Exam 1 Mark: Consumer Behavior PDF

Chapter 1: what is CB and why should I care Friday, January 10, 2025 7:06 PM 1-1: consumption and consumer behavior - There is 2 unique perspectives of consumer behavior: 1- the actual human thoughts, feelings, and actions. 2. A field of study that is developing an accumulated body of...

Chapter 1: what is CB and why should I care Friday, January 10, 2025 7:06 PM 1-1: consumption and consumer behavior - There is 2 unique perspectives of consumer behavior: 1- the actual human thoughts, feelings, and actions. 2. A field of study that is developing an accumulated body of knowledge about human consumption experience. - Consumer behavior\-- is a set of value seeking activities that take place as people go about addressing their real needs The Basic Consumer Behavior Process - Want\-- A specific desire representing a way a consumer may go about addressing a recognized - Exchange\-- The acting out of the decision to give something up in return for something perceived to be of greater value - Cost\-\--The negative results of consumption experiences - Benefits\-- The positive results of consumption experiences Consumption - Consumption\-- The process by which consumers use and transform goods, services, or ideas into value - Involves interaction between the marketer and consumer - Outcomes affect the consumers well being and quality of life Consumer Behavior as a Field of study - Consumer behavior as a field of study -- the study of consumers as they go about the consumption process; the science of studying how consumers seek value in an effort to address real needs CB is connected to other disciplines like : - Economics - Psychology - Sociology (the study of groups of people within a society, such as consumption that takes place within group settings or is affected by group behavior) - Anthropology (the field of study involving interpretation of relationships between consumers and the things they purchase, the products they own, and the activities in which they participate) Economics and consumer behavior - Economics: the study of production and consumption Psychology - Psychology - the study of human reactions to their environment - Social psychology- the study that focuses on the thought, feelings, and behaviors that people have as they interact with other people - Cognitive psychology- the study of the intricacies of mental reactions involved in information processing - Neuroscience- the study of the central nervous system including brain mechanisms associated with emotion. Marketing - Marketing- consists of the multitude of value producing seller activities that facilitate exchanges between buyers and sellers, including production, pricing, promotion, distribution, retailing. \" Some organizations can survive while treating customers badly, while others need to pamper customers just to have a chance of surviving.\" Competition and consumer orientation - Competitive pressure motivate marketers to provide good service Few competitive Pressures? - In a government service, like the DMV, the answers to the two questions are: - Governments sometimes realize that competition in the marketplace serves to protect - In the U.S., the Robinson--Patman Act, the Sherman Act, and the Clayton Act attempt to restrict - The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation aimed at protecting European Firm orientations and consumers - Consumer(customer) orientation- the way of doing business in which the actions and decision making of the institution prioritize consumer value and satisfaction above all other concerns - Market orientation- an organizational culture that embodies the importance of creating value for customers among all employees - Stakeholder marketing- An orientation in which firms recognize that more than just the buyer and seller are involved in the marketing process, and a host of primary and secondary entities affect by the value creation process Relationship marketing and consumer behavior - Relationship marketing - the activities based on the belief that the firms performance is enhanced through repeat business - Touchpoints- the direct contacts between the firm and a customer - Multiple channels or ways of making this contact exist, including phone, email, text - Every touchpoint should be considered as an opportunity to create value for the customer. - Both a competitive marketplace and a relationship marketing orientation create CB fields role in business, society and for consumers - CB as a field of study is important in at least 3 ways - 1: CB provides an input to business/ marketing strategy. 2: CB provide a force that shapes society 3: CB provides an input to making responsible decisions as a consumer Consumer Behavior and marketing strategy - Resource-advantage theory - A theory that explains why companies succeed or fail: the firm goes about obtaining resources from consumers in return for the value the resources create What do people buy - When consumers buy something, they give up resources (time, money, and - Attribute -- a part, or tangible feature, of a product that potentially delivers a - Product -- a potentially valuable bundle of benefits Innovation - Companies need to understand why people buy their products to recognize - Newness alone does not make an innovation. - An innovation has to produce value for consumers to be successful Ways of doing business - Each company adopts a way of doing business that is epitomized in its - The ways of doing business often guide a firm's marketing practices. Consumer behavior and society - Consumer behavior creates the society in which we live and serves as an important source of input to public in a free society Consumer behavior and personal growth - Topics to be aware of that may be relevant to making wise or not so wise consumer decisions - Consequences associated with poor budget allocation - The role emotions play in consumer decision making - What avenues exist to seek redress for unethical sales practices - The role of social influences on decision making, including peer pressure and social media - The effect of the current environment on consumer behavior Interpretive research - Interpretive research\-- is the approach that seeks to explain the inner meanings and motivations associated with specific consumption experiences. - Qualitative research tools - The means for gathering data in a relatively unstructured and non-quantified way, including case analysis, clinical interviews, and focus group interview - Researcher dependent- the data that requires a researchers subjective opinion to interpret a meaning - Interpretive researchers adopt one of several orientations. - Two common interpretative orientations are: - Phenomology -- the qualitative approach to studying consumers that relies on interpretation - Ethnography -- the qualitative approach to studying consumers that relies on interpretation - Netnography -- a branch of ethnography that studies the behavior of online cultures and Quantitative research - Quantitative research -- the approach that addresses questions about consumer behavior - Better enables researchers to test hypotheses as compared to interpretive research - Is more likely to stand on its own Internationalization - The international focus of today's modern company places a greater demand on - Although chain retailers can be found worldwide, consumers are not alike - Each culture may interpret products and behaviors differently. - The meanings these consumers perceive will determine the success or failure Technological changes - Technology has influenced business practices since the advent of industry. - In the mid-20th century, television revolutionized consumer behavior. - The Internet has made geographical distance almost a nonissue. - The entire world is now truly the market for consumers in free countries. Changing communications - As technology changes, so do the ways that people communicate with each other. - Branded marketing campaigns and social media influencers rely on social media to push - Social media influencers also try out new media channels. Big Data - Big data -- a term used to represent the massive amounts of data available to - Predictive analytics -- the application of statistical tools in an effort to discover - Internet of things -- the automatic recording of data from everyday products Machine Learning - Machine learning -- the application of artificial intelligence to automate tasks - Large enterprise systems automate email campaigns and social media - Chatbots provide automated responses to common consumer queries in an Changing demographics - In most of the Western world, notable demographic trends have shaped - Households increasingly include two primary income providers. - Family size is decreasing throughout most of Western culture. - Marketers around the world find it hard to ignore 1.5 billion consumers in China Changing and sharing economy - Consumers today are often more cautious about spending money and react - Private label brands become more attractive alternatives as a way of saving money. - Private labels get more prominent merchandising as the arrangement of products on the - Globally, consumers display several signs of the times. - The continued desire for greater convenience - The increased acceptability of temporary use in the form of sharing as an alternative to - Sharing economy -- the global consumer trend toward rental (temporary usage - Collaborative consumption -- the term used for a rental transaction activity    Chapter 2: value and the consumer behavior framework Friday, January 10, 2025 11:01 PM The consumer value framework and its components - Consumer value framework (CVF)\-- Consumer behavior theory that illustrates factors that shape consumption- related behavior and ultimately determine the value associated with consumption - Value is the heart of experiencing and understanding consumer behavior - Consumer relationship management (CRM)\-- A systematic information management system that collects, maintains, and reports detailed information about customers to enable a more customer-oriented managerial approach - Relationship quality\-- The degree of connectedness between a consumer and a retailer, brand, or service provider - Loyal customers are more profitable than customers who consider switching brand or providers each time they make a purchase - Consumers must decide to do something before they can receive value - Service \-- an organizations efforts and resources applied towards value creation - Many factors influence this process, and these factors can be divided into different categories, such as internal and external influences - Internal Influences\-- Things that go on inside the mind and heart of the consumer or that are psychologically a part of the consumer - The psychology of the consumer involves both cognitive and affective processes - Cognition- thinking or metal processes that go on as we process and store things that can become knowledge - Affect\-- feelings associated with objects or activities - Individual differences\-- characteristic traits of individuals, including demographics, - In many cases some external influence triggers the consumption process or - Zero moment of truth -- the point when a shopper moves from passive to - External influences -- the social and cultural aspects of life as a consumer - Social environment -- the elements that specifically deal with the way other - Situational influences -- the things unique to a time or place that can affect - Situational influences include the effect that the physical environment has on - Timing also plays an important role. - More enduring temporal factors, such as the economic condition at any given Value and its two basic types - Value -- a personal assessment of the net worth obtained from an activity - Value is what consumers ultimately pursue, because valuable actions address - Value captures how much gratification a consumer receives from consumption. - Everything we do in life we do in pursuit of value. - Value can be modeled by playing the "what you get" from product consumption against the "what you have to give" to get the product. - Utilitarian value -- the gratification derived because something helps a - When consumers buy something in pursuit of utilitarian value, they can typically - Actions that provide utilitarian value are worthwhile because they provide a - Actions provide value because the object or activity allows something else good - Hedonic value -- the value derived from the immediate gratification that comes - The value is provided entirely by the actual experience and emotions associated - Marketers can do well by concentrating on providing either hedonic or utilitarian value. In the best-case scenario, they provide high levels of both Marketing strategy and consumer value - One way that a company can enhance the chances of long-run survival is to - Strategy -- a planned way of doing something to accomplish some goal - Marketing strategy -- the way a company goes about creating value for - A complete understanding of the value consumers seek is needed to effectively - Marketing myopia -- a common condition in which a shortsighted company - Corporate strategy -- the way a firm is defined and its general goals - Marketing tactics -- the ways marketing management is implemented; involves - Together, marketing strategy and marketing tactics should maximize the total - Augmented product -- the actual physical product purchased plus any services such as installation and warranties necessary to use the product and obtain its benefits - Every product's value proposition is made up of the basic benefits, plus the - Total value concept -- the business practice wherein companies operate with - Consumers add resources in the form of knowledge and skills to do their own - Value co-creation -- the realization that a consumer is necessary and must play - The consumer and marketer are active in turning the offer into value. - Liquid consumption -- captures the notion that today's consumers extract - A network of friends on social media can help satisfy self-esteem in a way that Market Characteristics: Market Segments and Product Differentiation - Marketing mix -- the combination of product, pricing, promotion, and - Target market -- the identified segment or segments of a market that a company serves - Target marketing requires managers to identify and understand market segments. - Market segmentation -- the separation of a market into groups based on the different demand curves associated with each group - Elasticity -- the degree of how sensitive a consumer is to changes in some product - Backward sloping demand -- a positive relationship between price and quantity - Although a positive relationship between price and quantity may seem unusual, - Product differentiation -- marketplace condition in which consumers do not Analyzing Markets with Perceptual Maps - Product positioning -- the way a product is perceived by a consumer - A standard marketing tool is a perceptual map - Perceptual map -- the tool used to graphically depict the positioning of competing products - Blue ocean strategy -- positioning a firm far away from competitors' positions so that it creates an industry of its own and, at least for a time, isolates itself from competitors - Ideal point -- combination of product characteristics that provide the most value to an individual consumer or market segment - Strategy canvas -- a perceptual mapping technique involving more than two dimensions used to identify uncontested market space Value Today and Tomorrow---Customer Lifetime Value - Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) -- the approximate worth of a customer to a - CLV = npv (sales -- costs) + npv (equity) - Marketers can maximize the value they receive from exchange by concentrating - How do marketing firms assess the value of a given customer? Chapter 3: consumer learning starts here: perception Sunday, January 26, 2025 10:40 PM Defining learning and perception - Learning: refers to a change in behavior resulting from interaction between a person and a stimulus - Perception: refers to a consumer awareness of and interpretation of reality - Value involves learning, and consumer perception plays a key role in learning because consumers change behavior based on what they perceive - Sometimes, consumers set out to intentionally learn marketing- related information. Other times, consumers learn unintentionally (or incidentally) - Consumer perception: - \- consumer perception shapes learning and thus behavior - \- Perception and reality are distinct concepts because the perceptions that consumers develop do not always match the real world - \- Perception represents a subjective reality, whereas what actually exists in the environment determines objective reality - \- Research demonstrates several ways in which physical sensations may distort reality - Exposure: the process of bringing some stimulus within proximity of a consumer so that the consumer can sense it with one of the five human sense - Sensation: A consumers immediate autonomic response to a stimulus - Sensory marketing: A type of marketing actively seeking to engage customers senses as a primary aspect of the value proposition - Attention: the purposeful allocation of information- processing capacity toward developing an understanding of some stimulus - Comprehension occurs when consumers attempt to derive meaning from information they receive Consumer perception process - In its most basic form, perception describes how consumers become aware of and interpret the environment - We can view consumer perception as including three phases \-- sensing, organizing, reacting Sensing - Sensing is an immediate response to stimuli that have come into contract with one of the consumers five sense - Sensing alone does not allow a consumer to make sense out of something - Grounded cognition: a theory that suggests that bodily sensations influence thoughts and meaning independent of effortful thinking Organizing - Cognitive organization: a process by which the human brain assembles sensory evidence into something recognizable - As consumers brains organize perceptions, some comprehension takes place in the form of an interpretation - When a consumer encounters a stimulus that is difficult to categorize, the brain instinctively continues processing as a way of reconciling inconsistencies - When even this extra effort leaves a consumer uncertain, they will generally avoid the stimulus - Depending on the extent to which a stimulus can be categorized, the following reactions may occur - Assimilation: occurs when a stimulus has characteristics such that consumers readily recognize it as belonging to some specific category - Accommodation: occurs when a stimulus shares some, but not all, of the characteristics that allow it to fit neatly into an existing category - Contrast: occurs when a stimulus does not share enough in common with Reacting - The perceptual process ends with a reaction - Reactions can include both physical and mental responses to the stimuli encountered Applications to consumer behavior - Subtle cues influence perception - Anthropomorphism: the giving of humanlike characteristics to inanimate objects Select perception - Rather that processing all stimuli, consumers practice selective perception - Selective exposure: the process of screening out certain stimuli and purposely exposing oneself to other stimuli - Selective attention: the process of paying attention to only certain stimuli - Selective distortion: the process by which consumers interpret information in ways that are biased by their previously held beliefs Exposure - Exposure occurs when some stimulus is brought within the proximity of a consumer so that it can be sensed Subliminal processing - Subliminal processing: the way that the human brain deals with very low-strength stimuli, so low that the person has no conscious awareness - Low strength stimuli have a strength lower than the absolute threshold of perception, which is the minimum strength of a stimulus that can be perceived - Subliminal persuasion: a behavior change induced by subliminal processing - Research examining subliminal processing suggests that subliminal persuasion is ineffective as a marketing tool Applying the JND concept - JND: a condition in which one stimulus is sufficiently stronger than another so that someone can actually notice that the two are not the same - Weber\'s law: the physical law that states that a consumer\'s ability to detect differences between two levels of a stimulus decreases as the intensity of the initial stimulus increases - Marketers need to understand that\-\--change made a little at a time may be unnoticed by a consumer\-\-- change a lot at once, and it will be noticed - Implications of JND for marketers who attempt to provide value for consumers include\-- pricing, quantity, quality, add-on purchases, product design change - When marketers make a "positive" change, they should make sure the difference is large enough to be perceived by consumers - When marketers make a "negative" change, they should think about implementing the change in small increments so that each difference is not distinguished from what existed previously - Marketers should make sure that changes are not perceived as being deceptive Just meaningful difference - JMD: the smallest amount of change in a stimulus that would influence consumer consumption and choice Implicit and explicit memory - Explicit memory -- the memory that develops when a person is exposed to, - Implicit memory -- an intuitive memory for things that a person did not try to remember - Preattentive effects -- the learning that occurs without attention - A brand image processed in implicit memory can lead to greater liking. - Learning through implicit memory actually gets stronger as the consumer is more distracted from paying attention. Mere exposure effect - Mere exposure effect -- the effect that leads consumers to prefer a stimulus to which they have previously been exposed - An explanation for an increased preference involves familiarity. Familiarity - Consumers prefer the familiar to the unfamiliar. - Relevant points about the mere exposure effect: Note on subliminal and mere exposure effects - A subliminal message is one presented below the threshold of perception. - With the mere exposure effect, the stimulus is evident, and people could pay attention to it if Mere association - Mere association effect -- the transfer of meaning between objects that are similar only by accidental association - Occurs when meaning transfers between two unrelated stimuli that a consumer gets exposed to simultaneously Product placements - One application of implicit memory and mere exposure involves brand placements in movies, videos, online games, books, and social networks. - Product (brand) placement -- the intentional insertions of branded products within media content not otherwise seen as advertising - Research on the effectiveness of product placements is mixed Attention - Attention is the purposeful allocation of cognitive capacity toward understanding some stimulus. - Involuntary attention -- the attention that is autonomic, meaning beyond the conscious control of a consumer - Orientation reflex -- the natural reflex that occurs as a response to something threatening - The goal of effective marketing communication is getting a consumer's attention directed toward specific information, voluntarily or involuntarily. The difference between intentional and unintentional learning - "System 1 processing" refers to intuitive ways of deciding, which matches our concept of unintentional learning. - "System 2 processing" refers to deliberative information-based decision making, which matches our concept of intentional learning. Behaviorism and cognitive learning theories - Psychologists generally follow one of two basic theories of learning: - Both perspectives focus on changes in behavior as people interact with their environment. Unintentional learning - Unintentional learning occurs when behavior is modified through a consumer- - The focus is on reacting, not on cognitive processing. - Unintentional learning can be approached from two behavioral learning theory perspectives: Classical conditioning - Classical conditioning -- the change in behavior that occurs simply through - Unconditioned stimulus -- the stimulus with which a behavioral response is - Conditioned stimulus -- an object or event that does not cause the desired - Unconditioned response -- the response that occurs naturally as a result of - Conditioned response -- the response that results from exposure to a Instrumental conditioning - Instrumental conditioning -- the type of learning in which a behavioral - Reinforcers are stimuli that strengthen a desired response. Discriminative Stimuli, Reinforcement, and Shaping - Discriminative stimuli -- the stimuli that occur solely in the presence of a reinforcer behavior. occurs after the behavior has been performed. - Brand names can be discriminative stimuli because they signal potential customer satisfaction and value. Shaping behavior - Shaping -- the process through which a desired behavior is altered over time, in small increments - Punishers -- the stimuli that decrease the likelihood that a behavior will persist - Extinction -- the process through which behaviors cease due to lack of Final thought on behavioral conditioning - Conditioning represents a type of learning because it focuses on behavioral - Researchers demonstrate that even casual association between fearful stimuli and a product can reduce consumption. - Through the behavioral approach, consumers are exposed to stimuli and react in some way. Become acquainted with the concepts of nudge marketing - Nudge marketing represents ways consumers can be influenced through - Many of the examples that fall under the heading of unintentional learning would - Nudge marketing rejects the notion of rational behavior and instead relies on - Nudge marketing attempts can be extremely simple or can rely on sophisticated - Effective nudge marketing relies largely on intuitive (system 1) type - Nudge marketing does not take away options from consumers; the nudge can - Pseudo-set framing -- an intuitive psychological process that motivates -     Chapter 4: comprehension, memory, and cognitive learning Wednesday, January 29, 2025 8:18 PM What influences comprehension - Comprehension: the way people cognitively assign meaning things they encounter - Brain activity and comprehension are connected - Three factors related to consumer comprehension - \- internal factors within the consumer powerfully influence the comprehension process - \- comprehension includes both cognitive and affective elements - \- every message sends signals - Signal theory: the theoretical work that explains ways in which communications convey meaning beyond the explicit or obvious interpretation Factors affecting consumer comprehension - Meaning and value are inseparable, and consumers must comprehend marketing messages to learn the intended value of a product - Factors that influence what a consumer comprehends in a situation - \- characteristics of the message - \- characteristics of the message receiver - \- characteristics of the communication environment Characteristics of the message - Marketers believe that they can affect consumer learning by carefully planning the execution of marketing communications Physical characteristics - Physical characteristics: the tangible elements or the parts of a message that can be sensed - some physical characteristics that can contribute to effective communication include intensity, color, font, numbers, spacing, and shape Simplicity versus complexity - The simpler the message, the more likely a consumer develops meaningful comprehension - The simpler that health information can be presented, the more accurately consumers will understand the consequences - \- a large amount of research points to the fact that simplicity is the key - \- terms like fat- free are better understood than numeric breakdowns Message congruity - Message congruity : the extent to which a message is internally consistent and fits surrounding information - Conventional wisdom is that congruent content will lead to improved comprehension - Moderate levels of incongruity motivate deeper processing than when everything in a string of messages is highly congruent. The result can be improved comprehension. - Consumers will comprehend and remember more from an ad that is presented with incongruent material surrounding it. Figure and ground - Figure-ground distinction -- the notion that each message can be separated into the focal point (figure) and the background (ground) Type of language - The choice of language can influence the meaning of products. - Figurative language -- the use of expressions intended to send a nonliteral meaning Message source - The source of a message can also influence comprehension. - A source influences comprehension to varying degrees based upon Message receiver characteristics   Intelligence/ability - Intelligent, well-educated consumers are more likely to accurately comprehend a message than Prior knowledge - Prior knowledge provides resources through which other stimuli can be comprehended. Involvement - Consumers are not equally involved with every message sent their way. - Today's technology offers the highly involved consumer lots of opportunities to engage with Familiarity/habituation - Habituation -- the process by which continuous exposure to a stimulus affects the - Adaptation level -- the level of a stimulus to which a consumer has become accustomed EXPECTATIONS - Expectations -- the beliefs about what will happen in some future situation - They play an important role in many consumer behavior settings and can impact PHYSICAL LIMITS - A consumer's physical limitations can influence comprehension. BRAIN DOMINANCE - Brain dominance -- a theory that refers to the phenomenon of hemispheric lateralization; some people tend to be either right-brain or left-brain dominant - Right-brain dominant consumers tend to be visual processors and tend to favor images for communication. - Left-brain dominant consumers tend to deal better with verbal processing (words). - Metaphor -- in a consumer context, an ad claim that is not literally true but figuratively communicates a message Environmental characteristics Information intensity - Information intensity - the amount of information available for a consumer to process within a given environment - One of the drawbacks of frequent online social networking is burnout in the form - The intensity of information (too much, too fast) plays a role in reducing Framing - Framing -- a phenomenon in which the meaning of something is influenced - Prospect theory -- the theory that suggests that a decision, or argument, can - Priming -- the cognitive process in which context or environment activates Message media - Some studies suggest that we comprehend more and better when reading from a message printed on paper than from a digital message Construal level theory - Construal level -- the level to which we are thinking about something using a concrete or an abstract mindset - The more concrete the mindset, the closer the event tends to seem in both time and distance. - Socially distant people represent individuals who are perceived as different in terms of social class or relatability. Timing - Timing affects comprehension. - Timing refers to both the amount of time a consumer has to process a message - Time of day can also affect the meaning and value of a product.. - The way time or age influences the interpretation of things is sometimes called Multiple store theory of acquiring, storing, and using knowledge - Memory\-\-- is the psychological process by which knowledge is recorded. Multiple Store Theory of Memory - Multiple stores theory of memory (or multistores) -- the theory that explains - Each area is storage for a different type of memory. Sensory memory - Sensory memory -- an area in memory where a consumer stores things - Sensory memory uses multiple distinctive mechanisms. - Haptic perception -- the interpretations created by the way some object feels Workbench memory - Workbench memory -- the storage area in the memory system where - Encoding -- the process by which information is transferred from workbench - Retrieval -- the process by which information is transferred back into workbench memory for additional processing when needed - In workbench memory, the relevancy of the following quickly come into play. Making associations with meaning as a key way to learn Mental processes - Four mental processes can help consumers remember things. Repetition - Repetition is a commonly employed way of trying to remember something. - Cognitive interference -- the notion that everything else that the consumer is exposed to while Dual coding - Marketing messages often combine an image with a description to promote dual coding. - Associating products with scents and rhythm helps consumers remember information. Meaningful encoding - Meaningful encoding involves the association of active information in short-term Chunking - The capacity of workbench memory is rarely more than seven chunks of - Chunk -- a single memory unit Retrieval and working memory - Response generation -- the reconstruction of memory traces into a formed - Meaning and knowledge are the keys to effective coding and cognitive learning. - Marketers can help with meaningful coding: Long- term memory - Long-term memory -- the repository for all information that a person has encountered - Semantic coding -- the type of coding wherein stimuli are converted to meaning that can be expressed verbally - Memory trace -- the mental path by which some thought becomes active - Spreading activation -- the way cognitive activation spreads from one concept (or node) to another Mental tagging - Tag -- a small piece of coded information that helps with the retrieval of Rumination - Rumination -- the unintentional but recurrent memory of long-ago events that - Nostalgia -- a yearning to relive the past that can produce lingering emotions Elaboration - Elaboration -- the extent to which a consumer continues processing a message - Elaboration results in more and richer tags with a better chance of recall. - Personal elaboration -- the process by which people imagine themselves - In marketing, appeals to a consumer to associate aspects of their own lives are likely to lead to deeper comprehension and better recall. Associative networks and consumer knowledge Associative networks - Knowledge in long-term memory is stored in an associate network. - Associative network -- the network of mental pathways linking knowledge - These networks are similar to family trees, as some family members are Declarative knowledge - Declarative knowledge -- the cognitive components that represent facts - Declarative knowledge is represented in an associative network by two nodes - Consumers' declarative knowledge may not always be correct, but consumers - In everyday experiences, a consumer compares all bits of knowledge with - Every time a consumer encounters a supportive instance of declarative - Associations represent rules that determine consumer reactions. - Every concept within a consumer's associative network is linked to every other Product and brand schemas - Consumers' knowledge for a brand or product is contained in a schema. - Schema -- a portion of an associative network that represents a specific entity - A brand schema is the smaller part within one's total associative network - Product schemas function in much the same way. Exemplars - Exemplar -- the concept within a schema that is the single best representative - Exemplars can differ from one person to another based on their unique - The exemplar provides consumers with a basis of comparison for judging Prototypes - Some categories are not well represented by an exemplar. - Prototype -- the schema that is the best representative of some category but - Whether represented by a prototype or an exemplar, consumers compare new Reaction to new products/brands - When consumers encounter new products or brands, they react to them by Script - Script -- schema representing an event - Consumers derive expectations for service encounters from these scripts. - Marketing firms can use scripts to shape service and sales encounters in a way Episodic memory - Episodic memory -- a memory for past events in one's life - Emotions are an important part of episodic memory as the right emotions - Both episodic memories and scripts can include knowledge necessary for Social schemata - Social schema (social stereotype) -- a cognitive representation that gives a specific type of person meaning - Consumers generally like it when a service provider matches an existing stereotype. - A social schema can be based on any characteristic that can describe a person, including occupation, age, sex, ethnicity, religion, and even product ownership. - Social identity -- the idea that one's individual identity is defined in part by the social groups to which one belongs