Marketing Chapter 10 Post-Decision Processes

Study Notes

Post-Decision Processes

Post-decision dissonance: Anxiety regarding decision-making; occurs with attractive alternatives and significant choices. Reduces dissonance through selective information searching to favor the chosen option.
Post-decision regret: Feelings of wishing an alternative had been chosen. Happens with unfavorable comparisons of the chosen option versus others, especially in irreversible situations. Learning can mitigate regret.

Market Implications

Dissonance and regret: Companies can lessen negative feelings by providing supportive information in advertisements post-purchase.

Learning from Consumer Experience

Consumers are more motivated to learn with knowledge; memorable experiences enhance retention. Exposure to ads mimics direct experiences regarding attributes like price, influencing beliefs strongly.

Hypothesis Testing

Consumers create expectations about products through word-of-mouth and advertising; involves hypothesis generation, evidence exposure, encoding, and integration. Brand crises can hinder reconnection with customers.

Consumer Learning Motivations

When motivated, consumers hypothesize and actively seek confirming information. Low motivation leads to fewer hypotheses and reduced learning, requiring simple conditioning processes instead.

Knowledge and Learning

High prior knowledge prevents new hypothesis generation, while low-knowledge consumers struggle to develop guiding hypotheses, hampering learning.

Ambiguity and Processing Biases

Ambiguity: Insufficient information complicates the learning process as similar offerings provide little insight. Consumers often rely on advertising or word-of-mouth under uncertainty.
Processing biases: Confirmation bias can hinder learning; for example, consumers may disregard contradictory evidence about a product’s quality.

Brand Strategies

Top dog strategies: Leaders justify consumer evaluations with clear evidence and positive reinforcement, e.g., Coca-Cola's slogan.
Underdog strategies: Lower-share brands encourage learning to foster brand switching through comparison advertising and promotions.

Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction

Satisfaction: Results from positive evaluations; influenced by utilitarian (functionality) and hedonic (emotional) dimensions.
Dissatisfaction: Results from negative evaluations; varies with consumer involvement and experience over time.

Disconfirmation and Attribution Theory

Disconfirmation: Discrepancy between expectation and actual performance influences satisfaction. Example: Zane's Cycles offers guarantees to manage performance expectations.
Causality and blame: Consumers attribute causes of dissatisfaction based on stability, focus, and controllability; dissatisfaction is higher when perceived issues are permanent and marketer-related.

Equity Theory

Focuses on fairness in exchanges; perceptions of inputs and outputs influence satisfaction. High satisfaction results from perceived equitable exchanges, while dissatisfaction arises from perceived unfair treatment.

Post-Decision Feelings and Coping

Emotional responses to product usage can include active coping (problem-solving), expressive support seeking (venting), and avoidance. Affective forecasting relates to unexpected emotions experienced post-purchase.

Complaints and Consumer Types

Higher motivation to complain correlates with perceived inequality in exchanges. Consumers fall into categories based on their likelihood to complain:
- Passives: Rarely complain
- Voicers: Complain directly to providers
- Irates: Likely to voice dissatisfaction but not publicly
- Activists: Engage in widespread negative communication through social media.

Customer Retention and Detachment

Retention focuses on building long-term relationships and customer loyalty post-purchase.
Physical detachment: Disposing of an item.
Emotional detachment: The lengthy process of letting go emotionally tied possessions, with motivations either to break free or hold on.

Description

Explore the concept of post-decision dissonance in this flashcard quiz from Chapter 10. Understand how consumers cope with anxiety after making important choices and the impact on their behavior. This quiz provides a clear look at decision-making processes in marketing.