9. Learning AND Consumer Involvement PDF

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LEARNING AND CONSUMER INVOLVEMENT:

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CONSUMER LEARNING: From a marketing perspective, consumer learning is seen by many as the process by which individuals acquire the purchase and consumption knowledge and experience that they apply to future related behaviour Consumer learning is a process and continues to evolve and change as information is acquired

THE ELEMENTS OF CONSUMER LEARNING: - It is generally agreed that in order for learning to occur, certain basic elements must be present - Motivation o is based on needs and goals and in effect acts as a catalyst for learning o The process itself acts as a catalyst for learning as consumers tend to learn about products and services that satisfy their needs and wants. - Cues o are the stimuli that give direction to motives o Represent the stimuli (advertising message, packaging, product information etc.) that give some order and direction to motives. - Response o constitutes an individuals reaction to a drive or cue and their behaviour o Individuals response to stimuli in the form of purchase/non-purchase behaviour. - Reinforcement o Repetition of the behaviour in the near future through repeat purchases. o increases the likelihood that a specific response will occur in the future as the result of particular cues or stimuli

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BEHAVIOURAL LEARNING THEORIES: Behavioural learning theories are sometimes referred to as stimulus-response theories because they are based on the premise that observable responses to specific external stimuli signal learning on the part of an individual

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING: - all organisms (animal and human) considered as relatively passive entities and could be taught certain behaviours through repetition/conditioning - this theory originally was put forward by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist that posits humans and animals as passive entities and through repetition/conditioning certain types of behaviour can be taught. - Pavlov’s experiments involved dogs and focused on behaviour of salivation to conditioned (Bell) and unconditioned (meat paste) stimuli. Both conditioned and unconditioned stimuli were offered to the dog in the beginning to showcase a conditioned response (salivation). Later dog started to show conditioned response (salivation) to conditioned stimulus (sound of the Bell) even without the offering of the meat paste. - In a consumer behaviour context, conditioned stimuli consist of consumption objects such as wellknown brands (symbols) and the conditioned response would be purchases or store patronage - Unconditioned stimuli consist of celebrity endorsers, sports figures and well-known consumption figures - Classical conditioning is seen as cognitive associative learning through the acquisition of new knowledge about the world, rather than being a reflective action through the acquisition of new reflexes - The sound psychological basis of these experiments became a focal point for advertisers to use many and varied psychological cues to motivate consumers to buy. However, some products and

services do not lend themselves to being marketed using behavioural learning theory methods. For example, expensive and highly technical products such as computers and televisions do not lend themselves to advertising and marketing using behavioural learning theory. That is because they are high involvement products that require cognitive activities such as problem solving and the balancing of advantageous and disadvantageous attributes in products and services. We will discuss the theory of involvement later in this topic. MARKETING APPLICATIONS OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING: - Three basic concepts are fundamental to classical conditioning - Repetition: o Increases the strength of association between a conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus and slows the process of forgetting o Repetition above what is necessary to learn aid retention o However, with a great number of repetitions, an individual can become satiated, and attention and retention will decline, this is called advertising wear out o Changing aspects of the message without changing the theme increases retrieval cues for the brand and the chance of recall - Stimulus generalisation: o Making the same response to slightly different stimuli o Explains why immative products succeed in the market o Stimulus generalization could occur through product line (variations in size iPad mini, iPad original), forms (Panadol available in different forms such as tablet, suspension) and category extensions (Cadbury with different product categories such as chocolates, biscuits, ice creams etc.); family branding (store branded product range like Home brand/Woolworths); and licensing (Calvin Klein originally associated to clothes, not licenses the brand name to inner garments, watches, perfumes etc.). - Stimulus discrimination: o relevant for market leaders whereby consumers will be able to identify the specific stimuli of their preferred brand amongst many competing brands. EVALUATION OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING: - Classical conditioning theory explains how consumers learn to behave in the marketing environment; repetition was emphasised to a greater extent in the traditional conditioning model; however Neo-Pavlovian models consider consumers as information seekers and logical thinkers.

INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING: - Requires a link between stimulus and a response and this link is identified to be a reinforcement. - The applications of instrumental conditioning theory includes: o Reinforcement can be positive (Ex: purchase of a specific brand of shampoo by getting attracted towards the possession of smooth and silky hair after usage) or negative (Ex: touch bases on fear appeals, motivation to purchase antidandruff shampoos to get rid of dandruff). o Extinction (Ex: learned response is no longer reinforced) and forgetting (Ex: used to go to a specific restaurant and forgetting to visit now as you find many other quality restaurants). o Massed (Ex: consumers acquire all of the information at once) versus distributed learning (Ex: consumers learn about products and brands over a period of time). - Instrumental or operant conditioning theory within the marketing context is helpful: o To promote customer satisfaction by way of matching customers expectations to the performance of products. o To build long-term trusted relationships with customers.

o To enhance customers response to various reinforcement schedules  total/continuous reinforcement (every time you visit a restaurant, the service provider offers a fruit platter free of cost);  systematic/fixed ratio reinforcement (every 10th time you get a free coffee);  random/variable reinforcement (gambling/casinos).

EVALUATION OF INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING: - The applicability of instrumental conditioning theory posits that consumers learn about products and stores based on various situations; consumers imitate the behaviour of models in the advertisements; and the behaviour exhibited by consumers is viewed as a consequence of environmental manipulation rather than a result of cognitive process. -

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INFORMATION PROCESSING AND COGNITIVE LEARNING: A considerable amount of learning takes place as the result of consumer thinking and problem solving Learning based on mental activity is called cognitive learning

INFORMATION PROCESSING: - Is related to both the consumers cognitive ability and the complexity of the information to be processed - Consumer process product information by attributes, brands, comparisons between brands or a combination of these factors - STRUCTURE OF MEMORY: o In understanding the relevance of information processing theory the structure of memory needs to be critically understood. o Sensory inputs in the form of interaction between stimuli and senses will allow the input to stay for one or two seconds in the sensory store. o The information is stored for a brief period in the short-term store. o The information is stored for extended periods of time in the long-term store. - REHEARSAL AND ENCODING: o Rehearsal of the information essentially occurs between sensory store and short-term store and encoding occurs between short-term store and long-term store. o Rehearsal – to hold information in short-term storage long enough for encoding to take place o Encoding – process by which a word or visual image is selected and assigned to represent a perceived object COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY: - holds that the kind of learning most characteristic of human beings is problem solving - Tricomponent model is the most important model of cognitive learning and includes three dimensions: o Cognitive – relates to thinking (consumers education and experiences are relatively important). o Affective – relates to feeling (consumers emotions towards products and brands). o Conative – relates to doing (consumers behaviour). - There are also four other models: o Promotional Model: (Attention – Interest/Desire – Action) o Decision-making Model : (Awareness/Knowledge – Evaluation – Purchase/Post-purchase Evaluation)

o Innovation Adoption Model: (Awareness – Interest/Evaluation – Trial/Adoption) o Innovation Decision Process: (Knowledge – Persuasion – Decision Confirmation) INVOLVEMENT THEORY: - Involvement theory relates to the extent to which individuals associate themselves with the product and brand related purchases and depends upon the individual, the context and the stimuli. - High involvement products – luxury/expensive product categories (those that involve extensive problem solving). - Medium involvement products – product categories such as books, music, clothes etc., that involve medium problem solving. - Low involvement products – habituated/routinised product categories that involve limited problem solving (those that are purchased on a regular basis like weekly grocery).

CONCEPTS OF EXTENSIVE AND LIMITED PROBLEM SOLVING: - In understanding the involvement theory: - Central and peripheral routes of persuasion – based on the split-brain theory (left brain is more engaged in reading, writing and other cognitive aspects and right brain is more engaged in retrieving visual information). - Social judgment theory – processing of information needs approval of the social groups relevant and important to the individual. - Information.transformational theory – whereby consumers involvement and motivational dimensions are combined. OUTCOMES AND MEASURES OF COGNITIVE LEARNING: - Consumer learning is useful creating brand equity and brand loyalty apart from fostering recognition (aided recall) and recall (unaided recall) measures. - Recognition and recall measures – recognition tests are based on aided recall, whereas recall tests use unaided recall - Brand loyalty and brand equity – ultimate desired outcome of consumer learning and involvement/the value inherent in a well-known brand name -...