Principles of Consumer Studies
Lecture 2 Marketing, goals, and learning
College
Marketing: creating value & satisfying consumers
Macro level: focus overall (focus on society)
Meso level: focus on smaller group within society (market segmentation / consumer
differentiation)
Micro level: focus on the individual (psychology of consumers)
Everything you know about products, brands, services, and markets is learned
Learning: the activity of process of acquiring knowledge or skill by studying, practicing,
experiencing. -> relatively permanent change in behavior, knowledge or thinking skills. DOES
NOT involve behavior which you already know when you are born.
Behaviorist model (only study observable / external behavior): stimulus in environment ->
black box (can’t be studied) -> response behavior
Cognitive model (can scientifically study internal behavior): input in the environment ->
mediational process (mental event) -> output behavior
Unconditioned: automatic response, you do not think about it, you already know about this.
E.g., you know chocolate, a label is new.
Conditioned stimulus e.g., label -> you attach something new to something you already now
-> you have learned something about this. E.g., label is new, chocolate you know
Memory -> how much info to collect + which brands to search for + what features to
examine -> purchase decision -> learning
Goals: desired end-states, influence emotions and attitudes of consumers
Learning goals: mastering new skill/knowledge -> variety seeking
Performance goals: what you want to achieve
Goal setting -> goal striving -> goal attainment / goal disengagement -> goal re-engagement -
> goal setting etc.
Expectancy-value model: feasibility (expectancy) x desirability (value) -> goal setting.
Influenced by person and situation aspects
Goal systems theory: what are the means to reach your goals -> bottom-up priming of goals
Goals to means -> having fun to concert tickets -> top-down priming
Goal shielding: one goal conflict with another conflict, temporarily inhibiting a goal
Goal disengagement: completely discontinuing a goal
Implementation intentions: if opportunity X occurs, I will do Y. ‘’If a go to a party, I will not
smoke but drink’’. They improve success rate for one goal. It is difficult for more goals
because it is difficult to reach them all
Lecture 3 Attitudes
College
Attitude: a person’s evaluation of an object
Functional perspective: attitudes are stable, are saved in memory, serve general functions,
expectancy-value model, theory of planned behavior, ABC model of attitudes, past model
, Constructive perspective: attitudes are temporary and dependent on context, goals
influence attitudes, so serve specific goals
Ego-defensive function: defending our self-image
Utilitarian function: seeking rewards, avoiding punishments
Value-expressive function: expressing important aspects of oneself
Knowledge function: forming accurate view of the world
Uni-dimensionalist model of attitudes: affect leads to attitude
Tricomponent model of attitudes: 3 components to attitude -> affect, behavior, and
cognition. First you think (C) -> then you feel (A) -> then you buy (B)
Compared to attitudes (more evaluative), beliefs are statements / non-evaluative (do not
have to be correct)
Attitudes = beliefs * subjective evaluation
Expectancy-value model: cognitive beliefs * evaluation (theory of planned behavior,
requires lot of effort and time)
Emotional purchase: affect -> behavior -> cognition
Past model: past attitudes are still there (attitude change, form a new attitude and the old
attitude = false)
Goals + situation & emotions -> attitudes
Lecture 4 Cognitions & Emotions
Two thinking systems/dual process theories: reasoning (controlled) vs intuition (automatic)
Generalized dual process theories: not limited to one research area, very strong in creating
lists that do not necessarily hold, cannot be disconfirmed (too vague)
Phenomenon-specific dual process theories: very helpful in specific research fields, some
errors in models (too strong in making claims), all own terminology no cross-referencing
Formalized dual process theories: use mathematics to show relevance of different thinking
system, only one which acknowledges that two systems can both be active, using formulas
suggests that we can measure the thinking system, creates the illusion that we do not need
to test the two systems anymore (that we understand them perfectly)
Reasoning thinking system needs effort, processing time, not unlimited, logical, rule
governed, requires a lot of time. ‘Humans make rational, well-informed decisions to
maximize utility.’
Intuition system: no effort, automatic, associative (coming up with a name you know),
similarity, contiguity, requires some time. Relates to nudging
Emotions are universally recognized, different emotions have different effects on consumer
behavior, we are conscious of how emotions influence our consumer behavior
Emotions are episodic, short-lived experiences and concern certain event/object ->
physiological reactions + facial expressions + cognitive evaluations + subjective feeling states.
Emotions are in between intuition and reasoning
Exemplars are the most typical/perfect example of a group, can also be applied with
emotion groups -> categories approach
Dimensions approach: active vs passive emotions and positive vs negative emotions
Cognitive appraisal approach: event -> cognitive appraisals (interpreted)-> emotion ->
response (behavior)
Relevant influence: emotions lead to behavior which has to do with the cause. Emotion is
related to behavior
Lecture 2 Marketing, goals, and learning
College
Marketing: creating value & satisfying consumers
Macro level: focus overall (focus on society)
Meso level: focus on smaller group within society (market segmentation / consumer
differentiation)
Micro level: focus on the individual (psychology of consumers)
Everything you know about products, brands, services, and markets is learned
Learning: the activity of process of acquiring knowledge or skill by studying, practicing,
experiencing. -> relatively permanent change in behavior, knowledge or thinking skills. DOES
NOT involve behavior which you already know when you are born.
Behaviorist model (only study observable / external behavior): stimulus in environment ->
black box (can’t be studied) -> response behavior
Cognitive model (can scientifically study internal behavior): input in the environment ->
mediational process (mental event) -> output behavior
Unconditioned: automatic response, you do not think about it, you already know about this.
E.g., you know chocolate, a label is new.
Conditioned stimulus e.g., label -> you attach something new to something you already now
-> you have learned something about this. E.g., label is new, chocolate you know
Memory -> how much info to collect + which brands to search for + what features to
examine -> purchase decision -> learning
Goals: desired end-states, influence emotions and attitudes of consumers
Learning goals: mastering new skill/knowledge -> variety seeking
Performance goals: what you want to achieve
Goal setting -> goal striving -> goal attainment / goal disengagement -> goal re-engagement -
> goal setting etc.
Expectancy-value model: feasibility (expectancy) x desirability (value) -> goal setting.
Influenced by person and situation aspects
Goal systems theory: what are the means to reach your goals -> bottom-up priming of goals
Goals to means -> having fun to concert tickets -> top-down priming
Goal shielding: one goal conflict with another conflict, temporarily inhibiting a goal
Goal disengagement: completely discontinuing a goal
Implementation intentions: if opportunity X occurs, I will do Y. ‘’If a go to a party, I will not
smoke but drink’’. They improve success rate for one goal. It is difficult for more goals
because it is difficult to reach them all
Lecture 3 Attitudes
College
Attitude: a person’s evaluation of an object
Functional perspective: attitudes are stable, are saved in memory, serve general functions,
expectancy-value model, theory of planned behavior, ABC model of attitudes, past model
, Constructive perspective: attitudes are temporary and dependent on context, goals
influence attitudes, so serve specific goals
Ego-defensive function: defending our self-image
Utilitarian function: seeking rewards, avoiding punishments
Value-expressive function: expressing important aspects of oneself
Knowledge function: forming accurate view of the world
Uni-dimensionalist model of attitudes: affect leads to attitude
Tricomponent model of attitudes: 3 components to attitude -> affect, behavior, and
cognition. First you think (C) -> then you feel (A) -> then you buy (B)
Compared to attitudes (more evaluative), beliefs are statements / non-evaluative (do not
have to be correct)
Attitudes = beliefs * subjective evaluation
Expectancy-value model: cognitive beliefs * evaluation (theory of planned behavior,
requires lot of effort and time)
Emotional purchase: affect -> behavior -> cognition
Past model: past attitudes are still there (attitude change, form a new attitude and the old
attitude = false)
Goals + situation & emotions -> attitudes
Lecture 4 Cognitions & Emotions
Two thinking systems/dual process theories: reasoning (controlled) vs intuition (automatic)
Generalized dual process theories: not limited to one research area, very strong in creating
lists that do not necessarily hold, cannot be disconfirmed (too vague)
Phenomenon-specific dual process theories: very helpful in specific research fields, some
errors in models (too strong in making claims), all own terminology no cross-referencing
Formalized dual process theories: use mathematics to show relevance of different thinking
system, only one which acknowledges that two systems can both be active, using formulas
suggests that we can measure the thinking system, creates the illusion that we do not need
to test the two systems anymore (that we understand them perfectly)
Reasoning thinking system needs effort, processing time, not unlimited, logical, rule
governed, requires a lot of time. ‘Humans make rational, well-informed decisions to
maximize utility.’
Intuition system: no effort, automatic, associative (coming up with a name you know),
similarity, contiguity, requires some time. Relates to nudging
Emotions are universally recognized, different emotions have different effects on consumer
behavior, we are conscious of how emotions influence our consumer behavior
Emotions are episodic, short-lived experiences and concern certain event/object ->
physiological reactions + facial expressions + cognitive evaluations + subjective feeling states.
Emotions are in between intuition and reasoning
Exemplars are the most typical/perfect example of a group, can also be applied with
emotion groups -> categories approach
Dimensions approach: active vs passive emotions and positive vs negative emotions
Cognitive appraisal approach: event -> cognitive appraisals (interpreted)-> emotion ->
response (behavior)
Relevant influence: emotions lead to behavior which has to do with the cause. Emotion is
related to behavior
