Discussion Questions

Chapter 9

1. Explain the difference between feedback from interpersonal communication and feedback from impersonal communication. How can the marketer obtain and use each kind of feedback? Feedback: Feedback is an essential component of both

interpersonal and impersonal communications. Generally, it is easier to obtain feedback (both verbal and nonverbal) from interpersonal communications than impersonal communications. For example, a good salesperson usually is alert to nonverbal feedback provided by consumer prospects. Such feedback may take the form of facial expressions.

Feedback- the receiver’s response

It is essential for the sender to obtain feedback as promptly and as accurately as possible. Only though feedback can the sender determines whether and how well the message has been received. An important advantage of interpersonal communication is the ability to obtain immediate feedback through verbal as well as nonverbal cues. Experienced speakers are very attentive to feedback and constantly modify their messages based on what they see and hear from the audience. Immediate feedback is the factor that makes personal selling so effective. Obtaining feedback is an important in impersonal (mass) communications as it is in interpersonal communications. Indeed, because of the high costs of advertising space ad time in mass media, many marketers consider impersonal communication feedback to be even more essential. Unlike interpersonal communications feedback, mass communications feedback is rarely direct; instead, it is usually inferred. Senders infer how persuasive their messages are from the resulting action (or inaction) of the targeted audience. Receivers buy or do not buy the advertised product; they renew or do not renew

their magazine subscriptions; they vote or do not vote for political candidate. Another type of feedback that companies seek from mass audiences is the degree of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a product purchase. They try to discover and correct any problems with the product in order to retain their brand’s image of reliability. For example: many companies have established 24-hour hot lines to encourage comments from their consumers and they also solicit consumer feedback through online contact. In evaluating the impact of their advertising, marketers must measure the persuasion effects and sales effects of their advertising messages. Unlike the interpersonal communications between, say, a retailer salesperson and a customer in which the feedback (e.g the customer’s purchase or non purchase) is immediate, impersonal communications feedback are much less timely. Therefore, the sales effects of mass communication are difficult to asses.

A marketer who plans to use a survey to assess the effectiveness of a communications campaign must take a similar survey prior to the campaign, in order to obtain “benchmark” figures against which to compare the campaign’s results. As in interpersonal communications, unfavorable feedback indicates that the communication campaign should be revised.

2. List and discuss the effects of psychological noise on the communication process. What strategies can a marketer use to overcome psychological noise?

Various “barriers” to communication may affect the accuracy with which consumers interpret messages which are:

Just as telephone static can impair reception of a message, so too cans psychological noise (E.g: competing advertising messages or distracting thoughts). A viewer faced with the clutter of nine successive commercial messages during a program break may actually receive and retain almost nothing of what he has seen. For example: a

student daydreaming about a Saturday night date may simple not hear a direct question by the professor. So there are various strategies that marketer’s use to overcome psychological noise:

- Repeated exposure to an advertising message (through repetition or redundancy of the advertising appeal) helps overcome psychological noise and facilitates message reception. Thus repeating an ad several times is a must. The principle of redundancy is seen in advertisements that use both illustrations and copy to emphasize the same points. To achieve more advertising redundancy, marketers place their messages in such places as video games, movie theaters, restrooms and so on.

- Copywriters often use contrast to break through the psychological noise ad advertising clutter. Contrast entails using features within the message itself to attract additional features. Such strategies include featuring unexpected outcome, increasing the amount of sensory input (such as color, sound).

- Broadcasters and marketers also use teasers to overcome noise. For example: Trivia quizzes show at the start of the commercial break to design the viewers in sticking with the channel in order to find out at the end of the break whether their own answers were right.

- Thanks to new technologies, marketers can place customized ads on such devices such as cell phones, they can get consumers to register for promotional messages and giveaways more easily, and engage consumers with the product before the sales pitch.

- The web provides marketers with more options. Online marketers can place ads that consumer’s PCs will automatically retrieve from the internet; in such formats as floater ads that sometimes replace the more commonly used pop-ads. For example: Pepsi have implemented campaign that run only online and that are more innovative and cheaper than TV advertisements.

The most effective way to ensure that a promotional message stands out and is received and decoded appropriately by the target audience is through effective positioning and a unique selling proposition.

. Thus, marketers must effectively position their products by communicating to consumers how these offerings meet their needs better than their competition. Many ads show how particular brands are related to particular lifestyles while trying to establish lasting brand images, which stand out within the advertising clutter and lead to brand loyalty on the part of consumers.

3. List and discuss the factors that affect the credibility of formal communication sources of product information. What factors influence the perceived credibility of an informal communications source?The credibility of the source affects the decoding of the message. The sponsors of the communication – and his or her perceived honesty and objectivity – have an enormous influence on how the communication is accepted by the receiver(s). When the source is well respected and highly thought by the intended audience, the message is likely to be believed. On the other hand, a message from a source is considered unreliable or untrustworthy is likely to be received with uncertainty and may be rejected. Credibility is built on a number of factors, of which the most important are the perceived intentions of the source.

Credibility of informal sourcesOne of the major reasons that informal sources such as friends, neighbors, and relatives have a strong influence on a receiver’s behavior is simply that they are perceived as having nothing to gain from a product transaction that they recommend. That is why word-of-mouth communication is so effective. Interestingly enough, informal communications sources, called opinion leaders, often do profit psychologically, if not tangibly, by providing product information to others. For example: A person may obtain a great deal of ego satisfaction by providing solicited as well as unsolicited information and advice to friends. This ego gratification may improve the quality of the information provided, because the opinion leader often seeks the latest detailed information in order to enhance his or her position as expert in a product category. The fact that the opinion leader does not receive material gain from the recommended action increases the possibility that the advice will be seriously considered. Marketers consider the word of mouth campaigns. Many firms sign up consumers to service as buzz agents, who agree to bring products they are promoting to gatherings of family and friend. These agents do not receive direct payment from the companies they represent, although they receive free samples. Marketers who initiate bad publicity online are called determined detractors. For example: The individual who ate nothing but McDonald’s food for thirty days and produced an extremely critical documentary about this company entitled Super Size Me.

Credibility of Formal SourcesNot-for-profit sources generally have more credibility than for profit (commercial) sources. Formal sources that are perceived to be “neutral” – such as Consumer Reports or newspaper articles – have greater credibility than commercial sources because of the perception that they are more objective in their product assessments.

Because consumer recognize that the intentions of commercial sources (E.g: manufacturers, service companies, financial institutions, retailers) are clearly profit oriented, they judge commercial source credibility on such factors as past performance, reputation, the kind and quality of service they are known to render, the quality and image of other products they manufacture. The ability of a quality image to invoke credibility is one of the reasons for the growth of family brands. Recognizing that a manufacture with a good reputation generally has high credibility among consumers, many companies spend a sizable part of their advertising budget on institutional advertising, which is designed to promote a favorable company image rather than to promote specific products. Also, many companies try to distinguish themselves and increase their credibility by being good corporate citizens. These firms often engage in cause-related marketing, where they contribute a portion of the revenues they receive from selling certain products to such causes as helping people inflicted with incurable diseases. For example: fashion designers such as Armani have donated a selected portion of their sales to AIDS research and other charities. To acknowledge National Brest Cancer Awareness, many cosmetic companies assigned a portion of the selling price of their pink ribbon products to breast cancer charities.

Credibility of Spokespersons and Endorsers

Consumers sometimes regard the spokesperson who gives the product message as the source (or initiator) of the message. Many studies have investigated the relationship between the effectiveness of the message and the spokesperson or endorser employed (that is male or female, a person who appear in a commercial that is why there are celebrities in the ads to promote the product). Here are some of the key findings of this body of research:- The effectiveness of the spokesperson is related to the message itself. For example: when message comprehension is low, receivers rely on

spokesperson’s credibility in forming attitudes toward the product, but when comprehension is high, the expertise of the spokesperson has less impact on a receiver’s attitudes.

- The synergy between the endorser and the type of product or service advertised is an important factor. For example: A study showed that attractiveness-related products such as cosmetics, an attractive celebrity spokesperson enhanced credibility and attitude toward the ad. However for attractiveness unrelated product such as a camera, an attractive endorser had little or no effect.

- Endorsers who have demographic characteristics (E.g.: age, social class, ad ethnicity) that are similar to those of the target audience are viewed as more credible and persuasive than those that do not.

- The endorser’s credibility is not a substitute for corporate credibility; one study discovered that although the endorser’s credibility strongly impacted the audience’s attitudes toward the ad, the perceived corporate credibility had a strong impact on attitudes toward the advertised brand.

- Marketers who use celebrities to give testimonials or endorse products must be sure that the specific wording of the endorsement lies within the recognized competence of the spokesperson. For example: A tennis star can endorse a brand of analgesic with comments about how it relieves sore muscle pain; however, a recitation of medical evidence supporting the brand’s superiority over other brands is beyond his or her expected knowledge, and thus may reduce message credibility.

4. What are the implications of the sleeper effect for the selection of spokespersons and the scheduling of advertising messages?High credibility source is more powerful than low credibility source; however both positive and negative credibility effect that tends to disappear after six weeks or so. This has been termed the sleeper effect. Consumers forget the source of the message faster than they forget the message itself. The sleeper effect is caused by disassociation (the consumer disassociates the message from its source) over time, leaving just the message content. The theory differential decay suggests that the memory of a negative cue (for example: a low credibility source) decays faster than the message itself, leaving behind the primary message content. Howeve4r, the reintroduction of the similar message by the source serves to jog the audience’s memory, and the original effect remanifests itself, that is the high credibility source remains more persuasive than the low credibility source. The implication for marketers who use high credibility spokespersons is that they must repeat the same serious of ads in order to maintain high level of persuasiveness. The sleeper effect supports the use of negative attack advertising in political campaigns. The results of applying the sleeper effect to political advertising showed the effectiveness of the attack ad increases considerably over a period of weeks, while the audience’s initial negative perception of the political assailant as having low credibility fades and has only a temporary negative impact on the ad. However, the logic must not be extended to advertising and marketers must not assume that consumers who become aware of a brand through a loud and invasive ad campaign will continue to remember the brand favorably and forget the negative experience of watching ads that made them aware of the brand.

6. For what kinds of audiences would you consider using comparative advertising? WHY?

Comparative advertising

Comparative advertising is a widely used marketing strategy in which a marketer claims product superiority for its brand over one or more explicitly named or implicitly identified competitors, either on an overall basis or on selected product attributed. Comparative advertising is useful for product positioning, for target market selection, and for brand positioning strategies. Comparative advertising, which occurs when a "company directly or indirectly compares its brand with one or more other brands. An example of comparative advertising is this T-Mobile commercial. Although it does not make many comparisons with its competitors, it does tells customers that they can have a cell phone plan that is half the price of AT&T and Verizon. The company singled out its competitors and explicitly stated that T-Mobile is less expensive.

Although this type of advertising can be beneficial because it provides an opportunity for companies to tell customers why their products or services are superior, it also must be used with caution. As many of us have seen with the countless commercials that AT&T and Verizon have created to take stabs at the other company, it is clear that choosing this tactic may open a can of worms, leading to the competitor fighting back even harder to prove its superiority.

FearFear is an effective appeal used in marketing communications. Some researchers have found a negative relationship between the intensity of fear appeals and their ability to persuade, so that strong fear appeals tend to be less effective than mild fear appeals. Strong fear appeals concerning a highly relevant topic (such as cigarette smoking) cause the individual to experience cognitive dissonance, which is resolved either by rejecting the practice

or by rejecting the unwelcome information. Marketers must also consider that the mention of possible detrimental effects of using a product while proclaiming its benefits may result in negative attitudes towards the product itself.

HumorMany marketers use humorous appeals in the belief that humor will increase the acceptance and persuasiveness of their advertising communications.Impact of Humor on Advertising:

- Humor attracts attention.- Humor does not harm comprehension.- Humor is not more effective at increasing

persuasion.- Humor does not enhance source credibility.- Humor enhances liking.- Humor that is relevant to the product is superior to

humor that is unrelated to the product.- Audience demographic factors affect the response

to humorous advertising appeals.- The nature of the product affects the

appropriateness of a humorous treatment.- Humor is more effective with existing products

than with new products.- Humor is more appropriate for low-involvement

products and feeling-oriented products than for high-involvement products.

Abrasive Advertising

Studies of the sleeper effect, suggest that that memory of an unpleasant commercial that antagonizes listeners or viewers may dissipate over time, leaving only the brand name in the minds of consumers. All of us have at one time or another been repelled by so-called agony commercials. The Sleeper Affect The idea that both positive and negative credibility effects tend to disappear after a period of time.

Sex in advertising

In our highly permissive society, sensual advertising seems to permeate the print media and the airwaves. Advertisers are increasingly trying to provoke attention with suggestive illustrations, crude language, and nudity in their efforts to appear “hip” and contemporary.

Audience ParticipationThe provision of feedback changes the communications process from one way to two way communication. This is important to senders because it enables them to determine whether and how well communication has taken place. But feedback also is important to receivers because it enables then to participate, to be involved, to experience in some way the message itself.

Chapter 121. Distinguish among beliefs, values, and customs.

Illustrate how the clothing a person wears at different times or different occasions is influenced by customs.

What is culture?

Culture the sum total of learned beliefs, values, and customs that serve to regulate the consumer behavior of members of a particular society. The belief and value components of the definition refer to the accumulated feelings and priorities that individuals have about ‘things’ and possessions. Beliefs consist of a large number of mental or verbal statements that reflect a person’s knowledge and assessment of something (another person, a store, a product). Values are beliefs. Values differ from other beliefs, because they meet the following criteria: (1) - they are few in number. (2)- They serve as a guide for culturally appropriate behavior. (3)- They are enduring or difficult to

change. (4)- They are not tied to specific objects or situations. (5)- They are widely accepted by the members of a society. Therefore, both beliefs and values are mental images that affect a wide range of specific attitudes that influence a way a person is likely to respond in a specific situation. For example: The criteria a person uses to evaluate alterative brands in a product category (such as Samsung versus Panasonic HD TV sets), or his or her eventual preference for one of these brands over the other are influenced by both a person’s general values (perceptions as to what constitutes quality and the meaning of country of origin) and specific benefits (particular perceptions about the quality of South-Korean made versus Japanese-made televisions). Customs are obvious modes of behavior that comprise culturally approved or acceptable ways of behaving in specific situations. Customs consist of everyday or routine behavior. For example: a consumer’s routine behavior, such as adding a diet sweetener to coffee, putting ketchup on scrambled eggs, and having a pasta dish before rather than with the main course of a meal, are customers. Whereas, beliefs and values are guides for behavior, customs are usual and acceptable ways of behaving. Culture has provide insights as to suitable dress for specific occasions, what to wear to school, work and in friends party. Dress codes have shifted severely; people are dressing more casually most of the time. Only a few big city restaurants have business dress requirements. With the relaxed dress code in the corporate work environment, fewer men are wearing dress shirts, ties, and business suits, and fewer women are wearing dresses, suits, and panty hose. In their place casual slacks, sport shirts and blouses, jeans, and the emerging category of ‘dress casual’ have been increasing in sales. By our definition, it is easy to see how an understanding of various cultures of a society helps marketers predict consumer acceptance of their products.

Chapter 16

1. Compare and contrast the economic, passive, cognitive, and emotional models of consumer decision making.

The term models of consumers refer to a general view or perspective as to how and why individuals behave as they do. Four views will be examined:

An economic view: The consumer has often been characterized as making rational decisions. This model, called the economic man theory, has been criticized by consumer researchers for a number of reasons. To behave rationally in the economic sense, a consumer would have to:- Be aware of all available product alternatives.- Be capable of correctly ranking each alternative in

terms of its benefits and its disadvantages.- Be able to identify the one best alternative.

Consumers rarely have all of the information or sufficiently accurate information to make the so called perfect decision. The classical economical model of an all-rational consumer is unrealistic for the following reasons:

- People are limited by their existing skills, habits, and reflexes.

- People are limited by their existing values and goals.- People are limited by the extent of their knowledge.

The consumer is unwilling to engage in extensive decision making activities and will settle for a satisfactory decision, one that is good enough. Because of this, the economic model is often rejected as too idealistic and simplistic. For example: Consumer’s primary motivation for price haggling, which was long thought to be the desire to obtain a better price may instead be related to the need for achievement and dominance.

A passive view: It is opposite to the rational economic view is the view of the consumer as basically submissive to the self-serving interests and promotional efforts of marketers (which is known as the passive view). Consumers are perceived as impulsive and irrational purchasers, ready to yield to the arms and aims of marketers. The principal limitation of this model is that it fails to recognize that the consumer plays an equal, if not dominant, role in many buying situations by seeking information about product alternatives and selecting the product that appears to offer the greatest satisfaction and by impulsively selecting a product that satisfies a the mood or emotion of the moment. Therefore, this view is unrealistic.

A cognitive view: This view portrays the consumer as a thinking problem solver. Consumers are either receptive to or actively searching for products and services that fulfill their needs and improve their lives. The cognitive model focuses on the processes by which consumers seek and evaluate information about

selected brands and retail outlets. Consumers are viewed as information processors, and this leads to the formulation of preferences, and ultimately, purchase intentions. In contrast to the economic view, this view recognizes that the consumer is unlikely to seek all possible information, but will only seek information until he/she has what is perceived as sufficient information to make a satisfactory decision. Consumers are presumed to use heuristics—short-cut decision rules to facilitate decision making. They also use decision rules when exposed to too much information—information overload. This model depicts a consumer who does not have complete knowledge, and therefore cannot make perfect decisions, but who actively seeks information and attempts to make satisfactory decisions. Consistent with the problem solving view is that a great deal of consumer behavior is goal directed. For example: A consumer might purchase a computer in order to manage finances. Goal setting is very important when it comes to the adoption of new products because the greater the degree of newness, the more difficult it would be for the consumer to evaluate the product and relate it to his or her need because of a lack of experience with the product.

An emotional view: Although long aware of the emotional or impulsive side of consumer decision making, marketers frequently prefer the economic or passive models. In reality, each of us associates with certain purchases or possession, deep feelings or emotions such as joy, fear, love, hop, sexuality, and fantasy are likely to be highly involved. For example: A person who misplaces his fountain pen might go to great lengths to look for it, despite the fact

that he or she has six others at hand. Possessions may also serve to preserve a sense of the past and help with transitions in times of change. For example: members of the armed forces invariably carry photographs of the “girl (or guy) back home,” their families and their lives in earlier time. These memorabilia frequently serve as hopeful reminders that normal activities will someday resume. When a consumer makes what is basically an emotional purchase decision, less emphasis tends to be placed on searching for pre-purchase information and more on the current mood or feelings. Unlike an emotion, which is a response to a particular environment, a mood is more typically an unfocused, pre-existing state—already present at the time a consumer “experiences” an advertisement, a retail environment, a brand, or a product. Mood is important to consumer decision making in that it impacts when consumers shop, where they shop, and whether they shop alone or with others.- Some retailers attempt to create a mood for

shoppers.- Individuals in a positive mood recall more

information about a product than those in a negative mood.

2. How do consumers reduce postpurchase dissonance? How can marketers provide positive reinforcement to consumers after the purchase to reduce their dissonance?

As consumers use a product, they evaluate its performance in light of their own expectations.

There are three possible outcomes of these evaluation:1. Actual performance matches the expectations,

leading to a neutral feeling.2. Positive disconfirmation when the performance

exceeds the expectations, leading to satisfaction.

3. Negative disconfirmation when the performance is below the expectation, leading to dissatisfaction.

For these three outcomes, consumer’s expectations and satisfaction are closely linked, that is consumers tend to judge their experience against their expectations when performing a postpurchase evaluation. An important component of the postpurchase evaluation is the reduction of any uncertainty or doubt that the consumer might have had about the selection. As part of their postpurchase analyses, consumers try to reduce postpurchase cognitive dissonance, when they try to reassure themselves that their choice was a wise one. They may rationalize the decisions as being wise, they may seek advertisements that support their choice and avoid those competitive brands, they may attempt to persuade friends or neighbors to buy the same brand (by confirming their choice), and they may turn to other satisfied owners for encouragement. The degree of postpurchase analysis that the consumer undertake depends on the importance of the product decision and the experience acquired in using the product:

- If the product lives up to expectations, the consumers will buy it again.

- If the product’s performance is disappointing or does not meet expectations, the consumers will search for another alternative.

Therefore, the consumer’s postpurchase evaluation “feeds back” as experience to the consumer’s psychological field and serves to influence future related decisions.

Marketing strategies to reduce postpurchase dissonance include: (a) ads which reassure buyers that they made the right choice; (b) reassuring messages and text within the instruction manuals; (c) extensive warranties, guarantees, and service; (d) a mechanism to obtain further information about the product (e.g., an 800 number, a corporate service center); (e) postpurchase contacts with buyers by mail or phone (e.g., a “welcome back” postcard mailed by a travel agent to a client returning from a vacation that was arranged by the same travel agent).

How can a marketer of very light, very powerful laptop computers use its knowledge of customers’ expectations in designing a marketing strategy?

The marketer should be aware of what the consumer expects from the laptop computer because if the product fails to operate as the consumer expects it to, he or she might return it, not buy products under that brand name again, and spread unfavorable word-of-mouth about the company. The promotion for the computer must not build up unrealistic expectations about the product by promising, for example, an easy-to-use product (because virtually all personal computers are complex products and users must spend a considerable amount of time learning how to operate them properly). The positioning approach used must be designed to deliver benefits that are congruent with those consumer needs and expectations uncovered by research studies.