Summary lectures CB
Lecture 1 – The psychological core: The process of perception
→ Making sense about the world around us
Exposure – ‘Encounter’ the message
Attention – ‘Look at’ the message
Perception – ‘Take in’ the message
Comprehension – ‘Understand’ the message
→ Exposure
Exposure = The process by which the consumer comes into physical contact with a stimulus
(e.g. ads, word-of-mouth, etc.)
The goal of businesses is to maximize exposure to relevant groups. This is the reason that:
- Companies decide to advertise on specific channels (e.g. Fox news vs. CNN)
- Social media advertising is becoming so popular
- You pay 10 times more for the ad on the back cover
Exposure is important because:
- Creates the possibility for attention
- You cannot perceive what you are not exposed to!
- Exposure is the main driver for marketing communication costs
Exposure could be selective - Consumers avoid exposure to ads or commercial messages,
especially those that are not relevant to them (e.g. add blocking or Netflix).
Non-conscious exposure! Non-conscious exposure occurs when either:
, - Consumer is not aware of the environmental features or the stimulus (stimulus is too
weak) → SUBLIMINAL EXPOSURE/PRIMING
- Consumer is not aware of the outcome (e.g. behavior, reaction) → SUPRALIMINAL
EXPOSURE/PRIMING
- Could also be a combination of both
Supraliminal exposure: Article Brasel & Gips (2011) – Can supraliminal brand exposure
affect motivated behavior?
- Red-bull associations:
o ‘Gives you wings’
o Brand associations: Speed, energy, power, risk-taking
- All participants had to complete 5 races with all 5 cars randomly assigned
- All 5 races were ranked ordered from the slowest to the fastest per participant
- Inverted U-shape: Driving Red-Bull car leads to the slowest or the fastest race
- Risky behavior
- How to explain slow race times? - Risk taking while driving! Bumping into other cars
- Other examples of supraliminal exposure? - TV shows, buying Pepsi in the break of a
lecture about Pepsi, University setting; e.g. apple vs. windows computers because
apple is more a creative brand.
Subliminal exposure: Fitzsimons, Chartrand and Fitzsimons (2008) – Can subliminal brand
exposure affect motivated behavior?
- Numbers (1-13) shown on the screen + logos flashed on the screen for 13 mil. Sec
o Too short to perceive it consciously → subconscious effect
- Creativity test: unusual uses of a brick
- Why does this happen? → Spreading activation model
o Different concepts are represented in our brains as a semantic network
, o Every concept is represented by a specific “node” and these nodes are
interconnected
o When one concept is activated (e.g. by showing an Apple logo), related
concepts become activated too (e.g. creativity)
Critical look… → Non-conscious exposure could potentially work, but…
- Only if stimuli fit current goals or motivation (e.g. dextro when people are low in
energy)
- To be subliminally perceived the full attention is needed → e.g., would not work
when there are periodic attention shifts during TV commercial breaks
- The non-conscious exposure effects are weak
- Most studies conducted in the highly controlled environments (e.g., lab studies)
Rather than aiming at non-conscious exposure, strategies that enhance consumers’
attention to the exposed messages can be a more effective option
→ Attention
Attention = The ability to focus on certain aspects of the environment while ignoring others
→ How much mental activity is devoted to a stimulus
Two types of attention:
- Top-down attention (endogenous)
o Controlled
o Goal-oriented
o Slower
- Bottom-up (exogenous) attention
o Automatic
o Stimulus-driven
o Faster
Why is attention important in marketing?
- Attention creates opportunity for perception and comprehension
- Mere attention can enhance liking and motivate choices
o Visual salience can motivate choices → Especially under time pressure
o Mere exposure effect…
, Mere exposure effect = A phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for
things merely because they are familiar with them because of exposure and attention → The
more you see/hear, the more you like.
- E.g. Pop songs
Principles of attention:
- Attention is limited
- Attention can be divided
o What are the implications for marketers? → increasing multi-tasking: draw
automatic attention to your adds, addicting, we cannot perceive deep
attention, because too much going on, so, you have to reduce the message,
2/3 seconds, to be able to catch attention!
- Attention is influenced by the goals (top-down)
- Attention is influenced by the environment (bottom-up)
- Attention is social
So… how to enhance attention?
Enhancing attention
- Top-down:
o Make stimuli personally relevant
▪ Needs and goals
• You need to know you target group very well, because that’s
what makes them process your add
▪ Reference groups
• You have to know your audience well, and even then there is
not a 100% insurance that the add will not drown in all the
other stimuli
▪ Storytelling and narratives
Lecture 1 – The psychological core: The process of perception
→ Making sense about the world around us
Exposure – ‘Encounter’ the message
Attention – ‘Look at’ the message
Perception – ‘Take in’ the message
Comprehension – ‘Understand’ the message
→ Exposure
Exposure = The process by which the consumer comes into physical contact with a stimulus
(e.g. ads, word-of-mouth, etc.)
The goal of businesses is to maximize exposure to relevant groups. This is the reason that:
- Companies decide to advertise on specific channels (e.g. Fox news vs. CNN)
- Social media advertising is becoming so popular
- You pay 10 times more for the ad on the back cover
Exposure is important because:
- Creates the possibility for attention
- You cannot perceive what you are not exposed to!
- Exposure is the main driver for marketing communication costs
Exposure could be selective - Consumers avoid exposure to ads or commercial messages,
especially those that are not relevant to them (e.g. add blocking or Netflix).
Non-conscious exposure! Non-conscious exposure occurs when either:
, - Consumer is not aware of the environmental features or the stimulus (stimulus is too
weak) → SUBLIMINAL EXPOSURE/PRIMING
- Consumer is not aware of the outcome (e.g. behavior, reaction) → SUPRALIMINAL
EXPOSURE/PRIMING
- Could also be a combination of both
Supraliminal exposure: Article Brasel & Gips (2011) – Can supraliminal brand exposure
affect motivated behavior?
- Red-bull associations:
o ‘Gives you wings’
o Brand associations: Speed, energy, power, risk-taking
- All participants had to complete 5 races with all 5 cars randomly assigned
- All 5 races were ranked ordered from the slowest to the fastest per participant
- Inverted U-shape: Driving Red-Bull car leads to the slowest or the fastest race
- Risky behavior
- How to explain slow race times? - Risk taking while driving! Bumping into other cars
- Other examples of supraliminal exposure? - TV shows, buying Pepsi in the break of a
lecture about Pepsi, University setting; e.g. apple vs. windows computers because
apple is more a creative brand.
Subliminal exposure: Fitzsimons, Chartrand and Fitzsimons (2008) – Can subliminal brand
exposure affect motivated behavior?
- Numbers (1-13) shown on the screen + logos flashed on the screen for 13 mil. Sec
o Too short to perceive it consciously → subconscious effect
- Creativity test: unusual uses of a brick
- Why does this happen? → Spreading activation model
o Different concepts are represented in our brains as a semantic network
, o Every concept is represented by a specific “node” and these nodes are
interconnected
o When one concept is activated (e.g. by showing an Apple logo), related
concepts become activated too (e.g. creativity)
Critical look… → Non-conscious exposure could potentially work, but…
- Only if stimuli fit current goals or motivation (e.g. dextro when people are low in
energy)
- To be subliminally perceived the full attention is needed → e.g., would not work
when there are periodic attention shifts during TV commercial breaks
- The non-conscious exposure effects are weak
- Most studies conducted in the highly controlled environments (e.g., lab studies)
Rather than aiming at non-conscious exposure, strategies that enhance consumers’
attention to the exposed messages can be a more effective option
→ Attention
Attention = The ability to focus on certain aspects of the environment while ignoring others
→ How much mental activity is devoted to a stimulus
Two types of attention:
- Top-down attention (endogenous)
o Controlled
o Goal-oriented
o Slower
- Bottom-up (exogenous) attention
o Automatic
o Stimulus-driven
o Faster
Why is attention important in marketing?
- Attention creates opportunity for perception and comprehension
- Mere attention can enhance liking and motivate choices
o Visual salience can motivate choices → Especially under time pressure
o Mere exposure effect…
, Mere exposure effect = A phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for
things merely because they are familiar with them because of exposure and attention → The
more you see/hear, the more you like.
- E.g. Pop songs
Principles of attention:
- Attention is limited
- Attention can be divided
o What are the implications for marketers? → increasing multi-tasking: draw
automatic attention to your adds, addicting, we cannot perceive deep
attention, because too much going on, so, you have to reduce the message,
2/3 seconds, to be able to catch attention!
- Attention is influenced by the goals (top-down)
- Attention is influenced by the environment (bottom-up)
- Attention is social
So… how to enhance attention?
Enhancing attention
- Top-down:
o Make stimuli personally relevant
▪ Needs and goals
• You need to know you target group very well, because that’s
what makes them process your add
▪ Reference groups
• You have to know your audience well, and even then there is
not a 100% insurance that the add will not drown in all the
other stimuli
▪ Storytelling and narratives
