CONSUMER

LEARNING
Muhammad Danish
LEARNING
 Learning is applying past knowledge and experience to present circumstances and behaviour
 Key element of learning is repetition which in advertising means restating the firms’ key message in different
communication channels.
 Another element is reinforcement involves rewarding those who try the new product
 Learning is the process by which individual acquire the purchase and consumption knowledge and
experiences they apply to future related behaviour
 Consumer learning is a process that evolves and changes as consumers acquire knowledge from experiences,
observations and interactions with others and newly acquired knowledge affect future behaviour
 Learning is intentional (acquired as a result of a search of information) or incidental (acquired by accident or
incident without much effort)
 Motives: Uncovering consumer motives is the primary objective of marketers, seek to teach consumers how
they can fill their needs by buying certain products and brands
 Unfulfilled needs lead to motivation which spurs learning e.g young athlete learn about shoes, growing kid
about bicycles
ELEMENTS OF LEARNING
 Motives:
 Uncovering consumer motives is the primary objective of marketers, seek to teach consumers how they can fill their
needs by buying certain products and brands
 Unfulfilled needs lead to motivation which spurs learning e.g young athlete learn about shoes, growing kid about
bicycles
 Cues
 Are stimuli that direct motivated behaviour
 The ad is the cue that suggests a specific way to satisfy a salient motive; persuade consumers to purchase (price,
package, style, etc)
 Only cues that are consistent with consumer expectations can drive motivation e.g consumers expect designer cloths
to be expensive and to be sold in upscale retail stores. Thus designer should sale their clothes only through exclusive
stores and advertise in upscale fashion magazine
 Responses
 In the context of learning, response is an individual’s reactions to cue. A response is not tied to a need in a one to one
fashion, motives may evoke a whole variety of responses.
 Reinforcement
 Is the reward: pleasure, enjoyment and benefits that consumers receives after buying and using a product or services
e.g reward points through credit card, discounts at restaurants for prestigious customer,
P&G EXAMPLE
Febreze was not selling Trying to teach
Launched and
People living because people who live behaviour; but cue
Product positioned Febreze as
with bad smells with bad smells such as was missing because
introduction coloriess spray for
had a need for smoke or pets’ odors do the consumer did
contradicted of making stinky clothes
Febrez, which not notice not notice bad
learning and rooms interior
they did not odours
odorless

Researchers observed Drive and Response Reinforcement: she

Interviewed
Product that women cleaning cue: a (learnt sprays Febreze in the
woman and
introduced room find no woman routine): cleaned room and
observed
consistent with apparent reason to walks into she clears smells it. Feels good
behaviour
elements of spray Febreze a dirty the room about job. Febreze
according to
learning room awarded her for her
learning elements
work therefore she will
use in future
BEHAVIOURAL LEARNING
 Behavioural learning is sometimes referred to as stimulus-response learning because it is based on the premises
that observable responses to specific external stimuli signal that learning has taken place.
 Behavioural learning is not concerned with the process of learning, but rather with the inputs and outcomes of
learning; i.e in the stimuli that consumers select from environment and the observable behaviours that result
 Three forms of behaviour learning
 Classical conditioning
 Instrumental conditioning
 Observational (modelling) conditioning
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
 Ivan Pavlov (Russian Physiologist) developed the concept of classical conditioning ; maintained that conditioned learning
results when a stimulus that is paired with another stimulus that elicits a known response produces the same
response when used alone. In experiment on dogs, Pavlov sounded a bell and immediately applied a meat paste to the dogs’ tongues
which caused them to salivate, after a number of such pairings, dogs responded the same way, that is they salivate.
 Advertising that uses music is taking advantage of classical conditioning. Music that is happy and repetitive helps consumers to
feel happy when they hear it. Consumers then associate the feelings of happiness with the product and may be more likely to buy the
product.
 smoking cigarettes may tempt the smoker to drink a cup of coffee
 Robin Blue’s association with whiteness of cloths
 Nikes association with youthful attitude
 Rain with coffee or tea
 In classical conditioning consumers respond to a stimulus in a particular, unconscious way
 The strategic applications of classical conditioning are
 Associative learning
 Repetition
 Stimulus generalization
 Stimulus discrimination
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
 Associative learning: learning of associations among events that enable consumers to expect and anticipate
events
 Ideas and experiences reinforce each other and mentally linked to each other. Our brain group information in
associative memory
 Associative memory called upon based on stimuli using reinforcement, stimuli is used to change behaviour
 ability to learn and remember the relationship between unrelated items such as a person's name and the aroma
of a perfume.
 Repetition: is a key to forming associations between brands and fulfilment of needs. It increases the strength of
the association between two stimuli and forgetting this connection e.g happiness with Cadbury, party with cold
drinks…mouth hygiene with crest.
 At some point individuals become satiated with numerous exposure and both attention and retention decline this
affect is called advertising wearing out and marketers reduce it with by using different ads expressing same
messages
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
 Stimulus generalization: learning depends not only on repetition but also on individuals ability to generalize.
Responding the same way to slightly different stimuli e.g some counterfeit products confuse consumers with
original products as advertised
 There are four strategic applications of stimuli generalization
 Product line extensions (addition of related items to an established brand)
 Product form extensions (offering the same product in a different form but under same brand)
 Family branding (marketing different products under same brand name)
 Licensing (is contractually allowing a well known brand to be affixed to the products of another manufacturer)

 Stimulus discrimination: is the selection of a specific stimulus from among similar stimuli. The core objective
of positioning is to teach consumers to discriminate among similar products and form a unique image for a
brand in their minds.
INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING
 Learning occurs through trial-and error process
 Requires a link between a stimulus and a response. E.g after visiting stores consumers are in position to classify
stores according to type of clothes in association with price they can afford to pay. When store is patronize then
others are excluded and then stores provides the rewards (reinforce) for purchase that effect customer loyality.
 According to American psychologist ,B.F Skinner, most learnings occurs in environments where individuals are
rewarded for choosing an appropriate behavior
 Instrumental conditioning suggest that consumers learn by means of a trial-and error process in which a
favorable experience is the instrument of teaching the individual to repeat a specific behavior
 Recent research views habits as a behavioral action that is triggered by contextual cues e.g. visit nearest café
when meeting with friends, biscuits with tea during evening time, use of hair-gel before going to party.
 Hindustan Unilever introduced hand washing habits among children to prevent from disease, Hand wash (habit),
protection from germs (reward)
INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING
 Reinforcing behavior: Skinner distinguish between two types of reinforcement that influence the likelihood that a
response will be repeated
 Positive reinforcement: rewards a particular behavior and strengthen the likelihood of a specific response during similar situation,
e.g. have ice cream on good marks
 Negative reinforcement: is the removal of unpleasant stimulus and strengthen the likelihood of a given response during the same or
similar circumstances. E.g in mouth wash advertisement bad breath creates the loneliness so using Colgate for fresh breath and
alleviate loneliness. Hence consumers are encouraged to avoid negative consequences and remove unpleasant stimulus by buying
certain product.
 Reinforcement schedule
 Product quality must be consistently high and satisfy customers every time buy the product- but additional award do not have to be
offered during every transactions, because occasional rewards often effectively reinforce consumers’ patronage.
 Continuous reinforcement a reward is provided after each transactions e.g reward point on each transaction
 A fixed ratio reinforcement schedule provides reinforcement every nth time product or service is purchase.
 A variable ratio reinforcement schedule rewards consumers on a random basis, e.g Ary one dollar deal where people participate to win a prize

 Shaping
 Reinforcement before the desired behavior actually take place is called shaping. Shaping objective is to

 Extinction and forgetting

 Forgetting is often related to the passage of time, marketers overcome forgetting by contacting customers who stopped buying their
products and giving them incentives aimed at persuading the customers to start buying again
 Extinction occurs when response is no longer reinforced and the link between the stimulus and the expected reward breaks down.
When consumers become unsatisfied with a service, the link between the stimulus and expected satisfaction is no longer reinforced
and consumer won’t come back.
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING, INFORMATION PROCESSING

 Observational learning is the process through which individuals learn behavior by observing the behaviors of
others and the consequences of such behavior. e.g using a Bonvita (milk) leads to success in life.
 Information processing
 Cognitive learning consists of mental processing of data rather than instinctive responses to stimuli. So structure and
components of information processing are important to understand
 Human mind process the information by attributes, brands, comparison between brands, or combination of these factors.
The number and complexity of the relevant attributes and available alternative influence the intensity or degree of
information processing.
 Storing Information
 The human memory is the center of information processing. Information processing occurs in stages and in three sequential
“storehouses” where information is kept: The sensory, short-term, and long- term stores.
 Sensory Store is the mental “space” in the human mind where sensory input lasts for just a second or two. If it is not processed
immediately, it is lost
 Short-Term Store is where information is processed and held for just a brief period. Anyone who has ever looked up a number in a
telephone book, only to forget it just before dialing, knows how briefly information lasts in short-term storage. If information in the
short-term store undergoes the process known as rehearsal, which is the silent, mental repetition of information, it is then transferred to
the long-term store
 Long-Term Store The long-term store is the mental “space” where information is retained for extended periods of time, in contrast to
the short-term store, where information lasts only a few seconds. Although it is possible to forget something within a few minutes after
the information reaches long-term storage, it is more common for data in long-term storage to last for days, weeks, or even years.
INFORMATION REHEARSAL AND ENCODING

 The amount of information available for delivery from short-term storage to long-term storage depends on the
amount of rehearsal it receives
 For example, if the short-term store receives a great number of inputs simul- taneously from the sensory store,
its capacity may be reduced to only two or three pieces of information.
 Encoding is the process by which we select a word or visual image to represent a perceived object. Marketers
help consumers encode brands by using brand symbols
 Processing and remembering a picture takes less time than learning verbal information, but both types of
information are important in forming an overall mental image
 Encoding of commercials is related to the context in which they are featured. For example, while watching TV,
some parts of a program may require viewers to commit a larger portion of their cognitive resources to
processing (nishat new advertisement)
 A key component of retention is called chunking, defined as the process during which con- sumers recode what
they have already encoded; this process often results in recalling additional relevant information.
 Retrieval is the process by which people recover information from the long-term store; it is fre- quently triggered
by external cues. For example, when we see a product in the store or on TV, we automatically retrieve the
applicable information our brains have stored
CONSUMER INVOLVEMENT AND HEMISPHERIC LATERALIZATION

 Consumer involvement is the degree of personal relevance that the product or purchase holds for consumers
 High-involvement purchases are very important to the consumer (e.g., in terms of perceived risk) and thus
provoke extensive problem solving and information processing.
 Low-involvement purchases are not very important, hold little relevance, have little perceived risk, and provoke
limited information processing.
 Hemispheric lateralization (split-brain theory) stems from medical research done in the 1960s; its premise is that
the human brain is divided into two distinct cerebral hemispheres that operate to- gether, but “specialize” in
processing different types of cognitions
 The left hemisphere is the center of human language; it is the linear side of the brain and primarily responsible for reading,
speaking, and reasoning. the left side of the brain is rational, active, and realistic;
 The right hemisphere of the brain is the home of spatial perception and nonverbal concepts; it is nonlinear and the source
of imagination and pleasure. the right side is emotional, metaphoric, impulsive, and intuitive