Reactions, Responses, and Decisions
Imagine you were at a party last weekend and you heard a new CD. Your friend mentioned it was by a great new group and she really likes their music. Two days later as you were leafing through Rolling Stone, you saw a review of this CD and the group. Next day you were in a record store and you saw a poster announcing the group's new CD release. A marketer would be interested to know about the various types of messages you received about this group and its new CD, but what the marketer really wants to know is how you responded to those messages.
Your response might go something like this: The CD caught your attention when you heard it at the party and sparked your curiosity about the group. When your friend said the new group was great, that made you even more interested because you respect your friend's opinion. Seeing the Rolling Stone review heightened your interest, as you remembered you liked the sound. Finally, seeing the poster in the record store brought your positive impressions of this CD back to mind and motivated you to at least listen to it again in the store and possibly buy it.
The previous chapter outlined the communication process, a process that ends with a response or feedback. Even though much of the reaction to marketing communication messages is internalized and hard to dig out through formal research, we know that these responses occur and that they drive people's decision making. However, before you can understand how MC messages work to impact consumer attitudes and behaviors that lead to a particular brand choice, you need a more general understanding of how consumers go about making brand decisions.
