Consumer Psychology:
Retrospect and Prospect
Hans Baumgartner
Penn State University
Consumer Psychology
Overview
 Retrospect
□
□
Influential streams of research in consumer
psychology (1956-2007)
Types of influential articles
 Prospect
□
□
Consumer psychology in the third millennium
Examples of recent research originating in the
substantive, conceptual and methodological
domains
Consumer Psychology
Which research streams and articles
have had an impact?
 Citation analysis (based on SSCI) for all articles published in
(1974-2007),
(1964-2007), and
(1956-2007)
 For articles published since 1974:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
Total # of
articles
Total # of
citations
(2) ÷ (1)
# of
articles
cited ≥ 100
# of
citations of
articles
cited ≥ 100
(4) ÷ (1)
(5) ÷ (2)
JCR
1,503
58,232
39
125
22,285
8%
38%
JMR
1,646
57,966
35
112
23,512
7%
41%
JM
1,374
58,279
42
150
32,373
11%
56%
Overall
4,523
174,477
39
387
78,170
9%
45%
Consumer Psychology
Categorization of influential articles
 Articles were classified using the scheme shown on
the next slide;
 Articles in
,
, and
were categorized;
 Articles with at least 100 citations are shown (the
number of citations follows each article), although
articles with a smaller number of citations were also
classified;
 Articles reporting empirical studies are underlined;
Consumer Psychology
Categorization of research streams
Marketing influences
•
•
•
•
Psychological
foundation
• Cognition
• Affect
• Motivation &
personality
Product programs
Price programs
Marketing communication programs
Distribution programs
The purchase
process
• Types of purchase
behavior
• Decision making and
choice
• The consumption
experience
• Post-purchase
processes
Environmental
influences
• Physical environmental influences
• Social environmental influences
Consumer Psychology
Psychological foundation research:
Cognition
 Consumer knowledge, expertise and familiarity
Alba and Hutchinson (1987)
 Consumer memory
Lynch and Srull (1982)
 Consumer inferences
Meyer (1981)
Kardes (1988)
, Huber and McCann (1982)
, Folkes (1988)
 Imagery processing
MacInnis and Price (1987)
 Consumer learning
Hoch and Ha (1986)
, Johnson and Russo (1984)
Hoch and Deighton (1989) 165
,
,
Consumer Psychology
Psychological foundation research:
Affect
 Mood
□
Gardner (1985)
 Consumption emotions
□
Richins (1997)
Consumer Psychology
Psychological foundation research:
Motivation & personality
 Perceived risk
□
Roselius (1971) 118
 Involvement
□
Conceptual essays: Bloch and Richins (1983) 129 , Greenwald and Leavitt
(1984)
□
Scales: Zaichkowsky (1985)
, Laurent and Kapferer (1985)
□ Effects on attention and comprehension: Celsi and Olson (1988)
 Psychographics and values
□
Psychographics: Wells (1975)
□ Materialism: Belk (1985)
, Richins and Dawson (1992)
Consumer Psychology
Psychological foundation research:
Motivation & personality (cont’d)
 Purchasing motives
□
Shopping motives: Tauber (1972) 108
□ Means-end chains: Gutman (1982) 195
 Consumer personality
□
□
Review of theories: Kassarjian (1971) 128
Innovativeness: Midgley and Dowling (1978)
, Hirschman (1980)
Dickerson and Gentry (1983)
□
Scales: Raju (1980)
, Shimp and Sharma (1987) 152 , Bearden,
Netemeyer, and Teel (1989)
 The self
□
Self-concept: Sirgy (1982)
□ Products as social stimuli: Solomon (1983)
□ Possessions and the extended self: Belk (1988)
,
Consumer Psychology
The purchase process
 Types of purchase behavior:
□
Hedonic consumption: Holbrook and Hirschman (1982)
, Hirschman and
Holbrook (1982)
□
Utilitarian/hedonic shopping value: Babin, Darden, and Griffin (1994)
□ Variety seeking: McAlister and Pessemier (1982)
□ Impulsive and compulsive buying: Rook (1987)
, O’Guinn and Faber
(1989)
 Decision making and choice:
□
Consumer search

Amount of search: Newman and Staelin (1972)
, Brucks (1985)
Smith (1987)

, Punj and Staelin (1983)
, Bloch, Sherrell, and Ridgway (1986)
, Beatty and
Information overload: Jacoby, Speller, and Berning (1974)
Speller, and Kohn (1974)
, Malhotra (1982)
, Jacoby,
Consumer Psychology
The purchase process (cont’d)
 Decision making and choice (cont’d):
□
Preference formation:




Multi-attribute model: Wilkie and Pessemier (1973)
Affective influences: Zajonc and Markus (1982)
Schemas: Sujan (1985)
, Meyers-Levy and Tybout (1989)
Time-inconsistent preferences and affect vs. cognition in choice:
Hoch and Loewenstein (1991)

□
, Shiv and Fedorikhin (1999)
Pioneering advantage: Carpenter and Nakamoto (1989)
The decision making process:

Decision-making strategies and constructive choice processes:
Wright (1975)
, Bettman and Kakkar (1977)
Olshavsky (1979)
, Bettman and Park (1980)
(1981)
, Bettman, Luce, and Payne (1998)



, Lussier and
, Park and Lessig
, Luce (1998)
Lack of decision making: Olshavsky and Granbois (1979)
Cost of thinking: Shugan (1980)
Noncomparable alternatives:
Johnson (1984)
, Bettman and Sujan (1987)
Consumer Psychology
The purchase process (cont’d)
 Decision making and choice (cont’d):

Consideration sets:
Nedungadi (1990)
□
, Hauser and Wernerfelt (1990)
Consumer choice:


Memory-based choice: Lynch, Marmorstein, and Weigold (1988)
Attraction and compromise effects:
Huber, Payne and Puto (1982)
, Huber and Puto (1983)
(1989)
, Simonson and Tversky (1992)

Regret and choice deferral: Simonson (1992)
, Simonson
, Dhar (1997)
 Post-purchase processes
□
Consumer satisfaction




Expectations: Cardozo (1965)
, Anderson (1973)
ED models: Oliver (1980)
, Churchill and Surprenant (1982)
Repurchase and switching: LaBarbera and Mazursky (1983)
Alternative comparison standards:
Cadotte, Woodruff, and Jenkins (1987)
, Tse and Wilton (1988)
Consumer Psychology
The purchase process (cont’d)
 Post-purchase processes (cont’d)
□
Consumer satisfaction (cont’d)





Equity theory: Oliver and Swan (1989)
, Oliver and Swan (1989)
Comparison of theories: Oliver and DeSarbo (1988)
Desires congruency: Spreng, MacKenzie, and Olshavsky (1996)
Positive/negative performance: Mittal, Ross, and Baldasare (1998)
Affective influences:
Westbrook (1987)
, Westbrook and Oliver (1991)
, Mano and Oliver (1993)

□
Satisfaction indices: Fornell (1992)
, Fornell et al. (1996)
Satisfaction, loyalty, and repurchase
Oliver (1999)
(2001)
□
, Oliver (1993)
, Garbarino and Johnson (1999)
, Mittal and Kamakura
Consequences of dissatisfaction
Bearden and Teel (1983)
, Richins (1983)
, Folkes (1984)
Consumer Psychology
Environmental influences
 Situational influences
Belk (1975)
, Milliman (1982)
 Adoption of innovation
Gatignon and Robertson (1985)
(1999)
, Steenkamp, ter Hofstede, and Wedel
 Interpersonal influences
□
WOM influence: Arndt (1967)
, Brown and Reingen (1987)
Kardes, and Kim (1991)
□
Reference group influence: Bearden and Etzel (1982)
□ Market mavens: Feick and Price (1987)
 Household and group decision making
Davis and Rigaux (1974)
, Davis (1976)
 Consumer socialization
Ward (1974)
, Herr,
Consumer Psychology
Marketing influences: Product programs
 Quality and value
□
Expectations and quality: Olshavsky and Miller (1972)
□ Quality, price, and value: Zeithaml (1988)
□ Extrinsic cues: Rao and Monroe (1988)
, Rao and Monroe (1989)
,
Dodds, Monroe, and Grewal (1991)
□
Corporate associations: Brown and Dacin (1997)
 Brands, brand equity, and brand relationships
□
Brand concept management: Park, Jaworski, and MacInnis (1986)
□ Brand equity: Keller (1993)
□ Brand personality: Aaker (1997)
□ Brand relationships: Fournier (1998)
 Brand extension
Aaker and Keller (1990)
, Boush and Loken (1991)
, Park, Milberg, and
Lawson (1991)
, Keller and Aaker (1992)
, Loken and John (1993)
,
Broniarczyk and Alba (1994)
Consumer Psychology
Marketing influences: Product programs
 The service encounter and servicescapes
□
Service encounter: Solomon and Surprenant (1985)
Solomon (1987)
, Surprenant and
, Arnould and Price (1993)
□
Servicescapes: Bitner (1990)
, Bitner (1992)
□ Crowding and delays: Hui and Bateson (1991)
, Taylor (1994)
 Service quality, value, satisfaction and loyalty
□
SERVQUAL: Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1985)
(1989)
, Cronin and Taylor (1992)
, Teas (1993)
Zeithaml, and Berry (1994)
, Cronin and Taylor (1994)
and Parasuraman (1996)
□
Dynamic models: Bolton and Drew (1991)
Boulding, Kalra, Staelin, and Zeithaml (1993)
□
, Brown and Swartz
, Parasuraman,
, Zeithaml, Berry,
, Bolton and Drew (1991)
, Bolton and Lemon (1999)
Critical incidents: Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault (1990)
, Keaveney (1995)
, Meuter, Ostrom, Roundtree, and Bitner (2000)
□
,
Failure, complaints, recovery, trust and loyalty: Tax, Brown, and
Chandrashekaran (1998)
, Smith, Bolton, and Wagner (1999)
Sirdeshmukh, Singh, and Sabol (2002)
,
Consumer Psychology
Marketing influences: Price programs
 Price knowledge
Dickson and Sawyer (1990)
 Price perception and reference prices
□
Price perception: Monroe (1973)
□ Reference prices: Winer (1986)
(1988)
, Urbany, Bearden, and Weilbaker
, Grewal, Monroe, and Krishnan (1998)
 Unit prices
Russo (1977)
 Price-oriented sales promotions
□
Loyalty and brand switching: Dodson, Tybout, and Sternthal (1978)
□ Deal-prone consumers: Blattberg, Buesing, Peacock, and Sen (1978)
Blattberg, Eppen, and Lieberman (1981)
□
Promotion signals: Inman, McAlister and Hoyer (1990)
,
Consumer Psychology
Marketing influences: Advertising programs
 Advertising in general
Resnik and Stern (1977)
, Pollay (1986)
, Richins (1991)
 Information processing of ads
MacInnis and Jaworski (1989)
, MacInnis, Moorman, and Jaworski (1991)
 Information processing of pictures in ads
Edell and Staelin (1983)
Houston (1984)
, Kisielius and Sternthal (1984)
, Childers and
 Affect in advertising
Gorn (1982)
, Aaker,Stayman, and Hagerty (1986)
, Batra and Ray (1986)
, Edell and Burke (1987)
, Holbrook and Batra (1987)
, Goldberg and
Gorn (1987)
, Burke and Edell (1989)
 Attitude toward the ad
Mitchell and Olson (1981)
, MacKenzie, Lutz, and Belch (1986)
, Mitchell
(1986)
, MacKenzie and Lutz (1989)
, Brown and Stayman (1992)
Consumer Psychology
Marketing influences: Advertising programs
 Attitudes and persuasion
□
□
□
□
□
□
Hierarchy of effects: Lavidge and Steiner (1961)
Expectancy-value model: Lutz (1975)
Cognitive responses: Wright (1973)
, Wright (1980)
ELM: Petty, Cacioppo, and Schumann (1983)
, Park and Young (1986)
Framing: Levin and Gaeth (1988)
, Maheswaran and Meyers-Levy (1990)
Persuasion knowledge model: Friestad and Wright (1994)
 Attitudes and behavior
□
Fishbein model and alternatives: Ryan and Bonfield (1975)
(1982)
(1988)
□
, Shimp and Kavas (1984)
, Bagozzi and Warshaw (1990)
, Bagozzi
, Sheppard, Hartwick, and Warshaw
Direct experience: Smith and Swinyard (1983)
(1989)
, Fazio, Powell, and Williams
Consumer Psychology
Marketing influences:
Personal selling and distribution programs
 Buyer-seller relationships
Schurr and Ozanne (1985)
, Crosby and Stephens (1987)
, Crosby and Evans (1990)
 Electronic shopping
Alba et al. (1997)
, Hoffman and Novak (1996)
Consumer Psychology
Miscellaneous research in JCR
 Cultural/interpretive papers
Sherry (1983)
, McCracken (1986)
, Belk, Wallendorf, and Sherry (1989)
, Mick (1986)
, Belk, Sherry, and Wallendorf (1988)
, Wallendorf and
Arnould (1988)
, McCracken (1989)
, Mick and Buhl (1992)
, Celsi,
Rose, and Leigh (1993)
, Schouten and McAlexander (1995)
, Firat and
Venkatesh (1995)
, Muniz and O’Guinn (2001)
 Methodological papers


Conjoint analysis: Green and Srinivasan (1978)
, Green (1974)
SEM: Gerbing and Anderson (1984)
, Steenkamp and Baumgartner
(1998)

, Jarvis, MacKenzie, and Podsakoff (2003)
Qualitative approaches: Kassarjian (1977)
Pollio (1989)

, Kolbe and Burnett (1991)
, Thompson, Locander, and
, Spiggle (1994)
Other papers: Calder, Phillips, and Tybout (1981)
(1987)
, Peter, Churchill, and Brown (1993)
, Blair and Burton
, Peterson (1994)
Consumer Psychology
Proportion of total citations accounted for by
different areas and journals
JCR
JMR
JM
All
Psychological Foundations
12
2
2
17
Prepurchase processes
15
3
1
19
Postpurchase processes
3
6
4
12
Environmental influences
3
0
1
4
Product programs
3
4
17
23
Price programs
1
1
1
4
Advertising programs
10
4
3
17
Distribution programs
0
0
3
3
48
21
31
100
Total
Consumer Psychology
Types of influential articles
 Methodological articles:
□
New methodological techniques and procedures
(e.g., Fornell and Larcker 1981; Thompson, Locander, and Pollio
1989; Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault 1990)
□
Guidelines on how to use particular techniques and
procedures
(e.g., Green and Srinivasan 1978; Kassarjian 1977; Steenkamp
and Baumgartner 1998; Calder, Phillips, and Tybout 1981)
□
Syntheses of research evidence on a particular technique
(e.g., Peterson 1994)
Consumer Psychology
Types of influential articles (cont’d)
 Conceptual articles:
□
New perspective/idea essays
(e.g., Lavidge and Steiner 1961; Holbrook and Hirschman 1982;
Zajonc and Markus 1982; Belk 1988; Friestad and Wright 1994)
□
Minitheories of particular substantive phenomena
(e.g., Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry 1985; Zeithaml 1988; Keller
1993; Fornell et al. 1996)
□
Analytical frameworks
(e.g., Shugan 1980; Hauser and Wernerfelt 1990)
□
Propositional reviews of a research area
(e.g., Gatignon and Robertson 1985; Alba and Hutchinson 1987;
Bettman, Luce, and Payne 1998)
□
Quantitative and qualitative syntheses of research evidence
(e.g., Sheppard, Hartwick, and Warshaw 1988; Gardner 1985; Wilkie
and Pessemier 1973)
Consumer Psychology
Types of influential articles (cont’d)
 Empirical articles:
□
Studies that introduce a new concept, effect, or model



□
Studies that test, extend, or challenge prior concepts, effects,
or models



□
Petty, Cacioppo, and Schumann (1983)
Sujan (1985); Simonson and Tversky (1992)
Cronin and Taylor (1992)
Studies in popular research areas

□
Mitchell and Olson (1981); Winer (1986); Aaker and Keller (1990);
Fournier (1998)
Huber, Payne, and Puto (1982); Simonson (1989)
Oliver (1980); MacKenzie, Lutz, and Belch (1986)
Bettman and Park (1980); Brucks (1985); Edell and Burke (1987); Celsi
and Olson (1988)
Scale development studies

Zaichkowsky (1985); Richins and Dawson (1992)
Consumer Psychology
Consumer psychology in the
third millennium
 Fragmentation of the field
□
Behavioral, managerial and quantitative
□ Positivistic vs. interpretive
□ BDT vs. information processing/social cognition
 Many empirical findings – few integrative theories
 Some personal thoughts on needed research
□
□
What we don’t need more of
What we need more of
Consumer Psychology
What we don’t need more of
 Phenomenon-, theory-, and method-of-the-month
papers
 Preoccupation with esoteric phenomena, theories,
and methods
 Counter-intuitive or theory-inconsistent findings that
are not germane to consumer behavior
 Studies that are more relevant to a foundational
discipline than to consumer behavior and marketing
Consumer Psychology
What we need more of
 CB-relevant substantive phenomena as the starting
point of research
 Greater concern with ecologically valid manipulations,
measures, and research settings
 Contextualized theories of the middle range that
integrate empirical findings
□
□
□
ELM
Extended ED model of consumer satisfaction
GAP model of service quality
Consumer Psychology
The purchase cube
Deliberate purchases
Spontaneous purchases
High purchase
involvement
Low purchase
involvement
Functional Psycho-social
purchases
purchases
Based on Baumgartner (2002, forthcoming)
Consumer Psychology
The purchase cube (cont’d)
Deliberate purchases
Spontaneous purchases
Promotional Exploratory
purchase
purchase
behavior
behavior
Casual
purchase
behavior
Extended
purchase
decision
making
Symbolic
purchase
behavior
Repetitive
purchase
behavior
Hedonic
purchase
behavior
Impulsive
purchase
behavior
Based on Baumgartner (2002, forthcoming)
Consumer Psychology
Recent research streams
 Substantively-motivated research
□
□
□
Price fairness
The mere-measurement effect
Other examples
 Conceptually-motivated research
□
□
Promotion and prevention focus
Other examples
 Methodologically-motivated research
□
□
Consumer neuroscience
Implicit association test
Consumer Psychology
Price fairness as a prototype of recent
substantively-motivated research
 Price fairness as a “consumer’s assessment and associated emotions
of whether the difference (or lack of difference) between a seller’s
price and the price of a comparative other party is reasonable,
acceptable, or justifiable” (Xia, Monroe, and Cox 2004; see also
Bolton, Warlop, and Alba 2003)
 Xia et al. (2004) list 21 studies relevant to price fairness (including
research outside marketing and non-price research);
 Consumer perception of price fairness is a topic uniquely suited to
consumer research;
 Rich literature base related to fairness in other areas;
 Potential for theory building in the pricing area is huge;
 Implications for pricing management are substantial;
Consumer Psychology
The mere-measurement effect as a prototype of
recent substantively-motivated research
 Asking questions about future behavior can change the
behavior in question;
 Morwitz, Johnson, and Schmittlein (1993) showed that asking
respondents once whether they planned to buy an automobile
(PC) in the next 6 months increased the incidence of
purchase by 37 (18) percent;
 Similar results for voting, volunteering, recycling, etc.
 Theoretical explanations include increased accessibility of
attitudes, avoidance of dissonance, etc.
 Fitzsimons and Moore (2008) discuss the implications of this
research for screening adolescents for risky behaviors such
as drug and alcohol use or sexual behaviors;
Consumer Psychology
Other substantively-motivated
research developments
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
New marketing technologies (internet recommendation systems, online communities, design of web pages, virtual product experiences,
customization, self-service technologies)
Customer relationship management
Financial consequences of satisfaction
Cross-cultural consumer behavior
Really new products
Brand communities
Identity signaling
Sales promotion (loyalty and frequency programs)
Product assortments
Transformative consumer behavior and consumer welfare
Corporate social responsibility and consumer boycotts
Consumer Psychology
Regulatory focus theory as a prototype of
recent conceptually-motivated research
 Two types of regulatory focus (Higgins 2002):
□
□
Promotion focus as self-regulation w/r/t the presence or
absence of positive outcomes; concern with ideals and
accomplishments; preferred means of goal attainment
is eagerness; emotional reactions of cheerfulness and
dejection;
Prevention focus as self-regulation w/r/t the presence or
absence of negative outcomes and a concern with
oughts and security; preferred means of goal attainment
is vigilance; emotional reactions of quiescence and
agitation;
Consumer Psychology
Other conceptually-motivated
research developments
□
□
□
□
□
□
The unconscious consumer and automaticity (Bargh
2002; Dijksterhuis et al. 2005)
Self-control and ego-depletion (Baumeister et al. 2008;
Vohs and Faber 2007);
Construal Level Theory (Trope, Liberman and Wakslak
2007)
Terror management (Arndt, Solomon, Kasser, and
Sheldon 2004)
Metacognitive experiences (Schwarz 2004)
Regret theory (Zeelenberg and Pieters 2007)
Consumer Psychology
Consumer neuroscience as a prototype of
recent methodologically-motivated research
 In the brand personality literature, humanlike traits
are ascribed to brands;
 Yoon et al. (2006) investigated, using fMRI, whether
trait judgments about people and products (both
self-relevant and nonself-relevant) are processed in
similar regions of the brain;
 the findings indicated that brand personality was
processed differently from human personality;
Consumer Psychology
IAT as a prototype of recent
methodologically-motivated research
 IAT as a measure of implicit consumer social
cognition (Brunel, Tietje, and Greenwald, 2004);
 Useful when people are unable (e.g., because of
lack of conscious awareness) or unwilling (e.g.,
because of social desirability concerns) to reveal
their opinions;
 Disguised, unstructured procedure for assessing the
strength of automatic associations between
concepts (e.g., brand attitudes, consumer-brand
relationships, attitudes toward ethnic spokespeople
in ads);
Consumer Psychology
JCP as the outlet for “extraordinary ideas”
about consumer psychology
 CW Park suggests the following under-researched
areas:
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
The role of learning in consumer behavior
Aesthetic experience in consumption
Perspectives on consumers’ cognitive flexibility beyond the
cognitive miser view
Hedonic consumption
Consumers’ relationships with brands
Culture and consumer psychology
Neuroscience approaches
Temporal interdependencies between purchase and
consumption activities
Joint decision making of users, deciders, disposers, and
purchasers
Consumer Psychology
Additional readings
 Haugtvedt, Curtis P., Paul M Herr, and Frank R.
Kardes, eds. (2008), Handbook of Consumer
Psychology, New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum.
 Loken Barbara (2006), “Consumer Psychology:
Categorization, Inferences, Affect, and Persuasion,”
Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 453-485.
 Simonson, Itamar, Ziv Carmon, Ravi Dhar, Aimee
Drolet, and Stephen M. Nowlis (2001), “Consumer
Research: In Search of Identity,” Annual Review of
Psychology, 52, 249-275.
Consumer Psychology
The three domains of research
(Brinberg and McGrath 1985; Lutz 1989)
Substantive
domain
Conceptual
domain
Methodological
domain
Consumer Psychology
ELM as a prototype of conceptuallymotivated research
persuasive
communication
nature of cognitive processing ?
motivation
to process ?
yes
no
ability
to process ?
no
yes
favorable
thoughts
predominate
yes
peripheral
cue present ?
central positive
attitude change
neither or
neutral thoughts
predominate
unfavorable
thoughts
predominate
yes
central negative
attitude change
yes
peripheral
attitude shift
yes
Based on Petty and Cacioppo (1986)
Consumer Psychology
ELM (cont’d)
 Conceptually sophisticated theory of the middle
range that integrates many disparate persuasion
findings;
 Useful mental model for thinking about persuasion
problems in practice – variables can influence the
extent and direction of attitude change by:
□
□
□
serving as persuasive arguments (e.g., weak vs. strong
arguments);
serving as peripheral cues (e.g., source expertise or
attractiveness, number of arguments);
affecting the extent and direction of message elaboration (e.g.,
involvement as a determinant of motivation to process and
distraction as a determinant of ability to process);
Consumer Psychology
American Customer Satisfaction Index
(Fornell et al. 1996)
customer
expectations
customer
complaints
perceived
value
perceived
quality
customer
satisfaction
customer
loyalty
Consumer Psychology
The GAPS model
C
O
N
S
U
M
E
R
M
A
R
K
E
T
E
R
WOM
Personal Needs
Past Experience
Expected Service
GAP 5
Perceived Service
GAP 1
External
Communication
to Consumers
Service Delivery
GAP 3
GAP 4
Translation of Mgmt.
Perceptions into SQ specs
GAP 2
Management Perceptions
of Consumer Expectations
Consumer Psychology
Purchase motives underlying the
purchase cube
comparison
price
sale
logic
quality
value
problemsolving
utilitarian
variety
senses
fashion
social
approval
status
image
style
reputation
emotion
performance
change
curiosity
trial
fun
time pressure
convenience
feelgood
unplanned
impulse
random
replacement
brand name
w ant
preference
mindless
thoughtless
satisfaction
past purchase
routine
familiarity
loyalty
usual
habit
liking
personality
self-esteem
Consumer Psychology
Price fairness as a prototype of recent
substantively-motivated research
 Bolton, Warlop, and Alba (2003) show that
□
□
□
Consumers underestimate the effects of inflation and attribute
rising prices to vendor price gouging;
Consumers attribute price differences across competitors more to
profit than cost; even when profits are equal, cost differences
matter (e.g., quality differences are considered fair, use of a margin
strategy as unfair);
Consumers have poor mental models of a firm’s cost structure;
less salient costs (with the exception of COGS) are often ignored
and perceptions of profit margins are too high; certain costs (e.g.,
promotional costs) are deemed unfair;
Consumer Psychology
Schematic representation of the IAT
Man United or Pleasant
√
Chelsea or Unpleasant
Love
Χ
Χ
Χ
√
Vomit
√
√
Χ
Man United or Unpleasant
Chelsea or Pleasant
Χ
Freedom
Χ
√
√
√
√
Sickness
Χ
Χ