All of us as consumers are influenced directly and indirectly by advertising and selling. We react in varying ways to the radio jingle and the television cartoon. But we also are concerned with problems in buying and customer service, and with those other factors that make up psychology in the marketing mix.
Ingredients of the Mix
At the heart of the marketing mix is advertising. It is defined as any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by some identified sponsor. The media of advertising include magazine and newspaper space, trade papers, billboards, throwaways, programs and menus, car cards, catalogs, and local and national radio :1nd television.
Advertising is designed to influence people and the de.cisions they make in a world of competition. Because Americans use some 20 tons of aspirins daily, firms pursue this market. There are 1,500 ads per day assaulting the eyes and ears of the American consumer. He shuts out more than 1,400 of these daily pitches, reacting to only 13. The psychologist is interested in which ones and why.
The power of habit dominates all of us, and advertising attempts to control the ways in which we change our behavior through learning.
The American consumer is peeped at, shadowed, grilled, and even analyzed in terms of his personal habits during the hourly and half-hourly station breaks on TV. Researchers use mathematics and high-speed computers to help manufacturers understand why people buy, or do not buy, a particular brand or product. And the housewife is surveyed over and over about her peeves. Sometimes she is more concerned with little frustrations than with big problems. In one survey of 1,100 women, some one-third complained about difficulty in opening packages, another 10 percent found fault with reclosing, and 10 percent complained of deterioration of packages. Less than 1 percent complained about false label information.
In one study, canned soups were arranged in alphabetic order by the type of soup-asparagus, bean, chicken, etc.-with the original amount of display space retained for each brand and type. Previously, canned soups had been grouped together by brand rather than by type. Although several signs were placed at the soup section telling the customers that the cans had been rearranged alphabetically, 60 percent of the customers were foiled by the new arrangement and by their own habits.
The power of habit was noted in another way. Under the original shelf arrangement there was no indication that consumers switched brands when the leading brand of tomato soup went out of stock. When the soup display was rearranged and the leading brand was out of stock, sales indicated that the next leading brand picked up from 50 to 80 percent of the sales which normally went to the leader.
Advertisers not only want to reinforce habits, they at times want to change them. (Note this type of battle among beer brands.) The success of a new product depends on whether customers can be induced to shift away from their former brands ("new low cost" or "new standard of performance"). The continued success of an established leading brand depends on the ability to strengthen existing habits ("the taste to stay with").
Selling involves both sales promotion and personal selling. In most companies, it involves the largest part of the marketing mix. As in advertising, the psychological factors in selling involve the se· quence of perceiving, understanding, and feeling. The sales interview involves interaction between the salesman and the customer. Each provides a continuing stimulus for the other. What the salesman says and does must be perceived by the customer and responded to favorably if a sale is to take place. Thus, the focus of the salesman's attention is the customer. He must catch the small cues in the customer's behavior which indicate what to stress and what to gloss over. And good selling is planned in advance. One experienced Detroit car salesman put it this way: "I have found that most men who bring their car in for service are mad at the car. They are also mad at the manufacturer. This is particularly true if they have broken down on the expressway. They start taking out their anger on the service manager. He calls me in to take the beating. After the potential customer simmers down I let the mechanic tell him the car can be fixed. This turns his thinking from complaints to listening. I give him a cold Coke and take him over to a new car. He starts the new car conversation and then I make my sales pitch."
The thinking processes induced by the salesman must be considered. Concreteness ·of language and aptness of illustration, for example, often spell the difference between success or failure in selling. The mind works somewhat like a motion picture camera. It
doesn't take in abstractions easily. When the stimulus word or phrase is abstract, the individual hearing it translates it according to his own ways of perceiving, feeling, and thinking. For example, if a salesman says of his product that it is of high quality, the associations aroused in any given customer may vary. One may conclude, "It is too expensive for me"; another may think, "It is overengineered for my simple use"; still another may think, "It's trouble free, just what I have been looking for."
The salesman may also base part of his strategy on rationalization. Here the customer is eased into believing what he wants to believe. It is just human nature to justify our behavior in our own eyes. The advertiser or salesman can help this along: "Order some now before the supply is exhausted." "These coats cost twice as much in the regular season." "The amount you save will pay your youngster's tuition for a whole year."
Customer service is a growing part of the marketing mix. "I don't mind buying it if I can just get it fixed" is a common remark. The selling of services irl one form or another has grown until money now paid out for services exceeds that paid out for things. Service activities include maintenance and repair of products, technical and professional assistance in problem. solving, help in training the customer's personnel in operating equipment, and marketing research on the customer's products.
In theory sales and service are supposed to complement each other. In practice the two are often in conflict. "Sales" makes commitments that "service" has difficulty in supplying. The car salesman promises one thing, and the service man says it cannot be done. The warranty on a new car, for example, may be honored without question by one dealer and virtually ignored by another. The sophisticated buyer studies service before determining where to buy.
One homeowner who maintained a contract with an exterminating company expressed the importance of service (feelings for the lack of it) this way: "When I originally signed the $700 contract to rid my house of beetles the company adhered to my every wish. The house was gassed, but to be on the safe side I took out their insurance policy against failure. Two years later bugs reappeared. It took me three visits, two long distance calls, and threat of a law suit to get the company to even come and look at the house."
Another part of the mix includes public relations. All employees informally contribute (for good or bad) to the public relations of a business. The larger organizations employ a specialized staff or outside agency to coordinate this aspect of the marketing mix.
Credit is involved in buying and selling as a part of the mix. It becomes important as the value.of the purchase increases. And for most of us pricing is important in the mix. It has not only an economic base but involves. psychological values as well, when status becomes impox:tant: "It costs a little more when you serve the best." And no small part of the mix involves delivery ("Do I get the product when the salesman says it should arrive?").
Purchase behavior by the consumer is related to psychological and sociological factors as well as.to economic ones. Age of the buyer is important. From the "six-year-old purchasing agent" to "middleage impulse buying," the psychologist is taking a look at the behavior of people of specific ages. This is why cereal commercials appear on children's shows and automobile commercials on late-night variety shows.
Beliefs are important in purchasing. In one study on consumer preferences for beef, two different displays were put on the counter. One was an economical product from cattle fed on grass. The other display was from cattle that had been more expensively grain-fed. The fat from the grass-fed cattle was slightly off-white in colqr, in contrast to the fat on the grain-fed beef. When the more expensive grain-fed beef was identified as such, it outsold the cheaper brand,.but when neither was identified, and both were marked at the same price, each sold equally well.
In a follow-up study, customers said there was no difference in taste in the beef bought from the unidentified racks. But when identified, the customers said there was a difference-favoring grainfed beef. Perhaps it pays to tell people what they like! With this thought let us take an extended look at various aspects of communication.
