Chapter 9
Judgment and Decision-Making
Based on Low-Effort
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or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 1
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, you will be able to:
9-1 Identify the types of heuristics that consumers can use to make low-effort judgments.
9-2 Explain why marketers need to understand both unconscious and conscious decision-
making processes in low-effort situations.
9-3 Understand how consumers learn to apply choice tactics through operant conditioning.
9-4 Discuss how consumers make thought-based low-effort decisions using performance-
related tactics, habit, brand loyalty, price-related tactics, and normative influences.
9-5 Describe how consumers make affect-based low-effort decisions using feelings as a
simplifying strategy, brand familiarity, variety seeking, and impulse purchasing.
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9-1
Low-Effort Judgment Processes
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or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 3
Exhibit 9.1—Chapter Overview: Judgment
and Decision-Making: Low Consumer Effort
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or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 4
9-1 Low-Effort Judgment Processes (1 of 2)
• Representativeness heuristic*: Making a judgment by simply comparing a
stimulus with the category prototype or exemplar
− Suggests that companies position offerings close to a prototype that has positive
associations in consumers’ minds.
− When the shortcut leads to a judgment that is negatively biased, marketers must take steps
to overcome it.
* Words accompanied by an asterisk are key terms from the chapter.
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9-1 Low-Effort Judgment Processes (2 of 2)
• Availability heuristic*: Basing judgments on events that are easier to recall
− Law of small numbers*: The expectation that information obtained from a small number of
people represents the larger population
− To capitalize on the availability bias:
Provide consumers with positive and vivid product-related experiences through the use of
marketing communications or ask consumers to imagine such situations.
Attempt to stimulate positive word-of-mouth communication.
− To overcome the availability bias:
Provide consumers with base-rate information about the general population.
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9-2
Low-Effort Decision-Making Processes
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9-2 Low-Effort Decision-Making Processes
(1 of 4)
• In some low-effort situations, consumers may make a decision without being
consciously aware of how or why they are doing so.
− As much as 50 percent of all shopping decisions are made spontaneously and
unconsciously while consumers are in the store.
− Unconscious choices may be strongly affected by environmental stimuli.
Marketers can use scent, music, color, displays, and other sensory cues to influence choices.
− Evaluative conditioning can influence attitudes and unconscious brand choices.
− Consumers may form accurate yet unconscious impressions through thin-slice judgments.
− Certain choices represent goal-related behavior even though consumers are pursuing the
goal almost automatically, without conscious thought.
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9-2 Low-Effort Decision-Making Processes
(2 of 4)
• Traditional hierarchy of effects*: Sequential steps used in decision-making
involving thinking, then feeling, then behavior
− Does not apply to all decision-making situations.
• Low-effort hierarchy of effects*: Sequence of thinking-behaving-feeling
− The consumer enters the decision process with a set of low-level beliefs based on brand
familiarity and knowledge that serve as the foundation for the decision or behavior.
− After making the decision and while using the product, the consumer evaluates the brand
and may or may not form an attitude, depending on how strongly the brand is liked or
satisfies needs.
• Other decisions are made based on positive feelings rather than on beliefs or
knowledge (feeling-behaving-thinking).
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9-2 Low-Effort Decision-Making Processes
(3 of 4)
• Under low motivation and low processing opportunity, how a marketing
message is framed will influence how consumers react.
− A negatively framed marketing message is more effective than a positively framed
message.
• Two other factors influence the low-MAO decision process.
− The goal is not necessarily to find the best possible brand, called optimizing, as is the case
with high-elaboration decisions.
Instead, consumers are more willing to satisfice*, to find a brand that is good enough to simply
satisfy their needs.
− Most low-elaboration decisions are made frequently and repeatedly.
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9-2 Low-Effort Decision-Making Processes
(4 of 4)
• Choice tactics*: Simple rules of thumb used to make low-effort decisions
− Price tactics (it’s the cheapest or it’s on sale)
− Affect tactics (I like it)
− Performance tactics (it cleans clothes better)
− Normative tactics (my mother bought it)
− Habit tactics (I buy the same brand I bought last time)
− Brand-loyalty tactics (I buy the same brand for which I have a strong preference)
− Variety-seeking tactics (I need to try something different)
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9-3
Learning Choice Tactics
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9-3 Learning Choice Tactics (1 of 2)
• Operant conditioning*: A process of learning drive by the use of rewards to
reinforce desired behavior and punishment to discourage objectionable behavior
− Reinforcement—Usually comes from a feeling of satisfaction when we as perceive that our
needs have been adequately met
Increases the probability that we will purchase the same brand again
Reinforces the consumer’s choice tactic
− Punishment—When consumers have a bad experience with a product or service, form a
negative evaluation of it, and never purchase it again
May lead consumers to reevaluate their choice tactic and use a different tactic next time
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Exhibit 9.2—The Learning Process
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or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 14
9-3 Learning Choice Tactics (2 of 2)
• The choice tactics we use often depend on the product category that we are
considering.
− Depends on which brands are available and our experiences with them
− Also influenced by amount of advertising, price variations, and the number and similarity of
brands
− Experiences help us learn what works for each product, and we use these tactics to
minimize decision-making effort for future purchases.
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9-4
Low-Effort Thought-Based
Decision-Making
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9-4 Low-Effort Thought-Based
Decision-Making (1 of 5)
• Performance-related tactics*: Tactics based on benefits, features, or
evaluations of the brand
− The primary marketing strategy objective should be to increase the likelihood of satisfaction
through offering quality.
− Marketers should select product features or benefits that are important to consumers, help
to differentiate the brand from competitors, and convince consumers that they will be
satisfied if they buy the product.
− Sales promotion strategies such as free samples, price deals, or coupons only work if
product performance satisfies and reinforces the consumer.
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9-4 Low-Effort Thought-Based
Decision-Making (2 of 5)
• Habit*: A learned behavior that involves regular performance of the same act
repeatedly over time
− Behaviors are often performed unconsciously and may be difficult to discontinue.
− Getting consumers to acquire or use an offering repeatedly is important.
Shaping*: Leading consumers through a series of steps to create a desired response
− Sales promotion techniques can induce brand switching.
Introduce a new and unique benefit that satisfies consumers’ needs better than existing brands.
Have strategic distribution policies.
− Marketers do not want repeat-purchase customers to break their buying habits.
Offer comparable deals to build resistance to switching.
Use distribution and inventory control to prevent habitual consumers from switching brands.
Use advertising and other marketing communications can induce resistance to switching.
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9-4 Low-Effort Thought-Based
Decision-Making (3 of 5)
• Brand loyalty*: Buying the same brand repeatedly because of a strong
preference for it
− Multibrand loyalty*: Buying two or more brands repeatedly because of a strong preference
for them
− Identify brand-loyal consumers by focusing on consumer purchase patterns.
− Develop loyalty through nonprice promotions or through less drastic price promotions.
− Satisfy the consumer with a high-quality product.
− Cultivate brand loyalty through brand-building sales promotions.
− Market toward nonloyal or habitual consumers, except when a brand has a strong point of
superiority or differentiation when compared with the competition.
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9-4 Low-Effort Thought-Based
Decision-Making (4 of 5)
• Price-related tactics*: Simplifying decision heuristics that are based on price
− Used when consumers perceive few differences among brands and when they have low
involvement with the brands in the consideration set
− Consumers consider how much they must pay in relation to the price of other relevant
brands or to the price they previously paid for that product.
− Zone of acceptance*: The acceptable range of prices for any purchase decision
− Consumer perceptions play an important role in the use of price-related tactics.
− Deal-prone consumer*: A consumer who is more likely to be influenced by price
− Marketers can use a variety of pricing techniques, including coupons, price-offs, rebates,
and two-for-ones, as long as the savings are at or above the just noticeable difference and
within the zone of acceptance.
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9-4 Low-Effort Thought-Based
Decision-Making (5 of 5)
• Normative choice tactics*: Low-elaboration decision-making that is based on
others’ opinions
− Can result from:
Direct influence, in which others try to manipulate us
Vicarious observation, in which we observe others to guide our behavior
Indirect influence, in which we are concerned about the opinions of others
− Particularly common among inexperienced consumers who have little knowledge
− Online communication can increase its importance
− Marketers can emphasize these motivations in advertising and can attempt to stimulate
word-of-mouth communication.
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9-5
Low-Effort Feeling-Based
Decision-Making
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or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 22
9-5 Low-Effort Feeling-Based
Decision-Making (1 of 5)
• Affect*: Low-level feelings
− Most likely to be part of the decision process when the offering is hedonic (rather than
functional) and when other factors, such as performance evaluations, price, habit, and
normative influences, are not in operation
− Affect-related tactics*: Tactics based on feelings
Affect referral*: A simple type of affective tactic whereby we simply remember our feelings for the
product or service
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or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 23
9-5 Low-Effort Feeling-Based
Decision-Making (2 of 5)
• Brand familiarity*: Easy recognition
of a well-known brand
− Co-branding*: An arrangement by which
the two brands form a partnership to
benefit from the power of both
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or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 24
9-5 Low-Effort Feeling-Based
Decision-Making (3 of 5)
• By creating positive affect toward their brand, marketers can increase the
probability that, all other things being equal, their brand will be selected.
− One study showed that two key aspects of a product’s design generate more positive
affective responses to the product.
Unity*: When all the visual parts of a design fit together
Prototypicality: The object is representative of its category
− Brands that have positive cross-cultural affect can be marketed internationally.
− Hedonic offerings—those that involve style or taste—rely heavily on affective associations.
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9-5 Low-Effort Feeling-Based
Decision-Making (4 of 5)
• Variety seeking*: Trying something different
− Consumers seek variety for two major reasons: satiation and boredom.
Consumers may also seek variety in public situations because they anticipate that others will
evaluate their decision more positively.
− Variety seeking is most likely to occur when involvement is low, there are few differences
among brands, and the product is more hedonic than functional.
− Marketers can reduce’ boredom simply by providing more variety in a product category.
− Optimal stimulation level (OSL)*: The level of arousal that is most comfortable for an
individual
− Sensation seeker*: A consumer who actively looks for variety
− Vicarious exploration*: Seeking information simply for stimulation
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9-5 Low-Effort Feeling-Based
Decision-Making (5 of 5)
• Impulse purchase*: An unexpected purchase based on a strong feeling
− Characterized by:
An intense or overwhelming feeling of having to buy the product immediately
A disregard for potentially negative purchase consequences
Feelings of euphoria and excitement
A conflict between control and indulgence
− Prevalence varies across cultures and individuals
− Motives may be intrinsic and/or external
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Exhibit 9.7—Courting Variety Seekers
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