Enforces laws against deceptive advertising and product labeling regulations. Marketers must constantly keep abreast
of changes in FTC regulations to avoid costly fines.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Enforces laws and regulations on foods, drugs, cosmetics, and veterinary products. Marketers of pharmaceuticals, over-thecounter medicines, and a variety of other products must get FDA approval before they can introduce products to the market.
Interstate Commerce
Commission (ICC)
Regulates interstate bus, truck, rail, and water operations. The ability of a firm to efficiently move products to its customers depends on ICC policies and regulation.
Stealing from stores is the most common scam. Someone commits a retail theft
every five seconds. Shrinkage is the industry term for inventory and cash losses from
shoplifting and employee theft. This is a massive problem for businesses that gets
passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices (about 40 percent of the losses
can be attributed to employees rather than shoppers). Indeed, shoplifting is the fastestgrowing crime in the United States. The National Retail Federation (NRF) states that
loss of inventory related to theft, shoplifting, error, or fraud reduces retailers’ bottom
line by $46.8 billion—or about 1.33 percent of sales.79 The most frequently stolen
products are tobacco products, athletic shoes, logo and brand-name apparel, designer
jeans, and undergarments.
And what about shoppers who commit fraud when they abuse stores’ exchange
and return policies? Some big companies, such as Guess, Staples, and Sports Authority, use new software that lets them monitor a shopper’s track record of bringing items
back. They are trying to crack down on serial wardrobers who buy an outfit, wear it
once, and return it; customers who change price tags on items, then return one item
for the higher amount; and shoppers who use fake or old receipts when they return a
product. Retail analysts estimate that about $2 billion of merchandise that shoppers
return after the holiday season alone is for fraudulent reasons.80
Unauthorized Knock-Offs
“Hey buddy, wanna buy a Rolex?” Counterfeiting, where companies or individuals
sell fake versions of real products to customers (who may or may not be aware of the
switch), is the largest criminal enterprise in the world. Analysts estimate that sales
of knockoffs run between $1.7 trillion and $4.5 trillion a year—more than revenues
linked to either human trafficking or drugs.81
Many of us think of counterfeiters as people who sell faux designer handbags or
watches on the street, but in fact the problem is much more widespread—and often
deadly. About 200,000 people in China die per year because they ingest fake pharmaceuticals.82 Researchers have found one good route to potentially discourage purchases
of counterfeit products: Generate a feeling of what they term moral disgust.83 In an
experiment, researchers found that participants who were told that the luxury pen they
44
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
were given to use in a writing task was counterfeit then used more disgust-related words
in the writing task. In a second experiment, participants who were informed that their
computer mouse was a counterfeit performed worse in a game of virtual table tennis!
OBJECTIVE 2-7
Describe how
consumer behavior
directly impacts the
environment.
PESTL E: The Natural
Environment
Almost everyone today is concerned about saving our planet.
Worries about climate change, entire species going extinct,
widespread exposure to carcinogens and harmful bacteria, and many other life-anddeath issues are front and center. The consumer’s focus on personal health is merging
with a growing interest in global health. Some analysts call this new perspective that
encourages us to make positive decisions throughout the buying process conscious
consumerism. Examples of these choices might include buying used clothing, choosing natural toiletries, or eating Fairtrade chocolate.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines sustainability as being
“based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and wellbeing depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. Sustainability
creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in
productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements
of present and future generations.”84
Momentum has been building for some time around the need to
claim a brand ­purpose—a reason to exist beyond making money—
and sustainability efforts are fulfilling that need for many businesses.
The World Wildlife Federation describes this growth in awareness as
eco-wakening—it’s happening among consumers in both developed
and emerging economies.85 In one survey that was conducted in the
middle of the pandemic, 66 percent of all respondents, and 75 percent
of millennial respondents, said they consider sustainability when they
decide what to buy. 86 And this focus pays off for companies that listen: Unilever’s portfolio of 18 “sustainable living” brands is growing
50 percent faster than its other brands.87
A sustainable business model is not just about “do-gooder”
efforts that reduce a company’s carbon footprint or the amount of
plastic that goes into landfills. Indeed, about 6 out of every 10 companies that convert to a sustainable business model report that they
have profited financially as well.88 For example, Ørsted is a Danish
electricity company that completely transformed its core business
from being a coal-intensive energy producer to a focus on renewable energy sources. By divesting from fossil fuels and investing in
offshore wind power, Ørsted reduced carbon emissions by 83 percent
and still managed to boost profits.89
While some individual companies like Ørsted, Patagonia, and
Native deodorant make heroic efforts toward sustainability, will this
be enough to save us from environmental disasters down the road?
Every action helps, but most likely we need to revisit the fundamental
ways we use—and get rid of—natural resources. For example, apparel
Environmental activist Greta Thunberg’s passion has fueled
businesses (and fashionistas) have been seduced by the allure of fast
a global movement in which consumers are urging governfashion—inexpensive garments that are manufactured and replaced
ments and corporations to address the climate change crisis.
Source: SOPA Images Limited/Alamy Stock Photo.
quickly to keep up with fast-changing trends to feed the ever-changing
Chapter 2 • Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet
tastes of shoppers at stores like H&M and Zara. The problem: These
here-today, in-the-landfill-tomorrow garments require vast amounts of
water—roughly 3,000 liters to make just one cotton shirt. The dyeing
process releases toxic chemicals into what’s left of our water supply.90
And because these items aren’t made to last, they quickly degrade and
have to be replaced with the next fast fashion goodie.
One promising economic model is the circular economy (CE).91
Instead of the linear economy, which is on continual expansion through
stimulation of mass production, mass consumption, and rapid disposal,
the CE model proposes that sustainable growth can happen only through
ongoing reutilization of resources and materials with the ultimate goal
of generating zero waste. Circularity is “restorative and regenerative by
design.” The circular economy model makes it easier for consumers to
understand how to behave sustainability because sustainability becomes
more concrete.92
But we have a long way to go! According to the Circularity Gap
Report presented at the World Economic Forum, the world is only 8.6
percent “circular,” which means that 91.4 percent of resources used
for consumption are being squandered.93
Sometimes the “solution” is part of the problem! For example,
although we may benefit from drinking water instead of sugary beverages, by one estimate the energy (and subsequent climate change) used
to produce the plastic bottles they come in is equivalent to filling them
one-quarter full with oil. In addition, the bottles may be transported
thousands of miles on gas-guzzling cargo ships, and then the discarded
bottles can take thousands of years to decompose.94 And to add insult
Raw Materials
Native deodorant is a popular choice for some
­consumers because of its focus on sustainability.
Source: Emma’sPhotos/Shutterstock.
Design
Recycling
Production,
Remanufacturing
Circular Economy
Distribution
Residual Waste
Collection
Figure 2.1 The Circular Economy
Source: Sensvector/Shutterstock and Nikolae/Shutterstock.
Consumption, use,
reuse, repair
45
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Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
to injury, recently it has been discovered that the “pure” water
itself may contain microbits of plastic from the bottle.
Sustainability is a tough goal, but many organizations
work hard to get as close to it as they can—and consumers
around the world increasingly take notice. Many of us are
much more mindful of these issues when we shop and when
we make decisions about the foods we eat, the clothes we
wear, the buildings in which we live and work, and the cars
we drive. Green marketing describes a strategy that involves
the development and promotion of environmentally friendly
products and a focus on this attribute when the manufacturer
communicates with customers. One barrier to increased
acceptance: Many consumers believe that sustainable products are of inferior quality—but recent research evidence
Airinum is one company that is tapping into a desire for functional
debunks this myth.95
yet stylish protective wear as concerns grow about the effects of air
pollution on consumers’ health.
Reusable grocery bags are growing in popularity as
Source: Photo by Alexander Bello for Airinum www.airinum.com. Copyright Airinum AB.
a simple environmental and socially conscious choice to
reduce our reliance on disposable plastic bags. And it works!
A study focused on what happens when shoppers are encouraged to bring your own
bags (BYOB) showed that it can change their shopping behaviors.96 Analyzing loyalty card scanner data from a grocery store in California, the researchers found that
shoppers who brought their own bag were more likely to buy environmentally friendly
organic foods. Interestingly, they also found that those shoppers were more likely to
Remember the good old “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval?” For a mere
$495, a company can submit a product
for testing, and it receives the Seal if it
does what it claims.97 Wouldn’t it be
nice to have a similar setup to validate
a product’s claim to be environmentally
friendly? When companies encourage consumers to choose sustainable
products, it can be a tough slog to show
them which brands comply with environmental regulations and earth-friendly
processes. So, why not “certify” these
products and allow them to display a
label that shows they are one of the
“good guys”? In fact, that’s happening
in spades, but ironically some wellmeaning consumers might encounter
“sticker shock” when they try to choose
acceptable products. It’s not so easy
as just looking to see whether or not a
familiar certification is on a package:
There are 455 eco-label systems worldwide!98 And some big manufacturers
and retailers even offer their own labels,
such as SC Johnson’s Greenlist and
Eco-Scale by the Whole Foods grocery
chain.99 Perhaps down the road the system to identify the polluters will simplify
as competing certification systems consolidate. But for now, happy hunting!
Source: Omelchenko/Shutterstock.
Chapter 2 • Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet
stick indulgent foods in those bags, perhaps a sign that we tend to reward ourselves
for our own good behavior!
In the end, and despite all the social, cultural and environmental changes our
world faces, consumers’ prosocial behaviors may be the answer. 100 This term
describes actions that benefit others and the world around us, including charitable
giving and other donation behaviors (such as blood or organ donation), volunteering,
ethical purchasing, and consumer activism.
The SHIFT: Changing Consumer Behavior for the Better
The SHIFT framework sums up the actions marketers need to take in order to promote
prosocial behavior by identifying five key drivers:101
1. Social Influence – Use social pressure and norms to encourage behavior.
2. Habits – Encourage formation of prosocial habits.
3. Individual Self – Appeal to identity, self-interest, and personality traits.
4. Feelings and Cognition – Employ different frames and emotional appeals in the
appropriate situations and contexts.
5. Tangibility – Make clear what the prosocial behavior accomplishes (e.g., who
benefits, self-efficacy).
We can see Driver #1 (Social Influence) in action in a study that involved more than
2,000 hotel guests. When guests made a specific commitment at check-in to hang their
towels for reuse to reduce laundry waste (and received a lapel pin to symbolize their
commitment), the number of towels guests actually hung increased by more than 40
percent. The researchers estimated the savings at one hotel at over $50,000 and nearly
700,000 gallons of water.102
The “Tree-Huggers”
As we saw in Chapter 1, it is typical to find that a relatively small number of consumers account for a large amount of the action with regard to a certain consumption
The Chipotle food chain caters to the growing priority consumers place upon ethicallygrown food.
Source: Used with Permission from Chipotle.
47
Buying, Having, Being
Wokewashing?
Talk about poisoning the well:
Greenwashing occurs when
companies make false or exaggerated claims about how environmentally friendly their products
are. Wokewashing is the same
thing: companies making false or
inauthentic claims to be “woke.”103
Think about the old story of the
“boy who cried wolf ”: Consumers simply don’t believe most of
the green claims companies make
about their brands. Almost onefourth of U.S. consumers say they
have “no way of knowing” whether
a product is green or actually does
what it claims. Their skepticism is
probably justified: According to one
report, more than 95 percent of
consumer companies that market
as “green” make misleading or inaccurate claims. Another survey found
that the number of products that
claim to be green has increased
by 73 percent since 2009—but of
the products investigated, almost
one-third had fake labels, and
70 ­percent made green claims
­without offering any proof to back
them up.104 One survey reported
that 71 percent of respondents
say they will stop buying a product
if they feel they’ve been misled
about its environmental impact,
and 37 percent are so angry about
greenwashing that they believe
this justifies a complete boycott of
everything the company makes.105
Greenwashing has impacted
many well-known companies. For
example, Walmart agreed to pay
$1 million to settle claims that allege
the nation’s largest retailer sold plastic products it misleadingly labeled
“biodegradable” or “compostable” in
violation of California law.106
48
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
activity or purchase. This certainly is true when we look at people who walk the
walk, in addition to talking the talk, about modifying their behaviors to help the
environment.
Marketers point to a segment of consumers who are especially likely to choose
sustainable products and services: the Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability segment,
or LOHAS. These so-called “Lohasians” (others refer to this segment as cultural
­creatives) represent a great market for products such as organic foods, energy-­
efficient appliances, and hybrid cars, as well as alternative medicine, yoga lessons,
and ­ecotourism. One organization that tracks this group estimates that they make up
one in four adult Americans and spend about $290 billion per year on sustainable
products and services.107
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Now that you have finished reading this chapter, you should
be able to:
3. Discuss how the economic landscape affects
consumers’ access to the marketplace.
1. Define business ethics and identify the elements
that comprise the PESTLE framework.
Our relationships with companies and other organizations are complex, and many issues that impact quality
of life relate directly to marketing practices. In addition to changes in income due to unforeseen events like
the pandemic, market access can be a problem because
many people are unable to navigate the marketplace as a
result of disabilities, illiteracy, or other conditions.
Business ethics are rules of conduct that guide actions in
the marketplace; these are the standards against which
most people in a culture judge what is right and what is
wrong, good or bad. Marketers must confront many ethical
issues, especially ones that relate to how much they make
consumers “want” things they don’t need or are not good
for them. It is both ethically and financially smart to maximize customer satisfaction. In some cases, external bodies
such as the government or industry associations regulate
businesses to ensure that their products and advertising are
safe, clear, and accurate. Consumer behavior researchers
may play a role in this process and those who do transformative consumer research (TCR) may even work to bring
about social change. Companies also play a significant
role in addressing social conditions through their corporate
social responsibility (CSR) practices and social marketing
campaigns that promote positive behaviors.
2. Summarize how the political environment affects
consumer decision making.
In the politically charged environment we inhabit,
consumers make choices based on their beliefs and
­values—and they vote with their wallets. Through their
brand and product choices, consumers make statements to companies about the types of products they
want and how, when, and where (or even if) they want
to learn about those products. The explosion of social
activism we’ve encountered both in the U.S. and in
many other parts of the world over the past few years
has encouraged some companies to take a stand on
controversial issues.
4. Explain the ways marketers respond to social
issues to shape consumer behavior.
The 2020s have seen a proliferation of social causes that
affect the marketplace in fundamental ways. In response
to social justice movements, companies are taking a close
look at what their brands and marketing communications
look like. Cause marketing is a popular strategy that aligns
a company or brand with a cause to generate business
and societal benefits. Many firms today try to integrate
corporate social responsibility (CSR) into their business
models; this encourages an organization to make a positive impact on the various stakeholders in its community,
including consumers, employees, and the environment.
5. Describe the technological changes that are creating new challenges for consumer protection.
Many of us are leery about opening the door to our private lives so that big tech companies can enter at will.
One of the biggest ethical issues many marketers face
today relates to how much they can—or should—know
about their customers, including even their genetic data.
New technologies also make it fairly easy to disseminate
content that may or may not be “real” or accurate. Artificial intelligence creates new opportunities and challenges
for consumers and consumer protection, but the automation of tasks and exchanges based on consumer data also
Chapter 2 • Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet
opens up new issues related to privacy, bias, and ethics.
Other tech-related challenges include addiction to social
media, identity theft, and cyberbullying.
6. Explain how the legal environment influences
consumer behavior.
Concern for the welfare of consumers has been an issue
since at least the beginning of the 20th century. Today,
activists continue to voice concerns about a range of issues
such as child labor, exploitative advertising, and genetically engineered food. Partly due to consumers’ efforts,
the U.S. government established many federal agencies
to oversee consumer-related activities. These include the
Department of Agriculture, the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Securities
and Exchange Commission, and the EPA. Consumers
also are at fault for engaging in illegal or borderline activities, such as shoplifting, vandalism, and counterfeiting.
7. Describe how consumer behavior directly
impacts the environment.
Worries about climate change, entire species going
extinct, widespread exposure to carcinogens and
harmful bacteria, and many other life-and-death
issues are front and center. The circular economy
model proposes that sustainable growth can happen
only through ongoing reutilization of resources and
materials with the ultimate goal of generating zero
waste. A green marketing strategy involves the development and promotion of environmentally friendly
products and a focus on this attribute when the manufacturer communicates with customers. Momentum
has been building for some time around the need to
claim a brand purpose—a reason to exist beyond
making money—and sustainability efforts are fulfilling that need for many businesses.
This “eco-wakening” is happening among many consumers in both developed and emerging economies.
The SHIFT framework sums up the actions marketers
need to take in order to promote prosocial behavior by
identifying five key drivers, such as social influence
and tangibility. The LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and
Sustainability) market segment is growing in size and
influence as consumers become more sensitized to a
brand’s impact on the environment.
KEY TERMS
Adaptive clothing, 30
Algorithm bias, 37
Artificial intelligence, 37
Benevolent halo effect, 33
Botnets, 37
Brand purpose, 44
Bring your own bags (BYOB), 46
Business ethics, 27
Cancel culture, 33
Cause marketing, 33
Circular economy, 45
Conscious consumerism, 44
Consumed consumers, 31
Consumer activism, 28
Consumer addiction, 38
Corporate social irresponsibility
(CSI), 33
Corporate social responsibility
(CSR), 33
Corporate sociopolitical activism
(CSA), 29
Corrective advertising, 40
Counterfeiting, 43
Culture jamming, 28
Cyberbullying, 38
Data breaches, 37
Data privacy, 34
Eco-wakening, 44
Fast fashion, 44
Financial literacy, 32
Food desert, 31
Food insecurity, 31
Functionally illiterate, 32
General Data Protection
Regulation, 34
Genetic data, 37
Green marketing, 46
Greenwashing, 47
Identity theft, 36
Infodemic, 36
Latent vulnerability, 35
49
Locational privacy, 37
LOHAS, 48
Market access, 30
Media literacy, 32
Moral disgust, 43
PESTLE framework, 27
Phishing, 37
Prosocial behaviors, 47
Red market, 31
Serial wardrobers, 43
Shrinkage, 43
Slacktivism, 30
Social justice, 32
Social marketing, 32
Social media addiction, 38
Sustainability, 44
Transformative consumer
research (TCR), 32
Wokewashing, 47
50
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
REVIEW
2-1 What are business ethics, and why is this an important topic?
2-2 Give two examples of important legislation that
affects U.S. consumers.
2-3 What is a circular economy?
2-4 What is eco-wakening, and what are the likely consequences for consumer behavior?
2-5 Define social marketing, and give an example of this
technique.
2-6 What is the primary difference between transformative consumer research and other kinds of consumer
research?
2-7 Why is market access an important aspect of consumer well-being? What are some important reasons why consumers can experience limited market
access?
2-8 What is greenwashing, and why is it a problem for
marketers?
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHALLENGE
DISCUSS
2-1 In today’s wired world, consumers can run, but we
can’t hide: If someone wants to know where we are
or where we’ve been, the data are there for the asking. As with web tracking, there is value here: We
can easily identify by looking at hundreds or even
thousands of reviews the best sushi place within a
block of our current location, or perhaps get a heads
up on that policeman with the radar gun who is hiding behind that billboard up the highway. However,
this is a mixed blessing if this information gets into
the wrong hands. Consumers need to make tough
tradeoffs between convenience and constant surveillance. The chapter notes that marketing has a huge
credibility problem today; most consumers simply
don’t trust what marketers say or do. What steps can
a marketer take to restore this trust?
2-2 Internet addiction has been a big headache in South
Korea for several years, where 90 percent of homes
connect to cheap, high-speed broadband. Many
young Koreans’ social lives revolve around the “PC
bang,” dimly lit internet parlors that sit on practically every street corner. A government study estimates that up to 30 percent of South Koreans younger
than 18 are at risk of internet addiction. Many already
exhibit signs of actual addiction, including an inability to stop themselves from using computers, rising
levels of tolerance that drive them to seek ever-­longer
sessions online, and withdrawal symptoms such as
anger and craving when they can’t log on. Some
users have literally dropped dead from exhaustion
after playing online games for days on end.108 How
big a problem is internet addiction here in the United
States? Should parents and educators actively police
how much time kids spend online, or if they do so are
they preventing young people from interacting with
their peers in the ways they want?
2-3 Should scientists who study consumer behavior
remain impartial, or is it appropriate for them to
become involved in the topics they research, like
those who adhere to the transformative consumer
research perspective?
2-4 Today many consumers pursue a “decluttering lifestyle.” Should marketers encourage this trend toward
simplicity even though it stresses buying less stuff
that marketers sell? What marketing opportunities do
you foresee if this trend spreads?
2-5 Because of higher competition and market saturation,
marketers in industrialized countries try to develop
third-world markets. Asian consumers alone spend
$90 billion a year on cigarettes, and U.S. tobacco
manufacturers push relentlessly into these markets.
We find cigarette advertising, which often depicts
glamorous Western models and settings, just about
everywhere—on billboards, buses, storefronts, and
clothing—and tobacco companies sponsor many
major sports and cultural events. Some companies
even hand out cigarettes and gifts in amusement
areas, often to preteens. Should governments allow
these practices, even if the products may be harmful to their citizens or divert money that poor people
should spend on essentials? If you were a trade or
health official in a third-world country, what guidelines, if any, might you suggest to regulate the import
of luxury goods from advanced economies?
2-6 A case involving the Wendy’s fast-food chain made
national headlines when a woman claimed she found
a finger in her bowl of chili. The restaurants became
Chapter 2 • Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet
the butt of jokes (some said they served nail clippers
with their food instead of forks), and sales dropped
dramatically at the company’s franchises. This forced
layoffs and reduced hours for many employees—
until the woman was arrested for fraud.109 Consumers commonly file lawsuits against companies to
claim damages if a product or service didn’t work
as expected. In some cases, the defendant just settles
the suit to make it go away because it costs more to
mount a defense than to just pay damages. Are there
too many frivolous lawsuits? Does our justice system
adequately meet the needs of both consumers and
companies in how it awards damages?
2-7 Nonprofit organizations routinely rely on generous
corporate donations, and it’s common to name facilities after benefactors. The Nationwide Children’s
Hospital in Ohio is no exception; its name recognizes the insurance company’s $50 million donation.
Now the hospital has added the Abercrombie & Fitch
Emergency Department and Trauma Center and there
is also the Limited Too & Justice Main Lobby. The
Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood opposes
this partnership. The group’s director commented,
“Abercrombie & Fitch is really among the worst of
corporate predators. A company with such cynical
disregard for children’s well-being shouldn’t be able
to claim the mantle of healing . . . . And, personally, I
find it very concerning that they named their hospital
after an insurance company.”110 What do you think?
Is this over the line, or does it matter where the money
comes from as long as the end result is beneficial?
2-8 From time to time, advertisers use dark humor to
get their messages across, as when a lonely calorie, repairman, or robot considers suicide. Or an ad
may imply that shoppers are “mentally ill” if they
pay retail prices. Are these appeals a legitimate
way to communicate a message; if so, under what
circumstances?
2-9 The chapter discusses the positive and negative
potential effects of corporate sociopolitical activism
(CSA). What’s your feeling—should a company link
itself to a social cause, or should it remain neutral?
2-10 Fifty-four million dollars for a pair of missing pants?
A judge in Washington, D.C., made headlines when
he filed a $54 million lawsuit against his neighborhood dry cleaner because it lost a pair of his pinstriped suit pants. He claimed that a local consumer
protection law entitled him to thousands of dollars for
each day over nearly four years in which signs at the
shop promised “same day service” and “satisfaction
guaranteed.” The suit dragged on for several months,
51
but at the end of the day, the plaintiff went home with
empty pockets.111 And some people claim we have
too many lawsuits in this country! Should our legal
system allow for lawsuits that encourage consumers
to sue companies over complaints like this?
2-11 A woman in New Zealand apparently died from
drinking too much Coca-Cola. Her family said she
drank about 2.2 gallons of the beverage every day for
years. Prior to her death, she had several rotten teeth
removed, and she gave birth to a baby who was born
without any tooth enamel. The 31-year-old mother of
eight died following a cardiac arrhythmia after consuming more than two pounds of sugar and 970 mg
of caffeine a day. Coca-Cola noted that the coroner’s
report, while singling out its product as a probable
cause of death, stated that the company “cannot be
held responsible for the health of consumers who
drink unhealthy quantities of the product.”112 What’s
your take on this—should companies be held liable if
their customers misuse what they sell?
2-12 A hot-button topic right now involves efforts to curb
child obesity by encouraging advertisers to limit
the messages they send to kids about foods that are
high in sodium, saturated fat, and added sugars.
Under new federal rules, even the scoreboards in
high school gyms will have to advertise only healthy
foods. Several large cities, including New York City
and Philadelphia, have tried to prevent the sale of
large sizes of sugary drinks to fight obesity. Public
health advocates hail these attempts, whereas others
argue that they would transform the United States
into a “Nanny State” that imposes on our freedom
to choose to consume whatever we like. Should city,
state, and federal governments dictate what (legal)
products people should consume, even when the
population’s health is at stake?113
2-13 Companies and organizations in the United States
spend billions of dollars to acquire and manage consumer data, such as credit information and transaction histories. Well-off consumers obviously hold
great appeal to marketers because they have greater
buying potential. Today companies have the ability to
offer a more attractive deal to higher-value customers
to win their business. The flip side of this process
is that they can potentially discriminate against lowincome people who won’t qualify for lower prices.
And in most cases, companies don’t permit consumers to access their database to learn what they
know about them.114 Is it fair to stratify consumers
in this way so that some get access to more attractive
options than others?
52
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
APPLY
2-14 Will consumers trade lower prices for less privacy?
Car owners now can let insurance companies monitor
their driving, using a new technology, in exchange for
lower rates. Customers who sign up for Progressive’s
TripSense program get a device the size of a Tic Tac
box to plug into their cars. The device tracks speed
and how many miles are driven at what times of day.
Every few months, customers unplug the device from
the car, plug it into a computer, download the data, and
send the data to the company. Depending on results,
discounts will range from 5 to 25 percent. In Great
Britain, a major insurer is testing a program called Pay
as You Drive. Volunteers in the program get a device
the size of a large smartphone installed in their cars.
The gadget uses global positioning satellite technology
to track where the car goes, constantly sending information back to the insurance company. Cars that spend
more time in safer areas will qualify for bigger discounts.115 Of course, the potential downside to these
efforts is that the insurance companies may be able to
collect data on where you have driven, how long you
stayed in one location, and so on. Conduct a poll of
10 drivers of various ages in which you describe these
programs and ask respondents if they would participate to receive a discount on their insurance premiums.
What reasons do they give—pro and con?
CASE STUDY
2-15 Many college students “share” music by downloading clips. Interview at least five people who
have downloaded at least one song or movie without paying for it. Do they feel they are stealing?
What explanations do they offer for this behavior?
Try to identify any common themes as a result of
these interviews. If you were devising an ad campaign to discourage free downloading, how might
you use what you have learned to craft a convincing message?
2-16 If you’re not happy with a product or service, is it
worthwhile to complain? In one study, business
majors wrote complaint letters to companies. When
the firm sent a free sample in response, this action
significantly improved how the students felt about
it. This didn’t happen, however, when they only
received a letter of ­apology—but no swag. Even
worse, students who got no response reported an
even more negative image than before. This shows
that any kind of response is better than none.116
Interview people you know who have had negative
experiences with stores or manufacturers. What
action (if any) did they take, and what happened?
Are they more or less likely to patronize the
offending company as a result?
Face It – Facial Recognition Is Coming
to a Walgreens Near You
If you are like millions of other smartphone users, you regularly open your phone by simply looking at it. The same software that saves you seconds typing in your passcode is now
being used to make marketing more personalized through
innovative applications of this advanced technology, known
as facial recognition. One of the companies that employs
this technology is Walgreens, the second largest pharmacy
retailer in the U.S.117
Facial recognition uses cameras and software to map a
person’s face and compare it with information in a database
that uses sophisticated algorithms. Many uses of this technology are similar to the smartphone application, in which a user
is authenticated for purposes of access to a computer system
or a building. A more sophisticated level of the technology,
facial analysis, seeks to draw conclusions about gender, age,
race, and even emotions.118
Much of the conversation about facial recognition
has focused on its use in law enforcement, with concerns
about the level of identification accuracy, particularly with
the faces of women and people of color. Early versions of
the technology had high error rates and even after significant improvement, a 2019 study showed that some software incorrectly identified African American and Asian
people 10 to 100 times more often than white men. This
inaccuracy has been attributed to the process of “training” the early versions of the algorithms using images of
celebrities that were more often white and male.119 Facial
recognition companies are working to improve accuracy,
but some major companies, like Microsoft, Amazon, and
IBM, have chosen either to pause or end the distribution
of facial recognition technology to law enforcement while
these problems are addressed.120
Facial recognition technologies provide innovative
marketing uses, many focused on the shopper experience
in brick-and-mortar stores. At Walgreens, cooler doors are
now full-size screens that display photos of the products
Chapter 2 • Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet
inside. Hidden cameras can determine your age, gender, and
the products you’re looking at—along with your emotional
response to what you’re seeing. Based on that information,
the display changes to a personalized offer the system’s algorithm believes you will like. The system also considers information like time of day. Close to dinner time? How about a
DiGiorno pizza to go with your six pack of Miller Coors?121
Other retailers have found new uses of the technology.
A furniture chain changed the age of its floor staff after its
software determined that customers coming into the store
were younger than expected.122 Mastercard uses faces to
speed the payment process with its “smile to pay” system.123
Sophisticated facial analysis can detect shoppers’ feelings
about products or displays. And when a VIP enters a store,
facial recognition can alert staff, allowing them to greet the
customer by name and to recommend products based on the
buyer’s purchase history.124
Advertising can also be enhanced by facial analysis.
Rather than relying on expressed opinions in focus groups,
advertisers can get unbiased and unreserved emotional reactions to proposed ads in a noninvasive manner.125 In addition
to in-store ads like those at Walgreens, companies are experimenting with interactive outdoor billboards. At London’s
famed Piccadilly Circus, a giant billboard changes content
based on the gender, age, and even the emotions of those
passing by.126 Billboard provider Quividi says its technology can determine gender with 90 percent precision and age
within a five-year bracket and can notice emotional responses
within five categories from “very happy to very unhappy.”
One company has installed interactive tablets in rideshare
vehicles to deliver ads dynamically based on facial analysis
coupled with location data.127
Some consumers are concerned about the growing use
of this technology. One study found that only 32 percent of
consumers were comfortable with the use of facial recognition by private companies, and 54 percent did not agree with
its use for gauging response to ad displays.128 While many
of the applications do not identify a person by name, there is
the opportunity to misuse the data gathered. Questions have
also been raised about the fundamental idea that emotions
can be accurately assessed through facial expressions. A 2019
review of the scientific literature found no reliable evidence
for that link.129
There is currently no federal regulation that limits companies’ use of facial recognition, but three states—Illinois,
Texas, and Washington—have passed bills regarding this,
and other states are considering doing so.130 The Illinois
law requires written consent for a company to “collect, capture, purchase, receive, disclose, or disseminate biometric
53
information” and gives a victim a right to collect damages
from the offending party, up to $5,000 per incident. The
Texas law does not allow citizens to take action, but the government can impose a penalty of up to $25,000 for each violation.131 Washington state does not explicitly include facial
recognition in its law regarding notice and consent for use
of biometric data, but class action lawsuits are testing the
limits of the regulations.132 Several lawsuits have resulted
in sizable settlements from major companies charged with
violating these state laws, including $92 million by TikTok
and $650 million by Facebook (now Meta), with a key issue
being the use of biometric data without users’ consent.133
Most consumers have become accustomed to a high level
of recognition in the online world, where our navigation from
website to website is tracked through small data files known
as “cookies.” Our movement around the internet and the info
we enter allows marketers to offer specific products and promotional messaging they believe will be appealing. Facial
recognition and analysis are moving the cookie concept to
the physical world, using observed information to customize offers and messages.134 The big difference is that online,
users are often asked to consent to the use of cookies; an
equivalent permission system does not exist in most public
spaces, but users of the technology can at least inform consumers of the use of that technology, giving them the option
not to enter a store, for example.135
The creators of facial recognition technology are racing
to improve its accuracy and to expand its use. In 2021, the
market size for this technology was over $5 billion, and it’s
expected to grow to $12.67 billion by 2028.136 Consumers
and legislators will determine whether that growth is realized
as they decide whether the gains in convenience, personalized
service, and messaging are worth the potential loss of privacy.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
CS 2-1 Compare the use of facial recognition in marketing
with other tools of one-to-one marketing, like online
cookies or databases that contain detailed personal
information gleaned from a variety of sources. How
is facial recognition the same or different?
CS 2-2 Some retailers use facial recognition to alert staff to
the arrival of known shoplifters. What are the pros
and cons of this application of the technology?
CS 2-3 What steps could companies take to use facial recognition technology ethically? In your answer, consider
options for informed consent in various contexts:
retail stores, outdoor billboards, and tablets in rideshare vehicles.
54
Section 1 • Foundations of Consumer Behavior
NOTES
1. https://wornwear.patagonia.com/, accessed February 21, 2022.
2. Bruce Cooil, Timothy L. Keiningham, Lerzan Aksoy, and Michael Hsu, “A
Longitudinal Analysis of Customer Satisfaction and Share of Wallet: Investigating the Moderating Effect of Customer Characteristics,” Journal of Marketing 71 (January 2007): 67–83. For a study that looks at consumer variables
moderating this relationship, cf. Kathleen Seiders, Glenn B. Voss, Dhruv Grewal, and Andrea L. Godfrey, “Do Satisfied Customers Buy More? Examining Moderating Influences in a Retailing Context,” Journal of Marketing 69
(October 2005): 26–43.
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111. Ariel Sabar, “In Case of Missing Trousers, Aggrieved Party Loses Again,”
New York Times, June 26, 2007, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/
us/26trousers.html.
112. Matt Cantor, “Woman Dies after Downing 2 Gallons of Coca-Cola Daily,” USA
Today, February 12, 2013, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/12/
coca-cola-soda-death/1912491/?morestories=obnetwork.
113. “Michelle Obama Announces New Rules for Advertising Junk Food at Schools,”
New York Daily News, February 25, 2014, www.nydailynews.com/news/
politics/michelle-obama-announces-new-rules-advertising-junk-food-schools-­
article-1.1701140; www.nannystate.com/; Janet Adamy, “Tough New Rules Proposed on Food Advertising for Kids,” Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2011, https://
www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704330404576291091782255946.
114. Natasha Singer, “A Vault for Taking Charge of Your Online Life,” New York
Times, December 8, 2012, www.newyorktimes.com/2012/12/09/business/
company-envisions-vaults-for-personal-ddata.html.
115. Kevin Maney, “Drivers Let Big Brother in to Get a Break,” Ethics (August 9,
2004): 1B.
116. Gary L. Clark, Peter F. Kaminski, and David R. Rink, “Consumer Complaints:
Advice on How Companies Should Respond Based on an Empirical Study,”
Journal of Services Marketing 6 (Winter 1992): 41–50.
117. Adam J. Fein, “The Top 15 U.S. Pharmacies of 2021: Market Shares and
Revenues at the Biggest Companies,” Drugchannels.net, accessed July 8,
2022, https://www.drugchannels.net/2022/03/the-top-15-us-pharmacies-of2021-market.html.
118. Parmy Olson, “The Quiet Growth of Race-Detection Software Sparks Concerns over Bias,” Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed.), August 14, 2020, https://
www.wsj.com/articles/the-quiet-growth-of-race-detection-software-sparksconcerns-over-bias-11597378154.
119. Lauren Debter, “Retailers Quietly Deploying Controversial Technology to
Combat Crime Spree,” Forbes, January 31, 2022, https://www.forbes.com/
sites/laurendebter/2022/01/31/retailers-quietly-deploying-controversial-­
technology-to-combat-crime-spree/?sh=138c52417689.
120. Harold Li, “Facial Recognition Isn’t Ready for the Mainstream,” Forbes,
November 5, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/11/05/were-ready-for-mainstream-facial-recognition-but-is-it-readyfor-us/?sh=6587a84822f2.
121. Katharine Schwab, “It’s Not Just Google or Facebook: The Freezer Aisle
Is Ad Targeting You Now,” Fast Company, February 6, 2019, https://
www.fastcompany.com/90302382/its-not-just-google-or-facebookthe-freezer-aisle-is-ad-targeting-you-too.
122. Parmy Olson, “The Quiet Growth of Race-Detection Software Sparks Concerns over Bias,” Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed.), August 14, 2020, https://
www.wsj.com/articles/the-quiet-growth-of-race-detection-software-sparksconcerns-over-bias-11597378154.
123. Rahul Verma, “Mastercard’s Newly Launched Face Recognition Payment
System Is Already Raising Accuracy Concerns,” Business Insider India, May
27, 2022, https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/mastercard-launchesnew-face-recognition-payment-system-now-accuracy-raises-concerns/articleshow/91831651.cms.
124. “How Facial Recognition Will Change Smart Retail,” FaceMe (blog),
CyberLink, March 25, 2021, https://www.cyberlink.com/faceme/insights/
articles/363/reimagine-retail-with-facial-recognition.
125. David Wood, “Facial Recognition Advertising: The Future Is Here,” Alfi,
July 22, 2021, https://www.getalfi.com/advertising/facial-recognitionadvertising-future-is-here/.
126. PA, “The Piccadilly Circus Lights Will Show Adverts Based on Nearby Cars
and People,” Jersey Evening Post, March 31, 2022, https://www.jerseyeveningpost.com/uncategorised/2022/03/31/the-piccadilly-circus-lights-will-showadverts-based-on-nearby-cars-and-people/.
127. David Wood, “Facial Recognition Advertising: The Future Is Here,” Alfi,
July 22, 2021, https://www.getalfi.com/advertising/facial-recognitionadvertising-future-is-here/.
128. Jenny Chang, “30 Facial Recognition Statistics You Must Learn: 2022 Market Share & Data Analysis,” Financesonline.com, April 12, 2021, https://
financesonline.com/facial-recognition-statistics/.
129. Kate Crawford, “Artificial Intelligence Is Misreading Human Emotion,”
Atlantic Monthly, April 27, 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/
archive/2021/04/artificial-intelligence-misreading-human-emotion/
618696/.
Chapter 2 • Consumer Ethics, the Marketplace, and the Planet
130. Esther Fung, “Shopping Centers Exploring Facial Recognition in Brave New
World of Retail,” Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed.), July 2, 2019, https://www
.wsj.com/articles/shopping-centers-exploring-facial-recognition-in-brave-newworld-of-retail-11562068802.
131. “StackPath,” Womblebonddickinson.com, accessed July 11,
2022, https://www.womblebonddickinson.com/us/insights/alerts/
facial-recognition-new-trend-state-regulation.
132. Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, “Washington Becomes Third State to
Enact Biometric Privacy Law,” Privacy & Information Security Law
Blog, June 1, 2017, https://www.huntonprivacyblog.com/2017/06/01/
washington-becomes-third-state-enact-biometric-privacy-law/.
133. Anni Burchfiel, “TikTok Data Privacy Settlement: What Happened?,” TokenEx,
accessed July 11, 2022, https://www.tokenex.com/blog/ab-tiktok-data-privacysettlement-what-happened; Lauren Silva, “Texas Sues Meta, Seeks Billions in
57
Damages Over Alleged Illegally Obtained Facebook Biometrics,” Top Class
Actions, February 16, 2022, https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/­
lawsuit-news/facebook-class-action-lawsuit-and-settlement-news/texas-sues-metaseeks-billions-in-damages-over-alleged-illegally-obtained-­facebook-biometrics/.
134. Parmy Olson, “The Quiet Growth of Race-Detection Software Sparks Concerns over Bias,” Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed.), August 14, 2020, https://
www.wsj.com/articles/the-quiet-growth-of-race-detection-software-sparksconcerns-over-bias-11597378154.
135. Suzanne Taylor, “The Two Faces of Facial Recognition,” Forbes, February 7, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/02/07/
the-two-faces-of-facial-recognition/?sh=62cf92c7558d.
136. Help Net Security, “Facial Recognition Market to Reach $12.67 Billion by
2028,” Help Net Security, March 10, 2022, https://www.helpnetsecurity
.com/2022/03/10/facial-recognition-market-2028/.
Section
2
Making Sense
of the World
In this section, we focus on the internal dynamics of consumers. Each of us is to some degree
“self-contained” in how we receive information about the outside world. We are constantly
confronted by advertising messages, products, and other people—not to mention our own
thoughts about ourselves—that affect how we make sense of the world and, of course, what
and how we choose to buy. Each chapter in this section looks at an aspect of consumers that
may be “invisible” to others but is important to our understanding of how they make choices.
Chapter 3 describes the process of perception, or the way we absorb and interpret information
from the outside world to give meanings to products, brands, and other people. Chapter 4
focuses on how we store this information and how it contributes to our existing knowledge about
and understanding of the world. Chapter 5 looks at motivation—why we do what we do—and
how our needs and goals drive us.
Chapters Ahead
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Perceiving and
Making Meaning
Learning, Remembering,
and Knowing
Chapter 5
Motivation
59
3
Perceiving and
Making Meaning
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES When you finish reading this chapter, you should be able to:
3-1 Explain how consumer behavior is often shaped
by sensory appeals that are often unnoticed.
3-2 Outline the three-stage process of perception that
translates raw stimuli into meaning.
3-3 Discuss how the field of semiotics helps us
understand how consumers create meaning out
of symbols.
3-4 Describe how consumers play an active role in
shaping brand meanings.
T
he European vacation has been wonderful, and this stop in Lisbon is no
exception. Still, after two weeks of eating his way through some of the continent’s
finest pastry shops and restaurants, Jamal’s getting a bit of a craving for his
family’s favorite snack—a good old American box of Oreos and an ice-cold carton of milk.
Unbeknownst to his partner, Badr, he had stashed away some cookies “just in case”;
this was the time to break them out.
Now all he needs is the milk. On an impulse, Jamal decides to surprise Badr with
a mid-afternoon treat. He sneaks out of the hotel room while she’s napping and finds
the nearest grosa. When he heads to the store’s small refrigerated section, though, he’s
puzzled—no milk here. Undaunted, Jamal asks the clerk, “Leite, por favor?” The clerk
quickly smiles and points to a rack in the middle of the store piled with little white square
boxes. No, that can’t be right—Jamal resolves to work on his Portuguese. He repeats
the question, and again he gets the same answer.
Finally, he investigates, and sure enough, he sees that the labels say they contain
something called Ultra High Temperature (UHT) milk. Nasty! Who in the world would
drink milk out of a little box that’s been sitting on a warm shelf for who knows how long?
Jamal dejectedly returns to the hotel, his snack-time fantasies crumbling like so many
stale cookies.
Source: LensKiss/Shutterstock.
60
OBJECTIVE 3-1
Explain how
consumer behavior
is often shaped by
sensory appeals
that are often
unnoticed.
Sensation
Products and commercial messages often appeal to our
senses, but because of the profusion of these messages, we
don’t notice most of them.
Although it’s news to Jamal, many people in the world
do drink milk out of a box every day. UHT, pasteurized milk
that has been heated until the bacteria that cause it to spoil are destroyed, can last for
Chapter 3 • Perceiving and Making Meaning
5 to 6 months without refrigeration if unopened. The milk tastes slightly sweeter than
fresh milk, but otherwise it’s basically the same.
Shelf-stable milk is particularly popular in Europe, where there is less refrigerator
space in homes and stores tend to carry less inventory than in the United States. Seven
out of 10 Europeans drink it routinely. Manufacturers keep trying to crack the U.S.
market as well, though analysts doubt their prospects. To begin with, milk consumption in the United States is declining steadily as teenagers choose soft drinks instead,
even though the Milk Industry Foundation pumped $44 million into an advertising
campaign to promote milk drinking (“Got Milk?”).
Beyond that, it’s hard to convince Americans to drink milk out of a box. In focus
groups, U.S. consumers say they have trouble believing the milk is not spoiled or
unsafe. In addition, they consider the square, quart-sized boxes more suitable for dry
food. Nonetheless, many schools and fast-food chains do buy UHT milk because
of its long shelf life.1 Although Americans may not think twice about drinking a
McDonald’s McFlurry made with shelf-stable milk, it’s still going to be a long, uphill
battle to change their minds about the proper partner for a bagful of Oreos.
Whether we experience the taste of Oreos, the sight of a Chloé perfume ad, or the sound
of Dua Lipa’s voice on her latest single, we live in a world overflowing with sensations.
Wherever we turn, a symphony of colors, sounds, and odors bombards us. Some of the
“notes” in this symphony occur naturally, such as the loud barking of a dog, the shades of the
evening sky, or the heady smell of a rose bush. Others come from people: The person who
plops down next to you in class might wear swirling tattoos, bright pink pants, and exude
such an inebriating sweet smell of body lotion that you have a hard time concentrating.
Marketers certainly contribute to this commotion. Consumers are never far from
pop-up ads, product packages, sponsored posts on their social media feed, commercials in the middle of their music playlist, and billboards along the freeways or in
the metro—all clamoring for our attention. Even movie theatres are getting into the
act; some are installing moving seats, scent machines, and compressed air blasts to
simulate the feeling of bullets flying by.2
Especially after the COVID lockdowns, artistic venues, museums, and theatres all
are trying to craft ever more sense-stimulating experiences to attract audiences. For
instance, the Tate Museum in London developed the Tate Sensorium: Sensory designers worked alongside exhibit curators to create a multisensory augmentation of the
museum’s artwork in which new technologies emotionally stimulate its visitors via all
five senses—patrons could taste, smell, and touch the art in addition to looking at it.3
Sometimes we go out of our way to experience “unusual” sensations: feeling
a thrill from bungee jumping, playing virtual reality games, or going to theme
parks such as Universal Studios, which (at least until COVID shut it down) offered
“Fear Factor Live” attractions where vacationers could swallow gross things or
perform stomach-churning stunts.4
However, only a select few try to cram down as many peanut butter and banana
sandwiches, Moon Pies, or cheesesteaks as (in)humanly possible in events sponsored by
Major League Eating/Federation of Competitive Eating (MLE/FCE). Other sensationseekers happily blast teeth-rattling Meek Mill cuts from their booming car speakers.
Each of us copes with this sensory bombardment by paying attention to some
stimuli and tuning out others. And the messages to which we do pay attention often
wind up affecting us differently from what the sponsors intended; we each put our
personal “spin” on things as we assign meanings consistent with our own unique
experiences, biases, and desires. This chapter focuses on the process of how we absorb
sensations and then use these to interpret the surrounding world.
Sensation refers to the biochemical signals that our senses send to our brain for
processing.5 Our sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, fingers, and skin) capture
61
62
Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
basic stimuli such as light, color, sound, odor, and texture and send those responses
to the brain. Perception is the process by which people select, organize, and interpret
these sensations. The study of perception, then, focuses on what we add to these raw
sensations to give them meaning.
Our brains receive external stimuli, or sensory inputs, on several channels. We
may see a billboard, hear a jingle, feel the softness of a cashmere sweater, taste a new
flavor of ice cream, or smell the interior of a new car. These inputs are the raw data
that begin the perceptual process. Sensory data from the external environment (e.g.,
hearing a tune on the radio) can generate internal sensory experiences; a song might
trigger a consumer’s memory of the first ride they took in their first car, the touch of
the wheel in their excited hands.
Marketers’ messages are more effective when they appeal to several senses. For
example, in a recent study, one group read ad copy for potato chips that only mentioned
the taste, whereas another group’s ad copy emphasized the product’s smell and texture
in addition to its taste. The participants in the second group came away thinking the
chips would taste better than did those whose ad message focused only on taste.6
Each product’s unique sensory qualities help it to stand out from the competition,
especially if the brand creates a unique association with the sensation. The OwensCorning Fiberglass Corporation was the first company to trademark a color when it
used bright pink for its insulation material; it adopted the Pink Panther as its spokescharacter.7 Harley-Davidson tried (unsuccessfully) to trademark the distinctive sound
a “hog” makes when it revs up. The numerous legal battles that companies wage to
protect their brand’s sensory qualities demonstrate how important these characteristics
can be in the battle for consumers’ loyalties.
Sensory Marketing
When guests at Omni luxury hotels enter the lobby, the signature scent of lemongrass
and green tea hits them. The signature scent of lemongrass and green tea hits them as
they enter the lobby. In their rooms, they find eucalyptus bath salts and Sensation Bars,
which are minibars stocked with unique items, such as mojito-flavored jellybeans and
miniature Zen gardens.
Welcome to the new era of sensory marketing, where companies think carefully
about the impact of sensations on our product experiences. From hotels to carmakers to brewers, companies recognize that our senses help us decide which products
appeal to us—and which ones stand out from a host of similar offerings in the marketplace. In this section, we’ll take a closer look at how some smart marketers use our
sensory systems to create a competitive advantage.
Vision
Sure, Apple’s products usually work well—but that’s not why many people buy them.
Sleek styling and simple, compact features telegraph an aura of modernity, sophistication, and just plain “cool.” Marketers rely heavily on visual elements in advertising,
store design, and packaging. Given that we increasingly interact with the world in digital
spaces, visual perception is even more crucial to websites, app designers, e-commerce
platforms, and online advertisers. All five main elements of visual perception are
essential to marketers: illuminance, shape, surface color, materiality, and location.8
• Illuminance refers to the amount of light we perceive on an object. For instance,
•
brighter lighting tends to make people more alert, which in turn encourages
healthier food choices.9
Shape is the perceived space occupied by an object in the perceptual field as
comprised by the outer boundaries of that object.
Chapter 3 • Perceiving and Making Meaning
63
• Surface color affects how people perceive an object. Consumers perceive a prod•
•
uct to be larger when it is presented in a highly saturated color that captures their
attention to a greater extent than a paler hue. As a result, they’re even willing to
pay more for the saturated version even though both sizes are in fact the same.10
Materiality refers to the visual texture and reactance of the exterior surface of
an object.
Location is the positioning, orientation, spacing, and movement of an object in
relation to other objects within an area.
Colors may even influence our emotions more directly. Evidence suggests that some colors (particularly red) create feelings of arousal and stimulate appetite, and others (such as blue)
create more relaxing feelings. American Express launched its
Blue card after its research found that people describe the color
as “providing a sense of limitlessness and peace.”11 Advertisements of products presented against a backdrop of blue are better liked than the same ads shown against a red background, and
cross-cultural research indicates a consistent preference for blue
whether people live in Canada or Hong Kong.12
People who complete tasks when the words or images appear
on red backgrounds perform better when they must remember
details; however, they excel at tasks requiring an imaginative
response when the words or images are displayed on blue backgrounds. Olympic athletes who wear red uniforms are more likely
to defeat competitors in blue uniforms, and men rate women who
wear red as more attractive than those who wear blue.
In one study, interior designers created bars decorated primarily in red, yellow, or blue and invited people to choose one
to hang out in. More people chose the yellow and red rooms,
and these guests were more social and active—and ate more. In
contrast, partygoers in the blue room stayed longer.13 Perhaps
the moral is: Get your prof to give you multiple-choice exams
on red paper, essays on blue paper, and then celebrate afterward
in a yellow room!
Some reactions to color come from learned associations (which we’ll tackle in the next chapter). In Western countries, black is the color of mourning, whereas in some Eastern
countries, notably Japan, white plays this role.
We now know that perceptions of a color depend on both its
physical wavelength and how the mind responds to that stimulus. Yellow is in the middle of wavelengths the human eye can
detect, so it is the brightest and attracts attention. The Yellow
Pages originally were colored yellow to heighten the attention
level of bored telephone operators.15 Indeed, colors evoke such
strong emotional reactions that some people who want to break
their smartphone addictions turn their phone screens to grayscale to make them less stimulating.16
Of course, fashion trends strongly influence our color preferences, so it’s no surprise that we tend to encounter a “hot” color
on clothing and in home designs in one season that another color
replaces the next season (as when the fashionistas proclaim,
We associate the color black with power. Teams in a variety
of sports who wear black uniforms consistently rank near the
top of their leagues in penalties during the season.14
Source: Paolo Bona/Shutterstock.
The choice of a color palette is a key issue in package
design. Companies used to arrive at these choices casually.
For example, EasyJet paints its jets orange to project a fun,
playful image. As Table 3.1 shows, these decisions help to
“color” our expectations of what’s inside the package.17
Source: Senohrabek/Shutterstock.
64
Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
TABLE 3.1 Marketing Applications of Colors
Color
Associations
Marketing Applications
Yellow
Optimistic and youthful
Used to grab window shoppers’ attention
Red
Energy
Often seen in clearance sales
Blue
Trust and security
Banks
Green
Wealth
Used to create relaxation in stores
Orange
Aggressive
Call to action: subscribe, buy or sell
Black
Powerful and sleek
Luxury products
Purple
Soothing
Beauty or anti-aging products
Source: Data from Leo Widrich, “Why Is Facebook Blue? The Science Behind Colors in Marketing,” Fast Company
(May 6, 2013).
“Brown is the new black!” or fans of the TV series counter with, “No, Orange Is the
New Black”).
These styles do not happen by accident; most people don’t know (but now you do)
that a handful of firms produce color forecasts that manufacturers and retailers buy
so they can be sure they stock up on the next hot hue. For example, Pantone, Inc. (one of
these color arbiters) identified Viva Magenta as the Color of the Year for 2023. Reflecting the world’s steady recovery from the Pandemic, the company lyrically describes the
color as “... a shade rooted in nature descending from the red family and expressive of a
new signal of strength. Viva Magenta is brave and fearless, and a pulsating color whose
exuberance promotes a joyous and optimistic celebration, writing a new narrative.”18
In addition to color, other dimensions of visual aesthetics affect the inferences consumers make about a product. Recent research found evidence of an aesthetic bias:
Product designs that are deemed more attractive lead us to think the product will also be
more useful.19 In fact, a product design can be so attractive that we mistake its appearance
as a signal that the product has better functionality, even when no such information about
functionality is available! The conclusion: It is easier than ever to cheaply produce products that look aesthetically pleasing but have poor functionality. Fast fashion, anyone?
Dollars and Scents
Odors stir emotions or create a calming feeling. They invoke memories or relieve
stress. In one study for instance, researchers experimentally associated a specific scent
to either pens or facial tissues and found that the scent association made it easier for
people who took part in the experiment to remember features of the product as much
as two weeks later.20 As scientists continue to discover the powerful effects of smell on
behavior, marketers come up with ingenious ways to leverage these connections. This
form of sensory marketing takes interesting turns as manufacturers find new ways to
put scents into products, including men’s suits, lingerie, detergents, and aircraft cabins.
And this just in: Burger King in Japan sells a “Flame Grilled” fragrance to customers
who want to smell like a Whopper.21
One study found that consumers who viewed ads for either flowers or chocolate
and who also were exposed to flowery or chocolaty odors spent more time processing
the product information and were more likely to try different alternatives within each
product category.22 Another reported that subjects showed higher recall of a test
brand’s attributes if it was embedded with a scent—and this effect persisted as long as
two weeks after the experiment.23 Retailers like Hugo Boss often pump a “signature”
Chapter 3 • Perceiving and Making Meaning
scent into their stores. One study reported that “warm scents,” such as vanilla or
cinnamon, as opposed to “cool scents,” such as peppermint, enhance shoppers’ purchases of premium brands.24
Some of our responses to scents result from early associations that call up good
or bad feelings, and that explains why businesses explore connections among smell,
memory, and mood.25 Researchers for Folgers found that for many people the smell of
coffee summons up childhood memories of their mothers cooking breakfast, so the
aroma reminds them of home. The company turned this insight into a commercial in
which a young man in an army uniform arrives home early one morning. He goes to
the kitchen, opens a Folgers’ package, and the aroma wafts upstairs. His mother opens
her eyes, smiles, and exclaims, “He’s home!”26
Sound
Music and other sounds affect people’s feelings and behaviors. Researchers are finding, for example, that (as we all probably knew already) when people drink beer and
listen to music that’s consistent with that brand’s identity, they enjoy the beverage
more.27 Apple Music and the speaker manufacturer Sonos conducted a study of 30,000
music listeners (note: consider the source here!) and found that music made household chores and other activities more enjoyable. When people listened to music, they
literally moved closer to one another. Couples spent 37 percent more “awake time” in
bed. And respondents were 18 percent more likely to say the words, “I love you.”28
Pitch. Music can intensify emotional reactions to commercials, or slow or speed shop-
pers’ pace inside stores. Now, new research shows that certain perceptual characteristics of music, like pitch, can even cue morality and thus make us behave better. For
instance, a recent study found that hearing high-pitched music, compared to lowerpitched music, led people to be more disciplined in their choices and ultimately make
healthier choices, such as selecting lower calorie foods or engaging in health-boosting
activities.29 Apparently high-pitched music is one way to make people behave better!
Pitch also helps consumers make inferences about the size of a product: Lower
pitch in voice or music leads consumers to make a larger product size.30 This pitchsize effect occurs because we tend to visualize what we hear: It’s a cross-modal
effect where two different sensory systems influence one another, so when we hear
low-pitched sound or music, we tend to visualize a larger object because large objects
in real life do tend to produce lower-pitched sounds.
In a series of studies, researchers had people listen to radio commercials with
either high- or low-pitched voices advertising a sandwich, and people who heard the
low-pitched voice imagined the sandwich to be larger. They also did the same study
with a laptop and found, again, that the laptop producing a sound clip at a lower pitch
was perceived as being physically larger. So, when it comes to size, pitch does matter!
Sound Symbolism. Some marketers who come up with brand names pay attention
to sound symbolism, or the process by which the way a word sounds influences
our assumptions about what it describes and attributes, such as size. For example,
consumers are more likely to recognize brand names that begin with a hard consonant,
like a K (Kellogg’s) or P (Pepsi). We also tend to associate certain vowel and consonant
sounds (or phonemes) with perceptions of large and small size. Mental rehearsal of
prices containing numbers with small phonemes results in overestimation of price
discounts, whereas mental rehearsal of prices containing numbers with large phonemes
results in underestimation.31 One study even found that the sound symbolism in a
stock’s ticker symbol helped to predict the company’s performance during its first
year of trading.32
65
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Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
Touch
Pretend for a moment that you are shopping online for a sweater. You navigate to
www.landsend.com, scroll through the cardigans, and pause at one that appeals to you.
You click the sweater for more information. A larger photo appears, and the caption
reads: “Imagine holding this sweater, feeling the soft, 100% cotton in your hands.”
What if you did as instructed? Would your perception of the sweater be any different
than if you had not imagined feeling it?
We tend to want to touch objects, although typing or using a mouse are skills we
have to learn. The proliferation of touchscreens on computers, ATM machines, digital
cameras, GPS devices, and e-readers is an outgrowth of the natural user interface
philosophy of computer design. This approach incorporates habitual human movements that we don’t have to learn. Sony decided to offer
touchscreens on its e-readers after its engineers repeatedly observed people in focus groups automatically swipe
the screen of its older, nontouch models. Touchscreens
also appear on exercise machines, in hospitals, at airport
check-in terminals, and on Virgin America airplanes.33
It seems that encouraging shoppers to touch a product encourages them to imagine they own it, and researchers know that people value things more highly if they
own them: This is known as the endowment effect. One
set of researchers reported that when participants simply
touched an item (an inexpensive coffee mug) for 30 seconds, they had a greater level of attachment to the product;
this connection, in turn, boosted what they were willing
to pay for it.34 Indeed, the power of touch even translates
Consumers who participate in the creation of a product may
to online shopping, where touchscreens create a stronger
experience a feeling of psychological ownership – even if a few parts
feeling of psychological ownership compared to prodare left over when they’re done!
Source: Tirachard Kumtanom/Shutterstock.
ucts consumers explore using a touchpad or a mouse.35
Some anthropologists view our experience of touch
much like a primal language, one we learn well before writing and speech. Indeed, researchers are starting to identify the important role the haptic (touch) sense plays in consumer
behavior. Haptic senses appear to moderate the relationship between product experience
and judgment confidence. This confirms the commonsense notion that we’re surer about
what we perceive when we can touch it (a major problem for those who sell products
online). Individuals who score high on a “need for touch” (NFT) scale are especially
sensitive to the haptic dimension. These people respond positively to such statements as:
• When walking through stores, I can’t help touching all kinds of products.
• Touching products can be fun.
• I feel more comfortable purchasing a product after physically examining it.36
Sensations that reach the skin, whether from a luxurious massage or the bite of
a winter wind, stimulate or relax us. Researchers even have shown that touch can
influence sales interactions. In one study, diners whom waitstaff touched gave bigger tips, and the same researchers reported that food demonstrators in a supermarket
who lightly touched customers had better luck in getting shoppers to try a new snack
product and to redeem coupons for the brand.37 On the other hand, an accidental touch
from a stranger (especially a male) leads to more negative evaluations of products a
shopper encounters in a store.38
The COVID-19 pandemic made consumers especially leery to touch products
in stores and even more leery to touch or be touched by other people. In general,
Chapter 3 • Perceiving and Making Meaning
researchers have found that people like a product less and are less likely to buy it
if another person has touched it earlier. Many studies have found evidence of this
contamination effect: Consumers are less likely to want a T-shirt left on the return
rack in a waiting room than the exact same T-shirt on the normal shopping rack.
This contamination effect is stronger if the contaminator is in physical proximity.39
And contamination even happens when the only thing left is evidence of prior touch,
such as when shelf displays are messy and disorganized.40 No wonder so many stores
have sales attendants constantly reorganizing shelves ­during shopping hours!
Some Japanese companies take the importance of touch a step farther via their
practice of Kansei engineering, a philosophy that translates customers’ feelings
into design elements. The designers of the Mazda Miata embraced a ­Japanese
archery concept called Jinba Ittai. This phrase describes the experience of a
mounted soldier as they become one with their mount—the horse learns to adjust
his gait to enable the rider/soldier to release an arrow, so that even a slight shift in
weight will cause the horse to react. Both horse and rider are united in one shared
experience.43 That’s the feeling the designers hoped to create for buyers of the
Japanese sportscar. FYI: After extensive research, they discovered that making the
stick shift exactly 9.5 centimeters long conveys the optimal feeling of sportiness
and control.44
The classic, contoured
Coca-Cola bottle also attests
to the power of touch. The
bottle was designed approximately 90 years ago to satisfy
the request of a U.S. bottler
for a soft-drink container that
people could identify even in
the dark.
Taste
Our taste receptors obviously
contribute to our experience
of many products. So-called
“flavor houses” develop new
concoctions to please the
changing palates of consumers. Scientists are right behind
them as they build new devices
to test these flavors. Alpha
M.O.S. sells a sophisticated
electronic tongue for tasting,
and the company is working
on what its executives call an
electronic mouth, complete
with artificial saliva, to chew
food and to dissect its flavor.
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo use
the tongue to test the quality
of corn syrups, and BristolMyers Squibb and Roche use
the device to formulate medicines that don’t taste bitter.45
During the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers were either
not allowed or not willing to touch products. Indeed,
surveys show that the majority of consumers prefer to
shop at stores that offer contact-free payment options.41
But how can you tell whether an avocado is ripe enough
without touching it? Many grocery stores started putting
ripeness labels on their fruits and other food items
to help consumers know the ripeness without having to
touch.
Source: Patti McConville/Alamy Stock Photo.
67
Buying, Having, Being
Haptically Attuned – and in
Touch
Recent research found that consumers are more responsive to
marketing messages when the
devices that deliver those messages to them also provide haptic
feedback.42 To study this process,
the researchers developed a mobile
app through which they could control how people received messages
from them. Throughout the day,
the participants would receive a
message every hour giving them
a random message encouraging
them to exercise, eat healthier, etc.
The next day, participants whose
messages were accompanied by
a vibration reported moving more,
eating healthier, etc. The researchers concluded that haptic vibrations
or motions made the devices feel
more personal and the interactions
with them more intentional, so consumers were more likely to comply
with the recommendations. Vibrating messages can make us more
compliant (or at least wake us up)!
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Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
Obviously, taste is a huge driver behind the $46 billion Americans spend on food and beverages in a year.46 Every day, legions
of “foodies” embark on a quest for new flavors and dining experiences. A growing recognition that eating is a more complicated
multisensory experience than just stuffing some Oreos down your
throat is launching a new field of study called gastrophysics. This
focus on the science of eating considers how physics, chemistry,
and, yes, perception influence how we experience what we put in
our mouths.
For example, scientists report that while tomato juice is not
a terribly popular beverage (at least without a vodka accompaniment), it accounts for over 25 percent of the drinks passengers
order on airplanes. The reason? All foods are a combination of five
basic tastes: sweetness, sourness, bitterness, saltiness, and umami
Taste gives us important feedback about food products.
(a savory taste). Umami is a meaty or brothy sensation we get in
Source: OBEYphoto/Shutterstock.
diverse foods such as mushrooms, tomatoes, and even breast milk.
It turns out that exposure to high levels of noise dulls our ability to
taste sweet things, so people instead prefer to ingest a dose of umami when they
fly.47 All our senses interact with one another to influence taste: People think that
potato chips with a louder crunch taste better, and they don’t like food that’s served
on red plates.
Just as we can habituate to visual stimuli, we can get used to taste. But researchers
have found evidence of the opposite effect: that each additional bite of food can
be increasingly pleasurable.48 They call this hedonic escalation and find that this
escalation is especially likely when a food is made of a complex combination of
Buying, Having, Being
flavors and when we are motivated to identify more of those flavors in each bite.
Foods that mix salty, sweet, and fatty flavors provide the opportunity for each taste
Don’t Stand for This!
or sip to trigger a new sensation, so we continue to enjoy and always seek more (think
Beyond the traditional five sensory
salty caramels . . . yum!).
systems (visual, olfactory, haptic,
auditory, and gustatory), some
researchers argue for a “sixth
sensory system.” They’re referring to the vestibular system,
which is responsible for balance
and posture.49 A series of studies in which participants were told
to take different postures, such as
sitting versus standing, showed that
standing (versus sitting) postures
induce greater physical stress on
the legs, feet, and back. This extra
stress decreased sensory sensitivity, which dulls our senses so that
we cannot taste our food as well.
Pleasant-tasting food and drinks
tasted worse and participants
ate and drank less of them when
they were standing than when they
were sitting. So if you’re planning to
eat something that tastes good, sit
down! Restaurants and food trucks
should provide adequate seating if
they want their food to taste better
to customers.
Augmented and Virtual Reality:
Welcome to the Metaverse
The sensations we receive from the physical world can be overwhelming, but are
you ready to deal with digital sensations as well? Augmented reality (AR) refers to
media that superimpose one or more digital layers of data, images, or video over a
physical object. AR has moved far beyond the early days, when moviegoers slipped
on clumsy three-dimensional (3D) glasses to watch a movie. Today, AR has invaded
many spheres from gaming to shopping. Even advertising messages can be augmented
to generate more immersive, interactive, lifelike environments. Research shows
that augmented reality ads generate greater physiological arousal, more powerful
emotional responses, and ultimately greater willingness to pay for whatever is being
advertised.50
AR can be used in retail settings to facilitate product evaluation prior to purchase
and to test its impact on sales. Recent research found that shoppers who are unfamiliar with a product and who experience it via AR buy more, presumably because AR
reduces uncertainty and increases confidence in purchasing the product, as it makes
us more likely to try riskier options.51 The future of AR shopping remains to be seen,
but it is clear that it can provide an engaging alternative for consumers who want to
try products such as makeup or furniture virtually before they commit. Who needs
to schlep a heavy couch to four different positions in a room when you can see what
it will look like in each place on your screen?
Chapter 3 • Perceiving and Making Meaning
69
AR can be used in retail settings to
facilitate product evaluation prior to
purchase and to test its impact on
sales. Recent research found that
shoppers who are unfamiliar with a
product and who experience it via AR
are more likely to buy it. Presumably,
AR reduces uncertainty and increases
confidence in purchasing the product
as it makes us more likely to try riskier
options.
Source: Tan, Yong-Chin, Sandeep R. Chandukala,
and Srinivas K. Reddy (2022), “Augmented Reality
in Retail and Its Impact on Sales,” Journal of
­Marketing, 86(1), 48–66.
AR apps open new worlds of information (and marketing communications). Do you want to test drive a Range Rover SUV using
your smartphone?53 Would you like to read the bio of the singer you
see on a CD cover? Who painted that cool mural in your local bar?
How much did that house you were looking at eventually sell for? Just
point your smartphone at each and the information will be superimposed on your screen. AR is about to be big business: Analysts project
that revenue from AR apps will hit $26 billion by 2025.54
The imminent explosion of virtual reality (VR) technology in
the consumer market is also driving the integration between physical
sensations and digital information. Unlike AR that delivers a combination of both sensory experiences, VR provides a totally immersive experience that transports the user into an entirely separate 3D
environment. Facebook purchased the Oculus VR company in 2014,
and this was just the first step in what promises to be an avalanche
of commercially available VR technology from major companies,
including Samsung, Sony, and Google. Worldwide revenues from
VR applications are projected to exceed $12 billion by 2024.55
OBJECTIVE 3-2
Outline the threestage process
of perception
that translates
raw stimuli into
meaning.
The Stages of
Perception
At least within the next few years, you’ll probably live in
AR through your smartphone or tablet. Apps like Google
Goggles (for Android phones) and Layar (for Android and
Apple devices) impose a layer of words and pictures on
whatever you see in your phone’s viewer. Microsoft’s
HoloLens technology blends holograms with what you
see in your physical space so that you can manipulate
digital images—for example, a user who wants to
assemble a piece of furniture or fix a broken sink can
actually “see” where each part connects to the next
through the goggles.52
Source: Rommel Canlas/123RF.
Like computers, we undergo stages of information processing in which we input and
store stimuli. Unlike computers, though, we do not passively
process whatever information happens to be present. In the
first place, we notice only a small number of the stimuli in our environment, simply
because there are so many different ones out there vying for our attention. Of those
we do notice, we attend to an even smaller number—and we might not process the
stimuli that do enter consciousness objectively. Everyone interprets the meaning of a
stimulus in a manner consistent with their own unique biases, needs, and experiences.
As Figure 3.1 shows, these three stages of exposure, attention, and interpretation
make up the process of perception.
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Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
Figure 3.1 An Overview of the
Perceptual Process
Source: Inna Kharlamova/Shutterstock.
SENSORY STIMULI
Sights
Sounds
Eyes
Ears
Smells
Tastes
Textures
Mouth
Skin
SENSORY RECEPTORS
Nose
EXPOSURE
ATTENTION
INTERPRETATION
Stage 1: Exposure
Exposure occurs when a stimulus comes within the range of someone’s sensory
receptors. Consumers concentrate on some stimuli, are unaware of others, and even
go out of their way to ignore some messages. We notice stimuli that come within range
for even a short time—if we so choose. However, getting a message noticed in such a
short time (or even in a longer one) is no mean feat.
Sensory Thresholds
Before we consider what people may choose not to perceive, let’s consider what they
are capable of perceiving. By this we mean that stimuli may be above or below a
person’s sensory threshold, which is the point at which it is strong enough to make
a conscious impact in their awareness.
If you have ever blown a dog whistle and watched your pooch respond to a sound
you cannot hear, you won’t be surprised to learn that there are some stimuli that people
simply can’t perceive. Some of us pick up sensory information that others, whose
sensory channels have diminished because of disability or age, cannot. The science of
psychophysics focuses on how people integrate the physical environment into their
personal, subjective worlds.
It sounds like a great name for a rock band, but the absolute threshold refers to
the minimum amount of stimulation a person can detect on a given sensory channel.
The sound a dog whistle emits is at too high a frequency for human ears to pick up,
so this stimulus is beyond our auditory absolute threshold. The absolute threshold is
an important consideration when we design marketing stimuli. A highway billboard
might have the most entertaining copy ever written, but this genius is wasted if the
print is too small for passing motorists to see it. In contrast, the differential threshold
refers to the ability of a sensory system to detect changes in or differences between
two stimuli. The minimum difference we can detect between two stimuli is the just
noticeable difference (j.n.d.).
The dual issues of if and when consumers will notice a difference between two
stimuli is relevant to many marketing situations. Sometimes a marketer may want to
Chapter 3 • Perceiving and Making Meaning
ensure that consumers notice a change, such as when a retailer offers merchandise at
a discount. In other situations, the marketer may want to downplay the fact that it has
made a change, such as when a store raises a price, or a manufacturer reduces the size
of a package. When a brand tries to modernize its logo, it must walk a fine line because
consumers tend to get tired of old-fashioned designs, but they still want to be able to
identify the familiar product. Figure 3.2 shows the evolution of the (mythical) Betty
Crocker character over time.
A consumer’s ability to detect a difference between two stimuli is relative. A whispered conversation that might be unintelligible on a noisy street can suddenly become
public and embarrassingly loud in a quiet library. It is the relative difference between
the decibel level of the conversation and its surroundings, rather than the absolute
loudness of the conversation itself, that determines whether the stimulus will register.
In the 19th century, a psychophysicist named Ernst Weber found that the amount
of change required for the perceiver to notice a change systematically relates to the
intensity of the original stimulus. The stronger the initial stimulus, the greater a change
must be for us to notice it. This relationship is Weber’s Law.
Consider how Weber’s Law works for a product when it goes on sale. If a retailer
believes that a markdown should be at least 20 percent for the reduction to make an
impact on shoppers, it should cut the price on a pair of socks that retails for $10 to $8
(a $2 discount) for shoppers to realize a difference. However, a sports coat that sells
for $100 would not benefit from a $2 discount; the retailer would have to mark it down
$20 to achieve the same impact.
As the cost of raw materials skyrockets because of shortages caused by natural
disasters such as the pandemic, some companies try to camouflage price increases as
they shrink the size of packages instead of charging more. Sometimes marketers use
code words to announce a change: They may label the smaller packages as “green”
because there is less plastic or cardboard in a smaller box, more “portable” when
Figure 3.2 Betty Crocker
Evolves Over Time
Source: Retro AdArchives/Alamy Stock Photo.
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Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
they squeeze products into little carry bags, or “healthier” because smaller amounts
translate into fewer calories. For example, Kraft brought out “Fresh Stacks” packages for its Nabisco Premium saltines and Honey Maid graham crackers. Each holds
about 15 percent fewer crackers than the standard boxes for the same price. But Kraft
notes that because the new packages include more sleeves of crackers, they are more
portable—and the company notes that as an added benefit the smaller boxes supply
crackers that will be fresher when you get around to eating them.
A packaging expert noted that, typically, when the economy
recovers, companies respond with a new “jumbo-size” product that
is usually even more expensive per ounce. Then the process begins
again: “It’s a continuous cycle, where at some point the smallest
package offered becomes so small that perhaps they’re phased out
and replaced by the medium-size package, which has been shrunk
down.”56 There’s even a term to describe this: shrinkflation.57
The Myth of Subliminal Perception
A lot of consumers (and marketing students) believe that
logos containing “hidden” messages like this one are
subliminal. Indeed, you have to look closely to see that
the letters B and R for Baskin Robbins are surrounding the
numbers 31—the number of flavors
the ice cream chain sells. But if you can see it or hear it
(even with some effort), it’s NOT subliminal!
Source: Jatuporn Chainiramitkul/Shutterstock.
The 1950s and 1960s were the heyday of the widespread
belief that marketers were inserting subtle messages into
movies and TV shows. This idea was later debunked, but a
lot of people nonetheless continue to believe that subliminal
persuasion is common.
Source: Walter Daran/ The Chronicle Collection/Getty Images.
Most marketers want to create messages above consumers’ thresholds so people will notice them. Ironically, a good number of consumers instead believe that marketers design many advertising
messages so they will be perceived unconsciously, or below the
threshold of recognition. Another word for threshold is limen, and
we term stimuli that fall below the limen subliminal. Subliminal
perception refers to a stimulus below the level of the consumer’s
awareness.
This topic has captivated the public for more than 50 years,
even though there is virtually no proof that this process has any
effect on consumer behavior. A survey of U.S. consumers found
that almost two-thirds believe in the existence of subliminal advertising, and more than one-half are convinced that this technique
can get them to buy things they do not really want.58 ABC rejected
a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) commercial that invited viewers
to slowly replay the ad to find a secret message, citing the network’s long-standing policy against subliminal advertising. KFC
argued that the ad wasn’t subliminal at all because the company
told viewers about the message and how to find it. The network
wasn’t convinced.59
Like the KFC ad, most examples of subliminal advertising that
people “discover” are not subliminal at all—on the contrary, the
images are quite apparent. Remember, if you can see it or hear it,
it’s not subliminal; the stimulus is above the level of conscious
awareness. Nonetheless, the continuing controversy about subliminal persuasion has been important in shaping the public’s beliefs
about advertisers’ and marketers’ abilities to manipulate consumers
against their will.
A kerfuffle generated by a McDonald’s Happy Meal toy illustrates that we tend to see or hear what we are looking for: When
the company released a toy Minion (from the popular Despicable
Me movie series), some outraged parents stated it was sending a
“subliminal message” to their children. They claimed that it spoke
gibberish that sounded a lot like “what the” and a word that rhymes
with duck. McDonald’s response: “Minions speak ‘Minionese’
which is a random combination of many languages and nonsense
Chapter 3 • Perceiving and Making Meaning
words and sounds . . . . Any perceived similarities to words used within the English
language is purely coincidental.”60
The Truth: Pre-Attentive Processing
Whereas subliminal advertising is largely a myth, there is plenty of scientific evidence
for the process called pre-attentive processing: We are able to process information
and develop positive brand responses even when we are not directly or deliberately
paying attention to a brand message. Researchers found that visuals or emotionally
strong words that are on the periphery of what we’re actually looking at can make
us think about them, even when we’re not aware that we saw them.61 This type of
unconscious processing explains why many advertisers are placing ads next to content
in print media or in our social media feeds.
Stage 2: Attention
As you sit in a lecture, you might find your mind wandering (yes, even you!). One
minute you are concentrating on the professor’s words, and the next you catch yourself
daydreaming about the upcoming weekend (and sneaking the obligatory peek at your
Instagram page). Suddenly, you tune back in as you hear your name being spoken.
Fortunately, it’s a false alarm—the professor has called on another “victim” who has
the same first name. But she’s got your attention now.
Attention refers to the extent to which processing activity is devoted to a particular stimulus. As you know from sitting through both interesting and “less interesting” lectures, this allocation can vary depending on both the characteristics of the
stimulus (i.e., the lecture itself) and the recipient (i.e., your mental state at the time).
Although we live in an “information society,” we can have too much of a good
thing. Consumers often experience sensory overload; we are exposed to far more
information than we can process. In our society, much of this bombardment comes
from commercial sources, and the competition for our attention steadily increases.
Here’s a fact: American adults spend almost half of every day interacting with
media.62 Indeed, they devote 44 percent of the total minutes available in a day to
watching screens. As you might guess, media usage spiked even higher during the
pandemic lockdown years.63 The average adult is exposed to about 3,500 pieces of
advertising information every single day—up from about 560 per day 30 years ago.
That means the fight for your attention—or what some marketers refer to as an eyeball
economy—gets tougher every day.
In fact, recent research shows that the mere presence of one’s phone near us
results in brain drain: a deficit of cognitive resources.64 Even when we can resist
the temptation to check our phones, keeping these devices nearby, even silent and
no vibrations, reduces available cognitive capacity. Turns out your phone eats up an
increasingly large portion of your brain power, even when it is set to silent or even
turned off! So don’t just put down your phone, put it away!
Multitasking
Pedtextrian. Text-walker. Wexting. Whatever you call it, walking while texting is
becoming a public health problem. Due to a spike in pedestrian deaths, Honolulu
became the first city to outlaw this practice.65 Paying attention to where you’re going
seems so . . . 2008.
Today we consume three times as much information each day as people did in
1960. We constantly shift attention: Computer users at work change windows or check
email or other programs nearly 37 times an hour. Computer users visit an average of
40 websites a day.66
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Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
Getting the attention of young people in particular is a challenge—as your
professor probably knows! A large proportion of teens report that they engage in
multitasking, where they process information from more than one medium at a time
as they alternate among their cell phones, TVs, and laptops.
What impact does all this multitasking have on consumers’ ability to absorb,
retain, and understand information? One possible consequence: These bursts of stimulation provoke the body to secrete the hormone dopamine, which is addictive. When
we go without these squirts, we feel bored. Some scientists warn that our cravings for
more stimulation distract us from more prolonged thought processes and reduce our
ability to concentrate (don’t text and drive!). Researchers find that heavy multitaskers
have more trouble focusing, and they experience more stress. One study found that
people who are interrupted by email report significantly more stress than those who
are allowed to focus on a task.67
Multiscreening, using another media screen while watching television, is a very
common form of multitasking. The research firm Deloitte reports that 90 percent of
television viewers today multitask while they watch TV.68 Researchers who synthesized all research testing the effect of multiscreening concluded that multiscreening
has dramatic effects on advertising effectiveness: It reduces our attention to ads but
also makes us counterargue them less, which, as we will see in Chapter 8, can actually
make the ads more persuasive.
Distractions!
We are often exposed to ads while doing something else, like reading a blog or
watching a game (or maybe sitting in class?). How do these diversions influence
the way the ad affects us? Recent research finds that when a background ad distracts
us, we tend to infer that the advertised product is interesting. This is because when
an ad distracts us from another activity, we infer that the advertised brand must be
interesting (otherwise why would it have distracted our attention?). Evidence of this
metacognitive inference came from a study in which participants browsed the internet
while listening to background music and were later asked if they wanted to view the
official Instagram account for a brand that was advertised between songs.69
Rich Media
Marketers constantly search for ways to break through the clutter and grab people’s attention. Some tactics are straightforward, such as when manufacturers try to get their brands
shelved at eye level in a store and toward the center of a
display because they know that is where shoppers are most
likely to look.70
In the online world, advertisers keep innovating
ways to get visitors to watch their messages. One of
the most popular today is rich media—the use of animated GIF files or video clips to grab viewers’ attention.
LowerMyBills.com is notorious for its endless loops
of silhouetted dancers and surprised office workers,
whereas other ads spring into action when you move
the cursor over them. AG Jeans, for example, allows
you to build an outfit on your phone. Other rich media
are online versions of familiar TV commercials that sit
frozen on the website until you click them. Teaser ads,
much like those you see on TV that give you a taste of
the story but make you return later for the rest, also turn
Burger King uses rich media to get consumers’ attention.
up on websites.71
Source: S3studio/Getty Images.
Chapter 3 • Perceiving and Making Meaning
75
Because the brain’s capacity to process information is
limited, consumers are selective about what they pay attention to. The process of perceptual selection means that
people attend to only a small portion of the stimuli to which
they are exposed. Consumers pick and choose among stimuli
to avoid being overwhelmed. But how do we choose? Both
personal and stimulus factors help to decide.
Getting Attention
Marketers work hard to test and create messages and packages that will have a better chance to cut through the clutter.
For example, when researchers used infrared eye-tracking
equipment to measure what ads consumers look at, they
found that visually complex ads are more likely to capture
attention.72
In general, we are more likely to notice stimuli that differ
from others around them (remember Weber’s Law). A message creates contrast in several ways:
Is this dress white and gold, or blue and black? Many people
engaged in a fierce online debate about the answer. Which colors
do you see? Hint: The company that made the dress describes it
on its website as “Royal Blue.”
Source: Amina Khan/National Science Foundation.
• Size – The size of the stimulus itself in contrast to that of the competition helps
•
•
•
to determine whether it will command attention. Readership of a magazine ad
increases in proportion to the size of the ad.73
Color – As we’ve seen, color is a powerful way to draw attention to a product or to
give it a distinct identity. Black & Decker developed a line of tools it called DeWalt
to target the residential construction industry. The company colored the new line yellow instead of black; this made the equipment stand out against other “dull” tools.74
Position – Not surprisingly, we stand a better chance of noticing stimuli that are
in places where we’re more likely to look. That’s why the competition is so heated
among suppliers to have their products displayed in stores at eye level. In magazines, ads that are placed toward the front of the issue, preferably on the right-hand
side, also win out in the race for readers’ attention. (Hint: The next time you read
a magazine, notice which pages you’re more likely to spend time looking at.)75
A study that tracked consumers’ eye movements as they scanned telephone
directories also illustrated the importance of message position. Consumers scanned
listings in alphabetical order, and they noticed 93 percent of quarter-page display
ads but only 26 percent of plain listings. Their eyes were drawn to color ads first,
and these were viewed longer than black-and-white ones. In addition, subjects
spent 54 percent more time viewing ads for businesses they ended up choosing,
which illustrates the influence of attention on subsequent product choice.76
Another study reported that advertisers can increase brand recall and choice if they
change the location of brand logos and product depictions across ad exposures.77
And products that are located in the center of a person’s field of vision are more
likely to receive attention.78
Position also is important in online advertising. Sophisticated eye-tracking
studies clearly show that most search engine users view only a limited number
of search results. When the typical shopper looks at a search page, their eye travels across the top of the search result, returns to the left of the screen, and then
travels down to the last item shown on the screen without scrolling.
Novelty – Stimuli that appear in unexpected ways or places tend to grab our
attention. Packages that “stand out” visually on store shelves have an advantage,
especially when the consumer doesn’t have a strong preference for brands in the
category and they need to make rapid decisions.79 One solution is to put ads in
Buying, Having, Being
Mind If I Interrupt?
One study indicates that novelty
in the form of interruptions actually intensifies our experiences.
According to this research, people
actually enjoy TV shows more
when commercials interrupt them.
A group of undergraduates watched
an episode of an old sitcom (Taxi)
with which they were unfamiliar. Half
viewed the original broadcast, which
included ads for a jeweler, a lawyer,
and other businesses; the other half
saw the show with all commercials
deleted. Students who saw the original gave it higher evaluations. The
researchers found a similar pattern
when they interrupted people who
were getting a massage. In contrast,
subjects reported that the irritating
sound of a vacuum cleaner was
even worse when they got a break
from listening to it and then had
to hear it resume! The researchers
interpret these results as the outcome of adaptation: We experience
events more intensely at first but
then get used to them. When we
experience an interruption and then
start over, we revert to the original
intensity level.80
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Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
unconventional places, where there will be less competition for attention. These
places include the backs of shopping carts, walls of tunnels, floors of sports
stadiums, and, yes, even public restrooms.81 An outdoor advertising agency in
London constructs huge ads in deserts and farm fields adjacent to airports so
that passengers who look out the window can’t help but pay attention. It prints
the digital ads on pieces of PVC mesh that sit on frames a few inches above the
ground.82
Losing Attention
As riveting as a sight or sound may be, over time we may no longer notice it nearly
as much as when we were first exposed to it. Why is this? One factor is adaptation,
which is the degree to which consumers continue to notice a stimulus over time. The
process of adaptation occurs when we no longer pay attention to a stimulus because it
is so familiar. A consumer can “habituate” and require increasingly stronger “doses”
of a stimulus to notice it. A commuter who is en route to work might read a billboard
message when the board is first installed, but after a few days, it simply becomes part
of the passing scenery. Several factors can lead to adaptation:
Buying, Having, Being
Pay Attention to That
Warning!
A recent study used eye tracking
and functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI) to assess how much
people paid attention to and comply with security warnings—the
kind that pop up on our electronic
devices to warn us about privacy
permission.83 The researchers
tracked participants’ responses over
the course of a five-day workweek
and used these advanced techniques to provide neural insights
into the process of habitation. Their
studies provide clear evidence that
the more people are exposed to a
warning, the less they pay attention
to it and the less they comply with it.
In other words, they habituate to the
warnings. However, the researchers
also found that simply changing the
appearance of the warning reduced
habituation: A design that changes
often works better than a static
design. So if you want your message to continue to be effective, it’s
important to keep varying it.
• Intensity – Less-intense stimuli (e.g., soft sounds or dim colors) 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 or unimportant habituate because they fail
to attract attention.
Stage 3: Interpretation
Now that a person has noticed a stimulus and allocated cognitive resources to pay
attention to it, the final stage of interpretation kicks in. This is a crucial step, where
the perceiver decides what this stimulus means. All of a marketer’s efforts to construct
and deliver a message that will break through the clutter and focus the customer’s
attention will be for nothing if the receiver misunderstands (or can’t understand) the
intended message.
The meaning we assign to a stimulus depends on the schema, or set of beliefs,
to which we assign it. This in turn leads us to compare the stimulus to other similar
ones we encountered in the past. As a result, interpretation is very much based on
our subjective experiences, our cultural background, our personal sensitivities, our
expectations, etc.
Two people can see or hear the same event, but their interpretation of it can be as
different as night and day, depending on what they had expected the stimulus to be.
In one study, children aged three to five who ate McDonald’s French fries served in
a McDonald’s bag overwhelmingly thought they tasted better than those who ate the
same fries out of a plain white bag. Even carrots tasted better when they came out of
a McDonald’s bag—more than half the kids preferred them to the same carrots served
in a plain package! Ronald would be proud.84
Another experiment demonstrated how our assumptions influence our experiences; in this case, the study altered beer drinkers’ taste preferences simply by telling
Chapter 3 • Perceiving and Making Meaning
them different stories about a specific brew’s ingredients. The researcher offered bar
patrons free beer if they would participate in a taste test (guess what: few refused the
offer). Participants tasted two beers each, one a regular draft of Budweiser or Samuel
Adams and the other the same beer with a few drops of balsamic vinegar added.
Although most beer aficionados would guess that vinegar makes the drink taste bad,
in fact, 60 percent of the respondents who did not know which beer contained the
vinegar preferred the doctored version to the regular one! But when tasters knew in
advance which beer had vinegar in it before they took a swig, only one-third preferred
that version.85
The location of a product’s image on a package also influences the way our
brains make sense of it. For example, due to what we have learned about the law of
gravity (heavy objects sink and light objects float), we assume that products that
are lower down in a frame weigh more than products that appear higher in a frame.
In addition, objects on the right of a frame appear heavier than products that appear
on the left of a frame. This interpretation results from our intuition about levers: We
know that the farther away an object is from a lever’s fulcrum, the more difficult it
is to raise the item. Because we read from left to right, the left naturally becomes
the visual fulcrum and thus we perceive objects on the right as heavier. Manufacturers should bear these package schematics in mind because they may influence our
feelings about the contents in a package for better or worse. Think, for example,
about a diet food marketer who wants shoppers to regard menu items as lighter in
calorie count.86
Identifying and evoking the correct schema is crucial to many marketing decisions,
because this determines what criteria consumers will use to evaluate the product, package, or message. Extra Strength Maalox Whip Antacid flopped even though a spray
can is an effective way to deliver the product. To consumers, aerosol whips mean
dessert toppings, not medication.88 When a college cafeteria gave menu items descriptive labels so that diners had more information about each option and could more
easily categorize it (e.g., Traditional Cajun Red Beans with Rice versus Red Beans
with Rice, Satin Chocolate Pudding versus Chocolate Pudding), sales increased by
more than 25 percent.89
As we’ll see in Chapter 10, products often assume a “brand personality”
because we tend to assign them common human traits, such as sophistication or
sexiness. In other words, we anthropomorphize objects when we think of them
in human terms, and this thought process may encourage us to evaluate products
using schemas we apply to classify other people.
A recent study illustrates how this works: Subjects saw an advertisement with
a picture of a car that had been modified to make it appear as though it was either
“smiling” or “frowning.” In some cases, the text of the ad was written in first
person, to activate a human schema, whereas others saw the same ad written
inthird person. When the human schema was active, those who saw the “smiling”
car rated it more favorably than when they saw a “­frowning” car.90
One factor that determines how we will interpret a stimulus is relational
processing; this happens when we process a stimulus in relation to the relationships
it has with other events, sensations, or images in memory. When RJR Nabisco introduced a version of Teddy Grahams (a children’s product) for adults, it used understated packaging colors to reinforce the idea that the new product was for grown-ups.
But sales were disappointing. Nabisco changed the box to bright yellow to convey the
idea that this was a fun snack, and buyers’ more positive association between a bright
primary color and taste prompted adults to start buying the cookies.91
77
Buying, Having, Being
Leave Something to the
Imagination?
Sometimes not seeing makes things
more exciting, because we have
to search for the missing pieces
in order to decide what the object
means. Recent research found that
when consumers can see only a
portion of an aesthetic product, their
reaction to the product depends
on their curiosity to see the item
completed and the inferences they
make about what the full item would
actually look like.87
Greater curiosity results in more
positive reactions to the partially
concealed product. But there were
some limits to this effect: first, you
must reveal at least half of the product so people can get a sense of
what they’re looking at. Second,
it works only when the product is
attractive enough to make people
curious about what the full item
would look like. This is a very clever
technique: A subtle shift in how
much of a product is visible in an
ad or product listing can affect consumers’ preferences. Concealing
some (but not most) of a product’s
appearance piques our curiosity and
makes the process of interpretation
more enjoyable.
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Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
The stimuli we perceive often are ambiguous. It’s up to
us to determine the meaning based on our past experiences,
expectations, and needs. A classic experiment demonstrated
the process of “seeing what you want to see”: Princeton and
Dartmouth students separately viewed a movie of a particularly rough football game between the two rival schools.
Although everyone was exposed to the same stimulus, the
degree to which students saw infractions and the blame they
assigned for those they did see depended on which college
they attended.92
As these results show, we tend to project our own desires
or assumptions onto products and advertisements. This interpretation process can backfire for marketers. Planters LifeWe recognize patterns of stimuli, such as familiar words. In this
Savers Company found this out when it introduced Planters
Austrian ad, consumers will tend to see the word “kitchen” even
Fresh Roast, a vacuum-packed peanuts package. The idea
though the letters are scrambled.
was to capitalize on consumers’ growing love affair with
Source: Demner, Merlicek & Bergmann Werbegesellschaft mbH.
fresh-roast coffee by emphasizing the freshness of the nuts
in the same way. A great idea—until irate supermarket managers began calling to ask who was going to pay to clean the peanut gook out of their
stores’ coffee-grinding machines.93
Interpretational Biases: The Eye of the Beholder
Our brains tend to relate incoming sensations to others already in memory, based on
some fundamental organizational principles. These principles derive from Gestalt
psychology, a school of thought based upon the notion that people interpret meaning
from the totality of a set of stimuli rather than from any individual stimulus. The
German word Gestalt roughly means whole, pattern, or configuration, and we
summarize this term as “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” A piecemeal
perspective that analyzes each component of the stimulus separately can’t capture the
total effect. The Gestalt perspective provides several principles that relate to the way
our brains organize stimuli:
• The closure principle states that people tend to perceive an incomplete picture
•
•
as complete. That is, we tend to fill in the blanks based on our prior experience.
This principle explains why most of us have no trouble reading a neon sign even if
several of its letters are burned out. The principle of closure is also at work when
we hear only part of a jingle or theme. Marketing strategies that use the closure
principle encourage audience participation, which increases the chance that people
will attend to the message.
The similarity principle tells us that consumers tend to group together objects that
share similar physical characteristics. Green Giant relied on this principle when
the company redesigned the packaging for its line of frozen vegetables. It created
a “sea of green” look to unify all its different offerings.
The figure-ground principle states that one part of a stimulus will dominate (the
figure), and other parts recede into the background (the ground). This concept is
easy to understand if you think literally of a photograph with a clear and sharply
focused object (the figure) in the center. The figure is dominant, and the eye goes
straight to it. The parts of the configuration a person will perceive as figure or
ground can vary depending on the individual consumer, as well as other factors.
Similarly, marketing messages that use the figure-ground principle can make a
stimulus the focal point of the message or merely the context that surrounds the
focus.
Chapter 3 • Perceiving and Making Meaning
79
• Joint vs. separate presentation refers to whether prod-
ucts are presented as a group or independently of one
another.94 Presenting products together makes it easier for
consumers to create a mental image of what a consumption episode with the products together would look like.
Especially when the jointly presented products are complementary (cheese and crackers; an outdoor table and an
umbrella), it is easier for consumers to form a cohesive
picture of what the consumption episode would look like.
OBJECTIVE 3-3
Discuss how
the field of
semiotics helps us
understand how
consumers create
meaning out of
symbols.
Semiotics: The
Meaning of
Meaning
Many company logos use the figure-ground principle. Do you see
the arrow embedded inside the FedEx logo?
Source: Harry Thomas Flower/Shutterstock.
As we’ve seen, when we try to
“make sense” of a marketing stimulus, we interpret it considering our prior associations. Much of the meaning we take away influences what
we make of the symbolism we perceive. After all, on the surface, many marketing
images have virtually no literal connection to actual products. What does a cowboy
have to do with a bit of tobacco rolled into a paper tube? How can a celebrity such as
basketball player LeBron James or singer Rihanna enhance the image of a soft drink
or a fast-food restaurant?
The field of semiotics can help us understand how consumers interpret the
meanings of symbols. This discipline studies the correspondence between signs and
symbols, and their roles in how we assign meanings.95 Semiotics is a key link to
decoding consumer behavior, because consumers use products to express their social
and cultural identities.
From a semiotic perspective, every marketing message has three basic components: an object, a sign (or symbol), and an interpretant. The object is the product
that is the focus of the message (e.g., an Apple laptop). The sign is the sensory image
that represents the intended meanings of the object (e.g., the partially bitten apple). The
interpretant is the meaning we derive from the sign (e.g., cool, creative). Figure 3.3
diagrams this relationship. Note that this meaning depends a lot upon a person’s prior
knowledge and experiences. For example, not all consumers associate the Apple logo
with the story of Adam and Eve and taking a bite from the apple of knowledge (at the
expense of innocence).
According to semiotician Charles Sanders Peirce, signs relate to objects in one of
three ways: They can resemble objects, connect to them, or tie to them conventionally. An
icon is a sign that resembles the product in some way (e.g., the Ford Mustang has a galloping horse on the hood). An index is a sign that connects to a product because they share
some property (e.g., the pine tree on some of Procter & Gamble’s Spic and Span cleanser
products conveys the shared property of fresh scent). A symbol is a sign that relates to
a product by either conventional or agreed-on associations (e.g., the Rock of Gibraltar
that is part of Prudential’s logo provides the conventional association with stability and
strength that it carries [or hopes to carry] over to the company’s approach to insurance).96
A lot of time, thought, and money go into creating brand names and logos that
clearly communicate a product’s image (even when a name like Exxon is generated
by a computer!). Starbucks removed the words Starbucks Coffee as it introduced a
new logo that features only the famous mermaid character. The CEO explained this
change means the company is thinking “beyond coffee.”97
80
Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
OBJECT (BRAND):
Nike Classic Cortez
Buying, Having, Being
What Does Your Emoji Say
about You?
The small digital icons we call emojis
allow the sender to express feelings
using a semiotic shorthand. Because
they are visual, they allow us to
communicate with those who don’t
speak our language. Many of us use
Bitmoji or Snapchat software to craft
our own versions. By one estimate,
we send over six billion every day!
Remember, these symbols are interpreted in the minds of the beholder.
So sometimes the message gets
interpreted in unanticipated ways.
Emojis are so prominent
and easy to use that marketing
researchers are even using them
in their questionnaires instead of
traditional words that describe an
emotion.98
INTERPRETANT (MEANING):
Chicano Streetwear,
resilience
SIGN:
Swoosh
Figure 3.3 Semiotic Relationships
Source: Sean Saldana, “An oral history of the Nike Cortez, 50 years after its release”.
Source: M_Videous/Shutterstock.
Marketers are getting in on the
act as well. There is even an emoji
for “safe sex”—a tiny condom that
the manufacturer Durex launched.
A campaign to persuade the organization that sets standards for emojis
has prompted more than 210 million
mentions on Twitter. Coca-Cola,
PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch InBev,
Starbucks, Disney, and more than a
dozen other companies have each
paid Twitter more than $1 million
for designs combined with various kinds of ads. During a recent
Super Bowl, people who used the
hashtag #PepsiHalftime got a reply
that included a soda can emoji with
musical notes floating out from it.
Domino’s Pizza lets people order a
pie by tweeting a pizza slice emoji.
IHOP Restaurants even redesigned
its logo in the emoji style. But
you can take it too far: Chevrolet
confused many people when the
company sent out a news release
written entirely in emojis.99
Semiotics helps us to understand relations among a product like Nike footwear, unique
elements or signs like the Nike swoosh, and abstract meanings like “resilience.”
Source: Albo/Shutterstock.
OBJECTIVE 3-4
Describe how
consumers play
an active role in
shaping brand
meanings.
Who Owns Brand Meanings?
So, we know that we often interpret a product stimulus considering what we’ve learned about a product category and
the characteristics of existing brands. Brand managers work
hard to shape consumers’ perceptions of their brand by carefully selecting a brand’s functional attributes (e.g., its features, its price, and so on)
and by carefully selecting the symbolic associations they would like consumers to
make (the images and words used in their ads, the design of the brand’s website, etc.).
Marketers Position Brands
When a marketer understands how consumers think about a set of competing brands,
it can use these insights to develop a positioning strategy, which is a fundamental
component of a company’s marketing efforts as it uses elements of the marketing mix
Chapter 3 • Perceiving and Making Meaning
81
(i.e., product design, price, distribution, and marketing communications) to influence
consumers’ interpretation of its meaning in the marketplace relative to its competitors.
For example, although consumers’ preferences for the taste of one product over another
are important, this functional attribute is only one component of product evaluation.
Marketers can use many dimensions to carve out a brand’s position in the marketplace. These include:100
• Lifestyle. Hairbrella designed a whole line of hair protection products, from sleep
caps to rain hats.
• Price leadership. L’Oréal sells its Noisôme brand face cream in upscale beauty
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
shops, whereas its Plenitude brand is available for one-sixth the price in discount
stores—even though both are based on the same chemical formula.101
Attributes. Bounty paper towels are “the quicker picker-upper.”
Product class. The Tesla is an all-electric car.
Competitors. NJM Insurance is the “no jingles or mascots” company.
Occasions. Wrigley’s gum is an alternative at times when smoking is not permitted.
Users. Levi’s Dockers target men in their 20s to 40s.
Quality. At Ford, “Quality is job 1.”
Country of origin. Jeep, Coca-Cola, and Levi’s are American brands.
But Ultimately Brand Meanings Live in
Consumers’ Minds
We’ll look more closely at issues such as brand image in later chapters, but for now it’s
important to keep in mind that customers are not just buying a product or service; they
are buying a story. And this meaning-making may have more to do with what consumers
do with the brand than what a brand communicates by its color, packaging, or styling.
Indeed, to quote Intuit’s co-founder Scott Cook: “A brand is no longer what we (the companies) tell the consumer it is. It is what consumers tell each other it is.” The meaning of
brands lives in consumers’ minds. It is reflected in what they do and say about the brand.
And consumers are increasingly comfortable with owning the brand: They use
brands to communicate their personal identity or to connect with other kindred spirits
to share their love (or hate) for what marketers sell.102 Social media make it all the
easier for consumers to express what they think about the brand, whether good or bad,
and these consumer-generated messages about the brand are even more powerful and
influential than the ones marketers are sending.103
A recent comprehensive review of consumer research on branding concludes
that consumers’ constant contestations of brand meanings—where they question and
modify what the product or service symbolizes—are a source of strength and even of
antifragility, the ability to grow when faced with stressors.104 Consumers’ active role
in shaping brand meanings keeps brands alive and dynamic.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Now that you have finished reading this chapter, you should
be able to:
1. Explain how consumer behavior is often shaped
by sensory appeals that are often unnoticed.
Marketing stimuli have important sensory qualities.
We rely on colors, odors, sounds, tastes, and even
the “feel” of products when we evaluate them. Not
all sensations successfully make their way through
the perceptual process. Many stimuli compete for our
attention, and we don’t notice or accurately interpret
most of them.
82
Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
2. Outline the three-stage process of perception
that translates raw stimuli into meaning.
Perception is the process by which physical sensations,
such as sights, sounds, and smells, are selected, organized, and interpreted. The eventual interpretation of a
stimulus allows it to be assigned meaning. A perceptual
map is a widely used marketing tool that evaluates the
relative standing of competing brands along relevant
dimensions.
Although evidence that subliminal persuasion is
effective is virtually nonexistent, many consumers continue to believe that advertisers use this technique. Some
of the factors that determine which stimuli (above the
threshold level) do get perceived include the amount
of exposure to the stimulus, how much attention it
generates, and how it is interpreted. In an increasingly
crowded stimulus environment, advertising clutter
occurs when too many marketing-related messages
compete for attention.
We don’t attend to a stimulus in isolation. We classify and organize it according to principles of perceptual organization. A Gestalt, or overall pattern, guides
these principles. Specific grouping principles include
closure, similarity, and figure-ground relationships. The
final step in the process of perception is interpretation.
Symbols help us make sense of the world by providing
us with an interpretation of a stimulus that others often
share. The degree to which the symbolism is consistent
with our previous experience affects the meaning we
assign to related objects.
3. Discuss how the field of semiotics helps us
understand how consumers create meaning out
of symbols.
A semiotic analysis involves the correspondence
between stimuli and the meaning of signs. The intended
meaning may be literal (e.g., an icon such as a street sign
with a picture of children playing). Or it may be indexical if it relies on shared characteristics (e.g., the red in a
stop sign means danger). Meaning also can be conveyed
by a symbol in which an image is given meaning by
convention or by agreement of members of a society
(e.g., stop signs are octagonal, whereas yield signs are
triangular).
4. Describe how consumers play an active role in
shaping brand meanings.
Marketers try to communicate meanings about their
brands by positioning their products or services with
cues that they hope consumers will interpret in the
intended manner. But ultimately meanings reside in
consumers’ minds, so brand meanings take a life of their
own in the market.
KEY TERMS
Absolute threshold, 70
Adaptation, 76
Aesthetic bias, 64
Antifragility, 81
Attention, 73
Augmented reality (AR), 68
Brain drain, 73
Closure principle, 78
Color forecasts, 64
Color palette, 63
Contamination effect, 67
Contestations, 81
Contrast, 75
cross-modal effect, 65
Differential threshold, 70
Emojis, 80
Endowment effect, 66
Exposure, 70
Eyeball economy, 73
Figure-ground principle, 78
Gastrophysics, 68
Gestalt, 78
Haptic, 66
Hedonic escalation, 68
Illuminance, 62
Index, 79
Inferences, 77
Interpretant, 79
Just noticeable difference (j.n.d), 70
Kansei engineering, 67
Location, 63
Materiality, 63
Metacognitive inference, 74
Multiscreening, 74
Multitasking, 74
Natural user interface, 66
Need for touch (NFT), 66
Object, 79
Perception, 62
Perceptual selection, 75
Pitch-size effect, 65
Positioning strategy, 80
Pre-attentive processing, 73
Psychological ownership, 66
Psychophysics, 70
Relational processing, 77
Rich media, 74
Schema, 76
Semiotics, 79
Sensation, 61
Sensory marketing, 62
Sensory overload, 73
Sensory threshold, 70
Shape, 62
Shrinkflation, 72
Sign, 79
Similarity principle, 78
Sound symbolism, 65
Subliminal perception, 72
Surface color, 63
Symbol, 79
Vestibular system, 68
Weber’s Law, 71
Chapter 3 • Perceiving and Making Meaning
83
REVIEW
3-1 How does the sense of touch influence consumers’
reactions to products?
3-7 List the three semiotic components of a marketing
message, giving an example of each.
3-2 Identify and describe the three stages of perception.
3-4 Does subliminal perception work? Why or why not?
3-8 What do we mean by the concept of augmented reality? Give an example that is not discussed in the
chapter. How does this concept differ from virtual
reality?
3-5 Describe two factors that can lead to stimulus
adaptation.
3-9 What is a positioning strategy? What are some ways
marketers can position their products?
3-6 “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Explain this statement.
3-10 “Brand meanings live in the minds of consumers.”
Explain this statement.
3-3 What is the difference between an absolute threshold
and a differential threshold?
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHALLENGE
DISCUSS
3-11 The slogan for the movie Godzilla was “Size does
matter.” Should this be the slogan for the United
States as well? Many marketers seem to believe so.
The average serving size for a fountain drink has gone
from 12 ounces to 20 ounces. An industry consultant
explains that the 32-ounce Big Gulp is so popular
because “people like something large in their hands.
The larger the better.” Some cities (most notably New
York) have tried to ban sales of sugary drinks greater
than 24 ounces but so far unsuccessfully.105 Hardee’s
Monster Burger, complete with two beef patties and
five pieces of bacon, weighs in at 63 grams of fat and
more than 1,000 calories. The standard for TV sets
used to be 19 inches; now it’s 32 inches and growing.
Hulking sport utility vehicles (SUVs) have replaced
tiny sports cars as the status vehicle of the new millennium. What’s up with our fascination with bigness? Is
this a uniquely U.S. preference? Do you believe that
“bigger is better”? Is this a sound marketing strategy?
3-12 Augmented reality applications may reach the level
of sophistication where we observe almost everything
through the screen of our smartphones to receive an
“enhanced” experience. Do you view this as a positive development or a problem?
3-13 The chapter notes that marketers may elect to shrink
the amount of product it sells and maintain the same
price rather than raise the price. Is this ethical?
3-14 Define a schema and provide an example of how this
concept is relevant to marketing.
3-15 Many studies have shown that our sensory detection
abilities decline as we grow older. Discuss the implications of the absolute threshold for marketers who
want to appeal to the older consumer.
APPLY
3-16 Interview three to five friends about their perceptions
of energy drinks. Construct a perceptual map for each
set of products. Based on your map of energy drinks,
do you see any areas that are not adequately served
by current offerings?
3-17 Using magazines archived in the library (or available
online), track the packaging of a specific brand over
time. Find an example of gradual changes in package
design that may have been below the j.n.d.
3-18 Visit a set of websites for one type of product (e.g.,
personal computers, perfumes, laundry detergents,
or athletic shoes) and analyze the colors and other
design principles they employ. Which sites “work”
and which don’t? Why? Look through a current magazine and select one ad that captures your attention
over the others. Explain why this ad attracts you.
3-19 Find ads that use the techniques of contrast and
novelty. Give your opinion of the effectiveness of
each ad and whether the technique is likely to be
appropriate for the consumers the ad targets.
3-20 Assume that you are a consultant for a marketer
who wants to design a package for a new premium
chocolate bar targeted to an affluent market. What
recommendations would you provide in terms of such
package elements as color, symbolism, and graphic
design? Give the reasons for your suggestions.
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Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
DIGGING IN WITH DATA
See “Data Case 1: Analyzing the Athletic Shoe Market” in Appendix A for an opportunity to work with real consumer
data and apply this chapter’s concepts to real world problems.
CASE STUDY
The Metaverse Is Marketing’s Brave New World
Neal Stephenson’s 1992 dystopian novel Snow Crash
envisioned a place where people use virtual reality (VR)
headsets to interact in an online world, a place he called the
metaverse.106 With advancements in computing, artificial
intelligence, and VR headset technology, this science fiction
realm is becoming a reality (at least a virtual one) and some
adventurous marketers are finding ways to advertise, sell, and
build their brands in this new virtual world.
The metaverse refers to virtual worlds that allow users
to play games and participate in events using a digital persona known as an avatar.107 In its current manifestation, the
metaverse is not a single connected/interoperable universe
but rather several separate entities, each with its own set of
rules for access, membership, and monetization.108 Consulting firm McKinsey & Company predicts that the metaverse
will encompass five categories of daily activities: gaming,
fitness, socializing, remote learning, and commerce.109 It is
that last category that has motivated an array of companies
to stake a claim in the metaverse, including Nike, Wendy’s,
Ferrari, Forever 21, Vans, Gucci, and Chipotle.110
Chipotle is a good example of a company that participates in the metaverse in creative ways that mimic its IRL
(in real life) marketing.111 The fast food company bought real
estate on metaverse gaming platform Roblox and opened a
virtual restaurant designed to look like its location in Denver.
Gamers on Roblox who successfully rolled a virtual burrito
earned “Burrito Bucks” redeemable for real food at an IRL
Chipotle.112 That and another game attracted six million
unique users—many who signed up for Chipotle’s rewards
program.113 “This is a place we want to play,” said Chris
Brandt, chief marketing officer at Chipotle. This promotion
and this initiative that we have with Roblox . . . really blur
that line between the real world and the metaverse.”114
The merging of these two worlds (virtual and physical) is a major goal of metaverse marketing, but some
revenue opportunities are created exclusively within the
metaverse. Many of these come in the form of nonfungible
tokens (NFTs) that certify the ownership of digital art using
blockchain technology.115 Concert tickets have been sold
for events held in the metaverse with artists Alicia Keys,
Travis Scott, Future, and others performing as avatars of
themselves for adoring avatar fans who (via VR) can jump
onto the stage to dance with the band.116 These artists are
also happy to sell you concert “merch,” including clothing
for your avatar.117
NFT fashion is a major category in metaverse
marketing with retailers like Gap, which offered virtual
hoodies for your avatar at a price of $2 to $11.118 One of the
metaverse platforms, Decentraland, sponsored a Metaverse
Fashion Week, a four-day event covered by Vogue
magazine that featured brands such as Tommy Hilfiger,
Perry Ellis, Dolce & Gabbana, and Estée Lauder.119 Gucci
has jumped into this new world with Gucci Town, a virtual
concept store on the Roblox platform. 120 The company
recently hit a metaverse milestone when it sold a digital
version of a Gucci purse for more than it would sell for in
real life!121
The metaverse offers many advertising opportunities,
both for products sold in the metaverse and their IRL
counterparts. Virtual billboards can be constantly changing
and highly personalized, and they could allow virtual
customers to “enter” the billboard and find themselves in a
virtual store where they can try on clothing featured in the
ad.122 Less direct promotion is available through product
placement in VR games or other virtual entertainment. The
immersive experiences these platforms enable provide an
exciting new medium for brand storytelling, and ad agencies,
including MediaHub, Media.Monks, and Droga5, have set up
shop in the metaverse to assist.123
These brand stories are frequently told by influencers,
and a whole crop of virtual ones are ready to go to work
in the metaverse. Brands including Calvin Klein, Balmain,
and Samsung have partnered with existing computer-generated (CG) digital influencers and Prada has created its
own CG influencer named Candy. You may have heard
of Lil Miquela, a CG influencer with 3 million Instagram
followers.124 She welcomes you to her new metaverse
space, Villa M, stating, “It’s a place to learn, grow, and connect together on a deeper level. Can’t wait for everyone to
meet me there!”
What will consumer behavior be like in the metaverse?
The perceptual process (see Figure 3.1) is still at play, but
some sensory stimuli—like smells, tastes, and textures—
are no longer available, while others—like sights and
Chapter 3 • Perceiving and Making Meaning
sounds—are on virtual steroids, with new tools for getting
and holding attention. Evaluating product quality (one factor
in assessing the value of a brand) becomes more challenging
for products that do not exist in the physical world.125 The
anonymity the metaverse allows could facilitate the creation
of different consumer personas that may be more or less likely
to engage in status signaling (discussed in Chapter 13) or
other purchase behaviors that occur in the physical world.126
There is also the possibility that some consumers will prefer
the virtual world to the physical one, with implications not
only for social interaction in society but for engagement with
brands’ physical products.127
The future for metaverse marketing looks promising
with McKinsey & Company predicting global spending in
the metaverse could reach as high as $5 trillion by 2030.128
But experts in this new field caution that brands will have
to adapt to market successfully in this new virtual world.
“Just because you are an iconic brand in the physical world,
doesn’t mean it transfers over into the metaverse,” says Akash
Nigam, CEO and founder of avatar agency Genies. “Someone needs to reinvent your brand with the metaverse in mind.
These brands will ultimately start from scratch, reinvent their
85
digital goods in a more fantastical way, and exceed boundaries for what is feasible in the physical world.”129
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
CS 3-1 What marketing opportunities could exist for global
marketing in the metaverse? What potential obstacles
would have to be overcome to make global marketing
successful?
CS 3-2 The visual and auditory capabilities in the metaverse enable creativity but could also lead to sensory
overload. How can companies avoid this negative
phenomenon, particularly in a virtual environment
that is minimally under the control of any individual
marketer?
CS 3-3 Most brands in the metaverse will probably also exist
IRL (In Real Life). How can brands use metaverse
initiatives to increase sales of IRL products? What
steps should marketers take to ensure that metaverse
promotions do not damage the overall brand identity,
impacting IRL sales?
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Hub, April 21, 2022, https://influencermarketinghub.com/metaverse-brands/;
Ann-Marie Alcántara and Patrick Coffee, “Metaverse Spending to Total
$5 Trillion in 2030, McKinsey Predicts,” Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed.),
June 15, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/metaverse-spending-to-total5-trillion-in-2030-mckinsey-predicts-11655254794?mod=flipboard.
111. “What the Metaverse Means for Brands and Branding,” Advertising Week,
March 24, 2022, https://advertisingweek.com/what-the-metaverse-means-forbrands-and-branding/.
112. Ann-Marie Alcántara, “Restaurants’ Virtual Stores Test Consumers’ Appetite
for Metaverse Marketing,” Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed.), April 5, 2022,
https://www.wsj.com/articles/restaurants-virtual-stores-test-consumersappetite-for-metaverse-marketing-11649160001.
113. Ann-Marie Alcántara and Patrick Coffee, “Metaverse Spending to Total
$5 Trillion in 2030, McKinsey Predicts,” Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed.),
June 15, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/metaverse-spending-to-total5-trillion-in-2030-mckinsey-predicts-11655254794?mod=flipboard.
114. Ann-Marie Alcántara, “Restaurants’ Virtual Stores Test Consumers’ Appetite
for Metaverse Marketing,” Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed.), April 5, 2022,
https://www.wsj.com/articles/restaurants-virtual-stores-test-consumersappetite-for-metaverse-marketing-11649160001.
115. “Metaverse Marketing—Everything Brands Need to Know about Virtual
Worlds,” Ad Age, January 20, 2022, https://adage.com/article/digital-marketingad-tech-news/metaverse-faq-marketing-everything-brands-need-know-aboutvirtual-worlds/2394221.
116. Elias Ahonen, “Concerts in the Metaverse Could Lead to a New Wave of
Adoption,” Cointelegraph Magazine, December 27, 2021, https://cointele
graph.com/magazine/2021/12/27/vr-animal-concerts-metaverse-lead-nextwave-crypto-adoption.
117. Ralph Rozema, “How Virtual Concerts in the Metaverse Can Inspire Brands,”
Candid, accessed July 10, 2022, https://www.candidplatform.com/en/news/
platform-news/all-platform-news/marketing/how-virtual-concerts-in-the-­
metaverse-can-inspire-brands.html.
118. Kristi Waterworth, “6 Businesses That Have Bought Land in the Metaverse.” Nasdaq, accessed July 10, 2022, https://www.nasdaq.com/
articles/6-businesses-that-have-bought-land-in-the-metaverse.
119. Ann-Marie Alcántara, “Marketers Explore Metaverse Worlds,” Wall Street
Journal (Eastern Ed.), March 2, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/
marketers-explore-metaverse-worlds-11646218800.
120. Webb Wright, “5 Brands Winning in the Metaverse,” The Drum, June 1, 2022,
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2022/06/01/5-brands-winning-the-metaverse.
121. “What Brands Should Know about the Metaverse,” Ad Age, August 2,
2021, https://adage.com/article/digital-marketing-ad-tech-news/
what-brands-should-know-about-metaverse/2354506.
122. Ben Plomion, “A Giant Leap for Advertising Kind: How the Metaverse Could
Lead to a Next-Gen Brand Experience,” Forbes, May 16, 2022, https://www
.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2022/05/16/a-giant-leapfor-advertising-kind-how-the-metaverse-could-lead-to-a-next-gen-brandexperience/.
123. “Advertising in the Metaverse Explained: It’s a Jungle out There,” XR Today,
December 31, 2021, https://www.xrtoday.com/virtual-reality/advertisingin-the-metaverse-explained-its-a-jungle-out-there/; Asa Hiken, “Metaverse
Marketing—Everything Brands Need to Know about Virtual Worlds,”
Ad Age, January 20, 2022, https://adage.com/article/digital-marketing-ad-technews/metaverse-faq-marketing-everything-brands-need-know-about-virtualworlds/2394221.
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124. Tomas Oscar Andrén, “How Influencer Marketing Will Change in the Metaverse,”
Forbes, June 6, 2022, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/
2022/06/06/how-influencer-marketing-will-change-in-the-metaverse/.
125. Advertising Week, “What the Metaverse Means for Brands and Branding,” Advertising Week, March 24, 2022, https://advertisingweek.com/
what-the-metaverse-means-for-brands-and-branding/.
126. Chris Butler, “Identity Problems Get Bigger in the Metaverse,” O’Reilly
Media, March 15, 2022, https://www.oreilly.com/radar/identity-problemsget-bigger-in-the-metaverse/; “What the Metaverse Means for Brands and
Branding,” Advertising Week, March 24, 2022, https://advertisingweek.com/
what-the-metaverse-means-for-brands-and-branding/.
127. Sarah E. Needleman, “The Amazing Things You’ll Do in the ‘Metaverse’ and
What It Will Take to Get There,” Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed.), October
16, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-amazing-things-youll-do-in-themetaverse-and-what-it-will-take-to-get-there-11634396401.
128. Ann-Marie Alcántara and Patrick Coffee, “Metaverse Spending to Total
$5 Trillion in 2030, McKinsey Predicts,” Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed.),
June 15, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/metaverse-spending-to-total5-trillion-in-2030-mckinsey-predicts-11655254794?mod=flipboard.
129. “What Brands Should Know about the Metaverse,” Ad Age, August
2, 2021, https://adage.com/article/digital-marketing-ad-tech-news/
what-brands-should-know-about-metaverse/2354506.
4
Learning, Remembering,
and Knowing
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES When you finish reading this chapter, you should be able to:
4-1 Describe how conditioning results in learning.
4-2 Summarize how we learn about products and
consumption practices by observing others’
behavior.
4-3 Explain how our brains process and store
information about brands in our memory.
4-4 Discuss how knowledge about brands is organized
in our brains.
A
h, Sunday morning! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and Joe is feeling
groovy! He puts on his vintage Levi’s 501 jeans (circa 1968) and his Beatles
T-shirt and saunters down to the kitchen. He’s just returned from his college
reunion. Just being back at his old campus haunts brought up tons of memories. When
he walked into the familiar business school lobby, he found that he was able to remember
names of former classmates, a few professors, and even some of the classes he took so
many years ago as if it was yesterday. Time to hit Facebook to follow up on some of the
old classmates he saw at the party—for sure his old posse hasn’t discovered Instagram
(much less TikTok) quite yet! Joe cranks up the Lava Lamp, throws a Grateful Dead
record on the turntable (ah, the sublime joys of vinyl), and sits back on his Barcalounger
as he clutches a huge bowl filled to the brim with his all-time favorite cereal, Cap’n
Crunch. He reaches for his laptop—let the memories begin!
OBJECTIVE 4-1
Describe how
conditioning results
in learning.
How Do We Learn?
Learning refers to the acquisition of information, behaviors,
or abilities. Learning can happen through direct experience
but also by observing others.1 And it can happen passively or
actively. We learn even when we don’t try: We recognize many brand names and hum
many product jingles, for example, even for products we don’t personally use. We call
this casual, unintentional acquisition of knowledge incidental learning.
Learning is an ongoing process. Our knowledge about the world constantly updates
as we are exposed to new stimuli and as we receive ongoing feedback that allows us to
modify our behavior when we find ourselves in similar situations later. The concept of
learning covers a lot of ground, ranging from a consumer’s simple association between
a stimulus, such as a product logo (e.g., Lululemon), and a response (e.g., “being
comfortable and stylish”) to a complex series of cognitive activities (e.g., writing an
essay on learning for a consumer behavior exam).
Psychologists who study learning advance several theories to explain the learning process. These theories range from those that focus on simple stimulus–response connections
Source: David South/Alamy Stock Photo
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Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
(behavioral theories) to perspectives that regard learning as a set of internal mental
­processes that acquire and construct knowledge from observing what others say and
do (cognitive theories). It’s important for marketers to understand these theories as well
because basic learning principles are at the heart of many consumer purchase decisions.
Behavioral Learning Theories
Behavioral learning theories assume that learning takes place as the result of
responses to external events. Psychologists who subscribe to this viewpoint do not
focus on internal thought processes. Instead, they approach the mind as a “black box”
and emphasize the observable aspects of behavior. The observable aspects consist of
things that go into the box (the stimuli or events perceived from the outside world) and
things that come out of the box (the responses, or reactions to these stimuli).
Two major approaches to learning represent this view: classical conditioning and
instrumental conditioning. According to the behavioral learning perspective, the feedback we receive as we go through life shapes our experiences. Similarly, we respond
to brand names, scents, jingles, and other marketing stimuli because of the learned
connections we form over time. People also learn that actions they take result in
rewards and punishments; this feedback influences the way they will respond in similar
situations in the future. Consumers who receive compliments on a product choice will
be more likely to buy that brand again, whereas those who get food poisoning at a new
restaurant are not likely to patronize that restaurant in the future.
Classical Conditioning
As you can see in Figure 4.1, 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. Over time, this second stimulus causes a similar response because we associate
it with the first stimulus. Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist who conducted research
on digestion in animals, first demonstrated this phenomenon in dogs. Pavlov induced
classically conditioned learning when he paired a neutral stimulus (a bell) with a
BEFORE CONDITIONING
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
Unconditioned response (UCR)
Neutral stimulus
DURING CONDITIONING
Repeated exposures
Unconditioned response (UCR)
Figure 4.1 How Classical Conditioning Works
No response
AFTER CONDITIONING
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
Source: Designs Stock/Shutterstock; William Perugini/Shutterstock; Alexander Lysenko/Shutterstock.
Conditioned response (CR)
Chapter 4 • Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
91
stimulus known to cause a salivation response in dogs (he squirted dried meat powder
into their mouths). The powder was an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) because it was
naturally capable of causing the response. Over time, the bell became a conditioned
stimulus (CS); it did not initially cause salivation, but the dogs learned to associate
the bell with the meat powder and began to salivate at the sound of the bell only. The
drooling of these canine consumers because of a sound, now linked to feeding time,
was a conditioned response (CR).
This basic form of classical conditioning that Pavlov demonstrated primarily
applies to responses to visual and olfactory cues that induce hunger, thirst, sexual
arousal, and other basic drives. When marketers consistently pair these cues with
conditioned stimuli, such as brand names, consumers may learn to feel hungry, thirsty,
or aroused when they encounter these brand cues at a later point.
Recent developments in conditioning research show that
learning is even more effective through evaluative conditioning.2 Instead of associating the UCS with a single activating stimulus, the UCS is paired with a series of different
stimuli that all trigger the same type of emotional response.
For instance, a study showed that pairing a Belgian beer with
a series of images of people having fun across several activities such as skiing led to stronger and longer lasting conditioning effects: The participants believed the beer was also
more fun when they encountered it in these situations.
Conditioning effects are more likely to occur after the
conditioned (CS) and unconditioned (UCS) stimuli have been
paired a number of times.3 Repeated exposures—repetition—
increase the strength of stimulus–response associations and
prevent the decay of these associations in memory. Some
Apple does a great job of placing its brands in the hands of
research indicates that the intervals between exposures may
likeable characters in TV shows and movies. In this scene from the
influence the effectiveness of this strategy as well as the type of
popular TV show, Superstore, you can clearly see the company’s
medium the marketer uses; the most effective repetition stratbrand logo on the product.
Source: Trae Patton/©NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection
egy is a combination of spaced exposures that alternate in terms
of media that are more and less involving, such as television
advertising complemented by print media.4
And it turns out that due to the process of evaluative
conditioning, a marketer can associate a brand with a diverse
set of images or associations that all trigger the same emotional
reaction. This is also a great way to create longer-lasting
associations. For instance, if you want people to associate a brand
with warm feelings, you might feature puppies in one ad, a cozy
fire in a log cabin in a different ad, and a laughing baby in another
ad. In this way, people associate your brand with “warm fuzzy
feelings” rather than just “cute puppies” or “laughing babies.”
Many classic advertising campaigns consist of product
slogans that companies repeat so often they are etched in consumers’ minds. Conditioning will not occur or will take longer if the CS is only occasionally paired with the UCS. One
result of this lack of association is extinction, which happens
when the effects of prior conditioning diminish and finally
disappear. This can occur when a product is overexposed in
the marketplace so that its original allure is lost.
The Izod Lacoste polo shirt, with its distinctive crocodile crest,
The Izod Lacoste polo shirt, with its distinctive crocodile
rescued itself from extinction.
Source: Edward Berthelot /Contributor
crest, is a good example. When the once-exclusive crocodile
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Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
started to appear on baby clothes and many other items, it lost its cachet. Other contenders, such as the Ralph Lauren polo player, successfully challenged it as a symbol
of casual elegance. Now that Izod is being more careful about where its logo appears,
the brand is starting to regain its “cool” in some circles.
Marketing Applications of Classical
Conditioning Principles
Behavioral learning principles apply to many consumer phenomena, such as when a
marketer creates a distinctive brand image or links a product to an underlying need.
The transfer of meaning from an unconditioned stimulus to a conditioned stimulus
explains why “made-up” brand names, such as Marlboro, Coca-Cola, or Adidas, exert
such powerful effects on consumers. The association between the Marlboro man and
the cigarette is so strong that in some cases the company no longer even bothers to
include the brand name in its ads that feature the cowboy riding off into the sunset.
Indeed, recent research shows that these linkages cement early on; scans of children
show how the pleasure and appetite centers of their brains light up when they view
fast-food-company advertising images such as the McDonald’s logo.5
When researchers pair nonsense syllables (meaningless sets of letters) with such
evaluative words as beauty or success, the meaning transfers to the fake words. This
change in the symbolic significance of initially meaningless words shows that simple
associations can condition even complex meanings, and the learning that results can
last a long time.6 These associations are crucial to many marketing strategies that rely
on the creation and perpetuation of brand equity, in which a brand has strong positive associations in a consumer’s memory and commands a lot of loyalty as a result.7
Marketing Applications of Repetition
Wear-out and weariness are not only an issue for marketers but also for
public health practitioners who often rely on warnings: The more people are
exposed to warnings, the less they pay attention to them. One solution is
to create variations of the same basic message. A large study of warnings
on cigarette packaging conducted across 10 European countries found that
wear-out was not as strong when the warnings combined texts and pictures
compared to text-only warnings.10 Based on those findings, it’s probably a
good idea to regularly change the images we use in such warnings to help
reduce wear-out and keep the warnings effective.
Source: Kim Steele/Alamy Stock Photo
One advertising researcher argued that any more
than three exposures to a marketing communication are wasted. The first exposure creates awareness of the product, the second demonstrates its
relevance to the consumer, and the third reminds
them of the product’s benefits.8 However, even this
bare-bones approach implies that we need repetition
to ensure that the consumer sees or hears (and processes) the message at least three times. As we’ve
seen, this exposure is by no means guaranteed,
because people tend to tune out or distort many
marketing communications. Marketers who attempt
to condition an association must ensure that the consumers they target will be exposed to the stimulus
enough times to make it “stick.” A study that scrutinized the large body of research on advertising
repetition found that recall of a message increases
linearly with every exposure but levels off after eight
exposures.9
However, it is possible to have too much of a
good thing. Consumers can become so used to hearing or seeing a marketing stimulus that they no longer pay attention to it, a problem we call advertising
wear-out. And it gets worse: Too much exposure to
the same message can create advertising weariness,
Chapter 4 • Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
93
where consumers react even more negatively to the repeated message and become less
interested in the brand being advertised. A study of digital advertising for a financial service provider that examined nearly one million exposures across ten thousand
internet users found that a quarter of consumers showed weariness: They visited the
advertised website less often the more they were exposed to the ad.11 Overkill!
Marketing Applications of Classical Conditioning
Principles: The Halo Effect at Work
Advertisements often pair a product with a positive stimulus to create a desirable association. Various aspects of a marketing message, such as music, humor, or imagery,
can affect conditioning. In a classic study, subjects who viewed a slide of pens paired
with either pleasant or unpleasant music were more likely later to select the pen that
appeared with the pleasant music.12 Think about how you feel when you hear a text
coming on your Slack channel or the buzz of your phone when a message drops.
Burt’s Bees established a positive
reputation in categories like skincare
and lip balms, which then allowed the
company to offer other variations.
Source: Retro AdArchives /Alamy Stock Photo
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Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
But there’s another important reason for the
importance of classical conditioning in marketing:
Stimulus generalization refers to the tendency
of stimuli similar to a CS to evoke similar, conditioned responses. For example, Pavlov noticed in
subsequent studies that his dogs would sometimes
salivate when they heard noises that only vaguely
resembled a bell, such as keys jangling. People also
react to other, similar stimuli in much the same way
they responded to the original stimulus; we call this
generalization a halo effect.
Strategies that marketers base on stimulus generalization include:
Family branding—Many products capitalize
Bentley is among many luxury carmakers that successfully licenses its name
on
the
reputation of a company name. Companies
in other product categories.13
such as Campbell’s, Heinz, and General Electric
Source: Courtesy of Bentley Motors Limited.
rely on their positive corporate images to sell a
variety of product lines. On the other hand, this
strategy can come back to bite you if one of your operating
units hits a bump in the road (one of the reasons that Facebook changed its corporate name to Meta).14
Product line extension—Marketers add related products
to an established brand. Dole, which we associate with fruit,
introduced refrigerated juices and juice bars, whereas Sun
Maid went from raisins to raisin bread.
Licensing—Companies often “rent” well-known names,
hoping that the learned associations they have forged will
“rub off” onto other kinds of products. Zippo Manufacturing
Co., long known for its “windproof” cigarette lighters,
markets a men’s fragrance—and no, it doesn’t smell like
lighter fluid.15 The National Football League puts team logos
on, well, just about everything.16 Bentley lends its name to
We clearly appreciate the value of a halo effect when we look
colognes, furniture, skis, handbags, and even a hotel suite
at universities with winning sports teams: Loyal fans snap up
that costs $10,500 a night at the St. Regis hotel in New York.
merchandise, from clothing to bathroom accessories, emblazoned
The Ferrari prancing horse logo pops up on chess sets, Tod’s
with the school’s name.
loafers, and Oakley sunglasses.17
Source: Justin Sullivan /Getty Images
Look-Alike Packaging—Distinctive packaging designs create strong associations
with a particular brand. Companies that make generic or private-label brands and want
to communicate a quality image often exploit this linkage with look-alike packaging,
or putting their products in packages like those of popular brands.18 A drugstore’s
bottle of private-brand mouthwash that is deliberately packaged to resemble Listerine
mouthwash may evoke a similar response among consumers, who assume that this
“me-too” product shares other characteristics of the original. Indeed, consumers in
one study of shampoo brands tended to rate those with similar packages as similar
in quality and performance as well.19
How does this strategy affect consumers’ perceptions of the original brand? In
general, copying actually helps the copycat brand, as long as the imitator doesn’t
make grandiose claims that it can’t fulfill.20 Consumers also find it less unfair and
more acceptable when the copycat brand imitates another brand’s theme (like the
freshness of Alpine milk theme in the Milka chocolate brand) rather than the brand’s
Chapter 4 • Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
perceptual features (like the lilac color scheme of the Milka brand or the Starbucks
mermaid design).21 This “piggybacking” strategy can cut both ways: When the quality
of the me-too product turns out to be lower than that of the original brand, consumers
may exhibit even more positive feelings toward the original. However, if they perceive the quality of the two competitors to be about equal, consumers may conclude
that the price premium they pay for the original is not worth it.22
Consumer Confusion
Of course, this strategy can make a lot of work for lawyers if the copycat brand
gets too close to the original. Marketers of distinctive brands work hard to protect
their designs and logos, and each year companies file numerous lawsuits in so-called
Lanham Act cases that hinge on the issue of consumer confusion: How likely is
it that one company’s logo, product design, or package is so similar to another that
the typical shopper would mistake one for the other? Levi Strauss has sued almost
100 other apparel manufacturers that it claims have borrowed its trademark pocket
design of a pentagon surrounding a drawing of a seagull in flight or its distinctive
tab that it sews into its garments’ vertical seams.23 Recently, a theme park called
Evermore in Utah sued singer Taylor Swift because she titled her 2020 album with
the same name.24
Companies with a well-established brand image can promote the unique attributes of their brand—hence the constant reminders for American Express Travelers
Cheques: “Ask for them by name.” However, a brand name that a firm uses so widely
that it is no longer distinctive becomes part of the public domain and competitors
are free to borrow it: Think of well-worn names such as aspirin, cellophane, yo-yo,
escalator, and even google (which started as a noun and is now also a verb). This
high degree of acceptance can be a tough barrier to jump when you’re a competitor:
Even though Lyft launched before Uber, it still lags in terms of brand awareness and
continues to work hard to become top of mind ahead of Uber when we need a ride.25
Instrumental Conditioning
Instrumental conditioning (or operant conditioning) occurs when we learn to
perform behaviors that produce positive outcomes and avoid those that yield negative
outcomes. We most closely associate this learning process with the psychologist
B. F. Skinner, who demonstrated the effects of instrumental conditioning by teaching
pigeons and other animals to dance and play Ping-Pong, when he systematically
rewarded them for desired behaviors.27
Whereas responses in classical conditioning are involuntary and simple, we make
those in instrumental conditioning deliberately to obtain a goal, and these may be
more complex. We may learn the desired behavior over a period of time as a shaping
process rewards our intermediate actions. For example, the owner of a new store
may award prizes to shoppers who simply drop in; she hopes that over time they will
continue to drop in and eventually even buy something.
Also, whereas classical conditioning involves the close pairing of two stimuli,
instrumental learning occurs when a learner receives a reward after they perform
the desired behavior. In these cases, learning takes place over time, while the learner
attempts and abandons other behaviors that don’t get reinforced. A good way to
remember the difference is to keep in mind that in instrumental learning the person
makes a response because it is instrumental to gain a reward or avoid a punishment.
Over time, consumers come to associate with people who reward them and to choose
products that make them feel good or satisfy some need.
95
Buying, Having, Being
Make Some Noise with
Tinder’s Sound Signature
Classical conditioning works so
well with sound that many brands
have embraced sonic branding,
the association of a sound with their
brand.26 How do you feel when
you hear the classic sound of your
HBO 2.0, or Netflix application?
Sonic branding is so popular that
marketing agencies are specializing
in creating sound signatures for
brands. The dating app Tinder, for
instance, got a new sonic signature
based on research to identify the
most appropriate sounds to capture
its three essential brand characteristics: its lighthearted and fun element (percussive and bright tones),
its surprise (quick tempo), and
its emphasis on fresh and young
(game-like feel). The combination of
those three sound elements created
Tinder’s new sonic signature. Now,
whenever you hear the sound, you
immediately feel the very sense of
excitement, fun, and surprise that
Tinder strategically associated with
“We have a match!”
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Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
Instrumental conditioning occurs in one of three ways:
Positive reinforcement occurs after consumers try new products
and like them.
Source: Adene Sanchez / E+/Getty Images
1. When the environment provides positive reinforcement
in the form of a reward, this strengthens the response, and
we learn the appropriate behavior. For example, a food
blogger who gets compliments after posting a new way of
saving leftover guacamole and keeping it fresh and tasty
(without turning yucky brown) will be more likely to post
about similar topics in the future.
2. Negative reinforcement also strengthens responses so
that we learn the appropriate behavior. A YouTuber who
gets a lot of thumbs down or negative comments to a video
post will quickly learn what not to upload.
3. In contrast to situations where we learn to do certain
things to avoid unpleasantness, punishment occurs
when unpleasant events follow a response (such as when
our friends ridicule us if we use an off-putting Zoom
background). We learn the hard way not to repeat these
behaviors.28
To help you understand the differences among these ­mechanisms, keep in mind
that reactions from a person’s e­ nvironment to their behavior can be either positive or
negative, and that marketers can either apply or remove these outcomes (or anticipated
outcomes).
That is, under conditions of both positive reinforcement and punishment, the
person receives a reaction when they do something. In contrast, negative reinforcement
occurs when the person avoids a negative outcome—the removal of something
negative is pleasurable and hence is rewarding.
REINFORCEMENT
PUNISHMENT
ADDING something
ADD something positive
to increase behavior.
ADD something negative
to decrease behavior.
REMOVING something
REMOVE something negative
to increase behavior.
REMOVE something positive
to decrease behavior.
Increase Behavior
Figure 4.2 Types of Reinforcement
Source: Matsabe/Shutterstock.
Decrease Behavior
Chapter 4 • Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
97
Finally, when a person no longer receives a positive outcome, extinction is likely to occur, and the learned ­stimulus–
response connection will not be maintained (as when the
YouTuber no longer receives thumbs up on their videos).
Thus, positive and negative reinforcement strengthen the
future linkage between a response and an outcome because
of the pleasant experience. This tie is weakened under
conditions of both punishment and extinction because of
the unpleasant experience. Figure 4.2 will help you to “reinforce” the relationships among these four conditions.
Marketing Applications of Instrumental
Conditioning Principles
Casino operators program slot machines to deliver rewards
Principles of instrumental conditioning are at work when a
on an unpredictable schedule to keep players interested.
marketer rewards or punishes a consumer for a purchase or
Source: massimofusaro/Shutterstock
consumption decision. For instance, grocery stores encourage
consumers to bring their own shopping bags by providing
monetary incentives to do so.
Marketers have many ways to reinforce consumers’ behaviors, ranging from a simple “thank you” after a purchase to substantial rebates and follow-up phone calls. The
continuous reinforcement of consumption can become problematic, however, when the
behavior that is consistently encouraged is maladaptive or unhealthy. For instance, recent
research has uncovered that many of the addictions we might develop to social media or
our technologies took root through a process of instrumental conditioning: The constant
sounds of messages popping up on our phone keep us grabbing for it; the continuous
flow of notifications of likes on a social media post fuel our need to check our feed.29
Loyalty programs are a popular way for marketers to apply instrumental conditioning, because they can reward customers for their purchases.
Source: Mironov Konstantin/Shutterstock
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Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
Frequency marketing is a popular technique that rewards regular purchasers
with prizes that get better as they spend more. The airline industry pioneered this
instrumental learning strategy when it introduced “frequent flyer” programs in
the early 1980s to reward loyal customers. The practice has spread to many other
businesses as well, ranging from grocery stores to casinos.
OBJECTIVE 4-2
Summarize how
we learn about
products and
consumption
practices by
observing others’
behavior.
Cognitive Learning Theory
Unlike behavioral theories of learning, cognitive learning
theory approaches learning as a set of internal mental processes. This comprehensive theory was initially developed
to explain how humans gradually acquire, construct, and use
knowledge from what they observe around them.
An Ocean Spray commercial for diet cranberry juice
illustrates how marketers can harness their knowledge of cognitive theories to
tweak marketing messages. The spot features two cranberry growers, who stand
knee-deep in a bog. A group of people who are exercising joins them. Originally,
the ad depicted these individuals having a party, but a cognitive scientist who
worked on the campaign nixed that idea; she argued that the exercise class would
send the diet message more quickly, whereas the party scene would confuse viewers
who would spend too much time trying to figure out why the group was celebrating.
This extra cognitive activity would distract from the ad’s message. And, contrary
to standard practice in advertising that the actors name the product as early as
possible, she decided that the main characters should wait a few seconds before
they mention the new diet product. She reasoned that viewers would need a second
or so more time to process the images because of the additional action in the ad (the
exercising). In a test of which ads got remembered best, this new version scored
in the top 10 percent.30
Observational Learning
Observational learning occurs when we watch the actions of others and note the
reinforcements they receive for their behaviors. In these situations, learning occurs
because of vicarious rather than direct experience. This type of learning is a complex
process; people store these observations in memory as they accumulate knowledge,
and then they use this information at a later point to guide their own behavior.
Modeling (not the Paris runway kind) is the process of imitating the behavior of
others. Marketing campaigns have long relied on stories with aspirational characters
and immersive stories in their attempts to encourage audiences to model the consumption behaviors depicted in the stories. For instance, recent research shows that advertisements for health services, whether for therapy, exercise, or career advice, were
more impactful on their audience when the story in the ad featured characters who
were intrinsically motivated (doing things because they want to) rather than characters
who were extrinsically motivated (doing things because they feel pressure to): The
researchers argued that consumers could more easily identify with the intrinsically
motivated characters and this facilitated the modeling process.31
The modeling process is a powerful form of learning, and people’s tendencies to
imitate others’ behaviors can have negative effects. Given how much time we spend
on social media, it is not surprising that it is a huge source of modeling influences.
Indeed, doctors report a pronounced spike in young patients seeking treatment for
tics—apparently, they were modeling content from TikTok creators who say they
Chapter 4 • Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
have Tourette syndrome, a tic disorder that makes patients involuntarily curse and slap
themselves. These #tourettes videos have been viewed more than 5 billion times.32
How Kids Develop Cognitive Skills
Theory of mind is a cognitive skill that refers to knowing and being aware of one’s
own and of other people’s mental states: understanding what they think and feel.
For instance, we say children have developed a theory of mind if they figure out that
to get what they want they may need to behave a certain way (like whining to their
poor parents). This cognitive skill allows children to become better negotiators to get
things they want! Once children have developed theory of mind, they understand how
others’ minds work and this makes them better able to make sense of the marketing
environment as well.33
The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget was the foremost proponent of the idea that
children pass through distinct stages of cognitive development. He believed that a
certain cognitive structure characterizes each stage as the child learns to process
information.34
In one classic demonstration of cognitive development, Piaget poured the contents
of a short, squat glass of lemonade into a taller, thinner glass that held the same
amount of liquid. Five-year-olds, who still believed that the shape of the glass determined its contents, thought this glass held more liquid than the first glass. They are
in what Piaget termed a preoperational stage of development. In contrast, 6-year-olds
tended to be unsure, and 7-year-olds knew the amount of lemonade had not changed.
A child’s ability to make mature, “adult” consumer decisions obviously increases
with age (not that grown-ups always make mature decisions!). Many developmental
specialists no longer believe that children necessarily pass through these fixed stages at
the same time. An alternative view proposes that they differ in information-processing
capability, or the ability to store and retrieve information from memory. Researchers
who advocate this approach identify three developmental stages:35
1. Limited—Children who are younger than age 6 do not employ storage-andretrieval strategies.
2. Cued—Children between the ages of 6 and 12 employ these strategies but only
when prompted to do so.
3. Strategic—Children 12 and older spontaneously employ storage-and-retrieval
strategies.
This sequence of development underscores the notion that children do not think
in the same way adults do, and we can’t expect them to use information the same way
either. It also reminds us that they do not necessarily form the same conclusions as do
adults when they encounter product information.36
Conceptual brand meanings, which specify the nonobservable abstract features of
the product, such as the status of owning an item, enter the picture in middle childhood
(about age 8); children incorporate them into their thinking and judgments a few years
later. By the time most children reach 12 years of age, they think about brands on a
conceptual or symbolic level, and they are likely to incorporate these meanings into
brand-related judgments.37 For example, a younger child might ask for a new pair of
Adidas shoes simply because they are familiar with the brand Adidas from seeing it in
a shop, in ads, or on their friends’ feet, while a more developed child is more likely to
ask for a new pair of Adidas because they have a deep sense of the brand’s symbolic
meaning and they are conscious of all the rich semiotic associations with the brand,
which we studied in Chapter 3.
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Buying, Having, Being
From Mindlessness to
Mindfulness
By now you have figured out that
a lot of what we learn is automatic.
Behavioral learning theorists emphasize the routine, automatic nature
of conditioning, and even some
proponents of cognitive learning
agree that some information is
processed in an automatic, passive
way, a condition that researchers call “mindlessness” (we’ve all
experienced that!).42
The counterpart to mindlessness
is mindfulness. Mindfulness training allows us to be more attentive to
what otherwise may have become
automatic associations. As such,
training ourselves to be more alert
and mindful can help us de-link
concepts and retrain our brain to
remove unwanted associations or
to create new ones. For instance,
mindfulness can help people
re-learn how to eat and how to
enjoy what they eat.43 Because
mindfulness can allow us to
change our daily consumption
routines, it can also lower the
negative environmental impacts
of overconsumption.44
Mindfulness is related to the
practice of meditation and encourages followers to slow down, tune
out distractions, and focus on what
they are feeling now.45 Ironically,
mindfulness has itself become an
industry. You can buy Mindful Lotus
tea, Mindful Meats, or Mindful Mints;
subscribe to one of the many mindfulness apps, like Headspace, to
follow guided exercises; or attend
some of the many seminars and
workshops available. Even athletes
have gotten into the game: The
Golden State Warriors, the Seattle
Seahawks, and the Boston Red
Sox practice mindfulness in their
locker rooms. A research company
estimates that meditation-related
businesses in the United States
alone generated almost $1 billion
in revenue. That’s a lot to meditate
about!
When millions of preschoolers tune in to Nickelodeon’s hit show Dora the Explorer, they
don’t realize that they view content based on multiple-intelligence theory. This influential
perspective argues for other types of intelligence, such as athletic prowess or musical ability,
beyond the traditional math and verbal skills psychologists use to measure IQ. Thus, when
Dora consults her map, she promotes “spatial” skills. And when she asks her young viewers
to help her count planks to build a bridge, Dora builds “interpersonal intelligence.”38
Source: Carolyn Jenkins/Alamy Stock Photo
Kids’ Message Comprehension
Because children differ in their abilities to process product-related information,
advertisers’ direct appeals to them raise many serious ethical issues.39 Children’s
advocacy groups argue that kids younger than age seven do not understand the persuasive intent of commercials, and (as we’ve seen) younger children cannot readily
distinguish between a commercial and programming. Kids’ cognitive defenses are
not yet sufficiently developed to filter out commercial appeals, so in a sense, altering
their brand preferences may be likened to “shooting fish in a barrel,” as one critic
put it.40
Beginning in the 1970s, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took action to
protect children. The agency limited commercials during “children’s” programming
(most often Saturday morning television) and required “separators” to help children
discern when a program ended and a commercial began (e.g., “We’ll be right back
after these commercial messages”). The FTC reversed itself in the early 1980s during
the deregulatory, pro-business climate of Ronald Reagan’s administration. The 1990
Children’s Television Act restored some of these restrictions.
The Children’s Advertising Review Unit (“CARU”), a part of the Better Business
Bureau, issued revised guidelines for advertising to children that went into effect
in early 2022. CARU warns advertisers to “. . . not use unfair, deceptive, or other
manipulative tactics” aimed at pressuring children to view ads or make purchases
or to unknowingly engage with advertising from in-app or in-game advertisements.
The guidelines also address the growing influencer phenomenon in social media;
influencers should disclose any significant connections to brands they are endorsing
in language that children can understand.41
Chapter 4 • Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
Marketing Applications of Cognitive
Learning Principles
Our ability to learn vicariously when we observe the outcomes of what others do
makes the lives of marketers much easier. They don’t necessarily have to directly
reward or punish consumers when they make a purchase (think how expensive or
even ethically questionable that might be!). Instead, they can show what happens to
desirable models who use or do not use their products; they know that consumers often
will imitate these actions later.
Consumers’ evaluations of the people they model go beyond simple stimulus–
response connections. For example, a celebrity’s image elicits more than a simple
reflexive response of good or bad; it brings a complex set of cultural meanings
and associations that can imbue a brand in the symbolic ways we learned about in
Chapter 3 and that we will revisit in Chapter 8 when we discuss persuasion.
OBJECTIVE 4-3
Explain how our
brains process and
store information
about brands in
our memory.
Remembering
Memory is a process of acquiring information and storing
it over time so that it will be available when we need it.
Contemporary approaches to the study of memory employ
an information-processing approach. They assume that the
mind is in some ways like a computer: Data are input,
processed, and output for later use in revised form. Figure 4.3 summarizes the
memory process:
1. In the encoding stage, information enters in a way the system will recognize.
2. In the storage stage, we integrate this knowledge with what is already in memory
and “warehouse” it until it is needed.
3. During retrieval stage, we access the desired information.46
Many of our experiences are locked inside our heads, and they may surface years
later if the right cues prompt them. Marketers rely on consumers to retain information they collect about products and services so they will apply it to future purchase
decisions. We combine this internal memory with external memory when we decide
what to buy. This includes all the product details on packages and other marketing
stimuli that permit us to identify and evaluate brand alternatives in the marketplace.47
SENSORY MEMORY
SHORT-TERM MEMORY
LONG-TERM MEMORY
Temporary storage of information
received from the senses.
Brief storage of information
currently being used.
Relatively permanent storage of
information.
Capacity: Low
Capacity: Limited
Capacity: Unlimited
Duration: Less than 1 second
(vision) or a few seconds (hearing)
Duration: Less than 20 seconds
Duration: Long or permanent
Attention
Elaboration
Information that passes through
an attentional gate is transferred
to short-term memory.
Information subjected to elaborative
rehearsal or deep processing (e.g., its
meaning is considered) is transferred to
long-term memory.
Figure 4.3 Types of Memory
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An app like Grocery that stores
shopping lists is a powerful external
memory aid.
Source: McLittle Stock /Shutterstock
The grocery-shopping list is a good example of a powerful external memory aid.
When consumers use shopping lists, they buy approximately 80 percent of the items
on the list. The likelihood that a shopper will purchase a particular list item is higher if
the person who wrote the list also participates in the shopping trip. This means that
if marketers can induce consumers to plan to purchase an item before they go shopping, there is a high probability that they will buy it. One way to encourage this kind of
advance planning is to provide peel-off stickers on packages so that, when consumers
notice the supply is low, they can simply peel off the label and place it directly on a
shopping list.48 Or, a retailer can support a phone app that generates a shopping list
for the user (you already can choose from an abundance of apps that do this).49
How Our Brains Encode Information
The way we encode, or mentally program, information helps to determine how our
brains will store this information. In general, it’s more likely that we’ll retain incoming
data when we associate it with other things already in memory. For example, we tend
to remember brand names that we link to physical characteristics of a product category
(e.g., Coffee-Mate creamer or Mixed Chicks Haircare) or that we can easily visualize (e.g., Tide detergent or Puma shoes) compared to more abstract brand names.50
Similarly, our brains automatically react to images of familiar celebrities and use them
to guide how we think about them to ascribe meaning to other images of people or
products with which they appear.51 So a customer might encode a new Hot Chicken
Wing Oreos offering (yes, that’s a real flavor) as similar to the plain vanilla type we’re
used to—until she takes a bite!
In many cases, though, we encode meanings at a more symbolic level, based on
the set of associations we hold in the brain’s semantic network. Let’s take a closer
look at how we encode these deeper meanings.
Episodic memories relate to events that are personally relevant and that we have
personally experienced.52 As a result, a person’s motivation to retain these memories
will likely be strong. Couples often have “their song,” which reminds them of their
first date or wedding. We call some especially vivid associations flashbulb memories
(where were you when you first heard that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, you would
Chapter 4 • Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
103
Certain events create flashbulb
memories. Do you remember when
you first found out about the pandemic
lockdown?
Source: UrbanImages/Alamy Stock Photo
have to stay home?). These memories are often stored in a narrative way, creating a
story structure that connects pieces of the event together.
Researchers describe three distinct memory systems: sensory memory, short-term
memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM). Each plays a role in processing brandrelated information (see Figure 4.3).
Sensory Memory
Sensory memory stores the information we receive from
our senses. This storage is temporary; it lasts a couple of
seconds at most. For example, a consumer who walks past a
donut shop gets a quick, enticing whiff of something baking
inside. Although this sensation lasts only a few seconds, it
is sufficient to allow them to consider whether they should
investigate further. If they retain this information for further
processing, it transfers to short-term memory.
Short-Term Memory
Short-term memory (STM) also stores information for
a limited period of time, and it has limited capacity. Like
a computer, this system is working memory; it holds the
information we are currently processing. Our memories can
store verbal input acoustically (in terms of how it sounds) or
semantically (in terms of what it means).
We store this information as we combine small pieces
into larger ones in a process called chunking. A chunk is
a configuration that is familiar to the person and that they
can think about as a unit. For example, a brand name like 7
For All Mankind is a chunk that represents a great deal of
detailed information about the product.
Initially, researchers believed that our STM was capable
of processing between five and nine chunks of information
at a time; they described this basic property as “the magical
It’s common for marketers to give a brand a vivid name that
conjures up an image or story in our minds. Research suggests that
this strategy results in higher consumer evaluations versus brand
names composed of meaningless letters or numbers. One study
reported that consumers rated cell phones from Samsung and LG
more positively after they were the first in the industry to break the
practice of naming the phones with combinations of letters and
numbers—LG’s phones instead sport names like Chocolate, Shine,
Vu, Voyager, Dare, and Decoy, whereas Samsung started things off
with the BlackJack, UpStage, FlipShot, and Juke, and later added
the Access, Instinct, and Glyde. During the same period, these
companies increased market share in this category. Compared to
other phone brands, consumers rated these models as modern,
creative, engaging, original, cool, and easy to remember.53
Source: RAVEENDRAN/AFP via Getty Images
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number 7 ± 2.” This is the reason phone numbers today (at least in the
United States) originally had seven digits.54 It now appears that three to
four chunks is the optimal size for efficient retrieval (we remember sevendigit phone numbers because we chunk the individual digits, so we may
remember a three-digit exchange as one piece of information).55 Phone calls
aside, chunking is important to marketers because it helps determine how
consumers keep prices in short-term memory when they comparison-shop.56
Long-Term Memory
Individual cognitive or physiological factors are
responsible for some of the differences in retrieval
ability among people.57 The popularity of puzzles,
such as Rubik’s cube, Sudoku and Brain Box, and
centers that offer “mental gymnastics,” attests to
emerging evidence that we can keep our retrieval
abilities sharp by exercising our minds, just as
we keep our other muscles toned when we
work out on a regular basis.
Source: Singkam/Shutterstock
Long-term memory (LTM) is the system that allows us to retain information for a long period of time. A cognitive process of elaboration allows
information to move from STM into LTM. This involves thinking about
the meaning of a stimulus and relating it to other information already in
memory. The more effort it takes to process information (so-called deep
processing), the more likely it is that information will transfer into LTM.
Marketers assist in the process when they devise catchy slogans or jingles
consumers repeat on their own.
What Makes Us Forget?
Marketers obviously hope that consumers will not forget about their products. However, in a poll of more than 13,000 adults, more than half were unable to remember
any specific ad they had seen, heard, or read in the past 30 days. How many can you
remember right now? Clearly, forgetting by consumers is a big headache for marketers
(not to mention a problem for students when they study for exams!). In one major
study, only 23 percent of the respondents could recall a new product introduced in
the past year.58
Early memory theorists assumed that memories simply fade with the passage of
time. In a process of decay, the structural changes that learning produces in the brain
simply go away. Forgetting also occurs because of interference; as we learn additional
information, it displaces the previous information. Consumers may forget stimulus–
response associations if they subsequently learn new responses to the same or similar
stimuli; we call this process retroactive interference. Or prior learning can interfere
with new learning, a process we term proactive interference. Because we store pieces
of information in memory as nodes that link to one another, we are more likely to
retrieve a meaning concept that is connected by a larger number of links. But as we
learn new responses, a stimulus loses its effectiveness in retrieving the old response.59
These interference effects help to explain problems in remembering brand information. Consumers tend to organize attribute information by brand.60 Additional attribute information regarding a brand or similar brands may limit the person’s ability to
recall old brand information.
Recall may also be inhibited if the brand name is composed of frequently
used words. These words cue competing associations; as a result, we retain less
brand information.61 In one study, brand evaluations deteriorated more rapidly when
ads for the brand appeared with messages for 12 other brands in the same category
than when researchers showed the ad along with ads for 12 dissimilar products.62
Thus, when we increase the uniqueness of one brand, it impairs the recall of other
brands.63 However, when we call a competitor by name, this can result in poorer recall
for our own brand.64
Sometimes we just want to forget. Researchers have called this process motivated forgetting, and they showed that we try hard to forget any message that
threatens our social identity—our sense of who we are.65 For instance, we might
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know that meat-based products contribute to global warming and poor working conditions to a greater extent than plant-based products, yet many of us often ignore this
information altogether to justify continuing to eat a burger, even if we care deeply
for the planet!
It takes a lot of work to remember things: In fact, a recent study found that
memory efficacy—that is, the belief that we will be able to remember things that we
are experiencing right now—was directly linked to whether we behave more virtuously.66 This is because believing that we will remember what we are currently doing
makes us focus on actions that are more aligned with our values: like donating to
charities or engaging in volunteering activities. It’s like being our own future judges
of our current behavior!
What Helps Us To Remember?
It hasn’t been smooth sailing for the cruise industry lately, especially since these floating cities turned out to be ideal breeding grounds for the COVID virus. One of the
most embarrassing and high-profile accidents stranded several thousand guests on a
Carnival ship in the Gulf of Mexico with no electricity or working toilets, but plenty
of smartphones to record the dismal conditions. Carnival’s potential cruisers are skittish, so the cruise line launched a $25 million public relations offensive to lure people
back on board. The campaign asks previous customers to use social media to post
images and videos of happy experiences that will contribute to Carnival’s “Moments
That Matter” commercial. The ad’s voiceover says, “We never forget the moments that
matter. We hang them on our walls. We share them with everyone. And hold onto them
forever. Since the day we first set sail, millions of lasting moments have been made
with us. What will yours be?” Sure enough, the campaign received more than 30,000
submissions, presumably from passengers who enjoyed both the midnight chocolate
buffet and working plumbing.67
We’ve seen that retrieval is the process whereby we recover information from
long-term memory. As evidenced by the popularity of the board game Trivial Pursuit
or the TV show Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, we have a vast quantity of
information stored in our heads—a lot of which is not useful unless you play the
game! Although most of the information that enters LTM does not go away, it may
be difficult or impossible to retrieve unless the appropriate cues are present. What
factors influence the likelihood that we will remember the marketing messages that
organizations work so hard to create? Or simply that will help us remember the list of
items we had in mind to shop for when we enter the grocery store?
Salience
The salience of a brand refers to its prominence or level of activation in memory. Stimuli that stand out in contrast to their environments are more likely to
command attention, which, in turn, increases the likelihood that we will recall them.
The von Restorff Effect is well-known to memory researchers; it shows that almost any
technique that increases the novelty of a stimulus also improves recall. This explains
why unusual advertising or distinctive packaging tends to facilitate brand recall.69
The tactic of introducing a surprise element in an ad can boost recall, even if
the new information is not relevant to the remaining material.70 In addition, mystery
ads, in which the ad doesn’t identify the brand until the end, are more effective if we
want to build associations in memory between the product category and that brand—
especially in the case of relatively unknown brands.71
Furthermore, the intensity and type of emotions we experience at the time also
affect the way we recall the event later. We recall mixed emotions (e.g., those with
Buying, Having, Being
Digital Amnesia
“Just a second, I’ll Google the
answer.” Is internet access rotting
our brains? Probably not, but it is
making us less able to remember
things and thus less knowledgeable.
Some psychologists describe this
phenomenon as the Google Effect
(or digital amnesia)—the tendency
for people to rely too heavily on
the ability to readily access content
online and, as a result, be less likely
to remember certain details. One
study found that a third of adults
turn to Google with a query without
first trying to remember the answer.
Similarly, some researchers are
concerned that with over a billion
people relying on navigation apps
such as Google Maps, our sense
of direction is being destroyed
because the apps diminish our
natural ability to create maps in
our minds.68
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positive and negative components) differently from unipolar emotions that are either
wholly positive or wholly negative. The latter become even more polarized over time
so that we recall good things as even better than they really were and bad things as
even worse (maybe the “good old days” weren’t so good after all!).72
Visual versus Verbal Cues
Is a picture worth a thousand words? There is some evidence for the superiority of
visual memory over verbal memory, but this advantage is unclear because it is more
difficult to measure recall of pictures.73 However, the available data indicate that we
are more likely to recognize information we see in picture form at a later time.74 In
one recent study, participants who could freely take photographs during an experience
recognized more of what they saw and less of what they heard, compared with those
who could not take any photographs.75
A recent review of research on imagery and memory concluded that images play
a crucial role in retrieving past experiences that were encoded visually as well as in
imagining future experiences.76 Another study confirmed that consumers typically
recall ads with visual figures more often and they like them better.77
Visual aspects of commercials are more likely to grab a consumer’s attention. This
can be problematic when attention to the visual detracts from processing the actual
message, as a recent study reported (see Figure 4.4). The research project, which
relied on eye-tracking technology, revealed a common trick that pharmaceutical drug
companies use in their commercials: Visuals of happy people attracted so much of
the consumers’ attention that it reduced attention to and understanding of what the
audio was saying. Understanding of the warning and risks associated with the drug
was poorer when participants were exposed to a commercial
showing people with smiling faces than the same commercial
showing people with neutral faces.78
One reason for the power of visuals is that products are
important memory markers; they can encapsulate certain
time periods, and they serve as reminders of personal or collective experiences. For instance, we buy souvenirs to encapsulate happy memories or to capture intangible experiences
that we might otherwise forget.79 Certain brands come to
epitomize an era—like the TV series Friends and the 1990s.
Brands can become so associated with certain events or
cultural eras that they shape our memory of those events or
time periods.80 So even if we did not live through a given
period or in a given country, we might have seen products
or designs associated with them and these become part of
Well-established brands can serve as memory markers of earlier
popular memory.
times—like when trucker hats were all the rage.
We rely on photos or social media posts as memory
Source: TIPAKORN MAKORNSEN/ Shutterstock
markers that remind us of past events or experiences. The risk, however, is that these
photos may not accurately capture the reality, so our memories of even our own lived
events can become reconstructed and reshaped based on what was captured in the
photo. For instance, a study found that we remember experiences we had as having
lasted longer if we have lots of photos to remember them.81
Did your parents scan all your childhood drawings before they trashed the
physical copies? Photos also can serve as a form of memory preservation and
ultimately replace the physical object. A recent field study found that taking
pictures of things we like before donating them to charity increased donations: The
photo of the loved object reduces the loss we might otherwise have felt from giving
the object away.82
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Figure 4.4 “Shiny, Happy
People” in Pharmaceutical Ads
Neutral Facial Expression
Respondent is less visually distracted
and can process the audio warning.
Happy Facial Expression
Respondent is more visually distracted
and cannot process the audio warning.
Adding a Text Banner
The visual banner allows the respondent
to process the audio warning, even though
the facial expression is happy.
Photos and memorabilia can help make otherwise intangible experiences easier
to remember. But an ethnographic study of the memory practices of New Yorkers in
the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks surprisingly found that products can help us
both remember and forget.83 Many New Yorkers who personally experienced 9/11
use souvenirs, such as a piece of debris found on the ground, to “unremember difficult memories.” The souvenir helps them to cope in the aftermath of a tragic event
by allowing the event to be revered as well as remembered.
Creating a Narrative
Given that our memories store a lot of the social information we acquire in story
form, as we’ll see in Chapter 8, constructing messages in the form of a narrative
helps them resonate with the audience. A narrative is often an effective way to convey
product information. Stories help people to construct mental representations of the
information they see or hear. Pictures aid in this construction and allow us to develop
more detailed mental representations.84
Research supports the idea that we are more likely to positively evaluate and purchase brands when we can immerse ourselves in a narrative that includes the brand.85
A recent study that analyzed consumer reviews on the travel website Trip Advisor
found that the reviews that got the most attention included narrative components, like
relatable characters and a chronology of events.86
Sometimes instead of creating a whole narrative around their brand, companies
just insert their brand in an existing story through product placement. Think about
brands you might have seen or heard mentioned in your favorite TV show: By placing
A commonly used trick in
pharmaceutical drug commercials is
to use visuals to distract consumers’
attention to the audio warning. Using
eye-tracking technology, researchers
found that a smiling face does exactly
that (attracts attention away form the
warning).
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those brands inside the story and amongst highly relatable characters of a well-liked
narrative, marketers make those brands instantly memorable. Some companies jump
on the product placement bandwagon even after the fact: For instance, Pottery Barn
later released an Apothecary Table similar to the one Rachel loved so much in the
Friends episode “The One with the Apothecary Table.”87
How Do We Measure Consumers’ Memories
for Marketing Messages?
Because marketers pay so much money to place their messages in front of consumers, they hope that people will remember these ads later. It seems that they have good
reason to be concerned. In one early study, fewer than 40 percent of television viewers
made positive links between commercial messages and the corresponding products;
only 65 percent noticed the brand name in a commercial, and only 38 percent recognized a connection to an important point.88 To make matters worse, recall seems to be
even weaker for digital ads. One recent study reported that while online media offer a
much less expensive way to reach consumers, people recall a maximum of about 30
percent of what they see. In contrast, they recall 60 percent of television messages.89
Recall versus Recognition
One indicator of good advertising is, of course, the impression it makes on us. But how
can we define and measure this impact? Two basic measures of impact are recall and
recognition. In a typical memory study, researchers show consumers brand messages—
either one at a time or in the context of a website, an event, or a videogame—and then
try to assess how well the consumers remember the advertised brand.
Recall tests ask consumers to independently think of
what they have seen without any prompt at all. For instance, a
recent study tested TV viewers’ memory of billboards placed
on the perimeter of a soccer game the day after a televised
game that pitted Germany against England. The recall test
asked them to list any billboard they remembered seeing on
the boards around the playing area.90
Obviously, this task requires great effort on consumers’
part. So often researchers use recognition tests and ask if
consumers recognize a brand from a list. For instance, in the
soccer game study, the researchers asked consumers to check
from a list which advertisers they remembered seeing on the
boards. Think about it: Would you rather respond to a multiple choice or an open-ended question? The multiple-choice
format is like a recognition test; you have cues to help you
retrieve that information from memory.
Under some conditions, recall and recognition measures
Social media platforms such as Instagram or Facebook have
tend to yield the same results, especially when the researchers
revolutionized how people store and share memories. However,
try to keep the viewers’ interest in the ads constant (although
at least some users feel that maybe these platforms do this
that may be an overly artificial way to study true memory for
a bit too well: They don’t necessarily want others (especially
ads).91 Generally, though, recognition scores tend to be more
employers, parents, and other authority figures) to know about
reliable and do not decay over time the way recall scores
all their “awesome” experiences. A big factor behind Snapchat’s
popularity is that the platform posts and then destroys more than
do.92 Recognition scores are almost always better than recall
60 million photos or messages every day. One of Snapchat’s
scores because recognition is a simpler process and the confounders explained the thinking behind the app: “It became clear
sumer has more retrieval cues available. Sometimes recall
how awful social media is. There is real value in sharing moments
yields almost null results. For instance, most of the particithat don’t live forever.”93
pants in the soccer study could not recall a single billboard
Source: Shutterstock /Zyabich
the day after the game!
Chapter 4 • Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
109
Both types of retrieval play important roles in purchase
decisions, however. Recall tends to be more important in
situations in which consumers do not have product data at
their disposal, so they must rely on memory to generate this
information.94 Recognition is more likely to be an important
factor in a store, where retailers confront consumers with
thousands of product options (i.e., external memory is abundantly available), and the task simply may be to recognize a
familiar package.
Problems with Memory Measures
Although measuring an ad’s memorability is important, analysts
have questioned whether existing measures accurately assess
these dimensions, for several reasons. First, the results we obtain
Using eye-tracking and biometric measures during exposure to
from a measuring instrument are not necessarily based on what
advertising, researchers can identify how strongly a message is
encoded. A recent study using functional magnetic resonance
we measure, but rather on something else about the instrument
imaging (fMRI) found that the strength of this encoding phase
or the respondent. This form of contamination is a response
affects how likely that message is remembered one week later.
bias. For example, people tend to give “yes” responses to quesThat study found that print ads were encoded more strongly and
tions, regardless of what the item asks. In addition, experimental
therefore were remembered better than digital ads, even though
subjects often are eager to be “good subjects”: They try to figure
the content was the same. The authors of the study suggest that,
even in the digital age, consumers engage more with print ads
out what the experimenter is looking for and give the response
than with digital ads.96
they think they are supposed to give. This tendency is so strong
Source: patrickheagney/Gettyimages
that in some studies the rate at which subjects claim they recognize bogus ads (ads they have not seen before) is almost as high as their recognition rate
for those they really have seen!95
Memory Lapses, Biases, and False Memories
People are also prone to forget information or retain inaccurate memories. These
memory errors are not just a problem in court cases that rely on eyewitness testimony;
they also call into question the accuracy of product usage databases that rely on
consumers to recall their purchase and consumption of food and household items.
For example, one study asked people to describe what portion of various foods—
small, medium, or large—they ate in a typical meal. However, the researchers used
different definitions of “medium.” Regardless of the definition they gave, about the
same number of people claimed they typically ate “medium” portions.97
In other situations, we may “fool ourselves” by distorting memories. For example,
some people who work toward a goal like losing weight or saving money may exaggerate (to themselves) how much progress they’ve made to justify current indulgences.
That tendency points to the importance of documenting your progress (your Fitbit
monitoring device doesn’t lie) to keep yourself on track.98
And, under some circumstances, our minds tend to distort what we remember.
For example, if a brand makes us feel emotionally conflicted because we know that
its products involve child labor, we tend to resolve this conflict not just by ignoring
the negative information but instead by forgetting it altogether. Researchers term this
“hiding our head in the sand” willfully ignorant memory; we remember instead only
those things we like about the brand.99
Marketing Applications of Consumers’ Memories
As we saw at the beginning of this chapter, Joe journeys through time with the aid
of many products that make him feel good because they remind him of earlier parts
of his life. Nostalgia describes the bittersweet emotion that arises when we view the
past with both sadness and longing.100
110
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Nostalgia appeals to our old memories have
become even more popular in the last few years, as
some big brands work hard to reassure customers
that they can depend on familiar products during
unsettling times. A retro brand is an updated version of a brand from a prior historical period. These
products trigger nostalgia, and researchers find that
they often inspire consumers to think back to an era
when (at least in our memories) life was more stable,
simple, or even utopian. Simply, they let us “look
backward through rose-colored glasses.” One study
reported that people who were asked to think about
the past were willing to pay more for products than
those who were asked to think about new or future
memories.101
By evoking nostalgia, brand messages satisfy
what
consumers crave: authenticity. Retro-styling
The biggest retro success story in recent years: the Old Spice Guy
in and of itself is not enough, though: Brands must
campaign that went viral and revived a men’s deodorant brand that is more
ensure that the product has personal relevance
than 70 years old.
Source: Pacific Press Media Production Corp./Alamy Stock Photo
to consumers.102 Planters Peanuts recruited the
actor Robert Downey, Jr., as the new voice of Mr. Peanut. “Retired” brand names,
including Meister Brau beer, the brokerage firm Shearson, Handi-Wrap plastic wrap,
and Wonder Bread were sold at auction to companies that want to bring them back
to life.103
Our prior experiences also shape what we like today. Consumer researchers
created a nostalgia index that measures the critical ages during which our preferences
are likely to form and endure over time. It turns out that a good predictor of whether
people will like a specific song is how old they were when that song was popular.
On average, we are most likely to favor songs that were popular when we were
23.5 years old (so pay attention to the hot songs if you haven’t turned 23 yet). Our
preferences for fashion models peak at age 33, and we tend to like movie stars who
were popular when we were 26 or 27 years old.104
OBJECTIVE 4-4
Discuss how
knowledge about
brands is organized
in our brains.
PepsiCo launched its “Throwback”
campaign that offers products like
Pepsi and Mountain Dew in authentic
packages from the past. Chex Mix
recently reintroduced its “Chex
Quest” video game from the 1990s
for the online gaming platform Steam,
while Coca-Cola revived Surge, a
discontinued citrus-flavored soda.105
And archrival.
Source: Keith Homan/Shutterstock
How Do We Organize
What We Know?
How can we possibly remember most of what we experience within the last week, much less the past few decades?
One clue is that our brains like to label and categorize new things we learn to
relate these experiences to what we already know about the world. The brain is
organized as an associative network that contains many bits of related information.
We each have organized systems of concepts that relate to brands, manufacturers,
and stores stored in our memories; the contents, of course, depend on our own
unique experiences.
Think of these storage units, or knowledge structures, as complex spider webs
filled with pieces of data. Incoming information gets put into nodes that connect to
one another (if you haven’t guessed, this is also why we called cyberspace the World
Wide Web). When we view separate pieces of information as similar for some reason,
we connect them together under some more abstract category. Then, we interpret new,
incoming information to be consistent with the structure we have created.106 This
Chapter 4 • Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
helps explain why we are better able to remember brands or stores that we believe “go
together”; for example, when Titleist golf balls rather than Chanel fragrances sponsors
a golf tournament.107
In the associative network, links form between nodes. For example, a consumer
might have a network for “electric cars.” Each node represents a concept related to
the category. This node can be an attribute, a specific brand, a celebrity the consumer
identifies with a specific car brand, or even a related product. A network for electric
cars might include concepts such as the brand name Tesla, as well as attributes such
as expensive or green. In turn, these associations themselves can activate other nodes
in the networks: The node “Elon Musk” may activate the country South Africa,
and all the associations consumers may have with that country (Nelson Mandela;
Zulu; Oscar Pistorius, the “Blade Runner” superabled athlete who was convicted
of murder in a sensational court case; etc.); that node might also trigger the label
“entrepreneur,” which could activate other “entrepreneur” nodes, like Bill Gates or
Steve Jobs.
When we ask the consumer to list electric cars, this consumer recalls only those
brands that show up in the appropriate category. The task of a new entrant that wants
to position itself as a category member (e.g., a new electric car manufacturer) is to
provide cues that facilitate its placement in the appropriate category. Figure 4.5 shows
a sample network for electric cars.
A marketing message may activate our associations with a brand directly (for
example, when it shows us a picture of the package), or it may do so indirectly when
it links to something else that’s related to the brand in our knowledge structure. If it
activates a node, it will also activate other linked nodes, much as tapping a spider’s
web in one spot sends movement reverberating across the web. Meaning thus spreads
across the network, and we recall concepts, such as competing brands and relevant
attributes, that we use to form attitudes toward the brand.
This process of spreading activation allows us to shift back and forth among
levels of meaning. The way we store a piece of information in memory depends on the
type of meaning we initially assign to it. This meaning type, in turn, will determine
Electric cars
Tesla
Toyota
Hybrids
Elon Musk
Prius
Entrepreneur
South Africa
Bill Gates
Zulu
Nelson
Mandela
Figure 4.5 An Associative Network for Automobiles
111
Buying, Having, Being
The Mulan Debacle
Sometimes the pent-up demand
for these favorites from days past
can cause a promotion to backfire
when too many people want them.
That’s what McDonald’s discovered
recently when it brought back its
“Szechuan” sauce for a day. The
condiment was created as part of a
1998 promotion for the Disney film
Mulan and was a hit among consumers who were kids at the time.
Hordes of them congregated at
Mickey D’s around the country, only
to discover that the limited supplies
ran out quickly.
One Twitter user posted a video
of an angry crowd chanting, “We
want sauce.” Some disappointed
fans searched online sites like eBay
where the condiment was selling for
exorbitant sums. An offer for three
sealed packs of the sauce sold for
$848.88 ($282.96 each), while a
single packet was bidding for $995.
Be careful what you wish for!108
112
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how and when something activates the meaning. Thus, we organize our knowledge
for the brand Uggs in one or more of the following ways:
• Brand-specific—Knowledge is stored in terms of claims the brand makes (“it’s
luxurious”).
• Communication-specific—Memory is stored in terms of the medium or content
of the marketing communication itself (an Instagram influencer styling her Uggs).
• Brand identification—Memory is stored in terms of the brand name (e.g., “Ugg”).
• Product category—Memory is stored in terms of how the product works or where
it should be used (a set of Uggs in one’s shoe collection).
is stored as positive or negative emotions (“that
• Evaluative reactions—Memory
109
boot looks so stylish”).
Levels of Knowledge
Within a knowledge structure, we code elements at different levels of abstraction and
complexity. As we saw in Chapter 3, a schema is a cognitive framework we develop
through experience. We encode information more readily when that information is
consistent with an existing schema.110 The ability to move up and down among levels
of abstraction greatly increases processing flexibility and efficiency. For this reason,
young children who do not yet have well-developed schemas are not able to make as
efficient use of purchase information as are older children.111
One type of schema especially relevant to consumer behavior is a script, a sequence
of events an individual expects to occur. As consumers, we learn scripts that guide our
behavior in commercial settings. We expect a certain sequence of events, and we may
become uncomfortable if the service departs from our script. A script for a visit to the
dentist might include such events as (1) drive to the dentist, (2) read old magazines
in the waiting room, (3) hear name called and sit in dentist’s chair, (4) dentist injects
something into gums, (5) dentist turns on high-pitched drill, and so on. This desire to
follow a script helps to explain why such innovations as automatic bank machines, selfservice gas stations, or “scan-your-own” grocery checkouts have met with resistance by
some consumers who have trouble adapting to new sequences of events.112
How Do We Put Products into Categories?
Knowledge structures matter to marketers like Stonyfield, Green Valley, and Trader
Joe’s that sell yogurt-related items because
they want to ensure that customers correctly
group their products. To see why this is
important, consider how someone might
respond to these questions about an ice
cream cone: “What other products share
similar characteristics, and which would you
consider as alternatives to eating a cone?”
These questions may be more complex than they first appear. At one level, a
cone is like an apple because you could eat
both as a dessert. At another level, a cone is
similar to a piece of pie because you could
eat either for dessert and both are fattening.
Although other automotive companies make electric cars, for many drivers the Tesla
At still another level, a cone is like an ice
is a category exemplar.
cream sundae—you could eat either for
Source: Hadrian/ShutterStock
Chapter 4 • Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
Dessert
SUPERORDINATE LEVEL
Fattening Dessert
Ice Cream
Pie
Nonfattening Dessert
BASIC LEVEL
Cake
SUBORDINATE
LEVEL
Fruit
Yogurt
Low-fat
Ice Cream
Figure 4.6 Levels of Categorization
dessert, both are made of ice cream, and both are fattening. Figure 4.6 depicts these
three levels.
It’s easy to see that the foods a person associates with the category “fattening
dessert” influence their decision about what to eat after dinner. The middle level,
or basic level category, is typically the most useful for classifying products. At this
level, the items we group together tend to have a lot in common with each other but
still permit us to consider a broad enough range of alternatives. The broader superordinate category is more abstract, whereas the more specific subordinate category
often includes individual brands.113 Of course, not all items fit equally well into a
category. Apple pie is a better example of the subordinate category “pie” than is rhubarb pie, even though both are types of pies. This is because it’s more prototypical,
and most people would think of apple as a pie flavor before they thought of rhubarb.
In contrast, true pie experts probably know a lot about both typical and atypical
category examples.114
Product categories are the building blocks of a market, but sometimes companies
like to play with them; they create new ones when they introduce hybrid products
that feature characteristics from two distinct domains. Thus, we have the crossover
utility vehicle (CUV) that mixes a passenger car and a sport utility vehicle (SUV) and
the huge “athleisure” fashion phenomenon that fuses styles from athletic apparel
and leisure apparel to yield an army of Lululemon-clad yoga buffs. And let’s not even
talk about the “cronut” craze (a combination croissant and donut) that started with a
New York bakery and made its leap to national stardom courtesy of Dunkin’ Donuts.115
“If They Own This, They Must Own That”:
Consumption Constellations
These networks of brands alongside all the associations we make with them—
personalities, roles, and other meanings—are called consumption constellations.
These constellations connect all the associations we have learned around a concept,
such as “hipster,” which has become synonymous with someone who has specific tastes
in alternative, outside-the-mainstream food, experiences, fashions, and leisure activities. Products inside a constellation are complementary or often purchased together.
They can also be marketed as such: Social media influencers use the recipe to promote
constellations when they post videos that instruct their followers how to “get the look.”
Some evidence indicates that young children learn consumption-related information surprisingly well.116 Researchers found that the number of products and brands
children integrate in their knowledge structures grows proportionally to their age until
about age 12 because we start forming more rigid associations and stereotypes at the
onset of adolescence.117
113
114
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How Do You Become an Expert?
Who would you turn to if you’re in need of fashion advice? Or if you needed help
picking a good wine? Experts! When consumers are passionate about a topic or
product category, they seek more knowledge, and some even develop expertise about
certain topics, products, or brands. Experts are thirsty for knowledge: they have more
elaborated cognitive structures, they remember information better, and they are
more efficient at accessing that information.118
As useful as experts are, researchers have recently found that, sadly, experts
tend to become more emotionally numb: knowing so much takes a toll on the actual
enjoyment of having this knowledge.119 Researchers found evidence of this emotional numbness across a variety of consumption domains: From cinephiles to wine
connoisseurs, the more complex an expert’s cognitive structure of a given product
category, the less enjoyment they have in learning more about that product because
they become overly focused on the analytical process of updating their cognitive
structure. So, if you’re passionate about something and want to keep learning more
and more about it, it’s also important to continue having fun with it. If something
you’re passionate about starts to feel like work, take a break and pause to remember
why you enjoyed this in the first place. Having enjoyment from your passion should
take precedent over stressing about the accumulation and organization of more knowledge about it.
It is important to note that knowledge is constructed not just as function of cognitive processes that happen in the brain, but also through what is called embodied
knowledge: We develop and grow our knowledge through our own actions, and by
witnessing others’ actions. Experts develop their knowledge about products not from
reading more about them, but also living them. For instance, a recent in-depth study of
beer aficionados found that their sensory experiences were central to how they eventually developed the complex system of taste they needed to judge beers.120 Compared
to novices, experts tune in to their bodily experience and engineer their taste by dissecting their sensory experience and using more technical language to describe the
beer. So instead of saying things like “very tasty,” they provide more refined qualifiers that attempt to objectively describe the more nuanced sensations that the beer
provides: oaky, spice and apple-laden.
Marketing Applications of Consumers’
Knowledge Structures
The way we categorize products has a lot of strategic implications for marketers.
That’s because this process affects which products consumers will compare to our
product and the criteria they’ll use to decide whether they like us or the other guys.
Position a Product
The success of a positioning strategy hinges on the marketer’s ability to convince
the consumer to consider its product within a given category. For example, the
orange juice industry tried to reposition orange juice as a drink people can enjoy
all day long (“It’s not just for breakfast anymore”). However, soft-drink companies
attempt the opposite when they portray sodas as suitable for breakfast consumption. They are trying to make their way into consumers’ “breakfast drink” category,
along with orange juice, grapefruit juice, and coffee. Of course, this strategy can
backfire, as Pepsi-Cola discovered when it introduced Pepsi A.M. and positioned it
as a coffee substitute. The company did such a good job of categorizing the drink
as a morning beverage that customers wouldn’t drink it at any other time, and the
product failed.121
Chapter 4 • Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
115
Identify Competitors
At the abstract, superordinate level, many different
product forms compete for membership. The
category “entertainment” might comprise both
bowling and the ballet, but not many people
would substitute one of these activities for the
other. Products and services that on the surface
are quite different, however, compete with each
other at a broad level for consumers’ discretionary
dollars. Although bowling or ballet may not be
a likely tradeoff for many people, a symphony
might try to lure away ballet season ticket holders
by positioning itself as an equivalent member of
the superordinate category “cultural event.” We’re
This ad for Sunkist lemon juice attempts to establish a new category for the
often faced with choices between noncomparable
product by repositioning it as a salt substitute.
Source: Courtesy of Sunkist Growers.
categories, where we can’t directly relate the
attributes in one to those in another (the old
problem of comparing apples and oranges). When we can create an overlapping category
that encompasses both items (e.g., entertainment, value, usefulness) and then rate each
alternative in terms of that superordinate category comparison, the process is easier.122
Create an Exemplar Product
As we saw with the case of apple pie versus rhubarb pie, if a product is a really good
example of a category, then it is more familiar to consumers and they more easily recognize and recall it.123 The characteristics of these so-called category exemplars tend
to exert a disproportionate influence on how people think of the category in general.124
In a sense, brands we strongly associate with a category get to “call the shots”: They
define the criteria we use to evaluate all category members.
Locate Products in a Store
Product categorization also can affect consumers’ expectations regarding the places
where they can locate a desired product. If products do not clearly fit into categories
(e.g., is a rug furniture?), this may diminish our ability to find them or figure out what
they’re supposed to be once we do. For instance, a frozen dog food that pet owners
had to thaw and cook before they served it to Fido failed in the market, partly because
people could not adapt to the idea of buying dog food in the “frozen foods for people”
section of their grocery stores.
Create Distinctive Associations
Marketers have many branding and communication strategies at their disposal to
tap into consumers’ knowledge by associating their brands with existing nodes. For
instance, they can benefit, through what is called a halo effect, from associating
their brand with images, sounds, or celebrities that generate positive responses. First
entrants in a product category, like Tesla in the electric vehicles category, are sometimes called pioneer brands: They have an immediate advantage because there is not
competition for the node, and it becomes more easily associated with their name.125
In contrast, follower brands that ride their coattails are less distinctive.
More generally, we are more likely to recognize words, objects, and faces we
learn early in life than similar items we learn later. This applies to brands as well;
managers who introduce new entries into a market with well-established brand names
need to work harder to create learning and memory linkages by exposing consumers
to information about them more frequently.126
116
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The iconic (and deceased) reggae
singer Bob Marley’s name and image
appears on a vast range of products,
including caps, lanyards, T-shirts,
rolling papers, handbags and purses,
belts and buckles, beach towels, and
knapsacks. His daughter Cedella
launched High Tide swimwear to
further extend the franchise, and his
son Rohan created the Marley Coffee
brand; each variety is named after a
different Marley tune.127
Source: Jon Arnold Images Ltd /Alamy Stock Photo
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Now that you have finished reading this chapter, you should
be able to:
1. Describe how conditioning results in learning.
Behavioral learning theories assume that learning occurs because of responses to external events.
Classical conditioning occurs when a stimulus that
naturally elicits a response (an unconditioned stimulus)
is paired with another stimulus that does not initially
elicit this response. Over time, the second stimulus (the
conditioned stimulus) elicits the response even in
the absence of the first.
for it or when a consumer avoids a behavior because of
seeing someone else performing it and being rewarded
or punished for it.
3. Explain how our brains process and store information about brands in our memory.
Memory is the storage of learned information. The
way we encode information when we perceive it
determines how we will store it in memory. The memory
systems we call sensory memory, short-term memory,
and long-term memory each play a role in retaining
and processing information from the outside world in
marketing strategies.
2. Summarize how we learn about products and
consumption practices by observing others’
behavior.
4. Discuss how knowledge about brands is organized in our brains.
Cognitive learning occurs as the result of mental processes. For example, observational learning occurs
when the consumer performs a behavior because of
seeing someone else performing it and being rewarded
Our knowledge of brands is integrated in a complex network of nodes that, when activated, can in turn activate
associated nodes. In these networks live consumption
constellations and brand knowledge networks.
KEY TERMS
Advertising wear-out, 92
Advertising weariness, 92
Associative network, 110
Behavioral learning theories, 90
Brand equity, 92
Category exemplars, 115
Chunking, 103
Classical conditioning, 90
Cognitive learning theory, 98
Conditioned response (CR), 91
Conditioned stimulus (CS), 91
Consumer confusion, 95
Consumption constellations, 113
Decay, 104
Elaboration, 104
Chapter 4 • Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
Embodied knowledge, 114
Encoding stage, 101
Episodic memories, 102
Evaluative conditioning, 91
Expertise, 114
Extinction, 91
Family branding, 94
Follower brands, 115
Frequency marketing, 98
The Google effect, 105
Halo effect, 94
Hybrid products, 113
Incidental learning, 89
Instrumental conditioning, 95
Interference, 104
Knowledge structures, 110
Learning, 89
Licensing, 94
Long-term memory (LTM), 104
Look-alike packaging, 94
Memory, 101
Memory efficacy, 105
Memory markers, 106
Memory preservation, 106
Mindfulness, 100
Mixed emotions, 105
Modeling, 98
Motivated forgetting, 104
Multiple-intelligence theory, 100
Narrative, 103
Negative reinforcement, 96
Nodes, 111
Nostalgia, 109
Observational learning, 98
Pioneer brands, 115
Positive reinforcement, 96
Product line extension, 94
Product placement, 107
Punishment, 96
Recall, 108
Recognition, 108
Repetition, 91
117
Response bias, 109
Retrieval stage, 101
Retro brand, 110
Salience, 105
Script, 112
Semantic network, 102
Sensory memory, 103
Shaping, 95
Short-term memory (STM), 103
Sonic branding, 95
Sound signatures, 95
Spreading activation, 111
Stages of cognitive development, 99
Stimulus generalization, 94
Storage stage, 101
Theory of mind, 99
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS), 91
Unipolar emotions, 106
von Restorff effect, 105
Willfully ignorant memory, 109
REVIEW
4-1 What is the difference between an unconditioned
stimulus and a conditioned stimulus?
4-2 How can marketers use repetition to increase the likelihood that consumers will learn about their brand?
4-3 Why is it not necessarily a good idea to advertise a
product in a commercial where a popular song plays
in the background?
4-4 What is the difference between classical conditioning
and instrumental conditioning?
4-5 What is the major difference between behavioral and
cognitive theories of learning?
4-6 Name the three stages of information processing as
we commit information about products to memory.
4-7 What is external memory, and why is it important to
marketers?
4-8 Give an example of an episodic memory.
4-9 Why do U.S. phone numbers have seven digits (not
including the area code)?
4-10 List the three types of memory and explain how they
work together.
4-11 How is associative memory like a spider web?
4-12 How does the likelihood that a person wants to use
an ATM machine relate to a schema?
4-13 Why does a pioneer brand have a memory advantage
over follower brands?
4-14 If a consumer is familiar with a product, advertising
for it can work by either enhancing or diminishing
recall. Why?
4-15 Define nostalgia and explain why it’s such a widely
used advertising strategy.
4-16 Name the two basic measures of memory and
describe how they differ from one another.
4-17 List three problems with measures of memory for
advertising.
4-18 How do different types of reinforcement enhance
learning? How does the strategy of frequency marketing relate to conditioning?
4-19 How does learning new information make it more
likely that we’ll forget things we’ve already learned?
118
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CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHALLENGE
DISCUSS
4-20 To hasten kids’ introduction to social media, a team
of Finnish designers invented a block-sorting toy that
also works like Twitter. It allows preverbal kids to
grab colorful blocks with icons for sleeping, eating,
or brushing their teeth; the kids then fit them into
slots to indicate what they’re up to. The device then
transmits the “status update” to light up the corresponding block-shape on the same toy in another
household.128 Should very young children be introduced to social media this way?
4-21 In his book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without
Thinking, author Malcolm Gladwell argues that hallowed marketing research techniques such as focus
groups aren’t effective because we usually react
to products quickly and without much conscious
thought; thus, it’s better simply to solicit consumers’
first impressions rather than getting them to think at
length about why they buy. What’s your position on
this issue?
4-22 Mindfulness training often claims to help people
change how they eat, how they work out, and how
they study. Do you agree?
4-23 Research shows that taking photos of experiences
with the intention to share them reduces one’s enjoyment of the experience. This happens because the
goal of sharing involves the possibility of feeling
judged by others.129 Has that happened to you? Can
you describe the experience and the reactions you got
to your photos?
Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust. The
narrator dips a pastry (a “madeleine”) into his tea,
and this action unleashes a flood of memories that
drive the rest of the book. How might marketers try to
tie these powerful food-related memories to branding
strategies?
4-26 Some die-hard fans were not pleased when the
Rolling Stones sold the tune “Start Me Up” for about
$4 million to Microsoft, which wanted the classic
song to promote its Windows ’95 launch. The Beach
Boys sold “Good Vibrations” to Cadbury Schweppes
for its Sunkist soft drink, Steppenwolf offered “Born
to Be Wild” to plug the Mercury Cougar, and even
Bob Dylan sold “The Times They Are A-Changin’”
to Coopers & Lybrand (now called PriceWaterhouseCoopers).131 Other rock legends have refused to play
the commercial game, including Bruce Springsteen,
the Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, R.E.M., and U2.
According to U2’s manager, “Rock ’n’ roll is the last
vestige of independence. It is undignified to put that
creative effort and hard work to the disposal of a soft
drink or beer or car.”132 Singer Neil Young is especially adamant about not selling out; in his song
“This Note’s for You,” he croons, “Ain’t singing for
Pepsi, ain’t singing for Coke, I don’t sing for nobody,
makes me look like a joke.” What’s your take on this
issue? How do you react when one of your favorite
songs turns up in a commercial? Is this use of nostalgia an effective way to market a product? Why or
why not?
4-24 The “Google effect” describes our tendency to place
our trust in a search engine without bothering to think
for ourselves. Do you agree that this a problem? If
so, what do you think might be the consequences? Is
there any way to prevent “digital amnesia”?
4-27 The chapter discusses the possibility that our increasing reliance on apps to search for information is
diminishing our natural ability to think for ourselves.
Do you agree?
4-25 Even food can facilitate recall: One study looked at
how favorite recipes stimulate memories of the past.
When the researchers asked informants to list three of
their favorite recipes and to talk about these choices,
they found that people tended to link them with memories of past events, such as childhood memories,
family holidays, milestone events (such as dishes
they only make on special holidays, like corned beef
and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day), heirlooms (recipes
handed down across generations), and the passing
of time (e.g., eating blueberry cobbler only in the
summer).130 Indeed, one of the most famous literary references is from the classic (3,000-page!) novel
4-29 The Snapchat app provides a way for social media
users to share content that disappears after a brief
time with their friends. In Europe, Google is fighting
an intense legal battle over what some call the “right
to be forgotten”; users want the option to dictate to
Google whether it will be allowed to display results
4-28 New passive monitoring systems allow us to pay tolls
automatically or simply show our phones equipped
with systems like Apple Pay. Convenient, for sure.
But these systems also eliminate the transparency of
the connection between the stimulus and the response.
As a result, we don’t think as much about the costs
when we use them. Is this a problem for consumers?
Chapter 4 • Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
when people search for them. On the other hand,
some people who believe that “information wants to
be free” say that if a person posts online, it should be
119
with the expectation that the content will be permanent and that you forfeit control over others’ right to
access it. Which argument is correct?
APPLY
4-30 Devise a product jingle memory test. Compile a list of
brands that are or have been associated with memorable jingles, such as Chiquita Banana, Alka-Seltzer,
McDonald’s, or even webuyanycar.com. Read this list
to friends and see how many jingles they remember.
You may be surprised at their level of recall.
4-31 A physician borrowed a page from product marketers when she asked for their advice to help persuade
people in the developing world to wash their hands
habitually with soap. Diseases and disorders caused
by dirty hands—like diarrhea—kill a child somewhere in the world about every 15 seconds, and about
half those deaths could be prevented with the regular use of soap. The project adapted techniques that
major marketers use to encourage habitual product
usage of items such as skin moisturizers, disinfecting
wipes, air fresheners, water purifiers, toothpaste, and
vitamins. For example, beer commercials often depict
a group of guys together because research shows that
being with a group of friends tends to trigger habitual
drinking! The researchers found that when people in
Ghana experienced a feeling of disgust, this was a cue
to wash their hands. However, as in many developing
countries, toilets are a symbol of cleanliness because
they have replaced pit latrines. So, an advertising
campaign included messages that reminded people
of the germs they could still pick up even in modern
bathrooms: Mothers and children walked out of restrooms with a glowing purple pigment on their hands
that contaminated everything they touched. These
images in turn triggered the habit of handwashing,
and the project resulted in a significant increase in
the number of consumers who washed their hands
with soap.133 How can other organizations that work
to improve public health, the environment, or other
social issues harness our knowledge about consumer
learning and habitual behavior to create or reenergize
positive habits?
4-32 Collect some pictures of “classic” products that have
high nostalgia value. Show these pictures to others
and allow them to free-associate. Analyze the types
of memories that these products evoke and think
about how a marketer might employ these associations in a product’s promotional strategy.
DIGGING IN WITH DATA
See “Data Case 1: Analyzing the Athletic Shoe Market” in Appendix A for an opportunity to work with real consumer
data and apply this chapter’s concepts to real world problems.
CASE STUDY
Kidfluence and Kidfluencers – Marketing
to Children Responsibly
Little kids are big business. In 2021, the market for toys in
the United States was $38 billion.134 U.S. children’s food
and beverages had revenues of $70 billion that year.135
And in 2023, all those cute little kids’ stylish outfits were
expected to bring in global revenues of $239 billion! While
children’s parents make most purchases, the kids can have
a big influence over what parents choose, and their influence often impacts purchases that are not only for kids.
This “kidfluence” effect has caused marketers to focus
­s ignificant promotional effort on these young consumers.136 But since children’s brains and decision-making
abilities are still developing, companies marketing to them
should make sure they are doing so in a responsible and
ethical manner.137
A little brain science can help explain what is going on
in those developing minds when they are exposed to marketing messages. Advertising targets two areas of the brain
that are not fully developed and therefore not necessarily
equipped for evaluation of nuanced marketing communication. The first is the limbic system, in charge of our emotional
responses. Intense stimuli, like loud noises, quick motion, and
bright colors, cause neural pathways to send messages that
result in joy and excitement and trigger the release of “feelgood” chemicals, like dopamine and endorphins. The other
important part of the brain is the prefrontal cortex, responsible for cognitive behavior, like decision-making skills and
self-control. The problem is that this important part of the
brain is not fully developed until we’re about 25 years old!138
120
Section 2
• Making Sense of the World
All advertisements utilize these brain functions, but these
functions are especially triggered by social media ads that
use creative speech, sounds, music, and visual effects. Some
of the most popular content on YouTube are videos directed
at children, with channels featuring kids engaged in pretend
play, the unboxing of toys, and animated nursery rhymes that
result in billions of views.139 YouTube Kids was created in
2015 as a safer place for kids to consume videos, but some
bad actors lured children to offensive videos that featured
popular characters like Spiderman and Frozen’s Elsa.140
Facebook (now Meta) joined the fray with its introduction
of Facebook Messenger, targeted at children ages 6 to 12.141
The ubiquity of digital devices makes it more challenging for
parents to monitor media consumption—both the content and
the ads that accompany it—than it was when traditional TV
was the only option.142
Social media has led to the rise of a particular kind
of spokesperson—influencers who are kids themselves.
Just as for their older counterparts, the domain of these
“kidfluencers” is largely YouTube and Instagram. Aubrey
Jade is a kidfluencer with 177,000 Instagram followers. Her
perfectly coiffed hair matches her stylish and trendy ’fits. “I
just love trench coats and I’m obsessed with this one!!” she
writes in one of her posts. Or perhaps someone posted for her
since she was only four years old when that post was made.143
When the Instagram kidfluencer known as Dear Giana was
nine years old, she signed a contract with Nike to promote
its products to her followers.144 But the king (or maybe little
prince) of kidfluencers is Ryan Kaji, the nine-year-old star of
YouTube Channel’s Ryan’s World. Kaji topped Forbes’ 2020
list of highest-paid YouTubers (of all ages) with an estimated
income of $29.5 million from his product lines and social
media content.145
Research has shown that consumers consider influencers as more trustworthy and relatable than traditional
“celebrities” because they are “everyday people.”146 This
relatability factor applies to children too, who identify
with a child who looks like them and plays with toys or
other products they may be interested in. Brain chemistry
also plays a role here, as endorphins and dopamine—those
feel good chemicals—are released when a child spends
time with a good friend, which can be similar to the experience of “loving” a kidfluencer or a brand character. The
popular “unboxing” videos are a good example of this
phenomenon—children who witness the joy of another kid
unboxing a product may then carry that joy to the product
itself. Matthew LaPierre, an associate professor of communication at the University of Arizona, researches media’s
impact on children’s health and well-being. He says these
videos get kids excited, but kids “don’t have that ability to
override their response and say, ‘Wait. I don’t really need
this product. Do I want this?’”147
Recognizing the need to be careful when marketing to
children (and in response to public pressure), advertisers and
social media companies have taken steps to help ensure a more
responsible approach to content for children. Walt Disney Co.
decided not to show preschoolers ads on its Disney+ service
and will not collect data on individual kids for targeting
purposes. Google and Facebook parent meta no longer allow
ad-targeting to people under 18.148 YouTube now forces
creators to designate whether uploaded videos are meant for
children, and if so, it disables features such as ad targeting and
comments.149 In its most significant move, YouTube removed
millions of low-quality videos from YouTube Kids, cutting its
library by about 80 percent.150 Major companies, including
McDonald’s, Pepsico, and Kraft foods, have tightened
restrictions on their pitches to children.151
Some watchdog organizations feel these voluntary moves
are insufficient and have asked for more regulation. In 2022,
a consortium of 31 groups, including the American Academy
of Pediatrics, called upon the Federal Trade Commission to
investigate the methods used to collect online data about kids:
“Advertising to children is a lucrative, booming business, and
not enough is understood about these new methods of surveilling and monetizing children, or the impact that it has on their
privacy and wellbeing,” according to the group’s letter to the
FTC.152 As the use of digital media by children continues
to grow, it will take the “village” of responsible advertisers,
legislators, and most of all, parents, to ensure that the youngest consumers are marketed to in a way appropriate for their
age and decision-making capabilities.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
CS 4-1 Discuss some of the ways that the limited decisionmaking and self-control capabilities of young children could lead them to make inaccurate assessments
of advertising messages. Use examples to illustrate.
CS 4-2 If you were designing an ad campaign directed at
6 to 10-year-old kids, what principles could you use
to ensure that you are communicating to them in an
appropriate and responsible manner, while still promoting your product?
CS 4-3 What are the risks to the children serving as kidfluencers who are allowed by parents (and encouraged
by marketers and fans) to take on this role? What
limitations regarding kidfluencers, if any, should
advertisers voluntarily agree to and/or legislators
enforce by law?
Chapter 4 • Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
121
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Susan E. Heckler and Terry L. Childers, “The Role of Expectancy and Relevancy in Memory for Verbal and Visual Information: What Is Incongruency?”
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Russell H. Fazio, Paul M. Herr, and Martha C. Powell, “On the Development
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Chapter 4 • Learning, Remembering, and Knowing
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99. Rebecca Walker Reczek, Julie R. Irwin, Daniel M. Zane, and Kristine R.
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100. Susan L. Holak and William J. Havlena, “Feelings, Fantasies, and Memories:
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101. Jannine D. Lasaleta, Constantine Sedikides, and Kathleen D. Vohs, “Nostalgia
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102. Jannine D. Lasaleta and Katherine E. Loveland, “What’s New Is Old Again:
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103. Martinne Geller, “Exclusive: Flowers Foods to Win Hostess’ Wonder Bread,”
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105. Dianna Christie and Natalie Koltun, “Chex Mix Reboots Branded Video
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107. T. Bettina Cornwell, Michael S. Humphreys, Angela M. Maguire, Clinton S.
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108. Saheli Roy Choudhury, “McDonald’s Bungled a Rare Condiment Promotion,
Leaving Screaming Customers and $280 Packets,” CNBC, October 8, 2017,
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109. Kevin Lane Keller, “Memory Factors in Advertising: The Effect of Advertising Retrieval Cues on Brand Evaluations,” Journal of Consumer Research 14
(December 1987): 316–33. For a discussion of processing operations that occur
during brand choice, see Gabriel Biehal and Dipankar Chakravarti, “Consumers’ Use of Memory and External Information in Choice: Macro and Micro
Perspectives,” Journal of Consumer Research 12 (March 1986): 382–405.
110. Susan T. Fiske and Shelley E. Taylor, Social Cognition (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1984).
111. Deborah Roedder John and John C. Whitney Jr., “The Development of
Consumer Knowledge in Children: A Cognitive Structure Approach,” Journal
of Consumer Research 12 (March 1986): 406–17.
123
112. Michael R. Solomon, Carol Surprenant, John A. Czepiel, and Evelyn G.
Gutman, “A Role Theory Perspective on Dyadic Interactions: The Service
Encounter,” Journal of Marketing 49 (Winter 1985): 99–111.
113. Robert M. McMath, “The Perils of Typecasting,” American Demographics
(February 1997): 60.
114. Eleanor Rosch, “Principles of Categorization,” in E. Rosch and B. B. Lloyd,
eds., Recognition and Categorization (Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1978); cf. also
Joseph Lajos, Zsolt Katona, Amitava Chattopadhyay, and Miklos Savary,
“Category Activation Model: A Spreading Activation Network Model of Subcategory Positioning When Categorization Uncertainty Is High,” Journal
of Consumer Research 36, no. 1 (June 2009): 122–36; cf. also M. S. Isaac
and R. M. Schindler, “The Top-Ten Effect: Consumers’ Subjective Categorization of Ranked Lists,” Journal of Consumer Research 40, no. 6 (2014):
1181–1202.
115. Marzena Nieroda, Mona Mrad, and Michael R. Solomon, “How do
Consumers Think about Hybrid Products? Computer Wearables Have an
Identity Problem,” Journal of Business Research 89 (August 2018): 159–70;
Noah Rayman, “Dunkin’ Donuts Now Has Its Own Version of the Cronut,”
Time, October 27, 2014, http://time.com/3542225/dunkin-donuts-croissantdonut-cronut/; cf. also Michael R. Solomon, The New Chameleons: How to
Connect with Consumers Who Defy Categorization (London: Kogan Page
International, 2021).
116. Laura A. Peracchio, “How Do Young Children Learn to Be Consumers?
A Script-Processing Approach,” Journal of Consumer Research 18 (March
1992): 425–40; Laura A. Peracchio, “Young Children’s Processing of a
Televised Narrative: Is a Picture Really Worth a Thousand Words?” Journal of
Consumer Research 20 (September 1993): 281–93.
117. Lan Nguyen Chaplin and Tina M. Lowrey, “The Development of ConsumerBased Consumption Constellations in Children,” Journal of Consumer
Research 36, no. 5 (2010): 757–77.
118. Joshua J. Clarkson, Chris Janiszewski, and Melissa D. Cinelli, “The Desire for
Consumption Knowledge,” Journal of Consumer Research 39, no. 6 (2013):
1313–29.
119. Matthew D. Rocklage, Derek D. Rucker, and Loran F. Nordgren, “Emotionally
Numb: Expertise Dulls Consumer Experience,” Journal of Consumer Research
48, no. 3 (October 2021): 355–73, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucab015.
120. Andre F. Maciel and Melanie Wallendorf, “Taste Engineering: An Extended
Consumer Model of Cultural Competence Constitution,” Journal of Consumer
Research 43.5 (2017): 726–46.
121. Michael R. Solomon, “Mapping Product Constellations: A Social Categorization Approach to Symbolic Consumption,” Psychology & Marketing 5, no. 3
(1988): 233–58.
122. Elizabeth C. Hirschman and Michael R. Solomon, “Competition and Cooperation among Culture Production Systems,” in Ronald F. Bush and Shelby D.
Hunt, eds., Marketing Theory: Philosophy of Science Perspectives (Chicago,
IL: American Marketing Association, 1982): 269–72.
123. Michael D. Johnson, “The Differential Processing of Product Category and
Noncomparable Choice Alternatives,” Journal of Consumer Research 16
(December 1989): 300–339.
124. Mita Sujan, “Consumer Knowledge: Effects on Evaluation Strategies
Mediating Consumer Judgments,” Journal of Consumer Research 12 (June
1985): 31–46.
125. Marcus Cunha, Jr. and Juliano Laran, “Asymmetries in the Sequential Learning
of Brand Associations: Implications for the Early Entrant Advantage,” Journal
of Consumer Research 35, no. 5 (2009): 788–99.
126. Andrew W. Ellis, Selina J. Holmes, and Richard L. Wright, “Age of Acquisition and the Recognition of Brand Names: On the Importance of Being Early,”
Journal of Consumer Psychology 20, no. 1 (2010): 43–52.
127. Mark J. Miller, “Bob Marley Brand Expands from Music to Coffee to Swimwear,” Brandchannel, February 21, 2012, www.brandchannel.com/home/
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Toy Blocks That Teach Toddlers Social Networking,” Fast Company, November 30, 2010, accessed May 9, 2022.
129. Alixandra Barasch, Gal Zauberman, and Kristin Diehl, “How the Intention
to Share Can Undermine Enjoyment: Photo-Taking Goals and Evaluation of
Experiences,” Journal of Consumer Research 44, no. 6 (2018): 1220–37.
130. Stacy Menzel Baker, Holli C. Karrer, and Ann Veeck, “My Favorite Recipes:
Recreating Emotions and Memories Through Cooking,” Advances in Consumer Research 32, no. 1 (2005): 304–05.
131. Thomas F. Jones, “Our Musical Heritage Is Being Raided,” San Francisco
Examiner, May 23, 1997.
132. Kevin Goldman, “A Few Rockers Refuse to Turn Tunes into Ads,” New York
Times, August 25, 1995: B1.
133. Charles Duhigg, “Warning: Habits May Be Good for You,” New York Times
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Section 2
• Making Sense of the World
135. Erin Costello, “Balancing Nutrition and Appeal in Children’s Food and
Beverage,” Food Beverage Insider, May 3, 2022, https://www.foodbeverage
insider.com/market-trends-analysis/balancing-nutrition-and-appealchildrens-food-and-beverage.
136. Anne Sutherland and Beth Thompson, Kidfluence: Why Kids Today Mean
Business (Whitby, Canada: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2001).
137. Rachel E. Greenspan, “TikTok Is Breeding a New Batch of Child Stars. Psychologists Say What Comes Next Won’t Be Pretty,” Insider, July 9, 2020,
https://www.insider.com/psychologists-say-social-media-fame-may-harmchild-star-influencers-2020-5.
138. Heidi Borst, “Talking to Kids about Advertising,” National Geographic,
December 2, 2021, https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/family/2021/12/
talking-to-kids-about-advertising.
139. Yoree Koh, “How YouTube Kids Cleaned Up Its Act,” Wall Street Journal
(Eastern Ed.), March 5, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-youtubekids-cleaned-up-its-act-11646476200.
140. Julia Alexander, “YouTube Kids Has Been a Problem since 2015 — Why Did It
Take This Long to Address?,” Polygon, December 8, 2017, https://www.polygon
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141. Georgia Wells and Jeff Horwitz, “Facebook’s Effort to Attract Preteens
Goes beyond Instagram Kids, Documents Show,” Wall Street Journal
(Eastern Ed.), September 28, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/
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142. Katie Deighton, “Marketers Are Curbing Some Advertising to Children,” Wall
Street Journal (Eastern Ed.), May 31, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/
marketers-are-curbing-some-advertising-to-children-11654030239.
143. Zulie Rane, “The Terrifying Rise of the Child Influencer and the Parents
Who Profit,” OneZero, October 25, 2021, https://onezero.medium.com/
the-terrifying-rise-of-the-child-fashion-influencer-e7b03278d887.
144. Ray A. Smith, “Meet the 9-Year-Old Telling You What to Wear,” Wall Street
Journal (Eastern Ed.), October 6, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/
meet-the-9-year-old-telling-you-what-to-wear-1538823660.
145. Danya Hajjaji, “YouTube Lets Parents Exploit Their Kids for Clicks,” Newsweek, October 4, 2021, https://www.newsweek.com/youtube-lets-lawlesslucrative-sharenting-industry-put-kids-mercy-internet-1635112.
146. Grace Dean, “Food Brands Spend $1.8 Billion Advertising to Kids – but
Increasingly, Child YouTubers Are Plugging Their Products for Free,”
Business Insider, November 8, 2020, https://www.businessinsider.com/
mcdonalds-mms-among-fast-food-candy-brands-advertising-to-kids2020-11.
147. Heidi Borst, “Talking to Kids about Advertising,” National Geographic,
December 2, 2021, https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/family/2021/12/
talking-to-kids-about-advertising.
148. Katie Deighton, “Marketers Are Curbing Some Advertising to Children,” Wall
Street Journal (Eastern Ed.), May 31, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/
marketers-are-curbing-some-advertising-to-children-11654030239.
149. Ryan Tracy, “FTC Faces Push to Study Ads Targeting Children,” Wall Street
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ftc-faces-push-to-study-ads-targeting-children-11575522061.
150. Yoree Koh, “How YouTube Kids Cleaned Up Its Act,” Wall Street
Journal (Eastern Ed.), March 5, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/
how-youtube-kids-cleaned-up-its-act-11646476200.
151. Katie Deighton, “Marketers Are Curbing Some Advertising to Children,” Wall
Street Journal (Eastern Ed.), May 31, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/
marketers-are-curbing-some-advertising-to-children-11654030239.
152. Ryan Tracy, “FTC Faces Push to Study Ads Targeting Children,” Wall Street
Journal (Eastern Ed.), December 5, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/
ftc-faces-push-to-study-ads-targeting-children-11575522061.
5
Motivation
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES When you finish reading this chapter, you should be able to:
5-1 Understand how motivation can be intrinsic or
extrinsic.
5-2 Outline how products can satisfy a range of
consumer needs.
5-4 Explain how the way we evaluate and choose a
product depends on our degree of involvement
with the product, the marketing message, or the
purchase situation.
5-3 Discuss how setting goals correctly can motivate
consumers to strive toward and achieve those
goals.
D
uring the COVID-19 lockdown, Americans gained nearly
two pounds per month when everyone was under shelterin-place orders at the height of the pandemic in 2020.1 Many
people have emerged from the pandemic with goals to improve their
health.
Imani is a woman on a fitness mission. She’s aware of the body
positivity movement, which was initiated by plus-size black women. It
encourages people to love themselves as they are, regardless of whether
their body conforms to an idea that Western society perpetuates.2 She
is motivated by true concern about her health. After all, she has a family
history of high blood pressure and diabetes.
Coincidentally, she learns that her idol Beyoncé is partnering with
Peloton to create cycling, running, strength, and yoga classes that integrate her music with Peloton’s class content.3 Peloton was red-hot during the pandemic
as legions of gym rats had to migrate their workouts from the gym to home; the company boasts more than 874,000 digital subscribers to its fitness programs.4 And many
celebrities, from Jennifer Anniston to Diddy, proudly posted photos of themselves pedaling their way to fitness. True, Peloton stumbled a bit post-pandemic as it had to recall
a faulty treadmill product, and it miscalculated the number of people who would still be
interested in buying a Peloton bike after they were allowed back outside again.5 But the
prospect of a daily bike ride while she vibes to Beyoncé’s tunes fits her plans beautifully,
so like almost six million others, Imani bites the bullet, and she eagerly awaits delivery of
her new Peloton bike.
Source: Kali9/E+/Getty Images.
125
126
Section 2 • Making Sense of the World
OBJECTIVE 5- 1
Understand how
motivation can be
intrinsic or extrinsic.
The Motivation Process:
Why Ask Why?
What’s the best way to get motivated to exercise more? Some
people will run as far away as they can from a group exercise class. They do not enjoy
the social interaction and prefer to do their own thing. For others, like Imani, the social
nature of a Peloton class is what drives them.
To understand motivation is to understand why consumers do what they do. Why
do some people choose to bungee-jump off a bridge or compete on reality shows,
whereas others spend their leisure time playing chess or gardening? Whether it is to
quench a thirst, kill boredom, or attain some deep spiritual experience, we do everything for a reason, even if we can’t articulate that reason. We teach marketing students
from Day 1 that the goal of marketing is to satisfy consumers’ needs. However, this
insight is useless unless we can discover what those needs are and why they exist.
A beer commercial once asked, “Why ask why?” In this chapter, we’ll find out. As
you can see in Figure 5.1, we’ll start with a brief discussion about the forces that
influence motivation. Then, we’ll move on to goal setting and goal striving—getting
from a customer’s “wish” to reality.
Push or Pull? Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Motivation
Motivation refers to the processes that lead people to behave as they do. It occurs
when a need that the consumer wishes to satisfy is activated. The need creates a state
of tension that drives the consumer to attempt to reduce or eliminate it. Like Imani’s
fitness objectives, the desired end state becomes a goal for the consumer to attain.
Marketers try to create products and services to provide the desired benefits and help
the consumer to reduce this tension.
The motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation occurs when
a person pulls from their own inherent drives; extrinsic motivation occurs when a
person is pushed by an external force. Understanding what intrinsically motivates us
is crucial to help us reach our goals. Metamotivation refers to people’s understanding
of their own personal motivational states and the best ways to motivate themselves.6
Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations can affect people’s behavior. For instance,
a study designed to understand why consumers create and post videos about brands
(user-generated content) found that both intrinsic motivations, such as being naturally
Intrinsic and extrinsic forces
Motivation (drive)
CURRENT STATE
(affected by unmet
needs)
Goal setting
DESIRED STATE
(goal)
Select goal &
determine goal level
Goal striving
Develop and implement
a plan to achieve the goal
Figure 5.1 Motivation and Goals
Chapter 5 • Motivation
altruistic, and extrinsic rewards, such as economic incentives, motivated the behavior
to create this content.7
Many programs are designed to create external incentives to motivate consumers.
For instance, financial literacy (see Chapter 2) initiatives try to find the most effective
ways to encourage consumers to reduce their credit card debt. One team of researchers
found that concentrated repayment strategies—those that consolidate all debt into a
single account—were more motivating than dispersed strategies, in which the debt
was dispersed across a range of accounts.8
Why would this be? Apparently, the concentrated strategy created greater extrinsic
motivation to get out of debt, because consumers felt that they were making greater
progress in debt repayment when they could see, in a single account, a greater proportion of the starting balance repaid. This finding serves as a reminder that a simple
adjustment like allowing a consumer to gauge their progress toward a goal can help
them to double down on their efforts to attain it.
Research on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation shows that, in general, intrinsic
motivation leads to better quality of performance (for instance, you work out harder),
whereas extrinsic motivation via monetary incentives leads to more quantity of performance (you work out more often).9 More recently, researchers have identified
what they call achievement motivation.10 This refers to wanting to do well and
trying to achieve some standard of excellence, whether that standard is conscious
or nonconscious.
Motivational Drive
Whether the need is utilitarian or hedonic, the magnitude of the tension it creates
determines the urgency the consumer feels to reduce it. We call this degree of arousal
a drive.
Drive Theory
Drive theory focuses on biological needs that produce unpleasant states of arousal
(e.g., your stomach grumbles during a morning class). The arousal this tension causes
motivates us to reduce it and return to a balanced state called homeostasis. Some
researchers believe that this need to reduce arousal is a basic mechanism that governs
much of our behavior. Indeed, there is research evidence for the effectiveness of
so-called retail therapy; apparently the act of shopping restores a sense of personal
control over one’s environment and as a result can alleviate feelings of sadness (at
least in the short term).13
If a behavior reduces the drive, we naturally tend to repeat it. Your motivation to
leave class early to grab a snack would be greater if you hadn’t eaten in 24 hours than
if you had eaten only two hours earlier. Your degree of motivation, then, depends on
the distance between your present state and the goal.
Drive theory runs into difficulties when it tries to explain some facets of human
behavior that run counter to its predictions. People often do things that increase a drive
state rather than decrease it. For example, we may delay gratification. If you know
you are going out for a lavish dinner, you might decide to forego a snack earlier in the
day even though you are hungry at that time.
Nonconscious Goals
Can you make choices that are consistent with your goal even when you’re not
conscious of the goals? The research says yes! Even goals that we are not aware of
(nonconscious goals) can have a strong impact on our choices.14
127
Buying, Having, Being
The Power of Placebos
The placebo effect vividly demonstrates the power that intrinsic
motivation plays on our feelings,
thoughts, and behaviors. This term
refers to the well-documented tendency for your brain to convince
you that a fake treatment is the real
thing—and thus a sugar pill or other
placebo actually can reduce pain,
treat insomnia, and provide other
benefits.11
A recent study looked at the
increase in sexual assaults and car
accidents caused by people who
drink alcohol mixed with energy
drinks. Although this mixture
doesn’t actually increase the
physiological effects of intoxication,
many people believe that it does.
When the researchers labeled a
cocktail made of vodka, Red Bull,
and fruit juice to emphasize that it
contained an energy drink, study
participants (males between 18 and
25) perceived themselves to be
more intoxicated than did those who
drank the same cocktail without this
labeling. The effect was more pronounced among those who believe
energy drinks increase intoxication.
Although the actual levels of intoxication did not differ (as measured
by a breathalyzer), participants who
believed that intoxication increases
risk-taking were more likely to score
high on a measure of risk-taking. In
addition, those who believed that
alcohol intoxication increases sexual
disinhibition scored higher on a
measure of sexual self-confidence—
predictions about whether a woman
would “accept their advances.”12
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One question that keeps some consumer researchers up at night is whether a
person even needs to be aware of a motivation to achieve a goal. The evidence suggests
that motives can lurk beneath the surface, and cues in the environment can activate
a goal even when we don’t know it. For instance, seeing a weight scale can prime a
goal to lose weight, even if we aren’t aware of that trigger. We will revisit these nonconscious influences in Chapter 8.
Self-Regulation
How much willpower do you have when it comes to controlling what you eat, how
fiercely you exercise, or even what you say to your friends? Self-regulation describes
our ability to monitor and manage our own emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.
Psychologists tout it as the most fundamental skill to be successful at many tasks in
our lives, and the best predictor of learning, of developing healthy relationships, and
of well-being.15
Having a self-regulatory strategy means that we specify in advance how we want
to respond in certain situations. These “if-then” plans, or implementation intentions,
may dictate how much weight we give to different kinds of information (emotional
or cognitive), a timetable to carry out a decision, or even how we will deal with disruptive influences that might interfere with our plans (like a bossy salesperson who
tries to steer us to a different choice).16
Consumers who know how to self-regulate are better at making plans toward goals
and at transforming those plans into reality.17 They are better at setting intentions,
translating these intentions into actions, and avoiding any interference. On the other
hand, failure to self-regulate can happen when we lose control of attention or misdirect
our efforts, often because we let emotions take over.18 We’ve all been there!
Each of us fights a constant battle to control our desires, whether these involve
splurging on expensive clothes or treating ourselves to fattening snacks. Many factors,
both internal (for example, willpower) and external (for
example, peer pressure), help to determine whether or when
we give in. Even something as innocent as checking your
Facebook page can make you lose control! Recent research
implies that when you focus on what your close friends post,
this makes you feel better. This momentary boost in selfesteem we get in turn prompts us to lose self-control and
engage in impulsive behaviors, such as binge eating and even
reckless spending that lowers credit scores.19
A recent study shed some light on why our efforts to
self-regulate get stronger or weaker over time as we progress
toward a goal—and especially why what starts out as an
exciting quest turns into a painful slog even though we’re
getting closer to the objective. The researchers distinguished
In recent years, researchers and marketers have become more
between two types of motivation: (1) Promotion motivation
aware of the role they can play in changing consumer behavior by
encourages people to focus on hopes and aspirations, while
helping people to regulate their own actions. This help may take
(2) prevention motivation instead focuses on responsibilithe form of simple feedback, like a phone app for people tracking
ties and duties as it prompts people to think about avoiding
sleeping patterns, or perhaps a wearable computing device like
something negative. We referred to these strategies as
the Fitbit that tells you how many steps you take in a day (and
how many more you should take). These applications provide a
“approach” and avoidance” when we talked about learning
feedback loop to help with self-regulation. The basic premise
in Chapter 4.
is amazingly simple: Provide people with information about their
As the researchers predicted, individuals tend to be
actions in real time, and then give them a chance to change those
more
promotion motivated in earlier stages of goal pursuit
actions so that you push them to improve.
and
become
more prevention motivated as goal attainment
Source: Rob Wilkinson/Alamy Stock Photo.
Chapter 5 • Motivation
draws near. The researchers speculate that when we are in the early stages of attaining a goal, we compare our progress with where we started, so we are optimistic. But
after we reach the midpoint, we switch our reference to the end goal we’re striving
for—and thus focus on our shortcomings instead. Their advice: In the early stages,
focus on how attaining the goal will help you to achieve things you hope for (such as
a healthy body). Then, when you’re in the home stretch, focus on how getting to your
goal will help you to fulfill your responsibilities. And make a list of things not to do to
stay on course. Finally, reward yourself with a break from something you don’t enjoy
when you’re making progress so long as it doesn’t short-circuit your efforts (e.g., no
congratulatory margaritas if you’re trying to get sober).20
OBJECTIVE 5-2
Outline how
products can
satisfy a range of
consumer needs.
Consumer Needs
Utilitarian and Hedonic Needs
As we saw in Chapter 1, a need reflects a basic goal, such as
keeping yourself nourished or protected from the elements.
When we focus on a utilitarian need, we emphasize the objective, tangible attributes
of products, such as miles per gallon in a car; the amount of fat, calories, and protein
in a cheeseburger; or the durability of a pair of blue jeans. Hedonic needs are subjective and experiential; here we might look to a product to meet our needs for excitement, self-confidence, or fantasy—perhaps to escape the mundane or routine aspects
of life.22
Many items satisfy our hedonic needs (there’s even a popular resort called
Hedonism). Upscale brands thrive when they offer the promise of pleasure to
the user—how badly do you “need” that Supreme hoodie or Coach bag?23 Hedonic
and utilitarian motivations affect consumers’ shopping behavior. For instance, consumers motivated to shop hedonically review larger assortments than if they shop for
utilitarian reasons.24
It’s hard to overstate the importance of hedonic consumption as an influence
on consumers’ choices. This term refers to the multisensory, fantasy, and emotional
aspects of consumers’ interactions with products.25 As manufacturing costs go down
and the amount of “stuff” that people accumulate goes up, consumers want to buy
things that will provide hedonic value in addition to simply doing what they’re
designed to do.
For some, jumping out of an airplane is an enjoyable
hedonic experience.
Source: iurii/Shutterstock.
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Buying, Having, Being
The Quantified Self
Did you log your 10,000 steps
today? Have you posted data from
your workout so your friends can
see how you did? Don’t forget to
upload those pics of the yummy
salad you had for lunch today!
Or, maybe you’re a biohacker—
a person who meticulously monitors their bodily processes and vital
signs with the intent of creating a
superhuman race. Some wear a
headband that electrically stimulates
the brain to improve cognition.21
A few hardy souls even have a lightup implant surgically inserted into
their arms to monitor biometric data
that changes color when levels are
abnormal. This self-recording of
personal data is a hallmark of the
quantified self (QS) movement.
The first known attempt to meticulously self-track was by Sanctorius
of Padua, who in the 16th century
recorded his own weight versus
food intake and waste over a
30-year period (do not try this at
home!).
Today, a thriving industry caters
to this yearning to self-quantify.
Numerous startups are betting that
consumers will outsource their selfregulation as they try to morph into
better, brighter, augmented versions
of themselves. Companies hawk
apps and other devices like Fitbits
that measure how much individuals
sleep, eat, walk, and spend. Some
of these hi-tech tools are socially
grounded; their success hinges
upon consumers’ willingness to
share their data with their networks
to obtain reinforcement, feedback—
and sometimes a modicum of
shame that drives them to do better.
Now, go finish those 10,000 steps
so you can call it a day!
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Form is function. Two young entrepreneurs named Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan discovered
that basic truth when they quit their day jobs to develop a line of house-cleaning products
they called Method. Cleaning products—what a yawn, right?
For years, companies such as Procter & Gamble have plodded along, peddling boring boxes
of soap powder to generations of housewives who suffered in silence, scrubbing and buffing,
yearning for the daily respite of martini time. Lowry and Ryan gambled that they could offer
an alternative: cleaners in exotic scents such as cucumber, lavender, and ylang-ylang that
came in aesthetically pleasing bottles. The bet paid off. Within two years, the partners were
cleaning up, taking in more than $2 million in revenue. Shortly thereafter, they hit it big when
Target contracted to sell Method products in its stores.27
Source: Sara Stathas/Alamy Stock Photo.
In fact, research evidence suggests that our brains are wired to appreciate good
design: Respondents who were hooked up to a brain apparatus called a functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner showed faster reaction times when they
saw aesthetically pleasing packages, even compared to well-known brands such as
Coca-Cola.26 That helps to explain why mass-market consumers thirst for great design
and why they reward those companies that give it to them with their enthusiastic
patronage and loyalty. From razor blades such as the Gillette Sensor to the Apple
Watch and even to the lowly trashcan, form is function.
How Can We Understand Needs?
Numerous psychologists have tried to define a universal inventory of needs they could
trace systematically to explain virtually all behavior. Let’s get into the weeds on the
most well-known applications.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
The psychologist Abraham Maslow originally developed his influential hierarchy
of needs to understand personal growth and how people attain spiritual “peak
experiences.” Marketers later adapted his work to understand consumer motivations.28
Maslow’s hierarchical structure implies that the order of development is fixed—that
is, we must attain a certain level before we activate a need for the next higher one. Marketers
embraced this perspective because it (indirectly) specifies certain types of product benefits
people might look for, depending on their stage of mental or spiritual development or on
their economic situation.29 An integrative view of consumer goal structures and goaldetermination processes proposes six discrete levels of goals wherein higher-level (versus
lower-level) goals are more abstract, more inclusive, and less mutable. In descending
Chapter 5 • Motivation
SELF-TRANSCENDENCE
I can observe the cycle of life in my garden
6
SELF-ACTUALIZATION
My garden gives me a sense of peace
5
ESTEEM
I can create something of beauty
4
SOCIAL
I can share my produce with others
3
SAFETY
I feel safe in the garden
2
PHYSIOLOGICAL
I eat what I grow
1
Figure 5.2 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
order of abstraction, these goal levels are life themes and values, life projects, current
concerns, consumption intentions, benefits sought, and feature preferences.
Figure 5.2 presents this model. At each level, the person seeks different kinds of
product benefits. Ideally, an individual progresses up the hierarchy until their dominant
motivation is a focus on “ultimate” goals, such as justice and harmony. The highest
level of Maslow’s hierarchy is self-transcendence, where an individual seeks to further
a cause beyond the self and to experience a communion beyond the boundaries of the
self through peak experiences.
Although this sixth level of Maslow’s motivational theory is often forgotten, it was
an important component of Maslow’s thinking because it reveals that the individual may
put their own individual needs aside in favor of service to others or to a greater cause.30
In other words, the individual rises above their own needs as they are driven toward a
higher purpose or the meaning of life, which is a central issue of human psychology.31
Unfortunately, this state is difficult to achieve (at least on a regular basis),
even though many marketing messages claim to provide such peak experiences.
Of course, the pandemic encouraged a lot of selfless behavior by caregivers and
others, as many people began to rethink their priorities.
The Great Resignation we witnessed in the years afterward (more than 30 million Americans quit their jobs)
as workers rethought what they wanted to do to make a
living also relates to this quest for meaning.32
Marketers’ applications of this hierarchy have been
somewhat simplistic, especially because the same product or
activity can gratify different needs. For example, one early
study found that gardening could satisfy needs at every level
of the hierarchy:33
• Physiological – “I eat what I grow.”
• Safety – “I feel safe in the garden.”
• Social – “I can share my produce with others.”
• Esteem – “I can create something of beauty.”
• Self-actualization – “My garden gives me a sense of peace.”
• Self-transcendence – “I can observe the cycle of life in
my garden.”
A basic activity like gardening can satisfy people at different
levels, depending upon their motivation to engage in it.
Source: Todd Arena/123RF.
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Another problem with taking Maslow’s hierarchy of needs too
literally is that it is culture-bound; its assumptions may apply only to
Western culture, where the typology was originally developed. People
in other cultures (or, for that matter, even some in Western cultures)
may question the order of the levels it specifies. A religious person
who has taken a vow of celibacy would not necessarily agree that
physiological needs must be satisfied before self-fulfillment can occur.
Terror Management
Because these needs are ingrained in us, the salience (awareness) of
our mortality can activate certain levels of needs—we certainly saw
this as many of us lost loved ones to COVID. Research on so-called
terror management theory shows that making people conscious of
their own death activates safety needs and motivates people to engage
in healthier behaviors.34
That body of research also shows that mortality salience
makes people more likely to engage in materialistic and self-serving
behaviors.35 That said, there is also new evidence that mortality
salience can also lead people toward the state of transcendence—for
instance, it may motivate them to give away possessions. The jury
is still out. . .36
Self-Determination
Organizations like the Peace Corps that need to recruit
members may appeal to our need for relatedness with
others as well as self-fulfillment.
Source: Peacecorps.gov.
According to self-determination theory, humans are intrinsically
motivated by the innate psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence:37
• Autonomy refers to the experience of volition and willingness. When this need
•
•
is satisfied, we experience a sense of integrity because our actions, thoughts,
and feelings are self-endorsed and authentic. When this need is frustrated, we
experience a sense of pressure and often conflict, such as feeling pushed in an
unwanted direction.
Relatedness refers to the experience of warmth, bonding, and care, and is satisfied
by connecting to and feeling significant to others. Relatedness frustration comes
with a sense of social alienation, exclusion, and loneliness.
Competence is the belief in one’s ability to perform essential tasks. It is satisfied
when we capably engage in activities and experience opportunities for using and
mastering skills. When this need is frustrated, we experience a sense of ineffectiveness or even failure and helplessness.
Self-determination theory can be useful to understand the struggles that bottomof-the pyramid consumers in Maslow’s scheme face. Research on impoverished
consumers shows that the needs of relatedness and autonomy are useful to people
only if basic life necessities are available. Those living in extreme poverty face a great
deal of hopelessness, as they cannot even meet their most basic needs.38
How “Needy” Are You? Individual
Differences in Motivation
Other motivational approaches have focused on specific needs and their ramifications
for behavior. Some important needs that are relevant to consumer behavior include:
• Need to belong (to be in the company of other people):39 People who have a higher
need to belong actively seek out the company of others. The need to belong is
Chapter 5 • Motivation
•
•
•
relevant to products and services for people in groups, such as participating in team
sports, frequenting bars, and even logging in to that Peloton class.
Need for power (to control one’s environment):40 Many products and services
allow us to feel that we have mastery over our surroundings. These products range
from “hopped-up” muscle cars and drivers bumping to the throbbing bass on their
car radios as they cruise down the road to luxury resorts that promise to respond
to every whim of their pampered guests.
Need for uniqueness (to assert one’s individual identity):41 Products satisfy the
need for uniqueness when they pledge to bring out our distinctive qualities. For
example, Fenty Beauty disrupted the beauty industry when Rihanna’s startup
offered women 50 distinct skin tone shades to match their distinct complexion.
A fresh start mindset:42 This concept captures the belief that people can change
their own destiny and get a fresh start, get a new beginning, and chart a new course
in life, regardless of their past or present circumstances. We’ve seen a lot of this
in the past few years, as many people used the pandemic as an opportunity to
radically change their living circumstances.
This is an important individual difference, because those who believe in a
fresh start mindset are more likely to set new goals for themselves, to change their
circumstances, and to reinvent themselves by engaging in new activities, adopting new
lifestyles, and making different consumption choices in order to create a positive future.
We can identify individuals who display this orientation based upon the way they answer
such questions as, “ Whatever their past, people can look forward to a new future.”
OBJECTIVE 5-3
Discuss how setting
goals correctly
can motivate
consumers to strive
toward and achieve
those goals.
Setting and Reaching Goals
There are entire industries whose sole purpose is to help
people achieve their financial, career, and health goals, or
to motivate them to have willpower. It turns out that setting
goals is the best way to motivate people to achieve those
goals. A ton of research has shown that when we consciously
set goals deliberately, when we monitor goal progress, and when we are committed to
reaching the goal, we are most likely to achieve it.46
Goal Conflicts
Recall that Imani questioned her motivations to pump up her exercise program. As
Figure 5.3 shows, consumers experience different kinds of conflicts that can impact
their purchase decisions. For example, we might be conflicted if we’re torn between
buying something that serves a useful purpose versus something that’s just “for fun”
(kind of like getting a package of tube socks versus a Vans snapback hat for your
birthday). Indeed, a recent study found that promotions such as price discounts,
rebates, coupons, and loyalty rewards exert a bigger impact on hedonic versus
utilitarian purchases. Apparently, it’s more difficult to justify a hedonic purchase,
so these promotions provide a way to reduce the guilt that comes from buying them
(“hey, it was on sale!”).47
A goal has valence, which means that it can be positive or negative. We direct
our behavior toward goals we value positively; we are motivated to approach the
goal and to seek out products that will help us to reach it. However, as we saw in
Chapter 4’s discussion of negative reinforcement, sometimes we’re also motivated to
avoid a negative outcome rather than achieve a positive outcome.
133
Buying, Having, Being
The Power of Grit
Perseverance toward a goal is
key to success. A new school of
thought says that grit, a combination of passion and long-term
perseverance toward one’s goals,
is even more important than genius.
Grit predicts how much effort and
persistence one will undertake in the
face of challenges.43
To know how “gritty” you are,
think about the degree to which you
agree/disagree with the following
statements:44
1. I often set a goal but later choose
to pursue a different one.
2. I have been obsessed with a
certain idea or project for a short
time but later lost interest.
3. I finish whatever I begin.
4. Setbacks don’t discourage me.
5. I am diligent.
However, there is still a debate
about whether it’s grit or some
other aspect of personality that
predicts success. Indeed, an
analysis of existing research on
grit (a meta-analysis of a large
number of studies) concluded that
grit is very strongly correlated with
conscientiousness, the ability to
be organized, responsible, industrious, and reliable, and that it may be
conscientiousness and not grit per
se that drives succeeding in one’s
goals.45 Whether it’s grit or conscientiousness, what really matters is
that they are both key ingredients of
motivation. How “gritty” are you?
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Approach
Approach
Approach
Avoidance
Avoidance
Avoidance
Figure 5.3 Types of Goal Conflicts
Source: Matsabe/Shutterstock.
We structure purchases or consumption activities to reduce the chances that we
will experience a nasty result. For example, many consumers work hard to avoid
rejection by their peers (an avoidance goal). They stay away from products that
they associate with social disapproval. Products such as deodorants and mouthwash
frequently rely on consumers’ negative motivation when ads depict the onerous social
consequences of underarm odor or bad breath.
New research shows that when we face conflicting goals (for example: save
money for retirement or buy nice things), these conflicting goals make us stressed
and anxious.48 The authors of that research found two simple solutions to reduce
this stress: slow breathing (think mindfulness, as we discussed in Chapter 4) and
transforming the anxiety into feelings of excitement. The researchers created this
anxiety reappraisal intervention by simply having their participants say out loud a
statement that read “I AM EXCITED!” three times. So, relabeling situations that
might evoke anxiety as exciting instead (e.g., “buying a new car is fun!”) can actually
lower stress—and we all can use that!
Because a purchase decision can involve more than one source of motivation,
consumers often find themselves in situations in which different goals, both positive
and negative, conflict with one another.49 Marketers attempt to satisfy consumers’
needs by providing possible solutions to these dilemmas. As Figure 5.3 shows, there
are three general types of conflicts we should understand.
Approach–Approach Conflict
A person has an approach–approach conflict when they must choose between two
desirable alternatives. A student might be torn between going home for the holidays
and going on a skiing trip with friends. Or, they might have to choose between going
to listen to two bands that are playing at different clubs on the opposite sides of town.
The theory of cognitive dissonance is based on the premise that people have a
need for order and consistency in their lives and that a state of dissonance (tension)
exists when beliefs or behaviors conflict with one another. We resolve the conflict
that arises when we choose between two alternatives through a process of cognitive
dissonance reduction, where we look for a way to reduce this inconsistency (or
dissonance) and thus eliminate unpleasant tension.
Chapter 5 • Motivation
Postdecision dissonance occurs when a consumer must choose between two
products, both of which possess good and bad qualities. When they choose one product
and not the other, the person gets the bad qualities of the product they buy and lose
out on the good qualities of the one they didn’t buy. This loss creates an unpleasant,
dissonant state that they want to reduce. We tend to convince ourselves, after the fact,
that the choice we made was the smart one as we find additional reasons to support
the alternative we did choose—perhaps when we discover flaws with the option we
did not choose (sometimes we call this rationalization). A marketer can bundle several
benefits together to resolve an approach–approach conflict. For example, Miller Lite’s
claim that it is “less filling” and “tastes great” allows the drinker to “have his beer
and drink it too.”
Approach–Avoidance Conflict
Many of the products and services we desire have negative consequences attached to
them as well as positive ones. We may feel guilty or ostentatious when we buy a luxury
product, such as a fur coat, or we might feel like gluttons when we crave a tempting
package of Twinkies. An approach–avoidance conflict occurs when we desire a goal
but wish to avoid it at the same time.
Some solutions to these conflicts include the proliferation of fake furs, which
eliminate guilt about harming animals to make a fashion statement, and the success of
diet programs such as Weight Watchers that promise good food without the calories.50
Many marketers try to help consumers overcome guilt by convincing them that they
deserve these luxuries. As the model for L’Oréal cosmetics proclaims, “Because I’m
worth it!”
Avoidance–Avoidance Conflict
Sometimes we find ourselves caught “between a rock and a hard place.” We may face
a choice with two undesirable alternatives: for instance, the option of either spending
more money on an old car or buying a new one. Don’t you hate when that happens?
Marketers frequently address an avoidance–avoidance conflict with messages that
stress the unforeseen benefits of choosing one option (e.g., when they emphasize
special credit plans to ease the pain of car payments).
Goal Framing Affects Goal Completion
In general, the higher we set our goals, the better we perform. A relatively easy way to
encourage people to set even higher goals for themselves is to frame them correctly.
A frame is simply a way of presenting information to change how it may be processed
and interpreted. We will cover the process of framing in more depth in Chapter 9, but
for now, it is sufficient to know that a framing effect occurs when our interpretation of
information—and/or how we behave in response to that information—changes based
on how the information is presented. Framing can also affect how we set goals and
how we strive toward them.
Positive and Negative Frames
Recent research finds that when they set goals, consumers can decide how many goalconsistent activities to undertake (such as exercising two days per week) or how many
goal-inconsistent activities to forego (such as not exercising five days per week). In
other words, they can apply positive or negative frames that influence how hard they
will work to achieve the goal.51
Researchers found evidence of this framing effect by conducting multiple studies
in which consumers selected activities toward a goal either by attending or skipping
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• Making Sense of the World
sessions. For instance, the participants read about a 10-week course that would
improve their job performance. The course took place over a 10-week period with
two lectures each week, and participants were asked to indicate how many lectures
they planned to attend (in the goal-consistent condition) versus miss (in the goalinconsistent condition). Every time participants were asked to miss activities, they
felt worse about themselves and compensated for these negative feelings by setting
even more ambitious goal levels.
Ends versus Means
When they pursue a goal, consumers generally have one of two mindsets: an outcomeoriented mindset (focusing on what the outcome will look like) or an implemental
mindset (focusing on how to reach that outcome). Recent research found that a positive mood is demotivating if you’re in an implemental mindset but motivating if you’re
in an outcome-oriented mindset.52 This is because a positive mood leads us to think of
more activities (i.e., means) that will accomplish our goal, and this in turn can make
the goal seem easier if we’re just focused on the outcome but harder if we’re focused
on how to carry out the necessary actions to achieve that outcome.
The way the researchers tested this theory was amazingly simple: to create
different mindsets toward a goal, participants were simply asked to describe the
outcome of the potential activities to accomplish the goal (outcome oriented) or
to describe the specific plans for when, where, and how to execute those plans
(implemental). Depending on the participants’ moods, these mindsets were more
or less motivating. So, before you make a plan to accomplish your goal, check
your mood!
The Time Frame
“I work better under a deadline.” Does the time you have to attain a goal make a difference? A set of research studies illustrates that the way you describe the amount of
time available to complete a task—the time frame—makes a difference. Researchers asked people to imagine they need to complete a language-learning / savings /
weight loss goal within a certain interval or by a certain date.53 They were then asked
if they would want to pursue that goal or how likely they would be to pursue it. No
matter the context, they found that people are more likely to pursue a goal when
they are given a time interval (“complete this review in two months”) than when the
deadline is framed as a specific date (“complete this review by Nov 17”), even when
the actual deadline is the same.
This happens because exact dates prompt us to also think about competing obligations falling within the interval. We end up focusing more on the (unenjoyable)
goal-pursuit process, whereas durations, which present the interval in isolation, make
us focus more on the goal’s (beneficial) outcome. A date that is specific makes salient
other competing goals and obligations and all we think about then is all the work we’ll
need to do to complete the goal. For instance, if you are wanting to learn some basic
Spanish before going on a trip to South America, you would look at this goal differently depending on whether you consider the time period (you have two months to
learn some español) or you consider the exact date of your flight out.
Furthermore, according to studies on the mere urgency effect, we tend to choose
to perform urgent tasks with short completion windows, compared to more important tasks.54 This tendency to pursue urgency over importance happens because urgent
tasks bring more immediate and certain outcomes, and we want to finish the
urgent tasks first and then work on important tasks later. This effect is so strong that
it even happens when the urgency is illusory—that is, when it seems that it has an
expiration date but in fact it does not. You might want to think about this the next time
Chapter 5 • Motivation
you’re deciding whether to complete a quick homework assignment that’s due this
week versus that bear of a term paper you’ve been trying not to think about.
Goal Difficulty and “Emergency Reserves”
Some goals are hard to achieve, like getting fit or writing a term paper, but that should
not be demotivating. In fact, hard goals can even lead to better success and greater satisfaction! The key is to make sure to have emergency reserves. These reserves provide
a type of slack in our goal pursuit in case we fail. Recent research shows that when
we actively pursue a challenging, conscious goal, we prefer harder over easier goals
if we have these emergency reserves, because we view these hard goals as more valuable than easier goals (e.g., seven days of exercise a week is more valuable than five)
but also because the slack makes them more attainable than goals without the slack.55
To show that people prefer the emergency reserves, researchers conducted a
series of studies with college students. They found that students preferred an exam
that required 20/25 points to pass, but with five emergency reserve points (versus
requiring 15/25 or 20/25 points, without reserves). To show that even harder goals
are preferred when reserves are available, they let students go online every morning
and complete 35 CAPTCHAs. They got $1 each morning if they did this, and $5 if
they completed their goal: 5 days a week (easy goal), 7 days a week (hard goal), 5 to
7 days a week (range goal), and 7 days a week with 2 free pass days “just in case”
(hard goal with reserve). Not only did the hard goal with reserve lead to the highest
performance on the exam; it was also the most satisfying experience. So, when you
set a goal, especially a challenging one, be sure to identify some emergency reserves
you can fall back on if necessary.
Goal Specificity
Goals cannot be too generic. They must be specific. Paying off as much debt as
possible is too generic. In contrast, setting specific goals like “reducing my student
loan by 25 percent this year” will be more motivating and lead to better success.
Recent research demonstrates that a specific goal is more effective because
it provides a concrete reference point.56 With specific goals (e.g., save $1,000),
people focus on that goal, and it “looms larger” for them. As they approach it (e.g.,
saving their 900th dollar), they feel more and more motivated. With nonspecific
goals (e.g., save as much as you can), people instead focus on their starting point
(e.g., their current savings). They become less and less motivated as they progress,
because the reference point falls further away. The more specific the goal, the
more motivating.
OBJECTIVE 5-4
Explain how the
way we evaluate
and choose a
product depends
on our degree
of involvement
with the product,
the marketing
message, or the
purchase situation.
Consumer Involvement
Imagine this conversation between two shoppers at a car
dealership:
Consumer #1: I want the electric one with a sunroof that
can accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3 seconds
and has more than 300 miles of driving range between
charges.
Consumer #2: I want a red one.
Involvement is “a person’s perceived relevance of the object based on their
inherent needs, values, and interests.”57 Figure 5.4 illustrates that different factors
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POSSIBLE RESULTS OF
INVOLVEMENT
ANTECEDENTS OF INVOLVEMENT
PERSON FACTORS
elicitation of counter
arguments to ads
needs
importance
interest
values
INVOLVEMENT
with advertisements
OBJECT OR STIMULUS
FACTORS
differentiation of
alternatives
with products
source of
communication
with purchase
decisions
content of
communication
effectiveness of ad
to induce purchase
relative importance
of the product class
perceived differences
in product attributes
preference for a
particular brand
influence of price
on brand choice
amount of information
search
SITUATIONAL FACTORS
time spent deliberating
alternatives
purchase/use
occasion
type of decision rule
used in choice
INVOLVEMENT = f (person, object, situation)
The level of involvement may be influenced by one or more of these three factors. Interactions among
person, object, and situational factors are likely to occur.
Figure 5.4 The Elements of Involvement
may create involvement. These factors can be something about the person, something
about the object, or something about the situation.
Our motivation to attain a goal increases our desire to acquire the products or
services that we believe will satisfy it. However, as we see in the case of Consumer #2
at the car dealership, not everyone is motivated to the same extent. 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.58 Think of a person’s degree
of involvement as a continuum that ranges from absolute lack of interest in a marketing stimulus at one end to obsession at the other. Inertia describes consumption
at the low end of involvement, where we make decisions out of habit because we lack
the motivation to consider alternatives.
Depending on whether the need we want to satisfy is utilitarian or
hedonic (see Chapter 1), as our involvement increases we think more about the product
(“I’ve spent the last three days researching mortgage interest rates”) or we experience a strong emotional response (“I get goose bumps when I imagine what my
daughter will look like in that bridal gown”).59 Not surprisingly, 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.60 Still, bear in mind that virtually anything can
qualify as highly involving to some people—just ask a “tool guy” to talk about his
passion for hammers or plumbing supplies.
When Apple put its first iPhone on sale, thousands of adoring iCultists around the
country (including the mayor of Philadelphia) waited in front of Apple stores for days
to be one of the first to buy the device—even though they could order the phone online
and have it delivered in three days. Somehow that was too long to wait for a cell phone
Chapter 5 • Motivation
with a touchscreen. As one loyal consumer admitted,
“If Apple made sliced bread, yeah, I’d buy it.”61
Cult products such as Apple—or Hydrox,
Harley-Davidson, Jones Soda, Chick-Fil-A, Manolo
Blahnik designer shoes (think Carrie on Sex and the
City), and the Boston Red Sox—command fierce
consumer loyalty, devotion, and maybe even worship
by consumers.62 A large majority of consumers agree
that they are willing to pay more for a brand when
they feel a personal connection to the company.63
Types of Involvement
A freelance software programmer named Winter is
on a mission to visit every Starbucks in the world.
To date, he’s been to more than 14,000 outlets in
Harley-Davidson is a cult product for many motorcycle riders.
numerous countries. When he learned that a StarSource: Wirestock, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo.
bucks store in British Columbia was scheduled to
close the next day, he spent $1,400 to fly there immediately just to order a cup of
coffee in the nick of time. He chronicles his odyssey on starbuckseverywhere.net.64
Okay, maybe Winter needs to get a life. Still, his passion demonstrates that
involvement takes many forms. It can be cognitive, as when a “gearhead” is motivated to learn all they can about the latest specs of a new tablet, or emotional, as when
the thought of a new Armani suit gives a clotheshorse the chills.65 What’s more, the
act of buying the Armani may be highly involving for people who are passionately
devoted to shopping.
To further complicate matters, advertisements such as those Nike or Adidas
produce may themselves be involving for some reason (e.g., because they make us
laugh or cry or inspire us to exercise harder). So, it seems that involvement is a
fuzzy concept because it overlaps with other things and means different things to
different people. Indeed, the consensus is that there are actually several broad types
of involvement we can relate to the product, the message, or the perceiver.66
Product Involvement
Product involvement is a 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.
As a rule, product decisions are likely to be highly involving if the consumer
believes there is a lot of perceived risk. This means the person believes there may be
negative consequences if they chose the wrong option. Risk is greater when a product
is expensive or complicated. In some cases, perceived risk also is a factor when others
can see what we choose, and we may be embarrassed if we make the wrong choice.67
Remember that a product does not necessarily have to cost a fortune or be hard to
use to be risky—for example, a college senior who is going to a job interview may
obsess about sweating too much and give a lot of thought to the brand of deodorant
they use that morning.
Figure 5.5 lists five kinds of risk—including objective (e.g., physical danger) and
subjective (e.g., social embarrassment) factors—as well as the products each type
tends to affect. Perceived risk is less of a problem for consumers who have greater
“risk capital,” because they have less to lose from a poor choice. For example, a highly
self-confident person might worry less than a vulnerable, insecure person who chooses
a brand that peers think isn’t cool.
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BUYERS MOST
SENSITIVE TO RISK
PURCHASES MOST
SUBJECT TO RISK
MONETARY
RISK
Risk consists of money and
property. Those with relatively
little income and wealth are most
vulnerable.
High-ticket items that require
substantial expenditures are most
subject to this form of risk.
FUNCTIONAL
RISK
Risk consists of alternative means
of performing the function or
meeting the need. Practical
consumers are most
sensitive.
Products or services whose
purchase and use requires the
buyer’s exclusive commitment are
most sensitive.
PHYSICAL
RISK
Risk consists of physical vigor,
health, and vitality. Those who are
elderly, frail, or in ill health are
most vulnerable.
Mechanical or electrical goods
(such as vehicles or flammables),
drugs and medical treatment, and
food and beverages are most
sensitive.
SOCIAL
RISK
Risk consists of self-esteem and
self-confidence. Those who are
insecure and uncertain are most
sensitive.
Socially visible or symbolic goods,
such as clothes, jewelry, cars,
homes, or sports equipment are
most subject to social risk.
PSYCHOLOGICAL
RISK
Risk consists of affiliations and
status. Those lacking
self-respect or attractiveness to
peers are most sensitive.
Expensive personal luxuries that
may engender guilt, durables, and
services whose use demands
self-discipline or sacrifice are
most sensitive.
Figure 5.5 Five Types of Perceived Risk
When a consumer is highly involved with a specific product, this is the Holy
Grail for marketers because it means they exhibit brand loyalty: Repeat purchasing
behavior that reflects a conscious decision to continue buying the same brand.68 Note
that this definition states that the consumer not only buys the brand on a regular basis,
but that they also have a strong positive attitude toward it rather than simply buying it
out of habit. In fact, we often find that a brand-loyal consumer has more than simply a
positive attitude; frequently, they are passionate about the product. “True-blue” users
react more vehemently when a company alters, redesigns, or (God forbid) eliminates
a favorite brand. One simple test to find out if you’re brand loyal: If the store is
temporarily out of your favorite brand, will you buy a different product or hold off
until you can get your first choice?
Although everyone wants to cultivate brand-loyal customers, there is a wrinkle
that sometimes confounds even the most effective marketers. We often engage in
brand switching, even if our current brand satisfies our needs. Sometimes, it seems we
simply like to try new things; we crave variety as a form of stimulation or to reduce
boredom. Variety-seeking, the desire to choose new alternatives over more familiar
ones, even influences us to switch from our favorite products to ones we like less! This
can occur even before we become satiated, or tired, of our favorite. Research supports
the idea that we are willing to trade enjoyment for variety because the unpredictability
itself is rewarding.
We’re especially likely to look for variety when we are in a good mood or when
there isn’t a lot of other stuff going on.69 So, even though we have favorites, we still
Chapter 5 • Motivation
like to sample other possibilities. However, when the decision situation is ambiguous,
or when there is little information about competing brands, we tend to opt for the
safe choice.
Strategies to Increase Product Involvement. Here are a few ways to increase
product involvement:
1. Mass customization describes the personalization of products and services
for individual customers at a mass-production price. This product involvement
strategy applies to a wide range of products and services, from newspaper websites
that allow readers to choose which sections of the paper they want to see, to Dell
computers that you can configure, to Levi’s blue jeans that have a right leg one
inch shorter than a left leg to fit an asymmetrical body (this is more common than
you think).70
2. DIY (do it yourself) refers to doing activities ourselves (e.g., home repairs or
furniture assembly) rather than hiring someone else to do it. When we have the
opportunity to personalize a product, our involvement increases because the item
reflects our unique preferences. The DIY market is projected to reach almost
$14 billion in just a few years. One reason for the boom: When we build the
product ourselves, the value we attach to it increases because our own labor is
involved.71 Researchers term this the IKEA Effect. Of course, there may also
be that unsettling feeling when you finish assembling a bookcase and there’s still
one part left over.
3. Co-creation strategies go a step farther, because the 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. For example, DHL developed robotics applications
such as self-driving trolleys in warehouses that allow workers to pick merchandise for delivery in a more efficient way.72 On the B2C side, Anheuser-Busch
invited input from 25,000 beer drinkers when it developed a new lager called
Black Crown.73
4. Gamification is a red-hot marketing strategy today; it refers to the application of
gaming principles, such as friendly competition and the ability to earn badges as
you master different tasks, to nongaming contexts. This approach offers a way to
dramatically increase involvement, especially for activities that can benefit from
a bit of motivation. When the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
wanted to promote financial literacy, the government agency created its Money
Smart program. It’s designed to look like a board game similar to Monopoly, and
it challenges players to learn financial skills such as setting up a bank account,
paying bills on time, and avoiding identity theft. The game attracted more than
40,000 users in a year.74
Message Involvement
It started with Jay Z’s celebrated campaign to promote his autobiographical Decoded
book. The agency Droga5 created a national scavenger hunt when it hid all 320 pages
of the book (mostly blown-up versions) in outdoor spots in 13 cities that somehow
related to the text on each page (e.g., on cheeseburger wrappers in New York).
Coldplay borrowed a page from this book more recently to promote its album Ghost
Stories. The band hid lyric sheets inside ghost stories in libraries around the world and
gave out clues on Twitter.75 This represents an emerging way to engage consumers: In
alternate reality games (ARGs), thousands of people participate in a fictional story
or competition to solve a mystery.
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Product involvement often depends on the situation we’re in. The Charmin toilet tissue brand sponsors a website,
appropriately named SitOrSquat.com. The site helps travelers find the cleanest public restrooms wherever they happen
to be. The brand manager explains, “Our goal is to connect Charmin with innovative conversations and solutions as a
brand that understands the importance of bringing the best bathroom experience to consumers, even when they’re away
from home.” According to Charmin, SitOrSquat lists over 52,000 toilets in 10 countries.
Source: Courtesy of The Procter & Gamble Company.
As these novel scavenger hunts illustrate, media vehicles possess different qualities
that influence our motivation to pay attention to what they tell us, known as message
involvement. Print tends to be a high-involvement medium (whether it appears on
a “dead tree” or in an e-book). The reader actively processes the information and
(if desired) they are able to pause and reflect on it before turning the page.76 In contrast,
television tends to be a low-involvement medium because more viewers are passive, and
exert relatively little control (remote-control “zipping” notwithstanding) over content.
Strategies to Increase Message Involvement Although consumers’ involvement
levels with a product message vary, marketers do not simply sit back and hope for the
best. If they are aware of some basic factors that increase or decrease attention, they
can take steps to increase the likelihood that product information will get through. A
marketer can boost a person’s motivation to process relevant information via one or
more of the following techniques:77
• Use novel stimuli, such as unusual cinematography, sudden silences, or unex-
pected movements, in commercials. When a British firm called Egg Banking
Chapter 5 • Motivation
•
•
•
•
•
•
introduced a credit card to the French market, its ad agency created unusual commercials to make people question their assumptions. One ad stated, “Cats always
land on their paws,” and then two researchers in white lab coats dropped a kitten
off a rooftop—never to see it again (animal rights activists were not amused).78
Use prominent stimuli, such as loud music and fast action, to capture attention. In print formats, larger ads increase attention. Also, viewers look longer at
colored pictures than at black-and-white ones.
Include celebrity endorsers. As we’ll see in Chapter 6, people process more
information when it comes from someone they admire or at least know about,
whether Michael Jordan, Bill Gates, or Kylie Jenner.
Provide value that customers appreciate. Charmin bathroom tissue set up public toilets in Times Square that hordes of grateful visitors used. Thousands more
people (evidently with time on their hands) visited the brand’s website to view
the display.79
Invent new media platforms to grab attention. Procter & Gamble printed trivia
questions and answers on its Pringles snack chips with ink made of blue or red
food coloring, and a company called Speaking Roses International patented a technology to laser-print words, images, or logos on flower petals.80 An Australian firm
creates hand stamps that nightclubs use to identify paying customers; the stamps
include logos or ad messages so partiers’ hands become an advertising platform.81
Encourage viewers to think about actually using the product. If a people can
imagine this, they are more likely to want to obtain the real thing. Research shows
that even subtle cues in an advertisement can encourage this mental rehearsal. One
simple example is orienting an image of a cup with its handle to the right so that
(for a right-handed person) it matches the dominant hand and facilitates mental
stimulation.82
Create spectacles where the message is itself a form of entertainment. In the
early days of radio and television, ads literally were performances; show hosts
integrated marketing messages into the episodes. Today live advertising that
features attention-grabbing events called spectacles is making a comeback as
marketers try harder and harder to captivate jaded consumers:83 Axe body products
sponsored a posh Hamptons (New York) nightclub for the whole summer season;
it became The Axe Lounge, sporting branding on the DJ booth and menu and Axe
products in the restrooms.
Situational Involvement
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, and stadiums.
Industry insiders refer to this as a “butts-in-seats” strategy. That’s why some fans who
attend Atlanta Falcons football games get visited by a cheerleader in the stands for
a photo op and also why Chrysler is ramping up its efforts to get people to test drive
cars at dealerships and auto shows. As the head of the car company’s “experiential
marketing unit” explained, “We know a physical experience with a vehicle is a great
way to allow people to try it out and move it up on their consideration list.”84
Strategies to Increase Situational Involvement
Personalization: As we saw for product involvement, retailers can personalize the
messages shoppers receive at the time of purchase. For example, a few marketers tailor
the recommendations they give shoppers in a store based on what they picked up from
a shelf. At some Dunkin’ Donuts locations, a person who orders a morning coffee sees
an ad at the cash register that pushes hash browns or breakfast sandwiches. And, of
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course, recommendation agents that provide customized suggestions when we shop
online perform much the same function.
High tech: The point of purchase can be much more than a place to stack up
stuff and wait for people to throw it in their carts. Exciting new technologies such
as augmented reality, virtual reality, and beacons allow retailers to turn the shopping
experience into an adventure. We’ll revisit these options in Chapter 8.
Subscription boxes: Many startups, such as FabFitFun, Birchbox Ipsy, Dollar
Shave Club, and Graze, deliver “surprises” of exotic food items, personal care products, books, wine, clothing, and many other wondrous goodies on a regular basis
to consumers who sign up. Subscription company websites attract about 37 million
visitors a year, and that number has grown by over 800 percent in just three years.
A website called My Subscription Addiction sums up the enthusiasm these services
have generated for many thousands of variety junkies.85
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Now that you have finished reading this chapter, you should
be able to:
1. Understand how motivation can be intrinsic or
extrinsic.
Motivation refers to the processes that lead people to
behave as they do. It occurs when a need that the consumer wishes to satisfy is activated. The need creates a
state of tension that drives the consumer to attempt to
reduce or eliminate it. The motivation can be intrinsic,
pulling from the person’s inherent drives, or it can be
extrinsic, pushed by an external force.
2. Outline how products can satisfy a range of
consumer needs.
Marketers try to satisfy consumers’ needs, but the
reason any product is purchased can vary widely. The
identification of consumer motives is an important
step to ensure that a product will meet the appropriate
need(s). Traditional approaches to consumer behavior
have focused on the abilities of products to satisfy
rational needs (utilitarian motives), but hedonic motives
(such as the need for exploration or fun) also guide many
purchase decisions. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs demonstrates that the same product can satisfy different needs.
3. Discuss how setting goals correctly can motivate
consumers to strive toward and achieve those
goals.
When we set goals deliberately, when we monitor
goal progress, and when we are committed to
reaching the goal, we are most likely to achieve it.
Consumers experience different kinds of conf licts
that can impact their purchase decisions, such as
approach–approach and approach–avoidance conflicts. A goal has valence, which means that it can
be positive or negative. We direct our behavior
toward goals we value positively; we are motivated
to approach the goal and to seek out products that
will help us to reach it. In general, the higher we set
our goals, the better we perform. One way to encourage people to set even higher goals for themselves is
to frame them correctly. Some factors that influence
the results include the time frame, specificity, and
difficulty of the goal.
4. Explain how the way we evaluate and choose a
product depends on our degree of involvement
with the product, the marketing message, or the
purchase situation.
Product involvement can range from low, where consumers make purchase decisions based on inertia,
to high, where they form strong bonds with favorite
brands (cult products). Marketing strategies also need
to consider consumers’ extent of engagement with the
messages about their products and the environments in
which consumption of these products occur.
KEY TERMS
Achievement motivation, 127
Alternate reality games (ARGs), 141
Approach–approach conflict, 134
Approach–avoidance conflict, 135
Autonomy, 132
Avoidance–avoidance conflict, 135
Body positivity, 125
Brand loyalty, 140
Co-creation, 141
Chapter 5 • Motivation
Competence, 132
Conscientiousness, 133
Cult products, 139
DIY (do it yourself), 141
Drive, 127
Drive theory, 127
Emergency reserves, 137
External incentives, 127
Extrinsic motivation, 126
Feedback loop, 128
Frame, 135
Fresh start mindset, 133
Goal, 126
Great Resignation, 131
Grit, 133
Hedonic consumption, 129
Hierarchy of needs, 130
High tech, 144
Homeostasis, 127
IKEA Effect, 141
Implemental mindset, 136
Implementation intentions, 128
Intrinsic motivation, 126
Involvement, 137
Mass customization, 141
Metamotivation, 126
Message involvement, 142
Mere urgency effect, 136
Motivation, 126
Mortality salience, 132
Nonconscious goals, 127
Outcome-oriented mindset, 136
Perceived risk, 139
Personalization, 143
145
Placebo effect, 127
Positive or negative
frames, 135
Prevention motivation, 128
Product involvement, 139
Promotion motivation, 128
Quantified self (QS) movement, 129
Relatedness, 132
Retail therapy, 127
Self-determination theory, 132
Self-regulation, 128
Situational involvement, 143
Spectacles, 143
Terror management theory, 132
Time frame, 136
Theory of cognitive dissonance, 134
Variety-seeking, 140
REVIEW
5-1 What is motivation, and why is this idea so important
to marketers?
5-6 List three types of perceived risk, and give an example of each.
5-2 Describe three types of motivational conflicts. Cite an
example of each from a current marketing campaign.
5-7 What is consumer involvement? How does this concept relate to motivation?
5-3 Explain the difference between a need and a want.
5-8 What are some strategies marketers can use to
increase consumers’ involvement with their products
or messages?
5-4 What is cognitive dissonance?
5-5 Name the levels in Maslow’s hierarchy and give an
example of a marketing appeal focused at each level.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHALLENGE
DISCUSS
5-9 Does money buy happiness? Why or why not?
5-10 The chapter discusses the quest by many consumers
to quantify their personal actions—exercise, bodily
functions, finances, perhaps even the number of dates
they went on this month. As we continue to “outsource” these measurements to technology and share
them with our networks, do you think this can go too
far? At what point do we stop being an individual and
start to be a set of metrics?
5-11 A group of psychologists argued that we need to
revise Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. They propose
we should delete “self-actualization” from the
pinnacle and replace it with “parenting.” Right below
this peak, they added “mate retention” and “mate
acquisition.” They claim that too many people see
Maslow’s triangle as “aspirational”—a description
of what fulfilled individuals “should” do—rather
than as an explanation of how human motivation
actually works. Their perspective is evolutionary;
if the only purpose of art, music, and literature is
self-fulfillment, how does that contribute to the survival of the species? What do you think—do our
motivations to buy, have, and be ultimately come
down to survival of our gene pool?86
5-12 Our emotional reactions to marketing cues are so
powerful that some high-tech companies study mood
in small doses (in 1/30 of a second increments) as they
analyze people’s facial reactions when they see ads or
new products. They measure happiness as they look
for differences between, for example, a true smile
(which includes a relaxation of the upper eyelid) and
a social smile (which occurs only around the mouth).
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Whirlpool used this technique to test consumers’ emotional reactions to a yet-to-be-launched generation of
its Duet washers and dryers. The company’s goal:
To design an appliance that will make people happy.
Researchers discovered that even though test subjects
said they weren’t thrilled with some out-of-the-box
design options, such as unusual color combinations,
their facial expressions said otherwise.87 Does the
ability to study our emotional reactions at such a
specific level give marketers an unfair advantage?
APPLY
5-13 Our online behaviors also can satisfy needs at different levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, especially
when we participate in social networks such as Instagram or TikTok. Web-based companies can build
loyalty if they keep these needs in mind when they
design their offerings:
• We satisfy physiological needs when we use the
•
•
•
•
•
•
internet to research topics such as nutrition or
medical questions.
The internet enables users to pool information
and satisfy safety needs when they call attention
to bad practices, flawed products, or even dangerous predators.
Profile pages on Facebook allow users to define
themselves as individuals.
Online communities, blogs, and social networks
provide recognition and achievement to those
who cultivate a reputation for being especially
helpful or an expert in some subject.
Users can seek help from others and connect with
people who have similar tastes and interests.
Access to invitation-only communities provides
status.
Spiritually based online communities can provide
guidance to troubled people.88
Interview people you know about their motivations to participate in social media. Ask them to provide a list of the platforms they access most. Then,
for each, probe their reasons for visiting these. What
needs do these sites appear to satisfy? How might
these insights help you to devise ideas for new social
media products?
5-14 Interview members of a celebrity fan club. Describe
their level of involvement with the “product,” and
devise some marketing strategies to reach this group.
5-15 The text notes that marketers continue to push the
envelope to create spectacles that will increase consumer involvement with their messages:
• A British show broadcast a group of skydivers
•
•
•
who performed a dangerous jump to create a
human formation in the air that spelled out the
letters H, O, N, D, A.
Honda built a musical road in Lancaster, PA;
grooves in the cement create a series of pitches
that play the “William Tell Overture” when a car
drives over them.
A New York campaign for Jameson Irish Whiskey
projects an ad onto a wall—an operator scans the
street for pedestrians who fit the brand’s profile
and inserts live text messages directed at them
into the display.
To promote the 25th anniversary of the Michael
Jackson album Thriller, which featured zombies
dancing in a music video of the title song, Sony
BMG staged a performance in the London Underground. A group of “passengers” suddenly burst
into a zombie-like dance before they disappeared
into the crowd, and this videotaped scene was
posted online. The video inspired similar performances in other countries, and within a week,
more than a million people had downloaded these
films. In a similar stunt for T-Mobile, several
hundred commuters at the Liverpool rail station
broke into a dance; more than 15 million people
watched the performance on YouTube in the
following weeks.
Can you top these? Imagine that a client hires
you to launch a new energy drink. Propose a spectacle you could engineer that would attract potential
customers to learn more about your product.
DIGGING IN WITH DATA
See “Data Case 1: Analyzing the Athletic Shoe Market” in Appendix A for an opportunity to work with real consumer
data and apply this chapter’s concepts to real world problems.
Chapter 5 • Motivation
CASE STUDY
Game On! Using Gamification to Engage
with Consumers
If you are like many of us, you have probably been playing
games most of your life. Your odyssey may have begun
with Chutes and Ladders, but today, you’re more likely
to be one of the estimated 3.24 billion people around the
world who enjoy video games. 89 Marketers have taken
notice. They have learned that games can be a great way
to get and hold consumers’ attention and help them engage
with a brand.90
The consulting firm Gartner defines gamification as “the
use of game mechanics and experience design to digitally
engage and motivate people to achieve their goals.”91 In recent
years, organizations have devised games to encourage people
to save, improve their fitness, and to increase employee productivity.92 Similarly, gamification marketing harnesses these
gaming design elements to attract and retain customers.93
Games are particularly effective in reaching younger
millennial and Gen Z consumers who have grown up with
digital technology. Indeed, one study found that 68 percent of
Gen Z males feel that gaming is a part of their identity!94 And
gaming is not just for males anymore; a 2019 study found
that 63 percent of mobile gamers are female.95 No wonder,
then, that this technique is so effective to reach these coveted
consumers.
A major goal of this approach is to recreate some of
the passion and attention that players often exhibit when
they’re immersed in a game. If a marketer can somehow
replicate this “secret sauce” at least to some extent, they
hope to see increased engagement with what they offer.96
McDonald’s top prize in its 2017 Monopoly campaign was
$65 million, and Chipotle’s digital racing game had a grand
prize of a Tesla Model 3.97 Most prizes are more modest,
but they still provide a more immersive experience than
traditional advertising.98 Some other examples:
• Samsung asks consumers to watch product videos, review
•
•
•
147
products, and participate in Q&A sessions, and in return
awards badges that become entries in a drawing for Samsung products.99
Rather than doing traditional marketing research, KIND,
the healthy snack bar company, used its Raise the Bar
contest to get customers to vote on its next flavor.100
M&M promoted its new pretzel-flavored candy by challenging players to find a pretzel hidden among an image
of a bunch of M&Ms.101
If you are a coffee lover, you are likely part of the Starbucks Rewards loyalty program in which your coffee
habit lets you progress through levels to earn some free
java.102
Games are an effective promotional tool for several
reasons. A loyalty program can be enhanced by gamification
that continually rewards customers for desired behavior,
encouraging them to come back for more. A game can create
word-of-mouth promotion—often through social media—
as those playing tell their friends, increasing brand awareness. Gamification can also be a great way to gather data, as
players will often readily share contact information to enter
a contest or to receive rewards.103
Why does an ad a marketer puts in game form sometimes work better than a traditional ad? There is a little psychology at work here. Matthew Pierce, CEO of gamification
company Versus Systems, believes we react differently to a
game than we do to a traditional ad. As he explains it, “It’s
not being forced to watch an ad, but being able to choose
what you want to play for. That literally opens up different
pathways in your brain, and you stop thinking about it as
an ad. You see it as a reward, as a prize. You see that it’s
something you earned, and that's materially different.”104
These games give users control and reinforce desirable
­behavior—such as providing a product review—through
rewards. Games can also satisfy our need for achievement,
even if only in small ways.105 The tendency to form habits
is also at play; some games offer players rewards to return
on a regular basis.106
Some marketers classify gamification broadly to include
any kind of interaction with consumers that has game-like
elements—some as simple as getting a reward for watching an ad or purchasing more of a product, the latter typical of many loyalty programs. A stricter definition identifies
true gamification as marketing interactions that involve elements of games you’ll recognize if you’re a video gamer:
strategy, competition, and the opportunity to be recognized
for achievements as you play.
Does gamification work? A 2019 report from the
organization Brand Loyalty and Visa found that 81 percent
of consumers will participate in a game when it is part of a
loyalty program. The M&M brand got some nice buzz from its
pretzel game with 25,000 new likes on the brand’s Facebook
page, along with 6,000 shares and 10,000 comments.107
Samsung’s gamification initiative led to an amazing 500
percent increase in product reviews.108
Most important, games can lead to purchases. A study
by digital agency Reflect Digital found that 60 percent of
study respondents would be more likely to make a purchase
from a brand if they had enjoyed playing a game offered
by the company; the number rises to 86 percent for those
who have played branded games before.109 As examples, a
148
Section 2
• Making Sense of the World
create-your-own pizza game app led to a boost in earnings of
30 percent for Domino’s, and a White Castle game resulted
in conversions to purchase of 36 percent.110
Gamification is likely here to stay. A report by Allied
Market Research estimated the global gamification market
at $9.9 billion in 2020.111 The market is projected to grow
to $32 billion by 2025 and $38.4 billion by 2026.112 It’s not
surprising, then, that 75 percent of media agencies say they
consider gamified advertising to be the superior way to build
trust relationships with consumers.113 Tim Sayler, chief
marketing officer of watchmaker Breitling is convinced. He
states, “Gamification is a huge trend and more and more of
our media platforms will automatically be gamified, because
they work better [than traditional advertising].” With the
growth in loyalty and increases in revenues that gamification
is bringing to companies like Breitling, Starbucks, Chipotle,
and many others, we can expect companies to continue to
“get their game on.”114
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
CS 5-1 Choose a product without an apparent gamification
strategy, and design a campaign that uses games to
engage users. Test your creativity by designing something more involved than simply winning badges for
buying more of the product.
CS 5-2 What makes a “good” game? Create a list of dos and
don’ts for effective marketing gamification.
CS 5-3 Does gamification work with all demographics (age,
income, gender, education)? What game design
elements should be considered when marketing to
different demographic segments?
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.com/blog/marketing/gamification-in-digital-marketing.
95. Ming Liu, “Breitling Gets Its Game On,” New York Times, April 6, 2021,
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/fashion/watches-breitling-mobile-­
gaming.html.
96. Emily Heaslip, “What Is Gamification? And Is It Right for Your Business?,”
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, https://www.uschamber.com/co/start/strategy/
gamification-in-workplace.
97. Rae Steinbach, “10 Gamification Marketing Examples for Your Next Campaign,”
NeverBounce, December 19, 2017, https://neverbounce.com/blog/gamificationmarketing-examples; “Chipotle Launches Rewards Exchange with New Video
Game and Tesla Model 3 Giveaway - Jun 22, 2021,” Chipotle, https://newsroom.
chipotle.com/2021-06-22-Chipotle-Launches-Rewards-Exchange-With-NewVideo-Game-And-Tesla-Model-3-Giveaway, accessed August 5, 2022.
98. Ashira Prossack, “How Gamification Is Changing Advertising,” Forbes,
May 27, 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashiraprossack1/2021/05/27/
how-gamification-is-changing-advertising/.
99. Brigg Patten, “Effective Training Strategies: 7 Companies Using Gamification,”
InSync Training, https://blog.insynctraining.com/effective-trainingstrategies-7-companies-using-gamification-correctly, accessed August 5, 2022.
100. Ben Moss, “7 Ways to Use Gamification in Marketing Campaigns,” Webdesigner Depot, September 8, 2021, https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/
2021/09/7-ways-to-use-gamification-in-marketing-campaigns/.
101. Zarrar Chishti, “10 Best Gamification Marketing Examples,” dummies,
October 23, 2020, https://www.dummies.com/article/business-careers-money/
business/marketing/10-best-gamification-marketing-examples-273998/.
102. Ibid.
103. “What Are Gamification Platforms and Why Does Your Marketing Team Need
One?,” CataBoom, January 13, 2022, https://www.cataboom.com/, accessed
August 6, 2022; Simon Byrne, “Everything You Need to Know about Gamification Marketing,” Bazaarvoice, February 18, 2022, https://www.bazaarvoice
.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-gamification-marketing/.
104. Ashira Prossack, “How Gamification Is Changing Advertising,” Forbes,
May 27, 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashiraprossack1/2021/05/27/
how-gamification-is-changing-advertising/?sh=18c490bed4e3.
105. Nicolas Algoedt, “Gamification Guide to Delightful Customer Experiences,” Insider, April 30, 2022, https://useinsider.com/the-definitive-guideto-gamification-real-life-examples/.
106. Laurence Goasduff, “How Gamification Boosts Consumer Engagement,”
Gartner, https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/how-gamificationboosts-consumer-engagement, accessed August 5, 2022.
107. Zarrar Chishti, “10 Best Gamification Marketing Examples,” dummies,
October 23, 2020, https://www.dummies.com/article/business-careers-money/
business/marketing/10-best-gamification-marketing-examples-273998/.
108. Brigg Patten, “Effective Training Strategies: 7 Companies Using Gamification,” InSync Training, https://blog.insynctraining.com/effectivetraining-strategies-7-companies-using-gamification-correctly, accessed
August 5, 2022.
109. Todd Hedberg, “Level Up Your Loyalty: Gamify to Boost Engagement,”
Advertising Week, December 7, 2021, https://advertisingweek.com/level-upyour-loyalty-gamify-to-boost-engagement/.
110. Haley Walden, “How to Boost Engagement with Gamification in
Digital Marketing,” Elegant Themes, October 19, 2020, https://www
.elegantthemes.com/blog/marketing/gamification-in-digital-marketing; Ashira
Prossack, “How Gamification Is Changing Advertising,” Forbes, May 27, 2021,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashiraprossack1/2021/05/27/how-gamificationis-changing-advertising/.
111. Allied Market Research, “Gamification Market Is Projected to Reach $95.5
Billion by 2030,” GlobeNewswire, May 24, 2022, https://www.globenews
wire.com/en/news-release/2022/05/24/2449015/0/en/Gamification-Market-isProjected-to-Reach-95-5-Billion-by-2030-Allied-Market-Research.html.
112. Ben Moss, “7 Ways to Use Gamification in Marketing Campaigns,” Webdesigner
Depot, September 8, 2021, https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2021/09/7ways-to-use-gamification-in-marketing-campaigns/; Nicolas Algoedt,
“Gamification Guide to Delightful Customer Experiences,” Insider, April
30, 2022, https://useinsider.com/the-definitive-guide-to-gamification-reallife-examples/.
113. Gaydova Christina, “The Role of Gamification in Modern Advertising,” NT,
https://nt.technology/en/blog/the-role-of-gamification-in-modern-advertising/,
accessed August 5, 2022.
114. Ming Liu, “Breitling Gets Its Game On,” New York Times, April 6, 2021, https://
www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/fashion/watches-breitling-mobile-gaming
.html.
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Section
3
Buying and Having:
Choosing and Using
Products
In Section 3, we look at how consumers think about products, the steps they take to choose
one, and what happens after they buy something. Chapter 6 focuses on the nature and power
of attitudes and identifies all the factors that affect persuasion, or how marketers influence us.
In Chapter 7, we look at the steps we take to make decisions and distinguish between the
processes of fast, habitual decision-making and slow, more rational decision-making. Chapter 8
highlights the many factors that affect our shopping experiences and addresses the massive
changes in consumer behavior related to the virtualization of shopping, the sharing economy,
and the climate change crisis.
Chapters Ahead
Chapter 6
Attitudes and How
to Change Them
Chapter 7
Deciding
Chapter 8
Buying, Using, and Disposing
153
6
Attitudes and
How to Change Them
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES When you finish reading this chapter, you should be able to:
6-1 Explain the functions and components of attitudes
in consumer behavior.
6-2 Describe the ways in which we form attitudes.
6-4 Discuss the ways in which the source, the
message, and the medium are used to craft
persuasion strategies.
6-3 Explain how persuasion is an active attempt to
create or change attitudes.
A
Source: DragonImages/Alamy Stock Photo.
154
lex is hanging out at the mall, idly texting some
friends about some stuff she saw in a few stores.
When she checks her Snapchat, she sees several
friends are posting about their college application plans.
She groans to herself; it’s starting already! She’s just beginning her senior year of high school, and already everybody’s
thinking about what happens next year. Alex realizes it’s time
to bite the bullet and really start to investigate this, but it’s all
so confusing. She’s been getting bombarded with enticing
ads and brochures from so many different schools. They’re
hard to escape; some arrive by snail mail and others keep
hitting her with emails and texts. A few have invited her to
take virtual campus tours on their websites, and one even
wants her to enter a virtual world version of the campus
as an avatar to walk around and “talk” to current students.
It’s amazing to see how different their pitches are, too.
Sure, some universities tout their academic excellence, but
others play up their international programs, job placement programs, and even
amenities (rock climbing walls!). Of course, she’s familiar with some of the schools that
are starting to court her, and she already has a positive attitude toward a few—and based
on what she’s heard about some others, she already knows it’s “. . . over my dead body
am I going there.” But others feel like a blank slate; so far at least, she has absolutely no
idea what it would be like to be a student at these schools. As Alex starts to post some
queries in her network to see what people can tell her about these options, she knows
it’s time to buckle up—this is going to be an intense year.
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
The Power of Attitudes
OBJECTIVE 6-1
Explain the
functions and
components
of attitudes in
consumer behavior.
People use the term attitude in many contexts. A friend
might ask you, “What is your attitude toward recycling?”
A parent might scold, “Young man, I don’t like your attitude.”
Some bars even euphemistically refer to happy hour as “an
attitude adjustment period.” For our purposes, though, an attitude is a lasting, general
evaluation of people (including oneself), objects, advertisements, or issues.1 We call
anything toward which one has an attitude an attitude object (A o ). As Alex will
learn during her college search process (and no doubt you did too), we assimilate
information from a variety of sources and often put a lot of effort into forming an
attitude toward many things, including a complex attitude object like a university.
An attitude is lasting because it tends to endure over time. It is general because
it applies to more than a momentary event, such as hearing a loud noise, though you
might, over time, develop a negative attitude toward all loud noises. Consumers have
attitudes toward a wide range of attitude objects, from product-specific behaviors
(e.g., you use Crest toothpaste rather than Colgate) to more general, consumptionrelated behaviors (e.g., you enjoy taking bike rides on the weekend). Attitudes help
to determine whom you choose to date, what music you listen to, whether you
recycle aluminum cans, or whether you choose to become an environmental scientist
for a living.
In this chapter, we’ll consider the contents of an attitude, how we form attitudes,
and how we measure them. We will also review some of the surprisingly complex
relationships between attitudes and behavior and then take a closer look at how
marketers can change these attitudes.
Attitudes (Generally) Guide our Behavior
If you like chocolate, you’re more likely to eat it. The reason attitudes matter is that
they guide our behaviors (see Figure 6.1). The psychologist Daniel Katz developed
the functional theory of attitudes to explain how attitudes facilitate behavior. 2
According to this pragmatic approach, attitudes exist because they serve some
Persuasion
(forms/changes)
Persuasion:
Process of forming or changing
someone’s attitude
Persuasive processes:
• Central (slow, rational) vs.
Peripheral (fast, emotional)
processes (ELM)
• Narrative persuasion
Persuasive communication factors:
• Source
• Message (types of appeals)
• Medium: increasingly
advertainment
Attitude
(guides)
Attitude:
Lasting, general evaluation of an
attitude object (person, brand,
product, message, issue)
Comprised of
cognitions and emotions
Usually positive or negative
Has explicit and implicit
elements
Attitude-Behavior
link depends on:
Attitude
commitment
Social context
(Norms; Social
Pressure)
Figure 6.1 Model of Persuasion -> Attitude -> Behavior
Behavior
Consumer
Behavior
155
156
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• Buying and Having: Choosing and Using Products
function for the person. Two people can each have an attitude toward some object for
different reasons. As a result, it’s helpful for a marketer to know why an attitude is
held before they try to change it. These are different attitude functions:
• Utilitarian function—The utilitarian function relates to the basic principles
•
•
•
of reward and punishment we learned about in Chapter 4. We develop some
attitudes toward products simply because they provide pleasure or pain. If a
person likes the taste of a cheeseburger, that person will develop a positive
attitude toward cheeseburgers. Messages that stress straightforward product
benefits (e.g., you should drink Diet Coke “just for the taste of it”) appeal to the
utilitarian function.
Value-expressive function—Attitudes that perform a value-expressive function
relate to the consumer’s self-concept (Chapter 6) or central values (Chapter 7).
A person forms a product attitude in this case because of what the product says
about them as a person. Value-expressive attitudes also are highly relevant to the
psychographic analyses we discussed in Chapter 7, which consider how consumers
cultivate a cluster of activities, interests, and opinions to express a particular
social identity.
Ego-defensive function—Attitudes we form to protect ourselves either from
external threats or internal feelings perform an ego-defensive function. An early
marketing study showed that housewives resisted the use of instant coffee because
it threatened their conception of themselves as capable homemakers (this doesn’t
seem to be a big issue for most anymore!).3
Knowledge function—We form some attitudes because we need order, structure,
or meaning. A knowledge function applies when a person is in an ambiguous
situation (“it’s okay to wear sweatpants on a Zoom call, but only if I wear a nice
top”) or when they confront a new product (e.g., “Bayer wants you to know about
pain relievers”).
Attitudes, Fast and Slow: Cognitive and
Affective Components
Alex’s nerve-wracking college selection paints a picture of a consumer who thoughtfully and rationally forms an attitude toward different schools. Really? How many
high school seniors do you know who think like this? Sure, a prospective student who
visits a college may consider the attributes that formed Alex’s attitudes. But in many
cases, we let our emotions guide our attitudes, as we react with enthusiasm, joy, or
even disgust to specific events:
• “I said hello to a few current students, but they didn’t say hello back.”
• “It was a beautiful spring day, and kids were hanging out everywhere.”
• “The sandwich I had in the Student Union wasn’t very fresh.”
Obviously, the attitude that a mediocre lunch activates is quite different than one
that reflects a person’s deep-seated conviction that same-sex schools provide a more
productive learning environment. We refer to these two distinct ways of deciding as
slow thinking and fast thinking. The distinction between these two systems is common
in psychology: “Type 1” processes are fast, autonomous, and intuitive, while “Type 2”
processes are slow, deliberative, and analytic. We’ll revisit this idea in Chapter 9 to
understand how these attitudes influence our decisions among competing options.
Guess what? We can apply the same basic logic to help us to understand attitudes.
Attitudes include cognitive (beliefs) and affective (emotional) elements. But not all
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
attitudes are created equal: Some are “hot” in that they’re driven by emotional reactions, while others are “cool” because they form based on the knowledge a customer
believes they have about the product.
“I Know It”: Cognitive Focus
Cognitive models of attitudes focus primarily on the beliefs (accurate or not) we hold
about a product. Making sure your customers have correct information about what you
sell is crucial—and even more so in this age of misinformation, where it’s very easy
for a rival or even a mischievous consumer to disseminate falsehoods.
Because our beliefs about things like universities can be complex, marketing
researchers may use multiattribute attitude models to understand them. This type of
model assumes that consumers’ attitudes toward an attitude object (Ao ) depend on the
beliefs they have about several of its attributes. When we use a multiattribute model,
we assume that we can identify these specific beliefs and combine them to derive a
measure of the consumer’s overall attitude. We’ll describe how these models work
with the example of a consumer like Alex at the beginning of the chapter who evaluates a complex attitude object that should be familiar to you: a college.
Basic multiattribute models contain three specific elements:4
• Attributes are characteristics of the A . A researcher tries to identify the attributes
o
•
•
that most consumers use when they evaluate the Ao . For example, one of a college’s
attributes is its scholarly reputation.
Beliefs are cognitions about the specific Ao (usually relative to others like it).
A belief measure assesses the extent to which the consumer perceives that a brand
possesses a particular attribute. For example, a student might believe that the
University of North Carolina is strong academically.
Importance weights reflect the relative priority of an attribute to the consumer.
Although people might consider an Ao for several attributes, some are likely to
be more important than others (i.e., consumers will give them greater weight).
Furthermore, these weights are likely to differ across consumers. In the case of
colleges and universities, for example, one student might stress research opportunities, whereas another might assign greater weight to athletic programs.
The most influential multiattribute model is called the Fishbein Model, named
after its primary developer.5 The model measures three components of attitude:
• Salient beliefs people have about an A (i.e., those beliefs about the object a person
considers during evaluation).
• Object-attribute linkages, or the probability that a particular object has an important attribute.
• Evaluation of each of the important attributes.
o
When we combine these three elements, we compute a consumer’s overall attitude
toward an object. (We’ll see later how researchers modify this equation to increase its
accuracy.) The basic formula is:
A jk = ∑ β ijk I ik
where
i = attribute
j = brand
k = consumer
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• Buying and Having: Choosing and Using Products
I = the importance weight given attribute i by consumer k
β = consumer k’s belief regarding the extent to which brand j possesses
attribute i
A = a particular consumer’s (k’s) attitude score for brand j
We obtain the overall attitude score (A) when we multiply consumers’ rating
of each attribute for all the brands they considered by the importance rating for that
attribute.
To see how this basic multiattribute model works, let’s suppose we want to predict
which college our friend Alex is likely to attend. After months of waiting anxiously,
Alex gets accepted by four schools. Because she must now decide among these, we
would first like to know which attributes Alex will consider when she forms an attitude
toward each school. We can then ask Alex to assign a rating regarding how well
each school performs on each attribute and determine the relative importance of the
attributes to her.
By summing scores on each attribute (after we weigh each by its relative
importance), we compute an overall attitude score for each school. Table 6.1 shows
these hypothetical ratings. Based on this analysis, it seems that Alex has the most
favorable attitude toward Smith. She is clearly someone who would like to attend a
college for women with a solid academic reputation rather than a school that offers a
strong athletic program or a party atmosphere.
Marketing Applications of the Multiattribute Model
Suppose you were the director of marketing for Northland College, another school Alex
considered. How might you use the data from this analysis to improve your image?
Capitalize on relative advantage. If prospective students view one brand as superior on a particular attribute, a marketer needs to convince consumers like Alex that
this attribute is important. For example, although Alex rates Northland’s social atmosphere highly, she does not believe this attribute is a valued aspect for a college. As
Northland’s marketing director, you might emphasize the importance of an active
social life, varied experiences, or even the development of future business contacts
that a student forges when they make strong college friendships.
TABLE 6.1 The Basic Multiattribute Model: Alex’s College Decision
Beliefs (B)
Attribute (i )
Importance (I )
Warren
Ivy
State
Northland
Academic reputation
6
8
9
6
3
All women
7
9
3
3
3
Cost
4
2
2
6
9
Proximity to home
3
2
2
6
9
Athletics
1
1
2
5
1
Party atmosphere
2
1
3
7
9
Library facilities
5
7
9
7
2
163
142
153
131
Attitude score
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
159
Strengthen perceived product/attribute linkages. A marketer may discover that
consumers do not equate his brand with a certain attribute. Advertising campaigns
often address this problem when they stress a specific quality to consumers (e.g.,
“new and improved”). Alex apparently does not think much of Northland’s academic
quality, athletic programs, or library facilities. You might develop an informational
campaign to improve these perceptions (e.g., “little-known facts about Northland”).
Add a new attribute. Product marketers frequently try to distinguish themselves
Buying, Having, Being
from their competitors when they add a product feature. Northland College might try
to emphasize some unique aspect, such as a hands-on internship program for business
majors that takes advantage of ties to the local community.
Too Nice to Use?
Influence competitors’ ratings. Finally, you can decrease your competitors’ higher
ratings with a comparative advertising strategy. In this case, you might publish an
ad that lists the tuition rates of several area schools with which Northland compares
favorably and emphasize the value for the money its students get.
“I Feel It”: Affective Focus
Moods involve temporary positive or negative affective states that are not necessarily
linked to a particular event (e.g., you might have just “woken up on the wrong side
of the bed this morning”). Emotions such as happiness, anger, and fear tend to be
more intense; they often relate to a specific triggering event, such as receiving an
awesome gift.
Marketers can use these affective states to shape or change our attitudes toward
products and brands. For instance, they often try to link a product or service with a
positive mood or emotion (just think of a sentimental Hallmark greeting card).6
Moods Shape Our Judgments
Can a product’s design ever be too
beautiful? Some recent research
says yes. Although we know that
consumers respond positively to
aesthetically pleasing options, ironically, in some cases, the package
can be so attractive that consumers
are reluctant to use what’s inside.
They feel sad if they do, because
they have destroyed the effort
required to make the item attractive.
In a field study, researchers stocked
a fitness studio bathroom with plain
white toilet paper and white toilet
paper with holiday motifs. Patrons
used twice the number of plain
sheets! A laboratory study replicated
this effect; participants ate fewer
cupcakes with fancy decorations
than they did plain cupcakes.8
There is a potential silver lining
to these findings: Ironically, if
manufacturers want to reduce the
waste that products like napkins
produce, the solution may be to
make them so pretty people don’t
want to use them!
Mood congruency refers to the idea that our moods tend to shape our judgments;
consumers evaluate the same products more positively when they are in a positive versus
a negative mood. This is why advertisers attempt to place their ads after humorous TV
programming or create uplifting messages that put viewers in a good mood. Similarly,
retailers work hard to make shoppers happy by playing “up” background music and
encouraging staff to be friendly. Then, of course, there’s the traditional “three-martini”
business lunch. . .
On other occasions, marketing communications may
deliberately evoke negative affect, such as a feeling of regret
if you forget to play the lottery. Perhaps a more productive
way to harness the power of negative affect is to expose
consumers to a distressing image and then provide a way to
improve it. For example, a nonprofit organization might run
an ad showing a starving child when it solicits donations.
Helping others to resolve their own negative moods is
known as negative state relief. We’ve seen a trend in advertising toward inspirational stories that manipulate our emotions like a roller-coaster: Think about the commercials
Budweiser ran during several Super Bowls about a puppy
who befriends a horse, gets lost, finds his way home, and so
on. This practice even has a name: sadvertising.7 Because
Product design and other aesthetic attributes help to create
these affective responses tend to be fleeting (compared to the
positive attitudes when they generate positive emotional reactions.
cognitive aspects of attitudes we discussed earlier), emotional
Source: Rob Cousins/Alamy Stock Photo.
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messages are especially persuasive when they involve outcomes the person
will experience shortly as opposed to those that involve a longer time frame.9
Emotions Rule Our Brains: Neuromarketing
Neuromarketing techniques rely on sophisticated
devices like the fMRI to understand how our
brains respond to marketing messages.
Source: James Steidl/Shutterstock.
How can we measure and detect affect-based attitudinal responses? Some
corporations, including Google, CBS, Disney, and Frito-Lay, have teamed
up with neuroscientists to find out.10 The emerging field of neuromarketing
uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (or fMRI), a brain-scanning
device that tracks blood flow as we perform mental tasks, to take an
up-close look at how our brains respond to marketing messages and product
design features. In recent years, researchers have discovered that regions in
the brain, such as the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the hypothalamus,
are dynamic switchboards that blend memory, emotions, and biochemical
triggers. These interconnected neurons shape the ways that fear, panic,
exhilaration, and social pressure influence our choices.
Scientists know that specific regions of the brain light up in these scans
to show increased blood flow when a person recognizes a face, hears a
song, makes a choice, or senses deception. Now they hope to harness this
technology to measure consumers’ reactions to movie trailers, automobiles, the appeal of a pretty face, and even their loyalty to specific brands.
DaimlerChrysler took brain scans of men as they looked at photos of cars
and confirmed that sports cars activated their reward centers. The company’s
scientists found that the most popular vehicles—the Porsche- and Ferraristyle sports cars—triggered activity in a section of the brain they call the
fusiform face area, which governs facial recognition. A psychiatrist who ran
the study commented, “They were reminded of faces when they looked at
the cars. The lights of the cars look a little like eyes.”
Oops! Attitudes Aren’t as Simple
as We Thought
Complicated concepts like attitudes don’t always fit into the neat little boxes we
would like them to. As we learn more about attitudes and their impact on behavior,
we find some “messy” factors to keep in mind, such as:
• Ambivalence: You might “love” your smartphone (and keep it with you 24/7),
•
but why does it insist on sending you annoying messages when you’re trying
to concentrate on your accounting homework? Generally, attitudes have a
valence: They range from strongly negative to strongly positive. But there are
many products, brands, and services toward which we hold both positive and
negative views. When this happens, we experience attitudinal ambivalence:
A sense of being torn or mixed about an attitude object, because both positive and
negative components of our attitudes are simultaneously accessible.11
Explicit and implicit elements: Explicit attitudes are those that consumers
are conscious of. But we also hold more difficult-to-detect implicit attitudes,
those that occur outside of our awareness but still have a big impact on what we
think, say, or do. This may be due to a social desirability bias—a conscious
effort to report only attitudes that are deemed socially acceptable while keeping
your “real” feelings buried. 12 This bias can be a headache for marketing
researchers who try to measure consumers’ “real” feelings about unpopular
topics or products.
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
161
Buying, Having, Being
Take Your Medicine!
CVS tries to increase medication adherence by including a reminder function in its app.
Source: Patti McConville/Alamy Stock Photo.
• Social pressure: Admit it—you’ve said or done something in the past that didn’t
totally reflect your actual attitude because of the social pressure to conform to
what others say or do. Join the club! We’re often acutely aware of normative
influences—what we believe other people think we should do. In a classic demonstration of “do as I say, not as I do,” many studies report a low correlation between
a person’s reported attitude toward something and actual behavior toward it. Hence
the popular expression, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
An Improved Fishbein Model to the Rescue:
The Theory of Reasoned Action
So, what makes it more likely that we’ll see a firm linkage between attitudes and
behavior? Researchers tinkered with the Fishbein model to improve its predictive
ability. They call the newer version the Theory of Reasoned Action.16 This model
contains several important additions to the original, and although the model is still not
perfect, it does a better job of prediction.17 Let’s look at some of the modifications to
this model via Alex’s college choice. You saw in Table 6.1 that one of her criteria was
a school near home. However, if she felt that this choice would be unpopular (perhaps
her friends would think she was too immature), she might ignore or downgrade this
preference when she made her decision.
Researchers added a new element, the subjective norm (SN), to account for the
effects of what we believe other people think we should do. They use two factors to
measure SN: (1) the intensity of a normative belief (NB) that others believe we should
take or not take some action and (2) the motivation to comply (MC) with that belief
(i.e., the degree to which the consumer takes others’ anticipated reactions into account
when they evaluate a purchase).
The (in)consistency between attitudes and behavior links to a major
public health problem: medication
adherence. This term describes the
extent to which people fill and take
prescribed medicines. Although
some patients unfortunately don’t
adhere to prescriptions because
they can’t afford them, many simply
forget to swallow their pills. This
breakdown between attitudes and
behavior threatens many people’s
health, and it also adds huge costs
to the healthcare system. An industry study estimates it costs U.S.
taxpayers $290 billion annually.13
The CVS chain found that even for
chronic diseases, one-third of their
customers stopped taking their
prescribed medicine after a month,
and half stopped after a year. CVS
aggressively reminds people to fill
their prescriptions with texts, emails,
and phone calls.14 More generally,
healthcare companies spend over
$3 billion per year on hardware
and software solutions to remind
patients about their prescriptions.15
162
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• Buying and Having: Choosing and Using Products
OBJECTIVE 6-2
Describe the ways
in which we form
attitudes.
How Do We Form Attitudes?
We all have lots of attitudes, and we don’t usually question
how we got them. Certainly, you’re not born with the
heartfelt conviction that, say, Pepsi is better than Coke or
that K-Pop music liberates the soul. From where do these attitudes come?
As we saw earlier, attitudes contain both cognitive and affective elements.
Attitudes that are formed through a cognitive process tend to be more durable. We
hold them more strongly than those attitudes that are formed because of an emotional
response.18 So, to understand how committed someone is to their attitude, it’s useful
to think about how those attitudes formed in the first place.19
One consumer may be highly brand loyal, like the hard-core fans we discussed
in Chapter 5; they have an enduring, deeply held, positive attitude toward
an attitude object, and it would be difficult to weaken this involvement.
However, another person may be a fickle consumer: They may have a
mildly positive attitude toward a product but be quite willing to abandon
it when something better comes along. In this section, we’ll consider the
differences between strongly and weakly held attitudes and briefly review
some of the major theoretical perspectives researchers use to explain how
attitudes form and relate to our other attitudes.
Commitment
Consumers vary in their commitment to an attitude; the degree of
commitment relates to their level of involvement with the attitude object (see
Chapter 5). 20 A person who holds an attitude with greater confidence or
conviction is more likely to act on it. As such, it is helpful to distinguish
between attitudes we hold firmly and those that are more superficial. One
study on environmental issues and marketing activities found, for example,
that people who express greater conviction in their feelings regarding
environmentally responsible behaviors, such as recycling, show greater
consistency between attitudes and behavioral intentions.21
Let’s look at three (increasing) levels of commitment:
As we saw in Chapter 4, we simply may form
an attitude toward a brand due to classical
conditioning: A marketer repeatedly pairs an
attitude object, such as the Under Armour name,
with a catchy tagline (“Under Armour: The Only
Way is Through”). Or we can form an attitude
because of instrumental conditioning: The marketer
reinforces us when we consume the attitude object
(e.g., you take a swig of Pepsi, and it quenches
your thirst). Finally, this learning can result from a
complex cognitive process. For example, teenagers
may model the behavior of friends and media
endorsers, such as Megan Thee Stallion or Cardi B,
who drink Pepsi, because they believe that this will
allow them to fit in with the desirable lifestyle that
Pepsi commercials portray.
Source: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images.
1. Compliance—At the lowest level of involvement, compliance,
we form an attitude because it helps us to gain rewards or avoid
punishment. This attitude is superficial; it is likely to change when
others no longer monitor our behavior or when another option becomes
available. You may drink Pepsi because the cafeteria sells it and it is
too much trouble to go elsewhere for a Coca-Cola.
2. Identification—Identification occurs when we form an attitude to
conform to another person’s or group’s expectations. Advertising that
depicts the dire social consequences when we choose some products
over others relies on the tendency of consumers to imitate the behavior
of desirable models (more on this in Chapter 11).
3. Internalization—At a high level of involvement we call
internalization, deep-seated attitudes become part of our value system.
These attitudes are difficult to change because they are so important
to us. The infamous Coke debacle of the 1980s (still a standard in
marketing textbooks today) illustrates what can happen when a
marketer messes with strongly held attitudes. In this case, Coca-Cola
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
decided to change its flavor formula to meet the needs of younger consumers
who often preferred a sweeter taste (more characteristic of Pepsi). The company
conducted rigorous blind taste tests that showed people who didn’t know what
brands they were drinking preferred the flavor of the new formula. Much to its
surprise, when New Coke hit the shelves, the company faced a consumer revolt
as die-hard Coke fans protested. This allegiance to Coke was obviously more than
a minor taste preference for these people; the brand was intertwined with their
social identities and took on intense patriotic and nostalgic properties. You don’t
mess with internalized attitudes!
The Consistency Principle
Have you ever heard someone say, “Pepsi is my favorite soft drink. It tastes terrible,”
or “I love my boyfriend. He’s the biggest idiot I’ve ever met”? Probably not (at least
until the couple gets married!), because these beliefs or evaluations don’t go together.
According to the principle of cognitive consistency, we value harmony among our
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and a need to maintain uniformity among these
elements motivates us. This desire means that, if necessary, we change our thoughts,
feelings, or behaviors to make them consistent with other experiences. That boyfriend
may slip up and act like a moron occasionally, but his partner (eventually) will find a
way to forgive him—or dump him.
The consistency principle is an important reminder that we don’t form our
attitudes in a vacuum: A big factor is how well they fit with other, related attitudes we
already hold. Sometimes we jump through hoops to justify our desires. For example,
researchers find that promotions such as price discounts, rebates, coupons, and loyalty
rewards are more effective for hedonic purchases than for utilitarian purchases. Why?
Because it is more difficult to defend buying something just because it makes us feel
good rather than something we need. These promotions provide the guilt-reducing
justification we require to splurge on such items.22
We’ve already reviewed this phenomenon in Chapter 5, when we learned about
the theory of cognitive dissonance. We saw that when a person is confronted with
inconsistencies among attitudes or behaviors, they will take some action to resolve
this “dissonance”; perhaps they will change their attitude or modify their behavior to
restore consistency. The theory has important ramifications for consumer behavior. We
often confront situations in which there is some conflict between our attitudes toward
a product or service and what we do or buy.23
According to the theory, our motivation to reduce the negative feelings of
dissonance makes us find a way for our beliefs and feelings to fit together. The theory
focuses on situations in which two cognitive elements clash. A cognitive element is
something a person believes about themselves, a behavior they perform, or an observation about their surroundings. For example, the two cognitive elements “I know vaping
causes cancer” and “I vape” are dissonant with one another. This psychological inconsistency creates a feeling of discomfort that the smoker tries to reduce. The magnitude
of dissonance depends on both the importance and number of dissonant elements.24 In
other words, we’re more likely to observe dissonance in high-involvement situations
where there is more pressure to reduce inconsistencies.
We reduce dissonance when we eliminate, add, or change elements. A person can
stop smoking (eliminating) or remember Great-Aunt Sophie who smoked until the
day she died at age 95 (adding). Alternatively, they might question the research that
links cancer and vaping (changing), perhaps by believing industry-sponsored studies
that try to refute this connection.
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Buying, Having, Being
Basking in Reflected Glory
Consumers often like to publicize
their connections with successful
people or organizations (no matter
how shaky the connection) to
enhance their own standing.
Researchers call this tactic basking
in reflected glory. A series of
studies at Arizona State University
(ASU) showed how students’
desires to identify with a winning
image—in this case, ASU’s football
team—influenced their consumption
behaviors. After the team played
a game each weekend, observers
recorded the incidence of schoolrelated items, such as ASU
T-shirts and caps that students
walking around campus wore.
The researchers correlated the
frequency of these behaviors to the
team’s performance. If the team
won on Saturday, students were
more likely to show off their school
affiliation (basking in reflected glory)
the following Monday than if the
team lost. And the bigger the point
spread, the more likely researchers
were to observe students who wore
clothes with the ASU logo.26
Balance Theory
Have you ever heard the expression, “Any friend of Joe’s is a friend of mine?” How
about “My enemy’s enemy is my friend?” Balance theory considers how people
perceive relations among different attitude objects, and how they alter their attitudes
so that these remain consistent (or “balanced”).25
Balance theory is like the principle of cognitive consistency. A balance theory
perspective involves relations (always from the perceiver’s subjective point of view)
among three elements, so we call the resulting attitude structures triads. Each triad
contains (1) a person and their perceptions of (2) an attitude object and (3) some
other person or object. The theory specifies that we want relations among elements
in a triad to be harmonious. If they are unbalanced, this creates tension that we are
motivated to reduce by changing our perceptions to restore balance.
We link elements together in one of two ways: They can have either a unit relation, where we think that a person is somehow connected to an attitude object (something like a belief), or they can have a sentiment relation, where a person expresses
liking or disliking for an attitude object. To see how balance theory might work,
consider the following scenario:
• Chris would like to date Dan, who is in their consumer behavior class. In balance
theory terms, Chris has a positive sentiment relation with Dan.
• One day, Dan shows up in class wearing an earring. Dan has a positive unit relation with the earring.
• Men who wear earrings are a turnoff to Chris. They have a negative sentiment
relation with men’s earrings.
According to balance theory, Chris faces an unbalanced triad. As Figure 6.2
shows, they will experience pressure to restore balance by altering some aspect of
the triad. How can they do this? Chris could decide that they do not like Dan after
Chris
Earring
Dan
Chris
Dan
Chris
Earring
Dan
UNBALANCED TRIAD
Earring
Chris
Dan
BALANCED TRIADS
Figure 6.2 Balance Theory
Source: Zizi_mentos/Shutterstock.
Earring
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
165
When a school’s team wins a game,
students (and fans) are more likely
to wear merchandise that link them
to the institution as they “bask in
reflected glory.”
Source: Rose-Marie Murray/Alamy Stock Photo.
all. Or their liking for Dan could prompt them to decide that earrings on men are
cool. Chris might even try to negate the unit relation between Dan and the earring by
deciding that Dan must wear it as part of a fraternity initiation (this reduces the freechoice element). Finally, Chris could choose to “leave the field” by accepting a date
with Dan’s roommate Doug who doesn’t wear an earring (but who has an awesome
tattoo). Note that although the theory does not specify which of these routes Chris
will choose, it does predict that they will change one or more of their perceptions to
achieve balance.
Balance theory helps us to understand how an attitude toward a person or celebrity
can transfer to a brand that they are associated with. For instance, in a study of
products that appeared on TV shows, viewers’ attitudes toward a brand that appeared
in an episode was more positive if the brand was positively associated with a character
that the viewer liked.27 If you like the TV character Ted Lasso and see that he is often
associated with Apple products, you will develop a more positive attitude toward
Apple products. This can work both ways: You are more likely to like Ted Lasso if
you already like Apple products.
OBJECTIVE 6-3
Explain how
persuasion is an
active attempt to
create or change
attitudes.
Persuasion: How Do Marketers
Change Attitudes?
BUY NOW! Advertisers constantly bombard us with
messages imploring us to change our attitudes—and, of
course, buy their products. Persuasion is an active attempt
to create or change attitudes. This is Job #1 for many marketing communicators.
These persuasion attempts can range from logical arguments to graphic pictures, from peers who try to intimidate us to celebrities who try to charm us. Let’s
review some of the factors that influence the effectiveness of marketing communications. Our focus will be on some basic aspects of communication that specifically help to determine how and if consumers will form new attitudes or modify
existing ones.
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Sell the Steak or the Sizzle?:
The Elaboration Likelihood Model
As we saw in Chapter 5, consumers’ level of involvement determines which cognitive
processes will activate when they receive a message. This in turn influences which
aspects of a communication they process. Like travelers who come to a fork in the
road, they choose one path or the other. The direction they take determines which
aspects of the marketing communication will work and which will fall on deaf ears.
The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) assumes that, under conditions
of high involvement (system 2 processing), we take the central route to persuasion
(“the steak”). In this scenario, we prioritize cognitive information as we strive to learn
as much as we can to make a smart choice. But under conditions of low involvement
(system 1 processing), we take a peripheral route instead. Here, we tend to focus
on the “sizzle”: the more superficial components of a brand, such as its packaging,
who endorses it, or the emotions it arouses in us that (we believe) will tell us quickly
whether it’s something that we want. Figure 6.3 diagrams the ELM model.28
The harsh truth: Most of us aren’t that motivated to pay attention to most
persuasion attempts we receive. Furthermore, as we saw way back in Chapter 3,
our poor overworked brains probably couldn’t make sense of a lot of this even if we
wanted to. So, it’s fair to say that we process many or even most advertising messages
peripherally rather than centrally. Let’s dig into this a bit more.
Fast Persuasion: The Peripheral Route
We take the well-travelled peripheral route when we’re not really motivated to think
in depth about the marketer’s arguments. Instead, we’re likely to use other cues to
decide how to react to the message. These cues include the product’s package, the
attractiveness of the source, and the context in which the message appears. We call
sources of information extraneous to the actual message peripheral cues because they
surround the actual message.
EXPOSURE TO A MESSAGE
Likelihood to elaborate?
PERIPHERAL ROUTE
Low
High
CENTRAL ROUTE
(more affective process)
(more cognitive process)
FAST PERSUASION
(system 1)
SLOW PERSUASION
(system 2)
Belief Change
Cognitive Responses
Behavior Change
Belief and Attitude Change
Attitude Change
Behavior Change
Figure 6.3 The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of Persuasion
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
The peripheral route to persuasion highlights the paradox of low involvement:
When we don’t care as much about a product, the way it’s presented (e.g., who
endorses it or the visuals that go with it) increases in importance. The implication here
is that we may buy low-involvement products chiefly because the marketer designs
a “sexy” package, chooses a popular spokesperson, or creates a stimulating shopping
environment. In other words, especially when a consumer engages in emotional or
behavioral decision making, these environmental cues become more important than
when they perform cognitive decision making; as a result, they look more carefully at
the product’s performance or other objective attributes.
Marketers are just beginning to explore the effects of this type of incidental brand
exposure, where subtle cues in the environment influence our reactions—even when
we’re unaware of the cause! We’ll get into this process in more detail in Chapter 9, but
for now, here are a few examples of the overlooked power of peripheral cues:
• People in a room who were exposed to a sign of the brand name “Apple” provided
•
•
•
responses on an unrelated task that were more unique compared with those who
saw a sign with the IBM brand name.29
College students who used a “cute” ice cream scoop to help themselves to ice
cream took a larger amount than those who used a plain scoop; the researchers
explained that the whimsical object drove them to be more self-indulgent even
though they weren’t aware of this effect.30
Some students scored higher on difficult Graduate Record Examination questions
when they took the test using a Massachusetts Institute of Technology pen, and
they delivered a better athletic performance when they drank water from a Gatorade
cup during strenuous exercise.31
E-cigarettes in music videos create more positive attitudes toward e-cigarettes
among youth: Compared with participants who watched music videos with images
of vaping removed, those who saw videos with images of vaping were more likely
to want to use e-cigarettes in the future.32
Slow Persuasion: The Central Route
An expectant mother who hears a radio message that warns about drinking while
pregnant might say to herself, “They’re right. I really should stop drinking alcohol now
that I’m pregnant.” Or she might offer a counterargument, such as, “That’s a bunch
of baloney. My mother had a cocktail every night when she was pregnant with me,
and I turned out fine.” If people generate counterarguments in response to a message,
it’s less likely that they will yield to the message, whereas if they generate further
supporting arguments, it’s more likely they’ll comply.33
According to the ELM, when we find the information in a persuasive message
relevant or interesting, we pay careful attention to it. We focus on the arguments the
marketer presents and process this content cognitively. These counterarguments may
take the form of reasons why what the message is saying is wrong or doesn’t apply to
you. We can think of these arguments as part of our cognitive defenses, or our natural
tendency to refute messages that try to persuade us.34
To recap, the basic idea of the ELM is that involved consumers who are motivated to engage in elaboration look for the “steak” (e.g., strong, rational arguments).
Those who are less involved and not inclined to elaborate on the message very much
go for the “sizzle” (e.g., the colors and images in packaging or famous people’s
endorsements). It is important to remember, however, that the same communications
variable can be both a central and a peripheral cue, depending on its relation to the
attitude object. The physical attractiveness of a model might serve as a peripheral
cue in a car commercial, but their beauty might be a central cue for a product such
as shampoo, where a major product benefit is to enhance attractiveness.35
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Narrative Persuasion
Earlier in the chapter, we talked about Budweiser’s popular series of commercials where
a Clydesdale pony befriends a Labrador puppy.36 Quite a story! Just like novelists,
poets, and artists, marketers are storytellers. Advertisers structure commercials, print
ads, and billboards like other art forms; they borrow conventions from literature and art
to communicate.37 That’s because they hope to take us to “another place” (at least in our
heads), where their brand plays the hero. The term narrative transportation describes
the extent to which someone feels immersed in a story and is thus “transported” into the
action. This is a very powerful way to convey a message, and the icing on the cake is
that narrative ads are also more likely to be shared and to be shared more frequently.
After all, a story is more compelling than a lecture (don’t tell your professor).38
Messages that feature a narrative, which is a series of connected events (i.e., a plot)
centered on a character, are more compelling than those that rely on a logical argument.
In a lecture, the source speaks directly to the audience to inform them about a product
or to persuade them to buy it. The emerging perspective on narrative persuasion is that
stories often are more effective. Why would this be?
Because a lecture clearly implies an attempt at persuasion, the audience will
regard it as such. Assuming it motivates listeners, they weigh the merits of the message
along with the source’s credibility. Counterarguments occur (e.g., “How much did
Coke pay him to say that?”). Consumers accept the appeal if it overcomes objections
and is consistent with their beliefs. But a story draws you in; it encourages you to
vicariously live through the event from the character’s perspective. Consumers who
are immersed in the story typically are more likely to believe that what the narrative is
conveying is real and to accept its premise, without questions or counterarguments.39
This also is the case for online reviews: A study dissected the structure of almost
200,000 online consumer reviews with automated text analysis.40 Researchers found
reviews are more persuasive if they have characteristics that make them resemble a
narrative—for example, thoughts or feelings (“They changed the show!”) that then
lead to a subsequent event (“This is my last time attending the show!”). Reviews
that had better-developed characters and events as well as more emotionally charged
genres and dramatic event orders—i.e., reviews higher in narrativity, or the extent to
which a message tells a story—were more transporting and as a result more persuasive. The lesson: Marketers should encourage people who had positive experiences to
“share their story” about the experience on social media or online reviews.
Persuasion Knowledge: Talking Back to Marketers
Do we passively accept everything these messages want us to believe? Obviously
not! The premise of the persuasion knowledge model is that consumers develop
knowledge about persuasion attempts and then call upon this experience whenever
they believe someone is trying to change their mind. For example, say you notice that
an Instagram post is labeled “Sponsored Content”: This cue will probably make you
more critical of the message, less likely to find the source credible, and less likely to
believe that what the post says is true.
Media Literacy
A large body of research has shown that when consumers access their persuasion
knowledge, they evaluate the source of the persuasion attempt less favorably and they
are less likely to get persuaded. As we saw in Chapter 2, this form of media literacy
acts as a defense mechanism against persuasion, because people identify the ulterior
motives or manipulative tactics of a marketer, so they become more suspicious and
counterargue more.41
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
Media literacy is especially important for those who have not yet developed
critical skills, such as children. A research program the National Institutes of Health
funded to correct the influence of alcohol messages that are prevalent in the content
of TV shows popular with youth illustrates one attempt to help young consumers
develop persuasion knowledge.42
Hoping to bypass otherwise stringent regulations on advertising their products,
alcohol advertisers often revert to product placements in these shows. This strategy
capitalizes on the narrative persuasion process we reviewed earlier in this chapter. But
consumer advocates and policymakers worry that showing alcohol use in a positive
light can lead young people to develop unhealthy attitudes toward drinking. So, in this
program, the researchers developed TV episodes that emphasized the social benefits
of drinking—but they also created a one-minute epilogue in which one of the lead
characters told viewers that what they see on TV is “not real” and that alcohol can
change their behavior for the worst.
Overall, the epilogues were effective at countering the influence of the TV
episode, but they were especially effective among those viewers who were highly
transported in the story and who reported high levels of persuasion knowledge. The
high level of narrative transportation made them pay more attention to what the TV
characters had to say, including in the epilogue, while activation of the persuasion
knowledge allowed them to be more critical and thus less accepting of the drinking
message.
Disclosures and Warnings: Do They Work?
A recent meta-analysis of all types of disclosures and warning found consistent
evidence that disclosures are effective at activating persuasion knowledge, generating
more critical processing, and in turn increasing resistance to persuasive attempts.43 Of
course, one size does not fit all when it comes to warnings. Although they are designed
to activate persuasion knowledge, they can also backfire by bringing attention to the
product being advertised.
But wait, it’s not that simple (surprise!). New research shows that in this day and
age of constant and often obvious attempts to persuade, consumers use persuasion
knowledge differently. Instead of skepticism and rejection of the message, they may
simply search for a more credible source.44 In some cases, they admire the source for
their skills at persuasion and view these attempts positively! So, whereas conventional
wisdom is that persuasion knowledge is always a bad thing, this research shows that
boosting consumers’ persuasion knowledge in fact helps the marketer by making
consumers evaluate the marketer more positively. Have you ever interacted with a
talented salesperson who can get you to buy those jeans and instead of being more
critical of them, you are quite impressed with their skills?
OBJECTIVE 6-4
Discuss the
ways in which
the source, the
message, and the
medium are used
to craft persuasion
strategies.
•
Crafting Persuasive
Communications Strategies
The communications model in Figure 6.4 captures all the
elements marketers need to consider when they want to
connect with their customers:
• One of these is a source, where the communication
originates.
Another is the message itself. There are many ways to say something, and the
structure of the message has a significant effect on how we perceive it.
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Consumer
Consumer
Medium
Source
Consumer
Message
Consumer
Consumer
Consumer
Figure 6.4 21st Century Communications Model
• The message is conveyed via a medium, which could be TV, a social media post,
radio, magazines, billboards, personal contact, or even a matchbook cover.
• One or more receivers interpret the message considering their own experiences.
• Finally, the source receives feedback so that the marketer can use receivers’ reactions to modify aspects of the message as necessary.
• In today’s dynamic world of interactivity, there are also many elements of
consumer-to-consumer exchanges around the source, the message, and the
medium. We will discuss these social processes more fully in Chapter 11.
Decisions, Decisions: Tactical Communications Options
Suppose Audi wants to create an advertising campaign for a new ragtop it targets
to young drivers. As it plans this campaign, the automaker must develop a message
that will arouse desire for the car. To craft persuasive messages that might persuade
someone to buy this car instead of the many others available, we must answer several
questions:
• Who will drive the car in the ad? A NASCAR driver? A career woman? A reality
•
•
show star? The source of a message helps determine whether consumers will
accept it.
How should we construct the message? Should it emphasize the negative consequences of being left out when others drive cool cars and you still tool around
in your old clunker? Should it directly compare the car with others already on
the market, or maybe present a fantasy in which a high-powered but overworked
executive abruptly decided to leave a boring meeting to cruise down the highway
in their Audi?
What media should we use? Should the ad run in a magazine? Should we air it
on TV? Sell the product door-to-door? Post the material on Instagram or create
a Facebook group? Convince bloggers on popular sites like Justacarguy.com or
Carscoops.com to write about it?45 If we do produce a print ad, should we run it in
the pages of Vogue? Good Housekeeping? Car and Driver? Sometimes where you
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
•
171
say something is as important as what you say. Ideally, we should
match the attributes of the medium with those of what we sell.
For example, advertising in magazines with high prestige is more
effective when we want to communicate messages about overall
product image and quality, whereas specialized expert magazines
do a better job when we want to convey factual information.46
What characteristics of the target market might lead its members
to accept the ad? If targeted users are frustrated in their daily lives,
they might be more receptive to a fantasy appeal. If they’re status
oriented, maybe a commercial should show bystanders who swoon
with admiration as the car cruises by.
Social scientists developed the traditional model of communicaWhen consumers opt in to receive information from an
tions to understand situations in which a source transmits information
organization, they are more likely to pay attention to it
to many receivers at one time—typically via a broadcast medium,
when a message arrives.
such as television. This perspective essentially views advertising as
Source: liliwhite/123RF.
the process of transferring information to the buyer before a sale. It
regards a message as perishable—the marketer repeats the same message to a large
audience and then the message “vanishes” when a new campaign takes its place.
That model doesn’t work as well now that we can narrowcast, or finely tune our
messages to suit small groups of receivers (sometimes even one person at a time). And
the popular strategy we call permission marketing acknowledges that a marketer
will be more successful when they communicate with consumers who have already
agreed to listen to them; consumers who “opt out” of listening to the message probably
weren’t good prospects in the first place.47
The Source
Regardless of whether we receive a message by “snail mail” (netheads’ slang for the
postal service), email, or SMS text, common sense tells us that if different people say
or write the same words, the message can still affect us differently. Researchers have
demonstrated the power of source effects for more than 70 years. Indeed, a synthesis
of the findings of more than 1,700 advertising studies with 2.4 million participants
concluded that the source is even more influential than the message itself!48
Under most conditions, the source of a message can have a big impact on the likelihood that receivers will accept it. Marketers can choose a spokesperson because they
are an expert, attractive, famous, or even a “typical” consumer who is both likable
and trustworthy. Credibility and attractiveness are two particularly important source
characteristics (i.e., how much we either believe or like the communicator).49
How do marketing specialists decide whether to stress credibility or attractiveness
when they select a message source? There should be a match between the needs of
the recipient and the potential rewards the source offers. When this match occurs, the
recipient is more motivated to process the message. An attractive source, for example,
is more effective for receivers who tend to be sensitive about social acceptance and
others’ opinions, whereas a credible, expert source is more powerful when they speak
to internally oriented people.50 However, even a credible source’s trustworthiness
evaporates if they endorse too many products.51
Source Credibility
Source credibility refers to a communicator’s expertise, objectivity, or trustworthiness.
This dimension relates to consumers’ beliefs that this person is competent and that they
will provide the necessary information we need when we evaluate competing products.
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Source credibility is an incredibly important factor in advertising, where celebs of all
stripes hawk products and services.
On the other hand, some subtle cues can diminish credibility: Consider for example
those superfast disclaimers you often hear at the end of a commercial message that
supply additional information the advertiser is required to provide (“possible side
effects may include nausea, diarrhea, or death”). Although
people tend to assume that people who speak faster are more
intelligent, they may trust them less. When consumers don’t
already have a positive attitude toward a product, a fast-paced
disclaimer leads them to think the advertiser has ulterior
motives and they trust the company less.52
Source credibility also suffers if consumers perceive
that the source is biased.53 Knowledge bias implies that a
source’s knowledge about a topic is not accurate. Reporting
bias occurs when a source has the required knowledge, but
we question their willingness to convey it accurately—as
when a racket manufacturer pays a star tennis player to use
its products exclusively. The source’s credentials might be
appropriate, but the fact that consumers see the expert as a
“hired gun” compromises believability.
Facebook’s credibility was damaged when it came out that
purveyors of fake news had bought huge amounts of advertisThe issue of source credibility has never been more
ing on the platform and that the company allowed advertisers to
important than it is today when an explosion of fake news—
target very specific racial groups. Facebook is scrambling to repair
hoaxes spread by hackers or other outsiders—has caused
the damage. It now offers a “Related Articles” tool so that readers
many people to question the trustworthiness of even the most
can consult other sources to acquire more context about a story
respected traditional and social media outlets. Programs to
and reduce the frequency with which people share hoaxes. Even
so, the ability of almost anyone to create a doctored video or to
disseminate false information have taken their toll on the
post a story that looks “authentic” creates a very big problem, and
American public; nearly two-thirds of Americans believe
not just for politicians: Marketers now must contend with even
the mainstream media publish fake news. Indeed, in a recent
greater skepticism among consumers about whether what they
survey among 92,000 news consumers in 46 countries, the
read about product claims is fake news as well.55
United States ranked dead last in media trust.54
Source: BigNazik/Shutterstock.
Although in general more positive sources tend to
increase attitude change, there are exceptions to this rule. Sometimes we can think a
source is obnoxious, yet it is still effective. For example, most Americans hate negative
political ads, yet such ads are widespread. Twenty years ago, a law was passed that
required politicians to place their endorsement on all ads that they run: “My name is
_____, and I approve this message.”
Yet recent research shows that this law could have unintended consequences by
making negative ads more effective. In the study, the researchers showed participants
eight political ads, half from Democrats and half from Republicans, all from late 2000s
U.S. Senate races.56 They used different types of ads—policy attack, character attack,
policy positive, and character positive—and manipulated whether the participants also
saw the candidate’s endorsement at the end. They measured how much participants
perceived the candidate as credible, believable, and trustworthy, and then measured
their attitudes toward each candidate. They found clear evidence that the endorsements
boosted the evaluations of policy-focused attack ads—but not those ads that were
positive or character-focused. The researchers concluded that the endorsement made
the ad content seem truer and more credible.
In some instances, the differences in attitude change between positive sources
and less positive sources diminish over time. After a while, people appear to “forget”
about the negative source and change their attitudes anyway. We call this process the
sleeper effect.57
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
Source Attractiveness: “What Is Beautiful Is Good”
Source attractiveness refers to the social value recipients attribute to a communicator.
This value relates to the person’s physical appearance, personality, social status, or
similarity to the receiver (we like to listen to people who are like us). No wonder that
many organizations are willing to pay top dollar to communicators who can get the
job done.
Is Beauty Only Skin Deep?
Some sources appeal to us because they are cool, brainy, or just plain famous
(Kardashians, anyone?). But many just are nice to look at. Almost everywhere we
turn, beautiful people try to persuade us to buy or do something. As we’ll see in
Chapter 9, our society places a high premium on physical attractiveness. We assume
that good-looking people are smarter, hipper, and happier than the rest of us. This is
an example of a halo effect, which occurs when we assume that persons who rank
high on one dimension excel on others as well. We can explain this effect in terms
of the consistency principle we discussed previously in this chapter; we are more
comfortable when all our judgments about a person correspond.
Star Power: Celebrities as Communications Sources
Which celeb’s products are you using today? Maybe you’re wearing Kim Kardashian
shapewear under Nicole Richie sleepwear and resting your head on an Ellen DeGeneres
pillow. How about a sip of Drake champagne, Chainsmokers tequila, or Post Malone
rosé—or perhaps you prefer to roll Snoop Dogg cannabis in Wiz Khalifa papers, then
discard your ashes in a receptable customdesigned by actor Seth Rogen.58
Many big-time marketers pay big
bucks to secure celebrity endorsements;
they hope that the star’s popularity will
transfer to their product, or perhaps even
discourage harmful behavior like excessive
drug or cigarette use.59 Celebrities hawk
everything from grills (George Foreman) to
perfumes (Jennifer Lopez). As our earlier
discussion about the consistency principle
illustrates, these messages are more
effective when there’s a logical connection
between the star and the product. When
Bob Dylan pitches Victoria’s Secret lingerie
(yes, he really did), marketers may need to
reread their consumer behavior textbook.60
Then again, Justin Bieber puts his name
on almost everything. . . including nail
Marketers hope that a star’s popularity will transfer to their product.
Source: Bastian/Agencja Fotograficzna Caro/Alamy Stock Photo.
polish!61
There is no doubt that celebrity endorsements are still very popular: Current
estimates indicate that about 20 to 25 percent of all ads worldwide rely on this
strategy.62 But do celebrity endorsements work? A meta-analysis of 46 studies through
2016 finds that celebrity endorsements do not (1) increase awareness of a product
or brand, (2) boost attitude toward the ad itself, and (3) make people more likely to
purchase the item. But they do make people like the product more.63 And this tactic
often pays off financially—brands that employ celebrity endorsers often see a jump
in their stock prices.64
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In general, celebrity endorsers are more effective when they are (1) male (vs
female) endorsers, (2) actors rather than models, musicians, or TV hosts, and (3)
endorsers who are congruent with the product. They also are more effective when the
endorsement itself is (1) implicit rather than explicit and (2) about a new product. For
instance, a study showed that a visual depicting Sarah Jessica Parker holding a bottle
of a new drink named V led to more positive attitudes toward the new brand V if the
visual was presented as a picture taken by a passerby on a city street (a natural, implicit
form of endorsement) than if the visual was presented as part of a commercial for the
drink (an explicit form of endorsement).65
From Talking Head to Partner: The Celebrity Collab
As trust in traditional advertising tanks, some brands still seek to engage with celebrities, but on different terms. Rather than just paying a lot of money to use their likeness,
companies are creating collaborations with celebrities—so-called collabs—that link
to the endorser’s image or passion in a meaningful way:
• Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream launched a new flavor based on collaboration with
•
•
country music star Dolly Parton. Every purchase of a pint of Strawberry Pretzel
Pie supports Dolly’s Imagination Library, which provides free books to children
to inspire a love of reading.
With Adidas, the singer Beyoncé launched her Ivy Park collection—an athletic
wear line that reflects “shared respect for and commitment to creativity, and the
belief that through sport, we have the power to change lives.”66
The rapper Travis Scott put his name on his favorite meal at McDonald’s, including
his custom-order Quarter Pounder (essentially just a Quarter Pounder with bacon),
which quickly became known as the “Travy Patty.” This $6 meal, which also
included a medium order of fries and a Sprite, was only available for a
limited time—and it became such a viral hit that McDonald’s ran out of
the ingredients!67
Nonhuman Endorsers
Spokescharacters boost the effectiveness of advertising claims.
Source: Pat Canova/Alamy Stock Photo.
Creating a unit relation between a product and a star can backfire if
the public’s opinion of the celebrity endorser shifts from positive to
negative. Well-known endorsers like comedian Bill Cosby and Jared
Fogel (of Subway fame) ran into “legal problems” that discredited them.
Kim Kardashian started a firestorm when she promoted an appetitesuppressing lollipop on Instagram.68 The strategy can also cause trouble
if people question the star-product unit relation: The singer Mariah Carey
did a collab with McDonald’s that included Big Macs, hotcakes, and
chocolate-chip cookies—even though she previously claimed that she
eats only Norwegian salmon and capers! 69
As we previously noted, stars’ motives may be suspect if they plug
products that don’t fit their images or if consumers begin to believe the
celebrities never met a product they didn’t like (for a fee). Celebrities
may be involved in a scandal or deviate from a brand’s desired image;
many athletes—think Lance Armstrong, Michael Phelps, and Maria
Sharapova—get signed to lucrative endorsement deals and then fail drug
tests or otherwise get into trouble.70 Don’t you hate when that happens?
For these reasons, some marketers seek alternative sources, including
cartoon characters and mascots. As the marketing director for a company that
manufactures costumed characters for sports teams and businesses points
out, “You don’t have to worry about your mascot checking into rehab.”71
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
Researchers report that spokescharacters—such as Chester Cheetah and the
GEICO Gecko—do, in fact, boost viewers’ recall of claims that ads make and yield
higher brand attitudes.72 Some of the most popular spokescharacters in recent years
include Snoopy (MetLife), Sasquatch (Jack Link’s Beef Jerky), Allstate’s Mayhem
Man, Grumpy Cat (Grenade Coffee’s Grumppuccino iced drink), and that old stand-by
the Pillsbury Doughboy.73
The Most Convincing Sources? Other Consumers
Whom do you believe more—the companies that want to sell you something, or your
personal connections that advocate one brand over another? There is no doubt that the
most compelling source of information is other consumers: Through word of mouth,
reviews, and social media, consumers’ voices can be loud. And in a world increasingly
crowded with many sources of messages, consumers’ voices often prevail over more
traditional sources.
The Message
Subtle aspects of the way a source delivers a message can influence our interpretation
of what the source is saying. Even the layout in a print ad sends a message about how
the consumer should relate to the advertised item.
Characteristics of the message itself help determine its impact on attitudes. These
variables include how we say the message as well as what we say. Depending on
the marketer’s objectives and the nature of the product, different kinds of messages
produce different results. A marketer faces some crucial issues when they create a
message. Let’s look at some of the biggies:
Should We Use Pictures or Words?
The saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” captures the idea that visuals are
effective, especially when the communicator wants to influence receivers’ emotional
responses. For this reason, advertisers often rely on vivid illustrations or photography
that can prompt fast thinking/peripheral processing.74
However, a picture is not always as effective when it communicates information
intended to prompt more slow thinking/central processing. Ads that contain the same
information elicit different reactions when the marketer presents them in visual versus
verbal form. The verbal version affects ratings on the utilitarian aspects of a product,
whereas the visual version affects aesthetic evaluations. Verbal elements are more
effective when an accompanying picture reinforces them, especially if they frame the
illustration (the message in the picture strongly relates to the copy).75
Because it requires more effort to process, a verbal message is most appropriate
for system 2 situations, such as print contexts where the reader really pays attention
to the advertising. Verbal material decays more rapidly in memory, so these messages
require more frequent exposure to obtain the desired effect. Visual images, in contrast,
allow the receiver to chunk information at the time of encoding (see Chapter 4).
Chunking results in a stronger memory trace that aids retrieval over time.76
Types of Message Appeals
A persuasive message can tug at the heartstrings or scare you, make you laugh, make
you cry, or leave you yearning to learn more. In this section, we’ll review the major
types of message appeals available to communicators (see Table 6.2).77 As we saw
in our discussion of the elaboration likelihood model, emotional appeals engage more
affective processes (they make us feel) and trigger fast persuasion, whereas rational
appeals engage cognitive processes (they make us think) and trigger slow persuasion.
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TABLE 6.2 Types of Message Appeals
Appeal
Valence
Frame
Comparative
Positive/negative
Relative advantage, high performance, better value, independence
Gain-Framed
Positive
Personal gains, long-term advantage
Two-Sided
Positive/negative
Logical inferences, balanced perspective
Safety
Positive/ negative
Durable, effective, reliable
Scarcity
Negative
Limited edition, exclusive, time sensitive78
Reciprocity
Positive
Offering a gift to encourage donations
Family
Positive
Belonging, community
Youth
Positive
Energetic, fun, energy, liveliness
Status
Positive
Exclusivity, high-end
Adventure
Positive
Thrill-seeking, excitement, active
Sex
Positive/Negative
Physiological arousal, sensation, fantasy
Humor
Positive
Pleasure, satire, wit, positive mood
Fear
Negative
Anxiety, tension, danger, threat
Rational
Emotional
Comparative Appeals
Comparative advertising refers to a message that compares two or more recognizable brands and weighs them in terms of one or more specific attributes.79 That’s not
very “polite,” and indeed many countries prohibit this approach because people find
such a confrontational approach offensive.80
Not so in the U.S., as 10 minutes of watching aggressive TV commercials will
affirm. Way back in 1971, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) issued guidelines that
encouraged advertisers to name competing brands in their ads. The U.S. government
did this to improve the information available to consumers in ads, and indeed recent
evidence indicates that, at least under some conditions, this type of presentation does
result in more informed decision making.81 However, advertisers need to tread lightly,
especially when they risk ruffling the feathers of other companies. Fox rejected a commercial that SodaStream submitted for the Super Bowl because the actress Scarlett
Johansson sensually sips her homemade soda and says, “Sorry, Coke and Pepsi.”82
This strategy can cut both ways, especially if the sponsor depicts the competition
in a nasty or negative way. Although some comparative ads result in desired attitude
changes, they may also be lower in believability and stir up source derogation
(i.e., the consumer may doubt the credibility of a biased presentation).83
How Do We Structure the Argument?
Many marketing messages are like debates or trials: A source presents an argument
and tries to convince the receiver to shift their opinion. As you’ve no doubt guessed,
the way we present the argument may be as important as what we say.
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
177
Two-Sided Appeals
Most messages merely present one or more positive
attributes about the product or reasons to buy it.
These are supportive arguments. In contrast, twosided messages present both positive and negative
information. Research indicates that two-sided
ads can be quite effective, yet marketers rarely
use them.84
After General Motors declared bankruptcy,
an ad declared: “Let’s be completely honest:
No company wants to go through this.” 85 No
kidding. But why would a marketer want to devote
advertising space to publicize a negative? Under the
right circumstances, refutational arguments that
first raise a negative issue and then dismiss it can
be quite effective. This approach increases source
credibility because it reduces reporting bias; this
means that the receiver assumes the source has
carefully considered both sides of the argument.
Also, people who are skeptical about the product
may be more receptive to a balanced argument
instead of a “whitewash.”86 For example, research
In this famous ad, Volkswagen draws attention to a “flaw” in its car—a
evidence indicates that when experts have strong
blemished chrome strip on the glove compartment!
arguments on their side, they are more effective if
Source: Retro AdArchives/Alamy Stock Photo.
they express some uncertainty rather than stating
unequivocally that they are correct.87
This doesn’t mean the marketer should go overboard
and confess to major problems with the product (though
hopefully there aren’t any major ones to admit to). The typical
refutational strategy discusses relatively minor attributes
that may present a problem or fall short when the customer
compares a product to competitors. Positive, important
attributes then refute these drawbacks. For example, Avis
got a lot of mileage when it claimed to be only the “No.
2” car rental company, whereas a classic ad for Volkswagen
woefully described one of its cars as a “lemon” because there
was a scratch on the glove compartment chrome strip.88
A two-sided strategy appears to be the most effective
when the audience is well-educated (and presumably more
impressed by a balanced argument).89 It is also best to
use when receivers are not already loyal to the product—
“preaching to the choir” about possible drawbacks may
So, does a sex appeal like the one in this men’s deodorant ad
raise doubts unnecessarily. Because two-sided messages
work? Although erotic content may indeed draw attention to an ad,
convey both positive and negative information, they can be
its use may be counterproductive. In one survey, an overwhelming
thought of as a type of ambivalence, which we saw earlier is
61 percent of the respondents said that sexual imagery in a product’s
connected to behavior.
ad makes them less likely to buy it.90 Ironically, a provocative
Sex Appeals
Echoing the widely held belief that “sex sells,” many
marketing communications for products from perfumes to
autos feature heavy doses of erotic suggestions that range
picture can be too effective; it can attract so much attention that it
hinders processing and recall of the ad’s contents. Sexual appeals
also appear to be ineffective when marketers use them merely as
a “trick” to grab attention. They do, however, appear to work when
the product is itself related to sex (e.g., lingerie or Viagra).91
Source: lev radin/Shutterstock.
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from subtle hints to blatant displays of skin. Nestlé recently took over a
coffee shop in a trendy Manhattan neighborhood, and models in head-totoe body paint—and nothing else—replaced the usual baristas to plug the
company’s “all natural” creamer product.92 Now, that’s a novel use of a
sex appeal to move lattes!
Humor Appeals
Humor can ease the awkwardness that many
consumers feel about buying sensitive or intimate
products.
Source: Washington Imaging/Alamy Stock Photo.
A TV commercial for Metamucil showed a National Park Service ranger
who pours a glass of the laxative down Old Faithful and announces that
the product keeps the famous geyser “regular.” Yellowstone National Park
started getting letters from offended viewers. Park officials also had their
own concerns: They didn’t want people to think that the geyser needed
“help” or that it’s okay to throw things down into it!93
Do humor appeals work? Overall, funny advertisements do get
attention. One study found that recognition scores for humorous liquor ads
were better than average. However, the verdict is mixed as to whether humor
affects recall or product attitudes in a significant way.94 One reason silly ads
may shift opinions is that they provide a source of distraction. A funny ad
inhibits counterarguments (in which a consumer thinks of reasons why they
do not agree with the message); this increases the likelihood of message
acceptance because the consumer doesn’t come up with arguments against
the product.95
However, not all humorous ads improve attitudes toward the advertised brands. Sometimes they can hurt brands because they cause negative
emotions if the audience doesn’t understand the humor, or perhaps if the
message offends them.96
Fear Appeals
Buying, Having, Being
“The Fear of God”
Here’s a reason that fear appeals
don’t work well—and certainly one
you hadn’t thought of! Very simply,
fear appeals are less effective when
we are reminded of God.100 When
the concept of God is prominent
in our minds, we tend to comply
with fear appeals less, because
we associate the idea of a higher
power with unlimited support. So,
thinking of God gives us a sense
that we will have enough emotional,
mental, and physical resources to
persevere through bad events. Ironically, one possible lesson is that it’s
not a good idea to use a fear appeal
in environments where people are
likely to be thinking about a higher
power, such as in shows with
religious themes. If you want to
change an attitude, don’t assume
this will happen if you “put the fear
of God” into your customers!
Volkswagen’s advertising campaign to promote the safety of its Jetta model really
got people’s attention. The spots depict graphic car crashes from the perspective of
the passengers who chatter away as they drive down the street. Without warning,
other vehicles come out of nowhere and brutally smash into their cars. In one spot,
viewers see a passenger’s head striking an airbag. The spots end with shots of stunned
passengers, the damaged Jetta, and the slogan: “Safe happens.” The ads look so
realistic that consumers called the company to ask if any of the actors were hurt.97
Fear appeals emphasize the negative consequences that can occur unless the
consumer changes a behavior or an attitude. These types of messages are common
in advertising, although more so in social marketing contexts in which organizations
encourage people to convert to healthier lifestyles by quitting smoking, using contraception, or relying on a designated driver.
Several countries, including the United States, are looking at tough new guidelines
for cigarette advertising and packaging. These options include requiring a range of
horrific images to appear directly on the cigarette packaging (and in cigarette ads) to
show people who have suffered from the ravages of cigarettes, such as a man with
cigarette smoke coming out of a tracheotomy hole in his throat or a cadaver on an
autopsy table.98
This tactic, if it’s implemented, may well scare away would-be smokers, but do
fear appeals work more generally? Most research on this topic indicates that these
negative messages are most effective when the advertiser uses only a moderate threat.
Otherwise, consumers will tune out the ad because too severe a threat can make us
feel powerless against the threat. In the end, the most effective fear appeal campaigns
are those that also include a solution to the problem or potential coping responses.99
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
179
Australia requires the inclusion of
graphic images as health warnings on
cigarette packages.
Source: Kyodo News Stills/Getty Images.
For instance, a campaign to communicate the risk of online bank fraud
could rely on fear appeals, but it should also feature different actions
that consumers can use to reduce that risk.
Appeals That Use Narrative Devices
As we discussed earlier, narratives are very persuasive. As such,
advertising creatives rely (consciously or not) on well-known narrative
devices in their marketing communications. To start, many ads take the
form of an allegory, which is a story about an abstract trait or concept
that advertisers tell in the context of a person, animal, vegetable, or
object. Thus, colorful characters such as Mr. Goodwrench, the Jolly
Green Giant, and Charlie the Tuna may personify a product or service.
Scarcity makes products more desirable.
Source: CarmenKarin/Shutterstock.
Organizations that provide intangible
services like life insurance often
borrow a powerful metaphor to help
consumers visualize what they sell.
Source: The History Collection/Alamy Stock Photo.
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Resonance combines a play on words with a relevant picture. Whereas metaphor
substitutes one meaning for another by connecting two things that are in some way
similar, resonance employs an element that has a double meaning—such as a pun,
in which two words sound similar but have different meanings. For example, an ad
for a diet strawberry shortcake dessert might bear the copy “berried treasure” so
that the brand conveys qualities we associate with buried treasure, such as valuable
and hidden. Because the text departs from expectations, it creates a state of tension
or uncertainty on the part of the viewer until they figure out the wordplay. Once the
consumer “gets it,” they may prefer the ad to a more straightforward message.101
Should We Repeat the Message?
Repetition can be a double-edged sword for marketers. As we noted in Chapter 4, we
usually need multiple exposures to a stimulus before learning occurs. Contrary to the
saying “familiarity breeds contempt,” people tend to like things that are more familiar
to them, even if they were not that keen on them initially.102 Psychologists call this
the mere exposure phenomenon.
Advertisers find positive effects for repetition even in mature product categories:
Repeating product information boosts consumers’ awareness of the brand, even
though the marketer says nothing new.103 However, as we saw in Chapter 4, too much
repetition creates habituation, whereby the consumer no longer pays attention to the
stimulus because of fatigue or boredom. Excessive exposure can cause advertising
wear-out, which can result in negative reactions to an ad after we see it too much.104
So, what does that tell us about the optimal number of times to expose a person to
a persuasive message? Research evidence indicates that “three’s the charm” when it
comes to exposing an audience to a product claim. Additional messages tend to trigger
skepticism and reverse any positive impact.105 But this rule is not fully set in stone.106
When ads are transporting—for instance, with mental imagery (people are prompted to
use their imagination while they process an ad)—then more claims beyond three about a
product lead people to like the product more. This is because
people are more transported (the narrative transportation
or
t
c
a
F
g
n
i
concept we discussed earlier) by the ad, which reduces
earn
tive L
Positive Effect
Posi
counterarguing. Again, the power of narrative persuasion!
The two-factor theory explains the fine line between
Net Eff
familiarity
and boredom; it proposes that two separate psyect
chological processes operate when we repeatedly show
NUMBER OF EXPOSURES
Neutral Effect
an ad to a viewer. The positive side of repetition is that
it increases familiarity and thus reduces uncertainty about
Neg
ativ
e Te
the product. The negative side is that over time boredom
diu
mF
act
increases with each exposure. At some point the amount of
or
boredom exceeds the amount of uncertainty the message
Negative Effect
reduces, and this results in wear-out. Figure 6.5 depicts this
pattern. Its effect is especially pronounced when each expoFigure 6.5 Two-Factor Theory of Message Repetition
sure is long (such as a 30-second commercial).107
The two-factor perspective implies that advertisers can overcome this problem if
they limit the amount of exposure per repetition (e.g., use 15-second spots instead of
longer commercials). They can also maintain familiarity but alleviate boredom if they
slightly vary the content of ads over time—although each spot differs, the campaign
still revolves around a common theme. Recipients who see varied ads about the
product absorb more information about product attributes and experience more positive
thoughts about the brand than do those who see the same information repeatedly. This
additional information also allows the person to resist attempts to change their attitude
in the face of a counterattack by a competing brand.108
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
The Medium
In traditional advertising, the message is placed before or after content on a given
medium, say a print ad for a new brand of designer jeans next to an article about fashion
in Vogue magazine, or a TV commercial for Mountain Dew during the commercial
break of your favorite sitcom. But most people tune out advertising of this sort.
Advertainment
As we saw in the section on persuasion models, messages are less likely to trigger
counterarguments if they are linked to a narrative. This insight has led to a whole
new world of advertainment: The fusion of advertising and entertainment.109 Advertainment can take many forms, from making ads seem like they are actual editorial
content (native advertising), to placing products in the content of films, TV shows,
or music videos (product placement) or in videogames (advergaming), to many other
variations where the medium becomes the message. Let’s take a quick look at these
advertainment media.
Native Advertising. The term native advertising refers to digital messages designed
to blend into the editorial content of the publications in which they appear. The idea
is to capture the attention of people who might resist ad messages that pop up in the
middle of an article or program.
These messages may look a lot like a regular article, but they often link to a sponsor’s
content. For example, Airbnb collaborated with The New York Times to produce an issue
of the newspaper’s T magazine (devoted to travel). It was dedicated to Ellis Island
and showed how immigrants used to travel to New York in search of a new life. The
campaign included old photos that highlighted the hospitality these visitors received—
which is of course a benefit that Airbnb emphasizes to today’s travelers.110
Product Placement. In the movie version of Sex and the City, Carrie’s assistant
admits that she “borrows” her pricey handbags from a rental website called Bag
Borrow or Steal. The company’s head of marketing commented about the mention,
“It’s like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. It gives us instant credibility and
recognition.”111
It’s hard not to see real brands in fictional media today, even though this was
almost unheard of in the earlier days of broadcasting. In fact, speaking of Sex and the
City, you may remember that in the first episode of the sequel And Just Like That. . .
Carrie’s husband, Mr. Big, has a heart attack and dies after riding his Peloton. The
company’s stock price plummeted when the show’s episode was released!112
Happily, most product placements work out better. The singer Katy Perry gave a
boost to Harley-Davidsons’ efforts to reach her more than 100 million social media
followers when she released “Harleys in Hawaii,” a hit inspired by a tropical vacay
with her fiancé, the actor Orlando Bloom. Within two weeks, the video was streamed
20 million times on Spotify. Harley’s investment in this massive publicity effort: Just
the motorcycles they loaned to use in the video.113
Harley-Davidson got tons of great exposure (oops, they got another free plug
here!). In many cases, these “plugs” are no accident. Product placement is the insertion of real products in fictional movies, TV shows, books, and plays. Many types of
products play starring (or at least supporting) roles in our culture; the most visible
brands in recent years include Dell, Samsung, Apple, Chevrolet, and Ray-Ban. In
each case, their exposure in media earned them the equivalent of between $6 million
and $16 million.114
Product placement is by no means a casual process: Marketers pay about
$23 billion per year to plug their brands in TV and movies.115 Today, most major
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releases brim with real products, even though a majority of consumers believe the
line between advertising and programming is becoming too fuzzy and distracting
(though as we might expect, concerns about this blurring of boundaries are more
pronounced among older people than younger).116 A study reported that consumers
respond well to placements when the show’s plot makes the product’s benefit clear.
For example, audiences had a favorable impression when a retailer provided furniture,
clothes, appliances, and other staples for the struggling families who got help on
ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition during the show’s ten-year run.117
Advergaming. In the video game Crazy Taxi, you can pull into a KFC for a quick
bucket. A version of the popular game Doom, known as Chex Quest, dialed down the
violence level but increased sales of Chex cereal by over 200 percent. The characters
in Mario Kart 8 drive Mercedes vehicles.118
It’s no secret that consumers love their videogames—about a quarter of all
app downloads are games, and the time we spend playing them surged during the
pandemic. Revenues from mobile gaming are projected to hit $272 billion by 2030.119
About three-quarters of U.S. consumers now play video games, and many brands—
including Axe, Mini Cooper, and Burger King—create game narratives that immerse
players in the action.
The future is bright for advergaming, where online games merge with interactive
advertisements that let companies target specific types of consumers. These placements can be short exposures, such as a billboard that appears around a racetrack, or
they can take the form of branded entertainment and integrate the brand directly into
the action. The mushrooming popularity of user-generated videos on YouTube and
other sites creates a growing market to link ads to these sources as well.
Reality Engineering. Mattel announced that it was putting a “for sale” sign on the
Barbie Malibu Dreamhouse, where the doll character supposedly has lived in comfort
since the introduction of Malibu Barbie in 1971. The campaign mixed actual and
imaginary elements. A section of the real estate website Trulia carried the for-sale
listing that described the property as “the dreamiest of dream houses.”120 Welcome to
reality engineering, which occurs when marketers appropriate elements of popular
culture and use them as promotional vehicles.121
Reality engineers have many tools at their disposal; they plant products in movies,
pump scents into offices and stores, attach video monitors in the backs of taxicabs, buy
ad space on police patrol cars, or film fake “documentaries,” such as The Blair Witch
Project.122 It’s hard to know what’s real anymore; specialists even create “used jeans”
when they apply chemical washes, sandpaper, and other techniques to make a new pair of
jeans look like they’re ready for retirement. The industry has a term for this practice that
sums up the contradiction: new vintage!123 And this process is accelerating: ­Historical
analyses of Broadway plays, best-selling novels, and the lyrics of hit songs, for example,
clearly show large increases in the use of real brand names over time.124
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Now that you have finished reading this chapter, you should
be able to:
1. Explain the functions and components of
attitudes in consumer behavior.
An attitude is a predisposition to evaluate an object
or product positively or negatively. We form attitudes
toward products and services, and these attitudes often
determine whether we will purchase or not.
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
A key to attitude formation is the function the attitude holds
for the consumer (e.g., is it utilitarian or ego defensive?).
2. Describe the ways in which we form attitudes.
One organizing principle of attitude formation is the importance of consistency among attitudinal components—that
is, we alter some parts of an attitude to be in line with
others. Such theoretical approaches to attitudes as cognitive dissonance theory, self-perception theory, and balance
theory stress the vital role of our need for consistency.
Multiattribute attitude models underscore the complexity
of attitudes: They specify that we identify and combine
a set of beliefs and evaluations to predict an overall
attitude. Researchers integrate factors such as subjective
norms and the specificity of attitude scales into attitude
measures to improve predictability.
3. Explain how persuasion is an active attempt to
create or change attitudes.
The traditional view of communications regards the
perceiver as a passive element in the process. New
developments in interactive communications highlight the
need to consider the active roles a consumer plays when
they obtain product information and build a relationship
with a company. Advocates of permission marketing argue
that it’s more effective to send messages to consumers who
have already indicated an interest in learning about a product
than trying to hit people “cold” with these solicitations.
183
4. Discuss the ways in which the source, the
message, and the medium are used to craft
persuasion strategies.
The communications model specifies the elements
marketers need to transmit meaning. These include a
source, a message, a medium, a receiver, and feedback. Two
important characteristics that determine the effectiveness
of a source are its attractiveness and credibility.
Some elements of a message that help to determine its
effectiveness include the following: communication of
the message in words or pictures; employment of an
emotional or a rational appeal; frequency of repetition;
conclusion drawing; presentation of both sides of the
argument; and inclusion of fear, humor, or sexual references. Advertising messages often incorporate elements
from art or literature, such as dramas, lectures, metaphors, allegories, and resonance.
Reality engineering occurs when marketers appropriate
elements of popular culture to use in their promotional
strategies.
The relative influence of the source versus the message
depends on the receiver’s level of involvement with
the communication. The elaboration likelihood model
(ELM) specifies that source effects are more likely to
sway a less involved consumer, whereas a more involved
consumer will be more likely to attend to and process
components of the actual message.
KEY TERMS
Advergaming, 182
Advertainment, 181
Allegory, 179
Ambivalence, 160
Attitude object (Ao ), 155
Attitude, 155
Balance theory, 164
Basking in reflected glory, 164
Collabs, 174
Communications model, 169
Comparative advertising, 176
Compliance, 162
Counterargument, 167
Covert advertising, 186
Disclosures, 169
Ego-defensive function, 156
Elaboration Likelihood Model
(ELM), 166
Emotions, 159
Explicit attitudes, 160
Fake news, 172
Fast persuasion, 166
Fast thinking, 156
Fear appeals, 178
Fishbein model, 157
Functional theory of attitudes, 155
Halo effect, 173
Humor appeals, 178
Identification, 162
Implicit attitudes, 160
Internalization, 162
Knowledge bias, 172
Knowledge function, 156
Medication adherence, 161
Mental imagery, 180
Mere exposure phenomenon, 180
Mood congruency, 159
Moods, 159
Multiattribute attitude models, 157
Narrative persuasion, 168
Narrative transportation, 168
Narrativity, 168
Native advertising, 181
Negative state relief, 159
Neuromarketing, 160
Normative influences, 161
Paradox of low involvement, 167
Peripheral route, 166
184
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• Buying and Having: Choosing and Using Products
Permission marketing, 171
Persuasion, 165
Persuasion knowledge model, 168
Principle of cognitive
consistency, 163
Product placement, 181
Reality engineering, 182
Refutational arguments, 177
Reporting bias, 172
Resonance, 180
Sadvertising, 159
Sex appeals, 178
Sleeper effect, 172
Slow persuasion, 167
Slow thinking, 156
Social desirability bias, 160
Source attractiveness, 173
Source credibility, 171
Source derogation, 176
Spokescharacters, 175
Sponsored content, 168
Subjective norm (SN), 161
Supportive arguments, 177
Theory of reasoned action, 161
Two-factor theory, 180
Two-sided messages, 177
Utilitarian function, 156
Valence, 160
Value-expressive function, 156
REVIEW
6-1 How can an attitude play an ego-defensive function?
6-2 How do levels of commitment to an attitude influence the likelihood that it will become part of the way
we think about a product in the long term?
6-3 We sometimes enhance our attitude toward a product
after we buy it. How does the theory of cognitive dissonance explain this change?
6-4 What is mood congruency and how do advertisers use
it?
6-5 According to balance theory, how can we tell if a
triad is balanced or unbalanced? How can consumers
restore balance to an unbalanced triad?
6-6 Describe a multiattribute attitude model and list its
key components.
6-12 Describe the elements of the traditional communications model and tell how the updated model
differs.
6-13 What is source credibility, and what are two factors
that influence our decision as to whether a source is
credible?
6-14 What is a halo effect, and why does it happen?
6-15 Marketers must decide whether to incorporate
rational or emotional appeals in a communications
strategy. Describe conditions that are more favorable
to one or the other.
6-16 When should a marketer present a message visually
versus verbally?
6-17 How does the two-factor theory explain the effects of
message repetition on attitude change?
6-7 “Do as I say, not as I do.” How does this statement
relate to attitude models?
6-18 Do humorous ads work? If so, under what conditions?
6-8 What is a subjective norm, and how does it influence
our attitudes?
6-19 Why do marketers use metaphors to craft persuasive
messages? Give two examples of this technique.
6-9 What are some obstacles to predicting behavior even
if we know a person’s attitudes?
6-20 What is the difference between a lecture and a drama?
6-10 Describe the theory of reasoned action. How does it
improve our ability to predict behavior from attitudes?
6-11 List three psychological principles related to
persuasion.
6-21 What is narrative transportation, and how does this
apply to persuasion?
6-22 Describe the elaboration likelihood model and
summarize how it relates to the relative importance
of what is said versus how it’s said.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHALLENGE
DISCUSS
6-23 “If it’s on the internet, it must be true.” How big a
problem is misinformation about brands? The chapter
states that most Americans no longer trust the accuracy
of what they see in mainstream media. Do you
agree? What are the ramifications of this distrust for
marketers, and how might they improve the situation?
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
6-24 An antismoking ad sponsored by the New York City
Department of Health crossed the line for many
viewers. The spot showed a young boy who cries
hysterically as a crowd of adults walk by him. The
voiceover says, “This is how your child feels after
losing you for a minute. Just imagine if they lost you
for life.” The ad aroused a lot of controversy because
it wasn’t clear if the child was merely acting or if the
spot’s producers provoked his tears for the camera. Is
this genre of “scared straight” advertising an effective
way to convince people to curb unhealthy behaviors
like smoking?
6-25 The Pandora music site attracts about 70 million listeners, who tune in to playlists Pandora creates based
on their initial preferences for certain artists. The site
uses a music intelligence algorithm to dissect the
characteristics of favorite songs and serve up others
that are similar. Pandora’s engineers constantly tweak
the playlists as they experiment with variations of the
experience. For example, do listeners want to hear
mostly familiar songs, or do they want to discover
new music? One of the biggest issues they wrestle
with: How frequently should Pandora repeat the same
song or artist in a playlist? The site constantly tries
new variations to arrive at the optimal number of repetitions, but it turns out a lot depends on other factors,
such as the time of day and where listeners are when
they tune in. For example, Pandora’s data show that
users welcome new music instead of the same old,
same old, but when they’re at work not so much.
The company continues to tweak its algorithm as it
tries to answer the elusive question, “Can you have
too much of a good thing?”125 What do you think—
should music sites like Pandora focus on songs we
love now, songs they think we will love, or both?
6-26 The sleeper effect implies that perhaps we shouldn’t
worry too much about how positively people evaluate
a source. Similarly, there’s a saying in public relations that “any publicity is good publicity.” Do you
agree?
6-27 The American Medical Association encountered a
firestorm of controversy when it agreed to sponsor
a line of healthcare products that Sunbeam manufactured (a decision it later reversed). Should trade
or professional organizations, journalists, professors,
and others endorse specific products?
6-28 Swiss Legend, a watch brand, gets famous people
to wear its colorful timepieces. One way it does this
is to give away its products at awards shows. Publicists call this common practice “gifting the talent”:
Companies provide stars with “goody bags” full of
185
complimentary products.126 What do you think about
the practice of “gifting the talent” to accumulate
endorsements? Is this a sound strategy? Is it ethical
for celebrities to accept these gifts?
6-29 Watchdog groups have long decried product placements because they blur the line between content
and advertising without adequately informing viewers. The networks themselves appear to be divided
on how far they want to open the gate. According
to one study, the effectiveness of product placement
varies by product category and type of placement.
Consumers indicate that product placements have
the most influence on their grocery, electronics, and
apparel purchases. The most common platform for
a placement is to get a brand shown on a T-shirt or
other piece of an actor’s wardrobe.127 What do you
think about this practice? Under what conditions is
product placement likely to influence you and your
friends? When (if ever) is it counterproductive?
6-30 One of the most controversial intersections between
marketing and society occurs when companies provide “educational materials” to schools.128 Many
firms, including Nike, Hershey, Crayola, Nintendo,
and Foot Locker, provide free book covers swathed
in ads. Standard art supplies, blocks, trucks, and dolls
get supplemented with Milton Bradley and Care
Bears worksheets, Purell hand-cleaning activities,
and Pizza Hut reading programs. Clearasil provides
sample packets of its acne medication along with
brochures to educate high school students about
proper skin care; the handouts also direct students
to the Clearasil website where they can register for
music downloads and iPods. Other companies contract with schools to run focus groups with their
students during the school day to get reactions to
new product ideas. Some schools encourage kids to
practice their math as they count Tootsie Rolls, and
the kids use reading software that bears the logos of
Kmart, Coke, Pepsi, and Cap’n Crunch cereal. Many
educators argue that these materials are a godsend for
resource-poor schools that otherwise could not provide computers and other goodies to their students.
However, a California law bans the use of textbooks
with brand names and company logos. This legislation was prompted by complaints from parents about
a middle-school math book that uses names such as
Barbie, Oreos, Nike, and Sony PlayStation in word
problems. What’s your position on these practices?
Should corporations be allowed to promote their
products in schools in exchange for donations of
educational materials, computers, and so on?
186
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• Buying and Having: Choosing and Using Products
6-31 Some consumer advocates worry that the above
forms of weaving brands and products in the content
of entertainment amounts to covert advertising, a
form of advertising that works under the guise of nonadvertising formats.129 The U.S.’s Children’s Advertising Review Unit expressed concern that sponsors
were not appropriately disclosed in child influencer
unboxing videos. A study testing the potential usefulness of disclosing sponsorship of those videos found
that pre-roll warnings helped the parents be more
aware of the sponsorship, and hopefully in turn more
mindful about explaining these persuasion attempts
to their children.130
Whether it’s sponsored digital content, native
advertising, product placement, or advergaming, the
concern is that consumers do not recognize the persuasive nature of the ad, so they are being tricked.
Do you agree?
6-32 Commercial Alert, a consumer group, is highly
critical of neuromarketing. The group’s executive
director wrote, “What would happen in this country
if corporate marketers and political consultants could
literally peer inside our brains and chart the neural
activity that leads to our selections in the supermarket
and voting booth? What if they then could trigger this
neural activity by various means, so as to modify our
behavior to serve their own ends?”131 What do you
think? Is neuromarketing dangerous?
6-33 A recent study’s findings sum up the impact of sex
appeals: Yes, they get noticed and remembered—but
many viewers don’t recall what the ad was plugging!
And, males do like provocative messages more than
females, but this doesn’t translate into stronger brand
attitudes.132
Another study looked specifically at the issue of
whether sexy ads increase desire for romantic products. According to human evolutionary theory, men
tend to be primed to take advantage of sexual opportunities whenever they are reasonably available, as
relationships with multiple partners maximizes the
likelihood that their genes will be passed on. Therefore, the researchers reasoned, they should dislike
objects that don’t help them to achieve this goal. Sure
enough, when male subjects saw highly sexual ads,
they reported less interest in joining the long-term
dating site eHarmony.com or buying jewelry from
Kay Jewelers. This diminished interest did not occur
for female subjects.133
What’s your position on the use of sex in
advertising? Should brands “engage” viewers with
titillating imagery?
APPLY
6-34 Think of a behavior someone does that is inconsistent
with their attitudes (e.g., attitudes toward cholesterol,
drug use, or even buying things to make them stand
out or attain status). Ask the person to elaborate on
why they do the behavior and try to identify the way
the person resolves dissonant elements.
6-38 Observe the process of counterargumentation by asking a friend to talk out loud while they watch a commercial. Ask them to respond to each point in the ad
or to write down reactions to the claims the message
makes. How much skepticism regarding the claims
can you detect?
6-35 Construct a multiattribute model for a set of local
restaurants. Based on your findings, suggest how restaurant managers could improve their establishment’s
image via the strategies described in this chapter.
6-39 The chapter discusses the important problem of
medication adherence. How can healthcare marketers
strengthen the link between intentions and behavior
to boost the rate at which people take their prescribed
medications? Devise a communications strategy to
increase the adherence rate.
6-36 Locate foreign ads at sites like japander.com in which
celebrities endorse products that they don’t pitch on
their home turf. Ask friends or classmates to rate the
attractiveness of each celebrity; then show them these
ads and ask them to rate the celebrities again. Does
the star’s “brand image” change after it’s paired with
cheesy ads? Based on these results, what advice
would you give to a manager who must choose
among endorsement offers for a famous client?
6-37 Collect ads that rely on sex appeal to sell products.
How often do they communicate benefits of the actual
product? How effective do you believe they are?
6-40 Make a log of all the commercials a network
television channel shows during a two-hour period.
Assign each to a product category and decide whether
each is a drama or an argument. Describe the types
of messages the ads use (e.g., two-sided arguments),
and keep track of the types of spokespeople who
appear (e.g., TV actors, famous people, animated
characters). What can you conclude about the
dominant forms of persuasive tactics that marketers
currently employ?
Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
6-41 A metaphor places two dissimilar objects into a close
relationship such that “A is B,” whereas a simile
compares two objects such that “A is like B.” A and
B, however dissimilar, share some quality that the
metaphor highlights. Metaphors allow the marketer
to apply meaningful images to everyday events. In
the stock market, “white knights” battle “hostile
raiders” with the help of “poison pills”; Tony the
Tiger equates cereal with strength; and “you’re in
good hands with Allstate” insurance.134
Collect examples of ads that rely on the use
of metaphors or similes. Do you feel these ads
are effective? If you were marketing the products,
would you feel more comfortable with ads that use
a more straightforward, “hard-sell” approach? Why
or why not?
6-42 A brand that wants customers to see it as a “friend”
by depicting a model using it is more effective when
187
the product image appears horizontally and near the
model. On the other hand, if a brand wants customers
to see it as a “leader,” the advertiser will have better
luck if it physically places the brand above the user
and farther away (“it’s lonely at the top”).135 Create a
mockup of two versions of an ad that depict the same
brand as either a “friend” or a “leader.”
6-43 Devise an attitude survey for a set of competing automobiles. Identify areas of competitive advantage or
disadvantage for each model you include.
6-44 A government agency wants to encourage people
who have been drinking to use designated drivers.
What advice could you give the organization about
constructing persuasive communications? Discuss
some factors that might be important, including the
structure of the communications, where they should
appear, and who should deliver them. Should it use
fear appeals? If so, how?
DIGGING IN WITH DATA
See “Data Case 2: Evolving Trends in Fitness and French Fries” in Appendix A for an opportunity to work with real
consumer data and apply this chapter’s concepts to real world problems.
CASE STUDY
Anti-Smoking Advertising—Can You Be Scared
into Quitting?
Most advertising is focused on encouraging consumers to
buy products or services. But advertising can also be used
to discourage the use of products considered to be harmful.
One of the best examples of this is the use of advertising
focused on discouraging smoking. Over many years, different
types of ads have been used—informational, funny, and some
designed to be very shocking—but all focused on convincing
smokers to kick the habit or, better, never to start it.
Smoking is America’s leading preventable cause
of death and illness, responsible for more than 480,000
deaths each year—about 1,300 deaths per day. 136 Each
year in the United States, more people die from smoking
than from murder, suicide, AIDS, drugs, alcohol, and car
crashes—combined.137 One would think that compelling
statistics like these would scare anyone away from taking
a single puff on a cigarette. However, the many factors
involved in the decision to start and to continue to smoke
create the need for persuasive messaging involving more
than just facts.
A form of this messaging began with the Federal
Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965 that mandated
warnings be placed on each pack of cigarettes stating in clear
terms: “Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to
Your Health.”138 Early anti-smoking ad campaigns began
appearing around this time and were largely executed as
public service announcements, or free TV airtime mandated
by the Federal Communications Commission.139 The ads
focused on explaining the dangers of smoking and making
it seem less socially acceptable to smoke. This advertising
had some effectiveness but had to compete for time on the
air with other good causes, such as preventing forest fires.
More recently, private anti-smoking groups began much
more aggressive advertising. The Truth campaign, which is
focused on teens, went nationwide in 2000. Recognizing that
kids smoked because they wanted to rebel, they used
that image to challenge young smokers with a question: “Are
you really rebelling by giving all of your money to these big
corporations run by old white guys?”140
The Centers for Disease Control decided on a different
strategy, sponsoring ads that featured smokers who were
experiencing the results of their habit. One shows a woman
who must speak with an artificial device because her voice
box has been removed; she explains that she misses singing
lullabies to her grandson. Others feature people who have lost
188
Section 3
• Buying and Having: Choosing and Using Products
their teeth, a woman who had a premature baby, and a man
with a hole in his throat—all results of smoking.141
Do these fear appeals work? The research says yes—
at least for some. These types of appeals appear to be
most effective with “prevention-focused” people who are
concerned with possible negative outcomes.142 However, one
experiment found that scary images had the opposite effect
on some adolescents, making them more at risk for future
smoking. It may be that they responded in a defensive manner
that caused them to downplay the health risks portrayed in
the graphic photographs.143
In contrast to prevention-focused people, those who are
“promotion-focused” are concerned with aspirations and
achievements.144 A PSA released by Ireland’s government
health service (and later used in New York) may be more
effective for this personality type. In this ad, people lip-synced
to Gloria Gaynor’s anthem “I Will Survive,” as they decided
to quit cigarettes.145 A campaign in Florida focused on the
positives of quitting with the tagline, “Quit smoking and you
quit all the crap that goes with it. You Quit. You Win.”146
Angela Rodriguez, VP of strategic planning and insights at
Alma, who produced the ads said, “We . . . learned that those
same scare tactic approaches don’t always connect, so we
shifted our strategy to a more empathetic one . . . The result
is [a] very emotive creative that is respectful of the smokers
we are trying to reach.”147
All of these approaches are having an effect, with the
number of smokers 18 years or older in the United States
at 16 percent in 2021, compared to 45 percent in 1954.148
Advertising cannot take all the credit; bans on smoking in
public spaces, taxes on cigarettes, and extensive education and
quit-smoking programs have all contributed.149 But the CDC
credits ad campaigns with making a difference, including
creating a spike in calls to its 1-800-QUIT-NOW hotline.150
Whether selling cars or encouraging smokers to quit,
advertisers have several persuasive approaches available for
use. Considering the many factors involved in the decision
to start or quit smoking, multiple ad approaches are needed
to persuade someone to make a change. Just as with the
marketing of products and services, our target markets are
not always as homogeneous as they might appear, so different
appeals work with different sub segments. Choosing the right
ones just may help someone avoid an early death due to
cancer or heart disease.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
CS 6-1 What is another health, political, or philanthropic
cause that could benefit from an advertising campaign? Create two taglines that could be used: one for
people who are prevention-focused and another
for those who are promotion-focused.
CS 6-2 Health warnings have appeared on cigarette packages
for almost 50 years. Discuss how habituation,
or a decline in responsiveness due to repeated
exposure (see Chapter 4), may be a factor affecting
their effectiveness. In 134 countries, graphic images
related to smoking’s effects must also be shown on
the packages.151 Why or why not might this help
smokers decide to quit?
CS 6-3 How can a marketer determine what kinds of appeals
will be the most persuasive in making the case for a
product or cause? Design a simple experiment using
the cause you chose for question CS 6.1.
NOTES
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Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
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Section 3
• Buying and Having: Choosing and Using Products
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56. Minah H. Jung and Clayton R. Critcher, “How Encouraging Niceness Can
Incentivize Nastiness: An Unintended Consequence of Advertising Reform,”
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58. Amanda Hess, “The Triumph of the Celebrity Endorsement,” New York
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65. Cristel A. Russell and Dina Rasolofoarison, “Uncovering the Power of Natural
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Chapter 6 • Attitudes and How to Change Them
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95. David Gardner, “The Distraction Hypothesis in Marketing,” Journal of
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96. Caleb Warren, Erin Percival Carter, and A. Peter McGraw, “Being Funny Is
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Comedy, and Consumer Behavior,” Journal of Consumer Research 45, no.
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Makes Things Funny? An Integrative Review of the Antecedents of Laughter
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97. Brian Steinberg, “VW Uses Shock Treatment to Sell Jetta’s Safety,” Wall Street
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98. “U.S. Gives Up on Graphic Cigarette Package Warnings—for Now,” Ad
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99. Davide C. Orazi and Marta Pizzetti, “Revisiting Fear Appeals: A Structural
Re-Inquiry of the Protection Motivation Model,” International Journal of
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100. Eugenia C. Wu and Keisha M. Cutright, “In God’s Hands: How Reminders
of God Dampen the Effectiveness of Fear Appeals,” Journal of Marketing
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101. Edward F. McQuarrie and David Glen Mick, “On Resonance: A Critical
Pluralistic Inquiry into Advertising Rhetoric,” Journal of Consumer Research
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102. Robert B. Zajonc, “Attitudinal Effects of Mere Exposure,” Journal of
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103. Giles D’Souza and Ram C. Rao, “Can Repeating an Advertisement More
Frequently Than the Competition Affect Brand Preference in a Mature
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104. George E. Belch, “The Effects of Television Commercial Repetition on
Cognitive Response and Message Acceptance,” Journal of Consumer Research
9 (June 1982): 56–65; Marian Burke and Julie Edell, “Ad Reactions over Time:
Capturing Changes in the Real World,” Journal of Consumer Research 13
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105. Susannah Jacob, “The Power of Three: Three Is the Right Number for
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106. Liangyan Wang, Eugene Y. Chan, Haipeng (Allan) Chen, Han Lin, and Xinzhan
Shi, “When the ‘Charm of Three’ Fades: Mental Imagery Moderates the Impact
of the Number of Ad Claims on Persuasion,” Journal of Consumer Psychology
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107. Robert F. Bornstein, “Exposure and Affect: Overview and Meta-Analysis of
Research, 1968–1987,” Psychological Bulletin 106, no. 2 (1989): 265–89; Arno
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108. Curtis P. Haugtvedt, David W. Schumann, Wendy L. Schneier, and Wendy
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109. Cristel A. Russell, “Advertainment: Fusing Advertising and Entertainment,”
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Communication (2007).
110. Chris Richardson, “Here Are the Brightest Native Advertising Examples of
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111. Quoted in Simona Covel, “Bag Borrow or Steal Lands the Role of a Lifetime,
Online Retailer Hopes to Profit from Mention in ‘Sex and the City,’” Wall Street
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112. Daniel Kreps, “Peloton Goes into Damage Control as ‘And Just Like That . . . ’
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113. Mark Gardiner, “A Katy Perry Song Drops a Gift in Harley-Davidson’s Lap,”
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115. Beth L. Fossen, “Product Placement Is a $23 Billion Business and Growing.
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116. Claire Atkinson, “Ad Intrusion Up, Say Consumers,” Ad Age, January 6, 2003: 1.
117. Motoko Rich, “Product Placement Deals Make Leap from Film to Books,” New
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118. Zachery Barton, “The Evolution of Advergames: Top 3 Examples of Marketing
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121. Michael R. Solomon and Basil G. Englis, “Reality Engineering: Blurring the
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122. Marc Santora, “Circle the Block, Cabby, My Show’s On,” New York Times,
January 16, 2003, www.nyt.com; Wayne Parry, “Police May Sell Ad Space,”
Montgomery Advertiser, November 20, 2002: A4.
123. Austin Bunn, “Not Fade Away,” New York Times, December 2, 2002, www.nyt
.com.
124. This process is described more fully in Michael R. Solomon, Conquering
Consumerspace: Marketing Strategies for a Branded World (New York, NY:
AMACOM, 2003).
125. John Paul Titlow, “At Pandora, Every Listener Is a Test Subject,”
Fast Company, August 14, 2013, www.fastcolabs.com/3015729/
in-pandoras-big-data-experiments-youre-just-another-lab-rat.
126. Rob Walker, “The Gifted Ones,” New York Times Magazine, November 14,
2004, www.nyt.com.
127. Center for Media Research, “Product Placement, Sampling, and Word-ofMouth Collectively Influence Consumer Purchases,” October 22, 2008, www
.mediapost.com; Brian Steinberg and Suzanne Vranica, “Prime-Time TV’s
New Guest Stars: Products,” Wall Street Journal, January 12, 2004, www.wsj
.com; Karlene Lukovitz, “‘Storyline’ Product Placements Gaining on Cable,”
Marketing Daily, October 5, 2007, www.mediapost.com.
128. Jack Neff, “Clearasil Marches into Middle-School Classes,” Ad Age (November
2006): 8; Bill Pennington, “Reading, Writing and Corporate Sponsorships,”
New York Times, October 18, 2004; Caroline E. Mayer, “Nurturing Brand
Loyalty: With Preschool Supplies, Firms Woo Future Customers and Current
Parents,” Washington Post, October 12, 2003: F1.
129. Bartosz W. Wojdynski and Nathaniel J. Evans, (2020) “The Covert Advertising
Recognition and Effects (CARE) Model: Processes of Persuasion in Native
Advertising and Other Masked Formats,” International Journal of Advertising
39, no. 1 (2020): 4–31, doi: 10.1080/02650487.2019.1658438.
130. Nathaniel J. Evans, Mariea Grubbs Hoy, and Courtney C. Childers, “Parenting
YouTube Natives: The Impact of Pre-Roll Advertising and Text Disclosures
on Parental Responses to Sponsored Child Influencer Videos,” Journal of
Advertising 47, no. 4 (2018): 326–46.
131. Quoted in Sandra Blakeslee, “If Your Brain Has a ‘BuyButton,’ What Pushes
It?,” New York Times, October 19, 2004, https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/19/
science/if-your-brain-has-a-buybutton-what-pushes-it.html, accessed April 22,
2022.
132. John G. Wirtz, Johnny V. Sparks, and Thais M. Zimbres, “The Effect of
Exposure to Sexual Appeals in Advertisements on Memory, Attitude, and
Purchase Intention: A Meta-Analytic Review,” International Journal of
Advertising 16 (June 2017): 1–31, www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0
2650487.2017.1334996.
133. Jingjing Ma and David Gal, “When Sex and Romance Conflict: The Effect
of Sexual Imagery in Advertising on Preference for Romantically Linked
Products and Services,” Journal of Marketing Research 53, no. 4 (2016):
479–96.
134. Barbara B. Stern, “Medieval Allegory: Roots of Advertising Strategy for the
Mass Market,” Journal of Marketing 52 (July 1988): 84–94.
135. Xun Huang, Xiuping Li, and Meng Zhang, “‘Seeing’ the Social Roles of
Brands: How Physical Positioning Influences Brand Evaluation,” Journal
of Consumer Psychology 23, no. 4 (2013): 509–14.
136. CDCTobaccoFree, “Fast Facts,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
October 6, 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/
fast_facts/index.htm.
137. “The Toll of Tobacco in the United States,” Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids,
May 1, 2017, https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/problem/toll-us.
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138. “Smoking and Tobacco Use,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/by_topic/policy/legislation/index
.htm, accessed June 27, 2018.
139. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Reducing Tobacco Use: A
Report of the Surgeon General,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
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fullreport.pdf, accessed July 10, 2022.
140. Chris Woolston, “The Anti-Ads,” Knowable Magazine, February 9, 2018,
https://www.knowablemagazine.org/article/society/2018/anti-ads.
141. “Latest Campaign,” Make Smoking History, https://makesmokinghistory.org
.au/more-information/latest-campaign, accessed July 10, 2022; Kim Painter,
“Shocking CDC Anti-Smoking Campaign Is Back with New Ads,” USA Today,
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cdc-smoking-ads-video/11306343/.
142. Safa Amirbayat, “Alma’s Anti-Smoking Ad Empathizes with Smokers,”
Medium, April 23, 2018, https://medium.com/@canvas8/advertising-insightsalma-positive-anti-smoking-ad-62c98572d894.
143. James Felton, “These Anti-Smoking Ads Have an Unintended Effect on Teens,” IFL
Science, December 15, 2017, http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/
these-antismoking-ads-have-an-unintended-effect-on-teens/.
144. Safa Amirbayat, “Alma’s Anti-Smoking Ad Empathizes with Smokers,”
Medium, April 23, 2018, https://medium.com/@canvas8/advertising-insightsalma-positive-anti-smoking-ad-62c98572d894.
145. Tim Nudd, “This Irish Anti-Smoking Ad Is So Good It’s Now Running in
New York,” Adweek, January 5, 2018, https://www.adweek.com/creativity/thisirish-anti-smoking-ad-is-so-good-its-now-running-in-new-york/.
146. “Win Anti-Smoking Campaign,” Cancer Institute, July 12, 2018, https://www
.cancerinstitute.org.au/how-we-help/cancer-prevention/stopping-smoking/
quit-smoking-campaigns/win-anti-smoking-campaign, accessed July 12,
2018.
147. Safa Amirbayat, “Alma’s Anti-Smoking Ad Empathizes with Smokers,”
Medium, April 23, 2018, https://medium.com/@canvas8/advertisinginsights-alma-positive-anti-smoking-ad-62c98572d894.
148. “Tobacco and Smoking,” Gallup, August 9, 2007, https://news.gallup.com/
poll/1717/tobacco-smoking.aspx; Niall McCarthy, “U.S. Smoking Rate Falls
to Record Low,” Statista, July 27, 2018, https://www-statista-com.go.asbury
.edu/chart/14879/us-smoking-rate-falls-to-record-low/.
149. Matthew Perrone, “Big Tobacco’s Anti-Smoking Ads Begin after Decade of
Delay,” The Chicago Tribune, November 21, 2017, http://www.chicagotribune
.com/business/ct-biz-anti-smoking-tv-ads-20171121-story.html.
150. “Tips from Former Smokers,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
May 31, 2018, https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/about/impact/
campaign-impact-results.html.
151. Canadian Cancer Society (National Office), “Tobacco Plain Packaging
Momentum Continues Worldwide with 38 Countries and Territories Moving
Forward with Regulations,” PR Newswire, November 9, 2021, https://
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7
Deciding
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES When you finish reading this chapter, you should be able to:
7-1 Identify the two primary ways in which consumers
make decisions.
7-2 Outline the steps of the rational (slow) decision
making process.
7-3 Summarize the ways in which we engage in fast
thinking and rules of thumb to make decisions.
7-4 Describe how context effects can influence the
decision making of a consumer, even when
the consumer is unaware of the influence.
7-5 Discuss how online shopping and purchasing
platforms can influence consumer decision
making.
C
han has had it! There’s only so much longer he can go on
watching TV on his tiny, antiquated set. It was bad enough
trying to squint at Stranger Things. The final straw was when
he couldn’t tell the Titans from the Jaguars during an NFL football game.
When he went next door to watch the second half on Jamie’s home
theater setup, he finally realized what he was missing. Budget or not, it
was time to act: A person must have their priorities.
Where to start looking? The web, naturally. Chan checks out a few
comparison-shopping websites, including pricegrabber.com and bizrate
.com. After he narrows down his options, he ventures out to check on
a few sets in person. He figures he’ll probably get a decent selection
(and an affordable price) at one of those huge “big-box” stores. Arriving
at Zany Zack’s Appliance Emporium, Chan heads straight for the Video
Zone in the back; he barely notices the rows of toasters, microwave
ovens, and stereos on his way. Within minutes, a smiling salesperson in a cheap suit
accosts him. Even though he could use some help, Chan tells the salesperson he’s only
browsing. He figures these guys don’t know what they’re talking about, and they’re
simply out to make a sale no matter what.
Chan examines some of the features on the 60-inch flatscreens. He knew his friend
Cara had a set by Prime Wave that she really liked, and his sister Mi-Sun warned him to
stay away from the Kamashita. Although Chan finds a Prime Wave model loaded to the
max with features including surround sound, he chooses the less expensive Precision
2000X because it has one feature that really catches his fancy: synchronized backlighting
for game playing to play Minecraft the way it was intended.
Later that day, Chan is a happy man as he sits in his easy chair and watches Sheldon
match wits with Leonard, Howard, and the others on The Big Bang Theory. If he’s going
to be a couch potato, he’s going in style.
Source: Edwin Tan/E+/Getty Images.
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OBJECTIVE 7-1
Identify the two
primary ways in
which consumers
make decisions.
Fast or Slow Thinking?
Chan’s decision represented his response to a problem. In
fact, every consumer decision we make is a response to a
problem. Of course, the type and scope of these problems
varies enormously. As discussed in Chapter 5, our needs
range from simple physiological priorities, such as quenching thirst, to whether we
will spend our hard-earned money on a television to abstract intellectual or aesthetic
quandaries such as choosing a college major—or perhaps what to wear to that
upcoming Drake concert.
We make some decisions thoughtfully and rationally as we carefully weigh the
pros and cons of different choices. In other cases, we let our emotions guide us to one
choice over another as we react to a problem with enthusiasm, joy, or even disgust.
Decision-making researchers refer to these two distinct ways of deciding as slow
thinking and fast thinking.
This distinction should remind you of the two routes to persuasion we discussed
in Chapter 6. Just as attitudes may develop and change due to high versus low levels
of involvement and elaboration, decision making also can be a high or a low effort
process. When purchase decisions are important, we might put a lot of effort into it.
Decision making in those cases might even resemble a full-time job. A person may
literally spend days or weeks agonizing over an important purchase, such as a new
home, a car, or even an iPhone versus a Samsung Galaxy.
But often the decision-making process is almost automatic; we seem to make
snap judgments based on little information or develop habits to ease the process of
making decisions or to be more efficient. Imagine if you had to carefully consider
every product decision you make before putting an item in your grocery cart!
When the task requires a well-thought-out, rational approach, we’ll invest the
brainpower to do it. Otherwise, we look for shortcuts such as “just do what I usually
do,” or perhaps we make “gut” decisions based on our emotional reactions. In some
cases, we create a mental budget that helps us to estimate what we will consume
over time so that we can regulate what we do in the present. If the dieter knows they
will be chowing down at a big BBQ tomorrow, they may decide to skip that tempting
candy bar today.1
Part of what we’re going to discuss in this chapter already is
familiar ground to you:
System 1
System 2
Fast
Slow
Unconscious
Conscious
Automatic
Effortful
Everyday
Decisions
Complex
Decisions
Error-prone
Reliable
Figure 7.1 The Two Primary Consumer
Decision-Making Systems: Fast and Slow
OR System 1 and System 2 Processing
• In Chapter 4, we reviewed approaches to learning that link options
•
•
to outcomes, where over time we come to link certain choices to
good or bad results, and this can help us make faster decisions.
In Chapter 5, we talked about how needs activation motivates us
to look for ways to fill those needs and also how low versus high
levels of involvement activate very different types of thinking
about the available choices.
And in Chapter 6, we distinguished between the cognitive and
affective processes that underpin persuasion. These ideas really
relate to types of decision making because they remind us that
depending on the situation and the importance of what we’re
dealing with, our choices can be dominated by “hot” emotions or
“cold” information processing.
Figure 7.1 summarizes the two systems of consumer decision
making: They are sometimes called fast versus slow, intuitive versus
analytic, or System 1 versus System 2.
Chapter 7 • Deciding
The distinction between these two systems is common in psychology: “System 1”
processes are fast, autonomous, intuitive, etc., and “System 2” processes are slow,
deliberative, analytic, etc. But how do we know which system someone will use?
It usually comes down to the type of purchase. A decision like the one Chan faces
is complex because it involves a substantive amount of money and consideration of
many attributes and many options. It would likely involve System 2 processes. In
contrast, many of the everyday decisions we face are habitual and do not require as
much thinking and debating, so they would involve System 1 processes.
This distinction is enormously important for our purposes, because if we know
whether our customers are likely to use either System 1 or System 2, that knowledge
can be a game-changer when it comes time to decide what kinds of information these
two very different scenarios require. While we usually assume that the consumer is in
System 2 mode when they choose a product or service, the harsh reality is that most
consumer decisions actually occur in System 1 mode when they are likely to ignore
the shower of information we rain down upon them.
OBJECTIVE 7-2
Outline the steps of
the rational (slow)
decision making
process.
Rational (Slow) Decision Making
When they think slow, consumers approach decision making
from a rational perspective. They calmly and carefully integrate as much information as possible with what they already
know about a product, painstakingly weigh the pluses and
minuses of each alternative, and arrive at a satisfactory decision. This kind of careful,
deliberate thinking is especially relevant to activities such as financial planning that
call for a lot of attention to detail and many choices that impact a consumer’s quality
of life.2
When marketing managers believe that their customers in fact do undergo this
kind of planning, they should carefully study steps in decision making to understand
just how consumers weigh information, form beliefs about options, and choose criteria
they use to select one option over others. With these insights in hand, they can develop
products and promotional strategies that supply the specific information people look
for in the most effective formats.3
Steps in the Rational Decision-Making Process
Let’s think about Chan’s process of buying a new TV that we described at the beginning of the chapter. He didn’t suddenly wake up and crave a new flatscreen. Chan
went through several steps between the time he felt the need to replace his TV and
when he brought one home. We describe these steps as (1) problem recognition, (2)
information search, (3) evaluation of alternatives, and (4) product choice.
After we make a decision, its outcome affects the final step in the process. That’s
because learning occurs based on how well the choice worked out (“I’ll never buy their
shoddy merchandise again!”). This learning process in turn influences the likelihood
that we’ll make the same choice the next time the need for a similar decision occurs.
Figure 7.2 provides an overview of this decision-making process. Let’s briefly look at
each step.
Step 1: Problem Recognition
Problem recognition occurs when we experience a significant difference between our
current situation and some state we desire. As we noted at the beginning of the chapter,
this problem requires a solution. A person who unexpectedly runs out of gas on the
highway has a problem, as does the person who becomes dissatisfied with the image
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After weathering some negative
headlines in recent years, Peloton
launched an advertising campaign
called “Love Every Journey” that
featured testimonials from customers
who were initially skeptical of the
connected fitness brand—and who
perhaps threw shade about the brand
on social media—but have since
become loyal converts.4
Source: Edwin Tan/E+/Getty Images.
Problem Recognition
Chan is fed up with his old
TV that has bad sound
reproduction.
of his car, even though there is nothing mechanically wrong with it.
Although the quality of Chan’s TV had not changed, he altered his
standard of comparison, and as a result he had a new problem to
solve: how to improve his viewing experience. This is the “starting
gun” that initiates the problem-solving process.
Step 2: Information Search
Information Search
Chan surfs the Web to
learn about TVs.
Evaluation of Alternatives
Chan compares several
models in the store in
terms of reputation
and available features.
Product Choice
Chan chooses one model
because it has a feature
that really appeals to him.
Outcomes
Chan brings home the TV
and enjoys his purchase.
Figure 7.2 Stages in Consumer Decision Making
Once a consumer recognizes a problem, they need to identify
options to solve it. Information search is the process by which we
survey the environment for appropriate data to make a reasonable
decision. As we saw in Chapter 5, we might recognize a need and
then search the marketplace for specific information (a process we
call prepurchase search). However, many of us, especially veteran
shoppers, enjoy browsing just for the fun of it or because we like
to stay up to date on what’s happening in the marketplace. Those
shopaholics engage in ongoing search.5 As a general rule, we search
more when the purchase is important, when we have more of a need
to learn more about the purchase, or when it’s easy to obtain the
relevant information.6
Does knowing something about the product make it more or less
likely that we will engage in research? The answer to this question
isn’t as obvious as it first appears: Product experts and novices use
different strategies when they make decisions. “Newbies” who
know little about a product should be the most motivated to find out
more about it. However, experts are more familiar with the product
category, and thus they should be better able to understand the
meaning of any new product information they might acquire.
So, who searches more? The answer is neither: Search tends to be
greatest among those consumers who are moderately knowledgeable
about the product. Typically, we find an inverted-U relationship
between knowledge and search effort, as Figure 7.3 shows. People
AMOUNT OF SEARCH
Chapter 7 • Deciding
PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE
Figure 7.3 The Relationship between Amount of Information Search and
Product Knowledge
with limited expertise may not feel they are competent to search extensively. In
fact, they may not even know where to start. Chan, who did not spend a lot of time
researching his purchase, is typical. He visited one store, and he looked only at brands
with which he was already familiar. In addition, he focused on only a small number
of product features.7
Because experts have a better sense of what information is relevant to the decision, they engage in selective search, which means their efforts are more focused and
efficient. In contrast, novices are more likely to rely on the opinions of others and on
“nonfunctional” attributes, such as brand name and price, to distinguish among alternatives. Finally, novice consumers may process information in a “top-down” rather
than a “bottom-up” manner; they focus less on details than on the big picture. For
instance, they may be more impressed by the sheer amount of technical information
an ad presents than by the actual significance of the claims it makes.8
Any trial lawyer will tell you never to ask a question of a witness unless you
already know what they will answer. Consumers too like to consult reliable sources
that tend to tell them what they want to hear. We can see that the search process isn’t
perfect, so there’s always some bias in terms of what we get when we cast our nets.
This is true whether we’re asking people we know for advice or we’re simply browsing
online.
The internet puts an almost limitless supply of information at our fingertips—at
least in theory. The reality often is quite different. Rather than taking advantage of
many sources that may provide us with a range of opinions or options when we want
to make a decision, sophisticated algorithms ensure that we access only content that
reinforces what we already think we know.
A filter bubble occurs when the broadcast media, websites, and social media platforms we consult serve up answers based upon what they “think” we want to see. For
example, we get personalized Google search results and a Facebook news stream that’s
based upon sites we’ve clicked on in the past, our browsing history, and our physical
location. This means we’re far less likely to be exposed to conflicting viewpoints, so
we each live in a “bubble” of our own making. Conservatives who watch Fox News
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Buying, Having, Being
What Do I Have to Lose?
Maybe a Lot!
Consumers rarely consider
opportunity costs, or alternative
ways to use one’s resources, when
they select one option over others.
Yet, research shows that consumers
can benefit from considering
opportunity costs while deciding.13
When people consider opportunity
costs, they see the alternative
option(s) as more valuable, relative
to the current option they are
considering. For example, if you
are considering purchasing a trip
to Hawaii but then think about how
you would have to give up a trip to
Europe to afford the trip to Hawaii,
then that trip to Europe seems more
valuable to you than it otherwise
would have. Of course, if you’re a
planner, you probably know this
already because people who like to
plan tend to consider opportunity
costs more.
religiously will see stories that confirm their beliefs, while their liberal counterparts
get the same assurance from MSNBC.9
Thus, what starts as a search for the best information upon which to base our
decisions may end in a self-fulfilling prophecy, where we read and see only content
that confirms what we thought all along. This problem is troubling enough that
the U.S. Congress is considering a bill introduced in 2021 called the Filter Bubble
Transparency Act that would require that internet platforms give users the option to
engage without being manipulated by algorithms driven by user-specific data.10
Step 3: Evaluate Alternatives
Much of the effort we put into a purchase decision occurs at the stage where we have
to put the pedal to the metal and choose a product from several alternatives. This
may not be easy; modern consumer society abounds with choices. In some cases,
there may be literally hundreds of brands (as in cigarettes) or different variations of
the same brand (as in shades of lipstick).
We call the alternatives a consumer knows about the evoked set and the ones they
seriously consider the consideration set.11 Recall that Chan did not know much about
the technical aspects of television sets, and he had only a few major brands in mind.
Of these, two were acceptable possibilities and one was not.
For obvious reasons, a marketer who finds that their brand is not in their target
market’s evoked set has cause to worry. You often don’t get a second chance to make a
good first impression; a consumer isn’t likely to place a product in their evoked set after
they have already considered it and rejected it. Indeed, we’re more likely to add a new
brand to the evoked set than one that we previously considered but passed over, even
after a marketer has provided additional positive information about it.12 For marketers,
a consumer’s reluctance to give a rejected product a second chance underscores the
importance of ensuring that it performs well from the time the company introduces it.
Many decisions force us to choose between two attractive alternatives, so we also have to
consider opportunity costs when we weigh pros and cons of each choice.
Source: Nathan Danks/Shutterstock Jupiterimages/PHOTOS.com/Getty Images.
Chapter 7 • Deciding
TABLE 7.1 Hypothetical Alternatives for a TV Set
Brand Ratings
Attribute
Importance Ranking
Prime Wave
Precision
Kamashita
Synchronized
backlighting
1
Excellent
Good
Good
Size of screen
1
Excellent
Excellent
Excellent
Stereo surround
sound
2
Good
Excellent
Good
Brand reputation
3
Excellent
Excellent
Poor
Onscreen programming
4
Excellent
Good
Poor
Sleep timer
6
Excellent
Poor
Good
Evaluative Criteria When Chan looked at different television sets, he focused on
one or two product features and completely ignored several others. He narrowed down
his choices as he only considered two specific brand names, and from the Prime Wave
and Precision models, he chose one that featured synchronized backlighting. Table 7.1
summarizes the attributes of the TV sets that Chan considered. Now, let’s see how a
comparison of these attributes can alter Chan’s choice of a specific brand depending
on the rules he uses to consider them.
Evaluative criteria are the dimensions we use to judge the merits of competing
options. When he compared alternative products, Chan could have chosen from among
many criteria that ranged from functional attributes (“Does this TV offer synchronized
backlighting?”) to experiential ones (“Does this TV’s sound reproduction make me
imagine I’m in a concert hall?”).
Another important point is that criteria on which products differ from one another
carry more weight in the decision process than do those where the alternatives are
similar. If all brands a person considers rate equally well on one attribute (e.g., if all
TVs come with surround sound), Chan needs to find other reasons to choose one over
another. Determinant attributes are the features we use to differentiate among our
choices.
Marketers often educate consumers about which criteria they should use as
determinant attributes. For example, consumer research from Church & Dwight
indicated that many consumers view the use of natural ingredients as a determinant
attribute. As a result, the company promoted its toothpaste made from baking soda,
which the company already manufactured for Church & Dwight’s Arm & Hammer
brand.14
In the slow-thinking Type 2 system, people tend to think carefully
about the pros and cons of various options, almost like a computer that follows a
somewhat complicated formula to decide. Not so much for Type 1 thinking, where one
attribute that may not even be central to the choice drives our decision (the package
color or the celebrity endorser, for example).
To choose between options, consumers may use compensatory and noncompensatory rules. Let’s take a quick look at some important ones.
Decision Rules
A compensatory rule allows a product to make up for its
shortcomings on one dimension by excelling on another. This rule is more likely to
Compensatory Rules
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apply during Type 1 thinking, where we’re motivated enough to weigh the pros and
cons of a set of choices. There are two basic types of compensatory rules:
1. The simple additive rule leads to the option that has the largest number of positive attributes. A person may use this process when it’s difficult to get more
information. It’s not the best solution, because some of the attributes may not be
meaningful to the customer. Even so, we may be impressed by a brand that boasts
a laundry list of features, though most of them are not determinant attributes.
2. A weighted additive rule allows the consumer to consider the relative importance of the attributes by weighing each one. If this sounds familiar, it should:
The calculation process strongly resembles the multiattribute attitude model we
discussed in Chapter 6.
Noncompensatory Rules Compensatory rules require the decision maker to carefully consider the attributes of competing options, but we all know that we don’t
necessarily do that—especially when we’re thinking fast! When we make habitual or
emotional decisions, we typically use a noncompensatory rule.15 This means that
if an option doesn’t suit us on one dimension, we just reject it out of hand and move
on to something else rather than think about how it might meet our needs in other
ways: “I’ve never heard of that brand,” or maybe “That color is gross.” Here are some
specific ways we do that:
• The lexicographic rule says, “Select the brand that is the best on the most imporBuying, Having, Being
How Low Is “Low Calorie”
Depends on Surrounding
Menu Options
The way we make decisions
depends on our comparison
set, which echoes the categorizations we studied in Chapter 4.
A recent study that examined how
consumers use calorie information
demonstrates why the categories
we use to define products are
important. When people saw menus
that listed the calorie count of
individual items, they chose more
dietetic items. However, when the
lower calorie items were grouped
into a single “low-calorie” category
on the menu, diners selected them
less frequently. The researchers
explain that consumers have
negative associations with lowcalorie labels, so they’re more likely
to dismiss these options in the early
stages of the decision process. As
a result, individual items are less
likely to make the cut into diners’
consideration sets, so ironically this
menu information results in fewer
healthier choices overall.16
•
•
tant attribute.” If a decision maker feels that two or more brands are equally good
on that attribute, they then compare the brands on the second-most important
attribute. This selection process goes on until the tie is broken. In Chan’s case,
because both the Prime Wave and Precision models were tied on his most important attribute (a 60-inch screen), he chose the Precision because of its rating on his
second-most important attribute: its stereo capability.
The elimination-by-aspects rule is like the lexicographic rule because the buyer
also evaluates brands on the most important attribute. In this case, though, they
impose specific cut-offs. For example, if Chan had been more interested in having
a sleep timer on his TV (i.e., if it had a higher importance ranking), he might have
stipulated that his choice “must have a sleep timer.” Because the Prime Wave
model had one and the Precision did not, he would have chosen the Prime Wave.
Whereas the two former rules involve processing by attribute, the conjunctive
rule entails processing by brand. As with the elimination-by-aspects procedure,
the decision maker establishes cut-offs for each attribute. He chooses a brand if it
meets all the cutoffs but rejects a brand that fails to meet any one cut-off. If none
of the brands meet all the cutoffs, he may delay the choice, change the decision
rule, or modify the cutoffs he chooses to apply.
If Chan stipulated that all attributes had to be rated “good” or better, he would not
have been able to choose any of the available options. He might then have modified
his decision rule, conceding that it was not possible to attain these high standards
in his price range. In this case, perhaps Chan could decide that he could live without
synchronized backlighting, so he would reconsider the Precision model.
If we’re willing to allow good and bad product qualities to cancel each other out,
we arrive at a different choice. For example, if Chan were not concerned about having
stereo reception, he might have chosen the Prime Wave model. But because this brand
doesn’t feature this highly ranked attribute, it doesn’t stand a chance when he uses a
noncompensatory rule.
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As feature creep becomes more
of a problem, just providing clear
instructions to users is a major “pain
point” for many manufacturers.
Source: supercavie/Shutterstock.
Buying, Having, Being
Read the Label!
Step 4: Product Choice
Once we assemble and evaluate the relevant options in a category, eventually we
must choose one.17 Recall that the decision rules that guide our choices range from
simple and quick strategies to complicated processes that require a lot of attention
and cognitive processing.18
Our job isn’t getting any easier as companies overwhelm us with more and more
features. We deal with 50-button remote controls, digital cameras with hundreds of
mysterious features and book-length manuals, and cars with dashboard systems worthy
of the space shuttle. Experts call this spiral of complexity feature creep. As evidence
that the proliferation of gizmos is counterproductive, Philips Electronics found that
at least half of the products buyers return have nothing wrong with them; consumers
simply couldn’t understand how to use them! What’s worse, on average the buyer
spent only 20 minutes trying to figure out how to use the product and then gave up.
Given the range of problems we
all confront in our lives, clearly it is difficult to apply a one-size-fits-all explanation to
the complexities of consumer behavior. Things get even more complicated when we
realize just how many choices we must make in today’s information-rich environment.
Ironically, for many of us, one of our biggest problems is not having too few choices
but rather too many.
This condition of choice overload, or hyperchoice, forces us to make repeated
decisions that may drain psychological energy while decreasing our abilities to make
smart choices.19 A study conducted in a grocery store illustrates how having too much
can handicap our thought processes. Shoppers tried samples of flavored fruit jams
in two different conditions: In the “limited choice” condition, they picked from six
flavors; whereas those in the “extensive choice” group saw 24 flavors. Thirty percent
of consumers in the limited group bought a jar of jam as a result, and a paltry three
percent of those in the extensive group did.
Choice Overload: Too Much of a Good Thing?
Product labels assist us with
problem solving, but some are
more useful than others. Here
are some examples of the
not-so-helpful variety:
• Instructions for folding up a
portable baby carriage: “Step 1:
Remove baby.”
• On a Conair Pro Style 1600
hair dryer: “WARNING: Do not
use in shower. Never use while
sleeping.”
• At a rest stop on a Wisconsin
highway: “Do not eat urinal
cakes.”
• On a bag of Fritos: “You could
be a winner! No purchase
necessary. Details inside.”
• On some Swanson frozen
dinners: “Serving suggestion:
Defrost.”
• On Tesco’s Tiramisu dessert
(printed on bottom of box):
“Do not turn upside down.”
• On Marks & Spencer bread
pudding: “Product will be hot
after heating.”
• On packaging for a Rowenta
iron: “Do not iron clothes on
body.”
• On Nytol sleeping aid: “Warning:
May cause drowsiness.”
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Consumers tend to want more options, but when there
are too many options, they tend to make poorer decisions or
just give up in frustration. A review of all the studies to date
(a meta-analysis) on this paradox of choice suggests that
companies can have it both ways: Provide options, but make
the decision itself less difficult, and try to educate consumers
about how best to make their decision between those options.20
Step 5: Postpurchase Evaluation
A common feedback loop we increasingly see on highways
comes from those “dynamic speed displays” that use a radar
sensor to flash “Your Speed” when you pass one. This isn’t new
information; all you have to do is look at your speedometer to
know the same thing. Yet on average, these displays result in a
10 percent reduction in driving speed among motorists for several
miles following exposure to the feedback loop.21
Source: Iaarts/Stockimo/Alamy Stock Photo.
Another old saying goes, “The proof of the pudding is in
the eating.” In other words, the true test of our decisionmaking process is whether we are happy with the choice
we made after we undergo all these stages. Postpurchase
evaluation closes the loop; it occurs when we experience the
product or service we selected and decide whether it meets
(or maybe even exceeds) our expectations. That may involve
soliciting feedback from others to determine whether we’ve
done the right thing or (perhaps) committed a serious fashion
gaffe. We’ll take a closer look at that in Chapter 8.
When all is said and done with the transaction, is the customer always right? Not anymore. Today,
postpurchase evaluation is just starting to work both ways. In
the process called social scoring, both customers and service providers increasingly
rate one another’s performance. Have you ever written a negative review of your Uber
driver or a server at a restaurant? A heads up: While we’re busily documenting our
interactions with salespeople and other service providers, they’re returning the favor.
People who work in small businesses have always been aware of problem customers
who drop in periodically to torment them. But now, at least in theory, a salesperson
or other service provider at any kind of organization large or small can grade your
behavior. And the icing on the cake is that they can share these scores with others. It’s
no longer only Santa who knows if you’ve been naughty or nice.
At platforms like Airbnb and Uber, users get a rating each time they patronize the
service. It’s no surprise that according to Lyft and Uber drivers, failure to leave a tip
is a sure-fire road to a dismal evaluation. For your future reference, these are some
other behaviors that will make or break a five-star rating straight from the mouths of
operators:22
Social Scoring
• “Don’t puke in or ruin the car.”
• “The most common reason for a lower passenger rating is making us wait after we
•
•
•
arrive to pick you up. If you’re ready to go at the curb when we arrive, it means
a lot.”
“Rude passengers immediately get four stars. Depending on the level of rudeness,
their rating can go down to one star.”
“Passengers get a one-star ding for everything they mess up, like not being ready,
slamming doors, or being impolite.”
“I will deduct points for rude behavior or illegal activities. I will also deduct points
for passengers who leave garbage in my car.”
That’s not just FYI stuff; a bad rating can prevent you from booking rooms or
rides down the road. Uber and Lyft share rider ratings with other drivers, who may
Chapter 7 • Deciding
203
choose not to pick up a passenger with an unsavory record.
Open Table bans people from using its service if they have
missed too many reservations. At Airbnb, you sometimes
must make the case for your worthiness to stay at a guesthouse. The application process feels a bit like getting a surprise inspection visit from a social worker when you’re trying
to adopt a child.
This new transparency may disrupt not only the service
economy—it also can obliterate the traditional power
disparity between buyer and seller. Suddenly, the user must
play nice and think about how today’s nasty behavior will
influence tomorrow’s reputation. So far it doesn’t seem that
service businesses have thought much about the potential
impact of this reverse rating process, but it could be just a
As social scoring catches on, both customers and service
matter of time before overly demanding patients need to
providers need to be aware that others rate their performance.
locate doctors who will agree to put up with them, customers
Source: lovro77/iStock/Getty Images Plus.
who like to yell at repairmen have no one to fix their leaking
toilets, and perhaps even students who email their professor at 2:00 a.m. with urgent
questions about assignments that were due two weeks ago get banned from registering
for classes (okay, that last one is a fantasy of ours that we just threw in there).23
When we do not select a certain option and this
foregone option now seems better than the option that we chose, we may end up
experiencing regret.24 The more we know about the foregone option, the more likely
we are to wish we had decided differently.
In addition, regret is likelier when (1) the decision consumers made created a lot
of change from how things were prior to this decision (think: moving houses!), (2) the
decision cannot be undone, and (3) the outcome of a choice is negative. In cases when
the eventually chosen product leads to a negative outcome, people are more motivated
to think of other alternatives that can undo it (e.g., returning the product) or that they
can do better in the future.
Regret makes people less likely to repurchase the chosen products, but it does
not make people more likely to complain to the maker of that product. With online
shopping and meal delivery services continuing to take up a larger share of consumer
purchases, the potential for consumer regret is likely much higher today than it used
to be. Thus, companies should take note of how they can anticipate regret and try to
address it, so the customer feels better about their purchase.
Regret and How to Avoid It
Although consumers tend to like
to make their own choices, having to choose sometimes leads to anxiety and decision paralysis. Interestingly, a solution to this is to delegate our decision to others,
especially when we are afraid to make decisions we may regret.25
Researchers found evidence of this in a series of lab experiments in which they
gave participants the choice between two options.26 They made the choice either
difficult or easy by having participants choose between two cheap options (more
difficult) or a cheap and expensive option (less difficult), and they told the participants
they could either choose for themselves or ask the experimenter to choose. No
matter what the product context was (they conducted the same experiments with
headphones, jellybeans, and a hypothetical decision of whether to undergo surgery
after an accident), they found that consumers consistently prefer to delegate choices
to someone else when the choice is difficult.
“Deer in the Headlights”: Decision Paralysis
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Consumers delegate because they are afraid of regretting their decision if it leads
to a less-than-ideal outcome. This helps to explain why we often turn to third parties,
such as stockbrokers and interior designers, to help us arrive at important decisions.27
OBJECTIVE 7-3
Summarize the
ways in which we
engage in fast
thinking and rules
of thumb to make
decisions.
Buying, Having, Being
Are You in the Mood?
Our mood biases our decisions
and the way we make them.32 But
what happens to the quality of our
choices when our mood is a bit too
good? A survey found that about
one-fifth of Americans admitted
to buying while under the influence; drunk shopping purchases
account for billions of dollars in
revenues every year. If you’ve ever
visited DoorDash or Grubhub to
order some late-night munchies
after an evening of carousing, you
won’t be surprised to learn that
more than 80 percent of drunk
shoppers admit to purchasing food
while drunk. The next-most popular
categories for intoxicated purchases
are shoes, clothes, and accessories.
Good luck checking out your new
(bizarre?) purchase when it arrives
after you’ve sobered up!33
Fast Thinking and Rules
of Thumb
Chan’s meditations about the exact TV model to buy probably don’t resemble most of the choices he makes. If he’s
anything like most of us, he deals with dozens of decisions
every day and he makes most of them almost automatically.
“Cream and sugar?” “Fries with that?”
The rational decision-making steps we’ve just reviewed are well and good, but
common sense tells us we don’t undergo this elaborate sequence every time we buy
something.28 If we did, we’d spend our entire lives making these decisions. This would
leave us little time to enjoy the things we eventually decide to buy! And some of our
buying behaviors don’t seem “rational” because they don’t serve a logical purpose
(you don’t use that navel ring to hold a beach towel).
Habitual decision making, or fast decision making, describes the choices we
make with little or no conscious effort. Many purchase decisions are so routine
we may not realize we’ve made them until we look in our shopping carts! Although
decisions we make with little conscious thought may seem dangerous or at best stupid,
this process is actually quite efficient in many cases. The journalist Malcolm Gladwell
hit the bestseller list with his book Blink, which demonstrated how snap judgments
that occur in the blink of an eye can be surprisingly accurate.29
When a person buys the same brand over and over, does this mean it’s just a habit,
or are they truly loyal to that product? The answer is, it depends: In some cases, the
explanation really is just inertia, which means that it involves less effort to throw a
familiar package into the cart. Brand loyalty is a totally different story. This describes
a pattern of repeat purchasing behavior that involves a conscious decision to continue
buying the same brand.
As you might imagine, though both inertia and brand loyalty yield the same result,
the latter is harder to achieve but also much more valuable because it represents a true
commitment by the consumer. One simple test that may help to tell the difference: If
the consumer discovers that a store is out of their normal brand, will they just choose
another one or defer the purchase to find their favorite somewhere else? If the answer
is “my way or the highway,” that marketer has a loyal customer.
Behavioral Biases
The traditional perspective on human behavior views people as cool, detached decision makers who carefully evaluate the pros and cons before they choose an option.
That view, known as homo economicus (“economic man”), regards us as ideal decision makers with complete rationality and complete access to all the information we
need to make an informed decision.30
Does that description of System 2 thinking apply to many of the choices you
make? Sure, we may come close when we’re choosing something important like
a new laptop, home, or car. But the reality is that we just don’t work that hard for
most decisions. And that’s a good thing: One reason is simply that it’s not possible
for our brains to process all that detailed information about everything, nor is it
probably worth our time. Another reason is that we often are less homo economicus
and more homo ludens—“man the player.” 31 This perspective recognizes the
Chapter 7 • Deciding
emotional and more light-hearted aspects of consumption that result in joy, fantasy,
and creativity.
System 1 processing, because it is a lot faster and less rational, can lead to behavioral biases, when our preferences deviate from the standard economic model that
views people as rational decision makers who calmly and carefully weigh their choices
to be sure they make the best possible decision.34 A common example to demonstrate
the two systems is the following puzzle:
A bat and a ball together cost $1.10. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How
much does the ball cost?35
The majority of people quickly guess 10 cents (did you?). The correct answer,
however, is five cents—which, again, most people can work out after spending more
time thinking about the question. As this example demonstrates, System 1 thinking is
faster—but often marred by biases and false assumptions.
The research discipline at the intersection of psychology and economics, known
as behavioral economics, focuses upon these biases that take the form of nonstandard beliefs. For example, we tend to be overconfident in our own knowledge or abilities, or we tend to ignore base rates and sample sizes when we estimate probabilities
(a bias known as the law of small numbers).
Heuristics and Mental Accounting: Take the Shortcut
Let’s face it—people can be lazy sometimes! Especially when we’re overwhelmed
by so many things calling for our attention, it’s often tempting to find shortcuts so
that we don’t have to sweat the details for some decisions. That’s a good strategy in
many cases, because these shortcuts allow our poor overworked brains to pay more
attention to important decisions.
And the reality is that many purchase decisions fall into this category. If you’re
the brand manager for, say, a company that sells paper towels, you think a lot about
this product, and you probably believe your brand outshines the rest. But the hard truth
is that your customers aren’t very invested in mastering the intricacies of the paper
towel market. They simply want a brand that absorbs liquids and doesn’t disintegrate
when they touch it. That means you can shower them with detailed technical information all day long, but they’re probably not going to “absorb” that. Instead, they may
choose a familiar brand name with a lively, easy-to-remember tagline like, “Bounty
is the quicker picker-upper.”
This example illustrates that rather than trying to arrive at the best possible
result—a maximizing solution—we, in fact, often are quite content to exert less
mental effort and settle for an adequate outcome—a satisficing solution. This “good
enough” perspective on decision making is called bounded rationality. It recognizes
that many decisions aren’t worth agonizing over, so long as the end result is adequate.
This distinction is hugely important to marketers, because if consumers look to merely
satisfice rather than maximize their choice, it’s a game-changer in terms of the types
of information they will look for and how they will use this information.
Mental Accounting
In addition, many habitual spending decisions we make are subject to mental
accounting biases:
Imagine that you’re working at a job that pays $1,000 per week. You spend your
income carefully, and you even try to put some of your paycheck into an investment
account for your future. One day, you learn that a distant relative has died, and they left
you $1,000 in their will. This totally unexpected windfall makes you do the happy dance—
and to celebrate you take 20 of your closest friends out to dinner at a nice restaurant.
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Just like that, the inheritance is gone—but at least you have the glowing social media
posts to show for it.
Is this $1,000 that came and went very quickly the “same” money as the amount
you see in your weekly paycheck? Obviously not, because you treated it very differently. Mental accounting reminds us that the way we think and use money depends
on all kinds of subjective factors: for instance, how we earned it (from a job versus
inheritance) or what form it is (cash versus credit versus gift card; home versus foreign
currency). These biases can make us spend more money on useless things or spend it
faster (for example, inherited money is spent faster than earned money, and we spend
more when we use credit cards because a charge isn’t “real money”).36 None of that
is very rational since in the end, it is all the same money!
Heuristics
Chan made certain assumptions instead of conducting an extensive information search.
In particular, he took it for granted that the selection at Zany Zack’s was more than sufficient, so he didn’t even bother to shop at any other stores. We refer to these shortcuts
as heuristics. These “mental rules of thumb” range from the general (“higher-priced
products are higher-quality products” or “buy the same brand I bought last time”) to
the specific (“buy Domino, the brand of sugar my mother always bought”).37
So much for that “rational” view of decision making! These rules of thumb save
us a lot of time and effort, and in most cases, a hastily made bad choice doesn’t come
back to haunt us. But sometimes these shortcuts may not be in our best interest. A car
shopper who personally knows one or two people who have had problems with a particular vehicle, for example, might assume that he would have similar trouble with it
rather than taking the time to find out that it has an excellent repair record.38 Table 7.2
summarizes a few of the most prevalent heuristics we commonly use.
TABLE 7.2 Examples of Heuristics
Heuristic Name
Definition
Availability
Selecting an option based on the information most easily available to our mind
Representativeness
Selecting an option that is closest to the most representative example in the category
Price
Selecting an option solely based on its price: for instance, many people assume that a higher-priced option is of better
quality than a lower-priced option
Anchoring Heuristic
Using the first information received about an option to decide about it (that prior judgment hence becoming an anchor)
Variety-Seeking
Selecting an option that is different from previous choices, for the sake of variety
Risk Aversion
Selecting the safest option in a set
Familiarity
Selecting the most familiar option in a set
OBJECTIVE 7-4
Describe how
context effects
can influence the
decision making of
a consumer, even
when the consumer
is unaware of the
influence.
The Unseen Power of Context
Effects: Framing, Priming,
and Nudging
Remember that in earlier chapters we talked about how physical
cues “prime” us to react—even when we’re not aware of this
impact. The sensations we experience are context effects
Chapter 7 • Deciding
that subtly influence how we think about products we encounter. Here are some
examples from consumer research:
more harshly when they stood on a tile floor
• Respondents evaluated products
rather than a carpeted floor.39
• Fans of romance movies rate them higher when they watch them in a cold room
•
(the researchers explain this is because they compensate for the low physical temperature with the psychological warmth the movie provides).40
When a product is scented, consumers are more likely to remember other attributes
about it after they encounter it.41
Researchers continue to identify factors that bias our decisions, and many of
these are factors that operate beneath the level of conscious awareness.42 In one
study, respondents’ attitudes toward an undesirable product—curried grasshoppers!—
improved when they were asked to approach a plate full of them. Since we typically
get closer to things (or people) we like, it seems this physical movement cued their
minds to think that they liked the delicacy more than they actually did.43 To help
understand this process, try to force yourself to smile or frown and then carefully
gauge your feelings; you may find that the old prescription to “put on a happy face”
to cheer yourself up has some validity.44
The notion that even subtle changes in a person’s environment can strongly influence their choices has emerged on center stage in the study of consumer behavior in
recent years. Unlike standard economic theory that regards people as rational decision makers, the rapidly growing field of behavioral economics focuses on the effects
of psychological and social factors on the economic decisions we make, and many of
these choices are anything but “rational.” Indeed, it turns out that it’s quite possible
to modify the choices of individuals and groups merely by tinkering with the way we
present information to them.
Framing
Often, it’s just a matter of framing, or how we pose the question to people or what
exactly we ask them to do. For example, people hate losing things more than they
like getting things; economists call this tendency loss aversion. To see how framing
works, consider the following scenario:
You’ve scored a free ticket to a sold-out football game. At the last minute, though,
a sudden snowstorm makes it dangerous to get to the stadium. Would you still go?
Now, assume the same game and snowstorm—except this time you paid a small fortune for the ticket. Would you head out in the storm in this case?
Researchers who work on prospect theory analyze how the value of a decision
depends on gains or losses—and how that choice is communicated to the buyer. It
turns out that the way we frame the question matters a lot. In the preceding scenario,
researchers find that people are more likely to risk their personal safety in the storm if
they paid for the football ticket than if it’s a freebie. Only the most die-hard fan would
fail to recognize that this is an irrational choice, because the risk is the same regardless
of whether you got a great deal on the ticket. Researchers call this decision-making bias
the sunk-cost fallacy: If we’ve paid for something, we’re more reluctant to waste it.
Priming
In a recent study, researchers subtly encouraged some subjects to “go against the
flow”—i.e., make unpopular choices. In some studies, the researchers primed “going
against the flow” by using actual fur and asking participants to rub the fur against the
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direction of its growth (against the flow), while others went with the direction of growth.
In a later (seemingly unrelated) part of the study, lo and behold, these people were more
likely to choose products that were less popular or desirable. The earlier session apparently encouraged people to think about “marching to the beat of a different drummer,” and
this orientation led them to alter their choices (without being aware of the connection!).45
Welcome to the power of priming: including cues in the environment that make
us more likely to react in a certain way even though we’re unaware of these influences.
A prime is a stimulus that encourages people to focus on some specific aspect of their
lives, such as their financial well-being, the environment, or “going against the flow.”
Here are some examples:
• A group of undergraduates was primed to think about money; they saw phrases like
•
“she spends money liberally” or pictures that would make them think of money.
Then this group and a control group that wasn’t focused on money answered questions about moral choices they would make. Those students who had been primed
to think of money consistently exhibited weaker ethics. They were more likely to
say they would steal a ream of paper from the university’s copying room and more
likely to say they would lie for financial gain.46
When people see pictures of “cute” products, they are more likely to engage in
indulgent behavior, such as eating larger portions of ice cream.47
Start of September
Figure 7.4 The Impact of
Temporal Framing
To manipulate temporal framing to shift
people’s attention, researchers framed
the timing of a sale as either “Start of
September Sale” or “End of August
Sale.” They then had people try to find
a specific brand of margarine in the
sale ad. They either placed the margarine on the left or the right. Those in
the “End of August” condition took a
lot less time to find the margarine when
it was on the right. And vice versa for
those in the “Start of September” and
“margarine on the left” conditions.
Source: Sheng Bi, Andrew Perkins, and David
Sprott, (2021), “The Effect of Start/End Temporal
Landmarks on Consumers’ Visual Attention and
Judgments,” International Journal of Research in
Marketing 38, no. 1 (2021): 136–54.
Sale
Start temporal landmark and
product on the left side
Start of September
Sale
Start temporal landmark and
product on the right side
End of August
Sale
End temporal landmark and
product on the left side
End of August
Sale
End temporal landmark and
product on the right side
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209
• In a field study in a wine store, researchers played either stereotypically French
•
or German music on alternate days. On the days when French music was in the
background, people bought more French versus German wine, and the reverse
happened on German music days. Follow-up questionnaires indicated customers
were not aware of the impact of the music on their choices.48
Temporal framing also makes a difference: Framing something in a message as
coming at the end of a time period (end of summer sale!) shifts our attention to
the right, while framing something as coming at the beginning of a time period
(start of the semester sale!) shifts our attention to the left. This in turn makes us
like products on that side more, makes products that are oriented in that direction
more appealing, etc.49
Nudging
Much of the current work in behavioral economics demonstrates how a nudge—a
deliberate change by an organization that intends to modify behavior—can result
in dramatic effects.50 One popular nudge is to set the “optimal” option as a default,
because most of us typically believe that when defaults exist, we should just stick with
those options. We can apply this default bias—where we are more likely to comply
with a requirement than to make the effort not to comply—to numerous choice situations. For example, people are more likely to save for retirement if their employers
automatically deduct a set amount from their paychecks than if they must set up this
process themselves.
We see another simple “nudge” based upon the default bias in programs that ask
people to “opt out” of a program if they don’t want to participate, rather than asking
them to “opt in.” In Europe, countries that ask drivers to indicate if they want to be an
organ donor convince less than 20 percent of drivers to do so. In contrast, those that
require drivers to opt out if they don’t want to be donors get more than 95 percent
participation!51
Amazon often employs an urgency nudge, or a nudge for consumers to act immediately, to tell interested customers that an offer is a
limited-time deal.
Source: Amazon.
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72 Hours Before Appointment
John, this is a message from Penn Medicine about your
upcoming appointment. Text & data rates apply. Reply stop
to opt out at any time.
You have an appt w/Dr. Smith on 10/01 at 11:00 AM & it’s
flu season. A flu vaccine is available for you. Protect yourself & your family’s health!
Look out for a vaccine reminder message before your appt.
You can opt out of a reminder by texting back OPT OUT.
24 Hours Before Appointment
PENMED: John, this is a reminder that a flu vaccine has
been reserved for your appt with Dr. Smith.
Please ask your doctor for the shot to make sure you
receive it.
Figure 7.5 Effective Text Messages Using a “Nudge”
OBJECTIVE 7-5
Discuss how
online shopping
and purchasing
platforms can
influence consumer
decision making.
Do Nudges Work?
Priming and nudging tactics are increasingly common. In
the U.K., there is even a government-affiliated organization
called the Behavioural Insights Team—a.k.a. the Ministry of
Nudges!52 And indeed, there is a lot of evidence that nudges
do affect behavior. A recent study compared the effectiveness
of many types of nudges sent as text messages to patients to
encourage flu vaccinations.53 The study identified the most
effective messages: The best text nudges told patients that
a flu vaccine was reserved for them and used language that
people expected to see from their healthcare providers (i.e.,
serious, no jokes). Text nudges are effective! Sending a text
nudge prior to a primary care visit increased vaccination
rates by an average of 5 percent. Figure 7.5 displays the most
effective texting strategy in terms of nudging consumers
toward getting flu shots. This shows us that even simple textbased nudges can make people more likely to get vaccinated!
Online Decision Making
What’s the most common way for us to start our decisionmaking process today? Google it, of course! Although there
are other search engines out there, such as Microsoft’s
Bing, Yahoo!, or even YouTube (which is the world’s
second-largest engine after Google), Google’s version of
the software that examines the web for matches to terms like “home theater system”
or “tattoo removal services” is so dominant—with 96 percent of the world’s mobile
search market—that the name has become a verb. But even a giant like Google can’t
rest on its laurels. Changes in how we search will probably reduce our reliance on
search engines. Increasingly consumers bypass Google as they go directly on their
smartphones or tablets to apps like Yelp to read and write product reviews.54
As anyone who’s ever googled knows, the web delivers enormous amounts of
product and retailer information in seconds. The biggest problem web surfers face
these days is to narrow down their choices, not to beef them up. In cyberspace, simplification is key. Still, the sad reality is that in many cases we simply don’t search as
much as we might. If we google a term, most of us are only likely to look at the first
few results at the top of the list.
Search Engine Optimization
Indeed, that’s one reason why search engine optimization (SEO) is so important
today; this term refers to the tactics companies use to design websites and posts to
maximize the likelihood that their content will show up when someone searches for
a relevant term.
Just as an expert fisherman chooses his spot and carefully selects the right lure
to catch a fish, SEO experts create online content that will attract the attention of
the search algorithms, or mathematical formulas, that companies like Google use to
determine which entries will turn up in a search. The algorithm will hunt for certain
keywords, and it also will consider who uses them. For example, if a lot of influential
people share an entry, the formula will weight it more.
Chapter 7 • Deciding
The Power of Customer Reviews
Can you imagine choosing a restaurant before you check it out online? Increasingly
many of us rely on online reviews to steer us toward and away from specific restaurants, hotels, movies, garments, music, and just about everything else. A survey of
28,000 respondents in 56 countries reported that online user ratings are the secondmost trusted source of brand information (after recommendations from family and
friends).
We usually put a lot of stock in what members of our social networks recommend. Unfortunately, user ratings don’t link strongly to actual product quality that
objective evaluation services like Consumer Reports provide. And there’s evidence
that mobile reviews may be less helpful than desktop reviews, even when the same
reviewer writes both. Comments posted via mobile devices are more emotional and
more negative.55
How Accurate Are Customer Reviews?
As the old saying goes, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” When we
check out online reviews of a product and they’re all glowing, we tend to be a bit suspicious. It’s more effective for a review to include some negative reviews—especially if
shoppers think they’re irrelevant. Why? We usually assign a lot of weight to negative
information because we expect it to be more diagnostic than sugar-coated comments.
So, when we encounter bad stuff, but we don’t feel it’s very helpful, we still feel that
we have more complete information about the product, and thus we’re comfortable
that we can make a wise choice.56
Researchers also have recently documented what they call the binary bias:
People tend to easily distinguish between positive ratings (e.g., 4s and 5s) and negative ratings (e.g., 1s and 2s), but they are not sensitive to distinctions between more
extreme and less extreme (5 vs. 4 or 1 vs. 2 values).57 As a result, when we see several reviews that are aggregated, we pay more attention to the proportion of positive
to negative reviews, rather than the distribution of different review values. Another
piece of evidence of how easily we can be swayed by the way reviews and ratings
are presented!
The Long Tail
One advantage these reviews provide is that consumers learn about other, less popular options they may like as well, and at the same time products such as movies,
books, and CDs that aren’t “blockbusters” are more likely to sell. At the online
entertainment company Netflix, for example, fellow subscribers recommend about
two-thirds of the films that people order. In fact, between 70 and 80 percent of
Netflix rentals come from the company’s back catalog of 38,000 films rather than
recent releases.58
This aspect of online customer review is one significant factor that’s fueling an
important business model called the long tail.59 The basic idea is that we no longer
need to rely solely on big hits (such as blockbuster movies or best-selling books) to
find profits. Companies can also make money if they sell small amounts of items that
only a few people want—if they sell enough different items. For example, Amazon.
com maintains an inventory of 3.7 million books, compared to the 100,000 or so you’ll
find in a large retail store like Barnes & Noble. Most of these stores will sell only a
few thousand copies (if that), but the 3.6 million books that Barnes & Noble doesn’t
carry make up a quarter of Amazon’s revenues! Other examples of the long tail include
successful microbreweries and TV networks that make money on reruns of old shows
on channels like the Game Show Network.
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Buying, Having, Being
AI: Who’s Calling the Shots?
Whether or not you think we’re
about to be enslaved by robots,
there’s no doubt that AI applications
will revolutionize how consumers
interact with products—and very
soon. Innovative companies are
already experimenting with AI personal shoppers that can help their
customers to decide what to buy:
• Outdoor brand The North Face
partnered with IBM’s Watson
AI platform to use natural conversation and a dialogue-based
recommendation engine to help
users of the brand’s site pick
out the jacket that best fits their
needs. A customer simply tells
the platform when and where
they’d like to use the jacket, and
then answers additional questions to refine the results.65
• KFC China teamed up with the
huge Chinese search engine
Baidu to develop AI-enabled
facial recognition checkout.
It predicts what menu items
customers will order based
upon their age, gender, and
mood. Over time, the AI will
recognize repeat customers and offer them what they
ordered on prior visits. Thus,
a younger male might get a
recommendation for a crispy
chicken hamburger, while the
AI will suggest porridge and
soybean milk to a woman in her
50s (wow, automated gender
stereotyping?).66
• West Elm uses an AI application
to generate recommendations
for specific furnishing products
it sells based upon what a
shopper pins to a Pinterest
Board. The company also can
upsell, or encourage customers
to buy additional items, due to
the suggestions.67
Cybermediaries
With the tremendous number of websites and apps available and the huge number
of people who spend big chunks of their day online, how can people organize information and decide where to click? A cybermediary often is the answer. This term
describes a website or app that helps to filter and organize online market information
so that customers can identify and evaluate alternatives more efficiently.
Many consumers regularly link to comparison-shopping sites, such as Bizrate.
com or Pricegrabber.com, for example, that list online retailers that sell a given item
along with the price each charges.60 Directories and portals, such as Yahoo! or The
Knot, are general services that tie together a large variety of different sites. Forums,
fan clubs, and user groups offer product-related discussions to help customers sift
through options. We will revisit these types of social influences in Chapter 12. Intelligent agents are sophisticated software programs that use collaborative filtering
technologies to learn from past user behavior to recommend new purchases.61 When
you let Amazon.com suggest a new book, the site uses an intelligent agent to propose
novels based on what you and others like you have bought in the past.
Our homes are the last frontier for digital selling assistants. Over 100 million
consumers in the U.S. alone now use AI assistants like Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s
Home in their home.62 These devices do a lot more than turn on your lights or play
your favorite music. They also are sales platforms that can interact with consumers
in a natural, humanlike manner and that can connect our requests with our browsing
history to guide our purchases.
Artificial intelligence increasingly powers search engines, digital assistants, and
chatbots. Research shows that conversational robo advisors elicit greater trust than
nonconversational ones, because the conversing allows a more natural interface for
consumers to engage with the robo advisor.63 These conversational robots can be very
influential: Recent research found that we tend to follow financial investment advice
from a conversational robo advisor even if this investment advice is inconsistent with
our actual risk profile or if the fees associated with the investment are large.
Physical robots are all the more influential if their designers give them human
characteristics. A recent review of a large dataset of over 10,000 individuals who interacted with service robots that assist humans with various tasks found that the more
effective ones exhibit such traits as intelligence, likability, safety, and social skills.64
Just like with the people we meet!
Chapter 7 • Deciding
213
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Now that you have finished reading this chapter, you should
be able to:
1. Identify the two primary ways in which consumers make decisions.
Every consumer decision we make is a response to a
problem. Of course, the type and scope of these problems varies enormously. We make some decisions
thoughtfully and rationally as we carefully weigh the
pros and cons of different choices. In other cases, we
let our emotions guide us to one choice over another as
we react to a problem with enthusiasm, joy, or even disgust. Decision-making researchers refer to these distinct
ways of thinking as slow and fast thinking. Perspectives
on decision making range from a focus on habits that
people develop over time to novel situations involving
a great deal of risk in which consumers must carefully
collect and analyze information before making a choice.
Many of our decisions are highly automated; we make
them largely by habit.
2. Outline the steps of the rational (slow) decision
making process.
A typical decision involves several steps. The first is
problem recognition, when we realize we must take
some action. This recognition may occur because a
current possession malfunctions or perhaps because we
have a desire for something new. Once the consumer
recognizes a problem and sees it as sufficiently
important to warrant some action, they begin the process
of information search. This search may range from
performing a simple memory scan, to determining what
they have done before to resolve the same problem, to
extensive fieldwork during which they consult a variety
of sources to amass as much information as possible.
In the evaluation of alternatives stage, the options a
person considers constitute their evoked set. When
the consumer eventually must make a product choice
among alternatives, they use one of several decision
rules. Noncompensatory rules eliminate alternatives
that are deficient on any of the criteria they’ve chosen.
Compensatory rules, which consumers are more likely
to apply in high-involvement situations, allow them to
consider each alternative’s good and bad points more
carefully to arrive at the overall best choice. Once the
consumer makes a choice, they engage in postpurchase
evaluation to determine whether it was a good one; this
assessment, in turn, influences the process the next time
the problem occurs.
3. Summarize the ways in which we engage in fast
thinking and rules of thumb to make decisions.
In many cases, people engage in surprisingly little
research. Instead, they rely on various mental shortcuts,
such as brand names or price, or they may simply imitate
others’ choices. We may use heuristics, or mental rules
of thumb, to simplify decision making. One of the most
common beliefs is that we can determine quality by
looking at the price. Other heuristics rely on well-known
brand names or a product’s country of origin as signals
of product quality. When we consistently purchase a
brand over time, this pattern may be the result of true
brand loyalty or simply inertia because it’s the easiest
thing to do.
4. Describe how context effects can influence the
decision making of a consumer, even when
the consumer is unaware of the influence.
Principles of mental accounting demonstrate that
the way a problem is framed and whether it is put in
terms of gains or losses influences what we decide.
In addition, other cues in the environment—including
subtle ones of which we may not even be aware—may
prime us to choose one option over another. A prime
is a stimulus that encourages people to focus on some
specific aspect of their lives. Much of the current work
in behavioral economics demonstrates how a nudge—a
deliberate change by an organization that intends to
modify behavior—can result in dramatic effects.
5. Discuss how online shopping and purchasing
platforms can influence consumer decision
making.
The internet has changed the way many of us search for
information. Today, our problem is more likely weeding
out excess detail than searching for more information.
Comparative search sites and intelligent agents help
to filter and guide the search process. We may rely on
cybermediaries, such as web portals or AI programs, to
sort through massive amounts of information to simplify
the decision-making process.
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KEY TERMS
Behavioral biases, 205
Behavioral economics, 205
Binary bias, 211
Bounded rationality, 205
Brand loyalty, 204
Choice overload, 201
Compensatory rule, 199
Conjunctive rule, 200
Consideration set, 198
Context effects, 206
Cybermediary, 212
Decision paralysis, 203
Default bias, 209
Determinant attributes, 199
Digital selling assistants, 212
Drunk shopping, 204
Elimination-by-aspects rule, 200
Evaluative criteria, 199
Evoked set, 198
Fast thinking, 194
Feature creep, 201
Filter bubble, 197
Framing, 207
Habitual decision making, 204
Heuristics, 206
Homo economicus, 204
Homo Ludens, 204
Hyperchoice, 201
Inertia, 204
Information search, 196
Intelligent agents, 212
Lexicographic rule, 200
Long tail, 211
Loss aversion, 207
Maximizing solution, 205
Mental accounting, 205
Mental budget, 194
Noncompensatory rule, 200
Nonstandard beliefs, 205
Nudge, 209
Opportunity costs, 198
Paradox of choice, 202
Postpurchase evaluation, 202
Priming, 208
Problem recognition, 195
Prospect theory, 207
Rational perspective, 195
Satisficing solution, 205
Search engine optimization
(SEO), 210
Search engines, 210
Slow thinking, 194
Simple additive rule, 200
Social scoring, 202
Standard economic model, 205
Sunk-cost fallacy, 207
Temporal framing, 209
Upsell, 212
Urgency nudge, 209
Weighted additive rule, 200
REVIEW
7-1 Why can “mindless” decision making actually be more
efficient than devoting a lot of thought to what we buy?
7-2 List the steps in the model of cognitive decision making.
7-3 Name two ways in which a consumer problem arises.
7-4 Give an example of the sunk-cost fallacy.
7-5 What is prospect theory? Does it support the argument that we are rational decision makers?
7-6 “Marketers need to be extra sure their product works as
promised when they first introduce it.” How does this
statement relate to what we know about consumers’
evoked sets?
7-8 List three product attributes that consumers use as
product quality heuristics and provide an example of
each.
7-9 How does a brand name work as a heuristic?
7-10 Describe the difference between inertia and brand
loyalty.
7-11 What is the difference between a noncompensatory
and a compensatory decision rule? Give one example
of each.
7-12 What is a prime? How does it differ from a nudge?
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHALLENGE
DISCUSS
7-13 Excessive food consumption may link to emotional
issues, such as feelings of inferiority or low selfesteem. In some situations, people consume
products (especially food) as a reaction to prior life
experiences, such as loss of a loved one or perhaps
abuse as a child. A British man whom the U.K.
news media once dubbed “the world’s fattest man”
when he weighed in at 980 pounds is a case in point.
He explained that as an adult his insatiable desire
to constantly eat stemmed from an abusive father
and sexual abuse by a relative: “I still had all these
things going around in my head from my childhood.
Food replaced the love I didn’t get from my parents.”
(The good news: After a gastric bypass operation
this man has lost almost two-thirds of his body
weight).68 Obviously this is an extreme case, and it
Chapter 7 • Deciding
certainly doesn’t mean that everyone who struggles
with their weight is a victim of abuse! Nonetheless,
emotion often plays a role—a dieter may feel elated
when he weighs in at three pounds less than last
week; however, if he fails to make progress, he may
become discouraged and actually sabotage himself
with a Krispy Kreme binge.69 Is it ethical for food
companies to exploit these issues by linking their
products to enhanced moods?
7-14 The chapter discusses ways that organizations can
use “nudges” to change consumer behavior. Critics
refer to them as benevolent paternalism because they
argue they force people to “eat their vegetables”
by restricting the freedom to choose. For example,
several cities, including New York and Philadelphia,
have tried (unsuccessfully thus far) to ban the sales
of extra-large portions of sugary drinks. What’s your
take on these efforts—should local, state, or federal
governments be in the business of nudging citizens
to be healthier?
7-15 Technology has the potential to make our lives easier
as it reduces the amount of clutter we need to work
through to access the information on the internet
that really interests us. However, perhaps intelligent
agents that make recommendations based only on
what we and others like us have chosen in the past
limit us, in that they reduce the chance that we will
stumble on something through serendipity (e.g.,
a book on a topic we’ve never heard of or a music
group that’s different from the style we usually listen
to). Will the proliferation of “shopping bots” make
our lives too predictable by giving us only more of
the same? If so, is this a problem?
7-16 It’s increasingly clear that many postings on blogs
and product reviews on websites are fake or are
posted there to manipulate consumers’ opinions.
How big a problem is this if consumers increasingly
215
look to consumer-generated product reviews during
the stage of information search? What steps, if any,
can marketers take to nip this problem in the bud?
7-17 For the same reasons that anthropomorphized digital
assistants are influential, they are also worrisome.
Recent research reveals that consumers are increasingly concerned artificial intelligence assistants are
invading their privacy and threatening their human
identity. Some even put Alexa back in her box so
she can’t hear background conversations.70 Even
if you’re not ready to give up on Alexa or Google
Home, what steps (if any) do you think you should
take to protect your data privacy?71
7-18 Research supports the argument that the way we pay
for a product changes the way we perceive it. More
specifically, credit cards prime people to focus less on
the costs of the item and more on the benefits. Using
plastic decouples the expense of the purchase, so we
tend to buy more when we can charge it.72 Newer
innovations like digital wallets take this a step further
so payment—at least at the time of purchase—is even
less painful. Are these formats going to create problems if they prime us to think more about short-term
gratification and less about the long-term hit to our
budgets? Do marketers have an obligation to try to
prevent these problems?
7-19 Country of origin can discourage sales in some situations, and in some cases, this is due to deeply held
moral views that lead people to “cancel” a company.
For example, some Jews refuse to buy cars made by
Mercedes-Benz and other German automakers due to
their use of slave labor to make vehicles during World
War II.73 Should a company bear responsibility for
decisions its predecessors made?
7-20 If people are not always rational decision makers, is
it worth the effort to study how they make purchasing
decisions?
APPLY
7-21 Find examples of electronic recommendation agents
on the web. Evaluate these. Are they helpful? What
characteristics of the sites you locate are likely to
make you buy products you wouldn’t have bought
on your own?
7-22 Sometimes a company invents a determinant attribute:
Pepsi-Cola accomplished this when it stamped
freshness dates on soda cans. It spent about $25 million
on an advertising and promotional campaign to
convince consumers that there’s nothing quite as
horrible as a stale can of soda—even though people in
the industry estimate that drinkers consume 98 percent
of all cans well before this could be a problem. Six
months after it introduced the campaign, lo and
behold, an independent survey found that 61 percent of
respondents felt that freshness dating is an important
attribute for a soft drink!74 Devise a similar strategy
for another product category by coming up with a
completely new product attribute. How would you
communicate this attribute to your customers?
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7-23 Choose someone you know who grocery shops on
a regular basis and keep a log of their purchases of
common consumer products during the term. Can
you detect any evidence of brand loyalty in any
categories based on consistency of purchases? If
so, talk to the person about these purchases. Try to
determine if their choices are based on true brand
loyalty or on inertia. What techniques might you use
to differentiate between the two?
7-24 Hershey’s stresses the determinant attribute of
product authenticity when the chocolate company
states: “Hershey, PA is where it all started more
than 100 years ago, and it’s still where the famous
Hershey’s Kisses are made.”75 Find examples of
other companies that appeal to their heritage. How
effective are these messages?
7-25 Form a group of three. Pick a product and develop a
marketing plan based on either slow or fast decision
making. What are the major differences in emphasis
between the two perspectives? Which is the most
likely type of decision-making process for the
product you selected?
7-26 Identify a person who is about to make a major
purchase. Ask that person to make a chronological
list of all the information sources they consult before
deciding what to buy. How would you characterize
the types of sources they use (i.e., internal versus
external, media versus personal, and so on)? Which
sources appeared to have the most impact on the
person’s decision?
7-27 Perform a survey of country-of-origin stereotypes.
Compile a list of five countries and ask people what
products they associate with each. What are their
evaluations of the products and likely attributes of
these different products? The power of a country
stereotype can also be demonstrated in another way.
Prepare a brief description of a product, including
a list of features, and ask people to rate it in terms
of quality, likelihood of purchase, and so on. Make
several versions of the description, varying only the
country from which it comes. Do ratings change as a
function of the country of origin?
7-28 Ask a friend to “talk through” the process they
used to choose one brand rather than others during
a recent purchase. Based on this description, can
you identify the decision rule that they most likely
employed?
7-29 Think of a product you recently shopped for online.
Describe your search process. How did you become
aware that you wanted or needed the product? How
did you evaluate alternatives? Did you wind up buying online? Why or why not? What factors would
make it more or less likely that you would buy something online versus in a traditional store?
7-30 Can you replicate Chan’s decision-making process as
he chose a TV brand for other consumers or other
products? Create a grid for a different product category
that lists available brands and the features each offers.
(Hint: Product websites for computers, cars, and other
complex products often generate these grids when
they allow you to choose the “compare products”
option.) Present this grid to several respondents and
ask each to talk aloud as they evaluate their options.
Based on their description, can you identify which
decision rule they seem to use?
7-31 Extraneous characteristics of the choice situation can
influence our selections, even though they wouldn’t
if we were totally rational decision makers. Create
two versions of this scenario (alternate the text you
see in parentheses as directed), and ask a separate
group of people to respond to each:
You are lying on the beach on a hot day. All you
have to drink is ice water. For the past hour you have
been thinking about how much you would enjoy a
nice cold bottle of your favorite brand of beer. A companion gets up to go make a phone call and offers to
bring back a beer from the only nearby place where
beer is sold (either a fancy resort hotel or a small,
run-down grocery store, depending on the version
you’re given). He says that the beer might be expensive and so asks how much you are willing to pay for
it. What price do you tell him?
When researchers gave both versions of this
question to respondents, they found that the median
price participants who read the fancy-resort version
gave was $2.65, but those who got the grocery-store
version were only willing to pay $1.50. In both versions, the consumption act is the same, the beer is
the same, and they don’t consume any “atmosphere”
because they drink the beer on the beach.76 How do
these results compare to yours?
7-32 Several products made in China (including toothpaste and toys) have been recalled because they
are dangerous or even fatal to use. Some American
consumers have stopped buying them as a result.
Essentially these consumers use country of origin
as a heuristic to avoid Chinese products. If the
Chinese government hired you as a consultant to
help it repair some of the damage to the reputation
of products made there, what actions would you
recommend?
Chapter 7 • Deciding
217
DIGGING IN WITH DATA
See “Data Case 2: Evolving Trends in Fitness and French Fries” in Appendix A for an opportunity to work with real
consumer data and apply this chapter’s concepts to real world problems.
CASE STUDY
P&G and the Moments of Truth – Just How Many
Moments Are There?
As you are learning in this course, a consumer’s journey to a
buying decision has several steps, and there are many factors
that influence the choices made at each point in the process.
P&G, the world’s third-largest consumer-packaged-goods
company, has explained this as the moments of truth.77 The
company started with two, added another, and other marketing
experts now believe there are many more moments that
marketers must consider when interacting with consumers.
The concept of the moment of truth began in the 1980s
with Jan Carlzon, president of Scandinavian Airlines, who
said, “Any time a customer comes into contact with a business,
however remote, they have an opportunity to form an impression.” He believed that if a company managed that interaction
to a positive outcome the company would be successful.
In 2005, former P&G CEO A.G. Lafley refocused the
concept from customer service to sales and broke the process
down into two big steps: the first moment (FMOT) when the
customer is looking at the product in the store, comparing it
to alternatives on the shelf, and the second moment (SMOT)
that occurs when the customer is using the product at home.78
Later, ex-P&G brand manager Pete Blackshaw suggested a
third important moment (TMOT) when customers provide
feedback about their purchase to the company and to friends
and family.79
Remember the Star Wars “prequels”? Well, in 2011
Google introduced a prequel of sorts to this moment of
truth concept with its Zero Moment Of Truth (ZMOT). This
moment is focused on the internet research that consumers
do before they buy, which is standard practice today for products of all kinds. ZMOT was born from a Google study that
found that 50 percent of shoppers used a search engine for
product or brand research. They also learned that for some
purchases, consumers were spending more time at the ZMOT
stage than FMOT.80 Convinced, P&G updated its process to
include ZMOT, FMOT, and SMOT.
FMOT, SMOT, TMOT, ZMOT—are you keeping up?
But wait—in 2014, marketing firm eventricity Ltd. added
<ZMOT, or less than zero moment of truth. This is something that happens in the consumer’s life—a stimulus—that
motivates them to begin doing research, leading to the zero
moment.81
A final moment is what one expert calls the Actual
Moment Of Truth (AMOT), or the period between when a customer buys a product online and when it’s received. Developed by Amit Sharma, formerly of both Walmart and Apple,
this moment is designed to prevent companies from dropping
the ball after an order is placed, keeping customers informed
about the status of their order and making suggestions about
their future use of the product.82
How does this alphabet soup of terminology drive
marketing strategy? For P&G, it became a rallying cry for the
CEO to focus the work of his marketing team on key points in
the consumer journey when the company could win consumers’
business. P&G even established a Director of FMOT to lead
the production of flashier, sharper in-store displays.83 It also
helped drive marketing investment decisions. P&G is the largest
advertiser in the world with a budget of over $11.5 billion in
2021.84 A significant amount of that spend has been focused on
digital advertising, the battleground for ZMOT.
The framework also helps P&G and all marketers understand that the path from stimulus to purchase to brand loyalty is
a journey with many important signposts along the way. Google
now coaches marketers to consider “micro-moments,” those
snippets of time when we turn to our mobile devices. Google
calls them the “I want-to-know moments, I want-to-go moments,
I want-to-do moments, and I want-to-buy moments,” when consumers make quick decisions and when preferences are shaped.85
Researchers Laurent Muzellece and Eamonn
O’Raghallaigh may have the final word with UMOT, or the
ubiquitous moment of truth, suggesting that all of the MOTs
in the journey are important and with mobile technology are
merging into one synchronous moment.86 In today’s “always
on” world, marketers need a strategy for continually reaching
out to consumers with clear and compelling messages that meet
their information needs at each point in the buying process.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
CS 7-1 Focus upon each of the “moments of truth” in turn.
What specific strategies could P&G employ in each
situation to increase the probability of a sale and
repeat business?
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CS 7-2 For a consumer purchasing a new car, which would be
the first, second, and third most important moments
in the process? Explain your prioritization.
CS 7-3 Do frameworks like the MOTs help marketers, or
is this just “consultant-speak?” If you believe the
approach helps, explain how.
NOTES
1. Parthasarathy Krishnamurthy and Sonja Prokopec, “Resisting That TripleChocolate Cake: Mental Budgets and Self-Control,” Journal of Consumer
Research 37 (June 2010): 68–79.
2. John G. Lynch, Richard G. Netemeyer, Stephen A. Spiller, and Alessandra
Zammit, “A Generalizable Scale of Propensity to Plan: The Long and the Short
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Chapter 7 • Deciding
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220
Section 3
• Buying and Having: Choosing and Using Products
81. Shep Hyken, “The New Moment of Truth in Business,” Forbes, April 9,
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Research 58, no. 1 (2018): 12–15.
8
Buying, Using,
and Disposing
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES When you finish reading this chapter, you should be able to:
8-1 Explain the factors that influence consumers’
shopping experience during each phase of the
purchasing process.
8-4 Explain how the climate change crisis requires
us to think differently about buying, using, and
disposing to limit our environmental footprint.
8-2 Describe how the virtualization of shopping
increases our reliance on digital assets.
8-5 Identify the maladaptive consumer behaviors that
can occur in the purchasing and using phases.
8-3 Summarize how the growth of a “sharing
economy” changes the way consumers think
about using and owning.
M
ateo is really psyched. The big day has arrived: He’s going
to buy a car! Although used car prices spiked after Covid,
Mateo figures there’s no guarantee they will come down to
earth anytime soon, so it’s time to get in the game. He’s had his eye on
that silver 2015 Honda Accord parked in the lot of Jon’s Auto-Rama
for weeks now. Although the sticker says $2,999, Mateo figures he can
probably get this baby for a cool $2,000. Besides, Jon’s dilapidated
showroom and seedy lot make it look like just the kind of place that’s
hungry to move some cars. Mateo did his homework on the web. First,
he found out the wholesale value of similar used Accords from the Kelley
Blue Book (kbb.com), and then he scouted out some cars for sale in his
area at cars.com. So, Mateo figures he’s coming in loaded for bear—
he’s going to show these guys they’re not dealing with some newbie.
Unlike some of the newer, flashy car showrooms he’s been in lately, this place is a real
nuts-and-bolts operation; it’s so dingy and depressing he can’t wait to get out of there
and take a shower. Mateo dreads the prospect of haggling over the price, but he hopes
to convince the salesperson to take his offer because he knows the real market value of
the car he wants. At the Auto-Rama lot, big signs on all the cars proclaim that today is
Jon’s Auto-Rama Rip Us Off Day! Things look better than Mateo expected—maybe he
can get the car for even less than he hoped. He’s a bit surprised when a salesperson
comes over to him and introduces herself as Kristen. He expected to deal with a middleaged man in a loud sport coat (a stereotype he has about used-car salespeople), but
this is better luck: He reasons that he won’t have to be so tough if he negotiates with a
woman his age. Kristen laughs when he offers her $1,800 for the Honda; she points out
that she can’t take such a low bid for such a sweet car to her boss, or she’ll lose her job.
Source: Mandy Godbehear/Shutterstock.
221
222
Section 3 • Buying and Having: Choosing and Using Products
Kristen’s enthusiasm for the car convinces Mateo even more that he has to
have it. When he finally writes a check for $2,700, he’s exhausted from all the
haggling. What an ordeal! In any case, Mateo reminds himself that he at least
convinced Kristen to sell him the car for less than the sticker price, and maybe
he can fix it up and sell it for even more in a year or two. Mateo relishes that
thought—his real dream is to take advantage of the tax credit for buying an
electric car like a Nissan Leaf and eventually leave the world of gas-guzzlers
behind for good.
OBJECTIVE 8- 1
Explain the factors
that influence consumers’ shopping
experience during
each phase of the
purchasing process.
The Shopping Experience
Many consumers dread the act of buying a car.
But change is in the wind, as dealers transform
the car showroom. Car shoppers like Mateo log on
to internet buying services, call auto brokers who
negotiate for them, buy cars at warehouse clubs,
and visit giant auto malls where they can easily comparison shop. Indeed,
the average car buyer today visits only 1.6 auto dealerships, as compared
with five just a decade ago. Instead, they spend about 60 percent of their
shopping time online as they research their options.1 In fact, 30 percent
of car purchases in the U.S. now occur entirely online—compared with a
paltry 2 percent before the pandemic.2 Mateo’s experience when he bought
Technological and cultural changes (including
a car illustrates some of the concepts we’ll discuss in this chapter. He did a lot
the pandemic) provide new ways to obtain
of legwork beforehand, and elements of the physical environment where he
familiar products and services, as this auto
bought his Honda influenced his decision. As Mateo’s experience reminds us,
“vending machine” illustrates.
Source: Michael Ventura/Alamy Stock Photo.
making a purchase is often not a simple, routine matter where you just pop into
a store and make a quick choice. Figure 8.1 illustrates the main factors that affect our
shopping experience before, during, and after the purchase occurs.
Shop ’Til You Drop?
We all know some people who shop simply for the sport of it and others whom we must
drag kicking and screaming to a mall. Shopping is how we acquire needed products
and services, but social motives for shopping also are important. Thus, shopping is an
activity that we can perform for either utilitarian (functional or tangible) or hedonic
(pleasurable or intangible) reasons—or both.
PRE-PURCHASE:
PURCHASE:
POST-PURCHASE:
Utilitarian vs. hedonic
shopping orientation
Store atmospherics
Expectancy
disconfirmation
Point of Purchase Stimuli
Salespeople
Dissonance
Figure 8.1 Factors Affecting the Pre-Purchase, Purchase, and
Post-Purchase Experience
Chapter 8 • Buying, Using, and Disposing
223
So, do people hate to shop or love it? Consumers vary in terms of their shopping
orientation, or general attitudes about shopping. These orientations vary depending
on the product categories and store types we consider. One consumer might hate to
shop for a car but love to browse in used vinyl record stores. A shopper’s motivation
influences the type of shopping environment that will be attractive or annoying; for
example, a person who wants to locate and buy something quickly may find loud
music, bright colors, or complex layouts distracting, whereas someone who is there
to browse may enjoy the sensory stimulation.3
A key distinction in shopping motivations is shopping for purpose, which is the
utilitarian function of shopping, versus shopping for fun, which is the hedonic function. One item on a scale that measures hedonic value is the following sentiment:
“During the trip, I felt the excitement of the hunt.” When we compare that type of
sentiment with a functional statement, such as “I accomplished just what I wanted to
on this shopping trip,” there’s a clear contrast between these two dimensions.4
Hedonic shopping motives (sometimes jokingly called “retail therapy”) include
the following:5
• Gratification seeking: Shopping for stress relief, to alleviate a negative mood, or as a special treat to oneself.
• Idea shopping: The desire to keep up with trends and
new fashions, to see new products and innovations.
• Adventure seeking: Seeking stimulation, excitement,
•
•
•
adventure, or the “feeling of being in another world” that
can be triggered by sights, smells, and sounds.
Social shopping: The enjoyment of shopping with
friends and families, socializing and bonding with others
while shopping.
Role play: The pleasure derived from imagining how
friends and relatives will accept a gift.
Value shopping: The thrill of purchasing items on sale
and hunting for bargains and discounts. Buying an item
for a lower price than it costs regularly leads to an increase
in customer satisfaction and happiness.
Brick-and-mortar retailers today have to provide “value-added” to a
physical shopping trip in the form of entertainment or other experiences to compete with the convenience of just ordering stuff online.
Old school shopping environments that don’t provide any stimulation
may find themselves abandoned by bored shoppers.
Source: sirtravelalot/Shutterstock.
Let’s face it: Today most of us never have to visit a “brickand-mortar” store to buy almost anything we want. Instead, we have many paths available
to us—especially if we like to hibernate in our pajamas at home. Some paths offer great
convenience or even significant savings; others stimulate, educate, or even titillate. A
consumer can order a pair of Vince Camuto ankle strap sandals online and wait for the
friendly UPS driver to pull up to their door two days later. Or they can visit a brick-andmortar store where a friendly salesperson will fawn over them. The consumer may even
take a selfie wearing the shoes, send it out to their “peeps,” and get their reactions in real
time before committing to the purchase. In all these scenarios, the shoes get added to the
collection in the consumer’s closet, but the experience of acquiring them is quite different.
A consumer’s physical and social environment affects their shopping experience
and whether and how they might select a particular product. Important cues include
their immediate environment as well as the amount and type of other consumers who
also are shopping at the same time. Dimensions of the physical environment, such
as decor, odors, and even temperature, can significantly influence consumption. One
study even found that if a Las Vegas casino pumped certain odors into the room,
patrons fed more money into the slot machines!6 In this section, we take a closer look
at some of these factors to show how important store design is to consumer behavior.
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Figure 8.2 Design Thinking
Source: Samattana Sawangrak/MAQE Bangkok Co., Ltd. Design Thinking.
As fierce as the competition is among brands for your undying devotion, it’s perhaps
even more heated among retailers that want to lure you to their store or website to
make the transaction. This is one reason that a management perspective called design
thinking is so hot right now. This process (see Figure 8.2) identifies a series of steps
the designer should take to make interacting with a product service, or store as seamless
as possible—beginning with empathy for the customer’s experience. It emphasizes the
importance of creating products, services, and stores that aren’t just pretty. Instead, they
make sense in terms of how customers live their lives and use what they buy.
One offshoot of the design-thinking revolution is the recognition that managers
need to step out of their little boxes and cross over to the consumer’s perspective to
understand their products—and to identify any “pain points” during the shopping
process. For this reason, many marketers are taking a close look at the customer
journey, or the specific series of steps that occur during before, during, and even after
the shopping experience.7
A customer journey methodology encourages brands to map out in excruciating detail all the steps a customer takes while they interact with the company—no
matter where and no matter how trivial. It’s a powerful way to improve the experience. The journey spans a variety of touchpoints by which the customer moves from
awareness to engagement and purchase. Successful brands focus on developing a
seamless experience that ensures each touchpoint interconnects and contributes to
the overall journey.
The consumer journey concept was influenced by the Japanese approach to total
quality management (TQM). To help companies achieve more insight, researchers
go to the gemba, which to the Japanese means “the one true source of information.”8
According to this philosophy, it’s essential to send marketers and designers to the
precise place where consumers use the product or service rather than to ask laboratory
subjects to use the product or service in a simulated environment. (see Figure 8.3)
Retailing As Theater
Disney is revamping its stores to re-imagine the “magic” of the customer experience.
It’s not just about 50 varieties of mouse ears; they carry curated collections by Coach,
David Lerner, and Ethan Allen furniture. The stores now offer interactive experiences
as well, so shoppers can battle Darth Vader on a big screen and even purchase cotton
Chapter 8 • Buying, Using, and Disposing
The Gemba –
Leave dirty tray
on table.
Put bags
down.
Trash
7
Ooops... Not supposed
to use the trash can.
6
Cashier
Beverages
Need
Silverware!
5
1
4
Enter
225
Can’t see bags!
Go get them.
Food
3
2
Trays
Silver
Figure 8.3 Going to the Gemba
Source: © Quality Function Deployment Institute.
Host Foods, which operates food concessions in major airports, sent a team to the
gemba—in this case, an airport cafeteria—to identify problem areas. Employees watched
as customers entered the facility, and then they followed the customers as
they inspected the menu, procured silverware, paid, and found a table. For
example, the team identified a common problem that many people traveling
solo experience: the need to put down your luggage to enter the food line
and the feeling of panic you get because you’re not able to keep an eye on
your valuables when you get your meal. This simple insight allowed Host to
modify the design of its facilities to improve a patron’s line-of-sight between
the food area and the tables.9
candy and the iconic mouse ears from carts that are the same as those
they’ll see in Disneyland and Disney World. They can watch live
streams from the actual theme parks and celebrate birthdays and other
events while they shop.10
Disney knows it’s all about theater. The competition for customers
becomes even more intense as nonstore alternatives, from websites and
print catalogs to TV shopping networks and home shopping parties,
continue to multiply. With all these shopping alternatives available,
how can a traditional store compete? Many malls are giant entertainment centers, almost to the point that their traditional retail occupants
seem like an afterthought. Today, it’s commonplace to find carousels,
miniature golf, skating rinks, or batting cages in a suburban mall.
The quest to entertain means that many stores go all out to create
imaginative environments that transport shoppers to fantasy worlds
or provide other kinds of stimulation. We call this strategy retail
theming. Innovative merchants today use four basic kinds of theming
techniques:
1. Landscape themes rely on associations with images of nature,
Earth, animals, and the physical body. Bass Pro Shops, for example, creates a simulated outdoor environment, including pools
stocked with fish.
Hershey runs a make-believe factory smack in the
middle of Times Square. It features four steam
machines and 380 feet of neon lighting, plus a moving
message board that lets visiting chocoholics program
messages to surprise their loved ones.11
Source: Gordon Bell/Shutterstock.
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Buying, Having, Being
Welcome to Your Being
Space
One popular theming strategy is to
convert a store into a being space.
This kind of environment resembles
a sort of commercial living room,
where we can go to relax, be
entertained, hang out with friends,
escape the everyday, or even learn.
When you think of being spaces,
Starbucks probably comes to mind.
The coffee chain’s stated goal is to
become our “third place” where we
spend the bulk of our time, in addition to home and work. Starbucks
led the way when it outfitted its
stores with comfy chairs and Wi-Fi.
Reflecting the ever-quickening
pace of our culture, many of
these being spaces come and
go rapidly—on purpose. Pop-up
stores appear in many forms
around the world. Typically, these
are temporary installations that do
business for only a few days or
weeks and then disappear before
they get old. For example, the
Swatch Instant Store sells limitededition watches in a major city
until the masses discover it; then
it closes and moves on to another
“cool” locale. The Dutch beer brand
Dommelsch organized pop-up
concerts: Fans entered barcodes
they found on cans, beer bottles,
and coasters on the brewer’s
website to discover dates and
locations. You may even run into
a pop-up store on your campus;
several brands, including the Brazilian
flip-flop maker Havaianas, Victoria’s
Secret’s Pink, and sustainableclothing brand RVL7, run pop-up
projects around the United States.13
2. Marketscape themes build on associations with manufactured places. An example
is The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas, which lavishly recreates parts of the real
Italian city.
3. Cyberspace themes build on images of information and communications
technology. eBay’s retail interface instills a sense of community among its
vendors and traders.
4. Mindscape themes draw on abstract ideas and concepts, introspection, and fantasy,
and often possess spiritual overtones. The Kiva Day Spa in downtown Chicago
offers health treatments based on a theme of American Indian healing ceremonies
and religious practices.12
These design features typically work together to create an overall impression.
When we think about stores, we don’t usually say, “Well, that place is fairly good in
terms of convenience, the salespeople are acceptable, and services are good.” We’re
more likely to proclaim, “That place gives me the creeps,” or “It’s so much fun to shop
there.” We quickly get an overall impression of a store, and the feeling we get may
have more to do with intangibles, such as interior design and the types of people we
find in the aisles, than with the store’s return policies or credit availability.
Store Atmospherics
Retailers want you to come in—and stay. Careful store design increases the amount
of space the shopper covers, and stimulating displays keep them in the aisles longer.
This “curb appeal” translates directly to the bottom line: Researchers tracked grocery
shopper’s movements by plotting the position of their cell phones as they moved
about a store. They found that when people lingered just 1 percent longer, sales rose
by 1.3 percent.
Of course, grocers know a lot of tricks after years of observing shoppers. For
example, they call the area just inside a supermarket’s entrance the “decompression
zone”: People tend to slow down and take stock of their surroundings when they enter
the store, so store designers use this space to promote bargains rather than to sell.
Similarly, Walmart’s “greeters” help customers to settle into their shopping experience. Once they get a serious start, the first thing shoppers encounter is the produce
section. Fruits and vegetables can easily be damaged, so it would be more logical
to buy these items at the end of a shopping trip. But fresh, wholesome food makes
people feel good (and righteous) so they’re less guilty when they throw the chips and
cookies in the cart later.14
Context effects (what’s going on in the person’s physical environment) can
strongly influence our perceptions—even if we’re not necessarily aware of these factors. In one study, researchers asked shoppers how much pleasure they felt five minutes after they entered a store. Sure enough, those who enjoyed their experience spent
more time and money.15
Because marketers recognize that a store’s physical design is an important part
of the retailing mix, store designers pay a lot of attention to atmospherics, the
“conscious designing of space and its various dimensions to evoke certain effects
in buyers.”16 These dimensions include colors, scents, and sounds. For example,
stores with red interiors tend to make people tense, whereas a blue decor imparts a
calmer feeling.17
In addition to visual stimuli, all sorts of sensory cues influence us in retail
settings.18 For example, patrons of country-and-western bars drink more when the
jukebox music is slower. According to a researcher, “Hard drinkers prefer listening
to slower-paced, wailing, lonesome, self-pitying music.”19 Another study found that
Chapter 8 • Buying, Using, and Disposing
227
diners who listened to loud, fast music ate more food. In
contrast, those who listened to Mozart or Brahms ate less
and more slowly. The researchers concluded that diners who
choose soothing music at mealtimes can increase weight loss
by at least five pounds a month!20
In-Store Decision Making
Despite all their efforts to “pre-sell” consumers through
advertising, marketers increasingly recognize that the store
environment exerts a strong influence on many purchases.
When a shopper suddenly decides to buy something in
the store, one of two different processes explains why:
1. They engage in unplanned buying when they are
unfamiliar with a store’s layout or they are under time
pressure. Or, if a person sees an item on a store shelf, this
might be a reminder that they need it. About one-third of
all unplanned buying occurs because a shopper recognizes
a new need while in the store.21
2. They engage in impulse buying when they experience a
sudden, irresistible urge.
Bass Pro Shops use a landscape theme to connect shoppers with
nature.
Source: Stuart Abraham/Alamy Stock Photo.
Retailers typically place so-called impulse items, such
as candy and gum, near the checkout to cater to these urges.
Similarly, many supermarkets install wider aisles to encourage browsing, and the widest tend to feature products with
the highest profit margins. They stack low mark-up items that
shoppers purchase regularly in narrower aisles to allow shopping carts to speed through. Starbucks encourages impulse
purchasing when it charges customers who want to download
songs they hear over the store’s speakers directly onto their
iPhones.23 Each week the Dollar Tree chain designates an
To boost the entertainment value of shopping (and to lure online
impulse item like a pen or candy bar as “drive items” that
shoppers back to brick-and-mortar stores), some retailers create
cashiers push at checkout. As the company’s CEO explained,
activity stores that let consumers participate in the production
“It’s just that one last chance to get another item in their
of the products or services they buy there. The Build-A-Bear
shopping bag.”24
Workshop chain, lets its little customers dress bear bodies in
costumes.22
This in-store influence is even stronger when we shop
Source: Patrick Hatt/Shutterstock.
for food: Analysts estimate that shoppers decide on about two
out of every three supermarket purchases while they walk
through the aisles.25 Research evidence indicates that consumers use mental budgets
for grocery trips that are typically composed of both an itemized portion and in-store
slack. This means they typically decide beforehand on an amount they plan to spend,
but then they have an additional amount in mind (slack) they are willing to spend on
unplanned purchases—if they come across any they really want to have.26 Here are
some “tricks of the trade”:
• Sell sweets at eye level, midway along aisles, where shoppers’ attention lingers
longest.
• Use the ends of aisles to generate big revenues—endcap displays account for
45 percent of soft drink sales.
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The placement of items in a grocery store aisle can impact sales dramatically.
Source: Patti McConville/Alamy Stock Photo.
Buying, Having, Being
How Big is Your Basket?
Almost one in three U.S. households
shops on a budget. How do they
track their in-store spending to
stay within those budgets? A study
of budget shoppers in grocery
stores found that a majority
(57.4 percent) of these shoppers
use mental computation
strategies to keep track of their
spending.27 Yet people use different
strategies to mentally calculate their
basket size. For example, some
round down (or up) for each item
(making them easier to add), while
others try to combine “compatible
prices” (adding together a $1.42
item with a $3.58 item to make $5).
The authors found that the prices of
items in the store can affect which
strategy shoppers use, as can the
motivations of the shopper. The
more budget-motivated shoppers
attempt to add items together as
precisely as possible, without using
any shortcuts. They end up with a
far less accurate estimate of their
basket size than those who are less
motivated (and thus use effective
shortcuts).
• Use freestanding displays toward the rear of the supermarket and on the left side
•
•
•
of aisles. Shoppers tend to move through a store in a counterclockwise direction
and they are more likely to choose items from shelves to their left.
Sprinkle the same product throughout the store, rather than grouping it in one spot
to boost sales through repetitive exposure.
Group ingredients for a meal in one spot.
Post health-related information on kiosks and shelf tags to link groceries to good
health in shoppers’ minds, even though only 23 percent of them say they always
look for nutritional information on labels.28
POP Goes the Retailer: Point-of-Purchase Stimuli
Well-designed in-store displays boost impulse purchases by as much as 10 percent.
That explains why U.S. companies spend about $19 billion each year on point-ofpurchase (POP) stimuli.29 A POP can be an elaborate product display or demonstration, a coupon-dispensing machine, or an employee who gives out free samples of a
new cookie in the grocery aisle.
The importance of POP in shopper decision making explains why product packages increasingly play a key role in the marketing mix as they evolve from the functional to the fantastic:
• In the past 100 years, Pepsi changed the look of its can, and before that its bottles,
•
•
only 10 times. Now the company switches designs every few weeks. It’s also testing cans that spray an aroma when you open one to match the flavor of the drink,
such as a wild cherry scent misting from a Wild Cherry Pepsi can.
Coors Light bottles sport labels that turn blue when the beer is chilled to the right
temperature.
Huggies’ Henry the Hippo hand soap bottles have a light that flashes for 20 seconds to show children how long they should wash their hands.
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229
The Salesperson: A Lead Role in the Play
The salesperson is one of the most important players in the retailing
drama.30 As we saw way back in Chapter 1, exchange theory stresses
that every interaction involves a trade of value. Each participant
gives something to the other and hopes to receive something in
return.31 A (competent) salesperson offers a lot of value because
their expert advice makes the shopper’s choice easier.
A buyer–seller situation is like many other dyadic encounters
(two-person groups); it’s a relationship in which both parties must
reach some agreement about the roles of each participant during a
process of identity negotiation.32 Some of the factors that help to
define a salesperson’s role (and effectiveness) are their age, appearance, educational level, and motivation to sell.33
More effective salespersons usually know their customers’ traits
and preferences better than do ineffective salespersons, and they
adapt their approach to meet the needs of each specific customer.34
The ability to be adaptable is especially vital when customers and
salespeople have different interaction styles.35 We each vary in the
degree of assertiveness we bring to interactions. At one extreme,
nonassertive people believe it’s not socially acceptable to complain,
and sales situations may intimidate them. Assertive people are more
likely to stand up for themselves in a firm but nonthreatening way.
Aggressives may resort to rudeness and threats if they don’t get their
way (we’ve all run into these folks).36
Impulse buys often are triggered by environmental cues.
Source: impulse-buyer-cartoon, Chris Madden Cartoons.
Are You Satisfied?
Our overall reactions to a product after we’ve bought it—what researchers call
consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction (CSD)—obviously play a big role in our
future behavior. It’s a lot easier to sell something once than to sell it again if it bombed
the first time. We evaluate the things we buy as we use them and integrate them into
our daily consumption activities.40
What exactly do consumers look for in products? That’s easy: They want quality
and value!41 However, these terms have slippery meanings that are hard for us to
pin down. We infer quality when we rely on cues as diverse as brand name, price,
product warranties, and even our estimate of how much money a company invests in
its advertising.42
Satisfaction is more than a reaction to how well a product or service performs.
According to the expectancy disconfirmation model, we form beliefs about product
performance based on our prior experience with the product or communications about
the product that imply a certain level of quality.43 When something performs the
way we thought it would, we may not think much about it. If it fails to live up to our
expectations, this may create negative feelings. However, if performance happens to
exceed our expectations, we’re happy campers.
This perspective underscores how important it is to manage expectations.
We often trace a customer’s dissatisfaction to their erroneous expectations of the
company’s ability to deliver a product or service. No company is perfect. It’s just not
realistic to think that everything will always turn out perfectly (although some firms
don’t even come close!). For a while the hotel chain Holiday Inn adopted the slogan
“No surprises” to assure guests of flawless service. Inevitably, there were surprises
(no operator to answer the phone, an unmade bed) and the company had to drop its
promise of perfection.
Buying, Having, Being
Waiting on a Line, Not Online
The psychological dimension of
time—how we experience it—is
an important factor in queuing
theory, the mathematical study of
waiting lines. As we all know, our
experience when we wait has a big
effect on our evaluations of what we
get at the end of the wait. Although
we assume that something must be
pretty good if we must wait for it,
the negative feelings that long waits
arouse can quickly turn people off.37
On the other hand, recent research
shows that consumers tend to buy
more if they must wait longer in
line. Apparently, they reason that a
bigger purchase compensates for
the extra time they had to spend
waiting.38 And, we know that
waiting seems even longer when we
don’t know how long the wait will
be. Audi recently launched a service
that displays the “time to green” on
the car’s dashboard to tell a driver
when a red light will change!39
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Section 3 • Buying and Having: Choosing and Using Products
Buying, Having, Being
Example of a Design Thinking Success
Love the Shirt – But Is It
Contaminated?
Shopping in the real world
inevitably brings us into contact
with other people, consumers,
and salespeople. Even before
the COVID-19 pandemic made
us more conscious and cautious
about what we touch, researchers
documented a phenomenon called
contamination. Here is the gist
of the phenomenon: when we
see someone touch a product, or
even get close to a product, that
closeness spreads to the product
and the product feels “dirty.” Certain
physical cues—like a product that
is out of place or that has a slightly
ripped label—can prime the notion
that other shoppers have been
through this aisle and touched
that product. And because of this
contamination, consumers are less
likely to buy that product.
Even the way a product is made
can make us more likely to find
it dirty and want to clean it. One
study found that when we believe
a product is a counterfeit, we are
more likely to disinfect it before we
use or touch it. We may even avoid
touching or using it because it triggers moral disgust.44 This term
describes how people react to what
they view as unethical or socially
unacceptable, a feeling that can literally make some people experience
physical symptoms, like nausea.45
Note: Contamination works both ways—some
rabid sports fans are willing to pay huge sums
for parts of a uniform that a favorite athlete
wore in a game (even used, sweaty socks!).
In 2020, a fan set a record when they bought
a jersey that quarterback Tom Brady wore in a
Tampa Bay Buccaneers football game—for the
modest sum of $480,000.46
Figure 8.4 Design Thinking Influences Customer Satisfaction
The design-thinking perspective can boost customer satisfaction with product usage simply
by tweaking product elements. In this case, a traditional hot sauce bottle gets a makeover to
make it easier to pour.
Dissonance
Dissonance theory can help to explain why evaluations of a product tend to increase
after we buy the product. The cognitive element, “I made a stupid decision,” is dissonant with the element, “I am not a stupid person,” so we tend to find even more reasons
to like something after it becomes ours. A classic study at a horse race demonstrated
this post-purchase dissonance. Bettors evaluated their chosen horse more highly and
were more confident of its success after they placed a bet than before. Because the bettor financially commits to the choice, they reduce dissonance by elevating the attractiveness of the chosen alternative relative to the ones not chosen. One implication of
this phenomenon is that consumers actively seek support for their decisions so they
can justify them; therefore, marketers should supply their customers with additional
reinforcement after they purchase to bolster these decisions.
OBJECTIVE 8- 2
Describe how the
virtualization of
shopping increases
our reliance on
digital assets.
E-Commerce and the
Digital World
Today, and especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
a lot of our shopping experiences have moved online.
Indeed, with global e-commerce sales pegged at about
$5.5 trillion per year, about three-quarters of all transactions occur this way—and
the proportion continues to climb post-COVID.47 Note that buying online certainly
doesn’t promise a better experience—after all, industry analysts estimate a cart
abandonment rate of about 70 percent; 7 out of 10 online purchases just don’t
happen, as shoppers get frustrated by hard-to-navigate sites, slow load times, and
changing prices!48
Chapter 8 • Buying, Using, and Disposing
From Bricks to Clicks
As more and more websites pop up to sell everything from refrigerator magnets to
Mack trucks, marketers continue to debate how the online world affects their business.
Many lose sleep as they wonder whether e-commerce will replace traditional retailing,
work in concert with it, or perhaps even fade away to become another fad your kids
will laugh about someday (okay, that’s not real likely). Still, the rising availability of
comparison-shopping phone apps does threaten the existence of many retailers as
consumers engage in what they call showrooming. This means that a shopper visits
a store like Best Buy to explore options for big-ticket items like TVs or appliances,
and then they find a cheaper price for the specific model online.
Shopping Apps and In-Store Tech
The global app economy exceeded $7 trillion in 2021.49 More than one-third of U.S.
shoppers have downloaded at least one food or beverage app. Already, Americans
spend about 2 hours and 15 minutes per day (yes, day) on apps, which adds up to more
than a month per year!50 Mobile shopping apps on smartphones provide imaginative
new ways for retailers to guide shoppers through the experience, as they do everything
for you: locate merchandise, identify the nearest restroom in a mall, or scout out sales.
Some help you remember where you parked your car; others provide reward points
when you visit certain stores.
In one twist, a recent study found that consumers chose relatively fewer food
“vices” when they purchased online rather than in the store. Apparently, this is because
the digital format shows only symbolic versions of products (e.g., a package photo),
while brick-and-mortar stores allow people to see and touch the physical products. The
more symbolic presentation mode decreases the products’ vividness, which in turn
diminishes consumers’ desire to seek instant gratification and ultimately leads them
to purchase fewer vices.51
The apps also promise to provide a solution to the major hassles that drive
consumers away from brick-and-mortar stores, especially long checkout times and
incompetent sales associates. One survey reported that nearly 3 in 10 store visits
ended with an average of $132 unspent because shoppers gave up in frustration. The
study also found that more than 40 percent of shoppers who received guidance from
a retail associate armed with a handheld mobile computer reported an improved
shopping experience. To rub salt into the wound, more than half of store employees
agreed that because use of online shopping tools is escalating, their customers are
more knowledgeable about their products than the salespeople are!52 Note: Don’t
confuse the efficiency of shopping apps with the time shoppers spend on their
phones while they shop! A study found that when consumers spend more time
talking, texting, or browsing while in a store, they spend longer in the store and
these distractions lead to more purchases!53
In addition, major retailers like Macy’s and Target deploy beacons in their stores.
These devices communicate with smartphone apps indoors through a Bluetooth signal.
They can share a coupon with a shopper’s phone as they browse in the aisles or reward
consumers with points even for just entering the store.
And, the augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) platforms we’ve already
discussed promise to turn the shopping experience into an interactive playground.
AR apps allow the shopper to access additional information from product packages.
For example, a woman who buys a Maybelline cosmetic product could hold her
phone over the box to bring up a model who shares tips about how to apply makeup.
Headsets like the Oculus Rift can provide a totally immersive experience as shoppers
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How beacon technology works
Retailers strategically
place beacons around
their stores.
The beacons connect to
a customer’s Bluetooth-enabled
smartphone app.
It sends a signal to
the phone and the
app is opened.
The retailer can communicate
with shoppers in real time
as they navigate the store.
Figure 8.5 Beacon Technology
can browse a three-dimensional “store” just by putting one on. Schick launched a
VR roller-coaster ride along a yellow lubrication strip, which weaves around a man
shaving before diving into his bristles to showcase the new product’s ability to give a
smooth, close shave.54 The future is here!
Digital Currencies
Is cash obsolete? In the past few years, we’ve seen a firestorm of activity to promote
various kinds of virtual currency and encourage consumers to switch from cash and
credit cards to digital wallets, which are electronic devices that allow an individual
to make e-commerce transactions. A lot of this activity is propelled by the spread of
near-field communication (NFC) technology that allows devices near to one another
(like a smartphone and an NFC terminal in a store) to establish radio communication.
In addition, P2P (peer-to-peer) payment systems, such as Google Pay Send, PayPal,
and Venmo, empower ordinary citizens to transact business with one another. This is
a corner of the sharing economy that allows consumers to give and receive payments
for products and services such as one-of-a kind jewelry on Etsy or rides home from
the bar via Uber.
The Bitcoin system uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central
authority or banks; it’s the most prominent form of cryptocurrency that relies
upon a revolutionary encryption technique called the blockchain rather than banks
to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds. A
blockchain ensures that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin aren’t saved in a file that can
be hacked; it’s like a global spreadsheet that uses a large and spread-out network to
verify transactions.
The blockchain is not a trivial feature—it means that the data are transparent to
the public but also that there is no single institution responsible for keeping financial
records. Because the information is distributed across the internet, a single company,
bank, or even government has no control over what goes on. Every 10 minutes, the
Chapter 8 • Buying, Using, and Disposing
233
system verifies and stores transactions in a block that is linked to the preceding block, which creates a chain. Each block must refer to the preceding
block to be valid.
This structure permanently timestamps and stores exchanges of value,
which prevents anyone from altering the ledger. Like the World Wide Web
of information, it’s the World Wide Ledger of value—a distributed ledger
that everyone can download and run on their personal computer. Some big
companies, including Dell, Expedia, PayPal, and Microsoft, already work
with partners to process bitcoin payments.55
Online Commerce: Raising the Bar
For marketers, the growth of online commerce is a sword that cuts both ways.
On the one hand, they reach customers around the world even if they’re
physically located 100 miles from nowhere. On the other hand, they now
compete not only with the store across the street but also with thousands of
websites that span the globe. Also, when consumers obtain products directly
from the manufacturer or wholesaler, this eliminates the intermediary—the
loyal, store-based retailers that carry the firm’s products and sell them at a
marked-up price.56 In addition, as we discussed in Chapter 2, there are huge
issues relating to data security and privacy yet to be resolved.
So, what makes e-commerce sites successful? Some e-tailers take
advantage of technology to provide extra value to their customers that their
land-locked rivals can’t. Warby Parker allows buyers to virtually try on
sunglasses in real time. They can adjust the fit and choose different styles,
frames, lenses, and colors to find the perfect look.57 Other fashion sites,
such as Net-a-Porter and Gilt Groupe, directly connect buyers and sellers so
that designers can be nimbler and react quickly to changing consumer tastes.
Indeed, the high-fashion site Moda Operandi bills itself as a pretailer; it
provides exclusive styles by prodding manufacturers to produce runway
pieces they wouldn’t otherwise make because store buyers weren’t sure
anyone would pay the money for them.58
More generally, online shoppers value these aspects of a website:
• The ability to click an item to create a pop-up window with more
•
•
•
•
details about the product, including price, size, colors, and inventory
availability.
The ability to click an item and add it to your cart without leaving the
page you’re on.
The ability to “feel” merchandise through better imagery, more product
descriptions, and details.
The ability to enter all data related to your purchase on one page, rather
than going through several checkout pages.
The ability to mix and match product images on one page to determine
whether they look good together.62
The marketing world is abuzz about the potential
of NFTs (non-fungible tokens). A good or
commodity is fungible if its individual units are
interchangeable and indistinguishable (like when
you get change for a $20 bill). In contrast, an
NFT is a digital certificate of ownership for a
one-of-a-kind cryptographic asset that cannot
be interchanged with another item. NFTs are
kept in a blockchain, which is a digital ledger
that tracks who sells or receives the item. This
emerging technology allows consumers to own
and trade digital assets like photos, videos, and
digital artwork just as they do with physical ones.
If you buy an NFT, the ownership information gets
distributed across the entire network, so anyone
with access to the blockchain can see it. However,
only the owner can access the NFT with their
unique cryptographic key.59 Although NFTs are still
in their early days, some investors are jumping into
this new digital domain big time—one NFT artwork
sold for $91.8 million!60 The world’s first digital-only
dress (shown above) on the blockchain sold for
“only” $9,500.61
Source: THE FABRICANT.
Liquid Consumption
We usually think about consumption as “solid”—we “own” something we bought
until we choose not to, and the item is a tangible asset we can see, touch, or taste.
But in today’s changing market that often values speed, flexibility, and convenience,
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Sephora offers cosmetics shoppers the
opportunity to “try on” beauty products
virtually.
Source: Perch.
consumption tends to be more liquid. No, that doesn’t mean we’re ordering craft beers
online! Researchers define liquid consumption in terms of three core attributes:
1. Ephemeral – People can have a liquid relationship to products and brands, in which
they value those objects only in certain contexts and for limited lengths of time.
2. Access-based – Liquid products are “accessed” rather than owned outright. This
allows consumers to seek more variety and temporarily consume products that
they normally could not own.
3. Dematerialized – Liquid products use fewer or no materials in order to deliver
their desired functionality. Examples include digital goods and services, like cloud
services.
If your data is “in the cloud,” you’re
engaging in liquid consumption
(no, not drinking at a bar).
Source: Zoonar GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo.
Chapter 8 •
OBJECTIVE 8- 3
Summarize how
the growth of a
“sharing economy”
changes the way
consumers think
about using and
owning.
Buying, Using, and Disposing
235
New Ways to Have and Use:
Ownership and the Sharing
Economy
A funny thing is happening when people buy products:
They no longer buy them. Instead, we’re witnessing the
rise of the sharing economy, or what is sometimes called
collaborative consumption. This is a new economic model that leverages peer-topeer (P2P) or shared access to goods and services, facilitated by online communitybased platforms. In the sharing economy, model people rent or borrow what they
need rather than buying it. Collaborative consumption communities typically offer a
website that allows individuals to list their services and a ratings system that allows
both buyers and sellers to rate their experiences.
Folks, this movement is huge: The accounting firm PwC estimates that revenues
linked to the sharing economy could reach $335 billion by 2025, as people worldwide pay for the privilege of riding in other people’s cars, staying in their homes,
using their power tools, and performing other tasks that used to be delivered only by
professionals.63
Need to use a car? Go to Zipcar and rent one by the hour. How about a camera,
a power drill, or a blender? Go to SnapGoods and rent one of those too. Park your
pet with a dog sitter rather than an impersonal kennel at Dog Vacay. You can even get
a low interest loan from other individuals at Lending Club. The sharing economy is
revolutionizing industries including taxis (Uber and Lyft), hospitality (Airbnb), used
books (Bookmooch), and even errand running (TaskRabbit).64
What is fueling this revolution? It’s primarily due to the technology that
dramatically lowers transaction costs so that it’s much easier to share assets and
track them across large numbers of people. Online payment systems make it easy to
exchange money. Social networks create communities and build trust among strangers
who can access each other’s histories. Sellers can make money from assets they don’t
use much; think about how many hours a typical
owner uses an electric drill compared to how much
it costs to buy one. Many of us use our cars only
a few hours per week, but we still pay a monthly
loan, maintenance, parking fees, and so on; car
owners who use RelayRides to rent their vehicles
on average make $250 a month and some make more
than $1,000.
However, it’s not just ease of use that explains
the rise of the sharing economy. We also can point
to a change in attitudes toward ownership and preferences for liquid consumption, especially among
younger consumers. A global survey that talked to
more than 10,000 respondents reported that onethird of millennials already belong to a sharing service or expect to join one soon.
Many people believe overconsumption is putting our planet at risk, and half say they could hapAs a major player in the sharing economy, Zipcar is changing how many
pily live without most of the items they own. This
urban dwellers think about transportation.
is consistent with discussions we’ve had in prior
Source: Islemount Images/Alamy Stock Photo.
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Section 3 • Buying and Having: Choosing and Using Products
chapters about the weak relationship researchers find between owning more “stuff”
and happiness.65 In addition, many people appreciate the intimacy of exchanging
items with “real people” rather than getting them from big companies. Many seem
more than willing to do things with total strangers our mothers used to warn us against:
They stay in their homes, get in their cars, and even wear their clothes.66 That’s one
reason the notion of doing business with other consumers rather than with companies
goes by the name P2P (peer-to-peer) commerce.
P2P commerce increases the range of options for consumers. For instance,
Airbnb’s entry into the Texas market has reduced the overall income generated by
traditional hotels. Lower-end hotels, and those not catering to business travelers, have
been the most heavily impacted. A lot of this lost revenue comes from major events
(e.g., SXSW) that typically see hotel prices skyrocket because of short supply. Yet
these surges are less pronounced in cities after Airbnb enters the market. Researchers
argue that the key in the growth of P2P options like Airbnb’s services is their greater
flexibility over traditional options.67
The Thrill of Thrifting
From secondhand clothing to refurbished electronics, the secondary market,
places, or online platforms where people sell used goods, is growing exponentially.68
Consumers turn to the secondary market to find cheaper products than brand-new ones
in the primary market. Indeed, a refurbished iPhone can cost a fraction of a new one.
Thrifting—where people replace some of their purchases of brand-new products with
items they find in these venues—is a popular activity for many.
Also, environmentally savvy consumers turn to the secondary market to ensure
that goods continue to get good use instead of being discarded. The secondary market
is an essential component of the reduce-reuse-recycle-refurbish cycle of the circular
economy we discussed in Chapter 2. In addition, many people find that thrifting is a
fun and exciting form of shopping. A key indicator of the popularity of thrifting is the
rise of social media fashion influencers not only demonstrating their talents in thrifting
but also communicating the importance of making sustainable consumption choices,
a topic we turn to next.69
OBJECTIVE 8- 4
Explain how the
climate change crisis
requires us to think
differently about
buying, using, and
disposing to limit
our environmental
footprint.
The Climate Crisis
Product Disposal
Green issues don’t end at the cash register. There is also the
matter of what we do with our things when we’re done with
them. Today more than ever, product disposal, or how we
get rid of a product once we’re done with it, is an important
element of consumer behavior.
Because we form strong attachments to some products,
it can be painful to get rid of them. Our possessions anchor our identities; our past lives
on in our things.70 Some Japanese people ritually “retire” worn-out sewing needles,
chopsticks, and even computer chips when they burn them in a ceremony to thank
them for years of good service.71
And here in the United States, recent research shows that when an everyday
product—even something as mundane as cups or aluminum cans—is linked to a
consumer’s identity, it is less likely to be trashed and more likely to be recycled.
For example, a person who is a big Coca-Cola fan is more likely to recycle a Coke
can than a Pepsi can.72 The reason is that trashing a product that is linked to the self
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237
is perceived as a threat to our identity because it is symbolically
like trashing a part of the self. Research shows that even a simple
gesture like putting a person’s name on a paper cup makes it
more likely to get recycled rather than buried in a garbage can!73
We all must get rid of our “stuff” at some point. Indeed,
we may well acquire a new product even though the old one
still works—that’s one of the hallmarks of our materialistic
society. Some reasons to replace an item include a desire
for new features, a change in the individual’s environment
(e.g., a refrigerator is the wrong color for a freshly painted
kitchen), or a change in the person’s role or self-image.74
The Crisis of Food Waste
While millions of people suffer from food insecurity, many
These watches are made from recycled Nespresso coffeemaker
millions of pounds of food are avoidably wasted (i.e., thrown
cartridges.
away) every year. Food waste can occur across the production
Source: Courtesy of Blancier Handmade Watches.
and distribution of food, but consumers also play an important
role in the process. Some of the researchers in the Transformative Consumer Research
(TCR) movement we discussed in Chapter 2 refer to the “squander sequence” as the
waste that occurs from how consumers use or misuse food products at the preacquisition/
purchasing, acquisition, consumption, and disposition stages.75 Table 8.1 identifies
possible problems and solutions during this process.
Recycling and the Underground Economy
How do people decide whether to discard products or recycle them?
Because we discard two billion tons of trash per year (and more in the
United States than any other country), this is an important question.
People are more likely to throw away (rather than recycle) products that are
“defective” in some way because they view such products as less useful or
valuable—even though these products still function the same as “prettier”
options.76 Millions of pounds of “ugly fruit” and other imperfect food products wind
up in the trash for this reason. In fact, American consumers throw ­away half of
all produce due to aesthetic standards—that’s 60 million tons of perfectly edible
fruits and vegetables that wind up in the trash.77 In addition, Americans discard
38 percent of the bread and grain products they purchase, and they pour
20 percent of their milk down the sink. To make matters worse, food waste winds
up in landfills where it decomposes and emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Source: Kellog Garden Products.
In the week after Christmas alone, American
consumers return almost 10 percent of the gifts
they bought online. The Postal Service even
labels January 5 National Returns Day. Returns
generate over four billion pounds of landfill waste
each year. That’s because, believe it or not, it’s
more economical for many returns to get trashed
instead of being returned to store inventories.78
Source: Zavalnyuk Sergey/123RF.
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TABLE 8.1 Some Factors That Relate to Food Waste
Preacquisition/purchasing:
Product damage during handling—dented cans, etc., that repel customers
Inaccurate expiration dates
Oversized/unnecessary packaging
Consumer acquisition:
Susceptibility to promotions for unneeded items / impulse buying
Limited nutritional knowledge
Individualistic values
Consumption:
Desire for variety
Serveware (e.g., unnecessarily large servings due to bigger plates)
Overcooking (e.g., “good mother” identity)
Disposition:
Household norms and habits (e.g., smaller households waste more food)
Food conservation malpractice (e.g., “freezer burn”)
Ability to repurpose uneaten food (e.g., leftovers for pets)
Source: Adapted from Lauren G. Block et al., “The Squander Sequence: Understanding Food Waste at Each Stage of
the Consumer Decision-Making Process,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 35, no. 2 (2016): 292–304.
One study reported that the perceived effort involved in recycling was the best
predictor of whether people would go to the trouble. This pragmatic dimension
outweighed general attitudes toward recycling and the environment in predicting
one’s intention to recycle.79
During lateral cycling, one consumer exchanges something they own for
something the other person owns. Reusing other people’s things is especially important
in our throwaway society because, as one researcher put it, “there is no longer an
‘away’ to throw things to.”80 Although traditional marketers don’t pay much attention
to used-product sellers, factors such as concern about the environment, demands for
quality, and cost and fashion consciousness make these “secondary” markets more
important.81
Patagonia sponsors a Common Threads Recycling Program.
Source: Used with permission from Patagonia.
The underground economy in the form of flea markets and other
used-product sales formats is a significant component of the
overall consumer marketplace.
Source: Simon leigh/Alamy Stock Photo.
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239
The underground economy describes any economic
activity that is not reported to government authorities and
therefore is not taxed. In fact, economic estimates of this
underground economy range from 3 to 30 percent of
the gross national product of the United States and up to
70 percent of the gross domestic product of other countries.
By one estimate, the value of the underground economy in
the U.S. alone in 2021 was more than $2.5 trillion.82 There are
more than 3,500 flea markets—including at least a dozen huge
operations, such as the 60-acre Orange County Marketplace
in California—that operate nationwide to produce upward of
$10 billion in gross sales.83
OBJECTIVE 8- 5
Identify the
maladaptive
consumer behaviors
that can occur in
the purchasing and
using phases.
The Dark Side of
Buying and Using
The new trend of recommerce (a play on the term e-commerce)
shows that many consumers want to squeeze more value out
of their possessions by selling or trading them.84 This focus has
given birth to the swishing movement, where people organize
parties to exchange clothing or other personal possessions with
others.85
As fun and exciting as shopping
and buying can be, there may also
Source: View Apart/Shutterstock.
be some undesirable consequences.
Maladaptive consumption refers
to substance-related addictions, like alcohol, tobacco, or opioids, as well as behavioral problems like gambling, overeating, or overusing technology or social media.
This dark side of consumer behavior is problematic from a health standpoint, as these
behaviors are mentally and physically hurtful. It is also problematic from an economic
standpoint, as these behaviors are financially costly, and from a social standpoint, as
they can hurt your relationships with others.86
For example, drug and alcohol abuse is soaring in the U.S., where researchers
estimate that almost 21 million Americans are addicted to at least one substance.87 But
even that huge problem is in a sense just the tip of the iceberg because people can be
addicted to other products and behaviors as well. Some people even become overly
dependent on everyday products like ChapStick!88 Let’s take a closer look at other forms
of addiction that relate to consumer behavior.
Addictive and Compulsive Behavior
Some consumers take the expression “born to shop” quite literally. They shop because
they are compelled to do so rather than because shopping is a pleasurable or functional task. Compulsive shopping refers to repetitive and often excessive shopping
performed as an antidote to tension, anxiety, depression, or boredom.89
“Shopaholics” turn to shopping much the way addicted people turn to drugs or
alcohol.90 One man diagnosed with compulsive shopping disorder (CSD) bought more
than 2,000 wrenches and never used any of them. Some researchers argue that compulsive shopping may be related to low self-esteem. It affects an estimated 2 to 16 percent
of the adult U.S. population.91 In some cases, the consumer has little or no control
over their consumption, much like a drug addict. Even the act of shopping itself is an
addicting experience for some people. Three common elements characterize many
negative or destructive consumer behaviors:92
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.
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Gambling
Gambling is an example of a consumption addiction that touches every segment of
consumer society. Whether it takes the form of casino gambling, playing the “slots,”
betting on sports events with friends or through a bookie, or even buying lottery
tickets, excessive gambling can be destructive. Taken to extremes, gambling can result
in lowered self-esteem, debt, divorce, and neglected children.
According to one psychologist, gamblers exhibit a classic addictive cycle: They
experience a “high” while in action and depression when they stop gambling, which
leads them back to the thrill of the action. Unlike drug addicts, however, money is
the substance that hard-core gamblers abuse. We can probably expect the problem to
grow as the movement to legalize online gambling in some U.S. states picks up steam
(it’s already is legal in six states).93 The industry estimates that revenues from online
gambling will exceed $100 billion by 2026.94
Researchers interviewed 30 gamblers to compare the experiences of online versus
offline gambling. They found sharp contrasts: Those who enjoy casino gambling have
a strong sense of connection to fellow gamblers, so it’s very much a social experience.
Online gamblers, on the other hand, enjoy the anonymity of the internet. Casino
gamblers get turned on by the sensual experiences and excitement of the casino,
whereas online gamblers gravitate more to the feeling of safety and control they get
because they stay at home. Casino gamblers talked about the friendly atmosphere,
whereas those who stayed online reported behaviors that a real casino wouldn’t
tolerate, such as taunts and bullying.95
Hoarding
Just as it may be hard for some people to resist the urge to shop, it can be difficult
for others to part with the stuff they own. Hoarding is the acquisition of possessions
without disposing of them. A recent study based on in-depth interviews with seven
Canadian hoarders and a detailed analysis of the documentary TV series Hoarding:
Buried Alive revealed what people experience when they hoard:96
1. When buying – Hoarders describe new purchases as both pleasurable and painful
but seem not to consider the amount of time it often takes to acquire new products.
2. When using – Hoarders develop strong attachments to products, view them in
terms of their potential value, and have rules for how the objects should be handled.
Yet they also report feeling embarrassed and helpless in the face of their condition.
3. When disposing – When they do dispose of objects, they do so in a very systematic
way (e.g., asking others to dispose for them) and with a need to reframe what they
are doing to make it less emotionally impactful.
Tech and Social Media Addiction
Are you addicted to your Instagram feed? Do you sleep with your phone? We all
know that our devices are very addictive: They consume our time, attention, and
money. Internet addiction refers to the compulsive overuse of digital experiences to
the detriment of the individual. Experts estimate that as many as 5 to 10 percent of
Americans meet the criteria for social media addiction today.97
Perhaps these stats are not that surprising: After all, tech products are designed to
be habit forming.98 In fact, the web design industry even has a name for the practice
of creating user interfaces that are intentionally designed to trick or deceive the user:
dark design.99
So how do designers make these devices so attractive to us? For one, they often
try to maximize personal relevance, which we know from Chapter 5 is essential to
generating involvement. Our feeds are created by algorithms based on what we find
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241
interesting and relevant, so we just keep scrolling, looking for more, and this promotes
addictive usage.
In addition, designers rely upon time-honored techniques to make the interfaces
alluring. Tech toys rely on auditory, visual, or haptic notifications that continuously cue
us to look, check, unlock, like, reply, scroll, etc. Here are a few popular techniques:100
• Wavy dots: Those three dots in a speech bubble you see when someone is typing
create suspense about what the person might be saying.
• The slot machine effect: The pull-to-refresh and infinite scrolling mechanism on
•
our newsfeeds is like a slot-machine. As we saw in Chapter 4, this unpredictable
feedback loop motivates us to keep pulling the lever in hopes of obtaining the
reward. When we refresh our newsfeeds, the slight wait time builds up our
anticipation and then releases a hit of “feel-good” dopamine once the latest posts
populate our screens. Similarly, people who use dating apps like Tinder are betting
on unpredictable outcomes, which makes the process more exciting.
We crave “likes”: People crave social acceptance, and the “like” button provides
social validation. We can quantify the number of likes we receive; as they mount
up, the increasing social approval keeps us coming back for more.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Now that you have finished reading this chapter, you should
be able to:
2. Describe how the virtualization of shopping
increases our reliance on digital assets.
1. Explain the factors that influence consumers’
shopping experience during each phase of the
purchasing process.
Mobile shopping apps on smartphones provide
imaginative new ways for retailers to guide customers
through the shopping experience: These apps can locate
merchandise, identify the nearest restroom in a mall, or
scout out sales. Virtual currencies encourage consumers
to switch from cash and credit cards to digital wallets,
which are electronic devices that allow an individual
to make e-commerce transactions. A lot of this activity
is propelled by the spread of near-field communication
(NFC) technology that allows devices near to one
another (like a smartphone and an NFC terminal in a
store) to establish radio communication. In addition,
P2P (peer-to-peer) payment systems, such as Google
Pay Send, PayPal, and Venmo, empower ordinary
citizens to transact business with one another. In today’s
changing market that often values speed, flexibility, and
convenience, consumption tends to be more liquid; it is
(1) ephemeral, (2) access-based, and (3) dematerialized.
Many factors affect a purchase. These include the
consumer’s antecedent state (e.g., their mood, time
pressure, or disposition toward shopping). Time is an
important resource that often determines how much
effort and search will go into a decision. Our moods are
influenced by the degree of pleasure and arousal a store
environment creates.
The shopping experience is a pivotal part of the
purchase decision. In many cases, retailing is like
theater: Consumers’ evaluation of stores and products
may depend on the type of “performance” they witness.
The actors (i.e., salespeople), the setting (i.e., the store
environment), and the props (i.e., store displays) influence
this evaluation. Several factors, such as perceived
convenience, sophistication, and expertise of salespeople,
determine store image, which you can think of as similar
to a brand personality. With increasing competition from
nonstore alternatives, it has never been more important
for stores to create a positive shopping experience. Online
shopping is becoming increasingly common, and this new
way to acquire products has both good (e.g., convenience)
and bad (e.g., security) aspects.
3. Summarize how the growth of a “sharing
economy” changes the way consumers think
about using and owning.
In the rapidly growing sharing economy, people rent
what they need rather than buy it. New technologies make this process much easier, and online networks allow us to form bonds of trust with strangers.
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In addition, many consumers no longer place a premium
on owning products and prefer to “borrow” them only
for the specific times when they need them.
4. Explain how the climate change crisis requires
us to think differently about buying, using, and
disposing to limit our environmental footprint.
Today more than ever, product disposal is an important
element of consumer behavior. Waste from unused food,
textiles, electronics, and other products is clogging our
landfills and polluting our oceans. Many consumers
and organizations address these issues by encouraging
various forms of recycling, where products are reused
rather than discarded.
5. Identify the maladaptive consumer behaviors that
can occur in the purchasing and using phases.
Maladaptive consumption refers to substance-related
addictions, like alcohol, tobacco, or opioids, as well
as behavioral problems like gambling, overeating,
or overusing technology or social media. This dark
side of consumer behavior is problematic from a
health standpoint, as these behaviors are mentally
and physically harmful. It is also problematic from
an economic standpoint, as these behaviors are also
financially costly, and from a social standpoint, as
they can hurt your relationships with others. In recent
years, addiction to technology and social media has
increased, as well as hoarding, an addictive behavior
where consumers feel compelled not to discard used
items. Concern about the environment and waste makes
the issue of product disposal key in many categories. In
addition to understanding whether and how consumers
recycle, newer recommerce models, such as swishing,
are emerging that enable people to share more of their
used goods with one another rather than disposing
of them.
KEY TERMS
Activity stores, 227
Atmospherics, 226
Beacons, 231
Being space, 226
Bitcoin, 232
Blockchain, 232
Collaborative consumption, 235
Contamination, 230
Cryptocurrency, 232
Customer journey, 224
Dark design, 240
Design thinking, 224
Digital wallets, 232
Dyadic encounters, 229
Expectancy disconfirmation
model, 229
Gemba, 224
Hedonic motivation, 223
Hoarding, 240
Identity negotiation, 229
Impulse buying, 227
Lateral cycling, 238
Liquid consumption, 234
Maladaptive consumption, 239
Mental computation strategies, 228
Mobile shopping apps, 231
Moral disgust, 230
Near-field communication (NFC), 232
NFTs (non-fungible tokens), 233
P2P (peer-to-peer) commerce, 236
P2P (peer-to-peer) payment
systems, 232
Point-of-purchase (POP) stimuli, 228
Pop-up stores, 226
Pretailer, 233
Product disposal, 236
Queuing theory, 229
Recommerce, 239
Retail theming, 225
Secondary market, 236
Sharing economy, 235
Shopping orientation, 223
Showrooming, 231
Social shopping, 223
Squander sequence, 237
Swishing, 239
Thrifting, 236
Total quality management
(TQM), 224
Underground economy, 239
Unplanned buying, 227
Utilitarian motivation, 223
Virtual reality (VR), 231
REVIEW
8-1 What are the two dimensions that determine whether
we will react positively or negatively to a purchase
environment?
8-2 List three separate motivations for shopping and give
an example of each.
8-3 What are some important pros and cons of
e-commerce?
8-4 List three factors that help to determine store image.
8-5 What is the difference between unplanned buying and
impulse buying?
8-6 How do business models in the sharing economy
differ from traditional purchase processes?
8-7 What is the difference between recycling and lateral
cycling?
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243
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHALLENGE
DISCUSS
8-8 Are pop-up stores simply a fad, or are they a retailing
concept that’s here to stay?
8-9 Think about exceptionally good and bad salespeople
you have encountered as a shopper. What qualities
seem to differentiate them from others?
8-10 The chapter noted that as many as 70 percent of
people who shop online abandon their carts before
they get to the checkout page. What are the major
“pain points” you’ve encountered when you purchase
online, and how might you reduce them or eliminate
them altogether?
8-11 Consumers who participate in the sharing economy
seem willing to interact with total strangers. Despite
safety and privacy concerns, what is the long-term
outlook for this change in the way we think about
interacting with people whom we don’t know? How
can businesses help to diminish worries some people
may have about these practices?
8-12 Several men’s clothing retailers nationwide now
provide free booze to their male clientele to encourage
them to hang out in their stores.101 Is it ethical to
encourage customers to get wasted before they shop?
8-13 Some retailers work hard to cultivate a certain look or
image, and they may even choose employees who fit
this look. Abercrombie & Fitch, for example, seems
to link itself to a clean-cut, all-American image.
At one point a lawsuit claimed that Abercrombie
& Fitch systematically “refuses to hire qualified
minority applicants as brand representatives to work
on the sales floor and discourages applications from
minority applicants” (Abercrombie replied that it has
“zero tolerance for discrimination”).102 We know
that the Hooters restaurant chain is notorious for its
attractive female waitresses. Should a retailer have
the right to recruit employees who are consistent with
its image even if this means excluding certain types
of people (e.g., non-Caucasians, men) from the sales
floor? What are some positive and negative aspects
of a policy that requires employees who interact with
customers to wear a uniform?
8-14 The store environment is heating up as more and more
companies put their promotional dollars into point-ofpurchase efforts. Some stores confront shoppers with
videos at the checkout counter, computer monitors
attached to their shopping carts, and ads stenciled
on the floors. We’re also increasingly exposed to
ads in nonshopping environments. For example, a
health club in New York was forced to remove TV
monitors that showed advertising on the Health Club
Media Network after exercisers claimed that the
programming interfered with their workouts. Do you
feel that these innovations are overly intrusive? At what
point might shoppers rebel and demand some peace
and quiet when they shop? Do you see any market
potential in the future for stores that “countermarket”
by promising a “hands-off” shopping environment?
8-15 Courts often prohibit special-interest groups from
distributing literature in shopping malls. Mall
managements claim that these centers are private
property. However, these groups argue that the mall
is the modern-day version of the town square and as
such is a public forum. Find some recent court cases
involving this free-speech issue and examine the
arguments pro and con. What is the status of the mall as
a public forum? Do you agree with this concept?
8-16 Marketers use “tricks” to minimize psychological
waiting time. These techniques range from altering
customers’ perceptions of a line’s length to providing
distractions that divert attention from waiting.103
One hotel chain received excessive complaints
about the wait for elevators, so it installed mirrors
near the elevator banks. People’s natural tendency
to check their appearance reduced complaints, even
though the actual waiting time was unchanged.
Airline passengers often complain about the wait
to claim their baggage. In one airport, passengers
would walk one minute from the plane to the baggage
carousel and then wait seven minutes for their luggage. When the airport changed the layout so that the
walk to the carousel took six minutes and bags arrived
two minutes after that, complaints disappeared.104
Restaurant chains are scrambling to put the
“fast” back into fast food, especially for drivethrough lanes, which now account for 65 percent of
revenues. In a study that ranked the speed of 25 fastfood chains, cars spent an average of 203.6 seconds
from the menu board to departure. Wendy’s was
clocked the fastest at 150.3 seconds. To speed things
up and eliminate spills, McDonald’s created a salad
that comes in a container to fit into car cup holders.
Arby’s is working on a “high viscosity” version of its
special sauce that’s less likely to spill. Burger King
is testing see-through bags so customers can quickly
check their orders before speeding off.105
What are your waiting line “pain points?” How
can companies change their processes to make these
situations easier or more enjoyable for you?
244
Section 3
• Buying and Having: Choosing and Using Products
8-17 People have more leisure time than ever. Why do
they feel so rushed, and how can marketers address
this problem?
8-18 Is the customer always right? Why or why not?
APPLY
8-19 Conduct naturalistic observation at a local mall. Sit
in a central location and observe the activities of mall
employees and patrons. Keep a log of the nonretailing
activity you observe (e.g., special performances, exhibits, socializing, and so on). Does this activity enhance
or detract from business the mall conducts? As malls
become more like high-tech game rooms, how valid is
the criticism that shopping areas only encourage more
loitering by teenage boys, who don’t spend a lot in
stores and simply scare away other customers?
8-20 Select three competing clothing stores in your area
and conduct a store image study for them. Ask a
group of consumers to rate each store on a set of
attributes and plot these ratings on the same graph.
Based on your findings, are there any areas of competitive advantage or disadvantage you could bring
to the attention of store management?
8-21 Create a customer journey map by recording in precise detail each step you personally took when you
interacted with a physical store or an e-commerce
website. What are the potential “pain points” in
this journey that might interface with a successful
transaction?
8-22 Many retailers believe that when they pile a lot of
stuff around their store, this cluttered look encourages
shoppers to hunt for items and eventually buy more.
Dollar General recently raised the height of its shelves
to more than six feet; JCPenney transformed empty
walls into jewelry and accessory displays; Old Navy
added lanes lined with items like water bottles, candy,
and lunchboxes. Best Buy is even testing the impact
of filling aisles with bulky items like Segways and
bicycles to compensate for the smaller space that thin
TVs and compact speakers take up. Notably, Walmart
recently did an abrupt about-face: The company only
recently remodeled its stores by eliminating the
pallets of items it used to stack in the centers of aisles,
and it reduced overall inventory by about 9 percent.
Customers loved the leaner, cleaner look. Only one
problem: They bought less stuff. As a senior Walmart
executive commented, “They loved the experience.
They just bought less. And that generally is not a good
long-term strategy.” Now, Walmart is adding inventory
back in and is once again piling stacks of merchandise
in aisles.106 What’s your take on these store-stocking
strategies? Visit several “big-box” stores in your
area, such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Costco,
and so on. If possible, interview shoppers about their
experiences. Do they have trouble navigating the
store? Do they enjoy the clutter? Does it feel like a
“treasure hunt” when they must pick their way around
piles and pallets? If you were designing a store, how
would you craft a stocking strategy that would make
it easy to shop there?
8-23 Identify three people who own electric coffeemakers.
Then, “go to the gemba” by observing them as they
prepare coffee in the appliance at home. Based on these
experiences, what recommendations might you make
to the designer of a new coffeemaker model that would
improve customers’ experiences with the product?
8-24 Interview three consumers who have used a sharing
economy service, such as Zipcar, Airbnb, Snapgoods,
and others. How would you characterize their experiences compared with more traditional models?
8-25 The chapter emphasizes the importance of design
thinking to create products that are easy and fun for
people to use. Find an example of a product you own
that is not user-friendly. How might you redesign it?
8-26 Even subtle labelling and packaging cues can make us
more or less likely to throw away a partially consumed
product. Recent research shows that changing the
visual features of a product’s packaging can help cut
back on (or encourage) waste.107 Researchers studied
whether consumers were more likely to hold on to and
finish disposable water bottles based on the placement
of the bottle’s label. When labels were placed higher
on a water bottle, consumers held onto them because
the bottles appeared less empty. In contrast, when
labels were placed lower on a water bottle, consumers
were more likely to throw them away or leave them
behind because the bottle seemed emptier. Can you
replicate this finding with a group of friends?
DIGGING IN WITH DATA
See “Data Case 2: Evolving Trends in Fitness and French Fries” in Appendix A for an opportunity to work with real
consumer data and apply this chapter’s concepts to real world problems.
Chapter 8 • Buying, Using, and Disposing
CASE STUDY
245
RH — Revolutionizing Physical Retailing108
With consumers able to order virtually anything via the
internet, traditional retailers must offer “something extra”
to motivate shoppers to make the trip to their stores. Highend design retailer RH believes it has found the formula for
getting people not only to visit but also to spend considerable
time and money in its brick-and-mortar stores.
Stephen Gordon started Restoration Hardware (now
RH) after restoring his own Victorian home into a bed and
breakfast. After a frustrating but successful search for quality furnishings and accessories, he decided to make these
items available to others who fix up historic homes.109 He
opened his first store in 1980; it offered hard-to-find and
rather expensive items, many with a nostalgic appeal. One
product based on Gordon’s past was a replica of a chair his
third-grade teacher had used!110
Today, RH is a luxury brand that offers lighting, décor,
home furnishings, bathware, and a variety of other products
clearly targeted to an upper-income clientele. Visit one of
its 67 galleries and you can pick up a nice taper-arm sofa
for about $11,800 or perhaps a crystal chandelier for only
$51,425! You can also find its famous decorative drawer
pulls, cashmere throws, and even some plush toys in the Baby
& Child collection.111
Creating a fun shopping experience was a goal of RH’s
founder from the beginning, leading to offerings like Moon
Pies, glass marbles, and the metal Slinky toy from the
1940s.112 That entertaining shopping experience continues
today with RH’s current brick-and-mortar strategy. Although
the company is growing, RH has actually decreased its total
number of stores but “doubled down” on the remaining ones
by revamping them into big, beautiful galleries located in
renovated historical buildings.113 These gargantuan stores—
one as large as 90,000 square feet—are filled with natural
light and include cafés where you can enjoy a latte or perhaps
a Bellini cocktail while you decide just which Moroccan
rug is right for you.114 Two of the locations even have wine
vaults!115 No babysitter? No problem—childcare will also
be provided.116 In the new store design, the restaurants,
bars, and other food services can amount to a third of the
floorspace.117
Although originally designed to enhance the shopping
experience, the restaurants have turned out to be a good
business venture on their own. In its first full year of operation, the 3 Arts Club café in RH’s Chicago gallery exceeded
$5 million in revenue and had a line forming around the block
on weekends; it was recently the ninth most Instagrammed
café in the city. Not bad for a restaurant with no exterior
signage, a limited all-day menu, and a location in the middle
of a furniture store!118 At last count, RH had 14 restaurants,
including RH Yountville, part of a five-building compound in
the heart of California’s Napa Valley.119
Restaurants, wine cellars, lattes—is this just another
form of “retailtainment”? While RH’s approach does help
draw customers into its galleries and entertain them while
they are there, the company’s plan is more strategic than that.
RH has a fundamentally different view of its retail spaces—
not as stores but rather as galleries or showrooms, where
customers can get inspiration and style guidance.120 Current
CEO Gary Friedman’s vision is to “reinvent physical retail”
with a broader set of services and these elaborate new stores.
RH’s focus on the service experience is similar to that found
in an Apple store, where customers can see, touch, and try
out all the latest Apple products.121 One retail consultant
calls these RH showrooms a kind of “giant 3D real-time catalog.”122 While customers are waiting for a table at the café or
enjoying their dinner, Friedman hopes they’ll get inspired to
redecorate their home. Like the furniture in the restaurant?
No problem—it’s all for sale.123
RH continues to evolve, moving its concept into new
formats. Its new gallery in England is its grandest yet,
located at the historic Aynho Park, a 17th-century, 73-acre
estate in the English countryside.124 Also on the horizon
are RH Residences—fully furnished luxury homes, and
travelers will be able to experience the RH brand through
guesthouses planned for New York City and Aspen.125 Need
a ride to one of those places? Ride in style on RH One or
RH Two—12-seat Gulfstream jets available for charter.126
Or, for an even more luxurious experience, try RH Three:
A revamped vintage yacht you can book for traveling to the
Mediterranean or Caribbean.127
RH’s gallery strategy is a bold approach to bringing
customers into its brick-and-mortar locations. But the
company’s expansion into private jet travel, yachts, and
hospitality shows that its ambitions are not limited to
physical retail. According to CEO Friedman, “Our strategy
is to move the brand beyond curating and selling product to
conceptualizing and selling spaces, by building an ecosystem
of Products, Places, Services and Spaces that establishes the
RH brand as a global thought leader, taste and place maker.”128
For RH, it appears that the revolution has just begun.
246
Section 3
• Buying and Having: Choosing and Using Products
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
CS 8-1 In this chapter, you learned about some retailers that
convert their whole store into a “being space.” How
does this concept apply to the RH strategy and how
might it affect its sales?
CS 8-2 In this chapter, you learned that context effects and,
more specifically, atmospherics can affect consumers’
behavior in a store. Look over some of RH’s lavish
galleries at rh.com/galleries. How might the gallery
atmospherics lead to more purchases of RH products
and services?
CS 8-3 What elements of RH’s approach could be appropriate for retailers that are at price levels below the highend prestige level of a retailer such as RH?
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Jacob Jacoby, Carol K. Berning, and Thomas F. Dietvorst, “What About
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248
Section 3
• Buying and Having: Choosing and Using Products
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78. Block, L. G., Keller, P. A., Vallen, B., Williamson, S., Birau, M. M., Grinstein,
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79. John F. Sherry, Jr., “A Sociocultural Analysis of a Midwestern American Flea
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80. Allan J. Magrath, “If Used Product Sellers Ever Get Organized, Watch Out,”
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86. Derek N. Hassay and Malcolm C. Smith, “Compulsive Buying: An Examination
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87. Nancy M. Ridgway, Monika Kukar-Kinney, and Kent B. Monroe, “An
Expanded Conceptualization and a New Measure of Compulsive Buying,”
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88. Curtis L. Taylor, “Guys Who Buy, Buy, Buy,” Newsday, October 6, 2006; Jim
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92. June Cotte and Kathryn A. LaTour, “Blackjack in the Kitchen: Understanding
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93. Samantha N. N. Cross, Gail Leizerovici, and Dante M. Pirouz, “Hoarding:
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94. Werner Geyser, “The Real Social Media Addiction Stats for 2022,” Influencer
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95. Pierre Berthon, Leyland Pitt, and Colin Campbell. “Addictive De-Vices:
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96. “The Rise of Dark Web Design: How Sites Manipulate You into Clicking,” The
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April 2, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123862311574879951.html.
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David H. Maister, “The Psychology of Waiting Lines,” in John A. Czepiel,
Michael R. Solomon, and Carol F. Surprenant, eds., The Service Encounter:
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MA: Lexington Books, 1985): 113–24.
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Quoted in Stephanie Clifford, “Stuff Piled in the Aisle? It’s There to Get
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2011/04/08/business/08clutter.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=
1302264052-gF+9E6s92AG9nsm5jbyIpg.
Rong Huang, Darren W. Dahl, Shenyu Li, and Qiong Zhou (2019), “The Effect
of Packaging Perceptual Cues on Consumer Disposal Behavior of Partially
Consumed Products,” Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 4(4),
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“RH Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2017 Financial Results,” Business Wire,
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RH New York, https://rh.com/NewYork, accessed August 2, 2022; Maxwell
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Chapter 8 • Buying, Using, and Disposing
seekingalpha.com/article/4159406-restoration-hardware-holdings-rh-ceogary-friedman-q4-2017-results-earnings-call-transcript?page=3.
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Year-to-Date Revenues Level with 2020,” Forbes, December 10, 2021,
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125. “Investor Relations,” RH, https://ir.rh.com/, accessed August 2, 2022.
Section
4
Being: Using Products to
Create and Communicate
Identity
Our consumption choices express some aspect of our identity.
Chapter 9 explores how our views about ourselves affect what we do, want, and buy. Chapter
10 goes on to consider how our unique personalities, lifestyles, and values also guide us as
consumers. Chapter 11 focuses on the social facet of our identify by looking at the groups with
which we identify and their impact on our identity and our consumption choices.
Chapters Ahead
Chapter 9
Identity and the Self
Chapter 10
Personality, Values, and
Lifestyles
Chapter 11
Social and Cultural Identity
251
9
Identity and the Self
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES When you finish reading this chapter, you should be able to:
9-1 Explain how the self-concept strongly influences
consumer behavior.
9-4 Recognize the many sociocultural factors that
contribute to gender identity.
9-2 Describe how our consumption choices are
expressions of our identities and extensions of our
selves.
9-5 Discuss how our bodies are an important
component of our identities.
9-3 Summarize how consumers are finding new ways
to express identity via their consumption choices.
S
Source: Bagus Production/Shutterstock
hould she, or shouldn’t she? Shaquana has been dancing around this question for months. Several of her friends
decided to get tattoos, and although they complained about
how painful the process was, they were leaning heavily on her to get
one as well. Until now, Shaquana hasn’t been too keen to follow along
with the pack. But then, her mother suddenly recovered from a nasty
COVID-19 infection, and she felt it was time to express gratitude for
that. After she does some research on popular designs, Shaquana is
happy to learn that spiritual images like mandala, hamsa, and lotus
designs are big right now. As one tattoo artist explained, “They are
deeply associated with healing, balance, growth, rebirth, and positive
energies, therefore many people associate with them.”1 After a lot of
thought, she designs a tat for the side of her neck that incorporates
her mother’s likeness within a lotus mandala. Yes, the inking hurt for
a while—but it’s worth it because now her body carries a permanent reminder of her
love for her mother.
OBJECTIVE 9-1
Explain how the
self-concept
strongly influences
consumer behavior.
The Self
Are you what you buy? We choose many products, from
cars to water bottles, because we want to highlight or hide
some aspect of the self—whether we want to feel successful
or attractive or even to connect with a loved one as Shaquana did. In this chapter,
we’ll focus on how consumers’ feelings about themselves shape their consumption
practices, particularly as they strive to fulfill their society’s expectations about how a
person should look and act.
252
Chapter 9 • Identity and the Self
253
The Self-Concept and Self-Esteem
The self-concept summarizes the beliefs a person holds about their own attributes and
how they evaluate the self on these qualities. Although your overall self-concept may
be positive, there certainly are parts of it you evaluate more positively than others.
The self-concept is a complex and malleable structure. Some parts
are stable, but each of us modifies some elements of it as we make our
way through life—and particularly as we discover new ideas, social
groups we admire, and, yes, images we receive from the culture around
us that validate certain types of people over others.
Each element that contributes to our self-concept is an identity.
One way to define identity is “any category label with which a
consumer self-associates that is amenable to a clear picture of what
a person in that category looks like, thinks, feels and does.” Some of
these identities are stable (e.g., mother, African American), whereas
other identities are more temporary and likely to change (e.g., Katy
Kat [fan of singer Katy Perry], college student, Prius driver).2 A person
who sees herself as environmentally responsible, for example, is more
likely than someone who doesn’t think much about the environment
to drive a Prius hybrid vehicle. “Green” products are more likely to
get that person’s attention because “being green” is an identity that
contributes to her self-concept.
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, or rejection.
When Sara Lee developed a new line of snack cakes, for example,
researchers found that consumers low in self-esteem preferred portioncontrolled snack items because they felt they lacked self-control.3 In
Some products promise to give our self-esteem
contrast, a more recent study found that individuals who are made to
a boost.
feel powerful spend more money on themselves (“because I’m worth
Source: Orbit and all affiliated designs are owned by and used courtesy
it!”), whereas those who experience a feeling of powerlessness spend
of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company or its affiliates.
4
more on others than on themselves.
When consumers compare some aspect of themselves to an ideal, this judgment
influences their self-esteem. They might ask, “Am I as good-looking as I would like
to be?” or “Do I make as much money as I should?” The ideal self is a person’s
conception of how they would like to be, whereas the actual self refers to our more
realistic appraisal of the qualities we do and don’t have. We choose some products
because we think they are consistent with our actual self, whereas we buy others to
help us reach an ideal standard.
In addition to our real and ideal selves, a third form of the self sometimes
influences what we choose to buy and use: our avoidance selves.5 This term refers
to the type of person we don’t want to be. Sometimes our desire to distance ourselves
from undesirable types can be an even bigger driver as we go out of our way not to
buy products we associate with that category. For example, kids may work hard
to avoid clothing or other items that make them look like a “nerd.”
The Self and Others
Have you ever obsessed over just the “right outfit” to wear on a special date or to an
important job interview? We often engage in a process of impression management
in which we work hard to “manage” what others think of us; we strategically choose
clothing and other products that will show us off to others in a good light.6
254
Section 4
• Being: Using Products to Create and Communicate Identity
The dating app Tinder helpfully provides a feature called Smart Photos to boost
your chances: Using an algorithm, the feature analyzes which of your profile pictures
performs best and ranks them for you according to which photos may get more people
to swipe right.
The Looking-Glass Self
Sociologists call the process of imagining others’ reactions “taking the role of the
other,” or the looking-glass self.7 According to this view, our desire to define ourselves
operates as a sort of psychological sonar: We take readings of our own identity when
we “bounce” signals off others and try to project their impression of us.
Like the distorted mirrors in a funhouse, our appraisal of who we are varies
depending on whose perspective we consider and how accurately we predict their
evaluations of us. Essentially, we continually ask ourselves the question: “Who am I in
this situation?” Those around us greatly influence how we answer this query because
we also ask, “Who do other people think I am?” We tend to pattern our behavior on
the perceived expectations of others, as a form of self-fulfilling prophecy. When we
act how we assume others expect us to act, we often confirm these perceptions. So, if
we believe, for example, that our friends think of us as the “clown” in the group, we
may go out of our way to clown around when we’re with them.
Social Comparison
Buying, Having, Being
Ha! You Could Have Won!
A study showed that brands benefit
when they encourage envy in
consumers who are high in selfesteem. But it turns out that this
tactic backfires for consumers
who are low in self-esteem.9 The
researchers created envy by letting
participants witness someone
who won two front-row tickets to
an upcoming NHL game—when
they could have been the winners
of those tickets instead (now,
that’s mean!). Lower self-esteem
consumers who witnessed this
display of cheer and celebration
were less interested in the NHL
game, whereas higher self-esteem
consumers were even more
interested in going to the game.
Consumers with lower self-esteem
are turned off by brands and
products when they feel envy toward
others who have them, whereas
consumers with higher self-esteem
want brands and products more
when they envy others who
have them.
Exposure to ads can trigger a process of social comparison, in which the person tries
to evaluate their appearance by comparing it to the people depicted in these artificial
images.8 This is a basic human tendency, and many marketers tap into our need for
benchmarks when they supply idealized images of happy, attractive people who just
happen to use their products. We also witness the power of social comparison when
we play games that provide leaderboards and badges, not to mention the “FOMO” that
may result when we see all those obnoxiously glamorous or cool social media posts
from others who (supposedly) live picture-perfect lives.
Self-Construal
Self-construal describes the degree to which we think of our self as independent from
others versus feeling interdependent with them. People who grow up in Western cultures
(Western Europe or North America) tend to focus on the independent self, thinking
of themselves in terms of unique personal traits and attributes and de-emphasizing
others (independent self-construal), whereas people who grow up in Eastern cultures
(Asia) tend to focus on the interdependent self, defining their identities largely by
their relationships with others.10 Thus, people in Western cultures often learn that it’s
a good thing to express your individuality. In contrast, a well-known Japanese proverb
warns, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.”11
People can have both independent and interdependent aspects of the self, but,
at a baseline level, some of us are more naturally independent and others are more
interdependent. These differences in self construal also vary across ethnocultural
backgrounds within American society. For example, whites tend to be more
independent and less interdependent in their self-construals than Asian Americans
and Hispanic Americans.
Our level of self-construal affects how we make buying decisions. Independent
self-construal people are motivated by independence (i.e., self-determination) and
differentiation (i.e., distinctiveness), whereas interdependent people tend to focus on
aspects of self shared with some subset of others. For instance, a study that compared
people’s choices of wine for a group table found that interdependent consumers tend
Chapter 9 • Identity and the Self
to balance their own personal preference and those of the group, regardless of the size
of the group they are choosing wine for. But independent consumers make choices
that balance self and others’ preferences only when they are in small groups. When
they are in larger groups, they give priority to their own preferences.12
Self-Consciousness
Have you ever walked into a class in the middle of a lecture? If you were convinced
that all eyes were on you as you awkwardly searched for a seat, you can understand
the feeling of self-consciousness. In contrast, sometimes we behave with shockingly
little self-consciousness. For example, we may do things in a stadium, at a riot, or at
a fraternity party that we would never do if we were highly conscious of our behavior
(and add insult to injury when we post these escapades online!).13
Certain cues in the environment, such as walking in front of a mirror, are likely to
promote self-consciousness. That feeling in turn may influence behavior. For example,
one pair of researchers is looking at whether grocery shoppers who push a cart with
an attached mirror will buy more produce and healthy foods because their heightened
self-consciousness makes them more weight conscious.14
Some people seem to be more sensitive in general to the image they communicate
to others. A heightened concern about the nature of one’s public “image” also results
in more attention to the social appropriateness of products and consumption activities.
On the other hand, we all know people who act as if they’re oblivious to the impression
they make (they seem to “march to the beat of a different drummer”).
Consumers who score high on a scale of public self-consciousness express
more interest in clothing and use more cosmetics than consumers who score lower.15
In one study, highly self-conscious subjects expressed greater willingness to buy
personal products, such as a douche or a gas-prevention remedy, that are somewhat
embarrassing to buy but may avoid awkward public incidents later.16
Similarly, high self-monitors are more attuned to how they present themselves in
their social environments, and their estimates of how others will perceive their product
choices influence what they choose to buy.17 A scale to measure self-monitoring asks
consumers how much they agree with statements such as, “I guess I put on a show
to impress or entertain others” or “I would probably make a good actor.” Perhaps
not surprisingly, publicly visible types, such as college football players and fashion
models, tend to score higher on these dimensions.18
The Malleable Self
In a way, each of us really is several different people—for example, your family
members may not recognize the “you” who turns into a “party animal” on Saturday
night! We have as many selves as we do different social roles. Depending upon the
situation, we act differently, use different products and services, and even vary in terms
of how much we like the aspect of ourselves we put on display. A person may require
a different set of products to play each of their roles: They may choose a sedate,
understated fragrance when they play their professional self but splash on something
more provocative on Saturday night as they head out to a club.
Role Identities: Do You Know Your Lines?
That famous marketer William Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all
the men and women merely players.”19 OK, he was actually a playwright—and a
very astute judge of human behavior! The dramaturgical perspective on consumer
behavior views people as actors who play different roles. We each play many roles,
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• Being: Using Products to Create and Communicate Identity
and each role has its own script, props, and costumes.20 The
self has different components, or role identities, and only
some of these are active at any given time. Some identities
(e.g., husband, boss, student) are more central to the self
than others, but other identities (e.g., dancer, gearhead,
or advocate for the homeless) may dominate in specific
situations.21
Indeed, some roles may conflict with one another.
For example, one study of Iranian young people who live
in the United Kingdom described what the authors termed
the torn self, where respondents struggle with retaining an
authentic culture while still enjoying Western freedom (and
dealing with assumptions of others who believe they might
be terrorists).22
A marketer may want to ensure that the appropriate role identity
If each person potentially has many social selves, how
is active before pitching products that customers need to play a
do
we
decide which self to “activate” at any point in time?
particular role. One obvious way to do this is to place advertising
The
sociological
tradition of symbolic interactionism
messages in contexts in which people are likely to be well-aware
stresses that relationships with other people play a large
of that role identity; for example, when fortified-drink and energybar companies hand out free product samples to runners at
part to form the self.23 According to this perspective, we
a marathon.
exist in a symbolic environment. We assign meaning to any
Source: Joel Carillet/iStock/Getty Images.
situation or object when we interpret the symbols in this environment. As members
of society, individuals learn to agree on shared meanings. Thus, we “know” that a red
light means stop, the “golden arches” mean fast food, and Queen Bey is Beyoncé’s
nickname. That knowledge is important to understand consumer behavior because
it implies that our possessions play a key role as we evaluate ourselves and decide
“who we are.”24
Because there are so many facets to each of us, consumers must balance their multiple
identities. Research shows that cues in our environment can prime certain facets of our
identity, such as being a student, a friend, a sibling, a parent, or as we will see in Chapter 11,
our identification with an ethnic/racial group.25
Source: Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images
Chapter 9 • Identity and the Self
Creating Our Self as We Consume
Way back in 1890, the famous psychologist William James wrote, “A man’s self is
the sum total of all that he can call his.” And that was before iPhones, skinny jeans,
and e-Bikes!
Self-image congruence models suggest that we choose products when their
attributes match some aspect of the self.26 And when we choose a product that we
think is aesthetically pleasing, this choice makes us feel better about ourselves.27
Indeed, research that included brain wave measures, such as functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI), showed that when a person has a close relationship with
a brand, this activates the insula, the part of the brain that is responsible for such
domains as addiction and interpersonal love.28
Consumption choices are very personal, and when we allow a customer to customize
a product or service, they naturally tend to think of the purchase as being more in line
with their image of themselves. This in turn influences how people perceive the product
itself and specifically that product’s attributes. A recent study found that, whether it
was a T-shirt, a Korean meal, or a vacation package, consumers perceive customized
products more positively because they allow more alignment with their self-image. The
researchers call this effect self-image-consistent product perceptions.
The choices we make in terms of what brands we buy, what we consume, or what
we do are more valuable to us when they link to an identity we desire. This process is
called self-signaling; it’s a message to ourselves that our choices sync with how we
want to think about ourselves. Brands are useful for self-signaling, as consumers use
brands to signal and communicate aspects of their identity.29
These emotional connections even make people defensive of their favorite brands
if they come across negative information about them. A comment by a respondent (a
32-year-old male) in one study who describes his feelings about his car nicely illustrates
this bond: “My BMW is my wingman, my twin. I would never diss it for another car
because that would be like dissing my twin brother or worse, dissing myself.”30
Congruence models assume a process of cognitive matching between product
attributes and consumers’ self-image.31 Over time we tend to form relationships with
products that resemble the bonds we create with other people: These include love,
unrequited love (we yearn for it but can’t have it), respect, and perhaps even fear or
hate (“Why is my computer out to get me?”).32 Researchers even report that after a
“breakup” with a brand, people tend to develop strong negative feelings and will go
to great lengths to discredit the brand by engaging in acts like bad-mouthing and even
vandalism.33
Research largely supports the idea of congruence between product usage and
self-image. One of the earliest studies to examine this process found that car owners’
ratings of themselves tended to match their perceptions of their cars: Pontiac drivers
saw themselves as more active and flashy than did Volkswagen drivers.34 Indeed, a
German study found that observers were able to match photos of male and female
drivers to pictures of the cars they drove almost 70 percent of the time.35 Researchers
also report congruity between consumers and their most preferred brands of beer,
soap, toothpaste, and cigarettes relative to their least preferred brands, as well as
between consumers’ self-images and their favorite stores.36 Some specific attributes
useful to describe matches between consumers and products include rugged/delicate,
excitable/calm, rational/emotional, and formal/informal.37
We are attached to an object to the extent we rely on it to maintain our selfconcept.38 Objects act as a security blanket when they reinforce our identities,
especially in unfamiliar situations. For example, students who decorate their dorm
rooms with personal items are less likely to drop out of college. This coping process
may protect the self from being diluted in a strange environment.39 When a pair of
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• Being: Using Products to Create and Communicate Identity
researchers asked children of various ages to create “who am I?” collages, for which
they chose pictures that represented their selves, older kids between middle childhood
and early adolescence inserted more photos of branded merchandise. Also, as they
aged, their feelings about these objects evolved from concrete relationships (e.g.,
“I own it”) to more sophisticated, abstract relationships (e.g., “It is like me”).40
We Consume to Express Our Identities
We’ve already seen that people
often strategically choose products
that they believe will cause others
to think about them in a certain
way. Consumers actively assemble
consumption practices, products,
and brands to express themselves as
part of their identity projects; the
active creation and communication of how a person defines
and communicates their identity to the world. As we saw in
Chapter 5, these consumption constellations can be made up of
brands, experiences, or practices. The brands and products we
associate ourselves with help determine our own self-concept
and social identity.41 Yes, it turns out there may be some truth
to the old saying, “You are what you . . . drive, wear, eat, etc.”
OBJECTIVE 9-2
Describe how
our consumption
choices are
expressions of
our identities and
extensions of
our selves.
Our consumption choices are expressions of our identities and
extensions of our selves.
Source: Asier Romero/Shutterstock.
The Extended Self
As we noted previously, many of the props and settings consumers use to define their
social roles become parts of their identities. Those external objects that we consider a
part of us constitute the extended self. In some cultures, people literally incorporate
objects into the self: they lick new possessions, take the names of conquered enemies
(or in some cases eat them), or bury the dead with their possessions.42
As Figure 9.1 shows, we describe four levels of the extended self, ranging from
personal objects to places and things that allow people to feel as though they are rooted
in their larger social environments:43
1. Individual level—Consumers include many of their personal possessions in selfdefinition. These products can include jewelry, cars, clothing, as well as expressions of our digital identity as we will see later in this chapter. The saying “You
are what you wear” reflects the belief that one’s things are a part of one’s identity
whether in real or virtual worlds.
2. Family level—This part of the extended self includes a
consumer’s residence and the furnishings in it. We can think of
the house as a symbolic body for the family, and the place where
we live often is a central aspect of who we are.
3. Community level—It is common for consumers to describe
themselves in terms of the neighborhood or town from which
Individual
Family
Community
Group
they come. For farm families or other residents with close ties to
a community, this sense of belonging is particularly important.
4. Group level—We regard our attachments to even larger social
groups as a part of the self; we’ll consider some of these
consumer subcultures in later chapters. A consumer also may
feel that landmarks, monuments, or sports teams are a part of
Figure 9.1 Levels of the Extended Self
the extended self.
Source: Matsabe/Shutterstock.
Chapter 9 • Identity and the Self
259
One study found that people may view their shoes as
magical emblems of self, Cinderella-like vehicles for selftransformation. Based on data collected from consumers, the
researcher concluded that (like their sister Carrie) women
tend to be more attuned to the symbolic implications of shoes
than men. A common theme that emerged was that a pair of
shoes obtained when younger—whether a first pair of leather
shoes, a first pair of high heels, or a first pair of cowboy
boots—had a big impact even later in life. These experiences
were like those that occur in well-known fairy tales and
stories; think of Dorothy’s red shoes in The Wizard of Oz,
Karen’s magical red shoes in Hans Christian Anderson’s
The Red Shoes, and Cinderella’s glass slippers.44
Many material objects—ranging from personal possessions
You don’t have to be Carrie of Sex and the City fame to
and pets to national monuments or landmarks—help to form
acknowledge that many people feel a strong bond to their
a consumer’s identity. Just about everyone can name a valued
footwear. The singer Mariah Carey posted a photo of her huge
possession that has a lot of the self “wrapped up” in it, whether
shoe closet on Instagram and labeled it, “Always my favorite
room in the house . . . #shoes #shoes #moreshoes.” 45
it is a beloved photograph, a trophy, an old shirt, a car, or a cat.
Source: Ariwasabi/Shutterstock.
Indeed, usually we can construct a pretty accurate “biography”
of someone when we simply catalog the items they display in
their bedroom or office (try it if you don’t believe us).
A study illustrates that the product/self-bond doesn’t even have to be that strong
Buying, Having, Being
to influence a consumer’s self-concept. Researchers approached women in a shopping
mall and gave them one of two shopping bags to walk around with for an hour. Women
Secret Pleasures
who received a bag from Victoria’s Secret later reported to the researchers that they felt
A recent study suggests that conmore sensual and glamorous. In another experiment, MBA students were asked to take
suming a product in secret makes
notes for six weeks using a pen embossed with the MIT logo; they reported feeling
it more attractive.47 Researchers
46
asked women to imagine eating
smarter at the end of the term. In these situations, we see how easily an everyday
cookies, chocolate, and apple chips
object like a shopping bag or a pen can become part of a person’s extended self.
in secret as they hid from others.
They found that the respondents
consistently enjoyed the products
more when they ate them this way.
The women also reported thinking
about these “guilty pleasures” more
as they became preoccupied with
their secret habit.
To assert our consumer identity, we sometimes claim a
space for it. Recent ethnographic research that focused
on women who knit reveals that consumers use physical
spaces intentionally to assert their identity.48 Knitting is
usually associated with the domestic space of the home,
and the researchers found that women who knit claim
space for their activity i