Introduction: How individuals learn is a matter of
great interest and importance to academicians, to psychologists, to consumer researchers, and to MARKETERS. The reason that Marketers are concerned with how individuals learn is that they are virtually interested in teaching them, in their roles as consumers, about Products, Product attributes, and their potential benefits: Where to buy them, How to use them, How to maintain them, and even How to dispose of them. Marketers are also vitally interested in how effectively they have taught consumers to prefer their Brands and to differentiate their products from competitive offerings. Marketing strategies are based on communicating with the consumer directly, through advertisements; and indirectly through product appearance, packaging, price, and distribution channels. Consumer Learning Marketers want their communication to be noted, believed, remembered, and recalled. For these reasons, Marketers are interested in every aspect of the Learning process. Consumer Learning is the process by which individuals acquire the purchase and consumption knowledge & experience they apply to future related behaviour. Although some Learning is Intentional, much Learning is Incidental. Basic elements that contribute to an understanding of learning are Motivation, Cues, Response and Reinforcement. Intentional Learning: It is acquired as a result of a careful search for information. Incidental Learning: It is acquired as a result of Accident or without much effort. e.g. some advertisements may induce Learning ( say of Brand names) even though the consumer attention is elsewhere. The term LEARNING encompasses the total range, from simple, almost reflexive responses to Learning of abstract concepts and complex problem solving. LEARNING THEORIES Despite the fact that Learning is all-pervasive in our lives, there is no single, universal theory of how people learn. Instead, there are two major schools of thought concerning the Learning process. 1. Behavioural Theories: It focus almost exclusively on observable behaviours (responses) that occur as the result of exposure to stimuli. 2. Cognitive Theories: It views Learning as a function of purely mental processes. Although these theories differ markedly in a number of essentials, each theory offers insights to Marketers on how to SHAPE their messages to consumers to bring about desired purchase behaviour; as well as how consumers store, retain, and retrieve information, and how Learning is measured. LEARNING THEORIES Behavioural Cognitive Learning Learning Theory Theory Classical Information Conditioning Processing & Observational Involvement (Vicarious) theory Learning Instrumental (or Operant) Conditioning Consumer Learning: Basic Elements 1. Motivation: The driving force within individuals that impels them to action. Motivation is based on needs and goals. It acts as a spur (drive) to Learning. Uncovering consumer motives is one of the prime tasks of Marketers, who then try to teach motivated consumer segments why and how their products will fulfill the consumer’s needs. 2. Cues: Cues are the stimuli that give direction to consumer motives i.e. that suggest a specific way to satisfy a salient motive. In the marketplace, Price, Styling, Packaging, advertising and store displays all serve as cues to help consumers fulfill their needs in product – specific ways. Cues serve to direct consumer drives when they are consistent with their expectations. Marketers must be careful to provide cues that do not upset those expectations. Each aspect of Marketing-Mix must reinforce the others if cues are to serve as the stimuli that guide consumer actions in the direction desired by the Marketer. Consumer Learning: Basic Elements 3. Response: How individuals react to a drive or cue – how they behave – constitutes their response. Learning can occur even when responses are not overt (clear). A response is not tied to a need in a one-to-one fashion. Indeed, a need or motive may evoke a whole variety of responses. Cues provide some direction, but there are many cues competing for the consumer’s attention. Which response the consumer makes depends heavily on previous learning; that, in turn, depends on how related responses were reinforced previously. 4. Reinforcement: A positive or negative outcome that influences the likelihood that a specific behaviour will be repeated in the future in response to a particular CUE or STIMULUS.