Catherine Jansson-Boyd
What is consumer psychology?
- 'consumer psychology is about understanding why and how individuals and groups engage in consumer activities, as well as how they are affected by them. A large part of this discipline is focused on the cognitive processes and behaviours involved when people purchase or use products' (pg.1).
How consumption affects people's lives:
- 'a number of research studies conducted by psychologists have repeatedly shown that consumption is an integral part of people's lives. For example, it has been found that consumer activities can impact upon people's identities and how individuals convey their social status through the use of certain products and services' (pg.3).
- 'structuralism focused on understanding the structure of the mind and psychologist Wilhelm Wundt believed that psychologists should focus on immediate conscious experience. Throughout his career he investigated many different areas if psychology, but attention may be the most relevant area to consumer psychology. Wundt viewed attention as the part of perception that reflects what humans are consciously aware of' (pg.6).
- 'how individuals are influenced by consumption may be sen by how they choose their material possessions. By choosing the 'right' kind of products, they display their identities to others' (pg.13).
[Note: Although most of this research source is about consumer psychology in particular, and how advertising affects consumer's buying behaviours, some areas could potentially link with other sources I have in regards to phenomenology and experience since this also concerns the conscious mind.]
Perception and attention:
- 'perception and attention are two areas that are integral to understanding consumer processing. The way in which consumer stimuli are evaluated is guided by our perception which is linked to previous experiences' (pg.38).
- 'perception is the way in 'which information acquired from the environment via the sense organs is transformed into experiences of objects, events, sounds, tastes, touch, etc' (Roth, 1986). It is a process whereby stimuli are selected, organised and interpreted'.
- 'the study of perception is the study of largely unconscious processes through which information in the external environment is attended to, and it is biased by previous experiences so that only certain things appeal to our senses (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1988). Our perception is an active process that continuously categorises and interprets information provided by our senses. It enables people to almost instantly gain an understanding of what objects and scenes they encounter mean. This is done by linking previous experiences to the stimulus they come across, as well as adapting the way in which they are perceived. The information is then co-ordinated to form a perceptual pattern which will subsequently be stored in memory' (pg.39).
Gestalt theories:
- 'one aspect of perception that as been well researched is how features are organised into whole figures. The research was originally conducted by a group of German psychologists in the late 1800's and early 1900's, that became known as the Gestalt school of psychology. The name came out of their beliefs that humans tend to be biased to see distinct forms even if they encounter design features that are slightly irregular'.
- 'however, part of the critique of the Gestalt laws is that they are difficult to apply to how humans perceive 3D objects (Eysenck, 1993). However, they are applicable to two-dimensional objects such as drawings which also make them highly suitable to integrate into marketing stimuli' (pg.39).
- 'the gestalt theories previously outlined focus mainly on the way in which human perception is affected by visual input. Of all of the senses used, vision is the one that is most commonly researched and discussed. This is not surprising considering that visual attention is a vital way to acquire information in consumer (and other) environments and it does account for approx. 80% of human perception (Levine, 2000). Visual perception enables people to experience the existence of objects as well as their colour, form and position (Padgham and Saunders, 1975). Naturally, this is partially due to the fact that vision is often the only way to gather information about products and brands in consumer environments' (pg.42).
Aesthetics:
- 'a large part of generating favourable perception is the physical characteristics that will make the consumer think of a product, display or retail environment as more or less attractive'.
- 'the dilemma for marketers is how to present consumers with information that will generate a favourable perception. Berlyne (1971) suggested that different cultures may be homogenous in their response to stimuli, which suggests that there are some underlying general concepts that determine consumers' preferences of design in general' (pg.46).
REFERENCE: Jansson-Boyd, C. (2010) Consumer Psychology. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
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