All of us buy different services for various reasons. One person may prefer to go to a restaurant for good food while the other may opt for an exclusive restaurant, for status. One person may prefer to read ‘The Times of India’ early in the morning, while the other may prefer to read the same newspaper after coming back from the office. There are women who don’t go to beauty parlors at all, whereas there are others who go regularly. Similarly, there are many such examples telling us that people show different behavior in buying and using different products and services.
Goals are the cognitive representation of a desired state, or in other words, our mental idea of how we want things to be. This desired end state of the goal can be well defined (e.g., walking on the surface of Mars), or it can be more abstract and represent a state that is never fully achieved (e.g., healthy eating). However, behind all of these goals is the motivation or psychological drive to act in pursuit of that goal. Goal setting involves a decision-making process in which, figuratively, consumers answer two big questions: "What goals can I pursue, and why do I want to or do not want to pursue them?"
Objectives are usually expressed in the consumer's language as something needed, desired, desired, excited, or valuable. Consumers often say their goal is to satisfy their needs, wants, or wants. Goal setting involves developing an action plan to motivate and guide a person or group toward a goal—purposeful goals rather than fleeting desires and intentions. Therefore, goal setting means a person has thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to achieve a goal. Motivation can come from two places.
First, it can come from the benefits of pursuing a goal (intrinsic motivation). For example, you might be motivated by a desire to have a satisfying experience on a mission to Mars.
Second, motivation can also come from the benefits associated with achieving a goal (extrinsic motivation), such as the fame and fortune of being first on Mars.
Consumers consciously think about their goals and make choices to achieve them. Consumers also unconsciously pursue goals, like environmental stimuli. The conscious system can reason and choose the best alternative that serves a purpose. The unconscious system cannot reason but can always choose options that serve a purpose. An innovative approach should study the interaction between two types of goals.
Goal setting involves goal intention setting; goal-oriented attitudes are more complex than action-oriented attitudes. Studies have suggested three distinct goal-directed attitudes corresponding to three outcomes influencing goal intention-setting: success, failure, and striving to achieve a goal. For example, when considering the outcome of achieving a weight loss goal, an individual may form separate judgments for goal pursuit and achievement instead of goal pursuit and achievement. The goal still needs to be achieved. Likewise, an individual may form different judgments about the experience or process that led to the achievement of the goal or the failure of the goal.
Success-oriented attitude positively affects goal intention.
Attitude towards failure negatively affects goal intention.
Consumers live with many goals that they want or feel compelled to achieve. To be effective, several goals must be organized into specific objectives. Most recent theoretical conceptions regarding the organization of consumption goals derive from cognitive psychology. In this approach, objectives are linked to the structure of knowledge. Knowledge in the cognitive system is represented in the form of categories. The categories arise in two ways, namely −
Model learning and concept matching. Exemplary learning is central to acquiring categorical knowledge about the world. It is a relatively passive, bottom-up, and automatic process.
In contrast, target-derived categories emerge through conceptual association by manipulating existing knowledge in memory.
Closely related to cognitive-psychological design is the hierarchical representation of motivations in goal setting, which suggests that motives in goal setting, as opposed to seeking target search, can be represented in a diagram. A schema is a set of patterns and perceived relationships between patterns. The hierarchical structure of consumer goals is designed according to the means-end chain. The product is equipped with attributes. Consumption of product attributes produces consequences, namely, the consumer's benefits from consumption. The importance of a consequence is determined by its subjective value. Thus, consumption represents a hierarchical structure consisting of attributes-consequences-values.
Goal systems include networks of mental representations in which goals can be cognitively linked to corresponding means of achievement and alternative goals. The association network of mental representations of goals means that activating one goal can activate or inhibit another. Two properties of the target system can be derived: structural and distributive. Structurally, the functional relationships between goals can be described as facilitating or hindering.
Facilitator involved in activating one target, thereby facilitating the activation of another.
In contrast, the inhibitory relationship implies that the activation of one target inhibits the other, as seen in the horizontal relationship between targets.
The goal-seeking phase involves specific actions to achieve and maintain a goal. Accomplishing a goal is a complex process that requires various efforts in terms of intermediate actions. Once the goal intent is established, assessments are made regarding the instrumental actions required to achieve the goal. The theory of planned behavior proposes that subjective norms and attitudes are reasons for action and a precondition for the intention to act; however, they tend to lack motivation.
Thus, subjective attitudes and norms often only serve as motivations for action if the decision-maker recognizes them as motivation. Reasons for action must reach a level of emotional significance to influence decisions. Emotional significance emerges from the integrative, expressive, and transformative properties of the desire to act. Many studies support the central role of the desire to act for the intention to act. In short, attitudes and subjective norms toward weight control will only affect the intention to act to control weight to the extent that leads to the desire to act.
Cognitive structure refers to how consumers organize and interpret information in their minds. When it comes to consumer learning, there are primarily two different forms of cognitive structure −
A schema is a conceptual framework that aids in users' organization and interpretation of information. It is a collection of opinions, facts, and expectations regarding a specific class of goods or services. With smartphones, a consumer can have a schema with attributes like screen size, camera quality, and battery life. The consumer will understand and assess a new smartphone using their preexisting schema when they come into contact with it.
A mental model is a more abstract illustration of goods or services. It is a distilled worldview that aids customers in making sense of complex data. For instance, a consumer's mental representation of the transportation sector can include subcategories like public transportation, ride-sharing, and private vehicles. This mental model aids the consumer in comprehending how several modes of transportation work together and which one is most appropriate in a given circumstance.
Goals are essential for self-regulatory motivation because they serve as a reference point for effectively allocating effort and resources toward achieving those goals. Personal and situational variables lead to forming behavioral goals, and specific psychological processes help or hinder goal setting. Self-regulating strategies help achieve goals successfully.
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