In marketing, processing of information that will later lead to consumption by consumers is usually affected by the current mood of the consumers during interaction (Park, Gardner and Thukral, 1982). Some of the aspects influenced by customer’s mood are such as, taking part in a generalized survey, taking part in a group competition, how much you spend during shopping, and how you may even react to a non quality service provided in a retail store. Consumer mood is usually beyond the control of the marketer, but should be importantly considered as it affects the consumer‘s response in consumption (Gardner and Vandersteel, 1984).
Though mood is usually viewed as a generalized state and not directed to any particular person or object (Clark and Isen, 1982), it has profound and significant effect on any interactions the consumer may be having. A positive mood will make one look and feel jovial, kind and when it comes to consumption during marketing, the consumer will have a positive response to the marketer in ways such as, trying out a new product they have never used and even portray a positive or modest judgment. In contrast, a negative mood will initiate a negative response to consumption, show no interest or involvement and to the consumer, will generally be a negative experience for him/her (Cunningham, 1975).
A negative mood will most likely incline the consumer towards products that will tend to drive the self focus away and restore his positive self (Wood et al, 1990). Therefore the marketer should consider this point when dealing with the particular consumer.
The influence of mood in processing of marketing information is clearly similar to its influence during consumption. A consumer in a good/positive mood will generally have a warm feeling about a marketer and even show some ‘sympathy’ by listening to the marketer (Clark and Isen, 1982). A positive mood in the consumer will generate a positive response even when judging a product he/she has not been in contact with. When it comes to a consumer in a negative mood, the general response to a marketer and what is on display will be a show of no concern, or no interest at all, or tend to show interest on information that will shift his negative mood elsewhere.
The consumer information processing happens in such a way that a positive mood will result in a positive and modest view in almost all areas, whereas a negative mood will tend to incline his attention to what will drive his current mood away and his response upon information processing may be slightly biased.
The influence of mood on memory happens in such a way that, storage of information in a certain mood will influence free and fast recall, when that particular storage mood is initiated (Bartlett and Santrock, 1979). Recall of certain stored stimuli may also be aided by recall of the intensity of a particular mood during encoding of the information; it provides a cue during recall (Dutta and Kanungo, 1975).
Other influences of mood on memory are such that when you are in a particular mood, you will tend to recall other instances that happened in that mood. An example is such that when in a pleasant mood after something good has been done for you by a particular person, you will continue to recall other instances of pleasant things that people have done for you and you continue enjoying the pleasant feelings (Bower, 1981).
References
Bartlett, James C. and Santrock, John W. (1979). Affect-Dependent Episodic Memory In Young Children. Child Development, 50, 513-518.
Bower, Gordon H., Gilligan, Stephen G. and Monteiro, Kenneth P. (1981). Selectivity or Learning Caused by Affective States. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 4, 451-473.
Clark, Margaret S., and Isen, Alice M. (1982). Toward Understanding the Relationship Between Feeling States and Social Behavior. Cognitive Social Psychology(pp. 73-108). New York: Hastorf and A.M Isen Elsevier North Holland.
Cunningham, Michael (1979). Weather, Mood, and Helping Behaviors Quasi Experiments with the Sunshine Samaritan. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37 11, 1947-1956.
Gardner, M.P. dc Vandersteel, M. (1984). The Consumer’s Mood: An Important Situational Variable. in T. Kinnear (Ed.). Advances in Consumer Research (Vol. 11, pp. 525-529). UT: Association for Consumer Research.
Park, C. Whan, Gardner, Meryl P. and Thukral, Vinod K. (1982). Effects of Objective and Subjective Product Class Familiarity on Consumer Information Processing. paper presented at the Association for Consumer Research Annual Conference. San Francisco. CA.