strategic brand mangement

Emotion, Identity and Choice

SBM - Week 4

Chelsea Bailey

Objectives - Lecture Four

Explain the stages of consumer decision-making

for extended, routine and limited problem-solving

Discuss the cues used by customers to evaluate

brands

Understand the challenge to branding of

consumer perception

Consider the importance of brand name

Recognise the role of perceived risk in consumer

brand choice

Possible Start Point: Drivers of ‘Brand Equity’

 Brand elements

 Marketing activities

 Meaning transference

Aspects of Product Differentiation

 Price

 Style

 Design

 Ordering ease

 Delivery

 Customer training

 Customer service

 Maintenance

 Product form

 Overall product

quality

 Features

 Performance

 Durability

 Reliability

 Reparability

Brand Elements (brand identity)

 Brand elements can be chosen that aim to

create brand awareness and facilitate the

formation of strong, favorable, and unique brand

associations:

 Brand name

 Logo

 Symbol

 Character

 Packaging

 Slogan etc.

What is emotion?  Reaction triad

– Psychological arousal, motor expression, and

subjective feeling

– The full impact of emotions is only realized

when they are sensed and become ‘feelings’

 Emotions can be primary or secondary/social

– Primary

 Surprise, anger, fear, disgust, sadness, and joy

– Secondary

 Emotion through experience - social construction

Emotion and Consumer Choice

 Emotion can be a primary influence on the

development of preferences and sometimes

actually precedes cognition

 Expressive products involve the judge

(consumer) directly

Social Perspectives on Emotion

 Many important aspects of emotion are

social.

 The meaning of emotion may be

constructed by social interaction leading to

an understanding of accepted behaviour

and value patterns

– This explains culture and sub culture

differences.

 Symbolic consumption

– Once a brand’s ability to satisfy mere physical need is

transcended, we enter the realm of the symbolic

meaning of goods

 Preference formation

– Self illusion

 Imagination and fantasy can overwhelm reason

– Self focus

 Our assessment is more about us than it is about

what is being assessed

A Conceptual Model of Emotion-driven Choice

A Conceptual Model of Emotion- driven Choice Cont./..

 The process of emotion- driven choice

– Non-linear

– Once the non- rational preference is

formed it tends to drive out further rational

evaluation as the emotional responses

overwhelm objective evidence and

dominate consumer behaviour

Emotions and Trust

 Trust requires a move from reliance on rational

cognitions to reliance on emotion and sentiment

and a developing intimacy which leads to an

investment of emotion in the person.

 Low levels of perceived risk

– Familiarity

 At higher levels of perceived risk

– Confidence is required

 High levels of perceived risk

– Trust becomes necessary

Emotional Brand Associations

 The emotional significance of a brand will

influence how much attention is paid to it, and

how much someone will elaborate upon its

significance.

 Emotional associations with brands will

determine what information is potentially

available for recall when making brand choice

decisions.

The Postmodern Consumer and Symbolic Meaning

 Consumers do not make choices solely based on a

product’s utility, but also on symbolic meanings - i.e. what

a product communicates

 Symbolic meaning

– Self

– Social

 The meanings of consumer goods (and services) are

grounded in their social context, and the demand for them

derives more from their role in cultural practices than from

the satisfaction of simple human needs.

The Postmodern Consumer and Identity (of self)  Through the socialization process we learn not only to agree

on the shared meanings of some ‘symbols’ but also to

develop individual symbolic interpretations of our own.

 Narrative identity theory

– in order to make time ‘human’ and socially shared, we

require a narrative identity for ourselves – i.e. our own

identity/image.

 Internal–external dialectic of identification

– Self-identity must be validated through social interaction

 Symbolic consumption helps us to categorize

ourselves in society

 Possessions can also be part of a process of

symbolic self-completion

 There can be different and inconsistent

cultural meanings to a brand depending on

the extent to which a person shares the

collective imagination

Identity and Self-symbolic Consumption

‘Lived’ versus ‘Mediated’ Experience  Lived experience

– Practical activities and face-to-face encounters in our

everyday lives

 What we each see and experience as ‘reality’

 Mediated experience

– The consumption of media products allowing us to

experience events which are spatially and temporally

distant from the practical context of daily life.

 Recontextualized experience

– E.g. Advertising, movies etc...

Symbolic Meaning, Advertising, and Brands  Advertising is a potent source of valued symbolic

meanings

 Advertising is both a means to transfer or create

meanings into culture and a cultural product itself.

 BACK TO LECTURE 1

• Brands can extend the self or

define the self.

• There are few things more

permanent than a tattoo!!

Identity and Social-symbolic Consumption

 The symbolism of consumption is almost

always socially constructed.

 Even the meaning of advertising can become

socially shared after discussion with others

 i.e., work by Ritson and Elliott on teenagers

shared meaning making around adverts

Implications for Brand Strategy  Brands, trust, and fragmentation

– Brands can offer the consumer consistency in an ever

changing world, and this reassurance is a vital element in

their added value (i.e. Heinz)

 Brands and deep meaning

– Brands can evoke profound feelings - e.g. Nostalgia (i.e.

Beanie babies, Levi jeans, Hovis Bread – from Turn of

the century to present)

– We all have periods in our life of heightened sensitivity

e.g. Adolescence (can also be a time of nostalgic appeal)

– Brand rituals (including ‘brand communities’)

– Subcultures

Symbolism Expresses Many Things  Brands can extend the self or define the self.

 Can compensate (i.e., compulsive shopping)

 They can portray a desired aspirational

lifestyle

 They can be badges of belonging:

Define, Extend, Lifestyle, Aspirational

The Luxury Brand Market

 Important for the economy

 USA in 2011 – luxury market continued to

grow – up by 11.6%

 Tiffany & Co sales up 20%, LV and Givenchy

up 13%

 (contrast with Wal-Mart selling smaller

packages of toilet paper)

 Sales vital but so is the overseas market

China and India • Two of the fastest growing markets for luxury goods • During the annual parliamentary sessions in China 2013

sales volumes doubled and many luxury stores sold out

• Politicians – Birkin bags, Chanel suits, Hermes, Prada

• LV– first TV commercial for products (TV previously

thought to be mass market channel)

• Emphasises travel, luxury and endurance

• Filmed in France, Spain, India and Japan

• Not aimed at Europeans but largely at Chinese market

where the brand has recorded a double digit rise in the

last year

Factors to Consider

 Expectancy-value model-pleasurable outcome and associated value

 Consider the customers Cognitive ability?

 Availability of complete information?

 Rational decision making?

Brands and the Consumer’s Buying Process

 The stages in the buying process and extent of the information search influenced by:

– Time pressure

– Previous experience

– Their situation

– Advice from friends

Typology of Consumer Decision Processes

• Uncertainty

• Intricacy

• Risk

• Alternatives

• Interpersonal

Impacts

Complex or Simple?

Communicating Brand Proposition

 Fight through the considerable ‘noise’

– Need to get brand message noticed

 Develop content of the message

– Needs to be harmony between what the marketer puts

into the message and what the consumer takes out of

the message

 Make the message powerful

– Needs to reinforce other marketing activities designed

to persuade the consumer to buy the brand

– Operate on functional and emotional levels

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cLcyqCeUps

Cognitive Dissonance

 Conflicting attitudes, behaviours or beliefs,

 Someone holds two or more conflicting attitudes

or beliefs about one product or service,

 Most likely to occur after a consumer makes a

purchase, but can occur prior to purchase,

 Products or services with a high level of

commitment contain a greater risk for

dissonance. E.g. homes, vehicles and luxury

vacations.

Dissonance Reduction

 Techniques

– Change your attitude

– Change your perception

– Add consonant cognitions

– Minimise the importance

of the conflict

– Reduce perceived choice

 Examples

– I don’t need to diet

– I hardly ate any cake

– Chocolate cake is nutritious

– I don’t care if I’m overweight

– life is short: cake is great!

– I had no choice

Decision Contingent on ‘Need-State’

Brands are bought depending on consumer needs at that time

Example- Need-states and yoghurt brands (Gordon 1994)

Differential Brand Marketing

More valuable segments deserve special treatment

(Hallberg, 1995)

Consumers’ Perceptions of Added Values

 Added values /experience

– Consumers gain confidence in the brand with experience

– Reliability/consistency of delivery/experience are key -

minimizes perceived risk

 Added value- reference group effects

– Personalities to endorse a brand (Aaker, 1995)

– Target aspirational consumers (self-concept, Sirgy, 1982)

 Added values- appearance of the brand

– Develop brand preferences based on their attraction to

the packaging design (Jones, 1986)

How Consumers Get Brand Information

The Perceptual Challenge

 Perceptual selectivity (filters brand information)

 Selective exposure - tune out of advert and into another

media e.g. social

 Selective attention - focus on creative aspect and not on

benefits

 Selective comprehension - understand facts which are

congruent with pre-existing logic structures

 Selectively retained - retain facts that are congruent with

pre-existing logic structures

 Perceptual vigilance/ perceptual defense - engage with

brands on pre-existing beliefs of the brand

Further reading  Brunner, T.A. and Wänke, M. (2006) ‘The reduced and enhanced impact of shared features on

individual brand evaluations’, Journal of Consumer Psychology, 16 (2), pp.101-111.

 Chaudhuri, A. and Holbrook, M.B. (2001) ‘The chain of effects from brand trust and brand affect to

brand performance: the role of brand loyalty’, Journal of Marketing, 65 (April), pp.81-93.

 de Chernatony, L. and Cottam, S. (2008) ‘Interactions between organisational cultures and corporate

brands’, Journal of Product & Brand Management, 17 (1), pp.13-24.

 Hollenbeck, C.R. and Zinkham, G.M. (2006) ‘Consumer activism on the Internet: the role of anti-brand

communities’, Advances in Consumer Research, 33, pp.479-485.

 Flouts, C. (2007) ‘Identifying the dimensions of the product-brand and consumer relationship’, Journal

of Marketing Management, 23 (1-2), pp.7-26.

 Muniz Jr., A.M. and Hamer, L.O. (2001) ‘Us versus them: oppositional brand loyalty and the Cola

wars’, Advances in Consumer Research, 28, pp.355-361.

 Muniz Jr., A.M. and Schau, H.J. (2005) ‘Religiosity in the abandoned Apple Newton brand

community’, Journal of Consumer Research, 31, pp.737-747.

 Shaun, H.J. and Muniz Jr., A.M. (2006) ‘A tale of two tales: the Apple Newton narratives’, Journal of

Strategic Marketing, 14, pp.19-33.

 Hollenbeck, C.R. and Zinkham, G.M. (2006) ‘Consumer activism on the Internet: the role of anti-brand

communities’, Advances in Consumer Research, 33, pp.479-485.