1. DA010 - Professional Diploma in Public Relations - COMM6026EP
Marketing Public Relations: Principles and
Practice (2012/01)
Lecture 3
Consumer Psychology
Developed and Presented by
Roy Ying, Msc., B.Comm.
Note: Pictures used in this power point file
is for academic Purpose only 1

2. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
MARKETING
• The psychology of how consumers think, feel,
reason, and select between different alternatives
(e.g., brands, products, and retailers);
• The psychology of how the consumer is
influenced by his or her environment (e.g.,
culture, family, signs, media);
• The behavior of consumers while shopping or
making other marketing decisions;
• How marketers can adapt and improve their
marketing campaigns and marketing strategies
to more effectively reach the consumer.
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3. Definition
Consumer Behavior
• The study of individuals, groups, or
organizations, and the processes they use
to select, secure, use, and dispose of
products, services, experiences, or ideas
to satisfy needs, and the impacts that
these processes have on the consumer
and society.
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4. Let’s look at an example
• How marketers use consumer psychology
to increase sales…..
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5. How marketers use research?
• Again, it boils down to the 4 Ps:
– Product development
– Pricing strategy
– (Place) Distribution network, channels,
packaging and product display
– Promotional mix, image communications and
sales activities
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6. Research Tool - Surveys
• Surveys are useful for getting a great deal of specific
information.
• Surveys can contain open-ended questions (e.g., “In
which city and state were you born? ____________”) or
closed-ended, where the respondent is asked to select
answers from a brief list (e.g., “__Male ___ Female.”)
• Open ended questions have the advantage that the
respondent is not limited to the options listed, and that
the respondent is not being influenced by seeing a list of
responses. However, open-ended questions are often
skipped by respondents, and coding them can be quite a
challenge.
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7. Research Tool - Surveys
• Surveys come in several different forms. Mail
surveys are relatively inexpensive, but response
rates are typically quite low.
• Phone-surveys get somewhat higher response
rates, but not many questions can be asked
because many answer options have to be
repeated and few people are willing to stay on
the phone for more than five minutes.
• Mall intercepts are a convenient way to reach
consumers, but respondents may be reluctant to
discuss anything sensitive face-to-face with an
interviewer.
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9. Online Surveys - Benefits
• The use of “conditional branching” which
allows the computer to skip directly to the
appropriate question.
• With the right database, it can be
inexpensive with potential scale across
different countries.
• It captures the respondent’s submission
page visit log including timing and location.
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10. Online Surveys - Drawbacks
• Data quality is always under scrutiny.
• It’sImpossible to get respondents to read
the questions carefully.
• The emergence of affiliate marketing
generated additional unqualified data.
• It cannot be too long so there is a limit to
the amount of data can be captured.
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11. Focus group
• Let’s see another example
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12. Research Tool – Focus Group
• Focus groups are useful when the marketer
wants to launch a new product or modify an
existing one.
• A focus group usually involves having some 8-
12 people come together in a room to discuss
their consumption preferences and
experiences.
• The group is usually led by a moderator, who
will start out talking broadly about topics related
broadly to the product without mentioning the
product itself.
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13. Research Tool – Focus Group
• By not mentioning the product up front, we
avoid biasing the participants into thinking
only in terms of the specific product
brought out.
• Thus, instead of having consumers think
primarily in terms of what might be good or
bad about the product, we can ask them to
discuss more broadly the ultimate benefits
they really seek.
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14. Research Tool – Focus Group
• Represent small sample sizes. Because of the
cost of running focus groups, only a few groups
can be run. Focus groups cannot give us a
good idea of:
– What proportion of the population is likely to buy the
product.
– What price consumers are willing to pay.
– The groups are inherently social. This means that:
• Consumers will often say things that may make them look
good even if that is not true.
• Consumers may be reluctant to speak about embarrassing
issues.
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16. Research Tool – Interviews
• Personal interviews involve in-depth questioning
of an individual about his or her interest in or
experiences with a product.
• The benefit here is that we can get really into
some depth (when the respondent says
something interesting, we can ask him or her to
elaborate), but this method of research is costly
and can be extremely vulnerable to interviewer
bias.
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17. Research Tool – Observation
• Or just watching how consumers do their
shopping…
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18. Research Tool – Scanner Data
• Most retail outlets use scanner or even
RFID sales / inventory system. Some
shopping malls even require tenants to
report sales figure on a daily basis.
• It is a very powerful tool as it measures the
consumer’s actual purchasing pattern.
• The trouble is that these data are often
proprietary 3rd party private information
that marketers have no access to.
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19. Class Discussion
• In a focus group, please generate
insights from participants on how
McDonald’s can improve their menu.
• Answers should include demographics of
your group, frequency of fast food
consumption and at least 5 improvement
suggestions on the menu.
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20. Application
• Marketing strategy
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21. Application
• Public Policy decisions
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22. Application
• Predicting trend
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23. Class Discussion
• Suppose you were to resurrect the good
old Pepsi challenge…
– Where would you pick your participants?
– How would you promote this?
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24. Factors in consumer decision
• Culture
• Group Influences
• Perception
• Learning and memories
• Attitude
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25. Culture
• Definition: the complex whole which
includes knowledge, belief, art, morals,
custom, and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by any person as a
member of society.
• Culture is part of the external influences
that impact the consumer.
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26. Cultural Characteristics
1. Culture is comprehensive. This means that all
parts must fit together in some logical fashion.
2. Culture is learned rather than being something
we are born with.
3. Culture is manifested within boundaries of
acceptable behavior.
4. Conscious awareness of cultural standards is
limited.
5. Cultures fall somewhere on a continuum
between static and dynamic depending on how
quickly they accept change.
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27. Examples
• In many parts of the world, the right hand is for eating,
drinking, and accepting anything. The left hand is used
only for bodily functions and is “unclean”.
• Evening social events usually start late (9 or 10pm) in
South America.
• Thais and Malaysians do not want to be touched on their
heads.
• In Arab world, Islam dominates every part of life. Wives
are not introduced and do not shake hands.
• Cows are sacred animals to Hindus….same goes for no
pork for Arabs.
• Don’t give flowers to Africans as gifts - this means
condolences.
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28. Group Influences
• Reference groups come with various degrees of
influence.
• Primary reference groups come with a great
deal of influence—e.g., members of a
fraternity/sorority.
• Secondary reference groups tend to have
somewhat less influence—e.g., members of a
boating club that one encounters only during
week-ends are likely to have their influence
limited to consumption during that time period.
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29. Perception
• Our perception is an approximation of
reality.
• Factors in perception
– Exposure
– Stimuli
– Attention
– Interpretation
– Relevance
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30. Learning and memories
• Learning involves "a change in the content
or organization of long term memory
and/or behavior." The first part of the
definition focuses on what we know (and
can thus put to use) while the second
focuses on concrete behavior.
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31. Operant conditioning
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32. Positive / Punishment
• In positive reinforcement, an individual does
something and is rewarded. He or she is then
more likely to repeat the behavior.
• Punishment is the opposite. You eat what looks
like a piece of candy (behavior), only to discover
that it is a piece of soap with a foul taste
(consequences), and subsequently you are less
likely to eat anything that looks remotely like that
thing ever again (changed behavior).
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33. Schedules of reinforcement
Examples:
• Fixed interval: The consumer is given a free dessert on
every Tuesday when he or she eats in a particular
restaurant.
• Fixed ratio: Behavior is rewarded (or punished) on every
nth occasion that it is performed. (E.g., every tenth time
a frequent shopper card is presented, a free product is
provided).
• Variable ratio: Every time an action is performed, there is
a certain percentage chance that a reward will be given.
For example, every time the consumer enters the store,
he or she is given a lottery ticket with a 10% chance of
winning.
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34. Attitude
• Consumer attitudes are a composite of a
consumer’s (1) beliefs about, (2) feelings
about, (3) and behavioral intentions toward
some object
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35. Attitude
• Changing attitudes is generally very
difficult, particularly when consumers
suspect that the marketer has a self-
serving agenda in bringing about this
change (e.g., to get the consumer to buy
more or to switch brands).
• But we can try changing other elements in
the consumer’s attitude
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36. Attitude Changing strategies
• One strategy uses the approach of
classical conditioning try to “pair” the
product with a liked stimulus.
DO YOU LIKE THE
INSURANCE, OR THE
SNOOPY?
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37. Attitude Changing strategies
• How to change buying behavior?
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38. Attitude Changing strategies
• Which message is clearer?
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39. Attitude Changing strategies
• Changing behavior
– Offer discount
– Temporary exhibit space
– Promotional activities
– Limited edition souvenirs
• Not a sustainable solution as these are
short term measures.
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40. Attitude Changing strategies
• Changing existing believes
– Although attempting to change beliefs is the
obvious way to attempt attitude change,
particularly when consumers hold unfavorable
or inaccurate ones, this is often difficult to
achieve because consumers tend to
resist. So don’t bother.
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41. Attitude Changing strategies
• Change the importance of beliefs.
– It may be possible to strengthen beliefs that
favor us--e.g., a vitamin supplement
manufacturer may advertise that it is
extremely important for women to replace iron
lost through menstruation. Most consumers
already agree with this, but the belief can be
made stronger.
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42. Attitude Changing strategies
• Advertisements use this all the time.
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43. Attitude Changing strategies
• Add beliefs.
– Consumers are less likely to resist the
addition of beliefs so long as they do not
conflict with existing beliefs. Thus, the beef
industry has added beliefs that beef (1) is
convenient and (2) can be used to make a
number of creative dishes. Vitamin
manufacturers attempt to add the belief that
stress causes vitamin depletion, which
sounds quite plausible to most people.
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44. Attitude Changing strategies
• Advertisers are good at creating ways for
consumers to use their products.
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45. Attitude Changing strategies
• Change ideal.
– It usually difficult, and very risky, to attempt
to change ideals, and only few firms
succeed. For example, green used to be a
unfavourable colour for cars, but with the
introduction of hybrid cars and electric cars,
green is now becoming more popular.
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