CONSUMER LEARNING AND MEMORY
WHAT IS LEARNING?
 It is defined as a change in the content or
organization of a person’s long-term memory.
 It is relatively permanent change in behavior
caused by experience.
 The learner does not need to have experience
directly; we learn when we observe events that
affect others.
 Learning is an on-going process.
WHAT IS MEMORY?
 It is defined as the total accumulation of prior
learning experiences.
 Memory is a vital part of information processing
and essentially result from learning.
COMPONENTS OF MEMORY
 Short-Term Memory (STM) or working memory
– is the portion of total memory that is currently
activated or in use.
 The stage where information is processed and
either forgotten or transferred to the long-term
store.
 The temporary warehouse for information of
incoming stimuli.
 STM is short lived.
 Maintenance rehearsal is the continual
repetition of a piece of information in order to
hold it in current memory.
 STM has limited capacity.
 Chunking means organizing individual items
into groups of related items that can be
processed as a single unit.
 Long-Term Memory – is the unlimited permanent
storage.
 It can store numerous types of information.
 Semantic Memory – is the basic knowledge and
feeling an individual has about a concept.
 Episodic Memory – is the memory of sequence of
events in which a person participated.
TYPES OF MEMORY ORGANIZATION
1. Semantic memory – involves association of words
and their meanings. It includes things that are
common knowledge, such as the names of colors,
the sounds of letters, the capitals of countries and
other basic facts acquired over a lifetime.
RETRIEVAL FROM LTM
 Accessibility is defined as the likelihood and ease
with which information can be recalled from
LTM.
 Explicit Memory – the conscious recollection of
an exposure event.
 Implicit Memory – the unconscious retrieval or
previously encountered stimuli. A sense of
familiarity, feeling of a set of belief about an item.
BEHAVIORAL THEORIES
 It is based on behavior conditioning.
 They are often referred as stimuli-response(S-R)
theories.
 Two types of behavioral theories: operant and
classical conditioning.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
 Unconditioned stimulus (US) – something that
generates a natural response.
 Unconditioned response (UR) – the natural
response that is generated when a stimulus is
perceived.
 Conditioned stimulus (CS) – the stimulus that a
person has learned to respond to.
 Conditioned response (CR) – occurs as a result
of a conditioned stimulus.
REPETITION
 It is an important aspect of classical conditioning.
 The more times we see or hear a message, the
more likely we are to take notice of the
information presented.
 Constant repetition keeps the brand awareness
level high and keeps the brands on top of mind.
OPERANT CONDITIONING
 Developed by an American psychologist, BF
Skinner.
 It involves reinforcement of behavior and is
based on the idea that consequences influence
behavior.
 Consumers must first engage in a particular
behavior, followed by a specific consequence,
before learning can occur.
 Positive reinforcement occurs in the form of
rewards for a particular behavior (positive
behavior = positive consequences).
 Negative reinforcement occurs if you do not
engage in a particular behavior or product
 (positive behavior = removal of negative
consequences).
 Punishment occurs when there is a consequence
of behavior that decreases the likelihood of that
behavior happening in the future (negative
behavior = negative consequences).

COGNITIVE THEORIES

 Cognitive theories revolve around the idea that

humans learn through thinking, reasoning and
problem solving rather than a direct experience or
reinforcement.

Three major cognitive theories are: rote learning,

modelling and reasoning.
 Rote Learning refers to learning from
memorizing repeated messages.
 Vicarious Learning or Modelling involves
consumers learning through observing and
imitating the behavior of others; consumers see
the results or rewards gained by others who use
the product.
 Analytical Reasoning is the most complex form
of cognitive learning because an individual need
to innovatively combine the existing information
and new information together and form a new
association and concept.

BRAND IMAGE AND PRODUCT POSITIONING

 Brand Image refers to the schematic memory of a

brand. What people think of and feel when they
hear or see a brand name.
 Product Positioning is a decision by a marketer to
try to achieve a defined brand image relative to
competition within a market segment.
 Product Repositioning refers to a deliberate
decision to significantly alter the way the market
views a product.