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A. How Our Memories Store Information
1. The traditional view (multiple-store) is that the short-term memory and
long-term memory are separate systems.
2. Recent work says they may be interdependent (activation models of
memory) so it takes more effort (deep processing) for information will
probably be placed in long- term memory.
3. Activation models propose that an incoming piece of information is stored in
an associative network that contains many bits of related information
organized according to some set of relationships that is shaped by our own
unique experiences.
4. These storage units are known as knowledge structures (think of them as spider
webs full of pieces of data).
a. This information is placed into nodes that are connected by associative
links within these structures.
b. Pieces of information that are seen as similar in some way are grouped
together under a category.
c.
*****Use Figure 4.6 Here *****
Preference categories are known as evoked sets. The task of the
marketer is to position itself as a category member and to provide cues
that facilitate its placement in the proper category.
5. Consumers go through a process of spreading activation as they shift back and
***** Use Consumer Behavior Challenge #23 Here *****
Discussion Opportunity—Consider the following ways to demonstrate the memory functions to
the students: 1) Point out a noise that might be audible from outside the classroom (e.g.,
lawnmower, cars, construction) after it happens. Ask how many remember hearing it. Those that
do not remember hearing it never made the jump from sensory memory to short- or long-term
memory; 2) Use a phrase very clearly and audibly at the beginning of the class. Then, once you
get to this point in the lecture, ask each student to write out the phrase. Because you stated it
clearly, the phrase almost certainly made it into the short-term memory. The degree of
correctness of each student’s statement, however, will show the difference between short-term
and long-term memory. Ask students how these forms of memory (sensory, short-term, and long-
term) should be taken into consideration by marketers.
***** Use Individual Project Idea #6 Here *****
Discussion Opportunity—Briefly work with students to construct an example of an associative
network for a product or brand of their choosing. Illustrate the network for the class to see as it
is being constructed. Refer back to this network as you teach the following concepts of
spreading activation and schemas.
forth between levels of meaning. Memory traces are sent out and linked to
related nodes. They could be:
a. Brand-specific (memory stored in terms of brand claims)
b. Ad-specific (memory stored in terms of medium or content of ad)
c. Brand identification (memory stored in terms of brand name)
d. Product category (memory stored in terms of how the product
works/where it should be used)
e. Evaluative reactions (memory stored as positive or negative emotions)
B. Knowledge is coded at different levels of abstraction and complexity.
1. Meaning concepts get stored as individual nodes.
2. A proposition (or belief) links two nodes together to form a more complex
meaning, which can serve as a single chunk of information.
3. Propositions are integrated into a schema (a cognitive framework that is
developed through experience). We encode information more readily that is
consistent with an existing schema.
4. One type of schema is a script (a sequence of events an individual
expects). For example, service scripts guide our behavior in commercial
settings (e.g. dentist).
C. How we retrieve memories when we decide what to buy
1. Retrieval is the process whereby information is accessed from long-term memory.
2. Differences in retrieval ability among people can be attributed to individual
cognitive, physiological, and situational factors.
3. Recall is enhanced when we pay more attention to the message in the first
place, which may give an advantage to a pioneering brand (the first brand
to enter a market) relative to a follower brand because we are more likely
to remember the pioneering brand’s information.
4. The spacing effect describes the tendency for us to recall printed material
more effectively when the advertiser repeats the target item periodically
rather than presenting it repeatedly in a short time period.
5. A viewing environment with continuous activity and spectacular ad formats
increase recall.
D. What Makes Us Forget?
1. In a process of decay, where memories fade with the passage of time, the
structural changes in the brain produced by learning simply go away.
2. Forgetting also occurs due to interference; as additional information is
learned, it displaces the earlier information.
a. Consumers may forget stimulus-response associations if they learn new
responses to the same or similar stimuli (retroactive interference).
b. Prior learning can interfere with new learning through a process known as
proactive interference.
Discussion Opportunity—Have students give examples of scripts that they typically go
through when purchasing a routine product. Why would a marketer want or not want
consumers to develop such scripts?
3. The process of state-dependent retrieval explains that we are better able to
access information if our internal state (e.g. mood, arousal level) is the same
at the time of recall as when we learned the information.
4. As a rule, when we are already familiar with something, we are more likely to
recall messages about it. However, when consumers are highly familiar with a
brand or advertisement, automaticity may result in inferior learning/recall (the
consumer does not pay attention to the message because they do not believe the
additional effort will increase their knowledge).
5. We also observe a highlighting effect, where the order in which consumers
learn about brands determines the strength of association between these brands
and their attributes (e.g. strong associations of common attributes with early
learned brands and unique attributes with late-learned brands).
6. The salience of a brand refers to its prominence or level of activation in memory.
a. Almost any technique that increases the novelty of a stimulus also improves
recall (the result is the von Restorff Effect).
b. Mystery ads (where the ad does not identify the brand until the end) are
more effective if we want to build associations between the product
category and the brand (like relatively unknown brands).
c. The intensity and type of emotions experienced at the time also affect the
way we recall later.
1. We recall mixed emotions (those with positive and negative
components) differently than unipolar emotions (emotions that are
either wholly positive or wholly negative).
2. Unipolar emotions become more polarized over time (good things are
recalled as even better; bad things as even worse).
7. The viewing context also affects recall.
a. It helps when the marketing message is consistent with the theme or events
in the program.
b. Hybrid ads include a program tie-in to improve recall.
E. Visual memory tends to be stronger than verbal memory. Although pictorial ads
may enhance recall, they do not necessarily improve comprehension.
F. Products as Memory Markers.
1. The pictures we take of ourselves using products and services can serve as
powerful retrieval cues.
2. Our cherished possessions (especially furniture, visual art, photos) and foods
can jog memories about sensory experiences, friends and loved ones, and
breaking away from parents/partners.
3. Cherished possessions are said to have mnemonic qualities when they serve as
Discussion Opportunity—Illustrate the forgetting concepts decay and interference. Have
students identify types of information that a marketer might want to have consumers forget
through both decay and interference. Have them do the same with information that
marketers would not want consumers to forget. How can marketers combat the forgetting
process?
a form of external memory that prompt us to retrieve episodic memories.
4. A stimulus may evoke a weakened response even years after we first
perceived it. This is called spontaneous recovery.
G. Measuring Memory: Recognition Versus Recall
1. Two basic measures of impact are recognition and recall.
2. In a typical recognition test, researchers show ads to subjects one at a time
and ask if they have seen them before.
3. Free recall tests ask consumers to independently think of what they
have seen without being prompted for this information first.
4. Recognition scores are usually better than recall scores because
recognition is a simpler process and the consumer has more retrieval
cues available.
5. Recall tends to be more important in situations where consumers do not have
product data at their disposals and need to rely on memory to generate the
information, whereas recognition is important in a shopping context where
consumers are exposed to lots of stimuli and need to recognize a package.
6. Analysts have questioned whether existing measures accurately assess
these dimensions, in part because the results from the measuring
instrument may not be what we intended to measure or subjects may give
the answer they believe the experimenter wants to hear (response bias).
7. People are prone to forgetting information or retaining inaccurate memories.
a. Omitting means leaving facts out.
b. Averaging means the tendency to normalize memories by not reporting
extreme cases.
c. Telescoping refers to an inaccurate recall of time.
d. The illusion of truth effect refers to telling people that a consumer claim is
false, which can make them to misremember it as true because repetition of
the claim increases familiarity but respondents do not remember the context
where the claim is debunked.
8. Recall and recognition measures may not accurately capture the impact of
feeling ads, which arouse emotions to develop brands over time vs. conveying
concrete product benefits.
9. Recall does not translate into preference for the product.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to identify what types of things are nostalgic to them.
How could an advertiser appeal to this side of them and other college-age individuals? Identify
recent nostalgia campaigns and present them as illustrations.
Discussion Opportunity—As an illustration between recognition and recall, conduct this
exercise to show students that they can recognize information without really recalling specifics.
Show examples of various corporate symbols (brand symbols or celebrity endorsers) that
students might recognize. Ask them which brands are represented by each (recognition). Then,
ask them to give specific slogans, information, or other specifics related to each (recall).
Discussion Opportunity—What is something hard for you to remember (in a personal sense
and in a consumer behavior or product sense)? Why do you think this happens? What do you
think would be a good strategy to attempt to overcome this problem?
H. Bittersweet Memories: The Marketing Power of Nostalgia
1. Marketers may resurrect popular characters and stories from days gone by
with the hope that the consumers’ fond memories will motivate them to
revisit the past.
2. Nostalgia describes a bittersweet emotion where we view the past with both
sadness and longing.
3. A retro brand is an updated version of a brand from a historical period.
4. A nostalgia index measures the critical ages during which our preferences
are likely to form and endure over time.
*****Use Consumer Behavior Challenge #24 Here *****
End-of-Chapter Support Material
SUMMARY OF SPECIAL FEATURE BOXES
1. Marketing Opportunity
Best Buy recognized that Chinese shoppers were unlikely to choose basic appliances in the
same way as in the United States so it built a special store called Five Star Brand. The
employees at as “solutions experts” to help shoppers and provide services like hot beverages.
2. The Tangled Web
People get attached to favorite logos and social media provides a way for consumers to give
feedback. Gap found this out when it changed its logo in 2010. Fans took to social media to
criticize the new logo. Before long, Gap announced on its Facebook page that the old logo
would return.
3. Marketing Opportunity
Bob Marley’s name and image is applied to many types of products. Porsche Design added its
name to luggage, bikes, desk pieces, and couture clothing, all with the goal of extending the
Porsche driving experience.
4. Marketing Opportunity
Media helps socialize children in to gender roles and sexual identity for consumer behavior.
5. CB As I See It: Paul Connell, Stony Brook University
Children learn many of the skills needed to be consumers as they age. . When children are
exposed to ads before they have learned the purpose of advertising, childhood have effects that
are long lasting. There are stronger emotional connections to elements featured in the
advertising, such as brand characters, resulting in less critical evaluation of products.
6. Marketing Opportunity
Marketers try to give brands vivid names that conjure up an image or story. This can influence
consumer evaluations of the brand.
7. CB As I See It: John Lynch, University of Colorado-Boulder
Consumers respond to resource scarcity by retrieving from memory alternative ways to spend a
resource, evaluating opportunity costs. When consumers perceive little constraints, neither
efficiency nor priority plans are considered. When there is moderate constraint, both plans are
considered. When consumers have significant constraint, priority plans are generated faster and
more frequently.
8. The Tangled Web
Sites such as Facebook are a great way to store memories, but there is little control over who
can access those memories. Newer technologies are allowing memories to be shared, then
removed from the site.
9. Marketing Opportunity
As people age, their memory retrieval ability becomes inferior. Online games such as Sudoku
and Brain Box helps to keep memory retrieval systems sharp.
