Psychological Foundations of Marketing

The Keys to Consumer Behavior

Allan Kimmel, Allan J Kimmel

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781315436074
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Advertising
• Index: Business

This is the only textbook to provide an applied, critical introduction to the role of psychology in marketing, branding and consumer behavior. Ideally suited for both students and professionals, the new edition is a complete primer on how psychology informs and explains marketing strategies, and how consumers respond to them.

The book provides comprehensive coverage of:

• Motivation: the human needs at the root of many consumer behaviors and marketing decisions.
  
  

• Perception: the nature of perceptual selection, attention, and organization and how they relate to the evolving marketing landscape.
  
  

• Decision making: how and under what circumstances it is possible to predict consumer choices, attitudes, and persuasion.
  
  

• Personality and lifestyle: how insight into consumer personality can be used to formulate marketing plans.
  
  

• Social behavior: the powerful role of social influence on consumption.
  
  

Now featuring case studies throughout to highlight how psychological research can be applied in the marketplace, and insightful analysis of the role of digital media and new technologies, this award-winning textbook is required reading for anyone interested in this fascinating and evolving subject.

CHAPTER 1

Psychology and marketing

A dynamic relationship

It is almost inconceivable to imagine contemporary life without marketing. This is rather obvious on a professional level: businesses vie to gain a foothold in a competitive marketplace of exchange by offering high-quality products and services, while aiming to create an appealing brand image and trusting relationships with loyal customers. But individuals market themselves on the personal level as well in a variety of ways, as evidenced by their attempts to gain a cherished position in a firm, acceptance by a prestigious university, and the love and respect of others. There is no escaping marketing—it is central to our lives and touches virtually every aspect of our everyday existence.

Marketing encompasses the creation of products and services that enable us to satisfy our needs (such as hunger, safety, achievement, status, and approval); enriches our lives through the delivery of entertainment and other pleasure-oriented offerings; it nurtures and facilitates our relationships with others; and it plays a significant role in the determination of our identities. Through the marketing process, new product innovations appear in the marketplace that make our lives easier and more comfortable, offering means by which we can save time and reduce distances. Yet marketing involves more than the development of products and services—it also involves how these offerings become available to us through various channels, including “brick-and-mortar” retail stores and via online e-tailers and traders; it entails a determination of the prices asked for products and services that are both affordable to buyers and profitable to the entrepreneurial or corporate interests offering them; and it is responsible for the myriad means by which marketplace offerings are communicated and promoted.

That the marketing process is central to our lives is evident when one considers how many of our typical human activities revolve around it: window shopping, clipping coupons, comparing brands, using services, talking to others about purchases, seeking advice about how to best use a product, deciding where and when to shop, selecting a restaurant, buying groceries, watching a creative advertisement online and then sharing the link with friends, and so on. In fact, we can say that a large part of our involvement with marketing is linked to the fact that we are a shopping, buying, and having species.

Commercial selling and buying behavior represent activities that firmly define successive generations, as fully interwoven within the fabric of industrialized nations as technological, scientific, social, and political developments. Each new product innovation increasingly brings to the fore the defining mantra of modern man and woman—“I shop, therefore I am.” In contemporary times, the buying and having of material goods, along with a growing array of services, have become as central to people’s sense of being as family and career. Whether it be the clothes we wear, the homes and communities where we reside, the types of pets we own, or the color of the earbud headset through which we privately listen to our preferred musicians as we wend our way through public settings, our consumption choices are inseparable from who we are to ourselves and to others.

Consumers are increasingly becoming active participants in the wide array of activities that comprise the marketing enterprise. Whether it be the creation or modification of products, the establishment of prices, the availability of goods, or the ways in which company offerings are communicated, consumers no longer play a passive role in each of the various marketing functions (Kimmel, 2010). At the root of this new-found consumer power are technological developments, including the Internet and mobile communication devices, that have facilitated the means by which people can create content and access information about companies, products, brands, and so on, either by engaging directly with marketers and sellers or by communicating with each other via social networks and word of mouth. The fact that consumers have come to occupy a more central place in the marketing process in recent decades underlines how psychology has moved front and center into the strategic thinking and planning of marketers. Marketers are increasingly recognizing that to succeed in the contemporary business world, they must have a thorough understanding of their current and potential customers. This understanding encompasses a variety of facets of consumer psychology and life, including:

• the processes by which customer targets acquire information, formulate their decisions, and plan for subsequent consumption opportunities;

• how consumer loyalties are nurtured or changed for different products or brands;

• what consumer likes and dislikes are relative to marketing actions and offerings;

• the means through which consumer attitudes and intentions can be most effectively influenced;

• how consumers differ and what that implies for marketing strategy;

• the factors that influence how consumers ultimately behave in the marketplace.

Together, these topics define what this book is all about: the formidable interplay between psychological understanding and marketing practice.

To illustrate the intricate relationship between psychology and marketing consider the following example, which pertains to how a consumer’s seemingly innocent purchase of a luxury item can set off an unintended buying spree by that consumer. In a series of studies involving hundreds of shoppers, consumer psychologists Patrick and Hagtvedt (2011) found that when the purchase of a new item fails to fit in with one’s existing possessions, consumers generally tend to regret the purchase and return it to the store. There is nothing very surprising about that. However, when the mismatched purchase happens to involve a higher-end offering, such as an item from a designer product line or a luxury branded item, consumers experience less regret, but greater frustration. Rather than returning the designer item, people actively seek out ways to incorporate the new purchase with their other possessions. One way to do that is to make a series of complementary purchases; that is, they purchase other items that closely match the initial one. This process, which the researchers dubbed “aesthetic incongruity resolution,” ultimately may result in a far greater cumulative expenditure than the consumer had anticipated when the initial purchase was made.

To explain why elegant things make us buy more, we need to consider the role of emotions in determining whether a purchase will be returned or not. Aesthetical purchases imbued with unique design characteristics have intrinsic value and are thereby more difficult for the consumer to relinquish. So if the purchase of an irresistible pair of designer shoes, for example, proves to be totally at odds with one’s current wardrobe once given the chance to more carefully contemplate the purchase, it may not be very long before one attempts to resolve the incongruity by subsequently purchasing a matching handbag, jewelry, and formal dress. A simple safeguard against potentially over-reaching one’s budget in this way is simply to think twice before a purchase, and to consider whether that special purchase matches what one already owns. If not, then buyer beware.

Let’s now consider three marketing implications that can be gleaned from the findings of the incongruity resolution research:

1. Marketers of relatively inexpensive products that are not typically assumed to be aesthetically appealing might consider how unique design elements could be added to appeal to the aesthetic sensibilities of buyers. This is something that the makers of various household products have already begun to implement for the product design of such items as coffee makers, electric grills, vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, and home entertainment centers (Postrel, 2003; see Box 1.1).

2. The incongruity resolution findings also highlight the growing tendency for companies to target sales to individual consumers based on their previous purchases and current possessions. Evolving customer relationship management (CRM) technologies provide firms with the capacity to carefully target product promotions based on detailed information about consumers’ previous purchases, to the point of tracking and even contributing to the development of their consumption environments. More practically, the common sales technique of suggesting various add-ons (a belt or tie) for a current purchase (a new suit) represents another way to increase sales while enhancing customer satisfaction with appropriately matched purchases.

3. Another implication derived from the incongruity resolution research is one that reflects marketers’ ethical responsibilities relative to customer satisfaction and the potential for shaping long-term loyalties. If shoppers end up spending beyond their means without a corresponding increase in satisfaction, neither the customer nor the seller is likely to be best served over the long term. This could add to the already rapidly spiraling mistrust that consumers have for marketers and the marketing process.

As this research example suggests, insight into consumer psychology puts marketers in a better position to design and implement successful and more ethical marketing strategies. From the customer perspective, by putting their own behavior under the microscope, consumers will find themselves in a position to make better decisions in order to satisfy their needs and maximize their resources.

Throughout this book, we will encounter numerous examples of this sort, which serve to demonstrate how effective marketing strategies and practices can be culled from insight into human thinking and behavior processes. However, before attempting to further delve into the dynamic interplay between psychology and marketing, it first is necessary to be clear about some terminology. If our goal is to unravel the psychological bases of marketing, we first must have a clear understanding of the terms “marketing” and “psychology.”

Box 1.1 Adding aesthetical elements to everyday products

In a highly competitive marketplace, it no longer is surprising to find that the designs of many everyday products are increasingly imbued with distinguishing aesthetical elements that are intended to appeal to consumers. Absolut’s iconically-shaped vodka bottle sparked the arrival of a wide array of elegantly designed competitors that are worth buying for the bottles alone, which may remain prominently displayed in the home long after the contents have been consumed. The new Dyson Supersonic hair dryer (below), stands out in the category of hair care products by looking nothing like the archetypal hair dryer that consumers have been purchasing for decades.

B&O PLAY’s Beoplay S3 external speakers (below) are among several high-end audio systems intentionally developed with aesthetic congruity in mind. Although higher in cost than more traditional home speakers, the speakers can blend in with most interior room themes, and also offer the opportunity for the user to swap out the face plate to create a better match.

In addition to providing environmental balance, aesthetical, more visceral elements related to product appearance and design, such as color, scent, and tactile stimulation, are crucial in helping us understand the reasons why wine tastes better in fancy glasses; that the amount of food eaten, taste satisfaction levels, and amount of money consumers are willing to pay for food vary according to the types and colors of packaging and the dishes on which the food is served; and that consumers are more likely to purchase an item in a store if they first can touch it (Norman, 2005).

A unique or aesthetically designed product form can extend the life of a product long after its functional utility has passed. Consumers are wont to hold on to such products rather than to discard them, choosing to incorporate them as part of their sensory environment. A good example of this was provided by one of my students, who described her disappointment with the taste of the coffee brewed by her new Senseo pod coffee maker. Although she decided to replace it with a drip coffee maker, she kept the Senseo on her kitchen counter because she was impressed by its uniquely-designed cylindrical shape and bright color, and believed that it helped smarten the look of her kitchen.

MARKETING DEFINED

Marketing is a term that is used in everyday parlance, but its technical definition tends to vary according to whether it is treated as an independent discipline or as a managerial process. As an independent discipline, marketing represents a scientific field of inquiry that comprises a vast body of knowledge derived from academic research and theory concerning marketing-related activities. This research, which may be either theoretical or applied in nature, typically is published in...