An Organizational Framework for the Study of Consumer Behavior
Group
Influences
Perception
Learning
and
Memory
Consumer
Research
Market
Segmentation
Consumer
Decision
Making
Beliefs
and
Attitudes
Family
Influences
Personal
Influences
Motivation
and
Emotion
Social Class
Personality
Self-concept,
and Lifestyle
Culture and
Microculture
Adoption
Diffusion
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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II: Memory
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II: Consumer Memory

Consider and absorb the following
statements






the ants ate the sweet jelly that was on the table
the ants were in the kitchen
the ants ate the sweet jelly
the ants in the kitchen ate the jelly that was on the
table
the jelly was on the table
the ants in the kitchen ate the jelly
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Birthday



Including February 29th there are 366
possible birthdays in a year
A group would need to contain an average of
367 members in order to be absolutely sure
that at least two people shared the same
birthday
How many people on average, would a group
contain in order to be 50% certain of two
people sharing the same birthday?
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Recall

Close your eyes and recall a scene in which
you experienced something pleasurable
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Memory

Memory can be likened to a storage chest in
the brain into which we deposit material and
from which we can withdraw it later if needed.
Occasionally, something gets lost from the
“chest,” and then we say we have forgotten.

Would you say this is a reasonably accurate
description of how memory works?

Yes _____
No _____
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
Not Sure _______
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Memory

Did the following sentences appear on the
previous slide




the ants ate the jelly which was on the table
the ants in the kitchen ate the sweet jelly which
was on the table
the ants ate the sweet jelly
Indicate the level of confidence in your
answer on a scale of 1 to 5
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Goals of this section


Be able to explain the differences between
short-term and long-term memory
Provide business applications for improving
consumers’ recall for an advertiser’s
marketing communications
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Memory



Memories are not like copies of our past
experience on deposit in a memory bank
Instead, they are constructed at the time of
withdrawal
The “materials” used in the reconstruction are
logical inferences that fill in missing detail,
associated memories that blend in with
original memory and other information.
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Memory

Proof



The only sentence that appeared in Q4 was “the
ants ate the sweet jelly”
The middle sentence can only be derived by
combining separate sentences from the total set
of sentences
If you saw yourself in the scene in Q2, then the
scene must have been reconstructed.
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Strange
Salesperson
Helped me
Good value
For the money
Can wear with
Jeans, too
Long-wearing
tread
Cost
$94
Nike Running
Shoes
Look good
Wear cushioned
Socks
Brooks
How to run
lightly
Lace shoes
tightly
Feels soft
To run in
cushioning
Swoosh
symbol
Status
Brand
Last fall
At
Wilson
Sporting Goods
Weight
Color
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New
Balance
Feelings after
A long, hard run
Proud
Avoid sore
knees
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
Tired
Relaxed
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Memory



What did you have for dinner two nights ago?
How were able to remember?
What was the first thing that leapt to your
minds as you read this question?
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Human and Computer Memory
Human Brain
Personal Computer
Short Term Memory
Random Access Memory
RAM
Recall for
Thinking
Long Term Memory
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
Retrieval for
Processing
Hard Disk Storage
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Properties of long
and short term memory
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Why Information Does Not Get Passed Short
Term Memory



Rehearsal Failure
Make a list of all the advertisements we have
shown so far
Implications on advertisements
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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How Information Gets Stored in Long Term
Memory
1.
2.
3.
4.
Organization Principle of Long-term Memory
The Encoding-specificity Principle of Longterm Memory
The Association Principle of Long-term
Memory
Implicit Memory
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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1. Organization Principle of Long-term
Memory

Make a list of items you would take out of
your house if it caught on fire.
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1. Organization Principle of Long-term
Memory - continued

Make a list of items you would take with you
on vacation to a beach.
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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LEVELS OF ABSTRACTION IN DESSERT CATEGORIES
DESSERT
SUPERORDINATE LEVEL
Fattening Dessert
BASIC LEVEL
Nonfattening Dessert
SUBORDINATE
LEVEL
Yogurt
Pie
Ice Cream
Cake
Fruit
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
Low-fat
Ice Cream
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Memory Performance
Organized
List
100%
Random
List
50%
0%
1
2
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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4
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1. Organization Principle of Long-term
Memory – continued


Process of grouping individual pieces of
information into larger units (e.g., categories)
on the basis of a specific relationship
between the pieces
Implications:
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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2. The Encoding-Specificity Principle of
Long-term Memory - continued

Related pieces of information help recall
memory


Links help improve activation of the “nodes”
Any marketing communication that places its
spokesperson in both its advertising and on
its package can recall
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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2. The Encoding-Specificity Principle of
Long-term Memory - continued

Context in which information learned
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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The encoding-specificity principle
Probability of retrieval
100%
wet retrieval
context
dry retrieval
context
0%
Dry
Encoding
Context
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
Wet
Encoding
Context
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3. The Association Principle of Long-term
Memory

At the center of a blank sheet of paper, write
the name Cornell PDP. Nearby, write your
first association to the product and draw a
line between the two. Then write your next
association, linking the second and third, and
so forth, until your paper is full. See how far
a field the associations go.
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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3. The Association Principle of Long-term
Memory - continued



Leads to importance of priming
Google words
Ask guests to perform the exercise you just
completed
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Exercise: Association Principle

Recently, when it was discovered that a large supplier of
hamburger meat to various restaurants around the
United States had shipped tons of contaminated beef,
consumers everywhere were afraid to eat hamburger.
The timing was especially bad for restaurants and
supermarkets because the scare took place during the
summer – the season when Americans are most likely to
be grilling and ordering hamburgers frequently. If you
were the owner or franchiser of a restaurant whose most
popular food items included various types of
hamburgers, what steps might you have taken to combat
marketplace rumors about the meat your served?
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Exercise

Contrary to popular opinion, refuting a rumor
is not the best way to restore a company’s
image. This is because refuting the rumor
keeps the negative linkages in the
consumer’s associative network active. A
better solution is to create new, positive
associative links to the brand that can
interfere with the negative links
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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The association principle: Associative
inference
Evaluations
6.11
Rumor
Alone
6.50
Rumor plus
Refutation
10.36
10.25
Rumor plus
Associative
Interference
No Rumor
Control
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Implicit Memory



Automatic or an unconscious form of memory
In daily life, people rely on implicit memory
everyday in the form of procedural memory
(memory of how to do things – scripts)
Leads to illusion of truth

The illusion-of-truth effect states that a person is
more likely to believe a familiar statement than an
unfamiliar one
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Classical
Operant
Classical and Operant Conditioning Building
Memory
OrderImplicit
of
Stimulus
Learning
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Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning involves forming an
association between two objects.


The first object is an unconditioned stimulus. The
unconditioned stimulus leads to an automatic
unconditioned response (e.g. food leading to
salivation).
The second object is a conditioned stimulus.
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Classical Conditioning

Once this pairing is learned, the conditioned
stimulus will lead to a conditional response
that is identical to the unconditioned
response
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Classical conditioning in advertising
Positive Stimulus
(music, scenery,
people, animals)
Advertised Brand
(paired with
positive
unconditioned response)
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
Positive
Affect
Positive
Affect
(toward brand)
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Polar bears were considered neutral
before pairing them with Coca-Cola
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Non Advertising Contexts


Credit card stimulus and spending
Credit cards and tipping
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Operant Conditioning





Positive reinforcement
Negative reinforcement
Continuous reinforcement
Partial reinforcement
Shaping
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT
EVENT
POSITIVE
BEHAVIOR
CONDITION APPLIED
CONDITION REMOVED
Positive Reinforcement
Extinction
Effect: Positive event
Strengthens responses
Preceding occurrence.
Learning Process:
consumer learns to
perform responses that
produce positive outcome.
BEHAVIOR
Strengthens
Connections
Punishment
Effect: Negative event
weakens responses that are
followed by negative outcome.
NEGATIVE
BEHAVIOR
Learning Process: Consumer
Learns not to perform
responses leading to
punishment.
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
Effect: Removal of positive event
weakens responses preceding
occurrence.
Learning Process: Consumer
learns that responses no longer
produce positive outcome.
Weaker
Connections
Negative Reinforcement
Effect: Removal of negative event
strengthens responses that allow
avoidance of negative
outcome.
Learning Process: Consumer
Learns to perform responses that
Allow him or her to avoid negative
outcome
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Commercial


Starbucks
Rolling Stones
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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Question


How might marketers for a chain of resorts
like Club Med use partial reinforcement to get
vacationers to stay at their resorts?
How are frequent guest programs related to
this topic?
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
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An Organizational Framework for the Study of Consumer Behavior
Group
Influences
Perception
Learning
and
Memory
Consumer
Research
Market
Segmentation
Consumer
Decision
Making
Beliefs
and
Attitudes
Family
Influences
Personal
Influences
Motivation
and
Emotion
Social Class
Personality
Self-concept,
and Lifestyle
Culture and
Microculture
Adoption
Diffusion
Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors (2008) (c) Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D.
126