After branding and communication measures have been perceived and processed, it is essential to make sure that the conveyed information is learned and retained as well. Only if branding messages leave behind traces in memory and the consumer can recall the factual and emotional contents in the purchase situation, branding takes effect. In order for brand managers to achieve this, the attention of the recipients of communication should be called to the essential and the communicated information amount should not be too large and should be narrowed down to a few key messages (Mayer, 2005). The information is saved in the Long-term Store and there can be retrieved and processed by the Short-term Store. The goal of brand communication of course, is to embed the brand promise in the Long-term Store of the consumer (Felser, 1997; Homburg & Krohmer, 2005).

The cognitive processes involved in purchase decision making, are influenced by the consumer's knowledge in memory. Buyers' ability to remember meanings and their memory are central to marketers for the reason that buyers frequently do not make buying decisions at the time of exposure, attention and comprehension. Brand providers want consumers to keep in mind certain key features associated with their brand - such as brand name and benefits, as well as the main attributes of the brand (Peter et al., 1999). They rely on buyers to retain information they have acquired about brands, banking on that it will later be applied in buying situations. This internal memory is combined with external memory, which includes all brand details on packages, in shopping lists and other marketing stimuli that permit brand alternatives to be evaluated during the consumer decision making process (Solomon, 2002).

In case of frequently repeated contact to information, it is stored without own effort. Through confrontation with communicated branding messages over and over again or the repeated consumption of a brand, the consumer thus collects knowledge about its appearance, attributes, packaging and much more. This effect of repetition is vital in the prevalently saturated markets tagged by less involved buyers (see section Consumer Involvement), since consumers do not actively seek information on their own, due to the low purchase risk they face (Kuss & Tomczak, 2004).

Another aspect related to information storage, is that the success of information conveyance addressing consumers with low involvement, is greater if images are employed for information brokering. Images demand less mental cognitive effort from the recipient, are widely processed automatically and are on account of this superiorly stored than words, in the case of lowly-involved customers (Kroeber-Riel & Weinberg, 1996).

Structuring of Information

Information structuring refers to the lasting configuration of buyers' knowledge in their Long-term Store. Customers have structured systems of concepts concerning brands as well as brand providers and this knowledge regulates how environmental stimuli are perceived, processed and stored. Consumers' knowledge is organized to form knowledge structures in their memory and the representation of this knowledge is frequently modeled as Associative Network (Peter et al., 1999). The cognitive system creates networks that depict the associative links between the beliefs that a buyer connects with a brand and indicate how information in the Long-term Store of the consumer is in correlation with one another. These links determine the usage of knowledge during information processing and novel incoming information is interpreted in consistence with the structures already in place (Kroeber-Riel & Weinberg, 1996).

At first, a stimulus activates a specific concept in the memory of the customer and outgoing from there, the activation spreads over the whole network of associatively linked representations. Concepts connected by strong links more probably activate one another, than those connected by weak ones (Hoyer & MacInnis, 2001). These relations are in particular characterized by brand knowledge, requirements and experiences. Such associations can for instance be created in a phonetic way, just like the manufacturer of the sunflower oil "Livio" who - by choosing this brand name - attempts to establish a positive consumer association to the higher-value olive oil (Felser, 1997; Homburg & Krohmer, 2005).

A substantial amount of effort by brand managers is expended in influencing the Associative Networks that buyers have for provided brands. They need to monitor customers' knowledge structures and manage that knowledge. It is necessary for marketers to consider, what types of links they want buyers to form and to accordingly provide them with information to process. The nodes of a network linked to a brand can embody various brand attributes or furthermore, also celebrity endorsers of the brand or related brand providers, can constitute such nodes. Additionally with the aid of networks, marketers can elucidate existing knowledge structures, their development and changes in them (Hawkins, Best & Coney, 2004; Solomon, 2002).

Therefore, the associations that buyers link to a specific brand play an important role for the purchase behaviors of consumers and to have notice of these customer associations is of particular bearing to brand management. Needless to say, the designation of brand communication is to boost consumers' positive associations with the brand as well as their affirmative thoughts related to the image of the company (Homburg & Krohmer, 2005).

Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

After having analyzed cognitive determinants of consumer behavior in the antecedent chapter, our attention now shifts to an essential phenomenon in conjunction with cognitive processes, called cognitive dissonance. The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance put forward by Festinger (1964) states that if cognitions (e.g., attitudes, desires, intentions) are dissonant, that is conflicting, consumers actively keep away from situations as well as information that might add to the dissonance and are motivated to defuse this condition (Fulop, 1981).

Most purchase decisions involve dissonant feelings, since a state of dissonance often occurs when buyers must make a selection among brands. By choosing one brand and not another one, the buyer obtains the bad qualities of the brand purchased, as well as has to give up on the attractive features of the alternative foregone and this loss, leads to an unpleasant dissonant feeling (Hawkins et al., 2004; Solomon, 2002). Further, dissonance can origin from experiencing quality disappointments during brand consumption, from promoting information on rival brands or from the absence of social approval (Pepels, 2005). According to this theory, consumers are motivated to reduce the negative feelings caused by dissonance, by in some way making matters tally with one another (Fulop, 1981). This dissonance reduction can take place either by eliminating, adding or changing cognitive elements (Solomon, 2002).

Cognitive uncertainties can emerge as early as after exposure to communicated information, prior to the purchase (pre-purchase dissonance), following the purchase or not until the brand usage phase (Pepels, 2005). Cognitive dissonance that occurs after a purchase is called post-purchase dissonance (Schiffman & Kanuk, 1997). Following the acquisition, customers may re-evaluate the brand in terms of whether it has satisfied their needs and if it fails, this can lead to dissonance (Blythe, 1997). After having bought a brand, consumers may use one of the following two approaches to reduce post-purchase dissonance. They can either boost the attractiveness of the brand purchased or decrease the attractiveness of rejected alternatives (Hawkins et al., 2004). Typically after a buying decision, customers have a quite selective perception for communicated information that a posteriori increases as well as supports the desirability of the selected alterative and depreciates the rejected brands (Festinger, 1964; Pepels, 2005).

Such consumer-initiated tactics, in order to alleviate dissonance by means of internal re-evaluations, can be backed by marketers through communication. For branding, one implication of the fact that consumers proactively search for messages containing additional external information supporting their choice, is that marketers are required to provide them with such purchase reinforcing inputs, in order to build a positive brand attitude and to nullify the eventual cognitive dissonance, arising from consumers' fear of having chosen a bogus brand (Felser, 1997; Hoyer & MacInnis, 2001). Therefore, consumers' intensified receptiveness to communicated information following their purchase act, greatly enhances the role that follow-up branding and sales efforts can have. Many brand managers send recent buyers direct-mail materials, designed in large part to confirm the wisdom of their acquisition, so as to establish customer confidence in selecting that particular brand. Marketers may also make inquiry follow-up calls, in order to make sure consumers are not experiencing any troubles with the brand or the appliance as well as to reduce any dissonance and augment satisfaction (Hawkins et al., 2004).

Thus, a common application of the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance to minimize the dissonant feelings after a buying decision is found in endeavors of after-sales branding and communication activities. Such measures contain information that is provided to the buyer after brand purchase, in order to warrant it and to bring into prominence the specialties and benefits of the acquired brand (Felser, 1997; Moser, 1990). Measures to reduce dissonance bring about a stabilization and an increase of preference for the respective brand and with this repurchase behavior as well as brand loyalty (Mayer, 2005). Indeed, in absence of such follow-up branding to avoid or decrease dissonance, consumers may be more likely to select different brands in future or even trade their recent purchase earlier than initially planned (Foxall et al., 2002).

Activation of Consumers

The fight of information for a limited storage space, due to the prevalent information overload, most of all decides in favor of the information with the maximum activation ability. The greater the activation force of an information, the more easily it will be taken over into the Long-term Store. Stronger activating commercial messages are therefore, retained better and as a result can be recalled superiorly (Kroeber-Riel & Meyer-Hentschel, 1982). With cognitive allurements mental conflicts, contradictions or surprises can be initiated that confront the customer's perception with unfamiliar tasks and thereby stimulate information processing (Homburg & Krohmer, 2005). In consequence, brand managers who bring into play powerfully activating stimuli, can augment their success in influencing consumers and hence, activation techniques can be systematically deployed in order to enhance the effectiveness of brand communication (Kuss & Tomczak, 2004).

The stronger the activation triggered by the stimuli, the more efficiently the presented information is absorbed. This effect starts with the caught attention, goes over the cognitive performance during information processing and ceases with a positive correlation between activation and memory power (Kuss & Tomczak, 2004). The plausible consequence is that it is highly advisable for brand management, to maximize the activation force of branding measures and communications, in order to succeed in triumphantly cementing their brand in the mind of the buyer. Thereby, in this process, consumers are active participants and brand managers should acknowledge and study cognitive self-regulation habits. The active cognitive self-regulation habits include, e.g. use of media, multitasking habits, preferred modality use (visual versus acoustical channel use), depth of information processing, weighting of concurrent information etc. (Wang, 2007).

Furthermore, besides consumers merely being passive recipients of activating external stimuli, the active role that consumers themselves can take in the process of consumption decision-making, should not be underestimated (Homburg & Krohmer, 2005). Of great significance in this conjunction, is the paper of Hennig-Thurau et al. (2010) which studied the impact that new media has on customer activity. According to this study, new media allows for customers to take an even more active part in the marketing and brand positioning process. Especially new media channels such as Google, Twitter and YouTube enable customers to take an increasingly active role as market players and have entirely changed how consumers gather, exchange and consume information about brands. Especially influential are social networks where based on user-generated content, consumers can actively search for information, share their experiences about brands and build relationships with other customers. Essentially, consumers have become highly active partners in the marketing process and are strongly connected with a network of other consumers. This results in extensive information being available on brands and products which can be beneficial, but also can potentially interfere with the company's branding message and make it more challenging to control the brand image. This new media's impact on customer activity, is a key factor that brand managers need to take into consideration when designing branding messages and attempting to influence consumer behavior (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010).

Consumer Involvement

A target-oriented form of activation is involvement (Homburg & Krohmer, 2005). The fundamental idea behind the involvement concept, is that the intensity as well as the quality of information processing, substantially is dependent on the consumer's perceived personal relevance of a purchase (Kuss, 1991). This relevance in turn, is determined by the buyer's needs and values (Felser, 1997). From a cognitive perspective, consumers experience involvement in a brand as cognitive perceptions of importance and therefore, customers' involvement at the time of exposure to communicated branding information, has major influence on their motivation to process and comprehend the message (Peter et al., 1999).

Varying with the type of brand in demand, involvement can exhibit a high or a low level (Homburg & Krohmer, 2005). High involvement brands are characterized by a heightened activation level and an extensive search for information. Suchlike brand purchases bear relevant consequences for the customer and entail either a financial, social or psychological risk (Pepels, 2005). Highly-involved consumers will not easily be won over by branding measures and thus, are hard to persuade (Kiesler, Collins, & Millar, 1969).

As already indicated in earlier sections though, the present market reality is rather tagged by buyers exhibiting a low degree of involvement (Pepels, 2005). In the case of low involvement, the buyer does not feel personally committed and thus, no more than a shallow information processing takes place, utilizing less and coincidentally perceived information (Kuss, 1991). If in such market conditions one brand becomes more familiar to the buyer than another one, this brand will be a more discriminate stimulus versus competing brands. For this reason in suchlike markets, a lot of brand communication can be observed that creates nothing but brand familiarity (Peter et al., 1999).

Usually, branding activities for low involvement brands should have relatively little information content and should be repeated frequently. In the case of high involvement brands, rather a lower number of messages that are rich in substance are recommended (Kuss & Tomczak, 2004). All in all, branding specialists need to precisely know what level of involvement their target group brings along, in order to design their brand communication in such a manner that it manages to enter the mind of the consumer.

Discussion

The ambition of the present paper was to point out the relevance of cognitive dissonance, activation and involvement to branding and to show that the regard of these approaches may embody a key factor of success for brand management. Emphasis was laid on illustrating how knowledge particularly from the field of Cognitive Psychology, contribute towards an insight on consumer behavior and with this to effective branding.

The driver of the growing importance of brand positioning is that society in industrial countries is characterized by exuberance. In such a society of abundance, brands hardly anymore can be distinguished by means of functional properties and in consequence the psychological positioning of brands becomes indispensable. According to the definition of the named authors, it becomes apparent that positioning concerns the standing of the brand in the mind of the consumer. This paper has shown that in order to achieve such a designated standing of the brand, already since quite a number of years cognitive psychological theory is consulted.

In this overview, the Cognitive approach to consumer behavior was accentuated. Within the scope of cognitive determinants of brand purchase behavior, the selective nature of customer perception and the procedure of processing brand communication were emphasized. Furthermore, the chapter highlighted that branding measures only take effect, if they manage to leave traces in the consumer's memory and if they succeed in creating links between the brand in question and desired concepts.

The discussion of the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance pointed out a special case of customer cognition, elaborating how marketers can promote brand loyalty by facilitating cognitive consonance within the consumer. Concluding the body of the paper, the concept of buyer activation showed that by means of activating branding campaigns, the attention of customers can be grabbed and thereby information processing can be stimulated. To round off the paper, the involvement of buyers formed the focal point and revealed possibilities of dealing with the prevalent condition of lowly-involved consumers.

This paper has attempted to demonstrate how branding, through appropriation of insights from psychology, can obtain a differentiated psychological anchoring of the brand in the customer's mind. However, just as marketers apply their psychological understanding of consumer behavior, a host of ethical concerns arise and at this point words of caution are in order. According to the definition of Ries and Trout (1981) in the introduction, brand positioning involves taking influence on the mind of the buyer. But an issue open to debate is, where the ethical barrier of this psychological influencing rests (Kroeber-Riel & Meyer-Hentschel, 1982). The major part of ethical concerns in this area, relate to the conflict between presenting a brand in a favorable light and presenting it completely accurately (Hawkins et al., 2004). Up to now, in the covered literature this issue is addressed only scarcely. It is essential to catch up this identified research gap and to dedicate future research to the mistrustfulness that has risen towards branding measures. These reproaches however, should not be looked upon as arguments against the use of psychological approaches for marketing and communication purposes, but rather should much more make plain that caution is due when applying them.

Even though within the scope of this overview, it was demonstrated how many potentialities, the application of psychological insights to buyer behavior in the context of brand management offers, at this point also attention should be called to its limits. The profound grasp of consumers' bearings, to be sure is utterly assistant to directing their behavior; however, the exact prognosis of buying decisions is impossible. Customers still have individual reaction scope and this fact drives home the confines of behavioral control and of psychological influencing, by means of branding measures (cf. Kroeber-Riel & Meyer-Hentschel, 1982).

Further, in this overview several psychological models, theories and concepts were portrayed with the aim to help illuminate and forecast consumer behavior. It should be clear that buying patterns might not in all cases be explainable by theories and models, and that additionally other factors can influence the behavior of buyers as well. There may also be certain customers to whom the discussed approaches might not apply and alternative explanations may pertain, on how some buyers arrive at their purchase decisions.

Meaningful additions to this paper, various further psychological approaches could form like for instance, findings from Social Psychology which give more information on the social meaning of brands. This is chiefly relevant, seeing that a host of consumer behavior patterns only become explicable when the purchase situation is viewed as taking place within a social context.

Furthermore, as already mentioned in earlier sections of this paper, a promising approach could be the consideration of principles from Gestalt Psychology underlying consumer perception, when designing (online) shopping environments (Demangeot & Broderick, 2010). In connection with the present paper, this above all is especially relevant and advantageous in view of the indicated prevalent information overload facing customers.

The aim of the paper at hand was to review and to point out the relevance of psychological models and theories, particularly from a Cognitive perspective on consumer behavior, that are most commonly mentioned in published literature on the subject of branding. This paper should demonstrate how cognitive aspects, influence consumer behavior and thus, how having cognizance of these aspects is a decisive factor for the effectiveness of brand management and communication. The treated content constitutes an extract of an issue area which is of too wide scope, so as to be able to portray all the facets and the entire important literature in one single overview. Acknowledging the limitations of behavioral control and of the models as well as theories discussed, and recognizing the indicated supplementation possibilities of the paper, it can be stated that the present literature review was in a position to successfully illustrate which momentous contribution psychological approaches make to the comprehension of consumer behavior and in this way to prosperous brand management. Therefore, it is fundamental that the gained insights are implemented in branding, in order to thereby increase chances for successful business and competitive advantage in a saturated market.

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Correspondence:
Prof. Dr. Achim Elfering,
University of Berne Institute of Psychology,
Department for Work and Organizational Psychology,
Muesmattstrasse 45. 3000 Bern 9 E-mail: achim.elfering@psy.unibe.ch.
Author's e-Mails: Arti Sahgal: arti@sahgal.ch

Received 25 April 2011
Received in revised form 1 September 2011
Accepted 8 September 2011