“You mean just say what the product does? No ones ever tried that!”
-- Jill & Gil the Frogs, Muppets Take Manhatten
Consumer psychology, as a formal discipline, is relatively young. After all, as explained by Harold Kassarjian in his 1982 article on consumer psychology, really, it could “only emerge in a civilization of abundance, one in which man is freed from survival pressures (p. 620).” Consumer psychologists are interested in human behaviors such as how people decide which products to purchase and what influences those choices. Often, this is done with a single end in mind: to help organizations find the most effective means to deliver a message so it
- reaches as many of the targeted population as possible and
- gets the greatest percentage of them as possible to take a particular action in response to it.
Many times this action is the purchase of a particular product, however, desired results can also include:
- gaining supporters for political agendas or politicians,
- getting someone to accept certain beliefs or ideas,
- sending contributions to a certain charity organization,
- purchasing services from a particular vendor, etc.
The science of psychology has evolved over the 20th century; so, too, has consumer psychology and the tools available to marketers and psychologists to research it. This is fortunate, as today’s consumer psychologists face areas of study unlike their counterparts of earlier years.
For most of its history, advertising has consisted of one-way communication. More recently, however, with advances in communication technologies, two-way communication has become prevalent. Marketers have had to roll up their sleeves and invent new ways to advertise for this format. Even television and print ads often have some type of interactive counterpart. Adding even more complexity is the fact that with the new social media tools available, consumers now generate their own content about products and services, etc., to throw into the mix of corporate sponsored ads. They no longer have to simply absorb what is thrown at them by the organizations. Companies are struggling with how to handle this. Consumer psychology plays a big part in helping them learn how to alter their marketing strategies to utilize these new technologies successfully.
In addition, in today’s day and age, consumers, are continually bombarded with ads in many mediums and have been since most were born. The result of this is that people have learned to ignore advertising and even invented new technologies designed to prevent them from having to view ads all together. An eyetracking study done by Jakob Nielson showed that web audiences have developed what is called banner blindness, the ability to ignore banner ads that surround the content of the page.
This problem is not just limited to the world of online advertising. It is a problem for marketers using print, TV, and other types of mediums as well. It is now being complicated by new technologies such as DVRs and popup blockers design to prevent people from having to view ads all together. TV networks are scrambling to invent ways to deliver more targeted advertising and marketers to create other ways to promote products such as in movies, podcasts, etc.
Jack Trout, author of New Positioning, an influential book on consumer psychology that was published in 1996, identified 6 rules about the consumer mind:
- Minds can’t cope,
- Minds are limited,
- Minds hate confusion,
- Minds are insecure,
- Minds don’t change,
- Minds can lose focus.
In that book, he also wrote:
"Well, much has been written about how the home television set will become more like a computer (and vice versa). People will sit in front of this wondrous machine and watch shows, read news, play games, interact, compute, shop, you name it. I doubt that all of this will happen, but what if it did? Will these marvelous machines really make people smarter? Will they think better?(pg. 19)."
His prediction, however, has been negated and this device exists. Consumer psychologists will now be able to explore the answer to these questions in addition to looking at what other effects these "marvelous machines" may have on human development and behavior. Their findings may warrant Jack Trout revisiting his view of the human mind and maybe even require him to alter it. Who knows! It may even lead to more forms of advertising that no one has ever tried before as well!
References
Trout, J. (1996). New Positioning : The Latest on the World's #1 Business Strategy. Blacklick, OH, USA: McGraw-Hill Professional Book Group.
Kassarjian, H. (1982). Consumer Psychology. Annual Review of Psychology. 33:619-49. doi: doi:10.1146/annurev.ps.33.020182.003155.
