Chapter 5 MRKT 3333

Learning is applying one’s past knowledge and experience to present circumstances and behavior

Consumer learning is a process; that continually evolves and changes as a result of newly

acquired knowledge or from actual experience

Unfulfilled needs lead to motivation, which spurs learning. The degree of relevance of the

goal is critical to how motivated the consumer is to search for knowledge or information

about a product or service

Behavioral learning is sometimes called stimulus-response learning because it is based on

the premise that observable responses to specific external stimuli signal that learning has

taken place.

Behavioral theories are most concerned with the inputs and outcomes of learning, not

the process.

Three forms of behavioral learning are classical conditioning, instrumental (or

operant) conditioning, and behavioral learning (or modeling).

Classical conditioning is viewed as an automatic response that builds up through repeated

exposure and reinforcement. Early classical conditioning theorists regarded all organisms as passive recipients that could be taught certain behaviors through repetition (i.e., conditioning)

Conditioned learning results when a stimulus that is paired with another stimulus

elicits a known response and serves to produce the same response when used alone. In a consumer behavior context, an unconditioned stimulus might consist of a well-

known brand symbol and previously acquired consumer perception of a brand is the

unconditioned response

Conditioned stimuli might consist of new products under an existing brand name. The conditioned response would be consumers trying these products because of the

belief that they embody the same attributes with which the brand name is associate

Cognitive associative learning suggests learning is not a reflexive action, but rather the

acquisition of new knowledge due to learning associations among events that allow the

organism to anticipate and “represent” its environment

repetition works by increasing the strength of the association between a conditioned

stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus and slows the process of forgetting

The three-hit theory states that the optimum number of exposures to an ad is three.

i) One to make the consumer aware of the product.

ii) A second to show consumers the relevance of the product.

iii) A third to remind them of its benefit

In product line extensions, the marketer adds related products to an already established

brand, knowing that the new product is more likely to be adopted when it is associated

with a known and trusted brand name

Marketers offer product form extensions that include different sizes, different colors,

and even different flavors

Family branding—the practice of marketing a whole line of company products under

the same brand name—is another strategy that capitalizes on the consumer’s ability to

generalize favorable brand associations from one product to the next.

Licensing—allowing a well-known brand name to be affixed to products of another

manufacturer—is another marketing strategy that operates on the principle of stimulus

Generalization.

Stimulus discrimination is the opposite of stimulus generalization and results in the

selection of specific stimulus from among similar stimuli

Instrumental conditioning is based on the notion that learning occurs through trial-and-

error, and the stimulus that results in the most satisfactory response is the one that is learn

The first type, positive reinforcement, consists of events that strengthen the likelihood

of a specific response

Negative reinforcement is an unpleasant or negative outcome that also serves to

encourage a specific behavior

Incentivized advertising is a new application of positive reinforcement. It provides

consumers with rewards for watching ads.

Marketers have identified three types of reinforcement schedules: continuous

reinforcement, fixed ratio reinforcement, and variable ratio reinforcement.

a) Continuous reinforcement offers a reward after each transaction.

b) Fixed ratio reinforcement provides a reward every nth time the product or service is

purchased.

c) Variable ratios reward consumers on a random basis and tend to engender high rates of

desired behavior and are somewhat resistant to extinction

The reinforcement of behaviors that must be performed by consumers before the desired

behavior can be performed is called shaping, which increases the probability that desired

consumer behavior will occur

Observational learning (also called modeling) is the process through which individuals learn behavior by observing the behavior of others and the consequences of such behavior

Cognitive learning is based on mental activity; it consists of mental processing of data rather

than instinctive responses to stimuli

Sensory store—all data comes to us through our senses, however, our senses do not

transmit information as whole images

Short-term store—if the data survives the sensory store, it is moved to the short-term store

If rehearsal—the silent, mental repetition of material—takes place, then the data is

transferred to the long-term store

Long-term store—once data is transferred to the long-term store it can last for days,

weeks, or even years.

Encoding is the process by which we select and assign a word or visual image to

represent a perceived object.

Information overload takes place when the consumer is presented with too much

information and leads to frustration, confusion, and poor purchase decision

Retention—information is constantly organized and reorganized as new links between

chunks of information are forged

Data retrieval is the process by which we recover information from long-term storage.

Environmental triggers are cues in the environment that remind a person of something, and

then she or he talks about it

The cognitive stage – the person’s knowledge and beliefs about a product

The affective stage – the person’s feeling toward and evaluations of a product

as “favorable” or “unfavorable”; and

The conative stage – the person’s level of intention to buy the product

Passive learning is thought to occur through repeated exposures to low-involvement

information processing.

Brand loyalty is the ultimate desired outcome of consumer learning, and measures purchase

frequency, brand switching, and commitment to buy the brand

Attitudinal measures are concerned with consumers’ overall feelings (i.e., evaluation)

about the product and the brand, and their purchase intentions.

Behavioral measures are based on observable responses to promotional stimuli—

purchase behavior, rather than attitude toward the product or brand

Attribution theory attempts to explain how people assign causality to events on the basis of

either their own behavior or the behavior of others