Hogandas

Chapter #2 Peter&Olson

A framework for consumer analysis

Buying a Smith&Wesson: Good or bad idea?

Three elements for consumer analysis

• Consumer affect and cognition

Two types of mental responses consumers exhibit toward stimuli and events in their environment.

o Affect refers to their feelings about stimuli and events, such whether they like or dislike a product

Affective responses can be favorable or unfavorable and vary in intensity. Relatively intense emotions are love or anger, less strong feelings states are satisfaction or frustration, moods are boredom or relaxation, and attitudes are liking or disliking. Marketers typically develop strategies to create positive affect for their products and brands to increase the chances that consumers will buy them.

o Cognition refers to their thinking, such as their beliefs about a particular product.

Using other words, it refers to the mental structures and processes involved in thinking, understanding, and interpreting stimuli and events. It includes the knowledge, meanings, and beliefs that consumers have developed from their experiences and stored in their memories. It also includes the processes associated with paying attention to and understanding stimuli and events, remembering past events, forming evaluations, and making purchasing decisions and choices. Although many aspects of cognition are conscious thinking processes, others are essentially automatic. Marketers often try to increase consumers' attention to products and their knowledge about them.

Some basic questions about consumer affect and cognition

1. How do consumers interpret information about marketing stimuli such as products, stores, and advertising?

2. How do consumers choose from among alternative product classes, products, and brands?

3. How do consumers form evaluations of products and brands?

4. How do memory affect consumer decision making?

5. How do affect and cognition influence...