Marketers use “tricks” to minimize psychological waiting time. These techniques range from altering customers’ perceptions of a line’s length to providing distractions that divert attention from waiting: One hotel chain received excessive complaints about the wait for elevators, so it installed mirrors near the elevator banks. People’s natural tendency to check their appearance reduced complaints, even though the actual waiting time was unchanged. Airline passengers often complain about the wait to claim their baggage. In one airport, they would walk 1 minute from the plane to the baggage carousel and then wait 7 minutes for their luggage. When the airport changed the layout so that the walk to the carousel took 6 minutes and bags arrived 2 minutes after that, complaints disappeared. Restaurant chains are scrambling to put the “fast” back into fast food, especially for drive-through lanes, which now account for 65 percent of revenues. In a study that ranked the speed of 25 fast-food chains, cars spent an average of 203.6 seconds from the menu board to departure. Wendy’s was clocked the fastest at 150.3 seconds. To speed things up and eliminate spills, McDonald’s created a salad that comes in a container to fit into car cup holders. Arby’s is working on a “high viscosity” version of its special sauce that’s less likely to spill. Burger King is testing see-through bags so customers can quickly check their orders before speeding off. What are your waiting line “pain points?” How can companies change their processes to make these situations easier or more enjoyable for you?
> List the steps in the model of cognitive decision-making.
> What are the two dimensions that determine whether we will react positively or negatively to a purchase environment?
> What is time poverty, and how can it influence our purchase decisions?
> What are demographics? Give three examples of demographic characteristics.
> How does a brand name work as a heuristic?
> Technology has the potential to make our lives easier as it reduces the amount of clutter we need to work through to access the information on the Internet that really interests us. However, perhaps intelligent agents that make recommendations based only
> List three problems with measures of memory for advertising.
> What is an example of an exemplar product?
> Define nostalgia, and tell why it is such a widely used advertising strategy.
> Name the three stages of information processing as we commit information about products to memory.
> Why does a pioneering brand have a memory advantage over follower brands?
> How does the likelihood that a person wants to use an ATM machine relate to a schema?
> Why do U.S. phone numbers have seven digits?
> Name two different disciplines that study consumer behavior. How would their approaches to the same issue differ?
> What is the difference between C2C and B2C e-commerce?
> Provide a definition of consumer behavior.
> Identify some important characteristics for a product with a well-known brand name. Based on these attributes, generate a list of possible brand extension or licensing opportunities, as well as some others that consumers would not be likely to accept.
> What are sociometric techniques? Under what conditions does it make sense to use them?
> What is the difference between a market maven and a surrogate consumer?
> Which is more powerful, positive or negative word of mouth?
> What is word-of-mouth, and why is it more powerful than advertising?
> List three factors that help to determine store image.
> What are some important pros and cons of e-commerce?
> What is the difference between a lecture and a drama?
> Why do marketers use metaphors to craft persuasive messages? Give two examples of this technique.
> Give an example of the sunk-cost fallacy.
> Name two ways a consumer problem arises.
> The strategy of viral marketing gets customers to sell a product to other customers on behalf of the company. That often means convincing your friends to climb on the bandwagon, and sometimes you get a cut if they buy something. Some might argue that tha
> Give an example of the type of purchase that each of the three types of decision-making – cognitive, habitual, and affective - would most likely explain.
> What is prime? How does it differ from a nudge?
> What are latitudes of acceptance and rejection? How does a consumer’s level of involvement with a product affect his latitude of acceptance?
> What is a halo effect, and why does it happen?
> What is the difference between buzz and hype?
> What is source credibility, and what are two factors that influence our decision as to whether a source is credible?
> Describe the elements of the traditional communications model, and tell how the updated model differs.
> List three psychological principles related to persuasion.
> How do levels of commitment to an attitude influence the likelihood it will become part of the way we think about a product in the long-term?
> “Do as I say, not as I do.” How does this statement relate to attitude models?
> Identify a set of avoidance groups for your peers. Can you identify any consumption decisions that you and your friends make with these groups in mind?
> How can an attitude play an ego-defensive function?
> What is the basic philospophy behind a lifestyle marketing strategy?
> What is fattism?
> List the three semiotic components of a marketing message, giving an example of each.
> The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Explain this statement.
> What is the difference between an absolute threshold and a differential threshold?
> Define social marketing, and give an example of this technique.
> Give two examples of important legislation that relate to U.S. consumers.
> Identify and describe the three stages of perception.
> The economics of information perspective argues that advertising is important. Why?
> List three dimensions that describe the self-concepts.
> Ask a student to bring in an ad in which the brand being marketed was at one time a status symbol, but fell out of fashion for a time (e.g., Cadillac, Parker Pen, Izod-Lacoste, etc.). Have the student discuss whether the ad still attempts to create that
> This chapter mentions that psychographic analyses can be used by politicians to market themselves. What are some of the marketing strategies and techniques used by politicians in recent elections? Did the candidates design special appeals to attract the
> Have each student characterize three different people that they associate with (friends, coworkers, classmates, family members, etc.) based on traits (trait theory). Each of the three should be distinct. How could an advertiser use this information?
> Have each student extensively describe a consumption situation that reflects each of the following: need for affiliation, need for power, and need for uniqueness.
> Have students think of examples of products or services that each of them has purchased that fit the three types of motivational conflicts found in Figure 4.1.
> What is the relationship between an opinion leader and an opinion seeker?
> Is there such a thing as a generalized opinion leader? Why or why not?
> What is an opinion leader? Give three reasons why they are powerful influences on consumers’
> What is viral marketing? Give an example of this strategy.
> Some retailers work hard to cultivate a certain look or image, and they may even choose employees who fit this look. Abercrombie & Fitch, for example, seems to link itself to a clean-cut, all-American image. At one point, a lawsuit claimed that Abercromb
> Describe some ways in which marketers are using the Internet to encourage positive WOM.
> How does the Principle of Least Interest relate to your success in a romantic relationship?
> What is brand community, and why is it of interest to marketers?
> List three types of social power, and give an example of each.
> What is the difference between recycling and lateral cycling?
> How do business models in the sharing economy differ from traditional purchase processes?
> What is the difference between unplanned buying and impulse buying?
> List three separate motivations for shopping, give an example of each.
> Describe the difference between a superordinate category, a basic level category, and a subordinate category.
> “Marketers need to be extra sure their product works as promised when the first introduce it.” How does this statement relate to what we know about consumers’ evoked sets?
> In his book Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking, author Malcolm Gladwell argues that hallowed marketing research techniques like focus groups aren’t effective because we usually react to products quickly and without much conscious thought so it
> What is prospect theory? Does it support the argument that people are rational decision makers?
> What is purchase momentum, and how does it relate (or not) to the model of rational decision-making?
> Describe a heuristic a couple might use when they make a decision, and provide an example of it.
> What is a kin-network system?
> What are some differences between “traditional” and “modern” couples in terms of how they allocate household responsibilities?
> What is the difference between an autonomic and syncretic decision?
> List three roles employees play in the organizational decision-making process.
> What are some of the ways in which organizational decisions differ within each class?
> Summarize the buyclass model of purchasing. How do decisions differ within each class?
> What is a prediction market?
> Consumers who participate in the sharing economy seem willing to interact with total strangers. Despite safety and privacy concerns, what is the long-term outlook for this change in the way we think about interacting with people whom we don’t know? How c
> What are some factors that influence how an organizational buyer evaluates a purchase decision?
> What is the difference between a non-compensatory and a compensatory decision rule? Give one example of each.
> Describe the difference between inertia and brand loyalty.
> List three product attributes that consumers can use as product quality signals and provide an example of each.
> Why can “mindless” decision making actually be more efficient than devoting a lot of thought to what we buy?
> What is consumer involvement? How does this concept relate to motivation?
> What is mood congruency and how to advertisers use it?
> What is the difference between a mood and an emotion?
> List three types of perceived risk and give an example of each?
> Name the levels in Maslow’s Hierarchy and give an example of a marketing appeal that is focused at each level.
> The clothing chain H&M features computer-generated models on its Web site. The company drew criticism for presenting only picture-perfect people; for example, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation accused the chain of “creating unrealistic physical ide
> Go to www.victoriassecret.com. How does this famous website use enhancement of the self to attract consumers? Would you expect males to visit the site as well as females? How could the site make it easier for males to purchase from the site (remember, ma
> The Farmer’s Cooperative of Arkansas and Oklahoma (Co-Op) was an agricultural cooperative that had approximately 23,000 members. To raise money to support its general business operations, Co-Op sold promissory notes to investors that were payable on dema
> While Nigeria, an African nation, was in the midst of a boom period due to oil exports, it entered into $1 billion of contracts with companies in various countries to purchase huge quantities of Portland cement from those companies. Nigeria was going to
> Nagib Giha (husband) filed a complaint for divorce from Nelly Giha (wife) on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. On May 20, the parties reached an agreement for the disposition of their property which provided that they would divide equally the ne
> Homer and Edna Jones, husband and wife, executed a joint will that provided “We will and give to our survivor, whether it be Homer Jones or Edna Jones, all property and estate of which the first of us that dies may be seized and possessed. If we should b
> Milton Mende purchased the Star Midas Mining Co., Inc., a Nevada corporation, for $6,500. This corporation was a shell corporation with no assets. Mende changed the name of the corporation to American Equities Corporation (American Equities) and hired Be
> The archdiocese of Miami established a health and welfare plan to provide medical coverage for its employees. The archdiocese purchased a stop-loss insurance policy from Lloyd’s of London (Lloyd’s), which provided insurance against losses that exceeded t
