There is a very popular term in recent years:
cognition
"You and I have different cognitions", "Consumers have no cognition of brands", "This matter is beyond my cognition", etc. A series of words appear in the communication process of people, as if "cognition" can explain all contradictions .
Understanding the Constant Principles of Consumers (2)
---Principle of Consumer Cognitive Schema
The consumer's cognitive schema is the principle that the consumption strategy discovers and summarizes based on psychology's exploration of consumer psychology. The principle of consumers' cognitive schema can be understood from the following two concepts:
cognition & schema
1. What is cognition?
From the perspective of scientific terms, "cognition" refers to the process of people acquiring knowledge or applying knowledge, or the process of information processing. Consumer cognition includes consumers' "cognition process" and "transformation expression" for brands and products.
The process of consumers’ understanding of brands or products includes feeling, perception, attention, memory, association, and thinking. Through the process of consumers’ awareness of brands and products, they are transformed into language expressions, understanding plans, and behavioral instructions for brands and products.
2. What is a schema?
Consumers' psychological activities and external stimulus information are always dynamic and stable under the interaction. Consumers will form a specific structure to process, describe and explain different things, thus forming an understanding of brands and products, and schemas are such Psychological structure, the basis of this psychological structure comes from the existing knowledge and experience of consumers.
Consumers form new schemas through the fusion of original knowledge and experience with new information.
3. What is a cognitive schema?
Consumers' cognitive schema is the organized overall understanding and expression formed by decoding, filtering, screening, and sorting out information such as brands, products, and advertisements through their original experience and knowledge.
There is often a huge gap between consumers' cognitive schemas of brands and products and what companies want consumers to understand. Therefore, how to efficiently connect and build consumers' cognitive schemas is an important topic that brands need to study .
In the process of our brand consulting work, we often hear corporate customers say: "Our products are very good and have many advantages. We are very confident in the products, but consumers don't understand and don't pay for them."
This situation is actually a manifestation of the inconsistency between the cognitive schema of the enterprise and the cognitive schema of consumers . The advantages that enterprises believe that brands and products possess may not be important needs of consumers or when enterprises express and disseminate brands and products. It also did not cater to the development law of consumers' cognitive schema, resulting in half the effort.
The most beautiful thing in the world is that what you give is exactly what he needs, and what you say is exactly what he understands, and this is precisely the most difficult thing to grasp.
Characteristics of consumer cognitive schema:
1. Consumer cognitive schema comes from existing knowledge
Consumers' cognitive schema is more willing to believe information verified by experience.
2. The stability of consumer cognition diagrams
The consumer's cognitive pattern is relatively stable, and it is generally difficult to overthrow it.
3. Brain supplementation of consumer cognition diagrams
The consumer's cognitive diagram will have the feature of automatic brain supplementation, and will automatically complete the missing information.
4. Limitations of consumers' cognitive diagrams
Consumers' cognitive schemas are limited by "archetypal frameworks" and "archetypal scripts" when explaining new things and events.
Understanding the characteristics of consumer cognitive schemas can help companies avoid decisions that deviate from consumer cognitive schemas in the process of brand positioning, product creation, and marketing strategies, cater to consumers more efficiently, and create brands that are easier to accept and understand information.
In the process of brand building and marketing, enterprises need to pay attention to the impact of consumer cognitive schema on consumer perception, attention, coding, memory, understanding and other consumer psychology. Cognitive schema will affect consumers' perception of brand, attention, value understanding, brand memory speed and brand memory degree.
1. Sensation and perception
Consumers' feelings and perceptions of brands form the basis of consumers' awareness of brands and products.
Feeling is the reflection of consumers on different attributes of brand performance . Brand color, brand emotion, product packaging, product function, etc. are all independent impressions.
Perception is the reflection of consumers on the overall performance of the brand , and it is a comprehensive understanding of a brand.
Sensation is the basis for consumers to know the brand, and perception is the depth of consumers' understanding of the brand. Feeling and perception together form consumers' complete perception of the brand.
消费者的认知图式影响消费者对品牌的感知能力，不同的认知图式对于品牌的解读是不同的，不同的认知图式对品牌的感知程度也是不同的。
就如同一个老年消费者与一个青年消费者对于饮料品牌的感知能力是不同的，一个生活在四线城市的青年与一个生活在一线城市的青年对于饮料品牌的感知能力也是不同的，这些差异是消费者认知图式的不同造就的结果。
2、注意
信息繁多的时代，消费者注意的争夺战也是品牌的核心工作，消费者的注意是获得品牌信息的先决条件。
消费者能够注意的品牌信息只是众多市场信息的一小部分，品牌通过“刺激信号”引起消费者的注意，这些“刺激信号”的创造就要适应消费者的认知图式。
通过注意的品牌会被消费者的认知图式进行编码储存和加工整理，才能被消费者记忆和理解。
3、记忆
认知图示会自主选择接受哪些信号，认知图式更容易记忆与图式相符的信号或相反的信号，认知图示更容易记忆具象的而非抽象的信号，认知图示更容易记忆与自己相关的而非不相关的信号。
消费者记忆品牌和产品的典型、主要的信息，有些缺失的信息会通过认知图式进行补充和联想。
瑞士心理学家 让·皮亚杰认为一切的知识，从功能机制上说是同化与顺化的统一。
消费者认知图式会通过已有的知识吸收外部的刺激信息成为已有认知图式的一部分，或者被刺激信息调节、改变、建立新的认知图式，最后形成稳态平衡。
虽然消费者新的认知图式建立是消费者生活发展的基本形式，但品牌希望通过教育进行改变原有认知图式也是非常困难的事情，与消费者原有的认知图式差别越大改变起来也就越是困难。
4、理解
认知图示也会影响消费者对于自身需要的理解，从而影响其购买行为。
消费者会依赖自身的认知图式来解析自身的需要和外部刺激信息，不同的认知图式对需要和刺激信息的解析角度、深度、范围都有所不同。
通过对需要和外部刺激信息的解析判断自己的需求，形成购买动机，驱使购买行为（品牌选择，产品选择，渠道选择、购买方式选择、购买数量选择等）。
有共同要素的消费群体往往具备类似的认知图式，或者说有共同认知图式的消费者可以形成一种消费群体，他们往往对某些需求有一致的共识，会选择相似价值的品牌和产品。
这也是消费战略的观点：品牌是服务目标消费群体的而并非全部消费者，品牌的核心价值有限，只能够集中满足有相似认知图示的消费群。为目标消费者积累品牌的核心价值能力是品牌矢志不渝的工作。
消费者的认知图式：
是企业以消费者为导向进行经营行为时最需要重视和深入研究的范畴，这是品牌战略、产品打造、广告传播、整合营销等工作精准性的先决条件。