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Consumer goal pursuit
Juliano Laran
Consumers pursue goals when they perform behaviors (e.g.,
purchase low-calorie food) in order to achieve a desired end
state (e.g., lose weight). Recent goal pursuit research can be
classified into two streams of thought: conscious and
unconscious goal pursuit. Conscious goal pursuit occurs when
consumers are aware of the goal, while unconscious goal
pursuit occurs when consumers are not aware of the goal, but
still perform behaviors to achieve it. After discussing recent
findings on when each type is more effective in helping
consumers achieve their goals, I conclude that future research
should not investigate the conscious and unconscious systems
separately. Rather, future work should use a cooperative
approach focused on how these systems interact to influence
consumer goal pursuit.
Address
University of Miami, 5250 University Drive, K/E Building 505, P.O. Box
248147, Coral Gables, FL 33124-6524, United States
Current Opinion in Psychology 2016, 10:22–26
This review comes from a themed issue on Consumer behavior
Edited by Kristina Durante and Jeff Joireman
conscious and unconscious goal pursuit. During conscious
goal pursuit, an individual is aware that a goal is active
[8,9]. During unconscious goal pursuit, an individual is
not aware that a goal is active [10,11]. For example, a sign
about healthy eating may lead a consumer to choose
vegetables over cookies while grocery shopping without
being aware that the goal to eat healthy was activated by
the sign. This distinction became important because
pursuing goals was initially believed to require conscious
awareness, as it was hard to believe people could work
toward a desired end state without knowing the desire
was there. Advances in research thinking and methods,
which began to attribute more importance to unconscious
processes in general, led researchers to raise the idea that
consumers could also pursue goals unconsciously.
This article reviews recent consumer research on conscious and unconscious goal pursuit. This review will
demonstrate that one type need not lead to more successful goal pursuit (i.e., more self-control) than the other.
Rather, each has characteristics that can help consumers
pursue their goals in different situations. As such, both
conscious and unconscious goal pursuit can contribute to
consumer well-being.
Conscious goal pursuit
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.10.015
2352-250/# 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Consumer goal pursuit occurs when a consumer buys a
product in order to reach a desired end state [1–3]. This
end state can take many forms. A consumer who wants to
be healthy may buy vegetables at the supermarket, while
a consumer who wants to impress others may buy nice
clothes at a high-end store. Consumer psychology has
seen an enormous amount of research in the past ten years
investigating goal pursuit [4–6]. This interest reflects the
important role of goals as determinants of consumer
behavior, and also a broad interest in how to help consumers achieve goals associated with self-control (e.g.,
losing weight, saving money). A recent paper [7] indicates
that the words ‘‘goal pursuit’’ and ‘‘self-control’’ are
amongst the most used words in the period of 2004–
2014 in the Journal of Consumer Research, one of the
leading journals in consumer research.
The development of consumer goal pursuit research has
resulted in two parallel streams of investigation, namely
Current Opinion in Psychology 2016, 10:22–26
Models of conscious goal pursuit investigate situations in
which consumers are aware that a goal is active, consider
feedback about their performance (‘‘Am I doing well with
regards to achieving the goal?’’), and use the feedback to
plan subsequent behavior [12–15]. For instance, if a
consumer has a goal to lose 10 pounds, the consumer
will evaluate current performance (e.g., ‘‘I have lost
7 pounds so far’’) and decide how much effort (e.g., diet,
exercising) they should still exert in order to achieve the
goal [16]. Therefore, inferences consumers make about
their performance can have a significant impact on subsequent motivation to pursue the goal. Several recent
findings shed light on how these inferences influence
conscious goal pursuit.
One type of inference is that of goal progress. Some
findings indicate that the less progress there is toward
a goal, the more motivated people are to pursue the goal
[17,18,19]. For example, when people who were not yet
committed to a donation campaign were told about a goal
of raising $10,000, presenting information about how
much still had to be donated led to the perception that
not enough progress had been made, which increased
motivation to donate [20]. Other findings, however, indicate that the perception that one has made progress
toward a goal can be motivating. For example, people
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Consumer goal pursuit Laran 23
who were closer to achieving the goal of a loyalty program
(e.g., had bought several cups of coffee in order to get a
free coffee) made purchases more frequently, which
indicates higher motivation to pursue the goal [21–23].
While less is known about the specific instances in which
progress will be motivating or demotivating, it is clear that
inferences of progress can largely influence conscious goal
pursuit.
Another widely investigated inference is attainability.
Consumers are more motivated the more possible they
think it is to attain a goal [24]. When consumers perceive
they may not be able to attain a goal, these perceptions may
lead to disengagement from the goal [25], or at least a
revision to a goal that is easier to attain [26]. On the contrary,
when consumers perceive that they will be able to attain a
goal, these perceptions may keep them engaged with the
goal, which explains some of the findings showing that goal
progress (i.e., being at a late goal pursuit stage) increases
motivation to pursue a goal [27]. These findings on the
influence of goal progress and attainability suggest that,
because a conscious goal involves a target goal to be met,
inferences consumers make about where they are with
regards to that target are the main drivers of motivation.
This research found that being exposed to brands associated with saving money led research participants to pick a
good-value over a high-end gift for their participation in
an experiment [36]. Exposure to words associated with
health (e.g., fit, slim, shame) increased choices of healthy
over tasty snacks [37]. Exposure to words associated with
fun led to increased choices of casual over fancy restaurants
[38]. Exposure to the American flag led to higher choice of
Coca-Cola over Pepsi [39]. Following these demonstrations, which included evidence that unconscious goals
were actually active and people were unaware of them
[40], as well as evidence that they could have effects on
people’s everyday behaviors [41], there have been several
attempts to explain unconscious goal pursuit.
Models of unconscious goal pursuit investigate situations
in which the environment activates goals without consumers’ awareness, which leads consumers to choose
behaviors that are consistent with the unconsciously
activated goal [34,35]. For instance, a consumer who goes
grocery shopping may be exposed to store materials which
say ‘‘start eating well today.’’ Without being aware of the
material and that it has activated a healthy eating goal, the
consumer may proceed to make healthier choices during
their supermarket trip. Several recent findings shed light
on how environmental stimuli influence unconscious goal
pursuit.
Explaining the processes behind unconscious goal pursuit
typically involves the manipulation of variables that lead
consumers to not behave consistently with the activated
goal. These moderators have the potential to show whether
consumers merely follow goals suggested by the environment or, alternatively, that the unconscious system has
mechanism to defend itself from unwanted influences.
One of the manipulated variables is the novelty of the
consumer context. When facing a novel choice, such as
buying a gift for a professor, students did not behave in
accordance with an unconsciously activated goal, showing
that whether unconscious goal pursuit takes place depends
on the choice context [38]. When the situation is novel, the
unconscious system seems to protect itself from external
influences, and not follow an activated goal. A second
variable is the extent to which consumers perceive that
their immediate environment is trying to persuade them to
perform a behavior. When consumers were exposed to
stimuli clearly designed to persuade them, such as brand
slogans suggesting they should spend money, they did not
follow the activated goal, and actually spent less money in
an unrelated purchase [42]. In a similar fashion, people
unconsciously react against the goals suggested by their
significant other when they perceive that their significant
other is a controlling person [43]. A third variable is the
match between the unconsciously activated goal and people’s personality. Congruent with the idea that unconscious goals may not always produce behavior that is
consistent with the goal, unconsciously activating the goal
to attend a party made introverts less likely to choose
arousing products, such as a dance music CD [44]. These
findings indicate that goals activated by environmental
stimuli can have an unconscious effect on consumer behavior, but that consumers are not defenseless against
these influences. Consumers are able to behave consistently or inconsistently with the activated goal, depending on
the context or individual characteristics.
This stream of investigation initially examined whether
people can unconsciously pursue goals in the market
place, as the literature on unconscious goal pursuit had
mostly been developed outside of the consumer domain.
In addition to studying the processes responsible for
unconscious goal pursuit, recent research has started to
investigate how activated goals may operate in tandem
with other variables that are present in the market place.
While inferences about goal progress and attainability
have dominated recent goal pursuit research, a series of
other studies indicate that many factors influence a consumer’s ability to consciously pursue a goal. These factors
include whether consumers want to attain a goal target or
maintain their current goal state [28], consumers’ ability
to visualize the goal [29], attention to goal-related stimuli
[30], whether pursuit will occur in the present or in the
future [31], whether there are interruptions to goal pursuit
[32], and the impact that steps toward or away from the
goal have on motivation to pursue it [33]. I next examine a
different type of goal pursuit, which occurs when consumers are not aware that a goal is active.
Unconscious goal pursuit
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Current Opinion in Psychology 2016, 10:22–26
24 Consumer behavior
Figure 1
Choice Proportion
One such line of research investigates how different
emotions, such as sadness and pride, interact with unconsciously activated goals to influence behavior [45–47]. For
instance, when a goal to seek pleasure is active, sadness
decreases pleasurable behavior by increasing sensitivity
to the harmful consequences of behavior [45]. This
indicates that the unconscious system does not simply
use concepts highlighted by the environmental in order to
make decisions, but also affective information that can
inform the pursuit of goals. Of course, there is ample
evidence that consumers sometimes fail to pursue their
goals, which represents a self-control failure [48,49]. Yet,
the research discussed above indicates that a lack of
consciousness and failure to pursue a goal are not necessary related. I conclude with a discussion of this issue.
Acceptable:
Best Option
Acceptable:
Second Best Option
Control
Conclusion: an interactive view of conscious
and unconscious goal pursuit
The last decade has been extremely prolific in consumer
goal pursuit research. This research has demonstrated
that conscious goal pursuit can use awareness of the goal
to examine which available products offer attributes that
will satisfy the goal and plan how each product will be
consumed in order to achieve the goal [50]. Unconscious
goal pursuit can use the accessible goal information to
decide which attributes match this information (e.g., goal
to eat healthy — healthy attribute) and pick products that
offer such attributes (e.g., salad, granola bar). At this
point, it is safe to say that failing to pursue goals is not
a result of lack of reasoning and thought, typically associated with unconsciousness, while pursuing goals is a
result of reasoned, well-thought behavior, typically associated with consciousness. The findings reviewed here
indicate that both systems are powerful, and have their
own ways to ensure that goal pursuit will take place.
Following these findings, some recent research has
moved from the idea that one system is better than the
other, and started investigating situations in which each
system excels. This research has demonstrated that the
unconscious can integrate a large amount of information
in meaningful clusters, therefore performing better when
the context requires complex decisions [51]. The conscious, however, can consider differences in magnitude
between attribute values, therefore performing better
when the context requires examining specific magnitudes
instead of just whether attributes are good or bad [52].
Additional evidence shows that the conscious is better
able than the unconscious to pick the single best product
to pursue a goal from a set, but the unconscious is better
able to pick products that can serve the goal in general,
not necessarily the best [53]. For instance (Figure 1),
consumers were asked to pick a healthy food from a set
containing a granola bar (best product to pursue a health
goal), sun chips (second best product), and potato chips
(not a product that can be used to pursue a health goal).
Consumers consciously pursuing a goal were more likely
Current Opinion in Psychology 2016, 10:22–26
Conscious
Unacceptable:
Worst Option
Unconscious
Current Opinion in Psychology
Data illustrating the conscious and unconscious ability to pick the best
(granola bar) and acceptable option (sun chips) from a set ([52], Study
1), given the goal to eat healthy food.
to pick the granola bar (i.e., best product to satisfy the
goal), while consumers unconsciously pursuing a goal
were more likely to pick either the granola bar or sun
chips (i.e., the two products that could satisfy the goal).
Over the last decade, we have greatly improved our understanding of how consumers pursue goals. Moving forward,
it is important to understand how conscious and unconscious goal pursuit interact, rather than compete, with each
other. Many conscious processes (e.g., planning in advance) may use the help of unconscious processes (e.g.,
using information available in the immediate environment) to ensure that all available opportunities to achieve
a goal are pursued. Understanding contexts in which these
conscious–unconscious goal interactions occur, and when
they help vs. harm goal pursuit, is an important direction in
which to take goal pursuit research. Given the advantages
of both conscious and unconscious goal pursuit, a collaborative approach to how these systems direct people to
pursue their goals has the potential to result in an array
of new findings that cannot be uncovered if the two systems
are investigated individually.
Conflict of interest statement
None declared.
References and recommended reading
Papers of particular interest, published within the period of review,
have been highlighted as:
of special interest
of outstanding interest
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Several studies represent a rare attempt to demonstrate that one type of
goal pursuit (conscious versus unconscious) is not necessarily better than
the other. Rather, there are some things that conscious goal pursuit can
do better (e.g., pick the product that can best satisfy a goal), and other
things that the unconscious can do better (e.g., pick any product that can
satisfy a goal).
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