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Social Psychology of Brands Potential Exam Question

2012

Outline the concept of the typology of the consumer decision process. Propose and justify dissonance reduction strategies for high involvement / low differentiation brands of your choice.

(i)

Outline

A brand identifies a product and differentiates it from those of its competitors. A brand is more likely to succeed when marketers understand what a brand means to consumers (de Chernatony and McDonald, 2003); how is the brand relevant to the consumer, and what their relationship with brand is. This relationship can be managed by understanding the consumer decision-making process through; consumers perceived brand differentiation and consumers involvement. Consumer involvement concerns an individuals personal relevance or importance of a brand. Involvement can be seen as the motivation to search for information and to engage in the systematic process of decision-making. The selection of brands during purchase varies based on the degree of involvement a consumer has for the brand and product.

Low Consumer Involvement Consumer does not perceive the purchase of the brand and product to be important to the consumer. Consumer perceives there are no significant differences between all brands in the product category, and consumer does not have the interest to engage in active search for information, from different sources. Consumer is not motivated to evaluate between different brands. .

High Consumer Involvement Consumer perceives the brand and product to be important to the consumers value and psychological consequences (self-relevance). Consumer seeks extensive information prior to purchase. Consumers have active interest to search for information and to engage in evaluation between alternative brands.

Atiqah Ismail

Strategic Marketing

Social Psychology of Brands Figure1: Typology of the Consumer Decision Process

2012

Significant Perceived Brand Differences Minor Perceived Brand Differences

Focus on Best Value Extended Problem Solving Tendency to Limited Problem Solving

Focus on Price Dissonance Reduction Limited Problem Solving

High Consumer Involvement

Low Consumer Involvement

Axes: The horizontal axis reflects the extent of consumers involvement in a purchase decision. The vertical axis reflects the extent to which a consumer perceives differences between brands.

Extended Problem Solving High consumer involvement & significant perceived brand differences Consumers are involved in the purchase and perceive significant differences between competing brands. Consumers are likely to engage in extended problem solving for products that are: Expensive Infrequent High symbolic meaning High social visibility High risk of potential harm Technically complex They are likely to be brands that reflect the buyers self-image and social status such as clothes and accessories. For example, wearing a Burberry trench coat may reflect social status as classy or a Macbook laptop may reflect a persons self-image as casual smart.

Atiqah Ismail

Strategic Marketing

Social Psychology of Brands

2012

Dissonance Reduction High consumer involvement & minor perceived brand differences Consumers have very high level of involvement in the purchase decision-making process, but brands are perceived to have no significant differences and consumers have very little knowledge about the differences between brands. Dissonance is the feeling of insecurity and mental (psychological) discomfort concerning the purchase. Lack of clear brand differentiation may cause confusion and uncertainty to purchase consequences. Purchase are likely to be infrequent or a first-buy with no prior experience.

For example, decision to get a tattoo for the first time without prior experience. In this circumstance, decisions are based on non-objective factors; e.g. other consumer reviews & friends advice and experiences. Consumers are unsure of which brands or service to select.

Limited Problem Solving Low consumer involvement & minor perceived brand differences The consequence of the purchase the brand is not regarded as an important issue to the consumer. Self-relevance of both the brand and product category does not provide significant (psychological) consequences to the consumer. Consumers have no interest in buying the best brand. Consumers perceive all brands to have no significant differences. Brands are usually grocery items or routine, daily products with no or little brand differences, such as garbage bags, vegetables, eggs and milk (free-range Tesco eggs vs. free-range ASDA eggs). Consumers are not particularly interested in the purchase; hence, they are unlikely to be motivated to actively search for information from different sources (unlike, dissonance reduction and extended problem solving) to evaluate different brands.

Tendency to Limited Problem Solving Low consumer involvement & significant perceived brand differences Consumer holds significant best value differentiation between brands, with low involvement in the purchase. Consumers can be the routine brand buyers, where consumers have low self-relevance to the product category, but they do have a favourite and preferred brand which they buy regularly. With low involvement consumer are most likely to have no sufficient motivation to actively seek for information.

Atiqah Ismail

Strategic Marketing

Social Psychology of Brands

2012

For example, everyday consumer goods such as, Hovis bread, Lee Stafford shampoo and hair treatment and Starbucks coffee. Hence, due to these differences in consumers purchase decision for different levels of involvement, understanding social psychology of brands is important in determining marketing strategies.

(ii) Propose and justify dissonance reduction strategies for high involvement / low differentiation brands of your choice. Brand: Pure Ink Newcastle Marketers need to clearly identify the source of dissonance (mental discomfort and insecurity) of consumers. Marketers need to identify consumers focus of involvement and what exactly does the consumer consider to be personally relevant. Most importantly the marketer must identify the consumer segment. Consumer segment: New buy, no prior experience and no or little knowledge of the service offering (the brand). Purchase can be typified as: 1. Emotional and psychosocial 2. Symbolic meaning 3. Socially visible 4. Infrequent Lack or no experience 5. Potential harm (hygiene, health and safety) 6. Time commitment: Committed to the purchase choice for a long-time or permanently Value sought in a brand: Experience during and after the offering, and quality of the outcome.

Decision to get a tattoo is considered to involve high level of consumer involvement with no significant brand differences among competing brands. According to DeMello (2000) a tattoo is more than a painting on the skin, its meaning and reverberation can only be comprehended by the bearer, it is always more than meets the eye. Brands are associated with the tattoo artists expertise, rather than the explicit Pure Ink brand. Due to the intangibility of the service, there is a lack of clear brand differences differences are based on the perceived skills of tattoo artists, which the consumer may find extremely difficult to evaluate and differentiate.

Atiqah Ismail

Strategic Marketing

Social Psychology of Brands Strategy: Informative

2012

Peter and Olson (2008) consumers are experiencing dissonance are information seekers. These consumers use a lot of information to find a good brand. Strategy should focus on informative materials and cues to provide the potential consumer self-assurance and reassurance. It should focus on building consumer trust and creating brand equity. For example, tattoo parlours such as Miami Ink, London Ink and LA Ink all promote themselves through reality TV shows, building awareness, building brand equity of tattoo artists within the parlours, showing their skills and the quality of the finished product, their work environment and hygiene standards. Consumers dissonance of potential harm can be reduced by providing information health and care information and hygiene standard of the brand. Internet can play a significant role in consumer decision-making via online reviews of products on websites and blogs (Euromonitor, 2010), moreover, the use of social media networking and video sharing sites such as YouTube are increasingly used as a platform to engage in interactive communication between the targeted public and a firm; hence Pure Ink can use this media to communicate its informative marketing message to assure and reassure consumers.

Atiqah Ismail

Strategic Marketing

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