Consumer Psychology
Lecture 1: Introduction
Consumer Behavior = a psychologically based study of how individuals make buying
decisions and what motivates them to make a purchase.
- How does a consumer feel about certain brands, products or services?
- What motivates a consumer to pick one product over another, and why?
- What factors in a consumer’s everyday environment affect buying decisions or brand
perceptions, and why?
What drives the consumption decisions?
Beliefs/Financial Resources/Emotions/Psychological states/Environment
Choice overload
The paradox of choice: Does having a lot of options to choose from make us happy?
- People dislike when the number of choices is low
- More choice is better to the happiness of the customer
- Too much choice is less (choice overload)
Choice overload refers to a cognitive process in which people have a difficult time making a
decision when faced with many options. Why?
1. Stressful/difficult to determine which option is best for you
2. Feel sorrow about the opportunities that we forego
3. Not clear which option is best for you > start getting regrets
When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing? (Iyengar &
Lepper, 2000)
To establish whether you should provide the consumer with more or less options?
Study
- Field study (supermarket), but difficult to eliminate environment factors
- Research assistants were dressed as employees
- The tasting booth has 6 or 24 options of jams
- Observer noted how many options were bought & interested in (DV)
- Interested shoppers received a redeemable coupon
- Changed manipulation every hour to balance the outcomes
,Results
More options are more attractive (coupons)
Less options are sold more
o Further research: more students completed their essay & the quality was
better when less options were given (6 options) instead of more options given
(30 topics)
Strength = real life reflection, less likelihood of demand characteristics affecting the results
Limitation = less control over extraneous variables that might bias the results, not repeatable
When Are Consumers Most Likely to Feel Overwhelmed by Their Options? (Chernev,
Böckenholt & Goodman, 2015)
1. Choice-set complexity: When the product is complex (fewer choices help the
consumer make a decision)
2. Decision-task difficulty: When people do not have the time and want to make a quick
and easy choice
3. Preference uncertainty: When you do not have any prior information
4. Decision goal: When the goal is to purchase as opposed to browse
Marketeers can help the customer to recommend a product, making categories (smart
navigation), offering filters, compare boxes, quizzes, etc.
Choice overload leads to…
1. Subjective state (choice satisfaction, decision regret, decision confidence)
2. Behavioral outcome (choice deferral, switching likelihood, assortment choice, option
selection)
Choice overload can leave you dissatisfies with the choice you made = buyer’s remorse.
Or it can lead to behavioral paralysis = a situation where people are faced with so many
choices that they can’t decide among them and make no choice at all.
(Chernev, Böckenholt & Goodman, 2015)
, Lecture 2: The Self in the Marketplace
How our self-concept/identity, beliefs, and fundamental psychological needs define and
drive our consumption behavior.
1) Understanding the self-concept
2) How elements of the self-concept drive consumer behavior: political and religious
ideologies and cultural determinants of the self
3) Understanding how you can apply this knowledge as marketers
Self-concept = our individual perceptions of our behavior, identities, abilities, beliefs and
unique characteristics / a mental picture of who you are as a person. Self-concept is…
- The overall idea we have about who we are and includes cognitive and effective
judgments about ourselves
- Multi-dimensional (e.g. social/religious/political/physical/spiritual)
- Learned, not inherent
- Influenced by biological and environmental factors (including social interaction)
- Develops through childhood and early adulthood
- Can be changed in later years
- Does not always align with reality
The Political Self
Better or Different? How Political Ideology Shapes Preferences for Differentiation in the
Social Hierarchy (Ordabayeva & Fernandess, 2018)
Investigate the extent to which political ideology (liberalism vs conservative) influences
consumers desires to differentiate vertically (“I am better”) or horizontally (“I am different”)
through consumption.
Theory
Liberal (peace/protection/harmony/equality)
VS
Conservative (security/power/economical/achievement/competition/hierarchy)
Conceptual model
Lecture 1: Introduction
Consumer Behavior = a psychologically based study of how individuals make buying
decisions and what motivates them to make a purchase.
- How does a consumer feel about certain brands, products or services?
- What motivates a consumer to pick one product over another, and why?
- What factors in a consumer’s everyday environment affect buying decisions or brand
perceptions, and why?
What drives the consumption decisions?
Beliefs/Financial Resources/Emotions/Psychological states/Environment
Choice overload
The paradox of choice: Does having a lot of options to choose from make us happy?
- People dislike when the number of choices is low
- More choice is better to the happiness of the customer
- Too much choice is less (choice overload)
Choice overload refers to a cognitive process in which people have a difficult time making a
decision when faced with many options. Why?
1. Stressful/difficult to determine which option is best for you
2. Feel sorrow about the opportunities that we forego
3. Not clear which option is best for you > start getting regrets
When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing? (Iyengar &
Lepper, 2000)
To establish whether you should provide the consumer with more or less options?
Study
- Field study (supermarket), but difficult to eliminate environment factors
- Research assistants were dressed as employees
- The tasting booth has 6 or 24 options of jams
- Observer noted how many options were bought & interested in (DV)
- Interested shoppers received a redeemable coupon
- Changed manipulation every hour to balance the outcomes
,Results
More options are more attractive (coupons)
Less options are sold more
o Further research: more students completed their essay & the quality was
better when less options were given (6 options) instead of more options given
(30 topics)
Strength = real life reflection, less likelihood of demand characteristics affecting the results
Limitation = less control over extraneous variables that might bias the results, not repeatable
When Are Consumers Most Likely to Feel Overwhelmed by Their Options? (Chernev,
Böckenholt & Goodman, 2015)
1. Choice-set complexity: When the product is complex (fewer choices help the
consumer make a decision)
2. Decision-task difficulty: When people do not have the time and want to make a quick
and easy choice
3. Preference uncertainty: When you do not have any prior information
4. Decision goal: When the goal is to purchase as opposed to browse
Marketeers can help the customer to recommend a product, making categories (smart
navigation), offering filters, compare boxes, quizzes, etc.
Choice overload leads to…
1. Subjective state (choice satisfaction, decision regret, decision confidence)
2. Behavioral outcome (choice deferral, switching likelihood, assortment choice, option
selection)
Choice overload can leave you dissatisfies with the choice you made = buyer’s remorse.
Or it can lead to behavioral paralysis = a situation where people are faced with so many
choices that they can’t decide among them and make no choice at all.
(Chernev, Böckenholt & Goodman, 2015)
, Lecture 2: The Self in the Marketplace
How our self-concept/identity, beliefs, and fundamental psychological needs define and
drive our consumption behavior.
1) Understanding the self-concept
2) How elements of the self-concept drive consumer behavior: political and religious
ideologies and cultural determinants of the self
3) Understanding how you can apply this knowledge as marketers
Self-concept = our individual perceptions of our behavior, identities, abilities, beliefs and
unique characteristics / a mental picture of who you are as a person. Self-concept is…
- The overall idea we have about who we are and includes cognitive and effective
judgments about ourselves
- Multi-dimensional (e.g. social/religious/political/physical/spiritual)
- Learned, not inherent
- Influenced by biological and environmental factors (including social interaction)
- Develops through childhood and early adulthood
- Can be changed in later years
- Does not always align with reality
The Political Self
Better or Different? How Political Ideology Shapes Preferences for Differentiation in the
Social Hierarchy (Ordabayeva & Fernandess, 2018)
Investigate the extent to which political ideology (liberalism vs conservative) influences
consumers desires to differentiate vertically (“I am better”) or horizontally (“I am different”)
through consumption.
Theory
Liberal (peace/protection/harmony/equality)
VS
Conservative (security/power/economical/achievement/competition/hierarchy)
Conceptual model
