Download m5zn_5636e0673b2b424

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 sources
One 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 Sources
Not-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 causerelated 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.
 Fear
Fear 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.
 Humor
Many 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 highinvolvement 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 Participation
The 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 12
1. 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.