Final Exam Summary - Attitudes & Decision Processes | Môn Consumer behavior - Trường Đại học Quốc tế, Đại học Quốc gia Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh

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CONSUMER BEHAVIOR FINAL EXAM SUMMARY
Chapter 11: Attitudes and Influencing Attitudes •
An attitude is defined as an enduring organization of motivational, emotional,
perceptual, and cognitive processes with respect to some aspect of our environment.
It is a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner
toward a given object. Attitudes represent an important influence on an individual's lifestyle. •
Attitudes have three components: cognitive (beliefs), affective (feelings), and behavioral
(response tendencies). o The cognitive component consists of a consumer's beliefs about
an object. For most attitude objects, people have a number of beliefs. This component is
generally assessed using a version of the multiattribute attitude model. o The affective
component represents feelings or emotional reactions to an object. This overall
evaluation can be a vague feeling or the result of evaluations of the product's
performance on attributes. Marketers increasingly focus on this "feeling" component,
distinguishing between utilitarian/functional benefits/attitudes and hedonic/emotional benefits/attitudes.
o The behavioral component is one's tendency to respond in a certain manner
toward an object or activity. This component provides response tendencies or
behavioral intentions, and actual behaviors reflect these intentions modified by the situation. •
All three attitude components generally tend to be consistent with each other, meaning a
change in one tends to produce related changes in the others. This consistency
tendency is the basis for much marketing strategy. However, factors like lack of need,
ability, relative attitudes, weakly held beliefs/affect, and interpersonal/situational
influences can reduce apparent consistency. •
Marketers often try to influence consumer behavior by changing one or more attitude components. o
Changing the affective component can rely on classical
conditioning, associating the brand (conditioned stimulus) with a positive feeling-
inducing stimulus (unconditioned stimulus). It can also be influenced by positive affect
toward the ad itself (Aad) and mere exposure (familiarity breeding liking). These
approaches are common in low-involvement situations.
o Changing the behavioral component first is based primarily on operant
conditioning, inducing purchase or consumption with reinforcement.
Techniques include coupons, samples, displays, tie-ins, and price reductions to induce trial behavior.
o Changing the cognitive component involves changing beliefs about a brand's
attributes, shifting attribute importance, adding new beliefs, or changing the
perceived ideal point. This often involves information processing and cognitive learning. •
The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) is a theory about how attitudes are formed
and changed under varying conditions of involvement. o High involvement leads to a
central route to attitude change, where consumers consciously process relevant message
elements (central cues) for a logical evaluation.
Low involvement leads to a peripheral route, where consumers form
impressions based on readily available cues (peripheral cues) regardless of
relevance, with little elaborative processing. lOMoAR cPSD| 59078336
o Attitudes formed via the central route tend to be stronger, more resistant to
counterpersuasion, more accessible from memory, and more predictive of behavior. •
Communication characteristics like the source (who delivers the message), appeal (how
it's communicated), and message structure influence attitude formation and change. o
Source credibility (trustworthiness and expertise) is important. Celebrities are effective
when their image matches the product/target market's self-concept.
o Appeals include fear, humor, comparative ads, utilitarian appeals (functional
benefits), and value-expressive appeals (self-concept/lifestyle). Emotional ads,
often using nonverbal content, can arouse emotional responses that facilitate attitude change. •
Attitudes are applied in market segmentation, such as benefit segmentation based on
desired product features, and new-product development, where a product concept is
created to match the ideal attitude profile of a segment.
Chapter 12: Self-Concept and Lifestyle •
Self-concept is the totality of the individual’s thoughts and feelings having reference
to himself or herself as an object. It's an individual's perception of and feelings toward
themselves, composed of attitudes toward oneself. •
There are four basic parts of the self-concept: actual self-concept (who I am now), ideal
self-concept (who I would like to be), private self (how I am or would like to be to
myself), and social self (how I am seen by others or how I would like to be seen by others).
• Self-concepts can be categorized as independent or interdependent.
o An independent self-concept, predominant in Western cultures, emphasizes
personal goals, characteristics, achievements, and desires; individuals are
individualistic, autonomous, and define themselves by what they have done,
have, and their personal characteristics.
o An interdependent self-concept, based more on Asian cultural beliefs,
emphasizes family, cultural, professional, and social relationships; individuals are
sociocentric, connected, and define themselves by social roles and group commonalities.
o Within a culture, subcultures and individuals can vary on this dimension. For
instance, women often have a more interdependent self-concept than men. This
influences message preferences (individualistic vs. group membership appeals). •
The extended self consists of the self plus possessions; people tend to define themselves
partly by their possessions. Some possessions are integral to self-identity. The extended
self can include activities, other people, TV shows, and sports teams. Marketers can
position products as a means to enhance the extended self. •
The most common method for measuring self-concept is the semantic differential scale. •
Consumers' attempts to obtain their ideal self-concept or maintain their actual self-concept
often involve purchasing and consuming products. Marketers should develop product
images consistent with the self-concepts of their target markets. Consumers also maintain
self-concepts by avoiding certain products/brands. •
Self-image congruity (brand matching self-concept) matters more for products with
value-expressive symbolism (e.g., perfume), in public consumption situations, and for
consumers who are high self-monitors (care about others' opinions). •
Marketing has been criticized for focusing too much on a narrow definition of beauty,
potentially leading individuals to base their self-concept heavily on physical appearance. lOMoAR cPSD| 59078336 o •
Lifestyle is how a person lives. It's how a person enacts his or her self-concept and is
determined by past experiences, innate characteristics, and current situation. It
influences all aspects of consumption behavior. Lifestyle is the manifestation of the individual's self-concept. •
Psychographics is the primary way lifestyle is made operationally useful, measuring
lifestyle dimensions like activities, interests, opinions, values, demographics, media patterns, and usage rates. •
Lifestyle measurements can be general (broad applicability, e.g., VALS, PRIZM) or
specific (focused on a product/activity).
o VALS (Values and Lifestyles) segments U.S. adults into eight groups based on
primary motivation (ideals, achievement, self-expression) and resources. These
psychological characteristics correlate with purchase patterns.
o PRIZM (Potential Rating Index by ZIP Market) is a geo-demographic system
merging Census data with consumption/media usage data, resulting in 68 lifestyle
segments based on the premise that people with similar lifestyles live near each other.
Chapter 13: Situational Influences •
Situational influence is all those factors particular to a time and place that do not
follow from a knowledge of the stable attributes of the consumer and the stimulus
and that have an effect on current behavior. Consumers respond to marketing
influences and the situation simultaneously. •
Consumer behavior occurs within four broad categories or types of situations:
o The communications situation: the situation in which consumers receive
information, influencing the degree to which they see and listen to marketing
communications. Marketers try to place ads in appropriate media contexts.
o The purchase situation: the situation in which a purchase is made, influencing
consumer behavior. Factors like shopping with others or time pressure affect
decisions. o The usage situation: the situation in which the product or service is
used. Understanding usage situations helps marketers position products and expand their use.
o The disposition situation: the situation in which a product or package is
disposed of, either during or after product use. Ease of disposition can be an important product attribute. •
Situations can be described on five key dimensions or characteristics that determine their influence on behavior:
o Physical surroundings: include decor, sounds, aromas, lighting, weather,
configuration of merchandise, etc.. Retailers use atmospherics (manipulating
physical environment) to create specific moods. For service businesses, this is the
servicescape. o Social surroundings: deal with other persons present who could
impact consumer behavior. Social influence is significant, especially for visible
behaviors like shopping and public consumption. Shopping can also be a social experience.
Temporal perspectives: deal with the effect of time on consumer behavior, such
as time available for purchase, time of day, time since last purchase/meal/payday, and
time constraints. Less time usually means shorter search and less info used.
Convenience stores capitalize on this. o Task definition: reflects the purpose or
reason for engaging in the consumption behavior, which can involve different buyer lOMoAR cPSD| 59078336
and user roles. Gift-giving is a common task definition different from personal use. o
Antecedent states: temporary moods or momentary conditions of the individual
person, not lasting characteristics.
o Moods are transient feeling states not tied to a specific event, influencing
decision processes, purchases, and perceptions. Momentary conditions are
temporary states like being tired, ill, having extra money, etc.. •
A ritual situation is a socially defined occasion triggering interrelated behaviors in a
structured format with symbolic meaning. These can be private or public and are
important because they often involve prescribed consumption behaviors. •
Situational influences can have direct impacts and also interact with product and
individual characteristics to influence behavior. Individuals often "create" situations
they face through their lifestyle choices. Marketing strategies can be developed based on
the situations individuals selecting various lifestyles are likely to encounter.
Chapter 14: Consumer Decision Process and Problem Recognition •
The consumer decision process often involves a sequence of activities: problem
recognition, information search, alternative evaluation and selection, outlet selection
and purchase, and postpurchase processes. The complexity of this process is heavily
influenced by purchase involvement. o
Purchase involvement is the level of
concern for, or interest in, the purchase process triggered by the need to consider a
particular purchase. It's a temporary state influenced by individual, product,
and situational characteristics. It is not the same as product
involvement or enduring involvement.
o As purchase involvement increases, decision making becomes more complex. •
There are various types of consumer decisions based on purchase involvement:
o Nominal decision making (habitual decision making) involves very low
purchase involvement and effectively no decision per se. A problem is
recognized, internal search provides a single preferred solution, the brand is
purchased, and evaluation only occurs if there's a failure. This includes brandloyal
purchases(high commitment) and repeat purchases (low commitment, routine).
o Limited decision making involves recognizing a problem, internal and limited
external search, evaluation of a few alternatives on a few dimensions using
simple rules, and little postpurchase evaluation. This occurs for problems for
which there are several possible solutions.
o Extended decision making involves high purchase involvement, extensive
internal and external information search, complex evaluation of multiple
alternatives, and significant postpurchase evaluation. Doubt about the purchase is
likely, and thorough evaluation takes place afterward. •
Problem recognition is the first stage in the consumer decision process. It is the result
of a discrepancy between a desired state and an actual state that is sufficient to arouse
and activate the decision process. lOMoAR cPSD| 59078336 o
An actual state is how an individual perceives his or her feelings and situation to
be at the present time.
o A desired state is how an individual wants to feel or be at the present time.
o A problem exists anytime the desired state is perceived as being greater than or
less than the actual state.
o The desire to resolve a recognized problem depends on the magnitude of the
discrepancy and the relative importance of the problem. •
Consumer problems can be active (consumer is aware of it or will become aware
normally) or inactive (consumer is not aware of it). Marketing for active problems focuses
on the brand as a solution; marketing for inactive problems must first make consumers aware of the problem. •
Uncontrollable determinants of problem recognition include factors influencing the
desired state (culture/subculture, social status, reference groups, household characteristics,
financial status/expectations, previous decisions, individual development, emotions,
motives, situation) and the actual state (past decisions, normal depletion, product/brand
performance, individual development, emotions, government/consumer groups, product availability, situation). •
Marketing strategy related to problem recognition involves:
o Discovering consumer problems (e.g., using intuition, surveys, focus groups,
problem analysis, human factors research, emotion research, online/social media tracking).
o Responding to consumer problems by structuring the marketing mix (new
product/alteration, distribution, pricing, advertising) to solve identified problems.
o Helping consumers recognize problems, attempting to cause problem
recognition rather than just react to it. This can involve generic problem
recognition (discrepancy variety of brands can reduce) or selective problem
recognition (discrepancy only one brand can solve). Strategies influence the
magnitude of the discrepancy or the importance of the problem. o Suppressing
problem recognition for current customers of a brand (e.g., through quality
control, distribution, reassuring messages).
Chapter 16: Alternative Evaluation and Selection •
Alternative evaluation and selection (consumer choice) follows problem recognition and information search. •
Rational choice theory, which assumes consumers seek an optimal solution, have
skills/motivation to find it, and that the optimal solution is independent of situation,
often does not describe actual consumer choice. Consumers may have alternative
metagoals (general outcomes sought, e.g., minimizing effort) and are subject to bounded
rationality (limited cognitive ability/time). Preferences can shift with situational factors. •
Consumers engage in different types of choice processes:
o Affective choice: based on immediate emotional response; uses the "How do I
feel about it" heuristic. Most likely when the underlying motive is
consummatory (ntrinsically rewarding).
o Attitude-based choice: uses general attitudes, summary impressions,
intuitions, or heuristics; no attribute-by-attribute comparisons are made at the
time of choice. More likely with lower purchase involvement, scarce
information, or time pressure. lOMoAR cPSD| 59078336 o
Attribute-based choice: relies heavily on comparing brands on one or more
attributes. Consumers evaluate alternatives on specific features or benefits.
Most resembles extended decision making. •
These processes are not mutually exclusive and combinations may be used, sometimes phased. •
Evaluative criteria are the dimensions on which brands are evaluated. They are the
various dimensions, features, or benefits a consumer looks for. They can be functional
attributes, emotions, or reference group reactions. •
Measuring evaluative criteria involves determining which criteria are used, how
consumers perceive alternatives on each criterion, and the relative importance of each
criterion. Techniques include direct questioning, indirect methods like projective
techniques or perceptual mapping, rating scales, and conjoint analysis. •
Individual judgments and evaluative criteria: Consumers make direct comparisons, but
these may not be accurate. Sensory discrimination (ability to distinguish similar
stimuli) is not well developed for most consumers. The just noticeable difference
(j.n.d.) is the minimum difference still noticed. •
Consumers often use surrogate indicators(observable attribute used to indicate
lessobservable performance, e.g., price as quality). The importance of evaluative criteria
varies by individual and situation (e.g., usage situation). •
Decision rules specify how a consumer compares alternatives. Five commonly used
rules for attribute-based choice are:
o Conjunctive: establish minimum acceptable performance for each attribute;
select brands meeting all minimums. Often used to reduce the set of alternatives.
o Disjunctive: establish minimum acceptable performance for each important
attribute; select brands meeting or exceeding minimum on any important attribute.
o Elimination-by-aspects: rank criteria by importance, establish cutoff for each;
eliminate brands not meeting cutoff on most important, then next most important,
etc., until one remains.
o Lexicographic: rank criteria by importance; select brand best on most
important attribute; if tie, compare on second most important, etc., until one
outperforms. o Compensatory: select brand with the highest overall score across
attributes, where a good score on one attribute can compensate for a poor score
on another. This is more taxing and often used after simpler rules reduce alternatives.
o Different decision rules lead to different choices and require different marketing strategies.
o Context effects, like the center-stage (Preference for the option located in the
middle of a choice set due to visual attention rather than inherent quality) and
decoy effects (Introducing an inferior option to make another option appear more
attractive), can also influence choices.