Lecture notes
Lecture notes Consumer Psychology
- Module
- Consumer Psychology
- Institution
- University Of Brighton (UoB)
Consumer psychology lecture notes and other info
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Introduction into consumer psychology: Psychology is the study of human behaviour and the processes within us that enable us to do things
o Cognitive: knowledge, information and thinking.
o Affective: Feelings
o Behaviour: What we do
No single theory explains what it is to be human, so psychology has evolved as a discipline that looks
at human behaviour from several different angles.
A consumer is "A person who identifies a need or desire, makes a purchase, or disposes of the
product" (Solomon, 2017, p. 573).
Perception is a cognitive process that uses our mental capacities. It involves perceiving, thinking,
reflecting, and understanding
o How does our psychology interact with our decision-making processes?
o How much is what we choose to buy and own influenced by our psychology?
Social Psychology is the study of how people interact with each other:
o How do we make sense of our social world?
o How does it affect our behaviour?
Why do we need to understand consumer psychology/behaviour?
o Understand Environment
Segmentation
Targeting
Positioning
o Pricing Decisions
o Market Entry Decisions
Advert 1: Scottish green slime ad (2020)
o The advert is kept short and sweet to avoid the audience
losing attention. The main aim of this advert to scare people
aged 18-45 into following social distancing guidelines. The
advert knows not everyone is following them, so they use the gross looking green slime to
highlight what you bring to your loved ones—showing this woman dad while she is looking
at what appears to be her Snapchat story of the night before allows the audience to see
the danger of their actions quickly. The advert plays a lot on the emotions of young people
saying if your family members get COVID-19, it is your fault.
Advert 2: UK track and trace app ad (2020)
o This advert was a lot longer and despite numerous cuts. These cuts help create a sense of
inclusion, showing various people from across the UK. By people showing off their phone
made the app simple, easy and convenient. Asking people about their loved ones also
invoked much emotion from the audience but positive ones.
Key differences (Which is better)
o Advert 1 places the blame specifically on young people framing older members of society
as the victims of young people behaviour
o The tone of advert 2 was objectively more friendly and light-hearted. It almost reassured
the audience that everything will be all right if we had this magic app (advert two did fail to
educate its audience, but COVID-19 has been a thing for a while now)
o Advert 1 had a more direct tone with its audience, whereas because the audience of the
track and trace app is so diverse it felt a lot less personal
Start to understand how insight about different audiences
, what makes us tick is used to decide on campaign messaging and propositions
Cognitive and Habitual Behaviours and Influences
Our brain works in 2 different systems when making decisions (Look at Guest lecture 1)
o System 1 - Automatic
Habitual
Behavioural
Unconscious
Automatic
o System 2 – Reflective
Cognitive
Deliberate
Rational
Sequential
Foote Cone & Belding Grid
Used to highlight the differences in
purchasing decisions
High involvement
o Learn
o Feel
o Do
Low involvement – (e.g. detergents,
FMCG – little interest) – learn, do feel –
TV
The difference is Japan – Gordon
Miracle argued = feel, do, learn –
advertising builds a relationship with
the brand first – please consumer –
build dependency.
Personality & Motivation
Personality is 'the thoughts, emotions, intentions, tendencies and behaviours that a person exhibits
consistency as he or she adapts to the environment (Babin & Harris, 2015)
The 'Big Five' is a consensus theory of five fundamental dimensions of personality: (Tupes, E.C., &
Christal, R.E., 1961)
o Extroversion
Sociability
Assertiveness
o Emotionality
Anxiety
Insecurity
o Agreeableness
Conforming
Helpful to others
o Conscientiousness
Persistence
, Organised
o Openness to experience
Curiosity,
Aesthetic expression
Perspectives on Personality
Consumption is central to how we define and think of ourselves.
Masters are increasingly focusing on matching a consumer's personality to the brand.
We need to consider not only who the consumer currently is but who they aspire to be.
Psychoanalytic Approach
o Freudian Theory
o Personality results from a struggle between inner motives and societal pressures to
follow the rules and expectations, e.g. toxic masculinity stops men from investing in
beauty products the same way that women
Trait Approach
o Personality is the sum of a set of traits or qualities about a person.
o Consumer traits can be used to predict or explain consumption behaviour.
o A trait is defined as a distinguishable characteristic/attribute that describes one's
tendency to act in a relatively consistent manner
Brand Personality
Refers to the 'set of human characteristics associated with a brand' with five dimensions: (Aaker,
1997):
o Competence
o Excitement
o Ruggedness
o Sincerity
o Sophistication
A brand image is the sum of all the perceptions consumers have about the brand, conveyed as a
brand personality
McCann ad agency story (Alsop 1988)
Customers sometimes link personalities/products
low income Southern Women believed that roach killer in plastic trays worked better than that a can
but didn't translate to sales –
It turned out they liked buying the spray in research; they drew pictures of the roaches and wrote
stories about them
They symbolised men who had left them (feeling small/powerless). The spray gave them a way to get
their own back!
Motivation
'The inner reasons or driving forces behind human actions that drive consumers to address real needs'
(Babin & Harris, 2015)
Drive Theory:
o Behaviour is being pushed from within (biological needs) – e.g. eating when hungry –
think Maslow's basic needs
Expectancy Theory:
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