Dictionary of Marketing Terms: selective attention
selective attention
tendency of a consumer to pay attention only to messages that address a need or interest or are consistent with the consumer's attitudes, opinions, and beliefs. Selective attention is why consumers make more impulse purchases when they go to the grocery store on an empty stomach than when they go after a meal. A marketer can bypass selective attention by delivering its message in the absence of competing stimuli such as to the captive audiencein a doctor's waiting room.
