The Communications Process and Consumer Behavior

CHAPTER
6
The
Communications
Process and
Consumer
Behavior
©2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or
posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Chapter Objectives
After reading this chapter you should be able to:

1. Appreciate elements of the communications process.
2. Understand the nature of meaning and semiotics in marketing
communications, and how that meaning is a constructive process
involving the use of signs and symbols.
3. Describe marketing communicators’ usage of three forms of figurative
language: simile, metaphor, and allegory.
4. Discuss the two perspectives that characterize how consumers process
information: the consumer processing model (CPM) and the hedonic,
experiential model (HEM).
5. Explain the eight stages of consumer information processing.
2
General Communications Objectives
1. Build category wants

2. Create brand awareness
3. Enhance brand attitudes
4. Influence brand purchase intention
5. Facilitate purchase
3
Communications and the Communications Process
• Communications: the process of establishing a

commonness or oneness of thought between a sender
(e.g., an advertiser) and a receiver (e.g., a consumer).
• Encoding: the process of putting thought into
symbolic form (e.g., words, sentence structure,
symbols, non-verbal cues).
• Decoding: the process of transforming message
symbols back into thought.
4
Figure 6.1: Elements in the Communication
Process
5
Semiotics
Semiotics is the “The study of meaning and

meaning-producing events.”
Meaning is a constructive process that is

determined as much by the communicators
as by the receivers of the message.
6
Semiotics and Meaning Transfer
1. Semiotics: the study of meaning and meaning
producing events.
2. Meaning: Our internal responses (thoughts, feelings)
when presented with a sign, stimulus, or object.
3. Sign: (in general at this point) represents something to
someone in a given context. (“I’ll have a Coke”)
4. Socialization: process by which people learn cultural
values, form beliefs, and become familiar with
“physical cues” representing these values and beliefs.
7
Neural Advertising: The Sounds We Can’t Resist
8
Forms of Meaning
• Denotative (exact) versus Connotative

(implied) Meaning
• Structural versus Contextual meaning:

• Structural (only a sign to sign relationship)
• Contextual (description of signs)
9
Figure 6.3: V8 Advertisements Illustrating
Contextual Meaning
5–10
Signals, Signs, & Symbols
• Signal: the product is a cause or effect of something

else (e.g., SUVs the result of large families)
• Sign: the product and referent belong to the same

cultural context (e.g., SUVs part of upper middle class, children,
suburbs)
• Symbol: the product and object have no prior

relationship, yet are now associated with one another
(e.g., Ford trucks and “tough guy” image/ads)
11
Symbolic Relationships
• Simile: a comparison using “like” or “as” (e.g.,
“Trailblazer – like a rock”)
• Metaphor: a comparison not using “like” or “as” – it
is direct. (e.g., “Wheaties – the Breakfast of
Champions,” “Budweiser – the King of Beers”)
• Allegory: (extended metaphor)
• Equates objects in a narrative with meanings lying outside
narrative
• Personification
• Moral conflict
• Examples: Old Joe, Geico Cavemen, Dinky, Digger, BK
King, Helga and Wolfgang, Mr. Clean, Mr. Goodwrench,
Geico Gecko, Allstate Mayhem, Geico Maxwell
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_advertising_characters
12
Use of Simile
©2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or 13
Use of Metaphor
Use of Allegory
The Geico Caveman
Use of Allegory – The Geico Gecko
©2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or 5–
Use of Allegory – Geico Gecko and Mayhem
Use of Allegory – The Red and Yellow M&M
Implementing Positioning: Behavior Foundations of
Marketing Communications
Consumer Processing Model (CPM)
Behavior is seen as rational, highly

cognitive, systematic, and reasoned
Implementing Positioning: Behavior Foundations of
Marketing Communications
Hedonic, Experiential Model (HEM)
Consumer behavior is driven by

emotions in pursuit of “fun,
fantasies, and feelings”
Figure 6.16: Illustration of an HEM-Oriented
Advertisement
©2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or 5–
CPM vs. HEM
An advertisement exemplifying the HEM approach
Figure 6.10: Comparison of the CPM and HEM
Models
• The rational consumer processing model (CPM) and

the hedonic, experiential model (HEM) are not
mutually exclusive. Rather, they exist on a
continuum.
CPM HEM
• “ C o ld ” • “H o t”
• Calculating • Emotional
• Cognitive • 3Fs
FIGURE 6.10 C o m p a r i s o n of the

C P M a n d H E M Models
23
The Consumer Processing Model (CPM)
(McGuire’s
(McGuire’s 88 Stages
Stages of
of Information
Information Processing)
Processing)
24
Mere Exposure Hypothesis
(“Truth Effect”)
Repeated exposure to a stimulus (TV ad,

package, radio commercial, ...) may generate a
positive affect toward the object (e.g., an
advertised brand) through enhanced
familiarity.
25
The 8 Stages of Consumer Information
Processing
Attention Types
1. Involuntary attention
2. Non-voluntary attention
3. Voluntary attention
4. No attention
27
Factors Accounting for Attention Selectivity
• Stimulus intensity (sound, color, smell)

• Novel stimuli (adaptation theory)
• Past experience (rewards/reinforcement)
• Needs (e.g., hedonic ones)
• Expectations (product interest)
• Values (families, culture)
28
Processing
Stage 3: Comprehension
• Understanding and creating meaning out of stimuli

and symbols
• Interpreting stimuli involves selective perception
• Factors influencing comprehension: expectations,
context, needs, personality, attitudes, mood
• Average miscomprehension rates have been cited to
be as high as 30%
30
Figure 6.11: Selective Perception
Each individual is
likely to perceive
images in different
ways
31
Processing
Stage 4: Agreement
• Comprehension by itself does not ensure that the

message influences consumers’ behavior
• Agreement depends on
• whether the message is credible and the quality of
arguments
• whether the information is compatible with the
values that are important to the consumer
33
Processing
Processing
Retention and Search/Retrieval of Stored
Information
• Retention and information search and
retrieval, both involve memory factors
related to consumer choice
• Three memory storage theories: (1) multiple store
approach, (2) levels of processing, and (3) spreading
activation model
36
(1) Multiple Store Approach to Memory
• Sensory stores(SS):
• Information is rapidly lost unless attention is allocated to
the stimulus
• Short-Term Memory(STM):
• Limited processing capacity
• Information not thought about or rehearsed will be lost in
30 seconds or less
37
Elements of Memory
• Long-Term Memory (LTM):

• A virtual storehouse of unlimited information
• Information is organized into coherent and associated
cognitive units called brand schema, memory organization
packets, or knowledge structures (see next VW Beetle
slide)
• The marketer’s job is to provide positively valued
information that consumers will store in LTM
38
Figure 6.12: A Consumer’s Knowledge Structure
for the VW Beetle
39
Other Memory Storage Theories
• (2) Levels of processing: Capacity is allocated to

yield processing from simple sensory analysis to
complex semantic and cognitive elaboration.
• (3) Spreading activation model: Only one memory

store exists. Only limited portions of that store can be
activated at any one time. The active portion is used
for processing.
40
Learning and Learning Types
• Learning: changes in the content or organization

of information in a consumer’s long-term memory
(see also low involvement learning/classical conditioning example for a
contrasting process)
• Learning types:
1. Strengthen present linkages
2. Establish new linkages
3. Generalize linkages
4. Adjust competitor’s linkages
5. Move closer to “ideal” linkage
41
Low Involvement Learning
(similar
(similar to
to classical
classical conditioning)
conditioning)
Figure 6.14: Illustration of an Effort to Strengthen a
Linkage between a Brand and Its Benefits
5–43
Search and Retrieval of Information
• Concretizing: by providing concrete (vs. abstract)
examples, new information is better learned and
accessed (e.g., Apple PCs versus PS/2)
• Imagery: a mental event involving the visualization
of a concept or relationship (e.g., Chevy Volt or Hummer H3
versus “standard deviation”)
• Dual-Coding Theory: Pictures are represented in

memory in verbal as well as visual form, whereas
words are less likely to have visual representations
(e.g., Jack’s camera shop)
44
Figure 6.15: The Use of Visual Imagery
in Advertising
5–45
Processing
Decision Processes
1. Affect referral (low involvement)

2. Compensatory heuristics (high involvement; e.g.,
Fishbein attitude model in next chapter)
3. Non-compensatory heuristics:
• Conjunctive model (“and”)
• Disjunctive model (“or”)
• Lexicographic model (rank ordering)
4. Phased Strategies (combination of heuristics)
47
Processing
HEM-Oriented Advertisement

The Communications Process and Consumer Behavior

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

The Communications Process and Consumer Behavior

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Communications Process and Consumer Behavior

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CHAPTER

After reading this chapter you should be able to:

1. Build category wants

• Communications: the process of establishing a

Semiotics is the “The study of meaning and

Meaning is a constructive process that is

• Denotative (exact) versus Connotative

• Structural versus Contextual meaning:

• Signal: the product is a cause or effect of something

• Sign: the product and referent belong to the same

• Symbol: the product and object have no prior

Consumer Processing Model (CPM)

Behavior is seen as rational, highly

Hedonic, Experiential Model (HEM)

Consumer behavior is driven by

An advertisement exemplifying the HEM approach

• The rational consumer processing model (CPM) and

FIGURE 6.10 C o m p a r i s o n of the

Repeated exposure to a stimulus (TV ad,

• Stimulus intensity (sound, color, smell)

• Understanding and creating meaning out of stimuli

• Comprehension by itself does not ensure that the

• Long-Term Memory (LTM):

• (2) Levels of processing: Capacity is allocated to

• (3) Spreading activation model: Only one memory

• Learning: changes in the content or organization

• Dual-Coding Theory: Pictures are represented in

1. Affect referral (low involvement)

You might also like