RELEVANCE OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE, ACTIVATION AND INVOLVEMENT TO BRANDING: AN OVERVIEW (Relevancia de la disonancia cognitiva, la activación y el implicación en el branding: un resumen)

Arti Sahgal

Description

Abstract
This study examines consumer behavior from the perspective of cognitive psychology. It focuses on a set of cognitive psychological determinants of buyer behavior and analyzes how cognitive dissonance, activation and involvement influence consumer behavior. The literature indicates that a deeper insight into the cognitive processes underlying purchase behavior is essential for brand managers to create and communicate interventions that may have a stronger impact on the buyer such that their brand occupies a special position in the consumer’s mind. Up to now, the conflict between presenting a brand in a both favorable light and completely accurately has been rarely addressed in the literature.
Resumen
En este trabajo se examina el comportamiento del consumidor desde la perspectiva de la psicología cognitiva. Este artículo se centra en una selección de determinantes psicológicos cognitivos en la conducta del comprador y analiza cómo la disonancia cognitiva, la activación y la implicación tienen especial influencia sobre el comportamiento del consumidor. La bibliografía demuestra que es indispensable adquirir una mayor comprensión de los procesos cognitivos que afectan a las conductas de compra de los consumidores, de tal manera que los gerentes de las marcas puedan crear y transmitir intervenciones que tengan un profundo impacto en el comprador y que logren que su marca ocupe una posición distintiva en la mente del consumidor. Se considera que hasta ahora, no se ha investigado suficientemente el conflicto entre cómo presentar una marca de manera que ésta se vea beneficiada y cómo presentarla de manera veraz.

Sujets

• Branding
• Consumer behaviour
• Cognitive dissonance
• Disonancia cognitiva

Informations

• Publié par: erevistas
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 26
• Langue: Español

Extrait

Escritos de Psicología, Vol. 4, nº 3, pp. 15-26 Copyright © 2011 Escritos de Psicología
Septiembre-Diciembre 2011 ISSN 1989-3809 DOI: 10.5231/psy.writ.2011.0809
Relevance of cognitive dissonance, activation and involvement to
branding: An overview
Relevancia de la disonancia cognitiva, la activación y el implicación en el
branding: un resumen
Arti Sahgal and Achim Elfering
Institute of Psychology, Department for Work and Organizational Psychology at the University of Berne, Switzerland
Disponible online 31 de diciembre de 2011
This study examines consumer behavior from the perspective of cognitive psychology. It focuses on a set of cognitive
psychological determinants of buyer behavior and analyzes how dissonance, activation and involvement
infuence consumer behavior. The literature indicates that a deeper insight into the cognitive processes underlying
purchase behavior is essential for brand managers to create and communicate interventions that may have a stronger
impact on the buyer such that their brand occupies a special position in the consumer’s mind. Up to now, the confict
between presenting a brand in a both favorable light and completely accurately has been rarely addressed in the
literature.
Keywords: Branding; Consumer Behavior; Cognitive Processes; Cognitive Dissonance.
En este trabajo se examina el comportamiento del consumidor desde la perspectiva de la psicología cognitiva. Este
artículo se centra en una selección de determinantes psicológicos cognitivos en la conducta del comprador y analiza
cómo la disonancia cognitiva, la activación y la implicación tienen especial infuencia sobre el comportamiento
del consumidor. La bibliografía demuestra que es indispensable adquirir una mayor comprensión de los procesos
cognitivos que afectan a las conductas de compra de los consumidores, de tal manera que los gerentes de las marcas
puedan crear y transmitir intervenciones que tengan un profundo impacto en el comprador y que logren que su
marca ocupe una posición distintiva en la mente del consumidor. Se considera que hasta ahora, no se ha investigado
sufcientemente el conficto entre cómo presentar una marca de manera que ésta se vea benefciada y cómo
presentarla de manera veraz.
Palabras Clave: Branding; Comportamiento del Consumidor; Procesos Cognitivos; Disonancia Cognitiva.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Prof. Dr. Achim Elfering, University of Berne Institute of Psychology, Department
for Work and Organizational Psychology, Muesmattstrasse 45. 3000 Bern 9 E-mail: [e-mail]. Author’s e-Mails: Arti Sahgal:
[e-mail]
15ARTI SAHGAL, ACHIM ELFERING
Brands accompany people throughout their entire life. play a considerable role in this context and ultimately assist in
Notions like Nike, Coca-Cola or UBS are familiar to us since understanding as well as predicting consumer behavior.
early childhood; they stand for continuity and safety in our Within the scope of the present paper, the aim is to review
being (Waller, Süss, & Bircher, 2006). By means of our beha- and to point out the pertinence of psychological models and
vior as consumer we can symbolize who we are, some even go theories, particularly from a cognitive perspective on consumer
to the extent of claiming “you are what you consume” (Solo- behavior, that are most commonly mentioned in conjunction
mon, 2002, p. 135). with branding. The following section is dedicated to the general
It is no secret that in industrial countries we nowadays are relevance of psychology in the context of brand management
living in a society of abundance. In our markets a growing and to theoretical approaches to consumer behavior. In the sub-
saturation can be observed due to which on the supply-side sequent chapters selected well-established cognitive concepts
products are always becoming more homogeneous and thus and theories, especially relevant to anchoring the brand in the
replaceable. In many markets in the course of time the position buyer’s mind, will be examined on how they can be applied in
of suppliers has weakened due to this occurrence of saturation order to achieve the goals of branding.
and for this reason, extraordinary communication efforts have
become necessary to promote sales. In such fooded markets The Role of Psychology in Brand Management
with less involved consumers (see section Consumer Involve- The essence of a successful implementation of brand posi-
ment) and functionally interchangeable products, a strong as tioning, lies in the subjective brand perception of consumers. A
well as differentiating brand positioning is vital to set oneself profound understanding of how customers behave and which
apart from competition (Day, 1990). psychological processes infuence them, is consequently vital
Naturally all suppliers want to make their voice heard by for effective brand management. – Else, how will companies
potential customers, in order to promote the provided brand anchor their brand in the mind of the consumer, if there is no
(Aaker, 1996). But just in today’s time of communication exu- knowledge on which factors determine the target group’s prefe-
berance it is particularly challenging to catch the attention of rences among brands? Accordingly, it is indispensable to have
consumers (Ries & Trout, 1981; Trommsdorff & Paulssen, an in-depth psychological understanding of consumer beha-
2005). Because of the increasing information overload with vior, in order to fnd a good as well as prosperous position for
advertising messages on the customer-side (see section Per- a brand.
ception and Attention), sales companies are forced to design In virtue of the aspects mentioned above, the exigency for
their communication messages in such a manner that they grasp a systematic research in the area of consumer behavior, became
attention and activate the target group (see section Activation evident. As early as in the forties of the preceding century, in
of Consumers; De Pasquale & Leschnikowski, 2007). But the the context of rather commercial issues, insights from psy-
resulting communication and promotion food, leads to the fact chology were utilized to bring light to economic behavior. In
that it is getting continuously more diffcult to be perceived by the last approximately thirty years, a rapid emergence of the
customers. Accordingly, to nevertheless be able to prove one- exploration of buyer behavior and connected to this the esta-
self and be victorious in this increasingly intensive rat-race, a blishment of the feld in academic science as a distinct area
differentiating and successful positioning of brands is crucial of investigation, was observable. In the seventies and eighties
(Aaker, 1996). consumer research experienced a nearly turbulent development
According to Ries and Trout (1981) who are considered the - however, now the feld is frmly founded as one of the core
originators of the positioning concept, success without a clear segments of marketing and marketing communication (Kuss &
positioning is not possible. They defne positioning as follows: Tomczak, 2004).
“Positioning starts with a product. . . . But positioning is As documented above, the necessity for systematic
not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to research in the area of consumer behavior emerged and since
the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product many years borrowings from psychology are being made in
in the mind of the prospect.” (Ries & Trout, 1981, p. 2 f). order to illuminate the behavior of buyers. With regards to
On ground of the above described conception of branding, brand purchase situations, the psychological determinants
it becomes evident that in order for brand providers to create of consumer behavior are frequently subdivided into on one
and communicate interventions that have an impact on the cus- side activating psychic processes that include images, attitu-
tomer, it is of great importance to understand the psychological des, emotions and motivation and on the other side cognitive
processes underlying consumer behavior and to know in what psychic processes to which perception as well as
manner they determine a customer’s likes or dislikes towards processing of information, information storage and infor-
brands. This knowledge enables the supplier to infuence buyers mation structuring, can be counted (e.g., Homburg &
and therefore, the comprehension of what takes place in the Krohmer, 2005; Kuss, 1991; Meffert, 1992; Pepels, 2005).
psyche of the customer embodies a key success factor for brand Activating are such processes that are linked to internal
management. For obvious reasons, psychological approaches arousal as well as excitement and that stimulate behavior. Cog-
16COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS IN BRANDING
nitive are such processes by means of which customers perceive infuence on consumer decision-making. These activating
themselves and their environment. The absorbed information determinants of behavior lead to the fact that con-
- frequently as a result of communication – is then mentally sumers do not merely act as passive recipients of marketing
processed and results in knowledge structures that impinge on information but can take an active role in information proces-