Marketing Communication UvA | 1
Summary Marketing Communication
Theory exam I / part B: the Consumer
Master: Persuasive Communication
Overview literature
Week 4: Consumer-decision making
- Chapter 4
- Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1981)
- Wang, C.-L., Siu, N. Y. M., & Hui, A. S. Y. (2004)
Week 5: Theories and models of information processing and advertising effects
- Chapter 5
- Liu, Y., & Shrum, L. J. (2009)
- Lang, A. (2000)
Week 6: Conscious and subconscious processes
- Chartrand, T. L. (2005)
- Häfner, M., & Trampe, D. (2009)
- Strick, M., Van Baaren, R. B., Holland, R. W., & Van Knippenberg, A. (2009)
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Week 4: Consumer Decision-Making
Belch, G. E., & Belch M. A. (2015). Chapter 4: Perspectives on consumer behaviour, pp
108-138.
Consumer behavior
Consumer behavior = the process and activities people engage in when searching for,
selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services to satisfy
their needs and desires.
The consumer’s purchase decision process (cognitive orientation) is generally viewed as
consisting of stages through which the buyer passes in purchasing a product or service. This
model shows that decision making involves a number of internal psychological processes.
Stages in the consumer decision-making process:
1) Problem/need recognition: the consumer perceives a need and becomes motivated to
solve the problem.
○ The problem recognition stage initiates the subsequent decision processes.
○ A discrepancy exists between what the consumer wants the situation to be like
and what the situation is really like.
○ Sources of problem recognition:
● Out of Stock: consumers use their existing supply of a product and
must replenish their stock.
● Dissatisfaction Problem recognition: is created by the consumer’s
dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs and/or the product or
service being used. For example, something not fitting correctly
anymore.
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● New Needs/Wants: changes in consumers’ lives often result in new
needs and wants, for example a new financial situation.
● Related Products/Purchases: problem recognition can also be
stimulated by the purchase of a product. For example needing a new
charger with your new iPhone.
● Marketer-Induced Problem Recognition: marketers’ actions that
encourage consumers not to be content with their current state or
situation. For example something being out of style.
(1) Novelty-seeking behavior: consumers want to try something
new, even if they are basically satisfied with their regular
brand.
● New Products: when innovative products are introduced and brought
to the attention of consumers.
2) Search for information: consumers begin to search for information needed to make a
purchase decision.
○ Internal search: (begins with) an attempt to scan information stored in
memory to recall past experiences and/or knowledge regarding various
purchase alternatives.
○ External search: internet sources, personal sources, marketer-controlled
(commercial) sources, public sources and personal experience.
3) Evaluation of alternatives: the consumer compares the various brands or products
and services he or she has identified as being capable of solving the consumption
problem and satisfying the needs or motives that initiated the decision process.
○ Evoked set/the consideration set: the various brands identified as purchase
options to be considered during the alternative evaluation process.
● Marketers use advertising to create top-of-mind awareness among
consumers so that their brands are part of the evoked set of their target
audiences.
○ Evaluative Criteria and Consequences: Once consumers have identified an
evoked set and have a list of alternatives, they must evaluate the various
brands.
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● Evaluative criteria: the dimensions or attributes of a product or
service that are used to compare different alternatives. Can be
objective or subjective.
(1) Functional consequences are concrete outcomes of product or
service usage that are tangible and directly experienced by
consumers.
(2) Psychosocial consequences are abstract outcomes that are
more intangible, subjective, and personal, such as how a
product makes you feel or how you think others will view you
for purchasing or using it.
4) Purchase decision: purchase intentions are generally based on a matching of
purchase motives with attributes or characteristics of brands under consideration. A
purchase decision is not the same as an actual purchase. Once a consumer chooses
which brand to buy, he or she must still implement the decision and make the actual
purchase ➔ time delay, because additional decisions may be needed, such as when to
buy, where to buy, and how much money to spend.
5) Post-purchase evaluation: after using the product or service, the consumer compares
the level of performance with expecta- tions and is either satisfied or dissatisfied.
○ Cognitive dissonance: a feeling of psychological tension or postpurchase
doubt that a consumer experiences after making a difficult purchase choice.
● Dissonance is more likely to occur in important decisions where the
consumer must choose among close alternatives (especially if the
unchosen alternative has unique or desirable features that the selected
alternative does not have).
Relevant internal psychological processes:
1) Motivation: the factors that compel a
consumer to take a particular action.
○ The hierarchy of needs theory:
postulates five basic levels of human
needs, arranged in a hierarchy based
on their importance. Lower-level
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needs are an ongoing source of motivation for consumer purchase behavior.
However, since basic physiological needs are met in most developed
countries, marketers often sell products that fill basic physiological needs by
appealing to consumers’ higher-level needs.
○ Psychoanalytic theory: consumers’ motivations for purchasing are often very
complex and unclear to the casual observer — and to the consumers
themselves. Many motives for purchase and/ or consumption may be driven by
deep motives one can determine only by probing the subconscious.
● Motivation Research in Marketing: gain insight into the underlying
causes of consumer behavior. For example via in-depth interviews,
projective techniques, association tests and focus groups.
● Critique on psychoanalytic theory: small sample size, too vague,
because of the emphasis on the unconscious results are difficult if not
impossible to verify, lack of experimental validation.
2) Perception: the process by which an individual receives, selects, organizes, and
interprets information to create a meaningful picture of the world.
○ Marketers are particularly interested in (1) how consumers sense external
information, (2) how they select and attend to various sources of information,
and (3) how this information is interpreted and given meaning.
○ Perception is an individual process; it depends on internal factors such as a
person’s beliefs, experiences, needs, moods, and expectations.
○ Perception involves three distinct processes:
● Sensation: the immediate, direct response of the senses (taste, smell,
sight, touch, and hearing) to a stimulus such as an ad, package, brand
name, or point-of-purchase display.
● Selecting information: psychological inputs explain why people focus
attention on some things and ignore others.
● Interpreting the information: organizing, categorizing, and
interpreting the incoming information ➔ filtering process.
■ Selective perception: occurs as consumers choose whether or
not to make themselves available to information. It may occur
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at the exposure, attention, comprehension, or retention stage of
perception.
■ Mnemonics such as symbols, rhymes, associations, and images
that assist in the learning and memory process are helpful to
remember something.
■ Subliminal perception: the ability to perceive a stimulus that
is below the level of conscious awareness.
3) Attitude formation: an attitude is a consumer’s evaluation of an object (or brand or
company) and represents positive or negative feelings and behavioral tendencies.
○ A multiattribute attitude model views an attitude object, such as a product
or brand, as possessing a number of attributes that provide the basis on which
consumers form their attitudes.
○ Salient beliefs: beliefs concerning specific attributes or consequences that are
activated and form the basis of an attitude.
○ The multiattribute model provides insight into several ways marketers can
influence consumer attitudes, including:
● Increasing or changing the strength or belief rating of a brand on an
important attribute (Colgate Optic White toothpaste has the best
whitening power).
● Changing consumers’ perceptions of the importance or value of an
attribute (Michelin tires provide higher gas mileage and safety).
● Adding a new attribute to the attitude formation process (the product is
environmentally friendly [Clorox Green]).
● Changing perceptions of belief ratings for a competing brand (GM
shows its cars can compete with anyone’s).
