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CHAPTER 9
Judgment and Decision Making Based on Low
Effort
CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter examines the nature of consumer judgment and decision-making when MAO
(and consequently elaboration) is low. In these situations, consumers are more likely to use
simplified heuristics or decision rules. Consumers use the representativeness and availability
heuristics to make judgments; that is, they base judgments on comparisons to a prototype or
on accessibility of information, respectively.
Sometimes low-effort decisions are made unconsciously, sometimes consciously.
Unconscious decisions may be strongly influenced by environmental cues. Conscious low-
effort decision making can follow a hierarchy of effects in which thinking leads to behaving and
results in feeling; in contrast, the hierarchy of effects for high-effort decision making is typically
thinking-feeling-behaving. For simplicity, consumers making low-effort decisions may satisfice
rather than optimize. They may also devise choice tactics over repeat purchase occasions
through a process similar to operant conditioning. Cognitively based choice tactics include
performance, habit, brand loyalty, price, and normative influence; affective-based choice
tactics include affect referral, brand familiarity, variety seeking, and impulse buying.
CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
1. Identify the types of heuristics that consumers can use to make simple judgments.
2. Explain why marketers need to understand both unconscious and conscious decision-
making processes in low-effort situations.
3. Highlight how consumers learn to apply choice tactics through operant conditioning.
4. Discuss how consumers make thought-based low-effort decisions using performance-
related tactics, habit, brand loyalty, price-related tactics, and normative influences.
5. Describe how consumers make affect-based low-effort decisions using feelings as a
simplifying strategy, brand familiarity, variety seeking, and impulse purchasing.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Low-Effort Judgment Processes
A. The Representativeness Heuristic
1. Categorization process that involves comparisons to the category prototype
2. Marketing Implications
a) Marketers can position their product or service close to a prototype or
exemplar that has positive associations in consumers’ minds.
B. The Availability Heuristic
1. Judgments can be influenced by the ease with which instances of an event can
be brought to mind.
a) More accessible or vivid events are more likely to be recalled and
therefore influence judgment.
2. Word-of-mouth communication leads to the use of the availability heuristic.
3. Tends to ignore base-rate information—the rate at which an event really occurs
for all consumers.
Chapter 9: Judgment and Decision Making Based on Low Consumer Effort
Copyright © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
6
formation/changing/strengthening of attitudes. These attitudes then influence consumer
behavior. In low-effort processing, consumers think very little before deciding, and beliefs
(often based on basic familiarity) lead directly to choice. After the choice, the consumer
makes evaluations. High-effort processing can be summed up as think-feel-do, while low-
effort processing is represented as: think (very little)-do-feel.
3. How do unconscious factors influence consumer behavior?
In some low effort situations, consumers make a decision without being consciously aware
4. What operant conditioning concepts apply to consumer learning?
Operant conditioning is the view that behavior is a function of the reinforcements and
5. Why is quality an important ingredient in cognitive-based decision making?
Cognitive-based decision-making relies heavily upon well-defined, rational beliefs.
6. What is brand loyalty, and what role does it play in low-effort decision-making?
Brand loyalty is the behavior of buying the same brand repeatedly because of a strong
7. How do price and value perceptions affect low-effort decision making?
In low-effort decision making, price is often an essential cue to the decision. Price can
serve as the determining factor for those decisions where little processing effort takes
to convince consumers that the BENEFIT outweighed the cost of the vehicle.
8. When is affect likely to be more of a factor in low-effort decision making?
Chapter 9: Judgment and Decision Making Based on Low Consumer Effort
Copyright © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
7
Affect is likely to play a role in the decision process when the product or service is
hedonic rather than functional and when other factors, such as performance evaluations,
price, habit, and normative influences, are not in operation.
9. If habit is a simplifying strategy, why do consumers sometimes seek variety?
Consumers engage in variety seeking for two major reasons: satiation and boredom.
SUGGESTED EXERCISES AND TEACHER GUIDELINES
1. Interview ten consumers about their decision-making behavior for the following product
categories: peanut butter, laundry detergent, canned vegetables, coffee, and ice cream.
Ask the consumers to indicate (a) how much time and effort they take in making a
decision and (b) how they select the brand they purchase (which choice tactics do they
use?). Summarize the responses for each consumer individually and for all consumers;
also, answer the following questions: (a) On average, how much time and effort do
consumers spend on these decisions? (b) What are the major types of tactics employed
for each category? (c) How do the tactics differ for the product categories? (d) Do
consumers use the same or different tactics across product categories? (e) What are the
marketing implications of your findings?
2. Pick two common product categories where low-elaboration decision-making is likely to
occur. Go to your local store and observe 20 consumers making a choice for these two
products. Record the amount of time taken and the number of brands examined. If
possible, ask consumers why they chose the brand they did immediately after the choice.
(Be sure to get the store’s permission first.) Summarize this information, and answer the
following questions: (a) How much time and effort did consumers typically devote to
these decisions? Are your findings consistent with those reported in the chapter? (b)
What were the most common types of choice tactics employed? (c) Did the types of
choice tactics differ between product categories? If so, why do you think this occurred?
3. Pick ten product or service categories in which low-elaboration decision making is likely
to occur. For each category, try to identify the type of choice tactic you would typically
use. (a) Does this tactic differ across categories? (b) If so, why? (c) How do you think you
learned to use these tactics?
#1.
Chapter 9: Judgment and Decision Making Based on Low Consumer Effort
ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION QUESTIONS WITH SAMPLE ANSWERS
These discussion questions can be used as in-class activities or as thought questions that the
students consider while reading the chapter or to test their understanding of the material after
the reading and lecture are complete.
1. Explain the hierarchy of effects model for both high- and low-effort consumer decision
making.
diagrammed as either
a. Thinking → Behaving → Feeling
or
b. Feeling → Behaving → Thinking
2. Using this as a framework, provide four statements that consumers might make in each
of the cognitively and affectively based decision-making processes.
Student answers will vary. The following is one possible example.
COGNITIVELY BASED
AFFECTIVELY BASED
Performance-related tactic
“It works the best.”
“They provide better customer service.”
“It’s the most reliable.”
“They have the longest lasting tread.”
Feelings
“I feel good when I save money.”
“I like how I feel when I’m wearing this color.”
“Disneyland is the happiest place on earth.”
“It’s a world of fun.”
Habit-related tactic
“I always buy this size.”
“I like a bank that I can walk to on my way to
lunch.”
“I just grab the closest thing.”
“I like to go to the nearest gas station.”
Variety-seeking needs
“I wanted a new look.”
“I’m tired of the same old food.”
“I’m bored.”
“Let’s experiment.”
Brand-loyalty tactic
“I only drink Pepsi.”
“There’s no beer other than Bud.”
“Lauren products are always top of the line. I
wouldn’t buy anything else.”
“Hertz is #1 in my book.”
Buying on impulse
“I just have to have it, now!”
“I just can’t control myself.”
“I feel the urge to splurge.”
“It gives me a rush.”
Chapter 9: Judgment and Decision Making Based on Low Consumer Effort
Price tactic
“It was on sale.”
“It was the cheapest brand available.”
“I had a coupon.”
“There was a ‘buy-one-get-one-free’ offer.”
Normative tactic
“What would my mom say if I bought . . . ?”
“Everyone wears Abercrombie and Fitch.”
“The American Dental Association
recommends Crest.”
“Everyone in the financial district has a
Blackberry.”
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS
1. Give an example of a situation in which consumer motivation, ability, and opportunity to
make decisions is low. Explain how marketers can address this situation to help
consumers.
2. How might unethical marketers take advantage of consumers in the low-elaboration
situation? What care must be taken to avoid taking advantage of consumers in these
situations?
3. As you know from your own experience, there are many decisions that consumers make
which they really do not think much about, especially if the product is rather “boring.”
Describe how marketers can leverage the cognitive- or feeling-based heuristic we have
discussed to influence consumer choice.
4. Consumers often make purchase decisions based on what they have purchased before.
What can marketers do to help influence a shift in behavior for frequently purchased, low-
elaboration goods like (1) dishwashing liquid, (2) deodorant, or (3) toothbrushes?
5. The law of small numbers suggests that consumers may tend to generalize the
experiences of a few people into the reality experienced by most consumers. When an
occurrence arises that could harm a brand (like a plane crash or food contamination),
what can an organization do to prevent the availability heuristic from affecting consumer
perceptions?
6. Price, affect, performance, normative behavior, and habit are all choice tactics
(heuristics) that might be used by consumers using low elaboration. What other
heuristics can you think of?
7. Learning, especially positive and negative reinforcement can strongly influence future
low-effort decisions for similar goods. Explain how knowing about this influence might
help marketers introduce new products into the marketplace. What tactics might they
want to use or avoid?
8. While promotions can attract customers to try a different brand, there can be several
drawbacks to offering such promotions. What are these drawbacks?
9. Co-branding is an example of how the mere exposure effect can influence choice of a
particular brand. Discuss how this works. Moreover, co-branding has been well
established in packaged goods (e.g., Snickers bar ice creams, Hershey’s syrup in
Duncan Hines bake mixes). Describe how co-branding can or could be used in durable
goods and services to capture the benefits of the mere exposure effect.
Chapter 9: Judgment and Decision Making Based on Low Consumer Effort
a) Bring examples of frequently purchased grocery store brands to the class
for students to study and review in their groups (e.g., a box of crackers, a
candy bar, a cola can).
C. Specific actions for groups
1. The groups are responsible for analyzing the brand’s present marketing
initiatives (based on the 4Ps) and proposing marketing initiatives that will utilize
the concepts discussed in the chapter.
2. Questions to be answered by small groups
a) What can be done to enhance or alter this product’s packaging to help it
break through the clutter on grocery store shelves?
b) How can consumers be encouraged to spend more time considering this
brand?
c) What would you propose be done to increase the likelihood that this
brand will be selected in the supermarket?
3. Large-group discussions
a) First, have groups present their ideas about the first question, and then
proceed to discuss each of the subsequent questions.
b) If there are many groups, share the discussion among all groups, though
not all groups may answer all of the questions.
III. Debrief and Unveil Concepts
A. Discuss the activity itself.
1. The purpose of this discussion is to allow students to express what they felt
about the experience itself.
2. Ask students to describe their experiences of doing the activity
a) Likes and dislikes about what just happened
b) How they felt during the experience
c) What is realistic, unrealistic about the exercise?
d) What will be different when they do this for their own brand?
B. Discuss the content of the experience.
1. The purpose of this discussion is to ensure that students “take away” important
learning points.
2. Ask students to describe the important points the experience teaches.
a) The role of marketing initiatives in overcoming shelf clutter in the grocery
store
b) The importance of recognizing low consumer effort when creating
marketing initiatives
3. Use the chalkboard to record student responses.
a) Write down their ideas as they are presented.
b) Concentrate on the principles being discussed rather than the examples
being used.
c) Help them to see the interrelationships among their responses.
IV. Execute
A. Apply what has been learned.
1. Lead a discussion on how the concepts can be applied in organizations.
a) What barriers may be faced in applying the concepts from the exercise?
b) What can be done to help others understand the concepts when you use
them at work?
B. Transfer and use the knowledge.
1. Encourage students to make a record in their notes about how they will use the
ideas in the workplace.
