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Samenvatting - Consumer psychology RUG
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This is a summary of all the articles linked to Consumer Psychology. The course is given in the master Marketing Management.
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Consumer psychology samenvatting stofLecture 1
Iyengar, S. & Lepper, M. (2000). When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79 (6), 995-1006.
For a long time, it has been a common idea that having a lot of choice in products is better, and that the human ability
to manage this is infinite. Some research has also found positive effects for having more options. But, this research
examined the difference between 2 and 6 options, which are both relatively small. And also, more and more research
shown there could be difficulties with having a lot of options.
Does having a lot of options to choose from make us happy?
- There is a paradox of choice: consumers dislike having not a lot of options and
are probably not so happy about the outcome. Having a bit more choice is better
(consumers are happier). But too many options are not good for the consumers’
happiness. Parabool.
- Choice overload: when people do not like having a lot of options. When people
have a difficult time making a decision, they are probably less pleased. Because:
o It becomes difficult and stressful to determine which option is best for you.
o As humans, we inherently feel sorrow about the opportunities that we forego.
o Regret the final decision because we do not know which option was best for you.
What did the researchers do in this article?
1. Field study: supermarket. Small stall with products
- Research assistants dressed as employees (confederates)
- Tasting booth with 6 or 24 flavours (manipulation, IV)
- Observer noted number of consumers who approached the table and consumers who did not stop and sampled
jams (dependent variable).
- Interested shoppers received a redeemable coupon (DV)
- Every hour they would change the number of options, to make the conditions in the environment as similar as
possible, so it needed to be on the same day.
2. Lab experiment
- Students could choose between 6 essay topics or 30 essay topics. When you need to choose from 6 different essay
topics you are more motivated to complete the study (74%) then when there are 30 options (60%).
Results of the article:
Attractiveness is higher for the 24 jams, but only 3% purchased the jam. The 6 jams were purchased by 30% of the
consumers. A lot more people were willing to commit to this option.
So, the article found that an extensive array of options can at first seem highly appealing to consumers yet can reduce
their subsequent motivation to purchase the product. Even though consumers presumably shop at this particular store
in part because of the large number of selections available, having "too much" choice seems nonetheless to have
hampered their later motivation to buy and their satisfaction about the product.
Choice overload can leave you dissatisfied with the choice you made, you can have buyer’s remorse (I should have
chosen the other option), or it can lead to behavioral (choice or decision) paralysis (where people are faced with so
many choices that they can’t decide among them and make no choice at all).
Meta analysis on choice overload:
4 conditions under which consumer may experience choice overload:
1. When people don’t have the time and want to make a quick and easy choice
2. When the product is complex (so fewer choices help make a decision)
3. When you don’t have any prior information
4. When the goal is to purchase as opposed to browse.
When dissatisfaction with too much choice becomes likely:
1. Choice set complexity: How are the options organized, is there a dominant option, and what information is
provided about each option? For example, you may have five laptop options to choose from but see 10 pieces of
information about each. Or you may be presented 10 laptop options but only one piece of information about each.
The former is a more complex choice set and is likelier to result in choice overload.
,2. Decision task difficulty: How difficult is the actual act of deciding? Some decisions must be made quickly, like
choosing a meal option from a menu, while others may have much longer time limits or none at all. The lesser
time you have to make a choice the more likely it will lead to choice overload.
3. Preference uncertainty: How much do you already know what you want? The more you know about your
preferences, the easier it is to make a choice. If you have already established that buying a Fairtrade peanut butter
is your most important consideration in choosing a peanut butter jar, for instance, it will be easy to compare
multiple options along this dimension.
4. Decision goal: Are you buying or browsing? What is the ultimate goal of sifting through all of these options? If
the goal is to make a conclusive choice, that may mean considering trade-offs carefully and potentially agonizing
over a decision. If, alternatively, the goal is just to gather information that may help with a future decision—such
as browsing cars or looking at potential rental homes—then choice overload may be less likely.
So how can Marketers help reduce choice overload?
- Provide shoppers with a dominant option. The marketers recommend a view options already that would be a good
fit for you, so you can focus on a small segment.
- Using filters so you can fill out the preferences you already know.
Lecture 2: the self in the marketplace
How does your selfconcept influence your decisions?
What motivates consumers?
The self in the marketplace
- Understanding the self-concept
- How elements of the self-concept drive consumer behavior: political and religious ideologies and cultural
determinants of the self
- Understanding how you can apply this knowledge as marketers.
Who are you? What makes you you?
The self in psychology has a specific term: self-concept. Self-concept is generally thought of as our individual
perceptions of our behavior, identities, abilities, beliefs and unique characteristics – a mental picture of who you are as
a person.
Self-concept theory:
1. On the broadest level: self-concept is the overall idea about who we are and includes cognitive and affective
judgements about ourselves.
2. Concept is multi-dimensional, incorporating our views of ourselves in terms of several different aspects (e.g.,
social, religious, political, spiritual, physical, psychological, etc.);. All different concepts included.
3. It is learned, not inherent. You learn it for example from parents, social environment you grow up with, people
you meet.
4. It is influenced by biological and environmental factors, but social interaction plays a big role as well.
5. Self-concept develops through childhood and early adulthood when it is more easily changed or updated.
6. It can be changed later years. But it is more of an uphill battle since people have established ideas about who they
are.
7. It does not always align with reality. When it does our self-concept is congruent, when it doesn’t our self-concept
is noncongruent.
Ordabayeva, N., & Fernandes, D. (2018). Better or different? How political ideology shapes preferences for
differentiation in the social hierarchy. Journal of Consumer Research, 45(2), 227-250.
How do people differentiate from others using consumer decisions?
The exact choices you make, show something about yourself. The choices are not just functional. The products you
choose have psychological benefits and symbolic values beyond functional utility. So, we need to understand how the
perception of yourself influences the choices for these products.
Paper: two different ways to differentiate yourself from others:
3. Horizontal differentiation: you want to be different from what someone else has already.
4. Vertical: you want to have a better product then someone else.
This differs between political orientation: liberal more horizontal, conservative more vertical.
Purpose of the article:
, Investigate the extent to which political ideology influences consumer desire to differentiate vertically or horizontally
through consumption.
Hypothesis:
- H1: As consumers’ political conservatism (or liberalism) increases, so does their preference for vertically (or
horizontally) differentiating products in the social hierarchy.
- H2: The relationship between consumers’ political ideology and differentiation preferences is mediated by their
beliefs about the legitimacy of the dominance-based hierarchical structure.
Dominance-based hierarchy: you can see difference between people because of money because they work harder
(legitimate), but you can also see the difference as unfair. Conservatives think the social hierarchy is legitimate,
liberals think it is unfair.
If you accept the idea that there are differences between people, it is okay to differentiate yourself vertically from
others. But when you do not accept this idea, you may not want to differentiate vertically, because this is seen as
undesirable.
- Study 1A: two mugs: just better (vertical) and just different (horizontal). If you know as a marketeer how people
differentiate themselves from others, you know how to design your product right.
- Main limitation of the study: you measured all the constructs, but you do not know that political orientation caused
the buying decisions and the other factors. Correlation does not imply causation.
- Study 1C: the independent variable political orientation was manipulated. They made people feel more
conservative or liberal, and there also was an effect. This is a stronger effect.
Why does it matter to know this as a marketeer?
Influences how to position your brand.
1. Ideological differences in responses to traditional marketing communications (advertisements and television
commercials);
2. Effects of political ideology on consumption of branded products and reactions to firms that take an ideological
stand;
3. Ideology and persuasion (e.g., how ideological groups respond to “fake news”);
4. Differences in conceptions of morality among people belonging to different ideological groups, and their impact
on both one’s own consumer behavior and evaluations of others’ behavior;
5. Ideological differences in responses to innovative ideas (e.g., reactions to “incrementally new” vs. “really new”
products);
6. Differences in reactions to a service failure; and
7. Differences in effects of perspective-taking on responses to charitable appeals and other messages with
implications for self vs. others;
Some brands express their political standpoint, which could lead to good or bad reactions. Many brand make
statements, especially on social media, but few are actually contributing to change.
Grewal, L., Wu, E. C., & Cutright, K. M. (2021). Loved As-Is: How God Salience Lowers Interest in Self-
Improvement Products. Journal of Consumer Research.
The religious self:
- Religion is a set of organized beliefs, practices, and systems that most often relate to belief and worship of a
controlling force such as a god or another supernatural being.
- While this is a basic definition, there are many different understandings of what religion is and not all religions are
centered on a belief in a god, gods, or supernatural forces.
How can religion influence consumer behavior?
Macromarketing perspective: religion influences what, how, when, and where marketplace exchange occurs. Religion
can
- prohibit or encourage sales of certain products (e.g., alcohol prohibition, halal/kosher food, consumption of meat);
- limit when a product can be sold (e.g., limited products/sales during holy events/days).
Micromarketing perspective: religion influences consumer core values, which then influences individual consumers
and behaviours in the marketplace. Religion influences
- acquisition (e.g., where one shops, information course sought);
- consumption (e.g., what products one will eat, any blessing or spiritual ritual performed before consumption); and,
- disposal of goods (e.g., views on sustainability, repurposing for the poor).
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