🧠 Key Definitions & Concepts to Know

1. Motivation

●​ The process that leads people to behave as they do.​

●​ Begins when a need is aroused → leads to a goal.​

●​ Utilitarian need: Practical/functional (e.g., hunger, safety).​

●​ Hedonic need: Emotional/experiential (e.g., fun, fantasy).​

2. Drive Theory

●​ Motivation arises from biological needs creating unpleasant tension.​

●​ The arousal of this tension is called a drive.​

●​ Goal = reduce tension and return to homeostasis (balance).​

●​ Example: You’re thirsty → tension builds → drink water = drive reduced.​

3. Expectancy Theory

●​ Behavior is driven by expected positive outcomes (rewards).​

●​ Motivation comes from external incentives, not just inner discomfort.

Example:

-​ Inner discomfort: You feel lazy and out of shape.

-​ External incentive: There's a special discount and your friends are signing up.​

👉 Both factors could motivate you to act, but this quote reminds you that outside rewards
(external incentives) are often just as powerful—if not more—than inner feelings.
 ●​ The placebo effect refers to the tendency for your brain to convince you that a fake
treatment is a real thing ​
If someone believes an expensive face cream or energy drink will work better, they may
actually perceive better results—even if the ingredients are the same as a cheaper
version.

4. Needs vs. Wants

●​ Need = basic goal (e.g., food, shelter).​

●​ Want = culturally influenced way to fulfill that need (e.g., sushi vs. pizza).​

●​ Hedonic consumption = emotional, sensory product use.

-​ A need reflects a basic goal such as keeping yourself nourished or protected
from the elements.
-​ A want is a specific pathway to achieving this objective: A want is how you
choose to satisfy that need.
●​ Marketers can’t change your needs—but they shape your wants by influencing how
you choose to satisfy those needs (through advertising, branding, and product design).

5. Motivational Conflicts

●​ Approach Conflict: Choose between two good options. Approach-Approach Conflict

occurs when a person must choose between two desirable alternatives.
●​ Approach–AA goal has valence, which means that it can be positive or negative. We
direct our behavior toward goals we value positively; we are motivated to approach the
goal and to seek out products that will help us to reach it.
●​ The theory of cognitive dissonance is the idea that people have a need for order in
their lives and that a state of dissonance (tension) exists when beliefs or behaviors
conflict with one another. Cognitive dissonance theory says that people like their
thoughts and actions to match. When they believe one thing but do something different,
it creates an uncomfortable feeling (called dissonance), and they try to fix it to feel
better.

➡️
●​ Cognitive dissonance: You believe smoking is bad for your health but you still smoke
every day That creates dissonance—a feeling of discomfort or psychological
tension.
Marketers can use this theory to:

●​ Reduce dissonance after a purchase (e.g., “You made the right choice!” emails)
●​ Highlight inconsistency to motivate action (e.g., “You care about the planet—so why not
buy eco-friendly products?”)

Approach - Approach Conflict: You have money for one thing:​

➡️
A vacation to Paris or a new laptop.​

🧠
Both are appealing, so making a choice is difficult.​
Key idea: You want both, but must choose one.

Approach–Avoidance Conflict: Attracted to and repelled by the same option.

Approach-Avoidance Conflict : Approach–avoidance conflict occurs when we desire a goal

but wish to avoid it at the same time.

😋 😬).​
➡️
●​ You want to eat cake (yummy! ), but you're also on a diet (guilt!
You’re torn between the reward and the consequence.

🧠 Key idea: You want something, but part of you also wants to avoid it.
Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict : Avoidance-avoidance conflict is a situation that contains only
undesirable alternatives (“caught between a rock and a hard place”). ​

➡️
●​ Your car breaks down. Do you pay a lot to fix it or take the bus to work every day?​
Neither choice is ideal.

🧠 Key idea: You're forced to choose between two bad options.

6. Cognitive Dissonance

●​ Tension when beliefs/choices conflict.​

●​ Postdecision dissonance: Discomfort after choosing between 2 good options.​

●​ Rationalization helps justify the chosen option. We tend to convince ourselves that the
choice we made was the smart one as we find additional reasons to support the
alternative we did choose – rationalization. ​
7. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Bottom to Top)

1.​ Physiological – food, water​

2.​ Safety – security, shelter​

3.​ Social – love, belonging​

4.​ Esteem – respect, recognition​

5.​ Self-Actualization – achieving full potential​

🧠 Note: Order isn't always fixed across cultures or situations.

😊 Affect & Emotions

8. Affect

●​ General emotional response.​

9. Types of Affective Responses

●​ Evaluations – low arousal, +/– reactions (e.g., “nice shirt”).​

●​ Moods – moderate arousal, longer-lasting (e.g., relaxed, anxious).​

●​ Emotions – intense, specific trigger (e.g., joy, anger).​

10. Negative State Relief

●​ Helping others to feel better yourself.​

Helping others as a way to resolve one’s own negative moods is known as negative
state relief.

11. Sadvertising
 ●​ Emotional storytelling in ads to manipulate feelings. Sadvertising is the use of
inspirational stories that manipulate our emotions. ​

12. Mood Congruency

●​ We judge things more positively when in a good mood.​

Mood congruency refers to the idea that our judgments tend to be shaped by our moods.
●​ Consumers judge the same products more positively when they are in a positive as
opposed to a negative mood.

😍 Positive Affect
●​ Lovemark: Emotional bond/loyalty to a brand.​

●​ Happiness: Linked to emotional well-being and consumption.

●​ A passionate commitment to one brand has been termed a lovemark.
●​ Happiness is a mental state of well being characterized by positive emotions.

Evidence suggests we are “wired” to engage in material accumulation, which is what

researchers term the instinct to earn more than we can possibly consume, even when
this imbalance makes us unhappy.

Example: Imagine someone with a high-paying job who keeps working long hours to earn even
more. People often overvalue earning (or owning) and undervalue well-being (like free time,
relationships, or peace of mind).

-​ They already have enough to live comfortably. But they don’t stop, because they feel a
need to accumulate. Eventually, they feel burnt out or unfulfilled—even though they have
“everything.”​

●​ Material Accumulation: Instinct to gather resources (even to excess).​

😤 Negative Affect
●​ Disgust: Useful in marketing to provoke reactions.​

●​ Fear: Used to highlight consequences (e.g., public health ads).​

 ●​ Envy:​

○​ Benign envy: Other deserves success.​

○​ Malicious envy: They don’t deserve it.​

●​ Guilt: Discomfort about actions or inaction.​

●​ Embarrassment: Concern for others' judgments.​

📲 Emotions & Social Media

●​ Sentiment Analysis/:opinion mining Analyzing social media text to detect emotional
tone.​

●​ Brands use it to improve customer experience and image.

In the "happy economy":

●​ People seek emotional fulfillment, not just material gain.​

●​ Technology helps them discover, track, and share what makes them feel good.​

●​ Well-being becomes a kind of social currency—something to "collect" and "display," like

wealth once was.

🛒 Consumer Involvement
13. Involvement
Involvement is a person’s perceived relevance of the object based on their inherent needs,
values, and interests. (Figure 5.3)Involvement is how important or personally meaningful
something feels to a person, based on their needs, values, or what they're interested in.

Level of personal relevance in a purchase.​

●​ Inertia: Low involvement; habitual behavior.

 ●​ High involvement: Research, emotional or logical investment.
●​ A person’s degree of involvement is a continuum that ranges from absolute lack of
interest in a marketing stimulus at one end to obsession at the other.
●​ Cult products such as Apple command fierce consumer loyalty, devotion, and maybe
even worship by consumers. A large majority of consumers agree that they are willing to
pay more for a brand when they feel a personal connection to the company.

14. Types of Involvement

●​ Product involvement: Interest in a product.​

●​ Brand loyalty: Continued, conscious repurchase of same brand.​

●​ Variety-seeking: Trying new brands even if satisfied. Consumers engage in brand

switching, even if our current brand satisfies our needs.
●​ Variety-seeking is the desire to choose new alternatives over more familiar ones.​

15. Increasing Product Involvement

●​ Mass customization: Personalize products (e.g., Levi’s jeans).​

●​ IKEA Effect: Consumers value products they helped create.​

●​ Co-creation: Involving customers in product development.​

●​ Gamification: Use of game elements to increase engagement.​

16. Increase Message Involvement

●​ Using novel, prominent, celebrity-endorsed, or entertaining content increases

attention and engagement.​
Use novel stimuli, such as unusual cinema effect, sudden silences, or unexpected
movements, in commercials.
●​ Use prominent stimuli, such as loud music and fast action, to capture attention.
●​ Include celebrity endorsers.
●​ Provide value that customers appreciate
17. Situational Involvement

●​ Engagement with the place (e.g., store, website).​

●​ “Butts-in-seats” strategy: Create experiences to bring people in.​

✅ Tips for Multiple Choice Questions:

●​ Look for definitions vs. examples (e.g., difference between needs and wants).​

●​ Know the 3 motivational conflicts and Maslow’s hierarchy in order.​

●​ Be able to identify hedonic vs. utilitarian needs.​

●​ Understand affective terms: mood vs. emotion vs. evaluation.​

●​ Recall terms like lovemark, sadvertising, placebo effect, cognitive dissonance, etc.​

Let me know if you'd like a quizlet, flashcards, or practice questions** to test yourself!