4: How Customers Think
Given the long-term value of a customer who remains loyal to a given brand, companies have a high level of interest in establishing and maintaining a strong relationship with the customer - but aside of the convenience of repurchase, what interests a customer in entering into a relationship with a brand? It would be difficult to argue that a person wishes to have a "relationship" with every brand they use, and are not even receptive to the overtures made by the multitude of companies that are pursuing them.
With that in mind, the author intends to explore relationships from the customer's perspective: how they choose, from the many suitors who appeal to their needs and wants, and whether they seek to participate in a "relationship" with their vendors.
THE COMMUNICATION MODEL
The author refers to the basic communication model (sender-message-medium-recipient) and makes two significant modifications: there are multiple senders attempting to reach the receiver, and the received implements a "screen" to block certain inbound messages. This is a significant change from the mass-communication model in which there is considered to be a single message to which the received is a passive recipient.
In a basic sense, a message must get through the recipient's perceptual filters (they must notice it and pay attention to it),at which point it is present in short-term memory. The message must then be considered important enough (relevant and appropriate) to be moved into long-term memory), and there must be associations that enable the message to be retrieved in future, in response to another stimulus. While seemingly simple, there are problems at each step along this path.
Traditional marketing emphasizes the first step in the process - getting attention - on the belief that it's a matter of numbers: the more customers you reach, the more will pay attention, remember, and react. While this remains important, marketers recognize the value of reaching the "right" audience in order to get effective results. (EN: this also overlooks the notion that a customer who receives an inappropriate message will be less likely to respond to future messages. Perhaps the author explores this later?)
It is a common mistake to assume that the recipient will pay close attention to a message. The author refers to Petty and Cacioppo's "elaboration likelihood model" which uses a number of factors (motivation to process, ability to process, etc.) This leads to a number of conclusions that seem self-evident: a message is less likely to be received and stored in long-term memory when a customer is distracted by other things, does not recognize the relevance of the message, etc.
There is a study of a promotion that involved associating a brand of battery to a children's movie (offering a toy for purchasing batteries). The author concludes that this would create a one-time purchase, but not long-term commitment, as the primary interest of the customer is in obtaining the toy. (EN: while it's notable that this would get a product into the hands of a customer to create a first-hand experience, my sense is that the assertion that the primary focus is the offer, not the item, is essentially correct - and what's more, there's a danger that the perception of the toy will color their perception of the brand ... and given that it's a give-away, the quality is likely to be very low, so they may do themselves more harm than good.)
The author also refers to DuPlessis, whose theory was that a stimulus would be more readily assimilated into long-term memory if it evokes an relevant emotional response. This theory considers the existence of a "supervisory attentioning system" that acts as an internal filter, to the many stimuli the brain receives, and determines what gets stored into long-term memory. (EN: this is a superficial summary of DuPlessis. Of importance is that long-term memory depends on associations among stimuli, and a given stimulus that is not relevant to any existing memory has no-place to be "filed.")
THE MIND OF THE MARKET
The author mentions the theories of Gerald Zaltman, who emphasized the role of the unconscious mind in influencing behavior. (EN: Zaltman's ideas are often dismissed as a mere rehash of subliminal advertising theory, so proceed with caution.)
The foundation of the Zaltman argument is that customers often cannot explain their own behavior, and while it is conceded that human memory is faulty and cannot be relied upon to explain past decisions, it is likely that even if memory were flawless, customers would have difficulty identifying the decision-making process, especially in instances where the decision was seen as being of relatively low impact or importance. Individuals quite often act "on impulse," which is to say, their behavior is the result of processes that are not orderly, rational, or even known to the person.
It's noted that the environment contains more stimuli at any given moment than a person can consciously process, and it is theorized that much of what is perceived is processed and stored without conscious consideration - hence the notion that a teenager listening to music while studying is doing both things at once (EN: I'm still not convinced of this, and tend to find the studies that suggest that there is intermittent attention more compelling, and their methods more sound, than those suggesting the notion of attention to multiple stimuli.).
It's also suggested that some stimuli from the environment are committed to long-term memory without a conscious cognitive effort to "memorize" them. As such, a memory of a location may be tied to an odor of which the subject was not aware at the moment they were in that location. With this in mind, there are two kinds of memory - explicit memory which contains the details we recognize as significant, implicit memory which contains sensations we may not have even been aware of - and that our memory of an experience involves both, and the associations among them. (EN: this is more plausible)
Marketers leverage this capacity in various ways. One example is the use of images and music in advertising for intangible products, as an attempt to create a sensory association for a product that has no sense data to offer. Another example is the use of sensory data to borrow upon existing associations - convincing consumers that a vehicle is rugged by depicting it in a setting that the consumer associates with ruggedness (woodlands).
The author refers to "Blink," a popular book that describes the process snap decisions, in which the mind comes to an "almost instant" conclusion by virtue of the mind's ability to draw associations, assess information, and make a fast decision that is "often very accurate."
There is also the concept of "cultural biology," which suggests that social norms influence the way in which the mind processes and stores information, which is another filter through which information is passed, and also provides pre-loaded associations that are used to make quick decisions.
(EN: I'm still not buying this, nor its relevance to most consumer decisions. While I don't dismiss entirely the notion that customers have preconceptions and make "snap" decisions, the notion of a mystical unconscious force that guides consumer behavior is of limited value to anything other than convenience goods and impulse buys, into which the consumer invests little thought.)
THE FILING SYSTEM
The author returns to Du Plessis, whose notion of memory consists of engrams (independent packets of sense-memory) that are connected by association to one another, which is loosely based on the physical nature of neurons and synapses in the human mind. (EN: this is a common theoretical perspective in human memory, though I'm suspicious that it is an overzealous attempt to speculate about the theory of that which can't be seen by the nature of that which can - or in smaller words, judging a book by its cover. Proceed with caution.)
It is a common notion that things that are similar in some ways must also be similar in ways we cannot perceive. This is the basis of demographics: the belief that two people of the same gender, age, culture, race, and income level will behave in similar ways. However irrational, this is not uncommon, and it is speculated that people process stimuli in the same way: items that seem to be alike are associated to one another, conceptually.
The linkages among concepts are a common method of examining consumer thinking. Specifically, what attributes are associated with a product or brand, versus those associated with another brand, versus the ones the marketer wants to be associated with his brand. The positive association of a quality to a brand gives the brand "ownership" of the association - and denies it of its competitors. If brand X is "reliable," there is the implied notion that any non-X brand is not reliable, or at least not as reliable, and that any other product marketed under the brand of X is also reliable.
There is a notion that, in some decisions, emotions outweigh reason. There is statistical correlation between he degree to which consumers "like" a product and the market share that product holds. It's noted that even in situations that would seem to rely upon strictly rational decision-making, emoting shapes reactions. Once the emotional connection is made, it is difficult to ignore, and even more difficult to un-make.
(EN: there's a passage in which the author insists emotion is "instinctual" and irrational, but I disagree with the premise and cannot accept the conclusions based on a shaky foundation. I would agree that a person overcome by emotion is difficult to sway to reason, but being as emotion is proto-logical, I don't subscribe to the notion that the two are opposing forces.)
MORE ON MOTIVATION
Researchers Maddock and Fulton revisited on the motivational hierarchy in regard to the emotional appeals related to brand choices, in terms of the elements that make brand more appealing to consumers in terms of their immediate impact and longevity in memory. This differs from Maslow's hierarchy of needs in that certain psychological needs (such as physical survival) are less poignant in the context of advertising than they are in everyday life. However, there are certain similarities.
In order of weak to strong, the Maddock-Fulton hierarchy is:
- Circumstances - Any factor that precipitates from the immediate situation (especially the motive to escape or control undesirable circumstances)
- Play - The desire to receive pleasure through activities that are not productive
- Orientation to Time - Described as nostalgia: the desire to derive pleasure through memory of a past period of time
- Orientation to Place - The desire to "escape" to a more pleasant environment
- Sexual Survival - Described as "gender expression and the customer's self-identity"
- Expectation - Not explained
- Territorial Survival - Explained only as "security and career advancement"
- Adaptation - Not explained
- Physical Survival - The physiological needs (first two levels of Maslow's hierarchy)
- Orientation to Person - Esteem and self-actualization (the ability of a person to be identified as who they are or who they want to be perceived as, by self and others)
- Orientation to Spiritual - "involves elements of social needs"
(EN: The explanations of these interests is omissive, oblique, and in some instances bizarre. Should this be of interest, seek better explanation from other sources.)
THE FCB GRID
Research done by the Foote, Cone, and Belding (FCB) agency schematizes decision-making on a grid, according to whether a decision is more rational or emotional versus having a low or high involvement with the brand in question.
A rational, high-involvement purchase is characteristic of "major" purchases, such as a home, a car, furnishings, appliances, and other items that the buyer sees as being important and is willing to put a lot of consideration into the decision.
An emotional, high-involvement purchase is typical for "lifestyle" purchases such as jewelry, fashion apparel, cosmetics, and other luxury items. The buyer is likewise cautious about the purchase, but for less rational reasons (their desire to be admired or respected by others who see them using the product).
A rational, low-involvement purchase is common for staple items, such as groceries, detergent, and other low-cost functional items where the focus is on the benefit the buyer seeks to derive, but the cost is negligible.
An emotional, low-involvement purchase is typical of small luxury items, such as candy, gum, cigarettes, and other impulse buys that are largely motivated by a need for instant gratification of a basic urge.
(EN: the four-square grid that compares two properties is a bit hackneyed, and provides a very superficial analysis. That's not to say the FCB grid is wrong or useless, merely that it is facile.)