All lecture notes
Lecture notes 19 April 2022: Psychological value
Creating vs filling needs
Can marketers create needs and later fill up these needs (brick through the window example)? As
marketers we can either fill needs or activate needs by creating new products that tap into existing
needs. The core aspects of these needs can be found in the hierarchy of needs. The hierarchy of
needs is a categorization of human motivation. The bottom four are deficiency needs, the upper two
are growth needs (we don’t get sick of this, things like inspiration and helping someone)(people mis
predict how good it feels).
Example of fertilizer, which needs the marketers can focus on for their positioning: self-
transcendence (shared gardening), physiological/safety (people that want to grow their own food,
because they don’t trust the food from the grocery store), safety (if the grocery stores run out of
food, you can grow your own), love/belonging (spending time in the garden with your family),
self-/social esteem (having greener grass than others), self-actualization (this is the striving to be the
best version of yourself, having flowers make you happy).
Belk 1988: The Extended Self
Key points:
- “We are what we have and possess”
- We use products to manage our identity over time
- There is seemingly no limit to what we incorporate into our E.S
- We struggle when we lose/part with objects
o And we use objects to rebuild our self-identities
o Compensatory consumption failing an exam and buying nerdy glasses, nervous
about an interview and buying a more expensive suit. We are compensating for our
own deficiencies.
How to identify value
A means-ends chain is a knowledge structure that links consumer’s knowledge about product
attributes with their knowledge about consequences and values. This helps to identify and measure
needs in order to better design products and marketing strategy.
Means-ends chains (A C V) (same as the “so what” exercise)
- Attributes (concrete and abstract). What is the feature of the product you are selling?
- Consequences (functional & psychological). What is the functional consequence of the
product. What is the psychological consequence of the product?
- Values (aka needs, aka motivations, aka Maslow). What is its value? What need does it fulfill?
Find the need exercise
,Brand: Grammarly
Attributes: correcting your mistake
Functional consequences: a better report
Psychological consequences: less stressed, less embarrassed
Values: social esteem (others see you differently)
Lecture notes 26 April 2022
Web clip review
Evaluation of alternatives and info search stages are not linear. They can be switched.
Information processing: ELM central route (high thought) / peripheral route (low thought)
- Which you route you take depends on three factors: motivation, opportunity, ability
Additional factors (how we go through the framework):
- Cognitive vs emotional decision making
- High vs low involvement decision making
- Optimizing vs satisficing decision making
- Compensatory vs non-compensatory decision making
The biggest difficulty per stage
Problem recognition is the most difficult when you have a complete new product (radical
innovation). This stage is each time present, no matter the product or service. Deficiency based
(make consumers feel bad about their current state) or growth based (show customers that there is
something better available).
Info search: this is about how people find you. This is about advertisement and promotions.
Evaluation of alternatives: competing against other brands, what sets me apart. This is about defining
your core attribute and making it seem really important. “This is a non-compensatory attribute”.
“You need this defining feature”.
Purchase decision: this is about people getting to hit “go”.
Post-purchase behaviour: this is really important. Don’t overlook this.
- It is cheaper to retain a customer than to get a new customer
- Word-of-mouth is the most effective way to get more customers, and that happens with this
stage
Default choices
, Default choices matter. It affects a wide variety of choices (organ donations rates, cookies on
website, calories ordered and retirement participation). Default choices are opt-in vs opt-out: being
registered as an organ donor automatically will increase the rate of organ donors.
Default choices change if there is self-selection on a website.
Default choices work, because people are cognitive misers: little effort to get to a certain decision.
Key things to consider:
- Don’t annoy your customer: make opting out simple and transparent
- Consider adaptive defaults
The elaboration continuum (ELM)
Consumers can progress messages in two ways: central (high thought) or peripheral route (low
thought). This is about how closely people are processing information. Whatever route a consumer
takes depends on motivation, ability and opportunity. It happens everywhere where consumers have
to process information.
Emotional vs rational decision making
Emotional: getting a pet, luxury branding, easter bunny bread for example.
Done through: touch, experience, quick decisions and reassurance.
High vs low involvement decision making
This is about risks, consequences and thought. There is some overlap between this type of decision
making and emotional vs rational decision making, but it doesn’t always overlap: for example buying
an iPhone or a house (you want to feel the atmosphere in the house), engagement ring.
Compensatory vs non-compensatory decision making
Non-compensatory: if it doesn’t have … I don’t want it. This comes back at the evaluation of
alternatives mostly. This type of decision making is easier. How big the choice set is, is important for
which type of decision making you will go for.
Optimizing vs satisficing decision making
Cost, variance in quality, and how long a product is used for, for example. This depends on the
person and what kind of decision you are making. People who seek to optimize/maximize their
decisions spend more time and effort deciding, and are less happy with the outcome (post-decision
rumination).
B2B Decision journey