Consumer Insights – Motivations, Attitudes, Values

Submitted by sylvia.wong@up… on Tue, 10/05/2021 - 05:51
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Welcome to Topic 3: Consumer Insights – Motivations, Attitudes, Values.

Researching buyer behaviour and looking out for trends is one component required when ensuring you are effectively communicating to your consumers. In order for this to better guarantee business success, it is important to know your customers. Consumer needs form the basis for all contemporary marketing. If companies want to survive and thrive in today's highly competitive global environment, they must develop capabilities to identify, understand and satisfy unfulfilled needs better than their competitors. Needs are often subconscious, and marketers can make customers more keenly aware of their underlying needs and how the product, service or experience can satisfy these needs. This topic discusses customers' needs and the influences these needs have on consumption motivation and behaviour, how consumers learn and the formation of attitudes and how values influence consumer behaviour.

In this topic, you will learn about:

  • Needs, Motivations and Goals in Consumer Behaviour
  • Consumer Learning and Attitudes
  • Understanding Consumer Values.

These relate to the Subject Learning Outcomes:

  1. Explain the basic psychological and sociological principles, theories and models influencing consumer behaviour.
  2. Discuss the current trends in consumer behaviour and apply them to the marketing mix.
  3. Identify the impact of social and cultural factors on consumer behaviour.

Welcome to your pre-seminar learning tasks for this week. Please ensure you complete these prior to attending your scheduled seminar with your lecturer.

Click on each of the following headings to read more about what is required for each of your pre-seminar learning tasks.

Read Chapter 5 and Chapter 7, (pp. 271-278) of the prescribed text - Solomon, MR 2020, Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being, 13th edn., Pearson Education Ltd.

Task: Summarise key insights from the textbook in your own words and submit your answers to your reflective journal. You can access the reflective journal by clicking on ‘Journal’ in the navigation bar for this subject.

Watch the following videos:

Task: Summarise key takeouts from the videos and submit your answers to your reflective journal.

Read the following two (2) journal articles and summarise key insights from the articles in your own words in your reflective journal.

  1. Pop, R, Săplăcan, Z & Alt, M 2020, ‘Social media goes green – the impact of social media on green cosmetics purchase motivation and intention’, Information, 11(447):1-16.
  2. Merz, MA, Zarantonello,  L & Grappi, S 2018, ‘How valuable are your customers in the brand value co-creation process? The development of a customer co-creation value (CCCV) scale’, Journal of business research, 82(2018):79-89.

Task: Based on your insights, prepare two (2) critical questions relevant to the topic (motivations, values, attitudes) in your reflective journal to be discussed and answered in the synchronous session with your lecturer.

Read and watch the following content.

Needs, motivations and goals in consumer behaviour

Motivation is the key driver of human beings to act based on unfulfilled needs that create tension and stress. The activity a person undertakes depends on his or her learning and thinking. The following figure describes the motivation process which starts with unfulfilled needs, wants or desires that create stress (tension) that drive a certain behaviour influenced by cognitive processes and learning (experiences) that lead to goal or need fulfilment which in turn reduces the stress or tension once the need is gratified (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019).

A diagram depicting The Motivational Process
Motivation
The driving force within individuals that impels them to act.
Needs
Circumstances or things that are wanted or required, and therefore direct the motivational forces.
Personality
The inner psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how we think and act.
Brand personification
Communicating human features of a brand in advertising.
Adapted from Schiffman, LG & Wisenblit, JL 2019, Consumer behavior, 12th edn., p. 79, Copyright 2019 by Pearson Education Ltd.

Needs

The word 'need' is used when referring to any individual's human requirements and a difference is made between innate needs and acquired needs. Innate needs are physiological needs and include primary motives such as air, food, water, and refuge. Acquired needs are mostly psychological and are acquired in the interaction with other human beings in our need for belonging, affection, recognition, and esteem. Acquired needs are secondary and developed based on our education, the social and cultural environment and the values formed. People are often not conscious of their primary or secondary needs but are good at articulating what they want instead of knowing why they want it. Marketers cannot influence the actual needs but can make consumers aware of them and provide solutions. All consumer behaviour is goal-oriented, and motivation is either concerned with generic goals or product-specific goals, both of which can be addressed by marketers in communication and advertisement (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019).

Most of our needs are latent or dormant and often become aroused by internal or external stimuli or even daydreaming. Researchers have found that physiological arousal can be affected by TV programs. Personal achievement can trigger cognitive arousal of a need, while other needs may be influenced by cues in the environment. Physiological needs are less complex than psychological needs (psychogenic). The more complex and varied the environment the greater the opportunity for need arousal. Two opposing philosophies exist; behavioural thought leaders believe that behaviour is a response to stimuli (for example, impulse buying), while the cognitive school of behaviour believes that behaviour is controlled by goal attainment aligned with individual beliefs, values, attitudes and past experiences.

Consumer researchers also differentiate between rational and emotional motives. Rationality infers that consumers are driven by an economic sense and thus research all alternatives to how their problem can be solved, choosing the solution that provides the best value or greatest utility. Emotional motives are, in comparison, based on problem-solving and goal selection focused on personal or subjective principles. Research has found that service industries that provide distinct emotional connections and experiences have a positive influence on customer loyalty and referral. Other studies on consumer behaviour highlight the complexity and interrelationship of both rational and emotional motivations driving consumption behaviours (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019).

Goals

Consumers set goals based on their personal values, cultural norms, self-image, experiences and select behaviours to help them accomplish their desired goals. Both must be socially acceptable and physically accessible. Our self-image plays a key role in how we select our goals. Research has found that there are two types of people when it comes to personal goal orientation. People who display aspirations, ideals, and hopes are concerned with personal growth and development favouring positive outcomes. Those who seek safety and security are more concerned with duties and obligations, trying to avoid negative outcomes.

This research is valuable to marketers as both types of people need to be addressed differently in advertisements. Consumers concerned with ideals entrust their feelings and emotions in assessing advertisements while consumers concerned with obligations are more interested in facts and how these facts are substantiated. Another study found that goals aligned with benefits such as social and financial success correlated with higher degrees of uncontrollable purchases in contrast with goals that are more intrinsic based, for example, self-acceptance or community-mindedness (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019).

Motivations

Motivations can either be positive or negative. Psychologists attribute positive drivers to needs, wants, and desires while negative ones to fears or aversions. However, even though the emotions associated with both can be very different, the similarity lies in the fact that they both serve to trigger and sustain human behaviour. Therefore, researchers often refer to both positive and negative motives when discussing needs, wants and desires. Sometimes needs are driven by negative arousal and manifest in a negative consumer response, for example, how Coke consumers responded to the 'New Coke', refer to The Story of One of the Most Memorable Marketing Blunders Ever for details on the case study.

Motivation is an extremely complex composition that is ever-changing in response to the environment, experiences, physical conditions, and relationships. As consumers achieve their goals, they establish new ones; as they do not achieve goals, consumers use substitutes or relate to previous goals. Humans are constantly active in their desire for need fulfilment and it is in our nature that our needs are never fully accomplished or satisfied. Motivational theorists relate to this in terms of Maslow's hierarchy of needs which has been a useful framework for marketers. It is readily adaptable to market segmentation as most of Maslow's needs apply to a large market segment. However, some academics have claimed that this theory is flawed. Like need fulfilment, once a goal is achieved, often a new or higher goal emerges. On the contrary, if goals are not achieved, it can lower the level of aspirations and expectations. Therefore, it can be said that goal selection is associated with successes and failures or the expectations thereof.

Marketers need to stay in tune with ever changing needs and motivations as well as understand the consequences of failures and successes in the selection of goals. From a marketing perspective, a goal should be achievable and as such advertisement should never make false promises. Advertisers should create realistic expectations that a product and service can fulfil or exceed needs to drive customer satisfaction. Products that exceed customer expectations drive higher satisfaction. These motivations highlight the complexity of consumer decision making and associated consumer behaviour (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019).

A person walking, carrying shopping bags from a series of different retail outlets

Consumer learning and attitudes

How consumers learn and involve themselves with brands is a critical concern for market researchers. Consumer learning involves both existing knowledge and expansion of knowledge through advertisement, and through the experience of using a product or service. There is no universal consent on how learning takes place and there is no single overarching theory but two major schools of thought, the behavioural learning theory, and the cognitive learning theory.

Behavioural learning

Behavioural learning theories are also known as stimulus-response theories, for example, classical conditioning. These are based on observable responses to specific external stimuli. Researchers differentiate between conditioned and unconditioned responses. Essential approaches to classical conditioning include repetition, stimulus generalisations and stimulus discrimination which are important to understand in the context of consumer behaviour. Repetition raises the strength of associations and slows the notion of forgetting. The affiliation and connection between repetition and memory are complex. Research has found that repetition helps with retention, but too much repetition might have the opposite effect and may result in so-called advertising wear out. Marketers aim to avoid the wear out by keeping the overall theme of an ad but using different advertising messages, background colours, variation of length, and different faces to reduce saturation while enhancing retrieval cues and chances of ad recall. Classical conditioning theorists also believe that consumers generalise stimuli which means consumers are not able to perceive differences between slightly different stimuli. This explains why manufacturer brands or so-called 'me-too' products can be successful in the marketplace (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019).

Many behavioural learning theorists agree that for learning to take place that the elements of motivation, cues, response and reinforcement must be present. Cues can be regarded as the stimuli to motives that encourage learning. Cues always compete for consumer attention. A response to a cue or several cues is dependent on the previous learning experience by the customer. Learning takes place through positive reinforcement. Reinforcement is therefore an important concept of learning as it increases the likelihood of a specific response. Marketers must be sensitive to developing and providing cues that are aligned with those expectations in all elements of the marketing mix. For example, a fitness product is best marketed by a person who appears to be in excellent physical health. How consumers act and proceed to a cue establishes their response. Cues might not always result in an immediate purchase, but a consumer may develop a favourable image. The brand perception of a product and service is considered an unconditioned response. Once the consumer makes a purchase decision in favour of a brand that provides consistent cues over time, researchers refer to it as a conditioned response (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019).

Stimulus

Marketers use the notion of stimulus generalisation for product, category and line extensions to target existing or new target segments. 80 per cent of new product launches per year are product or brand extensions of successful brands. Extensions are a much more economical way to enter a market compared to developing a new brand. Product or brand extensions must be believable (logically linked) and relevant. They must have a strong value proposition and the right positive associations with the parent brand that signals quality and expertise in the line or category the product is entering. Nivea or hospitality brands such as Hilton Worldwide, or Disney or diversified brands like Virgin, are good examples of brands that have been extended successfully into different lines, categories, and industries. Licencing operates on the principle of stimulus generalisation and if executed well, can strengthen the brand of the licenser. Examples include McDonald's, Calvin Klein, and Versace, to name a few.

Stimulus discrimination is the reverse of stimulus generalisation. A consumer's ability to discriminate between stimuli forms the basis of a differentiated positioning strategy seeking to develop a unique brand image in the minds of consumers based on attributes that are relevant, meaningful, valuable and satisfy consumer needs. Market leaders want consumers to discriminate to retain the market leadership, while market followers want consumers to generalise to gain market share. Once stimulus discrimination has occurred, it is difficult for market followers to take the top spot as the leader literally owns the market or the product category. Brand leadership is often established by being the first to market and educating consumers about the right brand associations. In some instances, brand names become generic terms established in the language that consumers use, for example, Hoover for a vacuum cleaner, or Esky, or Thermos. The longer the learning, the more likely consumers discriminate. As discussed earlier, the image or position that a product or service holds in the consumer's mind is critical to its success (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019).

Instrumental conditioning

Much like classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning, also referred to as operant conditioning, needs a link between a stimulus and response. In instrumental conditioning, the stimulus that achieves the most satisfactory response is the one that is learned through a trial-and-error process. People develop habits that lead to rewards and thus favourable experiences and positive reinforcement become instrumental in teaching individuals to repeat a specific behaviour. Negative reinforcement (for example, fear or agony) focuses on the negative outcome and influence a response that aims to avoid a negative outcome (for example, buying antivirus software for your computer or buying insurance). The strategic application of instrumental learning is applied when positive reinforcement is being used in advertisement to drive customer satisfaction through, for example, a focus on relationship marketing and building personal connections with the customer. It is also applied in frequency or loyalty programs that reward positive behaviour regarding the frequency of purchases or customer referrals (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019).

Cognitive learning

While behavioural learning focuses on instinctive responses to stimuli, cognitive learning focuses on deliberate mental processing of information and the role of motivation and building customers knowledge through purchase and consumption. In other words, people learn not just through repetition but rather through thinking and problem-solving processes. It should be noted that not all learning is deliberate or intentional; a greater part is associated with incidental effortless learning. Therefore, learning incorporates all aspects from automatic responses to highly complex problem solving and everything in between. Consumers process product and service information according to certain attributes and values, and also by comparing different brands with each other. Consumers with a higher cognitive ability tend to acquire more product information than consumers with a lower cognitive ability. Consumers also differ in the way they develop mental images that help them to recall information. The human memory is of vital importance to processing information and much research is concerned with discovering how information gets stored and how it can be retrieved and maintained (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019).

Two colleagues unpacking a mental model of a marketing process

Information processing and memory

It is believed that information processing happens in stages and that there are different storages including a sensory store, a short-term store, and a long-term store. While it appears relatively easy to get to the consumer's sensory store, leaving a lasting impression is considered much more difficult. The short-term store is also known as real memory. It is a temporary storage of information with limited capacity that can hold chunks of information (four to seven items) at a time. If the information captured in the short-term store goes through a process known as rehearsal (for example, silent, mental repetition) it can be transferred to the long-term store within 2 to 10 seconds. Alternatively, if the information is not rehearsed and transferred, then it is usually lost within 30 seconds or less. The long-term store can absorb and maintain information for a long period. The transfer between short- and long-term stores is facilitated by chunking, rehearsing, elaborating and recirculating information. The information stored in the long-term store can be recalled for days, weeks and even years. In this context, we need to understand that pictures are more memorable than words. The following figure depicts the information processes and memory stores (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019).

A diagram depicting Information Processing
Adapted from Schiffman, Wisenblit, JL 2019, Consumer behavior, 12th edn., p. 159, Copyright 2019 by Pearson Education Ltd.

The amount of information that can be delivered from short-term to long-term storage depends on the amount of rehearsal it is given. If information is not rehearsed by repeating or relating it to other mental pictures, the information can fade and eventually be lost. Encoding is known as the process by which we select a word or a visual image for a perceived object. When consumers are overloaded with information, they may encounter difficulties in encoding and storing. Brand symbols and highly visual logos are used to help the encoding process. Learning an image requires less time than learning verbal information but both are important to develop an overall understanding and memory. Information in the long-term store is being organised regularly as new links between chunks of information become available. Many information-processing theorists believe that the long-term store consists of nodes (for example, concepts) that have links developed between them. Information about products stored in memory tends to be based on brands and consumers interpret new information in a manner that is consistent with the way that previous information is already organised.

Consumers are confronted each year with a plethora of new products and their search for information is dependent upon how similar or dissimilar these products are to product categories that have already been stored in their memory. It is therefore important for marketers to understand the chunks or groupings of information in consumer's memory storage so that the frame of reference can be matched in the advertisement to reach the consumer. Retrieval refers to the process by which humans bring back information from the long-term store.

Marketers have found that consumers tend to remember product benefits over product attributes, however, given they are not automatically linked, it is suggested that advertising messages are most effective when they link the product's attributes with the benefits sought by consumers. For an extended period, researchers believed that all consumers go through a complicated series of mental and behavioural phases (awareness, preference, purchase, satisfaction or rejection) to make a buying decision.

In the meantime, scientists have realised that not all purchase decisions, especially those that are routine based or are of lesser personal importance, require extensive information search and evaluation. Those purchases are referred to as low-involvement purchases as opposed to high-involvement purchases that are more complex and require a more extensive search for information and criteria for evaluation. Consumer behaviour researchers developed a few models around information processing and cognitive learning. You will find that the models use different terminology but in fact they all follow the three-stage generic sequence. The consumer journey models are not linear, consumers go back and forth between stages or skip some (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019). The following figure depicts some models.

Generic States of Cognitive Learning

  • Knowledge
  • Evaluation
  • Behaviour

Tri-Component Attitude Model

  • Definition - All attitudes have three components
    • Cognitive
    • Affective
    • Conative

Aida

  • Definition - Developed to explain how marketing and selling messages engage consumers
    • Attention
    • Interest and Desire
    • Action

Innovation Adoption

  • Definition - Developed by Everett Rogers to explain how consumers adopt new products and services
    • Awareness
    • Interest and Evaluation
    • Trial and Adoption

Innovation Decision-Making

  • Definition - Revised version of Everett Rogers' consumer adoption process
    • Knowledge
    • Persuasion
    • Decision, Implementation and Confirmation

Consumer Decision-Making

  • Definition - The stages consumers pass through when making logical decisions
    • Need Recognition
    • Search and Evaluation
    • Purchase and Post-Purchase Evaluation

Simple Consumer Journey

  • Definition - The nonlinear circular consumer journal includes a post-purchase stage in which a consumer enters into a relationship with a brand that often plays out on social media
    • Consider
    • Evaluate
    • Buy and Post-Purchase Experience - Enjoy, Advocate and Bond

Expanded Consumer Journey

  • Definition - nonlinear consumer journey in which consumers backtrack, skip steps, reject, or opt out at any stage
    • Need/Want Recognition, Awareness/Knowledge, Consider/Examine
    • Search/Learn, Like/Trust, Sees Value/Willing to Pay, Commit/Plan
    • Consumer, Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction, Loyal/Repeat Buyer, Engage/Interact, Actively Advocate
Adapted from Schiffman, LG & Wisenblit, JL 2019, Consumer behavior, 12th edn., p. 165, Pearson Education Ltd.

Involvement

Like learning, there are different schools of thought on involvement and its influence on consumer behaviour. The involvement theory is a theory of consumer learning that hypothesises that consumers employ a different range of information processing activities from extensive to limited problem solving depending on the relevance of the purchase in terms of perceived risks. The right brain processing theory emphasises the importance of visual elements in advertisement as opposed to verbal cues that trigger the left-brain processing. Consumer involvement is well accepted as a motivating factor that influences consumer attitudes and decision-making processes. The extent of involvement rules the consumer's level of motivation to pay attention to marketing stimuli and as a result, search for information about a product or service or experience (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019).

Attitudes

Consumer attitudes are influenced by personal experience, personality, knowledge, and other sources of information. People have attitudes towards politics, large corporations, sustainability, advertisement, social concerns as well as products and services. Attitude research aims to get to the centre of all things relating to consumer behaviour and provides insights into strategic marketing issues. Attitudes can be assessed through questions and drawing of conclusions from behaviour in terms of purchases, beliefs, recommendations, and intentions.

There is a universal consensus that attitudes are learned, therefore, attitudes in relation to purchase behaviour are a consequence of experience, recommendation, or advertisement. Attitudes tend to have the characteristics of consistency and are affected by the situation. To understand the link between attitudes and behaviours and explain and predict behaviour, psychologists constructed frameworks and models (for example, tricomponent attitude model, multi-attribute attitude model, trying to consume model, attitude-towards-the-ad models) to get to the essence of the various dimensions of attitudes. The tricomponent attitude model has three major elements, cognition, affect and conation as shown in the following figure.

Cognition refers to a person's knowledge and perceptions based on experiences and information gathered from a variety of sources and is often based on the persons' beliefs around attributes that will drive a specific behaviour. The affect component is concerned with emotions and feelings and captures how a person evaluates or rates the attitude object. The conative component is related to the likelihood that the person will act or behave in a certain way regarding the attitude object and in marketing research is often treated as buying intentions (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019).

Tricomponent attitude model
A diagram depicting the Tricomponent Attitude Model
Cognitive
  • Knowledge and perception of product or brand features
  • Expressed as beliefs about a brand.
Affective
  • Emotions and feelings about a product or brand
  • Expressed as favourable or unfavourable attitude towards a brand.
Conative
  • Actions or behaviour towards a product or brand
  • Expressed as an intention to purchase a brand.
Adapted from Consumer behavior by Schiffman, LG & Wisenblit, JL 2019, 12th edn., p. 176, Copyright 2019 by Pearson Education Ltd.

The multi-attribute attitude model illustrates consumers' attitudes against an attitude object because of the persons' perception and judgement of the key attributes of the object. As the name of the model suggests, the attitude-towards-object model is used for measuring attitudes towards a product, service or brand based on the presence (or absence) and evaluation of beliefs and attributes. The attitude-towards-behaviour model has been developed to gain insights into a person's attitude towards acting rather than the attitude itself. A consumer may have a positive attitude towards luxury goods but a negative attitude to spending the amount required to purchase them.

The theory of trying to consume has been developed to entertain consumers' objectives as determined by his or her attempts at 'trying' to consume often restricted by personal or environmental impediments. The attitude-towards-the-ad model has been designed to understand the outcome of advertisements and promotions. A study found that advertisements that included a significant amount of emotional content boosts the consumers' brand attitude. Credibility has been determined as a key factor. Fear is a powerful negative emotion, and when highly relevant drives an emotional reaction. Insurance companies and governments tend to use fear to drive consumers to change their attitudes and behaviour, for example, quitting smoking, vaccinations, or driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Some studies show however that instilling fear is not effective as consumers tend to block out those messages. Humour can be risky in advertising but when used correctly and in the right context can enhance positive feelings and responses. Carlton United Brewery has run several humorous campaigns to drive positive responses. Humour tends to work most effectively on TV, the internet and radio as those mediums allow for better use of visual and humorous verbal communication. It should be noted that certain humour may not work in certain cultures due to different cultural and value systems. (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019).

Attitudes are learned and often formed from an early age and influenced by family, friends, celebrities, advertisements, culture, values, and personality. Attitudes can either change or persist over a long period of time. Attitudes are also formed because of the purchase and consumption of a product as a result of personal experience or information consumed. Understanding the importance of experience, marketers often activate trails. Family and friends are highly influential on attitudes. The approach which is used to change the motivation is a functional approach that can be classified in terms of four functions - utilitarian function, ego-defensive function, value-expressive function, and knowledge function.

The utilitarian function is based on the notion that consumers value a brand because of its utility function (for example, Subaru ad emphasising functionality and beauty). The ego-defensive function is focused on consumers wanting to protect their self-images (for example, Apple products are associated with creativity and originality). The value-expressive function outlines that consumers' attitudes are an expression or reflection of the consumers' general values, lifestyle, and outlook. If a consumer segment generally holds a positive attitude toward owning the latest designer jeans, then their attitudes towards new brands of designer jeans are likely to reflect that orientation. Thus, by knowing target consumers' attitudes, marketers can better predict their values, lifestyles and reflect these characteristics in their advertising and direct marketing efforts.

Consumer's attitude toward a brand can also be emphasised by highlighting advantages over competitive brands. Combining several functions can be useful, L'Oreal hair care products may be appealing to one consumer since the product works effectively (the utilitarian function), the second consumer may agree that the shampoo will make the hair look more beautiful (ego-defensive function), and the third consumers' favourable attitude might reflect the knowledge function around value for money (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019).

A person grocery shopping, looking at different products in an aisle of the supermarket

Understanding consumer values

Values are important but mainly help us to understand consumer behaviour in a general sense. Broadscale concepts such as harmony, happiness, and freedom do not help differentiate between brands within a product category but rather influence general purchasing patterns. Researchers, therefore, distinguish among broad-based cultural values (for example, security, happiness), consumption-specific values (for example, prompt service, convenient shopping) and product-specific values (for example, durability, ease of use). Identifying and measuring values relates to much of existing consumer research. There have been many research attempts to measure cultural values for a strategic marketing application.

Marketers use questionnaires to directly assess values and examples include the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS), the List of Values (LOV) scale, the Means-End Chain Model and a number of Syndicated Surveys. The Rokeach Value Survey measures instrumental and terminal values that apply to many different cultures. This research method has not been widely used as society is often driven by microcultures, therefore its applicability has been questioned.

The List of Values (LOV) identifies nine consumer segments and measures their principal values (for example, self-respect, warm relationships, sense of accomplishment, self-fulfilment, fun, enjoyment, excitement, sense of belonging, being well-respected, security) that help to predict responses to statements that describe one's self-reported consumer characteristics, actual consumption behaviours, and marketplace beliefs and has direct marketing applications (for example, people who endorse the sense-of-belonging value are older, read Reader's Digest, like to entertain and enjoy group activities while people that endorse the value of excitement are younger and prefer the Rolling Stone magazine).

Syndicated surveys track changes in values on a large scale to identify trends (for example, Yankelovich Monitor, New Wave by Ogilvy & Mather, GlobalScan by Backer Spielvogel Bates). The means-end chain is a rigorous research method (a hybrid of qualitative and quantitative research approaches) that aims to explain major consumer processes that link values to behaviour in terms of how a product or service selection facilitates the achievement of a desired end state. The model uses the laddering interviewing technique to uncover underlying emotions, personal values and consequences that drive consumer choice to design persuasive communications that influence consumers' choices. This method enables marketers to create hierarchical consumer decision maps that link specific product attributes to relevant end states (Solomon 2020).

Knowledge check

Complete the following three (3) tasks. Click the arrows to navigate between the tasks.

Key takeouts

Congratulations, we made it to the end of the third topic! Some key takeouts from Topic 3:

  • A marketers' success depends on how well he or she understands consumer learning, how consumers develop brand preferences, and how consumers make purchasing decisions.
  • The motivation process starts with unfulfilled needs, wants, or desires that create stress (tension). That tension drives a certain behaviour influenced by cognitive processes and learning (experiences) that lead to goal or need fulfilment which in turn reduces the stress or tension once the need is satisfied.
  • All human behaviour has a goal orientation and is designed by our cognitive thinking processes and previous learning. Needs and goals are highly interrelated and interdependent. As needs are fulfilled, new needs emerge. Most of our needs are latent or dormant and often become aroused by internal or external stimuli or even daydreaming.
  • Consumer learning involves both existing knowledge and the creation of new knowledge through advertisement and use. There are two major schools of thought on how learning takes place, the behavioural learning theory, and the cognitive learning theory.
  • Information gets stored either in the sensory stage, short-term store or long-term store. Rehearsal, encoding, and retrieval is are required to transfer information between stages.
  • There is a universal consensus that attitudes are learned, therefore, attitudes in relation to purchase behaviour are a consequence of personal experience, values, culture, personality, influence through friends and relatives, celebrity endorsements, reviews, recommendation, or advertisement.
  • Values are important to help us understand consumer behaviour in a general sense and can be assessed through questionnaires such as the List of Values (LOV) or Means-End Chain Model.

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In-seminar learning task

The in-seminar learning task identified below will be completed during the scheduled seminar. Your lecturer will guide you through this task. Click on the following heading to read more about the requirements for your in-seminar learning task. The following task will help you develop your understanding of key consumer motivations, attitudes, and values. The lecturer will start off with a re-cap on pre-seminar learning tasks for Topic 3 and then facilitate a Q&A session for Assignment 1.

For this learning task, your lecturer will assign you to a breakout room where each student will add a question to a shared Microsoft Word document. Your questions should reflect a concept from Topic 3 that you do not confidently understand.

You will discuss each question as a group, sharing relevant industry examples and academic articles. A summary of the discussion and answers will be captured by the student who posted the question. Be ready to share the summary with your lecturer during the seminar.

Your lecturer will provide further instructions about this process during your scheduled seminar. If you are unable to attend the seminar, you can complete this activity and add your question to your reflective journal and share it with the lecturer.

Welcome to your post-seminar learning tasks for this week. Please ensure you complete these after attending your scheduled seminar with your lecturer. Your lecturer will advise you if these are to be completed during your consultation session. Click on the following headings to learn more about the requirements for the task.

This learning task is to be completed during the consultation session.

Create an impromptu two-minute video describing yourself as a consumer using your smartphone or webcam. In your video, share your motivations and attitudes concerning a topic of your choice, for example, fashion, cars, sportswear, cooking, sports etc. and upload it to your reflective journal and post a link in the breakout room for other students to view and comment.

This topic has discussion forum activities, which will enhance your knowledge and give you the opportunity to interact with your peers. You can access the activities by clicking on the following links. You can also navigate to the forum by clicking on 'MKT101 Subject Forum' in the navigation bar for this subject.

Select at least one of the following discussion forums to complete. You can complete them all, if you’re feeling up to it:

Now that you have prepared your assessment outline and commenced your research, you can now start making sense of the content and drafting arguments. Continue writing your report and ensure you check the referencing requirements. Reach out to your lecturer if you need help making sense of the content. By the end of this week, you should have a full draft ready.

Each week you will have a consultation session, which will be facilitated by your lecturer. You can join in and work with your peers on activities relating to this subject. These session times and activities will be communicated to you by your lecturer each week. Your lecturer will start a video stream during your scheduled class time. You can access your scheduled class by clicking on ‘Live Sessions’ found within your navigation bar and locating the relevant day/class or by clicking on the following link and then clicking 'Join' to enter the class.

Click here to access your consultation session.

Should you be unable to attend, you will be able to watch the recording, which can be found via the following link or by navigating to the class through ‘Live Sessions’ via your navigation bar.

Click here to access the recording. (Please note: this will be available shortly after the live session has ended.)

For those of you that would like to extend their studies please read the following web articles.

Read the following web articles:

References

  • The Coca-Cola Company, 2022, The story of one of the most memorable marketing blunders ever, https://www.coca-colacompany.com/company/history/the-story-of-one-of-the-most-memorable-marketing-blunders-ever
  • Hoyer, WD, MacInnis, DJ, Pieters, R, Chan, E & Northey, G 2018, Consumer behaviour, Asia-Pacific edn., Cengage Learning.
  • Merz, MA, Zarantonello, L & Grappi, S 2018, ‘How valuable are your customers in the brand value co-creation process? The development of a customer co-creation value (CCCV) scale’, Journal of business research, 82(2018):79-89.
  • Pop, R, Săplăcan, Z & Alt, M 2020, ‘Social media goes green – the impact of social media on green cosmetics purchase motivation and intention’, Information, 11(447):1-16.
  • Schiffman, LG & Wisenblit, JL 2019, Consumer behavior, 12th edn., Pearson Education Ltd.
  • Solomon, MR 2020, Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being, 13th edn., Pearson Education Ltd.
  • Solve it like a Marketer, 2020a, Motivation in consumer behavior,  streaming video, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-q4NOqaHWM
  • Solve it like a Marketer, 2020b, Attitudes and consumer behaviour, streaming video, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhMZ_00C2AU
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