CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Course Summary
Note
Please note that while these notes do follow the Lecture &
Tutorial Schedule, they have been moved up and down in certain
areas to ensure clarity. It is designed to help understand the
concept as well as answer questions that may pop up in the exam.
Some parts may be more concise than you expect.
Oscar Wilde
,Lecture 1: Consumer Behavior
Definition of Consumer Behavior
Short Definition: The decisions people make in their roles as consumers
Long Definition: (Hoyer et. Al 2018) The totality of decisions (whether, what, why,
how, when, where) about the consumption (acquisition, usage, disposal) of an offering
(products, services, activities, experiences, people, ideas) by decision making units
(Information gatherer, influencer, decision maker, purchases, user) over time.
The Psychological Core
Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and behavior.
In terms of consumer behavior, we are interested in the psychological process that
occurs in our mind that drives us from exposure to stimuli to actions / responses in
the consumption setting.
Model of Human Information Processing
Sensation (Sense)
Sensation is a neurological or bio-chemical process. When a signal comes in, we have
specific areas in the brain where there are receptors which are then processed.
We have 5 basic senses.
VISUAL AUDITORY OLFACTORY GUSTOTORY HAPTIC
See Hear Smell Taste Touch
ARTICLE 101 – Krishna (2011) – Sensory Marketing
Definition of Sensory Marketing (Krishna 2011):
Marketing that engages the consumers’ sense and affects their perception, judgement,
and behavior.
,Question: Isn’t all marketing sensory marketing since it must enter our brain through
one of our senses? Yes, but by definition, sensory marketing is marketing stimuli
that engages the senses (hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, seeing) in a
subconscious way. It has an impact on consumer behavior without the consumer being
aware of it.
HAPTICS: Touch
• First sense we develop in the womb and last sense you lose with age.
• Touch creates a sense of interpersonal connection.
• Interpersonal touch is related to oxytocin, which promotes feelings of love,
social bonding, and well-being. And people who receive interpersonal touch -
Leave higher tips / More satisfied / comply with request to sample or buy / take
their medications / help / let others cut in line.
• Touching products:
o Touching an object increases perceived ownership of that object.
o Increase in psychological ownership magnifies the endowment effect –
assignation of a value to a product (higher).
o Studies show that even touching / scrolling products on touchscreens has
this effect compared to doing it on a laptop / desktop without ‘touching’.
OLFACTORY (Smell):
• Memory for scents persist much longer than other senses.
• Scent receptors are much more in number and development.
• Memories triggered by scent are emotional.
• Direct connection between the olfactory nerve and the Amygdala (emotion engine)
and Hippocampus (memory engine).
• Scent increases memory for associated information.
• Scents can enhance product and store evaluations.
• Scents can enhance shopping time and variety seeking.
o Scent Diffusers in shopping centers – scent marketing (or odour control)
• Scent Marketing:
o Smell of fresh bread in supermarket / popcorn in cinema – used to create
an ambiance and increase sales.
o Fresh linen – crisp and clean – fitness facilities, motels.
o Leather – feeling of opulence – Luxury brands
o Vanilla – elevates mood – performance & entertainment venues
o Lavender – promotes relaxation – spas, salons.
o Lemongrass – invigorates and energizes – hotels and casinos.
AUDITORY (Hearing):
• We attach meaning to sounds.
o Crispy means fresh – crisps, corn flakes, etc.
o VW adding a ‘soundaktor’ in Electric cars to mimic regular cars.
• Sounds & Marketing
o Sound Logos: Netflix / Dolby Surround to create associations – such as
entertainment, happiness.
o Priming through sound: German vs. French music to create preference for
German vs. French wines.
GUSTOTORY (Taste):
, • Least developed sense.
VISUAL (Seeing):
• We attach meaning to colors through learned associations and biological
predispositions.
• Colors in Marketing (Labreque & Milne 2012):
o Red – Energy, Passion, Appetite
§ JD’s work on the color RED:
§ https://myscp.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1016/j.jcps.2016.0
4.004
o Yellow – Clarity, Warmth, Optimism
o Orange – Friendly, Cheerful, Enthusiasm
o Blue – Peace, Security
o Green – Health, Nature, Wealth
o Purple – Wisdom, Royalty, Creativity.
Perception
How does the human mind interpret signals from the senses? It is possible that the
sensory signal may be the same, but our mind interprets it differently based on our
perception.
Bottom-up processing is an explanation for
perceptions that start with an incoming stimulus
and working upwards until a representation of the
object is formed in our minds. This process
suggests that our perceptual experience is based
entirely on the sensory stimuli that we piece
together using only data that is available from
our senses.
In top-down processing, perceptions begin with the
most general and move toward the more specific.
These perceptions are heavily influenced by our
expectations and prior knowledge. Put simply, your
brain applies what it knows to fill in the blanks
and anticipate what's next.
Memory
Top-down processing implies that we have pre-existing knowledge stored somewhere in
our mind that effects how we interpret signals from our sensory organs.
The Brain is a complicated system of interconnected cells. Memory is the neural
network of associated nodes. Everything that is in our memory is interconnected and
not stand-alone pieces of information.
Memory refers to the processes that are used to acquire, store, retain, and later
retrieve information.
Long Term Memory is where information is permanently stored for later use.
• Explicit Memory
