What is Attention?

–Focusing the cognitive system on information that is relevant to important goals

and values.

What is Comprehension? – The cognitive processes by which consumers understand or make sense of
their own behaviours and relevant aspects of their environment.

What is Exposure? – A consumers contact with marketing information, thus Exposure can be intentional
or accidental.

2 Types of Exposure

Intentional – occurs when consumers purposefully search for information relevant to a goal or problem
they have.

Accidental – occurs when consumers unexpectedly encounter marketing information in their

environments.

What is Selective Exposure? – A consumer’s tendency to avoid exposure.

Marketing Implications – Develop specific strategies to enhance the probability of exposure:

 Facilitate intentional exposure

 Maximize accidental exposure
 Maintain exposure

Objective: Create the appropriate level of exposure

Attention Process

 Once consumers are exposed to marketing, interpretation processes of attention &

comprehension begin.
 Exposure: Accidental/Intentional.
 Attention Implies Selectivity.
 Selectivity – Choosing info from a larger set and ignoring other info.
 Consumers must be alert and aroused to consciously attend to something.
 Level of alertness influences how intensively someone process the info.
 When arousal is low attention & comprehension suffer.

Variations in Attention

 Attention Process: automatic/unconscious level to controlled/conscious level

 Preconscious Attention – highly automatic & unconscious
 Focal Attention – controlled and conscious
Factors Influencing Attention

1. Affective states
 High affective arousal narrows consumers’ focus of attention.
 Makes attention more selective.
2. Involvement
 Means-end chains activated from memory.
 Related affective response.
 Arousal Level.
3. Environmental Prominence
 Most important stimuli likely to attract attention.
 Marketers make stimuli prominent in environment.

Marketing Implications

1. Intrinsic Self-relevance
 Marketers General approach is to understand why consumers find the product to be
self-relevant.
 First, Marketers identify the product consequences and values consumers consider most
important.
 Second, design strategies that activate meaning and link them to product.
 Examples of antiperspirants – rational and tangible functional consequences vs.
psychosocial consequences.
2. Situational Self-relevance
 Situational sources of personal relevance are specific cues or contingencies in a
consumer’s immediate environment that are perceived personally relevant in the
context of that particular situation. ( i.e. price promotions, presence of a significant
other special event)
 Generates higher levels of involvement and motivation to attend to marketing
information, but decreases once personal goal is achieved.
 Consider you received a brochure in the mail describing a $1 million sweepstake
sponsored by a magazine publisher.

Factors Affecting Environmental Prominence

 Vivid pictorial images

 Novel or unusual stimuli
 Creative lighting
 Mirrors in clothing stores and salon
Comprehensions

Consumer’s Comprehension Processes vary in four ways:

1. Automatic or controlled
2. Produce concrete or abstract meanings
3. Produce few or many meanings
4. Create weaker or stronger memories

Inferences during comprehension

Inference: Interpretations that produce knowledge or beliefs that go beyond the information
given.

Factors Influencing Comprehensions

 Knowledge in memory – consumers ability to understand what you are telling them is
determined by their existing knowledge of the product. A consumer’s involvement will
be directly related to his level of expertise.
 Involvement – Consumers involvement at the time of exposure has a major influence on
their motivation to comprehend marketing info.
 Exposure – Aspects of the environment will affect a consumers’ opportunity to
comprehend. These could include factors such as time pressure, consumer’s affective
state ( good mood vs. bad mood ), and distractions ( noisy, pushing crowd ).

Marketing Implications

Marketers need to understand consumer’s comprehension process so they can design

marketing information that will be interpreted appropriately.

Knowledge and Environment

Marketers should design their messages to fit the consumers’ ability and motivation to
comprehend

1. High-Involvement Products
2. Low-Involvement Products

Remembering

 Goal is for consumer to remember certain key meanings associated with their marketing
strategies.
 Much marketing information is remembered poorly.
 Even though consumers can remember a slogan, many cannot associate it with the right brand
name.
Miscomprehension of Marketing

 Substantial amount of marketing information is miscomprehended; consumers from inaccurate,

confused or inappropriate intentions
 Averages about 20% - 25% miscomprehend the information they encounter in ads, newspapers,
reports, etc.
 Unethical Marketers intentionally create deceptive information
 Federal Trade Commission

Exposure Environment

 The environment in which exposure to marketing information is given can affect the consumers
comprehension process
 Type of Store
 Content and format of marketing information