Flashcards · 9990 · A Level Topic 4

Specialist Option 2: Consumer Psychology (A Level) flashcards

27 cards on A Level Topic 4, subtopics 2.1 to 2.5. Pick a subtopic or study them all.

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2.1 The physical environment

Grid, freeform and racetrack store layouts: Grid: parallel aisles, efficient for planned shopping. Freeform: displays in irregular groups, encouraging browsing. Racetrack (loop): a main path that leads shoppers past every department.
What did North et al. (2003) find about music in a restaurant?: Diners spent more on food and drink when classical music was played than when pop music or no music was played, suggesting music that fits an upmarket image raises spending.
What is Mehrabian and Russell's PAD model?: A model of how the ambience of an environment affects people through three emotional dimensions: pleasure, arousal and dominance. These states then shape approach or avoidance behaviour, such as staying and spending.
How can background noise affect taste (e.g. Woods et al., 2011)?: Loud background noise can reduce how salty or sweet food tastes and increase perceived crunchiness, because attention and sensory processing are shared between sound and taste.
How can odour and crowding affect shoppers?: A pleasant odour can raise pleasure and improve product evaluations (e.g. Chebat and Michon, 2003). Perceived crowding can lower pleasure and satisfaction, though effects vary by shopper (e.g. Machleit et al., 2000).

2.2 The psychological environment

What affects wayfinding in a shopping mall?: Features such as signs and you-are-here maps, and the layout itself, affect how easily shoppers find their way (e.g. Dogu and Erkip, 2000).
Name the five spatial behaviour patterns of shoppers: Specialist, native, tourist, explorer and raider. Shopper movement can be studied by CCTV tracking (e.g. Gil et al., 2009).
How do primacy and recency affect menu choice?: Items at the beginning or end of a list are chosen more often than those in the middle (e.g. Dayan and Bar-Hillel, 2011), so position on the menu influences what is ordered.
What did Robson et al. (2011) study?: Consumers' responses to table spacing in restaurants. In a web survey of 1,013 Americans, tables 6 inches apart caused more stress and discomfort than 12 or 24 inches, especially on a romantic date, linked to Hall's zones of personal space.
What are Hall's four zones of personal space?: Intimate, personal, social and public distance, from closest to furthest. Intrusion into a closer zone than is appropriate causes discomfort.
What did Milgram et al. (1986) study about queues?: How people defend their place in a queue: confederates pushed into queues and the responses of people queuing were recorded. Those directly behind the intrusion were most likely to object.

2.3 Consumer decision-making

Utility theory vs satisficing vs prospect theory: Utility theory: consumers choose the option that maximises value. Satisficing: they choose the first option that is good enough. Prospect theory: losses weigh more than equal gains, so framing affects choice.
Compensatory vs non-compensatory decision strategies: Compensatory: a weakness on one attribute can be outweighed by strengths on others. Non-compensatory: an option failing a key attribute is rejected whatever its other strengths. Partially compensatory strategies combine both.
Name the five choice heuristics on the 9990 syllabus: Availability, representativeness, recognition, take-the-best and anchoring: mental shortcuts that speed up decisions but can bias them.
What is System 1 vs System 2 thinking?: System 1 is fast, automatic and intuitive. System 2 is slow, effortful and deliberate. Many consumer mistakes arise from relying on System 1.
What did Hall et al. (2010) show about choice blindness?: Shoppers tasting jam or smelling tea chose a preference, then were secretly given the other sample to justify. Most failed to detect the switch and defended a choice they had not made.
How does interference affect memory for adverts (e.g. Burke and Srull, 1988)?: Retroactive interference: later adverts disrupt memory for an earlier one. Proactive interference: earlier adverts disrupt memory for a later one. Both are stronger for competing ads in the same product class.

2.4 The product

What did Becker et al. (2011) find about food packaging?: Package design changed taste impressions: for example, more angular packaging led consumers to expect and report a stronger, more intense taste of the same product.
What is the central gaze cascade effect?: Shoppers look more at, and are more likely to choose, products placed in the centre of a shelf display; shown with eye-tracking (e.g. Atalay et al., 2012).
What is disrupt-then-reframe?: An influence technique: a small oddity in a sales pitch disrupts resistance, then a reframe gives a persuasive reason. It works better on people with a high need for cognitive closure (e.g. Kardes et al., 2007).
What is the Engel Kollat Blackwell model?: A model of buyer decision-making in stages: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and post-purchase evaluation.
What is post-purchase cognitive dissonance?: Discomfort after a purchase when the buyer doubts the choice. It increases with cost and importance, and is reduced by seeking reassurance, focusing on the item's good points or returning it (e.g. Nordvall, 2014).

2.5 Advertising

What is the Yale model of communication?: A model of persuasion: who says what (source and message), to whom (audience), how (medium) and with what effect. Credibility of the source and features of the message and audience affect persuasion.
What are Lauterborn's 4 Cs?: A customer-focused marketing mix: customer (wants and needs), cost, convenience and communication, replacing the seller-focused 4 Ps.
What did Snyder and DeBono (1985) find?: High self-monitors responded more favourably to adverts appealing to image, while low self-monitors responded more to adverts making claims about product quality.
How can product placement in films affect choice (e.g. Auty and Lewis, 2004)?: Children who saw a brand in a film clip were more likely to choose it afterwards, explained by mere exposure and by the placement acting as a reminder.
How do children come to recognise brands (e.g. Fischer et al., 1991)?: Through repeated exposure to logos; even young children can match logos to products, showing early brand recognition before they fully understand the purpose of advertising.