Download COURSE SYLLABUS

COURSE SYLLABUS
for
CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY
Fred J. Thumin, PhD
Phone: (314) 991-2414
e-mail: [email protected]
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course examines consumer preferences and purchasing decisions in relation to
psychological needs, sociological and multicultural influences, economic considerations
and advertising impact. We will study the roles of attention, perception, emotion, learning
and cognition in attitude formation, change, and ultimately in consumer choices. The
marketing concepts of segmentation, product positioning, brand image and brand loyalty
are examined, as well as ethical considerations pertaining to product quality and safety, and
to the advertising message. We will also examine consumer research methodology,
including questionnaire design, sampling and surveys, focus groups, unobtrusive
observations, physiological measures, and recall/recognition techniques.
A BRIEF PREVIEW OF STUDENT CHALLENGES
A)
B)
C)
D)
Can you taste the difference between various brands of coffee, beer, cola beverage?
Can you reach a class consensus on the appropriate use of sex in advertising?
Can you relate your personality traits to your purchasing decisions?
To what extent are your purchasing decisions influenced by others (family, friends,
peers, favorite celebrities, group memberships)?
E) Is subliminal advertising ethical, legitimate, truly effective?
F) In, say, 10 years, how will your lifestyle be different from that of your parents?
G) What, if any, concerns do you have about the ethics of advertising to children?
PREREQUISITE
Introduction to Psychology (or permission of Instructor).
REQUIRED TEXTBOOK
To be specified.
INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH
A variety of instructional methods will be used, including lecture, discussion, case studies,
power point, audiovisual presentations, classroom exercises, and readings.
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DETERMINATION OF COURSE GRADES
Course grades will be based on: A) Three classroom tests (including the final exam), B) A
student paper and/or a classroom presentation based on an assigned topic, C) Class
attendance and participation. Points will be assigned as follows:
Three classroom tests……………………………………..300
Student paper and/or class presentation…………………..150
Class attendance and participation……………………….. 50
Total points……………………500
Tests will be a combination of discussion questions and multiple choice questions. Course
grades will be based, essentially, on an absolute standard (i.e., 90-100% = A, 80-89% = B,
etc.), but class average will also be taken into account.
COURSE OUTLINE
I. Consumer Behavior & Marketing Strategy (overview)
A)
Market analysis components
1. The consumers
2. The company
3. The competitors
4. The conditions
B)
Market segmentation
1. Product-related need sets
2. Customers with similar need sets
C)
Marketing strategy (the marketing mix)
1. The product itself
2. Product pricing
3. Marketing communications
4. Product distribution
5. Customer service
D)
Outcomes
1. From the firms’ perspective
2. From the customer’s perspective
3. From society’s perspective
E)
The nature of consumer behavior (overview)
1. External influences
2. Internal influences
3. Self-concept & lifestyle
4. The decision process
II. Cross-cultural variations in values
A)
Other-oriented values
1. Masculine vs. feminine
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B)
C)
2. Cooperation vs. competition
3. Diversity vs. uniformity (homogeneity)
Environment-oriented values
1. Attitudes toward cleanliness
2. Performance (merit) vs. status
3. Risk-taking vs. security
4. Problem-solving vs. fatalism (locus of control)
5. Perception of time and space
Self-oriented values
1. Materialistic vs. nonmaterialistic
2. Achievement vs. leisure-oriented
3. Delayed vs. immediate gratification
III.
Changing American Values & Marketing Considerations
A)
Cause-related marketing (e.g., green marketing)
B)
Gender-based marketing
C)
Ethnic & race based marketing
D)
Marketing to gay & lesbian consumers
IV.
The Changing American Society
A)
Demographics
1. Population size & distribution
2. Changes in age, education, occupation & income
B)
Understanding American Generations
1. Pre-depression & depression generations
2. Baby boom generation
3. Generations X and Y
4. The Millennials
C)
Social structure in the U.S.
V.
Families & Households
A)
Types of Households
1. Family & nonfamily households
2. Blended households
3. Traditional families
B)
Family decision making
1. Influencers
2. Initiators
3. Information gatherers
4. Decision makers
5. Purchasers
6. Users
C)
Consumer socialization
D)
Marketing to children
VI.
Group Influences on Consumer Behavior
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A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
VII.
Types of Groups
1. Primary & secondary groups
2. Disassociative & aspiration reference groups
Consumption subcultures & brand communities
Reference group influences
1. Informational influence
2. Normative influence
3. Identification influences
Opinion leader characteristics
Diffusion of innovations
Attending and Perceiving
A)
Selective attention (zip, zap and mute)
B)
Types of attention
1. Involuntary (reflexive)
2. Voluntary (Conscious effort)
3. Nonvoluntary ( habitual)
4. Nonfocused (unconscious, subliminal)
C)
Stimulus factors influencing attention
1. Size & intensity
2. Color & movement
3. Format & information quantity
4. Isolation & contrast
D)
Individual factors influencing attention
1. Level of interest
2. Psychological & physiological needs
E)
The arousal of meaning/interpretation
1. Semantic vs. psychological meaning
2. Individual characteristics (learning & expectations)
3. Situational characteristics (contextual priming effects)
4. Stimulus characteristics (e.g., price, package size)
F)
Perception & marketing strategy
1. Brand name, logo & package design
2. Media strategy & advertisements
3. Warning labels & disclaimers
G)
Advertising evaluation
1. Exposure
2. Attention
3. Interpretation
4. Memory
VIII. Learning, Memory & Product Positioning
A)
Types & characteristics of learning
1. Classical & operant conditioning
2. Cognitive learning (iconic rote, vicarious, reasoning)
B)
Strength of learning as related to:
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C)
D)
1. Importance of the message
2. Degree of involvement with the message
3. The positive (or negative) mood of the consumer
4. Level of positive (or negative) reinforcement
5. Level of message repetition
6. Ability of message to create images/mental pictures
Memory and forgetting
1. Short & long-term memory
2. Elaborative activities & maintenance rehearsal
3. Imagery, concepts and scheme
Brand images & product positioning
1. Perceptual mapping
2. Product positioning and repositioning
3. Brand equity and brand leverage
IX.
Motivation, Personality and Emotion
A)
Motivation theory & marketing strategy
1. Identifying consumer needs and purchase-motives
2. Manifest vs. latent motivation
3. Need fulfillment vs. need creation
4. Helping consumers resolve motivational conflict
B)
Single & multitrait theories of personality
1. Single trait (e.g., Locus of Control, Type “A” Personality)
2. Multitrait (16 PF, The “Big Five”)
C)
Self-concept, self-esteem & self efficacy
D)
Assessing consumer needs & personality traits
E)
Matching brand personality to consumer personality
F)
Selecting appropriate media & retail outlets
H)
The role of emotion in advertising
1. Emotion dimensions: pleasure, arousal & dominance
2. Emotion arousal & emotion reduction
3. Emotional involvement & consumer decisions
X.
The Role of Attitude in Consumer Behavior
A)
B)
Attitudinal components (cognitive, affective, behavioral)
Characteristics of consumer attitudes
1. Availability (Is it stored in memory?)
2. Accessibility (Can it be retrieved & expressed?)
3. Strength (Has it the power to influence behavior?)
4. Construction (Is it based on fact or fancy?)
C)
The five functions of attitude
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Knowledge (helps organize & simplify)
Utility (helps seek rewards, avoid punishment)
Value-expression (means for expressing personal values)
Ego-defense (defends against threats to self-concept)
Social adjustment (facilitates social relationships)
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D)
E)
Attitude change strategies
1. Modifying the basic elements
2. Communication characteristics
a) Source credibility
b) Emotion, fear, humor
c) Comparative advertising
d) Benefit segmentation & product development
Measuring consumer attitudes
1. Surveys
2. Scaling techniques
3. Focus groups
4. Projective methods
XI.
Self-Concept & Lifestyle
A)
The meaning of self-concept
1. Actual vs. ideal self-concept
2. Private vs. social self-concept
3. Independent vs. interdependent self-concept
B)
Possessions & the extended self
C)
Self-concept & marketing strategy
1. Measuring self-concept
2. Using self-concept to position products
3. Marketing ethics & the self-concept
D)
The nature of lifestyle
1. Measurement of lifestyle (psychographics)
2. The VALS Lifestyle System
XII.
Consumer Decision Processes
A)
Simple strategies for marketing decisions
1.
2.
3.
4.
B)
C)
Brand familiarity & brand loyalty
Price-related strategies
Country of origin
Avoiding regret
Consumer judgments (affective models)
1. Anchor & adjust process
2. Heuristics (simulation, availability, representation)
Factors influencing consumer decisions
1. The situation influence
a) Communication
b) Purchase, usage & disposal
2. Situational characteristics
a) Physical features (surroundings, atmosphere)
b) Social surroundings (with spouse, a date, friends)
c) Temporal perspectives (time constraints)
d) Task definition (consumption objective)
e) Antecedent states (mood, fatigue)
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XIII. Consumer Decisions & Problem Recognition
A)
Types of consumer decisions
1. Nominal decision making (gasoline)
2. Limited decision making (dinner wine, movie)
3. Extended decision (homes, PCs, spouses)
B)
The nature of problem recognition
1. Discrepancy between actual & desired states
2. Types of consumer problems
a) Active problems (aware)
b) Inactive problems (unaware)
3. Uncontrollable determinants
C)
Discovering consumer problems
D)
1. Analysis of the activity, the product, the problem
2. Human factors research/emotion research
Revealing vs. suppressing problem recognition
XIV. The Information Search
A)
Nature of information search
1. Internal search (e.g., personal experience)
2. External search (e.g., independent groups)
B)
Types of information sought
1. Evaluation criteria (What do I want in a car?)
2. Identifying appropriate alternatives
a) Awareness & evoked sets
b) Inert & inept sets
C)
Sources of information
1. Memory of past searches & experiences
2. Personal sources
3. Independent sources
4. Marketing sources
5. Experiential sources
D)
Information search on the Internet
E)
Costs vs. benefits of external search
1. Expected product benefits (e.g., financial)
2. Perceived costs (e.g. time, effort)
XV. Alternative Evaluation & Choice
A)
B)
Types of choices
1. Affective (holistic)
2. Attitude-based
3. Attribute based
Consumer decision models
1. Economic models
a) Expected Utility Theory
b) Prospect Theory
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c) Bounded Rationality (“Satisficing”)
2. Cognitive models (noncompensatory)
a) Conjunctive
b) Disjunctive
c) Elimination by aspects
d) Lexicographics
3. Cognitive Models (compensatory)
a) Theory of Reasoned Reaction (TORA)
b) Multiple regression
XVI. Outlet Selection & Purchase
A) Attributes affecting retail outlet selection
1. Store image (e.g., Neiman-Marcus, J.C. Penney)
2. Brands carried
a) Store brands only (e.g., Victoria’s Secret)
b) Manufacturers’ brands or both (e.g., Dierbergs)
3. Retail advertising
D) Consumer characteristics & outlet choice
1. Perceived risk
a) Social
b) Economic
2. Shopping orientation (types of shoppers)
a) Chameleons
b) Collectors/gatherers
c) Foragers
d) Hibernates
e) Predators
f) Scavengers
XVII. Postpurchase Processes & Customer Satisfaction
A)
B)
C)
Factors influencing postpurchase dissonance
1. Degree of commitment of irrevocability of the decision
2. Importance of the decision to the consumer
3. Difficulty of choosing among the alternatives
4. The individual’s tendency to experience anxiety
Range of postpurchase consumer behavior
1. Committed customers
4. Brand switching
5. Discontinued use of product
Customer satisfaction
1. Expectation, performance & satisfaction
. Dimensions of performance
a) Instrumental (e.g., durability, reliability)
b) Symbolic (e.g., aesthetics, style)
c) Affective (e.g., an emotion-provoking movie)
2. Degrees of dissatisfaction
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XVIII. Marketing Regulation & Consumer Behavior
A)
Regulation & marketing to children
1. Children’s Advertising Review-Unit (CARU)
2. Children’s inability to understand selling intent
3. Understanding the words (e.g., “Batteries not included”)
4. Effects of message content (e.g., Calvin Klein, Jackass)
B)
Controversial issues
1. Movies, videos & music
2. Kids’ Clubs
3. Advertising in the classroom
C)
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
D)
Regulation & marketing to adults
1. Advertising & values (sex, violence & narcissism)
2. Information accuracy (puffery, exaggeration)
3. Adequacy of information
a) Federal Truth-in-Lending Legislation
b) Product safety (e.g., drugs & warnings)
c) Full-disclosure & information overload
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY POLICY
 Disability Resource Center
Washington University is committed to providing accommodations and/or
services to students with documented disabilities. Students who are seeking
support for a disability or a suspected disability should contact the Disability
Resource Center (DRC) at 5-4062,[email protected]. The DRC is located
in Gregg Hall. The DRC is responsible for approving and arranging all
accommodations for University students. All information is treated as
confidential.
 Academic Integrity
Academic honesty is at the core of Washington University’s mission of
research, teaching and learning. All students are expected to adhere to high
standards of academic integrity. That means that all work presented as
original must, if fact, be original, and the ideas and contributions of others
must always be appropriately acknowledged. If you have any doubts or
questions about citations or documentation of others’ work, don’t guess,
please ask me. Plagiarism, copying from other students, and other forms of
cheating will not be tolerated. Violations of standard rules of academic
integrity will be reported to the Dean and may lead to disciplinary action
which could result in expulsion from the University.
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