Consumer Behavior

What is fattism?

Fattism is an obsession with weight.

What is the major difference between behavioral and cognitive theories of learning?

In contrast to behavioral theories of learning, cognitive learning theory approaches stress the importance of internal mental processes. This perspective views people as problem solvers who actively use information from the world around them to master their environment. Supporters of this view also stress the role of creativity and insight during the learning process.

Why do U.S. phone numbers have seven digits?

Initially, researchers believed that STM was capable of processing between five and nine chunks of information at a time, and for this reason they designed phone numbers to have seven digits.

How does the sense of touch influence consumers' reactions to products?

Moods are stimulated or relaxed based on sensations reaching the skin, whether from a luxurious massage or the bite of a winter wind. Touch has even been shown to be a factor in sales interactions (holding an item makes a consumer feel attached to it; touch can increase tips/coupon redemption). We are more sure about what we perceive when we can touch it.

What is the difference between a mood and an emotion?

Moods involve temporary positive or negative affective states accompanied by moderate levels of arousal. Moods tend to be diffuse and not necessarily linked to a particular event (e.g. you might have just "woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning"). Emotions such as happiness, anger, and fear tend to be more intense and often relate to a specific triggering event such as receiving an awesome gift.

Does subliminal perception work? Why or why not?

Some research by clinical psychologists suggests that people can be influenced by subliminal messages under very specific conditions, though it is doubtful that these techniques would be of much use in most marketing contexts. Effective messages must be very specifically tailored to individuals, rather than the mass messages required by advertising.

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.

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.

Describe a culture production system and list its three components.

A culture production system is the set of individuals and organizations responsible for creating and marketing a cultural product. A culture production system has three major subsystems: · A creative subsystem responsible for generating new symbols and products. · A managerial subsystem responsible for selecting, making tangible, mass producing, and managing the distribution of new symbols and products. · A communications subsystem responsible for giving meaning to the new product and providing it with a symbolic set of attributes that it then communicates to consumers.

What is an example of a meme?

A meme is an idea or product that enters the consciousness of people over time—examples include tunes, catch phrases ("You're fired!"), or styles such as the Hush Puppy.

A myth is a special kind of story. What makes it special? What is an example of a modern myth?

A myth is a story containing symbolic elements that express the shared emotions and ideals of a culture. It often features a conflict between two opposing forces. It often sets good against evil. It reduces anxiety because it provides consumers with guidelines about their world. An example of the modern myth is fairy tale weddings that Disney stages for couples that want to enact their own version of a popular fairy tale.

The way we think about our bodies (and the way our culture tells us we should think) is a key component of self-esteem.

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. Sometimes these activities are carried to an extreme because people try too hard to live up to cultural ideals. One common manifestation is eating disorders, diseases in which women in particular become obsessed with thinness.

Why is it not necessarily a good idea to advertise a product in a commercial where a really popular song plays in the background?

A popular song might also be heard in many situations in which the product is not present. When the unconditioned stimulus appears in the absence of the conditioned stimulus, it can lead to extinction of the effect of conditioning.

What is a positioning strategy?

A positioning strategy is a fundamental part of a company's marketing efforts as it uses elements of the marketing mix (i.e., product design, price, distribution, and marketing communications) to influence the consumer's interpretation of its meaning. Marketers can use many dimensions to carve out a brand's position in the marketplace.

List the three stages of a rite of passage ritual.

A rite of passage consists of three phases, separation, liminality, and aggregation. For example, when a student leaves for college they will experience the three phases. In the first stage, separation, he detaches from his original group or status as a high school kid and leaves home for campus. Liminality is the middle stage, where he is in limbo between statuses. Think of those bewildered new first-year students who try to find their way around campus during orientation. In the aggregation stage, he returns to society with his new status. Our hero returns home for Thanksgiving break as a cocky college "veteran."

What is a ritual? Describe three kinds of rituals and provide an example of each.

A ritual is a set of multiple, symbolic behaviors that occur at a variety of levels. Three kinds of rituals are: gift-giving rituals (ex. Christmas gifts), holiday rituals (ex. wearing costumes for Halloween), and grooming rituals (ex. bathing).

Have ideals of beauty in the United States changed over the last 50 years? If so, how?

A study of almost 50 years of Playboy centerfolds shows that the women have become less shapely and more androgynous since Marilyn Monroe graced the first edition with a voluptuous hourglass figure of 37-23-36. However, a magazine spokesman comments, "As time has gone on and women have become more athletic, more in the business world and more inclined to put themselves through fitness regimes, their bodies have changed, and we reflect that as well. But I would think that no one with eyes to see would consider playmates to be androgynous."

Describe the difference between arts and crafts.

An art product is an object we admire strictly for its beauty or because it inspires an emotional reaction in us (perhaps bliss, or perhaps disgust). In contrast, we admire a craft product because of the beauty with which it performs some function (e.g., a ceramic ashtray or hand-carved fishing lures). A craft tends to follow a formula that permits rapid production.

If a consumer is familiar with a product, advertising for it can work both ways by either enhancing or diminishing recall. Why?

As a rule, prior familiarity with an item enhances its recall. This is one of the basic goals of marketers who are trying to create and maintain awareness of their products. The more experience a consumer has with a product, the better use he or she is able to make of product information. However, there is a possible fly in the ointment: As noted earlier in the chapter, some evidence indicates that extreme familiarity can result in inferior learning and recall. When consumers are highly familiar with a brand or an advertisement, they may attend to fewer attributes because they do not believe that any additional effort will yield a gain in knowledge.

What do we mean by the concept of augmented reality? Give an example that is not discussed in the chapter. How does this concept differ from virtual reality?

Augmented reality refers to media that superimposed one or more digital layers of data, images, or video over a physical object. Virtual reality integrates the physical senses with digital information. Unlike augmented reality that delivers a combination of both sensory experiences, virtual reality provides a totally immersive experience that transports the user into an entirely separate 3D environment. One example of augmented reality not discussed in the text is used by Google when showing routes to destinations.

Give an example of a marketer who uses the principle of binary opposition.

Binary opposition occurs when there are two opposing ends of some dimension (e.g., good versus evil, nature versus technology). Characters, and in some cases products, are often defined by what they are not rather than what they are ("I can't believe it's not butter.").

Every culture dictates certain types of body decoration or mutilation.

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

How do different types of reinforcement enhance learning? How does the strategy of frequency marketing relate to conditioning?

Businesses can shape behavior when they gradually reinforce actions with rewards. Instrumental conditioning occurs when behavior produce positive outcome and we learn to avoid those behaviors that do not produce desired outcomes. Shaping is a reinforcement tool that rewards intermediate actions. Positive reinforcement strengthens the response and we learn appropriate behavior. Negative reinforcement also strengthens the response as we learn to avoid a certain behavior. Punishment is an unpleasant event that follows an action. When a person no longer receives a desired outcome for an action, they will eventually quit performing the action. Frequency marketing rewards regular purchasers with prizes as they spend more. This positive reinforcement encourages consumers to spend more, and increase reward levels.

What is the difference between classical conditioning and instrumental conditioning?

Classical conditioning occurs when a stimulus that elicits a response is paired with another stimulus that initially does not elicit a response on its own. Over time, this second stimulus causes a similar response because it is associated with the first stimulus. Instrumental conditioning, also known as operant conditioning, occurs as the individual learns to perform behaviors that produce positive outcomes and to avoid those that yield negative outcomes.

How is a collection sacred? What is the difference between collecting and hoarding?

Collecting refers to the systematic acquisition of a particular object or set of objects. Collecting expensive cars is a sacred experience for a few. A car might be sacralized as soon as it enters a collection and it takes on a special significance to the collector that outsiders may find hard to comprehend. We can distinguish this activity from hoarding, which is merely unsystematic collecting. Hoarding is becoming a problem in some areas where consumers' refusal to throw things away in some extreme cases has resulted in fires, eviction, and even the removal of children from the home.

The self-concept strongly influences 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.

How does learning new information make it more likely that we'll forget things we've already learned?

Decay causes a structural change in how we learn and remember. Forgetting also occurs because of interference. When we learn new information, it displaces previous information. Because we store information in memory as nodes that link to one another, we are more likely to retrieve a meaning concept that is connected by a larger number of links. As we learn new information, a stimulus loses its effectiveness in retrieving old responses being prompted for this information first—obviously this task requires greater effort on the part of respondents.

What is external memory and why is it important to marketers?

During the consumer decision-making process, this internal memory is combined with external memory that includes all of the product details on packages and other marketing stimuli that permit brand alternatives to be identified and evaluated.

Name the three stages of information processing as we commit information about products to memory.

Encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Give an example of an episodic memory.

Episodic memories relate to events that are personally relevant. As a result, a person's motivation to retain these memories will likely be strong. Couples often have "their song" that reminds them of their first date or wedding or some remember the first time they went on a date or what happened at their high school prom.

Identify and describe the three stages of perception.

Exposure occurs when a stimulus comes within the range of someone's sensory receptors. Attention refers to the extent to which processing activity is devoted to a particular stimulus. Interpretation refers to the meaning that we assign to sensory stimuli.

What is the difference among the terms fashion, a fashion, and in fashion?

Fashion is the process of social diffusion by which a new style is adopted by some group(s) of consumers. In contrast, a fashion (or style) refers to a particular combination of attributes. In addition, to be in fashion means that some reference group positively evaluates this combination. Thus, the term Danish Modern refers to particular characteristics of furniture design (i.e., a fashion in interior design); it does not necessarily imply that Danish Modern is a fashion that consumers currently desire.

What is the difference between a fad, a fashion, and a classic fashion life cycle

Fashions are characterized by slow acceptance at the beginning, which (if the fashion is to "make it") rapidly accelerates, peaks, and then tapers off. We can identify different classes of fashion by considering the relative length of the fashion acceptance cycle. Many fashions exhibit a moderate cycle, taking several years to work their way through the stages of acceptance and decline; others are extremely long-lived or short-lived. A classic is a fashion with an extremely long acceptance cycle. It is in a sense "antifashion" because it guarantees stability and low risk to the purchaser for a long period. A fad is a very short-lived fashion. Relatively few people usually adopt a fad product. Adopters may all belong to a common subculture, and the fad "trickles across" members but rarely breaks out of that specific group.

"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." Explain this statement.

Gestalt roughly means whole, pattern, or configuration, and this perspective is best summarized by the saying "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

Define hedonic consumption and provide an example.

Hedonic consumption is the multi-sensory, fantasy, and emotional aspects of consumers' interactions with products. The Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corporation was the first company to trademark a color when it used bright pink for its insulation material and adopted the Pink Panther cartoon character as its spokes-character. Harley-Davidson actually tried to trademark the distinctive sound made by a "hog" revving up.

Describe three types of motivational conflicts, citing an example of each from current marketing campaigns.

In an approach-approach conflict, a person must choose between two desirable alternatives. A student might be torn between going home for the holidays and going on a skiing trip with friends. Many of the products and services we desire have negative consequences attached to them as well. We may feel guilty or ostentatious when buying a status-laden product such as a fur coat, or we might feel like a glutton when contemplating a tempting package of Twinkies. An approach-avoidance conflict exists when we desire a goal but wish to avoid it at the same time. Sometimes consumers find themselves "caught between a rock and a hard place." They may face a choice with two undesirable alternatives, for instance, the option of either throwing more money into an old car or buying a new one. Marketers frequently address an avoidance-avoidance conflict with messages that stress the unforeseen benefits of choosing one option (e.g., by emphasizing special credit plans to ease the pain of car payments).

What is the difference between an unconditioned stimulus and a conditioned stimulus?

Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist doing research on digestion in animals, first demonstrated this phenomenon in dogs. Pavlov induced classically conditioned learning by pairing a neutral stimulus (a bell) with a stimulus known to cause a salivation response in dogs (he squirted dried meat powder into their mouths). The powder was an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) because it was naturally capable of causing the response. Over time, the bell became a conditioned stimulus (CS); it did not initially cause salivation, but the dogs learned to associate the bell with the meat powder and began to salivate at the sound of the bell only.

How is associative memory like a spider web?

Knowledge structures can be thought of as complex spider webs filled with pieces of data. This information is placed into nodes connected by associative links within these structures. Pieces of information that are seen as similar in some way are chunked together under some more abstract category. New, incoming information is interpreted to be consistent with the structure already in place.

How can marketers use repetition to increase the likelihood that consumers will learn about their brand?

Many classic advertising campaigns consist of product slogans that have been repeated so many times that they are etched in consumers' minds. Conditioning will not occur or will take longer if the CS is only occasionally paired with the UCS. One result of this lack of association may be extinction that occurs when effects of prior conditioning reduce and finally disappear. This can occur, for example, when a product is overexposed in the marketplace so that its original allure is lost.

Define a cultural gatekeeper, and give three examples.

Many judges or "tastemakers" influence which products we as consumers get to consider. These cultural gatekeepers are responsible for filtering the overflow of information and materials intended for customers. Gatekeepers include movie, restaurant, and car reviewers, interior designers, disc jockeys, retail buyers, and magazine editors.

Summarize some of the major approaches we can use to understand fashion from the perspectives of psychologists, economists, and sociologists.

Many psychological factors help to explain why people are motivated to be in fashion. These include conformity, variety seeking, personal creativity, and sexual attraction. For example, many consumers seem to have a "need for uniqueness." They want to be different (though not necessarily too different!).Economists approach fashion in terms of the model of supply and demand. Items that are in limited supply have high value, whereas those readily available are less desirable. Rare items command respect and prestige. The collective selection model we discussed previously is an example of a sociological approach to fashion. This perspective focuses on the initial adoption of a fashion (idea, style, etc.) by a subculture and its subsequent diffusion into society as a whole. Such diffusion often begins with youth subcultures like the hip-hop segment.

What is mood congruency and how to advertisers use it?

Mood congruency refers to the idea that our judgments tend to be shaped by our moods. For example, consumers judge the same products more positively when they are in a positive as opposed to a negative mood. This is why advertisers attempt to place their ads after humorous TV programming or create uplifting ad messages that put viewers in a good mood. Similarly, retailers work hard to make shoppers happy by playing "up" background music and encouraging staff to be friendly.

What is motivation and why is this idea so important to marketers?

Motivation refers to the processes that lead people to behave as they do. It occurs when a need is aroused that the consumer wishes to satisfy. Once a need has been activated, a state of tension exists that drives the consumer to attempt to reduce or eliminate the need. Marketers try to create products and services that will provide the desired benefits and permit the consumer to reduce this tension.

Give an example of a halo effect in marketing.

People react to other, similar stimuli in much the same way they responded to the original stimulus; this generalization is called a halo effect. A drugstore's bottle of private brand mouthwash deliberately packaged to resemble Listerine mouthwash may evoke a similar response among consumers, who assume that this "me-too" product shares other characteristics of the original.

List three types of perceived risk and give an example of each?

Perceived risk means that a person believes there may be negative consequences if he or she chooses the wrong option. One type of risk is monetary risk. An example might be buying a lower priced product that also has a lower quality instead of a more expensive product with a better reputation for quality. Social risk affects self-esteem and self-confidence. An example of a social risk would be in choosing one brand of headphones or cell phone over another, more popular brand. Psychological risks are based on affiliation and status. On type of psychological risk might be in the purchase of an expensive luxury automobile.

List three problems with measures of memory for advertising.

Response biases, memory lapses, and memory for facts versus feelings.

Who are innovators? Early adopters? Laggards

Roughly, one-sixth of the population (innovators and early adopters) are very quick to adopt new products, and one-sixth of the people (laggards) are very slow. Even though innovators represent only about 2.5 percent of the population, marketers are always interested in identifying them. These brave souls are always on the lookout for novel products or services and who will be the first to try a new offering. Just as generalized opinion leaders do not appear to exist, innovators tend to be category-specific as well. Early adopters share many of the same characteristics as innovators, but an important difference is their degree of concern for social acceptance, especially with regard to expressive products, such as clothing, cosmetics, and so on.

What is the difference between sacred and profane consumption? Provide one example of each.

Sacred consumption involves objects and events that are "set apart" from normal activities and are treated with some degree of respect or awe. They may or may not be associated with religion, but people tend to regard most religious items and events as sacred. An example of this might be an once-in-a-lifetime round-the-world cruise. Profane consumption involves consumer objects and events that are ordinary, everyday objects and events that do not share the "specialness" of sacred ones. An example of this might be going mall shopping on the weekend.

List the three types of memory, and explain how they work together.

Sensory memory permits storage of the information we receive from our senses. This storage is temporary; it lasts a couple of seconds at most. Short-term memory (STM) also stores information for a limited period, and it has limited capacity. Similar to a computer, this system can be regarded as working memory; it holds the information we are currently processing. Long-term memory (LTM) is the system that allows us to retain information for a long period. Elaborative rehearsal is required in order for information to enter into long-term memory from short-term memory. This process involves thinking about the meaning of a stimulus and relating it to other information already in memory.

Gender identity is an important component of a consumer's self-concept.

Sex-roles, or a society's conceptions about masculinity and femininity, exert a powerful influence on our expectations about the brands we should consume. Advertising plays an important role because it portrays idealized expectations about gender identity.

Why does a pioneering brand have a memory advantage over follower brands?

Some evidence indicates that information about a pioneering brand (the first brand to enter a market) is more easily retrieved from memory than follower brands because the first product's introduction is likely to be distinctive and, for the time being, no competitors divert the consumer's attention.

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 user 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.

What is the difference between an absolute threshold and a differential threshold?

The absolute threshold refers to the minimum amount of stimulation that can be detected on a given sensory channel. The differential threshold refers to the ability of a sensory system to detect changes or differences between two stimuli.

How does the likelihood that a person wants to use an ATM machine relate to a schema?

The desire to follow a script or schema helps to explain why such service innovations as automatic bank machines, self-service gas stations, or "scan-your-own" grocery checkouts have met with resistance by some consumers, who have trouble adapting to a new sequence of events.

How do Eastern and Western cultures 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.

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.

List the three semiotic components of a marketing message, giving an example of each.

The object is the product that is the focus of the message (e.g., Marlboro cigarettes). The sign is the sensory image that represents the intended meanings of the object (e.g., the Marlboro cowboy). The interpretant is the meaning derived (e.g., rugged, individualistic, American).

What is a cultural formula? Give an example.

The reliance on established plots and characters illustrates how mass culture churns out products that aim to please the average taste of a mass audience. Rather than being unique, they are predictable because they follow a well-defined pattern. Many popular art forms, such as detective stories or science fiction, follow a cultural formula in which familiar roles and props occur consistently. As members of the creative subsystem rely on these formulae, they tend to recycle images as they reach back through time for inspiration.

Explain the difference between a need and a want.

The specific way a need is satisfied depends on the individual's unique history, learning experiences, and cultural environment. A want is the particular form of consumption used to satisfy a need. For example, two classmates may feel their stomachs rumbling during a lunchtime lecture. If neither person has eaten since the night before, the strength of their respective needs (hunger) would be about the same. However, the ways each person goes about satisfying this need might be quite different.

What is cognitive dissonance?

The theory of cognitive dissonance is based on the premise that people have a need for order and consistency in their lives and that a state of tension is created when beliefs or behaviors conflict with one another. The conflict that arises when choosing between two alternatives may be resolved through a process of cognitive dissonance reduction, where people are motivated to reduce this inconsistency (or dissonance) and thus eliminate unpleasant tension.

What does "the looking glass self" mean? How do feelings about the self influence what we buy?

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.

What is the trickle-down effect? List some reasons why it is no longer as valid as it used to be.

Trickle-down theory, first proposed in 1904 by Georg Simmel, has been one of the most influential approaches to understanding fashion. It states that there are two conflicting forces that drive fashion change. First, subordinate groups try to adopt the status symbols of the groups above them as they attempt to climb up the ladder of social mobility. Dominant styles thus originate with the upper classes and trickle down to those below. However, this is where the second force kicks in: Those people in the superordinate groups are constantly looking below them on the ladder to ensure that they are not imitated. They respond to the attempts of lower classes to "impersonate" them by adopting even newer fashions. These two processes create a self-perpetuating cycle of change—the machine that drives fashion. It is less valid than it used to be because it is difficult to identify a stable upper/lower class. Class structure cannot account for the wide range of styles available, which are due to technological advances that allow the masses to learn about style simultaneously. Consumers are more influenced by opinion leaders who are similar to them. In addition, lower classes may influence upper classes, as they feel free to innovate and take risks.

Name the two basic measures of memory and describe how they differ from one another.

Two basic measures of impact are recognition and recall. In the typical recognition test, subjects are shown ads one at a time and asked if they have seen them before. In contrast, free recall tests ask consumers to independently think of what they have seen without.

What is consumer involvement? How does this concept relate to motivation?

We can define involvement as "a person's perceived relevance of the object based on their inherent needs, values, and interests." The word object is used in the generic sense. It refers to a product (or a brand), an advertisement, or a purchase situation. Consumers can find involvement in all these objects. Involvement increases consumer motivation to process information about the object.

Define nostalgia, and tell why it is such a widely used advertising strategy.

We can describe nostalgia as a bittersweet emotion; the past is viewed with both sadness and longing. References to "the good old days" are increasingly common, as advertisers call up memories of youth—and hope these feelings will translate to what they are selling today.

What is culture?

We can think of culture as a society's personality. It includes both abstract ideas, such as values and ethics, and material objects and services, such as the automobile, clothing, food, art, and sports that are produced or valued by a society. Put another way, culture is the accumulation of shared meanings, rituals, norms, and traditions among the members of an organization or society.

Products often define a person's self-concept.

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.

What is collective selection? Give an example

We term the process by which certain symbolic alternatives are chosen over others collective selection. As with the creative subsystem, members of the managerial and communications subsystems also seem to develop a common frame of mind. Although products within each category must compete for acceptance in the marketplace, they can usually be characterized by their adherence to a dominant theme or motif—be it "The Western Look," "New Wave," "Danish Modern," or "Nouvelle Cuisine."

What are some strategies marketers can use to increase consumers' involvement with their products?

· Appeal to the consumers' hedonic needs. For example, ads using sensory appeals generate higher levels of attention. · Use novel stimuli, such as unusual cinematography, sudden silences, or unexpected movements in commercials. · Use prominent stimuli, such as loud music and fast action, to capture attention in commercials. In print formats, larger ads increase attention. In addition, viewers look longer at colored pictures as opposed to black and white. · Include celebrity endorsers to generate higher interest in commercials. · Provide value customers appreciate. · Let customers make the messages (user-generated content). · Invent new media platforms to grab consumer attention. Create spectacles/performances where the message is a form of entertainment.

List three dimensions social scientists used to describe a culture and give an example of each.

· Ecology—The way a system adapts to its habitat. Ecology is shaped by the technology a culture uses to obtain and distribute resources (e.g., industrialized societies versus Third World countries). The Japanese, for example, greatly value products designed for efficient use of space because of the cramped conditions in that island nation. · Social structure—The way in which orderly social life is maintained. This includes the domestic and political groups that are dominant within the culture (e.g., the nuclear family versus the extended family; representative government versus dictatorship). · Ideology—The mental characteristics of a people and the way in which they relate to their environment and social groups. This revolves around the notion that members of a society possess a common worldview. They share certain ideas about principles of order and fairness. They also share an ethos, or a set of moral and aesthetic principles. A theme park in Bombay that caters to India's emerging middle class, called Water Kingdom, illustrates how a culture's worldview can be distinctive. Many consumers there are unfamiliar with mixed-sex public activities of this nature, so the park rents swimsuits to women who have never worn one before. No thongs here, though: The suits cover the women from wrists to ankles.

Describe the five factors that can lead to stimulus adaptation.

· Intensity: Less-intense stimuli (e.g., soft sounds or dim colors) habituate because they have less sensory impact. · Duration: Stimuli that require relatively lengthy exposure in order to be processed tend to habituate because they require a long attention span. · Discrimination: Simple stimuli tend to habituate because they do not require attention to detail. · Exposure: Frequently encountered stimuli tend to habituate as the rate of exposure increases. · Relevance: Stimuli that are irrelevant or unimportant will habituate because they fail to attract attention.

What are some ways marketers can position their products?

· Lifestyle: Grey Poupon mustard is a "higher-class" condiment. · Price leadership: L'Oreal's Noisôme brand face cream is sold in upscale beauty shops, whereas its Plenitude brand is available for one-sixth the price in discount stores—even though both are based on the same chemical formula. · Attributes: Bounty paper towels are "the quicker picker upper." · Product class: The Mazda Miata is a sporty convertible. · Competitors: Northwestern Insurance is "the quiet company." · Occasions: Wrigley's gum is an alternative at times when smoking is not permitted. · Users: Levi's Dockers are targeted primarily to men in their 20s to 40s. · Quality: At Ford, "Quality is job 1."

Name the levels in Maslow's Hierarchy and give an example of a marketing appeal that is focused at each level.

· Physiological: ads that promise to provide a cure for hunger or thirst fall in this category · Safety: insurance companies, security companies and social marketing campaigns often focus on safety · Social: alcohol companies, fragrance companies, and oral hygiene companies often focus on social/belonging (as do dating websites) · Esteem: luxury goods, educational institutions, and athletic footwear/apparel manufacturers often focus on esteem · Self-actualization: spiritual organizations, some charities and the military focus on self-actualization