Consumer Studies - Test 2

Fattism

An obsession with weight.

What does CSR stand for?

Corporate Social Responsibilities

What is word-of-mouth, and why is it more powerful than advertising?

Is product information transmitted by individuals to individuals. Because we get the word from people we know, WOM tends to be more reliable and trustworthy than recommendations we get through more formal marketing channels.

Opinion Leaders

Their recommendations are more influential than others when we decide to buy.

Much of what we know about products we learn through _________________________________, rather than formal advertising.

Word-of-mouth Communication

List three dimensions that describe the self-concepts.

1. Content—facial attractiveness versus mental aptitude; 2. Positivity or negativity—self-esteem; and 3. Intensity, stability over time, and accuracy—the degree to which one's self-assessment corresponds to reality

State two important criticisms of marketing and provide the pros and cons for each.

1. Some feel that marketers contribute to the moral breakdown of society when they promote hedonistic pleasure and encourage the pursuit of humanism at the expense of spirituality and the environment. The marketing system creates demand that only its products can satisfy. The argument against this thought is that the need is already there, and marketers simply recommend ways to satisfy it. Marketing creates awareness that the need exists; it does not create the need. 2. Another criticism of marketing is that it manipulates the masses. This includes online communications. Markets arbitrarily link products to desirable social attributes to foster a materialistic society. Marketers focus on the irrational value of the goods they symbolize. However, some feel that products meet existing needs, and marketing activities only help to communicate the availability of the good or service. The economic cost of time we would need to search for products is diminished

Virtual community of consumption

A collection of people whose online interactions are based upon shared enthusiasm for and knowledge of a specific consumption activity. Like the brand communities, these groups form around a shared love for a product, whether it is Barbie dolls or Blackberry PDAs. However, members remain anonymous because they only interact with each other in cyberspace.

What is an important component of self-definition?

A person's sex-role identity. Conceptions about masculinity and femininity, largely shaped by society, guide the acquisition of "sex-typed" products and services.</para> <para>The media play a key role in teaching us how to behave as "proper" males and females. Advertising and other media play an important role because they socialize consumers to be male and female. Although traditional women's roles have often been perpetuated in advertising depictions, this situation is changing somewhat. The media do not always portray men accurately either.

What are some important reasons why consumers can experience limited market access?

Access might be limited because of physical, mental, economic, or social barriers. There are 11 million U.S. adults that have conditions that may make it difficult for them to leave home to shop. This can be minimized through the use of technology and other resources

Which is more powerful, positive or negative word of mouth?

Consumers weigh negative word of mouth more heavily than they do positive comments.

How does the self-concept influence consumer behavior?

Consumers' self-concepts are reflections of their attitudes toward themselves. Whether these attitudes are positive or negative, they will help to guide many purchase decisions; we can use products to bolster self-esteem or to "reward" the self.</para></division>

What is an important component of a consumer's self concept?

Gender Identity

What is the difference between a market maven and a surrogate consumer?

In addition to everyday consumers who are instrumental in influencing others' purchase decisions, a class of marketing intermediary called the surrogate consumer is an active player in many categories and paid for their services. A consumer category called the market maven describes people who are actively involved in transmitting marketplace information of all types. Social media changes the way we learn about and select products. As Web 2.0 continues to develop, companies and consumers increasingly interact directly. The wisdom-of-crowds perspective argues that under the right circumstances, groups are smarter than the smartest people in them. If this is true, it implies that large numbers of consumers can predict successful products. In a sense, a lot of social networking sites let their members dictate purchase decisions.

Other people and groups, especially those that possess social power, _______________________________________.

Influence our decisions

Ethical business is good business.

Marketers must confront many ethical issues, especially ones that relate to how much they make consumers "want" things they don't need or are not good for them.

Is there such a thing as a generalized opinion leader? Why or why not?

No. When marketers and social scientists initially developed the concept of the opinion leader, they assumed that certain influential people in a community would exert an overall impact on group members' attitudes. However, later work began to question the assumption that there is such a thing as a generalized opinion leader, somebody whose recommendations we seek for all types of purchases. Very few people are capable of being expert in a number of fields. Sociologists distinguish between those who are monomorphic, or expert in a limited field, and those who are polymorphic, or expert in several fields.

Opinon Leaders - More in depth...

Opinion leaders who are knowledgeable about a product and whose opinions are highly regarded tend to influence others' choices. Specific opinion leaders are somewhat hard to identify, but marketers who know their general characteristics can try to target them in their media and promotional strategies. Other influencers include market mavens, who have a general interest in marketplace activities; and surrogate consumers, who are compensated for their advice about purchases.

What often defines a person's self-concept?

Products. We choose many products because we think that they are similar to our personalities. The symbolic interactionist perspective of the self implies that each of us actually has many selves, and we require a different set of products as props to play each role. We view many things other than the body as part of who we are. People use valued objects, cars, homes, and even attachments to sports teams or national monuments to define the self, when they incorporate these into the extended self.

List three types of social power and give an example of each. Social power describes the capacity to alter the actions of others. It can be based on:

Referent power (the power to promote a fashion brand by a celebrity), Information power (identifying the next trend in gaming), Legitimate power (doctors at a hospital teaching medical students), Expert power (hiring an astronaut to design technology for the space station), Reward power (earning loyalty rewards from your favorite retailer), or Coercive power (a car salesman offering a special price if you buy today).

Viral Marketing

Refers to the strategy of getting visitors to a website to forward information on the site to their friends in order to make still more consumers aware of the product—usually by creating online content that is entertaining or just plain weird. Viral marketing for oil? Pretty slick. WD-40 quadrupled visitors to its fan club website by offering 1,000 AM/FM radios in the shape of oilcans to individuals who signed up 10 other members.

Why is greenwashing a problem for marketers?

Studies show that almost one-fourth of U.S. consumers feel they have no way of knowing how true a claim might be, and one report shows that 95 percent of consumer companies that market products as "green" make misleading or inaccurate claims.

How did tattoos originate?

Tattoos have a long history of association with people who are social outcasts. For example, the faces and arms of criminals in sixth-century Japan were tattooed as a means of identifying them, as were Massachusetts prison inmates in the nineteenth century and concentration camp internees in the twentieth century. Marginal groups, such as bikers or Japanese yakuze (gang members) often use these emblems to express group identity and solidarity.

How might the "digital self" differ from a consumer's self-concept in the real world, and why is this difference potentially important to marketers?

Technology allows users to modify profile photos on online sites. Many users create identities in the form of an avatar when playing online games. While our physical bodies don't change, we are becoming more what we post than what we really are. Respondents in one study placed more value on digital items that effect physical identities. We can also use our digital self to try products such as make-up, hairstyles, and clothing, before actually trying the product. This is an important opportunity for marketers because consumers can quickly and easily see how the product would alter appearances, without the risk of actually buying the product.

Why is market access an important aspect of consumer well-being?

The consumer's ability to find and purchase goods and services.

How do Eastern and Western cultures tend to differ in terms of how people think about the self?

The emphasis on the unique nature of the self is much greater in Western societies. Many Eastern cultures instead stress the importance of a collective self, where a person derives his identity in large measure from his social group. Both Eastern and Western cultures see the self as divided into an inner, private self, and an outer, public self. However, where they differ is in terms of which part is seen as the "real you"—the West tends to subscribe to an independent construal of the self that emphasizes the inherent separateness of each individual.

What is the relationship between an opinion leader and an opinion seeker?

The fact that we transmit advice about products does not mean other people take that advice. For someone to be considered a bona fide opinion leader, opinion seekers must actually heed his advice. An alternative is to select certain group members (key informants) who we ask to identify opinion leaders. The success of this approach hinges on locating those who have accurate knowledge of the group and on minimizing their response biases (e.g., the tendency to inflate one's own influence on the choices of others).

Compare and contrast the real versus the ideal self. List three products for which a person is likely to use each type of self as a reference point when he or she considers a purchase.

The ideal self is a person's conception of how he or she would like to be, whereas the actual self refers to our more realistic appraisal of the qualities we have and don't have. Product choices will vary, but products associated with the ideal self are more likely to be expressive.

Materialism

The importance people attach to worldly possessions, and the role of business in encouraging this outlook.

How does the Principle of Least Interest relate to your success in a romantic relationship?

The more people are dedicated to a group and value their membership in it, the greater their motivation to conform to the group's wishes. Rock groupies and followers of TV evangelists may do anything their idols ask of them, and terrorists become martyrs for their cause. According to the Principle of Least Interest the person who is least committed to staying in a relationship has the most power because that party doesn't care as much if the other person rejects him.

Define Greenwashing

The promotion of environmentally friendly products, but often, the claims are false or exaggerated.

What is a key component of self-esteem?

The way we think about our bodies (and the way our culture tells us we should think) A person's conception of his or her body also provides feedback to self-image. A culture communicates specific ideals of beauty, and consumers go to great lengths to attain these. Many consumer activities involve manipulating the body, whether through dieting, cosmetic surgery, piercing, or tattooing.

The Looking Glass Self

This process of imagining the reactions of others toward us is known as "taking the role of the other," or the looking glass self. According to this view, our desire to define ourselves operates as a sort of psychological sonar: We take readings of our own identity by "bouncing" signals off others and trying to project what impression they have of us.

The economics of information perspective argues that advertising is important. Why?

This view emphasizes the economic cost of the time spent searching for products. Accordingly, advertising is a service for which consumers are willing to pay, because the information it provides reduces search time.

What are marketer's obligation?

To provide safe and functional products as part of their business activities. It is both ethically and financially smart to maximize customer satisfaction. In some cases, external bodies such as the government or industry associations regulate businesses to ensure that their products and advertising are safe, clear, and accurate. Consumer behavior researchers may play a role in this process and those who do transformative consumer research (TCR) may even work to bring about social change. Companies also play a significant role in addressing social conditions through their corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and social marketing campaigns that promote positive behaviors.

What are sociometric techniques? Under what conditions does it make sense to use them?

Trace communication patterns among members of a group. These techniques allow researchers to systematically map out the interactions that take place among group members.

What does TCR stand for?

Transformative Consumer Research

T or F: Every culture dictates certain types of body decoration or mutilation.

True

Guerrilla marketing strategies

Try to accelerate the WOM process when they enlist consumers to help spread the word. Although WOM often is helpful to make consumers aware of products, it can also hurt companies when damaging product rumors or negative WOM occur.

Define social marketing, and give an example of this technique.

Uses marketing techniques normally employed to sell beer or detergent to encourage positive behaviors such as increased literacy and to discourage negative activities such as drunk driving.

Describe some ways in which marketers are using the Internet to encourage positive WOM.

Virtual community of consumption and opinion leaders.

Word-of-mouth Communication

We tend to exchange product-related information in casual conversations.

What is the most important driver of product choice?

Word-of-mouth communication Social networking platforms significantly increase our access to others' opinions about products and services. Virtual consumption communities unite those who share a common bond—usually enthusiasm about or knowledge of a specific product or service. Emerging marketing strategies try to leverage the potential of the Web to spread information from consumer to consumer extremely quickly. Viral marketing techniques enlist individuals to tout products, services, Web sites, and so on, to others on behalf of companies. Blogging allows consumers to easily post their thoughts about products for others to see.

Can consumer behavior be considered harmful to individuals and to society?

Yes. Although textbooks often paint a picture of the consumer as a rational, informed decision-maker, in reality many consumer activities are harmful to individuals or to society. The "dark side" of consumer behavior includes terrorism, addiction, the use of people as products (consumed consumers), and theft or vandalism (anticonsumption)

Conformity

a change in beliefs or actions as a reaction to real or imagined group pressure. For a society to function, its members develop norms or informal rules that govern behavior. Without these rules, we would have chaos. Imagine the confusion if a simple norm such as "always stop for a red traffic light" did not exist. There are several reasons why people conform, including a combination of 1. cultural pressures, 2. fear of deviance, 3. commitment, 4. group unanimity, size and expertise, 5. susceptibility to interpersonal influence, and 6. environmental cues.

What is brand community, and why is it of interest to marketers?

a group of consumers—like those zealous Halo players— who share a set of social relationships based on usage of or interest in a product. Researchers find that people who participate in these events feel more positive about the sponsor's products as a result, and this enhances brand loyalty. They tend to forgive product failures or lapses in service quality, and they're less likely to switch brands even if they learn that competing products are as good or better. Furthermore, these community members become emotionally involved in the company's welfare, and they often serve as brand missionaries because they carry its marketing message to others. Researchers find that brand community members do more than help the product build buzz; their inputs actually create added value for themselves and other members as they develop better ways to use and customize products.

What is an opinion leader? Give three reasons why they are powerful influences on consumers'

a person who is frequently able to influence others' attitudes or behaviors. • They are technically competent and thus convincing because they possess expert power. • They have prescreened, evaluated, and synthesized product information in an unbiased way, so they possess knowledge power. Unlike commercial endorsers, opinion leaders do not actually represent the interests of one company. Thus, they are more credible because they have no "axe to grind." • They tend to be socially active and highly interconnected in their communities. They are likely to hold offices in community groups and clubs and to be active outside of the home. As a result, opinion leaders often have legitimate power by virtue of their social standing. • They tend to be similar to the consumer in terms of their values and beliefs, so they possess referent power. Note that although opinion leaders are set apart by their interest or expertise in a product category, they are more convincing to the extent that they are homophilous rather than heterophilous. Homophily refers to the degree to which a pair of individuals is similar in terms of education, social status, and beliefs. Effective opinion leaders tend to be slightly higher in terms of status and educational attainment than those they influence, but not so high as to be in a different social class. • Opinion leaders are often among the first to buy new products, so they absorb much of the risk. This experience reduces uncertainty for others who are not as courageous. Furthermore, whereas company-sponsored communications tend to focus exclusively on the positive aspects of a product, the hands-on experience of opinion leaders makes them more likely to impart both positive and negative information about product performance.

Body decoration or mutilation

may serve such functions as a. separating group members from nonmembers, b. marking the individual's status or rank within a social organization or within a gender category, or c. even providing a sense of security or good luck.

Define business ethics, and why is this an important topic?

rules of conduct that guide actions in the marketplace. These are the standards against which most people in a culture judge what is right or wrong, good or bad. However, the notions of right and wrong differ among people, organizations, and cultures. This is an important distinction as we learn to work with those of other cultures.