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Chapter 4: Memory and Knowledge and Understanding
CHAPTER 4
MEMORY AND KNOWLEDGE
Chapter Summary
This chapter considers how memory and knowledge influence consumer behavior. The
chapter describes memory and knowledge content (stored knowledge) and knowledge
structure (the way information is organized in our minds). Prior knowledge is essential for two
levels of consumer understanding: categorization and comprehension. Categorization is a
process of labeling things that consumers perceive, and relating them to both other objects in
the environment and their past experience. Items that are categorized, such as brands, are
linked with other items in schemas and scripts. Schemas and scripts are part of the
consumers’ knowledge of their world. Understanding how this knowledge is structured can
help marketers create new knowledge about existing brands, create new brands, and link
either new or existing brands to other knowledge that consumers may have about the world.
Key concepts include:
MEMORY
• Sensory
• Working
• Long-term
• Explicit vs. implicit
KNOWLEDGE
• Content (schemas and scripts)
• Structure (associative networks, categories)
• Flexibility
RETRIEVAL
• Failures and errors
• Enhancing retrieval
Memory is discussed as both sensory and working, as well as both short term and long term.
Memory is explicit or implicit. The role of memory is key to understand along with consumer
knowledge.
Knowledge is organized into categories in which objects in the same category are similar to
one another and are distinct from items in other categories. Within a category, items are
graded so that some are more representative or prototypical of that category than others. In
addition, categories may be hierarchically organized so that some items are considered basic
as compared to others that are subordinate or superordinate. Understanding the structure of
knowledge helps marketers to position, develop, and design all elements of the marketing mix.
While marketers intend to make it easy for consumers to understand their messages
accurately (objective comprehension), factors like motivation, ability (age, expertise), and
opportunity (repetition) can interfere and lead to misunderstanding. What is more, consumers
may have difficulty understanding the explicit messages in marketing communications
because they use other cues (words, visuals, price, atmospherics, packaging, product
attributes) to form unintended inferences. Thus, what is understood is not always that which
was intended. Finally, knowing that this confusion can occur, marketers must take extra
precautions in order to not mislead consumers.
Chapter 4: Memory and Knowledge 7e
CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
1. Distinguish among sensory, working, long-term, implicit, and explicit memory, and explain
why marketers must be aware of these different types of memory.
2. Explain how and why knowledge content and structure, including associative networks,
categories, schemas, scripts, and prototypicality, are relevant to marketers.
3. Discuss what memory retrieval is, how it works, and the ways in which marketers can try
to affect it.
Hemispheric Lateralization
a) One’s ability to process preattentively depends on where an ad is placed
in relation to a subject; pictures (words) are more likely to be processed
preattentively if they are placed in the left (right) visual field.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Overview of Memory and Knowledge
A. Knowing has to do with prior knowledge—both what we have encountered and how
it relates to other knowledge.
II. What is Memory?
A. Memory is the persistence of learning over time, via the storage and retrieval of
information, which can occur consciously or unconsciously.
1. Knowledge content is the information we already have in memory.
2. The set of associations linked to a concept is a schema.
B. Sensory Memory is the ability to temporarily store input from all our five senses.
C. Working Memory is the portion of memory where we encode incoming information
and keep it available for future use.
D. Long-term memory (LTM) is that part of memory where information is permanently
stored for later use. The two major types of long-term memory are episodic and
semantic memory.
1. Episodic, or autobiographical, memory represents knowledge about
ourselves and what has happened to us in our past,-including emotions and
sensations tied to past experiences.
i
2. These memories tend to be primarily sensory, involving visual images,
sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations.
E. Semantic Memory
1. General knowledge about an entity, detached from specific episodes.
F. Explicit Memory, Implicit Memory, and Processing Fluency
1. Memory may be explicit or implicit.
2. There is explicit memory when consumers are consciously aware that they
remember something.
Chapter 4: Memory and Knowledge 7e
e) priming is the increased sensitivity to certain concepts and associations due to prior
experience based on implicit memory
f) schemas of strong brands have these 3 dimensions:
-favorability
-uniqueness
-salience
D. Specific Schemas: Brand Image, Personality, and Anthropormorphization
1. Brand image: type of schema that captures what a brand stands for.
a) Example: McDonalds: family-friendly, fast, favorable
2. Brand Personality: The way the consumer would describe a brand if it were a
person (e.g., rugged).
E. Scripts: Knowledge of a sequence of actions involved in performing an activity.
2. A script is a type of schema that represents knowledge of a sequence of
events.
a) Examples include how to order dinner in a restaurant, how to get gas at a
gas station, and how to place an order with Ticketmaster.
b) Scripts help consumers make determinations quickly and help marketers
understand how consumers buy an offering.
IV. Creating Brand Images and Personalities
With a new product, the marketer has to create schema, image, and or
personality.
Important so consumers understand the offering.
A. Creating Brand Extensions: Use of a brand name of a product with a well-developed
image on a product in a different category.
1. A transfer of associations takes place from the original brand schema to the new
branded product.
2. This process may reverse.
B. Maintaining Brand Images and Personalities
1. Marketers must maintain and develop the brand image.
2. The key is to be synergistic with marketing communication.
C. Changing Brand Images and Personalities
When a brand becomes stale or irrelevant, the marketer must change the brand to have more
positive associations.
D. Protecting Brand Images and Personalities
Brand images are threatened during crisis or harm. A company should respond in a
responsible manner.
V. Knowledge Structure: Categories
1. Objects are arranged in taxonomic categories: orderly classifications of objects
with similar objects in the same category.
2. Graded Structure and Prototypically
a) Things within the same taxonomic category share similar features that are
different from the features shared by objects in other categories.
Chapter 4: Memory and Knowledge and Understanding
b) Category members vary in how well they represent a category, according
to the principle of graded structure.
c) When an item is the best representative example of others in its category,
it is called a prototype.
d) It shares the most features with others in its category and the fewest with
members of different categories.
e) It is frequently encountered in the environment.
f) In categories where there is no prototype, a first or “pioneer” brand may
serve a similar function.
3. Hierarchical Structure
a) At the superordinate level, objects share some characteristics but differ
on others (colas and water).
b) At the basic level, objects share more characteristics (teas and coffees).
c) At the subordinate level, objects share most characteristics yet still differ
(coffee and decaf).
d) Marketing Implications
(1). Understanding consumers’ categorizations helps marketers to
identify their competitors and establish a competitive position.
(2) In addition, understanding consumers’ categorizations can also help
in designing retail stores and company websites.
4. Correlated Associations
a) Objects that have attributes that correlate in similar ways may be grouped
together (e.g., size and gas mileage is usually negatively correlated in
cars).
b) Illusory correlations occur when consumers are confronted with
ambiguous information and mistakenly infer that the presence an attribute
of a product means that other attributes are also present.
c) Consumers develop conjunctive probability assessments of two attributes
or events occurring simultaneously. Their assessments are influenced by
prior expectations.
D. Knowledge Flexibility
1. Goal-Derived Categories
a) Come items serve the same goals, and thus are seen as fitting into the same
category (diet foods, vacation spots).
b) Goal categories can also be graded and hierarchical in structure.
2. Construal Level
a) According to construal level theory, we can think about a product or action in
terms of high-level or low-level construal.
b) In other words, consumers can think of objects and outcomes as abstract
(high-level construal) or as concrete (low-level construal)
1. Marketing Implications
a) Offerings can be positioned as being relevant to consumers’ goals as a
marketing objective.
b) The design of retail stores and websites can also apply goal-derived
category structures in planning.
A. Why Consumers Differ in Their Knowledge Content and Structure
1. The Cultural System
a) Culture may influence associations not found in other cultures (certain
spokespeople with certain products).
b) Relevant category members vary across cultures (what are breakfast
foods, for example).
Chapter 4: Memory and Knowledge 7e
c) Category prototypes may vary across cultures (football in the United
States, soccer elsewhere).
d) Attribute correlations may differ (size of store correlation with quality of
product may be different).
e) Goal-derived categories may differ.
2. Level of Expertise
a) Experts and nonexperts may categorize differently.
b) Experts may distinguish category membership more finely than
nonexperts.
III. Memory and Retrieval
A. Retrieval Failures: Decay, Interference, and Serial-position effects
1. Decay: memory strengths deteriorates over time
2. Interference: strength of a memory deteriorates over time because of the
presence of other memories that compete against it
B. Serial-Position Effects: Primacy and Recency
1. Primacy: May remember the first ad because no other ads yet compete in the
memory
2. Recency: Evidence of being last is less strong, but first or last is better than
middle
C. Retrieval Errors: Memory is not always accurate and is subject to confusion, selection,
and distortion.
D. Enhancing Retrieval
E. Characteristics of the Stimulus
1. Salience
2. Prototypicality
3. Redundant Cues
4. Medium in Which Stimulus is Processed
F. What the Stimulus is Linked To
1. Retrieval Cue
G. How a Stimulus is Processed in Working Memory
H. Consumer Characteristics Affecting Retrieval
1. Mood (positive mood impacts stimuli retrieval especially when consistent)
2. Experts vs. novices
Chapter 4: Memory and Knowledge and Understanding
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND DISCUSSION
Possible answers are as follows.
1. How are sensory, working, and long-term memory linked?
Sensory memory is the ability to temporarily store input from all of our five senses.
2. What techniques can enhance the storage of information in long-term memory?
3. What is a schema and how can the associations in a schema be described?
A schema is the group of associations or associative network linked to an object or person
ii
4. Why are some links in a semantic or associative network weak, whereas others are
strong?
A semantic network is a set of concepts connected by links; Some ties are weak in a
5. What are taxonomic categories and how do consumers use them to structure knowledge
in memory?
Taxonomic categories are ways in which consumers classify a group of objects in memory
Chapter 4: Memory and Knowledge 7e
Copyright © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
10
evaluate the extension favorably. The unknown brand would not be able to capitalize on
these favorable associations. Favorable associations lead to a reduced risk of trial for the
brand extensions when compared to the built “from scratch” brand.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS
1. Identify prototype brands in the following categories and explain why you believe they
are prototypes: beer, soft drinks, candy, tennis shoes, and computers.
2. Using the same categories listed in question one, identify the categories in which
consumers are likely to place each type of product. Relate these categories to
superordinate, basic, and subordinate categories, as appropriate.
3. In your small group, outline a script for the following situations: using a vending machine;
getting a haircut; getting help with using software (from the manufacturer); flying on an
airplane; eating lunch at McDonald’s.
4. Describe how brand extensions can be a useful means of introducing a new product into
the market as compared to building a new brand “from scratch.”
5. Explain why is it useful for you as a marketer to understand how people categorize
information. Discuss how knowing this can help you in the ongoing management of your
own brand or organization.
6. Describe three methods for studying the schema consumers hold about your brand.
Consider the pros and cons of each method.
EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES AND CLASSROOM EXAMPLES
Students who learn more readily through visual and tactile stimuli will benefit from the
introduction of physical examples into the classroom.
1. “Foods of a Feather” Exercise
Bring in a wide assortment of products that compete at varying levels of intensity and
directness. Have a student volunteer separate the products into competitive groups,
label, and explain the groupings. After the first student has finished, ask a second
2. “Dreamboat or Dud?” Exercise*
Make copies of the personal ads from the Sunday newspaper. Highlight several of the
These experiential exercises have been contributed by Professor Sheri Bridges of Wake Forest
University.
Chapter 4: Memory and Knowledge 7e
CLASSROOM GROUP ACTIVITY: RETAIL ATMOSPHERICS AND DISPLAY: 15–20
MINUTES
I. Start Up
A. Purpose of the activity
1. This activity will give students an opportunity to consider factors related to
designing a retail setting.
B. What the instructor will do
1. The instructor will divide people into small groups and assign them a different
type of retail setting (fast-food restaurant, high-end department store, baseball
stadium).
C. What the participants will do
1. The participants will work in small groups to brainstorm ideas for compiling a
list of ideas that accentuate the consumer interaction with the retail outlet.
Factors such as design, lighting, flooring, décor, traffic flow, retail employee/
customer interaction, and music could all be considered, among others.
2. Students will then present their ideas to the rest of the class.
i
Hans Baumgartner, Mita Sujan, and James R. Bettman, “Autobiographical Memories, Affect,
and Consumer Information Processing,” Journal of Consumer Psychology 1, no. 1, 1992, pp.
53–82.
ii
Lawrence W. Barsalou, Cognitive Psychology: An Overview for Cognitive Scientists (Hillsdale, N.J.:
Lawrence Erlbaum, 1992); James R. Bettman, “Memory Factors in Consumer Choice,” Journal of Marketing,
