Focus points and practice exam questions (incl. answers!) to prep for your CB exam! I took this course last year and studied this + my other summaries and got a 10 for my exam, so no need to worry ;)
FOCUS POINTS CB EXAM + PRACTICE EXAM INCL. ANSWERS
Focus points:
1. Spreading activation: heuristic/peripheral vs. deliberate/central
The central route elicits stronger associations/activations as it is done primarily through cognition. How
it’s stored more precisely in memory because of higher cognitive thinking, which leads to stronger
interconnected associations. How it also activates counter arguments, thus forcing you to think about it
more with the sim to find a consistent narrative amongst your beliefs and cognitions
2. Associative network (!)
3. Advertisement: taking perspectives, associative network of different segments
Different consumer segments with different associative networks; it is important for marketers to
consider congruence across different segments in order for ads to work for most segments in society.
Not all things are congruent in different associative networks, what is offensive to some people is not to
others (e.g. H&M hoodie with ‘coolest monkey in the jungle’ worn by a black boy) → also refers to
heterogeneity of consumers
4. Additional notes:
- Incidental affect is more related to mood while integral affect is more related to effective
response forwards in object but mainly based on your memories (e.g. Kraft cheese nostalgia)
- Self serving bias: environment causes our failure, self causes our success
- Fundamental attribution error: environment causes their success, self causes their failure
- Chronically activated goals refer to frequency of activations of a goal and are normally
associated with innate goals, while situational goals are tied to recency of activation and more
for learned goals (although innate goals if mentioned enough times, can also become situational
goals)
Practice exam questions:
Question 1: In class we discussed how culture can be learned, culture makes living efficient and culture
is adaptive. Please discuss what these imply, if needed provide examples. What is the interplay between
culture and marketing? For example, how does culture shape marketing and how does marketing shape
culture?
How culture can be learned:
Culture is learned through classical conditioning, operant conditioning and modeling. For example when
you are Dutch, the Dutch culture is learned by you through classical conditioning. Moreover, culture can
be learned through operant conditioning in which you are either rewarded or punishment for some type
of behavior. Through this mechanism, you learn what is right or wrong to do for that culture. This
happens for example when you learn by getting soaking wet every day that you have to bring an
umbrella most of the time when you are in The Netherlands. Another way culture is learned is through
modeling. This happens when for example you see people giving each other three kisses on the cheek in
The Netherlands, which teaches you that is a part of Dutch culture, and results in you adapting to this
behavior.
How culture makes living efficient:
If you would constantly need to adapt it would be a very tiring process, which is comparable to how
some people experience culture shock when moving across the world. In this, culture can be seen as a
heuristics, a mental shortcut, which takes away the extensive thought process we have to go through to
understand things and therefore we act on our default option and thus can use our (cognitive) energy for
something else. This is part of top-down processing, as the heuristics makes you understand how to act
, in certain cultural contexts within society. By heuristics, we ‘go with the flow’ without actually thinking
about the cultural principles we learned.
How culture is adaptive:
Culture is adaptive in the way that culture shapes us but we also shape culture. By being born in a
certain culture, you adopt certain behaviors and attitudes that align with that culture. However, culture
also changes because of the humans who live by it, as we constantly change our thoughts and ideas. This
is seen by for example zwarte piet, and how this has become unacceptable in today’s Dutch culture
whereas it was widely acceptable 10 years ago. Culture adapts as a function of individuals learnings of
others. When culture shifts, it is important to move with it as otherwise you would become the ‘extreme’
as the culture moves away from you. This often happens with older people, who are often stuck in their
old ways and do not want to move along with their culture. In this, the way culture evolves is a
bottom-up process and the way we as individuals learn from culture is a top-down process. It is
important to note how culture is a cluster of associations, and that this results in culture being an
aggregated concept map of all our individual associations. This means we have a diverse society with
both laggers and early adopters.
How does culture shape marketing and how does marketing shape culture?
Culture shapes marketing in the way that cultural beliefs and acceptances are translated into
advertisements and commercials. Marketers have to keep in mind the associative networks of
consumers in order to activate the positive associations they need when constructing a marketing
message, as certain things might be seen as unacceptable in certain cultures. Not all advertisements suit
all cultures, meaning that for example an advertisement for the US does not work in Japan because of
the different cultural values. This also applies to differences in age categories, as the older generations
are stuck in their own routines and beliefs, which leads to them not wanting to buy newer products as
they have been using certain brands for years. Younger generations on the other hand are the best
demographic for marketers to focus on as they do not have an established core brand yet, and are
adaptable and prone to change. Brands would want to target youngsters in an attempt to attach them to
their brand for years, just like the older generations did back in the day.
Marketing shapes culture in the way that it can reinforce certain cultural values/associations in the
associative network.
In advertisements, a certain type of accepted/non-accepted behavior can be shown which influences or
reinforces cultural norms and behavior. For example, you could have an ad showing a woman shopping in
a supermarket and kindly asking an employee what the price of a product is. This behavior can be copied
by the viewer and can reinforce cultural norms that person has. Consumers consume the messages from
advertisements, which can activate certain cultural links in the associative network.
Marketing can also shape culture in changing or challenging the ways we think about certain things.
When for example they take on a political opinion on something in their commercial advertising. Certain
cultural norms/behaviors/values can be adopted by the viewers and thus societies. Marketing is able to
shape how individuals think about things or at least focus them into a certain direction. In this, marketing
can motivate and initiate a debate or discussion about a certain controversial topic. In other words,
marketing can elicit new associations in the associative network of individuals which changes and
shapes the cluster of associations, which is culture. (as culture is cluster of all associative networks of
individuals in society)
Question 2:
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