Thesis

Psychology and successful marketing : a psychological analysis of consumer motivation and advertising effectiveness

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Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 1993
Thesis identifier
  • T7794
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Abstract
  • This is a study of the relationship between psychology and consumer buying behaviour. It examines ways in which consumer perception and motivation are influenced by the manipulation of specific psychological variables in a television promotion of infant foods. Fieldwork was carried out in Dublin in February 1993 with a test group of 103 women, using a video of the selected television commercial and a questionnaire. The test sample of women was subdivided into 3 separate categories, comprised of pregnant women, first time mothers and subsequent mothers. The methodological foundation for this research derives from the work of S.H. Britt 1978. A modified version of his psychological model of communication was developed for this study, incorporating specific psychological variables related to the processes of attending, learning and remembering and motivating. Using this model, the following psychologically based assessments were investigated: The overall level of perception of selected psychological variables in the commercial by the test group; The test groups evaluation of the commercial using a descriptive adjective rating system based on the psychological states of personal relevance, warmth, dislike and entertaining; The test groups level of perception of, and preference for the rational and emotional stimuli incorporated in the advertisement; The inter-relationships between specific product attributes, derived from the advertising brief, and selected psychological variables from the model, as perceived by the test group. The study demonstrates the possibility of developing new psychologically derived techniques for an improved measurement of advertising effectiveness. This is an area where, notwithstanding the techniques of semiotics, day after recall, physiological procedures etc, the use of psychological measures in assessing effectiveness is still at an embryonic stage of development. The techniques used in this study were aimed at: Understanding more comprehensively which psychological criteria effectively influence consumer buying behaviour; Broadening the psychological techniques currently used in the advertising industry in assessing advertising effectiveness. The results of the research indicate that: New psychological techniques can be a valuable complement to the more traditional methods used in the evaluation of advertising effectiveness; Manipulation of specific psychological variables enhances viewer perception of selected product attributes.
Advisor / supervisor
  • Tagg, Stephen
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