Chapter 6: Attitudes Based on Low Effort

6.1 High-Effort Versus Low-Effort Routes

➔ When consumers are either unwilling or unable to exert a lot of effort or devote
emotional resources to processing the central idea behind a marketing
communication, it is characterized as a low-effort situation
➔ Peripheral Route to Persuasion: Aspects other than key message arguments
that are used to influence attitudes
➔ Peripheral Cues: Easily processed aspects of a message such as music, an
attractive source, a picture or humour

6.2 Unconscious Influences on Attitudes When Consumer Effort is Low

➔ Recent research indicates that much processing in low-effort situations occurs

below the conscious awareness

➔ This means that consumers form attitudes on both cognitive and affective bases
without behind aware of how or why they have done so

6.2.1 Thin-Slice Judgements

➔ Thin-Slice Judgements: Evaluations made after very brief observations
➔ Ex. a consumer may unconsciously form an assessment about a salesperson
after a moment of observation or interaction

6.2.2 Body Feedback

➔ Even though consumers may not consciously monitor their own physical
reactions, body feedback can influence attitudes and behaviours
➔ Ex. Consumers who were induced to nod had more positive evaluations of
favourable brands, when induced to shake their heads, consumers had more
negative evaluations

6.3 Cognitive Bases of Attitudes When Consumer Effort is Low

➔ Simple Inferences: Beliefs based on peripheral cues
◆ Ex. consumers may infer that a brand of champagne is elegant because it
is shown with other things
➔ Heuristics: Simple rules of thumb that are used to make judgement
◆ Ex. consumers could use the heuristic “if it is a well know brand, it must
be good”
 ➔ Frequency Heuristic: Belief based simply on the number of supporting
arguments or amount of repetitions
◆ Ex. consumers may think “it must be good because there are ten
reasons why I should like it”

6.4 How Cognitive Attitudes Are Influenced

➔ Truth Effect: when consumers believe a statement simply because it has been
repeated a number of times

6.4.1 Communication Source

➔ Characteristics of the source play an important role in influencing consumer's
beliefs when their processing effort is low
➔ Credible sources can serve as peripheral cues for making a simplified
judgement
◆ Ex. “Statements from experts can be trusted”

6.4.2 The Message

➔ The message itself can influence attitudes in a number of ways when a
consumer's processing effort is low
➔ Category and Schema Consistent Information
◆ Many elements of communication affect the inferences that consumers
make about a message
◆ Ex. consumers may infer that a brand has certain characteristics based on
its name (“Healthy Choice Soups must be good for me”)
➔ Many Message Arguements
◆ The frequency heuristic can also affect consumers' beliefs about the
message
◆ As a simplifying rule, consumers do not actually process all the
information but form a belief based on the number of supporting
arguments
➔ Simple Messages
◆ In low-processing situations, a simple message is more likely to be
effective because consumers will not have to process a lot
 ➔ Involving Messages
◆ Marketers will sometimes want to increase consumer's situational
involvement with the message to ensure that the information is received
◆ Self-Referencing: relating a message to one's own experience or
self-image
◆ Mystery Ad: An ad in which the brand is not identified until the end of the
message

6.4.3 Message Context and Repetition

➔ Although source and message factors can influence consumers' attitudes, the
context in which the message is delivered can affect the strength of consumer's
beliefs and the prominence (or salience) of those beliefs for the consumer
➔ Companies can use message repetition to help consumers acquire basic
knowledge of important product features and benefits
➔ Incidental Learning: Learning that occurs from repetition rather than from
conscious processing

6.5 Affective Bases of Attitudes When Consumer Effort is Low

➔ The establishment of low-level beliefs based on peripheral cues is not the only
way consumers can form attitudes about brands with little effort
➔ Attitudes can be based on consumer's affective or emotional reactions to these
easily processed peripheral cues
➔ These low-effort affective processes may be due to:
◆ Mere exposure effect
◆ Classical and evaluative conditioning
◆ Attitude toward the ad

6.5.1 The Mere Exposure Effect

➔ Mere Exposure Effect: When familiarity leads to a consumer liking an object
➔ Ex. We tend to prefer familiar clothing styles instead of unfamiliar clothing styles
➔ Wearout: Becoming bored with a stimulus

6.5.2 Classical and Evaluative Conditioning

➔ Classical Conditioning: Producing a response to a stimulus by repeatedly
pairing it with another stimulus that automatically produces this response
➔ Evaluative Conditioning: A special case of classical conditioning, producing an
affective response by repeatedly pairing a neutral conditioned stimulus with an
emotionally charged unconditioned stimulus
6.5.3 Attitude Toward the Ad
➔ Dual-Mediation Hypothesis: Explains how attitudes toward the ad influence
brand attitudes

6.5.4 Mood
➔ Affective attitudes can also be influenced by the consumer's mood
➔ Moods are different from classical conditioning as
◆ Does not require a repeated association between two stimuli
◆ Can affect consumer's evaluations of any object, not just the stimulus

6.6 How Affective Attitudes Are Influenced

➔ When consumers apply little processing effort and form attitudes based on
feelings, the same three factors that influence cognitive reasoning also influence
affective attitudes
◆ Communication source
◆ The message
◆ The context

6.6.1 Communication Source

➔ Under conditions of low effort, two factors play a major role in determining
whether or not a communication source evokes favourable affective reactions is
based on two factors:
 ◆ Attractive sources
● Many ads feature attractive models as attractiveness can have
beneficial effects
◆ Likable / Celebrity Sources
● Many ads use likable models like Angelina Jolie to attract
consumers

6.6.2 The Message

➔ Just as the source can influence consumer's feelings and moods, so too can
characteristics associated with the message
◆ Pleasant Pictures
◆ Music
◆ Humour
◆ Sex
◆ Emotional Content
● Transformational Advertising: Ads that try to increase emotional
involvement with the product or service
◆ Message Context
Chapter 7: Problem Recognition and Information Search

7.1 Problem Recognition

➔ Problem Recognition: The perceived difference between an actual and an ideal
state
➔ Ideal State: The way we want things to be
➔ Actual State: Current state, the way things actually are

7.2 Internal Search: Searching for Information from Memory

➔ After problem recognition has been stimulated, the consumer will usually begin
the decision process to solve the problem, the next step is the internal search
➔ Internal Search: The process of recalling stored information from memory

7.2.1 How Much Do We Engage in Internal Search?

➔ The degree of internal search can vary widely from the simple recall of only a
brand name to a more extensive search through memory for relevant information,
feelings and experiences
7.2.2 What Kind of Information is Retrieved from Internal Search
➔ Recall of Brands
◆ The set of brands that consumers recall from memory whenever problem
recognition has been stimulated is an important aspect of internal search
that affects decision-making
◆ Rather than remembering all available brands, consumers tend to recall a
subset of two to eight brands known and consideration or evoked set
● Consideration or Evoked Set: The subset of top-of-mind brands
evaluated when making a choice
◆ The following factors increase brand recall
● Prototypicality
● Brand Familiarity
● Goals and Usage Situations
● Brand Preference
● Retrieval Cues
➔ Recall of Attributes
◆ The following factors increase the recall of attributes
● Accessibility or availability
● Diagnosticity
○ Diagnostic Information: That which helps us discriminate
among objects
● Salience
○ Salient Attribute: Attribute that is “top of mind” or more
important
○ Attribute Determinance: Attribute that is both salient and
diagnostic
● Vividness
● Goals
➔ Recall of Evaluations
◆ Since our memory for specific details decay rapidly over time, we find
overall evaluations or attitudes easier to remember than specific attribute
information
◆ Online Processing: When a consumer is actively evaluating a brand as
they view an ad for it
➔ Recall of Experiences
◆ Experiences from the autobiographical memory in the form of specific
images and the effect associated with them
◆ Information in semantic memory, vivid memories, salient or frequent are
most likely to be recalled
7.2.3 Is Internal Search Always Accurate?
➔ In addition to being influenced by factors that affect what we recall, we all have
processing biases that alter the nature of internal search
➔ There are three important biases
◆ Confirmation Bias: the tendency to recall information that reinforces or
confirms our overall beliefs rather than contradicting them, thereby making
our judgement or decision more positive than it should be
◆ Inhibition: the recall of one attribute inhibiting the recall of another
◆ Mood: Talked about in Chapter 6

7.3 External Search: Searching for Information from the Environment

➔ Sometimes a consumer's decision can be based entirely on information recalled
from memory
➔ Consumers may engage in external search
◆ External Search: a search that occurs regularly, regardless of whether
the consumer is making a choice
➔ The two types of searches:
◆ Pre-Purchase Search: A search for information that aids a specific
acquisition decision
◆ Ongoing Search: A search that occurs regularly regardless of whether
the consumer is making a choice

7.3.1 Where Can We Search for Information?

➔ Retailer Search
➔ Media and Social Media Search
➔ Interpersonal Search
➔ Independent Search
➔ Experiential Search

7.3.2 How Much Do We Engage in External Search?

➔ Motivation to Process Information
◆ As the motivation to process information increases, the external search
will be more extensive
◆ There are 6 factors that increase our motivation to conduct an external
search
● Involvement and perceived risk
● Perceived costs and benefits
● Consideration set
 ● Relative brand unceertaintiy
● Attitudes toward search
● Discrepancy of information
➔ Ability to Process Information
◆ An external search is also strongly influenced by the consumers' ability to
process information
◆ There are 4 factors that affect the extent of external information search
● Consumer knowledge
● Cognitive abilities
● Consumer affect
● Demographics
➔ Opportunity to Process Information
◆ Amount of information available
◆ Information format
◆ Number of items being chosen
◆ Time availability

7.3.3 What Kind of Information is Acquired in External Search?

➔ Brand name information
➔ Price information
➔ Information about other attributes

7.3.5 How Do We Engage in External Search?

➔ Search Stages
➔ Searching by Brand or Attribute
Chapter 8: Judgment and Decision-Making Based on High Effort

8.1 High-Effort Judgement Processes

➔ Judgment: Evaluation of an object or estimate of the likelihood of an outcome or
event
➔ Decision-Making: making a selection among options or courses of actions

8.1.1 Judgements of Likelihood and Goodness/Badness

➔ Estimation of Likelihood: Judging how likely it is that something will occur
➔ Judgement of Goodness/Badness: Evaluating the desirability of something
➔ Imagery: Multi-sensory mental representation of a stimulus or an event
➔ Anchoring and Adjustment Process: Starting with an initial evaluation and
adjusting it with additional information
8.1.2 Mental and Emotional Accounting
➔ Mental Accounting: Categorizing spending and saving decisions into “accounts”
mentally designated for specific consumption transactions, goals or situations
➔ Emotional Accounting: The intensity of positive or negative feelings associated
with each mental “account” for saving or spending

8.1.3 Biases in Judgment Processes

➔ Judgements are not always objective
➔ Biases and other factors may compromise the quality of consumers' decisions
and affect consumer judgement in a variety of ways
◆ Confirmation bias
◆ Self-positivity bias
◆ Negativity bias
◆ Mood and bias
◆ Prior brand evaluations
◆ Prior experience
◆ The difficulty of mental calculations

8.2 High-Effort Decisions and High-Effort Decision-Making Processes

8.2.1 Deciding Which Brands to Consider

➔ Inept Set: Options that are unacceptable when making a decision
➔ Inert Set: Options toward which consumers are indifferent
 ➔ Attraction Effect: When the addition of an inferior brand to a consideration set
increases the attractiveness of the dominant brand

8.2.2 Deciding Which Criteria Are Important to the Choice

➔ Before consumers can choose a specific offering from among a set of brands in a
consideration set, they need to determine which criteria are relevant to the
decision and how important each criterion is to their decision
◆ Goals
◆ Time
◆ Framing
● Decision Framing: the initial reference point or anchor in the
decision process

8.3 Deciding What Brand to Choose: Thought-Based Decisions

➔ Cognitive Decision-Making Model: The process by which consumers combine
items of information about attributes to reach a decision
➔ Affective Decision-Making Model: The process by which consumers base their
decision on feelings and emotions
➔ Compensatory Model: a mental cost-benefit analysis model in which positive
ones can compensate for negative features
➔ Noncompensatory Model: a simple decision model in which negative
information leads to rejection of the option
➔ Cutoff Level: for each attribute, the point at which a brand is rejected with a
non-compensatory model

8.3.1 Decisions Based on Brands

➔ Brand Processing: evaluating one brand at a time
 ➔ Multiattribute Expectancy-Value Mode: a type of brand-based compensatory
model
➔ Conjunctive Model: a non-compensatory model that sets minimum cutoffs to
reject “bad” options
➔ Disjunctive Model: a non-compensatory model that sets acceptable cutoffs to
find options that are “good”

8.3.2 Decisions Based on Product Attributes

➔ Attribute Processing: comparing brands one attribute at a time
➔ Additive Difference Model: compensatory model in which brands are compared
by attribute, two brands at a time
➔ Lexicographic Model: a non-compensatory model that compares brands by
attributes, one at a time order of importance
➔ Elimination-by-Aspects Model: Similar to the lexicographic model but adds the
notion of acceptable cutoffs

8.3.3 Decisions Based on Gains and Losses

➔ Endowment Effect: when ownership increases the value of an item
➔ IMPORTANT VIDEO SHOWN IN CLASS

8.4 Deciding What Brand to Choose: High-Effort Feeling-Based Decisions

8.4.2 Affective Forecasts and Choices

➔ Affective Forecasting: A prediction of how you will feel in the future
8.5 Additional High-Effort Decisions

8.5.2 Decision-Making When Alternatives Cannot Be Compared

➔ Noncomparable Decision: the process of making a decision about products or
services from different categories
➔ Alternative-Based Strategy: making a noncomparable choice based on an
overall evaluation
➔ Attribute-Based Strategy: Making a noncomparable choice by making abstract
representations of comparable attributes

8.6 What Affects High-Effort Decisions?

8.6.1 Consumer Characteristics

➔ Expertise
➔ Mood
➔ Time Pressure
➔ Extremeness Aversion: options that are extreme on some attributes are less
attractive that those with a moderate level of those attributes
◆ Compromise Effect: when a brand gains share because it is an
intermediate rather than an extreme option
◆ Attribute Balancing: picking a brand because it scores equally well on
certain attributes rather than faring unequally on these attributes
➔ Metacognitive Experiences: how the information is processed beyond the
content of the decision

8.6.2 Characteristics of the Decision

➔ Information Availability
➔ Information Format
➔ Trivial Attributes

8.6.3 Group Context

➔ In a group, consumers face three types of individual group goals
◆ Self-presentation
◆ Minimizing regret
◆ Information gathering
Chapter 9: Judgment and Decision-Making Based on Low Effort

9.1 Low-Effort Judgement Processes

9.1.1 The Representativeness Heuristic

➔ Representativeness Heuristic: making a judgement by simply comparing a
stimulus with the category prototype or exemplar
➔ Ex. If you want to estimate the likelihood that a new laundry detergent is high
quality, you might compare it with your prototype for detergents such as Tide

9.1.2 The Availability Heuristic

➔ Availability Heuristic: Basing judgements on events that are easier to recall
◆ Ex. Imagine you purchases a DVD player that needed constant repair,
today you might see that same brand and recall your anger
➔ Base-Rate Information: How often an event really occurs on average
➔ Law of Small Numbers: the expectation that information obtained from a small
number of people represents the larger population

9.2 Low-Effort Decision-Making Processes

9.2.1 Unconscious Low-Effort Decision-Making

➔ In some low-effort situations, consumers may make a decision without being

consciously aware of how or why they are doing so
➔ Several influences mentioned in Chapter 6 play a role in unconscious, low-effort
decision-making. For example, evaluative conditioning can influence attitudes
and unconscious brand choices

9.2.2 Conscious Low-Effort Decision-Making

➔ Traditional Hierarchy of Effects: sequential steps used in decision-making
involving thinking than feeling, then the behaviour
➔ Low-Effort Hierarchy of Effects: sequence of thinking behaving feeling

9.2.3 Using Simplifying Strategies When Consumer Effort Is Low

➔ Satisfice: finding a brand that satisfies a need even though the brand may not be
the best brand
 ➔ Choice Tactics: simple rule of thumb used to make low-effort decisions

9.3 Learning Choice Tactics

➔ Operant Conditioning: a process of learning driven by the use of rewards to
reinforce desired behaviour and punishment to discourage objectionable
behaviour

9.3.1 Reinforcement

➔ Reinforcement usually comes from a feeling of satisfaction that occurs when we

as consumers perceive that our needs have been adequately met.
➔ This reinforcement increases the probability that we will purchase the same
brand again.
➔ For example, if you buy Crest toothpaste and are impressed by the results after
using it, your purchase will be reinforced, and you will be more likely to buy this
brand again.

9.3.2 Punishment
➔ Alternatively, consumers can have a bad experience with a product or service,
form a negative evaluation of it, and never purchase it again.
➔ In operant conditioning terms, this experience is called punishment.
➔ Ex. If you did something bad when you were growing up, your parents may have
punished you to make sure that you would not behave that way again.
➔ Ex. In a consumer context, punishment occurs when a brand does not meet our
needs and we are dissatisfied, so we learn not to buy that brand again.

9.3.3 Repeat Purchase

➔ Consumers learn when the same act is repeatedly reinforced or punished over
time
➔ This process occurs whenever we buy a common, repeat-purchase product.
➔ Thus, we learn and gradually acquire a set of choice tactics that will result in
making a satisfactory choice in each decision situation.

9.3.4 Choice Tactics Depend on the Product

➔ The choice tactics we use often depend on the product category that we are
considering
 ➔ Ex. we might be brand loyal to Heinz ketchup but always buy the cheapest trash
bags.
➔ The tactic we learn for a product category depends on which brands are
available and our experiences with them.

9.4 Low-Effort Thought-Based Decision-Making

9.4.1 Performance as a Simplifying Strategy

➔ Performance-Related Tactics: tactics based on benefits, features, or
evaluations of the brand

9.4.2 Habit as a Simplifying Strategy

➔ Habit: a learned behaviour that involves the regular performance of the same
action repeatedly over time. Behaviours are often performed unconsciously and
may be difficult to discontinue
➔ Shaping: Leading consumers through a series of steps to create a desired
response
➔ How to:
◆ Developing repeat-purchase behaviour
◆ Marketing to habitual purchasers of other brands
◆ Marketing to habitual purchasers of one's own brand
9.4.3 Brand Loyalty as Simplifying Strategy
➔ Brand Loyalty: buying the same brand repeatedly because of a strong
preference for it
➔ Multibrand Loyalty: buying two or more brands repeatedly because of a strong
preference for them
➔ How to:
◆ Identify brand-loyal customers
◆ Develop brand loyalty
◆ Developing brand loyalty through product quality
◆ Developing brand loyalty through sales promotions
◆ Marketing to brand-loyal consumers of other brands

9.4.4 Price as a Simplifying Strategy

➔ Price-Related Tactics: simplifying decision heuristics that are based on price
➔ Zone of Acceptance: the acceptable range of prices for any purchase decision
➔ Deal-Prone Consumer: a consumer who is more likely to be influenced by price
➔ How to:
◆ Deals and deal sires
◆ Importance of value
◆ Special Value
◆ Price consciousness

9.4.5 Normative Influences as a Simplifying Strategy

➔ Normative Choice Tactics: low-elaboration decision-making that is based on
others' opinions

9.5 Low-Effort Feeling-Based Decision-Making

9.5.1 Feelings as a Simplifying Strategy

➔ Affect: low-level feelings
➔ Affect-Related Tactics: tactics based on feelings
➔ Affect Referral: a simple type of affective tactic whereby we simply remember
our feelings for the product or service

9.5.2 Brand Familiarity

➔ Brand Familiarity: easy recognition of a well-known brand
 ➔ Co-Branding: an arrangement by which the two brands form a partnership to
benefit from the power of both
➔ Unity: when all the visual parts of a design fit together

9.5.3 Decision-Making Based on Variety-Seeking Needs

➔ Variety Seeking: trying something different
➔ Optimal Stimulation Level: the level of arousal that is most comfortable for an
individual
➔ Sensation Seekers: a consumer who actively looks for a variety
➔ Vicarious Exploration: seeking information simply for stimulation

9.5.4 Buying on Impulse

➔ Impulse Purchase: an unexpected purchase based on a strong feeling
➔ Are characterized as:
◆ An intense overwhelming feeling to buy a product immediately
◆ A disregard for potential negatives with the purchase
◆ Feelings of euphoria and excitement
◆ The conflict between control and indulgence

Chapter 10: Post-Decision Processes

10.1 Post-Decision Dissonance and Regret

10.1.1 Dissonance
➔ Post-Decision Dissonance: a feeling of discomfort about whether or not the
correct decision was made

10.1.2 Regret
➔ Post-Decision Regret: the negative feeling that one should have made another
purchase, consumption or disposition decision than one actually did

10.2 Learning From Consumer Experience

10.2.1 A Model of Learning from Consumer Experience

➔ Hypothesis Testing: Comparing prior beliefs or expectations with new
information, such as evidence from experience
 ➔ Hypothesis Generation: forming expectations about the brand, product or
service
➔ Exposure to Evidence: actually experiencing the brand, product or service
➔ Encoding of Evidence: processing the information that one experiences
➔ Integration of Evidence: combining new information with stored knowledge

10.2.2 What Affects Learning

➔ 4 factors affect learning
◆ Motivation
◆ Prior Knowledge or Ability
◆ The ambiguity of the information environment or lack of opportunity
● The Ambiguity of Information: when there is not enough
information from the consumption experience to confirm or disprove
one's hypotheses
● Top Dog: a market leader or brand with a large or the largest
market share
● Underdog: a lower share brand that is perceived to be doing well in
spite of the odds against it
◆ Processing Biases

10.3 How Do Consumers Make Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction Judgements

➔ Satisfaction: the feeling that a purchase decision, consumption experience or
disposition decision meets or exceeds one's expectations
➔ Dissatisfaction: the feeling that a purchase decision, consumption experience,
or disposition decision falls short of one's expectations

10.3.1 Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction Based on Thoughts

➔ Thought-based judgment can relate to
◆ Whether consumer's beliefs and expectations about the offering are
confirmed or disconfirmed by its actual performance
◆ Thoughts about casualty and blame
◆ Thoughts about fairness and equity
◆ Expectations and Performance: The Disconfirmation Paradigm
● Disconfirmation: when expectations do not match the actual
brand, product or service performance because performance is
either better or worse than expected
● Expectation: belief about the performance of a brand, product or
service
 ● Performance: the extent to which the product/service does what is
it supposed to do and fulfills consumers' needs
◆ Casualty and Blame: Attribution Theory
● Attribution Theory: a theory of how individuals find explanations
for events
● In a marketing context, when a product or service does not fulfill
consumers’ needs, they will attempt to find an explanation based
on three factors:
○ Locus: is the problem consumer or marketer related?
○ Controllability: is the event under the customers' or
marketers' control
○ Stability: is the cause of the event temporary or permanent
◆ Fairness and Equity: Equity Theory
● Equity Theory: a theory about the fairness of exchange between
individuals which helps in understanding consumer satisfaction and
dissatisfaction
● Fairness in the Exchange: the perception that the inputs and
outputs of people involved in an exchange are equal

10.3.2 Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction Based on Feelings

➔ Experiences Emotions and Coping
◆ Post-Decision Emotions: positive or negative emotions experienced
while using or disposing of the acquired brand, products or services

10.4 Responses to Dissatisfaction

10.4.1 Complaints

➔ Dissatisfied consumers are more likely to complain when the perceived cause of
their dissatisfaction is:
◆ Marketer-related (“they are to blame”)
◆ Controllable (“they could have prevented it”)
◆ Stable (“they always do this”)
➔ In particular, companies should pay close attention to four customer
characteristics when preparing complaint-resolution policies and practices:
◆ Customer’s perceptions of the problem:
● How severe does the problem seem to be?
● Is the company seen as being responsible for the problem?
● How important is the product to the customer?
 ● It is easy for a company to make mistakes here because what may
seem to be a minor issue to a company may be a major issue to
the consumer.
◆ Customer–company relationship.
● How often does the customer buy from the company?
● How long has the customer been buying from the company?
➔ Customer psychographics.
◆ Does the customer have the propensity to complain?
◆ Consumers are more likely to complain when they are experts or
are self-confident and aggressive.
◆ How much appreciation of quality does the customer exhibit?
➔ Personal characteristics.
◆ What is the age of the customer?
◆ What is the gender of the customer?

10.5 Is Customer Satisfaction Enough?

10.5.1 Customer Retention

➔ Customer Retention: the practice of retaining customers by building long-term
relationships with them

10.5.2 Product-Harm Crises

➔ Care about customers
➔ Remember customers between sales
➔ Build trusting relationships
➔ Monitor the service delivery process
➔ Provide extra effort

10.6 Disposition

10.6.1 Disposing of Meaningful Objects

➔ Physical Detachment: physically disposing of an item
➔ Emotional Detachment: emotionally disposing of a possession
10.6.2 Recycling
➔ Motivation to Recycle
◆ Consumers are more likely to recycle when they perceive that the benefits
outweigh the costs, including money, time, and effort
➔ Ability to Recycle
◆ Consumers who know how to recycle are more likely to do so than those
who do not
➔ Opportunity to Recycle
◆ If separating, storing, and removing recyclable materials is difficult or
inconvenient, consumers will usually avoid doing so.

Videos Notes

Problem Recognition
➔ Consumer Decision-Making Process
◆ A five-step process is used by consumers when buying goods and service
● Problem Recognition
○ Results of an imbalance between actual needs or wants and
desired states
● Information Search
● Evaluation of Alternatives
● Purchase
● Postpurchase Behaviour
◆ (Cultural, social, individual and psychological factors affect all steps)

Loss Aversion and The Endowment Effect

➔ Prospect Theory
➔ Loss Aversion: asymmetry around a neutral point where losses are perceived
as 2.5 times more power than gains
➔ Ex. people sell more TVs when their commission is prepaid because they don’t
want to give back $10 (even though they will make $12)
➔ Endowment Effect: we adjust to our level of ownership and it becomes the
baseline by which we judge future gains and losses
➔ Ex. Once ownership is established, people favour the object they own even
though ownership is randomly selected
➔ Ex. Ticket owning and selling example
➔ When we own something we focus on what we would give up rather than what
we could gain
➔ After taking possession of an object people consider themselves owners and like
the object more, making it difficult to give up