COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY AND ITS APPLICATION IN MARKETING Introduction

Transcription

1 COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY AND ITS APPLICATION IN MARKETING Introduction In marketing all that counts for effective success in the sale is persuasion. Persuasive communication always has either positive or negative impact, one is always met by a varying degree of success and sometimes can result to failure. The pillar of being persuasive is effective communication and thus certain principles of marketing to ensure minimal resistance from the target must be employed when marketing. The core purpose of persuasion, especially in marketing is to effect a change or to alter or revolve the attitude, belief and /or behavior of the target. Generally attitude is made up of three component namely affective, which is the like or dislike of an object, behavioral which is the action or reaction component and lastly the cognitive element which is a person's belief towards an attitude object. It has been established over the years that attitude is affected by belief, and attitude affects behavior. It has also been proved that though these three elements work together there are other external factor that also play a role in the art of marketing (Perloff 2003: 3). It is in this regard that certain concepts and theories were formulated among them the theory of cognitive dissonance and it's applicability in achieving success in various field including marketing have been explored and views on the stated effects have been noted. What is cognitive dissonance and how it affects buyers? Cognitive dissonance is a psychology term that can be defined as an uncomfortable feeling or pressure caused by simultaneous occurrence of two contradictory mindset or ideas (Huber and Hermann 2001: 26). This theory was formulated in 1957 by a social psychologist by name Leon Festiger who fronted that there's a tendency where individuals tend to seek consistency especially in their beliefs or opinions which he terms as cognition. He further explains that if there is inconsistence in behaviors and attitudes a term he refers to as dissonance, in order to eliminate the dissonance then there has to be change. According to Festiger, if there is a discrepancy between behavior and attitude then it is more likely that not that to accommodate behavior, the attitude will have to change (Festinger 1957:1). In his work Festinger, in trying to explain the application of the theory in real world gave an example that if someone bought an expensive car which is not comfortable on driving long distance. Dissonance can exist in his belief that he has bought a good car and how the car 1 / 6

2 should be comfortable (1957:1). When caught in such a predicament then the individual will subconsciously try to eliminate this feeling by attempting to modify his belief. According to Carlsmith and Aronson cognitive dissonance is a state of psychological discomfort (1963:1). Buyers will always try to seek reassurance or justification from external sources that there is no conflicting between their behavior and their belief. In marketing, there is a theory suggesting that a consumer could use a product simply because he or she saw an advertisement for the product and believed the product to be most effective in the area concerned until he/she sees another advertisement thereafter the consumer will try justify their action of purchase by seeking positive information about the product and/or attempting to take the product back and in such cases it is most likely that the buyer will not purchase such a product again (Hurt 2002;22). At all times there is an expectation that consumers with high dissonance would most likely have greater difficulty when judging the quality of a product and in such a case the dissonance results to a lower standard of satisfaction. In such a scenario we can note the co-relation between dissonance and resultant dissatisfaction after the purchase of a product is substantial. However experiencing difficulty in the making of a good judgment is always related to the element of emotion in dissonance, but it is expected that sales persons could always allay the difficultly in judging the quality of the product by assuring the buyer of the quality of the product (Sweeney, Harsknecht and Soutar 2000: 381). It is normal for different groups or persons to have different belief when dealing with the same information and it is inarguable that every person likes viewing themselves as having made or capable of making correct decisions. An example of a research done by Jack Brehm in 1956 was cited in the book by George Akerlof and William Dicker showing that an investigator asked women who were presented with two appliances to range them on their worthiness. At first the items were presented wrapped and later the appliances were presented without the wrapping and it was noted that the option or choice changed in favor of the chosen appliance (1975:108). It is thus important to state that the cognitive dissonance plays a major role in advertising and innovations and thus of great importance in the marketing sector. How does cognitive dissonance differ from expectation disconfirmation theory? The expectation disconfirmation theory also goes by the name expectation confirmation theory which describes the post -purchase satisfaction as a result of expectations put together with the perceived performance. It also provides that the effect could either be negative or positive 2 / 6

3 between performance and expectations. Positive disconfirmation occurs when a product outperforms the expectation and in such a case the end result will be post-purchase satisfaction and vice versa for negative disconfirmation (Spreng, et al 1996:7). This theory explains that a consumer will always have a pre-set mind of expectation of a service performance or a product prior to him or her purchasing the product or the service. Also, purchasing and the use affect the consumer's beliefs regarding the actual or the perceived performance of a specified product or service. Subsequently the consumer will the compare the performance perceived to the prior expectations and the consumer satisfaction or dissatisfaction occurs as an outcome of the comparison. There has been a major debate concerning the nature of the resultant effect caused by disconfirmation on the satisfaction. According to Santos and Boote the main cause of the problem is in the definition of expectations (predictive) used for comparison as the standard for a particular, this leads to the conclusion that confirmation of the negative expectations most likely will not lead to satisfaction (2003:11). To compare the two theories to the expected confirmation/ disconfirmation concept, Oliver James established that a consumer will always compare their perception or view of the product performance with a certain standard. In this view it is seen that the confirmation and/ or disconfirmation variables are expected to fully determine whether a consumer is satisfied or not and if not satisfied then the cognitive dissonance is in operation. Though there have been studies on this paradigm, it is wise to put the comparison standards between the two concepts and analyze their co-relation in view of consumer satisfaction (1980:7). This has become a problem and researchers have come up with other comparison standards which can be used in the analysis of the theory. Some of these standards include ideals, desires, equity, and lastly brand experience or past product (Halstead 1999:19). In the cognitive dissonance the extend to which experience dissonance is experienced usually is dependent on a number of factors including, confidence of the consumers ability in evaluating the quality of the product, how important the purchase is to the purchaser, the duration used in making the decision and the probability of reversing the decision, the willingness of the consumer in adopting new ideas or innovations and lastly that age of the purchaser which affects the likelihood of a consumer experiencing dissonance (Fletcher 2005:2). Why should a marketing manager be concerned about cognitive dissonance and how can the seller reduce the impact of cognitive dissonance? Use examples. It is inevitable that the theory of cognitive dissonance affects the marketing and the behavior of 3 / 6

4 a consumer towards a certain product. Regarding the marketing of new products it is important to note that beliefs can only be adopted if the pecuniary interest and the resultant benefits have positive effects. A marketer should always keep in his mind that due to the aforementioned concept once a belief is adopted then it tends to be persistent such that if a consumer buys a product and believe it is a quality product then there is a likelihood of repeat of purchase and vice versa, thus when dealing with new products or newly invented products it is vital that the seller who is the contact person between the product and the buyer is well trained and integrated with the concept for them to be able to change the belief and behavior of the consumer for them to change from the continued use of the existing product to the new product introduced in the market. Thus for a manager to ensure that the products the company sells gets to the market and for sales to take place then he or she should ensure that his employees are very persuasive and that they keep the concept in mind they should be able to affect the belief of a consumer or buyer to such an extend that there is no negative effect of the cognitive dissonance in the transaction. Thus a marketing manager should always be concerned if there are low sales or a drop in the sales rate of a certain product and be able to incorporate other factors to minimize the resultant effects of the cognitive dissonance. The seller can always reduce the negative impact of the cognitive dissonance theory on a consumer and also ensure he or she understands the consumer behavior. He or she should have a deep understanding that before a consumer purchases a product there are factors that influence such purchase, the prime one being who to buy the product from which is usually based on the seller's terms regarding the sell of the product, if there are any past experience with the product seller and lastly existence or non-existence of a return policy. These three factors will sway the consumer on whether to buy or not and will also greatly affects the post-purchase behavior of buyers. The seller can instinctively persuade a buyer to changing his or her mindset that the present is product is the best, through offering rewards as an incentive and also then skill of persuasiveness can be very important. Advertising is one major way of reducing the negative effect of the discussed concept, his is because a consumer in more likely to buy an advertised brand than an unadvertised one. Advertisement conveys or informs a consumer about the product this is because it gives a consumer some external justification or satisfaction for believing that what they are going to buy meets their needs and thus makes them feel good about holding such belief and that they are indeed intelligent (Fletcher 2005:2). Conclusion It can conclusively be said that the cognitive dissonance theory has a major effect on the decision making of a consumer. This being so, a marketer should always ensure that 4 / 6

5 consumers are fully informed about their actions and of all potential consequences thereof. One should always aim at informing and convincing the buyer adequately so that a buyer makes a decision that maximizes a consumer's welfare. In any case consumers always have a choice to make and if their choice is in something other than the existing truth, it is always a choice for a consumer to make (Arkerlof and Dicken 2001:12). From the above discussion it empirical that consumer satisfaction, which is the outcome of a product or service purchase in relation to the consumer's expectations is paramount and thus should be considered as the most vital outcomes in marketing. When a consumer changes the attitude and thus creates a positive behavior toward purchasing a certain product it is a reflection of a behavioral response on a consumer's attitude and goes a long way to explaining on how after experimenting a product the consumer gets to like /dislike it which has an influence on intention of future and /or repeat purchase. Bibliography: Burnes, B. & Nakeem J. (1995) Culture, Cognitive Dissonance and the Management of Change International Journal of Operatives and Production Management.15 (8), p Chiou, J. and Droge, C. (2006) Service Quality, Trust, Specific Asset Investment, and Expertise: Direct and Indirect Effects in a Satisfaction-Loyalty Framework Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.34 (4) (Accessed on 13th October 2008) Dorit, N. (2008) Theories used in IS Research: Expectation Confirmation Theory (Accessed on 13th October 2008) Festinger, L. (1957) A theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Stanford University Press Perloff, R. (2003) The dynamics of persuasion: Communication and Attitudes in the 21st Century, Mahwah, New Jersey George, A. and Dicken W. (2001) Explorations in Pragmatic Economics: Selected papers of George A. Arklof and William Dicken, Oxford Hurt, D. (2002) Foundations of Marketing Theory; Towards a General Theory of Marketing (Accessed on 13th October 2008) Jagdish N. (2002) Evolving Relationship of Marketing into a Discipline Journal of Relationship Marketing, 1(1) pages3-16 Kotler, P., Brown, L., Adam, S. and Armstrong, G. (2005) Marketing. Ed 6. Pearson, Prentice Hall, Sydney. Oliver, J. (2007) Evaluating the Expectations Disconfirmation & Expectations Anchoring Approaches to Citizen Satisfaction with Local Public Services, Oxford University Press Salzberger, T. and Koller, M. (2005), Cognitive Dissonance Reconsidering an Important and Well-Established Phenomenon in Consumer Behavior Research Proceedings of the ANZMAC 2005 Conference, 5-7 December, University of Western Australia Sweeney, J. & Soutar, G. (2001) Consumer Perceived Value: The Development of a Multiple-Item Scale Journal of Retailing,7(7), / 6

6 (Accessed on 13th October 2008) White S. and Schneider B. (2007) Climbing the Commitment Ladder: The Role of Expectations Disconfirmation on Customers Behavioral Intentions Journal of service Research.2 (3).SAGE publication. 6 / 6