ADV 318J Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Starbucks, Focus Group, Competitor Analysis
Advertising 318J Exam 2
CHAPTER 5: ADVERTISING, INTEGRATED BRAND PROMOTION, AND
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
• Consumer behavior is defined as all things related to how humans
operate as consumers
o If it has anything to do with consuming, its consumer
behavior
• Some companies do very well with only a very thin understanding
of how their consumers choose their brands
o This is especially true in the case of so-called low involvement
goods, such as consumer packaged goods (CPG)
▪ Trash bags, paper towels, laundry detergent, canned
soup
▪ CPG consumer behavior is mostly about memory and
habit
• When you can either transform CPG or other low involvement
brands from simple memory-based ones (mindshare brands) into
more culturally or socially meaningful ones through advertising, or
when you are dealing with more high involvement categories such
as automobiles or clothing, then the advertising and the related
consumer behavior is a lot more interesting and fun
• All advertisers could significantly improve their odds and profits by
better understanding their consumers
This chapter summarizes the concepts and frameworks believed to be most
helpful in trying to understand consumer behavior as it most closely relates
to advertising and IBP
• Consumer behavior is explained through 2 different perspectives:
o Psychological
▪ What happens in consumers’ heads
o Sociocultural
▪ Views consumers as social beings who operate in their
societies and cultures and thus behave largely as a
function of social circumstance and cultural forces
PERSPECTIVE ONE: THE CONSUMER AS DECISION MAKER
One way to view consumer behavior is as a fairly predictable sequential
process culminating with the individual’s reaping a set of benefits from a
product or service that satisfies that person’s perceived needs
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• In this basic view, we can think of individuals as purposeful decision
makers who either weigh and balance alternatives, or resort to
simple decision rules of thumb to make decisions
o This process occurs in a straightforward sequence:
▪ 1) need recognition
▪ 2) information search and alternative evaluation
▪ 3) purchase
▪ 4) post-purchase use and evaluation
The Consumer Decision-Making Process:
Need Recognition:
• From the psychological perspective, the consumption process
begins when people perceive a need
o A need state arises when one’s desired state of affairs differs
from one’s actual state of affairs
▪ Need states are accompanied by a mental discomfort or
anxiety that motivates action
• One way advertising works is to point to and thereby activate needs
that will motivate consumers to buy a product or service
• A variety of needs can be fulfilled through consumption, and it is
reasonable to suggest that consumers’ needs are often sufficiently
recognized and motivating to many consumers
• Products and services should provide benefits that fulfill consumer’s
needs
o Therefore, one of the advertiser’s primary jobs is to make the
connection between the two for the consumer
Information Search and Alternative Evaluation:
• Need recognition sets in motion a process that may involve
extensive information search and careful evaluation of alternatives
prior to purchase
• The consumer’s first option for information is to draw on personal
experience and prior knowledge
o This internal search for information may be all that is required
▪ When a consumer has considerable prior experience
with the products in question, thoughts and feelings
about the alternatives may be ell established and
determine choice
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▪ An internal search can also tap into information that has
accumulated in one’s memory as a result of repeated
advertising exposures
▪ Advertisers want the result of internal search to result
in their brand bring in the “evoked set”- the set of
brands (usually 2-5) that come in mind when a
category is mentioned
the evoked set is usually highly related to the
consideration set-the set of the brands the
consumer will consider for purchase
▪ if your brand is the first mentioned, you have achieved:
“top of mind”
top of mind awareness is a pretty good predictor
of fairly inexpensive and low-risk CPG purchases
o affecting people’s beliefs about a brand before their actual
use of it, or merely establishing the existence of the brand in
the consumer’s consciousness, is a critical function of
advertising and other IBP
• The consumer then proceeds with an external search-typically
involves visiting retail stores or looking online to examine the
alternatives, seeking input from friends and relatives about their
experiences with the product in question, or perusing professional
product evaluation
• Alternative evaluation will be structured by the consumer’s
consideration set and evaluated criteria
o The consideration set is the subset of brands from a particular
product category that becomes the focal point of the
consumer’s evaluation
• As the search-and-evaluation process proceeds, consumers form
evaluations based on the characteristics or attributes of those
brands in their consideration set
o These product attributes or performance characteristics are
referred to as evaluative criteria
• Understanding consumers’ evaluative criteria furnishes a powerful
starting point for any advertising campaign
Purchase:
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Document Summary
Episodic memory: memories of episodes, your memory of events, parties, what you did last night, and so on, these memories are so easily altered. Emotion: consumers actually change the nature of incoming information to favor this emotional brand connection, it then affects subsequent consumer decisions in favor of the emotion-linked brand. Information overload and simplification: consumers simply get too much information and confront too many choices to be able to comprehensively and effectively apply all the information to the choice task, what they then do is simplify the task. A perspective based on social and cultural factors: viewing their behavior from a different vantage point. Consumers are more than information processors, and ads are more than socially isolated attempts at attitude manipulation with this approach, meaning is the focus, and consumer behavior is meaningfully social. This social meaning-based approach centers on knowing how to connect with human beings around their lives and consumption practices with advertising and other bp.
