CB LECTURE NOTES
Lecture 1
Mere exposure effect: people feel more positively towards things they recognise or see more often
About consumer behaviour: general theorectial frameworks (e.g. associative networks) specific
theoretical frameworks (e.g. branding theories) effects (e.g. mere exposure effect)
What is consumer behaviour?
Consumer behaviour research
- Topics: motivation, advertising effects, decision processes, consumption rituals
- Theories: psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics
- Methods: surveys, experiments, observations, interviews
Who studies consumer behaviour: marketeers, social organizations, public policy makers
Consumer decision process model: need recognition search for information prepurchase
evaluation of alternatives purchase consumption post-consumption evaluation disposal
Need: discrepancy between actual and desired state
When a need could occur: in a life style change, or new taste, or the evolvement of new technologies
Information search
1. Internal
- Retrieval from memory
2. External
- Marketer sources: advertising, company websites, stores, salespeople, brochures
, - Non-marketer sources: other consumers, consumer organisations, government, media
Information processing
Information search
1. Heuristic search
- Ad-hoc
- Convenience based
- Relies on rules of thumb
Less risk, low level of involvement, more knowledge, less time
2. Systematic search
- Organized
- Comprehensive
- Effortful
More risk, high level of involvement, less knowledge, more time
Considerations of options
The consideration set is the set of brands actively considered at the time of choice
The most important laws of marketing
1. In order for a costumer to choose action A, Brand A must be considered
2. In order for a customer to choose action A, the customer must fail to consider a brand he/she
likes better than brand A
Choise outcomes are far more influenced by content of consideration set than by processing of
considered alternatives
Pre-purchase evaluation of alternatives
Consumer decision process – continuum
,From LPS to EPS: more effort & time spent on decision
- More information gathered
- More processing of information (time, effort)
- More alternatives considered
- More attributes considered
When do we engage in LPS?
- Limited importance of product (low risk)
- Limited availability of time / resources
- Similarity of alternatives indifference
Purchase
Decisions on
- Purchase timing (immediate or delayed)
- Mode of purchase (web, store, catalog)
- Place/store
- Quantity
Even after choice is made purchases can be modified due to product availability or point of
purchase displays (e.g. when they put snacks at the cashdesk)
Consumption
- Timing, frequency, volume of use: important for packaging, affects satisfaction
- Mode of use: proper use, alternative use
Post consumpyion evaluation
Expectations are crucial
Satisfaction: product meets or exceeds expected performance
Dissatisfaction: product performs below expectation
3 sources of consumption value
- Anticipatory consumption
- The act of consuming
- Enjoying memory of past consumption
Summary scientific articles
1. Postexperience advertising effects on the consumer memory
Main idea: The postexperience advertising situation is conceptualized here as an instant source-
forgetting problem where the language and imagery from the recently presented advertising become
confused with consumers' own experiential memories. It is suggested that, through a reconstructive
memory process, this advertising information affects how and what consumers remember. Consumers
may come to believe that their past product experience had been as suggested by the advertising.
Over time this postexperience advertising information can become incorporated into the brand schema
and influence future product decisions.
consumers perceive their experience as special and are an important part of how consumers learn
objective and affective responses to products
But objectivity has been questioned, since marketing communications can influence how
consumers learn from their experience
, It is subject to influence
The effects of experimental learning on the consumers decision may not show up directly. And though
experimental information is learned fast it is also the most fragile, context-dependent and subject to
distortion
Memory: active constructive process where information is (1) acquired, (2) stored & (3) retrieved for
use in decisionmaking
Prior information can thus be used to influence the perception of the current experience
A memory schema is able to show the current learning environment by showing how individual
neurons code information
Within marketing it is seen that these schema’s affect how consumers interpret sensory
product experiences. Example: positive brand schema made beer taste better
When people try to recall their experiences they only remember what fit their expectations, moreover
information retained after the experience can transform the memory of that experience
In recall and recognition people tend to include ideas or elements inferred or related to the
original experience but not part of this experience itself
Postexperience information is most likely to distort memories when it is very similar to or may be
mistaken for the actual experienced information
post experience imaging can influence perceptual memories such as taste
Postexperience advertising can have an effect on memory prior to the judgement process
Remembering isn’t only recalling facts it is re-living an experience. When you remember you get a
sense of mental time travel also called autonoetic consciousness
By contrast knowing is being cure of a fact without re-experiencing it. Researchers test this
remember/know procedure (they ask participants whether they remembered it or just know it brain
scans show that remember responses light up sensory areas more strongly so they are partially
recreating the original experience
This research shows that advertising doesn’t just shape what people expect before trying a product —
it can also change how they remember the experience afterward.
In the first experiment, ads shown right after using a product made people remember it more
positively, even if the real experience wasn’t good. In the second experiment, this memory change
lasted for about a week and even influenced product choice, though the effect faded over time. A
follow-up study found that showing ads a week later could bring back the positive effect.
The researchers suggest two ways this happens:
- Immediate overshadowing – the images and messages in ads push aside real memories,
leading to fewer negative thoughts
- Schema building – over time, ads help form a brand story in people’s minds, blending with
their personal memories.
This works because memory is reconstructive: when we recall something, our brains combine real
experiences with outside information. People often think their memories come only from personal
experience, but in reality, advertising sneaks in like a “Trojan horse” and changes what they believe
happened.
For marketers, this means ads can reshape even negative experiences, refresh old ones, and guide
how consumers “learn” from the past — making advertising a powerful tool not only for influencing
expectations, but also for rewriting memories.
2. Brand concept maps: A methodology for identifying brand association networks
Lecture 1
Mere exposure effect: people feel more positively towards things they recognise or see more often
About consumer behaviour: general theorectial frameworks (e.g. associative networks) specific
theoretical frameworks (e.g. branding theories) effects (e.g. mere exposure effect)
What is consumer behaviour?
Consumer behaviour research
- Topics: motivation, advertising effects, decision processes, consumption rituals
- Theories: psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics
- Methods: surveys, experiments, observations, interviews
Who studies consumer behaviour: marketeers, social organizations, public policy makers
Consumer decision process model: need recognition search for information prepurchase
evaluation of alternatives purchase consumption post-consumption evaluation disposal
Need: discrepancy between actual and desired state
When a need could occur: in a life style change, or new taste, or the evolvement of new technologies
Information search
1. Internal
- Retrieval from memory
2. External
- Marketer sources: advertising, company websites, stores, salespeople, brochures
, - Non-marketer sources: other consumers, consumer organisations, government, media
Information processing
Information search
1. Heuristic search
- Ad-hoc
- Convenience based
- Relies on rules of thumb
Less risk, low level of involvement, more knowledge, less time
2. Systematic search
- Organized
- Comprehensive
- Effortful
More risk, high level of involvement, less knowledge, more time
Considerations of options
The consideration set is the set of brands actively considered at the time of choice
The most important laws of marketing
1. In order for a costumer to choose action A, Brand A must be considered
2. In order for a customer to choose action A, the customer must fail to consider a brand he/she
likes better than brand A
Choise outcomes are far more influenced by content of consideration set than by processing of
considered alternatives
Pre-purchase evaluation of alternatives
Consumer decision process – continuum
,From LPS to EPS: more effort & time spent on decision
- More information gathered
- More processing of information (time, effort)
- More alternatives considered
- More attributes considered
When do we engage in LPS?
- Limited importance of product (low risk)
- Limited availability of time / resources
- Similarity of alternatives indifference
Purchase
Decisions on
- Purchase timing (immediate or delayed)
- Mode of purchase (web, store, catalog)
- Place/store
- Quantity
Even after choice is made purchases can be modified due to product availability or point of
purchase displays (e.g. when they put snacks at the cashdesk)
Consumption
- Timing, frequency, volume of use: important for packaging, affects satisfaction
- Mode of use: proper use, alternative use
Post consumpyion evaluation
Expectations are crucial
Satisfaction: product meets or exceeds expected performance
Dissatisfaction: product performs below expectation
3 sources of consumption value
- Anticipatory consumption
- The act of consuming
- Enjoying memory of past consumption
Summary scientific articles
1. Postexperience advertising effects on the consumer memory
Main idea: The postexperience advertising situation is conceptualized here as an instant source-
forgetting problem where the language and imagery from the recently presented advertising become
confused with consumers' own experiential memories. It is suggested that, through a reconstructive
memory process, this advertising information affects how and what consumers remember. Consumers
may come to believe that their past product experience had been as suggested by the advertising.
Over time this postexperience advertising information can become incorporated into the brand schema
and influence future product decisions.
consumers perceive their experience as special and are an important part of how consumers learn
objective and affective responses to products
But objectivity has been questioned, since marketing communications can influence how
consumers learn from their experience
, It is subject to influence
The effects of experimental learning on the consumers decision may not show up directly. And though
experimental information is learned fast it is also the most fragile, context-dependent and subject to
distortion
Memory: active constructive process where information is (1) acquired, (2) stored & (3) retrieved for
use in decisionmaking
Prior information can thus be used to influence the perception of the current experience
A memory schema is able to show the current learning environment by showing how individual
neurons code information
Within marketing it is seen that these schema’s affect how consumers interpret sensory
product experiences. Example: positive brand schema made beer taste better
When people try to recall their experiences they only remember what fit their expectations, moreover
information retained after the experience can transform the memory of that experience
In recall and recognition people tend to include ideas or elements inferred or related to the
original experience but not part of this experience itself
Postexperience information is most likely to distort memories when it is very similar to or may be
mistaken for the actual experienced information
post experience imaging can influence perceptual memories such as taste
Postexperience advertising can have an effect on memory prior to the judgement process
Remembering isn’t only recalling facts it is re-living an experience. When you remember you get a
sense of mental time travel also called autonoetic consciousness
By contrast knowing is being cure of a fact without re-experiencing it. Researchers test this
remember/know procedure (they ask participants whether they remembered it or just know it brain
scans show that remember responses light up sensory areas more strongly so they are partially
recreating the original experience
This research shows that advertising doesn’t just shape what people expect before trying a product —
it can also change how they remember the experience afterward.
In the first experiment, ads shown right after using a product made people remember it more
positively, even if the real experience wasn’t good. In the second experiment, this memory change
lasted for about a week and even influenced product choice, though the effect faded over time. A
follow-up study found that showing ads a week later could bring back the positive effect.
The researchers suggest two ways this happens:
- Immediate overshadowing – the images and messages in ads push aside real memories,
leading to fewer negative thoughts
- Schema building – over time, ads help form a brand story in people’s minds, blending with
their personal memories.
This works because memory is reconstructive: when we recall something, our brains combine real
experiences with outside information. People often think their memories come only from personal
experience, but in reality, advertising sneaks in like a “Trojan horse” and changes what they believe
happened.
For marketers, this means ads can reshape even negative experiences, refresh old ones, and guide
how consumers “learn” from the past — making advertising a powerful tool not only for influencing
expectations, but also for rewriting memories.
2. Brand concept maps: A methodology for identifying brand association networks
