Consumer Behaviour

0 · How to Use Thisread first

This unit is graded entirely by coursework — no exam: LookBook 18% (1.5% post + 1.5% reply + 15% document), out-of-class quiz 5%, group written 25%, group oral 20%, individual CCBC 30% (+ 2% research component).

The marked skill is connecting CB theory to real consumers, brands & your own behaviour. So this is a theory + application bank: the inner consumer (Side 1), then attitudes, decisions, social influence & how to apply it all (Side 2).

0b · Assessment Blueprintwhere marks live

The two big movers are the group report+oral (45% combined) and the CCBC (30%). Do the LookBook little-and-often, never in one Week-12 cram.

1 · What CB IsM1 · Ch 1

Consumer behaviour = the totality of decisions about the consumption of an offering by decision-making units over time. Unpack each clause:

• Totality of decisions — not just whether to buy, but what / why / how / when / where / how much / how often
• Consumption = acquisition + usage + disposition — buying is only the start
• Offering = products, services, activities, experiences, people, ideas
• Decision-making units — roles: gatherer · influencer · decider · purchaser · user (kids' cereal); herd behaviour
• Over time — a point (milk) to years (a phone contract)

Hook: an adult makes ~35,000 mostly semi-conscious choices a day — most are low-effort, which is exactly why the inner-consumer machinery on this side matters.

1b · How to Read the Unitthe structure

The whole unit is built on one continuum — high vs low effort, applied in turn to attention, attitudes & decisions. For any concept, ask the marker's question: so what for the consumer, and what should a marketer do about it?

2 · The MAO FrameworkM1 · the spine

Motivation · Ability · Opportunity — the unit's spine; it returns in perception, attitudes & decisions.

• Motivation — drive to act; set by personal relevance + perceived risk; serves utilitarian & value-expressive needs
• Ability — the consumer's resources: financial, cognitive, emotional, physical, social/cultural, education/age
• Opportunity — external enablers: time, information availability, access to the offering

Behaviour needs all three: high M + high A still fails if opportunity is low. High MAO ≈ high-effort processing; low MAO ≈ low-effort. This split structures the whole unit.

3 · Decision ProcessM1 · 6 steps

The full high-effort path (low-effort = a streamlined version):

1. Problem / need recognition
2. Information search (internal → external)
3. Evaluation of alternatives
4. Purchase decision (forms an intention)
5. Purchase (intent → act; situation can override)
6. Post-purchase evaluation

The journey is cyclical — acquisition → usage → disposition → re-acquisition — with a post-purchase learning loop feeding back into memory.

3b · High vs Low Effortthe continuum

A supermarket trip ≈ ~60 low-effort decisions in 30 min; impulse buys can jump problem-recognition → purchase directly.

4 · Motivation & NeedsM1 · Ch 2

A need = tension from a gap between an actual/current state and a desired/ideal state.

Maslow's hierarchy · physiological → safety → belonging → esteem → self-actualisation; lower tiers prioritised first; marketers pitch at the targeted need level.

Means-end chain · links a product's attributes → consequences/benefits → terminal values — the ladder from "what it is" up to "why I care."

Motivation also varies by perceived risk (financial, social, performance) — higher risk pushes the consumer toward high-effort processing.

5 · Perception · EAPCM2 · Ch 3

Perception is a chain: Exposure → Attention → Perception → Comprehension. Break any link & the message fails.

Exposure = physical contact with a stimulus (ads, packs, prices, WOM). Shaped by field of vision (shelf placement); marketers manage position/placement. Selective exposure — the consumer "holds the remote": zipping (skip recorded ads), zapping (switch live ads).

Attention = allocating mental activity; it is limited, selective & divided (multitasking splits it). Habituation = a learned falling response after repeated exposure → "ad wear-out"; refresh stimuli to fight it.

Perception (sensing) = stimuli registered by the five senses → sensory marketing (sight/sound/taste/smell/touch).

Comprehension = interpreting/giving meaning vs prior knowledge. Miscomprehension rises when any MAO factor is low, the ad is ambiguous or assumes too much prior knowledge; cut it with simple language, clear visuals, audience-matched messages & repetition.

5b · Thresholds & JNDkey formula-talk

Absolute threshold · the minimum intensity to detect "something vs nothing."

JND / differential threshold · the smallest detectable change between two stimuli.

Weber's LawJND = k × original stimulus intensity
(k = a constant ratio; Ernst Weber, 1830s)

So a stronger starting stimulus needs a bigger change to be noticed ($5 on $10 felt vs $5 on $100 not). Marketing use:

• Hide negatives below the JND — shrinkflation that goes unnoticed
• Push positives above it — a bigger bar, a clearer upgrade
• Logo redesign — change must be noticeable yet keep brand recognisable
• Upsizes / price rises — make a +10% bonus pack obvious; keep a price creep just under the JND

Perceptual organisation · we integrate stimuli into the simplest, most meaningful whole, not isolated bits — an illusion or hidden-image picture only "snaps" once organised.

The five threshold/sense ideas all serve one exam point: marketers engineer what consumers can & can't notice — what to amplify, what to slip under the radar.

6 · LearningM5 & M8

Classical conditioning · pair a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus (US) that triggers an unconditioned response (UR); repetition makes the neutral cue a conditioned stimulus (CS) producing a conditioned response (CR) (Pavlov; Watson's "Little Albert"). Brands pair with liked stimuli.

Evaluative conditioning · a subtype changing only liking (affect) of the CS, not a physiological response (graphic cigarette warnings = negative).

Operant / instrumental · B.F. Skinner — future choices shaped by past outcomes. Reinforcement (reward → repeat) vs punishment (negative → avoid); no reinforcement → little learning. Uses: free sampling/trial, sales promotions, loyalty programs, reward/avoidance ads.

Cognitive / observational · incidental learning, emotional contagion, modelling others using an offering, and post-purchase learning by hypothesis-testing.

classical conditioning shapeUS → UR (food → salivation)
neutral cue + US, repeated → CS
CS → CR (the cue alone now triggers it)

Marketing reads: reinforcement = free in-store sampling, loyalty stamps, reward ads; punishment = "what happens if you skip it" avoidance ads. No reward at all → the behaviour fades.

7 · Memory IM3 · Ch 4

Memory = persistence of learning via storage & retrieval. Three stages: Encoding → Storing → Retrieval.

Encoding (input) · perceiving & processing; modes are visual, acoustic, semantic.

Stores:

• Sensory memory — brief sense trace (<1 s)
• Working (short-term) — temporary, limited capacity
• Long-term — permanent, no limit; episodic/autobiographical (nostalgia) + semantic (knowledge)

Schema / brand image · salient associations link into a schema; a brand image = what a brand stands for + how favourably it's viewed. A strong schema means a single cue (a colour, a sound) pulls up the whole network.

7b · Why It Forgetspreview

Encoding & storage aren't enough — most marketing is lost at retrieval. The next column covers the three reasons we forget & the four levers that fight them.

Exam framing: a brand can have huge exposure yet weak recall if it has no distinctive retrieval cue tying the memory back to a buying moment.

7b · Memory II · Enhancingencode & store

Techniques marketers use to lodge a message:

• Chunking — compress into fewer salient nuggets; acronyms/mnemonics (BMW, IKEA)
• Rehearsal — repetition via jingles/slogans
• Recirculation — repeated exposure to the same info; long-running slogans
• Elaboration — thinking deeply; transfers to LTM far better than rote rehearsal

effective frequencyThomas Smith (1885): ~20 exposures before purchase
"more frequency = more effective"

7c · Memory III · Retrievalgetting it back

Retrieval (output) = accessing stored info. Why we forget:

• Decay · fading over time
• Interference · competing memories
• Serial-position effect · first + last items best recalled — lead & close with key info

Retrieval errors: we choose, confuse & distort memories (false memories).

Boost retrieval — four levers:

• Salient stimulus — be the category prototype (pioneer/leader brands); co-brand only where the fit makes sense
• Retrieval cues — name, logo, packaging, typeface, a distinctive shape (a contour bottle)
• Processing — dual-coding (visual + verbal beats text-only)
• The consumer — good mood & higher expertise both lift recall

8 · 6 Attitude TraitsM4 · bridge to Side 2

An attitude = an overall evaluation (like/dislike) of an object/issue/action; learned, guides behaviour. Six traits taught explicitly:

Favourability · Accessibility · Confidence · Persistence · Resistance · Ambivalence.

These predict whether an attitude will actually drive behaviour (see Side 2, ELM & TORA/TOPB) — an accessible, confident, specific attitude predicts best. Ambivalence (holding both like & dislike) makes an attitude shaky & easy to flip — a target for persuasion.

8b · Side 1 → Side 2the handoff

Everything so far is how stimuli reach & lodge in the consumer. Side 2 takes the next step: how stored beliefs & feelings become an attitude, how it (or a shortcut) drives a decision, and how other people shape both — with the high/low-effort lens still running.

9 · Concept Quick-Mapname it fast

For the quiz & the LookBook, the win is naming the artefact with the exact term — fast recognition, not recall:

10 · Named Theorists Icite-ready

11 · Apply Side 1to your tasks

LookBook — most easy entries live here: snap a real package, ad, shelf or shopfront and tag it MAO / EAPC / JND / a conditioning type / a memory technique. One artefact = one named concept = one why-it-works line.

CCBC — frame your habit as an actual-vs-ideal-state gap (Maslow/need), and use operant reinforcement (reward streaks) + cue management (remove exposure triggers, fight habituation with fresh cues) to drive the change.

Group report — the perception/learning/memory chapters explain why a campaign lands or fails; pick one lens (an EAPC break, weak retrieval cues, no reinforcement) and build the diagnosis around it rather than touring every chapter.

12 · Attitudes · ABCM4–5 · Ch 5–6

ABC / tricomponent model · an attitude has three parts — Affective (feelings), Behavioural/conative (intentions, action), Cognitive (beliefs).

MKTG6007 crosses the cognitive vs affective basis with high vs low effort → a 2×2 the unit leans on heavily:

12b · The Four Cellslevers per cell

Cognitive · high — consumers generate counterarguments, support arguments or source derogation. Levers: credible source (trust + expertise), strong message, two-sided messages, comparative ads (indirect vs direct).

Affective · high — feelings drive evaluation when emotions fit the offering or others are seen feeling strongly. Levers: match-up hypothesis (attractive and fitting source), emotional appeals (positive & negative), contagion.

Cognitive · low — simple inferences → simple associations → simple beliefs; heuristics ("pricier = better"); frequency heuristic (many reasons = good); illusory-truth effect (repetition → believed true, incl. fake news).

Affective · low — mere-exposure effect (familiarity → liking); mood (store music, lighting, colour, friendly staff); classical/evaluative conditioning; body-feedback & snap judgements. Here the source need only be likeable — no match-up required.

13 · The ELMM4–5 · flagship

Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) — two routes by MAO:

• Central route — high-MAO, high-effort processing of the message's true merits → strong, accessible, confident, change-resistant attitudes
• Peripheral route — low-MAO, low-effort processing of cues (source, visuals, body feedback) → weaker, easily changed attitudes, sometimes unconscious

Application: design a high-MAO ad via the central route, then reconfigure the same ad for low-MAO audiences via the peripheral route.

Why it matters: central-route attitudes resist competitor attacks & predict behaviour; peripheral ones win quick liking but erode — so the route you choose depends on the consumer's MAO, not the brand's wish. The ELM is the unit's master frame: it ties MAO, the 2×2 & persuasion design into one model.

14 · Attitude → BehaviourTORA / TOPB

Attitudes don't always become actions. Two models bridge the gap:

TORA (Theory of Reasoned Action) · behaviour follows intention, driven by the attitude toward the behaviour + the subjective norm (what important others think).

TOPB (Theory of Planned Behaviour) · adds perceived behavioural control — can I actually do it? Better for behaviours that aren't fully under your control (the CCBC's core model).

Attitudes predict behaviour best when they are accessible (top-of-mind), confident & specific to the behaviour, with high elaboration/involvement, knowledge & supportive norms.

15 · Heuristics & Biaseslow-effort shortcuts

Quick mental rules that replace effortful processing:

• Mere-exposure effect — more familiarity → more liking (logos on race tracks)
• Illusory-truth effect — repetition → felt familiarity → "must be true" (incl. fake news)
• Price-quality — "if it's pricier, it's better"
• Frequency heuristic — many reasons listed = must be good
• Well-known = good — brand familiarity stands in for quality
• Simple inferences — packaging/colour cues → a snap belief about the product

Unconscious cues: thin-slice/snap judgements; body feedback (a pen held in the teeth, a nod vs head-shake nudges evaluation). These are peripheral-route mechanisms — fast, cue-driven, low-MAO.

16 · Step 1–2 · Recognise & SearchM7 · Ch 7–8

Problem recognition = a perceived actual-vs-ideal-state gap big enough to act. Two triggers: raise the ideal (opportunity recognition — a new "must-have") or lower the actual (need recognition — "you're not as safe as you think").

Information search · internal (memory first) then external (only if internal is insufficient — a high-effort move). Internal biases: inhibition (can't recall all attributes), mood (recall matches mood), confirmation bias (recall fits existing beliefs). Five external sources: retailer · media/social · interpersonal (reviews/WOM) · independent ("objective") · experiential (trial/test-drive).

Marketers manage search by being the easy internal answer (a top-of-mind brand) & by seeding favourable external cues (reviews, trials, influencer content) before the consumer even searches.

17 · Step 3–4 · Judge & DecideM7 high-effort

Judgements = estimates of whether/how well an offering performs (inputs to a decision): likelihood; goodness/badness via anchoring & adjustment ("was $99 now $49"); mental accounting ("I deserve it"; budget pots).

Judgement biases: confirmation · negativity bias (negatives weighted more) · self-positivity bias ("bad things happen to others") · mood · prior brand evaluations · mental-maths difficulty (simple discounts over-weighted).

Feeling-based purchase: "it feels right" via appraisals, affective forecasting (predicting future feelings; durability bias — we over-estimate how long feelings last) & imagery.

18 · Decision Rulesflagship contrast

The last four are non-compensatory — a strength cannot offset a weakness (cutoffs rule). Marketers may try to shift attribute importance (make safety matter more than price).

18b · Low-Effort DecisionsM8 · Ch 9

Streamlined: internal search only, habit/simple choice tactics, 1–2 attributes, impulse buys, minimal post-purchase. Tactics seen in the wild:

• Variety-seeking / novelty — limited editions drive trial
• Affect-based — nostalgia, humour
• Normative / social proof — viral trends, "everyone's doing it"
• Brand familiarity / co-branding — safe, recognised picks

Each choice is then reinforced or punished → repeat or reject.

18c · Rules · Workedthe shape

Buying a phone on battery, camera, price:

• Conjunctive — reject any phone failing a minimum on all three
• Lexicographic — care most about camera? Pick the best camera, ignore the rest
• Compensatory — a top camera offsets a mediocre battery; highest weighted total wins

Same options, different rule, different winner.

19 · Step 5–6 · Post-PurchaseM8 · Ch 9–10

Post-decision dissonance · anxiety about whether the right choice was made (especially high-effort buys); reduced by extra search / seeking confirming reviews (= post-hoc confirmation bias).

Post-decision regret · belief the wrong choice was made. Regret of action (did, wish hadn't) → more short-term regret; regret of inaction (didn't, wish had) → more long-term regret; biggest life regret = not reaching the ideal self (= "buyer's remorse").

Post-purchase evaluation applies to both high- and low-effort buys — it's where loyalty, repeat purchase & WOM are made or lost.

Marketer fixes: testimonials, free trial, post-purchase contact, warranties/repairs, money-back guarantees, future-purchase discounts, reassurance ("you made a great choice").

19b · Satisfaction & NPSmeasure it

disconfirmation paradigmperform > expected → positive disconfirm → delight
perform < expected → negative disconfirm → dissatisfied
perform = expected → confirmation → merely satisfied

Feelings-based satisfaction = straight from the felt experience, no comparison.

net promoter score · Reichheld 2003Detractors 0–6 · Passives 7–8 · Promoters 9–10
NPS = %Promoters − %Detractors

NPS = loyalty/long-term; CSAT = satisfaction/short-term. One simple, benchmarkable question — but watch segment weighting (heavy vs light users score differently).

19c · Complainer Typeswhat the unhappy do

• Passives — won't complain or switch
• Voicers — complain to the firm (best — a chance to fix)
• Irates — vent via social media / negative WOM
• Activists — escalate to agencies/legal (worst)

Post-purchase learning (hypothesis-testing): prior beliefs → hypothesis → exposure to evidence (use) → revised beliefs. Belief change is larger when the consumer is less experienced, more motivated to learn & the information is clear & unambiguous.

Top-dog vs underdog: dominant brands use reminder advertising (keep beliefs unchanged); challengers try to revise beliefs ("we try harder").

20 · Socio-CulturalM9, M11–12

Subculture · an identifiable cultural segment sharing values → similar consumption. Key bases: age, gender, ethnicity, religion, social class, location; a consumer sits in several at once, and context decides which dominates. Age → generational marketing; gender → biological sex (ascribed) vs gender (achieved, socialised) → gendered marketing & the pink tax.

Social class · a psychographic base; key indicators are occupation (the main Western one), income, education, residence. Social mobility: upward / downward (triggers compensatory consumption to restore status) / class fragmentation. Market up (status/exclusivity), middle (aspiration), lower (value, framed carefully).

20b · Reference GroupsM9 · Ch 11

Two influence types:

• Normative influence — social pressure to conform, comply, obey; stronger with strong ties, similarity, larger/expert groups, reward & sanction power; real or imagined presence
• Informational influence (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955) — conform because the group "knows more / is right"

Persuasion tactics: foot-in-the-door (small request first), flattery. Resistance = psychological reactance (pushing back against pressure).

WOM · runs through search, post-purchase (manage negative WOM; promoters fuel growth) & low-effort social proof; opinion leaders/influencers = external sources a firm can influence but not control. Negative WOM is amplified in the social-media era — a single bad experience can scale fast.

20c · Family & SelfM12–13 · Ch 13–14

Household decision roles — influencer/decider/purchaser/user within a family life cycle (e.g. the child-cereal example).

Psychographics: VALS (Values-and-Lifestyles segments) & lifestyles = AIO (activities, interests, opinions); plus personality theories. The self/ideal self recurs in regret, disposition (meaningful objects) & compensatory consumption.

Disposition · the last stage of consumption — gift, donate, sell, recycle/repurpose, throw away or store; guided by financial/sentimental value & life transitions, and a growing sustainability angle (in-store recycling, recycled packaging) that closes the acquisition↔disposition loop.

Stereotypes & ethics: gendered marketing can entrench stereotypes; the dark side of CB (shrinkflation under the JND, illusory-truth, predatory targeting) is a ready critical angle for the report.

21 · Apply · CCBC30% · individual

A self-experiment: change one personal behaviour (spend less, eat healthier, cut social media/sugar), then interpret the journey through CB theory in a mock blog post.

CCBC theory spine1 frame the gap — actual vs ideal self (need)
2 model intention — TOPB (attitude + norm + control)
3 drive change — operant reinforcement + cue mgmt
4 reflect — dissonance/regret, satisfaction

Tag every reflection with a named concept — that's what earns the analysis marks, not the diary itself.

22 · Apply · Group Tasks25% + 20%

Written (25%): apply CB theory to a real consumer problem facing a business/government & design a solution. Structure: diagnose the consumer problem → explain it with theory → propose & justify a fix.

Oral (20%): linked to the report — communicate the problem, its CB explanation & the solution to an external audience. Don't read slides; show you understand the mechanism.

Pick a problem where one CB lens (e.g. low-effort decisions, or the disconfirmation gap) clearly explains the behaviour — depth beats a tour of every chapter.

23 · Apply · LookBook + Quiz18% + 5%

LookBook — a semester scrapbook of real stimuli mapped to concepts; the early post (Wk4) + reply (Wk5) are easy marks, the 15% document is the build. One strong analysed entry beats five thin captions.

Quiz — 30 MCQ/TF, 25 min, open-book, one slot. Recognition speed wins — know the labels cold (MAO, EAPC, JND, the 6 steps, the decision rules, ELM routes), don't read mid-quiz.

24 · Named Theorists IIcite-ready