Consumer behavior
Week 1: The psychological core: The process of Perception.
Perceptual process in marketing: Making sense about the world around us.
1. Exposure: Encounter the message.
2. Attention: Look at the message.
à Conscious perception.
3. Perception: Take in the Message.
4. Comprehension: Understand the message.
1. Exposure: Consumer comes into physical contact with a stimulus (advertisement, word-of-mount).
1. Why do companies decide to advertise on the specific channels like FOX or CNN: Target people
based on demographics.
2. Why does social media advertising is becoming so popular: It is very targeted advertisement,
targeted media. It enables to target relevant groups which maximizes exposure.
3. Why to pay 10 times more for the ad on the back cover of the magazine for example: High
prominent positions gives the maximum exposure and therefore is more expensive.
à Importance of exposure:
- Creates the possibility for attention.
- You cannot perceive to what you are not exposed to.
- Exposure is the main driver for marketing communications costs.
à Exposure could be selective: Consumers avoid exposure to ads or commercials, especially those
that are not relevant to them. Therefore, consumers use Netflix, ad
blockers etc.
à Non-conscious exposure:
1. Subliminal Exposure.
2. Supraliminal exposure.
à Non-conscious exposure could potentially work when:
- The stimuli fits the current goals/motivations.
- To perceive subliminally, full attention is needed. It does not work when people shift attention
during commercial break by for example using your phone in the meantime.
- The non-conscious exposure effects are weak.
- Most studies conducted in the highly controlled environments (lab studies).
à In conclusion, You should rather aim to enhance the consumers’ attention to the exposed
messages as it is more effective than aiming at non-conscious exposure.
à Why does it happen: Spreading activation model.
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,1. Subliminal exposure= Consumers are not aware of the stimulus (the cues) or stimulus is too weakà
The exposure was too short to consciously perceive.
According to Fitzsimons (2008), Automatic effects of brand exposure on motivated behavior. The
research examines if subliminal brand exposure affect the motivated behavior.
Research: 3 researches were conducted, the first was subliminal. They showed 2 logos in between
numbers but this was so short (13 milliseconds) that the participants did not perceive it consciously
but subconscious. The second and third study was supraliminal. In the second experiment the Apple
and IBM logo were shown consciously. Participants had to put the photos with the logo in chronicle
order (they were not aware of the outcome).
Outcome:
- Participants exposed to the subliminal Apple logo were more creative users for bricks, without
a delay and with a delayà Which is goal directed behavior (making IBM goal-irrelevant).
- Disney (goal relevant) primed participants behave more honestly than E!-primed (goal-
irrelevant) participants as they associate Disney with honesty.
- Cognition based priming decreases over time (not visible anymore after delay). Whereas goal
based priming lasts over time (also visible after delay) but decreases when goal is satisfied.
Brand exposure can elicit the goal-directed behavior when the brand is goal relevant.
à Thus, environmental cues have (even subtle) can have powerful effects on behavior, especially
when the exposed brand is goal relevant it can cause goal-directed behavior.
2. Supraliminal exposure= Consumer is not aware of the outcome (behavioral reaction).
Brasel and gips (20122), Red Bull impact of brand exposure on consumer performance. The research
examines if a supraliminal brand exposure affect the motivated behavior.
Research: The participants had to complete 5 races with a video game with all 5 cars randomly assigned
(Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Tropicana, Guiness and brandless car) and rank the cars from slowest to fastest.
Red Bull is strongly associated with power, strong, energy, speed, risk-taking and it gives you wings.
Outcome: The other cars had about the same outcome (indifferent) however the Red Bull car had an
U-shape, so driving Red Bull car leads to or the slowest or the fastest race. This is due to the fact that
brand exposure can create double-edged outcomes on consumer behavior with both positive or
negative effect, largely unconscious. The need for speed and recklessness when exposed to RedBull:
- It either pushed the participants to the edge of their ability leading to fast racing.
- Or it pushed the participants in beyond their ability leading to slower races (off track)
à It proves that supraliminal exposure affects the motivated behavior.
Spreading activation model= Different concepts are represented in our brains as a semantic networkà
Every concept is represented by a specific node and these nodes are interconnectedà when one
concepts is activated, related concepts become active as well.
Example: You hear Apple. You think of Steve Jobs, Iphone, Fruit etc. Iphone activates other concepts
besides Apple, like callings, apps, connecting etc.
2. Attention
Top-down attention= Controlled, goal-directed and slower.
Bottom-up attention= Automatic, stimulus-driven and faster.
à Importance of attention:
- It creates the opportunity for perception and comprehension.
- Mere attention can enhance linking and motivate the choice. In fact, visual salience can
motivate choicesà Especially under time pressure.
Mere exposure effect= The phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for things due
to the fact that they see and hear it more often (repeated). Example: You hear
a song and you do not like it, but then it becomes a hit and played repeatedly
on the radio, all of the sudden you like the song.
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,à Principles of attention:
- Attention is limited (reduce in ad-time).
- Attention can be divided (Millenials and their smartphones and tablets).
- Attention is influenced by the goals (top-down attention).
- Attention is influenced by the environment (bottom-up attention).
- Attention is social
à Implications of attention (limited + divided) for marketers: Millennials are a difficult group of people
to grab attention of. And the ads have changed from 30 sec. to 10 sec (like Youtube ads), now with
Instagram etc. 3 sec.
1. Enhance top-down attention: To attract the attention of consumers with a goal.
Make stimuli personal and relevant, by using:
- Needs and Goals like Kellogs with the goal of summer shape.
- Reference group.
- Story telling & narrative.
à It does not work when a marketer does not know the exact needs and goals, the wrong reference
groups etc. Also other strong and vivid ads may overshadow your ad.
2. Enhancing bottom-up attention: To attract the attention of consumers without a goal.
1. Make stimuli stand out and easy to process:
- Prominent: Your ad on the pavement. A large billboard also with cut outs.
- Concrete: Make it concrete and therefore easy to imagine, for example the giant
footprint in the sand to promote a new film.
- Contrast with competing stimuli: Fold out add in a magazine that stands out to the
other one page ads.
2. Make stimuli pleasant:
- Attractive models.
- Humor.
3. Make stimuli surprising: Surprise is important as it changes cognitive activation: All attention
is devoted to the surprising event. Unusual stimuli are processed more deeply. Surprise
enhances memory for the unexpected event.
- Unexpected elements.
- Unexpected placements.
Hutter and Hoffman (2013), Ambient media as promotion tool for retailers, surprise. Can surprising
advertisements increase sales?
Research: They have used 3 manipulations (ambient media) to lead surprise:
- 3D ad: A gigant shoebox.
- Directional ad: Footprints leading to the shop.
- 3D + Directional: Actual shoes leading to the shop.
Outcome:
- Surprise raises attention and actually drive positive effects when resolving the incongruent
element of the ad.
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, - The increasing attention increases the ad evaluation, which increases the purchase intention
and sales revenue.
- This positive attitudes towards the ad stimulates the word of mouth.
- The effects are stronger for non-customers (new target). All manipulations leaded to the
surprise however 3D + directionality had the strongest effects.
à Thus, ambient media raises attention (especially for non-consumers).
à Attention is social:
Social cues such as faces and gaze attract
automatic attention.
Implication for marketers: With a heath
map you see that most people especially
look at the face, not the brand logo. Solve
this by using the gaze as a directional cue:
Models gaze at the brand logo, therefore
you will look at the logo as well.
3. Perception= The process by which an individual selects, organizes and interprets stimuli into a
meaningful and coherent picture of the worldà How we see the world around us.
à It is registered by one of the five senses:
à When do we perceive stimuli?
- Absolute threshold: The lowest level of a stimulation that someone could detect.
Implications: It is influenced by environment and personal: Who are your consumers and
where are your consumers. Example: When you are on the high way you should meet the
absolute threshold level (so not too many words on the billboard).
- Differential threshold: The minimum amount that something needs to change in order to
notice it, this is widely used in marketing. When costs go up a company rather lowers the
volume instead of higher the price. Example: Mars was 58gr and now is 51gr however
consumers do not notice this difference. Starbucks changed the logo gradually over time,
making it not obvious that is has changed.
Perceptual organization= The process by which stimuli are organized into meaningful units. We drive
meaning from stimuli as a whole rather than individual units.
Example: The text only first and last letter is on the right place the rest is a mess but you are still able
to read it without a problem.
à Basic principles:
- Figure and ground: You see the relationship between the background and figure.
- Grouping: Group specific objects in a way to form a different object.
- Closure: We fill in missing pieces to form complete picture.
Typeface logos: Parts of the logos are intentionally blanked out
and with our closure we fill in the blanks.
àFigure component, clear grouping and clear background are
easier to process and to recall.
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