CHAPTER NINE

Learning, Memory, and Product Positioning

Learning, Memory, and Product Positioning
McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2004 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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The Role of Learning

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Learning Theories and Involvement

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Learning through Conditioning
Conditioning refers to learning based on
association of a stimulus and response.
• Classical (low involvement): using an
established relationship between a
stimulus and response (Pavlov Dog)
• Operant (high involvement): molding
or shaping behavior by using a
reinforcement (Skinner’s pigeon)

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Classical Conditioning

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Affective Influence in Trial

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Operant Conditioning

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The Process of Shaping

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Cognitive Learning
Cognitive learning encompasses all the mental
activities of humans as they work to solve
problems or cope with situations.
• Iconic Rote (low involvement): the
association between two or more concepts in
the absence of conditioning
• Vicarious/Modeling (low or high
involvement): Observing the outcomes of
others’ behaviors and adjusting their own
accordingly
• Reasoning (high involvement): Individuals
engage in creative thinking to restructure and
recombine existing information as well as new
information to form new associations and
concepts.
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Summary of Learning Theories and Involvement

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Linking Learning to Memory...
• Characteristics of Learning
• Strength of Learning
• Extinction
• Stimulus Generalization and Stimulus
Discrimination
• Response Environment

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The Impact of Repetition

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Repetition Timing on Advertising Recall

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Forgetting Over Time

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Memory

Total accumulation of prior learning experiences

• Explicit memory (Remembering)
• Conscious recollection of an exposure event
• Implicit memory (Knowing)
• Non-conscious retrieval of previously encountered
stimuli
• A sense of familiarity, a feeling or a set of beliefs about
an item without conscious awareness of when & how
they were acquired

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Short-term Memory
• Portion of total memory that is currently
activated or in use
• Often refereed to as working memory
• Analogous to thinking
• Has limited capacity
• An active, dynamic process, not a static
structure

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Short-term Memory
• Information processing activities
• Elaborative activities
• Use of previously stored experiences, values, attitudes,
beliefs & feelings to interpret & evaluate information in
working memory as well as to add relevant previously
stored information
• Serve to redefine/add new elements to memory
• Maintenance rehearsal
• Continual repetition of information to hold it in current
memory for use in problem solving or transferal to
long-term

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Short-term Memory
• Short-term memory activities involve
• Concept
• Abstraction of reality that capture the meaning of an item
in terms of other concepts
• Similar to dictionary definition of a word
• Imagery
• Involves concrete sensory representations of ideas,
feelings & objects
• Permits direct recovery of aspects of past experiences
• Involves recall & manipulation of sensory images
• Marketers want to obtain imagery responses
than / in addition to verbal ones

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Long-term Memory
• Unlimited, permanent storage
• Semantic memory
• Basic knowledge/feelings about a concept
• Understanding of an object / event at its
simplest level
• Episodic memory
• Memory of sequence of events in which a
person participated
• Often elicit imagery & feelings
• Recalling long-term memory is not
completely objective
• Memory is sometimes shaped &
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changed as it is accessed
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Long-term Memory
• Schema / Schematic memory /knowledge
structure
• Complex web of associations
• Pattern of association of concepts & episodes
with other concepts & episodes around a
particular concept
• It is what the consumer thinks & feels when the
brand name is mentioned
• Similar to brand image
• Source is personal experience as well as
marketing activities
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Long-term Memory
• Schema / Schematic memory /knowledge
structure
• Can contain product characteristics, usage
situations, episodes & affective reactions
• Concepts, events & feelings are
• Stored within nodes within memory
• Connected with associative links
– Links vary how strongly & directly they are associated with a
node
• Some aspects are relatively permanent

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Long-term Memory

United Colors of
Benetton

Formal
Expensive
Informal
Work Place
Posh
Parties
Fashionable
Young Executives

Festive People
Sleek
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Long-term Memory
• Scripts
• Memory of how an action sequence should
occur
• A special type of schema
• Necessary for consumers to shop effectively
• Difficulty is to teach the consumers about
appropriate acquisition, use and disposal
behavior

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Brand Image
• Schematic memory of a brand

• Target market’s interpretation of product

attributes, benefits, usage situations, users and
manufacturer/marketer characteristics

• In essence, it is what consumers have learned

about the brand

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Product Positioning
• Decision by a marketer to try to achieve a
defined brand image relative to competition
within a market segment

• Often used interchangeably with brand image

• Marketing mix is manipulated in line with the

desired product position

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Product Positioning

• Perceptual Mapping
• Technique for measuring & developing a
product’s position

• Takes consumers’ perception of similar

brands & relates these to product attributes

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Product Positioning

Trendy, Youthful,
Fast

I1 I 2 UCB
Westecs

Economical, Expensive,
Common Prestigious

Traditional,
Conservative
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Product Repositioning
• Deliberate decision to significantly alter the
way the market views a product

• Evolution is natural & inevitable

• Can involve performance, evoked feelings,

situations in which to use or even users

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Brand Equity
• Value customers assign to a brand beyond its
functional characteristics
• Implies economic value
• Based on product position of the brand
• Source of economic value from a positive
brand image comes from
• Consumers’ behaviors toward existing items with
that brand name
• Principle of stimulus generalization

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Brand Leverage
• Often termed family branding, brand
extensions or umbrella branding

• Capitalizing on brand equity by using an

existing brand name

• Sometimes done to bolster the brand image

• To be effective product must be connected

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Brand Leverage
• Successful brand leverage requires the new
product to fit with the original product on at
least 1 of 4 dimensions:
• Complement
• Substitute
• Transfer
• Image

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