Consumer Attention Levels

Consumer Attention

• Consumer attention implies selectivity, where consumers ignore unimportant information, influenced by their shopping goals.
• Awareness and consciousness are connoted; attending to environmental stimuli activates consciousness.
• Alertness level affects the intensity of information processing.

Differences in Consumer Level Attention

• Preconscious Level
  • Consumers use activated knowledge from long-term memory.
  • Absence of awareness and automatic processing occurs.
  • Cognitive capacity is limited.
  • Concepts are encountered only for familiar memory representation.
  • Moderate importance and involvement are present.
• Focal Conscious Level
  • Consumers use activated knowledge.
  • Conscious awareness is present.
  • Consumers use controlled processes and develop greater mental capacity.
  • Well-learned memory representation is activated.
  • High level of involvement is present.

Factors That Influence Consumer Attention

• Affective State
  • The level of involvement is affected by emotions (positive or negative); positives results in high affective involvement, and vice-versa.
• Level of Consumer Involvement
  • Apparent when need for the product becomes evident; attention is given to present information that will satisfy the need.
• Environmental Prominence
  • Stimuli in the environment can stimulate and influence attention.
  • Prominent information in the environment will receive attention, resulting in comprehension.

Intrinsic and Situational Self-Relevance

• Intrinsic Self-Relevance
  • Provides little impact on influencing consumers' ability to process information.
  • Product designs must activate meanings stored in consumer's memory and link them to product advantages and values.
• Situational Self-Relevance
  • Generates high-level of consumer involvement.
  • Self-relevance is dependent on the situation.

Consumer Beliefs

• Consumer beliefs are bundles of knowledge and inferences made from long-term memory about products, attributes, and benefits.
• Product attributes are the sum of benefits that consumers seek when making purchases.

Classes of Product Attributes

• Intrinsic Attributes
  • Refers to the actual benefit of the product when used.
  • Quality of the product.
• Extrinsic Attributes
  • Refers to the physical appearance of the product.
  • The first concept developed in the mind of consumers.

Consumers' Forms of Beliefs

• Object-Attributes
  • Consumer's stored knowledge of a particular product having an attribute that appeals to senses.
• Attribute-Benefit
  • Refers to the product and services that solve consumer's problems.
  • A link developed in consumer memory where a particular product attribute will result in a particular benefit.
• Object-Benefit
  • The process of linking consumers' perception that the product will lead to a particular benefit.

Elements That Determine Consumers' Attention to Attributes

• Characteristics of the Consumer
  • Needs and wants are crucial in getting attention.
• Character of the Message
  • Advertising plays a significant role in getting consumer´s attention.
• Factors That Influence the Response Opportunity
  • Consumer´s attention when the product information is relayed to the processing elements of the memory.
• Characteristics of the Product
  • Important to the consumer as it refers to quality and added features.

Price as an Attribute

• Price is the amount given for a product and the major exchange means; it makes consumers highly sensitive.

Dimensions of Price Attributes that Affect Consumer Beliefs

• Negative Dimensions:
  • Value Conscious
  • Price Conscious
  • The Coupon Promotion
  • Sale Prone
  • Price Mavens
• Positive Role Dimensions:
  • Price-Quality Relationships
  • Prestige Sensitivity

Consumer Attitude

• It is the state of fitness or expressions of personal emotions about a product or brand.
• It is the linkage that the consumers attach to the product attributes and advantages.

Functions of Attitudes

• Utilitarian Functions
  • Ideas expressed to maximize reward and minimize negative impact of decisions.
• Knowledge Functions
  • Framework used to interpret the environment.
• Value Express Functions
  • How consumers express their values in comparison with others is referred to as social identity function.
  • Consumers use products identified with a particular social group.
• Ego Defense Functions
  • A state where consumers avoid products that destroy ego needs or self-esteem.
  • Psychological state where a consumer puts himself above others and does not acknowledge insecurities.

Behavioral Intentions

• It is the process consumers behave the way they use or dispose the product or service.
• Process that takes place when the consumer is in a state of high involvement.
• Consumers perform the following rules: Buy, provide information through Word of Mouth, collect information, and dispose the product.

Formation of Beliefs, Attention, and Behavior

• Direct Formation Process
  • Belief formation is the result of decision-making regarding the product or service through cognitive learning.
  • Attitudes are formed through linkages to experiences with product attributes.
  • Attitudes are direct emotional responses through exposure and classical conditioning.
  • Direct creation of behavior corresponds to behavioral influences through operant conditioning from environmental factors and situational forces.
• Creating Beliefs Directly
  • Belief formation is the result of consumer's decision-making process regarding the product through cognitive learning.
  • A process where consumer received information, encodes in the long-term memory, and retrieve the information for use.
• Forming Attitudes Directly
  • Attitudes may be formed through direct observation, operant conditioning, and classical conditioning.
• Creating Behavior Directly
  • Behavior is influenced when strong situational or environment forces proper the consumer to engage in an action.
• Indirect Formation Process
  • Beliefs, attitudes, and behavior can be formed indirectly through the hierarchal formation of effects in the consumer.
  • The hierarchy of effects delineates the order of beliefs, attitudes, and behavior in the consumer's mental set when purchasing.
  • The type of purchase process controls which hierarchy a consumer will form and the effects associated.