Consumer Behavior: Chapter 4

Workbench is Where Meaning Happens

- Meaning is built on the workbench and becomes active in consumer's mind - Long term memory functions like a shopping cart containing all knowledge with things at the top going to the work bench -Consumer exposed to stimuli in the environment, a small number of which are placed on the workbench.

Sensory Memory

- Unlimited capacity - Very limited duration - Iconic memory -Echoic storage

Episodic memory

-Memory for past events in one's life -Stores brands associated with positive events, which tend to be preferred by consumers

The Components of Consumer Information Processing

1) Exposure 2) Attention 3) Comprehension 4) Elaboration 5) Memory: Sensory, Workbench, Short-term, and Long- Term

Apply the cognitive schema concept in understanding how consumers react to products, brands, and marketing agents.

A schema is the cognitive representation of a phenomenon that provides meaning to that entity. Thus products and brands have schemas. To the extent that a new product or brand can share the same "nodes" or characteristics with an existing brand, consumers will more easily understand what the product does. Category exemplars and prototypes often provide the comparison standard for new brands. In addition, consumers react initially to service providers based on how much they match the expected social schema for that particular category of person.

Use the concept of associatve networks to map relevant consumer knowledge

An associatve network, sometimes referred to as a semantic network, is the network of mental pathways linking all knowledge within memory. Associatve networks can be draw similarly to the way a road map would be constructed. All nodes are linked to all other nodes through a series of paths. Nodes with high strength tend to become conscious together based on their high strength of association.

Sensory memory

Area where a consumer stores encounters exposed to one of the five senses

Factors Affecting Consumer Comprehension

Characteristics of the: Message Message receiver Communication environment

Understand how the mental associations that consumers develop are a key to learning.

Chunking is a way that multiple stimuli can become one memory unit. Chunking is related to meaningful encoding in that meaning can be used to facilitate this process. A group of randomly arranged letters is likely to be difficult to chunk. In this case, seven letters are seven memory units. Arranged into a word, however, such as meaning, the seven become memory unit. Marketers who aid chunking are better able to convey information to consumers. The things that become associated with a brand are the things that will shape the brand's value and meaning.

Declarative knowledge

Cognitive components that represent facts. It is represented in an associative network by two nodes linked by a path.

Social schema or social stereotype

Cognitive representation that gives a specific type of person meaning Can be based on person's occupation, age, sex, ethnicity, religion, and product ownership

Identify factors that influence consumer comprehension

Comprehension refers to the interpretation or understanding that a consumer develops about some attended stimulus. From an information-processing perspective, comprehension results after a consumer is exposed to and attends some information. Several factors influence comprehension including characteristics of the message, receiver, and environment. Multiple aspects of each of these factors come together to shape what things mean in the mind of the consumer.

exemplar

Concept within a schema that is the single best representative of some category Differs based on consumers' unique experiences Provides consumers with a basis of comparison for judging whether something belongs to a category

Characteristics of the Environment (continued)

Construal level theory Information environment can cause individuals to think about things in different ways Construal level: Whether or not people are thinking about something using a concrete or an abstract mindset Timing

Product schema

Each time a consumer encounters a product, the mind compares all associations in the schema to see if the thought is correct

Elaboration

Extent to which a consumer continues processing a message even after an initial understanding is achieved

Chunking

Grouping stimuli by meaning so that multiple stimuli become a single memory unit

Characteristics of the Environment

Information intensity: Amount of information available for a consumer to process within a given environment Framing: Meaning of something is influenced by the information environment Prospect theory: Suggests that a decision can be framed in different ways and that the framing affects risk assessments consumers make Message media

Characteristics of the Message Receiver

Intelligence or ability Prior knowledge Involvement Familiarity or habituation Physical limits Expectations: Beliefs about what will happen in some future situation Brain dominance: Refers to the phenomenon of hemispheric lateralization

Haptic perception

Interpretations created by the way some object feels

Memory trace

Mental path by which some thought becomes active

Characteristics of the Message

Message source - Comprehension varies based on: 1) Likeability 2) Attractiveness 3) Expertise: amount of knowledge that a source is perceived to have about a subject. 4)Trustworthiness: how honest and unbiased the source is perceived to be 5) Congruence

Dual Coding

Occurs when two different sensory traces are available to remember something

Schema

Portion of an associative network that represents a specific entity and thereby provides it with meaning

Workbench Memory: Encoding

Process by which information is transferred from workbench memory to long-term memory for permanent storage

Product and Brand Schemas

Reaction to new products or brands involves comparison with the existing schema

Long-term memory

Repository for all information that a person has encountered

protypes

Schema best representative of some category but that is not represented by an existing entity

Schema

Schema representing an event

Tag

Small piece of coded information that helps with the retrieval of knowledge

Brand schema

Smaller part within one's total associative network responsible for defining a marketing entity

Workbench, or working, memory

Storage area where information is stored while being processed and encoded for later recall

Echoic storage

Storage of auditory information in sensory memory Strong in capacity but weak in duration

Sensory Memory: Iconic storage

Storage of visual information as an exact representation of the scene

Physical characteristics

Tangible elements or the parts of a message that can be sensed Intensity, color, font, numbers, spacing, and shape Simplicity

Explain how knowledge, meaning, and value are inseparable using the multiple stores memory theory.

The multiple stores theory of memory explains how processing information involves three separate storage areas: sensory, workbench, and long term memory. Everything sensed is recorded by sensory memory, but the record lasts too short a time to develop meaning. A small portion of this information is passed to the workbench, where already known concepts are retrieved from long-term memory and attached to new stimuli in a process known as meaningful encoding. All meaning is stored in an associative network residing in long-term memory. This network of knowledge links together concepts in a way that explains why things have value. Thus, value is rooted in meaning.

Semantic coding

Type of coding wherein stimuli are converted to meaning that can be expressed verbally

Rumination

Unintentional but recurrent memory of long-ago events that are spontaneously triggered

Type of language: Figurative Language

Use of expressions that send a nonliteral meaning Used when describing brands that compete on hedonic value

literal language

Used when describing brands that compete on utilitarian value

Multiple Store Theory of Memory

Views the memory process as utilizing three different storage areas within the human brain

Spreading activation

Way cognitive activation spreads from one concept to another

Comprehension

Way people cognitively assign meaning to things they encounter Influenced by internal factors within the consumer Includes cognitive and affective elements

Nostalgia

Yearning to relive the past that can produce lingering emotions

Associative network

a network of mental pathways linking knowledge within memory. These networks are similar to family trees, as some family members are obviously related, but other family members, while still linked together, are not obviously related.

framing

a phenomenon in which the meaning of something is influenced (perceived differently) by the information environment

golden section

a preferred ratio of objects, equal to 1.62 to 1.00

information intensity

amount of information available for a consumer to process within a given environment

Ground

background in a message

Priming

cognitive process in which context or environment activates concepts and frames thoughts and therefore affects both value and meaning

Nodes

concepts found in an associative network

Signal Theory

explains ways in which communications convey meaning beyond the explicit or obvious interpretation

signal theory

explains ways in which communications convey meaning beyond the explicit or obvious interpretation

message congruity

extent to which a message is internally consistent and fits surrounding information

credibility

extent to which a source is considered to be both an expert in a given area and trustworthy

Workbench (short-term) memory

limited capacity, limited duration, coding takes place here

Figure-ground distinction

notion that each message can be separated into the focal point (figure) and the background (ground). The contrast between the two represents the psychological figure ground distinction

Cognitive inference

notion that everything else that the consumer is exposed to while trying to remember something is also vying for processing capacity and thus interfering with memory and comprehension

figure

object that is intended to capture a person's attention, the focal part of any message

PMG

price matching guarantee

personal elaboration

process by which people imagine themselves somehow associating with a stimulus that is being processed

Habituation

process by which stimulus continuous exposure to a stimulus affects the comprehension of, and response to, the stimulus

memory

psychological process by which knowledge is recorded

response generation

reconstruction of memory traces into a formed representation of what they are trying to remember or process

Paths

representations of the association between nodes in an associative network

chunk

single memory unit

Social Identity

the idea that one's individual identity is defined in part by the social groups to which one belongs. Many consumers will try to match the characteristics associated with a desired stereotype.

prospect theory

theory that suggests that a decision, or argument, can be framed in different ways and that the framing affects risk assessments consumers make

Counterargument

thoughts that contradict a message

support arguments

thoughts that further support a message

long-term memory

unlimited capacity unlimited duration semantic meaning semantic/associative network

meaningful encoding

Association of active information in short-term memory with other information recalled from long-term memory

Workbench Memory: Retrieval

Process by which information is transferred back into workbench memory for additional processing when needed

repetition

Thought is held in short-term memory by mentally repeating the thought