What is the Job of a Bra?

Involvement- The degree of personal relevance a consumer perceives a product, brand, object, or behavior to have. High involvement products are seen as having important personal consequences or as useful for achieving important personal goals. Low involvement products are not linked to important consequences or goals.

Attitudes-  Involving positive or negative feelings or emotions towards an object, or a positive or negative feeling or motivational component. It is an interrelated system of cognition, feelings, and action tendencies.

Terminal Values- Terminal values represent preferred end states of being or global goals that consumers are trying to achieve in their lives.

Kahle's List of Values (1983)

1. Self Respect

2. Excitement

3. Being Well Respected

4. Self-fulfilment

5. Sense of accomplishment

6. Warm relationship with others

7. Security

8. Fun & enjoyment

9. Sense of belonging

I think that my highest priority of these terminal values would be excitement and security. These are affected by the events that have happened in my life, my personality and the stage that I am in in my life, among other things. The laddering technique can find the link between the function of a product and the terminal value associated with purchasing/possessing that product. The structure of the laddering technique is:

 The method used is to establish a purchase that the subject has made recently and to, basically, keep asking them why. Tillman Wagner (2007) explains that: 

the first step of each laddering interview consists of eliciting the relevant attributes or criteria, which are then used as starting points for the following laddering procedure consisting of different series of questions in the style of "why is this important to you".

I asked my Mum what the last thing she bought was, other than lemons for pancake day, and so we discussed buying a Bra. Mum needed a new bra (concrete attribute), because her other ones didn't fit (abstract attribute). This caused discomfort (functional consequence). She wanted to buy a new bra that was comfortable and that looked good (psychological consequences  or instrumental values). She wants to be comfortable to lead a happy, healthy life. She wanted to look good to achieve self-respect and respect from others (terminal values). Therefore the job of a bra is to help create a happy, healthy life, achieve self-respect and respect from others. Products and services represent different aspirations and goals in a person's life.

The instrumental values are short term, behavioural  goals which are transitional (Rokeach, Rokeach & Grube, 1984). They might be some one's choice to be broad-minded or hard working, and can change on a daily basis. An example of an advert using Terminal Values, given by Allison Cirillo uses an American Nike advert. She explains: 

This ad features a young attractive girl in good physical shape. In today’s society appearance, beauty, and physical well being are recognized highly by most consumers. The goal of Nike is to connect their product to a consumer by focusing on a centrally held value. The Core American Value that Nike is demonstrating in this advertisement is activity and youthfulness. First, the ad demonstrates high activity. According to the Core American Value, activity is defined to most Americans, as keeping busy through physical or mental activity. Activity is believed to be an important value. Secondly, the ad demonstrates youthfulness. Americans focus on youth. We value being young as well as being young at heart. This ad demonstrates that Nike understands and values youthfulness. The ad does this by sending a message to the consumer that states it is possible to remain youthful through physical activity and, of course, Nike products.

Everybody will have different priorities of Terminal Value based on previous experience, their life, personality. I have two examples of how to look at this in different ways, as suggested by Ruth. Firstly I will look at the timeline of my life.

This is a list of some of the major events throughout my life, some of which will have affected others of my generations, my peers, some of which are private events and will only have been noticed by my family and those close to me. This combination of things will only have affected me, therefore making me different to everybody else. Living in an age of "terrorism" is probably what has made me favor security over other terminal values. Having grown up in an era of the Internet, the iPod and other new technologies is probably part of the reason why I prioritise excitement, as I am used to living in a world where everything is instantaneous, the priority is no longer work, but living life outside of work, as can be seen in the Mac advert in my blog, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. When making my Timeline I tried to make sure that at least some of the Public Events were good things, seeing as most of the big events on history sites are natural disasters and wars. 

Another affect on Terminal Values is Personality. There are many different personality test on the web, I took the VALS (Values, Attitudes and LifeStyle) test, which asks a series of questions, and you have to respond with how strongly you feel they match you. Here is the grid of the results.

Your result gives your Preliminary state- I am an Experiencer, motivated by self-expression. I am an impulsive consumer, seeking variety and exciting, embracing new and risky situations. Experiencers are avid consumers and spend a comparatively high proportion of their income on fashion, entertainment, and socializing. My Secondary state is an Innovator, which means this is the approach I take to different situations. Their  description of an innovator is:

Innovators are successful, sophisticated, take-charge people with high self-esteem. Because they have such abundant resources, they exhibit all three primary motivations in varying degrees. They are change leaders and are the most receptive to new ideas and technologies. Innovators are very active consumers, and their purchases reflect cultivated tastes for upscale, niche products and services.
Image is important to Innovators, not as evidence of status or power but as an expression of their taste, independence, and personality. Innovators are among the established and emerging leaders in business and government, yet they continue to seek challenges. Their lives are characterized by variety. Their possessions and recreation reflect a cultivated taste for the finer things in life.

The results of this test show, clearly, why Excitement is one of my top Terminal Values. There are many adverts that reflect this Terminal Value, like T-Mobile's FlashMobs advert and "Life's for Sharing" tagline, or Barclay Card's Waterslide advert. Each are adding excitement to tasks that are usually mundane daily tasks, such as commuting, or buying the groceries. On the other hand there are Survivor, cautious consumers with high brand loyalty. They like routine and dislike change. There is a trend at the moment for proving that a company can stand the test of time, and the adverts would be liked by the Survivers because they show a constant in an ever changing world. This could be the Hovis Through the Ages advert, or the Virgin Atlantic 25 years advert. 

Give, and Ye Shall Receive

Gift giving appears to be a crucial part of modern society, with every holiday, Saint's day and celebration becoming a reason to get together and give presents. And almost always preceded by a frantic run around every shop in town that the receiver might approve of. Is this an indication of a society more in touch with each other's wants and needs? Or an extension of the mounting evidence of a society based on consumerism, material wealth and an over-reliance on using possessions as an indication of who we are are and how happy we are? Gift giving is a involved decision because it reflects what the buyer thinks of the receiver and their relationship- which is something to be got right. An issue arises when the impression the giver and the receiver have of their relationship differs. But just how involved is this buyer decision.

This is a sliding scale of the level of interest going from "inertia to passion". A lack of interest may be a habitual purchase. This does not mean the consumer has not thought about which chocolate bar to choose in her lunch break, it's just that she started buying a packet of Minstrels in her lunch a year ago, and has made the same purchase every lunch break since then. But, after that, she went into town to buy a new pair of heels- which is definitely on the obsession side of the scale. 

According to Laurent and Kapferer (1985) the level in of involvement in a purchase decision is mainly down to 4 different components:

1. Importance and Risk (FTPEPS)

2. Probability of making a bad purchase

3. Pleasure value of the product category (enjoyment in transaction)

4. Status Value of the Product.

Finance

Time

Performance

Ego

Physical

Social

I discussed the importance and risk associated with buying certain products/services with my mum, Jess, her boyfriend, Calum, who are both in their 40s, my sister Nicky, 16 and myself, 19. I though that this would be a nice range of ages to contrast. The purchases that we discussed were buying a holiday, investing money/pensions schemes and buying jewellery for a partner.

I thought that buying a holiday would have been much higher risk for Calum as he has two small children, and they were in certain aspects. The Financial risk of buying a holiday is much higher, as he must purchase for three people, not just himself, despite that I may spend all my money on a holiday, having to save to raise the funds for flights, hotel and spending money. Also he would be trying to make sure that they were staying somewhere safe, healthy and fun for they kids, with plenty to do. If I were going on holiday with some girls, I would probably be looking for the cheapest flights, not the most convenient flights, and the cheapest rooms.

The amount of Time that I would put into looking for a holiday may be reasonably high, trying to find good deals and offers, but not a huge amount. Calum would probably be looking at brochures, talking to other people about where to go, calling the hotel/travel agent to make sure he would be getting the right holiday for him and his girls, and there for would take more time over booking it, not just doing a last minute deal.

With a holiday there is always quite a high risk that it's Performance doesn't reach expectations, as you can't just go and visit it first. Again, this would be a higher risk for Calum as he has responsibility for his girls. If the holiday didn't have all the facilities it said in the brochure the kids would be disappointed, it would be harder to keep them occupied for the duration, maybe the hotel isn't as good as it was supposed to be. For me it wouldn't matter so much- I would expect less as I had paid less- as long as it is near some shops and bars!

Ego was much harder to decipher. If I organised a holiday and it went off really well, that would make me feel really satisfied, a real ego boost. It would be similar for Calum, but not so much. He's booked holidays before so it wouldn't be such a big deal for his ego.

The Physical risks of going on holiday are generally quite low. The risk would most likely be higher for me going on holiday, getting myself into all sorts of trouble. Whereas Calum would be looking out for his children, trying to keep out of trouble as much as possible. 

After you come back from a holiday you always tell anyone who'll listen about how great it was, so I think that the Social risk is quite high for a holiday, but more so for a younger person bragging to all their friends. From this I feel that a holiday would be riskier for a younger person, it may be harder for me to raise the money to go on holiday, it would be riskier socially and personally. The risk for Calum was all to do with having the kids with him.

As the hot topic of the moment is the economy and how people are losing money from their pension schemes we decided that talking about pensions and investments would be quite interesting. The main theme running through the conversation was that had we been talking about this four or five years ago the conversation would have been completely different and mum and Calum may have been telling me that getting a pension plan is pointless. But now that there may not be enough money to support them, and that they are slightly nearer needing to use it their opinion has changed completely.

At the moment all investments and pensions are Financially risk for everybody. I was trying to find something that was comparable to this in my life, and could only really come up with was a student back account, or that if I were to make an investment at the moment I would only invest a very, very small amount that I could afford to loose. So in this respect it would be a financially low risk to me.

The Time that people put into researching and choosing investments is phenomenal. There is no way of knowing what will happen to investments in the future, but people try and make as informed a decision as they can. If I were to make an investment I would probably choose a random company. In a book by psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman, Quirkology, an experiment is carried out to try and predict the stock market. They find a woman who believes that she can use astrology to predict the stock market, a banker who has been in stocks and investments for 20 years and a four-year-old girl. They are each asked to pick four companies who will do well (the four-year-old gets her mum to hold a pile of papers, each with the name of a company on, and throw them over the stairs so that she can catch four pieces of paper). The results were that after a week the little girl has made the most money, followed by the astrologist, and then the banker. After a year the girl had made far more than either the banker, who was in second place, and the astrologist.

The most important aspect, and therefore the most risky, is the Performance of the investment. Any investment may seem "safe", but never is. As with anything, a good investment would boost your Ego, and a bad investment would leave you feeling quite let down. Watching your investment accumulate, or decline, over the years would have a big impact on your ego. Many people are currently being left with very battered egos due to the what their hard saved pensions are worth at the moment.

There is not much Physical risk in investing money, unless you use and loose all your money or savings. The Social aspect of pensions may be that, as Calum so eloquently put it, when you retire you may have to buy Tesco Value beer when your friends can still afford to go to the pub and carry on drinking premium brand beers. The investment into a pension is a much higher risk is a higher risk to a 40something than to me simply because it is more relevent to them, but the conclusion of the conversation is that I should start putting a little away every month now.

The final item discussed was buying jewellery for a partner. It was concluded that buying jewellery would be fairly similar of any age, apart from a few difference. Buying an item of expensive jewellery would be quite a higher Financial risk, and one of the catagories where it would be riskier for a 20-year-old with less money to spend. I think that the Time taken to choose the piece of jewellery would quite high, wanting to find the right piece that the receipiant would like the most. One of the biggest risks is the Performance. Does the recipiant like it? Did it fullfil the need to make you feel good about getting the gift? Another high risk catagory would be Ego. Did you enjoy buying the present and is it well recieved? There aren't really many Physical risks to buying jewellery, especially not expensive jewellery. How other people see the gift is often quite risky with jewellery as it is a public display, so the Social aspect is, also, high risk.

So a low involvement product would be something routine like milk or bread that you buy every week with your food shopping, and you would think about it, buy it then have an emotion response about it afterwards, think-do-feel. With an impulse buy, such as picking up some chewing gum or a chocolate bar when paying for the rest of your shopping at the till, you feel-do-think. You see the chocolate, feel like having a Cadbury's Caramel, buy the chocolate with the rest of my shopping, then think how yummy that chocolate was. Buying clothes because they are fashionable is a behavioural influence buy, do-think-feel. A high involvement product is an irregular purchase with high risk, such as the risks explored above. This includes buying a house, a car, a holiday or buying a gift for someone that is important to you, think-feel-do. I would think about what the recipient would like and how I would feel buying it and giving it to them, and then I would make the purchase.

Gift giving is the chance to access two different markets at the same time. A child buying her mother a Mother's Day present would have be looking for completely different things than if she were buying for herself, and completely different things than if the mother were buying for herself. The gift would emotionally connect the giver an the recipient. The gift always conveys a message about the recipient and the relationship between the giver and the recipient. Problems will occur when the gift conveys a difference between how the giver percieves their relationship and how the recipient percieves the relationship. 

"It takes a tough man to make a tender gift"

-ad slogan

A Rule of Thumb

Heuristics- A proposition that connects an event with an action. Heuristics usually simplify decision making. For example, "buy the cheapest brand" is a choice heuristic that would simplify purchase.

I have been putting off doing this post for a matter of weeks now, as I have failed to to find anything to add to simply what we did in the lesson, which would be very dry for anyone in the lesson to read- as they would know everything already. Fortunately, or possibly unfortunately as it may lead to a very long post, I started reading a book by Derren Brown, called Tricks of the Mind. One of the chapters in this book is all about Mnemonics- something intended to assist the memory in verse or formula. Brown goes into very long and detailed explanations, methods and motives, but I think that I will keep to the basics and the concepts that I feel I most fully understand. If that whets your appetite then I strongly recommend that you read the book- it is fantastic.

After concluding this chapter I am now a master in the memory assisting system known as the Linking System, the Loci System and the Peg System. In class we did an exercise that incorporated the Linking System with the basics of the Peg System. The foundation of each system is that all of the images that you use are vivid, you must be able to see them clearly. And they must be unusual, possibly emotive. Linking is the most basic of the systems, but still very useful for memorising lists or speeches, and involving linking each of the items in a list in a strange, interesting and, ultimately, memorable way. I wont give you a long list, telephone, sausage monkey where the first three in the example from Brown. He linked them by imagining trying to dial an old fashioned telephone with an uncooked sausage, and not having much luck. The next image was of monkey standing in his garden cooking sausages on a barbecue. Very simple, but it works. I ran through a list of 20 words with no problem, even repeating this list backwards was effortless.

The second system added to that, but Loci give the advantage that if you can't remember one item in the list, it's easy to skip it and go on to the next item. This system involves walking through a journey that you know well in your mind. The journey up your road and into your house was his suggestion, but anywhere you know well. The idea is to have a list of Loci, or locations, on this journey that you use each time, a shop, bus stop, post box, gate, front door would be a short list. Each of these Loci would be linked to an object in a peculiar, almost dream-like way.

The third system, the Peg System, has many different levels, but I shall quickly run through the first level- the one which was incorporated in Ruth's example. This system links each number to a word that rhymes with that number. Brown uses the following set:

1- Bun 6- Sticks

2- Shoe 7- Heaven

3- Tree 8- Gate

4- Door 9- Line

5- Hive 10- Hen

From there you can link each word associated to a number with a word from the list in a particular order. Each of these examples show how various words can become the rule of thumb in your mind. Your brain begins to learn that as soon as you think of the number 3, a tree should appear in your mind. Try getting someone to write you a list of 20 words, give yourself a few minutes to make your own, vivid links and tell me how it goes.

This is all relevant to marketing and consumer behaviour. The memory aids described above are all heuristics, as defined at the top of the page. Kotler's buyer decision process theory describes what happens in the consumer's black as if every purchase made by the consumer will be a considered, reasonable decision with the aim being optimisation. This theory may be more applicable for large, expensive purchases, a car or house, for example. I'm sure that there aren't many people who buy low involvement, FMCG this way. This is where the heuristics, the memory short-cuts, rules of thumb kick in. FMCG purchases are usually based more firmly on satisfaction, not optimisation. 

A simple example of these short-cuts comes from Consumer Behaviour, Solomon et al (2006):

Daniel relied on certain assumptions as substitutes for prolonged information search. In particular, he assumed the selection at the out-of-town big shed retailer would be more than sufficient, so he did not bother to investigate any of it's competitors. This assumption served as a short cut to more extended information processing.

A test called Fast and Frugal Heuristics carried out by Will Bennis and Thorsten Pachur at the Northwestern University, Illinois, came to the following conclusion:

FFH (Fast and Frugal Heuristics) depart from many models of human decision making in that they set a reasonable standard of rationality based on real-world constraints such as (a) limited time, information, and cognitive capacity, (b) decision tasks that may have no calculable optimal solution, and (c) the structured environments within which humans have learned and evolved.

According to Solomon Non-Compensatory Decision Rules are

a set of simple rules used to evaluate competing alternatives; a brand with a low standing on one relevant attribute is eliminated from the consumer's choice set.

These can be split up into three categories.

The Lexicographic Rule~ This is the "take the best" rule. Here the consumer will have a certain attribute of the product that is most important- and he will take the product that rates highest for that attribute. If there are two equal product he will take the next most important aspect, and will take the product that rates highest in that section. For example, I want to buy a digital camera. The most important aspect of that camera to me is that it has 10x Optical zoom. Yet there are several cameras that qualify. The next determining factor is the size. So I buy the smallest digital camera with a 10x Optical zoom. I am satisfied with my purchase, although I may not have totally maximized my money.

The Elimination-by-Aspects Rule~ This rule stipulates that if, when choosing which digital camera to buy, I decided that I wanted my camera to come with photo editing software. This means that every camera on sale without a photo editing package would automatically be disqualified from my selection.

The Conjunctive Rule~  This rule is more involved than the previous two, and has it's basis in brands. It is similar to the eliminate-by-aspects rule as it purges brands that do not meet certain criteria. The difference being that it asserts that many different criteria must be met at a certain level. If these criteria are not met by any brand then the search may be put off, or the criteria may be modified. If there were several digital cameras that were small, with 10x Optical zoom and a good photo-editing package, I may choose to include a new aspect that I want, or leave without buying a camera at all.

Other heuristics can come from habit, buying same same brand that I bought last time, branding, recognising a product, advertising, recognising a product/brand and liking the packaging or even buying certain brand of milk because that's the one your mother always bought.

There are many ways in which, as a marketer, you can "help along" these heuristics, make the decision a little easier or more obvious for the consumer. There include using price- a consumer whose shortcut would be to look for the cheapest may assume that a Tesco Value product is the cheapest. Promotion- if a product comes with a free gift it may be favoured above those without. Novelty- a consumer may buy the product because it is the latest product out, a first edition of a book, or a limited edition product. Variety- this would include making a purchase because the product that breaks the mould, is unusual. Herd- buying a certain brand or a product because it the popular.

The Evoked Set

The set of possible products or brands that the consumer may be considering in the decision process. It is the set of choices that has been evoked and is salient as compared with the larger number of available possible choices. For example, from the many brands of breakfast cereals on super-market shelves, it is the half a dozen brands (or so) that the buyer may re-member and be considering for purchase.

The memory, in the simplistic way that I understand it, is networked together, memories linked together, one smell reminding you of a warm summer day, which reminds you of a certain flower that used to grow in your garden in the summer. These links can be manipulated as a marketeer. The links are often like assumptions. If the furniture shop down the road has been open for 65 years and sells quality furniture, then another shop that has been open for a long time must also sell quality products. A more common information search is on the internet, and how that can shorten, or lengthen, the information search. When making a considered purchase the internet is the first place to look for many people, and learning how to optimize influence on the web can be crutial. It's not really heuristics, but it's quite interesting and useful, so I added the below video. What heuristics have you used recently, were you aware of using them? How could they have been controled by marketing techniques?