Consumer confusion

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Consumer confusion is a state of mind that leads to consumers making imperfect purchasing decisions or lacking confidence in the correctness of their purchasing decisions. [1]

Contents

Confusion

Confusion occurs when a consumer fails to correctly understand or interpret products and services. [2] This, in turn, leads to them making imperfect purchasing decisions. This concept is important to marketeers because consumer confusion may result in reduced sales, reduced satisfaction with products and difficulty communicating effectively with the consumer. It is a widely studied and broad subject which is a part of consumer behaviour and decision making. [3]

Causes

Choice overload

Choice overload (sometimes called overchoice in the context of confusion) occurs when the set of purchasing options becomes overwhelmingly large for a consumer. A good example is wine in the UK where supermarkets may present over 1000 different products leaving the consumer with a difficult choice process. Whilst large assortments do have some positive aspects (principally novelty and stimulation [4] and optimal solutions [5] ) any assortment greater than around 12–14 products leads to confusion and specifically transferring the ownership of quality assurance to the consumer. [6] What this means in practice is reduced levels of satisfaction with purchases from large assortments as a consumer may be left with doubt that they have succeeded in finding the "best" product. Choice overload is growing with ever larger supermarkets and the internet being two of the main causes. [6] Research shows that choice overload can lead to decision fatigue, where the cognitive effort required to choose from many options causes consumers to delay decisions or rely on convenience over preference. This may also result in regret aversion, where consumers feel less confident about their choices and experience post-purchase doubt. [7] As product assortments expand in supermarkets and online, these challenges become more pronounced. [8]

Similarity

Similarity is where two or more products lack differentiating features which prevents the consumer easily distinguishing between them. Differentiating features could be any from the marketing mix or anything else associated with the product such as brand. Similarity of products has the negative effect on the consumer of increasing the cognitive effort required to make a decision. [9] and reducing the perception of accuracy of decision. Both of these reduce the satisfaction with a decision and thereby satisfaction with the purchase. [7]

Lack of information

A consumer may suffer from lack of information if the information doesn't exist, is unavailable to them at the required moment or is too complex for them to use in their decision making process.

Information overload

Too much information surrounding a product or service disturbs the consumer by forcing them to engage in a more complex and time-consuming purchasing process. This, and the fact that it is difficult to compare and value the information when it is superfluous, leaves the consumer unsatisfied, insecure regarding what choice to make, and more prone to delay the decision-making, and thereby the actual purchase. [10] [8] Furthermore, excessive and conflicting information, particularly in environments such as supermarkets, can contribute to label fatigue, where consumers become overwhelmed by the volume of product claims, making it difficult to differentiate between options. This often results in decisions based on superficial characteristics like branding or packaging, rather than a thorough evaluation of the product's attributes. The phenomenon of choice overload further complicates the decision-making process by increasing the cognitive burden on consumers, reducing overall satisfaction and leading to indecision or delayed purchases. [11] Recent research also shows that information overload can lead to consumer avoidance, where individuals may opt not to make a purchase due to overwhelming or conflicting details, particularly in environments with numerous health-related claims. The rise of digital tools has amplified this challenge, with vast amounts of online information often lacking consistency, further complicating consumer decisions. [12]

Lack of consistency

When information provided on a product and/or service is not consistent with the consumer's previously held beliefs and convictions, ambiguity occurs in the understanding of the product. [10]

Law

Trademark infringement is measured by the multi-factor "likelihood of confusion" test. That is, a new mark will infringe on an existing trademark if the new mark is so similar to the original that consumers are likely to confuse the two marks, and mistakenly purchase from the wrong company. [13]

The likelihood of confusion test turns on several factors, [13] including:

Initial interest confusion occurs when a mark is used to attract a consumer, but upon inspection there is no confusion. This type of confusion is well-recognized for Internet searches, where a consumer may be looking for the site of one company, and a second site mimics keywords and metadata to draw hits from the "real" site.

Point of sale confusion occurs when a consumer believes their product to be from a company which it is not.

Post sale confusion occurs after a product is purchased, and third parties mistakenly think that the product is produced by a different, generally more prestigious, brand.

Related Research Articles

In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is described as the mental disturbance people feel when they realize their cognitions and actions are inconsistent or contradictory. This may ultimately result in some change in their cognitions or actions to cause greater alignment between them so as to reduce this dissonance. Relevant items of information include peoples' actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things. According to this theory, when an action or idea is psychologically inconsistent with the other, people do all in their power to change either so that they become consistent. The discomfort is triggered by the person's belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein the individual tries to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Retail</span> Sale of goods and services

Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells in smaller quantities to consumers for a profit. Retailers are the final link in the supply chain from producers to consumers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Product (business)</span> Anything that can be offered to a market

In marketing, a product is an object, or system, or service made available for consumer use as of the consumer demand; it is anything that can be offered to a domestic or an international market to satisfy the desire or need of a customer. In retailing, products are often referred to as merchandise, and in manufacturing, products are bought as raw materials and then sold as finished goods. A service is also regarded as a type of product.

Managerial economics is a branch of economics involving the application of economic methods in the organizational decision-making process. Economics is the study of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Managerial economics involves the use of economic theories and principles to make decisions regarding the allocation of scarce resources. It guides managers in making decisions relating to the company's customers, competitors, suppliers, and internal operations.

A choice is the range of different things from which a being can choose. The arrival at a choice may incorporate motivators and models.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Consumer behaviour</span> Study of individuals, groups, or organisations and all the activities associated with consuming

Consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups, or organisations and all the activities associated with the purchase, use and disposal of goods and services. Consumer behaviour consists of how the consumer's emotions, attitudes, and preferences affect buying behaviour. Consumer behaviour emerged in the 1940–1950s as a distinct sub-discipline of marketing, but has become an interdisciplinary social science that blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology, anthropology, ethnography, ethnology, marketing, and economics.

As part of consumer behavior, the buying decision process is the decision-making process used by consumers regarding the market transactions before, during, and after the purchase of a good or service. It can be seen as a particular form of a cost–benefit analysis in the presence of multiple alternatives.

In marketing and consumer behaviour, brand loyalty describes a consumer's persistent positive feelings towards a familiar brand and their dedication to purchasing the brand's products and/or services repeatedly regardless of deficiencies, a competitor's actions, or changes in the market environment. It can also be demonstrated with other behaviors such as positive word-of-mouth advocacy. Corporate brand loyalty is where an individual buys products from the same manufacturer repeatedly and without wavering, rather than from other suppliers. Loyalty implies dedication and should not be confused with habit, its less-than-emotional engagement and commitment. Businesses whose financial and ethical values rest in large part on their brand loyalty are said to use the loyalty business model.

In the field of consumer behavior, an impulse purchase or impulse buying is an unplanned decision by a consumer to buy a product or service, made just before a purchase. One who tends to make such purchases is referred to as an impulse purchaser, impulse buyer, or compulsive buyer. Research findings suggest that emotions, feelings, and attitudes play a decisive role in purchasing, triggered by seeing the product or upon exposure to a well crafted promotional message.

Buyer's remorse is the sense of regret after having made a purchase. It is frequently associated with the purchase of an expensive item such as a vehicle or real estate.

Customer satisfaction is a term frequently used in marketing to evaluate customer experience. It is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. Customer satisfaction is defined as "the number of customers, or percentage of total customers, whose reported experience with a firm, its products, or its services (ratings) exceeds specified satisfaction goals." Enhancing customer satisfaction and fostering customer loyalty are pivotal for businesses, given the significant importance of improving the balance between customer attitudes before and after the consumption process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Retail marketing</span> Economic concept

Once the strategic plan is in place, retail managers turn to the more managerial aspects of planning. A retail mix is devised for the purpose of coordinating day-to-day tactical decisions. The retail marketing mix typically consists of six broad decision layers including product decisions, place decisions, promotion, price, personnel and presentation. The retail mix is loosely based on the marketing mix, but has been expanded and modified in line with the unique needs of the retail context. A number of scholars have argued for an expanded marketing, mix with the inclusion of two new Ps, namely, Personnel and Presentation since these contribute to the customer's unique retail experience and are the principal basis for retail differentiation. Yet other scholars argue that the Retail Format should be included. The modified retail marketing mix that is most commonly cited in textbooks is often called the 6 Ps of retailing.

A touchpoint can be defined as any way consumers can interact with a business organization, whether person-to-person, through a website, an app or any form of communication. When consumers connect with these touchpoints they can consider their perceptions of the business and form an opinion.

<i>The Paradox of Choice</i> 2004 book by Barry Schwartz

The Paradox of Choice – Why More Is Less is a book written by American psychologist Barry Schwartz and first published in 2004 by Harper Perennial. In the book, Schwartz argues that eliminating consumer choices can greatly reduce anxiety for shoppers. The book analyses the behavior of different types of people. This book argues that the dramatic explosion in choice—from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs—has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution and how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse.

Overchoice or choice overload is the paradoxical phenomenon that choosing between a large variety of options can be detrimental to decision making processes. The term was first introduced by Alvin Toffler in his 1970 book, Future Shock.

Choice architecture is the design of different ways in which choices can be presented to decision makers, and the impact of that presentation on decision-making. For example, each of the following:

Sustainable consumer behavior is the sub-discipline of consumer behavior that studies why and how consumers do or do not incorporate sustainability priorities into their consumption behavior. It studies the products that consumers select, how those products are used, and how they are disposed of in pursuit of consumers' sustainability goals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unit price information in supermarkets</span>

Unit price information printed on supermarket shelf labels illustrates the quantity of product by a unit of measure.

A context effect is an aspect of cognitive psychology that describes the influence of environmental factors on one's perception of a stimulus. The impact of context effects is considered to be part of top-down design. The concept is supported by the theoretical approach to perception known as constructive perception. Context effects can impact our daily lives in many ways such as word recognition, learning abilities, memory, and object recognition. It can have an extensive effect on marketing and consumer decisions. For example, research has shown that the comfort level of the floor that shoppers are standing on while reviewing products can affect their assessments of product's quality, leading to higher assessments if the floor is comfortable and lower ratings if it is uncomfortable. Because of effects such as this, context effects are currently studied predominantly in marketing.

Consideration set is a model used in consumer behaviour to represent all of the brands and products a consumer evaluates before making a final purchase decision. The term consideration set was first used in 1977 by Peter Wright and Fredrick Barbour. The consideration set is a subset of the awareness set, which is all of the brands and products a consumer initially thinks of when faced with a purchasing decision. The awareness set is filtered into the consideration set through the consumer's individual thoughts, preferences, and feelings — such as price, mood, previous experiences, and heuristics. Conversely, products that do not meet the criteria for the consideration set are either placed into the inert set or the inept set. These sets are fluid and the products in each set can change rapidly when the consumer is presented with new information.

References

  1. ↑ Walsh, K (1999). "Marketing and Public Sector Management". European Journal of Marketing. 28 (3): 63–71. doi:10.1108/03090569410057308.
  2. ↑ Turnbull, P W (2000). "Customer Confusion: The Mobile Phone Market". Journal of Marketing Management. 16 (1–3): 143–163. doi:10.1362/026725700785100523. hdl: 11323/10298 . S2CID   167714306.
  3. ↑ Soloman, M R Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Having and Being. Prentice Hall p.7
  4. ↑ Darden; Griffin (1994).{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ↑ Baumol; Ide (1956).{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. 1 2 Broniarczyk, S M (2008). "Product Assortment and Consumer Psychology".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. 1 2 Lippold, Axel; Lindridge, Andrew; Deseniss, Alexander; Mitchell, Vincent Wayne; Walsh, Gianfranco (2016). "Investigating consumer confusion proneness cross-culturally: empirical evidence from the USA, Germany, and Thailand". International Journal of Markets and Business Systems. 2 (3): 226. doi:10.1504/ijmabs.2016.10002467. ISSN   2056-4112.
  8. 1 2 Ponder, Nicole; Worthy, Sheri L.; Lueg, Jason E. (2017), "Are Consumers Vulnerable to Consumer Financial Services? An Exploration of Psychological Antecedents of Attitudes and Behaviors in the Consumer Financial Services Industry: An Abstract", Creating Marketing Magic and Innovative Future Marketing Trends, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1167–1168, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-45596-9_215, ISBN   978-3-319-45595-2 , retrieved 4 May 2023
  9. ↑ Loken, M (1986).{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. 1 2 Walsh; et al. (2007). "Consumer confusion proneness:Scale development, validation, and application". Journal of Marketing Management. 23 (7–8): 697–721. doi:10.1362/026725707X230009. S2CID   59271745.
  11. ↑ Martinho, Vítor João Pereira Domingues (12 November 2020). "Food Marketing as a Special Ingredient in Consumer Choices: The Main Insights from Existing Literature". Foods. 9 (11): 1651. doi: 10.3390/foods9111651 . PMC   7698179 . PMID   33198136.
  12. ↑ Priya, K.M.; Alur, Sivakumar (September 2023). "Analyzing consumer behaviour towards food and nutrition labeling: A comprehensive review". Heliyon. 9 (9): e19401. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19401 . ISSN   2405-8440. PMC   10480642 . PMID   37681180.
  13. 1 2 Polaroid v. Polarad, 287F.2d492 (2nd Cir.1961).
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