Writing Assignment – Consumer Attention & Recall This assignment will examine co

Writing Assignment – Consumer Attention & Recall
This assignment will examine consumer attention and recall of price. You will need to go “shopping”
with at least two (2) friends, roommates, family members, etc.
Consumer Price Attention & Memory/Recall
Activity: Identify the extent to which consumers focus on price while shopping. Accompany at
least two (2) friends/family members on a trip to the store (this can be the same trip all
together, or separate trips…as long as BOTH are shopping), and observe that person’s behavior
(specifically when it comes to their attention to, and importance of, price when making
purchase decisions). Also, make sure they are purchasing different items! The store you go
shopping at should be one where people tend to buy many different items (e.g. Academy, HEB,
Lowe’s, Target, Wal-Mart, etc.). Tell them you are doing this for a marketing/consumer class,
but don’t tell them you will be “testing” their price recall. Again, make sure your
friends/shoppers do NOT know in advance that their memories/recall of price will be evaluated.
After they pay, conduct a “price recall assessment” for as many items as you can (test their price
recall on at least five items, waiting at least five minutes after paying, but try to do so within an
hour of leaving the store).
Analysis & Report: Use the actual receipt to evaluate “recall” performance. Make sure to
define, in advance, what will qualify as a correct vs. incorrect answer (this typically depends on
the cost of the item, for cheaper items a correct answer may be within 10 cents, whereas an
expensive item a correct answer may be within 10 dollars). After conducting the recall
assessment, ask each shopper how important price was to their purchase decisions.
Evaluate each shopper’s overall price recall, and report the following (for each participant):
– How close did the shopper “recall” (remember) price as related to the actual price? Were
there any products in which the shopper was way off the correct price? (report for all items
you tested for recall)
– How important was price to their purchase decisions? Did it impact some item purchases,
and not others? If yes, discuss/explain.
– Does recall differ as a function of external factors, such as the type of product purchased, or
whether there were in-store specials (e.g. HEB coupons), or internal factors such as previous
experience/knowledge/purchases of the product?
Discuss the following at the end (conclusion) of this activity report:
– Does recall differ as a function of individual variables, such as age, income-socioeconomic
status, gender/sex? (try to get at least one person who is different on each of these
variables) If so, for any variables, explain why you believe this is the case.
– Discuss what you believe are the marketing implications of these findings for the marketing
strategies of the products or stores? (i.e. if most shoppers had good recall for similar
products, what might that brand/product/store be doing that enables these accurate
memories? If most shoppers had trouble with recall, what could the brands/products/store
do to help enable better memory of price?)
Your report should be well organized (formatted similar to the instructions/examples and as discussed in
class), and information should be clear and easy to understand. Try and write as much information as possible.