How can you use the stimulus-organism-response model to measure consumer responses to marketing stimuli?

1 The SOR model explained

The SOR model is a simple but powerful way to explain how consumers process information and make decisions. The model consists of three elements: stimulus, organism, and response. The stimulus is any external factor that can influence the consumer, such as a product, an ad, a price, a brand, or a situation. The organism is the consumer's internal state, which includes their perceptions, attitudes, emotions, motivations, and personality. The response is the consumer's action or reaction, such as buying, liking, sharing, or avoiding. The model assumes that there is a causal relationship between the stimulus and the response, mediated by the organism.

2 How to measure consumer responses

In order to use the SOR model to measure consumer responses to marketing stimuli, it is essential to identify and operationalize the variables that represent the stimulus, the organism, and the response. For example, if you want to measure how consumers respond to a new product launch, you could use variables such as the product features, benefits, design, packaging, price, availability, consumer's awareness, interest, preference, satisfaction, loyalty and purchase intention. Then you can employ various methods and tools such as surveys, experiments, focus groups, interviews, observation or online analytics to collect and analyze data on these variables.

3 What factors can influence the process

The SOR model is not a linear or static model, but rather, dynamic and interactive. This means that the stimulus, the organism, and the response can all influence one another in different ways and at different stages. For instance, the consumer's response can affect their organism which may then change their perception of the stimulus. Similarly, the stimulus can evolve over time, altering the consumer's organism and response. In addition to this, other factors such as the consumer's characteristics (needs, goals, values, beliefs, culture), context (mood, situation, environment, social influences), and involvement (level of interest, attention, motivation or risk perception) can modify or mediate the relationship between the stimulus, organism and response - making it more or less strong, positive or negative.

4 How to use the insights

The SOR model can help you gain valuable insights into how consumers respond to your marketing stimuli, and how you can improve your marketing strategies and tactics. It allows you to identify the most effective stimuli that can attract, engage, and retain consumers, as well as understand their internal state and how it affects decision making and behavior. Additionally, the model can help you predict consumer response and its potential impact on your business goals and outcomes. You can also use it to test and evaluate different stimuli and their effect on the consumer's organism and response. Lastly, the SOR model can be used to segment and target consumers based on their stimuli, organism, and response profiles. Ultimately, this tool is a great way to design marketing stimuli that create positive and lasting consumer responses.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?