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Summary - Consumer Behavior Articles (BM01MM)
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Summary of all articles from the Consumer Behavior course (BM01MM)
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Braun, K. A. (1999). Postexperience advertising effects on consumer memory.Journal of Consumer Research, 25(4), 319-334.
Main Focus:
The article investigates how postexperience advertising (i.e., advertising consumers are
exposed to after experiencing a product) influences their memories of the product. It
explores whether such advertising can alter consumers' recollections of their actual
experiences.
Key Findings:
1. Memory Distortion:
Postexperience advertising can distort consumers’ memories of their actual experiences with
a product. Consumers might confuse details from the advertisement with their actual
experiences, creating a blended memory of both.
Example:
In one experiment, participants watched a video of a visit to Disneyland. Afterward, they
were shown an advertisement that inaccurately included Bugs Bunny as part of the
Disneyland experience (a character who doesn't belong to the Disney universe). Many
participants, after viewing the ad, incorrectly remembered seeing Bugs Bunny at Disneyland,
even though that was not possible. This shows how postexperience advertising can introduce
false memories and alter actual recollections of an event.
2. Positive Influence of Advertising:
If the postexperience advertisement portrays the product positively, it can lead to enhanced
memories of the product. Consumers may recall their experience as more favorable than it
actually was.
Example:
In another experiment, participants were exposed to positive advertisements after
experiencing a product. Those exposed to ads portraying the product favorably rated their
past experience more positively than participants who were not shown the ad. This example
highlights how advertising can enhance consumers' memories of their experience by
reinforcing positive aspects or embellishing details that weren’t part of the original
experience.
3. Mechanisms of Memory Influence:
- Reconstruction: Consumers often reconstruct memories based on cues from
advertisements.
Example:
Braun found that participants who viewed ads with misleading details, such as changes in
product features, later reconstructed their memories to include those new, advertised
features—even if they didn’t actually encounter them. For example, participants might have
originally seen a car without a sunroof, but after seeing an ad featuring the car with a
sunroof, they incorrectly recalled the car they experienced as having one.
- Source Confusion: Consumers sometimes confuse the source of their memories,
mixing up what they remember from the ad versus what they actually experienced.
Example:
,In one study, participants confused where specific details of their experience originated
from. After watching a product demonstration and then viewing an advertisement, they
sometimes attributed details from the ad to their real-life experience.
4. Experimental Evidence:
Braun conducted experiments showing that participants exposed to misleading
postexperience ads misremembered details about products. For example, they might recall
features of a product they didn’t actually encounter, based on the ad’s content.
Example:
In another study, Braun presented participants with an orange juice taste test. After tasting
the juice, they were shown ads that either positively or negatively described the taste of the
juice. When asked later, participants who saw the positive ad remembered the juice as
tasting better than those who saw the negative ad, showing how postexperience advertising
can skew consumers' recollection of the product's quality.
Implications for Marketing:
The findings suggest that marketers can strategically use postexperience advertising to
reinforce positive experiences or even alter consumers’ memories of less favorable
encounters. However, there are ethical considerations regarding the manipulation of
consumer memory.
Practical Takeaways:
- Consumers are vulnerable to memory alteration after product experiences,
particularly when exposed to emotionally compelling or vivid advertising.
- Advertisements do more than just remind people of past experiences; they can
reshape how those experiences are remembered.
Conclusion:
Postexperience advertising is a powerful tool that can significantly influence how consumers
remember their product experiences, often distorting or enhancing memories in favor of the
advertised message.
This article contributes to the understanding of consumer memory processes and shows that
marketing can extend beyond influencing preferences to actually reshaping past experiences.
,John, D. R., Loken, B., Kim, K., & Monga, A. B. (2006). Brand concept maps: A
methodology for identifying brand association networks. Journal of Marketing
Research, 43(4), 549-563.
Main Focus:
The article introduces Brand Concept Maps (BCM) as a new methodology for identifying and
visually representing the brand association networks held by consumers. The goal is to better
understand how consumers organize and associate various elements related to a brand,
offering marketers a clearer picture of a brand’s mental representation in consumers' minds.
Key Concepts:
1. Brand Association Networks:
Consumers hold multiple associations about brands in their minds, such as attributes
(e.g., quality), emotions (e.g., trust), or imagery (e.g., luxury). These associations are
often interconnected, forming a network of ideas that define how consumers perceive
a brand.
Example:
The authors conducted a study using the brand McDonald’s to demonstrate how consumers’
brand associations are organized into networks. For McDonald’s, common associations
included attributes like “fast service,” “cheap food,” and “fun for kids.” These associations
were not isolated but interconnected in a network, with some being more strongly linked to
each other (e.g., “fun for kids” was closely connected to “Happy Meals”).
2. Brand Concept Maps (BCM):
The BCM methodology is a graphical tool that helps capture these networks by
visualizing the associations and their strength. This method gathers input from
multiple consumers, combining their individual brand association maps into a
collective representation of how a brand is perceived.
Example:
In the BCM methodology, participants were asked to create individual maps of their brand
associations for brands like McDonald’s or Nike. For instance, a participant might list
associations like “athletic,” “Michael Jordan,” and “expensive” for Nike and then link these
concepts based on how they perceive the relationships between them. These individual maps
were then aggregated to create a consensus map, highlighting the associations that most
consumers shared and how closely these associations were connected.
Key Methodological Features:
1. Data Collection Process:
- Participants are asked to list all the associations they have with a brand.
- They then draw connections between those associations, indicating the
strength and importance of each connection.
- Researchers aggregate these individual maps to create a consensus brand
concept map, representing the broader consumer perspective.
Example:
In the study, participants were instructed to list all the associations they had with a brand
like McDonald’s and then draw lines between the associations, indicating the strength of
each connection. For instance, “Happy Meal” might be directly linked to “children” and
“toys,” while “cheap” could be linked to “affordable meals” and “value.”
, The researchers used these individual inputs to construct a collective brand concept map for
McDonald’s, revealing that attributes like “family,” “children,” and “value” were dominant
associations in consumers’ minds.
2. Visual Representation:
- The brand associations are displayed as nodes
(representing different associations like product
attributes or emotional responses), while the links
between the nodes reflect how closely related they
are in consumers’ minds.
- Thicker links represent stronger associations, and
clustered nodes show associations that are closely
tied together.
Example:
For McDonald’s, the consensus map revealed clusters of associations, such as one cluster
connecting “children,” “Happy Meals,” “toys,” and “fun,” and another linking “value,”
“cheap,” and “fast service.” The thicker lines between certain nodes (e.g., between “Happy
Meals” and “children”) represented stronger associations, indicating that these concepts
were more strongly linked in consumers’ minds.
Findings and Applications:
1. Insight into Consumer Perception:
By using BCM, companies can gain detailed insights into how different consumer
groups perceive their brand and how various associations are connected in
consumers’ minds. For instance, a brand might discover that its strongest
associations are with reliability and trustworthiness, and these are more
interconnected with product quality than with price.
Example:
In comparing Nike and Reebok, the authors showed how Nike had stronger associations with
“innovation” and “top athletes,” while Reebok was more associated with “comfort” and
“affordability.” These different networks of associations provided insight into how
consumers differentiated the two brands based on their unique brand concepts and
associations.
2. Brand Positioning and Strategy:
- Companies can use BCM to adjust their branding strategies If a company
wants to strengthen a particular association (e.g., luxury), it can focus its
marketing efforts on increasing the links between that attribute and others
(e.g., exclusivity, prestige).
- BCM also helps in identifying undesirable associations or gaps in the brand’s
perceived network, guiding companies in reshaping their communication to
align with desired consumer perceptions.
Example:
The study illustrated how brand managers could use BCM to reshape brand strategy. For
instance, if McDonald’s wanted to strengthen its association with health-conscious
consumers, it could aim to introduce new associations (e.g., “healthy meals”) and create
stronger links between those new associations and existing positive concepts (e.g., “family”
and “value”).
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